831 / Outside
Peaceful Warrior
Scott Fujita retires from pro football atop a Peruvian peak in South America.
Of all the places to retire from a long and fruitful career as an NFL linebacker, Carmel Valley resident Scott Fujita chose sunrise at Machu Picchu, 8,000 feet high in the Peruvian Andes – after ...
Flower Power
The 31st annual Wildflower Triathlon reasserts itself as a one-of-a-kind accomplishment.
Photo by Kaori Funahashi First and Third: Jesse Thomas of Bend, Ore., claimed his third straight long course win in his signature aviators. Last Saturday a champion stormed through the dusty Lake San Antonio heat ...
Sexy Small
Quail Moto enters its fifth year with new tweaks on classic bikes.
Somebody invited a moped guy to the motorcycle party. But the vehicle he’ll share with audiences is as anticipated as any coming for the fifth annual Quail Motorcycle Gathering, a celebration of motorcycling heritage and ...
Classic Day
Ways to navigate a super fun sequence at the Sea Otter Classic.
There’s so much going on at Sea Otter Classic, it’d be understandable if a festival-goer got so overwhelmed they rode off on the lengthy group-ride Gran Fondo to Carmel Valley and never came back – ...
Trails Blazing
Sea Otter Classic pioneers all sorts of two-wheel wonders, including mountain bike parks.
The hills of the Fort Ord National Monument are lush and green this time of year, and when the wind blows just right, the tall grasses sway like kelp. Below those hills, in a flat ...
Straight Up Rock
Climbing royalty Alex Honnold’s film highlights Reel Rock tour’s trip to Big Sur.
The video hit the Internet on June 11 and quickly went viral: Rock climber Alex Honnold, who has achieved widespread fame both inside and outside the climbing world for his fearless “free solo” ascents – ...
Rarified Air
The best in the business – and the hometown star of California International Airshow - takes the Weekly for a ride.
Lifting Off With a Legend montereycountyweekly --> Sean D. Tucker doesn’t gamble. But here he is, arguably the most accomplished stunt pilot in the sky, several thousand feet above the Salinas Valley floor, about to ...
Soldiering On
Two roommates deal with catastrophic injuries through endurance events like the Triathlon at Pacific Grove.
First-time triathlete Joseph “Danny” Kennedy swam, walked, biked and ran through five-plus hours of sea, sweat and sunshine last weekend. But he didn’t experience the Olympic distance event at the Triathlon at Pacific Grove the ...
Rocking On
Local teen climber Val Hooper finds mental balance by dangling from steep stones.
Halfway up the Cuidado face on the west side of Pinnacles National Monument, rocks break off under Val Hooper’s fingers. She’s sport climbing with her coach Charles Schrammel, and already a few hundred feet up ...
Getting Back Up
A climber survives a massive fall in the Andes to bike from Monterey to New York.
A fall from a 1,300 foot ice face temporarily took Isabel Suppé’s mobility. It permanently took her climbing partner and friend. But it didn’t take her life – and it gave her the resolve to ...
The Long View
The 30th Wildflower Triathlon defines endurance, inspiration and effort.
“Long” is an elastic term. Case in point: Seventy-plus miles of swimming, biking and running – covering about the distance between Monterey and San Jose – is not long for some, since it’s the kiddie ...
Mentoring on Mountain Bikes
The Little Bellas do more than bring waves of young girls to the sport – they get them hooked for life.
After a grueling, 20-minute mountain sprint bike race, most top-tier professional athletes prefer a cold drink and a massage, but Lea Davison, who races for the Specialized Factory team, prefers to help young women pedal ...
Let There Be Bikes
Sea Otter Classic packs the best stuff cycling has to offer in one magnificent setting.
The Sea Otter Classic is to cycling what Coachella is to music – a grand meeting point where the spectator and the superstar converge for a weekend of reveling in what they love. In this ...
Out of the Parks
A peek at the reality facing folks hoping to visit State Parks closed due to budget cuts.
For those with a spiritual dependency on the sweeping 200-degree Pacific view from the highest point in Garrapata State Park, a “park closed” sign is as unlikely a deterrent as the washed out trails still ...
Underdog Deals
Under-reported strategies to get on the golf course without going on food stamps.
Golfing on a budget. Sounds like an oxymoron, but the winding fairways, snow-white sand traps and impeccably groomed greens are not purely for those with the newest $500 TaylorMade r11 driver and a $699 Callaway ...
Vino Viene
Carmel-by-the-Sea and its neighboring valley are suddenly the best tasting destination.
Summer means weather – and time – for wine. A flurry of new tasting rooms have made Carmel and Carmel Valley the deepest goblet for summer wine tasters to dip into as the heat creeps. ...
Super Events Schedule
Summer Fun
In the last few weeks some of the best chefs in the world visited Monterey County for Pebble Beach Food & Wine and Cooking for Solutions. This summer, many of the planet’s best musicians, authors, ...
Camp Out Insight
Tips for trips to the state’s scores of camping sites.
The California Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds isn’t letting budget woes get it down. Association spokesperson Verna Wiseman shared tips and updates for the coming summer with the Weekly; here are the three most ...
One of a Kind
The third annual Quail Motorcycle Gathering brings truly unique muscle to a truly unique party.
One morning, Ian Barry woke up and decided to build motorcycles. “I just blocked off the next five years of my life and basically lived in the garage working on bikes,” says Barry, who grew ...
Get Your Green On
A billion ways to celebrate Earth Day, and some of them are strictly local.
Wensie promises to serve only vegetarian dishes at a dinner party. Paulina Aquilina promises to wash all clothes in cold water, bring her own reusable shopping bags to the store and attend more local farmer’s ...
Liking Biking
The latest Sea Otter Classic upgrades send pros – and fans – flying.
More than wheels spin at the annual epic that is the Sea Otter Classic at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Heads do too. After all, this is a lot: Four days, 8,000 athletes and 50,000 fans ...
Go Bloom
The P.G. Museum of Natural History’s Wildflower Show surrounds the senses in its 50th year.
You might find them with flashlights in the pouring rain during the wee hours of an early spring night, or even during a snow storm, on dangerous, washed-out roads, or along the rocky, unbeaten terrain ...
Plane Awesome
The 30th California International Airshow climbs even higher in Salinas.
There’s a question that comes when an up-and-coming pilot tries to secure a big-time sponsorship: “Have you flown Salinas?” That is according to Sean D. Tucker, Salinas’ own resident National Aviation Hall of Famer and ...
Turning Points
Motorcycle champions discuss the curves MotoGP racers will face at Mazda Laguna Seca.
When the premiere class of world championship motorcycle racing returned to the United States in 2005, Marco Melandri said the twisty track of Laguna Seca was far too dangerous for the 990cc 4-stroke race machines. ...
In Top Shape
An uncommon local shaper sticks with his loves: surfing and creating boards.
Palo Colorado’s Brent Bispo, 45, has been surfing along Monterey County’s coast since 1976 and shaping boards since ’88. That means he has a combination of surfing and shaping experience that matches that of any ...
On Deck
The still-new City of Marina/On the Beach Skate Team dominates state circuit.
In the back room of Marina’s City Teen Center, members of the City of Marina/On the Beach Skate Team reveal the reason they are currently in first place in the California Amateur Skateboard League’s Norcal ...
Cold Truth
Conquering the Alcatraz Challenge, the start of Tricalifornia’s “Summer in the City.”
Things are thrashing and splashing in the Sunday morning waters just off Alcatraz. Scores of people have just pitched themselves into the ocean, 1.5 miles from the San Francisco shore, and waves of three keep ...
Hot Corners
MX5 action and the lengthy Le Mans lead the weekend’s excitement at Seca’s sharp turns.
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, one of the shortest race tracks in the country that doesn’t star go-karts, stuffs so many turns and so few straightaways into its tiny 2.2 miles that it rattles the nerves ...
Moving Effort
Wildflower Triathlon combines uplifting athleticism with rock festival raucousness.
Roxy Kazemzadeh lay splattered in the street like a used Gu energy packet. A second earlier, her bulge of bikers had reached for water at the same time. The lunge of arms and spokes quickly ...
Wild Ride
The Sea Otter Classic is still growing and adding events after 20 years.
One April day in the bygone year of 1991, Monterey’s Frank Yohannen decided to throw together a little bike meet. He was starting up an event business and, after a chat with a bike shop ...
Wildly Inspiring
Ken Burns’ much awaited National Parks series explores the toil behind the treasures.
When people think of national parks, they probably picture mammoth redwoods, snowcapped Tetons or the Colorado River lolling through the Grand Canyon. It’s unlikely they envision George Masa, a Japanese immigrant who meticulously recorded local ...
2009 California International Airshow
Images from Friday night at the Salinas Airshow.
As the sun set into a warm, orange blob on Friday, spectators and planes both cast long shadows across the runways in Salinas. Young fans talked excitedly about the giant robot dinosaur who breathed fire ...
Making a Splash
The inaugural Dolphin Race gathers athletes in competition and commemoration.
This Sunday, the Carmel Waterman’s Club, formed May 30, presents their first Dolphin Race, a 9-mile paddle that starts at Carmel Beach, stretches to Stillwater Cove, hits Ghost Tree, the Carmel Canyon and Point Lobos, ...
Good Heavens
The Blue Angels spearhead a sky-high California International Airshow lineup.
Six spade-shaped /A-18 Hornets wheel through the Salinas sky in a perfect line, carving contrails that look like Zen garden patterns. A moment later the six Blue Angels are soaring straight up, before they break ...
Pure Bull
The best five ways to enjoy California Rodeo Salinas.
The bad-ass bullfighter’s comment was surprising, and quickly dismissed. “You know,” he said, “That was good. You could give a career in bullfighting a shot.” “Um, thanks,” I said. “But… ” Ten minutes in the ...
Fast Company
Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi lead the tightest MotoGP fields in two decades.
One of the greatest sporting events on earth returns to Laguna Seca this weekend. MotoGP. Anyone who wants to argue this point didn’t see the race last year. For the last three years, the race ...
Geared Up
Velo Club does some serious road-bike recreating.
Suddenly the right-hand shoulder of Pacific Grove’s Oceanview Boulevard feels less like a road and more like train tracks – for a big, breathing engine powered by pumping legs and covered in fluorescent yellow and ...
Moro Better
A key component of Elkhorn Slough makes an inspired recovery.
Elkhorn Slough Foundation volunteer Rick Fournier and the rest of our small flock of tour members stand under the bluest skies in weeks. Nearby tree limbs are swooning with the morning breeze’s caress when he ...
Post War Peace
Fort Ord Dunes State Park’s recreation reincarnation is a beautiful thing to behold.
During Fort Ord’s active years, the area that just became Fort Ord Dunes State Park earlier this month would have been a beehive of military activity. From inside the 52,000-square-foot Stilwell Hall, the sounds of ...
Peak Experience
Banff Mountain Film Festival channels reels of adventure at CSUMB.
Scotland’s Dumbarton Rock is a 240-foot-high slab of volcanic basalt that once housed a military stronghold that repelled enemies for 1,500 years. Now, the rock face, which looks like an oversized castle turret, turns away ...
Getting Warmer
Beach fires are a great way to blow off steam in an ever-cooling economic climate.
There were once days when the news was just the news. It was bad normally, rife with woe typically, yet somehow bearable, tempered by experience and the notion that things swing back around eventually. Then ...
Falls, in Love
Winter marks a great time to get enamored with Big Sur’s Salmon Creek Falls.
Dozens of blackened boulders sit scattered, like a handful of dice tossed by a prehistoric giant. Behind them, to the east, flows a constantly falling spectacle: Natural spring water that explodes outward from beneath a ...
Still Rolling
Del Monte Gardens skates through the eras attracting families to the rink.
Disco made it popular. Roller derby made it dangerous. And, since 1957, Keith Burchell has made it his passion. “Skating has been really the only thing I’ve wanted to do in my life,” says the ...
Four Play
Tinkering with the AT&T Pro-Am pairings puts the most exciting players on one course.
She’ll forever be remembered for what she took off, but the two-time gold medalist deserves far more credit for what she takes on. Sure, the now iconic tearing-off of her Team USA jersey after scoring ...
Eagle Scouting
Lake San Antonio tours give visitors an inspiring look at the iconic bird.
If Benjamin Franklin had gotten his way back in 1784– when he fired off a resolute dispatch from his diplomatic post in France to his daughter Sally back in Philly, complaining vociferously against the choice ...
Yoga for Stiffs
A man plies the yoga mat at Seaside Yoga Sanctuary for the first time in his life.
Yoga has always terrified me. People twisting themselves into pretzels and attaining some sort of transcendence always looked like a real stretch. I’ve always had a hard time reaching my shoelaces to tie them and ...
Way More Game
Water City Roller Hockey brings a roster of new sports to its Marina venue.
For the sleepless, disillusioned droves of would-be entrepreneurs who fear that the American Dream has morphed into some sort of bleak Kafkaesque corporate nightmare, affirmation can be found holding a hockey stick on an abandoned ...
Not-So-Still Thoughts
The Dance Jam tribe meditates through spirited movement in Pacific Grove.
A 5-year-old boy holds two electric votive candles in his little palms and skips through a crowd of people who drift like jelly fish, smiling, glowing inwardly. Women twist their hips and circle other dancers ...
Quick Hitter
Fast-rising Angela Samaro of Salinas eyes her next mixed martial arts challenge this Saturday.
Type in “Angela Samaro” on YouTube and up comes a mixed-martial arts (MMA) scrap at Colorado’s Kick Down Classic. It doesn’t last long. Salinas’ Samaro plants herself firmly in the ring while Louise Johnson jumps ...
In the Loop
Understanding the all-too underappreciated art form called caddying.
They serve as historians, tour guides and confidantes, and sometimes, in the case of high-value clients, security. Here, near-perfect landscapes of rolling sage dunes rise from rock studded beaches, hills of twisted Cypress and stands ...
Cold Truth
Pinnacles National Monument is a different – and in many ways better – experience in winter.
Freedom is just a tank of gas away. Incredibly, the cost to fund your adventurous spirit is downright affordable once again. Big Sur is a treasure, of course. But try to find the solitude that ...
Militant Passion
An aggressive Bayonet and Black Horse redesign reveals new views and great greens.
In 1945 a young artillery corporal named Mike Napolitano had returned from frontline duty in the European theater and was about to be transferred to Fort Ord in California, where he would be retrained and ...
Splash Happy
Winter offers one of the best opportunities to whale watch on Monterey Bay.
In 2005, near the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco, a group of divers spent an hour freeing a 50-foot humpback whale from a tangle of crab trap lines. When the whale was ...
Ice Ice Baby
A first-time skater takes to the rink at Monterey on Ice.
Deperately clutching the wall with my right arm isn’t enough to save me. I lose any hint of balance on my left skate, lurch backward and fall flat on my bony bottom. I decide to ...
Ghost Tree Eulogy
Pebble Beach’s rare-but-behemoth break rapidly went from secret to famous to, now, off-limits.
The end of the Ghost Tree era was as inevitable as the tide. When the draft plan for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was generated back in 2006, the tow-surfing community knew it was ...
Board Meeting
Marina Skate Park reigns as the top skate destination in Monterey County.
As the setting sun sits on the horizon like a giant pumpkin, the Marina Skate Park buzzes with noisy activity. The clickety-clack of skateboards hitting the concrete sounds like dominos being slapped down on a ...
Mogul Hits Bumps
As storms give snowboarders their first runs of the season, Burton weathers controversy.
At least two anti-violence organizations have asked to meet with representatives of Burton Snowboards to urge the company to stop selling product lines that feature nude women and self-mutilation. Neither the Vermont Network Against Domestic ...
Do North
An ambitious attempt to tame California’s Lost Coast.
This Lost Coast story could be told in images– of mountain-carving creeks tumbling from beneath King Peak to the sea; of dark cliffs knifing at extreme angles into black-pebble beaches; of surfers with boards strapped ...
Above Board
A high-flying look at the world’s fastest growing water sport.
When I was 12, a friend received a two-line stunt kite from some weird uncle. The thing came with a handlebar and a bunch of tangled lines and was shaped like a bat wing. In ...
Easy Adventure
Strategies to enjoy semi-secret Big Sur.
When asked, real Big Sur locals will almost always report that no, they do not know of any secret spots to enjoy around their domain. The less shy among them may openly laugh at that ...
Range of Talents
Point Lobos State Park icon Chuck Bancroft’s multi-faceted skill set is a natural wonder itself.
After nearly 30 years patrolling in one of the most ecologically diverse, spectacularly scenic areas known to man, Ranger Chuck Bancroft is as much a part of Point Lobos State Reserve as its watchful Cypress ...
Cache Dividends
Obsessed locals draw dynamic experiences from geocaching’s hide-and-seek adventures.
With a million participants worldwide, geocaching has become more than a high-tech eco-scavenger game for a few high-tech adventurers. It has evolved into an increasingly mainstream culture where modern explorers comb open pastures, backwoods and ...
Sails Team
Riding the big bay with the Wednesday beer-can racers.
There’s a universal understanding at the beer-can boat races: a six-pack of suds equals a spot aboard a vessel. And there’s one rule: Have fun. Racing sailboats doesn’t always have to be competitive. Beer-can races ...
Taking Wing
Lone local qualifier Hawk Mazzotta braved bulls and fast black top to prepare for the AMA races at Laguna Seca.
Hawk Mazzotta was raised up on a 5,000-acre cattle ranch near Whitmore, Calif., east of Redding. His father was, among many other things, a falconer, and named his second son after the raptors that he ...
Nice Tri
A rookie triathlete’s attempt to swim, bike and trot through 51.5 kilometers.
THE TRIATHLON AT PACIFIC GROVE: BEFORE AND AFTER PART II They materialized in the dark streets of New Monterey like hunchbacked hallucinations, gliding quietly between the brick and steel buildings, all moving southwest into Pacific ...
Tri-Fold
The Triathlon at Pacific Grove has competitors wet, rolling and running.
A dip in the cold Monterey water, a bike ride along the scenic coast and a nice little run brings tri-athletes to Pacific Grove for the 14th year of the race. Read a first-hand account ...
Tri-al Run
Taking a month to prepare for the Triathlon at Pacific Grove.
THE TRIATHLON AT PACIFIC GROVE: BEFORE AND AFTER PART I The floating forest clings to arms, gropes at feet, nips at chins. Its blades cloud the line of sight, then close it off completely. Its ...
Greater Depth
A reporter learns what it takes to scuba beneath the sea.
Sharks, he says, are the least of our concerns. There are lots more likely ways to die while scuba diving. If you ascend to the surface too fast, for example, your lungs could burst. (The ...
Make It Rein
Discovering Salinas River State Beach by horseback.
For a short while, I experience the fantasy version of a beach horse ride: Loping along the sand, triple-beat of hooves blending with the rushing waves, mist spraying my face, wind blowing my hair… and ...
The Long View
The new Ryan Ranch Disc Golf Course presents a sturdy (and lengthy) challenge.
There are many challenges for local disc golfers at the new Ryan Ranch Disc Golf Course. Large oak tree canopies act like giant catcher’s mitts, grabbing soaring discs from the sky. Bright red patches of ...
Four Play
The best outdoor public pools to visit this summer have their various strengths.
As the June-July gloom starts to drift away, Monterey County residents can look forward to warm, sunny days. The options the weather encourages are everywhere: surfing, hiking, camping… But the Pacific’s waters are cold and ...
Serving a Winner
Newly renovated public tennis courts have Seaside beaming.
On a breezy summer Friday, Seaside’s Wheeler Street tennis courts– perched above the city like a condor’s nest– pulse with festivities. Dozens of community members are here to celebrate the ribbon cutting of four refurbished ...
Divinely Equine
There’s a wealth of action to soak up at the Pebble Beach Equestrian Classic– for more than just horse lovers.
Everything is moving quickly. Every muscle on the horse seems to bulge beneath his thin brown fur as his powerful hooves kick dirt into the air. Everything’s rider, Duncan McFarlan, makes a clucking noise with ...
West Side Rider
Fort Ord’s less-trafficked half offers great scenery and a labyrinth of fun mountain bike trails.
Given the shiny red poison oak leaves at the entrance to Fort Ord Public Lands’ Blair Witch Trail– and the dense thicket of oaks and chaparral behind them– it seems an odd place to carve ...
Speed, Freaks
Both the MotoGP and its fans (including the author) are something to behold.
It was 5am on a tiny little island, and we were still up. The latest MotoGP race at Assen in Holland was about to begin. The sheets were soaked, and I was sweatily stumbling about ...
Feeling Swells
Different user-friendly snorkeling spots to hit up.
A finned torpedo swoops straight at the land mammal’s facemask, ducking away at the last moment. The diveby, which comes near enough that the whites of the lion’s eyes flash brilliantly against the deep greens ...
Tails on Trails
Exploring the outdoors with the help of two local dog-hike experts.
I’ve seen this kind of wooly enthusiasm before– the tongue dangling grin, the happy prancing. And I’ve been seeing it more regularly of late– and not because I’m sneaking the creature more bacon beneath the ...
In Hot Water
A look at the best local places to soak in natural hot springs.
Steam rises into the crisp night air from crystal clear waters in a rock-lined tub. The smell of sulfur tickles the nose. One hundred seventeen-degree mineral water, cooled to an agreeable 103 by mountain spring ...
The Right Path
Gilson Gap is a great way to enjoy the best things about Toro Park.
French impressionist painter Claude Monet once said, “The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration.” Claude would’ve liked Toro Park. From its breathing canvas burst buzzing cicadas, ruby-red dragonflies, purple teacup ...
Carving Identity
Sunshine Surfabout brings together the Peninsula for some competitive wave games.
Surfers are supposed to be cool– smiling with their eyes half-open and speech half-slow, playing guitars on the beach, risking their jobs to ask for time off to surf. But anybody who knows the difference ...
Happy Trails
Big Sur Land Trust welcomes the public to a private paradise to celebrate National Trails Day.
It sits deep in a virtually uninhabited redwood grove next to the biggest sequoia in the county: An old, beautiful swimming pool accented by a strip of yellow decorative tiles, alone in the wilderness, empty ...
Local Branches
A peek at the best places to commune with the county’s incomparable California redwoods.
The tree was living before the Civil War, before Columbus sailed to the New World– even before the signing of the Magna Carta (that was 1215). This particular tree, called the Colonial Tree, sits in ...
Get More Play
The county’s outdoor adventures merit extra attention. Here it is.
They were calling the outdoors “great” long before Theodore Roosevelt was a bear cub. And, everybody with me now – it doesn’t get much greater than Monterey County. But let’s stop gloating about it and ...
The Big Shot
Local photographers among nominees for the world’s best XXL Biggest Wave photo of the year.
When Sand City photographer and surfer Wayne Kelly arrived at Ghost Tree just after dawn on Dec. 4, he wasn’t impressed. “The buoys indicated there was the potential for XXL-sized waves, but I was kind ...
Amgen Tour of California Stage 5
Photos of the 2011 Amgen Tour of California during stage 5 leaving from Seaside and ...
