In July, while we were on vacation attending Cub Scout Day Camp, we camped next a bonfide trapper, a guy who makes his living dealing with problem animals. Well, he had trapped something that he didn’t have the heart to dispose of. Here it is:
Yes, that is a baby racoon and yes, it is sucking on a pacifier!
When 2007 started I made a list of goals. One of them was to run a 50K. Another one was to catch fish with my sons. Well, I did the 50K in March and started pushing for a 50Mile Run. Over the summer, we didn’t go fishing at all.
We went camping at Blue Lakes, near Kirkwood, over the Labor Day Weekend. Since I have been feeling so wiped out lately, and since Blue Lakes is at 8200′ elevation, I decided to leave my running shoes at home.
And look what happened:
This picture was taken on the first day. CJ caught those three fish. The next day, he caught two more and I caught one. On the third and final day of our campout, we decided to go to the lake to fish for 90 minutes before we broke camp and left. In that 90 minutes, Colin caught two fish!
The Deer Lake hike was a success. We camped near the car Friday night. After a breakfast of pancakes, we hiked for almost 2.5 hours with a stop for the dog to swim in Horse Lake. When we went by the lodge on Upper Salmon lake, Jane just about abandoned our party for the thought of not sleeping in a tent.
After camping at Deer Lake Saturday night and having burritos & rice for dinner, the hike out was much quicker. Where else would we have eaten lunch, but at Sand Pond, of course! (No pictures of Sand Pond, but some others are below. Click to see the full picture.)
While the rest of you dream of the days when you rambled around the high sierra, loaded with enough gear to carry you through a fortnight. I am returning to the hollowed ground. Tomorrow, my family and I will be hiking into Dear Lake from Upper Salmon. When we return on Sunday we will be transformed.
I don’t realistically anticipate a rosey time by all. But hey, everyone is really excited. (Possibly, me the most!) The original plan was to have Emily and I go while Brian did a sleep over for a birthday party. When Brian heard about our plans he pleaded to go with us. Jane has decided to join us too. So, the three of them will sleep in our 2 man tent while Tandy (our 1 year old Border Collie/Australian Cattle dog mix) and I obtain peace under the stars.
Watch here for pictures and updates next week.
We went to Dillon’s Beach over the Memorial Day weekend with a bunch of people from the kids little league team. It was beyond fun. It was so much fun that Colin cried himself to sleep last night after we got home because he didn’t want it to be over. Here is one photo of how much fun it was:
The guy who is driving the buggy carried it in the toy hauler they are parked in front of. After the sun went down every night, he showed movies by projecting DVD’s on an awesome makeshift screen, the back door of the toy hauler.
I managed to work a couple nice runs into the fun too, including one 20 miler with some coastal climbs mixed in. On my shorter run the next day, I found a guy from Point Reyes Oyster Company selling oysters out of ice chests on the back of his flat bed truck. We BBQ’d 50 medium oysters later that afternoon and I ate about 8 of them. Interestingly, I felt very well recovered the day after that. I haven’t looked up what’s in an oyster but I’m thinking I got some good protein!
Last weekend while I was spelunking the web looking for information on Chris’ latest event I ran across this web site. Please note, I googled ‘way to cool’. I do have some experience with this. Once I froze several bottle of beer this way after making some Ice cream at my kids birthday. I can only assume it will work in a similar way for Iced Tea, soda, and spring water. So, the idea would be to keep a small bag of rock salt and a bucket in the garage in case emergency cooling is required during the next family BBQ.
http://berserk.org/2006/09/16/fastest-way-to-cool-a-six-pack/
Recipe listed above.
Initial measurements:
* Ice
* Ice water: 33 degrees
* Ice water salt (salt melts ice and lowers the freezing point): 24 degrees
Results (after 5 minutes):
* ice: 57 degrees
* ice water: 44 degrees
* salt water: 35.9 degrees
* freezer: 55 degrees
* fridge: 60 degrees
Final results:
* Ice water salt: 5 minutes
* Ice water: 15 minutes
* Freezer: 25 minutes
* Ice: 30 minutes
* Fridge: 40 minutes
Be sure to remember this if you’ve run out of beer at your next BBQ and need fast cooling.
Pacifica Trail Run: Saturday July 8th, there is a trail run in Pacifica, which is apparently just south of San Francisco on the penninsula. 9K or 21K. I would only want to do this run if someone wanted to do it with me and we found a way to make a family camping trip out of it.
Salt Point Trail Run: Sunday August 27th, there is a trail run near Jenner. 11K and 26K. I really want to do the 26K version of this one and I hope that someone else will want to do one of the versions as well. It appears like we might be able to make a really nice trip out of it, perhaps staying at Stillwater Cove, which is a Sonoma County park. We could actually camp right in the Salt Point State Park, but it appears that our trailer may be on the long side for that campground. Please let me know if you are at all interested in this one. I would like to try to make reservations for camping and register for the run before the end of June.
There are a couple other trail runs that might be considered later in the fall.
Chris
Things finally slowed down over the weekend. I took Friday off and we headed to Sly Park Campground, which is on Jenkinson Reservoir about 13 miles east of Placerville. It was fun to pick CJ up from school in the truck with the travel trailer hitched and ready to roll right out for a camping adventure. CJ gets so excited about camping that he starts loosing his mind a couple days before we go. It makes getting ready for the trip a lot more stressful, but I try to remember that I was the same way!
I ran around the reservoir on Sunday morning in 1 hour 43 minutes. I ran kind of slow because I didn’t really know what I was in for, so I was conservative. I could run it faster if I ran it again. The rolling trail is a killer leg workout. It ends up being a great mind workout too because you have to manage every foot placement.
Erin went running with Jennifer after I got back. She was only going to go about half way around the lake, which never should have taken more than 2 hours. But somehow, the two of them got the idea to go all the way around. We had to send out a search party at the two and a half hour point. I thought for sure one of them had twisted or broken an ankle. But they were fine…. at least they were fine when they came walking into camp. From the sound of Erin’s voice today, she isn’t feeling fine now though!
Sitting around the campfire in the evening, the kids were very tired. So they sat still long enough for me to get a couple really good pictures. This is unusual for CJ. He never sits still. And he hates having his picture taken. So if I ever figure out how to add pictures, I will add some of the ones I took.
I anticipate that I will be running the 12.3 mile leg of the Tahoe relay next weekend. And I have decided to try to run a 28Km trail run in Jenner on August 27th.
Chris
