Science of Motivation
June 17, 2010 2:11 pmWould like to share this great video:
This is something that’s probably fairly obvious to some of us, but never figured out how or why…
Fish Creek, Anza Borrego Desert
May 9, 2010 11:39 pm
- Entrance to Fish Creek
This is the 2nd day of our stay in the Anza Borrego Desert. Today we drove out of Coyote Canyon, attempted to find “The Slot” and ended up taking the wrong turn and Vic#2′s trusty suby just couldn’t make it up the steep, dirt road.
- Photo doesn’t give this hill justice. It was steep with huge dips and very loose dirt. Unfortunately, the suby just couldn’t conquer this hill.
We ended up just leaving the car at the bottom of the hill and hiked in to find “The Slot”. Once we got to the top of the hill, we were greeted by insane winds. Strong enough to hold you up while leaning against it.
- Vic#2 and Fredrik leaning against the wind.
The wind was really kicking our butts and we decided to skip this part of the trip and to use the rest of our time finding a spot for us to camp out for the night and to explore Fish Creek.
Driving into Fish Creek
Entering the Split Mountain area/Fish Creek
Vic#2 fixing the stabilizer bar that came loose from all the off-roading.
Meanwhile, as Vic#2 is trying to fix his suspension…you can’t really ignore all the things to see around the area…
After agreeing on a safe spot to camp, we only had a couple of hours of sunlight left to explore the area and hiked our way up into the wind caves.
James & Fredrik at the Wind Caves trailhead.
View of the Elephant Knees right before getting to the Wind Caves.
Wind Caves with the elephant knees in the background
I’m glad we skipped the first “hike” of the day because we probably would’ve missed the sunset from this spot…
View of Fish Creek. Sunset colors painted this beautiful desert landscape
Yea, no color for this one =P
Elephant Knees. Sunset colors painted this beautiful desert landscape.
The last of the sun's rays making the desert glow.
The last of the sun's rays making the desert glow.
The clouds were also giving us a show that evening.
More photos from the hike:
View Slideshow Here
Cold Weekendin Yosemite Pt.2
May 3, 2010 3:53 pm
First glimpse of the park as you approach from the West entrance.
It’s been almost a month since I posted the first blog about the Yosemite weekend. This post will go over the remainder of that weekend.
The original plan for this trip was to drive into the park Friday night, wake up early Saturday morning, backpack and and spend the night in Little Yosemite Valley, hike out, and go home Sunday. With the stormy weather this just wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Going to the visitor center should always be one of the first stops when entering the park to get current trail conditions and get the latest information from the park officials. Due to the recent storm, the Mist Trail has been closed due to dangerous conditions, but part of the John Muir Trail is open, although the higher sections of the trail had lots of ice and snow along the trail making bits of the hike quite difficult and very dangerous. With this information, we decided not to backpack to Yosemite Valley but instead find a spot in Camp 4, and go on the original route as a day hike instead.
The group having lunch at Clark Point. We turned around from this point since the trail to the top of Vernal Falls was closed off. Plus the higher we got in elevation, the snow was just harder to hike through.
Ning & I
Ning maneuvering her way down one of the many switchbacks dangerously covered with ice.
Recently fallen tree blocking the trail with debris all over.
View of the Yosemite Falls from the trail.
View of Half Dome from the middle of the Valley
El Capitan and Half dome towering over the valley.
View of Yosemite Falls from the Valley floor.
More Photos:
Coyote Canyon, Anza Borrego Desert
April 30, 2010 11:57 amHiking and camping in the Coyote Canyon in Anza Borrego (wiki) just East of San Diego. We just drove down from a night of camping in freezing cold in Mt. Laguna 5000+ feet just West of Anza Borrego. Today’s plan was to drive to lower Coyote Canyon, pitch tent just before the 3rd water crossing on the trail and hike the rest of the way to an oasis in Sheep Canyon “3.5 miles away”. 3.5 miles later in 90 degree heat, the oasis looked like it was still along the horizon! The scenery was awesome, though. The desert was as colorful as ever thanks to its spring-time bloom. Flowers of all sizes and colors painted the landscape.
Getting There:
Getting to the trailhead requires a 4×4 with good clearance to go over rocks, cross streams and not get stuck in the sand.
The Hike:
The hike we were originally informed would be a round trip of 7-miles through desert heat. So we filled up our water bottles, got our sunblocks, hats, sunglasses and took off. We didn’t quite make it to the destination due to underestimating the distance. We later found out from a guide book that the distance was closer to 10 miles and not 7 miles!
The Bloom:
Night Shots:
Vic#2 painting the picture with the word, “Anza”
Obligatory star trail shot.
Vic#1, Vic#2, James Ng.
The wonderful world of Macro Photography
April 22, 2010 10:23 pmTreated myself to a nice heavy lens (Canon 100mm f2.8 macro) and my first chance to really make use of it with the blooming flowers around kuya’s house. Making this my official entry to the macro world.
