Mt Whitney

07/17/2010

The trip started with the long 6+ hour trek from San Jose all the way to Whitney Portal with a quick stop at the ranger station to pick up the permit. We camped Friday night at the trailhead in the backpacker camp. In the morning we began our first day hiking up to Trail camp at 9:30am. We wandered through the basin and had lunch at mirror-lake around 1pm. After Eric took a quick dip and Ben and I took a 20-minute nap, we were back on the trail and finally hit Trail camp at 4:30. The 10 mile hike had only taken us about 8 hours. Eric wandered off to boulder around, while Ben and I were dealing with altitude as we had been mildly sick a week before.

Lost Coast

06/14/2010

The lost coast is a stretch of coastline in northern California between Mattole and Shelter cove. The hike is 24 miles or so of mostly untouched coast. Plus if you get bored, you can hike to the tip of King’s peek, 4008 feet above sea level where you start ... at sea level. To get a better idea on location, think of the redwood forests and then go north 50 miles and 22 miles to the sea.

Diving in St. Thomas

01/10/2010

Ah, under the sea this time. From the trips above 14,000 feet, I started 2010 off below 60 feet. John and I took two sets of dives at St. Thomas to begin the new year right.

The first dive was to a cement tanker that had sank to 92’ of depth. The tanker was made out of cement simply to prevent it from decaying. Fortunately, the deck was at 60’, so I didn’t have to get too out of my league. It was pretty awesome seeing my first real wreck dive and getting to explore all the nooks and crannies that had opened up when it sank.

Half Dome

12/09/2009

To cap off 2009, my Dad and I took our first jaunt through Yosemite. We drove in on September 12 through the dark to find ourselves at backpacker camp. Well, we didn’t quite make it there, but we were a short walk over a bridge away.

The first day we started at Happy Isles and trekked up the windy John Muir trail up past Nevada falls. All the way up the trail we knew we were doing something wrong as almost everyone was coming down the hill and we were going up, with packs no less. Trudging along though, we made quick time on the trail. At the falls we had a great little lunch and watched the piles of people pass by. We turned right and then took the Panorama trail back over to Illouette falls where we spent the night. The original goal was to make it to glacier point, but both of us were still a little green at the backpacking thing and knew a worse day lay ahead.

The second day we woke up early at around 6 and began the trek to half dome. We worked our way back to Nevada falls and then turned right up the trail towards half dome. The best decision we made was to drop our packs at little yosemite valley. With a lighter load, we slowly cruised up and up. When we got to the sub-dome, my dad had to call it quits and sat out while I climbed up the cables to reach the summit. What was amazing to me was how big half dome actually was. You could play a full on game of football up there! We came back down, going the route of the mist trail this time, and enjoyed a nice liesurely stroll back to the car. After 21 miles and 6000’ of vertical elevation gain, we had far exceeded what I thought we could do. Next year though, Dad is making it to the top!