Once In A Blue Moon Hike

Friday: (07/31) I Palo Alto at 1545 to head south for this night hike. The hike was to start at 1845 but the early departure wasn’t in vain. Traffic was terrible even with my expert avoidance of clogged freeways. I stopped for dinner in Morgan Hill at a Jack In The Box, got gas and headed up the mountain to the trailhead at Henry Coe State Park Headquarters. The hike was a little delayed in starting but we ended up with all 23 signed up hikers. Effectively, we hiked out and down then back up and back. Dave, our hike leader, is a docent at the park and lead us on another great night hike. The park tends to be really hot during the day but quite nice at night, especially under a full moon. We hiked 8.23 miles with a 1417 feet elevation change and overall 2725 foot climb. We finished up around 2330 and I was in bed before 0100, earlier than I expected. next Blue Moon isn’t until January 1st, 2018 so I have time to rest up before that next hike.

Here is the link to my GPS track: http://my.viewranger.com/track/details/MTg4MDUwOA== .

 
We started with daylight. Henry Coe State Park has some steep trails.

 
We bunch up at any trail junction like above. On the right is the blue moon peeking over the mountain top.

Sonoma County Fair

 
Thursday: (07/30) We had leftovers for breakfast. Dawn and I headed off to Best  Buy to look at phones when they opened at 1000.  I discovered they couldn’t get the 128GB model I wanted o we went home. I checked online. It is available online but only for a new 2 year plan. I called support and thay said the store could order it and I could get it there. I returned to Best Buy but they couldn’t get without a 10-14 day wait. SO I looked at other phones. I ended up not getting the Samsung like I had planned and got the LG-G4. Similar or better specs except for processor speed and it’s available right away rather that a week or more delay for them to get the 128GB model I had wanted. In either case they are much larger phones. Dawn was undecided so she will get one another time. We had intended to head up to the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa but didn’t get on the road until way after 1500. Traffic was very bad heading up with the early commute. We didn’t get to the fair until after 1700. A nice fair with all the stuff we like crafts, animals and the like. We had a late dinner at Sharie’s Restaurant before driving home. I was up late playing with my phone and loading apps.

 
Nice crafts to see and a carnival to avoid.

Friday: (07/31) Lou and I had an appointment in the morning and stopped for a late shared breakfast at the Country Inn in Cupertino. Nice to be able to share since Dawn wasn’t there to share. I might be more svelte if I shared more often. I did some more hike preparation setting up a table to load resupply boxes. I really needed a nap but never got one. Too many little things to do.Lou and Dawn visited Best Buy looking at phones. They decided that the Samsung is better for her. They were advised that in a few weeks Samsung will release newer models so the one she wants may be cheaper. She’ll wait. We’re so indecisive. A good thing their salespeople are not on commission. Dinner.Dinner at Jack in the box. I sampled their buttery mushroom burger, as seen on TV. It was pretty good. I made a night hike tonight.

Wrapping Up

Tuesday: (07/28) Peach blintzes for breakfast. Lou and Dawn were out at their exercise class  in the morning. I did a few tasks outside. I installed a pipe to the arbor to raise a tiedown line to the shade on the patio. I got tired of having to duck down. I tested one of Lou’s scooter battery paks and found it to have a shorted battery so i ordered replacement batteries. I also pruned the tomato plant and watered the yard. Lou dropped me off at Kaiser for an eye exam while she and Dawn did some shopping. Then we stopped by Costco for a look at a chair Lou is considering. For lunch we visited LUU Noodle House. After lunch I stopped by REI and bought another pair of hiking shoes. Their only good for 500 miles and mine are over well 300 miles now. I’m not sure if I’ll start with the new pair of wait and have them sent to me on the trail. Then we stopped at Best Buy to look and phones and talk about replacing ours. Then it was time to pick up Dawns new glasses. In the afternoon I worked cleaning up the last of the items and lumber left outside the shop. Some to garbage, some stuffed into storage. Now I just have to store away the metal stock I want to keep.

 
Above left the orange shade is higher now. On the right is the patio. It actually looks inviting but not on a hot day like today.

Much nicer under the arbor.

Wednesday: (07/29) Lou and Dawn were off to exercise class. I fixed a breakfast sandwich and spent the morning filing and other inside activities.  I then loaded up a bunch of stuff from the shop and delivered it to Goodwill. I also did a second trip to Goodwill with our old living room coffee table and rug. They weren’t up to Goodwill standards so they continue to sit out front with a “Free” sign on them. I picked up som dim sum for lunch. After lunch we all went to Best Buy to get new phones. That task didn’t work out because I forgot my phone at home. They were also too busy. We returned home for dinner of Lou’s mushroom soup and then took Dawn to a meeting. We were supposed to use the jeep so we could stop by Costco on the way home to get a new chair Lou wants. We had to hurry home and swap cars and were able to return and get the chair before they closed. Then we stopped by best Buy and got Lou her new phone. They had a nice simple “Dumb” phone like she wanted. I’ll return with Dawn tomorrow to get ours.

Sanborn Park Loop Hike

Monday: (07/27) Breakfast at L&L Hawaiian, as usual. I drove out to the park and met my fellow hikers. We did a quick 5.1 mile hike up to the top of the mountain and back down. We managed to beat the heat on this day that is forecast to be in the 90′s. Sanborn Park has some steep trails. We hiked 5.08 miles with a 1616 feet elevation change and 2363 feet climb. Nice stretch.

 
A nice pond by the old Hostel. Sanborn trails are steep so we stop to rest occasionally.

 
Another pond at the end of our hike and a group photo of the hikers.

On the way home I stopped for Chinese lunch at the Lucky Bistro. I reluctantly helped Lou repair the cooler. I usually just relax after a hike. The water line to the cooler was clogged. It’s just a 1/4 inch tube to a float valve. I found the valve had an obstruction. I had to grind off a riveted pin to disassemble the valve and clear a solid plug from it.  I was able to reassemble it and secure the pin with a couple of tywraps and it works now. Not be over confident and it getting near closing time on this really hot afternoon, I dispatched Lou to the hardware store to buy a new float valve. It’s now in the spare parts bin for the cooler. Lou made salads for dinner.

PCT Plan Update

Sunday: (07/26) Popcorn for breakfast. I spent much of the day updating my hike plan to start at Dunsmuir, California (MM 1507) and hike up to or at least toward Cascade Locks, Oregon (MM 2155). I bought my Amtrak ticket to get me up to Dunsmuir. Dawn made a cucumber soup for lunch. Now to prepare resupply boxes to match the plan. I also spent some time adding entries to my PostHoler.com blog of this 2015 PCT hike: http://postholer.com/donwood.

Here is an interactive map of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Mid Summer Days

Saturday: (07/25) Lou prepared a nice bacon, eggs and potatoes breakfast this morning. Lou and Dawn were busy with an Estate Sale this morning. I was tinkering with the computer. Chili for dinner.

Pescadero County Park Long Loop Hike

Friday: (07/24) The usual hikers English muffin breakfast sandwich with a maple bar started my day. Jessica came over and we were picked up by Heidi for a carpool to the Tarwater Trailhead at Pescadero Park which is about 15 miles South of Palo Alto up and over the mountain via Page Mill Road. We had 11 hikers for our hike. I enjoyed a wonderful hike with a fast bunch of hikers. Great weather and scenery. We had lunch by a creek in the Jones Gulch Area. Judy and Neil had a treat for us when we returned to our cars, cold oranges and drinks which were much appreciated. It was a 10.78 mile hike with an elevation change of 739 feet and an overall climb of 2719 feet in 5 hours 9 minutes. Here is the GPS Track: http://my.viewranger.com/track/details/MTg1MjkwNw==. Leftovers for dinner. I relaxed the rest of the day. My right thigh was painful for most of the hike and continues now. I know it is only because I decided to try to return to the Pacific Crest Trail hike next week at Dunsmuir. My body usually tries to make me reconsider things like long hikes.

 
All the hikers on a bridge over Jones Gulch. On right Jessica demonstrates that the black stuff in the creek is tar.

 
The grandfather tree on left above, one of the creek crossings on the right.

Two trees near the start of the trail that have merged into one.

All About Beacons

Wednesday: (07/22) Lou and Dawn made more peach blintzes for breakfast. I headed off to San Jose on the bus and trolley to a meeting at our local transit agency. They are developing a system of beacons at stations and on vehicles that will be used to provide information to customers. The are sponsoring a hackathon to develop applications to use the beacons. I am at least interested enough in the project to learn more about the beacons. I worked for the agency for 20 years 20 years ago. It was interesting to see the old admin offices. They still look the same. After the meeting, I stopped by the test site at the Great Mall Transit Station. They I devolved into a shopping trip in the mall. I had some Cajun food for a late lunch. I caught the train back to Mountain View and met Lou for a ride home. Sausage and cake for dinner. In the evening I was tinkering on the computer.

Thursday: (07/23) We were busy with appointments today. Lunch was at the Hokkaido Buffet on Saratoga at Stevens Creek in San Jose.

Less Humid Now

Tuesday: (07/21) Weather back to normal. The hurricane passed by, way out in the Pacific fortunately, and the humidity is more normal. I slept through the little shaker we had early this morning, a 4 earthquake. I probably would have noticed if I was awake. Lou and Dawn were off to exercise class so I was busy watering the yard this morning. I then added a bunch of photos to this blog for the past couple of weeks. Now I’m off to San Jose to do a little job. On the way I grabbed lunch from the Dim Sum King. I stopped at the house in San Jose, removed the old plywood cover from the sump and tried the new one I had made. It fit perfectly. Quite unusual. I also installed a couple of fence post caps on the new posts I installed when I installed th sidewalk a few months ago.  All done in 15 minutes and on my way home. On the way back I stopped at the Grocery outlet to pick up a few things that I didn’t find at our store in Palo Alto. That’s the way it is with surplus stores. Leftover zucchini and sausage for dinner.

 
Lots of stuff to go through in the yard.

 
I got it down to just these two piles

 
Of course, now the shop is fuller but I still have lots of floor space now. On the right is the San Jose pump basin cover.

Windy Hill Hike, Hopefully

Monday: (07/20) This was a hot humid day, unusual for here when I woke up. It didn’t get much better. I had the usual breakfast from L&L. Jessica picked me up and we met our fellow hikers at Windy Hill Open Space Preserve. We hiked up Razorback Ridge Trail, along the the skyline on the Lost trail. This hike was led by Jonathan but was a variation of a hike I lead. After enjoying lunch Jonathan led most of the hikers out on to an exposed ridge to hike down the mountain. Jessica, Rich, Barbara and I took my usual shaded route down. It could have been a race but i botched it up. I left my hiking pole at the lunch spot and had to hike back a quarter mile to get it. My fellow hikers waited for me so we lost the race by a couple of minutes. Nice hike but we all did work up a good sweat.

Even with the cooler on, it was still 76 degrees inside. The humidity makes our evaporative cooler less effective. We all relaxed inside the rest of the day. Leftovers for lunch. Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner.

My vivid hiking shoes and and gators waiting for the morning hike..

Out Of The Rain

Saturday: (07/18) Leftovers for breakfast. Lou was under the weather so we didn’t do our Saturday shopping run. I worked in the shop installing a hanging shelf on the wall I just added the paneling to. I made it high enough to roll all the stuff that’s been blocking things up. Welding tanks, scooters, etc. Hopefully some floor space will remain now. I disassembled the Shopsmith and stored it on the shelf. Some day when i have more room I’ll get to use it. Dinner from LUU Noodle House. The weather has been quite warm and humid and we might have rain tomorrow so I hope to get the rest of the stuff out of the yard and back in the shop or disposed of by tomorrow afternoon.

 
The new shelf frame is ready for the shelf.

Sunday: (07/19) I disassembled the jig saw and the radial saw and added them to the shelf and move other stuff inside. I managed to clear all the stuff from the yard. Just a few things left to find homes for and a little organizing left inside. The weather was more humid and hotter than yesterday.  Dawn made creamed of corm cereal for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch. Zucchini onions and sausage for dinner.

 
Shelf all full and yard almost back to normal. The shop hasn’t been this clean or organized since it was built.

Portola SP Peters Creek Grove Hike

Friday: (07/17) The usual trail breakfast from L&L. Heidi met me at my place and we stopped to pick up Jessica and headed off to Portola State Park for our hike. Fortunately the 86 degree weather forecast was changed to a high of 78 and we enjoyed a nice hike.

 
I wish we would have spent more time in the grove. Next time, a much longer lunch here.

 
Lots of poison oak on the pretty trails.

 
A nice tree base by Peters Creek and pretty orchids here and there

 
My fellow hikers, brave enough to join me on this wonderful hike. More of the orchids.

Master Painter

Tuesday: (07/14) Granola for breakfast. I spent the morning tinkering on the computer. Lou and Dawn had an exercise class in the morning then headed to Santa Cruz for the day. After a nice tuna and cheese sandwich, I finally got to work. I watered the yard since today is one of our two allowed days to water. I also trouble shot why Lou’s scooter battery isn’t charged after being on the charger. I ordered a new charger as the first response since the voltage on the battery doesn’t increase when connected to the charger. After some weeding I finally couldn’t procrastinate any longer. I unloaded the panels from the roof of the Jeep. Five OSB panels were placed on 2×4′s and painted with primer. The four siding panels will come later. I ran out of primer so I did have to make a run to OSH for more primer. On the way home I stopped at Los Altos Taqueria for a nice chili relleno enchilada dinner. Before it got dark, I painted another coat of primer on the panels. The day started out overcast then turned sunny.

Wednesday: (07/15) I was busy putting a coat of paint on the reverse side of the panels before breakfast. Lou and Dawn made fresh peach blintzes for breakfast. Then it was time for a second coat of paint. With the painting complete, I relaxed indoors tinkering on the computer until the shadow returns to the back yard. Lou made  stir fried vegetables and tofu for lunch. About 1330 I returned to work adding furring strips and backing for the new panels in the shop. BBQ ribs and baked potato with picked onions for dinner.

Thursday: (07/16) I was busy installing the wall panels. I also had finished the furring for the second wall and installed those panels. I managed to cut one small piece of paneling too small twice. Fortunately the third time was a charm. After my hike tomorrow, I should be able to start clearing the yard of all the stuff I found in the shop. I had leftover Chinese stir fried vegetables for breakfast. Lou and Dawn were off to the ire exercise class. Lou made bacon, eggs and hash browned potatoes for lunch. Chicken potato salad for dinner.

 
Ready for the Tyvek and paneling

 
All the shop contents in the yard. The other wall nearing completion.

 
Tyvek cover and paneled.

El Corta Madera OSP Hike

Monday: (07/13) Breakfast from L&L Hawaiian as usual. I drove North to meet at El Corta Madera OSP for the hike. We piled into a couple of cars and drove to the other side of the preserve to start our hike. Eight hikers in all, 7.3 miles loop route, 1050 elevation change, 2995 feet overall climb. The hike is upside down hike to the bottom of the mountain then back up. It was a bit warm, enough so that a couple of the fellow hikers that had signed up for my Friday 13 mile hike decided to not go on Friday since it’s longer and is supposed to be warmer. It was actually cold when we started in dripping fog but had gotten quite warm along hr trails. After the hike four of us stopped at Alice’s Restaurant for a real lunch. I had a root beer float followed with a BLTAC (Bacon lettuce tomato avocado and cheese) sandwich. When i got down off the mountain after lunch i stopped at Home Depot and loaded up a bunch of OSB panels and siding panels for my shop and walls for the shower room. I then returned to a cheap gas station i had passed by to get some gas for $3.15 which is 10-35 cents cheaper than any of its neighboring stations and about 80 cents cheaper than our neighbor hood station. I finally got home after 1730. I really didn’t need dinner but did snack on a few things while Lou and Dawn had lamb chops and mashed potatoes for their dinner.

Shop and Shop

Saturday: (07/11) The usual grocery shopping run to start. I got breakfast at the Walmart McDonald’s Lou just gets a coffee and eats real food later. I made a run to the Hazardous Waste station to get rid of some nasty chemicals and such. I was busy in the shop later. We had sausage and baked beans for lunch. In the afternoon we made a hardware store shopping run. Lou was looking for casters for her air hockey table and i was looking for panels to improve some of the shop walls. I’ll be returning to Lowe’s for the panels later. A nice nap filled my afternoon. Chicken with mashed potatoes and a green salad for dinner.

Sunday: (07/12) Tomorrow is Ernie’s birthday but I’m busy in the morning and we wanted to take him to breakfast so we decided to do it today. We all went up to Jack’s in San Mateo and had great breakfasts. I was dropped off at Best Buy in San Carlos after breakfast and looked in to upgrading our phones. I also looked around the Home Depot then caught the bus home. Lou and Dawn visited thrift stores on their way home. Leftovers for lunch. Not much else accomplished today. I did work on some photos getting ready to post some here. Dawn went to her story telling meeting and Lou and I went to LUU Noodle house for dinner.

Four OSP Hike

Friday: (07/10) Rain last night. I led a hike through Four Open Spce Preserves. Seventeen hikers hiked through Russian Ridge OSP, then through Coal Creek OSP, on through Monte Bello OSP and finaly through Skyline OSP returning to our start. a 7.5 mile hike. After a shower and lunch I did some work in the shop making a cover for the sump pump basin in San Jose. It’s just had a temporary plywood cover since I installed the sump earlier this year. The new cover is redwood 2×6 boards bound together with metal straps. A little more difficult making this cover thna the one for ur sump because I only made a 1 3/4 inch depression for the cover and don’t have room for any cross boards to attach the boards so I cut a rabbet slot to sink the metal bands. After it was all assembled today, I cut a bevel edge arounfd the cover. Hopefully it fits now. Breakfast from L&L, the usual maple bar and English muffin breakfast sandwich. A tuna and cheese sandwich for lunch. Leftover lentil soup for dinner.

 
Nice scenery along the trails.

 
Above left, Tom really looked forward to gettingto play his whistle in the tunnel. Our wonderful hikers on the right.

Shop Cleanup

Wednesday: (07/08) I was busy building a shelf above the hardware chest of drawers. I used some angle iron and screwed it together with self drilling screws then cut plywood shelves for it. It is intended for more 17 liter plastic tubs to store more hardware, painting supplies, rope and cords, etc. I’ll have room for eight more tubs.

Thursday: (07/09) I made a trip to the Target store for the plastic tubs. I was busy in the shop organizing today. I also got the saw out and cut some boards for a sump basin cover for San Jose. I setup the dado blades and made rabbet cuts for groves for some metal straps to bind the cover boards together. Evidently i havent yet made dado cuts with this table saw. I had to install a sacrificial fence board and find my dado blades. Good thing I cleaned up the shop and knew where the blades were. Lou and Dawn were off to appointments.
Granola for breakfast. Leftover BBQ ribs for lunch. Lentil Soup for dinner.

 
Mount Donald with Lou’s California Golden poppies.

 
Berries and mint trimmed from the garden on the left above. On the right is our giant killer tomato plant.

 
Above left is the  shower pump. On the right isleftovers after cleaning out the shelf area of my shop. Hopefully most of these remnants go somewhere else.

 
The new sump basin cover on the left and Lou’s artichoke flower on the right.