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| Dec 2002 | On the 1st, drove up to Lomita to finish flooring/painting job at Aunt V.s. Completed job on the 4th, and returned to Borrego.
On the 6th, saw Die Another Day, which was pretty good. On the weekend of the 7th, participated in BSTC straight doubles tournament. With Ken Shallahamer, lost 8-6, 5-8, 6-8 in semi-finals. On the 11th, put up some xmas decorations and mom brought home an xmas tree. On the 12th, hiked to "end" of Palm Canyon. Hit a place with a 15' waterfall with no easy way to go up stream. Found palms at the 2500' contour, and checked out my geo-cache in the area. Fire affected a fair part of the hike, which is an awesome one: 12 miles, 1800' veritcal, 7 hours.  Virginia, 1923-2002 On the evening of the 12th, my favourite aunt, Virginia, had a massive coronary. She died the next day. She had a fairly long life, and mom and I got to see her for much of her last month of life. Hopefully the home improvements we just completed cheered her up towards the end. |
On the 13th, met Marsia in Balboa Park, and saw Nemesis (so-so) with Maryhelen. On the 14th, drove Linkroums to San Diego so Olga could get an MRI.  Candle decorations in explosive pattern this year  S-22 xing Dry Canyon On the 18th, drove up thru Palm Desert to Torrance, and painted closets, touched up other painting, recarpetted closets, and installed blinds at Virginia's condo(Cousin Patty wanted us to fix it up for an easier sale).  Last remaining wrecked car in Dry Canyon On the 24th, mom dropped me off on S-2 in Dry Canyon, and I hiked 8 miles home, descending a net of 1300' in 3 hours. Went by my old home in Tubb Canyon along the way. One car is still in the canyon. On the 26th, drove Olga to San Diego for a doctor visit. |
On the 27th, drove up to L.A., did a little work at Virginia's condo, went over to dad's place and had dinner and helped carry up about 400 pounds of building materials to the current worksite there, then took another load back to Borrego from Virginia's. On the 28th, drove to San Diego, and spent most of the day with Marsia, Soledad and Aaaron, going to Mission Trails and Ocean Beach.  Jef and Marsia On the 29th, drove to San Diego, hiked about 5 miles at Mission Trails and had dinner with Maryhelen. On the 30th, drove up to North Hills, dropped off the furniture that cousin Patty wanted from Virginia's condo, continued on to Lomita, spent 3.5 hours doing final clean-up work at Virginia's condo, and completely filled up pick-up with remaining stuff. On the 31st, went over to Eris's where about 15 people participated in a party that included a sit-down dinner, and a Trivial Pursuit contest. Our team was ahead when we had to bug out to see fireworks at my place. About 10 of us, Misha, Jenine, Jim, Grace, Paul, Marge, and perhaps, others. | |||||
| Nov 2002 | On the 1st, saw Punchdrunk Love.
 Julie Mc, Jef on Cowles On the 3rd, went geocaching with Julie Mc on Cowles. Actually found the cache. Also got near a 2nd cache on the middle peak, but it was too crowded: 4.5 miles, 1200' vertical, 3.5 hours. On the 4th drove Olga to Palm Springs where we spent the night before Olga got her ultrasound early the next morning. On the 9th met Maryhelen for lunch. We were supposed to see Punchdrunk Love together, but she had a flat tire that day.  Starting project in Torrance On the 10th went with mom up to Torrance, where we spent the next 5.5 days painting and flooring half of my Aunt V.s condo (with Pergo laminate). |
 Completed floor in 1st bedroom On the 15th did a little hike on Father Junipero Serra Trail at Mission Trails with Maryhelen (4 miles, 100' vertical). On the 17th, had the Rickards over for happy hour, and Jim actually fixed my on-demand hot water heater, which hasn't been used in over 10 years. I can now take hot showers in the morning! At 2:30 a.m. on the morning of the 19th, woke up and went out to view largest Perseid meteor shower for next century. Despite a full moon washing out most meteors, and only being able to view a third of the sky, saw 16 in 10 minutes. That corresponds to about 300/hour. |
On the 20th, went back up to Lomita with mom to try to finish sprucing up Aunt V.'s condo, but had to rush back on the 26th to get out the BSTC newsletter, with another 10% of job remaining.  Virginia is on sofa of completed living room Scattered T-storms greeted us as we came back to Borrego on the 26th, and we got significant rain that night. Had a quiet Thanksgiving at home on the 28th with mom. On the 29th, hiked up to Jef Cache #7 to insert the geocache disclaimer. On the 30th, went up to Temecula for a short house-sitting stint before heading up to L.A. to finish condo renovation for my Aunt V. | |||||
| Oct 2002 | On the 1st, Borrego temperatures dropped down to the low 70s, and with strong winds, it was rather chilly.
 Paco and Elizabeth pointing at our 'hit' From the 11th to the 13th, camped at the homestead for the october cannon party.
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On the 16th, the straw that broke the camels back occurred with me playing doubles against the tennis pro. Something gave in my knee (which I hyper-extended getting out of Hank's truck on Sunday). This helped us lose the 7th game and fall behind 4-3 in the 1st set. My tennis is done for another few weeks, and I'll be limping most of that time. On the 18th, Julia from Canada, called to be rescued, so I arranged to have Fred pick her up, and she spent the night at his place.  Jef, Julia in La Jolla On the 19th, met Julia at Fred's, and we went to Ocean Beach, and then wandered around La Jolla Cove area, where we saw a nice sunset, and then spent night at Craig's. |
On the 20th, Julia and I went to La Jolla Shores, walking along the beach for a while. I then dropped her off with mom, who took her to the beach, while I went to Borrego to do some chores, and returned to San Diego and spent night at mom's house-sitting location. On the 21st, Julia and I had breakfast at Harry's Cafe in La Jolla (my Greek omelette was good), then wandered thru Balboa Park (which is great in October), eventually got Julia connected with her friend in La Jolla. On the weekend of the 27th, hosted Hank and covered the BSTC tournament for the Tennis Talk Newsletter. Found a couple new good restaurants to eat at in Borrego: Jilbertos(great Mexican food) and Juniors(great Maltshop and Mexican food). | |||||
| Sep 2002 | On the 1st, Borrego temperatures set a record at 113°F.
On the 2nd, we finally got a soaking rain! Many desert plants were on their last legs, and I'm sure some were saved by this rain. On the 5th, flew to Seattle, met Dyer, drove to Bellingham, picked up a 1980 Vanagon rental, drove to Fort Ebey, did about 0.3 miles of hiking around beach to see sunset over Pacific Ocean, looking straight out the Straights of Juan de Fuca, and camped.
On the 6th, hiked about 2 miles around Port Ebey, checking out the big gun emplacement there and trails like Okay Ka Dodo. Then drove to Fort Casey and took ferry from Keystone to Port Townsend, drove to Port Angeles, got some supplies, drove into Olympic National Park at Hurricane Ridge (drizzly at top, so didn't stay long). Drove to Lake Crescent Lodge (nice place, cool main building, beautiful setting) and looked around. Drove to Sol Duc Hot Springs and camped.
On the 7th, hiked about 6 miles, 200' vertical to Sol Duc Falls (beautiful rainforest hike). Drove to Neah Bay (not going last 10 miles to Cape Flattery due to me being too cheap to pay for priviledge). Drove to Mora Beach, hiked another mile and camped.
On the 8th, hiked about 5 miles around Mora along Rialto Beach in the drizzle. Checked out campsites along beach and cool geology (including a large arch). Drove to Hoh rainforest and hiked another 2 miles (amazing rainforest hikes!). Drove to North Fork campground above Lake Quinault. Dyer wasn't happy with camping neighbors.  Flotsam at Rialto Beach  Natural arch at Rialto Beach  Me by large piece of driftwood, Rialto Beach  Hiking Rialto Beach |
On the 9th, drove to Paradise in Mount Rainier National Park. Hiked about 6 miles, 1800' vertical. Nice wildflowers, tremendous main building at lodge there. Then drove down to Ohanepecosh and camped. On the 10th, drove to Naches in desert area east of the Cascades in search of a shower and laundry. Did laundry and got showers at a local hotel. Drove to Sunrise at high camp at Mount Rainier and hiked about 5 miles, 1000' vertical. Drove down to White River and camped.
On the 11th, drove to North Cascades National Park and camped at Lone Fir in National Forest. Hiked 2 miles, 300' vertical at campground.
On the 12th, drove up to Washington Pass and checked out trail there. Then drove a little bit to trailhead to Blue Lake, hiking about 5 miles and 1200' vertical. Drove to Anacortes, took ferry to Orcas, and camped in Moran State Park.
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On the 13th, hiked around Cascade Lake (about 3 miles), drove to Cascade Falls and hiked there another half mile, drove to top of Mount Constitution to see tremendous views of San Juans, Canada, Mount Baker and Whidbey. Walked about a mile around Eastsound (played chess with Dyer over lunch ON AN ISLAND). Took ferry to Anacortes, failed to find a campsite on Whidbey, so took night ferry to Port Townsend, drove to Fort Townsend and camped.
On the 14th, hiked about a mile around Fort Townsend, drove to Port Townsend and toured town, walking a couple miles. Fort Townsend is a really cool place. Lots of fancy historic buildings and artsy ambiance. Checked out one canyon in Olympic National Forest on eastern side of Olympic range on drive to Seattle, where after tremendous difficulties, found the ogre attacking a VW beetle. Then drove to Wenger State Park and camped. On the 15th, drove up to Blaine on Canadian border, consumed the remainder of our food in a big omellete, drove back to Bellingham, hiked about a mile touring town. Fantastic downtown section. Looked in Mount Baker Theatre and the mother of the Belly-Up Tavern in Solana Beach (coincidence!) invited us in to check out the most elaborate theatre I've ever seen. Got rental car and dropped off the Vanagon. Drove to Lynnwood and stayed at hotel. Ate big dinner at Izzy's Pizza. On the 16th, drove to Seatac, split with Dyer and flew to San Diego. Mom picked me up, and I then drove to Borrego, where mom had left me a few birthday things (birthday occurred during Washington trip). On the 23rd, dropped off Mazda at Chuck's Auto to fix idle problem (turned out to be weak battery and bad sensor), and walked home (5 miles). On the 29th, hiked up Hellhole Canyon (see MAP) deeper than ever: since fire had burned all the way down to the first tree, negotiating the canyon proved to be much easier; 10 miles, 2100' vertical, 5.8 hours. Because fire burned off excess vegetation, easily found several skeletons, including a cow, coyote and a few rabbits. Saw 1 deer. Beautiful day for a hike, similar to spring as new foliage was already coming out by burned out trunks. | |||||
| Aug 2002 |
On the 2nd, saw Minority Report. It was pretty interesting in its portrayal of the future, what with high quality video spam reaching the darkest corners of society, and such. On the 5th, saw the flames from the Pines fire coming down Montezuma on a beautiful clear night. Some flames were pretty high. Smoke from the fire covered half the valley all day.  Pines fire smoke entering Borrego  On the 7th, flames were surounding San Ysidro Mountain -- this highest peak immediately above Borrego (other higher peaks have smaller peaks in between). The entire valley had poor visibility on this day due to the smoke.  Setting sun struggles thru smoke from San Ysidros. My house is in foreground. By the morning of the 9th, flames were heading to the top of Indianhead, and the Pines fire had consumed over 60,000 acres. This is the day I completed moving one of my larger woodpiles from 8' to over 30' away from my house. |
On the 9th, saw Signs... actually wanted to see K-19 because Jeannie said it was so bad (don't know to trust Jeannie on these things yet), but theatre wasn't showing it. Movie was interesting in that premise would only work for a 5-year-old (space aliens who can't get past a locked door, etc.). Not a terrible movie, though. When I came back on morning of 10th, Indianhead was still blazing, and looked very cool under the stars. Reminded me of the brightest comet ever seen low on the horizon. On the 11th and 12th, put in moulding and painted at Linkroum's place. On the 13th, did a little test hike, going up Middle Peak Fire Road, and coming down Black Oak Trail and Milk Ranch Road: 5 miles, 1.8 hours, 1100' vertical. This day was the 5th day in a row of 110°+ days in Borrego, and is coupled with high humidity. In fact, this was about the 70th day in a row of 105° temperatures in Borrego -- the drought has continued, no measurable rain all summer. |
Driving thru Banner and Warner Springs on the 13th, it reminded me of a winter wonderland, only with gray instead of white. The burnt-out trees and bushes, bare of leaves were consistent with deciduous trees in winter -- but these were not deciduous, and it is not winter! On the 15th, got satellite installed at house. On the 16th, saw Triple-X, which wasn't bad at all. On the 18th, mom drove north getting at least to Brooking OR on the 27th. She was back by the 29th. On the 21st, took the Linkroums to San Diego, where we saw My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which was excellent, and then ate at the Athens Cafe. Olga is rabidly pro-anything-Greek. On the 23rd, saw Blue Crush, which was the first realistic surfing movie. Very well done. On the 30th, saw Goldmember, and then played 2.7 sets of singles with Craig. We haven't played any singles for maybe 8 years, and it looks like I've finally got the edge. On the 31st, finished fixing up interior of carport. | |||||
| Jul 2002 |  Dick at Costco
On the 30th, went with Dick to see Road to Perdition which was outstanding. Dick Linkroum, by the way, was a VP at NBC, who did among other things, produce the Today show for a year or 2, directed Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathau on their first TV appearances, produced Mary Martin's Peter Pan and a comedy spectacular with all the comedic luminaries of the '50s, including Jack Benny, Lucy Ball, Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Jack Gleason, etc. -- he has a funny story on this production. His wife, Olga, a former reporter for the BBC, wrote about a dozen sitcoms, including ones for 3s Company, Mash, All in the Family, and the Jeffersons. |
On the 29th, completed painting my roof. On the 26th, got my teeth cleaned and then saw Reign of Fire. It was okay. Had good special effects. On the 19th, saw The Sum of All Fears. It was okay. On the 18th, drove Olga back from Scripps, as I had driven her and Dick in on the 16th. (to the emergency room for an acute case of olga-hypochondriacitis). On the 15th, finished painting upper eaves, so the hard parts of painting were completed. Cable TV was disconnected on this day. On the 14th, ordered satellite TV (Dish-Net), as they had a 1st 3-months free special. On the 13th, briefly visited OTL, and got a T-shirt. On the 12th, got a ceiling fan for the Linkroums (installed on the 14th), and saw Insomnia (pretty good, nice scenery, and Robin Williams plays a bad guy). As a result of sprinting up 8 floors when I took the Linkroums to the hospital on the 8th, think I stressed my ankle too much, and so after my hike on the 10th (to put $1 coin in cache 6), think I'll have to restrict hiking for rest of summer. |
On the 5th, visited Balboa Park and saw Space Shuttle IMAX movie. Then went to O.B.
with Dyer, Janice, Paul, and Jeannie, where we had fish tacos. Then went to Old Town where Jeannie had Casa de Pico's biggest margarita, and wound up going to dinner with Fred. Also, Amanda passed 200,000 miles on this day. On the 4th, went to a Bar-B-Q at apartment of Janice's son, Paul, in El Cajon. Janice, Dyer, Jeannie, Paul, Dan, Glen and I were present. Saw 2 sets of fireworks simultaneously from about 1 mile away. | |||||
| Jun 2002 | Continued doing yardwork and painting this month.
On the 25th, hiked near Arroyo Wash in Calcite Maze area(4 miles, 2 hours), and deposited Jef geo-cache #13. This was the last link in the chain of caches, where a total of $189.21 worth of cash is cached in the Borrego area. On the 21st, solstice day, I got in the hot tub at 1 a.m., and noticed a dead rotting rat, after it brushed against me in the starlight. First time for everything, I guess. Later that day, I went to theatre to see The Bourne Identity, which is an excellent movie. On the 17th, after taking Thor for Mango pancakes on the O.B. pier, saw Thor off at airport. He arrived in Albuquerque with no problems. On 16th, saw Bears at IMAX with Thor and mom, before going to beach for Thor's last visit of the year. This time to south Mission Beach, where we saw many thousands of colorful red, but dead, prawns washed up on beach. On 14th, returned from L.A. and took Thor, and grandma, to Mission Beach, and O.B. for fish tacos and ice cream.
On 13th, dad, Leny, Thor and I visited Gene Autry museum of southwest culture in Griffith Park, a pretty nice museum. Then we went over and examined the railroad stuff at Travel Town. On the 12th, drove Thor up to visit dad and Leny. I gave dad my 350MHz computer (now i just use mom's 500Mhz Compaq), after going to La Jolla Shores and O.B.
On the 11th, took Thor to Mission and O.B. beaches. Possibly during this or prior day, we took Thor on hike in Torrey Pines.
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On the 10th, after spending most of night with Thor sleeping under the stars (milky way was brilliant!), we drove from Borrego to Poway and saw Spiderman. Then we drove to La Jolla Shores and then to my mom's best friend, Ann's house, where we found a note saying she was in the hospital. Apparently, she had a stroke and is in very bad shape. Unfortuneately, had we been there in the morning, it may not have been such a big deal, as it took her 1.5 hours to call 911. Paramedics had to break window to get in, and so we repaired the window the next day. Unfortuneately, Ann is still in Intensive Care, and not doing well. On the 9th, Thor, grandma and I took it easy in Borrego, while I finished a piece of furniture I had made for the Linkroums, and tried to diagnose and repair a serious problem in my irrigation system. |
On the 8th, Thor flew in from New Mexico, and we immediately drove to O.B., where Thor commenced his epic boogey board adventures at the beach. We then visited Ann on way out to Borrego. We stopped at Lake Cuyamaca, and did a 1.3 hour, 3.5 mile loop hike that hit Fletcher Island and the Stonewall Mine. We saw 1 dear and chicks in an actual bird's nest. We spent the night in Borrego, which had cooled down considerably since the day before. On the 5th, mom's best friend, Ann, came out to wash her carpets, and live in the hottest temperatures of the year (so far) in Borrego. Highs reached 112 in her 2 day stay, and lowest were about 80. While she visited, I started making some custom furniture for the Linkroums, for whom I had just cut down a couple trees and significantly trimmed a few others. On the 1st, Jaroslav took me out to Carlees for dinner in exchange for my helping him with some concrete work the previous month. | |||||
| May 2002 | Continued painting my house this month.
On the 30th, drove back to Borrego from Tucson. On the 29th, saw Attack of the Clones with Dyer in Tucson, did some yardwork at Dyer's new house, and had a bar-BQ with Dyer, Janis and Gene. On the 28th, drove in caravan with Dyer back to Tucson, with stops at Lake Roberts, Pinos Altos, and the Thing.
On the 27th, drove with Doug to Bingham to tow mom back to Socorro, as her alternator had given out. Attended Julie's 5-O party (book'em Dan-O) with about 15 others. Dyer, Julie, and I played about 20 holes of frisbee golf on the NMT campus, which had been spruced up nicely for the recent graduation. On the 26th, drove to New Mexico, and got only one speeding ticket near Miami AZ. On the 23rd went up to E3 in L.A. with Mike and Hank. It was interesting. On the 24th, briefly visited dad and Leny, taking them out to Taix for lunch. |
On the 22nd, hiked Coachwhip Canyon with Grace again. This time, we eventually found (accidentally on the way back) the cool slot canyons there. On the 20th, hiked up to Starfish Cove, and deposited geocache #12 under a torote overlooking the cove. Hike was 7.2 hours, 12 miles, 2000' vertical. Found a bighorn skull on this hike. First time I found any kind of skull, actually. Weather was perfect, as temperature never exceeded 80° on this day. On the 16th, Mom visited Dr. Webber in OB. On the 18th, mom visited Kartchner Caverns near Benson AZ on a trip to Mansfield & Hurst TX - she was there on the 22nd, but came back thru Socorro on the 27th (probably for Julie's 50th b'day!  On the 14th, hiked with Grace up Rockhouse Canyon to some petroglyphs in the Santa Rosas, and deposited cache #11 nearby. We actually got stuck a couple times in her Jeep going up. Hidden Spring actually had water this time. This was a 5 hour, 9 mile, 1200' vertical hike. On the 9th, helped Jaroslav put in a footing for a brick wall. On the 8th, with Grace, hiked up to Tenajas in Smoketree Wash, and planted Jef Cache #10 above upper tenaja. Also hiked back on Moly Mine trail. Total was about 6 miles, 1400' vertical, 4.5 hours. Fixed a break in my main water line on the 7th. On the 5th, attended Bob and Patty's party, where I met some new people, and networked with the old crowd. On the 4th, on way back from San Diego, nearly hit a cougar on the Banner grade. Incidentally, Grace was telling us of a census worker whose car had hit a bear near Blair Valley in 2000. The bear was big enough to be unfazed by the encounter, but the car was effectively totalled.  On the 1st, hiked with Grace about 7 miles in Carrizo Canyon to within sight of the Goat Canyon trestle, and deposited Jef Cache #9. Also visted an indian encampment and a major pictograph cave. Mom hiked with us up to the pictographs, but then had to turn back with a sore hip. Mom departed Socorro (delayed by her breakdown there on Julie's b'day). | ||||||
| Apr 2002 |
On the 29th, hiked up and beyond Whale Peak to plant cache #8 from Blair Valley: 9 miles, 6.8 hours, 2500' vertical. Drove 2 thru-hikers on the PCT to hotel in Borrego on way back. (Frank and Jay).
Got wiped out in tennis tournament on the 27th. On the 19th, completed some minor repairs at Craig's, and got Chip to help fix a computer Bryan gave me, so I could give it to Jaroslav. Painted the weather-damaged areas of my roof, and started re-painting my carport this month, but was thwarted by many windy days. Project wrapped around to patio. Jaroslav got my hot tub working this month, as well. On the 15th, hiked in backyard and deposited cache #6. On the weekend of the 13th, Hank and Linda visited. Hank and I played doubles in a round robin tournament at BS Resort. Although we beat the winning team, we came in 4th out of 5 teams. On the 10th, hiked up Palm Canyon, and deposited cache #1. (Zeke claimed to have found it on the 13th!). On the 6th, Julie left for New Mexico. Then I hiked up Webo Peak again to plant Jef cache #2. Also found register near peak, and signed in. (Placed there in 1982, and small notebook is only half full). On the 5th, again went to the beach with Julie, Thor, Logan and mom, after breakfast at Cecil's in OB. On the 4th,  At breakfast left dad's house after exploring old neigborhood. Found shortcut to 2 houses at which I was baby-sat back in the 50s. Then took Julie and kids to visit Legoland.
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 Julie and Logan at Legoland Then went to Ocean Beach and helped mom and Julie watch the kids play in the Ocean Beach surf until sunset. On the 23rd of the month, mom visited Virginia up in Torrance. 
On the 3rd, drove up to dad's. Later that afternoon, dad, Julie, and I did some exploring in the neighborhood.
|  the old Hall house
On the 1st, Julie, Peggy, Grace, Jim and I hiked up Pinyon Mtn. Grace, Julie and I made it to peak and scrambled down a steep ridge (3 hours, 5 miles, 1100' vertical). On the peak, left an April Fools day message in register. | |||||
| Mar 2002 |
On the 31st, kids had easter egg hunt at my house, Julie found 8 geo-cached easter eggs. Then we all went to Palm Canyon and we all hiked to first palm grove. I looked for 3 geo-caches, and found one (Rock, Skip, Jump) just off the alternate trail. I swapped a nick-nack for an easter bonnet for Julie (a Sychuan SD Padres cap).
 Thor in Palm Canyon On the 30th, went a a couple hikes with Julie, Logan, Thor: La Casa and the Slot. On the 29th, after a mess up picking up mom at Lindberg: mom took different flight, came in early, and waited in different place where I waited for her several hundred yards away; called my cel, which she had - no answer; gave up after 45 minutes, went back to Craig's, where I was doing some electrical work; called her friend, left message, called home, finding she took earlier flight; half way thru putting in new receptical, called cel again, and found she had been waiting for 3 hours out in the cold. Finished putting in receptical, and picked her up. Then drove home where Julie, Thor, Logan had arrived a few hours earlier. On the 28th, found 2 geo-caches with Grace, and hiked around Coachwhip Canyon  Grace above Coachwhip Canyon On the 27th, hiked up to 4300' peak in San Ysidros (above Kay survey marker... I call it Kay-2), and deposited Cache #3. This hike is certainly not for Geo-Cache-Potatoes. It took 9 hours to go 6 miles!  Register at Kay survey mark On the weekend of the 23rd, competed in the BSTC mixed-doubles tournament. Even though I played with 2 partners, Frances and Ellie, only made it to semi-finals. |
 On the 20th, hiked 15 miles round trip to Villager with Bill Holst, planting  cache #4 near summit. This was a 9 hour hike (4.5 hours up) and involved 5000' vertical.  On the 19th, hiked from Coyote to Rockhouse Canyons over Alcoholic Pass with Linda L, in a car swap hike with Jack L and Grace. This was a 4.5 mile hike. We met in center and took a break. On the 18th, drove Olga to Escondido for a driving lesson, ate lunch at 150 Grand, which was once rated as one of top 10 restaurants in SD County. Continued a tree trimming project at the Linkroums later that day. On the 16th, went with Dick L to see Man of la Mancha at the Center Theatre. It was pretty good. On the 15th, started a tree trimming project at the Linkroums. On the 13th, hiked part way up Dawn Peak, and set a geo-cache with $100 bill in it. Don't think more than 1000 hikers in San Diego County can get there, and don't know if any are geo-cachers. This is lynchpin in my latest geo-caching project, to be completed just before summer hits. Hike was 12 hours and probably over 15 miles. Net was about 4000' up/down. This terraine was very difficult, however. Mom visited Virginia in Torrance this day.  Bighorns found in wash
On the 12th, hiked back up to the pods with Linda and Grace, and put JefCache #7 in the mouth of the shark: |
 Slim Pickens riding the shark prior month. On the 9th, Jef got an eTrex, and started playing with it. On the 10th, found an intaglio I had made in 1979. On the 7th and 8th, replaced one of Craig's bathroom floors. Completed job on the 15th.  On the 3rd, aided by Jim and Grace, remounted my solar hot water heater, which had broken loose from my roof. I didn't close everything after reinstalling it, and the next morning, when I saw water coming off the roof, I went up, and saw a 1" thick sheet of ice below the water heater... I found what I had missed, closed it, and it's been working fine ever since.
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| Feb 2002 |  On the 5th, hiked from Fonts to Vista del Malpais, in a car swap with the Laughlins. Before meeting Carl and the Laughlins in the middle, Grace and I set our 2nd GeoCache. Grace and I got lost when we didn't believe the GPS, so we were an hour late because when we finally spotted the car at our destination, it was 2 miles away... about as far as we were when we started the 2nd leg (we met in the center to exchange keys). Our 4 mile hike wound up being about 7. On the 11th, helped Jerry to make an 80 sq. ft. concrete pad... All by hand! I can see why this isn't my preferred occupation. On the 12th, mom was in Chehalis WA, probably drove up a snowbird in the snowbird's car. On the 15th, lead hike to Marshal South cabin (I went about 3 miles). Then saw A Beautiful Mind, which is an excellent movie. On the 16th, lost both matches to a significantly improved field of tennis players in the BSTC tournament (8-5, 8-1). My partner was Tom Freed(age 70). Our opponents were much younger, and both players on each team played very well. On the 17th, mom flew back to SD from Seattle after dropping off snowbird & her car. | On the 7th, hiked Indianhead with Bill Holst and Carol Booker.
 Bill and Carol arriving at peak We did it in 10 hours (4h 55m up). We came down a wash (which turned out to have some pretty substantial drop-offs, including a 100' high dry waterfall near the end. Always an awesome hike.  All of us at peak.
On the 8th, saw Royal Tenenbaums at Fashion Valley. |
On the 21st hiked up Glorietta Peak with Grace and mom. This involved 1000' vertical over 5 miles. We passed 2 1000 gallon auxilliary aircraft fuel tanks dropped in 1973.  Grace and Ruth on Glorietta Peak  I believe this hike is when we discovered the "Land Sharks" Drove up to Mammoth on the 22nd with Don and Sid. Stayed at Bryan's condo, and skiied with Bryan, Craig and Sid for a day and a half at Mammoth. I got in 30 runs, and had a good time, along with a fair sunburn. We drove back on the 25th. Of course, stopped at Astroburger on way up, and down.   Sid helping with installing chains on Hwy 395 just shy of Mammoth turnoff  Craig & Greg at condo in Mammoth | |||||
| Jan 2002 |
On the 1st, watched the firework display at La Casa from my deck with Hank. Later that day we played tennis, and I walked back home from town (about 5 miles). On the 2nd, mom was near cousin Patti's and on the 6th, at Virginia's in Torrance. On the 3rd, went on a 15 mile, 7 hour hike to beyond the last palm in Borrego Palm Canyon. Found a new 20' waterfall. Pretty challenging hike.  20' waterfall deep in Palm Canyon
Briefly attended Phil's 40th birthday party at Viejas on the 5th. Saw former Contigans Rod, Robert, Eric F, Joe, Darren, Phil, Lantz, Mark.
| On the 22nd, hiked up Webo Peak (elevation 4137') from Hellhole trailhead at about 1000'. I call it Hellcat Peak, a 6.75 hour hike. This featured excellent views of the Flatcat Canyon palm grove, and actually looked down on Culp Valley on the Peak, as well as Hellhole Flat. I made up the Hellcat name, as the peak is between Hellhole and Flatcat Canyons, but just noticed Webo on the topo map. On the 23rd, hiked up a new wash off of Santa Rosas with Grace and Carl. I named it  AnythingYou Wash, as we don't know the name. Pretty cool, though. On the 10th, did a 10+ mile hike up an as yet unexplored canyon in my backyard.
|  A 15' diameter round boulder stuck in a slot canyon, a la Indian Jones On the 11th, took tennis club over to Old Borego. Made to the finals on the 13th at the Borrego Tennis Club Mixed Doubles Tournament with Lynette. | |||||
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