Yeah I know this post is long over due but it is here
now so read and enjoy.
Spring break began to occupy my thoughts since the
first week of this semester. I had big plans for those
nine school free days in March, and oddly enough
things went pretty much as planned...
Friday THE PLAN said we would leave for San Francisco
in the early afternoon, but nobody was ready so we
stayed in town and I packed and spent some quality
time with my family watching The Incredibles and
eating popcorn.
Saturday morning was spent with Dad working. I will
have to spend an entire posting on the subject of dad
at the moment it suficeth me to say that I hadn't
noticed how much I missed the resented tasks and
chores of my youth that where always done side by side
with my father. In the afternoon John, his girlfriend
Gay, Crystal and I went up to the snow. We simply
drove up the freeway until we reached the point where
snow chains where required and then we stopped and
built a snowman and I had a snowball fight with John
and we simply played in the snow. It was a whole lot
of fun. Then after we got back we went to Johns and
watched Big with Tom Hanks it was a good day.
Sunday was spent with my Family. It was Jeremy's
Birthday and we had breakfast all together at my
parents then I went to church with my family. At
church I had a chat with one of the high council
members who asked me to consider serving on the Elders
Quorum Presidency of the local singles ward. I told
him I would have to think about it, I will write more
on this subject later. The evening I was back at my
parents for Jeremy's favorite diner, sweet and sour
pork and more socializing. THE PLAN had not included
spending the day at home but I am glad I did.
Monday the adventure began. THE PLAN came back into
play on Monday afternoon the morning was spent double
checking camping gear and eating lunch with Avi a
friend who was back from UCSD for the break to work on
planning his wedding. At Lunch it was still uncertain
if John would be able to join us as planned. what was
finally worked out was the he could go with us to SF
but that he would have to head home rather than go
camping. And so it began with Crystal and I in her car
and John and Rosie in Rosie's car headed to San
Francisco. We got to the city about 4:30 and checked
in at one of my companies Hotels. I had never stayed
in one of our other hotels and it was very nice. We
then drove to union square that city is bad enough for
driving in the best weather and on a rainy night it is
far worse (by "we drove" what I mean is that I drove
and they screamed). We took the trolley over to pier
39 and ate at Bubba Gump the food was pretty good but
I did not feel it a good value for what I ate but that
is what I get for ordering a burger at a shrimp place.
It rained on us as we went back to the hotel and John
whined excessively about the four blocks we had to
walk from the restaurant and the trolley. We watched
movies in the hotel room until unreasonable hours in
the morning then went to bed. the most interesting
thing we saw that night was the drug dealer at union
square who walked past and said "green bud" as he kept
on going. it took us a full minute to realize what had
just happened we laughed about it a lot later.
Tuesday morning I woke to find that John and Rosie had
left so that Rosie could make it to work on time. She
had left a not on the door reading "have fun and don't
get eaten by a bear". We took our time leaving and by
the time we hit the road the weather was nice. That
didn't last, we where headed south to Monterey and
about just past Santa Cruz that rain began to fall so
hard that we probably should have pulled over and
waited a while for things to calm down. At the very
least the weather was bad enough that the greyhound
bus drive weaving in and out of traffic should have
dropped down to only five over the speed limit. We
check into our hotel and where very pleased with what
$75 had gotten us on priceline, a room in the Hyatt
Regency Monterey with a balcony over the 15th hole of
the Del Monte golf course. We then headed to the
Aquarium. The Monterey Bay Aquarium currently has a
Great White shark on display, it is about nine feet
long and though several people commented that they
thought it would be bigger I thought it looked more
than large enough to keep me out of its tank. also
there was an awesome jellyfish display. On the whole
the aquarium was enjoyable though it was the most
crowded I have seen it. After we were done there we
ate at a place called Louie Linguini and though the
food was good the service was very bad including them
charging a different amount on the bill that the menu
showed for the daily special. We ended up spending an
extra half hour at the restaurant waiting for the
manager just to find our check so she could see the
error and then fix it. We also went and bought a coat
for Crystal to keep her dry and warm in the woods this
turned out to be a very important investment for the
girl who had gone to play in the snow on Saturday
without any gloves. There where also some other last
minute purchases on my part like fuel for our camp
stove and a smaller lighter tent.
I love Monterey and only have two complaint about the
time we spent there, the service at Louie Linguini and
the fact we only stayed one day.
Wednesday morning we soaked in the hotel hot tub and
enjoyed our last hot shower for a few days then hit
the road. We drove down the coast and stopped for
brunch at the black bear diner in Carmel then
continued driving it was a beautiful day on the coast.
We checked in at the ranger station about noon and
then hit the trail. We headed up the Pine Ridge trail
personally I found it to be a well established trail
that was fairly easy to hike, but Crystal has legs
that are shorter than mine and not as used to the
outdoors. She did a good job and I let her set our
pace. At one point we had to stop and put mole skin on
her foot. 3:30ish we reached the point on the trail
where you turn down hill to go to the Ventana
campground or you keep going to get to the terrace
creek camp ground, Crystal was inclined to go to the
closer of the two but they where about the same
distance so we went to terrace creek. the logic here
was by not hiking down to the ventana campground we
wouldn't need to hike back UP to get back to the trail
the next day. Terrace creek is a nice campground
situated in a redwood line canyon on a happy bubbling
creek. we pitched our tents and said hi to the hippies
we where sharing the site with. for diner we ended up
lighting a small campfire (a no no at this campground)
because the wisperlite stove was giving me trouble and
it was to dark for me to service it. Our fire was
small and in a rockring used before. We had a rice
dish with chicken and drank water and Kool-ade then
went to sleep.
Thursday morning first thing I serviced and fired up
the stove it was working much better. For breakfast we
ate oatmeal then hit the trail again. We had some
options, we would hike to the Barlow flats campground
and either, keep going and camp at Sykes, drop our
gear and keep going doing Sykes hot springs as a day
hike and coming back to sleep at Barlow flats, or stop
there and call it a day. from Terrace creek to Barlow
flats is around two miles but it crosses a creek just
before Barlow flats that was fairly deep (I was wet up
to the seat of my pants before we where done) fairly
cold, and rather fast, and crossing the creek took a
lot out of Crystal who was still tired and sore from
the previous day. I had to cross the creek a few times
once with no gear just checking to see how deep and
fast it was and looking for the best place to cross,
then with my gear, then spotting Crystal with her gear
on my back. By the time we got to the Barlow Flats
campground she was ready to pitch camp and call it a
day, so that is what we did. The afternoon was spent
idling by the river and exploring the campground in
search of firewood (fire is OK at Barlow Flats). We
ate potato soup for diner that had to be cooked twice
because it was chewy the first time we started to eat
it. We also roasted marshmallows and drank coco before
bed, I had lost my sleeping pad at the creek crossing
and did not sleep well because the bottom half of me
kept getting cold,
Friday morning we took it easy. The day hike to the
Sykes hot springs was called off and instead skipped
rocks and just hung out. Then in the afternoon we
hiked back up to Terrace Creek. The fording was much
easier this time and one of the people who had crossed
after us had found and recover my sleeping pad.
Instead of sleeping down where we had the first night
we went upstream looking for outlaw camp, witch is in
fact no longer. We pitched the tent at a beautiful
spot next to the Terrace Creek trail ate chicken
fettuccine alfredo and went to sleep early. The
sleeping pad under me once more I slept well.
Saturday morning I woke up early did the camp chores
and simply enjoyed how beautiful our campsite was.
When Crystal woke up we had oatmeal and broke camp.
Our plan was to hike up terrace creek trail and the
back down the coast ridge trail, rather than going out
the way we came in. We had six miles to go to the
trail head and two more to the car. The book we had
that described the terrace creek trail said it was a
two mile connector trail with a casual 6% grade,
Crystal and I seriously doubt that the author even
hiked it because in that two mile we went from down in
the bottom of a canyon up to the very top of a ridge
and though I couldn’t tell you the grade it seemed
much harder than “a casual 6% grade” would indicate.
However, the view from the top made it totally worth
the effort, from that ridge you can see deep into the
wilderness and it was a beautiful morning to be
standing there. The hike back down was on a narrow
dirt road with lots of wildflowers growing everywhere
and magnificent views of the ocean. The long down hill
stretch was hard on Crystals feet and with a mile left
to the road she decided to take of her shoes and do
the last part barefooted. I told her to take her time
for the last mile and that I would go ahead get the
car and meet her at the trail head. Some thing that
annoyed me was that I saw more wild life along the two
mile stretch of road between the trailhead and the car
than I saw while in the woods. By the time I got to
the car it was about 11:30 and I too was ready to shed
my shoes, it seems much more draining to me to walk on
a road than a trail. I drove back and picked up
Crystal and my gear at the trail then we began to
drive home.
The drive home was relaxing. We took our time and
stopped for lunch in San Jose where we ate at a little
Chinese place, I don’t remember what I had but it was
very good. I really wonder what the staff thought as
we came in rather scruffy looking and dirty, I hope we
didn’t scare off any of the other customers. We also
stopped at The Jelly Belly Factory and bought candy on
the way home as well, and finally got back at 5:00.
That evening after showering and putting on clean
clothes Crystal and I went over to Rosie’s place and
dragged Suz, another of my friends along, to sit in a
hot tub. It felt wonderful. Afterward we ordered pizza
and watched a movie. It was about midnight when Suz
dropped me back at my apartment to climb into my own
bed for the first time in a week.
It was a very good vacation, now it is back to the
drudgery of work and school so that I will fully be
able to appreciate it next time I get a break.
