CLASSIC TRIP - Yosemite Ski Trip, California 1998

This report is dedicated to the late Nic Fiore, a legend in Yosemite, who taught over 100,000 people to ski during his 50+ years at Yosemite, including the day described below...

How about a ski trip? Yes, you can do it if you're in a wheelchair.  To prove it, we present a ski trip we took back in 1998.  Enjoy...

It's February and El Nino has finally hit as advertised. We have received over a year's worth of rain in just this one month.

The month has also started off gloomy with two people we know passing on and a million things to do with little time to do them. We're wet...we're depressed...we need a vacation.

  Luckily, the second half of the month perks up with Tim's birthday and our wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we decide to head back up to visit with Jon and Lois Moroni at their great bed and breakfast, the Restful Nest, up in Mariposa.

Are we tempting fate in this extra wet month? The weather reports for the area don't hold a lot of promise as the anticipated President's Day weekend is upon us.


Crossing our fingers, we load up our tire chains, cold weather clothes, and skis and head on up. To tempt fate even further we left at 3:00pm on Friday, February 13th.

The good weather in L.A. held up until we reached the summit of Tejon Pass (the Grapevine) where we promptly hit wind and rain. The rain stayed with us the rest of the way to Mariposa.

We stopped for a quick bite to eat at the In 'n Out in Fresno and to gas up before heading into the hills. Those hills were a gorgeous emerald green. It was not hard to think we had somehow been magically transported over to Ireland. Arrival in Mariposa was at 8:30pm.

Casey the Wonder Pooch

Jon, Lois, and their black lab Casey greeted us on arrival with a hot bowl of soup and a glass of wine. After exchanging greetings and catching up a little bit from our last trip, we unpacked into our room and went to bed.

Saturday dawned with even more rain. Lois cooked up a superb breakfast that included fresh fruit, bacon, eggs, waffles, muffins, and homemade rolls. This was washed down with some great hot coffee and fresh orange juice.

Today, we headed up to Yosemite Valley. It's about 40 miles from the B & B to the valley floor. The rain made even the tiniest of creeks into raging rivers of muddy water. Driving up the Merced River gorge towards Yosemite, we easily saw a hundred waterfalls...literally at each bend in the road.

The level of the river stayed below last year's flood levels. Once in the valley we saw numerous signs pointing out the high point of last year's flood...a level that was at least 3 feet above our heads!

Although it was still raining in Yosemite Valley, there was plenty of snow on the ground. This made for some seriously cold, wet, and slushy conditions. Determined to make the best of it, we drove a loop around the valley before settling down a bit at the store in Yosemite Village.

From there we took a walk over to Yosemite Falls on one of the few clear paths the wheelchair could take that day. Tim had a ball doing power slides through the patches of snow on the pavement.

Even in this wet and cold weather, Yosemite loses none of its majesty. The falls were spectacular and the walk nice but wet. We came back to the village and decided to do the rest of our sightseeing that day from the comfort of our heated auto. On the way out we pulled over to snap this picture of a coyote walking along the shoulder of the road.

Back in Mariposa, we stumbled onto the neighborhood herd of deer...who graciously posed for our camera...

That evening...being Valentine's Day...the Moroni's made a sumptious dinner for the inn's guest which had grown to include a race car driver and his wife from Newark, a policeman and his family from Vacaville, and another couple from Mill Valley.

The Restful Nest

Jon served a dinner of homemade French onion soup, salad, and stuffed shells. It was very good and very filling. Certainly we were not going to be losing any weight this weekend.

After dinner, the two couples went to the inn's spa while we family types retired to our rooms to watch videos and the olympics.

After another huge breakfast on Sunday, we headed back up to Yosemite. Today, the weather had cleared and we headed up to Badger Pass for an afternoon of skiing.

Nic Fiore, a young-at-heart 76 year old ski instructor at Badger Pass, had arranged for Tim to spend the afternoon skiing with one of the resort's instructors in a sit-ski. Fiore, who just celebrated his 50th anniversary at the resort, operates one of just 4 complete adaptive ski programs in California here at this little ski area located above the valley floor.

We met Tim's instructor, Jerry, who outfitted him with his equipment and took off with him for some serious slope time. This left my wife and myself with the afternoon to ourselves to explore the slopes of this mountain.

While small...the vertical from top to bottom is a mere 800 feet (you can see the entire mountian in the top photo)...the conditions were perfect and the uncrowded slopes gave us a lot of time to explore. The Pass was a comfortable if not exactly challenging place to ski.

The only downside to this day was having to put on tire chains to climb up the road to the ski area. Nic and his crew made sure Tim had the time of his life and in doing so also allowed his mother and I to have a good time as well.

Coming back down to the valley, we stop at Tunnel View to snap this picture of the view that just floored us.

Back down the mountain we went with a stop at the Pizza Factory in Mariposa for dinner. The food was good here but the kid with the ear-piercing scream was a bit much (note to the kid's parents: once maybe an accident and cute but to keep egging the kid on should be cause for criminal action!).

On arrival at the inn, we soaked our weary muscles in the hot spa...sipping a glass of good California Sangiovese while marveling at the millions of stars over our heads.

After sleeping like logs we had one more giant breakfast and spent some time in conversation with Lois while Tim played fetch with Casey. One more walk down to the inn's pond and one last breath of the fresh mountain air and then time to head home.

Another weekend in God's country leaves us with our spirits healed and ready to face another day of reality.

-Darryl
Copyright 1998

CLASSIC TRIP - Elk, California (Mendocino Coast) 2000

Our destination tonight is the tiny village of Elk located half way between Mendocino and Point Arena.  The drive would be from Redding through Ukiah and then over the coastal mountains to Elk. Along the way we would first make a stop for the kid in Clear Lake.

What Tim wanted that day was to spend a refreshing afternoon at Outrageous Waters, a small water park. This we did and it was a lot of fun floating around the lazy river all afternoon in our inner tubes. Unfortunately for a kid in a wheelchair, that is the only attraction there he could go on. So we went around on the lazy river...and around and around and around......

Back on the road, we circled Clear Lake and I missed our exit. Soon, we were back on track and found the road over to Boonville from Ukiah. 16 miles of some of the windiest road we’ve come across. Once in Boonville, the map showed one more road over to Elk. 18 more miles of very windy road. That last 18 miles took over an hour.

While the drive is difficult, it provides a formidable barrier to keep the rest of civilization at bay from Elk. It is a beautiful isolation that’s imposed on this rugged section of coast.

The sign says the population is 250 but that may be an optimistically high number. Tim and I easily walked from one end of town to other in 5 minutes.

We stayed at the Griffin House Bed and Breakfast. Accessibility here is compromised for price. The wheelchair could get around the little cabins without too much difficulty but the big old antique clawfoot bathtubs present quite a challenge for a disabled person to get into, even with help. Even able-bodied persons such as my wife and myself had trouble with the tubs, mainly because they were...just...too...big! Once in, however, the shower head is on a hose.

There are no grab bars in the bathrooms but there is a common accessible restroom up towards the front behind the pub.

There are rooms with more accessibility in Elk but tip the scales in price. The Griffin House is among the lowest priced accommodations here, is very luxurious, has a prime cliff top location, and includes a very sumptuous breakfast delivered to your cabin each morning. The cabins themselves include two rooms so parents and kids can be separated at bedtime.

The little Bridget Dolan’s pub at the front of the inn provides the town’s sole means of night life. It’s a warm cozy place where you can wrap yourself around your favorite drink and chat with the locals, read a book or play a game. The Greenwood Pier, next door provides a nice dinner house but, maybe it was just the day we were there, there were many flies buzzing around inside.

Blackberries Ready to be Picked

At the south end of town, and accessible path provides access to the small beach at the base of the cliffs. Wild blackberries abound in the town providing instant snacks.


A half hour drive in either direction on Highway 1 will bring you to more civilized climes. North will take you to Mendocino. This New England style town hosts many boutique shops and restaurants. Our highlight here was the Mendocino Botanical Gardens a little farther north in Fort Bragg.

The gardens consists of hundreds of acres of unique microclimates and plantings. Miles of wheelchair accessible trails wind their way through the forests, creeks, and flowers ending up at the spectacular bluffs overlooking the sea.

Driving south will take you to the quaint little town of Point Arena. Here you can have a nice dinner overlooking the small century old wharf. After dinner take in a movie at Point Arena’s oustandingly restored theater. This old-style single screen theater will take you back to those great movie houses of your youth while perplexing the youngsters who can’t imagine a theater with only one screen.

No front row stadium seating worries here either. Perfect wheelchair seating locations were built in with the restoration near the center-rear of the theater.

Back in Elk, our main activity was just to relax, sit on the edge of the cliffs with a warm drink in our hand and marvel at the views. You can’t help but to just sit back and take it easy here...cell phones and pagers just won’t work on this isolated stretch of coast.

In short, if you’re just worn out from civilization or just really, really want to get away from it all without traveling halfway around the world, the natural beauty and isolation of this part of the Northern California coast may be just the ticket.

© 2000 Darryl Musick

CLASSIC TRIP - Amador County and Gold Country, California 1998 - Part 1

Please indulge us for another classic trip, a new trip will be up next week.  For now, it's time for another trip in the WayBack Machine.  This time, way back to 1998.  One caveat is that our lodging in this report no longer appears to operate as a bed and breakfast.  It is now just a place to hold weddings and receptions, which is too bad because it was a very nice place to stay.  Kind of like a Tom Sawyer house along the banks of a nice little creek.  Oh well, time marches on...

After driving 300 miles and getting lost on some country back roads, it was amazing looking at this humble little stretch of sand that is the epicenter of California history. For it was here, on a January day 150 years ago that a sawmill manager bent over to pick up a shiny fleck in the outflow of the mill. From that moment on, things were never to be the same in California again.

Our latest getaway was taken over the July 4th weekend. Again, we find ourselves drawn to the Gold Country, this time to the area south of Placerville and east of Sacramento.

In planning this trip, we originally were thinking of seeing the star wine country of the state, Napa Valley. We were soon discouraged over the high lodging prices and the long drive. Looking over the appellations of the wine bottles at our local shop, the name Amador County popped up again and again. A little research into this area showed that it is a great area for wine and travel value so Amador County is was.

We settled on the great little Heirloom Inn in Ione, CA for our lodging. This antebellum style inn, built 135 years ago, sits on the banks of Sutter Creek and provides a secluded, private base to explore all this area has to offer.

As stated above, our first day in the area started with us taking a wrong turn near Placerville and getting lost trying to find Coloma. Unfortunately, our AAA map of California was missing some key roads in the area and was of no use. Knowing that Coloma should be somewhere northwest of Placerville, we stumbled along until we found a sign pointing in the proper direction.

The town of Coloma...really more of a village these days...is a state historic park. Coloma is the spot where James Sutter built his sawmill to process the logs from the nearby mountains. John Marshall was Sutter’s manager at the mill.

On that fateful day in January of 1848, the tailrace of the mill (where the water that powered it flowed through) was clogged with debris. The waterwheel that powered the mill would not turn. Marshall supervised the dynamiting of the tailrace. The blasting was successful and the water again flowed freely.

Marshall then went to inspect the exit of the tailrace to make sure there was no more clogging debris when he noticed something shiny in the water. There, at the spot pictured above, he bent over and picked up the gold nugget that started the California Gold Rush.

150 years later, we find ourselves looking for another kind of gold. We are frantically looking through our car for loose change because of the $5 park admission fee. We have a $20 bill, but the toll booth is unmanned and no one is available to make change. Finally, we find our $5 worth of change and somehow manage to cram it through the narrow slot of the toll booth and park our car.

From the lot it is about 100 yards to the replica of Sutter’s Mill. It’s about another 200 yards from that spot to where the mill was originally located, marked by a monument (the American River has changed course since 1848 and inundated the original site). Next to the replica is a shed containing some original wood from the real mill.

It’s what lies down river that intrigues me even more. First is that spot where the mill was actually located. As you stand on the banks of the river watching the rafters go by, all it takes is the thought that 2 of the most important men in the state’s history stood on this spot. Indeed, they worked and lived here.

Further downstream as you come upon that humble little beach (see the picture up above), again the thought comes into your mind...this is where John Marshall actually bent over and picked up that nugget. My son kids me sometimes about my getting thrilled over history, but it’s the same feeling I get when I’m in Washington, D.C. and standing behind the balcony in Ford’s theater thinking about the assassination that took place right in front of the spot I’m standing in.

Later on we visited the park’s museum and wandered around what’s left of the town...many of the old buildings were torn down as prospectors looked through the ground underneath them for gold. Of interest here is the old jail and the many pits left from those early diggings.

Up the hill is John Marshall’s grave which is marked with a prominent monument pointing down to the discovery site. It’s sad when you learn that he died broke and dejected...only after his death was his place in history noted with this monument.

Just below his grave is his old cabin. Still standing, complete with the outhouse. Adjacent is the old cemetery and an old canal, still carrying water, left over from those gold rush days.

Stay tuned for Part 2...

-Darryl
Copyright 1998 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved