Running – 13 dirty miles in upper Bidwell Park

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Here’s a quick plug for the Chico Running Club’s third annual trail half marathon: the Hot Half. It takes place this year on Sunday, 4 October.

It’s a well-organized dirt run that offers a scenic and challenging way to “tour” upper Bidwell Park.

The “Hot” part of the name is in fact an acronym, standing for Hooker Oak Trail, because the entire run takes place on trails including Middle Trail and Yahi Trail.

Wade Desrosier has won the men’s division in both of the first two years while Liz Gilman won last year in the women’s division.

Will they run again to defend their titles?

Register by 20 September to guarantee you’ll receive your t-shirt size.

Useful links:

Entry form

On-line registration

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Rail – Ride a dome car in upstate New York this fall

Now this would be fun!

Quoting from an Amtrak bulletin to travel agents:

“Amtrak’s last remaining dome car, a full-length dome lounge with panoramic viewing on the upper level, will return to the Adirondack this fall, affording passengers a fine view of the Adirondack Mountains, Lake Champlain, and the Montreal skyline. The car will operate between Albany and Montreal only, not between Albany and New York.

Schedule:
– Northbound on train 69 Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, October 1 through November 9
– Southbound on train 68 Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays, October 2 through November 10”

I’ve never taken the train north of Albany to Montreal but by all accounts this is one of the prettiest train trips in the U.S., and in the autumn it would be stunning. A great deal of the route is along the west shore of the Lake Champlain, which defines a good deal of the border between the states of New York and Vermont.

Click here to see a fine picture of this dome car.

You could begin your train ride in Albany or in New York (where the train originates headed northbound). The dome car will be coupled to the northbound train in Albany and uncoupled there when the train is southbound from Montreal. Basic one-way fare between New York and Montreal ranges from $62 to $71, without other discounts such as senior or AAA.

Northbound the train leaves New York at 8:15 a.m. (Albany at 11:05 a.m. ) and arrives Montreal at 7:10 p.m. Southbound the train leaves Montreal at 9:30 a.m. and arrives New York at 8:45 p.m. (Albany at 5:40 p.m.)

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Airline Fare School # 5 – Connections, Stopovers, Through fares, Point-to-Point fares

I trust that all of you have flown at one time from Point A to Point C, changing planes in Point B. (Example: Seattle to Fort Lauderdale on Continental changing planes in Houston.) That, of course, is known as a connection or a connecting flight.

It could also involve two (or more) different carrers, such as Delta from Salt Lake City to Seattle and Alaska Airlines from there to Anchorage.

With the growth of the hub system since airline deregulation in the late 70s, connections have increased as carriers built certain of their airports into huge operations with banks of flights coming and going all day.

Think Dallas/Fort Worth for American, Chicago for both American and United, Denver and San Francisco for United, Philadelphia and Charlotte for U.S. Airways, and so on. Southwest is sometimes cited in error as an airline that doesn’t operate connecting hubs but this is not true: Chicago-Midway, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Baltimore all serve as hubs for Southwest.
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Destinations – three hikes in Lassen National Park

At first I was going to title this “Hiking in America’s Secret National Park” but then I thought that was baiting the hook too richly.

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But those of you who’ve been to Lassen National Park know what I mean. I’ve never seen it crowded even in summer. Maybe it’s because it’s far from a major metropolitan area.

Or perhaps it’s because it doesn’t have one iconic physical landmark like Half Dome or the Grand Canyon. (Not that Lassen Peak is exactly a shrinking violet.)

Whatever the reason, Lassen seems like it’s your own private park shared with only a few of your closest strangers.

On our recent weeklong trip to the Mill Creek Resort, my partner and I did four hikes. Here’s a little about three of them.


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Destinations – Mill Creek Resort

Ever had a place you really liked but were reluctant to tell other people about for fear it would become popular and then you would ultimately suffer?

You know, reservations become hard to get, prices go up, and trendy-as-heck people starting calling your place home.

Readers, I’m trusting you with this secret so don’t tell just anybody, OK?

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My partner Keith and I don’t precisely remember how we came across the Mill Creek Resort but it may have been after a snowshoeing lesson in Lassen Park in the winter of ’01. After the lesson we might have stopped by on our way back to Chico for a bite to eat.

At any rate, the place made an impression on us as a very relaxing base of operations for future summer trips into Lassen National Park, the south entrance to which is only 11 miles from Mill Creek.
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Airline Fare School # 4 – One-ways and round-trips

In Airline Fare School # 1, 2 and 3, we covered four basic elements including fare displays, rules, routings, and booking the flight in the appropriate inventory for the fare you want.

Here in AFS # 4 you’re going to get acquainted with what a published one-way fare is and what a published round-trip fare is. By the way, round-trip fares, can also be called excursion fares but we’ll stick with the term “round-trip”.

Right away you’re thinking, “Oh, come on. I know the difference.” Well, you might be surprised about that and it’s important to understand the clear distinction before we move on to some other concepts.

Let’s take a look at a fare display for American Airlines between Sacramento (SMF) and Cincinnati (CVG) for departure on 9 November.

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Airline Fare School # 3 – The Basics, part 3

In AFS # 1, and 2, you learned about fare displays, rules, and routings. These are the underpinnings of the airline fare system but of course they’re purely theoretical until applied to a booked itinerary.

Let’s take that next step.

We’ll stick with the example we’ve used so far: the $99 one-way fare from Sacramento to Chicago on Unted Airlines on 13 October. The fare basis code for this fare is LA14ON8.
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Airline Fare School # 2 – The Basics, part 2

In Airline Fare School # 1 (The Basics, part 1) you saw what an airline fare display looks like and got a peek at part of a rule for a fare.

Here in Airline Fare School # 2, The Basics, part 2, you’re going to learn what an airline fare routing is. We’re going to use the same example from AFS # 1, United Airlines from Sacramento to Chicago on 13 October. (If you want to see the fare display again use the link above to open up AFS #1 in a new tab or browser session.)

A routing for an airline fare establishes through which cities, if any, you may be booked between Point A and B to reach your destination. Unless specifically indicated otherwise it is assumed that nonstop service is permissible if a carrier provides such service in the market. In some cases, however, only nonstop service is allowed even when a carrier offers both nonstop and connecting service.

(Can you think of a reason why a carrier would not allow you to use connecting flights? You’ll see the answer in a few paragraphs.)

More rare is that the lower fare will only be available on connections. That is usually only in cases where a carrier is matching another airline whose service is inferior, that is, with connections. The airline with nonstop service may match the price with its own connecting service but preserve a higher price for those wishing to use its nonstop flights.
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Lodging – Hotel conference or meeting rates aren’t always the best

Janice Hough is a Bay Area travel agent who writes a very useful and readable blog under the Tripso banner.

She recently published one I really liked concerning the use of conference and meeting rates at hotels. This would also apply to other events such as weddings, big family reunions, etc., where a block of rooms is secured.

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Rather than paraphrase what she wrote, I’ll just give you a link to her post and encourage you to read it, along with three brief anecdotes of my own to buttress Janice’s observations.

– My partner and a colleague of his went some years ago to Las Vegas for a convention. I can’t remember the specific amounts but there was a convention rate available at the Las Vegas Hilton. I researched it and found a hotel-only package deal for the Hilton offered by a tour operator that saved their company about $200 each.

– One of my partner’s employees went in May to Orlando for a conference. The conference hotel had a rate he could book through a linked website that happened to be Hotels.com. The rate was $239 per night. However I found and booked for him a simple AAA rate for $215 at the same property, which for four nights including tax, saved the company $130.

– A client went this past weekend to a conference in Park, City, Utah. He asked me to compare the conference rate with the best price I could find. In this instance, the conference rate was the best rate and I advised him to use it.

Is there a moral here?

Yes.

When it comes to conference and meeting rates, as The Miracles sang in 1960, You better shop around.

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Airline Fare School # 1 – The Basics, part 1

We’re going to start with three separate chapters covering basics in Airline Fare School, which I’ll abbreviate as AFS. Before we venture into some of the fun stuff, you need to have a solid grasp of the underpinnings of the system.

I’ll bet you think an airline fare is simply the price you pay to get from Point A to Point B.

Well, in a way you’re right. But there is a lot more that goes into it than that. In order to get somewhere you need a fare, a rule for that fare, a routing that says how you can get there, and a seat on a valid flight booked in the inventory prescribed for that fare.
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