Sunday, September 23, 2007
Just got back from the Big Basin State Park. Oldest state park in California (est. 1902)a little north of Santa Cruz.
Project PimpNalgene is complete for now.. Time to bring it camping.
It was quite an adventure for a simple 2 night 2 day trip.
Friday evening:
Right before leaving, the weather report stated 50% chance of showers during the night. Partly cloudy saturday. Right..
Left home and went down highway 1 to San Gregorio, up to highway 35, connected to highway 9, and then ending on highway 236. The last was the road to eternity and it didn't look like a road. Even roaming on the long side, we got there in about 1.5 hours. By the time we checked in and all that it was past sunset and ambient lighting started to go. After surveying the site and figuring out where to pitch the tent i figured there were 10 minutes of daylight before it was too late. Sure enough 10 minutes later we were using the lantern lifting the tent stakes up. After setting up we cooked some hot cocoa and hung out for a little bit. About 10pm or so a gaggle of thuggish college types came grumbling and rumbling about, causing a bit of a ruckus. 10pm to sunrise is 'quiet time.' After a bit more noise and after a few other campers asking them to quiet down, the ranger was summoned and the noise totally died down. Sounded good for the while then the rain comes. Inbetween the quietness and rain came our friendly raccoon somehow smelt the packets of cocoa powder and went in for the kill, taking out a few packets, man! From about 2am till 2pm saturday it was raining, constantly. Not showering, not on-and-off, but a constant flow. Somehow we sleep.
Of all days to pour down.
Saturday:
We awake about 7:30am with the gentle pitter patter of rain on our tent. Everything was wet, we had to truck things back n forth from the car to the site, it kinda sucked. About 9am, we go to the headquarters and hang out there and roam a bit. Theres a little store that sells $5.50 for either a box of 250 matches or a lighter, yep a cheapie not even a bic plastic lighter. A tarp is $20, the one i have i bought at kragen on sale for 1.99. At leas the beef jerky is 99cents. I head to the pay phone and it's not fair, for $1 you can call 5 minutes to Mexico, but to the bay area you only get 4 minutes for the same amount!
Theres a cheesy museum with snakes in a tube! a bunch of taxidermied birds and animals. We were about to leave at 9:30 when i hear something on my walkie talkie. It happens to be Roz n Robyn! So we go back to the campsite and decide to pitch the second tent for now. It's raining and we've got umbrellas and we're making a fire in the rain, which is simple but kinda funny to be standing around a fire with umbrellas. We decide to cook up some hot dogs and smores for now, in case it's donezo for all of us.
Things get interesting when your trying to cook and handle food in the rain.
We figured that theres an easy 1 hour guided hike that starts on noon or 2pm. We decide to go for 2pm, in case Sherwin shows up. Luckily we did for the two-toned celica arrives. And at 2pm, the rain fades and the clouds part and sun shines! We eventually convince the latecomer to stay overnight. The weather stays pretty good throughout the stay.
Sunday:
Packing messy wet gear sucks. Everybody else is out as well, even the loud folk, they were better saturday night. Sherwin bails and we head to Pescadero to Duarte's. It's dead looking until reaching the stop sign the whole 'downtown' area is all filled with cars. I had a calimari sandwich and it was one huge piece of squid! yum!
As for the Pimp Nalgene, it suffered some battle damage, i gotta replace some of the stones that shifted or bailed. The glue states that it'll set in 10 days. beh!
Project PimpNalgene is complete for now.. Time to bring it camping.
It was quite an adventure for a simple 2 night 2 day trip.
Friday evening:
Right before leaving, the weather report stated 50% chance of showers during the night. Partly cloudy saturday. Right..
Left home and went down highway 1 to San Gregorio, up to highway 35, connected to highway 9, and then ending on highway 236. The last was the road to eternity and it didn't look like a road. Even roaming on the long side, we got there in about 1.5 hours. By the time we checked in and all that it was past sunset and ambient lighting started to go. After surveying the site and figuring out where to pitch the tent i figured there were 10 minutes of daylight before it was too late. Sure enough 10 minutes later we were using the lantern lifting the tent stakes up. After setting up we cooked some hot cocoa and hung out for a little bit. About 10pm or so a gaggle of thuggish college types came grumbling and rumbling about, causing a bit of a ruckus. 10pm to sunrise is 'quiet time.' After a bit more noise and after a few other campers asking them to quiet down, the ranger was summoned and the noise totally died down. Sounded good for the while then the rain comes. Inbetween the quietness and rain came our friendly raccoon somehow smelt the packets of cocoa powder and went in for the kill, taking out a few packets, man! From about 2am till 2pm saturday it was raining, constantly. Not showering, not on-and-off, but a constant flow. Somehow we sleep.
Of all days to pour down.
Saturday:
We awake about 7:30am with the gentle pitter patter of rain on our tent. Everything was wet, we had to truck things back n forth from the car to the site, it kinda sucked. About 9am, we go to the headquarters and hang out there and roam a bit. Theres a little store that sells $5.50 for either a box of 250 matches or a lighter, yep a cheapie not even a bic plastic lighter. A tarp is $20, the one i have i bought at kragen on sale for 1.99. At leas the beef jerky is 99cents. I head to the pay phone and it's not fair, for $1 you can call 5 minutes to Mexico, but to the bay area you only get 4 minutes for the same amount!
Theres a cheesy museum with snakes in a tube! a bunch of taxidermied birds and animals. We were about to leave at 9:30 when i hear something on my walkie talkie. It happens to be Roz n Robyn! So we go back to the campsite and decide to pitch the second tent for now. It's raining and we've got umbrellas and we're making a fire in the rain, which is simple but kinda funny to be standing around a fire with umbrellas. We decide to cook up some hot dogs and smores for now, in case it's donezo for all of us.
Things get interesting when your trying to cook and handle food in the rain.
We figured that theres an easy 1 hour guided hike that starts on noon or 2pm. We decide to go for 2pm, in case Sherwin shows up. Luckily we did for the two-toned celica arrives. And at 2pm, the rain fades and the clouds part and sun shines! We eventually convince the latecomer to stay overnight. The weather stays pretty good throughout the stay.
Sunday:
Packing messy wet gear sucks. Everybody else is out as well, even the loud folk, they were better saturday night. Sherwin bails and we head to Pescadero to Duarte's. It's dead looking until reaching the stop sign the whole 'downtown' area is all filled with cars. I had a calimari sandwich and it was one huge piece of squid! yum!
As for the Pimp Nalgene, it suffered some battle damage, i gotta replace some of the stones that shifted or bailed. The glue states that it'll set in 10 days. beh!
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