Last weekend Commander Matt and I went up to Kern Valley for a weekend of camping and mountain biking. It was a much needed getaway. The disposable camera decided to join us instead of my fancy camera. Old school!
We decided to camp at Alder Creek – a primitive campsite set three miles down a windy road with an elevation drop of 1,000 feet. It was secluded and FREE! It would have been quiet if there hadn’t been a huge family who brought their 30ft long trailer down and left the generator on the entire time.
We set up the campsite before the trailer arrived, then lifted my awesome lightweight tent and walked it down a ways to a site where we couldn’t hear the generator purring nonstop.
Ahhh, much better. As soon as the site was set up, we hopped on our mountain bikes and got to exploring.
We went from fire road to trail and got lost quite a few times.
We stumbled across the skeleton of either a deer or a cow. The national forest was stuffed with cows and steer. Afraid of bears? Nah, no big deal. Come across a herd of cattle? Um, let’s turn around and bike the other way… Seriously, those steer will STARE YOU DOWN! And after seeing/hearing/feeling a stampede, I wouldn’t want to take them on.
We rode for about two hours, uphill, with places so steep we had to hike with the bikes. It was wonderful and painful.
The views made all the pain worth it.
It was quite a dusty ride. That shoe tan is absolutely horrendous.
We grabbed some brews from the back of the truck, hiked down a ways and found a wide section of the creek where we washed the trail from our legs and enjoyed the last rays of sun.
Commander Matt decided to build a fire. We tried to go au natural before resorting to our purchased wood supply. Matt decided on a small tree…
Which he promptly “chopped” with a rock. Au natural.
I went gourmet and cooked up some sundried tomato chicken sausages and boiled some sundried tomato and goat cheese ravioli a la Trader Joe’s. The joys of being able to drive the truck directly to the campsite. We were prepared to trek the cooler all 3 miles in!
Quality disposable camera food shot. Lovely.
The next day after having coffee and breakfast by the creek, we headed out for another bike ride. Remember that 3 mile long drive in with the 1,000 foot elevation drop I told you about? We biked up it. The entire road.
Complete and utter stupidity. But man, did it feel good to get to the top and be able to cruise all the way back down!
We passed out quite early that evening, in extreme amounts of awesome pain.
Once we got back to real life, we decided that another bike ride would be a good idea.
We explored some more. We found an abandoned oil rig.
The end.
Tag Archives: camping
Camping!
Filed under vacation
Typical Insanity
It’s been an insane week. Even more than usual. I was up bright and early Saturday morning to do my shift brew for Enegren Brewing with Brew Chief Joe.
In between pH testing and hop additions, we found the time to do a little photo shoot for Captain’s Summer Session blonde ale. Joe was the designated “fluffer” of the beer…
I think it turned out pretty well. We had to drink the beer(s) at 7:30am after we’d poured it, but since it’s only 4.9% we fared well for the rest of the day.
Saturday night after brew day was spent grilling, drinking delicious beer and eating candy malt samples from the CBC.
I’ll eat malt plain, but when it’s covered in sugar, I’ll eat even MORE of it.
Yes, please!
Sunday ended with this deliciousness. That would be “The Mack” (mac and cheese in a grilled cheese sammich) from Custom Melt in Moorpark – a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant that recently opened. I have eaten there every weekend. I will continue to do so every weekend I am in town.
The Green-Go – roasted turkey, bacon, avocado and pesto wrapped up in a cheesy embrace. There will definitely be a blog about this place coming in the near future.
Sunday night puppies were played with, the movie Kick Ass was watched and I was prepared to face the oncoming week. Monday was spent cleaning kegs and Tuesday was a surprise day off. I got an oil change. I was told that my tires didn’t look so good. I went to the tire place. I replaced All. Four. Tires.
My wallet is weeping silent tears as I type.
I do have a PLANNED day off on Friday, though! I’ll be camping up in Kern Valley through the weekend: a much needed extended weekend spent mountain biking, hiking, exploring and drinking mass quantities of instant coffee from my Jetboil.
I think I’m all prepared. Only thing left to do is pick up some brews from Kern River Brewing before we head out into the wilderness!
That and somehow bid farewell to those beautiful eyes for three days. Once I do THAT I’ll be fully prepared.
Tomorrey is brew day, then getting in the car immediately after to head out for camping! Follow my brew day updates on my Facebook or my Twitter, OR on Wolf Creek Brewery’s Facebook and Twitter (I run all of the above)! Have a wonderful extended weekend!