Ground Hog Day

Feb 2nd.

And one of my favorites movies.

Today Cousin Charlie called me for a Windy Hill Flight. I don't remember how long ago I flew there, but the landing approach had me thinking that I was luckier than I was good back then.This time the glide from launch out to the trees was a little uncomfortable.I got up a little and the view was pretty. A few more weeks and the wildflowers will really be cracking.It was a short flight, but I was happy with the landing much easier than I remember, it was an easy day though. Thanks Charlie :)

Montara Peak

Standing above Devils slide and Half Moon Bay, Montara mountain is not that high at 1850 ft, but it is close by and bike friendly. I started my ride in the dark and cold damp fog in a grove of Eucaliptus trees, and it was a slog before I broke into the sunshine.The road up there in places is carved into granite, its neat looking. I think this used to make up part of the coast road 50+ years ago.
From the top you could see Sweeney ridge where we were the day before. San Bruno mountain behind it. What you cannot see is the millions of houses hidden in the fog. SF is top left.The fog was not quite washing into the Watershed lands.
Its very pretty back there, I hope I get to go soon.
The cairn up top.
On the way back down I found myself stopping frequently to try and capture a moment.
At the fog level the sun was starting to set and the lighting was fantastic.
The fog was very dynamic and I shot some video too, but it doesn't do the views justice. And I have not found a good way to import and edit yet, at least not on my 8 year old Dell laptop.It was right about here, the temperature dropped about 30 degrees.

Sweeney Hike

A few of us went for a nice Hike yesterday in the green rolling hills of Pacifica.Urs and his boys Urs and Nicko, (& Tukie the dog). We started from Skyline college with the rough idea of heading to Montara, but I was not certain of access, and steepness, so instead we did an out and return to see how far we could get.Trace with ACP Chris - finger banging his way through the wilderness.Crystel and Dirk came along too with Lana. There's Sheeba having a dog's life.The trail got a little less than welcoming at the far end... No Loitering ? Does that include a picnic or taking pictures ?So we looped back around and found some beer :) And some more nice scenery.
So here is a Google Earth view with the gps track. You can see the SF watershed lands south (ahead). One of these days I want to take a escorted tour of those grounds. Well I would prefer to just stroll around myself but that does not appear to be an option. By taking the tour I hope to find out why... Here is a handy map of the area.

More Kayaking in S.F.

On Saturday, after coming to the conclusion that the wind would indeed blow the wrong direction all day, It looked to be a perfect kayak day. With that we got a bit of a late start. But our buddy Van was able to join us for some fun. Alas Van needed a kayak and while City Kayak professed to open there was no-one around. We eventually got in the water at 2pm. My vague plan was to make it out to Crissy fields, the currents are quite strong there, but the tides would have been perfect an hour or two earlier. An extra bonus today was trying out my new GoPro camera and the mount I made for it. Always fun to have an extra toy around :)
Around about fishermans wharf we got hungery and pulled in there on a mission to find crab, well Van was anyway, he knew someone somewhere around there.
Or maybe it was the next Wharf along, passed the USS Pampantic submarine.
Going under the wharfs is quite surreal, a little bit like and underground maze by boat.
Amazingly Van did indeed find a whole lot of crab and it was yummy.
We surfed the tide back in to the dock near AT&T baseball park around dusk.
The current was ripping then, a very fun day, and warm for January.
And with the right tides and weather we can give this another go soon hopefully :)

Happy New 2011

As New Years Eve rolled on plans for getting down to Big Sur for the big celebrations started falling apart. Oh well better make the most of what is left. With a break in the clouds, Tracey and I took a quick ride around the San Francisco headlands.To ring in the New Year we headed down to the beach and watch some fireworks. New Years day it was pretty damp, so we picked a asphalt trail the runs down the San Andreas Reservoir (and Fault)
It was a good choice for a trail, fairly quiet at the top end. Quite green this time of year.
Today we explored some coast I've driven past many times but never stopped. Very pretty beaches.
Sheeba had surgery 6 weeks ago and is almost fully recovered and so was able to come out to the beach too.
She was having a blast. maybe a bit too much fun, what with those waves being 12 feet or more.
From the beach we headed up Montara mountain. Looks like a fun mountain bike trail, I'll have to come back when its clearer.
Back down to whale cove, another pretty beach just south of Devils Slide, an area of Hiway 1 that is constantly slipping into the Ocean.
I believe the bypass tunnel has been scheduled to open a few times, not open yet though.
Sheeba is already throwing some shapes, with her newly healed legs. Lucky B###ch ;) Happy New Year one and all, and good luck to all my buddies competing down under Forbes this year. I'll be watching :)

Happy Christmas Eve

A little desperate for some Christmas air, here we are at Mt Tam in a SSE wind, it was blowing 28 according to my 6030. It was easy and fun for about 12 minutes. Thats S.F. off my right wing tip.

Then cloudbase dropped 800ft or so and staying up got a little more challenging. Thats Chris about to launch from "A" launch.
A beautiful spot none the less in some different conditions, eaking out about 38 mins.

At Home

The weather has turned and I've found myself indoors a bunch. After 5 summers in a row I am kinda ready for some downtime... (I think?)

I recently dug my old bed out of storage since our current bed is soft and unsupportive, and now sold on Craiglist. I like working with wood so sorry if this a little on the dull side ;)

Its mostly made from 4"x4" Local Redwood. with 1"x1" pine, for the slat supprts. And cheap 3/4" x4" bendy pine slats. I totally over engineered but it came out looking nice :) The new mattress is part memory foam and some other support foam, no springs. I like it.