On our last day of our shortened vacation we planned to visit out last Mission, Saint Francisco de Asis, and return to Mission San Juan Bautista that was closed on the way up.
The Saint Francisco de Asis Mission, also known as Mission Dolores, is a beautiful Basilica. It took us a while to find a parking spot but we managed to find one a couple blocks away in this nice, residential area of San Francisco. It was strange. I mean, how appropriate that our last of the 21 missions was known as Mission Dolores? We toured the Mission and I took pictures. It was one of the better of the northern Missions. Pictures can be found here.
We left the city and headed south to Mission San Juan Bautista. This mission had been closed when we came up on day 1. We stopped to have lunch at JJ's Homemade Burgers. The burgers were pretty good. We walked up to the Mission and did the self guided tour. The Mission is really close to the San Andreas fault. Aa a matter of fact the fault runs along the edge of the cemetery on one side of the mission. The mission has sustained very little earthquake damage over the years. This may be explained by the very thick mission walls - 4 - 6 feet thick in places. Some of the pictures I took can be found here.
I decided not to go down on the 101 and instead took the 156/152 east to the 5. This stretch of road was beautiful with everything being green and the road lined with forested rolling hills. The 5, on the other hand, was totally boring. I was expecting new towns and new sights since I hadn't been on the 5 for twenty years. No. There are no towns on the 5. The nearest buildings could just barely be seen on the horizon. Boring. I decided I need to get past this stretch so I cranked the Honda up to 90 and put on some music. That helped a little bit and we made it home in record time.
The next few hours after getting home were occupied with unpacking, repacking, and talking with the "J" who was house-sitting for us. The next day would be an early morning with a flight to Minneapolis. The vacation was over.
Day three of our San Francisco vacation was dedicated to more Missions. We decide to stick as close to our original schedule as possible.
We got in our car and headed north. The first stop was going to be Mission San Rafael. To get there we would cross the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, for those who don't know, The Wife has a near phobic fear of bridges over water. The Golden Gate is a bridge ... over water. As we approach I could see the apprehension in the Wife's face. This was emphasized by her getting ready for the crossing by reaching for a plastic bag to hurl in. Yep, it's a chunk-blowing-inducing type of fear. I steered the car into the center-most lane figuring that the closer to the center of the bridge the better. That turned out to be the right decision. As we started crossing the bridge you couldn't see much over the side of the bridge and the Wife said "this isn't so bad" and commented about how pretty the bridge was. It is an attractive bridge. Before you know it we were off the bridge and I pulled into a viewing area so we could get pictures of the bridge. I am proud of the Wife. The bag went unused.
We arrived in San Rafael about an hour before Mass. We walked down to the nearby main street and looked for a place to get some breakfast. After entering and making a hasty retreat from a Starbucks (We both HATE Starbucks for some reason - neither of us drink coffee) we located an open cafe/deli. It was an interesting place. It looked like it was owned by a middle eastern gentleman and there was a large map of the middle east painted on one wall. I'm not exactly sure what it represented. It did not have any national borders marked and it didn't seem to correspond to modern day middle east. Several holy sites were marked - Mosques I assume. I thought it might be a map of the Ottoman Empire or the territories controlled by the Caliphate but neither of these maps seem to match what was on the wall.
After a pretty good breakfast of eggs, ham, hash browns, and toast, we returned to the church and attended Mass. After Mass we looked around a little bit but the store was closed and the actual Mission was occupied with Vietnamese and Brazilian Masses. The list of ethnic Masses is testament to the diversity of San Rafael's populace. We decided to move on to the next mission. A couple pictures of San Rafael can be found here.
Mission San Francisco Solano is in Sonoma. The directions I had were dead on. Unfortunately we did not follow them. We made four or five wrong turns before we decided to actually follow the directions. We toured the state run mission. The store was open here - government offices do not recognize Easter holiday - and I found a really cool old style California map t-shirt. I would have bought one if they had my size. *sigh* This mission was the end of the line. The end of the mission trail was marked with a plaque. It felt weird reaching he end. It was not the end for us as we had two more missions to visit after Solano. A couple pictures are here.
We thought about walking around the square near the mission. It was an attractive downtown and the Ben & Jerry's beckoned but we fought the urge and decided to try for Mission San Jose instead.
Returning to the car we pulled out a map and figured out our route to San Jose ("Do you know the way to San Jose" rang in our heads). The drive down was uneventful - i.e. only one wrong turn that was easily corrected. We arrived to find Mission San Jose closed ... of course. We were so fed up with closed missions that we decided that touching the outside of the Mission constituted officially visiting it. A couple pictures of the Mission are here.
We returned via the longer and less attractive Bay Bridge. The Wife didn't like it but managed it with little difficulty. I'm proud of her. We arrived at the Royal Pacific and the Wife suggested a small restaurant across the street - I think it was called Joe's. She walked down the street and confirmed it was open. We went up to our room, freshened up, and went back out and ... it was closed. *sigh* We decided to go back to the San Francisco Brewing company where we ate the day before and we had another good meal. Of course Joe's, or whatever it was called, was open when we returned to the Inn.
That's the end of day 3, our last full day in San Francisco. A lot of driving but not bad as everything was so green.
Day 2, after the frenzy of reservation making, unmaking, and rearranging, started in Santa Clara, CA. We had looked at our itinerary and, after a few calls to the Alcatraz and Angel Island tour people, decided it was impossible to reschedule these tours this trip. We would follow the original itinerary as close as possible and try to fit in all the Missions and a few of the easier side trips.
After a good breakfast at an IHOP down the way from our hotel, our first stop on day 2 was Mission Santa Clara. The Mission is located on the campus of Santa Clara University. The campus is very attractive and the gardens surrounding the Mission were in bloom. The Wife was amazed at the wisteria that clung to an arbor. We toured the church and I took pictures. There was no store near the Mission so we asked a student-looking fellow if he could direct us to the university bookstore. He gave us good directions but, unfortunately, the store was closed. No Santa Clara swag today. You would have thought that Easter weekend would be a great time to visit the Missions but you would be wrong. Three of the Seven that we visited on this trip were closed. A few pictures of the Mission can be found here.
We left the Mission and headed to the nearby Winchester Mystery House. After missing our turn a couple times and watching an Ambulance drive the wrong way on a busy street, we managed to get there. We bought our tickets for the Mansion tour. We had about an hour to kill before the tour started so we perused the overly commercial gift shop (most of the items in the shop had nothing to do with the Winchester House) and had a humongous M&M cookie. The cookie, about 10"-12" in diameter tasted really good but sat rather heavily on top of the breakfast we'd had earlier that morning.
I wandered around the gardens taking pictures until it was time to start. Our tour guide was an a young lady of college age who was versed in all the lame tour guide jokes about the house. She walked us through the 161 room house built by the widow of William Winchester of Winchester Rifle fame. After the untimely death of her husband and young daughter, she consulted a spiritualist who told her that they had been killed by the spirits of all those who had been killed by the Winchester Rifle. She too would die if she didn't do something quick. To appease the spirits she moved to Santa Clara and bought an unfinished farm house and began having work done on the house. She thought that if the house were ever finished she too would die. Thus began the building of the Winchester House, a house that was never finished and where the building continued 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. The construction often didn't make sense. There were doors on the third floor that open to open air. There were stairs that rose to the ceiling with not outlet. There were closets 1 inch deep. The passages and rooms became a maze. Some say the chaos was to confuse the spirits. Others believe that Mrs. Winchester was just a bad designer who didn't plan well.
The house, convoluted as it was, was very nice with expensive furnishings and Tiffany glass windows and chandeliers. For all the chaos on the inside, the outside is attractive and coherent.
We didn't see any ghosts or vengeful spirits during the 65 minute tour but it was interesting. Most of the inside pictures didn't come out very well due to the lack of light - I really need to get me a tripod - but the pictures I did take can be found here.
After the Winchester House we decided to try to do Mission San Jose on the way to San Francisco. I looked at my directions and I thought I had a good plan to get to the Mission. As we drove north I noticed a large body of water on our right - San Francisco Bay. It should not have been on the right. If anything, it should have been on the left. Oops. I should have turned onto 101S instead of 101N. We decided to skip the mission for now and headed into the city.
I just want to make clear right away that I do not like one way streets. They are a royal pain in the a$$. San Francisco is full of one way streets. I was kind of prepared for this but I was not prepared for all the No Left Turn signs. No Left Turns can be worse than one way streets. We ended up making five turns to make a simple left turn onto Broadway.
Our hotel, the Royal Pacific Motor Inn, is located on the corner of Chinatown and the red light district. We'd stayed there the last time we were in San Francisco and we knew what to expect. It's not the best hotel and the area feels pretty rough but when we go on vacation we aren't going for the hotel room. The room is just a place to sleep in between all the fun and interesting stuff. The Royal Pacific fits the bill nicely. The view from our room was pretty good with a clear shot of the Transamerica Building and the Bay Bridge.
OK, a question: why do four and five star hotels charge you for wireless internet access while the crappy hotels offer it for free? Doesn't make much sense to me. The Royal Pacific only had access in the lobby but it was free so I couldn't complain.
After we checked in, we headed out to one of the Wife's place's of interest: The City Lights Bookstore. The Wife is interested in the Beat Poets and City Lights was one of their hangouts. We'd been there before but the Wife needed another poster for her classroom. The bookstore is only a couple blocks from the hotel so it was a very easy stroll. We walked through the store which, the Wife and I agree, was full of giants. Everyone seemed to be over six feet tall. We bought the Wife's poster and we walked through the back alley, known as Jack Kerouac Alley, and read the poetry inset into the pavement, the murals painted on the wall, and the strange graffiti.
By this time we were both a little hungry so we started looking around for a place to eat. We ended up at the San Francisco Brewing Company, a nice old Brew Pub with a lot of history. While we ate dinner the Wife asked our enthusiastic server the best way to get to Mission San Francisco de Asis. The directions to the mission involved taking Market Street to Dolores St. When the server left, the mentioning of Dolores was too much for the Wife. A few tears flowed.
We finished our meal and asked our server if there was a convenience store where we could by some snacks. She gave us directions to a Walgreens not too far from our hotel. Actually she gave them to us twice. We didn't listen very well the first time (we were a little tired). The second time she actually pantomimed the walking and turning in such a way that even we could understand them.
We left the pub and started following the directions. We reached a corner where a right turn was called for. We looked down the street and couldn't see a Walgreens. We asked a guy who came from that direction and he said he hadn't seen it. Soooo, we took a left and walked a block or two before we gave up and walked back to the corner. This time we turned right like the server has said and less then a block later ... Walgreens. This would not be the last time we didn't follow directions on this vacation.
That night I scarfed down a bag of Twizzlers Pull-n-Peel (Cherry) which, added to the half of a giant cookie, probably didn't do me good. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like crap. I made it to the bathroom where I had to sit down since my legs were getting a little noodly and my stomach wasn't feeling so hot. I'd felt like this before when I'd had food poisoning. I was really afraid since food poisoning would knock me out for the next two to three days. I made it back in bed (The Wife slept through all this) and I slept through the rest of the night. I woke up feeling fine so I guess it wasn't food poisoning.
The Wife and I both drive Hondas. My keychain has two identical Honda keys. Awhile back I was looking for a way to differentiate the keys. The answer was given to me by Aunt Dee. On a visit she gave me a penny with a heart-shaped hole cut in it. I connected it to the ring with my car's key. Dee has guided me to the right key ever since.
When you marry, you not only gain a spouse but you gain the spouse's family as well. The Wife's family (the Family) are a wonderful lot - full of life, love, and the need to party like there's no tomorrow. I was welcomed into the Family with little hesitation and I have grown to love each and every one.
The brightest star of the Family was Aunt Dolores, Dee. Aunt, Grandma, Mom, Sister. What a wonderful person. If there was a beer-drinking-out-of-a-shoe reason to party, she was there. You knew when you received a letter or card from her as the envelope would be covered in shiny, colorful stickers, often having something to do with rainbows or unicorns. I picked out her birthday card this year. I chose one that said: "You are a human Sparkler. Yes you are." Yes, she was.
On Good Friday, the first day of Spring, Aunt Dee peacefully lost her battle with cancer. The wake was held on Tuesday and the funeral was Wednesday. The Wife and I flew in early Tuesday and joined the family that had gathered at Dee's home. Everyone was there. We went out to eat before attending the wake. After the wake the Wife and I joined the Matron of Honor (Dee's daughter), the Best man, the GodSon, and the Altar Boy and this wife. We talked about Dee, religion, politics, and all the other things we talk about when we get together. I usually sit back and just soak it in contributing little but appreciating a lot.
The next day was the funeral. The funeral mass was beautiful. Dee would've loved it. After the funeral we all went to Dee's home to celebrate the life of a wonderful soul.
The 36 hours from the wake to the gathering after the funeral were a roller coaster of emotions. There was unending reminiscing on Dee's life accompanied by raucous laughter ... followed by the free flow of tears. This all reached a crescendo after the family returned to Dee's home after the funeral. Jim Beam, referred to as "Arnold" in honor of Dee's father, was toasted over and over until most of the Family were toasted themselves. Old Family party traditions were continued - drinking beer out of someone's shoe (Aunt Dee's in this occasion), singing the Schnitzelbank, hiding empty beer cans and bottles all over her house (a tradition started after her surprise 75th Birthday party - she was finding them six months after the party), and telling Family stories. New traditions were started - Bailey's Irish Cream will forever be known as "Dee". Dee would've enjoyed the whole thing. I'm sure she was looking down on all of us and just laughing at it all. She will be missed.
Valentine's Day, 1931 - Good Friday, 1st Day of Spring, 2008
Day 2 started with an early morning phone call from The Wife's Dad. The Wife's aunt, Aunt D, a wonderful woman, after fighting cancer for over a year, passed away peacefully. This was one of the issues that was looming in the background causing stress.
The next hour was a flurry of activity as I bought flights to Minneapolis, made rental car reservations, and canceled tour tickets. By 8:30 AM we had unmade and re-made traveling arrangements and rearranged as many of our vacation plans as we could salvage.
When I get back from Minneapolis I will try to post about the shortened vacation. I'm not sure if I will post anything before Friday.
Day one of our vacation was ... not quite what we expected. Not bad but not as good as it could have been.
We got on the road around 7:00 AM and headed north on 101. There was very little traffic. The cruise control controlled the cruise and we made pretty good time.
Our first stop was Mission San Juan Bautista. It was closed. Yep, unfortunately, the mission is closed on Good Friday. We decided we would catch this mission on the way home and we walked through downtown San Juan Bautista.
The town has a nice downtown full of artists studios and antique shops. Every now and then a rooster would crow - probably practicing for the upcoming second annual San Juan Bautista Chicken Festival and Parade. We looked for a place to eat and ended up at the Mariposa Restaurant, an old house that was converted into restaurant. The place reminded me of my Grandma's house. The food was delicious.
On the way back to the car, the Wife bought a complete set of hand painted mission notecards from the artist, Norm, at the Lazy H Studio.
We got back on the road and headed to Mission Santa Cruz. We arrived, got out of our car, looked around, and wondered where the mission was. The only thing there was a reconstructed chapel, a gift shop with museum displays, and a tiny little garden. Not very impressive.
We decided to find our hotel, the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara ( we got it at a great price. Not to sound like an advertisement but Hotwire.com got us a great price on the room - $76 bucks at a great hotel). On the way we passed eBay, Intel, AMD, and many other technology Holy Places. After checking in we went down to the hot tub to soak. It felt awesome except for the little obnoxious kids who just had to talk to us. We ignored them the best we could but they were still annoying.
Then the real adventure began - the search for dinner. We really didn't have any idea of which direction to drive in so we set off in a random direction and went a searching. After driving around and around, seeing such geek drool inducing sights as Yahoo, Sun, and Oracle, and driving around some more until our gas light came on, we found an Italian restaurant. It turns out we drove close to 10 miles just to end up a few blocks from our hotel. For a second there I thought geeks here didn't eat. The restaurant turned out to be a little too fussy for me. I'm not much for fussy food. The wondering violin player irritated me a little bit as well. We left the restaurant and went looking for ice cream and ran into a several, less fussy restaurants. *sigh* We did find ice cream. Not the greatest start of the vacation but we don't care. WE'RE ON VACATION!!! WOO WHOO! Since we really didn't see anything, I took no pictures.
The home equity line of credit has been approved so now, if we find a house in Omaha that we want to buy in April, we can go ahead and pay cash for it.
Now that the line of credit is approved the house is back on the market. We talked with our realtor yesterday and we dropped the asking price pretty severely. Hopefully the aggressive price drop will lure in some buyers.
The other shoe, the one related to last Friday, dropped today and it was Great News. Everything was negative which, believe you me, is very good news.
Now it's time to distract both of us so we are going on vacation. Yep, we're going to one of the destinations listed on the right-hand column of Homer's Travels. Actually, it's the only domestic vacation currently on our list: San Francisco. This is the first real vacation I've had since Peru in 2006. Since I was saving up my leave at work so that we would have a large reimbursement check when I pseudo-retired, we didn't go anywhere last year. The closest thing to a vacation for me was our visit to Minnesota for the Altar Boy's wedding. While that was fun, it wasn't quite long enough to be a real vacation being only 4 days, .
Our itinerary includes such marvels as completing the California Missions (7 to go), the Winchester House, Alcatraz (an evening tour), and a Segway Tour of Angel Island. We have another day to hit a few spots like Golden Gate Park, Haight-Ashbury, and a few other places. We will be there for a total of seven days starting Friday.
I am planning to take my laptop so I may be able to post about the trip. I've never done that before and it will depend on how easy it is to get internet access. I think our hotel has Wi-Fi in the lobby but I'm not sure about in the room. We'll see.
As a few of you know, I'm a fan of the This American Life radio show on NPR. I rarely listen to it live but I have downloaded all the the episodes, all 352 of them. Actually I only have 324. Some of the older episodes are missing and I missed some of the podcasts darn it. I usually listen to them while I'm doing chores around the house.
I started listening with episode 1 and I am slowly making my way forward. Today I listened to three episodes ending with episode 177. What struck me was that it's sort of like traveling in a time machine. Most of the episodes are not connected to any one time. There are the occasional holiday shows which make it weird to listen to a Christmas or Valentine themed show in the middle of summer. Then there are the shows that are connected to specific temporal events. The show started airing in 1995 and some of the early episodes followed Senator Bob Dole during his 1996 presidential campaign. As I've listened to each episode, I've slowly moved forward through time towards the present. One of the episodes I listened to today covered the 2000 election and how the Florida hanging chad count-recount fiasco affected the Republican-Democrat dialog. It was kind of weird listening to their take on this event knowing that in eight months 9/11 would take place. The world seemed a lot simpler back then.
I am looking forward to listening to the show's take on 9/11, the Iraq war, the 2004 elections, and Katrina. At the rate that I'm going it will be awhile before I finish them all and catch up to the present. I'm now in early 2000. Eight more years to go in 175+ entertaining and thought provoking steps.
I'd planned to do this hike with GeekHiker but, due to issues beyond my control, I could not reschedule the hike for Saturday when we could have done it together. I still needed to hike so on Thursday I hit the trail. I needed to hike mostly to keep my mind off of what was going to happen on Friday. The hike turned out to be a good distraction.
The hike began at the Chumash trailhead across highway 1 from the Construction Battalion's (The Sea Bees) firing range. The trail immediately starts climbing up a sharp ridge. The trail climbs 838 feet in 0.64 miles. I have heard people refer to this part of the trail as 'The Elevator.' I see why. It is a grueling climb. The mosquitoes didn't help either. I probably lost a pint of blood on the way up to the top.
I reached the top of the ridge where there is a trail junction. To the left is the Mugu Peak trail that skirts around the 'base' of Mugu Peak. Straight ahead takes you between Mugu Peak and some other peak that I don't know the name. I went straight, following the Chumash Trail over this saddle, and down into La Jolla Valley. As I crested the saddle I saw an amazing green valley, shrouded with light haze, glowing in the early morning sunshine.
I followed the trail down into the valley. The grass was long and covered in dew. This got me wondering so I stopped and looked down and ... flicked off three ticks. I hadn't seen a tick since last summer but thinking back to last year, this was when the ticks began coming out in force. As I walked down the trail, I would stop every 500 - 1000 feet and flick off a few more. All in all I guess I flicked off at least a dozen ticks. None got on me though.
The valley has several creeks crossing it. Most of them were dry but every one was lined with lush green growth and tall oaks and sycamores. I like this part. I like trees. My first geocache on this hike, "Hangin' in La Jolla" was hanging on an oak tree next to the trail.
There are very few reminders of the modern world along this trail. The support antenna and the thrum-thrumming of airplane and helicopter engines from nearby Point Mugu Naval Air Station (now part of Naval Base Ventura County) were the only things that reminded me of the outside world. They faded into the background as I walked along. I continued on the trail. I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye but it kept vanishing when I tried to see what it was. After a couple more glimpses I realized that whatever it was, it was on the brim of my hat. An inch worm. Well, actually a half inch worm was inching it's way along the brim of my hat and every now and then it would poke over the edge where I could see it. It got flicked off like the ticks.
Soon afterwards the Chumash trail merges with the La Jolla Valley Loop Trail. This portion of the trail is a wide grassy dirt road. This was also where I stopped finding ticks. Thank you Cheezus!
The trail crosses a wood plank bridge and becomes the La Jolla Fire Road. One thing I like about this series of trails is that all the junctions are clearly marked. Along the road I passed four signed junctions and the La Jolla Walk-In Camp. At about 3 miles you reach a four way intersection. To the right is the Overlook Fire Road. I walked part of this road last year.
I continued straight through the intersection on the North Overlook Fire Road. The road drops rapidly. This was a big difference from the valley trail which went up and down but in a much more gradual way. This road drops fast. At the bottom you reach another signed intersection. This is the Deer Camp Junction. To the right is the Wood Canyon trail and Sycamore Canyon. To the left is the Wood Canyon Fire Road. There is a picnic table and a porta-potty here. I looked for, but failed to find, a geocache at this intersection. I think the cache has gone missing.
I took a left and followed the Wood Canyon Fire Road for a short distance. The road is flanked by oaks ands sycamores and is really nice. On the left I come to the signed Guadalasca trail and I followed the sign. I located the "Trail's End" cache near the junction. I dropped of the Beanie Bear TB here to help inspire other geocachers to come this deep into the valley.
The Guadalasca trail starts climbing back up. It passes through forests, meadows, and switchbacks that go in and out of the shade. It was about 11:00 by now and the sun was pretty hot. I decided to keep going to the top of the trail before I stopped for lunch. This part of the hike was pretty tough. Not as bad as The Elevator but it was a lot warmer and I already had 5 miles under my belt and I was getting a little pooped. I was plodding along sort of like a zombie when a 4 - 5 foot snake jumped out of the brush and zoomed across the trail just a foot or two from my feet. I think I almost jumped out of my skin. That was one of the signs, for me, that spring was approaching as the snakes and the lizards, which I hadn't seen for several months, started to reappear along the trail.
The Guadalasca trail ends at the end of the Guadalasca Fire Road. At the junction there is a nice splash of shade and some rocks that someone had stacked to make a couple low, footstool height chairs. I turned right and followed a narrow, weathered trail to an old rusty gate a hundred feet down the trail. There I found a cache, "Slegal's Secret Skyline Stash". From the cache site you could see the city of Camarillo in the distance and the campus of Cal State Channel Islands (Formerly the location of the Camarillo State Mental Hospital and said to be haunted). I walked back to the rock stools and shade and sat down to eat my lunch and rest. My orange tasted especially good today. Looking at my GPS, I saw that I was near the halfway point of the hike.
The Guadalasca Fire Road heads up a little more before turning a corner into a breeze. At the corner the road started to head back down and the breeze was a cool ocean breeze. The sweat dried up quickly and the hike became easier. The fire road takes you back to the four way intersection. I turned right and took the La Jolla Fire Road to the junction of the La Jolla Canton Trail and turned left. I'd been on the trail before but it looked different. It was so much greener and everything looked alive. I found the "Why Before The Y?" cache along this trail.
I followed the La Jolla Canyon trail until I reached the junction with the La Jolla Valley Loop Trail. This trail would take be back west towards Mugu Peak. From this trail I could see my next trail, Mugu Peak trail, going up the ridge as I approached. I noticed a bright orange patch half way up the trail. "Looks like flowers", I mutter to myself. The junction with the trail is signed. I crossed a small creek, this time with water, before the trail headed up. I found another geocache, "Take a Break", near the bottom of the trail.
I climbed and climbed and there it was a stretch of trail lined with bright orange California poppies. Another sign of spring. These poppies, along with severalotherbloomingwildflowers, really brightened up the trail. A real spirit lifter.
Along the Mugu Peak trail I located three more caches, "See The Beach", "Tr...Oops I placed another one", and "Support Our Troop-er!". At this point I had to decide to either go up and over Mugu Peak or go around the 'base'. I took inventory and I decided that I just didn't have the umph to go up and over. Fortunately I have already been up to the peak on an earlier hike back in 2003 (I near passed out of heat stroke back then - I didn't have nearly as much water as I should have. This time I was more prepared).
I looked for and did not find a cache along the 'base' of the peak. I wasn't the first not to find it. I reached the junction with the Chumash trail and headed back down The Elevator. It is as tough going down as it is going up. I didn't fall but the trail sure tried to suck me down. I managed to find two more caches, "Sea Bees [can do view]" and "Welcome", on the way down to the car.
It was a good, long hike. I was on the trail for about eight and a half hours. The hike ended up being 12.7 miles with about 1,200 feet of vertical. I found 10 geocaches. The flowers were blooming. I was distracted from the crap that was coming to a head the next day. My legs and feet are still sore two days later. Yep, it was a good hike. Pictures can be found here.
I haven't decided if I'm going to hike next Thursday. My next scheduled hike, Chorro Grande, is about 12 miles with 3,000 feet of vertical. I am not sure if I should do such a strenuous hike right before I sit in a car and drive five hours to San Francisco. Oh well, I have a few days to think about it.
