Plans sometimes get changed. Radically. My October Sierra plans were to fish Rock Creek until late Friday, then to head home and miss the Friday traffic. The snow in the pic above forced a revision. Waking to 2" of snow in my campground made outdoor cooking problematic, so I threw all my wet gear loosely into the back of the truck and headed home. Early. Not much later I walked into a Mickey D's in Lone Pine for coffee, only to meet a middle aged guy in shorts and a hoodie who asked…
Read MoreIn Need of Repair?
Not long after we moved to Temecula in 1988, the neighbor above us installed a cedar fence at the top of our slope on the property line. A pretty nice job too! As it aged over the years, we did some minor repairs—putting in supports for some posts, laying new 2X4s above some broken rails, and replacing some pickets. But about a year ago I realized it needed more major repairs. Three of the seven posts had rotted out, more rails needed replacing, and 40 of the 120 pickets had to be replaced. A fairly normal job, until…
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image from bearbox.org
Safe from Bears
Mom claimed I had been conceived in the Sierras, so I came by my love for them honestly. And in several decades of hiking and camping and fishing and driving through them, I never had any issues with bears. Until I did. Guys from our church camped in Gray’s Meadow outside Independence in 1990, and after chasing trout on other streams we came back to a campsite in chaos with missing items. The campground host came over, explaining that a bear had strolled in and…
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The 750 from the first Iron Butt Ride.
70 Isn’t 28
Every so often, “Unconventional” features a fresh post from a 2018 ride at the age of 70--an Iron Butt that covered 1,080 miles in just over 16 hours, from Temecula to Dillon MT, all on the fairly straight, sometimes barren and sometimes scenic I-15. My Honda ST1300 was without music and the interstate quite uncrowded, providing time to think and pray and ponder. Leaving at 4 AM and traveling 450 miles, the bike entered Cedar City UT at 10:30. Good time, but already some tiredness arrived. So a longer pit stop provided an early lunch and rest. During the last two hours of the ride, I wanted nothing more than…
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Carlsbad Beach
Beach Lessons
In the midst of a hellacious heat wave in SoCal, where something like 8 out of 10 days broke 100 degrees, the weather predictor delivered a message from God: Temecula would likely hit 107, and the nearby beach city of Carlsbad would be 80. My interpretation: a beach day! So an early lunch at the Daily News Café led to the sand—with appropriate social distancing (except for family units). I especially enjoyed…
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Strange Goals
Early on a cold and rainy morning, Rich and I rode our bikes from Stewart, British Columbia over the bridge into the thriving metropolis of Hyder, Alaska. Population 87 in 2010. An American city who uses Canadian money and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for law enforcement. “Alaska’s Friendliest Ghost Town,” as locals call it. But then, we saw no locals. One nice feature: travelers need no passports to go from Canada to Alaska…only to return…
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Working Backward
I'm consumed with returning our yard back to good condition after six years of rental neglect left it overgrown or dead. One task: remove the back lawn and replace it with a brick patio. Rarely for SoCal in June, over 1" of rain fell last weekend, which softened the turf enough to remove easily. Well, easier than if it were hard and dry. So I eagerly started in with a shovel and old muscles and fairly quickly excavated 3/4 of the 600 sq.ft., only to realize I'd created a problem.
Take a close look...
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