Portola SP Up To Long Ridge OSP Hike

Friday: (05/22) Breakfast from L&L Hawaiian. Alex picked me up and we headed up the hill to the Grizzly Flat Trailhead at Long Ridge OSP. We met Jonathan and Colin there and carpooled down to Portola State Park to start our hike up the mountain. This was a one way hike up the mountain via Slate Creek Trail and Ward Road Trail.  It was about 8.7 miles. We started the hike about 1035 from the bottom and finished just before 1500. The weather was overcast almost all the way with just a couple of very short periods of sun. A nice hike. This is the same route i hiked last year as my inaugural backpacking hike but I was hiking the opposite direction on that hike. Leftovers for lunch. I then spent the afternoon working on re-installing the cooler in the wall it replaced the windows with. Hamburgers for dinner.


A nice view near the top of the gray sky over the mountains. On the right a magical forest much of the way up the hill.


I was at the back of our four person hiking expedition.

New Cabinets For Lou

Tuesday: (05/19) Off to pickup some salvaged kitchen cabinets this morning. I found them on a walk a few days ago. Lou confirmed they'ed be good for her craft room so we bought them. Lou's been busy cleaning the room out to make room for them. We dashed off to Uhaul to rent a trailer then stopped at A Good Morning Restaurant for breakfast. We picked up Ernie and headed off to Redwood City to the Habitat For Humanity Restore. All the cabinets were moved outside by the staff who didn't belief we'd be able to fit them all in the 6x12 trailer. No problem. We unloaded the trailer to the rear yard then moved some of the cabinets inside. After a lot of playing around and fitting we came up with the right combination for cabinets covering one entire wall. We also have enough cabinets to rebuild our pantry and then still have a couple of extra base cabinets. Leftovers for lunch. For dinner, Lou and I tried out a new place nearby. The have an unusual combination of food items. We had one of each type of taco they make and shared a peach black milk tea with honey boba. and a bottle of apple ale.

Wednesday: (05/20) Granola with a banana for breakfast. I got to work trimming the lower cabinets to have access to the outlets. Then i got to work removing the windows on the wall. I'm going to close the wall in which will behind the cabinets. Those windows have been covered by the predecessor shelves. One of the windows is where our cooler duct enters to house. Lou also had caulked the windows shut. The room is a sun room made with a two inch wall thickness from aluminum framing, panels and the windows. I finally got them out and cleaned up the area. Then I was off to get some paneling and lumber. Lunch at the China Wok. Getting old isn't fun. I used to be able to toss 4x8 panels with ease but now they aren't so easy. Either that or they make them heavier now. I spent the rest of the afternoon with the table saw cutting the 2x4 studs into the appropriate 2" width. I could only get one 2x2 from each 2x4 because they were really 2: wide leaving only 1 piece 1.5" as the remainder. I'll find a use for them sometime for a future project. I then cut groves into some to allow them to snap into place in the abandoned window frames. Ham with garlic mashed potatoes and corn on the cob for dinner.

All this work when I'm trying to get my balance back. This is always the problem with being home.

In the evening we watched Letterman's last show. He will be a loss. We wish him a great retirement!

Thursday: (05/21) We went to breakfast at A Good Morning Restaurant with Cecilia. Then I got to work on rebuilding the wall in the sun room for the new cabinets. Ernie was the other pair of hands needed to lift, hold and be on the other side of the wall as needed.  A couple of trips were needed for materials and tools but it is now a nice solid wall. Hamburgers for lunch. Dawn's buckwheat black olive pineapple pizza for dinner.


Windows out, wall going in.


And it's now a wall.

Huddart Park Hike

Monday: (05/18) Breakfast from L&L Hawaiian. A nice sausage, egg and cheese English muffin and a donut. This place has become a gem. We never cared for the Hawaiian food but it now has donuts, breakfast sandwiches, hamburgers and more and everything I've tried recently is good.   I then walked over to the house of fellow hiker Hemma to carpool to a hike at Huddart Park in Woodside. Rather nice to ride in a carpool and not be the hike leader as well. The hike was only 7.3 miles through some nice mixed redwood forest. In all these years of hiking the area, I've never hiked in this park before, even though it is fairly close to home.  Leftovers for lunch. Lou has been busy working the past few days cleaning out her hobby room so it can receive some new cabinets. Ernie and I helped move some of the old cabinets around  this afternoon so there is now room for the cabinets. Dawn made quesodilla for dinner.

Big Cleanup

Saturday: (05/16) The usual Saturday morning grocery run. I had a couple of breakfast wraps at the Walmart McDonalds then made corned beef hash and eggs later for a real breakfast. We had a wiener roast with the Hackmans for dinner by a nice campfire in the yard. Lou was busy cleaning out her hobby room. I was mostly busy relaxing all day.

Sunday: (05/17) Granola to start. More cleanup by Lou and Dawn. More relaxing by me. We did make a run to REI to get some sun shirts for Lou and Dawn.

 

Brook Trail Loop, Sam McDonald park

Friday: (05/15) Breakfast from Jack In The Box, a Loaded Breakfast Sandwich. That is my favorite pre-hike breakfast, big enough but not stuffy. I signed up to take a hike with the San Jose Mid-Week Hikers Group at Sam McDonald park in the mountains of Southern Sam Mateo County about 15 miles NW of home. Alex picked me up so I didn't have to drive dizzy. Actually, I had no problems with my knees nor head on the hike. It was nice to get out, probably the best medicine. We hiked the Brook Loop Trail doing 8.3 miles with 901 feet elevation change and 2339 feet of altitude gain. Little sun on the hike but no rain and the trails were not muddy. Spaghetti for lunch, Dawn's chicken soup for dinner.


Here I am caught thinking about something at a break on the hike. On the right our view from the top of the hill.


Some nice redwood forest and interesting plants.

A Good Rain

Thursday: (05/14) Dawn had an appointment in redwood City and Lou and I stopped by the habitat For Humanity Restore, a surplus building materials store in San Carlos. On yesterday's walk i spotted some salvage kitchen cabinets that would work in her craft room. We measured and considered and bought them. We have to pick them up before Wednesday now. Today rain was forecast so we didn't want to get them today. Tomorrow I have a hike so not then. We need to make room for them in her craft room so probably not Saturday. They are closed Sunday and Monday so it looks like Tuesday. In the afternoon. the rains came, enough to make thinks wet. We filled all my buckets for later use. Lou and Dawn were off to more appointments in San Jose today. i relaxed at home, filled buckets, and moved the sump hose around the yard to water things. I checked on renting a trailer. Granola for breakfast. Chinese fast food for me and Chipolte bowls for Lou and Dawn made lunch. Leftover corned beef hash and eggs for dinner.

Walk-about Testing My Knees

Wednesday: (05/13) I made corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. After breakfast I picked a pale of olallieberries. Then I watered the yard. We don't use the sprinkler systems nor the drip system anymore. Watering is more targeted and less often now. A little before noon i headed out for a city walk. I caught a VTA bus to downtown Palo Alto and walked University Avenue. Then I caught a Sam Trans bus to Redwood City and walked around downtown. On my way I noticed a tower crane being disassembled so I hung around way too long watching until they lowered the turret. More looking around brought me up to San Carlos where I visited the Habitat For Humanity Restore to see what used cabinets they had, then visits to Best Buy and REI. I walked back down to Redwood City to see how the crane dis-assembly went and the tower was already down. They worked much more quickly removing the tower than they did removing the turret. Oddly, each section of the tower is assembled with the same 16 bolts that the turret was attached with but it took nearly two hour to separate. Then I caught the bus back home arriving home a little after 2010. A long day mostly on my feet or walking about 6-10 miles and no complaints from my knees nor vertigo attacks. There is hope that I'll be able to do my hike this Friday. I had lunch at La Victoria Taqueria in Redwood City. Dinner at home of spaghetti and meatballs with a salad. For desert, those berries I picked this morning had morphed into a nice cobbler. Yum!