The Adventures of a Negative Ion Addict

Half Dome - Accomplished!

2007-08-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

This trip to Yosemite for "take two" of the hike up to the top of Half Dome was much different from the first time I attempted it. It was a good trip, I had fun overall with my companions, and now I can cross this one off my list of things to do in Yosemite before I die.

This trip started on Friday the 20th. I got up at o-dark-thirty, as I usually do for a trip to Yosemite, and headed over to Oakland to pick up John, Victoria, and Damian - my hiking buds for the weekend. The drive over was pretty uneventful and we only hit a small amount of traffic in the Livermore valley. Once we got close to the park, I asked them if they wanted to take the "Tanya's Tour of Yosemite". They said sure... that was it, they were hostages! Just kidding :-) They really didn't get much of the tour as it is mainly focused on waterfalls and there just wasn't a lot of water this trip.

We started out with a stop at the Rim of the World overlook for some pics and a chance to stretch the legs. From there we decided to take a trip out to Hetch Hetchy for a look-sie. It was hot out there but pretty. My companions patiently sat through my explanation of how Hetch Hetchy became the water source for San Francisco. From there we stopped at the Yosemite sign near the entrance to the park, the Big Meadow turnout, and the turnout to view Half Dome. At this point we were hungry so we decided no more stops and high tailed it to Curry Village for some shopping and some pizza. After this, we continued our drive up to the Wawona Hotel.

I have never stayed at the historic Wawona Hotel. It is very charming and relaxing. They serve drinks on the front porch and the rooms are comfortable. The bathrooms and showers were fairly close to our rooms as well so we didn't have to go far to use the facilities. We ate dinner that night in the dinning room downstairs.

The next morning started early for me - 3:15 am. I didn't really sleep well that night but I was looking forward to starting the hike. The plan was to leave by 4 am so that we could be on the trail at Glacier Point by 5 am. We almost made it - we were on the trail at 5:30 am. At this point I have to say that this trip sent me in to some kind of weird time vortex. We started off on track and we were making decent time but then when we hit the granite staircase of Half Dome, time slipped away and that is where we got in to a bit of trouble. It would be six hours later that we finally made it off that staircase to start our long journey back to civilization.

Having said that though, the hike was still enjoyable for me overall, and at no point did I personally feel like things had gotten completely out of control. I was personally comfortable with where I was going and where I was 100% of the time and I knew that we had options available.

The hike started well. I think the Panorama Trail is really pretty. It is more beautiful to me when there is a lot of water, but it is still a very nice trail to travel on. We saw lots of bear and deer tracks. We even saw a couple of deer. One was right next to the trail munching on some tasty bushes giving us dirty looks the whole time because we were interrupting his gourmet meal. We briefly stopped at the restroom at the top of the Mist Trail near Nevada Falls for a sock change and some stretching. (It is pretty cool to hike with your personal trainer - she made sure I stretched properly) After that we were off again.

My constant mistake on long hikes is that I don't end up eating enough. I made that mistake again on this hike. I did try out something new though - Gu. It works quite well but when it is the main thing that you consume it is not good.

I think we started the main climb up after the flats of the Little Yosemite valley at around 11:30 or so. This part of the hike is just up and up and up (big thanks to Damian for his help with my pack for a portion of this trail). We made it to the granite staircase section finally and up we went.

For those of you who have never been up the Half Dome trail, there is a point at which you actually start to hike up the granite that is part of the Half Dome rock formation. You sort of go up a bump of granite at which point there is a small saddle and then the granite becomes really steep and that is where cables to the top start. This trail is extremely crowded. People are going up and down and the trail is really not that wide. The bump of granite has a bunch of steps carved in to it. Most of the time it is a single track of people - either the ups or the downs stop so that the others can pass.

If you are afraid of heights this is NOT the place for you. Once you reach the top of the bump though you can rest before you ascend the cables. By the time we got up to the cables I think it was around 3pm. At this point we were pushing it a bit with regard to being able to make it out before dark, but we had come all this way and I was ready to tackle the portion of the hike that I was not able to make last time.

Turns out my decision last year not to go up those cables was a very good one. Those cables are a workout. I was happy to be feeling good this time and to be clipped to the cables. Having read the article about the recent fatality on Half Dome each one of us thought it a wise idea to bring some harnesses/belts and clip on to the cables using carabiners. It was a process to the top but I was glad at the peace of mind it brought. It really didn't slow things down much in my opinion either.

The cable section was longer than I was expecting. They don't really look like they are as long as they are. By the time I got to the top I was pretty tired and my breathing thing (possibly asthma) kicked in so I had to sit for a while to catch my breath. One of my other travelling companions was suffering from heat stroke and he had to sit down for a long time as well. Thankfully he had the right stuff in his first aid kit to help him out. Another thing I wasn't really expecting was how big it is up there. I had been told that it is big surface wise up there but I don't think you can really know what to expect until you see it for yourself.

After I had mostly recovered Victoria and I decided to look around so that we could find a great spot to do the bridge - or - my half dome on Half Dome. We found a great spot and took some fun pics. I didn't get close to the edge and I didn't take a picture on that rock outcropping that you see people taking pictures on.

After all that, we descended the cables and the granite steps. I think we were down at around 6 or 6:30 - not good when you still have 7 miles of hiking to go to civilization. We took a break at the spring and I had my chance to pay it forward and filter some water for some passing hikers. This was great last year when a guy helped us out so I wanted to do my part too with my water filter. Damian cooked up some beef stroganoff and that was some pretty tasty food.

At this point we started talking about our plan for exiting the wilderness. My car was up at Glacier Point but both John and I were not quite up to making that hike back up to the top. I should have anticipated that I wouldn't be up for it and made arrangements to deal with that situation. Oh well, next time I will know. The plan at the Nevada Falls bathrooms is that Damian and Victoria would hike up to get the car and pick John and I up down in Curry Village. I was a bit uncomfortable with this decision because of the bear tracks that we saw and because I knew that the Panorama Trail was not travelled as much as the John Muir Trail. We emptied all of the food out of their packs in to our packs and we were off to set the plan in motion.

This was when things got a bit weird. Several things happened. First, we ran in to two girls who were a bit lost and were trying to go down the Mist Trail at night - NOT A GOOD IDEA. I have done it while it was getting dark and it is not the safest of things to be doing. They just happened to mention that they were on their way to meet their ride so that that person could give them a lift up to Glacier Point to get their car - well guess what! - we needed to go there too and they offered to give us a ride. Cool. It was then decided that we would not split our party up and that all four of us would go down to the valley. Big relief to me because I would have been very worried about Victoria and Damian on the Panorama Trail. The second thing that happened is that Victoria hurt her calf. This happened back a bit on the trail but it really kicked in the longer she hiked on it. I was really glad that they didn't try to hike the six miles up to Glacier point...

On the way down we sort of all got separated and by the time we got to the Vernal Falls bridge Damian and Victoria had fallen back by almost an hour. This left the two girls and John and I to sit there and wait and worry about what had happened to them. I kept hearing something lurking about while we were sitting there - turns out it was a bear - I didn't actually see it but Damian and John did a bit later.

Once we were all reunited, I went off with the two girls to catch the ride because they didn't have enough space for all of us and the other three started the slow trek down the last portion of the trail helping Victoria with her hurt leg.

Once the girls and I got to their meeting place, the girls discovered that their ride was missing. The guy had been gone for over three hours and had left the two other people of their party sitting/sleeping in the dirt in the hikers parking lot between Happy Isles and Curry Village. From here the night just got crazy. Long story short, they hopped in a truck with two guys who thought they had seen their missing companion's car (yes - I jumped in too to protect them - not that I could say what I would have done to protect them, but I couldn't in good conscience let those two young girls get in that truck alone). Turns out that we didn't find the missing companion but we did run in to the rest of my party - I let them know that the guy was missing and I would join them soon, we just had to double check to see if the guy made it back to the hikers parking lot. He hadn't and the girls called the rangers to report him missing. The rangers said they were sending someone out to meet the girls. Too much drama at this point for me so I left to go back to my group wishing them well and thanking them for offer of a ride and that I hoped they found their companion soon and safe.

In the meantime a ranger had driven by and asked my group if they were the ones that needed an emergency campsite. They said no but that we did need some help. We had now become a Yosemite statistic. The ranger ended up getting us a spot in the Housekeeping camp which was good because they had beds. By this time it was probably around 3 am. I remember at some point noticing that I had been awake for over 24 hours. We checked in and the front desk lady for Housekeeping offered to give us a ride up to Glacier Point in the morning after we were asking about the hikers shuttle schedule. She said her shift was over at 7 am and she would wait until 7:15 for us if we wanted a ride. We thanked her said we would see her in the morning and went off to bed.

The next morning I was woken up at 5 am by our neighbors talking about the bear that they had just seen in the camp. I tried to get back to sleep but at 6:30 after Damian and Victoria started to stir, I got up and went to go meet Suzanne. She was incredibly good company. Her replacement ended up not showing up until around 7:30 so we got a late start. We had to then walk to employee housing so that she could change, pick up a soda, and go to her car. It was incredibly interesting to see the new employee housing facilities and the ride up to Glacier Point was sunny and pleasant. I picked up my vehicle and drove back down to the valley to pick up the rest of the gang.

By this time we had barely enough time to get back to check out of the Wawona hotel which was another hour drive. It would have been nice to stay in our hotel the previous night but it just wasn't in the cards. We all took showers and packed up. The last thing we did at the Wawona was to have a nice brunch. The drive home was long due to the fact that we hit some traffic and I was incredibly tired (having gotten only about 2.5 hours of sleep in a 36 hour period). I got home on Sunday around 7 pm, told Louis the tale, and collapsed in to bed.

This experience was extremely mentally and physically draining. It was tough and if you would have asked me if I would do Half Dome again that Sunday, I would have told you NEVER AGAIN. Now though I want to do it again. I have a couple of options for next time - to turn it in to a backpacking trip or to actually technically climb it. I have started my training for rock climbing already. There is a route called the Snake Dike that I might shoot for. We will see, the possibilities are endless. :-)

What I have learned:

I once again wished I had two way radios for communication - I will be purchasing them

I need to eat more on the trail to keep my energy up even if I am not hungry - more tasty easy to eat snacks need to be in my pack.

Epic hikes are unusual hikes and need to be handled with care.

Safe journeys to you all!

What has the NIA been up too?

2007-03-25T22:53:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything to my blog. This does not mean that I have not been doing things, just that I have been lazy to post anything. To start things off again here is a post I was supposed to finish and put up in January when my Uncle Mike and Aunt Patti were in town:

My uncle and aunt from Colorado were in town last weekend. My dad made the trip south from Humboldt county to hang out as well, which means the stage was set to do some hiking! The last time the three of us were out and about was back in August when I was in Colorado for my cousin's wedding.

I was only able to hang out with the fam on Saturday but everyone had gotten in to town the previous Thursday. After a little discussion about where we wanted to go, it was decided that we would head on up to Marin county and try to hit a couple of waterfalls in the Mt Tamalpias watershed. We started by picking a waterfall called Dawn Falls in the Baltimore Canyon Open Space preserve.

My grandpa dropped my dad & uncle off at my house just before 7am on Saturday morning. After a slow start on my part we were off and running by a little after 7:30. We drove north up and across the Golden Gate Bridge to the trailhead. Parking was a bit crowded but thankfully I was able to grab a space. I was glad that I had an all wheel drive car because my dad was a bit slow on the signal that I was running out of road for my front right wheel - meaning I did run out of road and my wheel was hanging out over open space before he told me to stop.

The trail runs along a creek and that morning it was really really cold out there. We hiked along for a while and soon came to a fork in the trail. My dad was positive that we needed to cross the creek and head uphill. After following that trail for a bit we determined that since it was going away from the creek and didn't look like it was heading for any waterfalls we turned around to go back and stay on the trail that continued along the creek. We did get to see a woodpecker which I though was cool. When we finally made it to Dawn Falls I was pretty impressed. The falls drops off a ledge in a free fall which is very nice - sort of looks like a Hawaii waterfall.

After we returned to the car we took a drive through the Marin watershed. We drove over Alpine dam at Alpine Lake and then up to the top of Mt Tamalias. The view was beautiful from up there. There was no fog and we could see for miles. At this point we were all pretty hungry so we made our way down to Stinson Beach to have fish and chips at the Surfer's Grill right on the beach. Very good fish and chips! After that it was the return drive home to share our tale!

I will be posting more of my adventures in the past two and a half months soon!

Snow Day with Treats

2006-12-31T22:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Treats (http://www.treatssf.blogspot.com/) and I headed up to the mountains for a lovely snow day. No surprise the place in the Sierra's that we headed to was Yosemite. There is a ski resort in the national park called Badger Pass. They have all kinds of winter activities available (cross country skiing, downhill skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, tubing, etc.). Our plan was to make a game time decision as to which activity we were going to do when we got there.

In preparation, I dusted off the old snowboard setup and threw it in the Benz Friday night. It has been a while since I have actually been to the snow, so I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to find all of my snow gear. I was also really looking forward to taking the Benz to the mountains for the first time.

We left at 5:15 or so in the morning. The drive was uneventful and beautiful. We did of course stop at the famous Scotty's Donuts for the traditional morning snack. I had my favorite maple donuts and we made a quick stop at Starbucks for some morning caffeine.

Once in the park we made some of the Signature Tanya stops. I was quite impressed at the amount of water that was flowing in some of the waterfalls (the first waterfalls of my 06/07 season). While we were stopped at the Upper Cascades pullout we checked the park literature to see if anything interesting was happening. We discovered that there was a ranger led snowshoe walk that started at 10:30 up at Badger Pass. We high-tailed it up to the resort so that we could be a part of that walk.

We made it just in time. I strapped on a pair of snow shoes for the first time (and helped out a couple of other people strap theirs on as well) and the group headed off on a 1.5 mile walk to a vista point off the old Glacier Point road which had a gain of 1200 ft. I never knew how much work snowshoeing was. I like it though and I will go again. I burned off 1100 calories according to my Garmin GPS trainer. The bad thing is I managed to irritate my right knee. This meant that my snow activities were pretty much done for the day. Treats wanted to go snowboarding so she tried on my snowboarding boots to see if they fit so she wouldn't have to rent some and they fit! She borrowed my board and did a few runs so that she could get the feeling of snowboarding again. She hadn't been boarding in quite a while either so she was just trying to get back in to it without getting hurt. While she was having fun with that I hung around and people watched. I did make a small snow man while I was hanging out. I named him Bob.

After we were done up at Badger Pass, we drove back down to the valley. We had thought we might go ice skating but the temps were dropping very fast. After a couple of pictures of Half Dome in the evening winter light we went to the Mountain House Lounge at Yosemite Lodge for some food and warm beverages followed by the long drive home.

It was a great day and I had a blast. Treats is always good company :-)

The Update, Part 2

2006-12-25T20:39:00.000-08:00

So in the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have been working a lot (no surprise there). Other activities however have been attending a two day seminar in San Jose about management, a cookie baking party, having early Christmas dinner with my mom, going to the track to bet on and watch the ponies, and updating my home entertainment system from standard to HD.

The two day seminar was fun and informative. I learned a lot and hopefully it will help me out with time management issues. December for accountants with calendar year closes are crazy. I hope that things will calm down for me by March. Then I can really get out there and do some serious hiking/waterfall chasing and perhaps some other outdoors activities.

I have been a bit of a Scrooge this year. In fact, it has been the first year in my life that I haven't had a Christmas Tree. I guess that is what working all of the time does to you - it totally gets you out of the Christmas spirit. For a girl that really enjoys Christmas normally, it has been completely uncharacteristic of me not to be in the spirit. So it is with many thanks that I give to my good friend Vivian for calling me on my Scroogeiness and getting me to have my traditional cookie making party. I have to say that I had a lot of fun once I got in to it. We had some bad cookie mojo in the beginning of the day but once we started with the spritz cookies we were cooking with gas! The cookies were tasty and the company was good as always. We even tried to help Vivian pick some baby names (yep, she is pregnant). It was a fun time!

This year it was decided to meet in the middle for our gathering for Christmas with my mom. We met at the Outback in Santa Rosa. It was good to see her and she kept up with the parent tradition of passing many small boxes of my old stuff to me :-) It was good to see her and it made me realize that I don't visit her enough.

A couple of weeks or so ago, Louis and I met up with one of his buddies and his girlfriend over at Bay Meadows race track. I have been wanting to go to the track for quite some time now to bet on the ponies. I had a blast. I used to watch it on television when I was a little girl. I am not sure why but something about it was very interesting to me. I guess it is because all little girls want horses when they are little - they just love horses. Needless to say, now that I have been once I will be looking forward to live racing coming back to my local track. They come back in Feb so I have something to look forward to this coming year!

The big present this year for the household was to update our front room TV to HD. We replaced the TV (from a 42' plasma to a 46' HD LCD), the receiver (had to have the hdmi ports), the DVD player (picked up a Toshiba HD DVD player), and the direct tv DVR box (an HD box). We have yet to upgrade the dish but that should be done by the middle of Jan. In addition to that we scored a Playstation 3 (the most elusive of Christmas items) and picked up a REL T series Sub Base Module (so good it can't be called a subwoofer). It is one sweet setup. We can watch blu-ray or HD DVD and the picture quality on both is amazing. It makes you stare in wonder.

That brings me up to last night and tonight. Both nights we had the special holiday menus at the two restaurants we went to. Today we were supposed to go to SF and have brunch at the Palace hotel but plans fell through and we ended up at the Bay 223 restaurant in the Hotel Sofitel. It was a really good meal. Last night we tried the Left Bank for the first time for their special holiday dinner menu. It was okay. Nowhere near as good as tonight's meal though. So we had a French food Christmas this year.

That brings us up to date with my adventures. Next on deck is a trip to the snow next Saturday. I am not sure if I will end up snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating, skiing, or tubing yet but I will be in Yosemite at Badger Pass ski resort. I am dragging one of my friends to the snow day. Hopefully a couple more folks I know will go as well but we will see!

For now, Merry Christmas and good night!

The Update, Part 1

2006-12-25T19:33:00.000-08:00

So it has been a while since I posted something new. I have been working like a dog and haven't had much time to do anything else... That doesn't mean that I haven't been doing anything though. I have been incredibly busy. As such, I haven't been emailing anyone or surfing much lately so all have been neglected, not just my blog.

What has been going on in the last two months? Well, I'll tell you!

Thanksgiving in So Cal

This year was a year for having Thanksgiving with the in-laws. They live in Orange County near Huntington Beach so Louis and I made the drive down to southern California. I amazingly had 5 consecutive days off which was really nice. We drove down on Tuesday evening and hit moderate traffic. It could have been (and has been in the past) much worse. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach. Very nice resort with great views of the beach/ocean. Our room was facing the ocean but had some palm trees in the way of any real view. Wednesday we went to Disneyland with Louis' parents. I am in general a Disney lover - always have been. The four of us started with the California Adventure park. This is a pretty cool park with different regions that coincide with the different regions in CA. They have a place that looks like parts of SF, a carnival/boardwalk area that looks like Santa Cruz, a Hollywood backlot area, a winery, and an area that has a mountain with a waterfall (right up my alley!). We caught a couple of shows did a little window shopping and were off to a part of the area in between the two amusement parks called Downtown Disney. You don't have to pay to get in this area. It has a lot of shops and restaurants. We all headed for the ESPN Zone restaurant for a cocktail and an appetizer. Good food, good drinks, and several huge TV's. It was a pretty cool place that looked a lot like a Las Vegas sports book. From there it was all about Disneyland proper. I really wanted to see the Christmas Parade so we found a spot and waited for the parade to start. Christmas and Disney? To me lots of fun, to Louis hell. We didn't stay long in Disneyland, pretty much all we did was see the parade and ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Thursday, Louis' dad cooked us a delicious Thanksgiving meal. We didn't end up opening and working on the traditional Thanksgiving day puzzle, but Louis' brother did make it over for dinner and it was nice to see him. Friday was spent driving around Irvine. We caught a movie at the Irvine Spectrum and had a bite to eat. Dinner that night was at a cute little Italian restaurant that Louis' parents are fond of. The trip ended on Saturday with the drive home. That left Sunday to unpack, do laundry, and catch up on some rest.

As I mentioned before, I had been working so much that I hadn't had a full weekend to myself so it was nice to have five days off in a row.

More story to come, please check out The Update, Part 2.

Trip to the Titanic Exhibit & Other Childhood Interests

2006-10-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

The last weeks for me haven't been all work no play. In addition to being relatively current with my favorite TV shows, I have had a chance to get out and do a couple of fun things. I had a lovely brunch at the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay, saw the movie "Jackass 2", and went to see the Titanic Exhibit with a friend of mine in SF.

The Titanic exhibit was quite interesting - more on that below. There are a few things that have caught my interest since I was a little girl: the tragic story of the Donner Party and westward movement in the US, volcanos (due to the eruption of Mount St Helens), and the Titanic disaster.

My interest in the Donner party started with a book report I did in the 8th grade. I somehow ended up reading the book "Ordeal by Hunger". Having traveled with my mom a lot in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and also having seen evidence in person of various trails that people took on their way to the west coast, I was enthralled with the story. Even now, I am still very interested in the Truckee area and any evidence of wagon trains. I have loved trails forever it seems, so the westward movement across the US was a natural interest for me. I have been to both ends of the Oregon Trail and always thought it would be neat to experience traveling on it like they did in the past.

As for volcanos, I believe my interest started with an old 3-2-1 Contact TV show episode where they went to Hawaii and talked about volcanos. The eruption of Mount St. Helens really cemented my interest in them though. I even had a pen that had ash from the eruption. Other volcanos like Mt Lassen and Kilauea in addition to going to volcanic areas like Yellowstone have been really cool!

So back to the Titanic exhibit. I remember when they found the wreckage. I am not sure why I thought it was so interesting but something about the whole thing just fascinated me. The exhibit is being held at the Sony Metreon and it is really well done. When you first walk in they have a model of the ship and it is really neat to look at. My friend Brian and I opted to take the audio tour as well which cost an extra $5. It was worth it. When you first start the tour, you are given a boarding pass of an actual passenger on the ship. At the end of the exhibit you find out if that person survived or not. Brian got the boarding pass of Mr Astor (who did not make it) and I got the boarding pass of a woman from steerage, I can't remember her name (she did survive though). From there you start the tour. The exhibit is arranged in chronological order. The first items being pictures of the shipyard where the Titanic was built. After they have pictures of the launch you actually go through an entrance that looks like it would have had you actually boarded the ship - too cool! The exhibit progresses through the different levels of the ship showing you what the hallways and rooms looked like. This was also really cool. All along the way they have exhibits of artifacts that they have recovered from the wreckage. I thought the most interesting was a jewelry exhibit. It was hard to believe that those items had belonged to someone, had ended up on the bottom of the sea, and had been recovered and restored. We walked through the 1st class, 2nd class, and 3rd class accommodations, we got to go by the grand staircase and through the engine room. After this we entered a very cold dark room where they were running a video that detailed how the iceberg punctured the ship and how it sank. In this room they also had a huge piece of ice that was made to look like an iceberg. They encouraged you to touch it then they told you that the water in the Atlantic ocean that night was colder than that piece of ice. The next room had a projection of the size of the lifeboats on the floor so you could see how big they were. From there the exhibit turns in to a full wall of names. It is separated by passenger class and crew and then by who survived and who did not. There are a lot of stories on the walls along the exhibit and it is in this room that you find out if they survived or not as well. They also have spotlighted some people with ties to San Francisco as well. From there you enter a room that goes in to the wreck recovery missions. The icing on the cake though is the huge section of the hull of the ship that they have propped up there! WOW, that piece of the ship is a bit unsettling. There is also a piece of the ship set aside so that you can touch it. The end of the exhibit dumps you in the gift shop of course where they have the usual tacky trinkets along with some really cool stuff. I think my favorite thing in there was that you could actually buy dishes that are just like what they used on the ship. This exhibit is by far better than one I had seen before on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. It was really well done.

Waterfall season is almost here!

2006-10-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

Yep that is right, waterfall season is just around the corner! This week will usher in the first rain of the season (so the forecasters say). It shouldn't take much to get all the coastal waterfalls flowing which means that very soon I can go get my feet muddy in search of new and exciting waterfalls (hopefully I won't fall in this year). Some ideas so far are: the 14 mile trek to see Murietta Falls in the Ohlone Wilderness here in the bay area, the Mt Diablo take two summit hike which can take me by at least one waterfall, and an out of state trip of course. I am looking forward to the 06/07 waterfall season, hopefully I will be able to match what I did in 05/06.

This is the perfect opportunity to recap that last season. The 05/06 season lasted from November to September (the main months were really January to July though). I am simply amazed at how many waterfalls I saw! I paused 84 separate times to view waterfalls. When I say paused, I actually went out of my way to get as close as I could to most of them (there are a few exceptions in Yosemite where you can clearly see the waterfall from the valley but I didn't go out of my way to get to the base of the waterfall). There were many that I viewed multiple times (also the lion's share of these were in Yosemite). I talked 14 separate people in to going to see one or more waterfalls with me. Thanks guys for making those trips awesome - I enjoyed each experience! My grand total for individual waterfalls seen was 50 (I think I might have missed a couple of unnamed ones, but oh well). Not too shabby!

So many waterfalls, so little time! Let the season begin :-D

Pondering the seasons

2006-09-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

So I decided to take a little break from what I was slogging through at work (yep I am still at work and it is almost 7 - the norm lately and not the exception) and looked out the window. It dawned on me that it is almost October!! How did that happen? The year has flown by so fast, I can hardly believe it.

Looking out that window got me pondering the seasons (now I know I have been at work too long today). The fall in San Francisco is really nice. September and October are the best months to visit SF because of the great weather - not much fog.

Since I was pondering the seasons already (and since I am already half delirious it seems) I decided that my favorite season is Fall. There is just something exhilarating about the crispness of the air. I like when it starts to rain too (most people hate the rain but I actually like it a lot - it is very relaxing to watch - preferably with a warm cup of cider and a throw blanket while curled up on the couch).

The fall is a great time to take road trips as well. You can go practically anywhere before it starts to rain. The Benz is practically begging me to take a road trip (it is quite nice to drive). I wish that I had a free weekend, I would drive up to Mt Lassen and visit Burney Falls. Too bad though, no road trips for me in the near future because of work... This brings me to the end of this pointless ramble - back to work I go!

Sexy Benz!

2006-09-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

I picked up my lovely SUV tonight! It is one sexy Benz! I love all the little gizmos that it has (my favorites so far are that it tells you what direction you are driving on what street on a screen between the speedometer and the tachometer and it has a compass on the main screen that shows you what direction you are traveling and what elevation you are at! - great stuff for a person like me). These pictures are taken in my driveway (the blue house is my neighbor's house) Below are some pictures, Enjoy!

Random stuff...

2006-09-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks have been very interesting. A lot has happened, see below for details:

1) After much soul searching and debate, Baxter was returned to the breeder where he found another family (a little girl and a stay at home mom it sounds like). This was exactly what he needs. My household would not have provided the attention that he so deserves. Having a puppy was cool but it is better for all parties that he found another home. He will be missed but I am relieved that I am not tied down by a dog.

2) I attended my company picnic last Saturday. This year it was held at Angel Island. I managed to talk Louis in to attending this function and invited one of his co-workers who brought his girlfriend as well. The food was tasty and the ferry ride out to the island was very nice. I missed out on the rootbeer floats though because I was a bit too cold. Saturday night, the four of us also went to a Dragonforce concert at the Warfield in San Francisco. There were three bands that played that night: Horse The Band, All That Remains, and Dragonforce. The seats we had were great but the bands required a lot of audience participation. I like Dragonforce's music but I was not really in to all the participation. The show they put on was a bit over the top to say the least. Very theatrical but a bit cheeky.

3) The next thing that happened was that I received an unexpected promotion. This means that I will be really busy until around February but that is okay. I am looking forward to the challenge!

4) The newest happening in my life is that I purchased a new vehicle today! It is a black Mercedes ML 350 with a black leather interior. It will be arriving this week. I will miss my BMW a bit - it was a good car - but I needed a change. It was much more practical for me to have a SUV than a sedan at this point. Pictures will follow!

Pet Pics!

2006-09-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I got a new puppy! He is soooooo cute. In light of that, I thought I would post some pictures of all three of my pets:

Baxter - Golden retriever

Big Ben - Red Spotted Tabby - British Shorthair

QE (Queen Elizabeth) - Blue - British Shorthair

So far so good in the harmony dept in my household. My cats are taking the whole puppy thing rather well. QE is not bothered at all it seems. Benny is not eating as much as usual and stays pretty much at the opposite end of the house, but, he hasn't hissed at Baxter yet so that is a good thing. I hope Baxter grows fast so that he can go on hikes!

Yosemite Again! 08/26/06

2006-08-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

So after not going to Yosemite at all for about 5 or 6 years, I am making up for it now! This was my fourth trip since last November. It has been interesting to see the change of scenery each visit has brought. I am looking forward to visiting the park when there is snow!

This trip had been planned for quite awhile. My June trip inspired some co-workers of mine to visit and I, of course, offered to take them on my day trip tour. Miraculously I talked everyone in to getting up at 3:30am for this trip (I must have some amazing powers of persuasion or something :-p ) . I ended up waking up at 3am for some reason so that was when my day started. I made two stops to pick people up and we were off to the mountains.

The first official stop was at Scotty's Doughnuts in Oakdale. The earlier you get there the warmer the doughnuts are and let me tell you they taste GOOD! We were not there that early this time though, but that is okay, the maple bars I had were still tasty. We piled back in the car and continued on. The next stop we made was at the Rim of the World vista point. There was a forest fire burning a couple of ridges over so all day we were seeing helicopters with their buckets dropping water on the fire. After the vista point we were in the park! We stopped at my usual Hwy 120 stops (Big Meadow overlook, the Half Dome overlook, the Cascades bridge). There wasn't much water so a lot of my waterfall stops I skipped this time. We continued on to Bridalveil Falls which was a ghost of its former spring self. It was nice not to get wet at the overlook this time though, usually you can't go there without an umbrella or rain poncho. We looked at El Capitan and the Three Brothers, made a quick stop at Sentinel Beach (we tried to outrun the mosquitoes but failed), and parked at Curry Village.

We had quite a sight when we got to Curry Village... A buck was in the parking lot munching on apples that had fallen from the trees in the apple orchard that is the parking lot. He did not care one bit that people were around. After hanging out for a bit we headed out, our next destination being Lower Yosemite Falls. This waterfall also was a ghost of itself. It is a lovely walk though. We meandered our way to the base and back, stopping to pose for some pictures on a fallen log that I took pictures on in June. This time though it was all about the yoga poses! You have to have good balance to do those poses on a log! Once we were done with the area, we drove up to Glacier Point. This was the conclusion of the trip and in celebration we had ice cream on a stick!

It was a fun day and memories of my June trip were still vivid as I looked at the familiar landmarks around the Valley. I have always loved Half Dome but now that I have been most of the way up there I look at it in a different way - I love it even more now. After the long drive home, my day ended around 9:15pm. I skipped dinner and went right to bed!

Pictures in order:

Half Dome overlook from Hwy 120
Jennifer and I doing Yoga poses near Lower Yosemite Falls
Half Dome from Glacier Point

My Other Colorado Adventures 8/10 - 14/06

2006-08-18T22:37:00.000-07:00

This is a long one....

The reason I went to Colorado was for my cousin's wedding but while I was there I managed to get in a lot of other activities, thanks mainly to my dad.

The trip started out a bit sketchy due to the increased security at the airport. I woke up to my cell phone ringing. It was my mom telling me to make sure to turn on the news that there had been a bunch of people arrested for plotting another terrorist attack. I spent the next few hours watching the news and going back and forth on whether I should check my bag or buy all of the stuff I needed when I got there. I finally decided that since the plane was small and we were flying in to a small airport, I would check my bag. My grandma did not see the part of the news that said that things like suntan lotion and toothpaste were liquids too so she was detained a bit and they threw out a lot of stuff from her carry-on. Hindsight said she should have checked her bag. Oh well, she took it in good spirits for the most part. My flight was delayed so we didn't make it to Colorado Springs until late afternoon. Once there though we were out and in to the rental car very fast (maybe a total of 20 minutes from getting off the plane to us driving out of the airport).

Friday morning was a play day for Dad and I. I didn't have any tasks until around 4-ish when I volunteered to pick up my grandpa, aunt, and cousin from the airport. Dad and I took the opportunity to visit one of the tourist destinations of The Springs - The Garden of the Gods. This is an area where unique rock formations sit. We started the morning at the visitors center (very impressive). From there we went down to Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site. This is a lovely living history area of the park. We saw a lot of wildflowers and visited an Indian village, an old Homestead, and the house of one of the owners of the property. There was more to see but it was getting hot and we knew we had to make it to the rock formations before it got too hot.

The next activity was to take a driving tour around the rock formations. We got out to hike to the Siamese Twins trail. It is a very short (1/2 mile rt) trail with only 150ft of elevation gain, but I managed to biff it quite spectacularly. I was totally stupid. I was wearing a cute Hawaiian dress with sandals that had no traction at all. I was just asking for a fall. Going up wasn't so bad, only a couple of slips. It was going down that was my undoing. It is surprising actually where I did eventually fall. It wasn't that steep but I hit those tiny pebbles on exposed rock and down I went. I skinned my knee and messed up my toe (I punctured it). I guess I just needed to give a little blood to the rock gods. My Dad was slipping around too on the trail and he had proper hiking shoes on. We took a lot of time to take pictures and made it back in time to take a trip to the airport. My Dad also took the time to patch me up back at my Uncle's house. Thanks Dad!

After picking up my family members we all needed to go to the rehearsal dinner. It was quite a large dinner. We had Italian food, lots of good conversation, and we saw the strangest thing. A fox decided to crash the party. I don't think I have ever seen a fox in real life before. They are really graceful creatures. This one knew right were the food was though. People outside startled the fox off finally because it was getting too close.

Saturday was the wedding and I covered that in my previous post!

Sunday, Dad and I managed to talk my Uncle Mike in to going hiking with us. My dad was the master planner of the excursion with my Uncle Mike's help on where things were located. We took a drive up to Helen Hunt Falls. This is a pretty little waterfall and the Silver Cascade Falls Trail goes up over the falls to an additional waterfall called guess what... yep, Silver Cascade Falls. It was a nice warm up hike for a longer one we took later up the Mt Cutler Trail. This trail was beautiful. It starts off gaining elevation and once you go over the ridge to the other side you have great views of one of the biggest tourist destinations in the Springs - Seven Falls. Normally (and maybe eventually) I would have been all over this attraction. I read though that they had an elevator and that they shine colored lights on it at night... Hmmm, I am not too sure about that whole experience. It was pretty though to look at from a distance during the daytime. We ended up on a point that gave us great views of the Garden of the Gods, pretty much all of Colorado Springs, the Broadmore golf course/resort, a shrine on the mountainside, and of course Pikes Peak itself, one of Colorado's fourteeners. While on that hike though the weather turned south and it began to thunder and lightening and rain. It was quite wet by the time we got back to the trailhead. It didn't look good for our next planned hike which, it looked, was right where the storm was the worst. Until we drove up there though (about an hour away from where we were) we decided that we were hungry so we stopped at one of the local burger places near my Uncle's house. It was pretty good, but I regret not getting a shake. My Dad had a Butterscotch shake and my Uncle had a Strawberry malt... YUM!

Our next destination was on the western side of Pikes Peak. I think my dad said the elevation of the waterfall at the end of that trail was around 8400ft. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the weather was terrible. It was hailing and raining heavily. I actually turned on the 4x4 on the Ford Explorer so that I would feel better driving on those wet soggy roads. We ended up in Cripple Creek. A mining town with lots of casinos. I had been there before a long time ago, and we did not stop this time. We continued on so that we could get back in time to BBQ. It was a completely lovely ride through that area of Colorado. I found a valley that I could move to it was so beautiful and peaceful. We ended up at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. It was really cool there because we saw fossilized Giant Sequoia trees. I have seen the real thing twice this year so it was really interesting to see the big stumps of the trees but made of stone. We made it back home for dinner. That night my cousin Gina, Dad, and Aunt Eileen all went out to see a movie (Talladega Nights is very funny!).

This brings me to Monday. The original plan was to go to Cave of the Winds - a place that I have been several times before, but my Uncle (who has lived in Colorado Springs for around 25 years) had never been. He unfortunately had to go in to work Monday morning so we (really I mean I) didn't have time to go there before I had to go to the airport. I, instead, dropped in on an old high school friend of mine. I haven't seen Damian in a good 7 years but I have known him for probably around 13 or 14 years. He dated my former best friend and I dated his best friend way back when. We remained friends though even after break-ups and when he got married, I made his wedding cake and was one of his wife's maids of honor. I even took his wife out for her bachelorette party!!! It was good to see him doing well. We talked about old times for a while but then I had to go so that I could pick up my luggage and say goodbye to my family before flying out.

All in all, it was a pretty busy and fun weekend!! I need to go back to Colorado though, there is so much to see that I could probably spend several weeks there!

A Wedding in Colorado 08/12/06

2006-08-15T23:15:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of material to cover for my trip to Colorado so I am going to break it down in to two posts - one of just the wedding and one for the sight-seeing I was able to do.

My cousin Samantha is the youngest daughter of my Dad's brother Mike. Over the years I have spent some time with my Uncle Mike's family but not much due to the fact that they lived in Colorado Springs and I lived here in California. Even though I haven't really gotten a chance to get to know my two Colorado cousins very well, I was still very happy to be there to witness such a happy event and to get a chance to get to know them a little better than I did before.

Saturday morning started very quiet and calm. The ceremony was at 1pm so all twelve people staying at my Uncle's house had plenty of time to get ready in addition to some of the bridesmaids. I only briefly saw Samantha getting ready but I was given a task that morning to give her husband to be a set of car keys and to retrieve a camera from him when he stopped by. He was already wearing his tux when he stopped by the house with one of his groomsman to pick up Samantha's car. Around noon, a group of us were tasked with decorating the church due to the fact that the people who were to decorate it were tied up at the reception location. I piled six additional people in to my rented Ford Explorer and off we went to the beautiful church. In my SUV was my Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Eileen, cousin Gina, and a close Colorado family friend, Crystal. Decorating was done in no time and we all sat waiting for the event to start.

It was a very nice ceremony. I didn't really get a chance to see Samantha's face but her husband Jon's face was beaming the entire time. I have to admit that I cried and even now I get a tear to my eye just thinking about the ceremony. In no time the ceremony was over and as we walked out to a waiting area in the church I saw that it was raining. I had heard some crashes during the ceremony and did not realize that it was thunder! It was pouring and hailing. Thank goodness we stuck around to take pictures, that allowed the cloudburst to blow over.

After pictures were taken, all the same people except for Crystal piled in the car to make the 16 mile trek to the reception at Mystic Meadows. What a beautiful place. The whole area was green and there was a lovely little pond on the property. The family made our way to our designated table and we feasted on appetizers - a chocolate fountain with various goodies for dipping. It was really my first experience with a chocolate fountain and I have to say I give it two big thumbs up!

The wedding party arrived and it was time to get the party started! There was great food, speeches (one 23 minutes long by the best man), the bride and groom's first dance, the father daughter dance, a Hawaiian dance performed by my Aunt Patty for my cousins Samantha and her older sister (and maid of honor) Cory, cake cutting, bouquet tossing, garter retrieving and throwing, dollar dancing with the bride and groom, all ending with a group dance of the electric slide. I had a great time and I am truly happy for my cousin. The bride and groom managed to leave quietly leaving the rest of us to close the place :-)

My car ended up being the car that carted home a lot of the alcohol (not the kegs though - no room for them!) in addition to a full passenger load. Once back at my Uncle and Aunt's house the party sort of moved there and continued for awhile. I don't know how late it was when I got to bed but I was tired!

I have included a few pictures throughout this post the descriptions are below in order even though the pictures posted are not in chronological order. Enjoy!

-The first picture is of Samantha and her parents, my Dad's brother Mike and his wife Patty.

-The second picture is of my Grandma, cousin Gina, and Auntie Eileen waiting to be driven to the church.

-The third picture is of Samantha and Jon during their vows.

-The fourth picture is of me and my dad at the reception.

-The fifth picture was one that was taken at the insistence of my grandma. All four of the girl cousins (from marriage) in one picture - in order Me, Cory, Samantha, and Gina.

-The sixth picture is of me and Gina. My Auntie E did a good job of taking this shot so I included it!

Congratulations again to Mr & Mrs Calm!

Randomness Part 4 - Special Photo Issue - Flowers Vol 2

2006-08-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

The weather in Colorado has been very wet this year so even in August it was very green there. Flowers were in abundance!! The following were just a few of the flower pics I managed to snap during my recent visit to Colorado for my cousin Samantha's wedding. Enjoy!

This flower is Butter and Eggs

This flower is Indian Paintbrush

A Day Playing Tourist in San Francisco

2006-08-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

I have lived in the San Francisco Bay area all my life and I work in downtown SF, but I rarely do touristy stuff around here. A co-worker of mine from the Hong Kong office of my company was in town, so it was time to put on my tourist hat and have a good weekend enjoying activities and sights that the tourists usually do!

Saturday morning started with a Segway tour of Aquatic Park and Fort Mason. For those of you who have never Segway'd before, it is REALLY cool! I had a lot of fun. They are controlled mainly by your feet... toe side you go forward, heel side you go backward (for those of you who have snowboarded before it is similar :-P ). To turn you use a controller that you twist it side to side. I didn't have any problems at all learning to ride the Segway - in fact I really took to it fast! It was an absolute blast and the weather was really nice. We couldn't have asked for a better day.

After the Segway tour, we took a walk on the Hyde Street pier and looked at all of the historic ships that they have there. We then took a stroll down along Fisherman's Wharf to Pier 39. At Pier 39 we did a little shopping. One of the things to do is to stop at the chocolate store - a tradition I have engaged in since I can remember. I also stopped at Na Hoku to replace the thumb ring that I lost last weekend :-( It is good that I have been losing a lot of weight but unfortunately my last thumb ring had become so loose that it fell off without me even noticing. The new ring fits quite snugly.

After we looked at the sea lions it was on to lunch. We had clam chowder, sourdough bread and salad with shrimp or crab on it. That clam chowder was good! It was time to start the driving tour of the day.

The driving tour started at Fisherman's Wharf (where we were parked) went through the Marina District, past the Palace of Fine Arts, and over the Golden Gate Bridge (we got out and walked on the bridge a bit and took pictures). The drive continued to the Seacliff area of SF with a brief stop at China Beach and Lands End. From there we drove past the Legion of Honor and down past the Cliff House for a stop at Ocean Beach. We dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean and drove through Golden Gate Park next. We drove right past one of the waterfalls in my book but I didn't snap a pic so I need to go back! Our next destination was Twin Peaks where we enjoyed great views of San Francisco. By this time I decided that we needed to drive on the crookedest street in the world... Lombard Street! Coit Tower was our next stop (great views from there as well) and then a drive through North Beach and China Town to our dinner destination of Juban in Japan Town. I love Juban, it is one of my favorite restaurants! After dinner the day was over so I dropped everyone off and headed home.

It was a long day but a very fun day!

July trip to Hong Kong

2006-07-26T02:28:00.000-07:00

I am yet again suffering from insomnia. This time it is really bad because I am still battling jet lag from my trip last week to Hong Kong. With that said, I figured that since I am up anyway I might as well be productive and write about my trip.

This is the second time I have been to Hong Kong. Last July I attended a finance meeting that included the various finance managers and guests for the international division of the company I work for. This year I was fortunate to be invited to attend the same meeting. I really enjoyed the opportunity to be able to be part of the meeting and found it very informative. It was nice to get to see old and meet new members of the finance manager group . Enough about that though, I am sure you all don't want to hear about some stuffy finance meeting.

What you do want to hear about is the recreational stuff I got to see! I was there for a week but I didn't have an extra day there like I did last year. The one thing I have to say about Hong Kong is that the food is wonderful!!! We ate arranged dinners on Monday night and Wednesday night (a nice Chinese restaurant and then a nice Thai restaurant respectively). Tuesday and Thursday we were on our own. The days we were on our own we went to a mall and had food at the food court (I picked Shanghai style pork chops and rice) and the other day we went to Lantau Island and saw the biggest sitting Buda in the world eating at a hot pot restaurant that evening. The night we all had Thai food the group rode the tram to Victoria Peak. The tram is very steep!

After the finance meeting ended on Thursday and after we visited the Buda but before dinner, we went to a fishing village called Tai O. While there we took a little boat ride to see if we could see any dolphins. Unfortunately we did not see any but it was nice to be on the water where it was at least a bit cooler.

All in all it was a nice trip. I will definitely go back to Hong Kong at some point. I really like it there... I can't exactly explain why, but that just means that if you as the reader ever get a chance to go, you should! I highly recommend it :-)

4th of July Weekend Activities

2006-07-04T23:39:00.000-07:00

I have been suffering from the restless feet curse. I go through my phases where I always have to be busy and it usually subsides after a while - so far I am still going strong. My restless feet may have something to do with the fact that I am getting in to the best shape of my life and love to be outdoors, or it may just be because I have waited for a long time to be able to go out and do stuff and now I am in a position where I am able to do that. Having said that there was no way that I was going to be happy spending four days sitting at home.

Saturday we stayed local running errands and shopping a bit. We saw the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" and spent some time in REI where I finally picked up a water filter (it would have come in handy on my previous HD hike). We also picked up Louis' recent purchase - a Glauc. I have not generally liked handguns but since it is going to be in my house, I need to learn how to properly shoot and care for it. More classes to take! The upside is that now that we have one gun and will be going to the range, we will get a shotgun too for shooting trap. Shooting those clay pigeons is very fun!

Sunday was a go somewhere day. I had decided that I wanted to check a few more waterfalls off my list and finally decided that a trip to Lake Tahoe was in order. It is so beautiful up there. The beauty offset the fact that there were a lot of people. Emerald Bay was a madhouse. I had to shark a parking spot - it took me a good 20 minutes to even find a place to squeeze the Subaru into off the side of the highway. The paid parking lot was even full. The two waterfalls to see at Emerald Bay are Upper and Lower Eagle Falls. I only visited Lower Eagle Falls due to the overcrowding. It is an impressive waterfall and you can hang out next to the top of it. Last week a woman actually slipped and went over the waterfall to her death. With this in mind I was careful not to get too close to get "the perfect shot". It was amazing me that people were taking their small children through the water so close to the lip of the falls. The next waterfalls on the roster were Upper and Lower Glen Alpine Falls. While driving there we were treated to a wow view of Cascade Falls. Unfortunately the view from the trail does not offer such a good picture and thus we did not make the trek to that waterfall. The road to the waterfalls on Glen Alpine creek was a test in patience. It turns in to a one lane road that snakes along Fallen Leaf Lake. As you can imagine due to the popularity of Lake Tahoe this weekend there was quite a bit of traffic on this road. It was a not a fun ride for Louis at all. Add to that the fact that the Subaru was not so happy at this elevation - very sluggish and gutless. We eventually made it most of the way to the trailhead to Upper Glen Alpine Falls by car but we had to get out of the car so we walked the rest of the way to the trailhead. I enjoyed the short 3 mile roundtrip hike from Lower Glen Alpine Falls to Upper Glen Alpine Falls and back. After we were done with the falls, we headed to Reno for dinner and rest.

Monday we returned home early and hung out. I was attending a BBQ on Tuesday and I was assigned the task of bringing dessert. I have been wanting to make an apple pie for awhile but seeing as I am really the only one in the household that eats apple pie I haven't made one. This was the perfect opportunity! I made a pecan pie and an apple pie.

Tuesday started with the Tour de Pulgas Ridge! Pulgas Ridge is a small county park that I hike in occasionally and in the spirit of the Tour de France we turned our hiking excursion in to a mini tour. The first three "stages" were won by the sprinting Louis. Once I realized that I was three stages behind, I turned it on and won the King of the Mountains jersey and secured the yellow jersey on the final climbing stage of Stage 4 with a 55 second lead by jogging to the top! The final results ended in me winning 3 stage wins winning two jerseys (including the yellow jersey!) and Louis winning 5 stages and the sprinters jersey. Neither one of us qualify for the rookie jersey so that one went un-awarded. After that was my friend Ryan's BBQ! Tasty food and good company! I was recruiting hard for more hiking victims, I mean participants. All in all the weekend was nice but went by too fast.

What is tentatively on deck for this negative ion addict? Handgun lessons, Hong Kong for a week, my first kayaking class, two day trips to Yosemite, a possible mountain bike/hike to Feather Falls, and my cousin's wedding in Colorado!

Yosemite - Half Dome Adventure 06/14 - 18/06

2006-06-28T22:19:00.000-07:00

Where do I begin this long tale...

About six months or so ago I set the goal of hiking to the top of Half Dome. Since then I have been working toward getting in good enough shape so that I could embark on the 18 or so mile hike comfortably. All that training paid off, but unfortunately I did not make it to the top of that granite monolith this trip.

My mini vacation started on Wed with me picking up my dad from my grandma's house (he had driven down the day before from his home on the northern coast of CA). My dad likes to hike and he was more than willing to join the crew I was trying to put together. Our drive up to the park was a nice one. We stopped at a few of the fruit stands along the way in the central valley to get fresh fruit and snacks and made a long stop in Oakdale to pick up the rest of the food that we would need. We ended up getting to the park around 1-ish.

Once we were in the Sierra's we made several stops to check out various vistas and wildflowers. In the park I made most of my usual tour stops with dad - I certainly stopped at my favorites like the Big Meadow overlook, the take-your-breath-away view of Half Dome (pictured above), and at the upper portion of the Cascades bridge. We also tried out a couple of potential new tour stops. We skipped Bridalveil Falls and the Hwy 41 overlook at this point so that we could make sure that we got checked in to our tent cabin in Curry Village also by this time we were both hungry and wanting lunch.

After we checked in and got our stuff a bit settled, we took off to have the before mentioned lunch and to repack our groceries at the Sentinel Beach/Yellow Pines picnic area. My experience has been that this little piece of heaven is not that crowded, even during peak season. When the Merced is lower there is quite a nice beach with picnic tables but when the river is high the beach is reduced considerably. The bad thing about this place is the mosquitos - there are tons of them there. After lunch and after I had made a couple of calls, I decided it would be cool to hike to the base of Sentinel Falls. We made sure everything was put back in the car and we headed up Sentinel Creek. We didn't make it all the way up to the base of the falls due to my tender hamstring (I have been recently recovering from a knee injury and had stupidly strained my hamstring earlier that day). I wanted to make sure I was in the best shape possible for Half Dome that Saturday so I didn't want to push it on this little excursion. Once we turned around though, I realized that we had gained a good amount of elevation and the view was one I hadn't seen before. We had great views of Yosemite Falls and El Capitan. We concluded the day with hanging out on the swinging bridge watching a fish and eating pizza.

The next morning was beautiful and sunny. The weather up there in general was gorgeous the whole time. A bit warm sometimes, but really nice. Dad and I ate some breakfast and decided that we were going to go out to Hetch Hetchy. Before we left though we took a little stroll to the base of Yosemite Falls and hung out in the meadow below El Capitan looking for climbers. We took our time to get out to Hetch Hetchy and by the time we got there it was quite warm and a lot of people had decided to spend the day out there as well. The goal was to hike to the base of Wapama Falls, a waterfall that you can see from across the reservoir. It is about a 5 mile roundtrip hike. I usually have found this place to be a bit creepy. There is something disturbing about the dam and the silence of the flooded valley. This time though I didn't really find it creepy at all.

Our hike was very pleasant but on the warm side. Hetch Hetchy Valley is at a lower elevation than its cousin Yosemite Valley is so it gets warmer. I guess on this trail was when I realized that I really like taking pictures of flowers. I am finding that I really prefer the purple ones... On to the showstoppers though, we saw four waterfalls during our trek. The first was the unofficially named Madeline Falls. Low flow but you could easily see that it was impressive when there is more water. The second one we passed was the also unofficially named Hetch Hetchy Falls. These two are relatively small. The big attractions though are Tueeulala and Wapama Falls. One is a graceful tendril of water dropping down a granite cliff and the other is a jaw dropping massive torrent of water thundering down the wall of the canyon. Wapama is the first waterfall that I have seen since my rating system started that I would give a 5 to, hands down. I find myself wanting to be there when there is water going over the bridges so that I can feel the raw power. Maybe next year... We had our lunch on a ledge beside the waterfall and I took a bit of a nap before we made our way back to the car. That evening we had dinner at the cafeteria at Yosemite Lodge.

Friday dawned bright and beautiful. After breakfast, we rented bikes and rode around the the valley floor. Our first stop was Mirror Lake up Tenaya Canyon. Very beautiful and tranquil. Half Dome loomed above us, inviting us to hike to the top of it. From there we meandered our way to Yosemite Village where we played tourist and saw the visitors center and an art gallery. We got back on our bikes and rode down over the swinging bridge and back up the southside of the valley. We got back and had just enough time to catch some lunch before I went to meet my friend Mark at the park entrance so I could play tour guide. The rest of the day for me was spent giving the tour while my dad did laundry and went on a hike/scramble to the base of Washington Column. Alex showed up as well Friday evening but I didn't end up meeting up with him and his crew until the next morning. Dinner that night was pizza again.

This brings me to Saturday... the big day. I managed to talk 3 people in to embarking on this trek - my dad, Alex, and Mark - in total there were six people present. My morning started at about 4am. I could not for the life of me get good sleep. Added to that was some sort of chaos that erupted in the tent cabin next to mine at around 1:45 - maybe a raccoon got in there or something all I know is that there was some shouting going on. When I finally gave up and got up I was in the showerhouse at around 4:30 when the power went completely out... Talk about an adrenalin rush to wake you up. I am just glad that I had a flashlight and that the water didn't turn off too. By 5:15 the whole party was assembled and we were off to Glacier Point. This was about an hour drive. We parked the cars and got ready to start the hike. Before we left though we checked out the awesome view from the Glacier Point overlook. Half Dome loomed before us looking majestic in the morning light.

Our route took us down from Glacier Point along the Panorama Trail. The trail was just beautiful - well maintained and very pretty vistas. The first highlight of the hike was taking pictures of Illilouette Falls. Passing this waterfalls was one of the reasons I chose to leave from Glacier Point. From there we climbed a bit along the Panorama Cliffs and the we descended down to where we met up with the John Muir Trail which lead us ultimately to Nevada Falls. This waterfall is one of my favorite waterfalls, if not my absolute favorite. We all decided to take a little break here to snack and to snap pics. For me it was also time for a sock change. I have to say that the sock change helped to insure that I didn't get any other blisters on my feet than I already had from the previous days hiking. From Nevada Falls the trail runs up the Little Yosemite Valley and then curves up the ridge to the granite base of Half Dome.

When we got back on the trail again after our break at Nevada Falls there was a bit of confusion as to where our whole party was. We eventually all ended up together again and started the difficult part of the hike. Up, up, up we went. Along the way we ran in to a guy who was filtering water from a natural spring so we filled up which ended up being a good thing. There is a really steep section that you have to go up before you get to the cables that many people have said is more scary than the cables. By this time I was feeling pretty lousy. I had a sore throat since Wed night and it was really beginning to set in in earnest. I had high hopes though that I would still make it so I started up the steep granite section but had to stop repeatedly because I felt like I would pass out. By the time I got to the top, my sense of balance was shot and I was pretty much done. I made the decision not to continue up the cables as I knew it would be very physically demanding and I just wouldn't be able to do it safely. Mark was the only one to summit Half Dome that day. Dad and I made it to the cables, Alex and his son started up the steep granite part but turned back, and the last member of the party, Frankie stopped before the steep granite began. All in all we did a great job! It was about 9 miles from Glacier Point to the base of the granite of Half Dome and we all got there feeling relatively good.

We began the trek back and it seemed to go on forever. At the point where the Mist Trail breaks off, we had to stop to do a bit of foot care. Frankie's toes were a bit worse for wear so she got a foot massage from yours truly and dad cut the toes out of her shoes so that her feet would have more room. After that she made it down the 2500ft granite staircase that is the Mist Trail with considerably more energy than she had when we stopped. We ended up traversing a good portion of that trail in the dark as well (yep, even down the really misty slippery part but oh well it was an adventure). We all ended up back in Curry Village in one piece and we were able to just order a pizza before the place closed at 10pm. Our day wasn't over yet though. We still had to be shuttled back up to Glacier Point to retrieve the cars we had left up there that morning. Logistically it is a bit of a pain to leave from Glacier Point for this hike but I would do it again in a heartbeat. That hike is really lovely. My day ended around 1am or so (I think - I can't really remember when I collapsed in to bed).

Sunday started out late compared to my previous days during the trip. I slept in a bit but not much as we had to check out by 10am. After everything was packed and ready to go the decision was made to take a drive up the Tioga road to have a picnic lunch up at one of my favorite places - Tenaya Lake. The Tioga road had just opened up on Saturday. We had lunch up at the lake and then decided that since Tuolumne Meadows was right there we would take a quick trip up there as well to check things out. What pretty country it is up there - absolutely breathtaking. The last stop we made in the park was to hike one mile to the Tuolumne Grove of sequoia trees. Until very recently, I had not known that there were two other sequoia groves in Yosemite National Park. I knew about the Mariposa Grove of course but not the other two lesser known ones. This particular grove had about a dozen sequoia trees, none of the huge awe inspiring ones, but they were still big beautiful trees

That concludes the report of my Half Dome adventure. It was a great trip and one that I will have memories of for a long time to come. It has sort of inspired me to put together more of these types of trips. The future ones may not be as demanding as this particular one was but I am sure I can come up with fun stuff none the less!!! Yay, a new objective :-) Stay tuned!

Randomness Part 3 - Special Photo Issue - Flowers Vol 1

2006-06-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

Recently I have really taken an interest in taking pictures of the flowers that I see along the trails that I have been hiking. I am not sure why I like taking pictures of flowers now, but, oh well, it is fun to do. This Randomness post is dedicated to some of the flower pictures I have taken. Also as a side note, most of these pictures were taken while I was hiking but a few of them are from gardens in my neighborhood. I am not sure what all of the flowers are called but I guess I will learn that with time. Enjoy!

Memorial Weekend Travels - Part 2 Yosemite

2006-06-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

So it is no mystery that one of my favorite places on this planet is Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It was the first place I went with my parents after being born and I imagine that I will continue to go there right up until I die. My favorite part of Yosemite is the high country - places like Glacier Point and the country you drive through when you are on Tioga Pass and Sonora Pass roads. There is just something about granite that I love.

Since Memorial weekend was my birthday weekend, I decided that in addition to seeing the before mentioned concert and Sequoia National Park, I wanted to visit Yosemite as well to take some shots of the waterfalls while they had a pretty decent waterflow going. The thing about the waterfalls in Yosemite is that most of them do not run year round and some of them have very small drainage areas so they don't run that long even in the wet season. Turns out that because of an exceptionally deep snowpack this year an impressive waterfall season is occurring and it is lasting a long time.

The day started out in Fresno. I rarely enter the park from the Highway 41 entrance because to do so from the Bay Area takes you really far out of your way. It was nice to go this way this time however because it was a great change of scenery. I had forgotten about the Sugar Pine Railroad (one of the stops you can make on the way in or out of the park) - you can take an open air train ride while they explain to you the history of the railroad. This is the south entrance to the park and it brings you in near the Mariposa Grove of sequoia trees and you have to drive through the Wawona area to get to the valley.

The first stop of the day though was Glacier Point. Louis had never been up there before so I had a dual purpose in going up there - first so that Louis could enjoy the view and second to scout out the trailhead for the big Half Dome hike. I have included a picture of the trailhead to the left. I never get tired of the view from up there, it is amazing. You are 7200 ft above sea level and about 3200 ft above the valley floor - not a place to be if you are afraid of heights though that is for sure! I always forget to bring binoculars so that I can check stuff out. There is so much to take pictures of up there that you can spend lots of time drinking in the scenery. Besides you get a birds eye view of several waterfalls: Nevada, Vernal. Pywiack, Royal Arch, Yosemite, and Staircase.

Next stop was the vista point area right after the tunnel on Hwy 41 (pictured above). This is the classic postcard shot of the U-shape of the valley. From here you see big landmarks - El Capitan, Clouds Rest, Half Dome, and the hanging valley of Bridalveil Falls. You can also see a couple more waterfalls from here: Silver Strand and Ribbon.

After the vista point, the next must stop is at the base of Bridalveil Falls. During this time of year you can not get close to the base of the falls without getting wet. This waterfall is very powerful when the flow of water is high. It also has a unique water flip a the top because of the wind. The parking lot at the base of this waterfall was the most full that I had ever seen. I was lucky though, I got a spot pretty much right away. I didn't feel like being wet so I took a short walk to a couple of the bridges over Bridalveil creek that gave me views of the waterfall without the mist.

The next stops were along the side of the road of the loop that goes around the valley. From here I get good views of waterfalls and landmarks. I got shots from different views of Ribbon Falls, El Capitan, Bridalveil Falls, Sentinel Falls, Yosemite Falls, Lehamite Falls, Half Dome, Clouds Rest, Royal Arches and many more. We ended up in Curry Village so that we could have a small snack.

After we were done there we were off to hike to the base of Lower Yosemite Falls. This is a short and crowded trail but there is a reason for that, the waterfall is beautiful. Also on my list to experience is hiking up the trail to the top of this waterfall. I was going to do it a few weeks ago but my knee kept me from making it. I just may have to take a day sometime to drive up and do the hike.

The last thing that I did that day before we headed back for dinner in Fresno was I got a shot of the Cascades from across the valley. I had to hop over a granite wall to get down far enough on the granite slab so that I could have an unobstructed view of the waterfall but it was all worth it and I made sure not to get too close to the edge because I know what that cliff looks like from the Cascades. Louis was not happy at all with my actions but I did get the shot I wanted and I am still in one piece (besides it wasn't that dangerous).

I know I usually rate the waterfalls I visit but I am still thinking about if I want to rate the waterfalls in Yosemite Valley or not. For now, I think I will just post the pictures and I can add the ratings later if I decide to rate them.

The Cascades
Silver Strand Falls
Bridalveil Falls
Ribbon Falls
Horsetail Falls (low flow)
Yosemite Falls
Lehamite Falls
Staircase Falls
Sentinel Falls
Royal Arch Cascade

I can't wait to go back for the Half Dome hike!

Memorial Weekend Travels - Part 1 Concert & Sequoia

2006-06-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

So this weekend is generally my favorite weekend of the year (hmmmm I wonder why???). Last year I went to Hawaii , this year I went to a concert and two national parks.

The concert was in Whittier, CA (Southern California) on Saturday night. The band, a cover band of sorts. The concert was a tribute to The Who and the reason why I was there was because the person who put together the cover band was the drummer, Mike Portnoy, from Dream Theater (one of the bands I sort-of follow). I am not really one who could identify specific songs by The Who (except for the really obvious ones) but I was delighted to find out that I knew most of the songs that they played that evening. I must have heard the songs a lot while growing up. The theater was very small which made the show great - every seat was a great seat at that concert.

Sunday was spent driving up to Sequoia National Park and doing a bit of hiking. I haven't been to this national park since around 1996 or so. The last time I was there was on a company trip when I worked for Wintec Industries in Fremont. When that company was still small the owners, as a perk, paid for everyone to take a bus trip from the bay area down through Sequoia Natl park with a stop at the London Bridge in Arizona on the way to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a pretty cool trip and strangely enough the person who went with me on that company trip was my cousin Carrie. That was the first time that Carrie and I had taken a trip together where it was just the two of us. She was too young to gamble (I might have been at the time too I am not sure what month we took that trip that year) so we just ended up walking and walking and walking checking out the sights. I think we both had a blast. Anyway, that was the last time I had been up in Sequoia National Park. It was crowded this time but I expected that because of the holiday weekend. I got some good shots of the sequoia trees and big rocks and hiked to a 10 rated waterfall - Tokopah Falls.

Tokopah Falls - Rating 3.75

This waterfall is set back in Tokopah Valley. The hike up to the falls is better than when you actually get to the waterfall in my opinion. Not to say the waterfall isn't nice, but the trail goes along the Marble Fork of the Kaweah river which is quite impressive. The waterfall is 1200 ft tall and it is easy to forget that because of the grand scale of the scenery.

I have to mention to my companions that hiked with me to Wolf Creek Falls - I successfully made several stream crossings over logs and did some rockhopping without even getting a toe wet! I have included a picture of one of those log bridges to the left. I did manage to see a couple of other waterfalls in Sequoia Natl Park. One of them I can't officially count because I didn't actually stop to take a picture of it. That one is called Granite Spring and it is right on the side of the Generals Highway as you drive up to the Giant Forest area of the park. The second one that I can count is unofficially named Pinewood Falls.

Pinewood Falls - Rating 3

I came around a bend in the road and was pleasantly surprised to see this little cascade. What I like about it is that it sheets 20 ft down over granite. I immediately pulled the car over and jumped out with my camera to get a couple shots.

My day in Sequoia was great. It smelled so good there, especially in ghe Giant Forest. The Giant Forest Museum was interesting. They gave a good explanation of why the area was ideal for sequoia trees to grow. It was a bit crowded in there though. The hike on the Big Trees Trail was very enjoyable as well. I have included a couple of pics of the shots I took of Round Meadow and trees on the Big Trees Trail.

Due to the fact that I saw so much in Yosemite on Monday, I will make that its own post. Stay tuned!

Anime and Other Topics

2006-05-20T23:20:00.000-07:00

So what do you do when you have messed your knee up so that you can't go hiking like you planned? You turn your attention to your other interests that's what :-)

I never thought I would be the type of person who would get bummed out if I couldn't exercise. Well, I have been depressed this last week because my training schedule is all messed up. It was all topped off by the fact that I wasn't able to go to Yosemite today for my test hike up the Yosemite Falls trail. WHAT A BUMMER!! The waterfalls are supposed to be running really high right now. It is all for the best though I guess. I don't want to risk a serious injury so close to the Half Dome hike. The doctor seemed to think that nothing serious was wrong with the knee - just prescribed some physical therapy and told me to keep icing and taking advil. My trainer told me to rest it also. So here I am, listening to the experts. Good thing I have a lot of stuff to keep me distracted.

Today has been dedicated to ripping CD's and watching movies/anime! So far I have seen the Da Vinci Code, a few episodes of one of my favorite Anime series - Fruits Basket, and Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

For those of you who may not know what anime is, I have included a link from wikipedia below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime

This is a really good explanation of what anime is all about. I have been collecting anime DVD's for quite awhile to varying degrees of dedication. The last time I updated my inventory spreadsheet (which was about a year ago I guess) I had enough anime to sit down and watch it straight 24/7 for 46 days. I think also that at that point I had watched 60% of my total inventory. Yes, yes you guys can tease me all you want about the spreadsheet. I won't deny that I am nerdy when it comes to spreadsheets and weird calculations - random facts are cool!

I have always liked all different types of animation. I was a big Disney fan when I was younger (I still like Disney stuff, but I am around a lot of Disney haters so I have to keep it really toned down). My favorite animated Disney movies are Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid. My first introduction to Anime was with a series called Star Blazers. I used to rush home from school so I wouldn't miss it. I would get so engrossed in the story that I would get very upset when something bad would happen (besides I had a huge crush on one of the main characters!). I was hooked. The other series that I really liked was Robotech. I didn't really get back in to anime until I started dating Louis. After watching some of the classics like Record of Lodoss War, Oh My Goddess, and Nija Scroll I was hooked again in a big way. I tend to favor stories in which I can lose myself (that is true of anime, movies, and books). Some of my favorite anime titles are as follows (list in random order):

Fushigi Yugi - beautiful artwork, travel to another world, cool martial arts, a lot of likeable characters
Crest of the Stars/Banner of the Stars - cool storyline, good lovestory
Tenchi Muyo - likeable characters and some really funny storylines
Oh My Goddess - Really beautiful artwork, great lovestory
Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust - this is perhaps the best artwork of any anime series I have seen so far. I tried to get a cel from this anime to add to my cel collection but they are very hard to get. I also like this one because I have a thing for vampires :-)
Boys Over Flowers - great soap opera and a good ending that is so rare with anime series
Fruits Basket - this is just a sweet story that makes me feel good to watch

There are more but I will go on about them at another time I am sure!

May Wanderings Thus Far

2006-05-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

So far this May I have not done much waterfall chasing (that will be changing next weekend though! Yosemite part one, here I come.). I have been thus far working on a training schedule for my upcoming attempt at hiking to the top of Half Dome. As part of that training schedule, I hiked to the top of Mission Peak in Fremont, CA last weekend and I almost hiked to the top of Mt Diablo near Concord, CA yesterday.

Sunday 5/7/06 - Mission Peak

I lived in Fremont for most of my life but never got around to hiking to the top of Mission Peak until now, when I live accross the bay from it. I guess I always took it for granted that it was there. It fell in to that category of being too close to home so I never took advantage of what it had to offer. Well, I finally did it... I hiked the thing. I am not one to do solo hiking really but I woke up Sunday morning expecting to go on my first solo expedition. Louis completely surprised me and said that he was going with me.

We got off to a late start because I was having a hard time waking up. We were at the trailhead at 9:30 which means that it was already pretty warm. It trips me out now to go to Fremont. I lived there for 20 or so years and it is so different and so the same from what I remember. It was a lovely day. Nice and sunny. I knew that it was going to get really warm though. The trail up Mission Peak that I chose was a wide fire road with pretty much no tree coverage. It was being traveled that day like it was a freeway. I don't think I have seen quite so many people on a trail... Since my goal was the top and I am in better shape than Louis is at the moment, I went on ahead at my own pace. An hour and forty minutes, around 2k feet, and three miles later I was at the top. I have to say that it didn't really look anything like I was expecting it to, although I couldn't really tell you what I was expecting. The view was great from up there, that was expected. I wish it had been a bit clearer. The hike down was hard on the knees due to the fact that the fire road was covered with loose gravel - very slippery. It was a good hike though, I burned through 1400 calories and had plenty of water to spare. I also wasn't sore at all from the excursion.

Saturday 5/13/06 - Mt Diablo

So now I have done a solo hike. It is oddly liberating, but not a habit I want to start. I have already gotten a lot of scolding from various people for going out there by myself and I am sure I haven't heard the last of it. The goal for the day was the peak of Mt Diablo standing roughly around 3,800 feet. I didn't make it but I did manage to pull off a hike that was a little over 12 miles total with around 2,500 ft of elevation gain. My GPS receiver said that my total ascent in feet was around 6,000 feet... I am not sure if I believe that but it does take in to account all of the ups and downs that the trail has so maybe I really did go up that much.

I started out from the Mitchell Canyon gate of Mt Diablo State park. Again this trail is pretty much a fire road. That was just fine by me as there was quite a bit of mountain bike traffic and some hikers as well. It made me feel much better that there were people about and I wasn't hiking out in the boonies by myself. Cue the horror movie music... The picture to the left is from the top of Mitchell Canyon. The first two miles of the hike were pretty flat along a very pretty creek. Just like I was told, there were a lot of bird watchers along the first part of the trail. After two miles though the trail started a pretty steep climb. By mile three I was ready to turn around. I might be over training a bit right now and Friday night I had done my local training loop of 4 miles which was fine but I did it less than 12 hours before I started this hike. I was TIRED by mile three and it sucked that the trail just kept going up. I am not sure what exaclty kept me going. This sort of odd need to keep going up until I couldn't go up any more I guess. I am not sure I like that feeling. It is almost like an addiction or something. I experienced the same thing doing Mission Peak too only that hike was half as long as this one was going to be. The next two miles were spent going up and up. People on this trail were much nicer than the people on the Mission Peak trail. When you said hi, people actually returned the salutation. I even stopped to chit chat with a woman who decided to get back in to mountain biking. Boy did she pick the wrong trail to go down! I didn't envy her trek back to the parking lot, which for her was up the way she came down.

The bad thing, or the good, depending on your perspective, with hiking Mt Diablo, is that there is a road that goes to the top of it. That means that you can really cheat to get to the top. Mitchell Canyon trail basically ends up at a campground that is most of the way to the summit of the mountain. From there you can catch the Juniper trail to get to the top. My mistake is that I missed the proper section of the Juniper trail. I ended up going the way that went down and then met up with the Summit trail. It sounds like it would be the proper way to go but what it really does is take you a mile out of your way all the while loosing precious elevation that you have already gained just to dump you at the summit trail which is 1.6 miles long that goes back up. The proper Juniper trail would have just taken me up toward the summit directly. I was getting really ticked off that I was losing elevation so when I did get to the summit trail I turned around. I was really only supposed to do a 12 mile hike according to my training schedule and I was already at 6 miles with all of that left to get back to the car.

The good thing that came out of it was that I met two really nice people along that trail. They had parked at the campground and I guess were on the way to the summit but took a couple of wrong turns. They had a hard time finding the section of the Juniper trail that went up too. While we were walking they entertained me with their own Half Dome stories (one included a hiker that they had been leapfrogging with who decided he was hot and took a dip in the river sans clothing not really caring who was around). We said farewell when we returned to the campground and I started my descent down Mitchell Canyon. It was very slow going as I had somehow tweeked my knee. I had 3 miles of steep downhill followed by two more miles to get to my car - it was going to be a long walk. I made it in one piece though. Boy was it hot when I got down to my car. I was thankful for my air conditioning. The drive home took about an hour and a half that was not kind on my knee. It was quite painful having to drive a manual transmission car through bumper to bumper bridge traffic while my knee was aching. Thank goodness I included Alieve and Advil in my daypack. I burned 5,500 calories yesterday and was starving by the time I got home. The day was topped off with a BBQ beef sandwich, very good mac & cheese, and a live jazz band at one of our local San Carlos restaurants. I am really proud of myself for being able to complete that hike all by myself. What is better is that not once did I regret my decision to do that solo hike.

My plan for next Saturday, assuming my knee is better is to attempt to climb Eagle Peak in Yosemite. 12 miles, over 100 switchbacks, more than 3500 ft of elevation gain, hopefully one mega WOW view of a rockin' waterfall, and one friend crazy enough to agree to go with me (I guess when you have known a person for over 18 years they get used to your whims).

Wish me luck!

Randomness Part 2 - Photo Issue

2006-05-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

Random shots of random stuff! I like these pictures so I figured I would give them their 15 minutes...

Washington is very pretty! (Olympic Penninsula)

Castle Rock State Park - viewing platform looking at Monterey Bay

Pt Reyes National Seashore - cool Eucalyptus tree

Very agressive birds at the top of Mt Walker (WA) - I think this bird was posing, I wasn't the only one to get the shot

Dad and I at a waterfall on the middle fork of the Smith River.

Half Dome - My goal in June

Mission Peak in Fremont, CA from the trailhead

Test shot of iris with my new camera!

Me soaking wet at the base of Wolf Creek Falls - Photo courtesy of my friend Mark

View from the trail up Mitchell Canyon while on my Mt Diablo hiking excursion

Ahhh, Maui. This was taken in Haleakala Natl Park.

These are just a few of my favorite pictures. Enjoy!

Point Reyes Department Outing - 04/27/06

2006-04-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

Thursday was an off-site meeting for the CBC accounting department at Point Reyes National Seashore. We never did have a department Xmas get-together in December so it ended up being held in April this year. It actually works out better for us accountants anyway as we are pretty busy December - March.

There was a lot of debate on which trail to actually embark on for our outing. Just a few weeks before, there had been a recon hike to Alamere Falls. We determined that that particular trail was a bit too much for the group. We narrowed it down to two other trails and let the group as a whole decide which trail to take. We unanimously decided on the Estero Trail to Sunset Beach, a nice 7.8 mile roundtrip hike out to a beach along Drake's Estero which gave us great views.

My task was to rent a van that could hold 9 people. I ended up renting a big white 15 passenger van - Whoo Hooo! Kim was taking care of lunch - Yummy! Everyone else was to bring thier own snacks (I of course brought Cheez-Its, Red Vines, and Cappuccino Power Bars - oh yeah and I selected three bottles of wine from my collection to bring along as well).

Thursday started out great. We had the best weather we could have ever hoped for - clear and sunny but not too hot. I drove the van and picked Neelima and Tiffany up before meeting in SF with Kim's crew of Yoli, Jennifer, and Julia. Alex also met us at the meeting spot in SF. We loaded up the van with people and provisions and were off. David met us all at the trailhead.

We got to the trailhead at 9:30 right on schedule (thanks to the driver ;-P ) We divided the food in to several people's packs (mainly David's and Alex's - they are strong guys after all!) and took off down the trail. What a nice hike. The trail was pleasant most of the way. There were several boggy muddy patches that we had to navigate around/through. Some of us ended up very muddy! Things were great until we made it down to Sunset Beach. The trail sort of disappeared so we ended up doing a lot of bushwhacking and bog trudging. The problem with the bushwhacking was that there was tons of poison oak. We finally ended up making it to a nice little area where we decided to set up our lunch. David and I went a bit further down the beach to see if there was a better place to have lunch but ended up turning around so as to not disturb a sleeping baby sealion. Its momma had jumped in to the water when she heard us coming and had a watchful eye on us and her baby to see if we were going to become a threat. We didn't have the heart to disturb them, besides, lunch was calling!

Lunch was quite a feast. There was herb roasted chicken, vegetable slaw salad, couscous salad, french bread, cheddar, brie, apples, orange slices, grapes, wine, brownies and various snacks that people shared. It really hit the spot. After lunch a few of us played frisbee. It isn't that easy to play when you are throwing it in to a headwind though! I was quite a wild thrower. I even had to retrieve one of my bad launches because it landed up the hill a bit. The group also almost lost me to quicksand as I was going for a frisbee catch. It landed in the water and was on its way out to sea, I couldn't let that happen so I went in after it and after two steps in to the sand promptly sank in over my ankles. It was quite shocking actually. I had to keep going too to rescue the frisbee. I made it out okay but my carefully kept dry feet were now soaked. I am thinking I may have to start hiking in hip waders - I just cant seem to keep my feet dry!

The trip back was uneventful except for the fact that I (of course always me the troublemaker) decided to follow a different trail that happened to get me stranded on the opposite side of a very large thicket of poison oak from the rest of the group. Well I didn't back track, I just put on my sweatshirt over my arms & camelback and hoped for the best. Once out, I used one of Kim's grease cutting wipes and resigned myself to the fact that I was probably going to get a really bad case of poison oak (As the picture shows, poison oak has rounded leaves). Well I am here writing this story on Sunday night and so far, I have only a very small dot of poison oak on my wrist. Amazing really... I am however suffering from an amazingly bad sunburn - my neck is in really bad shape, blisters and all. I keep learning very valuable lessons the more hiking I do... One of the lessons this time is that I need to find a sunscreen I like and then I need to re-apply it regularly.

We all made it back to the van in once piece with the promise of the remaining brownies and started the drive back to SF. During the drive I spied a few people napping in the back of the van. We were all much quieter than on the way out anyway. It was one heck of a way to spend a workday!

April Waterfall Visits - McWay Falls 4/15/06

2006-04-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend down in the Monterey/Carmel region. The weather was tolerable on Saturday and down right bad on Sunday. That didn't stop me from wanting to see waterfalls though!

One of my favorite hotels is called the Highlands Inn in Carmel. It is a Park Hyatt hotel and basically it is like you are staying in a condo. Each unit has a fireplace, a big jaccuzi tub, a small kitchen, a deck, and some of them even have killer views of the ocean. There is also a great restaurant there called Pacific Edge (guess what, it gives great views of the Pacific ocean too!). The last time I stayed and ate there was a few years ago for my birthday. This trip I couldn't bring myself to pay $500 to stay there for one night (YIKES! - prices more than doubled since the last time) but we did eat at Pacific Edge Saturday night.

Saturday morning was spent en route to waterfalls - Salmon Creek Falls was the furthest out which is about 80 miles further down the coast from Carmel. If any of you have driven down the coast of California on Highway 1 then you know how beautiful a drive this is. Highway 1 snakes along the cliff above the ocean for miles and miles. Some of the most classic California shots are of bridges that are along this stretch of highway. Anyway, just like the Road To Hana on Maui, this road, I guess, is more fun for the driver than the passenger... It didn't help that winter has done a number on the highway and it is in bad shape.

The trailhead for Salmon Creek falls is in the middle of nowhere. It is just a little turnout on the side of the road you would never even know it was there unless you were specifically looking for it or just randomly stopped there and saw the small sign. From the trailhead you start to gain elevation along a really pretty creek. Winter was hard on this trail (along with a lot of trails that I have been on this year) with lots of downed trees to manuver around. Louis was with me up until we started to see lots of Poison Oak. Since he is extreemly allergic to it he turned around fairly early on. I kept going for a bit but ended up turning around (after, of course, I slipped and got my feet wet). The trail to the waterfall is relatively short but really in the middle of nowhere (I have a bit of a problem hiking in the middle of nowhere by myself - my mom did a good job of ingraining the "buddy system" in to my psyche - I also watch too many horror movies for my own good). Had I been wearing my GPS trainer or had I had some sort of walkie talkie or something I would have probably ended up going all the way to the waterfall. What it comes down to is: stop one - unsuccessful.

McWay Falls - Rating 3.75

Stop two was a success though. McWay Falls is a beautiful waterfall that drops off a cliff down on to the beach in a secluded little cove. There is no beach access so you can't get up close and personal to the waterfall (it makes it hard to catch the negative ions!), but the scenery is georgeous. The state park system charges a bit too much to park at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park (I am a big fan of paying fees but I wished that I had the state park annual pass so I didn't have to fork over $8 to spend 1/2 hour parking there) - it was a pretty crowed place too. I definitely like it a lot better when I have the waterfall to myself. Crowds can really ruin the whole experience. There was actually another waterfall in the park but I had had enough for the day so we just headed back up to Carmel to get changed for dinner instead of attempting to see any other waterfalls. I will have to go back to catch the other waterfalls that were on my list to see some other time.

Dinner was good. It was a nice place to have an anniversary dinner. The food started better than it ended (they need to work on their entres) but I had a brussel sprout salad as one of my early courses that was to die for! I ended up having one too many courses as well. I should have eliminated one of them because I ended up just a little too full. I also made sure to stay away from the wine pairing menu this time (I learned that valuable lesson last year - that was the first and probably the last time I will ever be drunk).

Easter brunch was had at the Hyatt Regency Monterey. It was a pretty nice spread with the works (although the eggs benedict was not good at all and the waffles and pancakes were rubbery - they spent all thier time on their omlete bar - which was quite impressive actually - and neglected my favorites). They even had little Easter baskets full of chocolates on each table.

The drive back home was very messy - lots of heavy rain during the trip over the pass. Once home though, I caught a rare but luxurious nap later in the afternoon. :-) Yay for naps!

My waterfall count for April = 2

April Waterfall Visits - Alamere Falls 4/9/06

2006-04-23T20:30:00.000-07:00

It seems like April is turning out to be the month that I visit waterfalls that drop off cliffs on to beaches. The first April waterfall I visited was the 50 ft Alamere Falls. My department at work has been planning a hiking outing for a while. The hike to Alamere Falls in Point Reyes National Seashore was a research hike to see if it was an appropriate trail for that outing. It turns out that it is on the long side and it has a lot of issues (such as poison oak and stinging nettle) that are not optimal for people who have not been hiking before.

The trail directly to the top of the falls is 8.4 miles round trip. About a mile of that though is unmaintained. The hiking book that I have noted that it is often overgrown with poison oak. Yup, we saw a lot of poison oak on the sides of the trail. Yup, I got it as well. It is a good thing that I am not super allergic to it. I just got a few weepy patches of it but no major itching (thank goodness! the itching of poison oak is the worst). I actually haven't had poison oak for years. The last time I got it though when I was a little girl, I got it bad. I was almost completely pink with Calamine lotion and the itching drove me crazy. This time it just looks really bad.

Since we were on a research hike we hiked the spur trail to the top of the falls and back then we continued northwest on to the backpakers camp and back southeast down the beach to the base of the falls and back for a 7 hour trek covering 14.25 miles. I was tired!! I was proud of myself though for being able to make it even though I ended up with blisters and very sore muscles. A couple of years ago I wouldn't have. My training for my goal of hiking Half Dome in Yosemite has paid off already. I have lost 15 lbs since October and I have gained a lot of muscle! I confirmed all over again that my hiking boots are terrible for long hikes and for hikes where I gain any elevation at all. I recently purchased a book called "Fixing Your Feet" and I will be employing some of the tricks in there to try to prevent the blisters that I get.

Besides being long the hike was quite pleasant. We had pleasant weather, it only started to rain on us a couple of times, and it was not cold. There were a decent amount of people out on the trail that day enjoying the wildflowers, wildlife, and the ocean vistas.

Alamere Falls - Rating 3

I was delighted to see this waterfall from the very top and the very bottom. It is quite pretty but it doesn't have any wow factor. It would be a very nice place to have a picnic though. I would also go out of my way to see it again.

I also used my new GPS trainer during this hike. I was quite impressed with it. The neatest thing about it was that it makes a map of the readings it takes. The map that it created taking readings looked like the map in the book! The software that came with it also has a function where it will graph several things such as elevation, heart rate, pace, and grade. I am looking forward to using it more in future hikes.

Waterfalls visited in March 2006 - Part 2 of 2

2006-04-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

Washington - Trip 2 (Sunday)

Sunday was an absolute blast and I really enjoyed myself. I was probably pretty cranky and whiney though because I only had about a half hour of real sleep (my hiking companions would know better than me if I was or not!). Saturday night (after seeing some cool waterfalls that day) I was taken to bingo for the first time. Bingo was actually pretty fun and my cousin was delighted to find out that I liked it and would go again (I have a feeling I will be going again the next time I make it up to WA). There is just something very organized and therapeutic about it that satisfies an accounting-neat-freak-numbers-nerd like me. The bingo hall I went to wasn't full of white haired old ladies either. There were a lot of younger people there. Anyway, I ended up making it back to my hotel (which was on the east side of the sound, where bingo was on the west side - long drive) pretty late and I needed to be up pretty early to start the next day-thus, not much sleep (plus I have annoying insomnia issues that plague me often).

The day was spent on the Olympic peninsula checking out waterfalls in and around Olympic National Park. I have always loved that national park ever since I first visited it many years ago (maybe as many as 18 years ago??). One of the times I was up there, my mother and I had driven up to visit family and we all piled in the van and headed up to Hurricane Ridge. It was a good time. The waterfalls my companions and I visited this trip were Madison Creek Falls, Wolf Creek Falls, Mayrmere Falls, and Sol Duc Falls. You may or may not remember from a previous post that I had visited Madison and Marymere on my February adventure to Washington. The difference is that this time there was daylight when I was there!

Madison Creek Falls - Rating 3.75

I am sure this waterfall gets passed by all of the time because if where it is located. It is right next to an entrance
station for Olympic Nat'l Park so I bet people don't expect there to be a waterfall right there. I like this 45 ft waterfall though. It looked cool by flashlight the first time I saw it, and the daylight view is even better! It was neat to get up close and personal to it as well. We even saw a little cave on the hillside next to the waterfall. Unfortunately there was no easy way to climb up to the top of the falls so no pictures from the top.

Wolf Creek Falls - Rating 4

I will always have a special place in my heart for Wolf Creek Falls - the waterfall where I fell in. First of all, you have to drive on a one-lane dirt road to get to the trailhead. Once parked, the trail is pretty nice to get down to the Elwah River that Wolf Creek flows in to so that you can see the lower portion of the falls. There are a couple of spurs to the trail where you can get some pretty good shots of the lower section of waterfall from above as well. The upper portion remained obscured by trees, but I did get a little peak at it while I was taking a picture from the middle of Wolf Creek (after I was already soaked to the skin) . When we got down to the bottom of the trail there was no real way to get across the creek so that I could get a picture of the lower falls. I thought I would be slick and use a big branch to cross the creek. Well no sooner was I proud of the fact that I didn't get my feet wet by moving the branch in to a more usable position than I ended up sitting up to my waist in very cold water totally in shock. In fact, I was in such disbelief that I actually slipped off the log and fell in that it took me a good long time to actually get up out of the creek. I ended up with quite a nice bruise from that fall on my thigh - deep purple color tender to the touch. The fall must have looked pretty comical! Oh well, after that, I wasn't that tired anymore :-) What I should of done was take the advice from one of my companions to actually take off my shoes and wade up the creek that way to see it. But, noooo, I had to try to get fancy. I am just glad that I had some extra clothes in the Explorer and that it had a good heater!

Marymere Falls - Rating 3.5

I have to say that I actually liked this one better at night. I am not sure why I wasn't in to this one as much as the other waterfalls of the day but I wasn't. The trail leading to it is really wide and well maintained. It would be a great place to take kids. The waterfall itself was nice but I just wasn't really impressed. It drops 105 feet and it received a pretty high rating in two of the sources I used to look at waterfalls (my friend's book "The Waterfall Lover's Guide to the Pacific Northwest" and the website www.waterfallsnorthwest.com) but I just didn't get the high praise. It was neat however to get really close to it and that is why I rated it so high. There are thousands of little streamlets of water that flow out of a moss wall next to it and the upper portion of the waterfall jumps off the edge of the rock ledge before it crashes on to a rock outcropping about a third of the way down. I will probably stop by to see it every time I am up in the area but it will be mostly for the pleasant all around experience, not the wow factor of the falls.

Sol Duc Falls - Rating 4

I am not sure if I would have liked this waterfall as much, had I seen it later in the season at a lower water flow or if there would have been more people around. I read that this is a pretty popular waterfall and that it can get pretty crowded. The things that made me like it so much were: all of the snow that was around (very pretty!), the mist in the tall evergreen trees, the many little streams that flowed along the trail, and there weren't a lot of people around. This was by far the most powerful waterfall of the day. You could actually feel the ground vibrate with the force of the three sections of water pounding down 35 feet in to a small rock canyon.

Dinner that night was some pretty damn good pizza off of Higway 101. The day was a long one but full of great company and great scenery. I was actually so exaughsted by the time I got back to my hotel that I collapsed in to bed and slept through the night like a rock.

My meetings the next day went well and I ended up leaving in a hurry to get a couple of my co-workers to the airport in time for them to catch their earlier-than-mine flight. It turned out though that flights to SFO were delayed and I ended up leaving earlier than they did and before my original flight was supposed to leave. I would have had a pretty long delay had I gotten there any later.

So ends my tale of Washington Trip 2!

Waterfalls visited in March 2006 - Part 1 of 2

2006-04-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

I managed to see 9 waterfalls during the month of March - 1 local one and 8 during my second trip of the year to Washington state. It has been a very wet year this year so that has meant good news for me with my waterfall chasing!

Local Traipsing

The local waterfall that I saw was during the weekend of the 9th. We had such strange weather that weekend. It actually snowed down to sea level. I had some snow (that actually was sticking) in my front yard. I couldn't believe it... Snow! In my front yard! On Sunday, since it was nice weather (cold though), I decided to go see some of the local waterfalls that I hadn't gotten a chance to see before. The two that were on the list to hit were Pomponio and Tip Toe Falls. I haven't had a lot of luck with visiting these two waterfalls. I had been to Pomponio before last October but I didn't actually end up finding the correct location for the waterfall. This time, Pescadero Creek was running very high so I didn't make it to the base of Pomponio but I did get to see it from the top. The two waterfalls are in different parks (one in Memorial County Park the other in Portola Redwoods State Park) but Pescadero Creek runs through them both. They had all of the bridges down at Portola so I wasn't able to make it across the creek to the trail to Tip Toe. Oh well, I guess I will just have to go back to try it again.

Pomponio Falls - Rating 2

In addition to this shot, I got one from the top of this waterfall looking down as well. All in all this is a pretty little park to go walk around in, lots of nice coastal redwood trees. It is also not to far from my house. I have to say though that the little coastal waterfalls are no match for river waterfalls as far as wow factor goes.

Washington State - Trip 2 (Saturday)

I was in Washington from March 25th - 27th. I was attending a meeting at my company's Tukwila office (near Seattle), but I decided to extend my weekend up there so I could take a peak at a few more of the cool waterfalls there. I had a really busy three days that is for sure (I was up with very little sleep pretty much from Saturday at 7:30 am until Sunday around 10:30 pm - it was cool!). I flew up there Saturday morning and things didn't start out that well. My plane was 45 minutes late taking off and we had a pretty turbulent flight. The pilots tried to make up time and we only landed about 20 minutes later than we were supposed to so things were back on track. I picked up my rental car - a Ford Explorer this time - and headed to my hotel to drop my stuff off so that I could embark on the first waterfall trek of the weekend. The waterfalls that my companions and I went to on Saturday were Snoqualmie Falls, Weeks Falls, Middle Twin Falls, and Twin Falls. Up to this point during my waterfall trekking I have managed to stay mostly dry (except for waterfall spray that is!). The one exception is at Rocky Brook Falls where I took my shoes off to get to the slippery base of the fall. This weekend, however, started a trend of me ending up in the drink to one degree or another. On to the waterfall reviews:

Snoqualmie Falls - Rating 4

This waterfall is impressive. While I was there standing near it, I gave this a 3.75 rating instead of a 4. After consideration though I think it does deserve a 4. This is a pretty powerful waterfall. There are a couple of things about it though that take away from it being truly splendid. The first thing is that it is very touristy. In a sense it is nice that people can access it easily. For my money though I would rather have the waterfall all to myself (and the people I am hiking with of course). The second thing about it is that there is a power plant at the top of the falls and they have diverted water away from the drop. Other than that though, I can see why it is the most visited of the waterfalls in Washington.

Weeks Falls - Rating 3.5

With all of the waterfall visiting I have been doing lately, I have developed certain preferences for waterfalls that are part of rivers. Coastal waterfalls are nice to picnic next to but the real wow waterfalls that take my breath away are part of river systems. They just have a lot more power to them. This particular waterfall doesn't have much of the wow factor but it is a cool place to hang out. This is also where I slipped and got my feet wet, thus beginning my trend of getting a little to up close and personal with the waterfalls I visit. It would have been really cool to stand on that big log going over the river as well, but I was a bit gun shy from slipping earlier to actually get up there... Getting wet is one thing, breaking something is quite another. Contrary to some people's beliefs I am not completely crazy!! :-P This waterfall also has water being diverted from it.

Middle Twin Falls - Rating 3.75

The Twin Falls area is very enchanting. The way the water flows over the rocks just makes you want to linger for a while to take it all in. There are lots of cascades that lead up to the big drop of Twin Falls. Middle Twin Falls is just one section. There is an upper section as well but as we were a bit pressed for time, we didn't continue past the bridge.The bridge itself is very picturesque. I would like to visit this area again with more time so that I could take the trail I read about that goes closer to the bottom of Twin Falls as well as taking the trail we were on a bit further.

Twin Falls - Rating 3.75

I was wishing that I had a better camera so that I could capture the whole thing in one shot. It is really nice how the water sheets down the rock in to a deep pool. According to waterfallsnorthwest.com this waterfall is 135 feet tall. The trail to get here is very well maintained also so if any of you are in WA you should check it out. It is worth it. At some point I will definitely go back to investigate it more.

Stay tuned for part 2!

Randomness Part 1

2006-04-05T21:46:00.000-07:00

Isn't it funny how a single song can get you thinking and remembering all kinds of stuff? That is what happened to me tonight. I stayed later than usual at work today (7:45) and I just didn't feel like talking on the phone during my drive home like I usually do (I do a lot of my chatting and catching up/keeping in touch with people on the phone on my way home as many of you know - I like to use my bluetooth handsfree device that makes me look like I am part of The Collective - I get pretty strange looks when I am walking around SF with that thing on while I am talking even though it is not an uncommon occurence in the city for people to talk to themselves).

I had the greatest hits of Heart in my cd player and one of my all time favorite songs by them "There's the Girl" was on. This started me on a whole line of thinking because it took me back in time to when I was listening to Heart a lot. Mostly it got me on this whole I-need-to-get-back-in-touch-with-certain-people track. I guess I have been trending toward that anyway lately but with family mostly.

That train of thought took me down memory lane, as I was thinking of who I have lost contact with and wondering what they are up to now. I really consider my closer friends (even if I haven't seen them in years) to be a part of my extended family anyway so I guess it is not that much of a stretch to want to touch bases. Here are a few of the things that came to mind tonight that I feel like writing about...

I recently came across an old polaroid picture of me on the way to my Jr Prom when I was up in Kelseyville for my Great Grandma's funeral. I was so surprised that my great grandma had that picture, I don't even remember giving it to her, but there is was, in the stack with a bunch of other photos (man I loved that velvet and purple dress!) This got me wondering what Jason (my date for the evening) , his brother Nick, and another friend of mine (well almost like a little brother actually), Michael, are up to now. It has been eons since I talked to Jason or Nick. I guess I know pretty much what Mike is up to lately unless he has gotten married in the last year or so. My mom's old high school friend Gerri (her son is Michael and her jerk boyfriend at the time's brother is Jason and Nick's dad) was living on a 40 acre ranch near Lodi, CA (Yep, the same Lodi in the Credence song with the lyrics "oh lord, stuck in Lodi again") for a long period of time while I was growing up. My mom and I would spend a lot of weekends out there. It was a lot of fun traipsing out in the pastures getting muddy and following the creek, catching tadpoles or just plain walking in the water getting our shoes soaked, riding horses (or getting stepped on by one, and bucked off of one in my case), feeding the cows, playing in the barn, ect. I was probably around 8 to 12 years old when they were there, they moved to Lodi again later. Mike (when he was not at his dad's) and Jason and Nick (when they weren't at their mother's and when Carl would be visiting his brother - Brian the JERK) were all partners in crime intent on torturing the sweet little girl (me, in case you missed the reference :-P). Well I don't know how sweet I was actually, I was pretty tomboy-ish and I had to prove to those guys that I wasn't a sissy. They would do everything from stealing my shoes to trying to trick me in to going in the pond with the leeches. At least they got nicer to me as the years rolled on though and I did a pretty good job of keeping in touch with them for a long time.

Anne is another person I often wonder how she is doing as well. She has a bad habit of spamming me with patriotic emails but never answering the real emails I send to her. I went to Jr High and High School with her and she graduated the same year that I did. My friend Ryan actually launched her off the front of his car one night when a bunch of friends and I were all hanging out at my house (Ryan is lucky she didn't pound him to pieces for that!). She was also part of the infamous games of follow the leader where my arm almost got ran over and Ryan was in the spotlight (it was cold out there wasn't it Ryan!!). LOL!!

I also wonder how my old best friend Becci is doing. I wonder if she has any kids yet or not. She met her husband Jeremy because I had been on the same bus as his brother, Jon, when I went to the Soviet Union in 1992. Jon came out to visit his brother (who was in the navy at the time stationed in Alameda), and made the time to visit some of the California people who shared his bus (my bus included people from California and Illinois). Well, Jon, Jeremy, Becci, another guy who was on the bus as well, Sanjay, and I, all went to dinner at Sizzler and it was history between Jeremy and Becci from there! When they got married they eloped but I was there too for moral support. I was the photographer, the maid of honor, the witness, and the person who threw them their reception (dinner in Old Sacramento). It has been a long time since I have talked to her... I would guess that one of the last times I talked to her was at my wedding reception/party.

Well, I guess that is enough randomness for now. Too much thinking is bad for sleeping. For those of you who actually read my rambling post down memory lane, thanks for listening!

Waterfalls visited in February 2006 - Part 3 of 3

2006-04-01T18:59:00.000-08:00

This is the final post of my February waterfall visits. The last 5 were in northern California. This post is going to cover my trip to the northern coast.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

The original idea for this weekend was for it to be spent with my Auntie Eileen and my cousin Gina in Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park. Unfortunately, I have recently tended to forget that it actually snows in the mountains during this time of year and as such the waterfalls that I wanted to see there were not accessible due to road closures. The trip ended up being just me and Gina going up north to visit my dad over President's Day weekend. My dad, as always, was an excellent host. Gina and I got a chance to see Dad and his buddy Randy in action on the crab boat and we were present for the feast of fresh caught crab and muscles. TASTY!! Those guys really know how to put on a feast!

We spent Sunday waterfall chasing, enjoying the redwood trees, and basking in the beautiful weather up the coast (oh yeah, we ate lunch in Oregon too!). I only got good shots of three of the five waterfalls we saw that day - the pictures are below:

Trillium Falls - Rating 3

This waterfall sits in a small section of old growth forest that had been saved from being clear cut becaue it sat right near the mill (or at least that is what we were speculating was the reason). The hike was pleasant and there was beautiful light streaming through the trees. It is well worth the little side trip that it is when you are on the way to the famous Fern Canyon. I had been up in this area with my dad in 2004 searching out other waterfalls but we didn't end up making it out to this little jewel.

Middle Fork Falls - Rating 4.25

This is another waterfall that has the wow factor. I will definitely go to this one again. It is the kind of place that I want to take people to so that they can experience it as well. I would also like to go there when it is warmer so that I can dip my toes in to that pool (I would probably freak out if I actually tried to swim there though... I really don't like being in water in places where spooky creatures hiding under big rocks can grab my leg and drown me).

Unnamed Falls - Rating 2

I had my window down while we were driving back out down the forest service road from Middle Fork falls and I actually heard this waterfall before I saw it. It is a shame that I couldn't get the whole thing in the picture, what you see here is about the bottom two thirds of it. I paid for the shots I got of this waterfall too. I still have a light scar from the nasty scratch I got on my leg while I was going down the bank.

The other two falls we saw were pretty much right accross the Smith River from one another. The first one is called Highway 199 Falls by my waterfall book and the other is unnamed but mentioned in the book also. I really wanted to get closer to the H199 fall but I was talked out of it because it was a bit too challenging to get too (I guess my dad didn't want to get wet! - Can't blame him, that water was COLD and it was moving very fast) With my streak of luck lately I would have probably fallen completely in to the Smith River anyway had we tried to get over to it. :-)

That completes my February adventures!

Waterfalls visited in February 2006 - Part 2 of 3

2006-03-18T21:24:00.000-08:00

To recap, my February waterfall total is 15. The first post covered the six waterfalls I saw in Uvas Canyon. This post will cover:

WASHINGTON STATE, OLYMPIC PENINUSLA

While I was in Washington the weekend of the 10th, I saw 4 waterfalls - Falls View Falls, Rocky Brook Falls, Marymere Falls, and Madison Falls and climbed Mt Walker. I had a lot of fun seeing these four waterfalls and climbing Mt Walker with my three companions. It was an awesome weekend that I was sad to see end. There was a bit of a catch to the last two waterfalls that I visited during that Saturday though... I saw Marymere and Madison Falls at night so I didn't get good pictures of them, but, hiking with mainly the moon for light was pretty darn cool.

Falls View Falls - Rating 3

The first stop of the day was Falls View Falls. This waterfall was on the other side of the canyon so we were not able to get very close to it (too bad for me because the closer I can get the better!). It was a nice waterfall to take in though, the morning was really sunny and it was a great day to be outside breathing in fresh air.

Rocky Brook Falls - Rating 4.5

Rocky Brook Falls was a bit of a surprise. One minute you are walking down a pretty wide path next to a relatively flat but pretty creek, the next, you turn a corner and bam there it is! This waterfall definitely has the wow factor. It doesn't quite parylize you in wonder, but it does make you pause for a while to take it in. I have noticed (after having seen more waterfalls in WA in March) that the rocks/branches/logs around Washington waterfalls are pretty slippery. I took off my shoes to get close to the bottom of this one because it was way to slippery to go up there with my boots on.

Mt Walker, Madison Falls, & Marymere Falls

This was the order of visiting for the rest of that Saturday. Mt Walker was a 4 mile roundtrip, 2000 ft elevation gain hike on a really well maintained trail. The view from the top was quite nice as well (just watch out for the agressive birds!) Since Madison & Marymere falls were quite a drive from Mt Walker, we didn't make it in time to see them in daylight. Why waste an opportunity to see a waterfall though!!! We made the drive, so we had to make the hike. Fortunately these waterfalls were accessable via well kept trails and I am glad that I had the opportunity to see them from a different perspective. I also like to have the waterfall all to myself and it was good to see them away from the crowds.

Waterfalls visited in February 2006 - Part 1 of 3

2006-03-12T20:31:00.000-08:00

February's waterfall total was 15.

I had two amazing trips to Washington (count = 4) and Northern California (count = 5) bookended by two hikes to Uvas Canyon (count = 6).

UVAS CANYON COUNTY PARK

I visited Uvas Canyon on the 4th and then again on the 25th. The park is a bit out of the way to get too, but once you are there and the minute you see water, it becomes almost enchanting. There are six official waterfalls, but Swanson creek, which runs through the middle of the park, has a lot of little cascades as well. My waterfall book mentioned that it was a waterfall lovers paradise and I totally agree. Between the two hikes, I was able to see all six - Uvas Falls, Granuja Falls, Black Rock Falls, Upper Falls, Basin Falls and Triple Falls. My favorite is Uvas Falls with Basin Falls running a close second. Pictures are below with my ratings (please see my previous waterfall ratings post for descriptions of what the ratings mean).

Uvas Falls - Rating=3

I will visit this waterfall again. I saw this one on my second visit to the park. Water levels were down quite a bit from the first time I was there so I would be very interested to see this waterfall when there was more water present.

Granuja Falls - Rating=2.25

I gave this one a 2.25 (instead of just 2) because there is a very pretty little bridge that you can stand on for viewing. For that reason, and because you have to pass it anywhere you go in the park, I would go out of my way to see it.

Black Rock Falls - Rating= 2.75

I liked this waterfall a lot better the first time I saw it. In fact it was one of my favorites until I saw it for a second time. It looks better with more water in it. This photo was taken the first time I viewed it.

Upper Falls - Rating=3

This waterfall is fun to be around. When there is a lot of water the pool at the base of this waterfall looks really cool. When the water level is lower it is very therapeutic to sit at the top on some of the rocks up there.

Basin Falls - Rating=3

The approach to this waterfall really adds to the experience. Also, the closer you get to it, you see that there is an actual basin like pool at the base of the main fall. It also generates more wind than any other waterfall in the park.

Triple Falls - Rating=1.25

This one was really out of the way to get to. I have to say though, I will see this waterfall at least one more time. The author of the book I mentioned above said that this was her favorite in the park so I have to give it another chance to redeem itself.

Stay tuned for parts 2 & 3!

Memories of my Great Grandma

2006-02-26T20:54:00.000-08:00

A legacy has come to an end. I found out on Saturday that my Great Grandmother Amelia has passed away. She was in her early nineties (I don't recall if she was 91 or 92). It wasn't a complete surprise as her health has been deteriorating pretty quickly these past couple of years. I was told she passed away in her sleep.

What I want to do with this post is to share some (okay a lot) of the memories that I have of this feisty Portuguese woman that was my mother's mother's mother. For those of you who got to meet my Grandma Tees and spend some time with her, please post some of your memories of her as well! I also apologize in advance because some of the memories I have are somewhat fragmented and incomplete but I want to share them anyway.

I am not exactly sure where to begin. I guess that I can begin by saying that for most of my childhood I grew up living in a household with my mother and my grandparents, Jack & Audrey. This unique living situation enabled me to be exposed to a great deal of my relatives that I am not sure I would have had the chance to meet and get to know had I grown up living in a traditional mom-dad-kid/s type family. One of those relatives was my great grandma. I know that my mom has been pretty close to my Great Grandma since she was pretty young, and my Grandma Audrey was close to her as well and visited her mom a lot before she passed away in 97. What this really meant for me is that I also got to visit my Great Grandma a lot and hang out on her property and have her on some of our trips. Having said all that, I think I am just going to post my random memories of the times that I have spent with or around my Great Grandma.

My earliest memory was of my great grandma's house in Hayward when she was married to her second(?) husband Gary. It is funny, I can picture the house and I remember that Gary had a big white Oldsmobile Delta 88 in the garage that went to my grandpa when Gary passed away, but I don't remember anything else except for playing in the front yard as a little kid (I was pretty young).

Another early memory is that around Thanksgiving, Gary and Great Grandma (I will also refer to her as Grandma Tees) would come over for dinner and we would always watch "The Bluebird" starring Shirley Temple on TV.

I am not sure when Gary passed away, I don't recall his funeral, and I am not sure when it was that Grandma Tees moved back up to Lake County to her property in Kelseyville. I was pretty young. I do remember my Great Grandma's property before she bought her mobile home though and I also remember the mobile home being new and just set up. I also remember through the years going to the airport for our fancy celebration dinners (before they closed that restaurant). That restaurant was terrible, but the ladies liked it. I suppose I should also mention that the ladies consisted of my Great Grandma, my Grandma, and my Aunt Mary (great grandma's sister). Other ladies also included my Aunt Isabel and Aunt Barbara (also my great grandma's sisters), and Priscilla who was the painting teacher, at times. I also remember going to the Lake County fair to see if any of the ladies had won ribbons for their paintings.

I have tons of memories of playing down near the creek that runs next to my great grandma's property. Those poor pollywogs, they got terrorized by all of the grand and great grand kids! We would also come back from the creek with lots of rocks, obsidian mostly, since she lived at the base of a dormant volcano, Mt. Konocti. I am surprised that her house wasn't buried by rocks! She was a pretty good cook from what I remember. Her roasts that she made in her convection oven were the best. I am assuming she is the person who taught my Grandma Audrey to cook, who is the main person who taught me to cook and bake.

Great Grandma thought I was the biggest brat when I was younger and I admit that I didn't much care for her around same time. We both changed our minds about each other long ago. I am also glad that I was able to give her the opportunity to go to Kauai when Louis and I got married there. She never thought that she would ever go, but she had the greatest time! Who wouldn't, Hawaii is a great place! It was important to me that she be there because my grandparents (Jack & Audrey) had passed away and couldn't be. She was so cute in her Hawaiian mumu's.

I also have lots of memories of Grandma and Great Grandma playing Yahtzee, oil painting, canning all manner of fruits/jams/pickles, shelling walnuts and sorting them, all of the ladies speeding off to go play nickel machines at whatever casino we were at at the time, and hearing about how she won cake mix and other stuff at bingo at her church. There is just so much that she was a part of while I was growing up it is hard to list everything.

One of my favorite stories about her is the fact that she used to chase her kids around the dining table with a broom when they were bad. My Grandma Tees was all of 5ft and to picture her so mad at her mischievous children she would chase them with a broom is hilarious and always brings a smile to my face! Also in her wedding photo to my Great Grandpa she had to stand several feet in front so that they would both fit in the picture (my great grandpa was over 6ft).

In conclusion, my great grandma had a pretty good life. We have a picture somewhere of five consecutive generations living all at one time (Great Grandma Amelia, Grandma Audrey, Aunt Judy, my cousin Stephanie, and her son Alex). I know she is embedded in my memories and in the memories of many others. She will be missed. Thanks for listening.

Waterfall Rating System

2006-02-26T18:17:00.000-08:00

It has been suggested to me by several people that I should start my own waterfall rating system. That's a pretty good idea so let me explain how I am going to set up that rating system (and what makes it unique from other rating systems I have been exposed to).

It seems like most of the other rating systems take several criteria in to consideration such as location/difficulty in accessing the waterfall and/or volume, height, ect. I want to base my ratings on one thing... the way the waterfall makes me feel when I am standing near it. I have seen a lot of waterfalls in the last couple of years from famous waterfalls to little known unnamed waterfalls. Each waterfall has been quite enjoyable (well, as long as they had water in them) but there are definite differences in the way each one has made me feel.

So... my rating system is as follows:

5 - When you stand next to the waterfall all you can think is WOW with your mouth hanging open.
4 - The waterfall still has the WOW element but you aren't paralyzed in wonder.
3 - The waterfall is pleasant to look at and feels good to be around but doesn't have the WOW factor.
2 - The waterfall is nice and worth it to see once but I would not go out of my way to see it again.
1 - The waterfall is somewhat disappointing and unimpressive.

With that said, stay tuned for future posts with my ratings attached!

Waterfalls visited in January 2006

2006-02-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

My waterfall total for January 2006 is 2.

Castle Rock Falls

I visited Castle Rock Falls on the 15th in Castle Rock State Park. This waterfall has particular significance to me because it was the first waterfall that I ticked-off in my California Waterfalls book. That first visit was in July 2003. I have definitely come a long way fitness wise, this trail took everything out of me the first time I took it. It is a short trail (not even 2 miles RT) with only 200 ft of elevation change. It was really nice to see how much progress I have made, this time the trail was no difficulty at all, I just had a pleasant stroll!

Stairstep Falls

I visited this waterfall on the 22nd. This was the first time I had been to the other side of Samuel P. Taylor State Park (I had always been to the picnic area/campground). When I was younger, this park used to be one of my family's more popular destinations for camping and picnicking but I never knew that there was a waterfall here. I am glad that I took the time to see this waterfall. It was a really nice little hike to get to it.

Crazy Stats

2006-02-23T12:27:00.000-08:00

The last two weekends of my life have been awesome (and quite busy)! I have put together some stats of the things that I have accomplished:

States visited: 3 (WA, OR, & CA)
National Parks visited: 2 (Olympic & Redwood)
Waterfalls Seen: 9 (Falls View Falls, Rocky Brook Falls, Marymere Falls, Madison Creek Falls, Trillium Falls, Highway 199 Falls, Middle Fork Falls, and two unnamed falls in the Smith river drainage area of CA)
Miles driven: over 1200 (1000 in the BMW and the rest in the rented Xterra)
Peaks climbed: 2 (Sharp Point/Conical Rock & Mt Walker)
State Parks visited: several (Jedidiah Smith SP, Redwood SP, Humboldt Lagoons SP to name a few).
Redwood trees seen: Many! The CA north coast is full of redwood trees.
New discoveries, random facts uncovered, & goals made: Waterfalls give off negative ions, Gina was on a canoeing team in high school, and a goal was discussed to kayak the north fork of the Smith river in the summer of 2007.

I have to thank all of my traveling/adventuring companions the past two weekends for putting up with me and my crazy ideas (and for adding your own crazy ideas in some cases). Each one of you really added to the experience/enjoyment of the trip and it wouldn't have been the same without any of you!

Negative Ions

2006-02-22T19:07:00.000-08:00

For all of you wondering what negative ions are, here is the simple answer:

Negative ions occur in nature (around waterfalls, beaches, mountains, ect.) and when we come in contact with them, it makes us happy!

Well, okay, they are a bit more complicated than that, but basically according to my research (link below from webmd) negative ions help to increase levels of serotonin in our bodies, which help to alter our moods in a positive manner.

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/65/72756.htm?lastselectedguid={5FE84E90-BC77-4056-A91C-9531713CA348}

Negative Ion Addict just sort of fits me and is a great theme for my recent (and future) adventures. Thinking about it, I probably have always been a negative ion addict (and an adrenalin junkie)... I am sure that those of you who have know me for years can attest to that (especially those of you I went to high school with!). I just took some years off from my nature side to pursue activities that were more of the inside non-outdoorsy variety. You can only ignore stuff you like to do so long before you just have to restore balance! Admittedly, the pendulum may be swinging way to the opposite side at the moment, but I am enjoying myself immensely!

A welcome note

2006-02-21T23:13:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking of starting some sort of website or something so that I can post pictures and share the tales of my adventures for some time now. I am a bit too lazy to figure out how to program my own website, so, I guess for now, the solution is to start my own blog. I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I am going to enjoy writing it!