Whitewater Rafting in the Middle Fork of American River

White water rafting on the South fork of American river was so much fun, I decided to do it again. This Labor Day weekend, I venture out to Coloma once more. This trip was to run the Middle fork of the American river.

(BTW, I have gotten some question on this: yes, there is a North fork of the American river, which I plan to run next Spring. That river is not dam controlled and typically do not have enough flow to raft after Spring time.)

I had enjoyed my rafting trip with Mother Lode: the company I went with during Memorial day, but they did not have enough clients to fill 2 boats on this Labor Day weekend! I was therefore transferred to join Mariah Wilderness Adventure on this trip instead.

I arrived at 4:30pm the day before to set up camp and spent the night. Mariah's camp ground was all dirt:( I had preferred the lawn camp ground at Mother Lode. This camp ground was also located by the South Fork of American river, less than a mile from Mother Lode's camp ground. The nicest feature of the camp ground had to be the swimming hole, basically a bend in the river with shallow bottom. I had brought my swim gear, but decided not to swim because the water and the weather was too cold.

After an early dinner at Sierra Nevada House, I read a little and went to sleep. I wanted to be ready for the 7am trip.

I got up at 6am, and considering I was camping, had a fairly decent night. Mariah did not offer breakfast, so I brought along some banana and bagel. The middle Fork rafters met at 7am and were driven to Raley's at Auburn, where we picked up 2 more guest. I made a mental note to check hotel prices at Auburn. It would make a more comfortable sleep compare to camping.

From Auburn, it was a 45min drive to the put in point, located at the foot of Oxbow reservoir.

As usual, we were given a briefing on the van ride to the put in point. The Middle fork is classified as a class IV-V river, so besides a repeat of the usual paddle commands/safety instructions (which I had heard on South Fork), we were taught a few more tricks. One command was "get down", where all rafters would abandon their usual position sitting on the side of the raft and get into the middle of the raft, holding on to straps attached to the raft.

The other was "high side". This command would be used when a raft is about to flip, one side of the raft would be higher than the other. Rafters sitting on the lower side of the raft should shift to the higher side of the raft to re-balance the raft.

Our lead guide for the trip is Morgan. Our guide is Matt. In our boat were 4 guys from India (sorry, I don't remember their names) and Vince. Vince was a former river guide, so we had extra help on this trip.

I sat in the front right hand side spot. Vince was on my left. There was a diver (aka non-swimmer) on the trip, so he sat in the back, right next to Matt.

We were given the usual PFD, paddles, spray jackets and helmets for this trip. After a quick gear check, we pulled the raft to a small ramp for put in. Of the dozen or so companies that were rafting that day, we were the first to launch!

Immediately after put in, we practiced turns and other paddling commands. We did not have much time because there is a Class III rapid near the put in point. It is appropriately named "Good Morning!" Learning from my South Fork experience, I wore a spray jacket on this trip. Still, I got a good splash and woke up even more!

The first couple of miles down the Middle fork were filled with class III and class IV rapids. Between these rapids, Matt had us working on paddling and turning again. Also, in preparation for tunnel chute, we also worked on "get down" and "high side", so it was a really active start to the day.

Matt guided us expertly through the next few rapids before we reach "Tunnel Chute". Tunnel Chute had to be the most famous rapid on American River. It is basically a hole in granite blasted out by gold miner with a turn and a big drop before going into a tunnel. Some even considered it class V rapid. All the pictures one sees with rafters holding their paddle up in the air and seated inside the raft were from this rapid.

We had to positioned the raft when we entered the bend and into the drop. Just before the drop, Matt called "Get down!" Everyone reacted immediately. Then for a second or two, there was nothing except white water all around us. At the bottom of the chute, we had to get out of our position and immediately start paddling again, as the river took another turn. It was hardcore white water fun!

After Tunnel Chute, everyone relaxed a little. After all, the most difficult rapid was behind us. Vince and I switched position with guys in the second row so they could experience the full force of the river for themselves.

We got through the rest of the class II and class III rapid without much difficulty. Then we approached Kanaka falls. Matt had the habit of briefing us on the rock formation of the major rapids ahead of us and the paddling he expected of us. On Kanaka, we were to make a bend in the river and there was several bumps along the way. As we paddled the rapid, on one bump, both person on the front row fell. I was able to grab the person in front of me and pulled him in, but Vince was unable to pull the guy on the left back into the raft. He fell into the white water. It was the lower portion of the rapid and water was starting to slow, so Matt called "All forward". We raft towards him and pulled him back into the raft.

Morgan had mentioned on a rafting trip, an average of 1 client would go swimming. Since she and Matt did not have client fall out on the previous day's trip, I guessed they were due.

After Kanaka, the water flattens out. There was about 2-3 miles of flat water paddling. I had a chance to really admire the beauty of the river and its canyon. According to Matt, the canyon walls are 2000 ft high. Being near the river, the area is lusciously green. The view was just amazing!

There were also lots of guide stories swapping between Vince and Matt.

Matt recalled this past summer, he had given a briefing to a group of rafters and noticed one lady looking very puzzled. When the lady first saw the river raft, she exclaimed, "Oh...these type of rafts!" The raft she had in mind were formed by tying several wooden log together....like those described in the adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Vince countered with another story. When he was guiding, at a bridge running across the river, he would tell clients that this was Native American territory and the Native Americans did not like people looking at them. In fact, they would shoot people looking at their faces. Just as all the clients were looking away from the bridge, he would slap the water with a flat paddle, simulating a gun shot sound and gave everyone a good shock!

I asked Vince a little more about himself. Turned out, he was a techie just like me! He used to work in a technology company and was married. After his divorce, he and his ex-wife sold their house. Each of them had about $300K from the sale. He became a river guide and worked the river for 5 years. His ex-wife, meanwhile, bought a new house in Half Moon Bay. Given the current real estate market, it was likely his ex-wife was underwater in that mortgage. He had his fun being a river guide and now worked in Philippines, managing a call center for My Linux Support.

Vince told me he was tempted to tell his ex: "After the divorce, I rafted a 100,000 river, scuba dived a 100,000 dive sites and f**ked a 100,000 women. So, what did you do with your money?" Then he contemplated for a second and said: "I better not. She would shoot me!"

It was about 12:30pm when we reach a small beach and break for lunch. Given the bumpy ride, any bread the guides brought along would be squashed! Instead, we were given pre-squashed bread: tortilla! It was served with ham, cheese, fresh cut vegetables, potato chips and condiments.

After lunch there was another 2 -3 miles of flat water paddling. On this stretch, Matt showed us his favorite rock formation on the river.



My waterproof disposable camera picture did not turn out well, but the rock was basically one rock shaped like 2 boobs with cleavage in between. Naturally, someone had placed 2 pebbles on top of the rock. Matt deadpanned, "And the rocks on top only shows up on a cold day!"

About half an hour of flat water paddling, we got busy again. The interesting rapids were now ahead of us. Our first major rapid after lunch was Chunder. Chunder was a finesse rapid. We had to position our raft in a particular direction on the right side of the rapid to go through it.

After Chunder, was the other infamous rapid of Middle fork. Ruck-A-Chucky was thought to be un-runnable until some river guide did it in the 80's. However, no river company would take client down this rapid. We left the raft and walked around the rapid on a small unmarked trail. Even Matt did not raft through this rapid. He had Morgan pushed our raft down the rapid, while he waited at the bottom of the rapid to pull the raft in. Despite claims that we were suppose to portage, we did not lift the raft on this rapid.

After Ruck-A-Chucky was Cleavage. This rapid had a opening between two rocks (hence the name). After a drop, there was a rock right in between the open which Matt referred to as Dick rock. We were to help turn the raft to avoid it.

Parallel park was the final major rapid. Here we were required to turn left, then backed the raft up and then pulled all forward. The motion of the raft resembled parallel parking, hence the name. We had no problem with this rapid too.

Coming out of parallel park, we hit Texas Chainsaw. There was a rock formation on the right where the bottom of the rock, near the river, had been eroded away. Since we had a fair amount of speed coming off the previous turn, we were not able to paddle away from the rock. I was on the front row left and had to bend down to avoid the rock from taking my head off.

Off the next class III rapid, Matt suggested we go surfing. We park our raft in the eddy where water was calm, then paddle upstream towards a the rapid. I realized for the first time how much power rafters could generate when we paddled together. At the base of the rapid was a with lots of white water. As the front off the raft moved into the white water, it tipped down, and the front of the raft was filled with water. White water has no bouancy.

The surfing was pretty much the last thing we did on the river. We pulled out at a small ramp near a park and took a 45min drive back to camp.

I had planned to camp another night, but I was no tired after all the rafting. After breaking camp, I drove home.

Before leaving, I asked Vince about Cherry Creek. This was a class V river, which called itself the standard which all class V are measured against. I wanted to raft that river someday.

Vince suggested running North fork and Cal Salmon before doing Cherry Creek. Also, on a high flow (3000-4000 cfs) day, South Fork could be a good training ground. The idea, according to Vince was to experience falling out of the raft. That way, one would not panic as much if it happened on Cherry Creek.

A map of Middle Fork of American river can be found here. Description of the rapids can be found
here

Finally, photos of me going down Tunnel Chute can be found here

Half Dome

I first learned about Yosemite National Park and Half Dome in 1993. My sister and brother-in-law had visited the park and were showing us her pictures. She had told me Half Dome was the largest rock in the world (note: I cannot find the reference anywhere on the web), and people rock climbed up the Northwest Face in days to get to the top. The physical abilities required to rock climbed that far was clearly beyond me. The top of Half Dome was like the top of Mount Everest: it exist, but not somewhere I would likely reach in my life time.

Then, a few year ago, while I was training to run half marathon, someone told me about hiking to the top of Half Dome. I was intrigued, but due to injuries, work commitment and other reasons, I never made the trip.

Early this summer, A mentioned on Facebook he was planning to do hiking. I talked him and his friend D into doing Half Dome. We had been hiking 10-12 miles on most Saturday for 2 months in preparation.

Our first set back on this trip came on Wednesday before the hike. During a "controlled" burn, Yosemite Park officials started what is now known as the Big Meadow fire. Highway 120 into the Park was closed as a result. Why is this a set back? Well, the hotel we booked, Yosemite Westgate Lodge, is located near the Highway 120 entrance into Yosemite, in Groveland, CA. This is to facilitate an early start to the hike. When we heard about the road closure, it was already too late to cancel our room. After some debate, we decided to continue staying in Groveland, but take a 3 hour detour to go into Yosemite National Park.

Big Meadow Fire map, displayed outside Groveland Firehouse

After a leisure drive to Groveland, we checked into our hotel, got updated on the fire situation, ate an early dinner and went to bed at 9pm. But all there of us: A, D and me, are not early sleepers to begin with, and the anxiety of hiking Half Dome did not help. I did not fall asleep till 1am. D said later he did not fall asleep till 2am.

I woke up at 4:20am. Surprised, I checked my cell phone for the time again. We had asked for a wake up call at 4am, but the hotel did not call us! We quickly got ready and hit the road at 5:00am.

We decided to follow the recommended detour of taking junction 132 to Hwy 49 to Hwy 140 and enter Yosemite through the entrance near the town of El Portal. However, we were misled by the map posted outside Groveland fire station.

Misleading map, displayed outside Groveland Firehouse. You are here on the map is not the Groveland Firehouse!

With all these delays, we did not enter Yosemite Valley till 8am. We quickly parked our car, and hiked 1/4 mile to the Happy Isle trail head. From the trail head, we hiked along Mist Trail. The 1-1.5 mile was a bit of an up hill climb. The roads are paved, so there is no need to trail find and the scenery was great. We crossed a bridge where we caught our first glimpse of Vernal falls. From the bridge, the trail starts becoming more wild. The paved roads disappear and we started walking on dirt path. The trails have lots of rocks embedded in the path, which made the walking rather tiring.

Trail head warning

After another 1/2 a mile, we started seeing Vernal Falls up close and personal. In late August, Vernal Falls have much less flow. Various websites suggested bringing along a poncho for this stretch of the hike, which I did. But there was no spray from the water fall , so I did not use the poncho.

Vernal Falls in late August

As we continue further on this trail, it become steeper. Steps are cut into the rocks to and hand rails are provided along some especially narrow path. Then the trail open up and we reach the top of Vernal falls. The body of water that feeds into Vernal fall is Emerald Pond. It looks really calm, and somewhat greenish when we were there.

From Emerald Pond, we followed Mist Trail to Nevada Falls. Again, these hikes were mostly on granite steps since the trail is fairly steep. Nevada Falls have more flow compare to Vernal falls, but we were spared any spray from Nevada Falls as well.

Nevada Falls in late August

We reached the junction of Mist trail and John Muir Trail at about 11:30am. Here we debated if we should go further. The mile marker read "Half Dome 4.5 miles". We figured in another 2 hours, we would reach the top of Half Dome and therefore decided to push on. We badly under-estimate how long the rest of the hike up would take.

The next stretch of the hike was the most relax. We walked along Merced River in Little Yosemite Valley. The trail is flat and the footing is mostly sand. After about 1.5 miles, the flat section ended and we started climbing again.

Here we were starting to feel tired. We start to meet people coming down from Half Dome and we would randomly asked them how much further we had to go. It was not encouraging. It was going to be 3 more miles, but would probably take us another 2 hours.

Another 45mins hiking brought us to the last mile maker "Half Dome 2 miles".



Walking another 45mines, we finally reached were at the foot of the granite dome. A and I spotted people going up the cable, but also saw people going up a lower rock structure without cable. This lower rock structure was quite steep! This was our first introduction to Sub Dome.

In preparation to hike Half Dome, I had attended Mr Half Dome's talk at REI. He had mentioned the most dangerous part of the hike were not the infamous cables on Half Dome, but Sub Dome. I was skeptical then, but now I understand why he had said that.

Sub Dome looking down

Steps were also cut into the Sub Dome rock, but the trail is very exposed. As such, our progress was more measured. After hiking Sub Dome, there was a small drop in the trail into a narrow ridge where we met the cables.

"The Cables"

The cables are probably the most talked about feature on the Half Dome hike. Looking from the bottom up, the climb up Half Dome does look quite intimidating. The rock is steep and the exposure is large. I had no doubt if a person fell from the cable, he/she would die. We were hiking Half Dome late in the season, so the cable was not crowded at all.

People I talked to always reassured me the cables are not that difficult. I had a different experience when I climbed the first half of the way. It was very tiring and I stood on each wood planks to rest, before moving to the next plank. Fear probably played a big role as I had never climbed something so steep without harness. (I later learned that part of the route is Class 3, so ropes were optional).

I had made the cables more difficult by using the wrong technique. I was pulling myself up the cables with my hands and it was very tiring. Half way up the cables, it strike me I should be leaning more towards the rock and use more of my feet to walk up Half Dome. While parts of the rock was slippery, for the most part, I had good traction and was able to walk up the rock and used the cable for guiding/security only. I had done rock climbing and should have applied knowledge learned there faster:(

At 2pm, we reached the top. D was tentative at the base of the cable, but A and I encouraged him to do it. When he reached the top of the cable though, he didn't feel like moving at all. He sat near the cables and rested while A and I walked around the top of Half Dome.

I did the classic "Diving Board", took panoramic pictures, paying special attention to the smoke from Big Meadow fire. A ate tamarind rice as celebration while I took a short nap.

Smoke from Big Meadow fire. I never smell smoke on the hike, except when I was breathing hard on the cable.

Diving board

At 3:15pm, we decided to head down. In late August, night falls earlier and I did not want to hike down sub dome in the dark.

Knowing how exposed the cables were, I descended them by facing the rock while climbing down. Using the same rock climbing technique, I was able to moved down fairly quickly, though the footing coming down was a little worst than going up.

Another group of hikers were climbing up the cables when we were descending. The sky had began to darken. I hoped they had a short stay atop Half Dome, else they will need to hike down sub dome in the dark.

The hike down sub dome turns out to be easier than I had imagined. While we moved carefully, it was not as scary as I had initially thought.

After sub dome, we moved at a brisk pace, trying to cover as much ground as possible before dark. Fatigue began to set in. I had finished all my Gatorade and began to worried I didn't carry enough water. Also, stepping on the rock all day on the trail was beginning to take its toll. I was avoiding walking on rocks since it hurt my feet. I was also grateful to the high top. Without that support, I would have twisted my ankle several times on the way down.

We reached the John Muir Trail/Mist Trail junction at about 6:45pm. Most guidebook suggested taking John Muir Trail because it is less steep, though longer. We debated a little, but decided to take Mist Trail in the hope of covering more ground with the remaining light.

It felt like a mistake after a few steps. Mist trail was very steep. When hiking up, it was tiring, but I was not worried about balance. However, when hiking down, I was concerned I would slip and fall on the very steep trail and be seriously injured. Further, the trail was all rocks, which hurt the feet a lot. The rock surface on the trail felt like it was cut with a slight angle pointing down. This made climbing up easier, but felt really unstable going down.

While Mist Trail to the Happy Isle trail head is shorter, I wondered if we saved any time, since hiking down Mist Trail was really slow. The hiking poles were really helpful because it helped me with balance and took pressure off my knees.

At this point, we were hiking by ourselves, and realized Mist Trail wasn't very well marked! When coming up, there were many hikers on the trail and we did not have to do any trail finding. With the sky was mostly dark and being all alone, we resorted to our memory and foot prints on the trail to find our way.

We made it to Emerald Pond. Another group of hikers from Cisco which we had met atop Half Dome was already there. One of the hikers had done this hike before and he led us down the rest of the way. It was completely dark at this point. Luckily all of us were prepared with flash light and head lamps. I had also ran out of water, but weather was beginning to cool, so I did not feel dehydrated. We were lucky the entire day, since weather was never an issue. It never got too hot or too cold during the hike.

With the Cisco hikers leading the way, we got back to Vernal Falls bridge where we filled our bottles with water. Then it was onto the paved section of the trail. With no problem with footing, it was just a matter of walking the final 1.5 miles to the trail head.

It was 9pm when we reached the trail head and we were all very tired. A bus pulled up at the trail head and the driver was nice enough to wait for us. We asked about riding back to the trail head parking lot, but learned that the bus does not stop there! We had to walk back to the parking lot on foot.

The 1/4 mile hike from the parking lot to the trail head did not feel like anything in the morning, but after hiking for almost 12 hours, the distance felt like it would never end. Again, this path to the parking lot was not well marked and we kept wondering if we were going the right way. It was 9:15pm when we got to the car.

Since our hotel was another 3 hours away, we drove around Yosemite Valley looking for a place to grab a bite. There was a grocery store and we got sandwich and Gatorade.

I must be really tired because after wolfing down a cold Gatorade, I suddenly felt the chills and had to warm myself up wearing a fleece jacket. D took the keys and drove 2 1/2 hours back to the hotel. It was about 12:30am when we arrived.

We took turns showering and hit the sack. I don't know about the other guys, but I fell asleep immediately when my head hit the pillow.

So, Half Dome is in the bag. The final stats: 14 miles, 4800 ft, 12 hours hike. I felt that despite a summer of hiking, we were not as physically prepared as we should be. This hike was the most physically demanding thing I had ever done, and like I told D and I, I had ran 13.1 miles at some point in my life.

White Water Rafting in South Fork of American River

This Memorial Day weekend, I joined Absolute Adventure for a camping/white water rafting trip. The day before, thirteen attendees met for a short hike under Foresthill bridge, the highest bridge in California. Then we went to Mother Lode River Center to spend the night, in preparation for a early start on paddling day.

I waked up at around 7am in Mother Lode River Center's camp site. We were up late the night before drinking beer, eating s'mores, playing "Two Truths and a Lie" and generally having a good time round the camp fire. Unfortunately, I don't usually sleep well while camping and this trip was no different. Carrisa had just woke up and was starting breakfast. She told me I was early, so I went back to my tent and took a nap. I woke up again at 8am, just in time for a hot breakfast of bagel, bacon and eggs.

I had rafted in 2005 at Cache Canyon with White Water Adventures. Cache Canyon supposed to be a class II-III river, but its worst rapid was a class II 1/2. It was so safe, guides were not needed. I had a lot of fun on that trip, and I wondered why it took me a couple of years to get back into the activity.

After breakfast, we met our friendly raft/river guides. Since we had a little time to kill, we toured Mother Lodge's organic garden, learned to make lynards with duct tape, before boarding the ECO bus (runs on recycled vegetable oil!) and took a 45min ride to the put-in point. On the bus, we were given a safety briefing. The basics were similar on all rivers: keep your feet away from the bottom of the river, float feet pointing down river etc. There were also some new instructions, like getting rescue by the throw bag and getting directions from the river guide after falling into the river. The South Fork of American River have several class 3 rapids, so more precautions were needed.

We were on the one day double run trip. Our put in point was at a park. Everyone was encourage to use the facilities, since once the rafting begin, the only place to "go" was in the river. We were then given life vest and paddles. Safety instructions were repeated and simple paddle commands were taught and it's time to paddle!

In the morning, I paddled on the right hand side of the raft, second row from the front. The first major rapid we hit was called "Meat Grinder". It was a rather technical rapid to cross, requiring the raft to move forward, turned and back-paddle.

The river water was still very cold on Memorial Day weekend (most of the water in this river was from snow melt) and I got a good splash even though I was seated in the second row. Any lingering sleepiness was immediately gone!

The rapids kept coming and with a river guide doing the steering, all we needed to do was followed his instructions. It was at this time I realized even professional guides got into some of the trouble I had gotten into on Cache Creek.

I had missed time some turns and had to let the raft go through some rapids uncontrolled, letting the white water pushed the raft along. Karl, our guide, did the same thing. He called it "zen boating":)

I had my raft stuck on rocks and had to jump out of the craft to push it and free it. It happened to us on this trip too. Our raft was stuck on one rapid too, and poor Karl had to jump into the river to push the raft and free it.

The biggest rapid we hit on the morning run was call "Troublemaker". We went into the rapid the right way, but was unable to execute the turn cleanly. We ended up going down the second part of the rapid sideways. While I felt the raft was fairly stable on this rapid, others in our boat thought we were going to flip.

We saw another raft full of private rafters came through Troublemaker. They were not as lucky as us. A couple of rafters fell off the raft as they went through the drop in Troublemaker. We paddled to help one guy to shore, but their boat was speeding down the rapid. We had no room in the raft and had to leave the paddler by the river shore. I wondered how he got home.

After Troublemaker, we were went back to Mother Lode's camp and break for lunch. We assembled sandwiches from marinated artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, selection of cheese and deli meat. Scot, the owner, gave us a talk on environment issues. He talked about plans to build Auburn dam, and how it would turn all the river we rafted in the morning into a lake. He was clearly passionate about environmental issues, but was not pushy about his view point. He just people to be informed about environmental issues and write to their congress person to voice their concern or support.

After lunch, we went back into the river. I switched seats with Bill on the raft and was rowing on the left in the first row. Bill was sick of being splashed by all the cold river water, while I was looking forward to more splashing! I put on a spray jacket, but no wet suit, since the weather was somewhat hot and I rather had an occasional cold spray of water than be hot on flat water.

The two bigger rapids on this stretch of the river were Satan's Cesspool and Hospital Bar. Satan's Cesspool had a sharp drop entering the rapid, and then a sharp turn. We hit the rapid expertly and ran through without much difficulty. Hospital Bar was the last major rapid. By the time we hit this rapid, our boat was paddling very well together and made all the right moves. Again, we ride through the rapid without any difficulty.

After Hospital Bar, the river flatten out. Memorial Day was fairly early in the rafting season and there was lots of flat water between Hospital Bar and the pull out point. To save us the paddling effort and to make some quick bucks, some townies on jet ski came and gave us a tow. Thes jet ski were quite powerful! I estimated about 20 rafts from Mother Lode and another river company were towed about a mile or so to the pull out point by a single jet ski.

After pulling out, we rode the ECO bus back to camp. Everyone was tired, but hyper after a good rafting trip.

The detail rapid description for South Fork of the American River can be found here. A map view can be seen here.

Photos from my trip can be fseenhere.

Back at camp, Carrisa had just started dinner. The rafters took a quick shower and spent the rest of the time playing volleyball. After dinner, we drank beer and played a little frisbee.

During the rafting trip, Karl, our river guide, told us about the local night life hot spot. Coloma Club, or as Karl affectionately called it, the "CC". We decided to check the place out.

The CC's clientele was a strange mixed of people: locals, river guides and rafters from nearby cities: Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Area. It was Karaoke night, and some of the ladies in our group took the stage singing! We danced, sang and really let our hair down.

At about midnight, I started feeling a little tired. I took off back to camp, sat by the camp fire and ate more s'mores, before heading back to my tent for a well-deserved rest.

White water rafting was a lot of fun and I planned to do more river runs.

President's Day Weekend 2-Ice Climbing/Hot Spring

We woke up at 5:30am to get an early start for ice climbing. While making hotel reservations, we were told that ice climbers had booked up all of Murphy's Motel. We were concerned there will be no route left if we arrived late.

Our destination for ice climbing is the right side wall in Lee Vining Canyon. This ice wall about a mile hike in from the trail head, which is located on an unmarked road, off the Eastern Sierra end of Highway 120, just before the gates. The road led to an Edison substation, and the trail head is behind the substation. We were the first team to arrive at the trail head, so the early start paid off!

On the trail...

It had snowed the night before, so the trail was covered with new snow. H and I brought snow shoes, while others in our team did not. Therefore, we led the hike in. Walking on fresh snow was very tiring, even with snow shoes. For every step we took, our feet sank into knee deep snow. We had to raise our feet knee high for the next step. Also, the firmness of the snow was quite uneven, and I fell several times on seemingly flat snow. Standing up after falling in the virgin snow was very tiring as well. I used my hands to right myself after a fall, but the hands were pushing into soft snow which did not provide any support.

Ice Wall from far

About 1/4 mile into the trial, we saw another group in our team had found a recently used trail. We switched to that trail and the hike was easier. Then we crossed a shallow stream and I saw the ice wall we were going to climb. It was located about 1000ft higher from where we were standing! It was a rather discouraging sight.

We pressed on. Snow shoes was less useful for going up slopes, so we left ours behind a rock off trail. I followed H's footsteps, and was walking on somewhat pack snow, so it was not as tiring for me. But going uphill in snow was still quite a workout. From previous trips, I had learned to use the front of the foot when planting each step. This really helped with uphill footing in the snow.

Ice Wall closer

Warming up/Free climbing

After another 30mins of hiking, we reached a shallow ridge where we setup down our gears. Three members of our team went to the top of the ice to setup anchor, while the rest of us put on our crampons and waited. Some people in our team had ice climbing experience and warmed up by free climbing on a ice face. I was too scared to tried that.

The hike to the top of the ice was quite difficult. It was a good hour before our rope was lowered. By this time, a few other teams had arrived. The other teams had members that lead, meaning they do not have to go to the top of the ice to setup rope (aka top rope). Therefore, we started climbing at almost the same time as some of the teams that arrived later.

H was the first to get climb. She was pretty fast and was about 3/4 of the way up the ice face when her hands felt very cold. In fact, she could not hold on to the ice tool any further and had to come decent without reaching the top.

Then, other members of our team started climbing as H and I sat and observed the action. They have been doing rock climbing and even though both sports are not the same, it seemed to really help them. Most of them were able to reach the top. As I was sitting there, randomly chatting, I was interrupted by Q, asking if I want to climb. I put on my bravest face and said yes. I was a little excited but also a little anxious.

First, I got tied in. We were using 2 locking carabiners in reverse orientation to tie the rope to my harness. Since our ropes were not long enough, we had tied 2 ropes together. To avoid switching belay, we had move the joint to the climber and I was to carried the bulk of the rope as I climb.

I started making my move. Following Eric's advice, I tried to make the most of each swing of the ice tool and each kick of crampons to ensure I have a good hand or foot hold to conserve energy. Even though the ice tool penetrated less than an inch into the ice, it gave a very good grip. However, my foot hold from the crampon did not feel as secure. As a result, I was holding on to the ice tool very tightly and did not dare putting all my weight on my feet. I later learned that the ice was very good this year. In previous years, the ice may be brittle or soft and climbers did not have good anchoring on the ice with ice tools.

I got up about 1/4 of the way when my crampon gave way. H had to lower me down and re-tie my crampon. Being a first time user, I had not latched the locking mechanism into the right place in the plastic boots:(

I started climbing again, this time with a little more confidence. As I got to half the height, I got scared and asked to be lowered. H refused. "You have barely climbed at all!" She yelled. I soldiered on.

I did another 10-20 climbs steps. While I had a few slipped, I had managed to held on. However, the weight of the rope I was carrying, the end which is normally left to dangle to the ground, began to feel very heavy and I constantly worried I was damaging the rope while trying to gain foot holds with my crampons. I decided I had enough fun for one day and call it quits.

This time, H did not disagree and lowered me down. According to her, I got up to a little more than 1/2 way up the ice surface, and while she thought I could do more, she decided not to push me too much. I got off belay and we both rested.

The remainder of our team made quick work on the ice. These are the experience ice climbers in our group and they got up quickly. In about another hour or so, everyone was done! We had started climbing at about 10am and with 8 climbers climbing, got done by about 3pm. There was a lot of sitting around, and the actual climb was about 30mins.

We packed up our gear and as others were releasing the ropes, H and I departed on our hike back to the trail head first. Going downhill was also tiring because the snow was soft and one had to be careful with footing to avoid falling and sliding down a fairly steep slope, but it was easier than working against gravity.

We picked up our snow shoes along the way and the hike back to the trail head was faster since a couple of teams had come and go before us, the trail was well established and the footing firm.


From the trail head, our team leader M decided to head for Travertine hot spring for a quick soak. Travertine hot spring is located in a state park near the town of Bridgeport. The road to the spring was fairly well maintained. Upon reaching the spring, we saw the outside pool was fully occupied. M was here the day before expertly told us to try the pools in the back. In a trail that went between 2 rocks, were several more pools. Water from one pool overflew into another, so the pool closest to the trail had the warmest water.

Is the mud good for your skin?

The day was starting to wind down, and the weather was actually quite cool. All of us opted for the warmest pool, shared snacks and adult drinks. The bottom of the pool was mud and we joked that it was great for skin care, then talked about bottling the mud back to the city and selling them.

The hot spring had great view of distance mountain on one side, and we enjoyed the views while we soaked. After two hours or so, night had started to fall and we decided we need to get out. It was somewhat cold at this time and getting out of the warm water was a struggle.


We made it back to Lee Vining hotel for a shower. Being Valentine's Day, we had a group dinner at Nicely's. Just some simple diner fare, but after a long day, everything taste great.

Crabbing in Bay Area, Chili crab at Banyan Tree

One night, over dinner, H's friend, HH, suggested we should all go crabbing. Since the Bay Area is well known for its tasty Dungeness crab and this is crab season (the commercial Dungeness Crab season open officially on Nov 15th 2008), H and I happily agreed.

Given this is the first time I have gone crabbing, I looked up the web for some resources. Surprisingly, there wasn't too much good information. All I could find were the following:
Jeff's guide to Crabbing, a Noe Valley Voice story and this SF Gate article.

Armed with this information, I went to Sportmen's Supply and bought a crab trap. The sales staff recommended a bait cage which I bought as well.

Meanwhile, HH bought a pack of chicken drumstick, which he left out in the sun to stink. We would be using those for crab bait.

On Sunday, H and I, HH and his wife and father gathered our crabbing gear, camping chairs, warm jackets and snack before set off. I was concerned about pollution in the Bay water and convinced everyone we should do our fishing off the coast. Since we did not want to pay for fishing license, we had to fish from public pier.

Base on location mentioned in Tom Stienstra's article, we decided to try Princeton jetty on Half Moon Bay. When we arrived, the gates to the jetty were closed, but we were able to get onto the jetty by looping around a nearby building. The jetty was deserted and, at about 2:30pm, the sea water level seemed too shallow for crabbing. We decided not to try fish here.

As we were leaving, we saw a father and son walked onto the jetty with crab traps! We immediately asked about fishing in the area. Turned out, this was their first trip too. We wished them good luck and decided to try another location mentioned in Tom's article, Pacifica pier.

We were much more encouraged when we reach Pacifica Pier. There were many crab trappers on the pier. Figuring we found a good spot, we unloaded our gear, stick chicken drum stick into the crab trap, and slowly lowered the trap from the pier into the water.

After waiting for about 5 minutes, we tried pulling the trap up. It felt heavy! Excited H came and help, but the line just would not moved! Someone fishing nearby commented, "Your cage is stuck! $40 down the drain!"

We were of course quite discourage. H and I tried pulling the rope, and finally the trap became free. There was no crab:( The fisherman then told us to fling the trap far out to avoid the trap getting tangled up with the pillar under the pier. We tried this technique and at least had no problem with tangled traps. Crabs were another issue. We casted the trap 3 to 4 times and nothing was biting.

H went around the pier and started asking others casting crab trap. While there were many crab trapper, no one had caught anything in the past 4-5 hours. Dejected, we huddled up and decided what to do next. Given it was only 3pm, we wanted to try our luck some where else. It was decided we would go to San Francisco.

Our destination was Crissy Field pier, just off warming hut. This pier was located near Golden Gate Bridge, near the mouth of the Bay. We figured pollution would be less compared to other locations in the bay.

Given we had all up given up hope, we decided to use all our bait this time. We stuffed all 6 chicken drum stick into the net and swung it into the ocean. Almost immediately, we saw a seal stick its head out of the water and then dive towards our trap. H told us me and HH to quickly pulled our trap in, since the seals would steal the bait. But, despite our best effort to quickly reel in the trap, it was too late. Only 3 drum stick remained in the trap. We decided to use bait cage for this location.

We secured the bait cage to the bottom of the trap with our only 3 chicken drum stick in them, cast the trap and waited. After about 5 minutes, we decided to pull the trap in. Amazingly, there were 2 small crabs in the trap!

We were overjoy, despite the fact the crabs were too small to keep(The legal limit is at least 4 inches). The location made a big difference and soak time made a big difference. We cast our trap a few more times and let the trap soaked for a good 10 minutes each time. We caught a total of 6 crabs, including one about 5 inches wide. These were all rock crabs. Dungeness crabs fishing is illegal inside the bay:)

We fished for about 2 hours, until the sky started getting dark and it got really cold. Our last 2 cast did not yield any more crabs and we decided to call it a day.

But everyone in our party had crab meat on their mind. We decided to head towards Banyan Tree restaurant in Union City to try their chili crab. The chili crab here was a little too sweet and not spicy enough. I also find the sauce too watery.

All in all though, we had a lot of fun crabbing. We did a quick calculation and decided our bounty did not justify the cost of the trap, bait and gas, but it does make a great fish story.

Scuba diving at Channel Island

H and I went to Channel Islands National Park, near Santa Barbara, CA for a scuba diving trip. In fact, this trip was the reason I got certified. Since this is my first dive after certification, I was quite excited, but also a little nervous at the same time.

We booked our dive boat and rented scuba gear through http://www.calboatdiving.com/. This saved us a little work, as the rental gears were delivered directly onto the dive boat:)

We woke up at about 6am and boarded the Spectre dive boat at 6:30am. While the Spectre had beds below the deck for sleeping but we did not sleep there. H tried on her last trip but found the bunks smelly. I toured the lower deck and noticed the same thing. In spite of the crews effort in forcing air below the deck, the sleeping quarter still reek like musty damped cloth.

After checking in with the dive master, we were each assigned a dive station. We inspected our rental gears, then sat down for a leisurely, cooked to order, breakfast in the galley. Channel islands are about 12 miles from the mainland and it took the dive about an hour to reach there, so there's plenty of time to relax before the first dive.

On this day, we were diving on the mainland side of east Anacapa Island. Our first dive site was Landing Cove Point. The captain informed everyone to get ready about 20mins before reaching the site, so we were all ready to go when we arrived. After a quick site briefing from the dive master, we were on our way!

The dive began with a giant stride entry off the side of the boat. During our lessons, we had done giant stride entry in the swimming pool only. Here the drop was about 1m. It was a little terrifying thinking about this drop... The actual entry went fine though.

From the side of the boat, we swam to the back of the boat and descended following the anchor line. Since this was my first "real" dive, we decided to take it easy.

There was a kelp forest under the water. We swam around the kelp forest. There were many marine life, including Garibaldi, star fish and sea urchins. The visibility was about 40 feet, and there was not much wave. It was a great day to dive!

As we slowly used up air in our tanks, we found ourselves floating to the surface slowly. Both H and I dumped all the air in our BCD, but was unable to stay submerged. We had to swim back to the anchor line and pull ourselves down. We dive for another 20mins, until I ran out of air.

We boarded the dive boat was via a platform on the back of the boat. We knelled on the platform while Mike, the dive master, remove our fins. We then climb up a ladder to get back on deck. Mike saw how I was struggled with buoyancy and suggested a buoyancy check. I crossed my leg and dumped all my air, then sank to a eye level. I was carrying the correct amount of weights.

After the first dive, both H and I felt our throat were dry from breathing air from the tank. I had similar problem during my lessons, so both of us drank lots of water before our next dive.

The second dive site of the day was at Cathedral Cove. This dive site is partially over a kelp forest and a sandy beach. We dive along the edge of the sandy beach and kelp forest. There was a group of playful sea lion in the sandy beach area that were swimming to check us out! It was less than a meter from me.

There were also lots of sea cucumber, Sheephead fish and a school of small shiny fish. We were also able to stay dived the whole time and a great time. Again, I ran out of air before H and we had to surface. H continued diving near the platform, while I got out of my scuba gear and snorkeled with her.

After this dive, it was time for lunch! We were served barbecue tri-tip, with bread, beans and orzo. It was delicious!

After lunch, the captain announced we would be diving in the same spot. H and I were a little disappointed. We wanted to see some other sites. We decided to skip this dive and relax instead.

We took off our wet suit and dipped in the hot tub. But the hot noon sun and the hot tub was too much for me. I ended up sleeping in the galley.

Our final dive site of the day was the Canyon. This dive site had features of underwater valley, deep canyons with sidewall. It was still mostly kelp forest. I saw a beautiful blue snail like creature with bright orange "fur". I found out later it was a nudibranch: Spanish shawl.

There were more star fish, sea cucumber, sea urchins and shell fish with different colors. It was amazing.

Again, I ran out of air before H and we surfaced. H swam on the surface with the rest of her air and I joined her with my snorkel. The ocean life on the surface was not as exciting as the bottom of the sea, but still it was quite interesting.

After the last dive of the day, we took off our wet suit and soaked in the hot tub again. It was about 3pm and the sun had started to set. It was nice relaxing in the hot tub after a fairly tiring day. I always thought I was a strong swimmer, but I was tired with the underwater kicking, as well as carrying the weight belt and tank.

The trip back to the mainland was fairly uneventful. We saw oil rigs in the distance. The only thing missing were dolphins. H saw them swimming along the boat on her last trip.

After we docked, we were able to leave all our rental gear on board and drove to Oxnard, where we spent the night. We showered and then grab a quick dinner at "Hook, Line and Sinker". We ordered a grilled Mahi Mahi and Kamikazi salad with Yellowtail. Dinner was decent, but we were so tired that we did not do anything after dinner. Just hit the sack and slept.

It was a wonderful but tiring first dive trip for me. Conditions were perfect, not too hot, water was relatively warm, no wind or waves. I saw some interesting marine life and beautiful colors. The variety of the dive site was somewhat limited, but that just means I have more to explore on future trips:)

SCUBA Open water dive: Dive 4

Sunday started at 7am, much like Saturday. One more dive and I would be certified!

This dive went fairly smoothly as well. The most challenging skill was mask removal and clear. All of us preformed the skill without any difficulty. As we were preforming the skill, I saw a bird dived into the water to fish. That was pretty cool!

Again, after our skill session, we toured around a little more. This time, I did not run out of air:) Everyone had some difficult controlling their buoyancy and our instructor decided to ascent.

We did some final paper work and by 9:30am, I was done!

SCUBA Open Water Certification: Dive 1-3

I woke up at 5:00am to go to Monterey peninsula. After 3.5 weeks of class room lessons and pool lessons at Diver Dans, it was down to 4 open water dive before I get my PADI Open water diver certification.

H and I arrived at Breakwater Cove at 6:45am. The first dive of the day was at 7am. I quickly changed into wet suit, setup my scuba unit and got a site briefing from my instructors, Kirk and Alexia. The weather was warm by Monterey standard and the water barely moving. It was a great day for diving!

Breakwater cove is also a very popular dive spot for beginner diver. I did not count, but there must be another 3-6 groups of beginner divers. I could tell the other groups were beginning divers since only people who are trying to get certified will do surf entry and exit on an otherwise calm beach:)

My open water dives went fairly smoothly. We did all our drills correctly the first time, and after each session had some time left over to tour around. And the skills we learned came in handy too. I tend breathed out of my nose, especially when on the surface, so I always fogged up my mask. Mask flood and clear was especially useful for me:)

On one of the tour, my dive buddy accidentally kicked my regular out of my mouth. Visibility at our dive site was not very good and since none of us were navigating, all three students were swimming very close to our instructor. Given we are all beginner and have limited buoyancy control, that was bound to happen. I was actually rather calm, looked up, snatched the regulator, purged and continued swimming! Just like the drill!

Overall though, I am still fairly nervous in the water. Twice, our group had to surface because I was running low on air. I considered myself a decent swimmer and still cannot understand why I have this fear of the water.

We finished our three dives a little after noon. I went to the hotel to shower, hung out my wet suit and rest.

Dinner was at my favorite restaurant in the Monterey peninsula: Passion Fish. H and I shared a tasty Dungeness crab cake to start. For entree, we ordered a red wine braised beef short rib and baked wild Alaskan Salmon. Surprisingly, the braised short rib was excellent and even more tasty than the salmon. Please read my review on Yelp! for more details.

Eastern Sierra Weekend 4-Bishop, Alabama Hills

On my previous 2 nights in the tent, I slept fairly lightly: I woke up at first light. But on this morning, I did not wake up until 9am.

We broke camp and drove down Route 395 to Bishop. As we parked at Erick Schat's Bakkery, H spotted an open air art fair in the park across the street. The art fair had some beautiful photos of the Sierras and we enjoyed browsing through the booths.

After a simple sandwich lunch at Erik Schat's bakkery, we went to visit Mountain Light Gallery. I was not familiar with the work of Galen Rowell, but H told me he was a famous outdoor photographer, who had tragically died in a plane crashed. There were several amazing photos of the Sierras and Patagonia in the gallery which I really liked.

Our next stop was Winnedumah Hotel in Independence. H stayed here on her her previous trip to Eastern Sierras and had wanted to show me the eccentric collection of stones/lamps/stuff in the lobby.

Further south on 395, we visited Alabama hills. The unusual rock formation was prefect for rock climbing! We hiked to a foot of a small cave in a stone and tried to climb to the opening. We made it up a crack, but without ropes/harness, did not feel safe continuing.

At this point, we were near the southern end of the Sierra range. Weather had been great and we decide to check on Tioga pass. Highway 120 was indeed open! We decided to drive through Yosemite to get back to Bay area.

H took the wheels on this stretch of the drive and I was very grateful. My last trip to Yosemite was almost 4 years ago, and I really enjoyed the early spring/snow tipped scenery. Highway 120 inside Yosemite was narrow and windy. There was also heavy fog, so if I was driving, I would not be able to enjoy the view.

By the time we left the eastern gate of Yosemite, it was getting dark. We stopped in
Old Iron Door Saloon in Groveland for dinner. Old Iron Door Saloon was supposed to be the oldest continuous operating saloon in California. Unfortunately, it looked that way too:(

The menu, however, was quite modern. I had a buffalo burger and garlic soup which I enjoyed. H ordered a southwest style shrimp salad. Watercress was used exclusively in the salad, which made the greens too peppery. She did not enjoy her dinner as much.

We had an uneventful drive from Groveland back to the Bay area.

Eastern Sierra Weekend 3-Hike out

We woke at day break. Venturing out of the tent, I was startled by the amount of snow that had fell over night. Where the grounds were bare when we went to sleep, there were about 3 inches of snow.

We debated a little about spending another night in the wilderness or start hiking out. H was concerned because weather forecast for Sunday evening calls for as much snow as Saturday evening. If the same amount of snow fell, the trails may be covered by so much snow that we would be unable to find out way out.

Given the safety concern, it was thus decided hiking out was the better option. We had a leisure breakfast, then started tearing down the tent.

When going into the wilderness, it was prudent to reach one's campsite before dark and setup tent/boil water. Coming out, the pace was more relax. As long as we could reach trailhead before dark, we would be fine.

The 3 inches of virgin snow overnight had partially covered the trail, so footing on the hike was not very good, but since we were mostly going down, it was not too tiring. Also, H brought along gaiters, so snow did not get into our boots.

We stopped for pictures several times on our hike out. Here one of me in front of some bristlecrone pine.Here's another at the foot of the rail tracks. Going down the tracks was quite an adventure. With less sure footing due to the new snow, I walked sideways down the tracks.

Since we had planned to spend two nights in the wilderness, we did not make hotel reservations. Given it is Memorial Day weekend, we decided to spend the night at a camp site opposite the trailhead.
There was still some daylight left, so we travelled around the Eastern Sierras. First stop was Mono Lake South Tufa. I was always fascinated by the tufa since reading about them in a few years ago, so this was quite a treat for me.
Snow began to fell again when we left Mono Lake. Our next stop was Mammoth Lake. Whiskey Creek restaurant offered a 5-6pm happy hour where food and drinks were half off, and we were there to take advantage of the deal.

The restaurant brewed its own beer as well. We had salmon and crab cake, buffalo wings and fish taco. Food was decent, and at half off prices, could not be beat!

Since it had continued snowing somewhat heavily, we were concerned how our tent would hold up. We left before dark back to the campsite to setup for the night.

Eastern Sierra Weekend 2-Hike In and Camping

I woke up at about 8am, then decided to take a hot shower and shaved. Given I will be in the wilderness for the next 48-72 hours, I will not be able to take shower or shave for the next few days.

After a satisfying smoke trout/mushroom/sausage omelet breakfast at Mobil Restaurant, located at the junction of Hwy 395 and 120, H and I were ready for action!

We set off to Silver Lake, located along Hwy 158 loop, off Hwy 395. We are going into Ansel Adams Wilderness, taking the Rush Creek Trail to Gem Lake. Distance from the trail head to campsite is about 4 miles, with about 2000ft gain in elevation. The peak elevation of the trail is about 9000ft.

After putting on our backpack, we started walking. H led the way, and I followed. After about 10mins, I sensed she was hesitant. Turned out, we took the wrong trail! We backtracked, found the correct trail head and set off again.

3 mins into the hike, we met our first obstacle, a small creek. A couple walking in front of us stopped, but equipped with hiking boots, we stepped on a few high rocks and crossed the creek confidently!

The next obstacle was a snowy slope. The first couple of miles of the trails were basically switchback along the side of the mountain. A patch of snow had covered the trail and we need to cross this slope.

Again, H led the way. She kicked the snow to form compact indention, then walked with the toe of her foot, using the small indention as foothold. Having no experience with snow transverse, I promptly fell and slided down the slope. Luckily the slope was not too steep and after a few feet, there was a bunch of stones and dried tree branches to catch me.

I "scrambled" along the edge of the snow patch and got back onto the trail. We crossed a few more similar snowy patches, but I now know how to give the snow a good whack with my boots to form solid foothold.

The altitude and the weight of the backpack started getting to me. I did not tighten the waist strap enough, so was putting a lot of weight on my shoulder instead of mostly on the hip. I was also inexperience with walk on trails. I would take a high step, where H tends to take 2 lower steps. This help conserved more energy.

We would cross another creek. I got careless and got one of my boots wet. While water did not penetrate the boots, H was concerned since there was snow in the forecast, and keeping oneself dry was a key to survival in the snow.

The Rush Creek Trail crossed an industrial rail car tracks, which was open, so we did not have to walk on more switchbacks. The rail car tracks went straight up a fairly steep part of the hill. According to H, the tracks were constructed and used for mining operations. I kept thinking about "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom":)

Atop the tracks, we saw the first lake - Agnew Lake. Given the location and the weather, I was surprised to see 2 people fishing at the lake.

We continued on Rush Creek trail around Agnew Lake and reach Gem Lake. At this point, I was fair tired. My steps were shorter and I had difficulty keeping up with H. Luckily, we were fairly close to our campsite, so we took several water break and was able to reach our destination at about 2pm.

The first order of business at the camp site was setting up the tent. With 2 of us working together, it was quickly done. I sat down, chewing on a Cliff bar when H pulled out a plastic bottle, filled with a strangely familiar red liquid....

"Red wine?!" I asked. I could not believe it! H had packed the wine to help celebrate my first backpacking trip.

We sat around, enjoying the sun and the beauty of Gem Lake's snowy banks. Soon small dots of snow starting falling. We collected some lake water and retreated to warmth of our tent.

Since we did not really break for lunch during our hike, we decided to have an early dinner. H had brought along quite a feast! There's seaweed soup, instant noodles, spicy pickled vegetables, tea quail eggs and sliced turkey. For dessert, there's hot coco.

Given it was now snowing fairly heavily, and I was tired from the hike in, we slept at about 8pm, as soon as night falls.

Eastern Sierra Weekend 1-The Drive

H and I left Bay Area at about 5pm for a 3 days backpacking trip in the Sierras over Memorial Day weekend. This is my first backpacking trip since coming to the Bay Area, so I was excited and concerned at the same time. I have little wilderness survival skills, and there was snow in the forecast.

The Memorial Day "get out of town" traffic was surprisingly light, and we were making fair good time. We are going to Lee Vining via Hwy 120 East, which had just opened a few days ago and we figured we would reached the motel by 9pm.

Unfortunately for us, it started snowing on Friday night in Yosemite National Park. When we reach the park entrance, we were informed Tioga Pass was closed. We had to turn back on Hwy 120, and take Hwy 108 instead.

We reached the Hwy 120/108 split at about 10pm. The drive through Sonora Pass on Hwy 108 was very tiring. The road was narrow, winding, steep. To make matter worst, there was some light rain and heavy fog.

This detour set us back several hours and we finally reach Lee Vining at about 1am. H arranged for us to spend the night at El Mono Motel/Latte Da Coffee Cafe. Both of us were so tired from the drive that we hit the sack and fell asleep almost immediately!

Mission Peak

I am almost ashamed to admit this...all these years in the Bay area, and I had never hiked Mission Peak. Many of my more outdoorsy friend talked about Mission Peak being the most strenuous trail in the Bay area and they use this trail to train for hiking to Half Dome, Grand Canyon etc.

H used Mission Peak almost as a "ruler". Several times, I would enquire about how difficult a certain hike would be and she would reply: imaging hiking up and down Mission Peak "X" number of times.

It was after one of these conversations that she suggested hiking Mission Peak. I was a little hesitant at first, worried that I would not be mental strong enough to finish hiking all the way to the top, but H promised she will be there to support me. So, I figured, why not...

We met up after work at the trail head. Started our hike at about 7:40pm. H brought along hiking poles(okay, really ski poles, but they worked!) and a head lamp to make the trip easier for me:)

This is actually our second trip to Mission Peak. The first time was on Dec 31st 2007, but the wind so blowing so strong that day, we felt uncomfortable and decided to turn back early.

This time, the weather was more pleasant. The air was slightly cool, but I had a fleece jacket and a windbreaker on, so temperature was not a concern. The lower 2/3 of the trail was challenging, but manageable for me. All those hours on a StairMaster in the gym sure helps!

The final stretch was fairly steep and rocky. H hiked Mission Peak almost on a weekly basis, so it did not bother her the least bit. However, for someone who is less accustom to hiking, I had to look carefully at the ground to find my footing. The head lamp really helped, since it was fairly dark and there wasn't too much moonlight. The poles were more important than I had imagined too. I was able to find my balance easier with the poles and push off a little on the poles to help get up the steep slope.

We reached the summit at 8:44pm. H turned off the head lamp and I was able to see the city lights from below the peak as well as part of the bay. It was a rather spectacular view! I had only seen this view while flying into San Jose or San Francisco. Seeing it while standing on land felt a little surreal:)

We rested a little atop Mission Peak for me to catch my breath and started heading down. Almost immediately, I got myself into trouble by walking to a stretch of trail where I had very little footing. Sensing I was in trouble, H took the lead and choose a more rocky part of the trail to hike down. That path was more rocky, but had better footing. Chalk one up for her experience!

The walk down the steep stretch of the trail was quite challenging for me too. Again, I took my time looking for good footing before taking each step. Despite my best effort, I still slipped and fell once. Even after coming down the steep summit climb, the next stretch of trail where I did not feel was all that steep while walking up, was making me walked carefully coming down:(

I was somewhat relieved when the steep trail ended and we were back on dirt path. There are many loose gravel on the path and footing can still be suspect when one is not careful, but overall it was much more pleasant going down on the dirt path compared to the steep ascent to the summit.

We walked at a brisk pace and reached the trail head fairly quickly. At about 10pm, we drove away from the parking lot.

I am grateful to H for leading the way on this hike and bringing along hiking pole/head lamp to make the hike easier for me. It was a good workout and I am happy to say I had finally done Mission Peak!

Now, I can tell newcomer to the Bay area: Mission Peak is a great hike, and do not need to add the disclaimer, "but I have never done it myself":)