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September 23, 2002
Labour Day Weekend
Labour Day Weekend, I went out to visit my friend, Ken, out in San Jose. Flew out Wednesday night and prepped up with him for a three day backpacking trip in the Ansel Adams Wilderness in Inyo National Forest (northeast and east of Yosemite National Park).
We started Thursday at 4 a.m. and made it out to Yosemite well before the crowds, giving us a wonderful chance to take in the usual touristy sights before it became packed with people. Got a few good pictures off, but being late in the season, the water had run dry on Bridalveil Falls. At 4:30 p.m., we began our "short" 3 mile hike along Rush Creek Trail to our first night's campsite. Three miles doesn't sound bad, and we didn't think it would be, except that we didn't account for the 1800 foot rise in elevation over the three miles. It took us nearly four hours before we reached our quasi-legal campsite for the night. We were both dead tired -- what with this being my first backpacking trip ever and Ken not having more than a couple of hours sleep the night before -- and barely made it through dinner before we collapsed for the night on the edge of Gem Lake.
The next day was much more relaxed. We hiked up another 500 ft or so, around Gem Lake and up to Waugh Lake, passing a few other tiny lakes in between. I had begun to develop a blister on my right foot, so we took it easy, making our way about halfway up Waugh Lake before we made camp and spent the rest of a gorgeous afternoon at lake-side. I soaked up some sun and just marveled at the tranquility and just how wonderful it was to let the quiet sink in, but for the sound of water lapping at the shores and the light rustle of wind through the leaves.
The last day, we broke camp pretty early and began the hike back toward Gem Lake, figuring we'd probably make camp there and spend the night before heading out Sunday morning. Instead, we found that we made such good time down to Gem Lake that we just flat out hiked all the way out, ending our trip around 1:30 p.m. I tell ya, lunch at the diner down the road never felt so good after being on pretty rudimentary fare throughout the trip. Was it a little hard while we were doing it? Sure, but the view and the experience was phenomenal and I'd do it again without even a blink of an eye. Maybe the next time we could start a little earlier in the day, though.
Having finished a day early, we decided to drive back to San Jose, especially after we figured that we were either too tired or too sore to try another day hike. Okay, I was the one that was too tired and too sore. Maybe Ken was, too, but he didn't let on. Anyway, we headed back to San Jose for some much needed rest.
With the extra day, we dragged out another of my friends -- both Ken and Sanjay are friends from my days in college -- and headed up to Napa, although without the fourties of Colt 45 as Sanjay and I had hoped. We had a fantastic lunch at Rutherford Grill and then took a tour around the Robert Mondavi winery, where I picked up a nice Muscato d'Oro that I hope to share with my family when they come to visit. We also stopped in at BV and Grgich, as well as the St. Helena Olive Oil Company. It was a rather sun-blessed and casual day with not a little alcohol that made it a lot of fun, rounded out by a special meal at Aoyama Sushi in Los Gatos (the cats!) where we made good friends with the chef, who really took care of us.
All in all, it was a great vacation and much needed in the middle of a flurry of activity at work with training and recertification and all. It's still busy at work, though I'm hurting for some client work really. Things look like they may be changing a little though, so we'll see how it goes.
Posted by KinCross at September 23, 2002 10:38 PM