I made a trip out to the Mission Trails Regional Park to climb Cowles Mountain today (09-06-12). The Park is a 5,800 acre preserve located in the northeast corner of San Diego. The Park contains several large mountains, including Cowles, which is the tallest mountain in San Diego. The summit reaches 1,591 feet and provides spectacular 360 degree views of the San Diego region.
The trailhead is located at the corner of Navajo Road and Golfcrest Drive. There is a parking lot at the trailhead, as well as restrooms. The parking lot appears to only have room for only about 20 vehicles, so you might have to park a few blocks away on the street. It is also possible to get to the mountain via San Diego’s mass transit system. Just take the Green Line trolly to the San Diego State transit station and transfer to the 115 Bus. Ride the bus to stop at the corner of Jackson Drive and Golfcrest Drive. The ride takes about 10-12 minutes and leaves you one block from the trailhead. Just look for the huge mountain when you get off the bus, you can’t miss it.
Here are a few of the pictures I took while on the way up:
The view west toward the Pacific Ocean
George Fattell at Cowles Mountain in San Diego Here I am at the top of the mountain. Many people who climb to the summit of the mountain touch the plaque I am standing behind here and then head back down to the base.
Well, here are we are again, it is time for Football. I’m ready.
Here are picks for each Division:
AFC East: New England. Easy pick here. I don’t see any other team in AFC East challenging the Pat’s, with their high octane offense and a defense that should be improved.
AFC North: Baltimore. Cincinnati and Pittsburgh will push Baltimore once again and that makes this division a very tough call, but I think Ravens hold on to this division for at least one more season.
AFC South: Houston. The Texans will be strong on both sides of the ball and I don’t see any of their division rivals challenging them.
AFC West: San Diego. OK, I’ll admit that my adopted hometown bias is influencing this pick. This division could be very competitive and I can see Denver or Kansas City winning the race too, but I’m going to go with the Chargers. Looking for Philip Rivers to play well and I’m counting on the Chargers being stronger on both sides on the ball this season then they were last season.
NFC East: New York. I expect Dallas, Philly and Washington to provide tough competition, but I there I’ve got to go with the defending Champ’s. I grew up about 10 miles from the Meadowlands and consider myself a life long Giants fan, so I will admit to hometown bias here too, but I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here. That said, I would have picked the Eagles if I thought Michael Vick would play the entire season, but I remain skeptical that he will because I think his style of play puts him at too much risk.
NFC North: Green Bay. Chicago and Detroit are not far behind, but I can’t pick against Aaron Rodgers, who remains the best QB in the league imo.
NFC South: Atlanta. New Orleans will be there too, but the expect the Falcons to improve on offense and that will give them the edge.
NFC West: San Francisco. Not a hard choice. The 49ers are stacked on both offense and defense. Seattle should be good, but they won’y threaten the 49ers, who should win this division easily.
Mixed Martial Arts returns to San Diego today with Strikeforce fights at the Valley View Casino Arena. I attended the weigh-in’s yesterday at the Arena, which was fun because you get to see the fighters from a fairly close distance and get a feel for the confidence levels of the various fighters. There will be a total of 9 fights, 6 with men and 3 with women.
I think there are two particularly interesting fights on the card.
The Main Event, featuring the current Strikrforce Woman’s Bantamweight (135 lbs) Champ, Rhonda Rousey (5-0)vs. Sarah Kaufman (15-1), who is a former Strikeforce Champ in this division. This fight was will be a classic contrast of styles, pitting Rousey’s high level judo (she won the Bronze Medal at the 2008 Olympics) and grappling against Kaufman’s high level boxing. Rousey has won every one of her pro fights by submission (armbar). Kaufman has only lost one fight and that was by an armbar, so it will be interesting to if she can prevent Rousey from submitting her. I’m going to give the edge to Rousey. I think if Rousey can take the fight to the ground Kaufman won’t be able to handle her Olympic level judo skills. But, and this is a big but, she has to careful about avoiding strikes that could KO her.
Rousey by submission, 2nd Rd.
Rhonda Rousey
Men’s middleweight fight:
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (15-3) vs. Derek Brunson (9-1)
Souza is the heavy favorite for this fight. The Brazilian is a 5-time World Jui Jitsu Champion Brunson and trains with the famous Black House team, which also includes Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida, among others. Brunson , OTOH, has some serious Wrestling credentials. Brunson is a former 3-time Div. II All-American (UNC-Pembroke). Brunson also trains at the highly regarded Jackson’s MMA in New Mexico. So, Brunson may give Jacare a battle, we’ll see.
In the end I think Souza’s ground game will be too much for Brunson.
Souza wins by submission, 2nd Rd.
This fight is a consequential because if Souza wins it is believed he will receive a rematch with current Strikeforce Middleweight Champ Luke Rockhold. Both Rockhold and Souza are very good fighters and it would be very interesting to see how one or both of them would fare against highly ranked UFC fighters. Now that Zuffa owns both promotions it may be possible that we will see Rockhold, Souza and a few others take on UFC fighters within the next year or two, at least I hope that happens. It would be great for the fans.
Souza (L) and Brunson (R)
Post Fight Commentary
Well, I went for 2 for 2 with picks, but I honestly did not think that Rousey and Souza would make such short work of their respective opponents.
How awesome is Rousey’s ground game?!? At this point, all her opponents know she is going to try to secure an armbar and yet they can’t stop it. Took all of 54 seconds this time!
As for Jacare Souza, I guess I should have added he has pretty good hands too. Brunson found out about that the hard way, being KO’d in the first round. Strikeforce definitely has to set up a rematch fight between Rockhold and Souza. Let the winner take on a top 5 UFC middleweight.
I honestly can’t say there are many Pizza places in San Diego that compare favorably to all the great Pizza Parlors in the New York/ Northern New Jersey area, which is the area I grew up in. However, I found several Pizza joints in the SD area that I do think are very good and can recommend. Here are my top four:
I did not watch as much of the Olympics as I would have liked due to the fact I was just too busy with other things to watch much during the day and early evening, but I was very impressed by what I did see.
First off, I thought London was an outstanding host city. Is there another city that could offer such an impressive variety of facilities, both new and old, for the Games? The people of Great Britain should be very proud of how well the Olympics Games were conducted.
I think all Americans should be very proud of the way the U.S. Team performed, I know I was. A few of our athletes fell short here and there, but many others met or exceeded expectations. The result was a overall medal count that exceeded all other nations and, importantly, included the most Gold medals. This American team has set the bar high for 2016 in Rio and that is the way it should be.
Looks like the Dana White & Co. have put together a pretty good card for UFC 150, including a very interesting fight for the Lightweight Championship.
Here are my picks for the top three fights:
Lightweight: Champion Benson Henderson (16-2) vs. Frankie Edgar (14-2)
Rematch of the top two lightweights. Henderson defeated then Champ Edgar by decision in their last fight, which was a brutal 5 round slugfest. Both fighters have great all-around mma skill sets and are extremely well conditioned. As always in this division, Edgar will give up size and weight to his opponent. Edgar is usually able to overcome those disadvantages with his superior conditioning and relentless pace, but Henderson can match Edgar there and seems to be even more athletic. Edgar has great intangibles and very strong will power. Edgar’s weakness is that sometimes he gets reckless and leaves himself open to dangerous strikes and kicks, which he did in his last fight against Henderson, who caught him with an up kick that changed the direction of that fight to Henderson’s favor. If Edgar can avoid making such mistakes this time he can win.
This is a very tough call, but I’m going to go with Edgar by decision.
Catchweight (157.5 lbs): Donald Cerrone (18-4) vs. Melvin Guillard (30-10)
I’m going to pick Cerrone to win by submission in the 2nd rd.
Middleweight: Jake Shields (27-6) vs. Ed Herman (20-7)
Shields returns to the middleweight division, after a mixed run in the UFC welterweight division. I think Shields will be more dangerous as a middleweight, with added muscle. Herman is a tough, up and coming middleweight, but I think Shields has superior wrestling ability and that will enable him to win this fight. I predict Shields wins by submission in the 3rd rd.
Post Event Comments:
Well, I went 2-1 with my picks, but it could have easily been 3-0 because Benson Henderson defeated Frankie Edgar by split decision. I thought both Henderson and Edgar were more conservative in this fight than they were in their first fight, but this fight was extremely close and really could have gone either way imo.
The U.S. Men’s Basketball Team is dominating, barely beating*, the competition in London and the comparisons to the original 1992 Dream Team have become inescapable in recent weeks.
*U.S. 99 – LITHUANIA 94
Many fans, myself included, have debated which “Dream Team” is better, the 1992 original, which was the first to feature a roster comprised of NBA stars, or the latest version, featuring many of the NBA’s best current players.
C-Tyson Chandler 7-1
PF-Kevin Love 6-10
PF-Anthony Davis 6-10
SF-LeBron James 6-8
SF-Carmelo Anthony 6-8
SF-Andre Igoudala 6-6
SF-Kevin Durant 6-9
SG-James Harden 6-5
SG-Russell Westbrook 6-3
SG-Kobe Bryant 6-6
PG-Chris Paul 6-0
PG-Deron Williams 6-3
Head Coach-Mike Krzyzewski
I first became a serious NBA fan when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird entered the league. I have remained a serious NBA fan since the 1980’s, so I am very familiar with the players from both teams.
So, which team do I think is better? Well, here is my two cents…
I think 1992 team would win if the teams played a seven game series on a neutral court, but it would be competitive. I think it is ridiculous to assert that the 2012 could not defeat the 1992 in even a single game. I could easily see the 2012 team winning 2 or 3 games in a 7 game series.
I think the 1992 team has a big advantage at the Center position and at Power Forward.
I’ll give the 2012 team a slight edge at the Small Forward position.
I think the 1992 team gets the edge at both the Shooting Guard position and Point Guard position imo.
I made a trip out to the Mission Trails Regional Park to climb Cowles Mountain today (09-06-12). The Park is a 5,800 acre preserve located in the northeast corner of San Diego. The Park contains several large mountains, including Cowles, which is the tallest mountain in San Diego. The summit reaches 1,591 feet and provides spectacular 360 degree views of the San Diego region.
gmf journal 