First Ski This Season

My cattle dog gets a little tired of hanging around Rancho San Diego, so he suggested that we go up to the mountains. We avoided the usual Sunrise Highway mess and headed up Oakzanita fire road by East Mesa. This is where my mountain bike friends and I spend many happy days blasting down the road after climbing to the top of the East Mesa. I was thinking that if the snow firms up, it could be a good downhill run. Packed the plastic boots and skis in a pack and hiked a little less than a mile to where the snow got continuous.

I have Red on an electronic collar so that he won't do the bad thing with the local wildlife. It was as quiet as church, with only the quail to provide background music. The fire hurt this place, but things are definitely coming back. There were six or seven places where the deer had crossed the road in large groups.

Its great to see the deer coming back. They were absent for quite a while. Now, our weekly mountain bike rides usually include turkey and deer sightings. The only bad part is that the cats are probably back too.





The turkeys are the big success story in the San Diego back country. On our last ride up this canyon a few weeks ago, we saw a flock of over three dozen birds. Their tracks are very distinctive, as you can see.














I started getting a little hot spot on my heel, so figured it was a good time to point the 160 mm Catamounts back down the hill. Even with just three pin bindings, they ski well and my speed gives the dog a good workout. Every once in a while, Cuyamaca Peak comes into view and the day's effort is rewarded with solitude and beauty.

Link to Tioga Pass Ski last April (select Backcountry)

Stand up Kayaking

I always looked with envy down at the stand up paddle boarders when camping on the bluff at San Elijo State Park during the small surf summer days. They gracefully stroked across the broad ocean canvas, undaunted by the smallish surf and lazy glass of summer. Having a garage full of skiis , surfboards and kayaks, the idea of spending $1000 on a new American made paddle board seemed a bit excessive.

My Ocean Kayak is a Prowler, just over 14 foot long. It is 28 inches wide, just about where the modern stand ups start. I first tried to use a double bladed paddle in Mission Bay. It worked OK, but my hands got tired of gripping the blade fairly soon. I saw a reference in paddlesurf.net to EJ Johnson, who makes laminated wooden paddles of marine grade birch. He sells these finely crafted long paddles from his shop at Dana Point for $175. See some of EJ's creations. With the new paddle, my stand up kayaking got easier in a hurry. In the first 25 hours of doing it at Mission Bay, Lake Murray and Lake Alamo (in Arizona), I have had only one fall. It's not that hard!

I made a little YouTube video to shortcut the process of learning how to do stand up kayaking.