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.

Into the Mist

A year ago today I woke up in a strange apartment in an unfamiliar neighborhood. I had just moved to California. I had no car, no job, and only a duffel bag of possessions. Little did I know, I was about to embark on one of the best years of my life thus far. From the redwood forests to the gulf stream waters California deserts, I’ve seen a lot of spectacular things. But enough of that. What have I actually been up to the past few weeks?

Owen and I pulled off another one of our epic driving stints through the night over Memorial Day Weekend. When most normal people were just settling into REM sleep, we dragged ourselves out of bed and began the seven hour trek up to Redwood National Park. It was worth the wake up though, as we got to the park just in time to snag a coveted backcountry permit to camp for the weekend. We catnapped in our car for the better part of the morning, then hiked out to our backcountry site. Later that night, just as I was beginning to wonder if something had gone wrong, Evan showed up at our campsite as planned. We celebrated with some beers and a greasy, cheesy, pasta dish.

I could go on and on about the towering redwoods (they were awesome) but the park had so much more than that. Like the elk herd we watched bed down for the night in a coastside meadow. Or the rutted dirt road and river crossings that our little Yaris somehow navigated. Or the fire (and s’mores) we shared with a group of Mormon, Intel employees from Portland. 

As you may have heard, this was the wettest winter in Northern CA history. Which created the perfect storm (no pun intended) to see some epic waterfalls in the Sierras. Earlier this month, we headed east to Yosemite National Park to do some waterfall hunting. I had my sights set on doing the Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls, since I read that it was a good hike if you wanted to get wet. I was picturing some mild mist, and that was about it. Honestly, I was worried that we’d waited too long and the waterfalls would be mere trickles. The raging river we started our hike along gave me some clue to how wrong I’d be, but it wasn’t until Owen and I were shouting at each other as buckets of water drenched us that I realized they were serious about getting wet.  After getting soaked down to our underwear, we spent the good part of an hour drying out and lounging in the sun at the top of the waterfall. Views from the rest of the hike were insanely amazing. Yosemite is this utopia place that I never want to leave, but alas, we did drag ourselves away. Til next time. 

Looking down into Yosemite Valley

In the midst of the mist

Gorgeous views no matter which way you looked

Though I’ve been running for a long time, training for my first ultra has made me realize I still have a lot to learn. I’ve known for a while that I need to start eating during my longer runs, but I hadn’t quite mastered how to do that. A few weeks ago, I was doing a loop in Huddart Park and Purisima Creek Open Space Preserve called (I kid you not) the Beautiful Butt-Kicker. For some insane reason, I thought ONE granola bar would be enough to sustain me through 22 miles and 3500+ feet of elevation gain. By the last couple miles, I had bonked so bad it was all I could handle to stumble down the trail back to my car. I promptly inhaled several granola bars and ordered a dozen wings to pick up on the way home.

The Beautiful Butt-Kicker lived up to its name

Lesson learned. On my next super loop run, I ate about 1000 calories worth of goos, chews, gels, and the like. As a gel newbie, I ended up getting it all over my hand. I looked a mess. I also had dirt streaked over my legs from falling, and I was covered head to toe in spider webs that had been built across the trail. And my legs were itching like crazy from running through a bunch of tall grass. Thankfully the trail crossed a few streams and I cleaned myself off so I only mildly looked like a wild animal.

This makes the 5am weekend wake up all worth it

Found this gem in the middle of the forest 

Made it all the way from the Santa Cruz mountains to the Pacific!

As much as I like to rant about trail running, I really am lucky to live in a place so close to so many trails. When Dusty, my running partner, and I sneak in workweek trail runs, I feel like I’m getting away with something.

Peaceful post-work trail run

Hiking, running, and now one more hobby to add to the mix…a few weeks ago, Owen decided he was ready to let me ride on the back of his motorcycle with him! I quickly secured a borrowed helmet from a coworker, and we went on two rides up to the Santa Cruz mountains near us. I fell in love, so much so that I recently plunked down a small fortune for my own motorcycle jacket and helmet. I have a feeling this is going to provide for many adventures in the future...stay tuned. 

View from our ride

Wildflowers and Women of the Night

Staying true to my style, I’ve spent the past several weeks doing what I do best: hiking, running, camping, and exploring new places. And I’ll get into that soon. But perhaps the biggest excitement recently: Owen bought an adventure motorcycle! I haven’t ridden with him yet, but eventually we will ride “two up” and hope to take it to some wild places.

It’s been awhile since I posted, and we’ve been on some sweet adventures. Back in March (wow, it really has been awhile) we finally headed south, way south, to Death Valley National Park. We left at the bright hour of 3am, Owen’s idea, and drove through a desert sprinkled with Joshua Trees and little else. Total no man’s land. We arrived at the park late morning and met up with Doug, a friend from high school living in LA now. Saturday we did the driving tour of the park with a few pit stops for short hikes. Typical weather in Death Valley in the spring is a pleasant 70s-80s but we happened to choose the weekend the temperature climbed to over 100 degrees, which nearly set a record. So some of our short hikes turned into run out of the car, snap a photo, run back into the air conditioned car. At Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, it was brutal. I felt like I was being thrown around in a clothes dryer- somehow the wind made it even hotter. To make matters worse, Owen decided to wear jeans and drink barely any water. Lesson learned there. That night we headed to higher elevation and camped at Wildrose Campground, tucked into a canyon up in the mountains. We had a “lady of the night” experience: some woman tried to come into our tent in the middle of the night! I guess she was just disoriented in the dark and had the wrong tent, but we were all a little shocked when we realized what was happening.

Owen dragging at Badwater Basin (that's a salt flat!)

Feeling better

Hiking to our lunch spot

Sand dunes in Death Valley

The next morning I was waiting for the bathroom and who walks out of it but Tori, someone I had gone to school with back in New York. She’s living in the Bay Area too now- what a coincidence! That day we hiked Wildrose Peak along with two new friends, a couple from Texas who had been traveling the West Coast the past few weeks. I think they were jonesing for some conversation with other people. On the way to the top, we had an impromptu snowball fight. Who would have guessed that one day we’d be in a 100 degree desert, and the next day we’d be in the snow?

Charcoal kilns

At the summit of Wildrose Peak

Our little car doing some off-roading

Another weekend we took Dave, one of my college friends, camping. We went to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, tucked into the Santa Cruz Mountains near us. He’s a relatively new camper, and it was really rewarding to see how basic stuff like making a fire and cooking s’mores was so exciting to him. So exciting, in fact, that he decided to burn all our leftover marshmallows and empty beer bottles to see what would happen. We created a monster! Owen was in charge of the food for the weekend and he outdid himself: we feasted on hot dogs and sausages cooked over the fire for dinner and breakfast burritos the next morning with bacon, eggs, cheese, salsa, onions, and peppers. I think Owen was a backcountry chef in his former life.

I was grateful to see two other friends from high school this spring. Maureen’s visit was relatively short but we did sneak in a pretty gnarly trail run at Wunderlich County Park on a rainy Saturday morning. Kristen visited just last weekend and we gave her the grand tour of the Bay Area: the ocean, the mountains, and San Francisco. The highlight of the weekend was our trip to Pescadero State Beach. Kristen and I saw something/someone swimming in the marsh, and went back and forth about 10 times (it’s an animal! no, it’s a person snorkeling!) before we realized it was, in fact, an animal. Many animals actually. I’m still not sure if we were seeing sea lions or harbor seals, but we watched them swimming and playing for about an hour. 

Wish I could claim credit for building it, but we just found this fort on the beach

Seals? Sea lions? You tell me.

We saw more marine activity on our day trip to San Francisco, and this time I knew what they were: sea lions. They were actually kind of scary; they barked at each other and tried to push each other off the piers. Even scarier yet was our Uber ride across the city: we got dropped off at Lombard Street, known for its steep, hairpin turns. I should’ve been expecting steep streets on our way there, but nothing could prepare me for what we experienced. At several points I was certain we were going to roll right back down the way we came. Later that day we took a boat ride out to Alcatraz, Island, previously home to a federal prison, and actually had a very enjoyable afternoon taking an audio tour, enjoying views of the city, and browsing the gardens.  

View of SF from Alcatraz

One weekend, Owen and I spontaneously decided we wanted to go camping. Now, normally that wouldn’t be a problem. But in the Bay Area, if you want to sleep in the woods for a night you have to make that decision months in advance and reserve yourself a spot. I scoured the interweb and luckily found the one place in the Bay Area that was first-come, first-serve at Castle Rock State Park. Owen and I thrive on first-come, first-serve, and snagged a backcountry tent site with no problem. I spent the weekend photographing wildflowers, and Owen spent the weekend trying to push me ahead on the trail.

There is also that thing I do 40 hours a week…I can’t believe I’ve been with San Mateo County for over four months now. Last week I drove out to the coast for a field visit and spent the morning hiking in the hills and walking along the beach with my coworker and her dog. I really can’t complain. 

All in a day's work

Spring Shenanigans

You know it’s spring here in San Jose when all three sketchy icecream trucks are back in action! The weather the past several weeks has been pretty out of control, so Owen and I had to get creative with our travels. We finally explored a few places in the East Bay that had been on our bucket list.

One day we drove out to Mount Diablo, about two hours northeast of us. After the last intense stretch of white-knuckle driving, we finally made it to the top and could easily see the Bay and even some snow covered mountains. Apparently Mount Diablo has one of the largest viewsheds (the area of land you can see) in the Western United States. After getting battered by the wind at the summit, we headed to lower ground and did a short hike through rolling, green plains. Our picnic lunch was followed by one of the best outdoor naps I’ve ever had.

Can you tell it was windy? Owen's hair does not normally do that

Another day we planned to hike Mission Peak, near Owen’s office. I’d heard of people running to the top of it so I figured it wouldn’t be anything too intense. Ha! We went in the midst of the heavy rains the Bay Area got battered with, and had to battle a trail that was essentially one big mudslide. On top of that, we arrived at the trailhead starving and had brought just a single banana with us. When we finally made it to the summit, we were too exhausted and drenched to even eat the freakin banana. However, I’m a big believer in the motto “It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun” and this hike was the perfect example of that.

Just two drowned rats

It’s been awhile since Owen and I have been backpacking together, and that was clearly evidenced the first few miles of our trip at Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco.  We were practically running down the trail, we had so much energy. We arrived at our backpacking site early in the day so we explored the beaches, and, I’ll never forget this moment: I turned my head to look down the coast and in the distance saw a waterfall cascading directly on the beach!  We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking out to the waterfall. In our usual camping fashion, we turned in for bed around 7pm.

The rocks were dying the water crazy colors!

That night I heard a pack of coyotes howling and yelping. Immediately my stomach dropped when I thought of the food in our bear box… the bear box that didn’t close properly. They never came for it, but it turns out I had good reason to worry. The next morning, when I went to grab our food our oatmeal packets were shredded up and something had nibbled on a corner of our cheese block. I can only guess it was a mouse! Despite our lack of food that morning we made it out fine, though I was nursing wounds from my pack irritating my hips. That prompted me to bring my pack to REI to get it properly fitted. A man so old, if REI were named after a person this would have been him, worked his magic on the 50 different adjusting straps. Hoping this helps!

Our campsite by the beach

Now that the flooding has subsided and roads are starting to open up again, I’ve gone on a few pretty sweet trail runs. I’m ramping up for a 50K in July, and getting back into training has been rough at points. At Almaden Quicksilver Park, I made my usual mistake of letting myself get way too hungry and thirsty. But eventually a runner’s high kicked in and I enjoyed myself. Last weekend, at Henry Coe State Park, I was simply unprepared for the 1600 feet of elevation gain and by the end it was all I could do to stumble back to the car. Luckily a Shamrock Shake revived me later that day. So on that note, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Chasing vert (aka running hills) at Quicksilver