This year's winter vacations were EPIC to say the least. We spent time with family in the great outdoors, which gave me perspective and filled me with gratitude.
I took the train to see my sister at Cal State Fullerton. Her team (NDSU Bison Women's Basketball) played against the Tritons of CSUF. I got a bit lost coming off the platform at Fullerton and ended up on a big horseshoe to get to the hotel. A 3 mile bike ride quickly turned into an 8 mile tour with 400 ft of climbing, but it was a great way to become familiar with the area. Bastanchury Rd was not the best choice but it was pretty to pass by Vista Park and fly down State College Blvd.
My sister and I also went for a run, which was fantastic! We ran along the south edge of campus, through some really cute neighborhood and straight up into the foothills. It felt really good to strap on my running belt again and climb a steep hill to get a great view. It's always awesome to run with a buddy, to have a conversation, and to go somewhere together. On the way back to the hotel, we snagged an orange straight from the tree. We did a bit of a walk through campus and some yoga on the hotel lawn, which was a great way to get grounded and lengthen our muscles after our little jaunt.
After seeing my sister, I got picked up in Fullerton by my husband and we drove down to the beach to see his family. We parked the car (and bike) and walked around Balboa Island. I found a great hat for hiking that has 360 degree coverage, a wide brim, and it is 100% cotton (washable) in a soft yellow color. Hey, there's nothing wrong with looking fabulous while preventing skin cancer.
We headed back to our house in Glendale and loaded up the car for our camping trip. We used the same
packing list as the previous trip. We have a long list of items that we would add to the list for next time, but we had a
phenomenal experience. We left the house in good condition since our friends were coming there to stay while we were gone. Sadly, we took our dog Melle in to the vet and found out she was suffering from kidney failure and possibly a cancerous growth on her eye. Bless her heart, she spent 12.5 good years protecting me and although it was difficult, we had her put to sleep.
Heading out to the desert, with our bikes and our dog Edna in our old car was the only way to distract ourselves from the pain of being separated from old Mel. We arrived too late to check in to our campsite, the guard shack closes at 4:30pm. But our names were listed on the board of late arrivals, so we set up our tent and went to buy firewood. Our first night in DV was horrible because our air mattress had a slow leak. At some point in the middle of the night, I felt like I was sleeping in a giant egg crate. I had Edna stashed in my sleeping bag and it was very uncomfortable to move around. Lesson learned!
Day 1 of DV was a sweet
bike ride. We climbed for about 5 miles to Zabriski Point, which had just closed for repairs on December 1st. It was a bummer not to be able to climb out on the overlook, but we decided it was enough adventure for our first day and turned back to camp. We went for a short walk along Airport Road and near the visitor's center before returning to the store for more firewood. My aunt and cousin arrived and set up their tent, which doubled the fun! Our second night was better because we slept on top of the deflated air mattress, a thick Mexican woven blanket, and used an extra-thick yoga mat to pad below our shoulders & hips. Basically we slept on the ground.
Day 2 of DV was a SUPER SWEET
bike ride. We rode across the valley toward the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. The majority of the ride was below sea level with one long gradual climb to just above sea level around the base of Tucki Mountain. It was absolutely peaceful riding single-file (because the ranger told us we had to) on the shoulder of a recently resurface highway. There were so many miles to cover and so little daylight. We did a little yoga at the turnaround and ate some
POWER NUGGETS! This batch was made using a roasted, mashed Carnival Squash and a cup of Chia Seeds.
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| http://www.everytrail.com/guide/golden-canyon-and-gower-gulch-loop |
Day 3 of DV (Christmas Day) we opened gifts around the morning fire. We packed up and hiked from Golden Canyon, around Manly Beacon, and through the Badlands towards Zabriski Point. We didn't hike up to the point this year and we avoided hiking along Gower Gulch, going back to Golden Canyon the way we came. It was stunning and there was no need to go a different way back because the changing angle of the light changed the way the canyon looked anyway. I believe we turned back at the far end of the Badlands Loop. It was so fun hiking with family, and although it was windy, the canyons provided both shade and a wind-block. We also learned (I think) that no dogs are allowed on this trail.
Day 4 of DV the winds were so bad and the blowing sand and dust reduced the visibility to the point where we decided to leave one day early. It wasn't so difficult to make that decision since everything was covered with dust, we couldn't keep Edna's food and water clean, we couldn't sit down to a nice meal, and our tent was shaking all night long (and not because of us). We pulled out of Furnace Creek around 10am and drove through Trona. I've always wanted to go through Trona, named after the mineral Na
5(CO
3)
2(HCO
3)×2H
2O, which is a source of sodium carbonate. Lucky thing we were able to get there, we almost ran out of gas! Note for next trip: When you are sitting at a gas station (Panamint Springs) for 20 minutes doing nothing, just pump some gas into your car even if you still have half a tank. Cities in the desert are very spread out!
Instead of going home to Glendale, we took the 118 to the 23 (Moorpark Fwy), cut across the 101 in Thousand Oaks for just one exit, and cut through the mountains on the 23 (Decker Rd) to get to the 1 (Pacific Coast Highway). We were using our Rand McNally Road Atlas (very anachronistic I know) to navigate, which I found to outsmart the digital Garmin GPS when it came to locating campsites. We arrived at the first campground on the right side, Leo Carrillo State Beach. Campsites were $45 per night. Firewood was $8 per bundle. Each campsite had a wooden picnic table and a tall fire-pit.
We realized quickly that our equipment was lacking. We had propane and a camp stove, but no pots and pans. We had food and instant coffee, but no silverware or dishes. We had a tent and sleeping bags, but no camping chairs to set around the fire. I want to use the word pathetic, but I don't want to be too hard on myself. We were so happy to be out of the wind in DV, we staked our tent and headed to the nearest grocery store (Vintage Grocers) to see if we could buy any cookware. Unfortunately they didn't carry any so we decided weakly that we would return in the morning to the nearby Starbucks for our morning meal. That sounded better than using the dog's water dish to boil some water.
Not to be forgotten, the winds picked up overnight in Malibu. Looking back at the weather reports, we survived 34 mph gusts. In the morning, we woke up and went for a walk after breakfast. The campground has beach access through an underpass and one of the beaches is completely dog-friendly. This was great news and Edna Jo was in good company. We scouted out campsites that we might like to visit again. We even proposed the idea of taking the train to Ventura on a Friday night and biking in to Leo Carrillo for a night. We could ride home all day Saturday or Sunday. Definitely keeping this in mind for 2015.
Another great thing about Leo Carrillo, even though they are not cheap, is that they have showers (for a small cost) and you can have 3 cars (8 people) per site. Due to the winds, we decided to take one night in a hotel. We returned to a
Residence Inn we had been before in Camarillo, so we knew it would allow dogs. They have bathtubs, a pool and jacuzzi, it is near a large park (
Pleasant Valley Fields) for recreation. We took a family shower to rinse off all the desert dust that wasn't blown away by the winds in Malibu. We slept well and ate the continental breakfast at the Inn. Again, this stay wasn't cheap. The room rate is $150 and there is a one-time pet fee of $100. That would make sense if you were staying for a week but for one night it was kind of a bummer.
Now it's back to business as usual. I will try to make a separate post with our revised packing list. For now, it's time to focus on the new year ahead. We'll ring in 2015 by riding our bikes to the rose bowl parade. Happy New Year!
