Posts from the ‘Parks’ Category

May 19

Well Rested

I chose not to write anything yesterday as Kelly and I were strictly observing a proper day of nothing. Squeezed in between Lilly walks, we mostly did a lot of nothing … the highlight of the day being my lengthy afternoon nap. Unlike yesterday, our plan today called for a quick morning walk before prepping Mabel for her return home to Half Moon Bay. The campground we were staying at is located at the far southern end of the park. There are a number of trails scattered throughout the broader park itself and our plan this morning was to complete a four mile loop located at the far northern tip of the park boundary. As an added bonus, the trail is also situated atop the highpoint and offers a nice view of the surrounding areas.

Looking west over the town of San Martin

The trail starts at the Coyote Dam, built during 1935-36 as a WPA effort. Today, the dam overlooks the mostly recreational lake and is open to any pedestrian interested in walking along the topside.

Coyote Lake placard

Moving towards the trail – which starts off easy enough – we were greeted by the warning sign below:

Warning sign at the trailhead

We never did encounter any Mountain Lions or Babcats, but did see a lot of cows and a few wild turkeys.

Approaching the cows

A lone turkey

Anticipating hot temperatures and having read the trail lacked any significant shade, we got an early start. The absence of shade and very little breeze propelled hot temperatures, but Lilly didn’t seem to mind too much as there were numerous gopher holes to stick her nose into. As usual, she found nothing.

The rolling hillside

Lilly waiting for me

Following our hike, we had to hustle in order to pack-up the trailer in advance of the 1pm check-out. Sadly, our relaxing weekend was ending … it was time to go home and begin thinking about the looming workweek. Dang.

May 17

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In Need Of A Day Off

In desperate need of a weekend get-away, Kelly and I left our base in Half Moon Bay last night, retreating about 70 miles to the south. Roughly 90 minutes later we arrived to Coyote Lake County Park about an hour after sundown, making our efforts to back into our site frustrating for us, but surely comical to others.

We’ve been here once before and made a mental note to keep this place on our shortlist of easy to access parks … especially since the area is very dog-friendly.

The timing of our escape was ideal, affording us the opportunity to watch stage-6 of the Tour of California – America’s largest and most prestigious bicycle race. This multi-day event kicked-off Monday in southern California and concludes Sunday in the northern wine country town of Santa Rosa.

Today’s individual time-trial – commonly referred to as ”The Race of Truth” was occurring near our campground so Kelly and I killed a few hours this afternoon watching the event. We rode our bikes to a particularly technical section of the course to view the action.

A BMC rider passing by, followed by the TV motorbike, team car, and race official

A BMC rider passes, followed by an NBC TV motorbike, team car, and race official

We saw some of the world’s top professional cyclists zipping through a downhill s-curve section of road at speeds pushing 30 MPH. The time trial is set-up such that riders race individually against the clock – in this case 19.9 miles, starting in reverse order of their overall standing in the general classification. We waited around to see the Maillot Jaune pass by, then hit the road ourselves, as I needed to complete a little RV maintenance project.

Overall leader, Tejay van Garderen (team BMC) wears the Yellow Jersey, closely followed by a parade of race officials

Last night as I was prepping the Airstream for travel, I noticed the electrical cord had experienced what appeared to be damage from a power surge. The impairment looked fairly significant and I was thankful for my beefy surge protector, which I always keep connected … “just in case”.

Damaged surge protector (left) and power cord (right)

Initially, my plan was to simply to buy a new cable, but when I saw the whopping Camping World $80 price tag I decided to explore other options. As it turns out, the solution was quite simple actually – remove the damaged prong head and replace it with a new one.

I’ve always been a bit leery of electrical projects, but I located a replacement part for only $18. Before talking myself into another course of action, I decided to go for it.

Having convinced myself that if things went horribly wrong and became a complete fiasco, I’d probably die quickly and without too much pain. With this sound logic in hand, I figured why not give it a try?

I proceeded to sever the damaged plug, prep the wiring, attach to the newly purchased plug, and put everything back together.

The damaged plug, whacked from the cord

All wires prepped and ready to proceed

All the wires ready to go

Repairs complete

<<Spoiler Alert>>

Obviously I didn’t die, as evidenced by me writing this posting.

In the end, the project was quite straightforward and embarrassingly simple. That said, I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t take serious pause before plugging the newly repaired 30-amp cord into the generator.

Proud of my accomplishment, I embarked upon assisting Kelly with another project of no less importance – dinner.

Following our meal, Kelly and I took Lilly for a trail hike and I rewarded myself with a cold beer.

Hillside hike with views overlooking the town of Gilroy, CA

All in all, a great usage of our long overdue PTO day.

Feb 23

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Saturday Farmer’s Market and Alcatraz Island

This morning Kelly and I took my mom and Ed into San Francisco wherein the plan was to visit the Saturday farmer’s market at the iconic Ferry Building which overlooks the bay. As an added bonus, Kelly made arrangements for us to spend part of our time touring the market alongside a private guide through the local non-profit Edible Excursions.

Kelly and I have participated in the tour once before and had a great time. This being the case, we were optimistic the experience would once again be a positive one. We arrived to the market just in time for the 9:30am start and quickly found ourselves sampling all sorts of goodies from various local merchants, most local to the NorCal region.

At each stop, we heard how each of the merchants arrived to their current role as an artisan and details about their preferred methods of cultivating farm-to-table ecosystems.

Farmer Al of Frog Hollow Farms talking about his fruit trees

Some of the cheese goodness at Cowgirl Creamery

Our pickled zucchini and tomato sauce from Happy Girl Kitchen

The private tour lasts about two hours, spread across roughly a dozen stops. Today’s experience with Edible Excursion was another positive one, and I highly recommend the organization.

Mom and Ed at the Ferry Building

Once the tour was complete, Kelly and I bought our weekly stash of fruits and vegetables before a rendezvous with mom and Ed – our next stop being Alcatraz Island.

The obligatory “I was at Alcatraz”picture

The start of the audio tour

Like most people, I’ve heard plenty about the infamous prison many refer to as “the Rock”, but I’d never visited what is today, a National Park operated by the National Park Service. Additionally, I didn’t know much about the history of the island. To that end, the tour was pretty effective at providing visitors – and there were lots of them today paying $28 per ticket – a close-up look at the site of the first lighthouse, West Coast military fort, an infamous federal penitentiary, and details of the 18 month occupation by American Indians.

Grafitti of the 18 month American Indian occupancy (1969-70)

Graffiti remains from the 18 month American Indian occupancy (1969-70)

Given the age of the buildings, most are in poor condition and in need of significant repair. I suppose the NPS must walk a fine line maintaining the mystical look of the island properties, yet ensuring this cash-cow revenue generating park maintains a safe operating state.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised to see a natural side to the island – complete with gardens, tide pools, bird colonies, and of course … bay views beyond compare.

The crumbling exterior wall of the main administration building

The island’s original lighthouse

San Francisco bay

I’ll be honest, I was expecting the tour to be mostly a tourist trap. We’ve all seen Alcatraz movies and other Discovery Channel-like documentaries, but it was nice to see things with my own eyes. Overall, I was quite pleased with everything and would suggest that the tour is worth the money … once.

Feb 18

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Long weekend at Coyote Lake Campground

For the first time since I can recall, working for the man (that is to say corporate America … or more specifically – the private equity firm which owns my company) has bestowed upon me a great gift – a day off of work tomorrow in observance of the President’s Day holiday.

This being the case, Kelly also took the day off as PTO (the man she works for is not nearly as generous with holidays) and we decided to get out of town and check out Coyote Lake Campground – a county park which is located about 90 minutes southeast of our home base in HMB.

We’ve been anxious to find more locations ideal for quick three and four-day weekends and we were particularly keen to see how this county park differed from the state run parks we’d visited previously. More importantly, this county park is very dog friendly, which isn’t the case with most state parks.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday to a mostly empty campground and quickly found the park to be great on many levels – two generous loops, one with water & electric, the other being dry camping only.

Our campsite

We chose a water-facing spot in the dry-camping loop. A $12 per nightly fee gets us a paved pad, fire pit, picnic table, and food locker. The proximity to water affords plentiful waterfowl and some of the loudest frogs you’ve heard.

My cones

There are loads of trails to explore, and most interesting, many trails roam through beautiful hillsides and are shared with free-range and grass-fed cows.

Yes cows.

A few cows wondering why I am so close

Also, in the event you are wondering how two cows react to a pair of cyclists riding bit too close, you’re in luck as I have some video.

The best part of the weekend was that Lilly got to join us on every hike. Most California state parks restrict dogs from the trails, but not here at Coyote Lake. Thrilled that Lilly could join us, her presence allowed us to enjoy the half-day hikes guilt-free, unlike when she is stuck back in the Airstream while we were enjoying ourselves outdoors.

I know this sounds a bit kooky, but dog owners will relate to our excitement in bringing Lilly with us, particularly on the longer, multi-hour hikes.

By the way – per usual, Lilly was hell-bent on investing every gopher hole she could find. At one point Saturday, she decided to dig herself under a felled tree rather than simply jump over it as she did initially. I captured a quick video of her in the act.

As evidenced in the picture below, all that digging, coupled with the 8.5 mile hike required some serious napping yesterday alongside her favorite red squeak toy.

Lilly napping

Most of the the park literature hypes the views atop the ridge line highpoint, near a scenic overlook. We decided to see for ourselves, but unfortunately, a thick fog rolled in Sunday morning, so the views were not so great.

Lilly, impatiently waiting for me near the top

I question the need to describe the climb as “strenuous” (it was not), but I definitely agree that it’s worth the effort to ascend even if the views were limited. Once we reached the top, there was a nice clearing which I’m sure makes for a nice lunch break when the the views are clear.

One of the scenic overlook picnic tables

On the other-hand, based upon the picture below, perhaps there is not all that much to see.

Very descriptive signage

Anyway, the park is great and I’m excited to visit other Santa Clara county parks soon.

Full-timing since April 2015 … Dave, Kelly, and our dog living and traveling full-time in our Airstream trailer.

Posts from the ‘Parks’ Category

Well Rested

In Need Of A Day Off

Saturday Farmer’s Market and Alcatraz Island

Long weekend at Coyote Lake Campground

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