Allen The Mountain Man (Squaw part 2)

About two years ago I picked up a hitch hiker named Allen. He was 83 and has lived up a dirt (snow) road near Squaw Valley in a cabin since 1963. He worked as a DMV examiner in Truckee or Reno, can't remember which. Retired now. He hikes the 2 miles to the road and back to his cabin three or four times a week to get grocercies and check his mail. No phone. No electricity. He said he fell walking out of his cabin the other day "it was snowing, and I just layed there, I said well maybe I'll lay here and die. But I didn't."

He is a very nice guy. He told me that he wanted to get to Santa Cruz to see his last living relative, his siter, who lives in a convalecent hospital. I always felt bad that I did not offer him a ride down there.

Well this weekend I saw him again! We left Los Gatos at 10AM and rolled into Squaw at 5:30Pm (huge traffic) Kate had had about enough of the Squaw kiosk. It was broken again. Anyway, when we were driving past the place I dropped Allen off two years ago I saw him. I slammed on the brakes (Kate was really getting ticked off now) and ran up his road to see him and say hi.

He looked the same (super thick glasses, unnerving for a DMV tester)snowshoes and a bag of groceries, three newspapers. He said he got to go see his sister. He was amazed that he made it to San Jose in just 35 minutes (he must've flown). I ran back to the car totally stoked to have seen him. When I got to the car, Kate just said "He fell" I looked up the hill and he was laying face down in the snow. He slowly got up and started trudging up the hill.

Christmas

Surfed some Big Mole Point. BIG.
Paddled out by myself (later found out Middles was perfect, grrr.) Really only got one good wave. The tide was super high so where you ussually take off was not breaking and the waves backed off until they ledged hard. But this one wave I got a kick ass bottom turn (my fins just barley hung on) then I snapped and stalled a little bit then I got a sort of cut back then I got a killer cutback on the inside. I let a lot of really good waves go by because I was out by meslef and really ddn't want to get caught inside. And, the waves were really hard to catch. Had to get out becasue Kate was there and we were supposed to be back to open presents. Water was really nice, way clear and glassy. Beautiful prefrontal day.

Got home Christmas was cool.
Gave:
Dad - Book
Pam - Lights
Todd - Beer (drank one)
Mom - Bird nester
Laclan - Airplanes and 20 question guesser
Lilly - Butterfly light and socks
Kids were great. House was awesome. Funnnnnn

Squaw

This is a great post becasue it involves both kiosks and hitch hikers. I landed a kiosk at Squaw Valley USA which is great. While installing it I picked up two guys (I was on my way to the hardware store at Truckee becasue my screws were too short to lag the kiosk into their counter top). Well these two guys said they were going to 7-11 to see if the cop was still there. They both had warrants and the cop had followed them while they were in their motor home. Then He banged on the door saying "I know you're in there, I just want to ask you some questions" but they just stayed hidden and quiet. So they wanted to go to 7-11 to see if he was still there. If not they could hitch back to Squaw and get their motor home and drive to Reno. One said he had warrants for stealing toothache medicine (which was funny becasue my tooth was hurting like hell as I was listening to this story) The other didn't say why he had warrants but if he got caught it was 55 days in jail and a $5K fine.

One of them smelled terrible ( as do most hitch hikers). They both had to sit in the front seat becasue I had the back seat down. The front seat was completely filled with road trip rif raff but we managed.

The good news was the last time I was at Squaw, meeting with the owner about the kiosk I left my snowboard in the parking lot. Someone had turned it in to security and it was there waiting for me. Awesome.