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2020/08/28 Fast Toys at Sears Point with Mercedes AMG GT

π 2020-08-28 01:01 in Cars, Ncars

It had been a while since my last track day, things have been hard with Covid-19, and then the more recent devastating fires all over California.

I left for Sears Point early in the morning, going through the fire smoke:

It had been 6 years since I last went:

Fast Toys had this rental race car for me:

no space for a passenger

the bumper started to get melted by the exhaust

Alex owned the car and got data from it for me, as well as gave me basic coaching

My best lap was a 1:53:98. I think I never learned to fully use the car, especially on this track I don't know well (jump to 6:38):

While an instructor did a 1:49:68. Doh, I left a lot of time on the table (jump to 6:00)...

I also drove my Mclaren 650S for 30mn, and got the time down to 1:57 on used tires. Car could have gone faster, but I need to get better at this track.

We took a few pictures at the end of the day:

The drive back took me back through the fog and downstream from the fires:

I hope that was fog

280 was definitely smoky

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2020/08/25 Sunset Biking to Black Mountain During Great Redwood Fires on a Clear Day

π 2020-08-25 01:01 in Exercising

After the terrible amount of smoke we had 2 days prior, I went back in the evening when the wind had shifted and the smoke was going in other directions. What a difference. It went from a PM2.5 of over a 1000 (do not breathe) to just 10:

I had to hurry to get enough light before losing it

smoke was visible but on the east side of the bay

black mountain peak was clear

clear at the top

A few animals were out:

The ocean side of the view was nice too:

smoke means nice views

It was then time to bike back since I didn't have a bike light:

Soo much nicer than 2 days prior...

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2020/08/23 Biking to Black Mountain During Great Redwood Fires

π 2020-08-23 01:01 in Exercising

I was curious to see layer of smoke and maybe more by going higher (about 3000ft), so I drove up montebello road and then biked the rest to Black Mountain. The 10mn worth of biking was quite hard, I couldn't breathe well with my N99 mask and I really needed it given how terrible the air was (more than 5 times worse than lower down at home).

the bike barely fit

not the best view

top of montebello

oops, good thing I had my N99 mask

I unpacked my bike and did the short ride to the first radio tower and then black mountain. I was very out of breath breathing with that max (and even the filtered air not being prefect probably):

couldn't really see the bay

and that's why

biking back to my car

And then I went down, and the air was definitely better:

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2020/08/23 Wendover Airfield Museum between Nevada and Utah

π 2020-08-23 01:01 in Flying, Nflying

It had been a while since I had done a short refueling stop at Wendover, so it was great that we got to stop with Arturo on our way to Moab. We arrived just 45mn before they were closing at 16:00, but it turned out to be just enough. That airfield in an important part of US history, this is where the B29s were training during WWII and where the crews and planes that went drop the two atomic bombs on Japan, trained. Today, it's mostly a ghost town with the barracks falling apart:

I didn't know the planes left from Tinian by Guam and there was a plan for them to land at Iwo Jima, and have a 2nd plane take the bomb and try again if the weather didn't allow for the first plane to reach the targets:

mission #1

mission #2

It was so an artillary range:

We had a look around the rest of the base, not much left:

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2020/08/08 Hike Around Alpine Road/Skyline To Mindego Lake

π 2020-08-08 01:01 in Hiking

The fires gave an eery sky where a marine layer kept the smoke above us, so the air was breathable, but it lookd quite bad, mars like:

air was ok enough

not the best view though

looked a bit better on the under tree shade

and not as much as soon as we got sunlight

I found this in a hole, looks like some kind of eggs that got eaten by a predator:

quails

Some of the access was supposedly closed:

interstellar anyone?

Back under some trees:

We found an old half abandoned small cluster of houses that was apparently off limits. I'm not sure if that was fully legal, or just trying to scare people away:

from there, we got back to a trail entrance

Eventually we got to Mindego Lake for lunch. It was behind a couple of closed fences and next to a lot of cow "droppings":

We then went to the Mindego Hill loop, which was supposed to have great views, but obviously not so much:

ooops

It was then time to get back to the crowded parking lot where we left the car :) on the way down pagemill, found lots of turkeys:

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2020/08/07 Anniversary Visit to the Beach

π 2020-08-07 01:01 in Outings

It had been a while since we had gone out to see a bit of nature, so for our anniversary, we drove towards the coast to visit the coast and beaches on Hwy 1 from Pescadero to Half Moon Bay.