California Fun...and work. :-)

Folks, headed back to California at the end of March....It looks like I will be staying a couple days extra since this might be my only trip to California this year. So my itinerary looks something like this:

Wed Mar 24 - Leave O'hare very early....get into San Jose by lunch. Meet with Matt, my co-worker and then later we are either going to go to see Maverick, (HUGE WAVES and surfing) or we are going to go to Castle Rock State Park just out side of Santa Cruz.


Thur Mar 25 - Full day of work with Matt and meetings with the Microsoft Executives who are flying in. (whole purpose of this trip)

Fri Mar 26 - Matt is going to join me on an adventure to Yosemite. This trip we will try to get to the top of Nevada Falls.



Now I have been to the top of Vernal Falls with Dawn several years ago. We didn't go on to the top of Nevada Falls.

So here is basically our path from the valley floor:
The red path is the path up to the top using the John Muir trail. The path coming down is in yellow. The section that is highlighted in blue is stairs....killer stairs...but luckily we will be coming down them instead of going up them. Pretty hairy area coming down right there. The path is wide enough for 1. Their isn't much of a guard rail there and the mist from the falls cause the stairs to be a little slippery. Going up these stairs was BRUTAL. Hopefully coming down them won't be so bad. I'm told this hike is no where as difficult as the hike I did last year to the top of Upper Falls. As always, I'll try to get some pictures.

Saturday, provided I'm still alive from the hike, I'm headed to Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.


After I run around there for awhile, I'll take the boat back over to Tiberon and head over to the Marin Headlands. That is the mountains on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Views like this below is what I will be seeing. I've been there before many times, but I haven't left the car and hiked some of the trails that are there. So that is my plan this time. Go to the top and see what I can see....

Now that you know the itinerary and you can see where we are going....anyone want to carry my bag of gear??? Any takers??? It might be 35lbs. Might...depends on what I take....

I'm going to also attempt several things on this trip. I'm going to be photographing with the intent of creating HDR images. More on that in a later post. So this trip I am going to try to take a tripod with me. I'm also going to be tracking my hiking through my GPS unit recording every step to match up with the photos I take. We'll see how well that works!! I'm also going to transmit pictures live to my blog as I travel on this trip from my phone. So check back often....and see where I'm at and what I'm doing....might be interesting!

Last call...jump in the car with us...it might be fun!