Pedroza's Place

Day Four saw us back on the trail. This time we were camped out at the Clyde group campground in Big Pine Canyon. Working on our 10 mile hike we had two goals: see First and Second Falls and Palisade Glacier.

For Palisade Glacier we didn’t climb all the way to the top but we got pretty close. Along the way we saw a bunch of trail workers:

It is amazing how strong they are, I was huffing and puffing my way up and they climbed that trail as if it were nothing. What is more is they had a lot of equipment with them.

After checking out the glacier we turned directions and went to look for the falls. The first one we saw was First Falls:

This was relatively easy to get to, it was fun to see it. It is amazing to think of how much water runs through that water fall.
(video here)

After staring at First Falls for a bit we went on to Second Falls. The idea was to hike up the trail and just see it from a distance. Which we did:

It was cool, but decided that we needed to get closer so up we went. The view from up close was amazing. It is fun to feel the power of the mist hitting against you. After climing up to the falls we had to make the descent down:

After getting down it was just a matter of following the creek back to camp:

On the way back we some interesting stuff.
A horse outfitter:

A old abandoned house:

And a Cottonwood tree:

After 10 miles it was another exhausting day, but it was very beautiful.

Just a bit ago, from across the room, I heard the soft sounds of AJ talking to himself.  I went to go investigate and found him laying on his back on the floor, head cushioned on a pillow he had pulled off the couch, holding a book above his face.  He was “reading”  this book to himself.  (It was a soft one, from Grandma Jackman, with many objects , each the same color, on each page).  aaaahhh…

Where is the sweet sweet picture of this sweet sweet moment you ask?  Well, I went to (quietly) grab for the camera and AJ immediately perks up, “PICTURE”, he says.  I try to get him  to re-create the moment, only to discover  that the memory card is not in the camera and I have no idea where it is.  ARGGHH!!

In a related note, he is gradually catching onto the concept of colors.  He help up his breakfast fruit this morning, and with no prompting, said, “GREEN Grapes.”  Yea!!  The two colors he can most reliably identify are pink and green, so Lilly Pulitzer here we come!

Day 3 found us back at camp, which was good because I was tired from the day before. Although our feet got a little bit of rest it was still a busy day. On this day we finished the Fishing Merit Badge which basically meant a bunch of knot tying and talking about fishing emergencies. What is a fishing emergency you ask? Well basically just think hooks. Anyhow, it was also Wilderness Survival day. To start Wilderness Survival Day we had to first find a wilderness.

Not too far away from our camp we found this really cool grove of Aspen trees:

It kind of reminded me of the sacred grove. First thing the boys did was start building shelters. We told them they could use anything they had on them and anything they found. Here is a picture of one of the shelters:

In this particular case the scouts found an old palette and what looked to be an abandon burlap sack, kind of wierd finding that in the middle of the forest, but it is what they found so it was valid. To complete their requirements they had to sleep in the shelter one night, and it rained a little bit. I have to say they did a better job than I did when I got this merit badge. When I did the Wilderness Merit Badge I did it in the winter and built an Igloo, building an Igloo is a lot easier than building a leantoo. Anyhow, since it was taking a lot of time for the scouts to build their shelters I went with another Coach (in Varsity Scouts the leaders are called Coaches not Scoutmasters) and did some of my own reconanse. After some time we soon found a town called Aspendale. It was a very small town, but there was a resort there:

In this town we found a pay phone and overpriced ice cream sandwiches. We decided the scouts didn’t need to know about that so we went back to camp and didn’t say anything about it.
Back at camp we found the scouts demonstrating fire starting:

The bow method is really one of the harder methods. My favorite method involves a 9 volt battery and steel wool. Try it one day, but watch your hands, wouldn’t want you to burn yourself.
Fire was started and it was one to preparing food. For food we made what is called a Hobo Pack:

Basically all you do is cut up a potato, some meat, vegetables, and wrap it up in aluminum. This is then cooked right on the coals of your fire. It is very simple. Also simple was our refridgerator. Yes, we had a refridgerator out there and we had nice cold milk everyday:

It was a fun day, I didn’t make a shelter. I just “cowboy” camped by showing the scouts how a shelter and hiking pole make a great shelter:

It worked well, but there was a lot of mosquitoes out there and I got bit pretty good.

(click on pictures to expand)
Day 2 in the Sierras was the first of two “trail” days. For our first destination, we made it our goal to get to a place called Donkey Lake. To reach Donkey Lake we would have to climb to an elevation of 10,594 feet on a trail 5.2 miles long. The scouts are working on their hiking merit badge so the round trip would help them get one of their 10 mile hikes done (for the merit badge they have to do five 10 mile hikes).
We started our hike at Lake Sabrina where the trail head begins. The first thing that struck me was the wildlife. As soon as we got out of the car we saw a marmot.

 I can only describe it as a cross between a prairie dog and a squirrel:

Not to be surpassed however was Lake Sabrina itself:

It was kind of daunting at this point to look up to that ridge in the background and know that you were going over it.
The first section of the trail was a relatively easy 1.3 miles that ran around Lake Sabrina. This afforded excellent views of Lake Sabrina and chances to see a lot of wild flowers:

At the end of this 500 ft. climb there was a big stream to cross. The only way you could cross it was by jumping across the rocks:

My hiking buddy Jerry did this just fine. I however fell on one of the rocks, got wet, and ended up with a big bruise on my knee. Not fun, but that is the way it goes.
The next section would prove to be the most difficult part of this hike. The second section was 2.5 miles and climb 1,500 to Blue Lake. It was very interesting to me how the topography changed in this section. It went from very woody to very rocky very fast:

Nevertheless, I trodded onwards. At this point the air got very thin and I my lungs felt very heavy. I ended up making it to Blue Lake, but I was very tired:

It was very tiring, but as you can see from this picture it was worth it:

As stunning as that picture is, Blue Lake was not our final destination. We had lunch and continued climbing up to Donkey Lake. This section was 500 ft. higher, but the incline wasn’t as bad. The only problem was the trail which got kind of tricky to follow. Eventually, we did find it and this is what we saw:

You will notice in this picture that there are no trees. It was very stark, just water, ice, and rock. Another thing that you have to know is that it was about 90 degrees outside, which made the presence of snow that more striking. This of course was glacier ice and so it never really melts away. We fished some more at Donkey Lake and then made our way down.
The way down was interesting in itself. I am a big guy and the path was very rocky. It definitely wore on me after awhile. The switchbacks were the worst for me. I named this particular one “Lombard St.”:

Anyhow, I did eventually make it back. When we got back to camp I taught the boys how to make Ramen Chop Suey and Apple Cobbler in a Dutch Oven, it was really good after a long day of hiking.
Here is a little video of some of the sights I saw on this second day:

(click on the pictures to expand)

Last week I took my Scouts from Team 253 (we are Varsity Scouts so we call ourselves a Team) to the Sierras. It was a wonderful trip that took us to heights of 11,000 feet and across 21.5 miles in this series I plan to write a few notes about each day of our trip.

Our first day concentrated on getting to the Sierras. Our destination for this trip was the Inyo National Forest, specifically it was the John Muir Wilderness area. After about 5 hours of driving from Crestline we arrived at the Bishop Park Campground. It was kind of an interesting drive to me because I live in Crestline which is part of the San Bernardino National Forest and to get to Inyo National Forest we had to drive up the 395 which is basically all desert. It just reminded me how diverse California actually is, it is amazing to me that you can traverse so many different ecological systems in one day’s worth of driving. The Bishop Park Campground was really nice. We were in the group site that came equipped with a fairly large bear box, several fire pits, and a flush toilet (that even had a sink). This was all set next to a beautiful river:

With a river like that it was obvious the first thing to do after setting up our tents was to go catch dinner. My friend Neil (another Adult leader) told me he saw a fish under a log in the river. I put some Powerbait cheese on my rod and put it in the river, 30 seconds later I had a fish.

I really couldn’t believe how easy it was. In a matter of about 2 hours our Team had caught seven fish. During the whole trip the scouts caught dozens (I lost count after about 12) of fish. It seemed that every stream and lake we saw had multitudes of fish ready to eat. Anyhow, after cleaning out our fish and eating them we settled in for our first night with full stomachs.

As this blog is now functioning as our family journal, I’m going to add a quick note, so I won’t forget later.

AJ and I have a fun trend going. Several mornings each week AJ pops out of his bed and comes and runs into our room and snuggles in our bed. Usually this happens when John’s alarm has woken him up. He NEVER falls asleep in our bed, just wiggles, kicks, and gives lots of hugs.

This doesn’t happen every morning. Sometimes he goes straight to the kitchen looking for breakfast and other mornings he checks in with me and tells me “toys” and I tell him, “that’s okay I’ll get you when breakfast is ready.”

However, those 3 or 4 morning of the week when he comes under the blankets with us are precious.

(His favorite times are when John and I are both in bed and he can come in between us. If we are both in the bed, he won’t go anyplace but between us. Not, on my side, not on John’s side, only between.)

Ok, so last month I wrote about how we went to see the Gamble House. I really didn’t talk about our visit to Little Toyko. It was fun, but it wasn’t really eventful. Or at least that is what I thought…

 Ok, first I will fill you in with the boring stuff. Little Tokyo is a favorite haunt of mine. Located in the center of LA it is a mecca for every Japanophile in California, that would include myself (John). I visited Japan once when I was in high school and I have studied it ever since. Unfortunately, I don’t have money to go back there, but luckily in California we have Little Toyko. Any Japanese thing you want is there. My favorite noodle house there is a place called Daikokuya.

It’s a small place, but it has these interesting old Japanese ads there. The wait can be long at times, but the food is good and the price is right. The headliner is ramen, and it is the best you can get int he states. You have to understand that this isn’t like the ramen you buy in the supermarket, it is very different. My mom likes Japanese food, but unfortunately she found out she doesn’t ramen, so I have to say it is not for everyone.

Anyhow,  that is the boring part. I really like Little Tokyo, but I wasn’t going to just blog about ramen. Have you ever had one of those moments you didn’t realize it was a big deal, but then afterwards you were like “Oh, that was a big deal.” I have been trying to improve my home movies. I can’t say that I will ever be good, but I want my videos to be at least a little more interesting. So while I walking through Little Tokyo I was taking what is known as “B roll.” Basically “B Roll” is just filler film that you can use later when bridging a gap in your film.  Here is what I shot:

Nothing really exceptional, just a little stroll through Little Tokyo, a quick pan of a few shops, a street performer in the background. Or so I thought until I saw this: (go to 33:38)

Yep, that was my brush with greatness. I met Arthur Nakane and I didn’t even know it. I should of know he was famous, my son really liked him. In fact AJ liked him so much we listened to three of his songs. I wish I would of filmed more of him. Had I known I was watching someone who would go onto America’s Got Talent I certainly would have. The guy is entertaining, but the competition is stiff so I don’t think he is going to win, but if this guy does go on to win the competition, we will be able to say “we saw him before he got famous.” I wish I would have gotten an autograph.

Click on a picture to enlarge.

Today was the Crestline Jamboree Days here in Crestline. The Chamber of Commerce puts it on every year. Usually, it consists of a parade, fair, and fireworks, but this year there was no money for fireworks. Lucky for us the parade starts right in front of our house.

The parade is fun it has lots of different types of entries:
<
AJ got a couple of pictures with the local celebrity:

AJ’s favorite part of the parade was the candy. He definitely got a lot of it:

After the parade they have a little fair:
For three dollars I got a Cream Cheese Wonton, Chop Suey, and some Teriyaki Chicken. For those of you who say that I wasn’t very American I would remind you that all of those things were invented in the United States (really Google it). The celebrations here in Crestline are very small town, but it was really fun. Here is a little video I made of our festivities:

(Click on the images to expand)

About a year ago I described my encounter with my cousin who lives in this alternative universe. In this alternative universe people walk in beautiful settings and campout under the stars.

<— A view towards Lake Silverwood from about 3 miles up the trail.

A view towards the 15 and a place called Horse Thief Canyon:

That is the good part of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).  The PCT has always been a mesmerizing thing for me. Living so close to the PCT in Crestline it is almost in my backyard. Recently my Scouts decided that they wanted to get their hiking merit badge. To do this they have to hike one 20 mile and 5 10 mile hikes. I wanted to help them with this so I planned what I thought would be a 10 mile hike.

Me at the Cleghorn road:

A simple plan really, camp overnight at Lake Silverwood and then hike a one-way hike to the McDonald’s 10 miles away. Unfortunately, I made two major mistakes. First mistake was that I used Google Earth to map the route. It lied, it calculated it out a little over 10 miles. After redoing the calculation after the hike it turned out our whole route was actually 14 miles. I did not do this entire 14 miles because at about 9 miles I realized my second mistake. That of not getting a topographical map. I had a good map, it showed all the required landmarks well, it just didn’t show the altitude change. If it had, it would of told me that out of those 14 miles, only three of them were downhill. The rest had various levels of incline. After seeing the third (and last peak) I knew I knew I wasn’t going to make it. My ankle was swollen, my knees were sore and I only had a quarter of a bottle of water left. It was time to evacuate. Lucky for me this trail has a lot of “off-ramps.” When I did realize I couldn’t make it, I doubled back and went onto Cleghorn Road. Since I didn’t know how my ankle was doing I tried to hitch a ride back to the 138. I didn’t get a ride, but two people did give me water. It was slow go, but I did make it to the 138.

This is where I ended up:

A  AWD staging ground.

It wasn’t all bad. First of all my Scouts along with the Scout Master made it to the end of the trail. The wild life was pretty impressive. I saw lots of flowers and beautiful little streams. I can’t even count the number of lizards that I saw (lots of different types).We also saw a black bear cub, luckily we never found his mother. It was good hike, no one got hurt, and we met the requirements for the merit badge. Crazy thing is some of my Scouts decided to go on later and do another 6 miles so they could do their 20 miler, I wish I had that energy.
Here is a map of what I walked(the red is what I did, the green is the trail, the goal was to get to that big yellow line called the 15):

On Monday June 14th, we went to Disneyland for the last time on our Disney Premium passes. I have been a Disney passholder since 1999. Back then you could get a annual pass for $99 dollars. There was only one pass and it was good all year long. Over the years Disney passes have steadily gone up in price and now it cost $419 for a Premium pass (the pass that lets you in year round).

 Sorry for this long trip report, but it was our last time for at least a year. If you want to see more of picture click on it to expand it.

AJ will turn 3 this year and so he will now have to have a ticket to go to Disneyland. So if we got three passes that would cost us $1257. We could afford that if we wanted to, but then we would have no budget to do anything else. There are lesser passes like the So-Cal Pass, but I work during the week so that doesn’t really work for me. Plus, there are too many other fun and interesting things to do here in California than just Disneyland. We plan on going to Disneyland once a year from now on. We will pick a day when we know the crowds will be down and then do what we call a “commando” day.
Anyhow, since it was our last day at Disneyland, we decided to do it the right way. This meant doing as much as we could with what we had. What we have is a two year old, so we knew we couldn’t do everything, but we knew we could do a lot.

 The first thing we did was to go to Disney’s California Adventure (DCA). We were there right as it opened and immediately got in line for the World of Color fastpass line. The line was very long. The fast pass machine was at the Grizzly River Rapids, but it switch backed through out all of Condor Flats and by the time we got in the line we were in front of Soaring over California. Anyhow, since we were in front of Soarin of California, I got us a fastpass for that attraction. We only got one because we knew that we could turn it into two with a baby swap (it’s a front of the line pass you ask for when one of your party is not tall enough to go on a particular ride). I went back in line to wait and Denise and AJ went on King Triton’s carousel. By the time they were done with their carousel ride I had gotten our World of Color fastpasses and the Soarin Over California fastpass was ready to go.

On the way to Soarin Over California we got a family picture with Goofy. Denise then went on Soarin and I got a baby swap ticket. TIP: Baby swap tickets don’t have times on it so I put it in my pocket and saved it for later. While Denise was on Soarin Over California AJ and I got a picture with the Mater and Lighting McQueen cars. We also went over to the Animation Academy. We then went as a family to see Playhouse Disney Live. AJ thought it was interesting, it was fun for him because he likes to wiggle. After Playhouse Disney Denise and AJ went over to Disneyland and I went on Soarin Over California. While I was on the ride Denise and AJ got a fastpass to Space Mountain got a spot at the Pizza Port for lunch. After my trip on Soarin Over California I went to Disneyland and went on a horse drawn trolley ride up Main Street. I also went into Adventureland and got a fastpass for Indian Jones. I then met up with AJ and Denise at the Pizza Port. After lunch we went to see Captain EO.

After the show, we took the train over to New Orleans Square. TIP: Because it is hidden behind the Autopia attraction, the Tommorowland train station is generally the least crowded of the four stops (the most crowded station is always New Orleans station). After checking out the Grand Canyon (present and past), we visted the Tiki Room and then took a spin on Pirates of the Carribean. TIP: If you want a Dole Whip go see the Tiki Room and buy it from the Tiki Room side, you will get a cool treat for half the wait time. At this point we perused some of the more interesting shops of New Orleans Square (most Disneyland shops sell the same stuff but New Orleans Square does have some variety). At this point we parted ways again and I went to see Indiana Jones. Denise and AJ went on Sleeping Beauty’s carousel (the carousel was the only ride AJ specifically asked for, so we felft we should oblidge) and Goofy’s Bounce house in Toon Town.

I met them back at Goofy’s Bounce house and then we went on to see Mickey at his house (and took the obligatory picture). TIP: Mickey Mouse can be hard to find sometimes in the park, but as long as Toon Town is open, you can find him in his house (that mouse is really quick on those costume changes!). After visiting Mickey we were getting tired so we took the Monorail to Downtown Disney. We looked at the mall shops for a few minutes and then went to rest in the Grand Californian. TIP: In order to avoid crowds late afternoon is generally a quiter time to visit the Downtown Disney mall area. Even if you are not staying at the Grand Californian it can be a great place to rest, especially if you are visiting DCA.

 We went to this little cafeteria place inside the Grand Californian called Whitewater Snacks for dinner. It isn’t anything special, but we like it because it is close to DCA. It is also close to the Grand Californian entrance into DCA but because the park was so crowded, they were only letting hotel guests use the side entrance. After walking back around we went through the Blue Sky Cellar. This is not really an attraction, it is more of a showcase of things Disney Imagineers are working on for the future. We were excited to see the ride vehicles for the Little Mermaid and the new Luigi Bumper Tires. Soon it was time for us to go see the World of Color show.

While we were waiting for the show to start AJ was a crack up. He quickly noticed everyone using their iphones taking pictures. He grabbed my itouch and took his own “pictures.” He was having so much fun that we didn’t have the heart to tell him an itouch doesn’t take pictures.

There was a little pre-show before the main show:

The show itself was awesome. The music, the water jets, and the special effects make it a spectacular show. It was amazing to see how high some of those jets went. I wasn’t going to sit there and film the whole show, but here are some teasers (in HD):

After the show we took the side exit back through the Grand Californian. We wanted to take the Monorail back into Disneyland since we still had a fastpass for Space Mountain. Unfortunately, it was down, we asked what was wrong and they said it was “technical dificulty.” Not uncommon, so we walked up to the front entrance of Disneyland. It was very crowded, but I still didn’t think much of it, I thought with DCA closing it was just because everyone was going now into Disneyland, plus the fireworks show had just ended and that makes Main Street very crowded. AJ by this time was asleep in his stroller so Denise decided she wanted to go window shopping. I still wanted to go on Space Mountain so I fought my way through the crowds to Tomorrowland. TIP: If Main Street is really busy go through the shops on the sides, they all connect in the back and are usually not as crowded. When I got to Tomorrowland I could tell something was wrong. None of the rides were operating. After asking a few other guests what was going on I found out that there had just been an earthquake. Anyhow, after a quick reset and test, we were allowed to go on Space Mountain. I was really glad I had a fastpass. After Space Mountain we made the slow walk to the trams and then up to the Mickey and Friends parking lot. TIP: At night the trams see if the trams are running on both sides. If so, go to the right (so that you are right next to the wall of Disneyland), it is always a shorter wait.