My new range arrived today but it doesn't quite fit in its slot and the plug doesn't quite reach the outlet.  So I need to have my handyman come in and fix things up.  I'm asking him to saw off a part of the ledge above the stove so it will fit and cut a whole in the cabinet so the plug can be pulled through it.  The plug right now has to be threaded under the cabinet and then up through a hole in the floor.  It probably could be done but it would have been very tedious and I decided I wanted to make it so it is easier to unplug in the future and bringing the plug directly into the cabinet will be much easier.  If I had appropriate tools I would be tempted to do it myself but I don't have the tools.

Albert, my handyman, will be here tomorrow at 2:30 pm.  So I have to take time off from work again.  Its annoying.  I wish the range had fit in the slot and was all set up.  But ... C'est la vie.  I also expect that Albert might not be able to do the actual work tomorrow.  This is more of a visit to find out what I need and give me an estimate for the work.  So I will have to make due with my toaster oven and my microwave oven for a few more days.  Ug.

New Range

My new range is supposed to be delivered tomorrow.  I hope the delivery goddesses are on my side and the range arrives when scheduled.  I'm always nervous about deliveries.  It seems like a fairly straight forward thing to do to deliver a range but then I don't know what the deliverer will be up to before my delivery time.  My delivery time is between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm.  I have brought home a pile of work so I can work at home while I wait for the range to arrive.  I really really hope it arrives at 9:30 am but I suspect it will arrive at 12:30 pm.  I have bad luck when it comes to deliveries being close to the beginning of a range of time.  What lucky soul gets that first delivery of the day!  I hope its me tomorrow.

I have purchased myself a GE 30" Free-Standing Electric Range.  I got myself a new range because I finally got tired of my old oven not working or rather only baking at 350 degrees F.  I broke my temperature setting knob in 2008 and have been stuck with only being able to have the oven at 350 for 3 years now.  My handy man Albert looked at it and the only way to fix it was to replace the entire thermal setting device (not just the knob) and that would have run me around $300.00.   I decided at that point that I might as well buy a new range.  It just took me 3 years to get the desire to purchase it and get it installed!!  I seemed to be happy with just using the stove, my toaster oven, and my microwave the past three years for my cooking needs.  Finally this fall the desire to bake combined with having saved up enough money for a range  conspired to push me to buy the range!

I think I shall go grocery shopping tonight and get chocolate chip cookie fixings so I can bake them in my new range tomorrow or the next day!   That will probably be the last baking for a bit.  I'm really not a cook.  It doesn't capture my imagination to dream about cooking stuff and come up with recipes.  I would rather dream up software or dream up new hikes or do a challenging jigsaw puzzle.  Cooking is just not high up there on things I like to do for fun.  If I cook, it is usually really simple easy stuff that doesn't require much planning or thought.

Snooze City

Its been a rather dull Monday.  The alarm went off at its usual time of 6 a.m. on a work day.  I muttered and moaned about it till 6:20 and finally hauled my butt off the bed.  I had a quick breakfast and got to work at 7 am.  I spent the day studying how code works.  Its a rather tedious chore but one that I need to get done.  I'm supposed to update the code so its important I understand how it works.  Its much more fun for me to design code and write code than to figure out how someone else's code works.  Although there is a sense of accomplishment once I do understand the code and successfully update it.  I think I have a couple more days of work before I will feel good delving into the code and making the needed updates.

I'm starting to think about Christmas shopping more seriously.  I have ordered 5 presents so far since mid October.  I'm planning on giving about 15 gifts mostly to my siblings, parents, nieces, and nephews.  We are a book loving family so probably most people will get books from me.  A few years ago we all did a book exchange at Christmas.  We exchanged books we already owned.  It was fun and affordable!  All we had to pay for was postage to get the books to each other!  It was also fun to get a peek into my siblings and parent's book selection and see what they read.  It does take lots of communication and a bit of work from everyone and I think that is why we haven't done it recently.

I'm struggling to keep myself exercising and eating well.  I get home from work and just want to collapse on the couch and read or watch TV.  I don't want to get into my gym cloths and head to the gym.  I know if I can get myself there I'll enjoy it.  I just feel draggy.  I hate to say it but it does feel like a touch of my chronic depression raising its head.  Ug!  I hope I can throw it off and get back to being more healthy.  Depression and exercise do and don't mix well.  They don't mix well in that the depression robs me of my motivation to exercise.  But they do mix well because exercise really helps the depression.

My Sunday

I got to sleep in today.  It was nice only I forgot to turn off my alarm from the day before set for 8:30 a.m.  So I woke up briefly at 8:30 and then turned over for some more sleep.  I only slept 15 or 30 minutes more and then got up to go to the bathroom.  I came back to bed and read for an hour or so before getting up for the day.  I'm reading a book about the Race Across America, an ultradistance bike race across America.  Its a fascinating book about the race and what motivates these folks and how much they suffer in this race.   I'm about two thirds done with the book.  I'm sure I'll finish soon as its very gripping.

I got up finally around 10 ish for a late breakfast and a nice cup of coffee.  I popped on the TV to watch something and discovered that the Family Channel was showing Harry Potter movies all day long.  I just finished the last book of the Harry Potter series yesterday and was sort of delighted to get to watch the movies and see how they match with the book.   They are showing 5 movies today.  I set my DVR to tape them.  I watched the end of the first movie and then started in on the second movie until it was time to turn off the TV and go to the Stanford women's basketball game.

The basketball game was fun.  Stanford played Gonzaga.  Gonzaga kept close to Stanford all first half and ended up one point a head at the half.  Whatever Tara said to Stanford during the half time break worked well and Stanford came out and started to dominate Gonzaga.  They won by 12 points in the end I think or maybe more.  It was a fun game to watch.  It is nice when your team wins but not so easily that the game is boring!

After the game I returned home for more Harry Potter.  I finished up watching movie number 2 and now I'm watching the thrid one, Prisoner of Azakaban.  I have movie 4 taped and movie 5 will start in 40 minutes.  I think I will let movie 5 tape too and watch both later this week.

Hidden Villa Hike

I led a hike at Hidden Villa for the Gay and Lesbian Sierrans today.  It was a very mellow hike on a gray but dry day.  The slightly dull weather seemed to cut down on the use of the Page Mill park and ride lot and for once we had an ordinary park-n-ride experience of meeting there and being able to park and then ride somewhere!  We reached the park at about 11 a.m. and I did my hike start spiel and we introduced ourselves. There were 7 people on the hike four women and three men.

We started out by hiking the Long Bunny Loop trail.  The trial starts out following the Bunny creek which in November was quite bone dry.  Not a water fall or creek to be found as we hiked up the trail.  It was very different than the spring time hike where the water was cascading over the rocks with a wonderful gurgling noise.  Now it was just quiet, but even with out water the creek was still beautiful.  At the top we stopped at a nice bench and had a water break and rest.  We had a view of the Hidden Villa valley from the bench that was nice.

We descended the Long Bunny Loop trail and had to take a slight detour at the bottom where a portion of the trail was closed due to a rattle snake den being near the trail.  This was the first time I have ever seen a trail closed for a rattle snake.  I thought it was cool to give the snake its space and keep people off the trail.  I assume that at some point the snake will leave this den and they can reopen the trail.  Our detour was easy and short though and we soon left the rattle snake den behind.

We hiked along the beautiful and relatively flat Adobe creek trail.  The Adobe creek was big enough to still have some water left in it.  We walked next to the creek and ambled along having fun talking and keeping an eye on plants.  Someone spotted a plant with white pods on it.  One of us said it was a berry plant of some sort.  It really did look rather alien.   Shortly after spotting this plant, we Adobe creek trail melted into the Ewing Hill trail and we climbed steeply to Ewing Hill.

On Ewing hill we found a flat spot on top of the hill and sat ourselves down for a nice lunch with a view of the valley below.   Lunch seemed to be dominated by people with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!  My co-leader passed out his traditional Dove chocolate candies at the end of lunch and we shared the little sayings written on the Dove wrappers.

After lunch we did very slight up and downs to make our way to the Hostel trail.  We had many views of Silicon Valley from the trails.  The valley was in the sun while we were still in the clouds.  It made for interesting views like the valley was being highlighted for us.   As we descended Hostel trail down many switch backs to Hidden Villa the sun started to creep out from behind the clouds.  We soon arrived at Hidden Villa and passed by the gardens and the hostel to the parking lot where our hike was finished.

It was a very mellow comfortable hike.  I think everyone had fun and were looking forward to the rest of the day to get chores done or just relax.  One fellow stayed at the park to scout out future hikes while the rest of us headed back to the park-n-ride and went our separate ways.

Its Veteran's day.  I am not close to any veterans.  My Father was a conscientious objector in World War II and served in the civilian public service camps rather than go to the war.  My Mom's brother was a staunch pacifist and refused to serve in or support WWII in anyway and was sent to jail.  My own brothers managed to be born in a time where they did not get drafted.  They were too young for Vietnam and too old for the Gulf War.  My ex-girlfriend had veterans in her family but I never got that close to them.   I wonder if the holiday means more when you are close to a veteran.  I expect it does.  I do appreciate all the veterans out there who fought in wars to keep the world safe.  I wish that fighting wars was not the way to make the world safe but as long as it continues to be so I thank the veterans for making that sacrifice and serving their country.

I did not get Veterans day off from work.  I used to get time off for it when I worked at NASA Ames Research center because it was a federal government facility.  Now I work for a commercial satellite company so no Veterans day off for me anymore.   It was always an odd holiday in that if it fell on a weekday, that was when we had the holiday.  So sometimes you got a day off in the middle of the week.   I rather liked it as it gave me a day of rest.  Usually holidays are smashed up against the weekend and I often have big travel plans for them and although its fun I get worn out.  With a random day off in the middle of the week, I usually just sleep in and enjoy being at home and getting rested.

Random Purposeless Questions and some Answers

The directions on frozen dinners say to carefully remove the dinner from the microwave oven.  Has this bit of instruction really prevented someone from carelessly removing the dinner from the oven and getting hurt?

How did the questions "what's up" come to mean what is going on?  I annoyed a friend of mine by always answering this question with "the sky".

What really provokes you but you find it hard to defend your reaction?  I have a strong reaction to anyone who talks to me about dressing a certain way to attain some goal. It seems like my reaction is over the top and I find it hard to defend why I'm so irked.

Has anyone ever thrown you a surprise birthday party and did you like it?  My Mom threw me a surprise party for my 18th birthday and I liked it.

When I have high expectations for travel, I often don't enjoy it as much as when I have low expectations.  When I was about 21 years old, I went traveling to Wales to a town called Portmeirion.  I had no clue what it was about but one of my chums wanted to go there.   It turned out to be a really fun unexpected surprise.   Have you ever had this experience?

How many things can you think  of that you could "come out" about?   Have you or would you want to come out about them?

Do you have a favorite blanket?  I do.  Its a lavendar fuzzy down comforter.  I like the fuzziness and the warmth!

Are you a bumper sticker fan?  My car has no bumper stickers while my last one was rather plastered with them.  I have been going back and forth on whether to add bumper stickers to my current car.

Go with the flow

I don't seem to be able to settle on one particular thing to write about so I guess its yet another go with the flow post and just see what comes out on my key board.

I have been thinking about the movie "Its a Wonderful Life" today.  I wonder what the angel would show me.  Whose life have I touched in a way that made them go in the right direction when if I hadn't been there they would have gone the wrong direction.  I'll never know but I really would like to know.  Sometimes I do feel like if I wasn't here, no one would really notice.   That seems a bit maudlin.  Am I just fishing for people to tell me I'm important and matter to them??  Probably.

Its Wednesday night and as usual I'm sleepy.  I routinely stay up too late and so as the week progresses the sleep deficit builds up.  I love to stay up to 11 p.m. and watch TV.   Then I get in bed and feel compelled to read for about 30 minutes or until I can't keep my eyes opened.  So I don't usually get to sleep till 11:30 p.m.  Then I'm up at 6 a.m. for work.  6 hours and 30 minutes of sleep a night is not quite enough sleep for me.  By Wednesday or Thursday, I'm yawning lots and telling myself I should get to be bed early but rarely do I listen to that sensible advice.

I took a four mile walk at Palo Alto Baylands tonight.  I started at 4:05 p.m. and finished at 5:25 p.m.  It was beautiful as the entire walk was during sunset and the start of moonrise.  I especially liked it when the sun dipped behind the Skyline ridge and turned the sky a wonderful pinky red color.  I plodded along and just got to look and look at the sky.  Then I peered to my left and there was the moon rising and it was reflected in the bay also.  It was quite incredible to see sunset to the right and moonrise to the right.  I also saw coots, ducks, and pelicans on the water.   Moments like this make me appreciate life more.  Its amazing that I live somewhere like this where I can be admiring the ocean, mountains, etc. just minutes from home.

My Dad

My Dad's birthday is this Thursday.  He and his twin brother were born on Nov 10, 1923 in Changsha, China.  Uncle David came out first followed by my Dad.  My Dad is not Asian though.  He was born in China because his parents were there as Missionaries.  He spent the first two years of his life in China.  He doesn't remember any Chinese but he does remember growing up in Seattle Washington and having Chinese immigrants stay in their house and his Mother ended up using her contacts in China to open a Shop of China in Seattle WA and became a very competent business woman which helped the family get through the depression.  In China my Dad's nickname was Di Di and my uncles nickname was Go Go.  I'm not positive but I think Go Go is the first twin born and Di Di the second twin born.  My cousins call my Dad Uncle Di Di and I sometimes call my Uncle David, Uncle Go Go.  And I believe they called each other these nicknames all through their childhood.

My Dad was a mountaineer and skier as a young man.   He hiked to the top of Mt Rainier and skied down it!  He backpacked all over the Cascades and Olympic National park in Washington state.  He would tell us stories about building shelters and cooking over fires all of which now are considered not environmentally sound.  He had no fancy light weight equipment.  He carried an army rucksack and cooked dinner in a number 10 tin can with the lid taken up and a wire threaded through it to serve as a handle.  The food was usually plain rice and beans.  I don't envy him not having the modern comforts of backpacking but I do envy how wild the wilderness was when he was out adventuring.  He didn't have to worry about getting permits or reserving campsites.  He and his friends could hike for days without seeing another party.   I envy that.  It would be so nice to have the wilderness to myself for a bit of time like that.  It can be done now but you really have to work at it to find a vacant area.

My Dad became a historian.  He went to Washington University and Whitman College.  He got his PhD at Cornell University and three of his kids followed in his footsteps at Cornell (but not in history): me and my two brothers.  And now his grand daughter and a grand nephew has also gone to Cornell.  He met my Mom while at Cornell and they fell in love and got married in 1952.  He then worked as a professor at Ohio State University for 30+ years.  He wrote 4 books and many papers and managed to publish and not perish!  So yours truly grew up in Ohio.  

His has been retired for a while now.  I lost count.  I think he retired at 67 so that means he has been retired for 21 years.  At least he retired from teaching.  He continued to write history till a couple years ago when he finished his final book.  He is now looking for a publisher for it.  Its hard as the publishing world has changed a lot since he started this book.  He would dearly love to get it published but he is not having much luck.  I hope he finds a publisher eventually.  I think he mostly just enjoyed writing it over the last 10 years or so.  Sometimes it stressed him out a bit but it kept him  motivated and happy in his retirement.  Now he enjoys doing less intense writing.  He writes us kids once a week.  He writes lots of letters to the editor for the local newspaper.  I very much look forward to his weekly letters.  He has been writing us letters since we left for college.  That's nearly 30 years of weekly letters!!  Now that's a blogger, eh?

Lag Time

Uh oh.  I'm beginning to lag in when I write my daily posts.  At the start of the month, I had 2 done in advance for the first two days.  Then I had one in advance.  Then I did the posts in the morning.  Now I'm doing the post in the evening.  We'll see if I can stop the lag and meet the goal of blogging daily in November.  I'm really not quite sure why I am doing this.  I'm not terribly concerned with becoming a better writer.  I'm not that concerned that people are reading my writing.  I just like to ramble on and write stuff and I like to be part of a bunch of people who have committed to writing daily.  Eee Gads.  I am succumbing to peer pressure at my age?  Whatever, I'm enjoying myself and that's good.

Just finished a one hour workout.  All last week I did not make it to the gym so I wanted to start this week off on the right foot and get in a workout.  I did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine and 30 minutes on the treadmill.  It was quite uncrowded at the gym on Monday at 4:30 p.m.  I didn't think I would get to exercise on my favorite elliptical machine.  My favorite machine is in front of the TV with the sports on it and it is well lubricated and does not make lots of squeaky noises as I pump up and down on the pedals.  I burned 330 calories on the elliptical machine and 250 calories on the treadmill for a grand total of 580 calories.  That's a decent workout!

Now its time for dinner.   I have some pork which I'll probably microwave.  And some asparagus to microwave too.  I'm a lazy cook.  Whatever is quickest, least effort, and uses the least dishes is usually how I roll .  I sacrifice taste for ease of cooking.  Maybe when I get my new range, I'll be more motivated to really cook something.  I bought the range 9 days ago but it has not been delivered yet.  I'm hoping it arrives this week.  I have a call into the appliance store asking about the latest status of it.

After dinner I'll settle down to Monday night TV.  I suspect I'll be bouncing back and forth between the Sing Off and Dances with the Stars.  Its going to be a light night of TV watching.  I have my DVR set to record both shows.   I start watching one show till the first set of commercials.  Then I watch the other show (via DVR) till the first set of commercials, when I return to the other show till commercials appear, etc. etc.  Two weeks in a row now I have been able to watch both shows in a little more than 2 hours and see no commercials!   Its a kick!

Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve hike

The hike at Sierra Vista Open space was meant to be a grand exploring adventure today of originally 15 miles but now changed to 10 miles.  The intrepid hiking crew of me, S. and E. all showed up promptly at 9:30 at the Rustic Lands parking area in Alum Rock park.  It wasn't that rustic but there was lots of land around.   We bundled up a bit as it was a cool morning, put on some sun screen, visited the restrooms and then headed off on our adventure.

We started on trails at Alum Rock: North Rim and Todd Quick trails.  At the end of Todd Quick trail we reached Sierra Vista Open Space preserve.  We went through the gate (to keep the cows in the right place) and found the Bocardo Loop trail.  We decided to do the loop in a clockwise direction in order to do the steeper section uphill and the less steep section downhill.  The Borcardo trail was very exposed with wonderful views of San Jose in the distance.  We got rained on twice as we made our way to the top of Borcardo but it was not very light rain and went away quickly.

When we reached the top of the Borcardo loop we were excited to find the new Sierra Vista trail and start our exploration of the trail.  Alas we were thwarted in our attempt.  The heavy rain of the night before resulted in the trail being closed.  What a bummer to hike 3 miles uphill and not get to see the trail that was the whole motivation to hike here.  Oh well.  We obeyed the sign and decided to head up to the top of Borcado hill to have lunch and enjoy the view.  It was a wonderful lunch spot but we ended up finishing up lunch quick when the wind started to blow and we got cold.

We headed back down the Borcado loop trail on the less steep bit.  It was a wonderful section of trail that took lazy long switch backs down to the loop beginning.  When we got back to where the Todd Quick trail intersects the Borcado loop trail we decided to add some miles to our shortened trip by exploring the Weather Loop and more of the North Rim trail.  These trails took us down to the Penitencia creek trail.  It was only an extra mile but was fun.  We arrived at our cars at 2 p.m.  In all we hiked for 4.25 hours with about an hour stopping time for lunch, admiring views, and finding some geocaches.  We hiked 7.38 miles according to my GPS.

All in all it was a marvelous hike but disappointing that we did not get to explore the newest trails of Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve.  S. and I may return later this month or in December to try again.  Unfortunately E. doesn't have free time for further exploration till January.

Random Writing

I'm not sure what to write about today.  I guess I'll just let it flow and see what comes out.  I got to sleep in today.  It was nice.  I initially stirred at 6:45 a.m. and had the wonderful realization as I peered at the clock that I did not have to get up and could just turn over and sleep some more.  I slept about one more hour when biology got me up.  If its light outside, I have not managed the art yet of getting up to go to the bathroom and not waking up.  So once I was up to take care of biology, I was up for the day.

I have spent my morning so far puttering around doing little stuff and watching TV.  I have gathered all the dishes from my dining room table and coffee tables in the living room and put them in the sink.  I have gathered various junk mail and shred it with my trusty shredder.  I folded up the cloths I was drying on the dryer rack ready to be taken upstairs.  I messily sewed a rip in the couch cover.  It is a see and do morning.  I saw something that needed doing and did it.  

I have been watching reality TV this morning.  I watched an episode of Flip This House and now I'm watching an episode of Hoarders.  Unlike other episodes of hoarders these two folks seem to be much cleaner.  They have clutter but no really disgustingly dirty stuff in it.  Well, they haven't really gotten to the bottom of their piles yet so maybe I'll see icky stuff later in the show.

At 1 p.m., I'm off to go see Stanford women's basketball.  They play an exhibition match against Vanguard.  I got to see them play last Wednesday night against UCSD.  That one was a blow out.  They won 106 to 56.  I wonder if this one will be the same or if Vanguard will do better than UCSD.  Stanford has six new freshman on the team this year and it was fun to watch them play on Wednesday.  I also enjoy seeing the upper class women play and see who takes over the leadership position on the team.

After the basketball game, I will get ready for the hike tomorrow.  My hiking buddy and I are going to do some geocaching while on the hike so I need to get the caches loaded into my GPS.  Oh and I need to do laundry tonight.  My hiking trousers are in the washer from last weekend.  I always dump them in the washer after a hike to wash off any poison oak oil I might have rubbed on during the hike.  I'll pack my maps into my backpack and pack a lunch.  Which means I need to go the grocery store as I have no bread for a sandwich.  Plenty to do!

Asexuality and Intimate Relationships

As an out asexual, I get asked how my relationship with another asexual would be any different than just being friends with that person.   Being asked this question makes me sigh inside.   It rubs me wrong.   I find it devalues friendship with the word “just” and it seems to indicate that I can’t have a intimate relationship with someone if I don’t want to have sex with them.  

Just what are intimate relationships? There is physical intimacy.   There is emotional intimacy.  Must an intimate relationship be physically and emotionally intimate to be a true intimate relationship or can an intimate relationship be just emotionally intimate?  Does physical intimacy have to include sexual intimacy or can it be physical intimacy like cuddling that doesn’t involve sex?  For me, an intimate relationship is mostly emotionally intimate with a component of non-sexual physical intimacy.    I don’t believe sex has to be a part of an intimate relationship to make it legitimate.

But that still begs the question of how my relationship with another asexual would be different than a friendship.    Well, first off, it might not be different. It really depends on how you define friendship.  If part of your definition of a friendship is declaring that you love each other and only want to be with each other and put care for each other first before family or other friends, then my vision of my asexual relationship will be no different than a close friendship!   I’m cool with that.  Friendships can be as deeply intimate as any other kind of relationship!  But if that is not how you view friendship, then my asexual relationship is different than “just” being friends with the person.  

Planning Hikes

I thought I would write about how I come up with hikes today.  When I first started, I got most of my ideas by going hiking on Sierra Club group hikes and other group hikes.  Someone else actually did the picking and route planning and I just showed up for the fun.  And then later, I led the same hikes myself.  I also co-led hikes where I was the assistant and did the sweeping on a hike (hiked in the back of the group and made sure we didn’t lose anyone) and learned the hike that way.   I also bought myself hiking guide books to the San Francisco bay area and would lead the hikes described in them.  After doing many hikes this way, I got my hike leading experience.

Now I often pick hikes by picking a park and looking at the trails in the park on a trail map and finding a route to do.  Then I call on a hiking buddy to go scout the hike with me and see if its any good.  To tell the truth this is my favorite part of the whole process of planning and leading a hike.  I love going somewhere new and seeing whats there and finding the route.  I also pick new hikes through word of mouth from other hike leaders.  They let me know about really cool hikes and I’m off to the races to hike there.

The latest hike I am investigating I found out from a newspaper article in the San Jose Mercury news.  A new portion of trail was completed recently that connects Alum Rock Park to the new Sierra Vista Open Space preserve in southeastern San Jose.   I’m now dying to go out and see it and I found some crazy friends that are willing to give it a go with me on Sunday!  The reason I say crazy friends is its a challenging looking route: 15+ miles and around 4000 feet of elevation gain.  We’ll have to move fast enough to avoid finishing up the hike in the dark.  Three of us will attempt it.   One friend has said she may bail on the hike if its too much.  If both bail on me, I’ll bail too as I do not do tough challenging hikes solo.  Its just too much risk.  I don’t want to be stranded with an injury and no way to contact someone to come help me (I never count on there being cell phone reception in the wilderness).

Caste Rock State Park hike

This past Sunday, Oct 30, I met my friend L, and we went hiking at Castle Rock State park.  This is a state park that was on the list of California state parks slated to be closed next year (2012) to save the government money.  I want to be sure and hike there lots before it closes.  When we arrived there, the parking lot was nearly full and the off street parking was also filling up.  We parked across the street about 50 feet from the entrance.  The ranger actually asked us to move the car.  L had parked it parallel to the street and the ranger requested she park it perpendicular.  L decided to park across the street as there was a big ditch on the side we were on and she did not want the nose of her truck to get stuck in the ditch.  

After getting the parking figured out, we walked to the restroom and then headed out to the Ridge trail.  The first beautiful sight you get to see on the Ridge trail is a deck built right next to a water fall.  We went out on the deck and admired the view of the falls and the view from the ridge top.   We had the deck to ourselves for the short time we were there.  We then continued on the Ridge trail with our eventual destination being the Castle Rock campground.  I love this portion of the Ridge trail.  It meanders slightly up and down and has many many lovely views of the mountains and valleys of the Santa Cruz mountains  At one point it has a cable set up to help one scramble up a rocky portion of the trail.  I love rock scrambles so felt right at home.

We soon arrived at the campground and discovered that the old trailer with a make shift office in it had been removed since the last time we ventured here.  Instead there was a nice picnic table in its place.  We chose to sit at the other older picnic table in the shade.   Soon another party of hikers showed up.   This was a collection of adults and boys.  The boys were very rambunctious and were having the time of their lives hitting trees with sticks while the adults settled at the picnic table to eat their lunch.

After lunch we retraced our route back to the car.  We enjoyed the hot afternoon sun shining on us when we reached the exposed sections of the Ridge trail.  We had gotten a little chilled sitting in the shade for lunch.  There is nothing quite like hiking on a beautiful trail with the sun warming you up and the blue sky making for stunning views.  It was so peaceful and so toasty warm.  We got back to the car at around 2:30 p.m.   We probably hiked about 6 miles.

Pictures from the hike are at https://picasaweb.google.com/cdrdash/CastleRock_1030_11?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIHe1PmCxcr0Dw&feat=directlink

Russian Ridge Hike Report

Last Saturday I went on a hike with the Loma Prieta Gay and Lesbian Sierrans at Russian Ridge. Russian Ridge is the park at the top of Page Mill Road above Palo Alto. Our trip started with an adventure in the park-n-ride lot. Six of us showed up at the appointed time to car pool to the park from the Page Mill Park and Ride lot just off highway 280. I got there first and there was not a parking spot to be found in the lot. I decided to hang out in my car for a while to see if someone would leave and a spot would open up. While I was doing this I saw a woman walking across the parking lot. She came to my car and said hello and asked if I was there for the hike. I’ll call her M. I asked where she parked and she had driven up the road a ¼ mile and found street parking and had just walked back to the lot. As we were chatting four more folks showed up for the hike each in their own car. We had one of those group moments of confusion as to what people should do since there was no parking.

In the end these folks headed off to the street parking that M had found. I volunteered to stay at the lot in case anyone showed up. As M and I were standing there waiting, my cell phone rang and I pulled a typical blunder on my part and tried to answer the phone with the “hang up” button. So I hung up on someone obviously calling from the street parking to coordinate with me. Poor M got to witness me struggling with my cell phone that I rarely use and cursing the fact that I couldn't figure out how to phone this person back!! As I was doing this, the hike leader showed up in her car and told us that she would wait at the lot and we should go to the street parking area. So off M and I went to the street parking. We arrived and a few minutes later the hike leader showed up. There was enough parking at this street location for all our cars. We finally got organized and tumbled into 2 cars to car pool to the park. I do believe it is time to give up on this particular park in ride lot as a hike meeting location.

The drive to the park was up a narrow twisty road. As we started up we saw a deer with brand new horns growing in. We had to make our way slowly up the road as it was full of bike riders and blind corners. So we had to slow down to the bike rider speed till we got around these blind corners and see that it was safe to pass them. I had volunteered to drive and my passengers said they were glad of it as they don’t like to deal with twisty roads and bikes! I just poked along up the road and only passed the bikes when it was safe to do so. We got to the park in about 30 minutes. Thankfully there was plenty of parking in the Russian Ridge lot!

We all visited the rest room and then headed out on our 5.5 mile hike on the ridge top. We hiked up a mild hill and had marvelous views of Silicon Valley to one side and the Pacific ocean and Portola Valley to the other side. The wind was blowing hard on the ridge and we saw a young girl having fun flying a kite. After about an hour of hiking we reached a wonderful deck built by a boy scout troop on the hill where we had lunch. The sun was out and the sky was a pure blue but the wind blowing over our now sweaty shirts gave us a chill at lunch. Some of us pulled on our windbreakers to stay warm. After lunch we headed back on different trails. We dove into the woods at one point where I had to be careful of poison oak. Its easy to spot in the fall when its often a bright red color. In the woods we stopped to oogle at a very large lizard. Lizards abound on the trails in the bay area parks but this particular lizard was huge and worth stopping to look at. After the lizard siting we came out of the woods and had pleasant half mile climbing up the hill and then descending to the parking lot.

The trip back to the street parking was easier as the bikes had pretty much left the road by the mid afternoon. I dropped off my riders at our street parking location and headed home for a nice warm shower followed by an impromptu nap in front of the TV!

Pictures from the hike: https://picasaweb.google.com/cdrdash/RussianRidge_10_29_11?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNHqwdys4cGDbg&feat=directlink

Henry Coe Vasquez Peak hike

Yesterday I went on a 13 mile hike almost to Vasquez Peak at Henry Coe State park with the gay and lesbian Sierrans. After three weeks of resting my right ankle which I sprained on Sept 4, I felt ready for a long challenging hike. I discovered two things: resting for three weeks and not exercising much at all erases some of the conditioning I built up with all that training for the Whitney hike in the summer and my ankle was not as healed as I thought.

We started our hike on a nice flat section of the park in Hunting Hollow. We crossed three bone dry creeks till we reached the Lyman Wilson trail junction. We then pealed off to start the long uphill 2 miles up the Lyman Wilson trail. It was on this uphill climb that I realized how much conditioning I had lost due to the three weeks of resting the ankle and getting very little exercise. I was puffing on the steep hills but it wasn't as bad as the puffing on Whitney! I enjoyed all that wonderful oxygen at altitudes below 3000 feet! The ankle seemed to be holding up really well on the up hill hike. Lyman Wilson ended at the junction with Steer Ridge road. We then had a short flattish bit on the ridge trail head to a nice looking lunch stop under a big tree with a nice view of Hunting Hollow way down below. Lunch was uneventful except for an aggressive squirrel that ran past our packs hoping for a snack. It ran into the back of one of the hike participants and gave her a small fright. I saw it dashing off after she cried out.

After lunch we headed down the Steer Ridge trail to Vasquez Road which we took to the Long Dam Trail. At that junction we were about 1/8 of a mile away from Vasquez Peak but we decided to skip seeing the 2210 feet peak as the hike leader, R., said it was just a boring flat peak with not much more of a view than we already had. On this section of trail I discovered that my ankle was not as healed as I thought. Going downhill was hard on it and the Vasquez Road and Long Dam trails were not very well maintained. Lots of grass was growing on the trail and it hid little gullies. I nearly tweaked it about three times before I figured out I needed to slow down and set my right foot down carefully in the long grass. The ankle didn't hurt at all but it did feel weak and my lower leg muscles were complaining with the compensating they were doing to protect the weak ankle. When I wasn't staring at the ground on these trails, I did enjoy the views of Edith and Long Dam ponds. And because I was staring at the ground I spotted a praying mantis bug. I had never seen that a Henry Coe before. It was cool!

At the end of Long Dam trail we got on to the Wagon Road trail and much better maintained old ranch road. I didn't have to watch where I set my right foot down any longer. That was a relief. We descended down the Wagon Road trail to yet another bone dry creek crossing. Then we headed up a mile to the Phegley Ridge trail. We took a rest at the intersection and saw some other hikers who asked about water. They had not brought quite as much as they thought. Unfortunately I don't think they were going to find any water on the trail. I hope they got back OK and were not too dehydrated. Its a hot dusty park in the fall. I drank all my water (2.5 liters) on the hike. After a rest we headed off on the Phegley Ridge trail. It started with a mild uphill section and then it started to go down down down to Hunting Hollow. There were several really steep descents and this was just killer on my ankle. I had to go at a snails pace to maintain control so I didn't lose balance and have to land hard on my right foot. My right ankle and leg started to ache a bit. I was very relieved when we finally reached Hunting Hollow and only had 2 miles of flat hiking on a well maintained ranch dirt road.

I was running on fumes those last two miles. It reminded me remotely of the end of the Whitney hike. There is something weird in my personality that likes to push my body like this and meet hiking challenges. I am glad that my ankle came through OK but realize that next time I probably should choose a slightly less challenging hike only three weeks after spraining an ankle! It was good to finally reach the cars and be able to rest. We drove back to our car pool location and then I had to drive myself home. Much to my chagrin I got stuck in traffic on the way home. There was a concert at Shoreline that I didn't know about and I did not get off the freeway in time to avoid the backup at the Shoreline exit. I managed to get off at the exit before Shoreline but I was stuck in stop and go traffic for about 20 minutes. Arg. It was good to finally get home and have a hot shower and then sit down to a nice dinner of Mac-n-Cheese!

Pictures from the hike are at https://picasaweb.google.com/105234689104952250166/HenryCoeVasquez_9_24_11?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNHh5Jro_qSlCg&feat=directlink

Mt Whitney Adventure!

Bob, my brother, and I made it to the top of Mt Whitney at 1:15 p.m. August 30, 2011. We got up at 2:00 a.m. and were on the trail at 2:30 a.m. We hiked for around 3 and 1/2 hours in the dark. It was a bit surreal to be hiking with just the light of our headlamps showing the trail. It was just a lot of uphill hiking without the benefit of wonderful views. We did hear lots of water and had to cross several streams on logs and by rock hopping. It was nice when the sun finally rose and we could put away the headlamps. We reached Trail Camp around dawn I think.

At Trail Camp, I felt altitude sickness. I was slightly nauseous and not hungry. Bob also felt the altitude and was a bit dizzy. We sat there for a long time resting and I was thinking about quitting and turning around and going back. Bob finally spoke up and suggested we keep hiking till noon and turn around if we were not close to the top. I agreed to that. Then I used the WAG (Waste Alleviation and Gelling) bag to take a dump. I had hoped to not need to use the WAG bag but I'm glad I did use it as I started to feel better after doing the deed. The WAG bag was designed well though as it was not too hard to use and once packed away in the opaque olive colored zip lock bag did not smell or anything. It was rather bizarre to know I was carrying my own poop along with me to the top of Whitney! Its a requirement to hike Whitney that you pack out your waste.

We started hiking up and up the switch backs to Trail Crest. I didn't count them but someone else on the world wide web did and reported that 97 switchbacks wind back and forth gaining 1,600 feet in 2.2 miles. It was a slog. We just kept going back and forth and back and forth. I had to rest often to catch my breath. The hardest thing for me was when I had to take a big step up. I dreaded running into those big rocks I had to really pull myself up. It just took my breath away and I would have to pause to let my heart rate reduce and to get some much needed air. Bob never complained about my stopping but I expect he needed the rest too! At Trail Crest there are some pretty spectacular views. Its a pass of sorts so we now could see behind the other side of Whitney that was invisible until we reached the crest.

After trail crest there is a small section of down hill trail. You would think that would make me happy but it did not. I wanted it to be entirely up hill all the way to the top so on the way back I wouldn't have any uphill. Oh well. We descended to the intersection of the Mt Whitney trail with John Muir trail. We stayed on the Whitney trial and now had 1.9 miles to the top. About half way up this 1.9 miles it was noon. Both Bob and I decided that we were not turning around and heading back since we were almost there. We kept on and made it to the top of Mt Whitney at 1:15 p.m. I was so exhausted on top that I just wanted to sit and rest a while before I stood up to wander about and admire the views. I finally did wander about and took some photos. We stayed up there about 15 minutes. The views are just awesome from the highest point in the lower 48 states!

The hike down was a study in putting one foot in front of the other and just keep going. That downhill portion I complained about was a bit tortuous for me on the way up. I would go a few steps and have to stop to breath for a while and then continue on. Bob went ahead of me and when I finally got to the top of this little section of trail, he gave me a hug. That made me feel better! Bob said it well towards the very end of the down hill that his legs were just programmed to keep moving. We did get the satisfaction on the way down of seeing the bottom portion of the hike that we did in the dark. Surprise, there was a beautiful water fall. And surprise there was Mirror Lake and Lone Pine lake.

However, the last hour of the hike was in the dark again. At about 8, it got too dark to see the trail so we put on our headlamps again. We did however, scout the bottom portion of the hike the day before we did the hike. My friend, Tina, suggested we do that. We got lots of good pictures on that little scout of the bottom portion of the hike that we would end up doing in the dark both going out and coming in. The last bit of the trail seemed to go on forever but we finally stumbled into Whitney Portal, where the trail begins and our car was parked, at 8:50 p.m.

After a pit stop and throwing the WAG bag in the human waste disposal bin we headed to the car. We drove to our campsite and packed up everything into the car and headed to Lone Pine to the Comfort Inn. We each had a nice hot shower and then attempted to go out to dinner. We had no luck. Lone Pine pretty much shuts down after 10 p.m. on a week day. We ended up stopping at a gas station with a mini-mart. Bob got some beer and I got some chips and a soda. We returned to the motel and sat and talked till we were done with our "dinner". We were so tired that I don't think either of us really cared that we didn't get a proper dinner. We enjoyed having real beds to sleep on that night after having spent the last four nights at campgrounds.

Yosemite Hiking, June Lake Camping

I had yet another marvelous weekend hiking at high altitude. This time I hiked exclusively in Yosemite National Park near the eastern entrance of the park. I managed to escape work (with permission of my manager) at noon and drove to the Oh Ridge campground at June Lake on Friday.

I arrived at June Lake at about 5:30 p.m. and checked in with a friendly lady who was glad I showed up as "someone was Jonesing for my site" and she was glad she stuck to her guns and kept telling them someone had it reserved. That someone being me. I was at site 53 at Squirrel loop. This was a very well signed campground and it was very easy to find my site. I set up my tent and then had a lunchy dinner meaning I ate lunch food for dinner. I had salami and swiss cheese on crackers and a bottle of Super Food orginal. Yum.

As I sat eating I discovered the flaw of Oh Ridge campground. A stiff wind blows off of the lake in the evenings and it gets chilly quickly when the sun sets. Oh well. I wasn't really camping for fun but camping for a cheap place to sleep and this campground did the trick. I was warm inside my tent all night. It just wasn't conducive to hanging out at the campsite to read a nice book in my lawn chair. Instead on night two at the campground, I read my book inside my car where the wind didn't seep in and it was nice and cozy. Friday evening I did take a short walk to June lake and saw the beach where one is allowed to swim if one so desires. I never did because it was chilly when I got back from hikes.

Saturday morning I got up early and ate a quick breakfast and headed to the Mobile gas/store/restaurant at Lee Vining where I got myself a nice hot cup of coffee and sipped it while admiring the view of Mono Lake out the window. After coffee, I drove to Tioga Pass and into Yosemite to the Mono Pass trailhead parking lot. When I got there there were only about four parking spaces left. I snagged one and used the restroom there and then sat down to put on my hiking boots and find a nice spot to settle down and wait for the Ranger led hike that was set to start at 9:15 a.m. It was 8:15 when I got to the lot. I managed to wander around the lot and the trail head amusing myself by day dreaming and trying to find a spot where the mosquitos would not find me. I finally found a spot and sat there till Ranger Salli arrived. She arrived at 9:05. For the next twenty five minutes we chatted and she spoke to others at the lot and found one other taker for her hike, M. She gave both M. and I a chance to spray insect repellant on ourselves and we both accepted.

We set off on our hike to Mono Pass at 9:30 a.m. The first bit of the hike was through beautiful woods and meadows full of "spring" wildflowers in August! We had to cross two streams but with Salli's knowledge we had very easy crossings (she knew where the hefty log was located to get us across). The first portion of the hike was ever so slightly up hill. Salli told us all about the plants, the animals, and the history of the trail. It was an animal trail originally and then became a native american trading trail and then the Europeans arrived and started using it and hoped to find gold, silver etc. to mine. She told us about the ground squirrels, an animal called the pika, the birds we saw, and some stuff about geology. I got a little overloaded on information at times and tuned her out a little. But it was great for me, a very active hike leader for the Sierra Club, to have a chance to be a follower and not be responsible for anyone but myself!

The last bit of the hike to Mono Pass goes up hill. My heart got beating really fast because of the high altitude (the pass is at 10,599 feet). We reached the pass and it was beautiful. We could see a lake in a green meadow and great views of Mammoth Peak, Mt Gibb, and others whose names I forget. We hiked .3 miles past Mono Pass to Sardine lakes and a great view of Mono Lake. We had lunch here. Ranger Salli was accosted by a gang of men with tons of questions and while M. and I enjoyed our lunch she patiently answered all their questions. She did a very good job and loved being questioned by them. While she did her job, I borrowed her binoculars and scanned the hillside of Mt Gibb for Big Horned sheep. Salli has been told that they hang out there but she has never seen them. I did not see any either. Both M. and I finished our lunches and when Salli was done answering questions we retraced our steps back to the parking lot. On the way back we saw a deer and we saw an old miner's cabin that we missed on the way out because we were admiring an incredible meadow full of wild flowers across from the cabin! In the last quarter mile, my feet started to complain but not the rest of me. We arrived at the lot at 4 p.m. I did not dilly dally and talk more with Ranger Salli as the mosquitos were thick at the trail head so I wanted to pop in my car to escape them and start heading back to my camp.

I drove down to Lee Vining and decided to stop at the Mobile restaurant and have dinner there rather than cook something at the cold windy campsite. I had a big half pound burger, french fries, and a coke. Not very healthy but oh so satisfying. It felt good to sit down. I munched on my burger and fries while people watching. It was very crowded. The food was decent but I believe it was crowded because the location is so good. All those people streaming out of Yosemite and folks driving north and south along 395 stop there to eat on their ways elsewhere. After finishing I drove the 11 miles down the road to June Lake and spent a couple of hours in my car reading. At 8 p.m. I shifted to my tent and continued to reading. By 8:30 my eyes were closing so I put the book away and went to sleep.

On Sunday I was up at 6 a.m. I took down my tent right away and packed up the car with most of my camping gear. I then had a bowl of cereal and banana at the campsite picnic table while gazing at the lake. It was not windy in the mornings but was still cool until the sun came up. I finished up my breakfast and packed the rest of my gear in the car and left the campground. I again stopped at the trusty Lee Vining mobile station for another cup of coffee. Then I drove to Tioga Pass and parked in the little lot there. Just past the Yosemite entrance gate is a little lot that holds maybe 10 cars. At 8 a.m. there were several spots still left. I snagged one, stuffed my cooler into the bear locker, used the restroom, put on my sun screen, and headed off on the Gaylor Lake trail to, surprise, Gaylor lake.

I had the trail to myself. I went at a slowish pace as the trail starts at 9943 feet and climbs about 600 feet to a saddle of sorts just below Gaylor Peak. The views from the saddle were incredible and I took lots of pictures. I then descended to Gaylor Lake. It was so blue and so gorgeous. When I got to the lake I followed a trial to one end of it and then followed a use trail next to a creek. The mosquitos were thick there so I nicknamed the trail mosquito alley. If I kept moving, they didn't seem to land on me so I kept up a good pace on the trail till I reached what I think was middle Gaylor Lake. I took a quick picture of it and then continued my quick pace. When I reached the end of the first Gaylor Lake, I finally ran into another hiker. It had been a treat to have the trail to myself for the out portion of my hike. As I retraced my steps I ran into 4 other parties of hikers. But it didn't feel crowded like some of the more popular hikes at Yosemite feel. I reached the cars at 10 a.m.

I retrieved my cooler from the bear locker, used the handsome restroom a second time, and hit the road to go back to the bay area. I decided to stop at Olmstead Point on 120 to admire the view of Half Dome, Clouds Rest, and Tenaya lake. Olmstead Point is this big old parking lot off of highway 120 within Yosemite with awesome views of the valley. A Yosemite conservation volunteer had set up a scope today aimed at Half Dome. I took a look through it and saw it was focused on the cables on Half Dome and I watched some people climbing up the cables for a little bit. I then snapped several pictures of the views and had one of the volunteers take a picture of me. Then I hit the road again. I made a few more stops: a bathroom break at a wonderful vista point/rest area just outside of Yosemite and a Starbuck's stop in Oakdale for an iced mocha to perk me up for the boring drive on highways 205, 580, 680, 237, and 101 to home!

I took scads of pictures and posted them here

Rock Creek Weekend

I spent the weekend of August 13-14 camping with a couple of friends, T. and C., at Rock Creek French Camp campground in the Eastern Sierras. This was the first of three Eastern Sierra mountain weekends I planned to get in high altitude training hikes to prepare me for my August 30th attempt to day hike to the top of Mt Whitney and back!

I put in a couple of long days at work on Wednesday and Thursday so I could leave work at noon on Friday and drive to Rock Creek and get there before dark. I had a very uneventful and pleasant drive to Rock Creek and arrived at 6:15 p.m. at site number 9 at the French Campground. My buddies, T. and C. had already been at the site for a couple of days and were not there when I arrived. I got my tent set up and loaded all my food into the bear locker and then set off to figure out where the restrooms were located, where the dumpster was located, and where the water was located. When I got back I sat down and read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets until my friends arrived back from their day of hiking. They kindly fed me a nice dish of gnocchi, red peppers, basil, and a red sauce and left out the chick peas at my request. I felt very spoiled and very content to be out in the woods with friends. After dinner we chatted about the next day's plans. C. decided to go exploring on his own as the hike T. and I wanted to do was a bit tough for him. T. and I planned to hike from the Little Lakes trail head at Rock Creek to Mono Pass. After the plans were firmed up we all headed to our tents around 9:30 p.m.

We were up shortly after dawn and I cooked myself some oatmeal and had some General Foods instant mocha. It was a bit weak. Next time I need to add more heaping teaspoons than four! T. and I then loaded up our day packs with food, water, extra layers, a small first aid kit, and some bug repellent and then put away our other food in the bear locker and headed to Little Lakes trailhead. Before we got there we stopped at the Rock Creek lodge in the hopes of having some of their famous pie. We arrived there at 8:30 a.m. way before they serve their pies. The pie service doesn't start till 10:30 a.m. and ends when the pies run out or at 3:30 p.m. I did a little shopping at the general store and got some much needed lip balm for the weekend. After our short stop we drove to the trail head and the main parking lot was already full by 9ish. We did find parking at the first overflow parking lot which was lucky. It added maybe a quarter mile to our trip. We hiked to the trailhead restrooms, put on sun screen, packed away our wallets/keys in a safe place in our day packs or pockets, and headed off to Mono Pass.

The first half mile was on the very popular Little Lakes trail and went up mildly but my heart started beating fast. The trail head started at high altitude, 10,200 feet! I managed to keep a steady pace while my heart beat fast and there were enough little flat spots to give me a chance to get my breath back and for my heart rate to slow down a bit. When we felt uncomfortable we just stopped and the view filled us with energy! The view of the lakes and mountains was incredible.

From Rock_Creek_Camping_8_13_and_14_2011

T. is in great shape and she never seemed to need to stop because of being out of breath but she did need to stop to eat more often than me. After a half mile, we turned off on to the Mono pass trail. For about a mile or so it was a steady up with flat spots to rest at and wonderful views of the Little Lakes valley. We met other folks as we slowly made our way up to the pass. Everyone was really friendly and in a good mood. The typical greeting was “where are you heading today?” Some were day hiking to Mono pass like us and some were backpacking futher into the mountains. We reached the Ruby Lake turnoff junction at 11,200 feet and that is where the steeper part of the Mono Pass trail starts.

We hiked up switch backs for a good while. We got passed by a horse led burro train taking supplies up to the mountains for someone. Finally we turned into the rather narrow pass. Big old granite walls rose up around us spectacularly. I had to rest lots on this section as we approached our destination at 12,000 feet. The air was getting thinner and thinner! But stopping was nice as it gave us time to gape at the views and neither of us were in a great hurry. We finally reached the top after a last bit of hiking on snow. The really late rains and snows in California have made conditions in August more like those found in July. However the snow trail was well trodden and easy to follow. We had lunch near the top and after lunch hiked a tiny bit to Summit Lake and then turned around to head back.

From Rock_Creek_Camping_8_13_and_14_2011

On our way down, a fellow caught up with us and we offered to let him pass but he declined. He looked like a sherpa from Nepal and much to our surprise he was a sherpa from Nepal on vacation in California. He looked as if he was talking a walk in a park up there. He told us he lives at a place higher than Mono Pass. He lives at 4000 meters (~13123 feet) and his Father is a sherpa on Mt. Everest. He was very nimble on the snow. He was with another man who we never got close enough to talk to. He left us when he saw that his buddy had gotten ahead of us. Quite amazing the people you meet while you are hiking.

The rest of the way down was so much easier for me. I wasn't gasping for air hardly at all and my knees were just fine. I have always had pretty healthy knees and they hold up well going downhill. On really long downhills I will start to notice some knee soreness but this 3 mile descent did not cause me any knee soreness. I was happy though to have done all that uphill hiking to start getting my body used to hiking uphill at high altitudes. The Whitney hike starts at ~8400 feet and goes to ~14,500 feet.

We arrived back at the trailhead at 3:15 p.m. and were hoping we could make it to the Rock Creek lodge for pie by 3:30 p.m. We did make it to the lodge by 3:30 p.m. But alas, the pies had been sold out since 1:30 p.m. Instead we bought ourselves something to drink (I got gaterade) and then drove down the Rock Creek road in search of a nice spot on the creek to sit down and soak our feet. We found a wonderful spot with a comfy spot of green grass to sit on right next to the creek and even better it turned out to be mosquito free too! We soaked our feet for 15 minutes. It was marvelous to be sitting together with our feet in the ice cold water, drinking our drinks, chatting, and to boot we head this section of creek all to ourselves.

From Rock_Creek_Camping_8_13_and_14_2011

After the soak, we headed back to camp and spent some time doing our own thing. I read more of my Harry Potter book. We would not start dinner till C. got back from his day of hiking. He returned around 6:15 and told us stories of his day at Convict lake and we told him about our hike. T. cooked a dinner of ravioli with roasted red pepper sauce. I volunteered to help and was put in charge heating up the store bought roasted red pepper sauce to mix with the ravioli. It was a delicious dinner. Somehow food at a campground tastes better than it would if cooked at home. Its probably because we were exerting ourselves all day and were hungry and would have liked almost anything. After dinner T. and C. got busy packing as they had to leave at o-dark-hundred the next day. T. had an appointment in the SF bay area at 3:30. They left at 5 a.m. I heard them taking the tents down and just turned over and fell back asleep for another hour.

I was up at 6 a.m. In typical camping fashion what got me up was I had to use the restroom. When I came back from the restroom I felt fully awake so I decided to have a small cold breakfast and then pack up my gear and head back to the Little Lakes trail head and hike on the Little Lakes valley trail for an hour and then turn around and hike back. While shaking out my tent, I saw what I thought was a bug on the ground but on closer examination it turned out to be a scorpion. I was sort of glad I slept in a zipped up tent so the scorpion could not crawl on me! I soon finished packing and I got to the trailhead at 7:10 a.m. and this time I got a parking spot there and did not have to go to the overflow parking.

I made a quick stop at the restroom and then put on sun screen and headed off on the Little Lake Valley trail. It was gorgeous. I was happy to be giving my body another taste of high altitude hiking albeit a more mellow taste than the day before. I passed by Mack, Marsh, Heart, Box, and Long Lake. At Long Lake I reached my one hour turn around time and started heading back.

From Rock_Creek_Camping_8_13_and_14_2011

It was a wonderful solitary hike on the way to Long Lake. I did pass one backpacking couple but they were so quiet that it felt as if I had the trail to myself the whole way. It was a different story on the way back as I ran into more and more people. I got back to the trail head at 9:20 and the lot was full and folks were hiking up the road from overflow parking. I got in my car and headed to the Rock Creek lodge to have a more substantial breakfast. I was too early for pie but the cook at the lodge made a mean short stack of pancakes. I filled up on 2 huge pancakes and had a freshly brewed cup of coffee. While I was at the counter a Dad and his two small sons were there also. The sons were delightful to talk to. They were friendly and so excited to tell me all about their fishing trip with their Dad. Dad was there too but he was more quiet. He would just speak up to add bits to the stories his sons were telling. They also wanted to see a bear but not get eaten by a bear. It made for a nice breakfast to have their company. I finished up at 10 a.m. And started on my long trip home.

On my way home I did something very unusual for me. I was turning off of highway 395 at Lee Vining and there was a young man hitch hiking with a brown card board sign saying Yosemite and a big backpack. He looked friendly and I decided to risk it and give him a ride to Yosemite since my drive was on 120 which goes right through Yosemite (the Tuolumne Meadows part of Yosemite). I almost never pick up hitch hikers for fear I'll pick up a lunatic hitch hiker and get attacked or something but I decided to risk it for this guy. I picked him up and he was excited to have gotten a ride. Before we started up the climb on 120 to Tuolumne Meadows, I stopped at the Mobile station to get some gas. As we drove up 120, I found out he was from Brazil and had 7 days left in his vacation in the U.S. and wanted to spend it exploring Yosmite. He told me his name and I had trouble pronouncing it. I'm not sure how to spell it. It sounded like “hanough”. He works as a computer technician and was impressed that I write software. We had fun chatting as we waited in the long line to get into Yosemite at the top of the pass. I dropped him off at the visitor center in Tuolumne meadows after we finally got through the wait to get in.

The rest of my drive home was more ordinary. I stopped at Oakdale to have a late lunch at McDonalds. There was a Starbucks right door so after lunch, I got a iced mocha to go. I sipped it as I made my way to Manteca. At Manteca I had the last sip. At Manteca, it was back to freeway driving and no stunning mountain views anymore. I got home at 5 pm so the drive took 7 hours. All in all it was a great weekend of hiking and camping. I hope next weekends trip to June Lake in the Eastern Sierras goes as well although it will be a solo trip. It will be fun to spend the week planning the hikes I will do from June Lake.