Epic NorCal Trip

With 3 weekends left before Nikki and I move to Vietnam, my buddy Mahoney and I decided that it was high time for a trip of epic proportions on the North Coast of California - abalone diving, surfing, and an outdoor concert were on the docket. I flew into SFO last Friday night, and after throwing a few things in the Land Rover, we were off to Salt Point State Park on the Sonoma Coast. After checking out a couple less than epic campgrounds, we found a perfect spot at Salt Point and were up early the next morning to grab some abalone.

For those of you who have not experienced the awesomeness of swimming through a gently bobbing kelp forest, sneaking up on giant snails and avoiding urchins, seals, and sharks, you are missing out on ab diving! Considering this was my second time and Mahoney's first, we fared pretty well with 5 abs in the 7 and 8 inch size range. With Mahoney dipping into a pre-hypothermic state, we made fire and cooked them with salt/pepper/garlic, wrapped in bacon, sauteed in butter, etc. We had a ton and Mahoney proceeded to offer the extras to everyone within earshot. We spent the rest of the day hiking, eating, and drinking the 5 gallons of home-made hefeweizen that one of Mahoney's friends gave him.

The next day we got up and drove south to Salmon Creek for a little surfing. The rest of the coast was dead calm, so we made use of what little swell there was and tore it up before jumping in the car and heading to San Francisco for the concert. Ditching the car at Mahoney's house in the sunset, we hoofed it a few blocks to Golden Gate Park where the Outside Lands concert was on. We were there to see Social D (who were awesome), but had fun watching The Temper Trap, Janelle Monae, Al Green, Slightly Stoopid, Phoenix, and Kings of Leon. We left just in time to get me to the airport for an 11PM flight, with the sound of KOL echoing through the sunset as we made our way back to Mahoney's house.

What an awesome weekend. We're already trying to figure out how to get to the Lost Coast and add a backpacking component at some point. The above pictures should give you a sense of things and I've uploaded a few more to Picasa at: http://picasaweb.google.com/evanwfox/EpicNorCalTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCJy9x9LI_KDiOA#

Two weekends left!!