No.1 /May 2021

Recent projects, moments, experiments and fragments.

A Day North

The morning begins here. 

︾

Provender Coffee & Provisions

 

Point "A" along a ribbon of tarmac that would lead us to the days final and delicious culmination. 

Tanks full, a potent mixture of 93 octane and Sightglass espresso, we mount up and take off north.

San Francisco summer - our first leg finds us deep amongst the fog as we journey into the Headlands.

We reach the summit of Mount Tamalpais, high above San Francisco Bay - a sunny oasis awaits us, the cloak of fog below.

We continue north up Highway One towards Tomales bay, but not without one final stop along a quiet stretch of road.

Back amongst the fog, we reach the small village of Marshall and the venerable Marshall Store - best oysters in The Bay and our final destination. It's Thursday, so oyster:dollar ratio reaches 1-to-1. We fill our plates, make small talk between bites, and grin ear-to-ear on a proper soul mission. 

To wrap, no adventure is complete with a small bit of the unexpected. On this day, this meant running out of fuel. So before trekking it back home to the city, a mini re-supply mission sealed the deal on a day my buddies and I will never forget.

PICTURED : 

Brothers, Austin & Tony Ferrari 

Owners/Head Chef, Provender & Hillside Supper Club 

Summit Safari - Camel's Hump

in ,

Pre-dawn, falling snow, first tracks - a recipe for one of my favorite winter adventures. Hiking by wintery night flips every familiarity of the outdoors on its head, exposing the magic of a world that appears only once the lights go out. The forest becomes incredibly quiet and the view stretches only as far as your headlamp. The whisper of wind at the treetops, of snow gently touching down on your jacket, the 15 feet of trail ahead. When paired with an unspoiled trail, and your first ascent upon it, the experience becomes amplified by the excitement of the unknown. The trail narrows, your sense of terrain and its fluctuations vanish, time and altitude only guessed at by the size of the trees and the amount of snow upon their branches. 

I wanted to wrap up 2014 with a hike I've had on my list for some time - Camel's Hump in Huntington, VT. Camel's Hump is the 3rd tallest mountain in Vermont, and the only undeveloped alpine area in the state. My good buddy Arlin and I met at the trailhead around 5AM in hopes of catching the sunrise, but nature ended up providing us with one of the most ethereal morning summits I have ever experienced. The heavy cloud cover created a landscape in which land and sky seemed at once the same, interrupted only by the Red Spruce and exposed rock. On a peak that is rarely vacant, the small patch of summit seemed an obscure island amidst the sky.  

Dad and his 1935 Indian Four

My dad is a motorhead through-and-through, and from time to time we like to take a bike out for an impromptu photo shoot. Today we trekked over to the local rail yard with the '35 Four.