For some reason today I was randomly thinking about some of the cool things I have done in the last few years. Here are a few:
1. Swam with sharks (not nurse sharks)
2. Bungee Jumped
3. Rappelled off of waterfalls
4. Zip lining
5. Walked a tiger
6. Road an elephant
7. Hiked to the top of Half Dome and went up the cables
8. Hiked to the summit of Mt Whitney
9. Skied my first double black diamond at mammoth! (that's an accomplishment for me since they always freak me out)
10. Hiked to the bottom of the grand canyon
I'm sure there are more that I'm not thinking of...but it pretty cool that I've done all of these. And the coolest part is that I've done almost everyone of them with Dave.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Bear and a Car
Wanna see what will happen if you leave food in your car in Bear Territory!
Check this out. Come on people!
http://yosemiteblog.com/2009/07/15/bear-vs-car-you-lose/
Check this out. Come on people!
http://yosemiteblog.com/2009/07/15/bear-vs-car-you-lose/
Monday, July 13, 2009
The Incredible Hike
This weekend Dave and I accomplished a HUGE goal. Something that a lot of people wouldn't even try. Something that some people try but don't achieve the ultimate goal. The goal…the highest point in the continental USA….standing at 14,496 feet!!!! MT WHITNEY!!!!
We are lucky enough that this mountain only stands 2 hours away from our house. It can be a challenge to score permits…especially for the overnight journey. They only give out 60 per day and its done by a lottery for the summer months. But we managed to snag two last minute permits for this weekend. We had planned to backpack that weekend, just not to Whitney. We drove up to Lone Pine early Friday morning to pick up the permits! Since we were there so early we had a good lunch in Lone Pine and even drove up to the Whitney Portal for a few minutes. I snagged this photo on the way back down.
Then we headed to Onion Valley to relax for the evening and camp at 9000 feet to get acclimated. It was a nice evening. Dave read his book while I took some photos.
Then we played some Phase 10, drank some wine, cooked dinner and smores over the campfire and went to bed.
The next morning we woke up around 7 am and packed up. We were on the trail head for Mt Whitney at about 10am. Our goal for the day was to reach Trail Camp at 12000 feet. The trail head starts at about 8200 feet. So we had to climb 3800 feet in 6 miles! We were backpacking...so we carried everything we needed for two days - actually 3 days cause we debated on staying 2 nights.
The going up was hard, but we were doing great. Cruising along at a nice backpacking pace. We did take some breaks to enjoy the scenery which included a half hour at mirror lake. But we managed to reach our destination at about 4pm.
Trail camp was a nice sight...we were so ready to put those packs down!We set up camp and it was already getting pretty chilly. The wind was picking up and we knew we were in for an interesting night.
Our dinner that night was Chili Mac.
Once it got to colder outside we wandered into the tent to play Phase 10. Our tent rocks…even though it was cold and windy it was rather comfy in our tent…of course with layers of clothes on. We turned in around 9pm. I think I felt anxious all night about the summit plus there was the noise of all the wind so it was hard to sleep. I finally felt like I got some good sleep in the wee hours of the morning. I awoke around 6 am and opened the tent to see this. I had already missed the sunrise...bummer!
The mountains in the morning are just so beautiful at that altitude!
We were back on the trail at 7am…this time with much lighter day packs. We had to cover almost 2500 feet in elevation in 5 miles to get to the top. We reached trail crest (13,700 feet) around 9:30am. This is where I turned around last year. But this year I had encouragement to keep me going! The backside of this trail really freaked me out…maybe I'm just a bit of a wuss when it comes to this kind of stuff. Butthe steepness down to the valley below and the narrow trail combined put me on edge! But there was some amazing scenery.
It was crazy cause to get to the top we had to wander through a snow field…in July! This freaked me out a bit too…cause I was worried about slipping.
We summited Mt Whitney at about 11:15am!!
After getting to the top, it was a long journey back down.
We reached our campground at 3pm. Enough time to pack up and head out. We had a 2 night permit and debated staying but we were ready for a shower and a bed. We were back on the trail just before 4pm and down at the trail head at 7:30pm. The last 2 miles were very hard cause my feet hurt tremendously. These 2 miles are normally difficult simply because you can see the portal but you feel like your not getting anywhere! Dave and I gave each other high fives as we reached the parking lot. We were on cloud nine looking back up to see where we had come from. To know that we both accomplished this together was amazing feeling! Seriously what an accomplishment for both of us. How amazing is it that we hiked to the top of Mt Whitney? I am glad now that I turned around last year, cause reaching this goal with Dave was a very special memory.
You know I never did any big hikes before we moved to Cali…now I'm addicted. This was actually my 3rd time on the Whitney trail. The first time I didn't summit cause of a snow storm, the second time you can read about here. I can't get enough of hiking the mountains. I think I discovered something about myself and found something that was missing in my life and I didn't even really know it was missing.
We are lucky enough that this mountain only stands 2 hours away from our house. It can be a challenge to score permits…especially for the overnight journey. They only give out 60 per day and its done by a lottery for the summer months. But we managed to snag two last minute permits for this weekend. We had planned to backpack that weekend, just not to Whitney. We drove up to Lone Pine early Friday morning to pick up the permits! Since we were there so early we had a good lunch in Lone Pine and even drove up to the Whitney Portal for a few minutes. I snagged this photo on the way back down.
Then we headed to Onion Valley to relax for the evening and camp at 9000 feet to get acclimated. It was a nice evening. Dave read his book while I took some photos.
Then we played some Phase 10, drank some wine, cooked dinner and smores over the campfire and went to bed.
The next morning we woke up around 7 am and packed up. We were on the trail head for Mt Whitney at about 10am. Our goal for the day was to reach Trail Camp at 12000 feet. The trail head starts at about 8200 feet. So we had to climb 3800 feet in 6 miles! We were backpacking...so we carried everything we needed for two days - actually 3 days cause we debated on staying 2 nights.
The going up was hard, but we were doing great. Cruising along at a nice backpacking pace. We did take some breaks to enjoy the scenery which included a half hour at mirror lake. But we managed to reach our destination at about 4pm.
Trail camp was a nice sight...we were so ready to put those packs down!We set up camp and it was already getting pretty chilly. The wind was picking up and we knew we were in for an interesting night.
Our dinner that night was Chili Mac.
Once it got to colder outside we wandered into the tent to play Phase 10. Our tent rocks…even though it was cold and windy it was rather comfy in our tent…of course with layers of clothes on. We turned in around 9pm. I think I felt anxious all night about the summit plus there was the noise of all the wind so it was hard to sleep. I finally felt like I got some good sleep in the wee hours of the morning. I awoke around 6 am and opened the tent to see this. I had already missed the sunrise...bummer!
The mountains in the morning are just so beautiful at that altitude!
We were back on the trail at 7am…this time with much lighter day packs. We had to cover almost 2500 feet in elevation in 5 miles to get to the top. We reached trail crest (13,700 feet) around 9:30am. This is where I turned around last year. But this year I had encouragement to keep me going! The backside of this trail really freaked me out…maybe I'm just a bit of a wuss when it comes to this kind of stuff. Butthe steepness down to the valley below and the narrow trail combined put me on edge! But there was some amazing scenery.
It was crazy cause to get to the top we had to wander through a snow field…in July! This freaked me out a bit too…cause I was worried about slipping.
We summited Mt Whitney at about 11:15am!!
After getting to the top, it was a long journey back down.
We reached our campground at 3pm. Enough time to pack up and head out. We had a 2 night permit and debated staying but we were ready for a shower and a bed. We were back on the trail just before 4pm and down at the trail head at 7:30pm. The last 2 miles were very hard cause my feet hurt tremendously. These 2 miles are normally difficult simply because you can see the portal but you feel like your not getting anywhere! Dave and I gave each other high fives as we reached the parking lot. We were on cloud nine looking back up to see where we had come from. To know that we both accomplished this together was amazing feeling! Seriously what an accomplishment for both of us. How amazing is it that we hiked to the top of Mt Whitney? I am glad now that I turned around last year, cause reaching this goal with Dave was a very special memory.
You know I never did any big hikes before we moved to Cali…now I'm addicted. This was actually my 3rd time on the Whitney trail. The first time I didn't summit cause of a snow storm, the second time you can read about here. I can't get enough of hiking the mountains. I think I discovered something about myself and found something that was missing in my life and I didn't even really know it was missing.
WE DID IT!!!!
Dave and I hiked Mt Whitney yesterday! 22 miles roundtrip and 6000 feet in elevation gain! More to come later.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Vacation Countdown
Only 82 days to go! Can't believe this will be my 4th time to Europe!
This trip is all coming together pretty well! The airlines tickets are booked and the details are being worked out. So far what I pretty much know is that we will be visitng Oslo, Flam. Bergen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Coppenhagen, Malmo, and Brussels! All in 16 days. Dave really wants to go to this town called Tromso…its in the artic circle…but I just don't know how to fit it in. I guess it’s the best place to see the northern lights …but its supposed to be a full moon at the time we'd be there! So I think that is a no go although the artic circle would be awesome!!!! . Right now the itenerary looks like this
D1- Oslo
D2- Oslo
D3- Train to Flam
D4 - Fjord boat tour and on to Bergen
D5- Bergen
D6 - Stockholm
D7 - Stockholm
D8 - Stockholm
D9- Helsinki
D10-Tallinn- this will be my birthday
D11-Coppenhagen
D12- Coppenhagen
D13- Day trip outside of Coppenhagen - probably one of the castles
D14 - Malmo, Sweden
D15- Brussels
D16 - Brussels - this is our 5th anniversary and Green Day is playing in Antwerp (45 minutes away!!!)
It’s a good thing we like to be on the go! I'm so glad Dave isn't the type of guy to want to go lounge around on the beach for a week…I just can't handle those type of vacations. Even when we went to Hawaii we were always on the go.
I've been reseraching hotels and the prices aren't as bad as I was expecting. I've learned that in Europe you should try and book 4 stars or higher. There are some really cute hotels in Copenhagen. I'm really stoked to be going to Stockholm (ever since I saw Becker's photos) and Copenhagen (been wanting to go here for a while).
This trip is all coming together pretty well! The airlines tickets are booked and the details are being worked out. So far what I pretty much know is that we will be visitng Oslo, Flam. Bergen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Coppenhagen, Malmo, and Brussels! All in 16 days. Dave really wants to go to this town called Tromso…its in the artic circle…but I just don't know how to fit it in. I guess it’s the best place to see the northern lights …but its supposed to be a full moon at the time we'd be there! So I think that is a no go although the artic circle would be awesome!!!! . Right now the itenerary looks like this
D1- Oslo
D2- Oslo
D3- Train to Flam
D4 - Fjord boat tour and on to Bergen
D5- Bergen
D6 - Stockholm
D7 - Stockholm
D8 - Stockholm
D9- Helsinki
D10-Tallinn- this will be my birthday
D11-Coppenhagen
D12- Coppenhagen
D13- Day trip outside of Coppenhagen - probably one of the castles
D14 - Malmo, Sweden
D15- Brussels
D16 - Brussels - this is our 5th anniversary and Green Day is playing in Antwerp (45 minutes away!!!)
It’s a good thing we like to be on the go! I'm so glad Dave isn't the type of guy to want to go lounge around on the beach for a week…I just can't handle those type of vacations. Even when we went to Hawaii we were always on the go.
I've been reseraching hotels and the prices aren't as bad as I was expecting. I've learned that in Europe you should try and book 4 stars or higher. There are some really cute hotels in Copenhagen. I'm really stoked to be going to Stockholm (ever since I saw Becker's photos) and Copenhagen (been wanting to go here for a while).
Sunday, July 05, 2009
VACATION!
So I posted earlier about how I'm so ready to go on another vacation. Well after chatting about it with Dave we decided on a location and bought airline tickets! We will be spending our 5th anniversary in Europe. I'm so itching to go to Europe. So we will be flying out to Oslo, Norway. Now its time to work out all the other details. We just need to get to Brussels, Belgium by mid October to catch our flight home! So excited to be going back to Europe. It's been over 2 years.
So last night we were at Angel Stadium for the Orioles Game. The orioles totally blew it...they had a 4-0 lead but things fell apart once they reached into the bullpen for some help.
Well, since I didn't have Dave take my picture last night, here's one from 2 years ago.
So last night we were at Angel Stadium for the Orioles Game. The orioles totally blew it...they had a 4-0 lead but things fell apart once they reached into the bullpen for some help.
Well, since I didn't have Dave take my picture last night, here's one from 2 years ago.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Please Be Bear Concious!
I follow the Yosemite blog on my Google reader. Today I saw a post referring to another blog. It's a Yosemite Ranger who blogs all bout his California Black Bear stories. This one made me so sad and angry! I just don't get why people can not be responsible! Seriously!!! If you can't be responsible then you shouldn't be allowed to camp in Bear Territory! Once we were camping and some idiot left this cooler on the picnic table and dog food in the back of his truck…despite al the signs asking to store your food in the bear boxes! So what do you think happened…yup the bear came to visit his campsite..not once, but twice!Come on people, those boxes aren't just to protect your food, but to keep the bears alive!
This is from jeffreytrust.com:
The next year, I was working one night when we received a report of a bear (who turned out to be Yellow 53, a yearling on his own at that point) near Lower Pines Campground. Since he was out of the campground, we didn’t bother him, and he soon disappeared. Expecting that he might come into the campground once it got dark, we talked to everyone to make sure they stored their food. Meanwhile, Yellow 53 ambled over a nearby bridge and left the area. He’d had his chance to get into Lower Pines, but he walked all the way around the campground and over a bridge to go somewhere else. This is what bears are supposed to do, and I actually remember feeling proud of him! Maybe he’d be unlike his mother! On another night shortly after, I was working once again, and I ran into my partner as he told a woman not to forget the bag of trash she still had hanging out.
Hours later, as I was walking through Upper Pines Campground, checking on food storage, I found Yellow 53 eating from the trash bag that this woman my partner had reminded had never put away. The bear treed, and when he finally came down, I chased him away. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time Yellow 53 got human food on his own, and all because this woman, despite the reminder, still managed to forget to throw away her trash.
And thus a downward spiral began. He was active that year, less so the next, and then very active the following two years. He knew by then that getting human food was far more efficient than eating only natural foods, despite the occasionally annoying person who actually tried to scare him away. He could sneak into campsites with people just a few feet away and grab their food. As time went on, he was so comfortable doing this that visitors had a hard time scaring him away (although, I always found him easy to scare away).
He was a smart bear, like his mother. Orange 19 once banged a bear canister against a rock for 45 minutes until the lid popped off. Yellow 53, on the other hand, went around opening up unlocked car doors… using the door handles.
I (and many others) spent quite a lot of time trying to undo the consequences of that woman forgetting to throw away her trash. I even got an award for it, but all Yellow 53 got was more and more food. He got so close to people so often, and may have injured one (or more) people, that we were beginning to think we’d have no choice but to kill him. We tried moving him, we tried aggressively using a shotgun with rubber slugs or bean bags to scare him, we tried to improve food storage. But, in the end, none of these things made a difference, and we had to kill him. It was a very sad day. He was perhaps my favorite bear.
So, a few nights ago, I was walking through Upper Pines when the wildlife techs, just a loop away, found a sow with three cubs in the campground. And what were they doing? Eating from a trash bag someone had forgotten to throw away.
This is from jeffreytrust.com:
The next year, I was working one night when we received a report of a bear (who turned out to be Yellow 53, a yearling on his own at that point) near Lower Pines Campground. Since he was out of the campground, we didn’t bother him, and he soon disappeared. Expecting that he might come into the campground once it got dark, we talked to everyone to make sure they stored their food. Meanwhile, Yellow 53 ambled over a nearby bridge and left the area. He’d had his chance to get into Lower Pines, but he walked all the way around the campground and over a bridge to go somewhere else. This is what bears are supposed to do, and I actually remember feeling proud of him! Maybe he’d be unlike his mother! On another night shortly after, I was working once again, and I ran into my partner as he told a woman not to forget the bag of trash she still had hanging out.
Hours later, as I was walking through Upper Pines Campground, checking on food storage, I found Yellow 53 eating from the trash bag that this woman my partner had reminded had never put away. The bear treed, and when he finally came down, I chased him away. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time Yellow 53 got human food on his own, and all because this woman, despite the reminder, still managed to forget to throw away her trash.
And thus a downward spiral began. He was active that year, less so the next, and then very active the following two years. He knew by then that getting human food was far more efficient than eating only natural foods, despite the occasionally annoying person who actually tried to scare him away. He could sneak into campsites with people just a few feet away and grab their food. As time went on, he was so comfortable doing this that visitors had a hard time scaring him away (although, I always found him easy to scare away).
He was a smart bear, like his mother. Orange 19 once banged a bear canister against a rock for 45 minutes until the lid popped off. Yellow 53, on the other hand, went around opening up unlocked car doors… using the door handles.
I (and many others) spent quite a lot of time trying to undo the consequences of that woman forgetting to throw away her trash. I even got an award for it, but all Yellow 53 got was more and more food. He got so close to people so often, and may have injured one (or more) people, that we were beginning to think we’d have no choice but to kill him. We tried moving him, we tried aggressively using a shotgun with rubber slugs or bean bags to scare him, we tried to improve food storage. But, in the end, none of these things made a difference, and we had to kill him. It was a very sad day. He was perhaps my favorite bear.
So, a few nights ago, I was walking through Upper Pines when the wildlife techs, just a loop away, found a sow with three cubs in the campground. And what were they doing? Eating from a trash bag someone had forgotten to throw away.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Traveling
I absolutely Love to Travel! As a kid I would get so excited for vacations. But when did I get that international travel bug? It all started with a 2.5 week trip to Ireland! It was amazing! I loved Ireland so much and really didn't want to leave (esp to go back to Florida). But then I wanted more! So about a year after Dave and I were married we made the trek to Italy for 2.5 weeks! OMG....seriously amazing. I loved every minute of it again. Since then we have been on 3 other big international vacations. As soon as I get back I'm already thinking about where to next. It seems that as we go to some countries I tend to add more to the list!
International traveling is so much fun to me. I love experiencing their cultures and seeing how people live. In some ways even getting back to the basics...things we have but they don't.
It's been about 6 months since we returned from Thailand and I am really itching for that next vacation. I've been almost obsessed this week with looking into vacations. I am so ready to hop on a plane and take of to the next wonderful international location!
International traveling is so much fun to me. I love experiencing their cultures and seeing how people live. In some ways even getting back to the basics...things we have but they don't.
It's been about 6 months since we returned from Thailand and I am really itching for that next vacation. I've been almost obsessed this week with looking into vacations. I am so ready to hop on a plane and take of to the next wonderful international location!
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