reverse order (hiking, shoes, shoes, hiking)

i've gotten a little behind (coming off the birthday high) so i feel it best to record today's events before recapping on thurs/fri:


this morning christy snyder and i went hiking "on" the temescal canyon loop trail in pacific palisades. "on" the trail consisted of using the well-maintained trail for a guideline and taking every possible excursion off the beaten path. i've always assumed christy and i could be good friends, and today's morning adventure validated all assumptions.

upon return i firmed up afternoon plans with j and biked to santa monica for the REI anniversary sale. was i: productive? yes. fun? yes. self-disciplined? yes.
i acquired these sweet sport cycling shoes, cleats, and a few pair of socks. i did not, however, purchase a headlamp OR an adventure day pass...to be discussed later.


after returning to the homestead and briefly beaming over my purchases, i prepared for the afternoon adventure hike with jarom. i have been wanting to try out some new hikes with j for awhile and so it was special treat when he called to say he did not have to work on saturday. before hiking, j acquired ninja shoes (generally marketed as "fivefingers sprint") from adventure 16.
i righted 1/2 of my REI error by purchasing an adventure day pass. still no headlamp, which proved to make the (now evening) hike more...interesting. we reached the sunset ridge trailhead in millard canyon around 7pm, disregarding the "closed road" and "closed gate" between "8pm - 6am" signs. a beautiful, but brief, ridge walk led us down to the boulder-hopping section of the hike. end goal: dawn mine - an old gold mine that never made anyone terribly wealthy, but has great acoustics and some fun climbing spots.
when we emerged quite awhile later, it was very dark (as nighttime generally is). at this point, i noted that a second headlamp would have been very handy. but few people i know like adventure more than j-rum and sparklepants. so we hopped over, under, and around boulders, arriving back at stealth shadow around 10:30pm with reported casualties amounting to only a few scratches and a possible tick head lodged under my skin.

true to their word, the gate was locked at the end of road so we waited for the sheriff to come unlock the gate. to pass the time we offered a pack of coyotes beef jerky, read c.s. lewis, and napped. a round of roscoe's polished off the evening.

day 12 of 24 - an exceptional one.

p.s. i would like it on the record that all photographic representations in this blog were borrowed from the world wide interweb, and are not my personal photos.