The 8 AM to Larkspur

On August 29th, 2025, I noted that I had taken the day off for a three day vacation with my kids in Marin. I had done a parent teacher conference the day before and playtime and the evening went well.

I like to get them ready for the day when we go to bed. So, I was not surprised when I woke at six and the boys automatically prepped for our trip when I got them up. We were fed and out the door at 7:30 with a small bag. We took transit to Embarcadero Station to get my electric cargo bike and we made it out to the ferry building pretty quick.

In total, it was perfect. We caught the 8 AM to Larkspur and had a snack on the boat. We normally get to Larkspur after 11 because we catch a late ferry. We rode to Ross. We took a break in San Anselmo for lunch. I had a bagel. At the market I got snacks and breakfast. At White Hill elementary we ate sushi and looked at maps.

That was where the climb up White Hill began. However, it went quickly and we were soon eating ise cream in Woodacher. The ride to Lagunitas and The State Park was easy and we set up a tent once we had our reservation.

We went swimming at Inkwells and ate at the Indian restaurant in Lagunitas. The boys ate enough. We went and looked at the store next-door before returning to the camp and winding down. I was able to charge the bike too. I noted that the boys had met a kid from the site next-door. He and his family lived in San Francisco.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

The Swimming Hole

On August 18, I wrote that I was writing and organizing while my brother was driving down from Oregon. My host and I chose to meet him at Mill Creek. We drove up Howell Drive out of Cresent CIty like we had done when we visited the Titans but this time we stopped at another trailhead.

When my brother arrived with my twin nine year old boys, they were really excited to see me. We climbed on trees and chatted for a while. We settled on the Mill Creek Loop trail and looked at all the stumps and hidden spaces. We found these mushrooms my brother identified as Fried Chicken. Eventually the trail came to a dead end but we found another which took us to a cool swimming hole on Mill Creek proper. After that, we walked to Boy Scout Grove trailhead and then back to the cars.

We drove to the South Fork then. We jumped in the river on the rope swing – I was really impressed with my boys with that one. I managed to get a good shot of one of them. However, we mostly played in the sand. I noted that the swimming hole is all greenstone. I floated around a bit. Our host did a flip from the rope. My brother left a few minutes before us but once he was gone, our host brought us to the confluence of the Main Fork of the Smith before we left.

We drove back to the house on Pebble Beach. I told the boys how I had crashed into the Washington drive overpass the day after the WTO in Seattle in 1999. While we were driving into town.

I started dinner for the boys. The boys peppered our host with questions while we ate and a bit later, they went to bed. We sat up talking for a while and then I went to bed exhausted.

I got up in the morning of Saturday at 9:30 or 10. My host had been to the store already. He was working and there was coffee out. The boys and I slowly rose. We ate and did other stuff. I had had a bowl of cereal.

Later the four of us went for a walk, crossing Pebble Beach Road and descending to the beach. I noted that there’s pebbles everywhere but normally more. There was only one agate hunter that day. There is a sandy beach a rocky beach and as we transitioned between them, we found the tide pools.

My boys got wild looking through the tide pools for hermit crabs and other things. I saw a super cool rock. They built a little dam below the foot of the cliff and spun flat stones – rolling them like a bowling ball. The weather was really muggy.

We walked the cliff back to the house and after getting inside, I made the boys hot cocoa. Then we made a bag and then we drove to the river confluence again, stopping at Hiouchi Chevron. I got some delicious Pilsners. Once past the confluence, we headed out on the South Fokr to Sand Camp Beach.


Our host pointed out his favorite bike ride path, along Little Bald Hills. We set up a blanket on the river’s edge like the day before and had a snack. I had a beer. I noticed that it wasn’t going to get hot. Our host got in the river anyway and a short while later, the rest of us did too.

The river is really deep there.

A bit later we drove back to town and we stopped at Safeway. Our host needed a ton of food because he was preparing for a ceramics collaboration potluck with a kiln and everything that evening. He was in a rush buying everything in the store. I on the other hand had to make the boys dinner. So, I bought stuff independent of him. I needed a toothbrush and a few other things. I got them a new hairbrush.

After our host left with his potluck foods, I made the boys eat some of the fruit he had left behind and did laundry. Later, I made Ramen and used the house made coleslaw in the fridge. It was very garlicky and lemony. Then, when dinner was over I was lazy. I bought bus tickets on the Amtrak website. The boys got packed before going to bed as we were getting up early.

I woke up at 4:30 that morning and I made coffee. The four of us were all ready by 5:15 and left in our host’s tiny Toyota. It was foggy in Del Norte County all the way to the Klamath. We couldn’t see the giant statue of Paul Bunyan as we headed over the Golden Bear Bridge there because it was dark and foggy.

We were up way too early. Our host told us about stuff on that we saw on the road and my boys asked a lot of questions. The ride was wonderful. I appreciated his not driving too fast and he still saved us about 20 minutes. The lagoons were invisible in the fog. I told the one stone lagoon story I knew – where a friend of mine got a spider bite. Sunrise started in Trinidad. I tried to relate how I had climbed the Butte there.

In Arcata, I got coffee and the boys were cute with our host and the bus was on time. The driver almost left without us. I let everyone know that we had gotten on the bus via text and then stayed awake until Garberville. I fell asleep but woke when we got to the town of Laytonville. Later, in Willits, I reminded the boys about our trip to see the Skunk Train there and they remembered.

We went to the smoothie place in Ukiah at Arthur’s request. (He remembered!) We had a smoothie (Erin says it was his). The ride was kind of boring after that. I figured I had put us on a smart and catch the first SF bus but we got passed by the 1 oh one bus along the way.

We made it home at 3:30 exhausted. A few hours later, I took the boys to pizza and we settled in asleep after TV at 10 o’clock.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

The Epic Sunset

on August 15, I wrote that the day before I got the code for the lock and rode my host’s yellow bike on Ninth Street and I got yelled at by mean motorists. I went to Safeway and I bought food for the boys for two days.

On the trip home, I rode back to the house and I took bicycle pictures. Made a sandwich bagel. When my host showed up, he lay down on the couch and then I shared my sandwich with him.

Our mutual acquaintance stopped by. I met him in college too, he works as a nurse locally. We had a cocktail and he told us about his friends boat while we sat in the office. My host was still laying down on the couch.

We went to see his new property house when he got up. We looked at the blackberry patch and the excessive roomage. We stood on the roof. We could actually see the sea. The neighbor was out and so we hung out with him drinking on the street.

We all said bye after the epic sunset. My host and I spent the night drinking listening to music and eating samosas.

I made coffee and sandwiches In the morning. My older brother called and told me about the week my kids had had with him in Oregon. He told me that he and the boys were planning to meet us in Smith Redwoods State Park later that day.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Bicycles to The Grocery Store

On August 14, 2025, I wrote that I had been staying in Crescent CIty with an old college classmate. That morning I tried to get a meal going but only had coffee ready when I had a work meeting. Later I tidied the house. I was doing laundry and decided to ride one of my host‘s bicycles to the grocery store and bring some stuff back for the weekend since my kids were scheduled to visit.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

The Elk River Casino

On April on August 13, 2025, I wrote that I had been staying in Crescent CIty with an old college classmate. My host and I settled on the Thai food place in town the night before. We rushed to the Thai restaurant. I noted that the eggplant and pad Thai were delicious.

When we were done we were concerned about running out of gas but went to the Gas station and we made it!

After that, I suggested we go to the Elk River Casino. I had a vodka tonic and we argued about tipping before walking around the casino. I lectured him about freedom. I noted that there was “the great compromise” when the country was founded. We had a discussion over how the constitution designates two senators per State.

When we got to his house, we wrote, thank you notes (I asked for random names). After that we put letters in bottles. I talked about an old girlfriend too much (again). Eventually, we went to bed.

In the morning of the day that I wrote this, a mutual acquaintance of ours, a nurse, came by– he was an old college buddy. We sat in the living room until my host and I were done with our coffee. Then we got fishing rods out and readied kayaks and outfits.

We put in on Pebble Beach right across the street. I had a lot of trouble getting through the surf. However, I made it! Unfortunately, I inadvertently broke my fishing pole. I was also really queasy because I hadn’t eaten.

I noted that my college buddy was doing great with his paddling, but the pedals on his kayak were broken. My host caught a small black rock fish but he threw it back because it was too small. We returned to land around 10 am and we settled in to having another coffee at 11.

I had to do a work job and then the three of us I went to the Mexican restaurant. I had enchiladas. My host and I said goodbye to our companion and then the two of us drove us Gasquet. We parked on the North Smith River and walked to Stoney Creek where we explored serpentine geology. We had beers and he went swimming. We saw one couple on the walk back. I picked up a lot of samples.

We drove to Crescent city. People had texted while we were out of range in the canyon. When we got back I spoke to my brother. I noted that my kids, who were staying with him, had exhibited a lot of independence. He shared pictures

Later, after dinner, I showed my host and I used GIS and USGS portals and other online maps to look at the places we had visited.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Lynne Cod and The Petterino Peppers

On August 12, 2025, I wrote that I had been staying in Crescent CIty with an old college classmate. The day before I was hard pressed to finish writing because my host and his guest were really gregarious and there was a lot of crosstalk, especially on how preoccupied I was with writing. However, by the time I was done they were really deep into making lynne cod and the petterino peppers and rice really made it good. I got photos and we texted with people living in another part of the state.

We did this game where we drew pictures and wrote poems and I messed with everyone by mimicking everyone else’s responses. We also did a blind taste test where we had two shots and each of us had to guess but we messed it up and I got two rye whiskies and another person got two scotches. As we slowly started to nod off I ended up talking about an ex-girlfriend too much.

in the morning of the day that I wrote this, the both left for work and I slept until 10 o’clock. When I woke up I “worked from home” and made myself some granola. Later I had an avocado and egg bagel.

I called my brother to confirm that the my kids were doing all right with him at his school in Oregon. We discussed the week. I did housework. When my host returned, I was looking at the surf out the window. He took me to the house which he had purchased only a few days before across the street. Then he took a nap while I was writing in my notebook. I made myself a moscow mule.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Del Norte County

On August 11, 2025, I wrote that I had been staying in Crescent CIty with an old college classmate. The previous Saturday night I had shared my plans for a trip to the north coast with the boys and had them help with preparation. We got up early and walked to BART after breakfast. On the train to SFO, I taught the boys the term “mouth breather.”

We took the people mover and went to the automobile rental office. I managed to get us a Malibu (rather than an SUV). I also made sure that the car was good. While we ended up driving through the city and over the bridge about three hours later than anticipated, I was glad we were on our way.

One of my kids told me to wake him when the fog went away. At the Robin WIlliams Rainbow Tunnels that started to happen, but then he had fallen asleep and I couldn’t get him up. The other boy, however, I noticed does this thing when we’re driving where he just looks straight ahead into the air while the other sleeps in the car. I noted that it is like his way of napping— but he’s not asleep, it’s kind of just a dead stare. I checked on him and remembered that he has not changed in all of the years since infancy. I just haven’t been driving very much lately, so it never occurred to me.

I learned that the Malibu has a lot of power, but it didn’t matter much until Novato at San Antonio Narrows. After that the freeway was much more crowded and had to manage traffic. The boys were both awake by then but they zoned out again. They had trouble with their devices around then too.

We stopped in Cloverdale and got a coffee before riding through the Russian River Canyon. I pointed out bitsin maca and the tunnels I had gone through (it is in my blog post about Frog Woman Mountain). Later, I pointed out where the Mayacama mountains transitions into a fault in Hopland and again in Ukiah. I pointed out the Laughlin Range and the red and green gravels, which show up everywhere in Mendocino.

We stopped at the Skunk Train for pictures after tracing the tracks underneath the freeway. Once we got back on the road, I explained that the Mayacama Fault fades away near Laytonville and that the rails we had been following went over bridges below us in Outlet Creek.

I also explained that north of that point is where the San Andreas system transitions into the Juan de Fuca subduction zone. I kept thinking of it as the Juan de Fuca plate, but it’s actually the Gorda plate. I explained that the continental shelf changes so the earth north of the South Fork of the Eel ends up causing the local landscape to vary greatly. As we headed north from there we started to make jokes about the towns we saw, such as “Ben bro,” “gooberville” and “rude way.”

We stopped at a mineral shop I know near Fortuna where we looked for examples of Garnet. I noted that there was red and green garnet. We found some pyrite and some obsidian and some Jasper. After that, we went through Eureka and Arcata straight away, and I noted that the bike path on the bay and the rail to Blue Lake were both the same rails to trails project and the boys kind of understood.

I had been trying to send my North Country contacts updates and once I got to Trinidad the road cleared out enough that I was able to call both of them. After that, we headed through the Humboldt Lagoons and Prairie Creek. I took a picture of the golden bears on the Klamath River Bridge. The boys kept ignoring me in favor of their devices. Several times they tried to go to sleep, but couldn’t. They also couldn’t drink soda because of the G-forces from the turns.

I made it to Crescent City just before 6pm, which was 10 minutes later than I had predicted. However, I had wanted to be there at 2. When we dropped the rental car off at the airport they told us the plane from the Bay Area was four hours late because of operational issues. That was good news for me because it indicated that the one-way car rental was actually the better investment. For the week prior to our trip, I had been doing many calculations in my mind over whether to take a bus, a car or the airplane. So it turned out that the morning’s delay was not so bad.

My older brother showed up around then and he took us to the only sushi place in town. We discussed our plans for the week. I was very concerned about “dumping the boys“ on my brother but he takes them from me every year so they were used to it. The problem I realized I was actually having was that we weren’t going do any processing about our day and that I was going to miss them.

The boys understood that I wouldn’t be seeing them for a while and did what they could to smooth things over. My brother then left me at the KOA in Jedidiah Smith Redwoods saying goodbye with a sad face and the three of them drove off to Oregon for five days.

I walked over to site 603 at the campground they had left me at, where my old college classmate was hosting the half of his extended family who couldn’t fit in his house. There were about twenty people there, most of whom I knew.

My old classmate was sitting with a few people I knew pretty well but then I started to recognize his mom, brothers, all of his aunts and a few of his cousins and uncles. I said hi to each one as I saw them. I noted that there were a lot of kids. Some of his family had already left but others were staying another night.

While there I got to know a friend of his family, a geologist, who was new to me. My host had been specific that I should talk to him. We said goodbye to everyone at 9:30 and the geologist and I followed our host back to his house. We stayed up really late looking at rocks and learned how to use a loop and the different tools needed to test rocks. We actually talked about all sorts of stuff.

Our host did a lot of talking and eventually I slept in the lower bunk of the same room as another guest – my host’s brother and his nephew. I woke at 5:45 and got up with the six family members at the house who were headed to the airport. We shared pleasantries and farewells.

After that I was basically just sitting around the house for a few hours. I had brought my work computer. So, I logged in and made some emails. I also did laundry and dishes. I fell asleep too.

When my host showed up again with groceries, We went and got our mutual acquaintance, a nurse, to go to the river. We all rode in my host’s tiny Tacoma and, after a brief stop at the KOA to say a final goodbye to everyone, headed out to the Smith River in the National Park a short distance from highway 199.

We put out a cooler and chatted about river rocks, etc. My companions had snorkels but I wasn’t any good at using the one that they gave me. I could only use the goggles and I ended up hyperventilating. We remembered old times while floating around. The water was amazingly warm. Both of them had visited me several times in the last decade in SF and each of those experiences revealed themselves to me like they were only yesterday.

We swam back to the car and chatted a bit before driving to town. We helped get our nurse acquaintance’s tire off and then we went to the gas station for air and then we had some beer. We also visited a property they discussed buying. There had been a bevy of new auxiliary dwelling unit laws passed which made the investment worthwhile. I found a rock in the backyard.

At that point we considered going surfing but only our host decided to go. Waiting for him to return we sat in the kitchen chatting. When he got back, I started writing. They were making fish for dinner.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Drakes Head

On August 3, 2025, I wrote that I caught a Golden Gate Transit bus at Bush and Van Ness. I arrived quickly in San Rafael where I transferred to the 68. My trip up Drake Boulevard involved many of the same kinds of loops as the other rural buses in Marin.

At Fairfax, I downloaded to my map cache to get a better look at all of the different driveways and turns along the way. The drive followed a lot of road cyclists and I felt the driver was very polite, turning out in several places.

At Olema, I learned my friend was nearby so I got off the bus and got some coffee. I was there for barely a second before getting into her car. We drove to Inverness Park. She got us a sandwich and a Coca-Cola. Then we continued our drive, climbing past Pierce Beach Drive.

While we were driving, I noted that the trees around Tomales Bay are a source of inspiration for an artist I am acquainted with in the town of Point Reyes Station. The trees are generally funny looking and she had done a lot of true-to-form vernacular paintings of them.

At Estuary Drive, we packed my backpack and descended to Drakes Bay on the Estuary Trail. I noted that Open Street Map calls it White Gate Trail.

On the walk-through a small forest, we encountered a man with a bike and a companion, who said there was a boy of ahead of us whose mother is using chocolate to bribe him to catch up. Sure enough, about a quarter mile ahead we encountered a boy taking his time and his mother waiting ahead. We decided to jog by him.

After that, we encountered a small bridge and while crossing we found that the estuary was going through a slack tide. We didn’t stop but instead ascended a small hill and descended to another lagoon. This one had a levy and no bridge.

We then ascended to a loan eucalyptus and we tried to set up for a small snack, but it turned out there were bees underneath the logs there. So, we moved onto to the next lagoon – our third this time – and onward to the Drake‘s head trail fork.

That highpoint was Drake’s Head proper, but the trail takes you down to the prominent point from which you can see much of the estuary. Unfortunately, we didn’t take the fork over Drake’s Head but instead descended into what I later learned is named Sunset Beach. This caused uncertainty since at the time we thought we were going to Sunshine Beach.

We passed between a series of small ponds and as we moved along there were a bunch of spots where the gating was designed to channel cows away from the trail edge. I noted that it was a kind of natural grading. As we descended into Sunset Beach we passed a lagoon and a few people on the trail.

This was clearly the end of the trail. We ended up between the head lands out near Lemantour and Drake’s Spit which seem tantalizingly close but are actually on the other side of the estuary. We sat on the rocky shore there and ate our sandwich and drank our Coke.

My notes called it a beach but it was a rocky shoreline. There was some sand but the spot we were at was obviously a marginal location, and more or less was the end of the trail. We looked at rocks. Everything was sandstone. My companion pointed out a phenomenon called tafoni, where the ocean’s action causes pitting in the rock. She explained that the seaweed was actually called eel grass. We also identified the carcass of a seal or a sea lion.

We could’ve continued down the shoreline around Drake‘s Head to a point where both spits are visible and even eventually connect to the Drakes Head trail. However, we concluded that it would be best to turn back. Had we wanted to go to Sunshine Beach that we should have gone left before descending from Drakes Head.

Walking back we noted that the seagulls were fighting over stuff in the estuary as the slack tide switched to a rising tide. Back on the trail we told everyone we saw that the trail had petered out for us. We returned to the lagoon and while climbing the trail we noted how the cows had left their mark everywhere. We saw giant black stink bugs.

Back on top of Drakes Head, we passed a lady with a stroller which puzzled me given how far we out we were. I noted, as we passed the trail fork, that turning right would take us to Sunshine beach, which was my companion’s memory at that point. However, we were done and going back to the trail head.

I noted that there is no trail to Sunshine Beach on the Google app. However, we did not have any cell phone service. We walked back past the small ponds and the three lagoons. We also passed cyclists and discovered we were only a few steps behind a couple.

The last two hills were really difficult so afterwards we stopped at the bridge. The air was nice there. The slack tide had clearly ended.

The rest of the walk was pleasant and quiet. We packed up and drove to Inverness. I looked at Mount Vision on the map. I noted that the hills are impressive and obviously made of something more substantive than sandstone. I couldn’t figure it out though.

We passed through Inverness, stopped in Inverness Park and continued into San Rafael to eat at Sol Food. The meal was really good – even the hot sauce.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

We all went over to Olympic Valley

On July 26, 2025, I wrote that Friday morning. I woke up in the hiker biker campsite in DOnner State Park on the second to last day of my vacation to donner pass with my kids.

The guy camping next to us was from the Netherlands. He was finishing up three months on the Pacific crest Trail.

The boys were enthusiastic enough to get on the bikes and ride to Mountain Brew, the recently opened café on Deerfield. I bought our dutch friend a drip coffee when he walked by heading to the bus stop.

When we were done with our breakfast, the boys and I rode our bikes to the boat dock and then stopped at Donner Lake beach before we rode South Shore drive to Red Mountain drive. The stuff in southside Highlands neighborhood is all paved. We climbed up to Judah Drive and charted a route through the local forest paths to Lakeview Canyon up Devil’s Peak Drive.

At the end of Devils Peak Drive there is a mansion that was in the midst of construction at the time. Normally, I would explore the driveway to figure out if there’s an easier way through. However, we took the path that I know best there and we climbed up to the Lakeview drive spur. The climb up that path is steep. So, we got into a work process where the boys would push and I would steer.

Once we had climbed to the forest road above Devils Peak Drive, we took a rest and looked around. We found a machine which had been left behind by the foresters on the dirt road. We walked our bikes for a bit and caught our breath and I was able to identify an alternate path which descended back to the halfway completed mansion on Devils Peak Drive. I decided it had probably been abandoned or was possibly a deer trail. I got photographs of a township marker and returned to the bikes. From that point, the rest of the route to Donner Pass was dirt or gravel.

A short while later we had ridden to Lakeview Canyon Drive. From there we climbed to a branch of Lakeview Canyon Creek and continued until we got to the main branch of the creek, getting a little lost along the way. it was raining by the time we got to there. We pushed through to the Union Pacific right of way then, where we had the rest of our Gatorade and snack bars.

The ride along the old rail right of way from there is tedious – I had done it a few times – because it is gravel. We looked at tunnel 41 when we got up there in the rain before pushing onward to the rest of the abandoned tunnels.

I took a bunch of selfies at the entrance to the tunnel. I took in the view and the cloudy air. We got our flashlights on and entered the tunnels. The first four lengths were interesting and I took a lot of pictures. I especially took pictures of Donner Peak.

It was kinda hot and a little steamy after the rain had quit. I found the stretches of tunnel – I like to call them galleries – which I most enjoy. The boys were both enthusiastic at that point, and it was hard to keep up. We zoomed through the last length.

In the last tunnel, I bumped my leg and it hurt for the rest of the day. However, I didn’t have trouble getting through the last segments and getting photos of the entrance. At this point the air was hot and muggy and the boys were a little worn out and disspirited.

At Donner Ski Ranch Old 40 we had beverages and fries. I had a Ferrari and they had Mug Root Beer and an Orange Crush. They put dollars on the ceiling as is tradition. From there we climbed to Donner Pass on our bikes and our descent was so fast, I barely got photos.

It started raining seriously when we got to West Donner pub where we had a meal. I mostly ate salad. There was F1 racing on the televisions, and the boys were totally into it. When I asked them about it, they said it was not formula racing. It was something else. A family I had seen in the tunnels was sitting at a table adjacent to us.

I took the boys to Donner Lake Village after that and visited a ice cream franchise which we had also visited a day and a half before in Tahoe City. Once we were done, we quickly rode to South Shore to the campgrounds.

When the rain set in, it was a bit heavy but welcome because it was hot out. The other campers we had met that morning were at the site were there but there were additional campers too. As with most of the others the new people told us their stories about their progress along the Pacific Crest Trail. It turns out to be pretty common for through hikers to end their trip in Truckee because they have to attend events like weddings or otherwise.

I chatted while clearing out a dry spot on the bear box organizing our gear before winding down with the boys. It was pretty late as we settled in sleep at that point. It was dry in the boys tent but I was sleeping outside. However, I had a new blanket, which turned out to be pretty helpful. We were good after that but my leg hurt from the fall in the tunnel all night.

We got up at at 8:45. My sister let us know that she would meet us at Mountain Brew. So, we packed up and said bye to everyone at the site before riding to the coffee shop. I noted that all of that went really well. Once we got there and let my sister know I needed to pay for my reservation at the campground. I rode over to do that and when I got back, I noted that my brother-in-law had bought me a coffee.

Later we rode across Cold Canyon to meet them at the bike shop and drop off the bikes. The air was Petrichor. Once the bikes were squared away, we all went over to Olympic Valley to go on a hike.

I had wanted to go to Silver Campground and look at the bridge, but there was no parking. So, instead we went to the playground at the entrance to Olympic Canyon. The rain had actually gotten heavier. We ate sandwiches in the toy train. It was really cramped. There was only enough room for three adults and the boys crammed themselves into corners. I got a picture of it. It was actually pretty cute.

We walked up the bike path and I asked all of the cyclists along the trail about Access to the Deer Creek Trail (behind Silver Campground) but no one wanted to give me information. The boys ran away when I wanted to look at the rocks with them and my sister was really far ahead of us. I found them at the Alpine Meadows Bridge. There was a coffee shop there and everyone was inside. The rain was still happening, but it’s so periodic that it wasn’t really an issue.

My son asked how long until his ho cocoa would take. So, I went up to the front counter and asked. The lady didn’t know that I was part of the family. She had an Alaska shirt on and I asked her about it and her aunt had been the one who gave it to her. She was local though. There was also a sign that said “Free Beer Tomorrow” and everyone was amused by it.

When we were done with our meal, everyone except for one of my boys ran away from me again. At the 89 overpass we found them hiding from the rain. It was at that point that a bunch of cyclist came down the Western States Trail and I asked them about Deer Creek Access. Again, no one wanted to help me. My son stayed with me again on the walk until we got to the car.

I showed him tuff from the side of the trail as we walked. I noted that it is brittle. He said it doesn’t seem so tough and I thought that was really funny.

My sister and brother-in-law dropped us off at West River House (previously The Red Light Hostel). After we said goodbye, we went inside and we got our iPads out. Later on we went to Bar of America for salad and chicken tenders. I got sliders actually. We went back to the room and played iPad. The room had a full bed with a bunkbed against the far wall. The bunkbed was pretty cool. The boys loved it. There were trains all night.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Truckee Thursday

On July 24, 2025, I wrote that the day before we had spent the day on the shore of Lake Tahoe and slept OK. We woke up really early at Base Camp Hotel. I left them with their iPads and I got coffee in the lobby, which was a really good idea.

At 10 we packed our bags and checked out before walking to Rosie‘s at around 11:45. The meal was great. We quickly walked to the transit center but the bus was leaving at a different time than what the app was telling us.

The bus dropped us on Deerfield near the Post Office. I started a load at the laundromat and we headed over to the bike shop to rent bikes before we walked to the campground.

The walk went fast enough. We were carrying those big backpacks. So, we took a break at Donner Creek. Then we crossed Cold Creek and passed through the neighborhood there before entering the Donner State Park at Cold Canyon Road. We found the path into the campground. We selected the same hiker biker site we had been at previously next to another tent.

I went back to the laundromat without our big bags. We got the laundry and got our rental bikes. I had a drink a juice at Starbucks. We rode River Road to downtown and I looked at the different hotels there. I booked a room for the coming Saturday at West River house, which was was previously the Red Right Hostel.

Later we went to the pizzeria where we played the one arcade machine in the downtown area. It was Truckee Thursday, which is a crazy time in that town. We walked to the ice cream parlour before we rode to Sierra College on our way back to the campground. We bought snacks and some lights at CVS for the next day. Then we rushed through the dark to the campground.

We managed to avoid losing some of our stuff from our bag. ONe of the boys was really sad that he had dropped something but we found it. When we got to the campground, we re-organized and got in our bags.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

We Walked to Base Camp

July 23, 2025, I wrote that the day before we had spent the day on the shore of Lake Tahoe and had set up at the Tahoe city campground.

I had done everything once I’ve finished writing so I just got in my sleepingbag. It was cold so I had everything on. I noted that I can’t really sleep on hard ground so ended up turning three positions all night.

By about seven in the morning, the boys miraculously packed all their sleeping bags and broke the tent down. We thanked the camp host and walked over to Connection Coffee for breakfast. I charged my phone just enough and then we walked to Base Camp Hotel.

We dropped a bag at the hotel and walked to the laundromat and started a load. After that, I left the boys in the playground to contemplate the lake. It had been pretty cool the whole time we had been traveling so I had to wait until it was warm enough out at around 3 o’clock to go swimming in the big lake.

We walked back on the waterfront and checked into the hotel. We walked to Bridge Keeper then and had dinner. Later we stopped at the ice cream and then walked back to the hotel. It cooled down significantly at 4:30 and we were cold when we got back.

 
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

We visited Split Rock.

On July 22, 2025, I wrote that the day before I left on Amtrak with my nine year old boys to embark on a vacation to Donner Lake and Lake Tahoe. The train had left a little late. When we boarded the train, I know I took two naps but I was not exactly certain when. I started writing and then I took a nap but at that point the train… I guess it was in the Yuba Canyon someplace.

One of the boys was being weird in the observation car so I decided that we needed to return to our seats and I gave them their iPads. I know I took a nap then. I woke up someplace near Donner Pass. I had a coke while watching the view from the observation car. The boys tried to have some of my drink but by the time they had it, it was gone.

At Soda Springs we looked at the sights and as the train we descended into the Donner Lake we packed up. When we got off, I took the boys to the Mexican restaurant even though I have started to bring food for the trip as back up. The plan of course is to eat it eventually, but it is just there to make certain we have something.

One of the boys spilled his root beer but it turned out OK. It wasn’t too hot outside but the mess fixed itself pretty quickly. We took the local transit service, TART Connect, to the Donner Lake Campgrounds. It is a free ride share offered locally. When we arrived, I selected one of the two backpacker sites. We set up the tent and I put everything away.

We visited split rock and I got some cool sunset pictures. I texted with friends and siblings. Everyone missed me or asked for pictures. I was overly chatty. I texted a picture to my family’s group chat. My older sister, who lives in Reno, told us that she wanted to see us the coming Saturday as we were winding down. So, I spoke to the boys and we agreed to go to Tahoe city the next day so we could be back at Donner Lake to meet her.

When we settled in, I realized I really needed to go to sleep. Strangely, after the boys had nodded off in their tent, a police car drove through. I was in the sleeping bag at that point and for some reason they needed to lean out of the car and say there were bears… Or perhaps they said “They were bears..” I wasn’t entirely certain but I knew that it would work out. It was overcast as we feel asleep and it even rained a little bit.

When we got up in the morning of the day that I wrote this, I had the boys break the site down as soon as we were able. We were all really groggy. I had a can of cold brew ready in my food stash. Sadly, the boys didn’t want to move around too much.

We eventually got everything rolled up and packed. It turned out we had enough room in our bags and the boys kinda were learning how to do it on their own. We walked to the entrance station for the park and I paid for our campground. We then walked to Cold Creek and caught the bus to Highway 89.

I looked at the post office when we got off and it was closed for some reason. We went to Starbucks where I showed them pictures of Olympic Valley. As our travels usually involve a lot of active travel (bikes, transit or walking), it can sometimes take a while to get them focused on the trip. I often have to use incentives like ipads or cookies. However, there are always moments with they don’t want to stop using their iPads or they lag and say everything is boring.

I put effort into reviewing the bus schedule and was miraculously able to get us onto the bus to Tahoe City then. When we got to the Tahoe city campground, the host gave us the ADA because the hikers in the hiker site were the no-good-rowdy-troublesome kind. The boys pitched our tent. One of them wanted to sleep outside – like his dad does–but I said no.

We stopped by Safeway then and went to the hotel across the street where I ordered a last minute reservation (they were booked solid for that night). After that we returned to the campsite and paid. I noted that the host was really nice. We walked the lake trail to the playground. I saw a pizza place on the way.

The boys loved the climbing wall at the playground. There were a lot of other kids there too. There was some private corporate party on the beach. However, it was overcast enough that there wasn't much novelty to being there. Occasionally there was even a little bit of rain.

It was pleasant and we had a lot of fun though. I let the boys run off and found something else to do. I think that the boys were embarrassed I was near them due to the number of kids around.

Later, the boys and I walked the trail to pizza, which was good. The dining room was really busy and we ended up sitting on the veranda. I walked around the restaurant and discovered there was a whole unused dining room upstairs– for special parties, I assumed.

We returned to the playground and got some ice cream. The sunset alpenglow on the tallest mountains above southlake was beautiful. I noted that my older sister was actually across the way at Sand Beach for an ABBA cover band.

We walked back to the campground and the boys got in their bags. I took the time to start writing.
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Prepare for Our Donner Trip

On July 21, 2025, I wrote that I spent the weekend preparing for a vacation to Donner Lake and Lake Tahoe I had planned for my nine year old boys and I on Amtrak.

I picked them up from the ferry building the day before – they had just finished a trip to the Southern Yolla Bolly Mountains earlier in the week. We stopped through Sunday Streets on the way home. We saw the organizer and a few other people before heading back to the apartment. Then, later, I took them to REI to get them boots.

After dinner that night, we created a schedule for the morning. I have found that step especially useful because the kids see the times and make the connection. It also generates a sense of anticipation which I find drives their resolve to get out of the house. As they got ready for bed I could see that they were intent on getting a good sleep. I spent a few more hours packing as I had had no other opportunity to make get my stuff together that week.

I set an alarm and slept until 5:10a. It goes without saying that the boys followed the plan and we got out of the house by 6:20a. We caught a bus to Salesforce Tower and boarded the Capital Corridor bus to Emeryville.

At the station we ended up waiting three hours because federal cuts made less maintenance work. I thought that this was the ultimate irony given how nervous I had been getting ready. I was dead–I still was when I was writing about the day in my notebook.

When the train finally arrived, I had just finished showing them a greenstone fountain across the street. On the train we had had coffee and hot cocoa. The boys played iPad and I took a nap. The car was relatively new and the lounge downstairs was really different.

I sat with the boys to the café car and we played Uno, drank soda and had sandwiches. They got restless but didn’t fight too much. I gave them notebooks and iPads. They took naps too. I ended up carrying one of them to his seat after I was done writing.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

West Point

On July 14, 2025, I wrote that Saturday night. My friend and I sat on the rocks behind the hotel we were staying at in Volcano – the Union Hotel. We saw a rabbit as we wandered over to the amphitheater. Sadly, the show was a private affair. Back at the hotel, we had to watch the Return of the King DVD because Two Towers was missing from the library.

I got up lazy the next morning at around 8:15 but we got going quickly. We went downstairs and had French toast. I was really content with my morning.

We drove to Highway 26 and we descended to the Mokelumne Crossing. It was a bit late so it was hot. We got the bikes out and tried riding the canal trail in the direction of Tiger Creek Reservoir. We had to stop in shade several times and we decided to take it easy at that point. I only wanted to see if the road between the reservoir and the highway connected anyway.

We gave up on going swimming and we went to West Point instead. We got a drink at Willow‘s restaurant. We even met Willow. She seemed like a nice lady. We had thought they opened later, but they were actually closing for the day.

I suggested we take a drive up the hill on Winton and we agreed that might be a nice idea. The drive gave me insight into the area and views of the Mokelumne River, Blue Mountain, Bear River and Blue Creek. It was a breath of fresh air for both of us.

When we returned to West Point, we went to the VFW. They told us about the nonprofit up the street, a supper club promoting local schools. So, we went there and discovered they were having their weekly dinner deal fundraiser. They offered us tri-tip and mac & cheese. The food was great and we were really happy about the whole experience.

We returned to the river then. It was not too late, but I only got in once. We clapped for a little girl jumping in the water. We decided that the water was too quick for real swimming though. So, we drove up to 88 then. I looked at a couple of other roads as we drove back. One went to the hardware store. We descended to Volcano and had a small meal and a drink.

The evening was pleasant. We went for a walk. There was an old apartment complex or something maybe part of the (now closed) St. George Hotel. We found two phone booths. We walked along the creek. There was a big mansion kind of house there. We watched Merchant of Venice from the DVD library at the hotel.

The next day, we got up and left at 6:45. There was food in the fridge for us. We drove to Pine Grove, Ridge, over to Highway 16 and out to Rancho Murietta.

After we got gas, we went through Sacramento to Vacaville and arrived in Vallejo a short while later. We got on Highway 37 and went to Novato. Most of the drive was unnoteworthy, but we had scones from the Union Hotel. We were stoked about seeing birds in the North Bay as we drove along. We put folk and country on the sound system.

We hit a bunch of traffic then but we got to the toll plaza a short while later. Then I dropped my companion off and after I unpacked I dropped the car off at the car rental place and caught a bus to work.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Garnet Hill

On July 12, 2025, I wrote that my friend and I got up at 7:30 and had breakfast downstairs in our hotel in Volcano, California. We left by around 9 and drove to Pioneer to look at maps, get gas and pack a lunch.

From there we descended to Lower Tiger Creek Reservoir and proceeded to the upper reservoir. I noted that it was paved most of the way but there was gravel in spots. Eventually, we transferred onto Salt Springs Road but it wasn’t really obvious where. As we had no cell coverage, I was relying on a cached mapping application on my phone.

The roads’ names changed with no transition so I had to stop to consult the map a lot. I discovered that Salt Springs’s connection to the highway there was actually closed so it was good that I had selected Tiger Creek Road. However, that also made me concerned that we would encounter another barrier somewhere. Luckily we were following the main aqueduct between Tiger and Salt Springs Reservoirs so it looked like, both on the map and in person, that we were on the right track.

Our anxiety over which way we were going continued until we got to Bear River though. The drive was really interesting and it took a really long time because the road was narrow, winding and steep. We thankfully had a lot of conversations on the way. When we crossed Bear River we noticed a guy with a bike and a potential swimming hole. That was about where we descended into Moore Creek Campground and crossed the Mokelumne River.

We arrived at the “Coast to Crest” Garnet Hill Trailhead one and a half hours late – at around noon. I think the total time for the drive was 2 1/2 hours. We put our hiking boots on then and began our ascent, which begins in a southeasterly direction. There were pick up trucks on the road ahead of us, one with a winch.

Basically, the Garnet Hill trail is an unimproved road which climbs above Moore Creek but follows its southeastern trajectory. It is primitive but because it’s in the national forest and not close to wilderness, people can drive their cars anywhere they want as long as it’s on a road. There are a few spurs which branch off to the creek at the intervals where the trail switches to the north.

I noted that the terrain is really rugged but passable for a four-wheel-drive. For instance, as we topped out on the second switchback, we passed a pick up truck owned by, what appeared to be, based upon plates and stickers, a professional geologist. It was parked on a northbound spur. No one we saw on the road knew who owned it though.

Halfway up the hill, my friend noted that the heat was slowing her down. So, I traded my bag with her to lessen her load. The temperature was pretty high.The grade was really difficult at this point too. We sometimes could only go a few yards before having to rest. I was also kind of worried about water consumption.

As we approached the base of the hill around the fifth switchback, the trail began trending in an eastward direction. We met two guys on a walk. Then we entered a more forested area on the south facing slope. At that point Moore Creek had already ascended into it’s own canyon and we were on the side of Garnet Hill proper.

Two switchbacks later we arrived at the saddle where the Coast to Crest Trail ascends to the top of Moore Creek. To the east we could see the granite walls of Calaveras Dome. This was where the trail we wanted split off to the west as it began the final ascent to the top of Garnet Hill. The forest was a little more sparse there. We met a couple who had just concluded their day searching for gems.

A short while later, my companion found the “dump“ on the east side of the hill. On the geology maps I was using this indicated a place where a bunch of rock had either been dropped or left behind from a dig. There was plenty of evidence of human activity there. The trail to the dump was exactly where the documents I had printed said it would be. Using that as a guide I began to understand how to interpret my surroundings.

From here the trail made its final stretch on the south side of the hill. As we approached the top, we were finally able to identify the veins of coarse-grained metamorphic rocks known as skarn which were formed by the contact metamorphism found in the area.

This was essentially where the ruins of the mine began and we immediately found numerous interesting specimens. I was amazed at how I could discern the way carbonate-bearing rocks had been replaced in the parent material as metamorphism progressed. In fact the geology was so varied at that point it was hard to stay focused on reaching the two landings at the top.

The first landing was clearly set up as a staging area for equipment when the mine was in operation. I gathered, based upon everything I knew about the location, that the central vein was just scraped out of the pit below and loaded onto trucks to be shipped to labs and processing plants elsewhere. The literature showed that a lot of chromite rich ore (tectites) had been mined from the location but it wasn’t economical so the mine had been abandoned.

We poked around in the dust and rocks for a good hour and identified a lot of different types of rock and minerals–mostly gneiss and garnet but there are accounts that epidote and other minerals have been identified. I was very tired at this point and was having trouble navigating the dust and sand.

We ended up climbing to the second landing–the actual top of Garnet Hill–separately. I looked out over the Mokelumne to the west and Salt Springs Reservoir to the East and knew I could see some of the towns we had visited in getting to the place. However, lacking cell reception I could only stare in awe.

I found my companion there sitting under a tree drinking water. We were really tired but not defeated. I encountered more stunning examples of the place's mineral beauty as we descended. My companion was ahead of me at first and at some point I actually started being concerned at our separation.

We got to the bottom at 3:30 and once we had gotten into the car and cooled down, we drove to Salt Springs Reservoir and dipped our feet in. The people with the pick ups we had seen earlier and the one with the winch were all at the lake. There were a bunch of other cars there too. After we parked and viewed the lake from the dam, I noted that there appeared to be a causeway that runs from the reservoir partially around the shore of the lake, but the trail actually ascends above the lake quite a bit. According to the map, it goes all the way back to the end of the canyon.

We wanted to go to the swim place my friend saw but the air had begun cooling for the late afternoon and we weren’t certain about the best way out. So, we decided to just head to Highway 88. I found Ellis on my maps easily enough but wasn’t certain about it until we had made it down into the canyon and up to the Bear River crossing.

As we climbed out of the Bear RIver we figured out where Ellis was using my map cache and local signage and we were able to get to Highway 88 pretty quickly. It was only a bit later that we made it to Volcano for a delicious fried chicken dinner.

We walked around town for a bit. We didn’t see any bats.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Underground Lakes

On July 11, 2025, I wrote that I had rented an all wheel drive vehicle the day before and when I woke that morning. I drove to get coffee before heading over to my friend’s house where she loaded her things into the car.

We went over the bridge and took 580 through Livermore. We got gas at Vasco Road and headed over Altamont Pass and onward to Stockton. Eventually we turned on to 88 and took Highway 49 to Sutter Creek. I told stories of the fun times I had had there while we looked at the shops and book store.

From there we headed up Sutter Creek Road and visited the Black Chasm Cavern National Natural Landmark. We had barely made it in time for the cavern tour, which turned out to be fantastic. There are a bunch of underground lakes there. They showed us the fairy cave which I thought was amazing. I bumped my head, but it was OK. I noted that the map they showed us in the visitor center afterwards was really interesting. There was also a geode display that the kids in the tour were ecstatic about.

When we were ready to go, we drove to the Town of Volcano and checked in to our tiny hotel. We had beers in the lobby and we walked over to the grocery store. We also visited Volcano Park and had dinner at the pub. The fried chicken was really good. Later we walked up to the cemetery and sat on the stoop and on the porch to manage the extreme heat of the late afternoon. That night we found Lord of The Rings in a stack of DVDs next to the antiquated player in our room.

 
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

We Climbed Candlestick Hill

On June 16, 2025, I wrote that my friend showed up with sandwiches before we went to the old quarry on Geneva Avenue to look at turbidites, which are fine-grained “anomalous” geologic deposits, most often shales, of turbidity currents. After that we drove over to Bayshore Park to look at the outcrops from the Franciscan Complex which makes up most of the geology of the Bay Area.

Later we climbed Candlestick Hill and I tried to figure out the specific materials of the rock. I found stuff which might be described as metabasite but there was a lot of serpentine as well. We looked at the tank on top and looked at the radio tower before returning to the bottom.

We went to the brewery nearby for a beer. The board games there were not enough so we continued to discuss geology. Later we returned to the Mission for a drink and a slice of pizza. We also ended up watching the movie Paprika.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

East Bay Bike Party

On June 14, of 2025, I wrote that the day before I got my bike and left for East Bay Bike Party at 7pm. I went to the empanada place before boarding a train and going to Mosswood Park near MacArthur Station in Oakland. I found some close friends at the entrance. I finally was able to meet a personality from social media from Las Vegas who I had known for a long time.

I noted that other social media personalities I knew were there also. An old school cyclist with a penchant for posting pics of sandwiches was there which was really cool. Turned out I know the lady who was marvelously leading with the flag was there too. She was leading the ride with a cyclist who normally brings his disco ball trailer.

The ride went one way and another, but ended up on California. I noted that my buddy from SF took a turn. I chatted with two riders with cargo bikes just like mine about how my motor had died. The ride leader’s daughter did North Berkeley turns.

The ride ended up on an alley in Berkeley. There were plenty of old school Butter Lap and SF Bike Party people. I saw a guy I knew from North Beach. I reconnected with an acquaintance from Butter Lap.

We left leisurely and went to a place in Emeryville near Amtrak. It was called Big Tank Park or something. The dancing was marvelous. I told the ride leader it was wild. People I knew but had never seen together were asking about each other.

We departed a bit late. The ride leader took us to Seventh Street via Target. By Mandela we had lost a lot of people, but there was a lot of dancing at Lake Merritt. I got selfies with the regulars including my buddy who has a tall bike. I saw the ride leader’s roommate.

I hopped a BART train home with all of the people and when I got home, I had a grilled cheese sandwich.
This is an occasional series chronicling my life.

This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

China Wall

On a Saturday in June of 2025, I wrote that I got up seven in the morning I got my 8 year old boys awake. We left at 10:45 on our bikes and took BART to the East Bay. I showed them some geography from the train windows on the way. The boys wanted to know how long Caldicott Tunnel was.

At Pleasant Hill, we stopped at Starbucks on the way to Shell Ridge. The ride up the Ironhorse trail and Canal trail went quick. The grounds staff yelled at us in Diablo Hills Golf Course but we passed them easily. The boys complained at the crossing of near Muir Hospital. However, we managed to get past that as we entered the open spaces.

The first and second climb were hard. I had to fix one of the boys’ had to fix his derailers. I showed him how to do it. I probably should’ve taken his bike to the shop the week before. The third climb was really hard though. It was literally 500 feet. I had to help the boys with their bikes again.

We descended to Borges Ranch where I caught my breath. The boys drank water and had snack snacks. There was a Boy Scout troop from Lafayette. Their tents were in the Sun which I thought was funny. We climbed to Borges Vista then. We actually had to walk some of the way.

However, the boys were in good spirits. We headed on towards China Wall then. There weren't any names for the paths, but this one had a pond and was “the west route.“ I noted that there was a water tower near the top of that path.

We encountered a herd of cows. I asked them to get out of the way. After that, one of the boys abruptly got off his bike and freaked out a horse who had been following us. I tried to get the bikes above the trail, but that made the horse gallup away.

When we crested there, we only had one valley to go. I took a wrong turn and had to go back, but one of the boys bombed a hill at that point and it was really cool. We got to China Wall around 4 o’clock and I got photos of Mammoth rock.

We rode back much of the same route, but after the cows and water tank and pond we stayed on the western route to avoid Borges Ranch to save elevation and time. I noted that that meant we had to skip getting more water.

We descended to the trailhead but opted to go to downtown Walnut Creek instead. The view was great. We managed the traffic along Homestead and Lakewood well enough and stopped at a good but expensive taqueria Broadway.

 
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

The SNRR Crossing

On May 26, of 2025, I wrote that the day before I had gone swimming in Lake Natomas near Nimbus Dam on the way to our hotel in Rancho Cordova. We got up at 7:45 and I found that an old college roommate who lived nearby suggested I visit. So, we packed up and rode over the pedestrian crossing at highway 50 through White Rock community park and onward to his place.

He made us pancakes and coffee was good. He and his family live in a cute little house near the Jedidiah Bike Path. His kid has a lot of toys. The boys played with him outside. When we left the kids across the street we asked Hank to come out and play.

The boys lead the way to big Bend Park after we said goodbye. We got water at big Bend. When I got across the bridge, I lost one of the boys and we raced ahead to find him. Eventually, we found him at the next water station farther down the path. I was greatly relieved we had found him.

Later, the boys led the way again. We were running behind at that point but we stayed on the American RIver levees past Howe and onward to CSUS. There was no service to be found on campus so we continued over past the Expo Center and under the 160 highway crossing as well as the SNRR crossing. We also passed the Blue Diamond Plant. We had coffee at a coffee shop on seventh then right before boarding a train at 2:55. Everything turned out perfect. I noted that our next stop while I was writing was Richmond.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Jump in Lake Natomas

On May 25, of 2025, I wrote that I had gone to bed exhausted after the bike ride I had gone on with my 9 year old boys the day before in Browns Ravine at Folsom Lake. The boys got up around 8 o’clock in the morning in the hotel room I had gotten for us for the night in Folsom’s Historic District.

We checked out late and went looking for breakfast. The diner I liked no longer existed so we went to another place with long lines and high prices. When we were ready to go we rode the Natoma Trail. I made a video like I always do. The boys were really fast and they had no complaints. They chased each other, but eventually they were making each other nuts so I asked them to stop.

The bridges along Highway 50 had no jumpers. Normally 20 something year-old kids will hang out on the lake there to jump into the water 10 feet below. However, I did see a lot of bikes parked there. There were also a lot of electric bikes everywhere. I made the boys jump in Lake Natomas when we got to Nimbus Dam. While it wasn’t especially hot that day, the swimming area there is really great.

We rode to the fish hatchery and then we crossed over the Fair Oaks Bridge to visit the small town of Fair Oaks. I noted that the boys are a riot when they ride together. When we crossed back over the Fair Oaks Bridge headed to the Sunrise Bl Bike Path, the boys almost went the wrong way down the Jedidiah Smith trail because the path off makes a big clover leaf there.

As I had gotten a room for us on the far side of Highway 50, I was trying out the Sunrise Bike Path as a way to avoid extra work crossing big boulevards and it has the extra benefit of crossing under Highway 50 and passing near Sunrise Station.

Surprisingly, I found that the route is not only easier to use but it also goes through a group of hotels – two which had amenities comparable to I had booked for that night. I decided to keep it in mind for the next trip I made through the area.

While crossing Folsom Boulevard to Mercantile Road, we inadvertently passed the connection to the Folsom South Canal so we connected to it at Sunrise Bl. So, we were only on it for about a mile. I also missed getting a photo of that area. After that we connected to a neighborhood with a long and well made bike path called the Villages at Zinfandel on International Drive. That got us a stone’s throw from the hotel I had booked on Quality Drive.

We had stayed there a few times and liked the hotel a lot there but the place is literally a giant parking lot. When we had checked in, we did laundry and went swimming. I also found us a Chili’s and when we went back to the hotel, I got the boys mochi.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

The Granite of Granite Bay

On May 24, of 2025, I wrote that we woke at 6:45 at a hotel in the Folsom Historic District and I was able to get my nine year old boys to organize by 7:45. We went downstairs and had fppd before riding over the rainbow bridge and up to Folsom Lake crossing by 9:30.

One of the boys was riding pretty slow but we took in the cool air on the way and got photos. The route I was counting on for accessing the lake shore no longer existed so we went to the next available access at Natoma Street. I noted that access to the lakeside was poorly maintained.

The boys and I looked at mafic stones there— it’s called La Colina Del Lago. The joint between the granite of Granite Bay and the Gabro pluton above New York Creek is right about at the reservoir’s main levee. I found levees four and five really interesting. The gravels, which were all likely brought into the area by truck had both granite and mafic rocks in it.

We followed some e-Bikes over to the lakeshore. I had taken a stop to catch my breath, so the boys got a little bit ahead of me and they were so fast that I thought I had lost them. We went to Folsom Point. The air was still cool there and the boys were skipping rocks. Levee Seven was undergoing construction, so the ride ended up being terrible through there. I couldn’t tell if we could get to Brown’s Ravine, but I used our binoculars and that helped.

Once we made it to the other end of Levee Seven we found a gate blocking access to Green Valley Boulevard near the Sophia Parkway entrance. However, getting into Brown’s Ravine turned out to actually be possible. We went halfway up the lake side to a couple of paths and I was able to find a route into Brown’s assembly.

From there we ascended a couple of other forest paths to Francisco Drive and took a break ata cafe. The boys were righty tired from all of this exertion. We stopped at the store before riding up Kingston Street to visit Lake Forest Elementary where we had ginger ale and visited the playground. Some kid on an E bike kept buzzing us.

From there we followed the path near Inverness and went to Wolf Creek Lane. We had to leave the Lake Forest area around Francisco Drive to enter an adjacent are called Lake Hills. Unfortunately we found gates and fences barring a connection to the “Equestrian Village” near at the end of Wolf Creek Lane. So, instead, we rode Lake Hills Dr to Carnelian where we rode up Norwich to look at a hole under a fence.

From there we climbed Sheffield to Francisco and descended to Guadalupe. We took in the view at Encina both north and south before taking Loma Verde to Lake Hills (we saw the fence with the hole again). We returned to Lake Forest Elementary to take Francisco back to Starbucks. We passed through Brown’s Assembly, but this time went to Lakeridge Oaks Drive and descended to Green Valley, past the fence at Sophia Parkway and along Levee Seven. The last climb was hard.

Once we had rested the ride resumed from Folsom Point to the Johnny Cash Trail. I noted that one of the boy’s bikes was having a chronic problem. The real rear derailer was hard to figure out. It had a lot of problems. However, we descended from there to the Folsom Historic District with no problems beside that. Once we had re-organized at our hotel room, we had some Pizza at Classico and headed to Fat Rabbit for dessert.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

The Sunshine Boulevard Train

On May 23, 2025, I wrote that around 11 in the morning, I got my 8 year old boys from school and we took the 1 bus to Market Street where we had stored our bikes. We then jumped on a Richmond BART Train.

I got Amtrak tickets there but forgot to get the return trip which isn’t always a problem but it can complicate the return since we are often in a rush. The air was warm. The boys did fine with getting to the platform and the boarding worked too. Unfortunately, the boys hadn’t understood that we just needed a seat – not necessarily seats together.

We settled in until Davis and got off fine. Not having my cargo bike made the experience a little better. We transferred to Sacramento Transit fine. I thought it was the Folsom train but it turned out to be the Sunshine Boulevard train. I resigned to having to transfer at the end of the line but when we got there our train had a broken door and was taken out of service onto a spare track for the repair instead of going back to sac.

This ended up, causing the flow of trains to be disrupted and there were several turn backs. Eventually after two missed trains, a new train was brought in from the other direction. This indicated it to me that it was actually a better idea to catch the first train out of Sacraento Valley Station because had we opted for the the Folsom train, we would’ve been off boarded because of the turn backs. So thankfully we ended up being only 40 minutes later than anticipated instead of as many as two hours later.

At Folsom, we checked into our hotel. I took a short nap. The boys and I discovered that the pool was closed, which was sad. I took the boys to a cute little pub in Old Town Folsom for sliders. They were pork and beef, which I discovered is really good. Also, I think they over salted it, but I also liked that.

The toy store across the street was great. The boys and I walked down to rainbow Bridge and then we went to the local ice cream shop. We visited the round house and stopped in at the hotel for a beverage. The boys played iPad while I napped. I finally got them to sleep and started writing in my notebook late.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Lake Solano

On May 12, 2025, I wrote that the previous Saturday the boys and I rode to Davis. The arrival in Davis crept up on us, but everything was packed well so we got off quick. I noted that my boys took care of the bags. We only had one kid’s bike so the other one would have to ride on the back of my cargo bike. I got us return tickets because I knew that the return trip is often rushed.

We went to Temple coffee and sat out in front and we ate for a little bit. I sent out some tweets. Then we visited the dorms and rode around the quad for a little bit. As my sons were trading the second bike back and forth, occasionally I would allow them to lead. Other times I would. As we crossed the 113 to Russell Blvd, I let my son lead until the path crossed the road and then they switched.

The boys were really into the tractors. Russell Blvd is long and easy to use as a cyclist given the separated bike paths and it is often the case that riding along this type of path warrants no comment. However, it should be noted that this portion of the ride was idyllic and had many sweeping views of the Vaca Mountains, local birds and various crops being tested in UC Davis’ experimental plots.

At Stevenson Bridge we made a quick stop and the boys switched again. Here one of them took the lead. Putah Creek (apparently, according to locals it is pronounced like the state “Utah”) is a long, low traffic road where “roadie” cyclists like to visit. It wasn’t very hot but the boys switched again before the town of Winters. The boys managed ok but occasionally they get worn out.

We hung out in town until I had gotten a few beverages. We had a pancake, eggs, etc. snack. After that we rode to the edge of town to see how the road network connects with Putah Creek. We found a wash there which runs the length of the west end of town. We also found a fun playground which had a lot of kids.

We continued then to Putah Creek Road and one of the boys volunteered to lead. We were concerned about cars since this section connects Winters to a town further south. However, that stream of traffic breaks off pretty quick. The road then turned into a series of right angle turns with short sightlines and a long dull rise.

The boys inevitably got worn out again despite their trading the extra bike. At the Lake Solano Canal we had to take a long break and give each other big hugs. At this point we could see much of the agricultural Lake Solano, with its flooded fields and orchards.

The other boy lead us through Pleasants Creek then and once we topped the hill there we arrived at the campground where we settled on a site. They set up a tent and then we left the second bike behind, got on the cargo bike and headed up Highway 128.

There were so many speeding drivers! They also had boats and other large trailers. However, they were all traveling in the opposite direction as it was late in the day. The ride went fast enough. At the Cold Canyon resort we tried to get some water but the one person we saw their basically said they couldn’t provide us with any because we weren’t customers

We got back on the cargo bike, crossed the Putah Creek Bridge and rode up Thompson Canyon. Monticello Dam loomed above us as we approached. A few cars passed us, but it turned out fine. We had some beverages when we got to the top. At the dam, we investigated the turbidites, which are fossilized remnants of oceanic sedimentation found in the joints between blocks of metamorphic sandstone related to the local geological epoch known as the Great Valley Sequence.

I had us find a shaded location nearby and we sat and contemplated the lake. We had brought a snack of apples and carrots. A short while later, we descended from Monticello Dam back to Cold Canyon Resort. My boys have a tradition when we ride together on my cargo bike down big hills where they hold my hat to avoid it getting blown away.

This turned out to be prescient given the speed we traveled through the hot, windy Thompson Canyon. The ride was not impossible, but it was work, and there was one big truck with a pontoon boat, which passed us at an inopportune moment and that made me really upset.

We returned to the campground, unpacked and started winding down for the evening. The boys did their thing. Later we ate a little food and hung out together until bedtime. The boys came and found me a couple of times but they mostly just played until well after sunset. At the end of the night they drank some milkshakes and crawled into the tent.

I had gotten our site set up for the evening in that period. Only a few sites were available but I still believed that I should’ve found a better spot. Once I had finished up and had gone to sleep, I slept all right but probably could have done better. I gave the boys some allergy medication around 5 AM because I figured we needed it. However, we slept for two more hours after that.

By 9 AM we got packed up near the RVs and ate the last of our food. There was an ok place to charge up the bike’s battery. When we got back on the road, one of the boys lead us to Pleasant Creek and Putah Canal and then they traded with the other boys leading us to Winters. I taught them how to anticipate automobiles coming from behind. At Winters we had French toast at the steak house.

A short while later we returned to Putah Creek Road and the boys were trading the second bike back and forth. This time the boys did really well. They switched once we got to the Russell Blvd Bike path and we made really good time until we crossed 113. I followed as the boys led me through UCD campus and we arrived at Temple coffee.

There we refreshed myself before boarding the crowded 3:10 PM train. There was so little seating that the boys had seats but I did not and I had to shuttle between both ends of the train to check on them. I had a beer while standing watching them look at their iPads.

At Richmond station, we went over to BART. This leg of the trip is always a hard time but I managed. My big cargo bike is a real challenge for traveling by train. We rode home from Civic Center and were really lazy once we finally got back home together.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

How to Find Bike Party

On May 3, 2025 I wrote that the day before I was really frustrated because I needed to work but instead went to visit my dad. I caught a five bus with my bike and at Eighth Avenue I rode quickly to his house where he Dad was watching the Warriors.

I knew I would be going to Bike Party later so when I said bye to my father I caught a 48 bus to Noe Valley instead of riding through the Haight.

I calculated how to find Bike Party from Diamond Hights but realized the ride website was a static webpage. That caused me a little bit of frustration. However, I found the bike ride right after getting off the bus at 24th and Douglas. The group rode around Chavez to Potrero del Sol.

There were these two guys standing near the group I was with who were making snide comments at us and I could tell they were relative outsiders, but I didn’t know that they had been going around harassing people the whole time we were at the park. One of them threatened us after we told him to bug off. At this point I could hear people in the background saying “...Time to go..”

I was shaken, but I was still happy that we had pushed back on the guy. Everyone around me was very supportive of each other about it. The way the acted towards us could have been worse. Some of the people around me really helped reduce tensions. I thanked everyone much later. Others were very concerned. I told a few people about it after the ride had gotten back on the road.

The group rode to hunters point Yosemite Slough and I chatted with more people about the incident. The whole thing turned out OK.

We rode to the Embarcadero. An acquaintance told me to meet him in North Beach. So, I said bye to everyone on the ride at ferry building plaza and I rode to go see him. He was having a good time. We had a drink and later got tacos. When he left, I took Grant Street and the ride home was fine.

 
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Going to Butter Lap

On May 1, 2025, I wrote that the day before I rode home on Gough Street and swapped my cargo bike for my regular bike and then I rode on Bart to Embarcadero to get empanadas before going to Butter Lap.

When the group got to Fort Mason, I met a bunch of new people. One guy was helping a lady with a broken spoke. There was a guy from the Diablo Ride a few weeks earlier who I had met. I couldn’t remember his name. A couple I knew from my neighborhood were also there.

I left a bit early from Fort Mason, but the ride caught up. I surprised myself and was not last. Pacific Overlook was muted. I left early and took it easy.

At the Legion of Honor a few new people showed up, but everything else was mostly the same. I left first and one of the fast riders caught me at the waterfall. I passed people at panhandle. I did the little bit that one of the other riders likes to do at 19th Street to get around traffic.

Bender’s is always great. There were a lot of ladies. I saw a barista from the cafe near my office. She thought it was ironic that I was there. I tried to chat with the new Butter people.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

We Brought Monopoly Out

On April 27, 2025, I wrote that the previous Friday I left work early and picked my 8 year old boys up from school in Pacific Heights. From there, the three of us rode our bikes to Golden Gate Park where they played ping-pong at the “living room.” Then we rode to the Sunset very quickly to see family at my father’s house. The boys and I played Monopoly until everyone arrived.

I made spaghetti bolognese while my sisters were on a walk. They offered me wine and pilsner. The meal with dad went well. There were cupcakes. The boys returned to watching television and eventually dad went to bed. I chatted with my sisters until we brought Monopoly out again. Monopoly gets boring after a while I think. We watched our TV shows and we went to bed.

I slept until 11 the next morning and then I went up and checked the boys and found that they had eaten, made their beds and were dressed. They were playing Risk, which was pretty cute given their age. I had breakfast. We got ready to go by noon.

We rode through the playground at 45th in Golden Gate Park, which has a big boat, and then we continued up MLK. After the waterfall, the coffee cart was not working so I went to get coffee at Alvord Lake. We took the tunnel there. We watched bocce ball and then we went to Whole Foods. Then we rode our bikes down Page Street and carried everything inside when we got to the apartment.

I called one of the dads from the boys’ school and arranged to meet at the Kabuki Theater where we sat through the Minecraft Movie. The boys liked it. Then we went to the pizza place that everybody likes on Hayes Street. The pizza place is really small so we ended up speaking to a lot of people. Later, after we said bye to our friends, we went back to the apartment. We had been riding my Brompton bike around. The boys loved it.

In the morning of the day that I wrote this, I woke up at 8 o’clock, and the boys were already up in the living room. We got ready. We took the bikes down and our three normal bikes rode 13th and seventh to Caltrain. I got us some breakfast.

We rode to Menlo Park playing Uno, but didn’t finish. Then we went to Starbucks and I got a map. A bit later, we stopped at a playground. Then we went to San Mateo Drive and had some water at the bridge.

We were riding along San Francisquito Creek next to the university dorms there and I was trying to get us through a patch of wood chips and I looked back and the boys were just taking their time so I insisted that they catch up but didn’t slow down. It turned out at some point, my son was very concerned that his wheel was moving really slow. So, I stopped to look and sure enough there was a bungee cord in his wheel. The bike turned out fine though.

After that, we rode to the golf course and up campus drive before climbing up to Carnegie and the Observatory. I found the way through to the dish properties, but we descended and looked at the Stanford dish gate from one of the entrances.

In retrospect, I noted later that we probably could’ve hopped the fences at the observatory to pass through the dish property. However, it didn’t matter either way. I noted that there were a number of other potential routes through there. FOr instance there is a pipeline that connects to the reservoir up there and a dirt road behind the golf course.

After that we went to Lagonita, the big lake behind the university and that was really interesting. We had to ford a stream but the rest was great. When we got to the student union, I found the one spot where you can fix your bike and I pumped up my tires and I checked the boys’ bikes.

We went to the Hoover Tower before going over to Palm Street and up Lasuen. I was dissatisfied with those streets because El Camino Blvd is still a terrible place – even with the improvements they were actively adding while we rode through. In fact the crossing was made worse the bike lane construction.

We went to Verve. Then we rode to Caltrain. We sat next to some ladies on the way back to SF. We transferred at Milbrae and the three of us rode on our bikes from 16th St to the apartment.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Tacos at A Grocery Store

On April 20, 2025, I wrote that the Saturday before I wokeup at five in the morning and left around 6:30 stopping briefly for coffee at Civic Center Station. I missed the Antioch train so I had to ride my ebike from West Oakland to Emeryville Station, where I boarded the Capitol Corridor. The sky was gray all the way to Fairfield. I noted that the area around arrow peak was really cool looking in the fog.

At Davis, I rode my ebike through the university quad and onward through the dorms. I was feeling nostalgic and was having a lot of fun. I crossed Highway 113 and then tried to get to Cowell Street but I discovered that I actually wanted to go up Russell – that’s where the bike path is.

On the way to Russell. I got tacos at a grocery store. Then I rode Russell Boulevard, which has a separated bike path that I had been really excited about. It goes all the way to Stevenson Bridge Road. I passed a lot of cyclists and took photos of the Putah Creek from the bridge when I got there.

I rode Putah Creek Road then. There were so many cyclists in peloton formation. After the 505, I rode back across the creek into Winters and looked around. The town was cute. I rode to the western end of the town and crossed Highway 128 and found some cool greenstone. I rode down 128 to Horseshoe Road and wandered through the orchards, most of which had been cut down. I noted that the shortcut was great but the highway is really terrible.

I was on 128 for a little bit before crossing the creek again and visiting the Lake Solano Ranger Station. While charging my bike, I looked at the campground and had a snack. Then the staff gave me some directions and I back towards winters on the south side of the lake and creek. I took Pleasant Valley to Putah Creek Road and passed the dam where the south canal connects.

I noted that this route was also bad but it was less bad than riding on highway 128. When I got back to Winters, I decided to continue. I looked at the 505, Putah Creek Bridge near 128 and then I took Russell Boulevard back. The traffic makes that route terrible.

Once I got back to the Russell Boulevard Bike Path things returned to being great. However, I was taking photos instead of trying to get back to the train station which caused me to be slightly behind schedule. So, I picked up my speed and was able to catch the 510 train home. The conductor took cash. I was happy about that.

 
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.

Mount Shasta

On April 7, 2025, I wrote around noon on the previous Friday, April 4, I went back to my hotel in Siskiyou County and organized my room. I had been concerned about being really achy from skiing the day before, but my legs felt OK. I looked through the hotel literature. I took its advice and I went to the bike shop across the street. They had a lot of ski stuff but they didn’t have any bikes really. I made a brief stop at the other sports shop but there were no bikes there either.

I walked around the town popping my head in at a couple of restaurants and considered going to the local bike park but around 2:45 I went back to the room for a book and sat at the cafe to read for a little while. The local clientele seemed very interesting. I texted with my older brother. He said that he was a bit more than halfway to Mount Shasta. So, I sat and waited. However, I got it into my head that I wanted a quick walk.

Unfortunately, after putting the book away, my older brother rolled up. I didn’t realize it was him at first as his car was not familiar to me. I was crossing the street behind the hotel and there was a car waiting to turn and the guy that was driving had this look on his face and then I noticed that my children were in the car and it was my older brother and then they parked.

I got them into the hotel and settled.We hung out for a little while and I showed them around the room while we unpacked. We stopped around the corner to get drinks and checked to see when the Warriors game would start. Then we hopped in the car to drive to Lake Siskiyou.

It was a short trip across the railroad tracks and freeway. We turned down the road to Box Canyon Dam, looked at local rocks. The canyon really is box shaped and you really get the feeling for how deep it is as it descends into Dunsmuir and onward.

When we drove back we walked over to the pizza place – Sparky. We got two 12 inch pizzas and the beer selection was poor. My brother was obsessed with the Warriors game. We all sat together and it was nice actually. I was tweeting and everyone was watching television.

Eventually my brother took a seat at the bar to get into the game but we were done eating. So, I took the boys to get dessert. Unfortunately the yogurt shop was closed so we picked up drumsticks at the gas station instead. I don’t remember if the Warriors won, but my brother and the boys went to bed and I was alone until about midnight.

I woke at seven in the morning and we got ready to go to the mountain. My brother had gone next-door to the coffee shop. His pick up, which was a gift from a client of his, was parked right in front. We put our snow clothes on. There wasn’t a lot to eat at the coffee shop because the baker was out. The breakfast sandwich was good though. One of my boys tried it. My other boy had a banana bar. We got coffee to go.

We headed to the mountain because we were concerned about making it when the lifts opened. The drive involved getting a little bit lost at the 89 on ramp. However, the road after that was easy to follow. It was a little bumpy and the engine was really chunky.

We parked and I took the boys to the rental shop. An attendant helped us find skis and after we met back up, we all rode to the top of the Marmot Lift. There was this weird thing halfway through getting on the lift where we discovered that one of my kids didn’t have his card but somehow it was OK .

The ride on the lift was great but when we descended to Coyote Lift my slower son actually could not do it. He had a real problem with the angle of the slope. I should’ve taken his fear seriously. My brother and the faster son took off, so the two of us found our way down the slow way. When we made it to Coyote Lift, we stayed separate as my brother and the faster boy went off together.

When we got to the top of Coyote Lift, the two of us stayed at the top while the other two – the “fast team” – grabbed some powder. I realized later that there were other ways down, but I ended up taking my son down Sugar Pine, which was an intermediate slope. The boy initially tried to “snowplow” but then started having problems.

Obviously, with my boy exhausting himself and me trying to be supportive, our communication was coming under strain. I knew I was making mistakes in the way I was treating him and was upset about it. He was mostly refusing to listen and just lying there. I couldn’t shoehorn the problem, so it just continued to devolve.

Eventually, he started to step down bit by bit and that worked. He wasn’t getting anywhere though so I had him contour as he was coming down as well. We made it halfway down the hill doing that, but things were not great. However, at this point he was able to manage. We got to one spot where he knew the goal and knew what to do. Once he started "snowplowing" again we started to get along again.

We followed the cat track and “fast team” passed us a second time on the slope. When we were back at the bottom, we made our way to the lodge and sat down to think about food. When the others appeared, I bought my brother a beer and the boys had sodas. We ate chicken strips and fries.

After that, my brother and I traded – as a way to address the fact that “the slow team” had not gotten along through much of our single run. This time I took the faster boy to the top of Marmot Lift and we did about four runs together. The slow kid did about two runs with his uncle and actually did alright.

We all met back up in the locker room. When we dropped off our stuff at the rental shop, the attendant was very concerned about my son forgetting his lift pass earlier in the day and I was very excited to speak to her.

We loaded into the car and drove back to the room. My brother immediately started doing his own thing. I gathered everything the boys and I needed to return to San Francisco. I noted that I am always frantically packing, but I also noticed that I have less trouble packing if there is enough space in my bag. It kind of indicates that I need a bigger bag sometimes.

We were alone together for about an hour and then at 6:30. I took the boys to Yaks Restaurant while their uncle got some time to rest. I noted that my old college friend had sent me a message saying that he had just arrived at my apartment in San Francisco and would see us when we arrived.

Everywhere in Siskiyou County, there are young people and Yaks is no different. They gave us a tag which said “Hollywood” on it. Every time they called out, I couldn’t tell if it was ours. The burgers came with gummy bears and I had to make sure both of my kids got the same amount. Later we went to the pay binoculars and viewed Mount Shasta, the headwaters of the Sacramento River, White Ridge and Porcupine Ridge. We also got yogurt from Jax. The lady behind the counter was really busy.

We walked to Sissou Park, which has a great view of Shasta. The boys didn’t really understand that Shasta is a volcano, but when we were done walking to the park, I had explained it to them and they were very excited to look at it. We finished our yogurt then and when we got to the room my older brother was asleep.

It wasn’t very late, but because the train was departing at midnight from Dunsmuir a few miles down the canyon, he needed a nap. I rotated his laundry and put the bags in a good place. I put the boys to bed and then I wanted to go to the Vet Club, a bar down the street, but decided to just go to sleep instead.

At 11:30 I woke up and checked the train status and it was early. I got everyone up. As I had already packed, it was easy to get in the car by midnight. The train passed us at Lake Boulevard while we were trying to get down to the train station at Dunsmuir. While this made us nervous and gave us the impression we were late, the reality was that the train has two giant switchbacks to make as it descends into the Sacramento Canyon which the freeway simply goes around. I wasn’t really worried but we rushed anyway.

When we got to the station, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that there was a cargo train waiting in the way of our train. The boys took to chatting with a through hiker and his friend who was sleeping. I noted that the Pacific Crest Trail is near the station.

When the train arrived, we said bye to my brother and we settled into our seats. I gave the boys books. I read my book and then all three of us pretty much fell asleep right then. I woke up a few times– in Chico and Sac, etc. – but basically we just got up for coffee at Martinez and then got off the train.

The busses home were easy enough. I should have brought a bigger bag for myself. I got pictures on the 14 bus. The boys were not happy about carrying bags.

My old college classmate was at the apartment when we arrived. He had flown in only a half a day earlier. He was just walking out of the house, but hung out with us while we were unpacking. We wanted coffee. So, we walked to Mercury. The view was great. There was jazz. We drew pictures and then we walked to Duboce playground, looking at the Safeway mural and steel chairs at Fillmore on the way.

We chatted about our trips – he had just completed his own ski adventure in Utah. We watched the kids at the playground and the parents everywhere. My boys had found a hula hoop near the swings. When we were done at the playground, we climbed up Duboce to Buena Vista Park.

The boys raced us up the hill. At the top they were displeased (because they were tired). I got a bunch of pictures of the view. We headed over to the playground. The boys nearly missed the playground because they were sneaking around in the brush. I sat and rested while the boys played.

I got a picture of our guest pushing the boys around on a giant tire swing that goes in circles. I made a GIF of it. I sent it to mutual friends. We went and had another coffee then before walking down Page Street.

Page Street had many high points with the boys, jumping and telling stories. At Fillmore I introduced my guest to an acquaintance with Page Slow Street. We checked out the standing yard sale there. We walked to Waller steps for a photo.

We spent enough time at the apartment for our guest to have a snack and pack. Then we walked him to BART. When we got back to the apartment I made ramen and after dinner we ate ice cream and started a new Avengers animated series before bed. I was exhausted.

 
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.