Yosemite Weekend

I took off Friday from work and drove up to Yosemite on Thursday night. A Curry Village tent cabin provided my shelter for the night. No heat made it somewhat cold, but I got up early the next day for my Half Dome hike. The shuttle did not leave until 7:20am. I could have parked within about 1/2 a mile of the trailhead, which might have been advisable, but in the end not necessary. I finished the hike by around 3pm, which means the entire 14 miles and 4100 ft elevation gain took me only about 7.5 hours. I did quite well overall on the hike. The cables again proved to be more than I cared to attempt, so I just sat near them for awhile watching people coming up and down. The weather in the Sierra Nevada range generally was rainy and cold. I hung out around Yosemite for a bit after my hike and then decided to drive to Mammoth Lakes the next day. On Saturday I ended up not doing much other than driving around the whole day and making it back to San Jose around 8pm. Sunday I got up and went on another hike at Sunol Regional Park, attempting to go to Mission Peak. I made it most of the way but became worried that I wold not have enough time to get back for dinner at Yevgeniy's, so I turned back early. Still went about 8 miles round trip. I see that the weather this week is looking warmer than previous weeks out here, about the time that I am going back to Phoenix. Working out is still going well, P90 and/or hiking every day.

Weekend of Hike

I drove up to the Sonoma, CA area on Saturday. Jack London State Park provided the first entertainment. The park closed at 5pm, however, leaving me with only about an hour of time to explore it. The land and trees throughout the area were beautiful. Hills and Oaks much like the Bay Area, but with added larger redwood trees and generally a bit more tree density. I then drove to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park where I hiked about 5.5 miles round trip to Bald Mountain. In deciding whether to drive north to the redwood parks or go back, I decided on driving east towards the Desolation wilderness, west of Lake Tahoe.

I stopped in Davis, CA for the night and then stopped by the Ranger station for a map and hiking suggestions in the morning. Settling on a nice looking hiking around around Wright Lake, I started out on the Rockbound Trail around noon. The area's beauty reminded me of the high elevation areas I had visiting before and brought me to realize that I had not done a hike in higher elevation mountain ranges since Mount Whitney in 2004. Being in those areas for me is like looking at creation itself. The unimaginable vastness and seemingly endless rows of mountains humbles me and I believe focuses my thoughts in a very spritual way. I am really looking forward to doing Mount Whitney in July and then going to Colorado in August. I've been away from those mountains for too long now. The weather was overcast, wet, and cold. I enjoyed the about 12 miles round trip a great deal, though. I almost made it to Rockbound Pass, but had to stop just short due to a large amount of snow on the side of the mountain and thus the trail.

Working out is going along still, P90,Hiking Sunday,rest monday.

California Gaming and 30 Days In

Well, I've made it over 30 days now into my workout routine. Things are going good so far, I believe that I'm beginning to see some "results", but I'll know better in another few weeks probably. Wed:P90+Hike, Thu:P90, Fri:P90, Sat:Hike, Sun:P90, Mon:Rest, Tue:P90, Wed:P90

Sunday I went to Santana Row. I had lunch, read some of my book, listened to live music, and bought some stuff from the farmer's market. It was a good time and I might go back this weekend. I also visited a couple of board gaming events this week. Monday I went up to Yahoo's campus for a pretty big weekly meet up there. I wrote up a little session report from that:

Galaxy Trucker - I played 2 games yesterday, first one was Galaxy Trucker with the Big Expansion. Played with Steve, Walter, and Alon(spelling?). I've played the base game a number of times and the expansion sure put a hurt on us. Our ships continually were being destroyed. Going in to the final round, Steve had a "commanding" lead of about 6 points compared to the rest of us with 0. I gave up early after scoring 10 easy points. I thought I would assured victory. :) However, Alon had looked ahead on the cards and knew that this final voyage was actually pretty much a cupcake run compared to the last 2 gauntlets of death. So he pulled out the win with ease after pulling like 30 points of cargo alone.

Ghost Stories - Next game was one I brought that I played with Steve and Randy. This was my 3rd time playing and I have to say it has quickly become one of my favorite cooperative games. We were holding pretty strong against the onslaught of ghosts, however our Taoist monks started to run out of Qi about 5 ghosts too soon and the Incarnate over powered us. We were all killed the village overrun. I'm now 0-3 at the initiate level in that game. Lots of fun and very strategic in my opinion, though. The dice can help or hurt you, though.

Last night I checked out a group that meets weekly at the Mountain View community center. I played a game of Through the Ages. I did not remember the rules well and the person I played against was a bit impatient in the very brief teaching of them. I ended up winning the game interestingly enough.

Tonight I am probably going to go over to Jon's and hang out for a bit. I've also been reading a book called Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross. Jade is letting me borrow it. I find the book very interesting so far, with lots of very deep scientific ideas. The problem is he has jumped between 4 different characters and multiple times in history within just the first 70 pages. I am not much of a fan of that style of writing.

California Hiking

I've got in a couple of hikes already in California. On Wednesday after work, I drove to Joseph D Grant, CA and did a little 5 mile loop from Grant Lake. The trail up was quite nice, although a little steep.

Today I woke up early and drove out to Henry W. Coe State Park, CA. The morning temperature of around 50-55 degrees chilled me a little bit. Fortunately, I immediately started out with a long, steep climb up a ridge. The climb brought me quickly into a low cloud/fog that covered the upper elevations. The wet and overgrown grass along the trail soaked my pants and made me wonder if the weather would prevent my full hike. My start time was about 8:30am, and the sun started to come out around 10:15am. By probably 11am most of the clouds were gone along with the wet grass. My pants dried quickly. The rest of the hike presented no major challenges, other than typically California rolling hills. I completed the entire hike in about 7 hours, which is pretty good time for me. I find it interesting that I don't think too much about a 15 mile hike after all my Grand Canyon training hikes.

So far I am really enjoying the change of scenery from the desert. I contemplated that I could wander around like this on a more frequent basis even before I "retire".

The board gaming scene in the Bay Area seems quite good so far. I think that on Monday I will attend a group that meets at Yahoo weekly. It would be nice to have a weekly meetup in Phoenix. I have some ideas on getting people together once a week, but I will need to try and find a place that we could actually meet at.

California and Kublacon

Back in California now. Dion and I made the drive out on Thursday and Friday. We played a good number of games at Kublacon, the first real gaming convention for each of us. Overall it was a good time, Dion got in 11 games in one day. There were a ton of historical miniature games setup and I got into one that was the battle of the Alamo. The detail of the terrain was quite impressive. Jon made it up for just sunday afternoon and evening. We all played a number of games together and had a great time. Dion and I were considering going to BGG con, if possible, after enjoying this trip so much.

I am still in the process of trying to nail down a place to stay while I'm out here. I have one that looks decent, except it is a bit of a drive. Each day I wait is more money to the hotels, though. If I don't hear back from some other contacts I sent off yesterday, I will just go with the farther drive to have a place.

Exercise and eating held strong over my con time, Wed:P90, Thu:Tennis, Fri:nothing, Sat:Elliptical, Sun:Elliptical, Mon:Elliptical, Tue:P90

Grand Canyon 2009

Yesterday Dan and I completed the north rim to south rim hike in 12 hours and 50 minutes. Total hiking distance, 23.3 miles and 4500 elevation gain. By far, this trip proved my most successful attempt. Throughout I felt good and never reached the complete fatigue of the previous 2 trips. This morning I got up and did some cardio exercise. I feel a bit sore and stiff today, but nothing too extreme. I met a number of interesting people and chatted with them over the hike as well. We also ran into 2 people who needed emergency assistance that we had to call in at the next phone. Both were overheated and throwing up. At this point, another trip to Mt Whitney seems more likely, as I think I am in much better condition to do it this year. Great trip, very memorable and satisfying. We also got lucky in that we were able to catch an earlier shuttle and left at about 5am, instead of the normal 6am. I arrived home about 11pm. Oh and the Pioneer cabin was awesome, it has 2 separate rooms and is stand alone.

Oh yeah and my exercise is going well. Tue:Tennis, Wed:Tennis, Thu:P90, Fri:Bike, Sat:rest, Sun:rest, Mon:Hike, Tue:P90

Last hike before Grand Canyon

I went to Angel Basin yesterday with Jade. Its about an 8 mile round trip hike. The weather was warm, but tolerable. I am continuing on my exercise routine. Sat:Tennis, Sun:Hike, Mon:Bike. This morning I road out to the park by me and back, about 9 miles. I am feeling a little fatigued overall and I need to probably not do any exercise for a few days before the Grand Canyon hike. I did get in that Power 90 workout program and I will take a look at it soon.