Marin Headlands

A few weekends ago Andy and I went hiking in Marin headlands. There is an amazing trail up a hill where all sorts of old military junk is slowly decaying.

The view of the backside of the golden gate is pretty amazing with the green hillside.
A few rooms were built into the hillside to be hidden from the enemy, covered over by dirt and grass. Over the years they've collapsed in on themselves, but some tunnels are still visible.

Some old gun batteries also dot the hillside.

The best part of the hike was an abandoned missile site at the top of the hill. There are all sorts of abandoned buildings with weird pipes and electricity boxes. In the middle a huge elevated concrete platform has begun to collapse sideways. awesome.

There was some amazing grafitti as well. My favorite read "911 was an inside job!".

My Fair Sutro

A few weekends ago Allegra and I went to the beach to see the destruction from the recent oil spill.
The sand was an odd black color.

On our way back we stopped by Twin Peaks, which we had never been to before. It has amazing 360 degree views of the city, including our favorite local landmark, the Sutro Tower.

Death Valley Part II (or, I Shouldn't Be Alive)

So I liked that weird show on Discovery Channel, "I shouldn't be Alive" about stupid tourists naively making potentially fatal mistakes out in the wilderness. Well this day was one of those days. We intended to go to Keene Wonder Mine (a strenuous multiple hour hike).


The day began innocently enough.

After scaling a several thousand foot mountain, checking out some caves (I stayed cautiously outside), and seeing some awesome old mining equiptment, we had a great idea.

Instead of dealing with a grueling downhill hike, lets take the ravine (potential flash flood zone) back to the parking lot. We saw other hikers down there.
So we frolicked in the ravine. All sorts of cool mining carts and old miner detritus was down there. It was a treasure trove of goodies.


Andy was beside himself with all the mining carts.


And then, amongst amazing natural marble slides, we discover our folly. After about 5 hours of hiking, we encounter a dead end. a 30 foot drop.

Needless to say my pictures end here. We hightailed it out of there (it was close to dark) and my joints were screaming by the time we made it back to the car. Thank god for no twisted ankles. No one would have found us, we were that remote. Turns out our hikers we saw in the ravine had repelling equipment and were pros. Go figure.

Did I mention I Passed!

I just passed the first of my LCSW tests. WOOHOO! The next will be harder, but I am halfway to my license. What a good feeling!