Pooks Canyon

  At about 11am yesterday, Jon got off the lift at Crow's Nest to sample the fresh powder of the recent Tahoe blizzard. Skier's left at the top of Crow’s is the eastern boundary of Sugar Bowl Resort. Sometimes people like to dip under the boundary just a little, and then dip back in. The powder is always fluffier, deeper, and steeper on the other side? On previous days, Jon had dipped under that line, albeit further down the run. Therein lay the potentially fatal mistake. If you dip under the left boundary at the very top, you can never ski back in; you have bought yourself a forty-mile hike to the town of Auburn. According to Jon, from the start the problem was hubris. He was sure if he kept riding and turning right that the ski area would appear shortly. By the time he stopped and looked at the map, he had dropped about 300 vertical meters below the resort. His GPS and maps were spotty and he was distrustful that they were accurate.  After reaching Onion Creek bottom he start

  Just before heading out to Monterey for the Otter Open Disc Golf Tournament, Axel received his acceptance letter to the Computer Science program at CSU Monterey Bay, the program Leah just graduated from in December. Two otters in the family and I could not be more proud. My two otters with the mascot, Monty Rey. Axel repping the merch. We got a little crazy at the student union store. On our way to Monterey we stayed, night one, in San Juan Bautista. The Hacienda de Leal is a great hotel with a magical olive orchard courtyard. 10/10 would recommend. Jon and Axel at the fountain. The oldsters in the orchard. The acceptance package came with social media props, naturally, which we tested out in the orchard. At lunchtime the next day we visited the old mission. Axel on the original Camino Real Jon on an offshoot of el camino. The cute gen x'rs. Axel glad to be on the right side of the bars. Once in Monterey we were able to visit a bunch with Leah. One very fun excursion was to a sof