After exiting the Desolation Wilderness, we spent a couple extra days in Truckee so we could do the NavX "on your own time" orienteering event near North Star. John and I have done a couple 24-hour rogaines here including in 2023 and knew the area would be fun to run around in again.
No blow-by-blow this time, just one picture with a Tahoe Rim Trail sign because I thought it was cool that we were on it for a little ways:
Dani and Robyn also came out to explore the map and we happened to find them at the start/finish parking lot when we stopped by to resupply. Hello ladies!
Doing a little map chat before we set off in different directions:
That was a fun day, thank you to NavX for setting up events that people can do whenever it fits their schedule.
Now on to San Jose where the family was about to converge on Kip's house. Yay for a reunion, this time in California! Billi Jo went the furthest, returning to Vermont to accompany Mom on the plane. It's great to see all y'all!
We mostly focused on being together, talking and eating and doing small stuff without trying to shove anything large into the schedule. It was a nice and relaxing several days.
One of our walks, on a boardwalk out into the marshlands of the bay:
Mom had been training for the 5K ParkRun and we were excited to see the course that Kip had been competing on for a few months. ParkRun is a wonderful concept - free, volunteer-run, casual but still with official timing (and maybe more importantly, tracking of # of ParkRuns people do). We're big fans.
Getting ready on race morning:
Kip won the "Fiebig" division, I wasn't too far behind, and we both went back on the course to cheer Mom on while trying not to distract her too much from focusing on her pace. Well done, Mom!
We had a good time trying local restaurants, hitting up Trader Joe's a couple times, and then we came up with the idea of doing an escape room. Billi Jo was immediately excited about that - it would be her first one. And she did great! We all worked together well, figuring out various pieces, and eventually managing to "escape" before time ran out. Super fun!
I should have gotten more pictures of our times together, suffice to say we enjoyed each other's company and had a lovely family gathering.
Eventually Mom and Billi Jo had to get on their return flight :(
We'd considered taking them to Great America amusement park, and since we didn't end up going all together, it seemed like a fun thing to do on another day.
A little bit of Star Trek to kick things off:
The bumper cars were especially fun. Then we started going on bigger rides and John's stomach decided it wasn't happy about that. So he walked around to recover while Kip and I rode a few of them.
John, I think this one would be OK:
Not this one though - this is John's photo of me and Kip on another fast ride (whee!)
More animal transport:
Enough of those shenanigans and back to our normal on-foot adventures. Kip and I hiked up Mission Peak for old time's sake. What a lovely view of the Bay at 7 am:
W for "woo hoo!"
We had so much fun in the escape room with Billi Jo, plus they gave us a discount coupon and we liked the company, that we went back for another room. Got a picture at the end this time, along with our new friend (so cute!)
We're big fans of The Escape Game, and I see they have locations across the country - highly recommend:
An urban haiku:
Hey, I'm back at the airport. Oh right, this was an FKT run that I managed to squeeze in because Kip was game to help me trek from the Bay to Mount Umunhum again:
I had created the original route, then someone expanded upon it with a "fixed route" variation that has additional miles and places I had not been to (or connected) before. That was very interesting to me, and since I had an extra day... and a support person...
The FKT page with more pictures plus a finish video from Kip:
Having a good time on the bike path, happy to see Kip again:
Please don't pollute the water, it makes these mural animals sad:
I can see Mount Um on the horizon (the dot on the leftmost part of the ridge), as I'm heading more to the right because this route is not a straight shot:
This trail runs along a creek with several dams that create deeper sections, also waterfalls that I didn't get a photo of. Nice variety and it's (mostly) worth the longer route to see this instead of city streets:
Hmm, do you have a radar gun, Kip, to make sure I'm not going too fast?
More shady and beautiful bike path:
The Los Gatos footbridge over route 17 is worth crossing to see all the great paintings kids have made. Kip, you should run the paths around here sometime and check it out:
Admiring the Lexington Reservoir:
I looked for newts but didn't see any to be cautious about:
Kip helped me with my biggest transition, getting ready for the real trails. He asked whether he might have time to stop for a sit-down lunch? Oh yes, you will definitely have plenty of time for that!
Going up, up, up into the hills now, looking at Um getting closer, gonna be, gonna be golden:
Somewhere around the top of Mount El Sombroso I was treated to a short bout of leg cramps that required a more gingerly descent than would have been fun. No matter, I'll get there eventually.
Climbing up to our final crew spot, thumbs up from me:
Just a few more miles in the lovely shade on lovely switchbacks, hey Kip I'm almost to the top!
What the heck, I'll embed Kip's video here:
A view from the top of Mount Umunhum, looking at El Sombroso, with the San Jose valley behind it, very nice:
A few days of recovery later, Kip and John and I decided we were ready to attempt the Terraloco Mapathon event - just the half-Map, mind you, that was plenty for all of us. Kip and I opted for the flatter half and enjoyed exploring the Berkeley campus, city streets, and all the way down to the marina and waterfront park and back. We were more focused on running, no photos from that half.
John took on the hillier side and was apparently more focused on actually seeing the checkpoints and whatever else he came across.
Like this, maybe a DNA helix?
A climbable whale statue:
John had the best view of the day for sure:
One last escape room for good measure, and we decided to try a slightly more challenging room. It took a couple hints, I think, but we solved it in time and also ended up with some accessories (at least for the photo), yay!
Thank you to my wonderful family for a fantastic visit in California!
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