Another Milestone

Reached another milestone yesterday. Now i can surface dive (and believe me this is not easy as plunging from a dive-board), to a depth of 17 feet and pick up a quarter :)

Snowboarding at Squaw Valley - Tahoe

So i decided to take up a new Sport (as if i don’t have enough to do already), Snowboarding. I wanted to be in Tahoe Snowboard entire President's Day weekend but unfortunately couldn’t find anyone to go along and chip in money for the trip, the hotels are booked and the one that are available are way expensive for me to stay alone. So i decided to take Bay Area bus ride to Squaw Valley. I got up at 2:30 in the morning, got ready and was at bus stop in Oakland at 4, reached the resort around 8 am, rented out the snow board and took the lift to High Camp ground, took a quick lesson on how to stop and turn on a board, and after a few fall, my skating skills came into play. I didnt had the fear of fall or of going fast, all i had to know is to turn on that board and to be able to slow myself down the steep slope if i need to. After and hour of practice i was good to go solo, enjoyed it for the rest of the day and got better with each slide though the terrain. It was tiring though, i was grounded by 3, decided to quit and go back to Bus, had some fresh snacks and fruits. We headed back at 4:30 and i reached home at 9 pm. Took a hot shower and had a very long sleep, have a mild body pain today and am liking it :) Planning to take another trip next Sunday and if all goes well, i'll have a new tool in my sports closet, a snowboard.

Snow camping in Yosemite

2 nights and 3 days Snow camping in Yosemite with DeAnza outdoor club was lot of fun, i'll write baout it.

My First Backpacking Trip - Desolation Wilderness

After 10 days of preparation and purchases exceeding a grand, Sandy, Sherry and I started at 7 in morning to Tahoe. A quick stop at iHop and a tummy full of pancakes and omelets, we stated from Glen Alpine Trailhead to our 4 days and 3 nights journey to the unknown terrains of Sierras.
My backpack weighted around 65 lbs and the target was 4 miles of steep hike to camp out at Susie lake. Though I have been hiking a lot and my usual weekend hikes to Mission Peak in Fremont are close to 3 miles, this one with backpack was tedious than anything i ever did so far. After a number of stops and gallons of water, giving up and starting again, we finally reached lake Susie, and man, it was beautiful, the picture perfect place. We camped at the eastern end of the lake, the other end of the lake was mountains covered with snow, and in between was this most beautiful blue lake with crystal clear cold water, rising every day with the melting snow on the other side.
We unpacked our backpacks around 4, put on our tents and prepared for dinner, were too tired to prepare anything, so decided to feed ourselves with bagels, mustard, cheese and some indian spicy namkeens, 2 shots of high energy drink helped me revive and relieve all the pain. The night was beautiful, the moon was big and clear, could see each and every star out there. With no human soul in sight and lot of food with us (even though it was in those heavy Bear Boxes), we expected to come across a Bear, sniffing it off to our camping site, and this not being the hibernating season, the chances were slightly more. To avoid any direct encounter, we kept our Bearbox a few hundred meters away and were ready for the worst. Well, to be honest, i was so tired that i was dead sleep in my tent and got up when the sun was 45 degree from my tent, heating it up.
The morning was more beautiful than evening, we did our daily chorus, prepared breakfast, filled in water from a near by stream and started our second lag of 2 mile Journey to lake Aloha. Thought the distance ain’t big, but believe me, it was a tough terrain. We crossed some strong current creeks by stepping on trees, crawled up the mountain with our hands, crossed some real scary snow slopes, while watching our steps for a potential snow cover on top of a deep trench, hot weather each day was making it more difficult as the snow kept melting at the bottom and these grounds got more dangerous to walk on. The scenery around Lake Aloha was more beautiful than one can imagine, its like u close ur eyes and picture how heaven would be, this place was that. Since there was too much snow all over the place, we decided to sleep on this giant piece of zebra rock with not enough room for us to pitch our tents; we decided to sleep out in open next to each other in our sleeping bags. One scary thing Sandy and I did was to take a dip in lake Aloha which was 70% ice and 30% water, the water was as cold as it can be, but we were too tired and dirty, after that chilling dip and 2 shots of energy drink I felt relaxed and back in the game. The night was beautiful, followed by a lovely morning. The route to our next destination was covered with snow and we got advised by the rangers to avoid with backpacks, so we decided to day hike to lake echo and be back before evening to our "campsite" at Aloha.
Next day we headed back to Lake Susie, to our old camp site, spent the night there and headed back the next day. And yes, we again took a dip in lake Susie :)