Folsom Crossing Bridge

On June 2 I wrote about my trip to Folsom Lake to go camping with my boys. The night went well and we woke up at eight in the morning in our campsite. One of my boys spearheaded breaking camp, which was really great. We worked together.

I noted that I had been trying to do a better job with the packing process but I needed new stuff sacks. We ate all the snacks and the boys did laps on their bikes around the campsite which allowed me to finish packing. When we left the campsite we got a good view of the dam and landscape. We got a few pictures and one of the boys pried a rock out of the road at Folsom Crossing Bridge.

We descended very quickly to Folsom’s Rainbow Bridge and stopped for a bit in the historic neighborhood. Then we rode the river and along Lake Natoma. I got a video. We saw a rattlesnake. One of the boys saw it first and stopped but then the other boy nearly ran into him. I nearly had a heart attack and nearly died from panic but the boys kinda did everything correctly. I think it was fine. I yelled too much.

We continued on from there to Natoma’s dam Nimbus and jumped in the lake. I texted with a college friend and we made plans to meet at the hotel I had booked nearby (there is no camping in Rancho Cordova). We finished our beverages, rode below Nimbus Dam, under the bridge through Sunrise and past Fair Oaks before riding through the neighborhoods. While the river portion of the ride is great getting any services – especially Lodging – is especially difficult because everything is across US50.

When we got to our hotel, it took a bit to get our room set up so we lounged around at pool with my college buddy and his son until it was ready. Then we had a pizza party. We played dodgeball in the room. We also had these cool drones flying around the room.

The boys were enthusiastic at first but, after I picked up some beverages the boys were a little less so. At nearly five years old, my buddy’s kid was a little more easily entertained. We chatted, catching up over drinks and pizza, chasing the balls around etc. They left around 730 and I used the hotel’s laundry room. The boys went to sleep quickly – they were exhausted.

We got up at around nine the next morning and had the complimentary breakfast downstairs. The boys were glum about eating. I had extra coffee before we went upstairs to pack. Despite the need to get back to the trail, we were pretty lazy – I sent the boys to the pool until I was done. We left at 12:30 and I let my college buddy know that I wanted to stop by his place but we were on a schedule.

When we headed back to the Jedediah Smith American River Trail, we passed through parking lots, crossed the freeway on a pedestrian bridge and stopped at a Starbucks. Then we followed a series of suburban streets until we got to Hagan Community Park. We saw a bird on a wire there. One of the boys thought it was a falcon. The other thought it was a hawk.

We rode to Riverbend and I caught my breath. I had been leading for the most part. After crossing the bridge, we used the levees a little, but I wanted a picnic table so on the other side of the sheriff training center we sat at a bench that had a little bit of shade.

From there I had each boy lead until we arrived at Watt Boulevard. Then I had them do it again until we arrived at Howe. One of the boys was enthusiastic, but the other was always tired. I led us to Sacramento State after we crossed Howe and we had another snack. The boys played like they always do there but I decided we needed to get a move on because we needed to make the 455 Capitol Corridor out of Sacramento.

The American River had a new branch of the river trail which had just opened but I was uncertain about getting through at th either end. So, I opted to take the boys up the north side of the river. That turned out to be a good idea because I could see, when we got to the other side of the river, that a valve on the levy was being replaced.

When we got past The Expo Center we discovered an unexpectedly involved detour there as well and I was very not happy about it. I focused on my ongoing personal goal of managing my attitude and outlook. However, I was grousing a lot because it put us arriving at the train on time in doubt. Once we got past the detour and continued onto the 160 bridge, I noted that Amtrak train five was on time and therefore we would not be seeing it pass us as we headed into town.

We crossed the SNR bridge and at the almond factory, we started declaring the intersection street names as we got closer to our train’s departure time. We were trying to get to G and sixth but there was something in the way at E and sixth so we ended up on, sixth at H or something.

Thankfully we boarded our train on time. I sent a bunch of texts, tweets, and wrote imn my notebook until we got off at Richmond BART headed home.

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.

Packing for My Folsom Trip

On May 31, 2024, I wrote that I woke with enough time to ride to the ferry building by 8 o’clock. I got coffee and had a pastry before going to the Jack London Square station. My kids were on their way with their mom and were bringing donuts.

I bought tickets and got the boys bikes out of a locker at the station. When the boys showed up we had enough time to board. The train left on time and we took photos. We rode to Berkeley and the conductor found us some seats. The car was packed with school children.

We went to the café car as we passed through Martinez and Suisun Bay. At Davis we put our stuff away and in Sacramento we detrained. We walked our bikes to the Sacramento regional transit stop and I noted that the boys needed a lot of help. Their backpacks were a little big.

At our platform, we sat in the shade and let the Sunrise train go. When we got on the Folsom train the operator push us to the back of the car. We had a lot of space. I had learned that the train only went to Iron Point due to construction.

The trip from there turned out easy and at Iron Point we sat in the shade at the station and the boys tested out their bikes, which they hadn’t ridden for a while. As we rode onward, we discovered that trackside bike path was also out of commission due to track work. So, we ended up riding around on poor quality streets.

We stopped at a liquor store to get snacks and then headed to the historic district to have a bite to eat. I tweeted a picture of my beef sliders, which were really good. The boys liked the hotdogs.

We got photos of Rainbow Bridge after we left Folsom and then we slowly rode up to Folsom Lake. At Crossing Boulevard I took pictures of the dam. Luckily, we made it to the campsites as we ran out of energy. I had the boys set up their tent while I unpacked. When we were done they got on my bike and we rode over to Beals point to jump in the lake. After floating around the lake, we sat around the crowded picnic tables until we were ready to go back to the campground.

When we rode back to the campsite, I started Ramen dinner and had the boys help prep the tent. On the table for dinner Ramen was made with sauerkraut for our greens.

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.

Curry Village

On May 27, we got up at our tent site in Housekeeping Camp where we were staying with my niece and sister in Yosemite Valley about 7AM. We went to the Bike kiosk and Café in Curry Village before having waffles back at the camp. The boys ate well. Everyone in the camp contributed fruit, sausages and bacon.

When we were done, I grabbed some stuff from the tent and then crossed to the South Loop Trail on the bikes and headed towards Bridalveil Falls. We stopped in a “rock garden” and later in a fire scarred forest to adjust our helmets. Unfortunately, there were intermittent streams which barred our way in some places. When we gave up on the trail we had to pass our bikes to one another on one of the streams one at a time to get to the swing bridge across the Merced River. I got a couple of pictures.

The ride into Yosemite Village was easy. At Yosemite Falls we got a bit lost but I got a great picture of us with the bikes. We entered through to the museum and deli. We parked the bikes in the back and found a picnic table but had to wait until the deli opened to have a snack. When we were done at the deli we went to the interpretive center and watched a film in the theater. I told the boys about my uncle, a climbing pioneer. There was a spot where you could flip through a book of pictures about climbing in the valley.

We went to the Yosemite Village Market and locked up in front. The light there is really interesting. I couldn’t tell if it was because the canyon walls are so high or because the trees are really tall. I also noted that midday it’s really hot in the spring weather but the forest floor and even the urban areas are pretty cool. I found us sun protection and snacks for later.

We went to the visitor center and the boys got ranger badges. They were supposed to wait in line to provide their Junior Ranger Workbook but instead they sat on the ground and worked on them. Then a little girl cut in front of them in line. The ranger at the desk caught it though and made a point to make sure the boys got their ranger badges so it was OK. I got a picture.

From there we rode our bikes through the parking lots to the Ahwahnee Hotel and headed out to Mirror Lake. The road and forest in Tanaya Canyon were wonderful. I had one of the boys get photos of me on my bike. The last leg was uphill and pretty hard on account of the heat and the fact that we were riding cruiser bikes. We parked and walked near the lake. The boys played in the dirt (silt). I explained the high water benchmark we found – everything was inundated at the last high water event in 2014.

On the way to Happy Isles we passed a lot of people returning to the campgrounds. However, stopped to look at the map because the direct route to Happy Isles winds over the medial moraine. I took the opportunity to explain glacial geology as we rode along. When we got to the Merced River Bridge at Happy Isles I had them kick in the dirt to simulate glacial action.

When we got to Curry Village, we dropped the bikes off and got ice cream sandwiches before we walking to housekeeping. I left the boys with family for bit so I could take a break. The boys played cornhole and later we started prepping dinner. We had chicken tacos and around bedtime I started winding down. The boys wrote thank you notes to our hostess.

Everyone in the camp did some packing since we were all going home the next day. Later we played cards until lights went out at 10 o’clock. I got some much needed rest.…

I woke up at five in the morning of the day that I wrote this and got the boys up at 6:30 AM. I packed the bags and tidied. Around 7 we had a snack and tried to say bye to people. However, nearly everyone was asleep. So, we walked to Curry Village and played the board games at the front desk. I had a coffee and called YARTS and they said we I would be able to board the 9 AM bus.

We got a last photo of Yosemite as we left and I texted family. The ride through Yosemite Valley was great. I took a great photo of Bridalveil Falls. I noted that there is this interesting waterfall At El Portal right above the entrance station. We descended into the valley on highway 140 which was blown out in a specific place so we had to go on some temporary bridges. We saw some rafters on the Merced River.

When we got off the bus in Merced the station attendant said that 713 was late which was fortunate because that meant we would be able to catch it since the YARTS schedule makes catching the 713 train impossible.

We got snacks when boarded the train. The boys played iPad. My sister texted the family chat to say that everyone was driving home on Highway 49. I noted that my boys and I were going to get to Richmond BART several hours early.

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 Mist Trail

The day before May 25, when I wrote this, I did laundry and returned the tent I was occupying with my kids at Houskeeping Camp in Yosemite where I found my older sister and her family had prepared tacos for us. My mood had improved from earlier in the day. I had a beer with my brother-in-law and his buddies. Later I had to come up with ways to both sit with the group but also avoid the smoke from the fire.

I ended up sitting with my boys as they finished their desert. I had to have a real talk with them about bedtime since most of the others were much older than them. They had heard about the “moonbow” over Yosemite Falls and I had to find ways to get their minds off of it. I ended up taking a long exposure of the view over the Merced River from the campsite and said that that was how it likely appeared. They relented once they acknowledged how much they wanted to go to bed. Once we had brushed our teeth and wound down, I dozed for a bit with the light on. I had tried and failed to find a beer. I shut everything down at midnight.

In the morning of the day that I wrote this, I woke at 5:45 am but let the boys sleep. We got up at 7:30 and headed to Curry Village where we rented bikes and got some breakfast. We went back to the campsite and had breakfast sandwiches. My sister convinced me to make sandwiches for the boys for our Mist Trail hike.

The boys were playing with dirt and riding around on their rental bikes. I found a couple of backpacks and when everyone in our camp was ready, I convinced the boys to get their bikes and wait with me on the road. Then a big group of us– nearly 25 people– went to Happy Isles to walk on the interpretive trail. Then we went to the Mist Trail and parked our bikes with a lock I had purchased at the rental shop.

As we headed out. I convinced the boys to lead the way to the Vernal footbridge as fast as we could. Only one person from the group caught up to us. At the bridge everyone took a group photo. From there, we tried to follow my older sister to the misty sections of the Mist Trail. However, after a few photos, she and her husband headed back.

From there the hike was really wet and while my boys were displeased at the atmosphere they managed. I had to swallow my concern over the danger on a few occasions but there were enough friends and family around that it felt OK.

Once we had made it past the dangerous climb above Vernal Falls, about 15 of us ate food with. I had the boys eat their sandwiches and a ton of snacky food. After that, we tried to get a photo of Nevada Falls. The group started to dissipate at this point but about 8 of us ended up climbing up the John Deere Trail.

One of my boys had decided to try to stay at the front of the group because he wanted to return to camp. It was cute because he kept asking where the top was. My other son had glommed onto a lady and her mom and spoke to her all the way back to the Vernal Bridge.

At the top above Vernal Falls, we rested a bit, but everyone wanted to descend back to the valley. It was initially steep but got easier. My boy in the lead, who saw me take one of the shortcuts, ran to catch up with me and that made me take caution because of the steepness. I started to take it slow because I realized he was exhausted. I suggested we count switchbacks as a way to monitor our progress.

At Vernal Bridge many of our companions said goodbye and the group was down to 5 – my boys, my niece, her boyfriend and myself. We concentrated on effective walking – the boys had to rest a lot and were occasionally not very happy. Also, the trail had a lot of narrow portions where tourists tend to bunch up so it was hard to pass people.

I noted that the spot where the trail follows the canyon northward for a short while can be very steep but it quickly got easier. I tried to hold the boys’ hands through a lot of it. Suffice to say, I was relieved when we started to unlock the bikes. We rode to Curry Village and said bye to my niece and her boyfriend before dropping the bikes off.

We had a snack and walked to housekeeping. My brother-in-law made the group pizza and later we had s’mores. We then made a plan to play video games on our ipads before going to bed.


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.

Yosemite Village

On May 24, I wrote that the night before I finished writing and went to the patio to buy a beer and discovered all the places to buy beer in the area had closed at 10 so I gave up and went to bed.

I woke three times – I was very preoccupied with getting up on time. I was so excited about visiting Yosemite. I got out of bed at 5:45.

We managed packing. The boys did their packing by themselves pretty well. We got pastries and I got a coffee before heading over to the bus station to sit where we knew the Yosemite Area Regional Transit System (YARTS) bus would show up. We saw the bus at an intersection nearby – the boys were very worried because the bus circled the block. However, it showed up at the stop as all of the information predicted. We were very relieved.

After we boarded, the bus stopped at Amtrak and a half an hour later we stopped at Kathy’s Junction before climbing into the foothills. We made Mariposa easily. The boys were playing Minecraft right as we entered the Merced Canyon and climbed to El Portal. I collected the iPads and then we watched the canyon walls as we entered Yosemite. As he knew how exciting the entrance can be, the driver had the children in the bus sit in front. Some other boy was sitting with us and everyone counted waterfalls (we saw seven).

When we got off the bus in Curry Village, we got a snack before walking to housekeeping and finding my older sister who had invited us to join her in her annual family trip. She invited us to walk to Yosemite Village. We went to the Welcome Center, Interpretive Center, Adams Museum and I took my brother in law to a coffee shop.

I took the boys on the bus back. When we got to Housekeeping, we got beverages and found the tent we were sharing with my niece and her beau.

 
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.

El Capitan Hotel

On May 23, 2024, I wrote that the night before I did my final check to see if I had packed three backpacks correctly. I did a bunch that night and I knew I was pushing it. I went to sleep pretty late.

I left at 10:30 on BART that morning. I was very fortunate because I missed a bus and my bikeshare bike was hard to manage with so many bags. I also had trouble finding a bikeshare dock. The whole thing made me very emotional.

My boys were looking for me when I arrived at Emeryville station. Their mom had a couple of extra bits for them to carry and that put me on edge because I had to repack. However, knowing I was on time for my train cooled my agitation. I bought coffee and a muffin. I let it go and I figured there was no use beefing with her. We boarded the San Joaquin train with the boys just fine and she took a picture of us.

Once we were comfortable I got better. I had my coffee and a cold brew from the fridge back home. I snapped a picture of the stop and took the boys to the café Car at Stockton for a hotdog. We settled in with iPads until Turlock. Then we packed and got off at Merced station. One of my boys absolutely hated the 11 block walk to El Capitan Hotel and I gave him too much flack for it.

When we checked in, I set them up in their bed with iPads and had a cup of coffee in the lobby. At 4:30 we walked over to investigate the Yosemite Area Regional Transit System office (aka YARTS) a block away. While I had looked at the schedule online and knew how easy it is to catch the bus there, I felt it was necessary to make doubly certain.

After that we ate at the hotel’s restaurant. I was happy with the beet salad. My boys ate most of their chicken tenders and grilled cheese. We then went for a walk to eat ice cream at Bob Hart Park and visit the park in front of the Merced county courthouse. We did pull-ups and other exercises along the par course there.

The boys enjoyed the walk. I told them some day they would ask about this trip and I’d say I didn’t remember. I also tried to run away, but they took my hand and held it really tightly and wouldn’t let go. I noted to them they were seven after all.

We walked back to the hotel via the UC Merced downtown campus and then entered through the back. Upstairs, we wound down alone together, and I kept reminding them to go to sleep. Finally, I was alone and got my stuff together to write and have a beer.

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.

I had gotten sick

In May 2024, I recounted the previous two months of my life because I had started a new notebook and also had a huge backlog because I had gotten sick and was not able to post.

In March and April 2024, I divided my time between my friends and family playing video games, fixing bikes and visiting museums like the MOMA. I attended the St. Patrick’s Day parade with my father. I visited Kings Beach via the train to Truckee along the American and Yuba canyons to go skiing.

I also did a lot of bike rides on my own and with friends: Fremont Bike Party, a muddy trip to the Diablo Foothills and another to Menlo Park. I took the bus to Menocino and explored the Laughlin range. When I returned from Menocino, I had a debilitating headache which really didn’t go away for about two weeks. I didn’t post that whole time and ended up spending a lot of time reconstructing what had transpired.

I had my kids on and off through the whole thing but they ended up spending more time with their mother. On the days that I did have them, they exhibited a fantastic level of maturity– feeding themselves and doing chores. However, they were acutely aware of my pain. At one point I even told them that I thought I was going to die to which one of them replied “we will always remember you.”

The pain started out in my head behind my left ear. I took some pain relievers but nothing really worked. I lay prone on my bed most of that Friday. I had had plans to take the boys to Marin that weekend but I broke the news to them that I couldn’t.

Later that weekend the headaches became concerning so I had a call with hospital staff. Unfortunately, they just prescribed some over the counter anti-inflammatories and made another in person appointment. As it was obvious relief was a few days off, I just set up a medicine schedule so that I could manage the pain.

During that week I did my chores and lay down a lot since the pain was too much at times. I had light dinners – like rice from the sushi place nearby, toast and applesauce. I had grilled cheese and tomato soup once.

I also had a friend come by to help out. My neighborhood is pretty entertaining so they were comfortable hanging out for a couple of days. As my situation improved we went to a restaurant.

We watched episodes of Sherlock Holmes.

When I was finally able to see my doctor, he said I was having cluster headaches and prescribed me a migraine drug which improved my situation immeasurably. He also ordered x-rays and a blood test for which I needed to fast. My head was way better by then, but my breathing had gotten worse.

By early May, I was back collaborating with coworkers via email working meetings from home. Only a few hours after I submitted a blood test and x ray, my doctor told me I likely had pneumonia. As the antibiotics started doing its work and I started feeling better, I decided to focus on my recovery – cut all the extras which didn’t leave me entirely satisfied.

I watched more Sherlock Holmes and returned to developing entries for my notebook to make up for not writing for nearly two weeks.

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.