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Coe was outstanding, as always. I saw the western flank of the Sierra, which I only see from Coe. I was growled at by some of the wild pigs, for getting too close with my camera. Scott wants to do a bit of backpacking out there, which is great news for me because it gives me more reasons to head up there during the winter, while the Sierra is largely off limits for me and my limited winter mountaineering skills.

Of course the drive up there sucks, and even worse than that is the drive back especially if it’s only a 2 day trip, 1 day up and one day back. I spent almost as much time driving this weekend as I did hiking, I need my pilot’s license, STAT.

Morgan Hill sort of changes, while staying the same. The hill in front of the old police station where we would slide down when there was ice on the ground is now all dirt and stone. There are more and more houses and fewer open fields every time I go back, those open fields where we would catch pollywogs, or walk through to get to school when it wasn’t muddy and of course where we would build our tree houses. Those open, empty, fields really do hold quite a few memories for me, now they are just condo farms.

On the good side, the village and the crest (previously the bad areas of town) have cleaned themselves up somewhat, or my standards have dropped after living near L.A. for so long that they look better than they used to. The Granada theatre looks like it is being remodeled and cleaned up finally. That’s where I saw Revenge of the Jedi, when the theatre only had one screen, then they went and remodeled it so there are now TWO WHOLE screens (they basically just split the room in half with a wall that you can usually hear the movie on the other side through). I wonder if it’ll have 4 screens now with the remodeling!?! Gotta love small town life.

In the dead of November, Scott and I rolled up to Henry Coe for a little car camping trip.

Saturday

I left Socal around 5am, for my 5 hour drive, Scott of course was still sleeping.  5 uninteresting hours later I pulled into the parking lot for the largest Safeway in Santa Clara county (WOOOT!!).  Despite the fact that Scott lives about 390 miles closer to Morgan Hill than I do, I was on time and he wasn’t.  We got some last minute supplies from Safeway and drove up to Coe.

I used to bike from my house, to the entrance of Coe, 16 miles or so up (severely up) hill, then bike down. To this day this is one of the most difficult physical exertions I have ever completed and I used to do it daily.  It was this schedule that got me into such good shape that when I got to and through boot camp I actually came out in worse shape than I went in.

So when we got up to camp, we hiked up to Eric’s bench, Sierra view, Monument, Sada’s pine, Manzanita point and then back to camp.  Basically it was just a little 8 mile day or so, with perfect weather; overcast, a bit chilly, very slight breeze and no one else out there because of the occasional drizzle.  We did alot of catching up during the hike, so the time went by pretty quickly and the scenery, as usual was classic Coe.

After the hikes, we got back to camp, Scott started cooking and I setup the tent.  After a few hours of burning wood and melting bottles in the firepit we went to the tent where Scott demonstrated some shady card dealing techniques by beating me at 21 and Texas hold ‘em as well as some other dumb game.  I did however wipe the tent with him at Uno, take that chump.

Sunday

I woke with the sun and hiked up to Sierra view to get some sunrise shots while Scott gets more sleep.  I had a run in with some of the wild pigs of the park, got a bit too close and they growled me back.  I gladly stepped back to make them happy (by gladly I mean I basically ran backwards until I was out of breath).

After I got back to camp, we cleaned up, had some breakfast and tried to contact his parents, no luck with that.  So, we drove down the hill back to town.

After we packed up camp, we headed down the hill and to town where we tried to find a Street Fighter game to play so I could demonstrate to Scott the fact that he still has no skill.  However, we were out of luck as Morgan Hill seems to be out of arcades nowadays, I have no idea what kids do after school now, but it must suck.

Since we found nothing to do in town, I took another five uninteresting hours to drive back to Socal and so ends the story.

All pics from trip (not many & not good)

Well my truck has new tires today, I have a new cellphone (god how have I fallen so low?) and my snowboard has a fresh coat of wax on it. All ready and waiting for the new season to begin in earnest. Enough about boarding though, in just a week and a half I’m going to Henry Coe for a little reunion with Scott.

I’m looking forward to Coe, that place has always had a soothing effect on my soul, like an entire bag of Hall’s when you have a sore throat. Sierra view, Monument point, Kevin’s bench, Sada’s pine, it’s been… years since I’ve really spent time there. This is the park that inspired in me my love of the outdoors, the ranger there, Barry Breckling was the one that inspired in me a desire to become a ranger (eventually… slow process) and the park has always been a place where I could go to calm my nerves, recover, gain perspective and a bit of distance on any problems I’ve got.
I guess the fact that I haven’t spent any real time there in the last few years means everything has been going pretty well.

Other news, my to do list continues to grow as fast as my SSX3 scores. I can’t get away from that damn game. Between that game, reading the mini novel that is the instruction booklet for the new phone and waiting on the tires to be installed on my truck I got absolutely nothing accomplished today.

Back to the game now, if I were to bring the PS2 downstairs so I could sit on the couch and play SSX3… I likely wouldn’t leave the house for a few days. Hmmmm.