Skiing at Bunny Flat

I told my son I needed to say goodbye to the mountain before we left by visiting Bunny Flats once more. He said, "Okay". So as we headed up the mountain I realized I needed to say "Goodbye" to an old friend who has climbed many mountains with me and even visited my family when we were in Nepal in the 1980s. So I called my old friend and present day skiing buddy and asked if he wanted to join us on our sojourn up to Bunny Flats. Since he had just gotten up and hadn't gone out into his recording studio yet, he said, "I need to make some oatmeal and I'll go with you." So, we went by to pick him up. Then we started talking about past skiing and mountain climbing adventures and we realized we could do a short ski while we were up there because my son could drive and pick us up. So he packed in his metal edged mountaineering skis in the back of my SUV and we all headed up the hill. When we reached Bunny Flats I gave my son my new snowshoes to wear and my friend and I put on our mountaineering skis. My friend had skins on his skis as he has no riffles or "fishscales" on his skis like I do for going uphill with skis comfortably. He had the new velcro like plastic "skins" for his skis. Even though it was only abou 30 degrees Fahrenheit at the car, the sun was out and the heat was amplified by the reflection off the snow. So by the time we crested the top of Bunny Flats to ski over to Sand Flats and out lower Sand Flats Road we were all sweating big time and had to stop and rest and take off some layers for a little while. However, after I cleared my skis of sticky snow(not an easy task that day) I found the snow down to Sand Flats and the conditions probably one of the best 5 times I have skied that route(and I have been skiing this route since the 1970s). However, when we reached Sand Flats I found I had to work very hard because the snow kept sticking to my skis. I also knew my son and I had to leave soon for San Francisco so instead of resting and enjoying the view I pushed through because I knew he was waiting at the base of Lower Sand Flats Road with the SUV 4 wheel drive.

Later, we stopped by to say goodbye to my Son's Mother( who is still a friend of mine) and headed off to San Francisco. However, I was exhausted from pushing through the last half of the run. Also, I felt a bout of hypothermia because I got sweaty and then even in town the temperature was about 34 degrees Fahrenheit and I was having a lot of trouble getting my body temperature to stay in balance and not feel faint. So while he was staying goodbye I sat in the car with the windows rolled up where it was a little warmer so I could function. Though I was very tired on the way down as far as Williams, California, I started to drive there and I felt better and drove to San Francisco on Cruise Control, so I only had to steer really.

We didn't hit any traffic until we got to the Bay Bridge from Berkeley to San Francisco and it wasn't fun trying to get into the right Cash lane for paying the bridge toll. It got pretty crazy for everyone in the heavy rain downpour trying to get through onto the Bridge. Then we sort of got lost after getting off the 280 in south San Francisco because we don't spend a lot of time in San Francisco unless it is to go to a Restaurant or Broadway type show like "Wicked" or something like that. (We saw that earlier this year at the Orpheum Theater in SF). It is an excellent show about the incredible ambiguities of Life. Children are taught right and wrong and Black and White. However, in real life it is about all the infinite shades of gray. The incredible complexities of real life break almost everyone eventually. But still the human race survives somehow.

After we found another on ramp for 280 south we were good to go over to the ocean on 92. I love the drive south to Santa Cruz from Half Moon Bay to 92. We were thinking going over Highway 17 to an IMAX show in San Jose but there wasn't something we wanted to see playing there. Anyway, it was a great trip and almost all the goals of this trip were accomplished. The weather was kind of intense (as in a lot of rain, wind and snow) but other than that it was a really great week  traveling with my son.