Simply put it is such a beautiful area, and on the day we went the weather was perfect – bright and sunny with clear air due to the early November winds.

We stayed at the Hadsten House in Solvang – a rather pleasant hotel despite it having been converted from a bog-standard motel. From there we had arranged a day’s wine tasting with Mark Chumley of Silver Cloud Transportation Servicves. He picked us up as scheduled and we hit the wineries.

I’m not a wine man, preferring beers. However, I must admit wine tasting is actually pretty good fun. Ok, none of us are experts but we really enjoyed trying reds, whites and the differing styles of each grape type.

Mark took us to some great places and looked after us well – the minivan was clean, he supplied waters and even bought us lunch (included in the cost of his hire, of course).

All in all a pleasant day and highly recommended.

This trip was with Glenn, CP, Clark, Michelle and Ranger the dog. The aim was to climb Mt San Grogornio in the San Grogornio Wilderness area via the Fish Creek trail. We would be camping at Mine Shaft Flat on the first night then continue up to the summit before returning back to the cars.

Getting to the trail was a wondrous journey on unpaved and at times rocky trails. Upon arrival we all geared up and hit the trail. Weather was bright and sunny but not too hot. After a few hours climbing (and a pass-check with some rangers) we arrived at our campground for the night. We pitched up, collected water and had dinner. I was tired so it wasn’t long after 9pm before I turned in (to my Eureka Spitfire 1 tent).

That was possibly the worst night I have ever had. Despite my pitch not looking too slopey, and after clearing away rocks, I ended up sliding around on my sleeping pad and feeling a particular rock sticking into my hip whenever I turned over.

Next morning after a hard lesson in where not to pitch a tent and a fitful sleep I arose – a monster of my former self. I had long ago in the night decided that I wasn’t going to continue up to the mountain summit. Nope, I was knackered and felt like crap. I was going back to the cars. I informed the others of my decision as we packed up camp. We hiked up out of the campground and at a trail intersection parted our ways.

I had a very pleasant stroll down the mountain. The solitude was amazing, and again the weather perfect. After a couple of hours I was back at the parking lot where I ate lunch and had a snooze. I was expecting the others a couple of hours after my return. This, however, turned into a mammoth test of patience. As each subsequent hour ticked by there was no sign of them. I was getting worried. I even asked other hikers as they came off the trail whether they’d seen my party. Nope.

It wasn’t until a whopping 6 hours after my return to the car park that they came into view – tired and thirsty. The hike up the mountain had taken longer than they’d thought it would. I was just glad they came back as I was making plans to still Glenn’s truck if they didn’t show soon!

At least during my wait I caught up with some podcasts. All of the backlog I had!

Oh, and throughout the trip I didn’t have to crap in a hole, so it wasn’t all bad.

Drying clothes in preparation for the great smores-off

This past week we headed off for a camping trip to Big Sur. It was Brian’s first road-trip so it was also a test of his car-riding and tent-sleeping skills. Jennifer’s sister and her husband were also camping with us at Riverside Campground in Big Sur, so it was a real family affair.

The journey up was long and tedious, but uneventful. Brian got a bit restless in the last hour, but on the whole he was pretty well behaved. After five hours, you have to cut a 7 month old beagle some slack!

Unfortunately it was a bit overcast and rainy on the way up, and when we arrived we had on-and-off rain. Luckily our pop-up tent popped up quickly so our camp was soon functioning. Despite the rain we managed to get a fire going and soon our spirits were lifted. The following day was better in a weather sense, and in the evening we made a roaring fire and made some smores. However, the day after that wasn’t so good. It started well, but when we attempted to hike on the old coast road, it started raining. And didn’t stop. We had intended to stay another night, but when Jenn, Brian and I got back to the car we all decided enough was enough. Well, Brian would have decided that if he could talk. Fortunately his look said enough. We returned to the campsite, threw everything in the car and fled south. Anne and Elliot had already decided to leave too, so we all high-tailed it out of there.

In case you’re thinking we’re wimps for leaving early, I will say that some of our stuff was still damp from the first night. Camping in the wet is no fun at all. I was hoping for better weather – y’know given we’re in California. If I wanted to get rained on, I’d have gone camping in Wales.

So what about the campground? It was good – we had two of the premium pitches that gave us plenty of room. The ground was covered in woodchips so mud wasn’t an issue along with the damp. Our sites were by the Big Sur river which was relaxing to listen to.

However (and there’s always a however) the bathroom was a bit… grim. It was clean if somewhat tatty. For the men there was only one shower cubicle with nowhere to get dry and change out of view of the rest of the bathroom. The worst part, though, were the toilet stalls. They had wooden doors that take the prize for the worst I’ve seen so far in the USA. The gap at the bottom was a good two feet, while the gap at the top came down to my chest height. The wood in between didn’t leave much to cover one’s dignity. Again, I ask how much would it cost in wood to have a bit more coverage top and bottom? The crowning glory was the gap that existed when you latched the door shut – it was a couple of inches that allowed fine views of the sinks.

How was it with Brian? We were impressed by Brian’s behaviour. He loved the new sights and smells and was a good boy come bedtime; we’d bought along his travel bed and after some night-time jumping around he soon bedded down to sleep. The only downside with Brian was the state parks didn’t allow dogs on the trails (lots of hiking in the area was in state parks). Oh, and in the rain he further limited our options as we couldn’t just go the pub and get drunk.

After getting home, the next day I dried out everything and packed it all away. We’re already planning our next camping trip – somewhere closer to home and that allows dogs on the trails.

After some human and doggy introductions, we started our trip to the falls. I had looked at a map beforehand and it didn’t appear to be that far from Glenn’s. However, as we motored on and on, it soon became clear it wasn’t going to be a quick 20 minute jaunt. No, there was a fair bit of windy-road action and non-direct driving to be done before we were to see some water. After what seemed like an eternity we arrived at the parking lot and debussed. It didn’t take us long to walk to the falls and when we arrived it seemed quite a few other people had had the same idea. There were groups of young ‘uns throwing themselves off rocky outcrops into the pool below and it didn’t take long before Glenn was doing likewise.

Brian had a bit of a splash around but wasn’t overly impressed with the pools we encouraged him to try. Like pushy parents, we wanted him to like the water like Jake did, but it soon became clear that wasn’t going to happen.

We had lunch and hung around for an hour or two before leaving Glenn, Gregory, Jefff and Jake and heading homeward.

Brendan, Cath and their two young boys therefore filled Dave’s boots and hit these shores last week. We’ve all had a great time, taking in Laguna Beach, San Diego and Disneyland. They’ve now headed north en route to Yosemite and San Francisco.

Brendan has a new found appreciation for American beers (a Sierra Nevada convert) and Cath a not-so-keen Disneyland rocket-rider.

Me? I need a vacation to get over their vacation!

The Angels haven’t had the best of starts – the worst since 1972 apparently – but it was sweet to see them beat the Yankees today. Come on boys, more of the same.

After watching the Ducks not make it to the playoffs, I don’t think I can handle another under-performing O.C. team. Yes, I know that the season is long and that in baseball especially you “can’t win ‘em all”. However, I need something to take away the pain of the not-so-hot-Ducks.

Ok, don’t worry; I’m not a fair weather fan. If the Angels are crap this year I shall still watch them religiously, as Mrs H will testify.

There’s a great core of regular hikers who turnout for this event, and I’m slowly finding them to be great people to hang with. Joining the club has been a great experience. I must have more of a rummage around at meetup.com and see if I can find anything else to tickle my fancy.

Other than that, what did I think of the visit? After being relieved of $50 just to get in to the place, we headed straight for dinner. The food was overpriced and over-salted but palatable. After dinner we fought through the crowds to a ticketed magic show in an intimate theatre. It was interesting but nothing I hadn’t seen performed by Paul Daniels on Saturday night tv when growing up.

We had an unpleasant incident with the obnoxious Christians that bought us to the end of our magic-mojo and had us heading to the door earlier than we’d have liked.

All in all we came out around $200 worse off.

We’ll put this one down to experience, although I’m still traumatised from the hand-holding saying of grace in the restaurant (really? People do that without any thought for others?). If I never again get to hang out with the alpha-Christians it won’t be too soon.

I tried my best to remain calm as we made our way to the restaurant of choice, and thankfully the wait wasn’t too long. Fed and watered, we had a bit of a wander, ride on the train (it had the shortest line!) and a whiz round Pinocchio ride. No Space Mountain or Splash Mountain for us.

I thought it amusing that in a place that claims to be the Happiest Place on Earth, there were an awful lot of people looking very miserable. Families bickered, kids whined and motorized scooters barged through the crowds. Nice.