super hike

dave, jen, a, & i hiked mt. grays and mt. torreys.

 

we set foot on the trail at about 8:30am. the trailhead sits at right around 11,000 ft above sea level. meandering through a set of trees, right at the peak of treeline, then fields of shrubs, alpine flowers, babbling mountain streams, and up up up. around 13,000 feet life begins to peter out and the landscape turns to boulders and shards of different rocks.

the air becomes so thin and the steep climb warrents taking a breather about once every 10 minutes of climbing. the pit stops allowed for absorbing the breathtaking views. at about noon-thirty, we reached the summit of grays and soaked it in, munching on peanut butter and banana sandwiches before heading down the valley and starting up to peak torreys.

it took about another hour to get to the top of the second 14er of the day. torreys has a fantastic view as well. then comes the hike back down.

where the traverse up was a muscle and lung challenge, the walk back down is a bit of a controlled fall and you can feel it most in your joints.

the landscape gently erupts in a reverse order from which it had disappeared just a few hours before. tiny, ground-hugging mosses and small flowers get larger the further you go down. it as if they grow before your eyes and the groves get thicker and thicker, until they become fields of beauty amongst the rocks, then the streams got wider and the shrubs stood taller. into the thicket of trees and back to the trailhead, arriving back at about 4:30pm.

exhilarating, satisfying, joy.

sack-attack

happy noodle house

yestereve, a. & i ventured afoot to a new dining establishment, the happy noodle house. with a screamingly clichéd name & a standard brick façade, our curious ogling was surprised to enter a hip domain of warm woods and ears entranced by gentle bass of eccentric fringe pop music echoing on the other side of the threshold.

the menu was sparse and eclectic. a tattering of asian genres spanning from japan through india. with fusioned flavors, like curried-udon, and semi-accurate staples, such as a version of bi-bim-bap, we enjoyed our noodle bowls in this fashionable den-haven that could have been found in a recently-turned-the-corner neighborhood in brooklyn.

all things considered, we determined that we'll be back, and armed en posse to share he experience. food: 7.5 of 10; experience: 8.5 of 10.

camping season

with the green season upon us, it is time to take inventory of the camping gear. rekindling with old friends: the self-inflatable air mat, stuff sacks of various sizes and colors, a cook kit with pans that conveniently fit inside one another like a russian doll, and then there are the remorseful woes that you suddenly recall and damn yourself for not remedying from the year before...


more specifically, i am now reminded of a camp stove problem that i was unable to fully troubleshoot late last fall. upon seeing the carbon-scored little widget with valves and hoses, i recollect a frustrated morning that camp coffee was unable to be made and a mere sputtering of fuel would intermittently cough out of the jets. obviously a clog in the fuel line or the like.

i monkeyed with the fuel line and disassembled the chassis of the stove to fully clean the gentle beast. reassembly happened, but fire did not.

now here it is spring camping season once again and i am going to give it another go on getting the stove up and running. let's see what happens...

month lapse

may 2009 will remain in history as an official month of blog silence. i wish that i could say that it was in protest for thus-and-such or in respect of this-and-that, but the first mute cycle of the moon since the inception of this vehicle for public display has no such attributes.

alas, summer is nearly here and time continues to fly. brief recap of the elapsed time: work, work, work, md & s in for visit, j rossi in for visit, ma & pa w. in for visit, jason & justin in for visit.

the coming weeks hold a few weekend get-aways with dave & jen--both camping trips: one to the south; one to the west, backcountry-style. should be a grand time on both respective trips. the trip south also holds a hot spring in the cards. giddyup.

ahh, yes...peaty goodness

my quest for understanding the complexities of single malt scotch has brought me back to revisit an old friend, laphroaig. after deliberation and analysis, i have decided that this is one of the finer single malts for my palate.

in particular, i relish the leathery, earthy, pungent richness of this cask strength whisky. the smokey peat deliciousness fills my senses with warmth and satisfies many a sensory cell.

in addition, i have now become an international land owner once again.

subaru problem

so our neighbor rapped on our door this evening to tell us that the exterior lights were still on on our automobile. i graciously thanked her for the warning and a. begins to tell me that she thought she noticed this earlier in the day as well, but after checking it out it appeared to be sunlight transmuting the tail lights. alas, as dusk rolled in, the sunlight was no longer the culprit.

i monkeyed around with the lights in a deductive series of flipping on and off buttons, yet to no avail. odd thing was that only the parking lights were lit, and not the headlamps.

this is obviously an electrical issue, so i went inside and grabbed a manual and wrench. i pulled the positive cable off the battery, thinking that what ever had triggered the parking lights to stay on could be reset due to losing the electric charge. no dice.

i then started muttling through the fuses, as perhaps a fuse could have blown leading to a malfunction in the electrical system. again, no dice.

we had tickets to a movie and were short on time, so i disconnected the battery cable again to preserve the life. the walk to the theatre plagued me with troubled thoughts of frustrated curiosity and a sketched game plan of how to remedy this issue.

once returning home tonight, i decided to run a quick google search or two and see what turned up for the query "subaru parking lights staying on." i proceeded to load the first 5 hits in tabs and curse through them, which all said the same thing...there is a parking light switch on the steering column that was, in most likelihood, mistakenly hit and the cause of the unwanted illumination.

humiliated by user error, but overjoyed by the reconnection of the battery cable and flick of a switch to finally solve the problem. thank you, internet, for your infinite wisdom.

slippers

i like to wear house slippers. it was a commonplace practice around my house as a kid, but fell out of standard practice after moving out. a couple of years back, i rekindled the love for cushy foot comfort and procured a pair of indoor footware on sale after the winter season.

i usually stow my slippers once spring comes and there is always a bit of surprise when i re-discover them when the seasons begin to change for the cooler each fall.

i park my slippers by the door, awaiting the retreat from work each day. at night, i unsheathe my feet and leave the cushy pair resting at the foot of the bed. each morning, sliding my sleepy feet back into the friendly treads with a soothing sensation washing over me through the seemingly mundane experience.

thank you, dear slippers, for the joy you bring.