I spy a bobcat in Berkeley

Back in the Bay Area! Went for a really nice hike this weekend at Inspiration Point in Berkeley's Tilden Regional Park. The views of the Bay are amazing! In addition to the 360 views, the wildlife was phenomenal. Two hawks, a dozen wild turkeys, several blue jays, and a bobcat! The bobcat was about 50 yards away, at first we couldn't tell if it was a coyote or a cat, but with the help of a friendly hiker's binoculars, we confirmed it was definitely a bobcat. I didn't bring any cameras, so the photos below are taken from the web.

Condors

I forgot to mention in my last post, the most spectacular sighting of the trip. Andean Condors! I just couldn't believe it. I thought condors were super rare and never seen, but we saw 20 of them over two days! What luck and joy. I spent more time enjoying the birds than photographing them, but here is a short clip showing one soaring over the valley. 

Mini Blockie Reunion!

With an awesome picnic and walk in Edgewood Park!

The Cold

Sometimes you end up conquering things you didn't even realize you were conquering. The last few weeks have been a joyride. Adventuring all over Argentina, being amazed by Patagonia, its wildlife, its belligerent yet beautiful mountains, the gigantism of Glacier Perito Moreno. Never before on a trip have I been left speechless so many times. Patagonia is absolutely positively one of the coolest places I've ever visited. I'm in awe. Magellan Penguins, Southern Right Whales, Guanacos, Darwin's Rheas, mountains, glaciers, vast nothingness-it has it all. It's the world's real life Disneyland. It was warm, mostly windy, and sometimes terrifyingly cold. I felt on top of the world, like I was about to die, and as warn out and energized as I've felt in my life. It took a week of enjoying Buenos Aires to recover. Poor me. Ha!

This weekend I had another adventure: Yosemite. Curry Village has a deal: if it's below 32 degress, your tent cabin is free. Lucky us, it was definitely below freezing last night. I learned to cross-country ski on Saturday-Abbey is a great teacher. Today we went snowshoeing for the first time, on a ranger-led snowshoe hike, we hiked up to a vista where we could see the entire Yosemite backcountry.  Wilderness always surprises and never disappoints....

I used to be terrified of the cold, heck I still am. But Boston taught me that I could survive the cold, Fitz Roy taught me to respect the cold, Perito Moreno showed me the brilliance and beauty of the cold, and now Yosemite is teaching me how to enjoy the cold. Without realizing it, I'm conquering the cold. Or you could say that  the cold is overcoming my former intense dislike, and winning me over with its beauty, ferocity, and playfulness.

Black Mountain

This afternoon I summitted Black Mountain, along with my mom and Abs. At the top there was a beautiful view of the Bay, even with the dark clouds overhead. The hike was just under  6 miles, and we saw an astounding 24 deer scampering about! Great way to end the week and head into the weekend...

Best part of my week

Was this evening, Abbey and I ran and hiked in Arastradero and had the wonderful gift of seeing seven beautiful deer on the trails... By far, the best part of my week! What would I do without a great sister and the outdoors?

Yes on CA Prop 21

We all pay taxes so we can partake in public goods and services. CA Proposition 21, the State Parks Initiative would remove all entrance fees to California state parks (fees recently increased from $6 to $10 last spring). Prop 21 would add an $18 surcharge on obtaining a vehicle license, and in doing so make our state parks more accessible to all Californians. I strongly support this Proposition and hope that in November you vote yes on Prop 21with me.

Hike #3: Yosemite

Amazing vistas, waterfalls and well worth the tough hike out of the valley.

Hike #2: Skyline to the Sea Trail

30+ miles in less than 2 days with my mom. We made it to the beach!

Hike #1: Big Sur

Testing out some new gear in the Ventana Wilderness

Number 25

I think it's fitting that National Hikes Day falls on my birthday! To celebrate, I enjoyed a relaxing 4 mile hike this morning with the fam, followed by wildberry frozen yogurt and a picnic for lunch... Then relaxed by the duck pond all afternoon, reviewing for my final exam. What a wonderful day, with chinese food for dinner and angel food cake to top it off! Beautiful weather, wonderful company, and a reason to celebrate, what more could I ask for?

Number 25 is certainly off to a fabulous start.

Hetch Hetchy for Mother's Day!

The crew packed up and headed to Yosemite National Park this weekend in celebration of Mother's Day. Our destination: Hetch Hetchy, the Yosemite Valley that never was...Yup, in 1908 they damned up this beautiful valley against the activism of John Muir and naturalists around the country. That damn dam! After seeing it for myself, I can't believe it. A true travesty, because it is an absolutely amazing place. I'll be writing my representatives about this one...Even with the ugly dam, it's a remarkable place. We did an overnight backpacking trip, hiked up the valley, camped amongst the bears (no joke), and had an all around wonderful weekend. Happy Mother's Day Mom! Hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I did!

Yosemite Highlights

Had a great trip to Yosemite recently. Here are some photos I just uploaded.

Jasper Ridge

Jasper Ridge is Stanford's private nature preserve. Several of us were luckily enough to go on a hike with Bob Siegel, one of our Health and Human Disease professors, who is a docent at Jasper Ridge. I really loved the area because it was so diverse, open areas, lakes, creeks, redwood groves. Really wonderful!

Fungi oh my!

In Health and Human Disease we learned about fungi last week. I think I was the only student in the lecture hall actually excited to learn about fungi. Why? Because on all the hikes around here you see so many different types of fungi! After a long week of class and huge rains, I got away to the woods on Saturday with three of my classmates, Clark, Aria, and Joe. It was great fun, there was snow, fungi, and raging rivers! What more could we ask for? Below is one of the coolest fungus I've seen yet, it was growing a fallen redwood tree.

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1/30/2010 Update: Dr. Bob Siegel told me that fungus is called "Witch's Butter". Pretty awesome! It was very squishy

Berry Falls Hike, Big Basin State Park

Today, around noon my dad and I decided we'd tackle the 12 mile Berry Falls Hike. After an hour of driving we reached the lovely Big Basin State Park around 1pm, leaving us just about 4 hours of light to complete our task.

Luckily, it turned out to be one of the best hikes we've ever been on. Vibrant luscious flora, banana slugs, newts, birds abound, and spectacular waterfalls. We may have needed to trot the last few miles, but it was still amazing and we managed to make it to the car by dark!

Russian Ridge Hike

Natalia, Anne and I went on a hike in the Russian Ridge Open Preserve late this afternoon. It was awesome! We could see the Pacific Ocean, a panoramic of Stanford, and all of the peninsula. We saw a cute little mouse too.

Update: We have power! (and enjoyed a beautiful hike)

Hip hip hooray for the power being restored this morning while we were on our hike of Manoa Falls. The waterfall at the end made the hike through the rain worth it. Coming back to power being restored was even more awesome!