I made my way back to this lovely country. This time, I'm here mostly for work with a bit of fun sprinkled in for good measure. More to come when I have a chance to throw all the pics up online.
Tuesday 14 September 2010
Costa Rica 2010
I made my way back to this lovely country. This time, I'm here mostly for work with a bit of fun sprinkled in for good measure. More to come when I have a chance to throw all the pics up online.
Tuesday 7 September 2010
Labor Day Weekend
A Chinese vase from the "Hidden Symbols" exhibit at SFO (Terminal 3 presented by the Asian Art Museum). The SFO museums skillfully and successfully combine art & planes like no other airport I've frequented; something I'm beginning to learn more about with something that I've liked for as long as I can remember.
A long day in the office (well, the Vesta office...and not to mention being forced to eat dinner the night before at Jack in the Box due to a paucity of meal options upon arrival in Corona) meant that we earned a legit dinner at a good restaurant. Bonus points if you can tell where I ate at... (Hint #1: Volcano!)
Hint #2: Meat + fast hands.
Yeah, we ate at Benihana. Angela told them we were celebrating my birthday so they came out to sing.
Me and my green tea ice creams. Yum.
After spending a surfeit of time with Grant and hanging out with Kevin, Brad, Kim, Neil and Deryck too, I drove back up to the Bay Area in time for Nick's B-day. 生日快乐 (old man).
Short week and off I go. More on that later. Take care folks!
Wednesday 1 September 2010
Yosemite
Let's begin at the beginning. Gear for four people, four days and four nights (3 days/3 nights on the trail).
Here we are in Yosemite Valley in front of the Valley Visitor Center with Yosemite Point and Yosemite Falls (no water, but visible between the two trees at the center).
Our goal for the 3rd day of the hike, Half Dome, in the light of Golden Hour.
Our last meal at the Curry Village Grill: a veggieburger with grilled squash & fries and a plain old cheeseburger. I'll admit that I was quite underwhelmed by the meal.
We made up for the disappointing dinner with a scoop of bubble gum and a scoop of cookies & cream ice cream. Mari, Cazzie, the bear and I.
First day of the hike, all packed up and ready to go! See the happy looks on our faces despite knowing that we missed the bus to Tuolumne! Cazzie, Gerardo, Mari & Me.
And here, the sad face since we missed that shuttle bus. I'm holding a sign because we now have to hitchhike to Tuolumne.
Step 1: Catch the El Capitan shuttle bus to the farthest edge of the Yosemite Valley village area.
Hitchhiking in front of this scenery sure can lift the spirits. Cathedral Rocks in the background as our four-person group split up into pairs to make our way to Tuolumne.
Three rides later (first from an off-duty shuttle bus driver, second from a Yosemite High School teacher/beekeeper and third from a hiker who also studied abroad at Otago), we made our way to the Crane Flat junction 38 or so miles away from our final destination of Tuolumne Meadows.
Our last ride was with this couple from Charlotte, NC (Jason & Leslie). Here we are in front of Tenaya Lake, one of the many scenic stops we made along the way to Tuolumne. When we finally got there at 3pm, it turned out that Cazzie and Gerardo had been waiting there for two hours. Sorry guys.
Despite the late start, we made it onto the trail and began our journey to Sunrise Camp.
Cathedral Peak begins to rise above us to the east as we complete a tough ~1000' climb up the first portion of the JMT.
Gerardo, Cazzie, Mari & I taking a quick break to grab this photo of Cathedral Peak's Eichorn Pinnacle.
Tressider Peak with Upper Cathedral Lake. At this point, we've covered 4 miles of the trail (including some strenuous elevation gain), it has begun to cool down and we're losing sunlight quickly. We agreed this would be a beautiful place to camp for the first night despite being another 3.5 miles or so away from our original planned camp at Sunrise.
Despite not making it to where we wanted to be, we didn't really care all that much. The view of the lake during Golden Hour just made it all okay.
And then it got cold, so we decided it'd be best to get dinner started. Here's Mari dicing some onions for...
Chicken-guaco tacos: Sauteed chicken & onions with avocado and taco seasoning (homemade) on a corn tortilla. Surprisingly tasty; Maybe it was cuz I had just been brutalized by a long day of hitchhiking & hiking?
Bright and early in the morning, after a cold night's rest, here I go filtering water from Upper Cathedral Lake in order to make some breakfast.
Hot oatmeal, powdered milk and dried fruit. A hearty breakfast to get us ready for a long day of hiking (and making up some of yesterday's lost mileage).
Upper Cathedral Lake, Eichorn Pinnacle and some cold hikers on a chilly, high-altitude (~9000 feet) morning.
Sunrise Meadow, just in front of Sunrise High Sierra Camp where we were supposed to have spent the first night. We unfortunately didn't get great weather on the second day of the hike. You know it's not a great weather day when you constantly see a bit of snow floating through the air (not nearly enough to accumulate but definitely enough to notice).
Raincover on the pack, rain jacket & beanie on. Not the best day to hustle on the trail and push out 11 miles of total hiking. But we had to do it to get back on track.
Following some advice from a friendly individual at the Sunrise camp, we setup for the night near the junction between the JMT and the trail to Clouds Rest Summit which was only 0.5 miles away from the Half Dome trailhead (where we would head to the next morning).
The camera just can't quite do the colours justice...
Dinner on the second night also began with sauteed chicken and onions...
And became mango, lentil curry! An awesome meal (and I truly believe this isn't just my skewed "hiking taste buds", so to speak) that had an amazing amount of flavour. I would definitely make this again and not necessarily only on the trail either. Thanks to backpacker.com!!!
On our third (and final) day, it was time to conquer Half Dome. Thankfully the sun decided to come back out and grace us with its presence.
After a sickening number of switchbacks and some scrambling, we found ourselves on the sub-dome at the base of the cables. Daunting to say the least.
But this is what made it all worth it. A breathtaking view of Yosemite Valley from the top of Half Dome. Glacier point to the left, North Dome to the right and a glimpse of El Capitan in the shadows just left of center.
Mari & Cazzie are crazy. In my opinion at least. Can you see them in the photo?
We made it!!!
After completing Half Dome, the group split for the last time with Cazzie and Gerardo staying another night in Yosemite and Mari & I booking it to get home to the Bay Area at a decent hour (we made it back around 10:30pm including a stop at the friendly neighbourhood Applebee's in Manteca for those of you who are curious). Anyhow, on the long, knee-destroying descent back to the valley floor, we stopped along the Merced River for a bit of lunch.
From left to right, Half Dome, Mt Broderick, Liberty Peak and Nevada Falls. Words just can't really describe...
And almost all the way done! We made it down to very close to the end of the trail where the glorious sight of a water fountain and heavily tourist-ed bridge over the Merced River made for a nice feeling. At the aforementioned bridge, I actually ran into Gordon who happened to be there in the park as well. Of all the places to run into someone you know randomly...what are the odds?
We really made it all the way to Happy Isles from Tuolumne Meadows. Spectacular. As you can see in the picture, that's the look of two happy, tired backpackers.
And just to prove I wasn't hallucinating on the way back from Mt. Whitney last year when I thought I saw a NZ flag in a town called Chinese Camp, I had to take a picture of this. Maybe someday I'll stop in for a beer.
Not too sore from this multi-day adventure but I did come away with a slightly crook knee and a strong desire to get back out into the wilderness for a lot more hiking and camping. Oh dear do I have lots of gear I want to buy now and many more adventures I hope to go on in the not too distant future. Thanks to my travel companions and see you all outdoors sometime.
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