Another Pandemic Christmas

The start of a new year always spurs me into a frenzy thinking about all the possibilities of the upcoming 365 days: how to use my precious vacation time, what trips to take, what races to sign up for, what permits to reserve and Airbnbs to book and so on. But this year I’ve realized there's value in not just looking ahead, but taking a moment to look back too. Despite a pandemic still looming large in the world, I’m grateful for everything I was able to do in 2021:

• I joined an all-women’s running club, and tried to hang on as best I could on their speedy runs

• Owen and I bought a first generation 4Runner that's older than we are

• Owen and I hiked Mt Whitney, testing our luck by summiting in a storm, and were spared by the mountain gods

• I transitioned from working 100% remote to going back to the office twice a week

• I ran the Rut 50K, actually enjoyed much of the race, and finished in one piece

• I spent two weeks with my parents and sister in NJ, the first time I saw them since before the pandemic

• I attended the weddings of three of my best friends as they (finally) got married 

• Owen and I hosted our first visitors since we moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains 

• I kept up my morning running routine with Denali (though I never figured out how to get her to enjoy putting her harness on)

I am still excited to daydream about what might happen in 2022. But for now, I’m going to take time to celebrate this past year. And I never did write about how the end of the year wrapped up, so I believe I owe you all some stories. Let’s start back in mid-November.

My friend from college, Evan, visited over Veteran’s Day weekend. It had been years since we’d seen each other, and it was great to reconnect with an old friend. We spent the weekend helping him get his Pacific Ocean fix, first with a long walk at Manresa State Beach. He marveled at all the shorebirds, and I tried not to get taken out by Denali as she chased said shorebirds. We even made a quick overnight trip down to Big Sur. Evan was convinced something was bound to go wrong during his time with us, since misadventures always seem to find Owen and I. But everything in Big Sur was going great. We showed him the secret view of the Bixby Bridge, stopped at Big Sur Lodge to buy beer, went on a short hike, and experienced the unexpected party scene that is Sand Dollar Beach. 

Sand Dollar Beach

We didn’t hit any snafus until it was time to look for a spot to camp for the night. But first, we needed to find water. None of us had enough to make it until the next morning and we hadn’t brought a water filter. Luckily there was a campground nearby; we didn’t need a site, just an unsupervised tap where we could discreetly fill up our water bottles. Problem was, every tap had a bright pink sign saying the water system was shut down. I tried turning one on, just to make sure they weren’t messing with us. To our dismay, it worked! Just as Evan filled a bottle and took his first sip, we heard “I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.” It was the camp host, and she explained that people had been getting sick in the campground, and they suspected the water system. There was nowhere else to get water nearby, but the campground did sell bottled water. Now, those of you that know me well know that bottled water is public enemy #1 to me. But in this case, we had no choice so we forked over the money and left. 

The water situation took us much longer than we expected, so by the time we turned off Highway 1 to go searching for a spot in the national forest to camp, we were rapidly losing daylight. For those of you that have ever searched for a flat place to pull off a windy, mountainous road in the dark, you know it’s not easy. Eventually we found a spot though, and started setting up camp. Owen got in the truck to move it forward a bit so we had more space. Minor problem: the truck wouldn't start. Panic set in almost immediately, at least for me. We were miles away from the highway, and Evan's flight left tomorrow. We all put our heads together, and realized we just had to push the truck up one hill, and then it was all downhill to let gravity take us back to the highway. What I forgot was that we had a secret weapon - Owen - who knows how to fix almost anything. Eventually he figured out that the starter wire had jiggled loose on the bumpy roads, and it was a simple reattachment. When it was all said and done, we laughed over the day’s turn of events while enjoying our overpriced beer. Evan's time with us was not over without one last hiccup, though. The next morning, we were on a leisurely hike when he realized he grossly underestimated how much time we had left until his flight took off. This did not bode well for any of us, especially since the 4Runner tops out at a measly 70 mph. We got Evan to the airport about a half hour before his flight departed, and somehow he made it. I guess Evan was right about minor fiascos finding us...

Spotted along our hike and no, we did not follow instructions

After Evan left, it was nearly Thanksgiving. The past couple years, we’ve formed a loose Thanksgiving tradition of camping somewhere in the California desert and wanted to keep it going this year. We decided to head to Mojave Preserve, where we had gone last year, and then continue on to Valley of Fire State Park outside Las Vegas. On the way to Mojave I finally volunteered to try my hand at driving the 4Runner. It’s a manual, and I’d been too intimidated to try it up until then. (So yes, that means all the road trips that I’ve written about when we’ve taken the 4Runner, Owen has driven the entire time, including our trip to Montana and back. You have my permission to start bashing me now.) I drove for a couple hours and only stalled a few times and skipped third gear twice. But who needs third gear?

We stayed at the same campground in Mojave Preserve that we had been to last year, and the familiarity was comforting. We had our routine down: short hike on the Rings Trail near the campground, then whip up our Thanksgiving feast, our signature stuffing with deli turkey meat, carrots, onions, celery, and dried cranberries followed by homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream. It wasn’t a “real” Thanksgiving meal, but damn if it wasn’t the best thing I’ve eaten camping. 

Waiting for us on the Rings Trail

Watching the sun set from the back of the 4Runner

The next morning we packed up and headed to Valley of Fire State Park. The drive goes right past Las Vegas, which I had never been to so I made Owen detour down the Las Vegas strip. I hate to admit it, but I was kind of obsessed with Las Vegas! By the time we arrived at Valley of Fire State Park, everyone and their mother was also there. We stopped at all the obligatory roadside pullouts, but there was not an unoccupied rock or nook to be found! Eventually, we ditched the truck and got out for a hike. We lost the crowds about a mile in, and we finally could enjoy the park without fighting for photo ops. On top of that, the sun was starting to set which made the reds, oranges and pink hues on the rocks look otherworldly.

We spent an uneventful night camping in BLM land outside the state park, then the next morning plotted our course home. We had about 700 miles and two days to make it back. We decided to take the scenic route on some small back roads in Nevada before popping out into the Sierra Nevada. Little did we know that one of the roads we traveled would be the Extraterrestrial Highway, complete with something called the Alien Mailbox, the Alien Inn, and all sorts of weird graffiti. We also never expected to find a “backcountry” graveyard while looking for a site to camp in a national forest. At this point in the trip, we were both getting a little sick of camping, but our faith was renewed that night as we huddled up to our small campfire, warding off the late fall chill under a sky of stars. One last treat of the trip was that we got to come home via the Sonora Pass route right before it closed for the winter. Denali turned into a complete psychopath running around in the snow, her first time this season. 

Alien Mailbox

Sonora Pass in its late fall glory

With Thanksgiving over, it was the official start of the Christmas holiday season. First up was acquiring our Christmas tree. Finding the tree was the easy part, but Denali was not too happy to share the back of the 4Runner with a tree. Next, we had to find some snow for it to really feel like the holidays. Luckily, California delivered on that one. We went up to Tahoe for a day of snowboarding in the middle of multiple snow-dumping storms. I remembered how to snowboard and even struggled my way down a mogul-filled black diamond run! It wouldn’t be the holidays without time with family and friends, and this year we were grateful to go back to NJ for Christmas. We were slightly alarmed when in the days leading up to our flight, we found out many of our young nieces and nephews had bad colds or COVID exposures at daycare, but everyone tested negative so we were in the clear. We were only home for five days but we did a lot: two Christmases, so much time with babies, a hike and drinks with Kelli and Cam, a socially distanced outdoor hangout with my friends, a tour of a friend’s new house, and feasts of New Jersey’s finest bagels, pizza, and pork roll. We made it back to California without a hitch; thankfully we weren't on one of those canceled flights. But, we did both have middle seats. And we were sitting next to each other. I didn't even know that was possible... Thanks, United, for the 4-person row!

We were back on the West Coast for New Years and celebrated in Mount Shasta, in northern California. It was a winter wonderland. We hiked in the snow, tried our hand at some mellow backcountry snowboarding, and crashed each evening with takeout, all three of us exhausted from the effort of trekking through deep snow.

I will admit the start of 2022 has been a little rocky. Early last week I tested positive for COVID-19 and have been hunkering down since then, or shall I use the formal term, isolating? I'm on day 9 of isolation now. It sounds so severe. Luckily my symptoms haven’t been too bad and I've been able to avoid people on walks and runs since we live in the middle of nowhere. I am a little sad that my marathon Netflix binge will come to an end soon, but that's likely for the best. And I should probably interact with someone other than Owen, right? 1 day to go, baby!