Friday Night Halfway in Folsom... Again!

Last night we drove to Folsom, California, halfway to Bassi Falls. Yes, that's the same as we did 6 weeks ago. We're doing it again! Why? Because six weeks ago we had to bail out early when Hawk got hurt. Plus, Bassi Falls is beautiful. It doesn't hurt to see it twice. And we'll finish the rest of the trip, with a few other hikes, we intended to do 6 weeks ago.

How much the same is it? Well, we started from the same place (we live there, duh), we're going to the same trailhead to start the day Saturday, and Friday night we stayed at the same hotel— almost. Instead of the Residence Inn we're at the Courtyard. They're both Marriotts and they're literally next to each other in the parking lot.

The drive out to Folsom Friday night wasn't bad. Driving 142 miles took us 3:15 including a stop for dinner of about 45 minutes. Oh, and speaking of the same trip as 6 weeks ago... we ate dinner at the same restaurant as last time. 😂 Though this time we left home 10-15 minutes later and made better time driving. We lost only 15-20 minutes to traffic. Thus we arrived 15 minutes earlier than last time.

You'll note driving 142 miles last night, with 202 shown as the total distance in the map above, is more than halfway. Yeah, that's because "Woooooah, we're halfway there!" is lyrical and "Wooooah we're 70.3% rounded up of the way there!" is not.

But back to things that are the same, or not. Last night after checking in we considered going to the same ice cream shop as last time. It was good! But this time I didn't quite feel like having ice cream; I wanted a beer or cocktail instead. Well, right next door to the Courtyard is a BevMo! It's, like, 50 feet from the hotel's side entrance. I grabbed a couple large cans of Negra Modelo (one for Friday night, one for Saturday) and took them back to the room to relax.

Final difference: we're getting an earlier leave on things this morning. We rolled from the hotel just after 7:30am and are now eating breakfast nearby— at the same restaurant (Del Taco) as last time! I hope that leaves us enough time to enjoy lots of outdoors stuff today. Of course, we'll have to avoid injuries while at it!

SATURDAY Night Halfway!

What comes after Friday Night Halfway? Would you believe Saturday Night Halfway? After driving to Folsom last night, halfway to Bassi Falls today (okay, it was mathematically more than halfway), this afternoon we drove from near Bassi Falls to Madera, California.

"What's Madera halfway to?" might be one of your questions.
"And where even is Madera?" might be your other.

To answer the second one first, Madera is in California's Central Valley, a bit north of Fresno. In fact Madera, with a population of almost 70,000, is now considered part of the Fresno metropolitan area, which has a regional population of 1.4 million. Fresno proper has almost 600,000 residents, making it the 5th largest city in California. It's behind San Francisco, which is only the 4th largest city in the state!

Our plan for tomorrow is to drive up into the Sierra Nevada, through the town of Oakhurst, to hike Lewis Creek. There are a number of falls there we've enjoyed visiting in the past.

Driving to Madera today was quite a haul. After we had an early dinner back in Folsom it was 3 hours of solid driving to Madera. That's on top of the driving— and hiking— earlier in the day. Driving-wise I logged almost 300 miles today. But we arrived at the Hampton Inn in Madera around 7:15pm with nothing else on the agenda for the rest of the evening except rest & relaxation. ...Well, that and a bit of food and a delicious milkshake from Sonic Drive-In a few minutes away.