Monster Trucks.

I was lucky enough to be invite to Monster Jam. (Please say it outloud with lots of drama to get a feel for the night.)

The trucks had names like Stone Crusher, Bounty Hunter, Grave Digger, Capt. USA, Iron Man, The Patriot, Iron Outlaw and Time Fly's.
The fans were barracking for their favourite truck and of course, there was all the merchandise in the world for sale.

The first half was races between the trucks, I was slightly disappointed that they were rigged, but I guess it was entertainment rather than sport. There were two marshalls just in front of us, to line the trucks up at the start since the drivers couldn't see where their front wheels were and there was nobody stupid enough to be near the trucks to line them up. The marshalls lined the trucks up on the line then the winner got a thumbs up and the loser's marshall pointed to the winner's marshall.



The second half was freestyle, which meant that the trucks ran around and jumped wherever they liked. They were then 'scored' and a winner arranged declared. Listen to the fan behind and his comments.



And yes, this truck broke at the end. There were 14 trucks in total and 6 ended up broken.

Fish

I went for a ride with John to Mill Valley again and we then rode back to Sausilito to a restaurant called Fish. I had read this recommendation and decided that I needed to go and try it.

Here's my serve, slightly different from the one above, I opted for the salad and the bun was toasted a little more than in the review.


It was delicious. The crab was lightly buttered from the butter on the roll and super fresh. The roll was better than the usual mass produced ones and complimented the sweetness of the crab.

San Francisco for the millionth time ...

I went by Caltrain to SF, but it was foggy and I wasn't inspired to take photos. So instead you have some maps and graphs from Runkeeper. Runkeeper is an iPhone app that tracks where you are, what speed you are doing and what elevation you are. I'm using it when I go on bike rides and it tells you every 5 minutes how far you have come, what pace you are doing and what your average speed is. I am finding it very motivating to not let my pace or average speed drop during the ride.

Anyway, I tracked the Caltrain itself to SF and was surprised that it reached 110 km/h.



The green is the elevation and the blue is the speed on the graph down the bottom. The highest speed was 113.7 km.h on the last 'bump' in the graph. I think it burned more than 1191 calories, (pronounced cal-ories not kel-ories)

I then rode around the waterfront to Fort Point, which I've visited before.


Maximum speed was 28.2 km/h, again on the last bump in the graph and the maximum elevation was 41 m. Slightly slower than the Caltrain but twice as high !

There were some surfers on the point, catching the waves as they came around the corner. A slightly bizarre place to surf.








There was also a ship in at Pier 35.


After leaving Fort Point and grabbing a bite at the Warming Hut, I put my windproof jacket on and cycled to the Marin Headlands.


The 0m elevation is the bridge, apparently I missed it and cycled on water. The next flat bit is through the tunnel at 100m. Max speed was 35.6 km/h on the thrid last bump.

I then cycled all the way back to Broadway, looking for a pizza place that serves sea urchin pizzas. It was closed.


Max speed was right near the start down a big hill, 52.9 km/h. The hill dropped from 61m to 8m. I then rode up to 106m just before the tunnel.

I took 2 more photos on the way home, the sun just peaking through the cloud onto the bottom of the Golden Gate bridge.


And just the sun just touching SF and Alcatraz island.


After stopping for a burger at Gott's, I rode back to the Caltrain and went home.

Yosemite 3

After the wonderful sunset, I went back to the Curry Camp and ate dinner, then retired for the night into my tent. The power went out three times in the next hour and I made my bed with four blankets and my sleeping bag opened on top. I woke about 4:30 am from the cold and turned the heater on. I later found out that I had paid for All-You-Can-Heat which let me run the heater all night !

The warning labels above the heater were serious and funny.




I slept through my sunrise alarm which ended up not mattering as it was very foggy in the morning. When I finally made it out to the car it was 1 deg C (34 deg F).

After a terrible breakfast of really weak, burnt American coffee and gluey porridge, I wandered off to a couple of lookouts and wondered what to do for the rest of the day.

I went back along the trail to Lower Yosemite Falls as it was now lit up by the sun and looked better than yesterday.


I climbed the rocks along the west bank this time and photographed across the stream. It was early enough that there weren't many people there.


I decided to climb to the base of the upper falls.
Here's the 3D model. The path is the squiggly one towards the bottom left of the map. The trail rises 317m over the 1.6 km, just under a 20% slope. (1040 ft in 1 mile.) The switchbacks are to smooth out the rise to a more managable 5%, still tough, but walkable.


Here's a view of the falls and where I went. The trail continues up the green valley and then turns right to the top of the upper falls. The guide map suggests needing 6 to 8 hours for the full walk to the top of the Upper Falls.


This is about a third of the way up the first section. It's steep !


But the view was worth it.


Where the trail starts to flatten out, there is lookout called Colombia Rock.


I talked to a couple of girls who were working in the archives section of the National Parks Service and had come up for a quick walk before the Superbowl.


There were several streams running down the face of the rock and I was glad my shoes were waterproof.


They show up as large streaky patches on the rock face.


Looking up Little Yosemite Valley, with Half Dome on the left, Sentinel Rocks on the right and Libery Cap as the bump at the back in the middle.


The trail skirted the bottom of the rockface and was sometimes hard going.


First view of Upper Yosemite Falls, with the rainbow at the bottom and the pile of snow.


There was also snow along the trail, hiding in the shadows at the foot of the rockface. This is the bottom of the rock face where the trail goes downhill for a while.


Before starting back uphill with switchbacks again.


I cut off the main trail and scrambled to a lookout rock overlooking the middle cascades and the snow at the base of the upper falls.


Middle cascades.


Closeup of the rainbow and snow cone.


Looking up the green valley, the trail goes up and then turns right to the top of the Upper Falls.


Closeup of the Sentinel bridge carpark and viewing area. The carpark is top left of the snow area and the woodpecker tree is in the middle.


I made it back down safely and was lucky enough to see a coyote.




I then started the drive home, stopping at all the lookouts on the way.








A last look at Half Dome in the late sun.


Big Meadow.


One for the rock fanatics ...


There was a little bit of snow beside the road.


The sunset was very cool.


And made the trees very red.


I saw 7 deer on the side of the road on the way home.


And I was lucky enough that this doe didn't mind the headlights, the buck was standing to the right out of the headlights.