Snowy Monk: October 2014

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Mountain Biking Tahoe: Haus Von Fat is Phat!! (Oct 10, 2014)

Tahoe is mountain bike (and skiing, climbing, hiking, trail running) heaven (... why don't I live up there?) BTW, for those who haven't been... Haus von Fat is big time... as in the majors. Well done boys. That place rocks, thanx for hosting us!

a quick recap of the weekend activities:

Fri: After a short beach time at Kiva Beach, Toro and I rode Hawley Grade to Toads to HvF.

Sat: Barrett, Metres, Hauser, Toro and I did a similar, longer ride.

Sun: the Metres and the Kuwabaras went up to see the Galbraiths at Sugar Pine Point.

Kai and Mingie riding a skinny...

at Kiva beach on Fri

Nikko breakdancing

Somewhere on Toads... it almost looks like Toro is on a uni

Toro killing it down the most technical section of Toads...

Sat... Barrett "the steam roller" rollin' over/through/past boulders like it's his second job...

Sundog!

meanwhile... at the beach... it was bum tanning time.

Metres, making the leaves look pretty...

a gif from Barrett... this was the most colorful section of the ride. The fall colors were going off!

Meiss Meadow?

Meadow world from the pano above...

Hauser trying out Barrett's bike

so purty

another shot stolen from Barret

at Armstrong pass we took a quick break to loosen up before our downhill

...

Upper Corral trail has some fun features... Metres riding granite

And Lower Corral has some big features... here's Toro NOT going for it and hitting the smaller feature.

back at HvF, D was cracking Sierra up...

and vise versa

Ol' Unkle Funkle tweaked his back sitting in his office chair... so he skipped the ride. But he did some yardwork and rode the uni instead! Woohoo...

we all stayed outside as there was tension inside... Kimbo's Tigers were losing... and you need to keep some distance between you and a scary tiger...

Kai showed me around on some of the local trails...

right back to his favorite log ride... which was his train track with a station in the middle.

dinner time!

we all turned into vampires and started feasting...

Nikko was happy to be back at the beach for the 3rd day in a row! Didn't take any pics, but hung out infront of Hellman's Mansion at Sugar pine Pt.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Weekly Pano: E. Buttress of El Cap

Nick at a hanging belay near the top of the East Buttress of El Cap. Trip report coming soon!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Weekly Pano: Loon Lake moonscape... with fuzzy blue alien baby!

Where's Nikko? More pics from Loon Lake to follow...

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Weekly Pano: Tandem ride to GG Bridge!

Had a wonderful overnight date night with Kimbo. Kev & Laura took Nikko, while Kai spent the night snuggling with Mia. So we got to sleep in, have brunch, and dust off our tandem and do the Strawberry Loop! We stopped by Golden Gate market for a sandwich and ate it off the fishing pier at Horseshoe Bay on an beautiful day. I was tempted to jump off the pier.

Yosemite!

check out that good looking crew!

Bikes are definitely the way to go in Yosemite if you want to have no plans and cruise around this magisterial valley. We had another fun, albeit wet, weekend in Yosemite with the Mort-oebes and the Weavers. Both nights it rained, but at least the rain let up during the day. We biked around the valley on Sat, and did a short hike on Sun. After the bike ride, during Nikko's naptime, I got to go on a short run around mirror lake, while Kimbo and Kevin watched some college football while Kai slept poorly on Kimbo's back. Sunday, we tramped up to Vernal Falls viewpoint, followed by a visit to Curry Village for pizza.