a smooth get away

The time is right for riding in the _____s. You picks your lines and you takes your chances. What with the warmth and the extra  evening hours, it's a bonanza. I got the boys' bicycles all dialed and lubed, and we went riding. Out to the New Stairs for some Brown Lunch...

 ...tofu dogs. J gathered miner's lettuce (Claytonia perfoliota) for a salad, as it is going ca-razy all over right now. While waiting on the nice, quiet twig fired Kelly Kettle to do it's work, we set up the hammock and did some lounging, and some tree climbing. Those fellas are agitating to bring the rope swang back out there, and that is prolly a good idea since it is getting frayed at the contact spot with the horse bridge and should be retired from that use. D says we shoulda brought the BB guns and he is correct.

After, it was a short pedal over to Rattlesnake to check under the board...




...and there were 2! The second is just up and to the left of the obvious snake. This board is far enough off the trail that they are seldom bothered by dilettantes; it is some singularly focused hasslers only. We employed the Snakecharmer 9000 to induce some tail wagging. You can feel the fat-bodied menace. After an exciting lunge or 3, the boys were very ready to get back to bikes.

This is training for life and happiness. We are thinking of big ideas, and one of them is the notion of camping out once a week. That is a idea with which we can roll.

a litigious clown who's lost his sense of humor

We used to do this all the time.

Now is the same only different. I hope to say that in the future.

Brief stop at the shrine to stock it with the left-over Templeton Rye. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this as a rye- it is far too sweet. But. It'll git you drunk. So, there is that.

I will avail myself of it another time. An afternoon on the trails with my 9 year old calls for a different type of fun...

 Like posting up at the New Stairs and heating up some lunch while the boy gets back to his roots.

 I have become so used to "cooking" with the Kelly Kettle that I just brought it, with no thought. How am I gonna heat the soup? With some carefully placed, closely monitored twigs. I spaced the soup pot up offa the chimney with these twigs. They'd catch fire, and I'd have to replace them, but it worked for a bit.

After the water boiled, we used it to blanch the spinach (in the can) and just stuck the soup pot right in the burning embers of the stove base to finish cooking.

Make it work.

the coelacanth!

You need to stop being a celocanth and start being a coelacanth. That's some free, unsolicited, and real advice for you.

 



Welcome 2013! My podnas and I ushered in the New Year with the 1st ride of 2013 Ord style, while the getting is good. As Suga Free breaks it down- if you stay ready you ain't got to get ready.

We closely examined "the Bee Tower".

Then we rolled over to the New Stairs for some Brown Lunch. It was J______'s idea. We haven't been doing that with any regularity in years. Time was, it was what this blog was about.

It was a real nice intro for all the Radness we have in store this year. Speaking of which, if you are in NorCal (bro) and you are also into Radness then you know about the Grasshopper Adventure Series. If you already didn't know, the 2013 schedule is posted...

Old Caz would be a (maybe) Good Time. OK, it will be a Good Time, it may or may not be a messy, cold, and rainy Good Time.

we go on as before

Caught up in catching up, there has been little written of local doings. There have been some.

 While hiking my fixed gear bicycle up this trail, I came across Trail Crew?!?! 2 gals and a guy, a 3' D handle, and a 4'ish cross-cut. They had even cleared that big hanger. One never knows how folks are gonna take a bike in the woods so I was vague, though effusive, in my thanks. Nice work, people.

 
 The boys and I took the long way to and from the store...

 J and I scavenged some more timber to start the backrest at the New Stairs. Brown Lunch and all. Later on in the ride, I told him the Legend of Comanche- the ghost horse who is out for revenge on children of the Central Coast. 

Another time I rode from home, did some trails, some road, rolled through Ord and then home. Then I did it again another other time, but included 50 and 49 and 82- all of which are perfectly tacky right now from all this grey Summer fog. Fasssst and grippy. Just fine for some 38c road tyres. I love that 2 wheeled drift pedal into the counter steer sandy turn.



And, also- enough with these tired Full Moon designations already. Can we get with the new new and bring it in closer to home? Yes, we can. Tomorrow is the Kick Ass Moon, and I will be rolling out underneath it after work. Whosoever wants to see if we can find some moonlight out there past the edge of the fog, should be prepared to roll from Cside around 6:45ish...

old macho/new macho

I am not complaining about the week of rain putting the stops to Spring Break 2012 and all that would have entailed; the camping and the creek cooled beers and the swimming and the rope swangin and the cliff jumping and the loafing and the grilling and the flaming paper airplane target practice. To say nothing of the quiet backcountry reached by bicycle.

I am thankful we are finally getting some portion of the refill that is well overdue.

I am going effing bananas sitting around indoors with my roommates' TV shows.


So when there was a break in the front today, my partner and meself went for the gusto. J______ suggested we have some Brown Lunch like we used to, and I assembled the necessaries; lentil soup, chopped kale, a couple sweet red peppers, a bagel, some pistachios, and apple sauce.


When we pulled up at the trailhead I realized I'd forgotten the stove, the fuel, the utensils, and the pot. J declined to turn around and drive home, saying "That's a waste of time." And he was correct, so we just rolled out figuring we could handle ourselves. It was a gentle loop around to the new Stairs.


There we cleared the (soaking wet from a week of rain) leaf litter in a 4' circle. Spanish moss stays dry under the canopy and catches fire like you'd expect. It's also hella smoky. It took constant fiddling and feeding to catch a twig fire given the conditions. I came very close to bagging it, esp. due to so much smoke, but I'm glad we kept at it. Eventually, our wee blaze was down to coals. Old hobos that we are, we put the soup can directly in the embers. We'd scoured the truck for useable items and turned up a couple take-out sporks. We were golden.

Time out for "cooking" allows other pursuits.


A conveniently located and emptied beer can works for braising kale.









Sweet red peppers and pistachios round out the meal. We split the soup into the empty pistachio bag and the soup can and it was good.


Checked out the hammock. A strap gave way immediately(of course?), and I hit the deck. It seems comfortable enough for lounging and napping. We'll bring it on the next overnight and test it further. After all, REI has the 100% satisfaction guarantee. If it doesn't fit the bill, I'm taking it back.

Anyhow.

Example:

It's true. The tower is full of swarming bees.


Somebody needs to do something about this.



My kids say that somebody is me.


We can't use a tower full of bees for kickass adventures, after all. Barring a successful convo with a beetrapper/keeper, I will be getting all covered up and sneaking up after dark to tape cardboard over the holes. I realize this is mass murder, and will attempt to avoid it, but I think the bottom line is them or us. I'm choosing us.

Who wants a piece of this? 20 feet in the air, after dark, facing potentially Africanized bees? What could possibly go wrong?



The goal of the day was adventure. Bicycles. New Stairs. Shady oaks. Brown Lunch.


My favorite one liner ever? "Hold my beer and watch this..."


Prior to firing up the Esbit for some doctored split-pea soup, I handed D my beer and shimmied up the oak until my ribs wouldn't allow anymore and tied up the pirate rope we been using at Arroyo Seco. It worked out well enough that this may be it's permanent home.




The rope swang was enough of a thrill ride, that the boys weren't bothered by waiting for the twig fueled cookout.









Then it was my turn.

Graceful!


J is riding SO well!



First ride for D on the new bike.

26" Rockhopper. I think it's over-the-top, he likes the flash. Whatever gets him stoked. Since I'm back in the shop, this is a good use of my resources. He needed a new bike. The 24" is just too small. He likes the paddle shifters. I like the disc brakes. It's too big (17.5"!), but he's got to use it for several years and he juuust fits it. I will shorten the stem and replace the bars with some swept backs; Mary or the like. Then he will be faster than you.


Hey Lord Hayden, we found your stash in the manzanita, and we tucked it up under the caprock where it'll keep cool.

This has been an example of how to trick your children into a longish bike ride.

taste the difference

Thinking about February Break. Yes. Yes, as opposed to Spring Break- which is a separate thing.

Considering rambling up and down the South Coast Ridge Road to see if it goes fun places. There's options and campsites. Figuring on leaving the truck at the Nacimiento Station and using it as a water/food/booze depot. No. It will not have anything valuable in it, so you can put that idea out of your head.


Tarp vs. tent...More and more I'm wanting less and less. I think I'll bring the tarp and play with some fancy "configurations" to get some super light shelter action.

Titanium woodburning stove?!! Well.







All this and more:


Training exercises.








Not to worry! Velocache #33 is still in situ, pussies. Though I had to hold these guys back. They wanted it, and felt it was theirs by right.








"Tips." Keep your chin chin and such. We roll straight outta Moab.


BAM! Esbit gets the job done.






The Caprock Bar is open. Serving whatever cheap canned beers happen to have been stashed there, plus byoHansen's Strawberry-Kiwi Soda for the under 21 crowd. OMG, those are deeeeelicious!



It gets chilly.


We forget spoons, but we don't forget our ingenuity.

Tips...here's to you and hoping some rides are happening to you.