Outside

There is no substitute to reading official Survival Guide but it does leaves out many things. So instead of writing my detailed trip report I thought about all the mistakes I’d made and converting them to tips. Here it goes… Sun shelter (things that look like REI Alcove) is absolutely essential if you just have a camping tent. I would however not recommend REI Alcove itself because it broke after withstanding 3 days of sandstorms.

Usual weather websites do not give you the forecast at a point but rather around some town/city which renders them pretty useless for mountains. Here are the collected links for mountain weather forecasts for Washington: Mount Rainier at Paradise Visitor Center Mount Rainier at Camp Muir North Cascades NP – Sahale Arm North Cascades NP – Sahale Arm TH north Cascades NP – Windy Pass North Cascades NP – Mount Pilchuck TH Mount St Helens – Windy Ridge Mount St Helens – Windy Ridge TH Mount Baker – Artist Point Mount Baker – Skyline Divide Mount Baker – Ptarmigan Ridge TH Enchantments Olympics – Hurricane Ridge Olympics – Hole in the Wall Olympics – Mamot Pass TH Oregon Coast – Nehalem Bay State Park Mount Hood – Timberline Lodge Mount Hood – Vista Ridge Snoqualmie Pass Corridor – Mount Si Snoqualmie Pass Corridor – Granite Mountain Snoqualmie Pass Corridor – Chair Peak/Snow Lake Salmon La Sac – Iron Peak TH Esmeralda Basin TH

Today was perhaps my 32nd hike at Snoqualmie Falls. I’ve adopted this trail as my daily hike routine. Today I brought my new Garmin Oregon 400t GPS with me and recorded the track. Fortunately there is a website (although not that good) called MotionBased which can slice and dice and analyze this track data and tell you lot of cool things. Here’s the MotionBased’s analysis of Snoqualmie Falls hike. Few interesting things:

I LOVE slot canyons and Zion Narrows hike is something on my To-do for very long time since I saw it in a documentary and IMAX. So when I saw this deal from Southwest about 50% off on all travels my first thought was to book tickets to Las Vegas (nearest to Zion) or SLC. Due to restriction on this deal the travel needs to be completed by May 31st.

Today I tried Mount Si hike again and returned back before I saw “Snag Flats”, second time. Snag Flats are supposed to somewhere between 1300’ to 1500’. It’s relatively small hike that you can do in 2-3 hours (full hike to summit of Mount Si is a long 8 hour 3200’ climb). Today because of heavily packed wet snow it was extremely slippery. Many people even had crampons on. People who did not had any traction devices (like me) had very hard time to go up on slippery trail and even harder time to come down.

I would be writing all New York City related stuff at Metblogs rather then my own blog. This makes sense because lot of people who aren’t in this region doesn’t need to get those NYC stories. On the other hand, my NYC related writing will now reach to much larger audience. Check out some of my entries there about cool New York events, restaurants and such stuff. On the other site news, you might have noticed new skin and more FireFox friendly design.

Here are our March 2004 Alaska trip photos. I guess early March is among the best time to visit Alaska (thanks to my wife for figuring out fantastic itinerary) because you are still just in time to catch views of Aurora Boriales and there is so much festivities going on. We had our Yup’ik wedding ceremony at the Ice Hotel at Chena Hotsprings which is a hotel made of only ice with colorful lights shining through. Taking a dip in natural hot sulfur rich springs in below freezing temperatures with Aurora Borealis passing over head could certainly bring you one of the most memorable times even if its not your wedding ceremony night ;).

If you are reading this and haven’t been out there, well, you already missed the biggest blast of colors in Adirondacks (NY). On US east coast, Maine and an odd little dot in the heart of Adirondacks are two places where the amazing fall colors appears first. Last year, just by pure fortune, I was in Adirondacks and in one of the first mornings I saw a sudden blast of color everywhere in the region.

It’s cool to be in mountains when fall is just still arriving and you are among the first to feel it. This year my First Of Autumn hikes happened in Adirondacks. This area in upper state New York is probably among the most scenic part on East Coast. You got choice of 46 high peaks to climb (a High Peak is a mountain taller then 4000 ft) apart from countless small mountains and hills, several small and huge lakes to canoe and kayak or just relax on cruise, quite a few waterfalls and quint towns.

I recently went to Sierra Club’s meeting/presentation on California’s Route 1. This road trip certainly seems to be the queen of all. The presenter been touring this route every couple of years since last 3 decades and had some really awesome photographs - some taken in different seasons and time of the days and some even different decades! Here are some tips from the guru himself: The road trip to CA1 can be done any month, never let weather stop you.

I’d to just help my neighbour to find her run-away cat. Now a last blogbit… before I really really go to bed! This Labor Day weekend I was thinking about spending 3 days in programming few stuff I’d planned but such things just can’t happen. Suddenly a plan came around out of nowhere for 12+ hours of road trip to West Virginia and a visit to an ISKCON temple. Submitting to spontaneous weird idea seems to be my weakness.

This quick and small album could be viewed at dotPhoto. I’ll post it on my site when I stop being lazzzy.

This place is becoming my luxury hike place on lazy drizzly spring days. It’s the highest point in state of New Jersey. You can see all neighbouring states Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York on clear day and you don’t even have to hike to get on the top - just take 5 min easy drive and you are there! It has even little beach on the lake. You can view Mohonk, Catskills, Camelback, Pocono’s, Bear mountains - all from same place!

I just keep finding excuses to run away to New York and yet have never ran out of places to go. On the contraray, many have. Here’s the coolest link to help you out. These guys have came up with a list of best of everything - from Best Haircut to Best Romantic Hotel. So if you are tired of stumbling on to same old places, here’s the gene for you :).

Three movies that you shouldn’t miss this season: 1. Chicago - A total classic. Very different. Nice screen play. Cool lightings and photography. These guys got nominated for 13 acadami awards and I wasn’t surprised. 2. About Schmidt - A movie that gonna move you. Shatter you. Only for hard core reality fans. 3. The Guru - A cool hilarious flick on an Indina emigrant. Neat. Concerts: 1. Matchbox Twenty is on roll.

Well, it’s amazing how some of the most beautiful passions are shared by so few. Thanks to a re-routed email that dropped in to my Inbox telling me there was a presentation on “All about caves and caving” and I got a chance to meet people who are exploring these underground marvels since more then a decade. I’m pretty much beginner and just had some idea how these caves would have looked like when I read Adventures of Tom Sawyer a decade ago (and this still remains the best book I’ve ever read!

Well, I never liked the City’s new name “Mumbai” (from old Bombay) but it looks like that’s gonna stay. My favorite season to be in the City always had been Monsoon (June - Sep) when it rains a lot. However the weather in December is also pleasant 70s (F) and sky is still clear enough for me to spot some shooting stars. Here I’m going to outline few observations as a personal note.

If you are single or have hard time to make you friends get of bed to climb some mountains or paddle some rivers - well, here’s something that might interest you. I’ve found few huge and really cool organizations that engage themselves in doing some interesting adventure outings in groups. The biggest and the best of these is the Sierra Club. It’s purpose of existence is nature conservancy and awareness. Every week they have multiple outings - hikes, kayaks, group dinners, meetings and even outdoor movie shows!

I’ve some more time and it’s my first day doing blogs so I’ll put down few more tid bits… This one is about fall foliage travelling I did this year. Last year I went out to 3 day trip to New Hampshire and drove through much of the state. This year I decided to went down North-east Pennsylvania. The driving route at Bucktail State Park was listed as ‘one of the most beautiful spot to be’ in foliage by Yahoo Travel newsletter.