Bloopers

I could have taken a bunch more of these. They all make me laugh.

The Backyard

This is a timeline of an afternoon in Jacksons back yard.

 

E Z Livin

Ben Lomond is a small Mountain town outside of Santa Cruz. Its named after the Mountain to the West. It's also the home to my friend Jackson's mom, who was away on vacation and asked us to come stay at the house while she was gone.

I went in the hot tub 4 times throughout Saturday. 

I ate amazing home cooked food all weekend.

I rode bikes with my friends at a skatepark that reminded me of home. And i took this picture of Jackson.

Life is a getaway weekend

SECLUDED

The last month in California has been great. But the last week has been the best part. I spent some time secluded in a tent in the woods. Spending a few days in the woods alone could be the best way to bring someone back to reality. Unfortunately, reality doesn't seem like a sought after destination for most people.

Home is where you make it.

Murph

This is a picture of my friend Murph about to eat shit on his bike.

POPD

Pictures of people driving. What everyone is dying to get a glimpse of.

dog in the trunk.

Groceries

I went to the grocery store twice in the past week. Both were nightmares. Long hair and a beard seem to make people think you are super market terrorist.

 The first time was trying to buy some granola. I think that middle aged man sweeping the floor thought i was going to sneak a couple snow caps in my bag for the road.. He tried fake sweeping around me for a while but didn't want to seem too obvious. And then when i looked down at the end of the isle and saw him watching me like a hawk through the window in the swinging door, I couldn't help but give him a wink and a wave. He stressed so hard that he decided to come back out and just blatantly stand next to me and watch me.
Code red. a bearded man in pursuit of a bag of granola and two oranges! call for back up.

Bus stop view.

The second one was a nice treat. After spending the week in a tent, cooking my food on the fire, and spending a lot of time by myself, I decided to go to the grocery store to do some people watching.

Safeway seems like a decent grocery store. way too much stuff, star bucks, ice cream, sub shop, chinese buffet, pizza slices, a million lunch deals .....You know, the usual things you would find in a grocery store? I went for the 3 chicken tenders with the sides of mac and cheese and potato wedges. I go sit down at a table by the window and start feasting. 

Over the loud speaker i hear a voice say "security to the deli. Code whatever" 

2 hefty ladies come sprinting across the front of the grocery store!! hahahahahahaha

they ran up the the deli bar and talk to the lady behind the counter. The 40 year old employees of the month snap around and size me up. Their big break. Time to bust a criminal

 They tell me i have to stop eating the food and both ladies escorted me to a register. They made sure to stop and stand in front of the doors as we walked by them. I'm assuming they thought i was going to make a big break for the streets. I really just wanted to to eat a peaceful lunch and buy a bag of coffee for the road,

Santa Cruising

Booty gets weird

Jackson gets sick

pump track gets pumped. time trials

Beached 

Welcome to Santa Cruz. 

Domesticated

My new friends Nathan and Elsie asked me to watch their house and cat for the weekend while they went to Los Angeles for a Millionaires convention.

I've been living it up with their cat "Booty". They left me a refrigerator full of clementines and a frozen pizza. It's been a nice last few days before i go back to the trails.

sweat pants

Jackson and Otis

Jackson and otis

tent life

Mike let me borrow a tent since the tree house had to get ripped down. Before i fell asleep on the first night, i was laying down looking up through the screen on the ceiling, at all the stars. i remember thinking "its a good thing mike doesn't have the cover for the top of this tent, or i would have put it on and not had this beautiful view of the sky". I fell asleep and woke up in the middle of the night. it was pouring rain.

Woke up and started dialing in a nice area. after this weekend, i will be out there for the next week. and i can never get enough of the view from the front door.

Simple

It seems like it's harder for people to live a simple life. To chill out and relax, to get some free time, or enjoy the little things. I was going through pictures in my camera, and saw a few that i forgot i snapped. A few simple pictures.

Back on track

 I think i got the tree house blues when i found out i had to rip the tree house down again. I'm not going to build another one because that was the perfect tree. A tent will have to do for now.

   With the bad news of the tree, came a perfect weekend. Perfect day at the trails.

and then we rode the amusement park with the 80 ft long full pipe

and this kid was there

And then we rode bikes in the redwood forest

Get it?

Redwood hill bombs.

And when i say hill bombs....I was scared.

Get Awesome.

The tree house dilemma

it took me about 4 hours to get the plywood up into the tree. I made a harness and dragged a sheet of half inch plywood to the top of the hill. It took a while but it felt good to get it up there on my own. When i finally got the the tree i rigged up some ropes to get it up on the deck. accomplished, would be a good word to descibe how i felt after spending a whole day getting a sheet and a half of plywood nailed onto the deck. Thats when i met Reagan.

sitting on the newly plywooded deck, soaking up the view, A guy yelled up from the bottom of the hill. "Hey I think you might be in my tree". The feeling of defeat took over the feeling of accomplishment. Reagan was a nice guy. I actually enjoyed the conversation i had with him, but, unfortunately, it ended with me having to tear the tree house down again. I dont have the money to buy more supplies to start over in a new tree, I'd say living in a tree house would be an accomplishment for me, its something i have always wanted to do, but its going to have to wait until next time.

Tree House

 

Really excited about the move. The new tree is dialed! I got a bunch of 2x6's to build the floor with. And it was a lot easier to frame up the platform the second time around. Got it done in a day.

The CNYN

Look at Flanders collecting canyon content. Nathan parker surfing this curl.

Flanders joke of the day - Otis "Nose" a good table when he sees one.