Category — adventure

Now that we’ve used our Magellan GPS for both local and cross country travel, I have a few criticisms that I feel I should mention:

• The voice is just annoying. I realize most GPS systems have annoying voices, but this one really bugs me.
• It gives really screwy directions sometimes. For example, we were heading from Santa Monica toward Pasadena, and wanted to start on the 405 and eventually end up on the 210. The fastest and shortest route is to take the 405 N to the 101 to the 134 to the 210. The Magellan instructed us to take the 405 N to the 405 N (I assume it meant the 5 N) and then to connect to the 210 near Sylmar, which basically would take us on a big loop around the valley and add a dozen traffic filled miles onto our trip. Yeah, that’s what we need during the afternoon commute.
• The “Arrival at Destination Time” feature is basically useless on long distance trips, since it can’t seem to deal with distances of more than 1000 miles, and kept giving us impossible arrival times. The overall distance statistics feature is much more useful, however.

It was great for giving us a general idea of how to navigate new areas, but a lot of the time, we needed to refer to our National Geographic road atlas for more detail. So overall, I feel like the Magellan is great if you already have a general idea of the route you need to travel, but it’s kind of like MapQuest in that it has a few direction-finding glitches it needs to work out.

Just got back from a whirlwind road trip on Historic Route 66 (also known as Interstate 40 to Interstate 44.) Lots of stories and pictures to share, but I will need a few days to get settled back into my routine. For now, some trip highlights:

• Mojave National Preserve
• Snow and stars in Arizona
• Wind and sunrise in New Mexico
• All roads lead to Las Vegas
• The Texas Panhandle and it’s surprising lack of rest areas along the highway
• Tornado warnings in Oklahoma
• My first encounter with wild onions in Missouri

Stay tuned for more!

After our Backbone Trail excursion, we parked facing the ocean at County Line Beach (across from Neptune’s Net) and watched the kitesurfers and windsurfers. Now we are both itching to get on a kiteboard and get flying. I need to start looking into wetsuits ASAP, because the Pacific is generally way too cold for my liking, even in the summer.  I also need to find out where to get some kiteboarding lessons.

In the meantime, though, here are some great resources I found on kiteboarding/kitesurfing:

• The Kiteboarder
• Kiteboard.com
• Kiteboarding Magazine
• Kite Flix
• KiteMare
• Southern California Kiteboarding Association
• iWindSurf.com
• Kiteforum.com

We headed up to Ventura County yesterday to scope out Echo Cliffs. Partner-in-Climb (PIC) wanted to see how Big Old Dog would handle the trail before committing to a full day of climbing, and frankly, I am not quite ready to shove my nail-less toe back into climbing shoes just yet. (Yes, I know, that is not very hard-core outdoor-sy of me, but whatever. Unless I’m in some kind of competition, I don’t engage in personal discomfort unless it is an absolute emergency. :P)

But I was really up for a hike, and we had the perfect day for it. We parked at the Mishe Mokwa trail head parking lot and headed up the connector trail, then down into the canyon. The view from the trail is amazing. There were a couple of climbing parties set up on along the large wall, and another party on Balance Rock. I found this close up of Balance Rock online:

You can see it above Echo Cliffs in the first picture, but this close up gives a better idea of the kind of precarious perch the rock balances on.

PIC has climbed at Echo Cliffs before, but usually turned down a side trail to head straight to the climbing spots. We attempted to take the side trail, but Big Old Dog was struggling to keep his footing, so we returned to the main trail and followed it down to Split Rock. The main trail is incredibly accessible and easy to hike. There were a few trail runners, and we encountered several groups of older hikers who were doing fine with just a little help from trekking poles. After some scrambling on Split Rock and a quick snack, we headed back to the car. Big Old Dog seemed to make it back with no problems and was moving around pretty well today, so I think we’ll be heading back to Echo Cliffs in the very near future.

I also found a couple of cool sites while I was looking for info on Echo Cliffs and the Mishe Mokwa Trail, which I will be adding to my blogroll, but you can check them out here in the meantime:

• Rockgrrl.com
• GetBeta.com
• The (Single) GeekHiker

While perusing local stores and online reviews in my quest for new bike brakes and a padded bike seat, I discovered another must-have bike accessory: the Garmin Edge 705. It combines the best features of bike training computers with Garmin GPS navigation, so you can explore new terrain freely, confident you are getting the workout you want–and that you’ll find your way back home. It’s on the Men’s Health Lust List and got a write up on Engadget a couple of months ago. I have been reading a lot of positive reviews about the integrated personal training system and the wireless route sharing capabilities. I LOVE the fact that it comes with a wireless heart rate monitor; it is such a cool feature. Can’t wait to take one for a spin, but for now it will go on my wish list.

I have been meaning to post something about Santa Barbara for a few weeks but I kept forgetting to download the pics off the digital camera. So, without futher ado, here are some of the gorgeous views:

We had intended to do some climbing at Gibraltar Rock but got sidetracked by some shopping early in the day. By the time we got to Gibraltar Rock, about 14 other climbers were already set up, so we decided to do some exploring for a less crowded spot. The guide book mentioned a spot further up the hill that was the exact location were bouldering in Santa Barbara got started, so with a little nostalgia in our hearts, we set out to find it.

The good news is that the drive to the location was absolutely gorgeous. As you can see in the photos above, we were WAY above the cloud line that hid the city. Eventually the paved road ended, as the guide book said it would, and we were on the dirt road that was supposed to lead us to the alleged first climbing spot. We followed the instructions to the letter: we drove about a mile down the road (and had our Magellan keeping track of the distance for accuracy) and spent a good while looking for a trail which the guide book described as “a good trail” that was “well marked.” We didn’t check the publication date of the book until much later, or we would have realized that the last time this spot was visited was probably around the time the book was written, in 1999. The decrepit trail marker should have been the first clue that something was amiss, but we were both excited about the adventure and trudged on. The trail was extremely overgrown and seemed to be heading away from the rocky outcropping we spotted from the road, but we optimistically went ahead anyway. Well, I optimistically went ahead. Partner-in-Climb expressed concern about a hundred yards into the journey, but I was convinced we were on the right trail. It was the only one around…it had to be the right one.

We turned a corner and ended up in a small clearing that gave us a clear view of the rocks we were trying to reach–and the acres of trail-less scrub between us and the rocks, so we decided to stop and just enjoy the view. I have to admit, it was awesome to be out there, with no one around for miles. Here’s the rock we were trying to reach, in the distance to the right of Big Old Dog:

In spite of everything, it was a great day, but next time we will have to get on the road earlier to secure a spot at one of the more popular climbing spots in the area. I guess those spots are so popular for a good reason.

Our weekend plans got slightly derailed on Saturday when the landlord showed up to look at a couple of leaks, so we decided to use Saturday to do some housework, and then spend Sunday climbing, hiking or whatever.

One of our big issues with sticking to a schedule is that we pretty much can’t unless we have made plans with other friends. Left to our own devices, the day usually unfolds as such: I wake up early and get showered, tell Partner-in-Climb what time it is, he says to wake him in 15 minutes, then I get on the computer. 2 hours later, he finally gets out of bed and I am still on the computer. Then of course he wants to check email, online auctions, the news, the weather, etc. This week we were successful at actually getting everything packed and getting on the road by noon. Unfortunately, that was merely the road to the downtown Santa Monica, and not the PCH like we were supposed to be on. However, our “short” detour to Santa Monica did score us some great finds on bike gear, in addition to a new climbing rope, so I will not complain.

And we eventually did make it to Santa Barbara, but that is another story…

I am so excited for the long President’s Day weekend! Partner-in-Climb(PIC) and I have talked about camping and climbing at Ojai, Joshua Tree and a variety of other places, but we have just decided that we will play it by ear tomorrow morning. I hope the weather holds out because I am so anxious to try out my new sleeping bag. I got it for Christmas from my mom, but I haven’t been camping since then, so I have not had a chance to use it out. It’s from LL Bean and has a very soft fleece lining… Should be cozy!

I’ll post more Monday about my adventures!