Desolation Canyon 2001

While rivers is not in the title of this blog there will still be posts from time to time reminiscing about trips from the past. This trip is another is one that I was fortunate enough to share with my daughter, Stacie. I previously wrote about our first trip on the San Juan when she was just 14. On this trip she was almost 21 and fortunately for her I'm sure, I wasn't quite as much of a helicopter Dad and let her make her own decisions about what boats to run and when. It was another great trip and we shared some great experiences. Being independent and confident, a lot more than I was at her age, she chose to spend a lot of time in the kayak.

I on the other hand was perfectly content to row the raft that I was spent a lot of trips rowing. It was the smallest cataraft that was in the group and I loved rowing it because it was so easy to maneuver.

While the draw to rafting is often the idea of whitewater, the reality is that most of any water on any trip is flat water. If it's flat but still moving downstream you can float down with little effort. If on the other hand it is flat with little surface movement on the water and particularly if the wind is blowing hard, steady and up canyon, river rafting can be hard work. On this particular trip we saw a lot of up canyon wind and it made for a lot of work getting through the flatter portions of the trip. I remember laughing at our trip leader Brian Sweeney standing in the front of his boat, looking at the sky and screaming, "Is that all you have"? And the rest of us yelling at him to sit down and shut up and not risk bring more wind down on us. If you didn't like to laugh you didn't want to take a river trip with Brian.

I've often been asked if it isn't boring on the river trips when you're not on the boats. While I understand the question it is funny because there is a lot of work involved in river trips. Setting up camp, camp chores, fire, cooking, clean up, unloading boats, rigging and loading boats, breaking down and packing up camp, on so on. That doesn't mean that there isn't some down time to simply sit and talk and enjoy one another's company but there is not nearly the down time one would think. Stacie was always a hard worker in all aspects of camp life. Her work ethic was just one of the reasons that I was so proud of her on our river trips.

Additionally, depending on the particular trip location there are opportunities to hike and explore. On most river trips that we took there were pictographs and petroglyphs from early Native groups. We also saw old miners or settlers cabins made from local materials. It was like taking a trip away from civilization and going back in time. It really made me think about how difficult it must have been to survive in those challenging locations.

Another thing that was always a part of our river trips was wildlife sightings. We saw beaver, deer, bighorn sheep, many small mammals, all kinds of birds. My favorite bird was a small one whose call was something I always loved hearing because it meant I was back on the river. The Canyon Wren. And then of course there was always the wildlife you would like to see if possible as long as it was on the other side of the river. While we never saw a bear on any of our river trips we had our closest encounter with one on this trip. These tracks were right in the place we put in to camp one night. We hoped that our camp would make him decide to visit the river elsewhere while we were there and fortunately we never saw anything but these tracks.

One of the biggest challenges for many of our river trips was simply getting to the river where we were to launch our boats, the "put in". The majority of our multi-day trips started in the desert and sometimes the road to the river was tough on vehicles. This trip was the worst that I could remember, we put in near Vernal, Utah and the road was all broken, sharp rock. If I remember right, Brian's vehicle got two flat tires and the tires had to be taken back to town to be repaired before we launched the next day. Then we got ready to launch and the right tube on my boat was completely flat and had to be patched before we could get on the water. Brian and John fixed the tube and we headed out on what was another memorable trip that I'm glad to have shared with Stacie.

Day Trip - National Steinbeck Museum and the Pinnacles National Park

A couple of days ago my sister and I were talking about how we were both feeling "blue". Not the word either of us necessarily used but a word that captures our mood. We had a friend who was arrested on an attempted murder charge, a member of my running club who was only 71 passed away after a brief illness and when I contacted another friend about a potential future road trip he mentioned that he was waiting for information from future medical appointments before he could make plans. So while it wasn't any one thing, it was a series of incidents that led to the "blues". I decided that I was going to take a day trip to get away and see some new things. As I have written many times in past blog posts I enjoy travel whether it is a day trip or a longer trip and I find travel to be a good way to get out of a funk or at least ease the funk temporarily.

I can honestly say that while none of the previous mentioned circumstances have changed. A change in my environment and routine was helpful. I had been thinking for a while about driving to Salinas, California in order to visit the National Steinbeck Center. I have been doing a lot of reading about and by Steinbeck since my last trip to Colorado when I reread Travels With Charley. I am tentatively planning a future post about the reading both by and about Steinbeck.

Because I knew that I would be driving a couple of hours to Salinas and I figured that I wouldn't spend more than a couple of hours there I decided to check the map and see what else I might like to visit and I came up with Pinnacles National Park. A place that I wasn't aware was located so close to where I live.

I left early because I knew that I wanted to stop as Casa de Fruita for a BLT. When Joe and I ate there two years ago on our way to Santa Cruz we couldn't believe how good the bacon was. It still is. And the coffee is outstanding!

When I arrived in Salinas I had 30 minutes to walk around the old downtown area while waiting for the Museum to open. I checked online and found a used bookstore about five blocks away. It wasn't open yet either but I knew that I would go back to it after my museum visit. I did and actually bought a Steinbeck novel, The Wayward Bus. While I have read almost everything written by Steinbeck I don't think I've read this one. Old Downtown Salinas was a very interesting area.

STEINBECK MUSEUM

The Steinbeck Center was interesting and worth the drive and the entrance fee. I think I enjoyed it more because as I've said before that I have read almost all of Steinbeck's writings and am in the process of reading others now. Additionally I have read several authors accounts of their own trips based partially upon Steinbeck's, Travels With Charley. As expected though it didn't take more than a couple of hours to see everything. I left the museum and walked west two blocks to see Steinbeck's boyhood home.

After leaving Salinas I drove to Soledad and from there to The Pinnacles National Park. I was surprised to learn that The Pinnacles didn't become a National Park until 2013. Prior to that it had been designated as a National Monument. It was interesting to drive in from the western side and find this unique geological area in the middle of nowhere. There is no road through the park so I hope to someday make a return trip and go in from the eastern entrance.

I drove to the day use area, parked and hiked some of the trails. I took a lot of pictures because it is definitely one of those places that you have to see to believe. The park is a popular rock climbing location and you can see from the pictures why that is the case. One of the fascinating features was a talus cave. This isn't an actual cave but a unique feature that is created by water washing out smaller rocks and soil and leaving huge boulders that have voids between them making it possible to walk under them in many places. I went into one "cave" and decided to turn around when I reached the point where I would have to get down and crawl under. It was eerie because the if these rocks are there as a result of movement caused partially by earthquakes and earthquakes are not uncommon in the area, I didn't want to be crawling under a rock that decides to move.

It was a good day that wasn't complete until a return trip to Casa de Fruita on the way home for some of their incredible fruit pies.

Earlier this week I ran to the river where I did some kayaking last summer and actually flipped twice in some very minor rapid water. The pictures below are of the same place where I kayaked and flipped. This is a very graphic example of the drought that we are going through here in California. This was all water last year.

Scouting - A Big Part of My Youth and Beyond

I feel fortunate that I became involved in the Boy Scouts when I was young. For one thing, Scouting allowed me to have a connection to something when we moved as often as we did. My parents always made sure that I had a chance to participate if we lived somewhere long enough. I can't honestly say when I first joined the Boy Scouts but my best guess is when I was in 6th grade in Sandown, New Hampshire. When going through some of my old papers I came across this article about my earning the Tenderfoot Award.

That's my grandson Chase on the horse. I took the picture of the article on top of some other pictures and ironically one of the reasons that I am doing the post on scouting now is because Chase just joined Cub Scouts while I was visiting a couple of weeks ago. Speaking of Cub Scouts, both of my sons Jeff and Jason were involved at one point.

I learned a lot in scouting. I learned to love the outdoors, a love that stays with me today. I learned to be persistent and to work to get things done. I learned to set and work for goals, something that carried over into sports, coaching and all areas of my life. Maybe the most important thing I actually learned from scouting was in fact, goal setting. Many of the things I learned in scouting are still helpful today. 

If you have read any of my previous blog posts you are familiar with my love of reading. Ironically I believe that my first merit badge earned was reading. 

Scouting was something that allowed me to spend time and share experiences with my Dad who served in several adult leadership roles in Troop 627, our troop in Hacienda Heights, California.

Even though we lived in the city we were surrounded on the south and west with hills full of orchards and fields so we got to do a lot of hiking separate from scouts. It's strange now to go back and see houses built all the way up and over the hills and all of the orchards and open areas gone. I'm glad I grew up there when there was still some open area. But the best hiking and camping is when we went away on overnight trips with our scout troop. We camped in the San Bernardino Mountains, the Mohave Desert and at some scout owned camps that were actually not that far from home. We camped in all four seasons and even camped in the snow on occasion. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot while we did.

Scouting led to a summer job for me when I was 17 and 18. I worked in the San Bernardino Mountains at Camp Cedar Canyon. That was a great experience. The second year I was the Commissary Director. I was responsible for ordering, dividing, and distributing the food for the entire camp. It took a lot of planning because I had to order for twice a week deliveries based upon what the meals were and the number of scouts and leaders that there were in camp every week. I learned a lot about organizational skills that summer that carried over into many other areas of my life. If I forgot to order something or enough of something it wasn't as though I could just run into the neighborhood store and get it. In other words, I had better not forget something. I kept a master list and checked it multiple times.

I am 3rd from the left standing

A highlight of my scouting career took place in the summer of 1966, the same year that I graduated from high school. A friend, Don O'Brien, and I received our Eagle Scout awards at a Court of Honor held for us at Camp Cedar Canyon where we both worked. Don is holding the flag on the right in the staff picture. It was a special event.

Becoming an Eagle Scout was important to me because it showed what I could accomplish if I worked hard and stayed with something. A lesson that was reinforced when I earned my Varsity Cross Country and Track letters after running for four years in high school.

As it turned out, Cedar Canyon wasn't my final job working for the Boy Scouts. After I completed my student teaching in Ruidoso, New Mexico and couldn't find a teaching job I applied for and was hired as a District Executive with the Boy Scouts and assigned to Lea County, New Mexico. That's how we wound up in that part of New Mexico. Unfortunately, a scouting career wasn't meant to be because I still wanted to teach and coach. The next school year I was hired to teach and coach in Lovington, New Mexico and resigned my position with the Boy Scouts.

I received my training for the District Executive position in Mendham, New Jersey where I was sent to the Executive Training Institute.

Training Class at Graduation

Me and my Cabin Mates

I learned a lot from Scouting.

New Jersey Fall Trip - Part 2

New Jersey - Pennsylvania Day Trip

One day during my visit Stacie and Haley took me to the New Jersey and Pennsylvania state line where we walked around two really nice old towns on the Delaware River. It turned out to be another beautiful Fall day.

Feeding the ducks in Pennsylvania and then me standing in New Jersey while Haley sits in Pennsylvania

While we had a nice lunch sitting out by the river you can see that we had an unwelcome lunch companion. He loved the catsup apparently. Of course what day trip to a new place would be complete without a stop at a local independent bookstore? My only regret was that I didn't bring running clothes so that I could run on the canal trails in both states. 

I'm always so impressed with how much time Tom and Stacie make to spend with the kids. There isn't a day that passes that they don't make the time to read with them, do crafts, play games and so on. I'm sure some reading this would say, "that's what parents do". My response to that is no, that's what parents should do and all to often don't. I know they are both much better parents than I was and anyone with kids would do well to learn just by watching them parent their children. Perfect? Nope. Who is? But outstanding parents? Absolutely without reservation. I'm proud to call them my daughter and son in law. As well as friends.

I really feel Blessed to be able to spend time at least a couple of times a year with them. I didn't spend very much time with my grandparents growing up and while I do have some good memories I wish that I had more. Most of the time we lived on the west coast while they all lived in New England. The kids will definitely have more memories of time with all four of their grandparents than many people do and hopefully they will be a lot of good memories.

I'm already looking forward to a trip back in the Spring. 

New Jersey Fall Trip - Part 1

I try to visit Tom, Stacie and the kids at least twice a year usually in the Spring and Fall and that is how it worked out again this year. Last year when I went to New Jersey, it was almost the same date and a good bit of the Fall changes had come and gone. This year when I arrived they were just starting so I got to see the changes daily on my runs. It was beautiful again this year.

Typical Fall Runs in New Jersey 2014

Jersey Racing

Like the majority of my trips to see the kids, this one involved racing for Stacie, Tom and I. The first weekend there Stacie and I ran the Steeplechase Distance Race 5K and the second weekend Tom and I went to Sandy Hook and raced the Jersey Shore Half Marathon. Both races turned out surprisingly well because both Tom and Stacie had been sick before I arrived and were still sick to varying degrees when they ran. In spite of their illness they both ran well. For the first time, Stacie beat me in a race and I couldn't have been prouder if I had won the whole race myself. At about 2 1/2 miles there was only one runner between her and I and the last mile was mostly uphill. On the hill she passed about 15 additional runners, it was fun to watch. I was really proud of her. 

In the half Tom ran his personal best for the distance and I surprised myself by running my fastest half marathon since April 2012. It was a beautiful course and I think that motivated both of us. 

The best part of my trip was spending time with Haley and Chase. I got the opportunity to watch both of their soccer practices, Chase's soccer game and Chase's hockey practice. Every time I see them they seem to have grown so fast. 

Between school and activities the kids keep everyone busy. I'll share more about that in another post about this trip.