More Fun At The Homestead

Tuesday: (05/06) Mostly relaxed today. Lunch at Chili’s Restaurant. Quesadillas for me, fajitas for Lou and Dawn. Lou mad lasagna for dinner.

Wednesday: (05/07) I made spam hash and eggs for breakfast which we enjoyed in the backyard. There were a few blackberries to sample from the vines. I did a little pruning of the arbor. if left to it’s natural desires, it would turn into a huge green ball with no entry to the inside. We al took a “walk” to the nearby Grocery Outlet market. Lou got to roll with us. Lunch was crackers and cheese. I spent much of the afternoon trying to connect Dawn’s braille printer to her computer. Success eventually happened. I also washed my trail clothes. Even though they had all been rinsed fairly well previously at teh motel, the ash water was black. I’m not sure i left much dirt on the trail? Spinach lasagna for dinner

Thursday: (05/08) I spent much of the day watching the City tree crew trimming all the trees on our street. I also prepared all the pictures for the blog and uploaded them to each post. I still need to integrate them into the post text. Leftover spam hash and eggs for breakfast. Lunch at  LUU Noodle House. Misc leftovers for dinner.

Friday: (05/09) A Jack In The Box Loaded breakfast Sandwich started my day. A couple of my fellow hikers met at my place to carpool to our hike this morning. We met the 29 other hikers at the Castle Rock State park trail head. We did a six mile loop hike that took us by the waterfall. Our hike started in the fog and after some sprinkles of rain but the sky cleared shortly for some nice views of the mountains and ocean along the trail. A nice hike finishing about 1300. For lunch I made a couple of English muffin ham and cheese sandwiches. While I was gone today, the city’s tree crew had removed three big trees from the street and ground out the stumps. I missed all the fun! For dinner we had tostados.  I finished integrating the hike photos into the blog posts for the hike tonight.

 Saturday: (05/10) Laundry day. Lou and Dawn were busy taking a couple of baby birds that were found by the tree crews to the bird rescue folks. One of the three, a woodpecker that appeared to be the most likely to survive, died just before they took the others away.  Breakfast at A Good Morning Restaurant. Lasagna for lunch. Pasta for dinner.

Sunday: (05/11) I tinkered with the drip watering system adding some emitters in the garden for new plants and adjusting other emitters around the yard that weren’t working right. In the afternoon Lou, Dawn and i took a walk on the Stanford campus visiting the cactus garden and the Rodin and Papua sculpture gardens. Eggs, ham and cheese on toast for breakfast. Salads for lunch, LUU Noodle House for dinner. Lou baked an apple pie.

 Monday: (05/12) Lou got her things together for tomorrow.  I tinkered on the computer much of the day. Apple pie for breakfast. KFC for lunch. Lou got her favorite dinner, prime rib a Carrow’s restaurant.

Tuesday: (05/13) A relaxing morning. Around 1000 we took Lou to her appointment. Dawn and I then went to breakfast/lunch at the Country Inn. Dawn visited a couple of book stores while I visited REI to swap my replacement hiking shoes for a size larger. That’s two sizes larger than my actual shoe size. Hopefully my toes appreciate the room. I did do an upgrade from my subdued color shoes to bright orange. Now if I fall off a cliff, if my feet are up, I’ll be located easily. I also stopped by the house in San Jose to pickup some paint to redo Lou’s entrance step that has some water damage. I also stopped by Central Computer for some cables and a new computer keyboard. Lou decided to spend the night so Dawn and I stopped by Aqui’s restaurant for dinner.

Wednesday: (05/14) This was a record hot day today, mid 90′s. The CPM machine finally arrived at noon. We picked up Lou and came home about 1330. Otherwise a relaxing day. Biscuits and honey for breakfast. More leftovers for lunch. Pesto gnocchi for dinner. 

Thursday: (05/15) Lou had an appointment this morning. While at the hospital, I gave a little of my precious blood for a test as well. In the afternoon I did a quick shopping trip to Sprout’s market. Otherwise, a relaxing day for me and exercise for Lou. Cottage cheese and berries from our vines for breakfast. Green salads for lunch. I added a grilled English muffin ham and cheese sandwich to mine. For dinner we had spaghetti squash with chicken for dinner. i got a quick trip out to Sprout’s market for a few things.

Friday: (05/16) Another relaxing day for me and exercise for Lou. Strawberries and cottage cheese for breakfast. Roast chicken with chips and humus for lunch. Tofu vegetables and quinoa for dinner.

Saturday: (05/17) I accomplished nothing today, so it was a nice day. Lou was busy with exercises. Dawn was off to Richmond for a story telling conference. Oatmeal for breakfast. Fresh black berries from our vines for a snack. Chips, cheese, humus ans salsa for lunch. Roast chicken with quinoa and vegetables for dinner.

Sunday: (05/18) The end of another week. Today’s high was 71 degrees, quite a difference from last Wednesday’s record high. I dashed off early to do a little grocery shopping at Walmart and Sprout’s. I picked up my breakfast at Jack In the Box. Yogurt for Lou. Tuna and cheese sandwich for lunch for me, chicken for Lou. In the afternoon I took the car out to be washed. For dinner I made pork chops in Spanish rice.

Monday: (05/19) Lou had an appointment at noon. I made sausage, home fried potatoes and eggs for breakfast. Lunch was chicken from KFC, Dawn made lentil and ham soup for dinner.

Tuesday: (05/20) I had to rebuild the front entrance platform step. Some of the plywood had become delaminated. I had to shorten the step about five inches . Smaller will still be good. I also tinkered on the computer. We also order a new TV for Dawn from Walmart online which we should receive by Friday. I picked a nice bunch of berries and Lou and Dawn had leftover French toast and berries for breakfast. I had leftover sausage and potatoes for mine. For lunch I picked up a couple of chopped salads fro our local Corner Bakery restaurant. In the morning I started some beef in the slow cooker which became beef stroganoff on baked potatoes for dinner.

Wednesday: (05/21) I put a coat of paint on the front step platform that I rebuilt. Lou had an appointment at noon. I worked in the yard in the afternoon which included finishing another coat of paint on the step platform. In the evening i worked on setting up a new webserver to test web applications on. Breakfast was leftovers. Lunch and dinner were from LUU noodle House.

Thursday: (05/22) I took Dawn to an appointment in San Jose. We stopped for breakfast at La Victoria Restaurant in downtown SJ. I really like their breakfast burritos and their famous orange sauce. Lunch and dinner were leftovers. On the way home from SJ I stopped and did some final looking around for a new laptop for Lou and decided on an Asus windows 8 touch screen laptop. It cost less than $400 with tax and case. Lou’s old laptop was just too slow and I decided a new one would make her happier than just reinitializing her old one which had a bad wireless radio and was maybe 10 years old.  She will hopefully adjust to the new ways of Windows 8.

Friday: (05/23) A hard morning of TV watching. Lou had an appointment in the afternoon. We were looking for Dawn’s new TV to arrive but it didn’t until just after we left for Lou’s appointment. In the evening i set it up to test but will have to wait to do the final setup until i can mak a stand for it and run a cable to it’s new home. Corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch. Green salad for dinner.

Saturday: (05/24) The usual Saturday shopping trip but I did it solo today. Leftovers for breakfast and lunch. Mac and cheese for dinner.

Sunday: (05/25) Ernie fired up his BBQ and we grilled a bunch of stuff. he filled his freezer. I did some pork and some dogs. I also started working on building new doors for the greenhouse. The old ones aren’t the right size and we need to seal it a bit more to keep critters out of it. The old doors were solid, the new will be 1/2 wire. In winter I’ll add plastic over the wire. I made a good breakfast of potatoes, sausage and eggs. Lunch was BBQ hotdogs and potato salad ala Dawn. Leftovers for dinner.

Monday: (05/26) Memorial Day. Thanks to all who served! I finished building the new door frames. I need to get some cold galvanizing spray to refinish at the welds and then add the wire. Cereal and yogurt for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch. KFC for dinner.

Tuesday: (05/27) Lou had an appointment in the afternoon. Cereal and yogurt for breakfast. Chicken with baked potato for lunch. leftovers for dinner.

Wednesday: (05/28) Lou had an appointment in the morning. I visited Harbor Freight and Orchard hardware while I waited. I picked up some cold galvanizing spray and a wire brush and finished the greenhouse door frames when I got home.  Corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. LUU noodle house’s chow fun and pad Thai with egg rolls for lunch. Pesto gnocchi with a four bean green salad for dinner.

Thursday: (05/29) and Friday: (05/30) So exciting I forgot what we did.

Saturday: (05/31) I did the Saturday morning grocery shopping. I spent much of the rest of the day atthe computer workign on websites. I’m having some dificulty moving this site to a new host so there may be some periods of outage for this website. Dawn and Courtney were busy with a game of minature golf. Donuts for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch. Chili beans, steak, and rice for dinner.

Sunday: (6/01) Dawn and I were busy cleaning the house. Fried eggs with chili beans and hashbrowns for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch.

The Road Home

Monday: (05/05) We “enjoyed” the motel breakfast and hit the road to Big Bear City. Arriving at the Post Office in Big Bear City just after they opened at 0900, I picked up my bounce bucket and resupply box. Both, hopefully will be useful later. We then headed off down the hill through Lucerne valley and up to Tehachapi where we stopped at the Apple Shed for lunch. They have changed some since we last were there. The dining room is bigger and the gift shop smaller. They also added a salad and soup bar which we enjoyed for lunch. Off again and we stopped at the Harris Ranch Restaurant on Interstate Highway 5 near Coalinga for dinner. We eventually arrive in Palo Alto a little after 1900. Long drive, nice to be home, miss the trail though.

Photos?

While I was waiting for my ride home I uploaded the photos from my camera. It’s all the photos taken, not the selected best.  I’ll label and integrate them into the blog posts later.

PCT Hike Photos

Day 16, Down To Palm Springs, Mile 207

Saturday: (05/03) On the trail at 0620. My night was comfortable even though I slept next to a snow patch. I never heard it snore. It probably heard me. I had some trail mix for breakfast. Another 2+ miles down hill, on a much nicer trail than yesterday, brought me back to the main Pacific Crest Trail at mile 186.6.


About 0830 I stopped for a second breakfast. When I was at Idyllwild I stopped in a natural foods store for some electrolytes and they gave me a package of trail mix. Best I’ve had. Sprouted almonds, cashews, and pistachio nuts with dried mulberries and goji berries.. Made a nice breakfast. At 1030, about 1.5 miles after I exited the wilderness, I stopped for my lunch. Odd timing? I was hungry. My stove was nice enough to work so I had mashed potatoes with cheese and some jerky. As it turns out, that was it for dining until midnight, except for a little trail mix. Today was a long 22 mile hike down the mountain with some pretty good climbs as well. I still haven’t figured out why the trails go up so much to get down a mountain.  Elevation wise, I came down 8000 feet today. When I was exposed enough at one of my rest stops, I called Lou. She is going to have surgery on her knee later this week or next so I decided to exit the trail here and head home. There have been lots of flowers along the trail like above right.


The hike has been rather plentiful with snakes but I didn’t stumble onto one on the trail myself until mile 199, above left. A nice rattler. I eventually convinced it to move off the trail. Above right is the mile 200 marker about 3/4 of the way down the mountain.

I arrived at the bottom in a tiny residential area called Snow Creek about 2000. The last 30 minutes were hiking with my headlamp.  I stopped by a street sign with two street names and a house address so a taxi could find me. I reserved a room and then had an interesting time getting a taxi to come out of town so far to pick me up. Third time was the charm. I was dropped off at my motel at 2320. Actually, it was the motel that didn’t have a room, for me. For some reason I had the driver bring me there rather than the one that did have a room. Weekends are busy. Fortunately my motel was just a half mile down the road. On the walk there I stopped for dinner at Carrow’s Restaurant. Good thing too since they closed at midnight. I think the crews were already out rolling up the sidewalks here in Banning. I checked in to the motel and then reserved a room for tomorrow as well. Brother Ernie is picking me up. We’ll have to spend the night so I can stop in Big Bear City at the Post Office to get my resupply box and bounce bucket.


Even though it was late I did my wash and then took a bath. The mountain must be a little shorter since I came down with so much dirt. My feet really didn’t give me much trouble but I did get a few blisters and bruised several toenails. Looks bad but really no pain. 22 miles today.

Day 15, Mt San Janciento, Mile 186.6

Friday: (05/02) Up at 0700. I went to breakfast at Jo-an’s restaurant. I was probably up too early because what I needed to do couldn’t be done until 0900. I finished restuffing my exploded backpack. I mailed off my bounce bucket to Big Bear City and my optional tent pole to home. My tent requires only one pole (side-side) for normal use. I bought the optional end-end pole which allows it to stand without tent stakes. I haven’t needed it, so off it went to reduce weight. I caught a ride from the Inn’s owner up to the trailhead at Humber Park.


It was about a 2.5 mile hike up the mountain from the trailhead to the Pacific Crest Trail and the North end of the closure.


I opted to take the alternate trail up to the Mt San Jaciento Peak. That was a tough trail section both because it was so much up and because the trail was way over grown and had so many loose large stones on the trail.


The last .3 mile was actually scrambling over boulders to the top, made even more interesting with my 60 pound backpack. Don’t get me wrong, it was worth it.


I arrived at the top around 1800 and enjoyed dinner with  a 360 degree view. Unfortunately, I arrived as the earlier clear air was hazing up reducing the view. I should have moved faster. I then hiked down the mountain about 2 miles to a campground, of sorts. Dispersed camping isn’t allowed in this wilderness. The hike up to the peak was 4.5-5K feet. My camp GPS location was 33.81372, -116.68812. I would have preferred to have camped below snow level but it was 1930 already. The snow is only patches. My dinner was not cooked at the top because my stove wouldn’t light. I swapped out my used gas canister for a new one that may be a dud? 10.5 Miles today.