Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Mud Caves Trek

Troop 774 headed to the desert again for a short backpacking trek to the mud caves.  We left the church Friday night and camped off the road the Bow Willow campgrounds.  It was quite windy but everyone made out fine with no tent mishaps.
Saturday morning, we drove up the road to the head of Arroyo Tapiado.  We parked and hiked 2.5 miles into the canyon to the campsite.  We setup camp and then explored the mud caves.  The scouts had a great time squeezing through all the tight twists and turns.
We broke camp Sunday morning, did Thorns and Roses and then hiked back to the cars and drove home.  It was another great event and it was great to see the kids getting more comfortable with backpacking.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

My brother and his family were in town and we had a big visit at my parent's house.
Kevin is into endurance sports now and we did the Tustin Leprechaun Leap 5K on St. Patrick's Day. I finished 14'th overall (of ~700) and 3rd in my division.  I attained my goal of finishing in under 20 minutes. Kevin finished 4th overall.


Monday, March 12, 2012

Weekend Activites


* Bengt and Jaya both shot at the monthly Youth Trap at Escondido Fish & made a stop at the Lake Wohlford Cafe on the way up
* Jaya's piano testing
* Pack fitting at REI for our upcoming Mud Caves backpack

Books

* San Diego Noir (Akashic Noir) by Maryelizabeth Hart - a nice collection of dark short stories centered around San Diego
* Building Wealth One House at a Time: Making it Big on Little Deals by John Schaub - a good introduction to single family real estate investing; better advice than most books and seminars
* The Best Damn Sales Book Ever: 16 Rock-Solid Rules for Achieving Sales Success! by Warren Greshes - not sure why I bought this but it does have some OK tips on salesmanship and self-motivation
* Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific by Robert Lecke - a fabulous first person account of the First Marine division in WWII; a must-read for Pacific War aficionados

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

HALTT

I finished my High Adventure Leadership Trek Training this past weekend. We met up at Mataguay for a 6.5 mile loop backpacking trek following up several class sessions. Learned a ton, especially about ultra lightweight backpacking. I am going to start a G4 kit soon as well as start making some primal backpacking menus.
Palomar Observatory in the distance

Lake Henshaw

Vulcan Mountain