Seven (or Eight?) Summits?

“We’ll bivy here, and go for the summit in the morning.” It’s the classic play – calling your parents to see if they have the money to fund your next grand adventure. Fortunately, instead of spending $150K to pursue the canonical Seven Summits – the highest point on each of the seven continents – one … Read more

25th Anniversary Backpacking Trip

Sketches from my hiking journal

Time flies. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since we tied the knot before family and friends back in Berkeley. We looked so young then. We were so young then. We’ve had a few particularly memorable anniversary adventures since then – like the one where we nearly died on the Diamond in … Read more

Ferguson Fire

Meijer Gardens during the Ferguson Fire

The blaze started down by Cedar Lodge on Friday the 13th, downslope of our neighborhood where it has been growing and throwing threatening looks at our home. Today we got the advisory notice and then the pre-evacuation notice. Depending on what the fire does the neighborhood might move to a mandatory evacuation at any time. … Read more

Enjoying the Rain

It started raining today before dawn and rained steadily throughout the day. I’d made plans with one of the coolest people around to catch up over lunch, and wondered how that was going to go. On a sunny day, we’d head out to the river, or someplace like that, but with the weather, I worried … Read more

First Skate Ski of the Season

I wish I had stopped to take a picture. Really. But sometimes, you’re having so much fun doing what you’re doing, that you just don’t want to stop and dig the camera out… even if you had it stashed in a convenient pocket to do just that. Skiing was Great The Cross Country Center at … Read more

Where did Summer go?

Summer disappeared in a haze of off-set weekend schedules with Ranger Tom, too much work, and unrivaled weekend Valley traffic. It seems we were only just thawing out from our ‘snowpocalypse‘, and now we’ve had our first winter storm of the season. Tom hasn’t even really stopped skiing… he’s managed to get some ski time … Read more

Ski to the Mariposa Grove

Sometimes it’s easy to get focused on the great things to do inside the park, and as a matter of fact, there are a lot of great things to do inside the park, but there are some great things just outside the park too. With Badger Pass Ski Area closed for the season, a small … Read more

A New Season

It’s a cold almost-November day, 40 deg and raining, and everywhere I looked this morning, there were photographers, with their big cameras on tripods set up next to the road, wearing their rain gear and happily snapping away. Serious photographers are a unique bunch here – it’s like they bloom when the skies turns dark … Read more