September is the time when Mary and I make our annual pilgrimage to Sequoia National Park. This year we managed to go for three days: September 27-29. For the first two days we went backpacking to Eagle Lake in the Mineral King area. The third day was spent in the Giant Forest area.

September 27, Saturday

We managed to get on the road on Saturday morning around 9:30, which is pretty good for us. The drive to Mineral King is pretty long. With a slight delay due to a parade during a gas detour in Madera, it took us nearly 6 hours. We got on the trail at 3:15 PM. The weather was beautiful as displayed in the picture along Aspen Flat (on left).Our destination was Eagle Lake, a 3.4 mile hike with 2200 feet of elevation gain to a total elevation of 10,000 feet (click map on right). The first mile of the trail follows Aspen Flat and the East Fork of the Kaweah River. At this point we split from the White Chief Bowl Trail and climbed for another mile to a junction with the Mosquito Lake Trail. The final 1.4 miles follows along Eagle Creek.

Just before you reach Eagle Lake, you pass through a large talus (or scree) field. This is pika territory. We saw a couple but didn’t manage to get good pictures. We arrived at Eagle Lake (pictured on left) by 6 PM. We had the entire lake to ourselves, so we set up camp in a prime location overlooking the lake. After setting up the tent we filtered some water and made ourselves some dinner. We generally bring some dehydrated camping food. This time it was Jamaican BBQ Chicken from Backpacker’s Pantry. After dinner we had some hot chocolate and looked at the amazing, star-filled sky.It was getting chilly, so we crawled into our sleeping bags. The night was really quiet until the wind picked up a bit. At one point it blew off the rain fly which I quickly replaced and secured since it helped hold in the heat. The strange wind noises and the lapping water sounds emanating from the lake gave us both strange dreams. Or was it the Jamaican BBQ?

September 28, Sunday

I crawled out of the tent by 7 am. The sun was up but was blocked by the ridge along the lake. I scouted around a bit and found a friendly little pika near the lake shore. It was munching on some grass for breakfast. I went to get Mary, but we couldn’t find the pika, so we started on our own breakfast. We had some oatmeal and instant Vietnamese coffee. After breakfast we broke camp and packed everything up. Before heading out, we decided to explore around the lake a bit to find some more pikas. We could hear them calling from across the lake. We dropped our packs near the dam end of the lake and crossed to the other side.

It didn’t take us long to find some pikas out searching for breakfast, catching some sun, or simply striking a pose. Pikas are really cute. They are related to rabbits and are sometimes called rock rabbits. They live at high elevation it jumbles of rock called talus or scree. They spend their days collecting grasses which they pile up in “hay stacks” for the winter. Pikas can’t handle the heat and sadly could be one of the early casualties of global warming. Look for more pika pictures in my pika gallery.

After our visit with the pikas we headed down the trail. It was a little after noon so we stopped for lunch amidst another vast talus area just below the lake. Here we encountered a couple more pikas (including the one pictured previously). A bit further on we saw a couple deer with some fawns. They scampered off when they saw us. Somewhere after the junction with the Mosquito Lake Trail we encountered a black bear very near the trail. It completely ignored us and wandered off into the forest. I only managed to catch a couple shots of its backside. The rest of the hike was nice but uneventful. We were back to the car by 2:30.

After a slow drive back down the Mineral King Road, we made it to the highway and entered the main area of the park. We went to the Wuksachi Lodge for a shower, a nice dinner and a comfortable bed.

September 29, Monday

We were planning to hike around in the Giant Forest today. We needed to pick up some food for lunch, so we stopped at the store in Lodgepole. Unfortunately it didn’t open until 10, so we had to wait around. We ended up watching a short film on the bears of Sequoia at the visitor’s center. By the time we got something for lunch and got on the road, it was nearly 10:30. As we were driving along the General Highway towards the Crescent Meadow Road, we saw quite a few cars pulled off the road and people standing around. This usually means one thing: bears. Sure enough there was a healthy looking black bear foraging for food only 40 yards or so from the road. Many people stopped right in the middle of the road to gawk, causing what is often known as a “bear jam”. The bear was tagged (Yellow 56) and radio collared, so I presume it has had some trouble with the law. Fortunately is seemed to be doing perfectly natural bear things and totally ignoring all the on-lookers. We watched the bear for a good 45 minutes before it started to wander off. There are more pictures of the bear in my bear gallery. See the short video I uploaded to YouTube below.

We drove up to Crescent Meadow, still excited by our second bear encounter of the trip. Even the fact that it started to rain didn’t dampen our spirits. After eating lunch at the picnic area by the parking lot, we walked along Crescent Meadow (pictured on right) and over to Log Meadow. We also visited Tharp’s Log (on left) which was used as a summer home by Hale Tharp in the 1800’s. Due to the late start and the rain, we decided to call it a day and started our drive home. It was the end of another great trip to Sequoia National Park. There are many more pictures in my Sequoia gallery.

Mary and I went hiking in Big Basin Redwood State Park on Sunday over Labor Day Weekend. We don’t go there very often, but I’m not sure why. It’s a really beautiful park. When we have visitors, we usually take them to Muir Wood. I guess that’s because you can combine Muir Woods with a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge and other sites in San Francisco. As for redwoods, Big Basin is every bit as nice.

Mary and I decided to do a loop to Berry Creek that was listed at 10 to 12 miles depending on whose account you read. Maybe the extra distance depends on where you park, as we were a good half mile from park headquarters. The trail starts out at park headquarters and proceeds between the Redwood Loop and the Amphitheater. You quickly come to a tee with the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail (pictured left). I had read that going in a counter-clockwise direction has a slightly elevation profile, but somehow I decided we were supposed to go to the left at the tee. So we proceeded in a clockwise direction.

We quickly passed the back side of the Redwood Loop, and I figured we would not see many more for the rest of the hike. I was happily surprised to fine redwoods along nearly the entire trail. In fact, most of the time we were hiking in old growth forest. The first half mile or so winds its way up the Middle Ridge. Another half mile brings you to Kelly Creek. The trail follows the creek until it meets West Waddell Creek. Here you can take the Timms Creek Trail to cut the hike down to about 6 miles. We were interested in seeing Berry Creek Falls, even though there isn’t much water this time of year, so we pushed on. After passing Timms Creek Trail, the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail follows the West Waddell Creek downstream. There are still plenty of redwoods around and there was even a bit of water in the creek. We spotted a couple of fish in one of the pools along the creek, but they were pretty small.

Eventually the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail meets the Berry Creek Trail, and immediately you have a decent view of Berry Creek Falls. If you continue on Skyline-to-the-Sea, you eventually hit the Pacific Ocean (with Skyline referring to the road of that name along the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains). Following the Berry Creek Trail you soon reach a large wooden viewing platform with a great view of the falls (picture left). Mary and I stopped here fro lunch (with quite a few others). Even with the limited water flow, we were both quite impressed with Berry Creek Falls. After lunch we continued along Berry Creek Trail, passing both Silver Falls and Golden Cascade. I think both of these falls would be much more impressive in the winter and spring where the water is really flowing. Even so, this portion of the trail is quite lovely.

After following Berry Creek for a mile or so we reached the Sunset Trail. Near the junction is the Sunset Camp which is probably a great destination for a backpacking trip. After climbing up from the creek bed, we were in open sunlight for a while (picture right). This was pretty much the only open area on the entire hike. There are some great views of rolling hills and evergreens as far as the eye can see.It’s probably about 4 miles back to HQ along the Sunset Trail. Other than the open part near the Berry Creek Trail junction, most of the rest is forested with a fair share of redwoods. Upon reaching the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail again, we were able to cut over the the parking area and get back to the car, saving a good half mile or more.

Big Basin is an awesome park, even though we seem to forget about it. I think we’ll be visiting more often in the future and are already talking about a backpacking trip there sometime. Usually for backpacking and long hikes I take my Cannon S3, but this time I decided to carry my Cannon 40D. It gave me an opportunity to use my wide angle lens, which I rarely do. Good thing its a fast lens, because there wasn’t a lot of light in the forest. Even so, I should have been using a tripod. Check out my Big Basin gallery for more pictures.

This past weekend, Mary and I went backpacking with our friends Virginia and Alta. We decided to go to Henry W. Coe State Park. Henry Coe is a huge park a little south east of San Jose. We were planning to head out early Friday afternoon and spend two nights in the park. The weather forecast was clear with temperatures in the mid-80s. None of us had ever backpacked in this park before. Mary and I created a tentative loop based on some info we read on various websites. We decided to start our journey at the Hunting Hollow entrance and planned to spend the first night at Willson Camp and the second at Kelly Lake.

Friday, August 22, 2008

We arrived at the Hunting Hollow entrance around 1:30. After a bathroom break and final gear checks and adjustments, we were on our way by 2pm. We started out on Hunting Hollow Road which isn’t much more than a dirt path. We followed this path for 0.7 miles then connected with the Lyman Willson Ridge Trail. The trail climbs a good 1200 feet in the course of a little more than 2 miles. It follows a ridge between Braen Canyon and Coon Hunter’s Gulch. The landscape is dominated by rolling hills of golden grain dotted with stands of various trees. At various points you have great views west to the coastal range.

At 2.1miles we turned right on to Bowl Trail following it to Willson Camp. Bowl Trail is fairly flat and passes a few maintained springs. Basically these are PVC pipes filling large plastic bins with water from underground springs. The bins have a fair amount of algae growing in them, but the water beneath looks reasonable clean. We did not try any. After a mile on Bowl Trail, we reached Willson Camp which consists of an old ranch house and a park maintained pit toilet. It was about 4pm by this time, too early to set up camp, so after a quick snack we pushed on towards Rodeo Pond.

It was 0.2 miles from Willson Camp to Wagon Road. Rodeo Pond is another 0.8 miles north on Wagon Road. The pond looked more like a mudflat, so we went another 0.6 miles to Tule Pond with a similar result. By now it was nearly 6pm but we decided to continue to Wasno Pond. After 0.6 miles on Tule Pond Trail and 0.3 miles on Wasno Road we found Wasno Pond (pictured on right). There was definitely clear water, but no one wanted to wade through the muck to get out to it. Once again we decided to push on. We tried to follow Kelly Creek to Kelly Lake, but decided it was to treacherous in the fading light. We ended up back on Wagon Road. We took that to Crest Trail and finally Coit Road to Coit Lake. The camp ground at the south end of the lake it pretty nice, with pit toilet and picnic table. Unfortunately the toilet was closed for maintenance. There was already a group of 4 at the camp area, but we were all tired and they didn’t mind sharing the areas. We set up camp, had some dinner and turned in for the night.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

On Saturday morning we were able to see and enjoy the vistas at Coit Lake (pictured on left). We were also able to filter water at the lake, though the shore is fairly steep and there’s lots of tule and bulrush in the way. We had some breakfast and packed up camp. After a longer day than planned on Friday, we decided on a short hike over to Kelly Lake for our second night’s camp. It was only 1.1 miles on Coit Road and a short jaunt up the earthen dam to Kelly Lake.

Kelly Lake is smaller than Coit Lake, but still very nice (pictured right). We found a nice camp area on the north-east side of the lake with decent water access. We decided we would wait out the heat of the day in the shade of a tree near our camp site. Virginia and I even took a dip in the cool waters of the lake. We had a simple lunch sitting on tarps in the shade. In the afternoon Alta and Virginia decided to go for a short hike while Mary and I stayed at camp and enjoyed the day (picture on left). It was quite hot in the sun, but the shade was nice. Mary and I relaxed under a tree most of the afternoon, though we had to keep moving around to stay in the shade.

When Alta and Virginia returned we all set up our tents and had some dinner.Mary and I had a really nice spot near the lake (picture on right). A few logs around a sandy area served as our kitchen. Once the sun was below the hills, the air cooled down considerably. We boiled some water for dinner and even had some hot chocolate for desert.As the sun set, the bats came out to feast on bugs. It was neat watching them flit about in the remaining light. Once the sun was down the stars came out in force. Even the milky way was distinct in the sky. Mary and I turned in and watched the stars for a time before drifting off to sleep.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

On Sunday morning we once again had breakfast, filtered some water and broke camp. We decided to head out via Grizzly Gulch to Coyote Creek. We were on the trial before 10am. The climb from Kelly Lake on the Kelly Lake Trail is pretty steep. There are some nice views of the lake (picture on left) on the way out. After a mile we reached Wasno Road where we turned left. After a short 0.2 miles on Wasno Road, we headed on to Dexter Trail. Dexter peaks at about 2400 feet where I took a 360 panorama. From there it was down to Grizzly Gulch Trail and 2.5 miles to the Coyote Creek entrance. It’s 2 miles along Gilroy Hot Springs Road back to the Hunting Hollow entrance. I had gone on ahead to get the car, and was able to save the girls about a mile off their hike. We were all in the car and heading home shortly after 1pm, stopping in San Martin for cold drinks.

All in all it was a nice weekend, though it was a bit hot and dry. We did about 10 miles on the first day, 1.5 on the second and a little over 6 on the third. It would be nice to go in the spring when there’s more water and the weather is cooler. Maybe next year. For more pictures, go to my gallery for this trip. I also made a Google Map of the trail.

It seems I have been slacking-off as far as blogging goes lately. I’ve mainly been passing my time watching the Olympics and trying to figure out what I should do with my life…

Two weekends ago, we did our Mission Peak hike on Saturday (August 9), but we went up from the Ohlone Trail. We haven’t done that in a while. I brought my 40D for once, and was rewarded with an encounter with a coyote near the top (pictured on the left). I saw it not far from the junction where the Ohlone Trail meets the trail from Stanford Ave. On the way down, near what I dubbed the “Cow Pond”, Nick spotted what turned out to be a Cooper’s hawk. Initially it was sitting on a rock having a staring contest with a squirrel. The squirrel won, and the hawk flew to a fence post. After a couple minutes there, it flew off. We also encountered a Northern harrier on the way up. It was right next to the path, but I didn’t have my camera ready. I did manage to get a few shots from farther away. They are posted here.

The following Sunday (August 10), Mary and I took Nick to Point Reyes. We picked up some sandwiches at Safeway and coffee at Peet’s, then made the 1.5 hour drive to the visitor center. The Big Bear Visitor Center has a really nice display of local wildlife. I highly recommend it. After the visitor center, we drove out to Drake’s Beach to eat our lunch. It was really foggy at the beach. I was concerned we would have bad visibility at the lighthouse. After lunch we drove out to the point and walked to the lighthouse (picture on left). Fortunately, it was completely clear by the time we got out there. On our walk to the lighthouse, we saw some deer grazing near the path. From the light house we watched various birds and a few sea lions far below. We could even see some huge jellyfish floating in the surf. After we got back from the lighthouse we drove to the Chimney Rock trailhead. We did not find any elephant seals at their haul-out beach. We did spot a Northern harrier on the hunt. We walked out part of the way to Chimney Rock for a view from the Overlook (picture on right). We spotted the harrier on the way back to the car. On the way home we stopped in Emeryville to look for Esperanza, one of the peregrines from last year’s brood in San Jose. She is often spotted in the area, but we did not find her.

I spent most of the week watching the Olympics. I’m not real impressed with NBC’s coverage, but somehow I keep watching. It was pretty exciting to see Michael Phelps win all those medals, but I’m glad swimming is over. I also managed to meet up with my friends Reed (from Austin) and Milya (from London) who were in town on business. Mary and I had dinner with them on Monday and I met them again for lunch on Wednesday.

This past Saturday (August 16) was Nick’s last day in the Bay Area. Instead of our usual hike, we went to Windy Hill with Jeff, Alta, Catherine and Hien. It a bit shorter and easier then Mission, but still a pretty good work out. After the hike we all went to Mango Cafe in Palo Alto. Mango Cafe is a pretty good Jamaican and Trinidad/Tobago restaurant. I think they have changed owners a few times, so the quality varies from visit to visit. Later that evening we took Nick to the airport so he could fly home.

On Sunday (August 17) Mary and I met up with Prabha and Steve for lunch. We met them earlier in the year when we went out to visit a bald eagle nest site. Prabha was also quite involved with the San Jose falcons. It was nice catching up with them since the falcons fledged. Otherwise, we watched some Olympics and had a relaxing day.

Other than that, I’ve been mulling over what my next career move will be. I feel like I’ve reached a bit of a dead end regarding clean tech. At the moment I’m leaning towards a position with my old friends at Oregan Networks. They are based in London, but they need a technical person to interact with their partners and customers in the US. It will probably involve a little more travel than I prefer, but the technology is related to what I was doing for a few years at LuxSonor, networked entertainment. I’ll be meeting with Mark, the CEO, over the weekend to work out the final details. We’ll see how it goes.

Last week Mary and I went to see The Dark Knight with some friends. We went to the Camera 12 theater in downtown San Jose on a Wednesday night. It was not crowded, but there were more people than typically there for a mid-week movie. I suppose the elevated attendance would attest to the popularity of this movie, which has already made it in to the All-Time Top 10 USA Box Office and #1 on IMDB’s Top 250.

To start with, I enjoyed this movie very much. It has good action and character development, an uncommon combination. As with Batman Begins, this is a much darker portrayal of Batman the the older movie series. With that said, I’m not sure it lived up to all the hype. I think a lot of the hype stems from the tragic death of one of the stars, Heath Ledger. He does put in a great performance as the Joker, but I’m not sure why people keep talking about it in terms of the Oscars. To me it’s not so much better than Jack Nicholson’s portrayal in the 1989 movie, though it does benefit from being in a stronger movie over-all. The older movie series was a bit campy at times, especially in the later installments.

I like Christian Bale as Batman, though he’s not a prominent in The Dark Knight as in Batman Begins. Aaron Eckhart is also pretty good as Harvey Dent, [spoiler alert] although I think they ran out of time to fully explore his fall from grace. Even as it was, the 152 minute movie is a bit long by my reckoning, not so much that it had a lot of unnecessary scenes, I just don’t find it so comfortable to sit in a theater for 2.5 hours. I suppose this is the price you pay to add plot and character development to a summer action blockbuster.

We went to a couple barbecues over the weekend. On Saturday, after hiking Mission Peak, we went to Joe and Cam’s house for some good pulled pork and lime pie. Joe is one of Mary’s old co-workers, and Mary is the one to introduce him to Cam, a friend of a friend. They are married with two kids now. On Sunday we went to Than and Mike’s house. They are cousins of Mary’s and were having a barbecue since a lot of extended family was in town for a wedding of another of Mary’s cousins’ kids. There were folks in from all over the country and even one cousin from Vietnam.

Earlier on Sunday we had gone to check out the owls by the “Magic Fence” and for a walk around Don Edwards. There’s still one little owlet in a burrow near the road (pictured on right, taken by Mary). The burrow is under the cement support for one of the street lights. It sits just behind the light quite often then darts for the burrow when spooked. There are still a couple other young owls in the field, but I think they are a bit older than the one by the light post. At Don Edwards we saw most of the usual suspects, including the black phoebe pictured above left. Click the phoebe picture for a full sized version, or click the owl picture to see the rest of the pictures we took on Sunday.