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This past weekend was spent at Yosemite Young Lakes, which I must say is one of the most beautiful places in Yosemite. I went there almost two years ago, in August, where it was a lot warmer (pictures). Well, I’ll describe the hike with the pictures I took (+ the two I took from Nelson and Kolina):

The trip was for 10 people, so Kolina and I were up late the night before shopping and cooking food. The menu included salami/turkey wraps with avocado, tomato, onions for lunch, sausages for dinner, bagels with honey/jelly/peanut butter for breakfast, and a final lunch of tuna. What we thought was too little food turned out to be a whole bunch. Better safe than sorry, right?

From Yosemite Young Lakes

Delicious, right?

From Yosemite Young Lakes

We headed out at 6AM in a rented Kia and PT Cruiser:

From Yosemite Young Lakes

After stopping at Burger King for breakfast, we made it to Yosemite around 11ish. Lunch was consumed:

From Yosemite Young Lakes

And after a group shot (thanks, Nelson)!, we were on our way:

The trail was filled with a decent amount of uphill climbing and streams to cross. Intense!

From Yosemite Young Lakes

Wild animals were spotted!

From Yosemite Young Lakes

Since it was late June, there was actually still a lot of snow on the ground, which was weird to walk through in shorts and a t-shirt:

From Yosemite Young Lakes

After about 6.5 miles of hiking, we finally made it to the lake. My head was pounding from the altitude of about 10,000 feet and some of my friends weren’t doing too well, but the view was so worth it:

From Yosemite Young Lakes

From Yosemite Young Lakes

From Yosemite Young Lakes

I wasn’t feeling too good that night, so I quickly ate and retired to my tent to get some sleep. Throughout the night it was pretty cold – maybe in the low 30s, which wasn’t something we didn’t entirely prepare for. The tent kept me warm enough, but I missed having a pillow throughout the night, so I awoke with a sore neck. The sun provided some warmth and excellent lighting on the lake. We took our time eating breakfast, packing up our things, filling up on water, before finally heading back to our cars.

Bye bye Young Lakes:

From Yosemite Young Lakes

An area of the hike I didn’t capture on the way out was the large grassy meadow which offered some views of the mountains around Yosemite:

From Yosemite Young Lakes

From Yosemite Young Lakes

From Yosemite Young Lakes

And finally, pictures of Half Dome and Tenaya Lake from Olmsted Point:

From Yosemite Young Lakes

From Yosemite Young Lakes

Overall, an excellent trail, although maybe I would go a few weeks later in the summer to avoid the cold weather. Nonetheless, I had a great time and I hoped everyone who came would agree. My next three weeks are already planned – Boston, Sonoma, St. Louis, but after that…more camping? Point Reyes? Who is in?

Tour de Cure this Sunday was a success! I did the 75K route, wimping out of the much more difficult 120K route due to unforseen traveling the past few weeks that prevented me from training. Besides blowing a tire halfway through the ride, it was a smooth ride.

And I raised $1056!! Thanks again to everyone who sponsored me. You know who you are :)

Some pictures:

From Palo Alto – Tour de Cure 2009

From Palo Alto – Tour de Cure 2009

From Palo Alto – Tour de Cure 2009

On Tuesday, as part of Googleserve, a group of coworkers headed out to Half Moon Bay to help clear the area of invasive mustard and ice plants. It was a lot more work than I initially anticipated, but the lot of us made a sizeable impact, pulling out a ton of these plants with hoe-matics and our bare hands. The project was organized by Hands on Bay Area and I worked with them over a year ago on a project at the Oakland Zoo. The whole experience made for some fun pictures:

From Half Moon Bay – Googleserve 09

From Half Moon Bay – Googleserve 09

From Half Moon Bay – Googleserve 09

From Half Moon Bay – Googleserve 09

After all the work, I think I deserved a break from the gym :)

I’m on day 87 of my jeans. After a trips to India, where I went rock climbing and survived 100+ degree weather and Ireland, where I walked a whole bunch. And today, I volunteered with Hands on Bay Area to remove some invasive plants in Half Moon Bay. More about that in a later blog post. Check out the difference!

Day 48:

From Samurai 710’s

Day 87:

From Samurai 710’s

Day 48:

From Samurai 710’s

Day 87:

From Samurai 710’s

Day 48:

From Samurai 710’s

Day 87:

From Samurai 710’s

Transitioning back to life in the Bay Area magnifies what things I grew accustomed to while abroad – walking to work,  hearing Irish/Indian accents, paying with Euros or Rupees, and living out of a suitcase.

I don’t have much to say besides that. Trying to get settled back at work in Mountain View and doing all the things I said I would do when I was abroad. Maybe it’s my tendancy or just how things go in a new role, but I definitely told a lot of people that I would jump-in and try to help out in any way I could. Now it’s really a matter of keeping true to my word. And when I thought today about what all the work would entail, it was pretty daunting. But, after breaking it up into management chunks and pieces, it doesn’t look so bad anymore. A major issue became a series of smaller steps. Ta-da!