I spent the weekend and Monday outdoors, my idea of heaven. First up was helping out at a project for a Volunteers for Outdoor California (VOCal) project making improvements to and extending a trail in Fernandez Ranch a gorgeous area owned by the John Muir Land Trust situated in between Crockett and Pinole. I arrived on Friday night and set up my tent on a meadow that had recently been cleared. There were about two dozen tents set up all around the meadow. I was very grateful to get into bed, having bought a new blowup mattress so enjoyed the soft bed. The meadow was very uneven so it made for some interesting maneuvers with the wheelbarrow when I brought my things in.
My neighbor was a very sweet, friendly young man originally from North Carolina who has lived in the Bay Area for the last two years. We had a fun conversation about the differences he’s found living in California – the lack of rain and abundance of blue sky(which he loves), property taxes (I got to show off my Prop 13 knowledge), zipper merging (confusing!). He traveled around the US visiting national parks for a year after grad school, and will take another year off soon to travel around the world, something I heartily encouraged him to do. As dusk descended we saw bats swooping for their dinner and heard coyotes yipping as a train went past. Later that night I heard frogs, owls, cows and turkeys (it was a noisy place!). Friday night was chilly, I was at the point of trooping out to the parking lot to get some blankets from my car when I finally warmed my sleeping bag up enough and was able to fall asleep.
The next morning started at 5:30 when I got up to journal before starting my shift helping out in the kitchen at 6 o’clock. I spent the next five hours setting up the drink table, putting together platters of meat, cheese and sliced vegetables for sandwiches as well as muffins and fruit for breakfast, washing dishes, and chopping lots of vegetables for that evenings dinner. It was a great crew in the kitchen, we had lots of fun scrambling up and down into the rental truck that held all of the supplies and figuring out the best way to set up food on the tables. The first thing most people asked when they arrived was ‘Where is the coffee?’ The 5 gallon containers of coffee were made using L’eggs knee-high pantyhose as the coffee filters, which were very effective and durable!
I got to take a break for a few hours in the middle of the day, so I headed to the local Peets since we had used up all the coffee on site. I spent about an hour sitting in the sunshine, sipping on my mocha frappe and reading my book, it was heavenly. That afternoon I went back to help finish dinner prep, and put out snacks for the trail volunteers as they came back hot and sweaty from their hard work. We could not cut watermelon and cantaloupe fast enough, I think we could have just kept putting out watermelon and it would’ve disappeared. Everyone was in good spirits from how well the trail work went. We started working on cooking up our vegetables, chicken, lentils and soy curls, but discovered as we got ready to heat the water for the pasta that half of the burners for the gas grills were not working. Calamity! We had 100 people who were hungry for dinner and we were unable to get things cooked as expected. Kim, the kitchen manager, was cool as a cucumber rearranging the flow of how the meal would go while encouraging everybody and finding folks who could try to figure out what was going on with the burners. Several people with Q-tips worked on cleaning out everything and eventually they managed to get most of the burners back online. We got out the veggies and protein, so people could start their meal and eventually the pasta and the rest of the meal came out, and everyone had their full. It also helped that they tapped the beer keg when they realized dinner was going to be running late so that pacified quite a few folks. I was busy dishing out food to hungry people and then spent time in the dishwashing area cleaning up our cooking dishes. Finally, as it was getting dark I reached my limit, and handed my scrub brush over to a fresher volunteer.
Saturday night was warmer, I was tired from the long busy day in the kitchen, so I slept pretty well, the young folks who were up having a good time and talking loudly did not affect my sleep at all.
The next morning I got to enjoy the fruits of the other kitchen crew and had a delicious egg and sausage burrito and coffee and headed out to Redwood Regional Park where I was meeting a friend for a hike. It was a beautiful Sunday, clear sky and a light breeze. I got there early and while I was waiting for Shannon to arrive, a Boy Scout troop emerged from the trail with their backpacks on clutching sleeping bags and boxes, obviously having spent the night at the group campground. They were full of energy and enthusiasm, and the troop leaders looked a little worse for where, but happy.
Shannon and I had a great time hiking some new trails. After we parted, I was feeling like I definitely needed to shower after a couple of nights of camping. They had some solar showers at the VOCal site, but I thought it was better that those went to the trail workers who got a lot hotter and sweatier than I did working in the kitchen, even if my day was a longer one. My plan that afternoon was to meet up with Julie on Mount Diablo where we were going to camp for the night. Luckily, Julie had not yet left home and invited me to come over and take a shower before we headed out. It felt so good to get clean and fresh!
She headed up to the campsite while I had a lovely video chat with Annemarie. It was 8 AM her time so she was just about to go into work, I could hear several of her preschool. students being dropped off in the background, so cute. She looked so happy, all settled back at home after her sojourn to the US and London. I’m so grateful that I can FaceTime with her and see her instead of just talking on the phone like when I lived in New Zealand in the early 90s.
I finally made my way up Mount Diablo, marveling at the beautiful views and how quickly the mountain had gone from green grass to dry colored straw. Julie had managed to book a campsite with a beautiful view of the East Bay and a lovely large tree. We got everything set up. It was her first time camping in a long, long time and she was very much enjoying being outdoors. It’s great being so high up on Mount Diablo because you don’t get any traffic noise except for the few cars going through the campground.
We took a short hike up the Moses Ridge Trail, where we got views from the Antioch bridge near Oakley all the way around through the San Ramon Valley, it was incredible. They were birds soaring above us, enjoying the same air drafts that were cooling us down.
Later, we made a delicious dinner of sautéed onions, pepper, and sausage, ciabatta rolls, salad, and gnocchi simmered in chicken soup and half-and-half. Needless to say we were both very full when we were done!
Soon after we wandered to a part of the campground that had beautiful sunset views. We sat on a bench and just watched the incredible sunset display in front of us. The mists hanging in the folds of the valley below hid the buildings and houses, it looked like we were out in rural Wyoming. It was absolutely magical. A couple came by and sat on the bench next to us delighted because they had camped last night as well and it was very windy and cloudy so they couldn’t see anything.
After that, Julie did the dishes and I got the fire started. We talked about our plans for hiking the next day and later in the week when we would be heading to the South Bay, then it was time for s’mores! The fire had turned mainly to coals and I was able to do some of my best marshmallow roasting. I left the fly off my tent because the weather was so mild and there was no wind.
Pretty soon we were both ready for bed, at that point it was after 10:30pm, really late for me! I read a little bit and soon fell asleep. All was well until about four in the morning when the wind came up with a vengeance. I was thankful that I had put the crate of dishes in my tent alongside my backpack and clothing bag, otherwise, I felt like I would end up like Dorothy‘s house in the Wizard of Oz, being picked up and rolled around! I laid there for a while, enjoying the wild weather whipping the tent walls all around me. Then I started to worry that I wasn’t actually going to be able to take down my tent without it flying away. I packed everything up as best I could and waited for a lull in the wind. There was never really a lull but it did calm down a little bit so I quickly transported items out and into the nearby food locker so they wouldn’t get blown away. I ended up having to run after my tent as it started to blow into the bushes, after a few tries I was able to get the poles out and flatten it to the ground. I knew there was no way I would be able to roll it up, so I bunched it all together and stuffed it in the back of my car. By that time Julie was up, she had slept in the back of her car so she didn’t have the same tent issues that I did. We were both ready for some coffee and were hoping that the stove would be able to stay lit for long enough so that we could boil water for coffee. We were successful and sat at the table with the wind buffeting our hair around, grateful to have hot coffee to drink while we figured out our game plan.
Our game plan ended up being both of us heading home instead of battling the wind that was not letting up on the mountain. We had plans to do some Ridge Trail hikes in the South Bay on Tuesday and Wednesday so decided to conserve our energy.