Hetch Hetchy

So, we just got back from our Yosemite adventure. We went to Hetch Hetchy (4 hour drive from San Jose), which is one of the less known and therefore less crowded parts of Yosemite. We got a wilderness permit for the Rancharia Falls for the next day and therefore were allowed to stay one night at the backpackers campground (4000 feet). As a warm-up, we decided to go up to Smith Peak (7751 feet). So, let me introduce the third one in our company. Karthik (rightmost on the picture below) is my Indian appartment comrade. He also currently works as an intern for Sun Microsystems in the Maxine project.


So we went off with light backpacks, leaving our stuff in the car. However, we needed to put all the food in bear-proof lockers. Well, I'd like to apologize for the weather. As you can see on the picture below, it was not very sunny. On the upper right of the picture you can see the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which is a source for San Francisco water.


As it started raining more heavily, we moved on quickly and got up to Smith Meadows (6500 feet). In the forest you can see burned trees. Cindy had some problems getting over all the obstacles as you can see on the picture below.


After some additional elevation gains, it started snowing. The trail was not marked and hard to follow, because we seemed to be the first one to get so far on this day on the way to the peak. The Garmin navigation system was not useful either (on the contrary), because the way point coordinates were simply wrong, probably they refer to an old forgotten path. Well, as going up through the wood without a trail was very difficult, we had to resign about 500 feet below the top. Below you can see me and Cindy during a snowball fight.


Well, our shoes were pretty wet by now anyway, so we were glad when we reached the backpackers campground. We set up our tent and then realized that our gas cooker was leaking, so about half of our food was useless as it required boiled water. So we decided to feed ourselfs from peanuts and energy bars only.


The next day we went off with good cheer, but heay backpacks, and wet shoes. We went for a few miles when it started raining again.


After 6 miles we reached the lower part of the Rancharia falls. There we saw some good campsites, but despite the rain we decided to try to go on to Tilltill Valley.


However, the path turned out to be difficult (see the picture below for a sample). When some other hikers told us that Tilltill valley was rather flooded with water, we made a turn and went back to the Rancharia falls to set up our tent there.

As it rained without break we had to set up our tent in pretty wet conditions. We were also quite exhausted from 6 hour non-stop hiking with heavy backpacks, so we were glad when we could get inside our small (and at least partly dry) home as you can see on the picture below.


The night was cold even in the tent, because the outside temperature was at about 30 F. You don't care about style, when you wake up after a night in the wilderness, so please take my apologizes for the picture below.


The backpack felt quite heavy on the last day, perhaps because all the clothes and the tent were quite wet. We went on quickly and reached our car (6,5 miles) in 2,5 hours. Driving home was not easy, because of all kinds of Memorial day delays. Fortunately, we made a stop at a restaurant, where I nearly managed to eat a medium size American pizza ;-)

Hiking

Tomorrow morning we (Cindy, Karthik and I) will start a 3-day hike in Yosemite National Park. We will go backpacking starting at Hetch Hetchy. The first night we will probably spend near Lake Vernon, the second one near Laurel Lake. Below you can see Cindy during the preparation for the trip, equipped with some useful stuff: Gloves, a swiss knife, a sunblocker, a rain hat, and of course some dollars.

Hills

San Francisco is a city built on hills. They built the streets just straight as if there were no hills, which makes some of them really steep. Below you can see a picture of such a street, unfortunately the steepness is far more impressive in reality. In Austria it would be impossible to build such streets, because they would be unusable in winter. As all streets and all crossroads look pretty much the same, one can get easily lost. But wait... Cindy?? Where the fuck is Cindy?

Bay to Breakers

40.000 people running or walking through San Francisco 12 kilometers from San Francisco Bay to the North Pacific Ocean. Somewhere between life ball and a running event... Unfortunately, pets were not allowed, so Cindy had to stay at home, you can see her however proudly wearing my starting number 35002. The run was difficult as it meant finding your way through a moving human labyrinth from start to finish. Additionally, the course went up and down the hills of San Francisco. I finished in 1:04:04 resulting in place 1889 out of 22439 people who managed to reach the end of the race. Probably, I will post race photos when they are available. Today I also got a taste of the public transport system - it was completely overloaded, so we needed to go the 12 kilometers back afoot...

Sun

Going to work by car in the bay area is something that makes you happy being able to begin your work... Today was my second workday, however, I am still just in the middle of setting up my workplace and getting instructed. Cindy insisted to come to work too, however, she thinks that what I'm doing is really boring and spends most of the time sleeping beyond my monitor as you can see on the picture below... So she is no real help here. I even must smuggle her through the entrance as she does not have a valid employee identification card, which everybody must wear at all times!

McDonald's

The first thing to do on a Sunday morning in America? Go and find a McDonald's! My first tentative attempts to reach something similar to a restaurant afoot soon revealed their hopelessness. Reluctantly, I went to my car - still the blind flight of last night in mind. 10 miles later I realized that being in a big city does not automatically mean to find anything helpful for getting a breakfast. But finally I was lucky again and spotted the rescueing M-sign. Cindy was eased too, as you can see on the picture below...


Afterwards, I decided that a street map could have some benefits. Personal memo: Do not ask supermarket vendors for street maps, they do not like this. Chinese gas station employees however immediately offer any kind of general purpose help. They even provide you with their phone number. Cindy was really relieved that we were now at least in possession of a map...

Lost

Driving by night in a never-used car in an unknown country without a street map to a never-visited location is challenging. Especially after a 12-hour flight. And it becomes a real challenge if you suddenly lose orientation. Lost in the streets of San Jose. This is how 34.6 miles became 55.7 miles. I cannot explain how I got back onto the 237 after I left the 101, but somehow I did it.

After 22 h of driving, running and flying, I reached my appartment and entered all the necessary number combinations. Finally I could stretch out on the bed and eat the welcome cookies, see the picture above. As you might notice, I'm not alone: beside me lies Cindy, my borrowed travel mate. Obviously the hand luggage box wasn't a good sleeping place either as she seems to be exhausted too. So, we went to sleep immediately. Ah - one vital question remaining - do we share a bed? Unfortunately there was no other way, but I can assure you that we both do not want to extend our relationship beyond friendship and our current focus on offspring is rather low. So, good night!