Biking Monterey to Santa Cruz
My son is, now almost 18, is of the age of serious girlfriends. The problem is that his girlfriend is going to school in Santa Cruz and he lives with us in the foothills. There is no
airport in Santa Cruz so we hatched a plan that I could fly him to Watsonville and then he could bike the rest of the way. I was a little disappointing to learn that Watsonville really isn’t far from Santa Cruz, so we modified the plan to fly to Monterey, and he would bike from there.
The clouds were right there at the edge of the Marina airport so I did an instrument approach. It was clear by the time I left. Ney-J said the biking was very nice, with either bike path or wide shoulders the entire way.
Birthday Hike up Mt. Whitney
Betsy turned 50 and as a present to herself wanted to hike Mt. Whitney alone. She’s already done it numerous times and various ways (main trail, mountaineer’s route and east face), but always with someone. So why did she want to hike it alone? She really enjoys hiking at her own pace, which is fast, and she wanted to just get out there alone and hike it at her pace and see what happens.
What happens is that she does it really fast and is up at the top at 8:45 am and down just past 1:00 pm. Wow. No afternoon thunderstorm danger on that hike!
So she could do this in one weekend I flew her down and drove her up to the trailhead at 4:00 am Sunday morning. It was a little bit of a bummer for me to get up for a nice early alpine start but not actually do anything. But I did get to do a nice bike ride with my son later in the day.
Surprise at Virginia Lakes
Every year my wife Betsy takes a hiking trip with a group of women in the Yosemite backcountry. They drive the 4 or 5 hours down highway 395 and usually stay in a different lodge or tent-cabins each year to base their hiking out of. This year they stayed at Virginia Lakes, which is up a road off 395 into a high valley about 9,500 feet.
I told my wife I would take a bike ride when she was away, but I didn’t tell her my exact plans. I flew to Lee Vining, then got on my bike and rode up to Virginia lakes. I knew the group was off hiking in Lyle canyon, so I left a note on her cabin door, “Hi Sweetie, I hope you had a nice hike – Your Secret Admirer”. She knows me and it wasn’t much of a mystery to her, but the other women were taken off guard and wondered who left it and how they got there. Betsy has a bit of a reputation for being adventuresome, so when one of them heard it was me, she commented, “Geesh, you guys are meant for each other”. Yeah, I guess we are.
Markleeville Road Biking
For road bikers Markleeville is most famous for the Markleeville Death Ride and many bikers go there to do one or two sections of the death ride (for example Monitor or Ebbets pass). However there is some great biking right from the airport that isn’t so tough. For example, a great medium length ride would be to do a loop from the airport on Airport Rd to Diamond Valley Road, Highway 89 back to Airport Rd. Another fine ride would be to ride to Grover’s hot springs and back.
I flew there one afternoon to do Ebbet’s pass. What a beautiful area. I got a little cold near the top and realized when I saw the frozen lake that it was pretty high in altitude.
I have to admit I did cheat here on the photo of the bear. I saw that a month ago in the same area, but with my wife and dogs on a hike off Poor Boy Rd. We drove there.
Hood River Biking
My son is a camp counselor at a ski camp at Mt. Hood and I enjoy helping him get up and back from that area. Last year I took the opportunity to climb and ski Mt. Hood and this year I took my road bike and mountain bike for some riding.
It is a spectacular place to ride, both trail and road. Really, some of the best of both. I did the famous Surveyors Ridge ride on my mountain bike with great views of Mt. Hood most of the way. I stopped to work on my pedal and a colorful little bird came and sat near me. Very nice.
I did two road rides, one from Hood River up to Parkdale, and another on the old Columbia river highway to The Dalles and back to Hood River. One section is so good its ridiculous. It is closed to cars and is a freshly paved road open to bikes and pedestrians. Since it is as wide as a road there is no problem with the pedestrians. It sits above the Columbia river with stunning views and even goes through two old tunnels.
My son told me about the Ice Caves near Mt. Adams, so I spent some time there with my camera. Its a lava tube cave, and as snow melts above from the sun it seeps into the cave and freezes. Although the best ice is in the spring, supposedly there is ice there all summer in the deeper recesses.
I always enjoy those lens shaped clouds known as Lenticular clouds, and it makes me think about the wind that creates them. The big ones like these also make me thankful that I’m enjoying them from the ground and not from the air.
These were taken in the Spring of 2011 from near Placerville looking east towards the Crystal Range of the Sierra Nevada.




















































