The Last Few Leisure Days...

Hello Blog Readers!

Emily and I have been busy busy busy the last few month or so.  I haven't written about anything since we were in Bishop!  Here's a little taste of what we've been up to.  I find it a bit ironic that here we are "taking a break" yet having such a full Itinerary!  All said and done it's been great living each day with my wife, our friends and family, getting closer, and experiencing new and different days each and every day.  Enjoy!

12/16 Sky Camp Take One.  We finally left Sacramento after 3 weeks of truck fixing enjoyment (it drives well however the thermostat is not doing it’s job quite right) and gracious understanding hospitality from our now better friends Dee and Ron.  We arrived at Point Reyes National Seashore just after dark, picked up our backcountry permits, ate dinner and hiked off into the dark foggy forest to find our campsite.  This hike starts with a mountain lion habitat warning sign and then enters thickly forested, mossy woods.  The fog makes for a 20 foot or less visibility by our headlamps.  It’s hot and wet hiking up hill.  A number of times we find that just beyond the trail there are one or more sets of reflective eyes staring us down.  Most likely deer we speculate and continue hiking… We make camp, stick our food in the food locker and go directly to bed. 

12/17 Sky Camp Take Two.  After last nights seeming epic hike Em is hesitant to inform me upon waking up that she is enjoying some lovely conjunctivitis.  We decide to hike back to the ranger station and ask about medical services.  The hike down is much different in the daytime and without the fog.  We enjoy beautiful forest and views of near distant beaches as well as our first slug sighting as we hike out. Luckily Point Reyes Station (A really nice little town) is about 5 miles away and has a clinic.  We take the truck there make an appointment, read the newspaper, have some coffee and make arrangements for a thermostat transplant in the truck.  One prescription, a bike shuttle and a few hours later we’re back on the trail to Sky Camp.  This take is a keeper.

 

12/18 Wildcat Camp.  The hike from Sky Camp to Wild Cat Camp is about 8 miles mostly through thick forest.  We were tired from the events of the last two days and excited to get to our camp and rest.  Upon arriving at Wild Cat Camp we were greeted by 7 or so extremely habituated deer grazing in our site (it could be argued that it was also and primarily their site).  Tired as we were, we could not resist the draw of a walk on the sandy beach that stretched south about 100 yards from our campsite.  Instead of resting we enthusiastically explored the seaside for another two miles there and back and were rewarded with a spectacular waterfall!  Back at camp we made Soleil backcountry culinary history with our first ever, CAMP STOVE PIZZA!  Fresh baked bread, pepper jack and sauce… God bless the fry bake!  12/18/09 was an excellent day. 

12/19 Coast Camp.  Unfortunately when backpacking in national parks, users are required to preregister and pay for campsites in advance.  This means that when you have a long day hiking to an amazing beach campsite and are tired and want to have a rest day… Nope.  Bad news.  You signed up for another campsite for the next night 8 miles up the coast…  Good news.  It’s a beautiful hike alone soaring cliffs by the seaside.  We reluctantly enjoyed ourselves as we delightfully dragged along.  It was as if we were in the mood for a bagel and were presented with a banquet!

12/20 Pt. Reyes Campground (See Showers Blog).  Unfortunately/fortunately again we are scheduled to leave before we feel ready.  A morning walk down the beach and some tide pool exploration before hiking up and out back to civilized life.  As we hiked out, our three-day sunny streak was broken by rain, fog, clouds and wind.  The sunny open woods transformed once again into a verdant fog enveloped rainforest.  20 slug sightings later we arrived at the ranger station.  Emily browsed the museum as I rode my bike through the rain to Point Reyes Station in my boots shorts and raincoat to a presumably re-fixed truck.  Indeed it was fixed.  I picked Em up and we found a campground with some showers.  Made dinner in the rain and slept in a very leaky truck…

12/21 The Day We Decided to Drive More.  We made a quick visit to Bolinas, CA to see what it was all about, visit to the library and a short walk on the beach before deciding to be in Portland OR for Christmas.  Begin Driving.  We took California 1 from Stinson Beach, CA to Stillwater Cove Regional Park, CA.  This would be an excellent highway to film a high-speed car chase on twisty cliff lined roads high above the sea.  Toonces look out! 

12/22 Driving.   Stillwater Cove Regional Park, CA to Trinidad, CA. Mostly burning fossil fuel between stops at various health food stores.  The 1 next to the coast is amazing.  The 1 through the mountains from Hardy to Leggett is sickening.  We passed a sign that had a car and squiggles and stated this would last the next 22 miles.  We spent what seemed like the next 2 hours in third gear experiencing a road that was most likely designed and built based on instruction from a bowl of spaghetti.  We ended the day in a private campground in Trinidad sleeping on a blanket of needles, surrounded by evergreens towering around us. 

12/23 Driving. Trinidad, CA to Portland, OR.  We made our way up the coast, and through the redwood forest, stopping at various points of interest mostly beaches with fun looking rocks to climb and then B lined it to Portland, OR on the interstate thoroughly sick of being in the car.  We met up with my brother Chris at his job site, a house in the middle of a remodel.  We set up in the street out side and did some dueling camp stoves pasta for dinner.  That night we slept in Portland, in the back of the truck, parked on a side street next to the highway.  This was the most emotionally uncomfortable I had been thus far on our trip so far. 

12/24 Twas the night before… VEGAN DONUTS!  We woke up in the morning and quickly left our curbside campsite.  We enjoyed some fine animal free pastries and blogged a bit.  We ran errands and headed out to the coast again to camp next to the beach.  We made sushi on our camp stoves, enjoyed a campfire and took moonlit walk on the beach.  We had a relaxing, quiet Christmas Eve in the tsunami hazard zone.

12/25 Take Your Shirt off!  It’s Christmas!  We hiked with brother Chris at Cape Lookout State Park.  Shirts off in the sun!  This was about a 4 mile round trip hike that took us 2 miles out into the ocean.  Whale watching is a popular pass time of this elevated, craggy, peninsula, most everyone we saw had binoculars, but no one had seen any.  Chris and I climbed down the cliffs to where the ocean meets the land found a massive sea cave that extended into the dark under the Island.  Then we drove up the coast to watch the sun set at Short Sands, one of Chris’s favorite surf spots.

12/26 Saddle Mountain and a Long Awaited Rest.  Saddle Mountain is located up 7 miles of twisty mountain road and two miles up a steep, erosion protected, guard railed fenced trail.  The trail up goes through thick forest and blow downs to exposed cliff sides with amazing views of the Pacific Ocean, Colombia River, Mt. Rainer, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and much of northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington.  We returned to Portland to house sit at one of Chris’ friend’s apartments.  Showers! 

12/27 Bowling, Beer and Burritos.  We did other stuff but I’m not telling.  It’s nice to take a rest day.

12/28 Waterfall Bonus Bonanza Day!  Chris, Emily and I went up into the Colombia river gorge and went on some short day hikes to check out some waterfalls.  The combination of flowing and falling water mixed with the recent inch or so of snow, forming icicles and neon green moss on black volcanic cliffs made for a magnificent scene of whites, greens, blacks and grays.  We made it a short day.  Upon our return Chris helped me weatherproof the truck to the rain.  New weather stripping and calk for the camper shell. 

12/29 Big plans get slimmed down by bad weather or A rare weather event and the Snow Man Extravaganza!  Instead of going on an epic hike in the rain/snow/wind/fog Chris and I spent the day doing city stuff while Em met up with a friend downtown.  Map, book and outdoor gear stores.  Powell’s books, in Portland is excellent.  It’s like Barns and Noble meets used bookshop, meets library of congress.  Chris and I had a slack line session that ended when it started snowing.  We went downtown to meet up with Emily and stopped by Voodoo Donuts on the East side where Chris and I played what seemed like endless games of Super Chexx (bubble hockey) on a seemingly malfunctioning game machine for only a dollar. 

When we returned to the house for the night Emily took up some painting and Chris and I went out to enjoy the snow.  We built snowmen that ranged from 2 feet tall to 15 feet long (dead snow man on it’s side).  We threw snowballs with other like-minded folks and enjoyed feeling like kids for a while.

12/30 The Revenge of a Day on the Town.  I went to Powell’s with Em, looked at some more books.  We did some computing to determine our finances.  We’ll be starting our pledge drive in January… We enjoyed a last night in Portland with Chris shooting some pool and attending a screening of “Zombieland”.  I really like that most of the things we did in town in Portland could be reached by bicycle or foot.  

12/31 Driving the “We want to get there now way”.  We drove from Portland south on Interstate 5 through the rain until we arrived in warmer dryer weather in central California.  We spent New Years Eve sleeping in our truck at a highway rest stop.  Yet another atypical holiday for the Soleils. 

1/01 Arriving ASAP in OC.  We woke up made some coffee and cereal and jumped back in the truck.  Highlights include garlic pistachios from a roadside farm stand, driving past lush orange groves adjunct to dry desert farm plots, and getting there!  We arrived at our friend Tammy’s place around 9PM after a solid 2 days of internal combustion.  The girls talked late into the night catching up and reminiscing about days of old.  Me and I settled into our latest temporary home on the floor of the living room next to the fake Christmas tree.  It was good to be at our next base camp so to speak. 

1/02 Begin Vegan tour de O.C. Irvine Farmers Market, Avocado Cilantro Humus, watch some surfers on the beach and Dinner at the Wheel of Life vegan Thai restaurant.  High of 75 Low 52.  According to my lovely wife, this is what winter is supposed to be.  Whild I don’t necessarily agree, I certainly don’t mind.

1/03 Writing day 1. Tammy and Emily go shopping, Kevin writes and reflects, and Kevin and Emily go for a date night.  Dinner at AuLac, vegan Asian food once again.  Excellent!  We took a walk on the beach and saw a movie  “Broken Embraces”.  It was really great to pretend that we had a “normal” life for the night and enjoy the warm weather. 

1/04 Getting down to business/ the options are endless…  I took an administrative day working on applying to NOLS, revising my resume, registered for a Wilderness First Responder Course, reading job postings and contemplating whether or not to attend an advanced canyoneering course.  Going back to work sounds fun…

1/05 Tammy’s Day off… Swimming in the Ocean!  Balboa Beach Climbing on the Rocks!  Pirates Cove, Corona Del Mar*.  Watching on the TV Screen!  Cloudy with a chance of Meat Balls. Dancing to the Music!  Heat Ultra Lounge.  Eating all the Food!  Hodori in L.A. (Significantly better than sardines).  Driving all the Freeways!  405, 110, 91, *Kevin and Emily Only.

1/06 Writing Day. I sat on my butt ALL DAY recovering from staying out until 5AM last night and wrote this blog.  Hope you enjoyed it.