Pre-Xmas Crab Dinner

Since Beth and I were heading out of Town for Xmas, we decided to have a Xmas dinner with a few friends. So we headed down the the docks and picked up some live crab from one of the boats.

Woodley Island Marina (~12 blocks from our house)

Greg, Teresa, and Jay came over and we started cooking.

Be careful, Jay has crabs

Don't they look happy?

The Crab is Ready

Teresa and Greg

When it was all finished, we played Catan.

Good times!

-BnT

Thanksgiving in LA

This year we decided to head south for Thanksgiving. We left after work on Tuesday for Laura (La) and Lucinda's (Lu), Beth's sister and girlfriend, house in Sierra Madre. We had not been in the LA area for quite a while and we were excited. That night we found a public campground and got the Subie converted for the night.

We slept to a light rain and woke early. By 7AM we were in the Great Valley heading south on the 5. We first went to La's school (she is a teacher at a Community College). We got the tour of the school and then headed to lunch. It didn't take long to get one of the things we miss most about urban living: a variety of restaurants. We had a great lunch and went to a cool bakery that sold baklava in a ton of varieties.

We left La to finish her day and headed to REI to wander through the store as Lu still needed to finish her work day too. Not long after, we headed to their house where Diego got to meet his cousins!

Sam


Neiko

Tikka

On Thanksgiving, we headed to Lu's father's house (which is really close to La-n-Lu's house). It was to be the first large family Thanksgiving in a long time. La and Lu kicked ass on a huge meal.

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to hang out with Seta (Beth's good friend), her girlfriend Tricia, and Lyndy (Beth's other good friend). Seta lives in Long Beach. Long Beach is cool. We had a good Vietnamese meal and then headed to the beach.

Left to Right: La, Lu, Tricia, Seta, Lyndy, Beth, Travis

After crossing the vast LA area, we ended back at La-n-Lu's.

Our final day in LA was spent playing frisbee with Diego and going out the Pub for beer.

On Sunday Beth and I piled into the car at 7AM. We listened to This American Life as we went up through the Grapevine, north in the valley, skirted the Bay area, cruised through Napa and Calistoga, and finally back in Humboldt County at 7PM.

It was too bad that we didn't have more time to hang out, but long weekends are short. Thanks LA crew for hanging out with us. We had a blast.

-BnT

Ukiah Triathlon, 09/07/08

Beth competed in a triathlon this weekend in Ukiah, CA, which is almost half way between our house and San Francisco. We arrived Saturday afternoon to 104 degree weather, ouch! After a three hour drive, pre-race check-in and scouting the swim course we were ready to chill-out, literally, in the aircon Super8.

Sunday arrived fast. By 6:15 am we were on our way to Mendocino College to setup the run transition and then to "Lake" Mendocino, about two miles down the road, for the swim and bike transition. The "Lake" is actually a reservoir that shows the use and abuse of the northern/southern California water wars. Don't forget, conservation is the best policy!

Beth did very well despite very little specific training. Perhaps the cross training of hiking, rafting, and kayaking is the secret to her success. She took first in her age group with top ranked swim and bike times. The run, on the other hand, was a different story. She blames her stiff legs and the heat for her slow pace, which kept her out of the lady's top ten overall (she was 11th). By the way, a hard-core 50 year old won the lady's race and all but one of the top ten ladies were 35+ years young! Nice motivation for all. Below are some of the pictures from the race.

Beth getting ready for the start

Beth comes out of the swim, 1st in her age group

The transition

Diego cheering Beth on the run

Me and Diego with our superstar

-BnT

Labor Weekend in the Trinity Alps Wilderness

Beth, Diego, and I took advantage of the long labor day weekend to head out in the Trinity Alps Wilderness with Greg and Teresa. We headed out Friday and after a three hour trip inland we were at the Scott Mountain trailhead. This trail is part of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) that runs from Mexico to Canada.

That night we hung out at the trailhead and slept under the stars. Well at least the humans did; Diego stood watch all night.

In the morning we packed up and headed into the back country. We hiked about 8 miles west to the East Boulder Lake Trail, which diverts from the PCT to the north towards the East Boulder Lakes and to the south towards the Marshy Lakes. Both lake systems are high altitude. We decided to head over towards the Boulder Lakes. This involved hiking up over a ridge and dropping down into the Boulder Lake's watershed. Almost instantly we realized there were other people camped along the four lakes (three pretty small). After striking out on a great campsite, we debated taking a less than great site. Luckly, we all felt good enough to do some more hiking and decided to head back over the ridge and drop down into the Marshy Lake system.

Hiking into the East Boulder Lakes


Diego and his pack

BINGO! We found a lake all to ourselves with great views, a great rock to swim from, refreshing (but not to cold) water, and a great cooking area. We set up camp and headed straight for a swim. A lot of times high altitude lakes are really cold, but with the snow gone and the sun hot for most of the summer, the lake was perfect.

Big Marshy Lake (rock in below picts
is on right side)

Chillin' on the lake's shore

After some swimming and hanging out in the sun, it was time for some dinner. Greg and Teresa made up some killer chili with fresh avocado, tomato, and cheddar cheese. We were stuffed. It was about this time the wind started.

That night the wind blew hard. It blew harder than I have ever camped in. After hanging the food (to keep the bears from eating it), we headed to bed. We all thought the wind would die down once the valley below cooled off, boy were we wrong. Beth and I went to sleep without the rain fly on, but by 12:30 it was apparent the wind was here to stay and was getting stronger. I reluctantly got out of the tent and put on the rain fly. I hoped it would be easier to sleep with us more protected, but the wind was so loud that sleeping only came in bursts. By morning, the temp must have been in the 40's and the wind was still blowing. We climbed out of the tent to find Greg and Teresa had the same difficulty sleeping as we did and had already found another campsite on the other side of the lake where it was better protected. We packed up and headed over.

Our new tent site on the northwest edge of the
lake after the windy night

Later that morning the wind died down and all was good. We decided to go for a hike up and around the rim above the lake. There was really cool views of Mount Shasta, the lake, and all the other mountains around. We found a really cool meadow to come back down through.

Video taken while above the camp.
Greg is the goofy one with the other camera.

Teresa and Greg

Greg and Diego enjoying the view

After we got back in camp it was time for some reading and a nap in the sun.

Doing nothing!

Later we did some swimming. Since Beth had a triathlon the following Sunday, she took the opportunity to get some open water training in. She had her own private lake and since it was at altitude (~7,000 FT), she really got in a good workout.

Beth swimming in her private lake

That night it was our turn to cook dinner. We brought tasty bites (Indian food). During dinner we were all wondering if the winds would start again. Although it blew a couple of strong gusts, the previous night was not repeated and so we slept like superstars.

Beth and I woke early to watch the sunrise. We crawled out of the warm tent into the crisp mountain air with warm clothes on and our sleeping bags in tow. We hiked to the east end of the lake and found a protected spot on the cliff overlooking the lower lake. The sun came up just south of Mount Shasta where three months ago, to the day, we got engaged. It was a great way to start the day.

Sunrise


Our trio

After watching the sunrise, we returned to the tents for some breakfast. We spend the rest of the morning laying around enjoying the last few hours of our private retreat. At about 1:00 we packed up and headed back towards the car. We had a really good pace and reached the car in just over two hours.

On the way home, we stopped in Weaverville for a late lunch and then continued home. Beth, Diego, and I reached home at about 8:00, which is really early compared to our other recent trips.

Well, that is that. We had a great time. We highly recommend the Trinity Alps.

-BnT

Trinity River on Sunday

Really quick we wanted to throw up some pictures of our trip to the Trinity River last Sunday with Greg and Teresa. This is the Pigeon Point run which starts near the confluence of the North Fork and the Main Fork of the Trinity River, about a 1.5 hour drive from our house. We were lucky enough to have Rapid Replay taking pictures that day and here are the results. Both of these pictures were taken at the Hell Hole rapid.

Best of all it was not smokey outside and for that would like to take a moment to thank all the fire fighters who have had such a hard summer, especially those that died keeping the rest of us safe. There are still fires in our area and hopefully the rains come a bit early this year.

-BnT

Weekend on the North Umpua. Again!

Last weekend Beth, our friends Greg and Teresa, and myself headed up to the North Fork of the Umpqua River to do some kayaking and camping. This is the second time in three weeks we have kayaked this river (See Greg's blog for previous trip). It is an amazing spot located east of Roseburg, OR.

This weekend was the inaugural run in my new kayak. I just purchased a Pyranha Ammo. From the first to the last rapid I had a smile ear to ear; this boat rocks!

We kayaked two sections, one on Saturday and the other on Sunday; both sections are class III runs. We had a blast. Section 1 on Saturday starts off with a bang. You put on and just downstream is a class III rapid. We pulled off to scout the rapid and develop a strategy. Once back on the river, Greg and Teresa headed out. Next it was Beth and my turn. Just as Beth came to the top of the rapid, an eddy line rolled her, but Beth promptly rolled herself back up and made the moves she needed to make.

After finishing the section, we headed back to camp and to give Diego his required river time. It just so happened that we had a play wave right at the campground and so we put back on the gear and headed out. We had played in the wave two weeks earlier with success, but the slight change in flow made the wave mean. It would let you in and then spit you out, often upside down. Nonetheless it was fun.

Day two was spent running Section 4 (in all there are 5 named sections). We all like this section and had sooo much fun. "Buried" is the first rapid and after scouting we all finished successfully (Nice roll Beth!).

Teresa (first) & Beth (second) in "Buried"

Next is "Bathtub," now aka "Toilet Bowl." Two weeks earlier we didn't scout Bathtub and to our surprise it was a bit more technical than we expected, I swam. This time we checked it out and made a plan.


Beth and Teresa finding their line

Greg in the Bathtub

Travis (first) & Beth (second) in the Bathtub

First Greg went, then it was my turn followed quickly by Beth. I had a little hiccup at the beginning, but got myself corrected and finished it off. Beth, acting like a long time pro, went through flawlessly. Teressa, the river queen that she is, found a different line and made it look great.



Lunch time!
The rest of the run was great. In the end we didn't have any swimmers.


Its the water!
Unfortunately, Beth and I had to drive home that day. Greg and Teressa took time off from work and were planning on staying most of the week. Beth and I decided to go home a slightly different path than we did coming. We decided to drive down the Rogue River. On our way, we stopped by Crater Lake since we were so close, but we knew we had to keep moving in order to get home at a decent time. Crater Lake is amazing and it turns out that the Rogue was everything I hoped for. To bad it is dammed because I bet there is a lot of great river lost.

Crater Lake on the way home


Entrance to the Rogue gorge
Well, Beth and I pulled into home at 12:30 AM exhausted. We both had to work in the morning so it was bed time.

That is it... the Umpqua was amazing again and we had a great time with our friends. Anytime anyone wants to go to the Umpqua, Beth and I are ready to go!

Say hi to Diego in the Subie