2012-01-30 Meyers Ranch, CO

Andrea, Steven and I arrived in Denver to visit David and ski with him. Arriving in at 2:00pm left little time to ski, but we went to Meyer's Ranch, southwest of Denver. Got there around 4:00pm and had about an hour and half to ski.

The little time was enough to ski around. There has not been snow there for awhile, so parts of it was pretty packed down and slippery. The ranch is just off the highway, so we could ski around and be back at the car in a short time. The area is nice and sloping, so if there was a good pack of snow, it would be fun to fool around there. But with old snow, it was a combination of some slabs with soft snow right afterwards. So there was not good runs that day.

But the sky was beautiful and it was a good first evening out.

2012-01-27 Panorama Pt

Today I woke up to gloom. The ground was wet. It really did not look like a day to be up in the mountains. But the Weather Underground said that it was sunny. So we got ready to go, ate, diddled around around a bit and at 11 headed off to Grant's Grove. Steven drove up while I enjoyed the ride. The sky still looked dreary, but more like high overcast.

And then we got to the National Park border and poked through and the sky was pure blue with the sun shining. We stopped at the visitor center to find out about conditions on the Panorama Pt trail/road, but they did not have anything for us. So we ate lunch and headed off.

The snow was mostly good on the way up with a few icy spots. And even though this is the end of January, the snow is thin--in places we can see through the snow to the pavement. By Sunday, there should be many patches of ground showing through. But today, it is good. Only a few bare places. But there are four downed trees across the road, but they are easily skied over. The smell of fresh cedar is to be enjoyed.

The trip up is a lot more enjoyable than it was last year when we did this with David. Today we make good time and I only stop in a few places to get a few breaths. Am I in better shape? I do not think so. It may be just the cold weather last time got me tired enough that I needed to stop at the parking lot before Panorama Pt. But today the snow is not sticking, the air is fresh and clear and I am feeling great.

We make it to the point without incident and in good time--a little after two. And the view! Mountains are spectacularly clear. All peaks are in full view. Even the distant ones like Goddard. They make you want to go further in and further up. But this old body will need to go down soon. But we stay and enjoy the gaze. In the summer, there is too much smog and haze. In the winter, too many times the mountains are hidden by clouds. But today, today they are in full array with all of their snow topped beauty.

It is time to go back down. And it is not long before I have the first fall of the season. The sad part is that I was standing still, just eyeballing how to go down the 300 yards from Panorama Pt to the parking lot and I quickly found myself on the ground. It did not take long to get back up again.

Then skied the narrow trail, bounded by a cedar post fence almost down to the parking lot. I hit a patch of crusty snow and got concerned and fell--into a small patch of buck brush. Why there? Not much damage from the thorns, still a bit hurtful--why not crash a few feet further?

One of the great things about this ski trail is the accommodations--there is an open outhouse at the parking lot which we make use of. Then it is down the snow covered road. That is down around 900' of elevation drop over 2.6 miles. While not technically hard, I slow myself down instead of bombing down it like a skilled person would. Steven does a better imitation of a bomber. I will be sore tomorrow from doing a snow plow down the slope.

I do pretty good for myself on the way down, most of the time I was in control. But all in all, I had room to maneuver and it was on a road. Only fell one more time.

We get back to the car around 3:30 and head off to Foster Freeze in Fresno to enjoy a well deserved burger--and pick up Sherri who stayed home.

2012-01-25 Big Meadow

Snow! A minor miracle. This weekend it finally snowed after two months of dryness in Fresno. So the Fresno folks headed to the mountains to play. Big Meadow close to Kings Canyon NP was our destination.

We left after lunch and got there about 2:00pm. Bright, beautiful, sunshiney day. In the upper 50's. Steven and I went off up the road cross-country skiing. Sherri put on her snowshoes.

Snow was good. One person had already been on the road with his skis and we just followed his tracks. Met him when he was on his way out. The sky was clear, visibility was great. You could see Shell Mountain clear, and Alta Pk loomed in the background. Even Little Baldy was outstanding.

We skied until 3:25 when we turned back. The road in has a gradual uphill. It is a good first ski of the season. Even with that,I was huffing and puffing because of the elevation. Something to work on for the few days we have before David has a crack at me.

2011-01-09 Grant Grove

Today Steven and I went skiing for the first time this season. You could tell we were out of practice we each fell at least four times in the two hours of skiing.Not too good, but could be worse. As Steven said, David is going to kill us off when we go out in March.

In Fresno, it has been gray and dwery for the past week, since it stopped raining. This is a normal January condition. But the good part is when it is gray like this, it is sunny up on the mountains. So when Steven and I broke through the 5500' barrier, sunshine greeted us. We were going to ski the south boundary road. But then we looked at Sunset Campground--which was covered by 4' of snow--and decided to ski the campground.

There was snowshoe tracks, but not ski tracks. So we wandered around. At the west edge of the campground, there is a view of the valley and of Lake Sequoia. This was good. We ski'd around and enjoyed ourselves, even the falls.

That is until we went up one slope and Steven stuck his pole handle deep. When he did this, the basket broke through the snow pack and got caught. We spent about 20 minutes getting out the pole-bent-but not the basket. This crippled Steven. So we went back to the car. In the process of getting the pole loose, the other pole also bent and lost its basket. I gave Steven one of my poles and we went back to the car.

Made it back around 5pm after traveling about 2 1/2 miles. Enjoyed the day, but the pole incident put a damper on the ending.

But the best scenery part was on the road back. As we were going back, the sun was setting. We got close to level with the top of the clouds. It was like you were on a plane, about to descend.

Nov 7, 2010 - Guadalupe Beach

Sunday, after eating breakfast with Andrea, Steven and Gabe, we parted ways with them. Sherri and I stayed in Solvang and just wandered around for a couple of hours. When even Sherri tired of the the wandering we decided to travel north to follow the coastline for a few days. We went up to Occutt, along 101, then cut over to Hwy 1.

Hwy 1 is bit inland around this area. Enjoyable slow drive. We saw a sign for Point Sal, but did not stop--passed it by too quickly. Thinking about it as a place to go in the future. But we did take a left at Guadalupe. We traveled about 4-5 miles to the the beach there. It is a quiet beach--at least on the day we were there. Of course, it was overcast. But the beach itself is clean, the sand is as close to undisirbed as you can get.

We walked along the beach, southward. It was a bit breezy, but good walking. Nobody was anyplace around us until we came back into the parking. The clouds, dunes and hills all were just out there making it a bit of solitude. Go figure? Perfect beach, few people.

So if you pass through Guadalupe, go to their beach. It is actually part of the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes area.

Nov 6, 2010 - Solvang Ride

It is Sunday from Lompoc. Which means that we survived Saturday. You might ask, isn’t this a regular occurrence. Most Saturday’s yes. But yesterday we rode in the Solvang Prelude. This is a bike ride around Solvang.

Andrea and Gabe—Gabe is a friend of Andrea’s—did the metric century, around 63 miles. Steven did the half a a century—50 miles. I did the 25 miler which turned out to be 34 miles. Just completing 34 miles for me in three plus hours was pretty good. I know that is a 10 mile per hour pace. But after close to 30 years of not being on a bike for more than 45 minutes that is pretty good. The scenery is good, rolling hills. It was cloudy with a few minutes of sprinkles. I felt tired, but ok.

Now you might ask, what happened to Sherri? Sherri also rode. But we are not sure what she rode. She started off with me. She managed to get a head of me after a mix-up at a stop light. After that she followed an old street marking and went off into who knows where. She was going with another lady who managed to wipe out on a downhill. Sherri stayed to help her. Then a policeman directed her back onto the course. The course was the 63 mile course, where eventually Andrea and Gabe caught up with her. They rode with her for a couple of miles, then they had her turn around as the terrain got more steep. Sherri did make it back—probably rode more miles than me, but less than Steven.

In the afternoon, we wandered around Solvang, at lunch there, then off to the hotel in Lompoc. This morning we will go back to Solvang and have breakfast. We will split up—Steven going back to Fresno; Andrea and Gabe back to Berkley; and Sherri and I to coast to enjoy a few days.

March 6, 2009 On Amtrak—Salt Lake City to Fresno

I wake up around 6:00am. It is starting to get light outside. I did not sleep well. Seemed like I was changing positions about once every 45 minutes. Glad I had two seats by myself. Sherri’s horse-collar pillow helped. But I think having the seat flatter would have helped more. Observing other passengers, they probably had the same experience. Except for my neighbor who seems to have learned how to sleep on a train after three nights. No pain-no gain.

My neighbor is from Stockton—but originally attended Roosevelt High in Fresno. He also went to Modesto JC and then to Fresno State. I started talking to him because I saw the Fresno State championship T Shirt he was wearing. We would talk about various things, the scenery, life, … Nothing special, just a good companion on this trip. Oh yeah, he still comes down to Fresno to play in the Clovis Band with his former director at Roosevelt who is in his 80’s.

All black from Salt Lake City to close to Winnemucca, NV. But even once it grew light, I cannot say the part of Nevada we saw was exciting—maybe a few clouds.

Once past Reno, we start following the Truckee River. We rise up into the mountains, where it has just snowed. The conductor has warned us we may be losing our single seating as the Amtrak buses may be shuffling passengers to the am one of the favored, either that or the big rush did not happen. But we have been told Truckee has 12 more people. But these people never materialized and I had my own seat all the way through.

The snowy mountains around Truckee and westward are elegant with their covering of fresh snow. The train tracks weaves around the ravines, the ridges, climbing up to a tunnel which goes under the crest of the Sierra’s. Snow goes all the way down until we hit Colfax.

The train seems to move slowly during the days and fast at night. Is this to give us a chance to look around? Or is it just my imagination. I think that Amtrak tried to have their trains go across the more visually appealing mountains and canyons during the day and the flat salt flats and desert at night. So by nature the trains do not go as fast in the mountains.

I am on the last two hours of the Zephyr. We left Colfax a few minutes ago and will get to Sacramento by about 3:00. I think I am ready to leave the train—even if it is for another train. But it has been a good trip. Seeing the Rockies from a different perspective. Seeing the Sierra’s not from a driver’s seat.

Got to Sacramento early. Went over and had a Quizino’s sub—a Baja Chicken for the record. Enjoyed some real food. Then walked down to Old Sacramento where I got several ideas for new business cards—Remind Me Again Why I AM Here? I am Having a Senior Moment; … I get on the train at 4:55pm and head off to Fresno—should get in around 8:05. Its nice to be on the home leg.