Whelp. I'm just realizing that it's been over a year since I last posted. Probably because life has been pretty busy/rad since moving out Californy-ways. I attended 7 weddings, went aboard 2 submarines for work (actually going inside the rocket I work on - my skin cells have gone to space!), ran the SF marathon, backpacked some stuff, ate a bunch of foods, high-fived a sea turtle. Just normal stuff really. But since the only person probably reading this is my Mom, you already know most of that stuff. So instead I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about my 2015 New Years Resolution and how, in classic bucket-list-checkoff-champion fashion, I achieved the shit out of it.
I guess here is a good time to say what that resolution was. Since I can't think of a funny transition sentence at this point in time, I'll just say it: to be on at least one mountain every calendar month of 2015. Not very difficult given my propensity for outdoors adventures, but I wanted to make sure I had an extra fire under my ass to ensure I was properly exploring my new west coast home. So follow me, readers (aka Mom) as I transcribe the outcome of this "lofty" goal.
January: Mt. Diablo
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| Ten days into the new year and I'm feeling pretty damn good about my progress |
Thanks to a terrible Tahoe snow season, I was able to convince some great people to join me on a Bay Area jaunt up Mt. Diablo, the tallest mountain in the general area. A fun little hike and so close to home left us plenty of time to go to Bootie SF after we got back to the city.
(Runner Up: I also went skiing at Bear Valley, so was on that guy too later in January)
February: Mt. Angeles
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| Ok Mt. Diablo was less than 4000 ft; this mountain is a ridiculous upgrade |
Well that escalated quickly! (Do you get it?) For a few weeks in February (including my birthday) I was sent up to Washington to work on a submarine base near Seattle for work, supporting a rocket test launch setup. I can't get into the details (or else I'd have to kill you), but I spent a bunch of time scampering about a submarine, crawling inside a couple rockets (YES THAT MEANS THAT MY SKIN CELLS DID IN FACT GO TO SPACE SO I'M AN ASTRONAUT). There was a little bit of down time, in which I was able to head over to Olympic National Park for a quick hike. Normally, February would mean most of the park is pretty much off limits due to snow, but like I said earlier, it was kind of a shitty winter for the west coast in terms of snowfall. Lucky for me, that means I was able to scurry up this beast of a mountain with only a little bit of snow to deal with; I only had my steel-toe boots for the submarine so I'd be up shit's creek if there was a lot of snow. The views were insane: I could see the Olympics on one side, across the Puget Sound to Seattle on the other, with the Cascade Mountains being all epic all behind Seattle.
March: Mt. Tamalpais
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| Yeah I don't know either |
One of the (many) benefits of having every other Friday off work is that I can go on little day hikes around the Bay Area without them being complete zoos. Mt. Tam is a pretty popular hike given how accessible it is to SF and the relatively low difficulty level, so going on a Friday was great. And Laura was a great Friday adventure buddy since she also had off work, so we summitted Mt. Tam with a nice layer of cloud beneath us over the Pacific and some cool views of SF and Oakland.
(Runner Up: I also went skiing at Squaw in Tahoe, and let me just tell you that being in a hot tub on top of a mountain after a day of skiing is pretty damn awesome)
April: Antelope Peak
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| Buffalos WTF do you think you're doing here, this is supposed to be a peak for Antelopes |
Another work drip, this time to Salt Lake City, provided another opportunity for some sweet, sweet outdoorsiness. One of the work days, after touring the rocket engine factory, I was able to drive over to Antelope Island, an island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake, where Bison roam free (and theoretically also Antelopes?) and there's a little peak where you can hike up and crap your pants due to an overload of amazing views of the surrounding city and mountains. The top of the peak was pretty damn slippery though, so I'm pretty pumped I didn't slide down the side of the mountain before I had a chance to drive over to Canyonlands (I mean, if work already sent me to Utah, might as well camp in a National Park while I'm at it, right?).
May: Olomana (Three Peaks)
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| Those are the steepest goddamn peaks I've ever dealt with |
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| After a series of eliminations, here we have the successful completionists of the Olomana hike |
Holy shit this might be the scariest hike I've ever done. It's like 5 total miles of hiking round trip, but includes three of the steepest climbs I've ever experienced. And since it's an out-and-back that means 5 summits where we had to trust our lives to random shitty rope and twine that some random dude tied to some tree roots who knows when. Sometimes not even rope, but ethernet cable instead. WHAT IS GOING ON, HAWAII? I feel like people are so cavalier with their lives in Hawaii that it doesn't even phase the residents to ascend/descend, completely vertically at times, up sheer cliff where a single slip or trip means immediate death. I had some reservations. 11 of us started this hike. Everyone else was sane enough to decide "no I actually value my life" and call it quits along the way, leaving nly Ryan, Steve, and me. Long story short Oahu is a blast.
(Runner Up: I was exploring Hawaii for 2 weeks, so there were a bunch of awesome hiking on volcanos all over the place, including the top of Haleakala on Maui - and no I don't care that I fucked up the spelling on that)
June: Cherry Lake
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| Yosemite, are you even capable of being less than 100% gorgeous at any time of the year? |
Emmy invited me to come backpack with her friends up in the northern stretches of Yosemite, where you actually start outside the park and backpack in from Cherry Lake. We weren't intending on summitting any mountains, but after reaching our destination and setting up camp, we went for a little romp around the mountainy cliffs surrounding us. And that's when the thunderstorm rolled in. Catching us the exact moment we reached the exposed peak. You can't tell from the photo, but less than 18 hours before it was taken Emmy was more terrified than I've ever seen another human (not counting horror movies I guess?) This storm was insane. Luckily I found a mini cave we could hide in and wait it out, but still the pouring rain-turned-sleet was only small potatoes compared to the tremendous, deafening thunder crashes directly above us. That lightning was stalking us. But hey we survived with an awesome and terrible new story under our belts to a brand new world of rain-induced waterfalls that did not previously exist around our hiding cave.
(Runner Up: I was at the top of Angel Island too. It was foggy though so the views were meh)
July: Mission Peak
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| That weird thing that everyone on Tinder has a photo of |
Yeah it's not the most impressive hike in the Bay Area, but whatever, Jimmy and I had a fun day so go to hell. Plus the Sun is oppressive as fuck and there is no shade. But yeah we reached that weird thing that everyone takes a photo standing on and there were some cool views of Silicon Valley, so I'm ok with it.
(Runner Up: Angel Island... again. This time was super clear so the ferry was a fun ride and also, yeah definitely the best views of the Bay Area come from the Island that is in the MIDDLE OF THE BAY)
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| Angel Island gives SF residents a chance to be Bay Area tourists |
August: Sourdough Mountain
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| Ok this isn't even Sourdough but it was in the North Cascades and was the best campsite I've ever experienced so I don't give a damn |
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| This whole park is just shit like this |
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| Ok THIS ONE is from Sourdough. Am I in America? |
The North Cascades has solidified it's place as one of my favorite National Parks after Steve and I backpacked around before Scott and Anne's wedding in Seattle. Our backpacking campsite was easily the most impressive place I've ever slept, with a view to make action hero stalwarts cry. Definitely the most beautiful place I've ever taken a dump... ever. And Sourdough Mountain was an amazing day hike, listed as "strenuous" and yeah it certainly was. Fairly steep, but the views of the lake and mountains were enough to make me forget my destroyed leg muscles. We were even able to fit in a spur of the moment white water rafting trip through the park between hikes!
(Runner Up: a crapload of mountains and hiking around the North Cascades, so yeah there was a lot going on. Also I did a day hike at Big Basin later in August, but comparing it to the North Cascade mountains would be embarrassing.)
September: Sentinel Dome
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| Ok so Half Dome is just going to hang out looking epic at sunrise and nobody but me is going to scream up to the sky in excitement? Fine. |
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| Also I had a buddy to hang out with while watching sunrise |
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| And then after some hiking I earned myself a relaxing beer by the water |
A bunch of friends were all at weddings this weekend so that means I go solo camping at Yosemite. It was insanely smokey from a bunch of forest fires all over the Sierras, but it just added a nice flavoring to my beef jerky. Sentinel Dome was not the most impressive hike of my weekend, but had some cool views of Half Dome through the smoke. The next day I was BLASTED IN THE EYEBALLS by the best sunrise I've ever experienced, complete with a bear friend climbing the trees for pinecones as I watched the Sun climb over Half Dome. The fuck? That was insane. Then I went for a hike over to Nevada Falls and then treated myself to some lazy rivering in Yosemite Valley.
October: Mt. Hoffmann
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| I found a pleasant little seat with a nice view |
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| Hiking with a cast of characters > hiking with boring people |
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| Just throwing this in there because this might be my favorite photo ever taken (THANK YOU KENDALL) |
There is no such thing as too much Yosemite. I went up to my favorite place in the country with a group of fantastic and energetic people for a great camping weekend. Our hike of choice was what turned out to be John Muir's favorite view in Yosemite, and I can now understand why. It was a nice little hike with a bonus ICE COLD DIP INTO AN ALPINE LAKE at the end. Super refreshing. Then we had some fun with campfires and long exposure photos at night. Did I mention I love Yosemite?
(Runner Up: I went to Washington again for work, climbing some peaks in Olympic National Park and doing a phenomenal hike around Mt. Rainier.)
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| See what I did there? |
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| Just banana time up on ole Hurricane Ridge |
November: San Bruno Mountain
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| Surprisingly there were some cool views of Pacifica and SF from up there |
This place is super close to SF and had a real short trail, so I just went up for a little trail run. Nothing too exciting. Moving on.
December: Cone Peak
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| oh mountains AND ocean. Come on California, at least give other places a chance |
After Thanksgiving, a magnificent crew went backpacking in Big Sur in, what I should be used to by now, amazing California weather. But we were hiking along a ridge and down to some natural hot springs, so that trip didn't count. But the
following weekend Katie was visiting and we went backpacking in Big Sur... again. We did a loop around and up to Cone Peak, which has some awesome views of other Big Sur mountains and the ocean and it's just ridiculous up there. Oh and we were SURROUNDED by hooting owls all during the nights. We also explored some of the Big Sur/Monterey area by kayaking with some sea otters, romping around Point Lobos shores, and enjoying some beer right on the coast. Not a bad weekend.
I'd say I'm fairly pleased with the success of the New Years resolution. I think the trick is to do something where your progress is measurable. I saw some cool views, got some great exercise in some amazing places, and I didn't die! Win-win-win.
