Dan's Outside

Spring is here – with a vengeance!

It is too early for this, but the temperatures have been in the 80s here in the San Francisco Bay area. The coastal hills are coming alive with new growth and the wildflowers are coming up like mad.

—–

March 13, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Spring is here – with a vengeance!

What's up with this weather?

48 hours ago I was skiing. It was not very cold, but I was skiing. Today it is something like 80 degrees here in the south San Francisco Bay Area.
—–

March 8, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on What's up with this weather?

That was a long day!

***3:50 am
– The alarm goes off and 15 minutes later I have finished a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal, grabbed my stuff, and I’m out the door and on the road.

***4:55 am
– I arrive at a Jane’s house in Berkeley where Owen will meet us 5 minutes later so that we can carpool to the Sierra.

***5:15 am
– We’re on the road with Owen driving. Jane and I manage to doze off and on until the sun comes up. Everyone is awake by the time we get to the Sierra foothills. Jane drives the last portion of the trip.

***7:45 am
– We arrive at the Norden turnoff to Sugar Bowl, fairly certain that we’ll be in the first wave of Saturday skiers from the Bay Area. Guess what? There is no big crowd and we’re the 10th car to park there. We gather stuff together and walk to the lodge.

“Not even a double-macchiato can keep me from falling asleep”

***8:00 am
– For the next 45 minutes or so we grab breakfast, get lift tickets, and join up with Kari and Matt who have driven up separately. Oddly, they arrive after we do even though they left earlier.

***9:00 am
– or a bit earlier, the lifts start running and we’re off. It is a beautiful morning and even though it is still icy we can tell that it is going to be warm. We ski a few runs together and then split up since our group includes some snowboarders and some telemark skiers, and skill levels ranging from novice to advanced. Since I’m still a beginner on tele skis I spend a lot of time on beginner runs with some intermediate terrain thrown in to make my life more exciting.

***12:00 noon
– Most of us meet for lunch on the mountain and Chris, who lives in Truckee, shows up. I ski with Chris and Owen briefly and Owen makes a key observation: I’m twisting my body in the direction of the turn when I try to telemark. Duh! Now I see the problem and I actually sort of get this turn to work.

***2:00 pm
– I take a break from skiing at one of the lodges to soak up the warmth of the early-spring (by weather if not by the calendar) Sierra sun. Not even a double-macchiato can keep me from falling asleep for 10 minutes.

***3:00 pm
– Most of us meet briefly and make final plans to meet again at around 4:30 when lifts close. I try some intermediate terrain and survive in pretty good form – with the exception of one crazy fall. I can’t describe exactly what happened but the universe seemed to take at least one and a half complete turns around me and today I’m a bit sore. Back to skiing though I, for one, am starting to get tired.

***4:15 pm
– I take one last run and then stop at the lodge. By 4:30 we have all arrived so we meet at the lodge for few minutes before loading up and heading to Chris’s place for a glass of wine and some snacks. We meet his son-in-law Mark.

***5:30 pm
– We head back toward Truckee for Mexican food. Dinner takes forever, but is great.

***9:00 pm
– We’re finally on the road back to the Bay Area. Owen immediately falls asleep in the back seat and doesn’t wake up until we get to Berkeley. I drive to the outskirts of the Sacramento area before I’m too tired to drive. Jane takes over and pilots us back to Berkeley.

***12:05 am
– I’m back in my car for the drive back to the South Bay. Home by 1:00 am.

***1:30 am
– Zzzzzz…
—–

March 7, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on That was a long day!

Skiing tomorrow!

A group of friends (almost Talusdancers) is meeting in Berkeley at 5:00 am for a one-day run to Sugar Bowl for downhill and telemark (that’s me) skiing.
—–

March 5, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Skiing tomorrow!

A long Almaden Quicksilver hike

I had four trail hours today so I did a larger loop than usual. I started at Mockingbird Hill and headed towards the Prospect #3 junction. However, instead of turning here I continued ahead past the Webb Canyon junction and then turned left at a trail labeled “Cinnabar” on the park map. This took me up a short lateral to the Mine Hill Trail above Guadalupe Dam. From there it was up the hill to the summit, then down from English Camp to the trail junction and back to Mockingbird Hill. Whew.

New flowers are appearing all the time. Here are photos of some that I saw for the first time this week.

—–

February 29, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on A long Almaden Quicksilver hike

A quick hike

Today was one of those days when I needed a hike – after an incrediblly busy week at the college and then coming home to wrestle with my recalcitrant server. I still have a ton of work to do before classes this week, but at least I got out long enough to hike up Deep Gulch to the ridge at Almaden Quicksilver.

I investigated one new area on the way back down from the Catherine Mine area on the ridge. Instead of taking the main trail, I followed a faint path downhill through areas that had obviously been mined. After bushwhacking for 15-20 minutes I emerged on the Mine Hill Trail a ways above the slide area and then descended via English Camp and the Deep Gulch trail.

I had earlier thought that the best opportunities to travel cross-country in this terrain had been a month or so ago. However, I now see that in most areas the old grasses have almost disappeared, the new grass is mostly very short, and little poison oak has yet come up. It turns out that cross country travel is actually still pretty good here.

Oh, no pictures today. I did take my camera but it was just one of those days when I felt more like walking than taking pictures.
—–

February 22, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on A quick hike

Sierra snow report?

I’ll be real interested to hear my son’s story when he returns from the Sierra on Thursday night. He is supposed to go skiing today at Homewood, but the weather forecast is not too encouraging.
—–

February 17, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Sierra snow report?

Woods Road Hike

Today’s hike followed a different route that bypassed some of the more popular trails that I often follow at Almaden Quicksilver. I began by ascending the Deep Gulch Trail, a steep but direct route to English Camp. I often descend this route but rarely climb it.

Flowers on the Deep Gulch Trail. February 14, 2004.

Above English Camp I took the footpath to the ridge rather than following the dirt road. I traversed below the old mill and then headed down the Woods Road Trail, with the intention of getting to the parking lot at the end of the trail. However, I ended up in a pretty meadow where I spent time taking picures of new undergrowth and old oak trees.

Trees and grass along Woods Road, Almaden Quicksilver Park. February 15, 2004.

I reversed the route to get back to my car at the Hacienda entrance.
—–

February 15, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Woods Road Hike

Day one of my four-day weekend

For some reason, my college has turned this into a four-day weekend – but I’m not going to complain!

I found time to do the “long loop” at Almaden Quicksilver Park this morning, after dropping my son off at school. There is a Pacific weather front coming in, so it was mostly gray and windy. I’ve been watching wildflowers start to come up since January, but this week I saw more than the occasional flower – they are starting to come up all over.

—–

February 13, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Day one of my four-day weekend

Regarding those ski photos

I took three – of the cabins near where we stayed, with Diamond Peak in the background and clouds on the ridge – but none of them are really worth posting.
—–

February 11, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Regarding those ski photos