Bird droppings

This weekend was a bit... intense.

Friday, I went on a very short hike with nodesignation, the_local_echo, and auntysarah over at Russian Ridge open space preserve to do a sunset picnic. We found a nice place in the tall grasses, sat down, and watched the sun set behind the horizon, which may or may not have been ocean, we're not entirely certain.

( Read more... )

Is anyone out there in TV land interested in being put on the mailing list for my weekly "Weekend Adventures"?

chirik and I generally do weekly "adventures" every weekend, usually on Sundays. The adventures vary based on weather and variety. We've done 26 mile bike rides, 10 mile hikes, 100 ft. climbs, and more.

Based on weather and personal scheduling, we generally tend to plan the specific activity earlier in the week. We then send out an email containing information about whether we're doing it on Saturday or Sunday, what we're going to be doing, where, and what time we should all get moving.

We switch between biking, hiking, and climbing based on the weather and how we're feeling.

Intensity varies depending on what we're looking for. Sometimes its strenuous and intense. Other times its gentle.

If you're interested in coming along from time to time, let me know and I'll put you on the mailing list.

So, this weekend was a bit nuts. I kinda overdid it a bit, actually.

Friday night, I went out to a ritual up in San Francisco with foxgrrl. We ran over to San Rafael to hang out with whimsywanderer afterwards. We were out there until 2:30 AM. I finally got back home around 3:30 AM or so...

Saturday morning, I woke up around 8AM and went on a 5 hour, 12-15 mile bike ride with viesti It was actually a bike ride/geocaching hunt, so we were stopping here and there to look around and poke aorund in the dirt. It was still killer though. By the third hour, my perineum was killing me on that seat.

We got back around 1PM, and I crashed for a few hours, watching TV and eating food and cuddling with tarathene and kitlet, who are still staying over. Around 7:00PM, I took off for viesti's place where she and her family were throwing a gaming party with a bunch of friends. Of course, I rode my bike the 4.3 miles to her place. It took quite a while since my body was already super-exhausted...

I got to her place and hung out for a few hours, but by 11pm, I had passed out. I had a little bit of dinner, but not much, really. I think I was just drained. I woke around 2:30AM, slipped into bed with viesti and slept until 7AM.

On Sunday, around 7AM, I woke up and rode my bike back the 4.3 miles to home, where I jumped in my car, drove to Fremont, and met up with my friend David to go hiking and mushroom hunting up at Point Reyes. I got some AWESOME photos up there, which you can find in the album below:

Hiking at Point Reyes

I also pulled my pic-a-day from there:

From Pic-A-Day 365

Unfortunately, we didn't get up there until noon, and we had about a 10 mile hike with a 1000 ft. ascent to deal with before getting back. We had little time to dilly dally as we hoofed it down the trail before our light gave out. We managed to get back to the car JUST as twilight was hitting around 6:45pm. We did find a few interesting mushrooms that David took back to identify, but only on the second half of the hike when we were really pressed for time. We would have found a lot more if we weren't walking so fast.

By the time we reached the car, my feet were in pain, my calves were in pain, my gluteus maximus was in pain, my hips were hurting, I was sunburnt, I had gotten stung by stinging nettle, and I had slivers in my hand. I was really in bad shape. On the drive home, my GLaDOS GPS system decided to take us the wrong way down a winding highway that added some really extreme nausea to my experience. Did I mention that I was starving due to not eating lunch that day?

We finally made it back to David's house around 8:45 pm. I was nearly passing out and aching so bad that I could barely move, so I rested there for an hour or so until I felt good enough to press on and head home.

I got home, watched some House, snuggled with my house guests, ate some food, got nauseous, and passed out around 1AM.

Today, I am sore as all hell...

A wonderful weekend, but I think I might have overdone it *just* a bit... :P

Our last hike for the trip was Monday's hike down Pine Creek Canyon. This was effectively the "end-level" boss of the entire trip, as it was the most technically challenging route of all of the routes we had done up to this point. And in terms of physical difficulty, it was right up there with The Subway and Angel's Landing.( Read more... )

With how intense and brutal Mystery Canyon was, we decided to take today easy and just do a quick 3 hour canyon called Keyhole Canyon. There really wasn't much to talk about with this canyon. It was a quick, but beautiful canyon.( Read more... )

Today we did one of the more famous of the Zion hikes: The subway. 9 and a half miles, with 4 rappels, and a 400 foot ascent at the end. Really intense. It's 2300 hours, and I just got in moments ago.

I need to be up early to stand in line for a license to do Mystery Canyon, which is going to be an awesome hike we're going to do in a few days. Because of that, I don't have time to get my pictures for the day together and posted. I'll work on it tomorrow, since we're taking the day off.

The hike was absolutely incredible. We started by walking around in a desert forest. Absolutely bizarre. One of the most unique places I've ever been to. To a quick glance, it looked like we were hiking in a snow field filled with pine trees. But then you realize that it is really hot out and the "snow" field was actually the white rock of the mountain. It was bizarre and beautiful.

Swimming with my gear was really interesting, especially in the cold cold water. I had a moment where I had to take my pack off and push it ahead of me while swimming, because I was too wide to fit through the gaps in the canyon water. Now THAT was interesting. It's a bit panicky to be trying to go from swimming in 7+ ft. deep water to scooting yourself onto a narrow rock that's submerged about 3 feet below the surface, between two narrow canyon walls, and then jumping into the next pool that was 7+ ft. deep while making sure to keep your pack above water. Fun and intense!

This was the longest hike I've ever done, and the hardest. I don't think we brought enough water for the trip, 22 liters for 6 people, because we all ran out before the end. parmonster and I were nearly passing out from dehydration as we made the 400 foot ascent out of the canyon. We had to stop every five feet just to breathe and wait for the dizziness, nausea, etc. to go away. Even auntysarah started to get dehydrated near the top of the ascent.

But we all made it out safely, enjoyed ourselves immensely, and got back to the hotel supremely exhausted. As I said, tomorrow is an all rest day. And then things happen this weekend.

I've been thinking a lot about my mother, the meaning of life, death, and mortality while I've been out there. I might post about that more once I've done more processing. Or maybe not.

See you tomorrow or so!

Oh! I also wanted to say: I really want to do this again... SOON. With my more usual crew of viesti, chirik, lilyth_lindorie and others that would be interested in coming. It's a REALLY intense hike, but they would absolutely adore it, once they worked up the courage to keep going. :)

( Click here for pictures! )