Urban Backpacking

Last weekend was one of the most unique backpacking trips I've ever been on...if you can call it that. We caught the ferry in Tiburon and headed over to Angel Island for an overnight stay. Imagine being in the middle of the San Francisco Bay Area and having an island practically all to yourself.
The week before this had been cold and rainy followed by some serious wind but the wind died down Friday night and left us with fantastic weather and the clearest skies I've even seen. We enjoyed a lunch on Sam's sunny patio and then headed on to the ferry for the brief ride over to the island.

The hike to the camp site was about a mile, maybe less. GPS Joe, who had led us out of the Sierras during some serious snow one year while others were stranded, had left his Garmin at home. We quickly became disoriented, but luckily Steve knew how to read a non-topo map and told us to just keep the water on our right and eventually we'd hit the site. Not bad orienteering for a guy packing a woman's tent!

At the site we quickly set up camp. For some of us, this task went quite a bit quicker than for others. Strategy for a quick setup: Grab that plastic tablecloth from the back yard table. Bring it along and string it to a tree. Then lay down on it, look pathetic and ask if someone wouldn't mind sharing their tent.Here, Vin "works it". Could you resist those puppy dog eyes? Me neither.

After setting up camp we took a jog up to the top of the island or what is called 'Mt Livermore'. Tom, the experienced sailor in the group, treated us to his knowledge of the bay's geography and gave the view two thumbs way up!

A quick jog back to camp and it was 'arts and crafts' hour. The evening craft assignment: "Build a model of the SF skyline you see in front of you using just the materials at hand." Nice work!

As the sun went down Vin and Steve broke out the guitars, and treated us to sets ranging from bluegrass to beatles. We found ourselves singing along to all of them, even when we didn't know the words. Sometimes we made up lyrics, sometimes Joe downloaded them on his blackberry from lyrics.com (try that in the Sierras!). Perhaps you've heard some of the bootleg recordings that have been part of an email-based 'viral marketing' campaign. Sadly, we're still not signed.

I suppose if I were to change anything, it would be to make next year's trip last a bit longer. I'm already looking forward to it. Until then, I'll watch that video Tom took. It's almost like being there...