Twin Peaks, Mt. Diablo Style

The Twin peaks in SF are pretty nice, but for a much better workout, do the Twin Peaks just north of Mt. Diablo. I actually went further than the Twin Peaks, and you should, too. I went to Eagle Peak from Mitchell Canyon, so that's a nice Saturday morning workout.

Warning: this hike will be a real bear when the sun shines on you since very little of it is in the shade. It also has some steep section, so come dressed appropriately.

Park at the Mt. Diablo state park, (600') at the end of Mitchell Canyon Rd. ($6) and exit the south end of the parking lot. Turn left immediately on Oak Road, and then right on Mitchell Rock trail. You'll pass Mitchell Rock, (1,000') and continue past Twin Peaks until you hit Eagle Peak Trail. Turn right and go just under a mile to the peak itself, (2,369'). Return by the same route for just under 6 miles.

I went on Saturday. As you know we haven't had any rain this year so the air has generally been really hazy, not good for photography or long-distance viewing. However, on Saturday it was great, (I guess because the sprinkles we had on Friday cleared the air.) You could see everything from Mt. Diablo, (a couple miles south of us,) to the snow in the Sierra's, and the cooling towers over along I-5.

Getting there: From I-680 in Walnut Creek, take Ygnacio Valley Road. Turn right on Clayton Road, then right again onto Mitchell Canyon Road. Drive to the Mt. Diablo State Park entrance at the end, (parking $6.)

Thinking back

You know, tonight I was thinking back.
I came to California back in 1983.
I never intended to stay here this long.
I'd never been anywhere this long.
Not even close!
I've been here for over 30 years now!
I've even been in this very same apartment for over 6 years now and I've paid for all of it, and on time, too.

But, tonight I'm just being nostalgic.
Thinking about all the complete universes I've traveled through between then and now.
WOW!

What a long, strange trip it's been.
And, it's nowhere near over yet, at least, not if I have any say so.

Tomorrow morning, I'm doing Mount Diablo.
"Photo's at 9," (or whatever.)

Jou Baur

This is pretty interesting

This is pretty interesting:

So is this:

January 25, 2014 - Mission Peak, Mount Tam, etc...

Well, I guess it's about time I updated this.
The last few weeks I've, let's see, gone to Mount Tam, (O'Rourke's Bench,) where nearby I could overlook Stinson Beach and Bolinas:

Geez! I just noticed I haven't even updated the Mission Peak trip!
Down in Fremont there is Mission Peak. They say if you can do it twice in one day, you can probably do Half Dome. The more I think about it, the more I think I best do Half Dome! I'm not getting any younger. It's not going to get any easier. So, I'm thinking of applying for a permit in this years lottery.

Anyway, Mission Peak:

In fact, my last entry was me and Keith going to Berry Creek Falls from Waddell Beach!
Man, that's been a while!
Keith's gone home to Cheyenne, WY. He says he'll be back, but, that's another subject for later.
I haven't been very active lately, (the last few months,) but I'd best get busy or decide I've been lying to myself that I might actually be able to make the Half Dome hike.
I hate liars, so I guess I'd better get in shape, huh?

Meanwhile, just today I got to SMOG a Lamborghini Gallardo:

5 Liter, 10 cylinder, all-wheel-drive. I can only imagine what this must run like if you got it out and were careful. (I've seen some pretty nasty video's of people who thought they knew how to drive and went too crazy, way too soon. These things are not tame!

Since it's all-wheel-drive we don't run it on the dyne, (the ASM, Acceleration Simulation Mode.)  Instead we do the TSI, (Two-Speed-Idle,) test, so I don't get to drive them a lot.

Nevertheless, how many of you have even gotten to drive one onto the dyne, or even sit in one, for that matter?

Take what you can get out of life and enjoy it, that's what I say.

Tuesday or Wednesday, Drew's parents should be stopping by. Probably only for an hour or two, but... I'd love to get them to go for a short hike. Just a mile or two, so we'd get a minute or two for talking. You know how that goes.

Nevertheless, at the risk of repeating my self, take what you can get out of life ...

Now, for tomorrow...
What am I going to do?
I've got this link to The Steepest Hikes in the Bay Area.
I'm looking at some of them.
I don't know yet, although I've only got a few more hours to decide, and to get up and go.
Matt Davis- Steep Ravine?
Tomales Point?
Rock Spring?
Buzzard's Roost?
Sky? (I went camping here once, back in the early '80's. I picked it because it was the shortest route. Little did I know it was the steepest.)

These are only a few of the ideas. I'm gonna have to work at this or give up on the whole idea altogether. I don't guess I'm quite prepared to quit, just yet, so I guess I'll have to work at things, huh?

Y'all have a good day now, ya hear?

Berry Creek Falls with Keith

Went to Berry Creek Falls the other week with Keith.
It's about a 12 mile hike, and a fairly strenuous one, at that.
Not all that much water in the falls, but it's better than sitting on some street corner wishing something would happen.
This is the longest hike Keith's been on here.

Getting Keith to walk across a log bridge. 

I told him the path went that way, otherwise he'd never have crossed. 

Once he got there I told him, "Come on, now. It's time to go." 

This log sprouted in 544 AD, (or is it CE nowadays?) 

Thinking of doing Mission Peak, (down in Fremont area,) this Sunday.

They say if you can do it twice in one day you should be able to do Half Dome.

I'd like to do Half Dome.

No mountain climbing skills necessary, but it is one hell of a workout. 

(Check out some of the videos on Youtube if you're curious.)

Well, I'd best go for now. I'm in the middle of cooking a couple things with Tri-Tip.

Let you know what happens when I can.

Jou Baur

Isn't life strange?

Isn't life strange?
I'm like, 60 years-old now.
I'm nowhere near what I imagined I''d be like when I was younger.
To start with, I never really envisioned any age past 30.
Then it all just slipped past, quite suddenly, while I wasn't even looking.
Suddenly, one day, I woke up going to prison for 8 years, and I was 45 going in.
I got out on my 52nd birthday.
Can you imagine a better birthday present?

What all else?
WOW!
It's almost inconceivable, even in hindsight.

Growing up... multiple states, hardly ever a year in one spot.
Indianapolis, St. Petersburg, Fl. Milwaukee, Wisc., Denver, Co., and back to multiple spots in St. Pete and surrounding area, (including Madeira Beach, Fla. where we had Sugar-sand beaches, New Port Richie, Fl. where we lived in the woods and owned an illegal bar, and even Spring Hill, Fla. where I tried in vain to become normal.)

Then I hit 17 and really moved on.
I've visited almost EVERY state in the contiguous USA, along with a big chunk of Canada,(it's beautiful up there, at least it was back in the early-70's.)

In-and-out of the Army with about 4 1/2 months good time, 13 months AWOL, a month in the stockades at Fort Carson, Co. and a U.D.-in-lieu-of-Court-Marshal-by-request-only. I refused to go to Viet Nam, period.

That's when I went to Canada for a couple years.
I had my discharge, so it wasn't desertion.

Spent time in Toronto, Calgary, and a little in Vancouver, (I especially liked Wreck Beach.)

I've lived in North Carolina, NYC, Iowa City, Iowa, New Orleans, Houston,  Denver, Co., (again!) Santa Cruz, Ca. and the East Bay, (including Berkeley.)

The last few years, (alright, a bunch of years!) I've been here in California, the left-crazy-state.
(I also grew up (mostly) in Fla. remember, the right-crazy-state?)

I've hitchhiked the USA and Canada, including BOTH Continental Divides during winter.

I've been to Las Vegas; New Orleans during Mardi Gras; Fla. in a hurricane, (I played in the eye of hurricane Donna,); NYC and seen the skyscrapers; Denver, the mile-high city, (as well as Boulder, and gone mountain hiking above Nederlands and even seen the tree line.)

I've seen Half Dome in Yosemite, and El Capitan. I've been up to Glacier Point, where you look across at Half Dome instead of up at it. I'm even signing up for the Half Dome lottery to see if I can climb it!

And most of all, I've seen the world change from the recognizable to the unrecognizable and almost the inconceivable.

Anybody remember party lines when we first got telephones?
Now, a major portion of the world has a telephone in their pocket with service, at worst, not far away.

Computers?
You can buy a watch with more computing power than the Apollo Rocket that went to the moon!
Let alone the Internet, which accesses almost everything you could imagine!

I've hitchhiked 2,000 miles from the nearest person I knew, during mid-winter with snow on the ground and no money.
I've done MRI research, (see my write-up, 'I was a lab rat for science,' if you're interested.)
I've lived, (illegally,) in the Redwoods in Santa Cruz, where I also learned leatherwork and for years built awesome assorted things, all with secret compartments. I even started putting secret compartments inside my secret compartments; you had to find the first one before you could even start to look for then next one!

Or, as I started this article, at 45 years-old I went to prison for 8 years, with a strike, did 6 years, 9-1/2 months, I got out on my 52nd birthday, did 3 years on parole, and lived a decent number of years since then, too.

Got out on my 52nd birthday?
Could you possibly ask for a better birthday present?
(Yeah. Let me out early? But it wasn't gonna happen, though.)

God, just so many times, and places I've been, and the things I've done.
I'll keep trying to post some of this weird life.
We'll see what actually happens, though.
Possibly may not ever hear from me again.
That's life.

"Dear Dan," re: Elon Musk

I still write to some buddies inside.
This started out as a letter to one of my best friends in there, (or out here, if only he'd get out. Ain't happening, though.) Then I realized it was too good not to share with everyone. Anyways, here it is:

Man, that Elon Musk is something, isn't he? Just like one of them guys out of Heinlein. I think of “The Man Who Sold The Moon,” in particular, but there are so many others.

And his ability to get things done! WOW! He just jumps in and makes thing work, and I don’t mean in 20-30 years either, nor only one or two things. This guy seems to be going after everything necessary to make us a true space-age society, spread throughout the solar system, and starting for the stars!

Everything from underground tunnel hyper-speed transportation, to standing the car industry, (and the car-dealer industry!) on its head, to getting us off the earth commercially, to mining the asteroid belt and making it work.

Fucking awesome, dude!

I’m so goddamned happy to live in this age where we are seeing so much happen, so fast, that it’s almost impossible to even comprehend! Cell-phones themselves are even old-fashioned at this point, so ‘20^th century’.

In all of history, there has never been such an exciting time with so much happening at once.

Look at the stuff NASA is pulling off. Everything from, (unmanned, so far,) Mars Missions to helping to commercialize space travel with their ‘X-Prize,” to hiring on with commercial outfits for transportation to the Space Station, (we've even got a space station, there are tourists, and there are orbital hotel plans in the works!)  to DARPA with their ‘Autonomous Cars,’ (I've seen the Google car several times, even,) to their ‘Robotics,’ challenges. Etc…

There is just an insane amount of shit happening in this time in history.

I sure am glad I‘m living now instead of sometime in history when things hardly changed at all!

So, if all you see in life is the, ‘Same old, same old,’ I really feel sorry for you.

You are missing it all, including life itself.

(Dan, this started out to you, (before that last paragraph,) and I hope you've enjoyed it. It has now decided to become a BLOG Post. It’s just too well put to not post. Thanks buddy, for the inspiration.)

Well, hope you've enjoyed it and maybe even learned something from it.
God bless us all, whatever God may be.
Thanks.

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