Proposing at Leo Carrillo

Yosh and i have known each other for 7 years. We've been together for 5 of those years. I knew the first day i met her that i wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. It wasn't until recently i knew her parents were coming to America and i could ask them for their blessing. My goal was to propose this year on our 5 year anniversary July 4th, which happens to be Independence day. After the blessing was granted it was game on.

I knew that i didn't want to do the standard fancy restaurant proposal with a ring in the champagne. I wanted to do something that suited us and what we love to do. After all, this was about us, and no one else. I started searching for places to camp along the coast. It's always been so nice and romantic but always so hard to get into. Being so late in the year, i knew everything was booked. So i logged onto craigslist for a final twist of faith. I knew that sometimes i'd seen people put up for sale their reservations for the coastal campgrounds because they were in such demand. Usually these are just people that can't make it and don't want to waste the reservations.

Well i got extremely lucky and found reservations for Leo Carrillo SP for July 4th and 5th. Leo Carrillo is named after a famous actor and there's been many movies filmed at this location, like Grease, Karate kid and others. I was stoked. When i told Yosh, she said that sounded great without any hesitation. Little did she know i was going to pop the big question.

After heading out in the triple digit heat of the inland area , we headed across wonderful downtown LA and into Santa Monica. It was total chaos. People everywhere. But we expected that. This time wasn't going to be remote.. it was going to special and near the ocean with other people. Quickly heading through town and up PCH, we kept our pace through the tourists that seemed like they were driving slower than molasses. I used them as a cone and passed them on the left and right the whole way. Arriving at the campground around 2pm, we had plenty of time to head to the beach. Im still trying to figure out why the check-in time is so late.

"Roughing it" - Our camp on pavement (not typically how we camp)


Up the hill from our parking area was a fire ring and a picnic table. It was actually kind of nice because we could pretend we were away from everyone, since we couldn't see them.


After setting up camp, we headed for the beach. It was about a 15 minute walk.



This is one of only a few dog friendly beaches in CA. This was Dixie's first time at the beach and in the water.




A wave snuck up on her and she didn't care for it all that much. This was the one and only time i had her in the water. After that she ran from the water and never let us get her too close.


It's a beautiful beach. We actually saw dolphins and sea lions in the distance. Too bad i forgot the long lens.


Dixie not having anything to do with the water.. again..


After running around like a nut, Dixie was ready to relax.


I swear i think she thinks we go on these trips just for her. She's so spoiled.


After being at the beach for a few hours, getting sun burned a bit, and thirsty for a cold beer....we headed back.


At this point i decided over dinner i'd propose. I fired up the BBQ and grilled up some filet mignons while Yosh made a side. There were just too many people down at the beach for me to propose in front of. I would have turned into a nervous wreck. So needless to say i did it in private at our camp. She thought i was joking at first... then she realized what i was doing and said yes.


Here i am on one knee looking silly because i set the timer on the camera and she didn't know. Kind of hard to go back and say "wait i'm going to propose, can you look at the camera for me?" She just happened to be looking at Dixie at the time the camera snapped the photo.


A happy girl after dinner sitting next to the fire.


The moon was so bright, it was almost a full moon. Remember this photo was taken while DARK with the naked eye.

We could see our moon shadow. It was epic. I shot this photo down at the beach while we watched fireworks.


Apparently Danny Devito rents a barge for the weekend and has a crew light fireworks off of it. The fireworks were too far for the standard lens to see, but we did have a prime spot to watch. Kind of felt like David Hasselhoff, im not going to lie.


We headed back to camp after getting bored with the fireworks. I mean they were a good 20 miles down the coast. One thing that was nice, Dixie didn't have to get scared by all the Kaboomb!

Once back at camp i re-started the fire pit and burned the rest of the wood we brought.


In the morning we took our time since check out was noon and we knew it was hotter than heck at home still. Yosh made sausage, bacon and eggs. We really wanted to load up and pack it out and head over to the beach for the rest of the day, but i was sun burned on my shoulders pretty good. I also only brought one cut off shirt since we were close to home and i didn't have anyway to cover my arms. So we enjoyed the coast.

We headed up to the Pt Mugu area. Such a beautiful place with so many great views of the ocean.




The bird and Dixie have the same hair colors. Dixie however wanted to eat the seagulls.


There are some beautiful rock cuts in the coast around this area.

Shot of how massive Mugu Rock is.

One of them you might actually recognize from many car commercials. Look familiar?

Down the road is a small patch of dunes that you can climb on foot. Pretty amazing.


We headed back down through Malibu and Santa Monica.. then unfortunately we had to head home and back to reality. The heat and the location were not as nice as the coast.. but we had one thing we brought back with us.. a plan for marriage. I now have a fiancee and she's wearing my ring. This will truly be a trip i'll cherish for years and years. It will never be forgotten.. i think we'll be 80 years old and think back about how nice this trip was and how young we were.

Here's to many many more years of adventure!!

Yellow Post Camping - Lytle Creek

We've been dying to get out and camp lately, but haven't been able to afford a real trip. So we headed out last friday to the local San Bernardino national forest to save money and release some stress. The total trip cost ranked up there with going to a nice dinner at a steakhouse. Well since we never go out to dinner anymore.. this would do just fine.

The one thing we really like is remote locations with the place to ourself. Well since we were headed to the local mountains this was going to be hard to accomplish. I mean anything an hour from Orange County can't be all that remote right? well guess again.

Remote camping in the San Bernardino National Forest - Undevleoped Camping is camping outside of "developed" sites. This means that there are no toilets, water or electricity. Basically what we always deal with, but for some that's something they really need to know ahead of time. One example of undeveloped camping in SBNF is Yellow Post Sites.



Yellow post sites are remote forest camping locations. They are indentified by the presence of a hollow metal post next to a fire pit at each campsite. There are 19 yellow post in or near the canyons north of Lytle Creek. These 19 remote sites offer isolated scenic locations ideal for tent or car camping away from the crowds. Each site is usually located beneath mature trees that provide plenty of shade from the sun. Most of these sites involve driving a 4 wheel drive vehicle to get to them. Also, you will need a forest adventure pass and a campfire permit for these locations.

You can view these sites on myjeeprocks.com. Fishpoet has done a great job of creating a listing with gps coords, photos and a general map of the area.

From reading Fishpoets posts and viewing the photos he took, we wanted to get as far away from the crowds as possible, yet still have a great view. Yellow Post 18 looked like the hot ticket. It was at 6,000 feet, up a technical rocky trail, and you can very easily miss the turn off. It was perfect to keep the riff/raff out.

We shoved off early from work and arrived up at the trail head around 5pm. Talking to our friend Linda on the HAM radio, she let us know that the trail was harder than we thought and took much longer than we thought to get up. Not being discouraged we proceeded on our way.





All the way heading up the trail, just before camp a bear crossed in front of the truck. I'd say he crossed our path about 1/4 mile from camp somewhere inbetween YP17 and YP18. He was about as big as i am , if i were to get down on all fours. I wish i had the camera ready but who would of known. We were only 2 hours into our adventure and we already saw a bear you usually have to drive 6-8 hours to see in the Sierras. We were excited.

Once arrived at camp and all setup we started relaxing and making dinner.


While drinking a ice cold drink and grilling some chicken, i noticed something moving in the bushes.





The deer didn't even flinch. I shot photos of it, we laughed and starred at it and it acted like we didn't exist. It was amazing. So 3 hours into our trip and we had already saw a deer and a bear in the wild. I was stoked.

We continued to grill and enjoy our night.


After a nice dinner we wrapped up our night by burning more wood than we ever could of imagined. Someone had left some big tree limbs and we burned half at a time. Linda proceeded to chop up the wood and then play caveman with a few pieces. It made for some awesome night photos.



Yosh relaxing after a long week at the office


Do you see a dog in this photo? I think it may be a australian ghost dog!


After way too many campfire drinks, we hit the sack and i knew i'd be exhausted in the morning.

The morning came and i had to go down to meet some friends of ours driving in from the high desert. It takes about an hour to get down the trail to the pavement. From there it takes a good 30 mins to get to the highway. Next time im not doing this. It's too long of a drive, but at this point we had no other choice because it's what we agreed too.



After meeting up with James and Sylvia we headed back up to camp. James followed my lines and did great for an open diff rig with 31" tires.

Once back at camp, i had something to eat for breakfast and hopped into the PETT to take a shower with the ZODI. Afterwards i felt recharged and new man. Everyone was relaxing and a few of us dozed off in our chairs.

Dixie had it rough.





Sylvia enjoying the view from camp.


You can actually see the Cajon Pass and the high desert from camp.


James and i played some horseshoes.



How the heck do you break a horseshoe in half? I mean really?





After a bit it was that time to fire up the grills and get started on the tri tip competition we always have.

I did a simple BBQ/soy sauce marinade and James did a Peppercorn Bourbon marinade.

Both were terrific, but there can only be one winner. James won this go around.

Cool flame captured going around my piece of meat.


After dinner, we tossed some big logs on the fire and relaxed the night away.

Yosh and Dixie enjoying the fire

Linda and Pepper doing the same.

The bar was fully stocked.

James and Sylvia enjoying being away from the grind.


I ended up going to bed really early Saturday night. I think i partied too hard Friday night with Linda. I was running on fumes, so after this point i can't tell you what happened. I think everyone headed for bed not shortly after me. In the morning we took our time getting out of camp and then headed back down the mountain.



Coming through the creek.




Thanks to everyone for a good time close to home.

Photos: Dave Druck and James Chatary