Camping Off The 299

Just as all available light is beginning to slowly disappear, I pull into one of those state owned, put money in the slot with site number on it, there's a host at the entrance type of camp sites. I didn't realize you could pay by check so I paid with a $10 bill and eight quarters (talk about desperate).  I look over at the host site and see a full on family sized army style tent my family used to have but I can barely remember. There is stuff sprawled all around, including a portable shower, lots of water jugs and a jeep at the edge but no sign of anyone around. It looks like the set of a movie, just put there to convince you someone is around but no one actually lives there. I take a quick look around and see 1 or 2 trailers in the distance, again, no sign of life in them either. I pick up literature warning me about bears, walk back to the car and check my cell phone, zero bars, I am officially off the map. Nobody knows where I am and I have no cell reception, in today's terms, I don't exist. Being half way through a 200 mile stretch of hilly, heavily forested highway, I don't know why I would expect to have reception.

I walk back to the car and before doing anything, open one of the big bottles of beers I got from Anderson Valley. I was looking forward to this beer, partially because I had never had it, partially because it had been a long day, and partially because I needed to calm my nerves. I quickly pitch the tent in complete darkness as there is no ambient light under the thick canopy of trees and lack of moon. When I finish pitching the tent, I throw all my things in it and finish my beer. I hear ruffling noises from behind the tent and quickly flash my mag light in the direction of the noise, darting it back and forth while mentally planning out what I would do if the sound were a bear, noting which car doors were open and which would have best access to the drivers seat as my bike was in the back. I still hadn't decided whether I would drive off into the night or just sit still and wait for it to leave, imagining a scene from a show like Family Matters where I wake up in the morning to the sun light and birds chirping with my flashlight clutched to my chest like a warriors axe, nothing disturbed outside or in. By the time I start thinking of whether I would be sober enough to actually drive (a big beer drank quickly on an empty stomach), I realize my day/night dreaming has gotten too far off track and I need to get back to reality. I realized a few minutes later that the noises I heard earlier were actually my thermarest inflating and moving against the sides of the tent. 

 I put the car lights on to illuminate the picnic table, crack open the second bottle of beer and start planning for dinner. As I rummage around for my cooking knife, a.k.a. my leatherman, I realize I don't have any way of starting my camping stove. I am annoyed but don't try to problem solve as I realize cooking means bugs, small animals, and possibly bears as well as dishes and trash to properly take care of. I can't leave anything out because of the bears and then the picture of my dad, shirtless, pretending to be a bear in front of the bear locker at Yosemite YEARS ago keeps popping into my head.

I decide to forget the whole thing, I tear into the package of baked, marinated tofu with my teeth and eat that along with some peanut butter pretzels my neighbor Karen had given me before I left. I sat down in the drivers seat and wrote in my journal and finished my beer. I hoped this extra time would help make me tired/drunk/worry less about the possibilities of bears or wandering axe murderers. I was also hoping the extra time would allow me to get all the beer out of my system and not have to get up in the middle of the night to pee. As I started to write in the journal, I see a light in my side mirror. For a minute I got a little scared but then realized that if a psycho killer with half a hockey mask, hunched back, and rusty axe were trying to kill me, he wouldn't carry a a flashlight (I need to stop watching movie trailers). After this realization, I stepped out the car to greet the host. He greeted me with a short "Howdy" as he wrote down my car's info and when I probed him a little with some questions, he stopped me dead in my tracks with 1 syllable answers. Looks like he got the perfect placement for campsites judging by his people skills.

A minute later, a car passed by the entrance and went to one of the trailers in the distance, that took some weight off my shoulders immediately. It's interesting at how much of an imagination I have of the worst case scenarios, especially considering I generally steer clear of horror movies. When I was younger, I could only watch Are You Afraid Of The Dark when they started showing it during the day.

As I was more comfortable and started to relax, I started to notice all of the stars I could see through the trees and decided to take some photos. Since it was my first night camping, I thought I would take some photos of me with my tent. I triggered the flash 4 time total. After the 2nd flash, I heard a grunt, though I did not think anything of it. After the 3rd flash, I think I heard someone say "STOP" though I didn't figure out what it was until the end when I processed everything. After the 4th picture (fortunately it was a good one), I hear someone yell "KNOCK IT OFF!!!!" After a short pause it was followed by a trailing off "Fucking city moron..."

Now it's been a while since I used my outdoorsman speak, but I am pretty sure that translates to: "Welcome!!!!" and "Have a nice night..."

SF to the 299 (2 days)

After a lazy Sunday of brunch with Halley, some packing, and some planning, I hit the road later in the day, passing through hwy 1 just north of SF as sun was setting and the moon was rising. I stopped by Russian River Brewery for dinner and some beer tasting before getting to my hotel in Anderson Valley.

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I woke up early and headed straight for the Anderson Valley Brewing Company brewery (one of my absolute favorites) to get into their first tour of the day. Fortunately, as it was a monday at 11AM, I got a personal tour from one of the head brewers, I couldn't have asked for a better experience because I got to pester him with questions and he spoke a little more candidly about some of the aspects of their business. At the end of the tour, I went for the obligatory tastings and tried a beer they're testing out called Limited Huge'r Boont, a blend of 60% IPA, 40% Porter, it was delicious, I hope they produce that. It had all the body and smooth finish of their Porter but the bouquet and citrus flavors of their IPA.

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After the brew tour, I headed west to the 1 and then up the coast. That section of hwy 1 has to be one of the most tiring drives I have done up to this point (and by this point, I mean 9/18/09, I'm in Montana on my way to Denver at this point), it was an incredible relief to get to the 101. When I got to Humbolt, I took the Avenue of the Giants detour which had a lot of interesting places to stop and walk among very old trees (redwoods I think). They have a marathon held there every year and if I was into running, that would definitely be one I would train for.

When I finally reached the 299, I started heading east to Redding, CA. The 299 drive has to be one of the most underrated drives in CA. It is a nice wide road in good condition that slowly sweeps through scenic views of old forests dotted with small towns and campgrounds along the way. As the sun started to go down, I decided I would camp for the night rather then continue to Redding and pay for a cheap hotel. I decided I would find a market to get food for dinner and then a campsite. I passed a camp site that looked somewhat alive with people and then found a market to get food. Rather than backtrack a couple miles to the campground I saw, I decided I would continue to Redding and not waste miles. I finally came across a state owned campground that had a few tents pitched but not one person around. I drove into the empty campground in the middle of nowhere, parked, paid, read the bear warnings and walked back to my car as the last minutes of light burned away faster than I could find my flash light, the full story another time.

San Francisco

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Got up and took Tommy to work and he suggested taking the 280 to SF due to less traffic and a more scenic drive, he was correct on both accounts. I drove straight into the Mission District and stopped by the bike shop ken works at and talked with him for a while before heading off to grab lunch, under his recommendation, at a taco truck called El Tonayense. The tacos were absolutely delicious and simple, just meat, salsa, cilantro, and onions. The Al Pastor and Carne Asada were the best tacos I have ever had. I then headed to Ritual Coffee (missing their coffee cuppings, which are held every Friday, by an hour, oh well). I brought my laptop and kept myself busy until Dee was finished doing her errands. I randomly saw Scottie at Ritual (I used to ride bikes with him back in SD).

The next couple days in SF broke down as follows:

Finally went to Tornado. It was not as divey as I was expecting from others' descriptions and the lights were on a little too bright (like in SD) but the beer selection DEFINITELY did not let me down. Atmosphere was a little more relaxed than SD just because it was beat up a bit more.

Street Food Festival. Dee and I walked there from her house (not a short trek) without eating anything for breakfast. At one point, Dee turns to me and says "Ok, I am starving, I am about to start getting pretty grumpy. Just to warn you." A couple blocks later we run into the taco truck and after hearing me rave about it yesterday, we decide to get one to hold us over until the festival. The festival was PACKED and we were starving so we picked the shortest line that sounded good, Salvadorian food. We didn't realize that there was a whole 2nd half to the festival (neither did most of the people there) that had shorter line and food that was just as good. Either way, the tropical fruit agua fresca was good and perfectly complimented the emenada and tomal perfectly.

Philz Coffee. Philz has entire menu for all of their different types of coffee, explaining the flavors and type of roast. Each cup is mad individually with a drip filter. The quality of coffee is as good as ritual but a lot less pretentious, it is much more of a neighborhood spot. I had the "Soooo Good" blend and that it was, soooo good.

Little Otsu. A really cool independently owned stationary and zine store. Really friendly people working and a really great selection of things. Great for little gifts for people.

15 Romolo. After meeting Sellan, Denise, Philip, and Jupei for Sellan's birthday dinner, we met up with some others for drinks at various places, my favorite being 15 Romolo. They served classic style cocktails with all natural ingredients. Really great stuff, my favorite drink was the Rio Grande.

The trip was surprisingly short for how much I love SF (love it more and more each time I visit) but I wanted to get on the road and see other things. Besides, I will be back in April anyway.

From Half Moon Bay To San Jose

 

Being that I was on the schedule of a HS teacher, I was up early and decided to head out to Half Moon Bay. The morning was relatively clear for being in the bay area and I headed out to sit at the cliffs above the beach and relax. As I watched the birds fly along the waves, I started to notice a small pod of dolphins not far off the coast. After wandering around the beach, I decided it was a perfect morning for a bike ride so I went and grabbed my bike out of the car for the 1st time on the trip. With the exception of the horse manure in certain sections, it was a very nice ride.

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After Half Moon Bay, I headed over to meet Lou for lunch and then grabbed some coffee at Red Rock Coffee while I waited for Tommy to finish work. Tommy works for a small tech company and for those who haven't experienced what a tech company atmosphere is like, let me run you through what it's like. When Tommy is done with work, I meet him at his office, the 3rd floor of a pretty basic office building in Mountain View. With the exception of some conference rooms and an office or two, everyone works in one big room, seperated into their own areas, or sharing that area with someone else (two desks pushed together). Hanging from the walls are silly sayings, or ongoing office games they have going on. As an outsider, if you didn't notice the handful of people sitting at their computers, you would swear no work is getting done. People are working together, interacting, and the mood is definitely light.

I walk into the server room where the servers take up about 1/20 of the space of the room, while there sit 2 nice Foosball tables in the center of the room. We play some games of foosball (I get my ass handed to me as the other guys had quite a bit of experience under their belt as they not only play a lot now, but also played a lot at their last tech jobs) while the techs run some diagnostics on the servers. Tommy and I head off to leave but before we do, he goes to pick up some food. They get food fully catered once or twice a week (before the recession, all lunches were outside of work and paid for by the company). On the counter of the kitchen area is a brand new espresso machine with instructions on how to make different espresso drinks (before the recession it was a tab at Red Rock picked up by the company for all employees). All-in-all, after my last job, it felt like a giant play ground for adults. From my understanding, this is pretty normal, and for bigger companies like google, it is to an MUCH larger extreme. If you don't believe me, ask Dee.

After picking up Tommy, we went back to San Jose where we hopped on our bikes (like we used to do back just about as long as I can remember) and rode and checked out the local rose gardens and met some exchange students in town for the summer to work and learn English. They were really friendly and interested in talking with us, though I am pretty sure they were most interested in Tommy due to his impressive hair. After the rose gardens, we ate and drank, then rode some more, then drank some more, then rode some more (being completely safe of course), and then drank some more. We went to a place called Trials Pub where they had 3 different beers on Cask that you could buy by the pitcher, it was phenomenal. It felt good to be back on the bike and it felt good to be doing what I used to do (before the accident). Felt like things were beginning to get back to normal, even with so many changes going on.