Not my weblog

I just finished writing titles and comments for the photo gallery. I haven’t forgotten about the blog, I will be finishing it. I will try and write a few entries every week until it is done.

On July Fourth we got up and went down to the park’s restrooms to take showers. Something happened to their plumbing because the water pressure was extraordinarily low. Then we went to see Sarah Winchester’s Mystery House. It’s this huge house built all haphazardly by a woman who knew nothing of design, and refused to take anyone’s advice. There are stairs that go to nowhere, windows in the floors, second story doors that open to a 15ft drop to the outside, and lots of other bizarre features.
After that we had lunch at Boudin Bakery, which is very similar to Panera Bread, but it seemed to be a San Francisco thing. I tried to get measured for a Tuxedo for Sarah and Jay’s wedding, but all the stores were either closed, or had people incapable of taking proper measurements. It was a frustrating afternoon.
In the evening we drove to the Mystery Spot. It was fun, but I wasn’t that impressed.
We spent the evening of the Fourth on the Santa Cruz boardwalk and beach. People were setting of fireworks on the beach, and police on ATVs tried to stop them, but never seemed to be quick enough to actually catch anyone in the act.
Being that it was a holiday weekend in the summer, every single campground we called in the area was all booked up. We thought maybe we’d just drive through the night. We drove over the Golden Gate bridge, and stopped at the “vista point” rest stop to use the bathrooms. They had a sign that said you could stay there for up to 8 hours, and you could even use small stoves. It was very late, so we decided to sleep in the car.

We headed into San Francisco for the day. We found a parking lot to leave the car in, and got a map of downtown to help us navigate. We spent most of the day just walking around, seeing whatever there was to see. We walked through Chinatown, and headed out to Fisherman’s Wharf. We didn’t ride a cable car, but we saw plenty of them. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant, that thought when we said “no meat” that we meant “cover it with shredded fish.”
There was a performer at Pier 39 with a funny act that we watched part of. We bought some Chocolate, and walked through an art gallery. We must have looked too touristy because a few people asked for donations to what I tend to believe was a bogus charity, and the first guy was incredibly rude when we declined to ‘donate.’
We took a bus back from Fisherman’s Wharf to avoid walking over the hill, and had dinner at a place called Cafe Mason. Then we got in the car and drove South to San Jose and camped at a state park there.

Hello all.
I am fine, just haven’t had internet access in a while, and only have it now for a few minutes, so I just thought I’d summarize the past week.
After leaving Yosemite we went to San Francisco, spent the day there, went to the beach in San Jose for the 4th of July, then headed up Route 1 along the coast, and eventually Route 101, both were wonderful drives. We camped in Oregon, and went to Seattle, and camped at Mt. Rainer, where it was cold, and there was snow (but we still haven’t seen rain since Nebraska!)
We are currently in Portland, OR.
Our original timetable of 4-6 weeks is being extended slightly, seeing as how it’s the end of the six week.
Sorry if I haven’t responded to your emails or phone calls, both internet access and phone service are not always available.

We left Yosemite, and I felt sad to leave it so soon. I vow to return. I want to hike to the top of Half Dome. I’m also interested to learn rock climbing.
We spent the day leisurely driving to San Francisco. We decided we needed internet access and hot showers, which we haven’t had for over a week, so we found a motel near the airport for the night, and did some laundry nearby. Tomorrow we will explore San Francisco.

Kate and I spent the day apart. She explored Curry Village, and Mirror Lake. I decided to hike up to Nevada Falls to see where the Merced river plunges 600 feet to the valley floor.
We had a very funny, slightly crazy shuttle driver that morning.
The hike to Nevada Falls passes by Vernal Falls, both are impressive to see. The mist from the falls is really neat, and there was an awesome rainbow at Vernal falls.
When I got back to the valley, I visited the Happy Isles, and the Nature Center, and then rode the shuttle back to the Visitor Center and took a walk through the Yosemite Cemetery, which is where Galen Clark is buried. I saw the Museum, and the Ansel Adams Gallery.
Kate and I went for another swim in the Merced river, this time for a little longer. I decided to ride the current downstream a bit. The cold water and strong current sap your energy really quickly. It is understandable why they don’t recommend swimming in most parts of the river, it can become dangerous if you aren’t careful.
After dinner we went to the theater for a performance by Lee Stetson. He portrays naturalist John Muir, who is a California legend. He delivered a monologue about the current state of the park, and told some stories about Muir’s adventures. I enjoyed it greatly.

We had breakfast at the Yosemite Lodge with a friend of Kate’s who works there. After breakfast we took a walk to see the Lower Yosemite Falls.
We bought one-way bus tickets up to Glacier Point which has impressive views of the valley. We hiked down the “Four Mile Trail” which was mostly paved, and almost entirely switchbacks. Near the bottom I heard a rustle in the woods above us. I looked up and saw a bear looking back at me from about 100 feet away. It was a young bear, not very big at all. We snapped a couple pictures and then went on our way. Bear cubs mean bear mothers, and bear mothers can be very protective of their young. The bear we saw wasn’t real young, but we didn’t want to take any chances.

We left Sequoia before sunrise and headed straight for Yosemite. We passed through Fresno along the way. We decided to camp in the Valley of Yosemite. The campground we stayed at was called Camp Four, and it is hugely popular with rock climbers. You don’t get an individual site, they just assign up to 6 people per site. There were only two vacancies in the campground, so we shared a site with two other couples. It was a little odd at first, but we quickly adapted.
The skies in Yosemite Valley were a little hazy. I think the main reason was because of some fires burning in the forests of California. They don’t always puts out fires immediately, it turns out that the fire is essential to the growth of the Giant Sequoia, because it clears the competing underbrush. It also has many other benefits. Yosemite is also a huge glacier carved valley, so all the smoke, and smog, and everything just seems to collect in it.
We took the park shuttle to the visitor center and the village to get a couple groceries, and keepsakes.
In the evening we took a short swim in the Merced river. The swim was short, because the water couldn’t have been much over 40F.

For our last day in Sequoia we decided to go see the Northern part of the park, and to see Kings Canyon. It was a long drive through the winding mountain roads, and we didn’t have much gas. We tried to go out of the park, but nothing was nearby, and gas inside the forest was expensive, but we didn’t have much choice unless we wanted to waste two hours of driving to get gas.
In Kings Canyon there was a tavern with the country’s oldest operating double gravity fuel pumps. It was quite the sight to see. I took a picture of them. We bought five gallons (the minimum they would sell us) and then went on our way. We stopped at Boyden Cavern to tour another marble cave. It wasn’t nearly as impressive as Crystal cave, largely because it wasn’t as well preserved. At Cedar Grove we saw the General Grant tree, which is almost as big as General Sherman.
That night, back to Buckeye Flats campground a ranger came to us to talk to us about the bear situation. It had been a female bear that had broken into several cars in the previous couple weeks at the two campgrounds in the Foothills. She said that the previous night they had captured it and put a radio collar on her, and then released her. We learned earlier in a film we saw at the visitor center that relocating bears doesn’t work. They almost always come back. The ranger also informed us that on that night they saw the bear sleeping in our campsite for a while that evening. It was sleeping next to a tree just ten feet from our tent. Kate and I found this delightfully exciting.
We had both learned that the Black Bears are nothing to be afraid of. They just want food, and they’ll leave you alone. They can typically be scared away simply by yelling at them.

We decided to stay a little longer in Sequoia for two main reasons. The first reason was that I really like the Park. The second reason was that we figured our odds of getting a site at Yosemite were greater if we missed the weekend crowd, so we planned to get to Yosemite Sunday morning, which meant staying in Sequoia longer.
Kate and I spent the day apart, she explored some of the trails in the forest, including Moro Rock, and the meadows, where she saw two black bears.
I spent the day hiking Alta Peak. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it before my deadline to meet back up with Kate, but I rushed it, and made it to the peak. The hike starts at at 7,000 foot elevation at the Wolverton parking lot, and ends at an altitude of 11,204 feet. The trail is 7 miles each way. The last two miles includes 2,000 feet of elevation gain, and I don’t have to tell you that was the hardest park. I hiked up in 3.5 hrs, and hurried down in 2.5 hours. It was a lot of fun. Marmots live at the peak.