Had a really good B-day week... filled with ski adventures with friends and family.
Skied one day with the fam, another with friends (no kids), and another day with the fam which included a lake run with Miley and Metres. On my B-day I got to ski with Moses and Alexis all day. A few days later I was back up with Kevin and Nick B, which turned out to be the best day yet.
Here's the highlight reel... of the first day...
And from the 3 days after...
And the pics.
Kai after a long day of skiing! I quickly moved him to the middle of the bed after I took the photo...
day 2... where's waldo? Me front flipping (flopping?) in the palisades at Sugar Bowl. Skied all day! Amaze-balls!
night 2 - Family dinner at the Family Cabin!
Day 3 - You'll get a better idea if you see the vid, but Nikko is pretty silly cute in his ski attire. He likes eating snow.
I caught up with Miley and Metres for a lake run at the end of the day. Here's Miley at the top of Donner.
Miley dropping in to Old Hen.
Cool graffitti at the tunnels.
Selfie with Donner.
At the bottom... these are the pillow lines... when it's pillowy. This time it was hellacious. I caught the impact when Miley ate it and almost hyperextended his knee.
Happy B-day to mee! Guiness Float for my 36th.
Next morning, Moses, Alexis, and I went out to Sun Bowl for a B-day tour.
fun inversions in the valley created a nice morning outing.
Castle Peak and Frog Lake Cliffs look pretty fat right now...
After a fun ski, we made the trek to Sugar Bowl...
Where we quickly decided that we should just do side country vs hunt for chunder.
So we did... boy that was fun.
Cool moss right? #zebramoss
After our 3rd lap, we called it a day and went home with smiles on our face...
Another fine B-day... cheers to that.
Check this out. One bonus about ski flying... is that you can just trigger an avy and fly away...
OK. Here's the final post from our Turkey Week Vacay... that was fun.
Channel Islands NP has quickly become one of my favorite places in CA. True, I've only been there twice, but both have been magical experiences. Anyway, here's a short vid featuring the kids and the island foxes.
One of the better decisions I made for our Turkey Week Vacay was bringing the inflatable SUP along. The two paddles I did off of Santa Cruz Island were well worth the hassle of lugging the SUP around SoCal. There are tons of sea caves to explore right from Scorpion Harbour, and the snorkeling there is pretty awesome as well. Just attach you leash, dive in, and go look for Nemo.
This was a tough 200k for me. I hadn't ridden for a while, and we were off to a late start so we were hurrying to catch up to the pack. I think my main mistake was not fueling the first 30 miles or so... then I started cramping, feeling dehydrated and out of gas. I felt a lot better after our first control at the Safeway... but at the point we had slowed waay down and were going pretty leisurely. Pics from Sigman.
at the Safeway... thankfully fueling up.
admiring the fixie... it was fun riding with him and watching his technique... he had some crazy gearing... like 46x14 or something like that...
Sigman acting exhausted to sympathize...
happy to be finished...
Here's the track... most of the riding wasn't that interesting, IMO. Gilroy was awful.
This is cool for you fellow data nerds. The RUSA points. Go Japan! Go Slovenia. France gets quite the boost in points on those PBP years. http://rusa.org/points.html
For our last leg our our turkey week vacay, we decided to head out to the Channel Islands. Kimbo and I went out to Anacapa Island during our honeymoon and had an amazing time kayaking around, so we were looking forward to going back and exploring a different island. Santa Cruz.... the largest of the 8 channel islands. 22 miles long and 2 to 6 miles wide. The island has a rich history with archaeological evidence suggesting it has been occupied for at least 10,000 years... and interestingly enough the Channel Islands provide the earliest evidence for human seafaring in the Americas... as it is the side of hte discovery of the earliest paleontological evidence of humans in North America.
After Europeans came and settled in the area, the islands have been used for ranching, growing grapes, base for otter hunters, fisherman, and smugglers... hence "Smuggler's Cove".
On our way out we ran into Win and Natalie! Former co-workers of mine, who are married, about to start a family, and live in LA. We visited Win's folks in New Zealand when we were there, and we had last seen them in NYC when we visited Ko. A pleasant surprise.
our ferry... if there are waves... sit in the back. It's a long way out and it was a bumpy ride...
Santa Cruz Island
Hiking back down... Anacapa Island behind.
The "beach" at Potato Harbor. The kayaking operation is in the background. They have all you need to get out in the water.
Oh... what did the boys find?
The Channel Island fox... the smallest fox in North America.... a smaller subspecies of the grey fox that is endemic to the Channel Islands.
These guys are very friendly... and somehow even though they can go through your food and garbage they don't really feel like they are a nuisance.
These foxes are endangered, and at one point in the 90s their numbers were down to the hundreds. Scientists theorize that due to the decline of bald eagles (from the DDT exposure in the 50s), the golden eagle population started to thrive (they hunt the island foxes) and take over the island. Bald eagles deter golden eagles and subsist mainly on fish.
Conservation efforts were quite successful with the removal of the Golden Eagle.
Nikko thinks every furry animal is as nice as Mingus... a potential problem we'll need to address soon.
The two trail runs I went on were highly enjoyable...
it's a big island...
Scorpion Cove from the southern bluff
Pat had found the "most comfortable" grass he'd ever laid down on...
really steep cliff sides.
The ladies and their boys with employee housing in the background.
Looking back at our camp.
A look at one of Santa Cruz Island's many caves...
Potato harbor - That looks like a great place to moor.
Trippy clouds.
The boys like sticks...
Kai was the caboose!
Nikko likes sticks too... and copying Kai.
Check out all this washed up Crawfish! Wow... that would have been a haul...
Taking my inflatable SUP to the Channel Islands? Probably the best decision of the trip. Exploring the sea caves, snorkeling with the fish whenever, and enjoying the view from the water. Amazing. A must take item for your trip...
Pat looking good! He joined me on my 3rd jog on the island.
Artifacts at Smuggler's Cove
House at Smuggler's
On the way back, Kai got to steer the boat for a bit!
So did Nikko!
Make sure to time your departure with the sunset..
porpoises!
If you have 25 min, check out this vid... narrated by Kevin Costner. It's actually pretty awesome.
And if you only have 1 min, here's one showcasing the sea caves on kayaks.
Check out this Trip Report of kayaking the 4 main Channel Islands.
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