Del Valle park.

It's summer and hot east side San Jose. Last weekend we joined the millions going to the beach, it took 2 solid hours to go 55 miles, which is typical, but no less gruelling. This weekend we tried something different, and headed to Del Valle park, just south of Livermoore. Just less than an hour away.

It's a fresh water lake, about 5 miles long, but the water is pumped in from yosemite, so there is water in it, in fact it is still mostly full at this time. Also unlike many lakes in California you can actually swim in it legally. There are beaches and such, it is quite pleasant. Consequences to the environment? It seems bizarre to pump water from a drought where crops are withering to a recreational lake. You can count on the politics, that's for sure.

We took a quick look around at the facilities.

Set up camp and Maddy fell asleep for her nap. This dictates the schedule quite a bit these days.

While she was doing that we took off on the kayak, that passed the mandatory mussel inspection.

About half way up the lake, there are some rocks that look like they would be fun to jump from.

We stopped and played around there for a while, cooling off.

Nice to be out on the water - it's been a while.

Burney creek falls

On the way home from Lakeview we stopped at Burney creek falls state park. Being summer and extreme drought expectations of a voluminous cascade were low, but the falls are spring fed, a mighty spring at that!

The falls were spectacular, and the mist in the canyon was refreshing.

We did a short walk around the falls and picturesque creek.

We soaked up the greenery since there is precious little in the bay area, unless you count the over watered manicured lawns.

After a dip in the lake we continued the long drive home.

lakeview umpteenth free flight festival

This year I was able to get a room at the Hunters hot springs resort, and take the whole family to the july 4th umpteenth free flight festival.

Here we are at Sugar launch, starting point for the famous "Sugar Dash", where one flys back to town as quickly as possible. This year there were problems with the land owner down below launch. This is very unfortunate as without a good landing option the dash contest is dubious.

Unaware of the drama going down in the bailout, I flew back to town, going as quick as I could, but the day was a little soft, and I was slow, I was happy to glide into the Landing zone, where the beer and hot tub awaited :)

Chris came in to goal a little later, as the sky darkened.

He joined us in the mineral spring for a soak. Oh yeah, that takes the aches away.

The next day we flew from Black Cap to avoid potential land owner issues.

We flew north to Aberts rim, where there was a thunderstorm getting going, turned west into the 12 mph wind, and made our way to Paisely (just short) but into this beautiful pasture Gerry picked out. All in all a great three days flying. And fabulous sunsets to boot. The BBQ at the Lakeview Locker was great too!

more JD grant hiking

We tried out the backpack for Maddy today. We got a little carried away with the hike (this has happened before), usually Heidi keeps me in check, but she'd had a redbull ;)

So on we went to the top of the ridge at 3000ft, Maddy seemed peretty happy with the pack. 

It ended up being a 7 1/2 mile hike. Certainly felt like more ;) And even though the camp ground is full we rarely see more than 3 or 5 people out hiking the trails, Which kinda great for us but a sad reflection at the same time.

McClure Howl 2015

Had a pretty fun time at McClure, getting away is a challenge these days.

Both days were booming, Saturday I got away from the fishbowl to the southwest, mostly west to start with, then south, then south east, the long way round :) I've landed at Mariposa airport a couple times before so I know its friendly and easy to find. Now I know there also a bar just around the corner! Thanks Wayne for the pickup, my original retrieve plan was not well planned. 

Tall stories were told around the campfire :) Good times.

Flying Napa

It is for a few years that I have been looking forward to flying here. Mount St Helena is an impressive mountain in a very pretty area.

The launch is in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park which is worth a visit in itself. Getting a hang glider transported to the launch spot has taken the sonoma wings club many years of negotiation. It's pretty cool they put on an open invite fly-in once a year there.

I was lucky enough to get to fly as there are limited quotas to launch on a given day. 

While the conditions were not spectacular, the scenery was.

Our Hostess even lets us camp there, which made for a fun party.

As part of the fly-in there were a couple of low key competitions, highest altitude, longest duration and spot landing. I wasn't even in the running for the first two, but I had a good spot :)  

Maddy and Heidi enjoyed the trampolene.

And the mexican fiesta (being cinco de mayo)

The party went on into the night way longer than I could, but alas I had carelessly consumed a good amount of onions, which took their revenge on me for the next 14 hours. Fortunately Heidi and Maddy took off home and missed it.

Sea Otter Classic 2015

Somehow I left Texas without doing one of their famous mountain bike races. It's taken me this long to get into another race. I did this same race back in 2001, But it has changed quite a bit, maybe 10x the number of people for a start. I heard 35000 people was the estimate. Just getting there and registered, and to the start line on time was probably more intense than the actual race ;) They say it's the biggest bike event worldwide.

I entered the same cat3 class but in the 40-42 age range, I think I was 27 yrs last time! I had a pretty good race, but spent a fair amount of time waiting to pass. Considering the number of racers on course all going different speeds it wasn't so bad. The course was a little under 20 miles and 2700ft elevation gain. It is a pretty cool feeling to start and finish on the famous Laguna Seca raceway. 

11th in the end (in my age group) I was pretty happy with my time. Maybe again in 14 years ?

Easter

Mom went for an Easter bike while Maddy and I hiked around the park. We found some Lupine to frolick in. I thought the field was plenty big enough but Maddy decided she needed more space.

I didn't see that coming! Not that there was anything bad on the other side of the fence, but she went through faster than I could, and with a head start ! Rest of the hike was nice. Pretty in the spring.

The grass will probably only be green for another two weeks, and that is with Tuesdays' forecasted snow.

This canyon is much prettier in real life. Guess I didn't quite get the angle right. But I'm keeping it anyway.

Got a nice flight in a Marina Saturday. - Well kinda, I was rough and scary towards the end of the flight. But the pictures cam out nice regardless ;)