Author: neil

The onion smell kept me awake more than any raccoons did, but morning reconnaissance revealed they had unzipped one of Rett’s pannier pockets (but not taken anything), and left their muddy prints on her bags and towels we had left out. So although they might have won a battle or two, we won the war,…

We were up at 5:45am, in an attempt to get out on the roads before most of the car tourists even had their pants on. My conglomeration of mouse-proofing attempts was successful: no mice got to our food this night. Or, maybe my mouse-proofing was a waste of time; as a control in this experiment…

Waking in the near-dark, I started my usual routine of getting coffee and breakfast started, while Rett stretched in the tent. I opened the food-storage box, and immediately saw that our hot pad had been ripped to shreds. What?! Mice! It was a metal box, unlike the wooden ones we had been using in much…

Finally, after six days, seven nights in Monterey (which went much better than Rett’s beloved movie of the same name), it was time to continue our leisurely southern migration. The first stop was one of our most-thought-out Safeway visits ever, since it would be 100 miles until the next real grocery store. Services across Big…

Day 6 We woke up to find another hiker had arrived during the night, and when he emerged during our breakfast, we were mildly surprised to recognize Russell, who we had met Thanksgiving morning. Chris the campground host had given him the ok to stay for four straight nights (rather than requiring a night out…