Weekend Roundup Oct 20

This past weekend was pretty low-key.

Saturday we went out on our bikes and rode about 53 miles around the East Bay, like this:

I love the Oakland/Berkeley hills for the views and the hill climbs!

Post-ride recovery meal:

Omelette with leftover roasted butternut squash. I was super hungry after the long ride so that's 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg.

After the ride, I was lucky enough to get a follow-up massage to keep working on my back and shoulders. Felt really good, but also made me completely unmotivated to get anything done, so Saturday was definitely a fun/lazy day. For dinner we just had leftovers--chicken, wheat berry salad, green salad.

Sunday we got a ton of chores done. Adam cleaned out the gutters on our house, and just in time because it started to rain that night! And for dinner we ended up going to my parents' house and having dinner at them. As always a fun evening. My dad grilled chicken, my mom made some cauliflower and I made some green beans.

Labor Day Weekend Photos

Better late than never...Labor Day Weekend recap.

We did a lot that weekend, but these photos sum it up nicely. It was relaxing.

Yes, that is a very large oatmeal-chocolate chip-peanut butter cookie baked in our dutch oven!

Weekend Round-Up

While Adam was off doing his annual Epic Mountain Bike Ride up in Tahoe, I had a relaxing weekend at home.

On Friday night I decided last minute to sign up for a half marathon (the Wolf Pack Events Fall Showdown) that was being held near our home. I'm so glad I did! I had knee problems earlier this year. The last half marathon I ran was in June, and I could barely walk after it thanks to knee pain (pain due in thanks partially to my own stupidity..). I really pulled back on mileage and reduced other impact activities this summer and am so glad I did because my knee has been much better recently. I'd been able to run 6-8 miles easily without any pain on recent weekends so I decided to go for it. The course was easy so it was a good one to try out. I ended up getting my first sub-2 hour time and got 3rd in my age group. Yay!

Post-race happiness. 

Because Adam was out of town, Saturday evening I watched a "girl" movie: What to Expect When You're Expecting. It was cute and funny (though not terribly realistic..) and I'm glad I rented it.

This morning (Sunday) I took the dogs on an easy 4 mile run and then did the Chest, Shoulders and Triceps P90X video + Abs. I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow (that hurts-so-good feeling...love that).

I made myself a recovery smoothie this morning. I've been tweaking my recipe everyday recently because I got into a rut that wasn't actually that good! Today I had a really simple one that was very good:

~1 heaping cup frozen banana chunks
1 cup fat free milk
1/2 scoop whey protein powder (unflavored)
1 T peanut butter

Turned out the perfect consistency and tasted great. I should just stick to simple instead of getting fancy with lots of ingredients like I last reported.

Simple! Tasty.

Adam is home now and I'm roasting some veggies for dinner. Getting set for the busy week ahead!

Donner Weekend

In September we spent one weekend around Donner Lake, Mt. Rose, and Squaw Valley.

On Saturday Adam and his friend went on an epic mountain bike ride starting at Mt. Rose. While they did that, I road the Tahoe Sierra Century (with great views of Donner Lake!) and hiked the dogs in and around the meadows at Mt. Rose. If you haven't done the Tahoe Sierra Century before, I do recommend it. I've done the 60 mile route twice (wanted to do the 100 mile this year but didn't work out with our schedules). It starts at Squaw Valley and goes over Donner Summit to Cisco Grove and back. It's actually quite an easy ride--don't be scared by riding up Donner Summit! It's not steep and not even very long. They close the road so it's much safer and it's a fun descent on the way back. 

After our bike rides we had dinner in Tahoe City at Rosie's Cafe. I had a turkey burger and Adam had Hawaiian pizza. Adam also ordered us some drinks...after all that exercise the gin and tonic went straight to my head! Here I am looking awkward:

The Tahoe area was busier than usual that weekend because the Tough Mudder race was at North Star that same day. The guys sitting behind us were sharing their war stories from the race the whole time we were there. "Dude, when I was on the monkey bars..." Tough Mudder people were everywhere that evening!

The next day we hiked Castle Peak via Hole in the Ground trail. It was a good one, I hadn't done Hole in the Ground before but I had been to Castle Peak a bunch of times via the PCT. 

Here are a couple views from Castle Peak. It was overcast that day but nice. 

Good weekend! We even got home before dark--amazing!

Ventana Wilderness Backpack: Los Padres Dam to Hiding Valley Camp

I've been on a blogging hiatus....but we're back!

This weekend we took a little overnight backpacking trip to the Ventana Wilderness! It was...wet. And fun!

Why am I standing in this river? For the 52nd time in two days?

Oh yeah, it's totally beautiful there!

We started out at the Los Padres Dam and estimate that we hiked 9-10 miles to Hiding Valley Camp. The trail starts out following the edge of the reservoir, then turns back up the river canyons into the Wilderness. We followed the Carmel River up to Hiding Valley Camp.

That's our massive tent in the background. Note my classy socks-with-flip-flops.

On the way in, we enjoyed the season's first wildflowers (lupines, poppies, indian paintbrush, wallflower, phacelias) and the views. When we started having to cross the river, we fought it...looking for places to cross on rocks or logs, or taking our shoes off and crossing in sandals and then putting our shoes on again...only to find another crossing 100 yards up the trail! Time consuming. Then, I fell in the river! Up to my waist! Oh man, was I mad and frustrated. After that, I continued to attempt to get dry (Still taking my wet shoes off to cross the river so I didn't get even more wet...). Also, my camera was in a waist-level pocket...it got wet, but still works after we dried it out. The iPhone took over picture duty.

Once we had gotten onto the Carmel River Trail, we only saw one group of 4 backpackers and 1 crazy ultrarunner (no idea how he was running--with tons of river crossings and lots of rocks and trees on the trail...tough to keep up a running pace!). When I asked one of the backpackers how many more river crossings there were, he said, "Infinite." Note a great sign..

Finally...we decided that if we were going to make it to camp in time for dinner and to get dry and warm--we both had to just GO FOR IT!! Which meant--just start crossing the river with our shoes and socks on, and pants rolled up. Surprisingly--this was a great choice. Way easier to walk in the river, and actually not that cold!

Once at camp, Adam built a fire and we made dinner: poached salmon with lemon and mashed potatoes with broccoli and Gorgonzola cheese. And, in accordance with our style...a bottle of Pinot Grigio. Dark chocolate cherries and chocolate biscotti for dessert. Not bad!!

On the way out---we decided to document our river crossings....so check out the hike out in photos (a la iPhone) below....

Picture of the first crossing...no pic of the second crossing.

And the foot makes 11!

Bonus head squishing picture.

Sorry mom.

Sorry again mom(s).

26! Actually it was more like 27 or 28, but those were the crossings of the Carmel River...there were some side streams too.

A great weekend..of course lots of poison oak too, and some ticks. Our recommendations if you're thinking of doing this hike: wear shoes that drain really well but are sturdy (we were thinking non-waterproof hiking shoes, or Keens) with socks...bring lots of extra socks, and shoes to wear around camp (we were thinking Tevas, which are comfy with thick socks and stay on feet pretty well, but aren't as heavy as tennies).

Mt. Rose Weekend: Cooking

A week ago we went up to Tahoe for the weekend. We drove up to Auburn and ran and biked in the ravine, and then drove up the hill Saturday evening. We drove on Highway 267 and, just after Brockway Summit, turned off the highway and drove out the (paved!) road to Watson Lake. We found the small (free!) campground and parked the van, and then went on a short hike to the summit of Mt. Watson. The campground is totally rustic (parking spaces and fire rings but nothing else), but it was quiet and scenic, and we liked it. 

Then, we cooked! 

We baked bread in the dutch oven. I had pre-made the dough in the bread machine. 

We drank tea, and made a chicken pot pie filling to eat with our freshly baked bread.

For dessert, I went all out and made blondies (read: butter, brown sugar, a little flour), with three kinds of chips: mini semi-sweet and regular size dark chocolate, and peanut butter. Yes!

The next morning...

We drove up Mt. Rose and Adam and Brian mountain biked, and I hiked with the dogs on the Tahoe Rim Trail. We saw two deer! Big ones. And some great views: 

I loved the meadow near where we parked.