Come One, Come All

Since I posted last in June, we’ve been going almost nonstop, starting with letting my little sister crash on our couch for six weeks as she worked remotely for a summer internship with Sprint. Owen and I led her in a crash course in all things California. A few highlights:

Early one Saturday morning in July, we arrived in Yosemite and nabbed a coveted first-come, first-serve backcountry permit. That allowed us to give Kelli the grand tour of Yosemite while (mostly) avoiding the crowds and traffic. That first day we spent a pleasant few hours meandering through the forest and ran into almost no one. That night we camped caveman style- under the stars, on a rock on the edge of this huge ravine with a river down below and had a big roaring fire to keep away beasts. The next morning we hiked out to the Yosemite Falls overlook. The views of the falls were so gorgeous that at one point I shrieked so loudly that Kelli thought I had seen a dead body. After we finished the quad burning hike down to the valley and stumbled back into civilization, we didn't know how to behave ourselves. So we bought, and consumed, an entire half gallon of icecream. The culmination of the trip was successfully hitchhiking 30 or so miles back to our car whilst getting an open air tour of the park: one of our rides let us/told us to sit in the bed of their pickup truck.

Overlooking Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Falls

Free, open air tour of the park

Another weekend in July, Kelli and I went to Lake Tahoe. Things worked out very well on several fronts. The day before we were set to leave, we still hadn’t found a place to stay, but then Kelli performed nothing short of a miracle and found a campsite. We picked up a hitchhiker, and he turned out to be a kind, mellow PCT hiker. We did minimal research on hikes and selected the first one we came across- it was grueling but worth every minute. That night in our campground, we were awoken by an air horn signaling a bear in the vicinity, but luckily the chapstick I kept in the tent wasn’t enough to draw him in. Oh, and I almost forgot- while in town, someone parked thisclose next to my car, so close that I actually was too afraid to try to get out of the spot because I thought I’d hit the car. Two random men walking by helped direct me for about five minutes, to move forward, back, left, right, until I finally made it out. What a weekend.

There's nothing finer

Summitting Mt. Tallac

Something I’d wanted to do for a really long time was to go camping. On a weekday. I finally fulfilled this dream while Kelli was here. Owen, Kelli, and I met up right after work at a County park. We did nothing out of the ordinary: went for a short hike, drank some cold ones, grilled up a few hot dogs, and wolfed down s’mores. It all felt so novel though, because it was a random weekday. One new thing we did do was sleep in a fairy ring (a circle) of redwood trees, under the stars. It was a truly magical feeling to wake up in the middle of the night and stare up at those trees. The next morning, it was back to reality as I washed my face and brushed my teeth in the bathroom at work. I don’t think anyone was the wiser that I’d slept outside the night before.

Owen's grand entrance

That's Owen holding up a lantern in our humble weeknight camping abode

One weekend in early July Owen and I road tripped up to Salem, Oregon (after a pit stop at Evan’s place to crash for the night) for Owen’s cousin’s wedding. I met some of Owen’s west coast cousins, ran at a gorgeous state park, and enjoyed a beautiful summer night at a vineyard for the wedding. Oh yeah, and I got to sit back and relax as someone else pumped our gas (NJ and OR, represent!). On the drive back home we had a full car- Owen’s parents came with us after attending the wedding to see our place in CA. We had done almost the entire drive up in the dark, so it was nice to actually see Oregon and Northern CA on the way home. The next day we took his parents and Kelli around the Bay Area showing them our favorite haunts and finished the day off at a lookout point in the Santa Cruz mountains to watch fireworks erupt all along the Bay for the 4th of July. ‘Merica!

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

During this time, I also happened to run my very first ultra! The ultra was also in Oregon, near Ashland, so we crashed with Evan again (we are forever grateful). There were so many feels during the race, but I’ll give just the lowlights and highlights. Luckily, there was only one lowlight. Somewhere around mile 25 I started up the third major hill climb of the race. We hiked up, and up, and up, and it was never ending. My back was killing me, and my muscles started to seize up. I had officially entered what I call the pain crevasse. I invented that term after reading about this phenomenon called the pain cave that ultrarunners are so familiar with. It’s basically this pit of despair we find ourselves in fairly often on ultra long runs. I call it a pain crevasse instead, because the only way I get myself out of it is by digging in deeper. Sometimes the only way out of a crevasse is to crawl in deeper, as terrifying and unknown as that may be. But I digress. On to highlights: it was the most gorgeous singletrack trails I’ve ever run. I passed some PCT thruhikers. I found a runny buddy to chat with for a good portion of the race. My secret weapon playlist helped me blast through my pain crevasse. The very best part was the last half mile: spectators were allowed to run with participants, and Kelli, Owen, and Evan were waiting for me at that point. When they saw me they started screaming and whooping and jumping- they were this huge ball of energy when I had nothing left, and their joy carried me to the finish line. I freakin did it.  

Funky plant called beargrass along the trail

Yay! Friends! I can do this. 

The struggle was real.

Owen and I felt like empty nesters when Kelli first left, but we’ve been keeping ourselves busy since then. Owen’s brother Pat met us in Big Sur and we celebrated Owen’s birthday one weekend this month. As per usual, plans were very last minute but we found a pleasant hike with sweeping views of the coast and scored a last minute campsite at a nearby campground.

Clearly I was the third wheel

Purple sand beach!

Then we hosted my parents for a few days. By the end, they were joking (or serious…?!) that they wanted to move out here, so it’s safe to say they enjoyed themselves. I gave them the grand tour: first, less then 24 hours after they arrived, I whisked them out to Yosemite to show them some of that good old granite. We spent the night in a cozy tent cabin equipped with a wood stove, beds, sheets, and that's about it. Technically, the place was called Tuolumne Lodge, but I beg to differ. For me though, compared to backpacking it felt like all-out glamping. Back in the Bay, we explored my favorite towns, parks, and beaches. At one park, Big Basin Redwoods, we made a new friend of sorts- a man, about my parents' age, was hiking the same loop as us by himself so we adopted him. The best part of the whole thing: my dad had been joking that we were in Bigfoot country and he wanted to see one. While we were browsing the Bigfoot memorabilia in the gift shop, our new friend revealed that his nickname used to be Bigfoot! So my dad got to hike with Bigfoot after all.

In Yosemite, on our way up to Vernal Falls

That's about right

Peaceful morning in Tuolumne Meadows

Our digs for the night

Our hosting duties are over for now, and we are celebrating with a trip for just the two of us: we're road tripping out to Yellowstone! We leave this Saturday, we know where we are sleeping on night one only, but I’m pumped to see where the roads and trails take us.