The other night my Wife and Son and I were on our way home driving along the freeway.  Track 13 from Royal Crown Revue’s Mugzy’s Move was on repeat for our 3 year old who was rocking out in the back pretending to drum the drum solo.  The band itself brought back memories of when my wife and I were dating, years ago, and how we would go out swing dancing with good friends at different venues throughout the Los Angeles area.

I peered down to the odometer in our 2006 H3; it read 79,997 miles.  My wife glanced over and saw the same thing.  It got me thinking again on one of my random thoughts I frequently have.  I had 3 miles to contemplate the last 80,000 miles.

The first thought that jumped into my head was, wow we’ve done a lot in the last 80,000 miles.

Our roadtrip of life:

Trips to the beach,

trips to the desert.

Driving to the vet to bid a final farewell to an old, loyal friend.

Monotonous trips back and forth from work.

A nervous, slow trip driving my wife and new-born son home from the hospital for the first time!

Trips to our parents’ houses, trips to our friends’ houses.

Trips to Apple Orchards,

and trips to the pumpkin patches,

Our first vacation with our son to San Diego.

Trips on dirt roads and mud roads and no roads…

And our special trips to the moon with my son even though we only stayed in the driveway.  Rolling up and down the windows and turning off and on the windshield wipers pretending we were driving ‘Lightspeed!’

The pounds of chalk on the tires and bumpers from our budding artist…

We’ve had trips driving somewhere but nowhere in general, driving and driving to get our son to fall asleep.

Mammoth

Grand Canyon

Yosemite

Highway 1

San Francisco

80,000 miles.  It’s a long way in a short amount of time.  I wonder what is in store in the next 80,000 miles!

We’ve done a lot and I know I’m missing a whole bunch.  Remember, I did only have 3 miles to think about it.

CAJON PASS, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA–Well we finally organized a trip to return to Cleghorn.  It was fitting that the only day for it to rain in this 6 week window happened to be the same day.  The run was organized by both groups of which I’m a part of, HummerXClub (HXC) and Club Hummer Off-Road (CHO).

Although the day was not as treacherous at our previous February run it still proved to be a little challenging.  My wife chose to stay home this time so my Dad ran navigator.  It was really a pretty cool day and I got to do a couple of other trails that I just didn’t feel comfortable doing the last time.  All-in-all it was a fun trip.  Next time, I’d love to do this trail when it’s dry.  I have yet to see this trail without rain.

Airing down at the head of the trail on Cleghorn Road, off Interstate 15 at the base of the Cajon Pass.

Heading up the trail.

Approaching the first obstacle, Powerline Hill.

Half way up the trail and we already had great views of the pass below.

Articulation Hill.  It’s more  a play ground because it loops around back to the main trail, so you can go up and around as many times as you like.  Typically everyone gets out and take pictures of the awkward angles.

One thing I found out was that a lot of the time the trail from below looked more intimidating than when we were on them.

It’s just a matter of learning where your comfort zone ends and stupidity begins.  Luckily I didn’t have to find out this time.

For more photos of this trip, check out CounterPointPhotography.com

VALLEY CENTER, CALIFORNIA–A tell tale for us when we know Autumn is here is when we are on our way to Bate’s Nut Farm in Valley Center, California to go find our ‘Great Pumpkin.’

So we are a little bit late this year, however, this year’s summer has been pretty mild compared to years past so to call it Autumn now almost want to make you ask what happened to Summer?  I’m not complaining, Autumn is my favorite season.  The last couple of weeks we had been fighting a bug that we seemed to have picked up at Riley’s Farm when we went apple picking in early September.  Skyler got a bit sick from the Apple Cider and had the runs for few days which landed him in the emergency room with an IV to restore his hydration.  Poor little man.  He is back to normal now and so we ventured out to our beloved pumpkin patch.  We found our 94 pound behemoth and placed it proudly on our door step for this year’s halloween.

The other night I took a seat near the patio door and looked out on to the hill in the backyard.  This was a view I saw night after night when Skyler was much younger.  Every night I’d hold him in my lap, with his head resting on my chest until he’d fall asleep watching his DVD, Classical Baby.  I’d stare out and look at the trees on the hill.  A year and a half later, those trees have gotten taller.  A year and a half later, my son is so much bigger.  He’s standing there playing with his hot wheels on the coffee table asking me if I want to play with him.  I think this is how I will remember him.  I think back now on when he was much younger, much smaller and it’s hard to believe this is the same little boy.  I’m sure I’ll be saying this when he’s older, but seriously, life has a way to keep going while your world seems to be standing still.  Perspective.  He keeps putting things back into perspective for me.  Life truly is great, but I do need to get those trees trimmed pretty soon…

The family and I just did a day trip to go cherry picking in Leona Valley just west of Palmdale.  There were a few trails in the area so I picked an easy ridge trail to do on our return home.  It was the first time taking our 2 year old son.  He loved it.  Here are a few pictures of our trek.

I pulled it from the Charles Wells trail guide for SoCal and also used California Trails South Coast Region from Petter Massey.  It’s the same trail.  I just abbreviated it by doing it backwards and starting at the 7N23 trail like in the Well’s guide and tacked a couple miles more at the end to the Tumble Inn on the Old Ridge Route which is just a there and back at the end of the trail.

Starting the trail from the east side heading west towards Pyramid Lake.

Trail Head Coordinates: 34.703112,-118.527718

Our halfway lunchtime/run-around stop at one of the campgrounds.

Sawmill Campground: 34.709603,-118.606253

Heading back out on the trail.

Skyler’s View towards Pyramid Lake.

View of Pyramid Lake in the top left corner with the winding trail in the foreground.

View Point: 34.726192,-118.705269

Pyramid Lake zoomed in 14x.  You can see the 5 FWY just before the lake as it head north to the Grapevine.

The whole day we had great views and uneven trails as you can see here compared to the horizon line.

At the end of the Libre Mountain Trail (34.715645,-118.710698) we headed about a couple of miles south, down on the “Old Ridge Route” to go see the ruins of the Tumble Inn.  It’s a very interesting place and a forgotten piece of Americana History.  I love these old forgotten places.

The Tumble Inn circa 1920s

Tumble Inn 6 June 2010.

Tumble Inn: 34.707963,-118.721094

I parked my truck close to where the Model T was parked in the 1920s picture.

As we returned home Skyler kept talking about the bumpy road and laughing.  We all had a great time.

Route:

Original Trail Head Coordinates: 34.673806,-118.455523

Trail Head from where we started Road 7N23: 34.703112,-118.527718

Where 7N23 meets the Sawhill Motorway – Go North to stay on 7N23; 34.691609,-118.554668

Sawmill Campground: 34.709603,-118.606253

Libre Mountain Trail meets Old Ridge Route: 34.715645,-118.710698

Tumble Inn: 34.707963,-118.721094

The road end here.  You must backtrack the way you came and take the “Old Ridge Route” north all the way back to 138

Old Ridge Route & Lancaster Road 138: 34.764814,-118.732939

Take it west to the I-5.

Route can be run in both directions.

5 APRIL 2010–This past weekend we were able to spend time with some dear friends of ours, friends we’ve had for years.  It’s strange how things change yet stay the same.

We met up with Sam and his wife Susie and got a tour of their beautiful new home in Newberry Park.  Afterwords, we all headed over to Underwood Farms in Moorepark to find Shailen and his family.  They were out here in California from New Jersey to visit with friends and family for the week so we were excited to catch up with them.  The last time we saw them was when Sam and Susie got married in October of 2008.

Underwood’s Family Farm is a very cool place to go for everyone.  There are goats that wander around their area by use of overhead bridges that lead from one perch to another to their main enclosure.  There is a little play area with small tractors for the little kid and big kids too.

We found Shailen and Preeta and their children Riana and Dhilen, hijacked a wagon and started wandering around.  There was a small train that the kids rode and had  a great time.  Around the same area was  playground with close to life-like train and truck, a grass mound that had tunnels going through it and hay stacked in the shape of a pyramid.  The kids ran around and climbed a bunch of stuff.

There was a “Cow Train” made out of old barrels so we took a ride on this to see the property and scout out where the strawberries were to pick them later.  Skyler really liked it, so did Skye.  All I can say is, if you got to pee use the bathroom beforehand.  The bumps makes it a very exciting ride.

We were able to pick our own fruit and vegetables.  We picked sugar-peas, carrots, onion, beets, lettuce, and strawberries.  Surprisingly for what we got, we only paid $9.99.  I thought it was a good price, especially for a “U-pick” farm.  Most “U-Pick” farms tend to be a little pricey.  This was not.

Dhilen picking carrots, and Skyler picking Red-leaf Lettuce.

Picking Strawberries.

Seriously, I’ve got to bring my tripod next time.  We all have a similar picture to this, except for each picture one of us is missing.  I’m missing in my picture but I know I was there.

So we figured out that Skyler likes older women.  First it was Sophie who is 7 months older than him, now he has a crush on Riana, a good 3+ years older…

Of course we had to take a picture with the Easter Bunny.  He headed back to Sam and Susie’s to start up our cool lunch.  The boys fell asleep on their way back, more like, with the help of cruising around the neighborhood, until they fell asleep.  Naps are very important right now.

We got back, put the boys to bed and proceeded check out our picked treasure of produce.  We had a great dinner and a great time with great friends.  Until next time.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2010 – Forecast – 90% chance of showers.  Not a good way to start the day, a day that had been planned for almost 2 months with the HummerXClub.

Cleghorn Ridge Trail – The entire trail is a fire road with a more challenging trail winding back and forth across the fire road.  It starts at the Cajon Pass, 15 fwy and Cleghorn Rd and runs to highway 138 by Silverwood Lake.  This dirt trail is about 14 miles long each way. The trail starts at about 3,000 feet and peaks out about 5,200 feet and has lots of side trails that criss-cross the main easy road.  The roughly graded route in this trail is suitable for medium clearance 2WD in dry weather. The trail is considered extreme when very wet.  The US Forest Service has designated this trail as 2N47.
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During our drive out there, the rain got worse and worse.  Cleghorn is at the base of the foothills and traverses up the mountains.  It happened to be in the path of the storm.  Before we even got there, we had strong winds, rain and hail.  We got there with a little time to spare so we hit McDonald’s for breakfast before we met up with the club down on Cleghorn Road.

We pulled in under the freeway overpass to air down the tires.  We were the first ones there.  It was pretty cool to see other Hummer owners pull up and to the side to air-down to get ready to go wheeling.  We finally got to meet a few from the club and exchanged names.  Our good friends Laura and Sheldon H. with their kids Jewel and Ethan showed up in their Jeep.  Seth, our group leader, gave a short meeting on rules and what to expect, before long everyone was ready to hit the trail.

We took the trail headed east towards Silverlake.  The trail snaked its way up the side of the mountain crossing pools of water as he kept heading up.  Off our left shoulder was a valley with a small rainbow sitting in it.  Our first optional play area was  Powerline Hill.  Basically it’s just a hill climb to the top where sits a power line tower.  This was the first time stepping out of the vehicle since ascending.  As I placed my foot down, the ground beneath felt like melted chocolate.  I didn’t realize how much mud we were driving through.

ChasH3

It became more apparent as some of the guys were trying to go up the steep incline only to loose traction and slide back down.  After a while of playing there we continued on.

This is where it got interesting.

We headed up a rather steep incline as the rain begin to intensify.  The lead H3, Seth, got to a point where he couldn’t keep his momentum going and began to loose traction.  Before too long Seth could go no further.  We got out and stacked some rocks to help keep the rear passenger tire from dropping into a deep rut and bottoming out.  He was able to reverse out, turn a round, and head back to the main fire-road, upon which we all followed behind.

Later on down the road I took a wrong line and kept getting sucked in to a rut.  The mud made for a huge amount of grief.  I eventually tried to turn the rig around and got high-centered on a berm.  After a quick strap yank we were headed back up the mountain.  The rain and hail made even the easiest parts of the trail challenging.  Going up and around corners in the mud and driving rain was almost like slow speed drifting, with the exception of the mountain cliffs on the side.

Sheldon's Jeep

"BeHummer2" Ben, "Family Jeepster" Sheldon, "Slogger" Adrian.

H3Play on Articulation Hill

We had a great day out on the trails, a new trip is being planned to explore this trail once again in dry weather.  This way we will be able to get a better view from up on top instead of driving through the clouds.  Although the views that were presented to us were quite spectacular, I’m sure on a clear day it will be much more grand, especially when there is not the worry of getting stuck, cold wind and driving rain.

AlanM

JeffH3

H3Ing

Slogger

Until next time.

Feel free to leave comments!

I was talking to a friend of mine and was asked what music have I been listening to lately.  I listed off a few but when I came to band, Brazzaville, he was dumbfounded.  He had never heard of them.  It didn’t surprise me.  Even though the the main guy from Brazzaville grew up and is from Los Angeles, they are better known overseas.

I’ve put together a short bio for future reference, and you can read about the show Skye and I went to in early January here.

Excerpt from iTunes’ posted Biography on Brazzaville.

“Led by Beck saxophonist David Brown, Brazzaville’s exotic, globally minded indie pop was as much a product of Brown’s extensive travels as it was the Los Angeles coffeehouse scene from whence most of its members came.  Born in L.A., Brown had been a teenage runaway and heroin addict before cleaning up and finding a new lease on life from his love of traveling the world on the cheap.  He criss-crossed Europe, South America, and Asia, picking up musical influences from the Far East, Brazil (bossa nova), Africa, and France (cabaret pop), among others.  Eventually, he returned to California, where he studied the saxophone at L.A. City College.  There he first met Beck, and was introduce to a community of artists and musicians centered around the Los Feliz/Silverlake area of L.A.  When Beck hit the big time, he tapped Brown as the saxophonist in his touring band, and invited him to play on the Odelay album.

In 1997, during the world tour supporting Odelay, Brown conceived the idea for Brazzaville, taking the name from the capital of the Congo, which in a recent study had been branded with the worst quality of life of any major city in the world.  Brown added guitar to his instrumental repertoire (which grew to include piano, trombone, and percussion as well), and when he returned to Los Angeles in 1998, he put together a diverse line up of musicians.

Brazzaville recorded a self-titled debut album and released it on Brown’s own South China Sea imprint in 1999.  It received favorable review of its hybrid of indie pop, lounge jazz, world music, and noir-sh atmosphere.  Later that year the Engine label picked up the record’s distribution rights and reissued it under the title 2002.  The follow-up Somnambulista, released in 2001, their third full-length, Rough on Pockmarked Cheeks, appeared in 2002.  Afterwards, Brown relocated to Barcelona and assembled an alternate European lineup of Brazzaville.”

Since this write up on iTunes Brazzaville has release a few more albums, Hastings Street and East L.A. Breeze both in 2006, 21st Century Girl in 2008, Brazzaville in Istanbul in 2009.  Brown has also released a new album titled Teenage Summer Days in 2009 under his name David Arthur Brown.  For more information visit their website Brazzaville-Band.com.  While you’re there check out their Band Manifesto.  It begins with, “Brazzaville is dedicated to the naïve idea that the world is a beautiful place filled with wonder.”  Enough said.

Here is a quick video I put together in response to “Squirrel Fight” that was posted on YouTube.

I added Lalo Schifrin’s “Enter the Dragon” score to this with some minor editing to the original post.  It’s amazing how this music goes with anything. I used it before for a work video I put together to show how to regrip too. It makes it much more interesting.

Subtitles were also an addition. Click on full screen to be able to see the subtitles better.

I dedicate this video to The Bean and FG.

Enjoy.

This past weekend we headed over to Cabrillo Beach to show Skyler more tide pools.  We got there in the morning because that is the best way to plan the day with Skyler right now.  He still naps at around 1pm or 2pm for a couple of hours.  If he misses his nap it becomes a very long day.

Cabrillo Beach is a historic beach located in San Pedro, California. Cabrillo has two separate beach areas.  It is also home to a few famous landmarks, namely the 1.75 mile Los Angeles Breakwater which ends at the Angel’s Gate Lighthouse, the recently restored Cabrillo Beach Bathhouse, and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

We had just visited the tide pools in Laguna Beach a couple weeks earlier and realized he really liked seeing the wildlife in the water.  Laguna Beach had the anemone police out so we couldn’t touch anything but this time Cabrillo Beach was unpatroled…

We made it to the parking lot and parked in front of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.  The tide pools are on the ocean side of the breakwater/jetty.  After a short walk about a quarter mile down we arrived at the tide pools.

There were tons of anemones everywhere.  We showed Skyler how you can gently push down on the anemone it would squirt water.

While looking around and exploring Skye found two large spiral shells.  We took a picture of them since we are not allowed to take anything from the beach.

We had a nice time at the tide pools, the water was beginning to return so we had to pack it out of there.  We’ll have to go back this summer when it’s a little warmer.  More photos at my photography website, CounterPointPhotography.com

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