I love nature or outdoorsy activities. Thanks to my stint as a girl scout back in high school, I was able to appreciate the beauty of nature when my group hiked Mt. Makiling during a summer camp; and once again at a medical-dental mission that had us hiking through the mountains to find that elusive waterfall. Those hiking trips were maybe half a mile long and it was exhilarating and very intimate because it’s just me and the nature.

Two years ago, I joined a hiking group in our community. We went to Big Basin Creek at Half Moon Bay. It was more than 10 miles hike. That experience ruined my love for hiking. It was long, the pace was hard, and I wasn’t wearing proper hiking shoes. My feet just died. So for the next year or so, I didn’t join any of their hiking trip. Then came my Yosemite trip which hiking was part of the itinerary. Even though the Mist Trail was 3 miles long, the elevation was so ridiculous! It was uphill all the way and I was left trailing behind my group for  good 45 minutes before I could catch up with them.

I decided that next time I went hiking, I have to research the trip properly before I dive into the activity. First, I went and bought me a pair of proper hiking shoes. It served me well in Yosemite. Second, I made sure the distance of the hike, elevation of the area, and the weather for that day before I join the trip. A week ago, I decided to join that same hiking group to a hiking trip at Nisene Marks Park at Aptos. According to the details of the trip, it was 6 miles long with slight elevation. Great! My kind of hike!

Hiking is a good exercise for me. I’ve recently noticed that I’m gaining weight and I’m having a problem losing them. I decided to take up tennis and hiking. I just need to have an outlet for health. Going on a hike also allows me to travel beyond my community. I don’t go out much so this is a good way of seeing places. I like the group that I hiked with. They were all above 40 years old and the hike leader Tom was probably 60y/o. Nonetheless, they were really good hikers. They kept a good pace and they seem not to be panting whereas I was ready to call it quits.

Hiking trails are picturesque. For my recent trip, it was  all redwood trees, redwood trees, and redwood trees. I would have loved to see animals but the only animal I saw was a banana slug. I brought my Vivitar camera with me to take pictures. I would not be surprised if the prints come out greenish! In addition to, that much close to trees reenergized my brain and body. I think I have breathed all the oxygen I needed for the next two weeks.  

The group’s next hike would be at Point Reyes which was 13 miles. I’m going to sit that one out. After the 7-mile hike my feet were tired, my muscles were sore and if not for my weekly tennis workout, I wouldn’t have been able to move properly for the next three days. Even though there’s only a short uphill trail,  my legs were screaming. However thanks to my group who weren’t as fast as younger people, I was able to catch up with them.

Hopefully my endurance will continue to grow and I can participate in longer hikes. But for now, I’d rather have fun hiking.

Related posts:

1. I hate dental injections!
2. I love our Prius
3. A weekend at Yosemite part 1

Day 2 of Yosemite adventure, we headed to Yosemite Park to hike. Yosemite Park is a 1200 miles of preserved park with innumerable lakes, meadows, forests and granite summits with endless unspoiled alpine scenery. From Midpines we travelled 10 miles to the entrance of the park. There’s an entry fee for visitors and the validity is good for days.

As I’ve mentioned, it is advisable to bring a car with you because it helps with going from one attraction site to another. I’ve seen coach buses, RVs, and big vans inside the park. The RVs have their own parking space to rent so that family can set up camp. There are camping grounds with public bathrooms for those who are camping.  Roads are well kept and paths to hikes are preserved. Cars are required to park a distance away from the trails to maintain the area.

When we entered the gate, we were given a map to navigate around the area. Due to time constraints, we were able to quickly explore the west side of the park. Here are quick top sites to see inside the park:

The weather was not cooperating when we hiked up that day. It was dreary, overcast, and there was light rain. I didn’t bring anything to protect myself from the rain so this was lesson learned. It is important to check the weather first before going to hike and gear up appropriately.

We drove first to Tunnel View. It was a vista point with a spectacular view of the El Capitan, Sentinel Rock, and Bridalveil Falls. Oh to have a dslr camera at this point. But it wasn’t a good camera day because of the heavy fog. Still it was breathtaking. 

After a few Kodak moments, we headed down to Bridalveil falls which you can on the right side of the picture above. It was a short hike to that falls but expect to get wet and freezing. My friends went to get an upclose shot of the falls but I refrained because I was wearing cotton, I didn’t want to freeze to death. From the parking space, we already got a glimpse of the falls.When we got to our next destination, which is the mist trail to the Vernal falls, there was a steady light rain. I almost sit out that trek because I didn’t want to get soaked. Fortunately, my friend had a spare rain poncho though was big for me (I looked like a yellow ghost), protected me from the rain. The mist trail was a 3 mile round trip hike with a 1000ft elevation gain to the Vernal fall. It featured a hike which starts at Happy Isles, then a climb at Mist Trail beside the beautiful Merced River to Vernal Fall, which has a 330 foot drop.

We almost spent 2 hours in this hike mostly because of me. I was really slow. My friends were in better shape than me. So I was most of the time on my own trailing way behind them, which was good because I was able to rest and enjoy the scenery. I caught up with them twice…once at the bottom of vernal falls and next near the top of Vernal falls.

Finally we reached up the summit…errr 50 ft away from the summit. I could have gone up more but decided not to because the trail up above is steeper and there was no handrail. I’m just happy that I reached the “top”. I was surprised that on my way to the summit, I saw an old man with a cane assisted by his family coming down from the top. If he could do it, then I better can do it too!

We went down after taking some pictures and ate our lunch pack in the middle of the trail beside the gushing river. It was cold but exhilarating. The hike back is better for me since it’s downhill. No more trekking uphill.  We went trailed back to the parking lot, tired, soaking wet but satisfied.

That ended my Yosemite weekend. If you’re into photography and you have your own car, it’s nice to stop in the middle of the road to take pictures. The beautiful plains before entering mariposa is a nice and picturesque view too for a kodak moment.

To learn more about Yosemite Park, click here. 

Related posts:

1. A weekend at Yosemite part 1
2. A weekend at Yosemite part 2
3. My love-hate relationship with hiking

After a restful night, Day 1 of my Yosemite adventure officially began. I woke up energized and prepared for our white water rafting activity. I ate a hearty breakfast at Yosemite Bug- it was a big foot size buckwheat pancake with fruits on the side. I only ate 1/4 of the pancake because it was just too huge and it didn’t taste like IHOP pancake. The sun was shining and the weather was cool. Our shuttle picked us up at the hostel and off we went to the raft site. 

Before I tell you the incredible experience I had with white water rafting here’s a bit of background about me and the activity. There’s none. I don’t have any prior experience with white water rafting. I could have, back in the Philippines but nobody wanted to go with me. My brother blogged about his rafting experience there and smugly I can say that mine was better. Going down that mountain overlooking the river, a lot of my group members were oohh- and ahhing the strength of the rapids. Some are getting nervous but nobody backed out. Me though, I was highly excited.

WHITE WATER RAFTING

We employed the service of American River Recreation for our white water rafting activity. ARR provided the shuttle to the raft site, the gear for rafting and lunch pack. So we only needed to be dressed in swimsuit or quick drying clothes and old tennis shoes/trek sandals. The snow was still melting from the mountains so the water was truly cold, icy even. The company had us dressed in wetsuit, a windbreaker, life vest, and a helmet.

We were at the rafting site approximately 945am and the company people had to inflate the boats and secure some safety lines. That took almost another 30-40 minutes. We were getting antsy. We also saw other rafters cruising along the river. Before we rafted, the boatman lectured about gear and safety. He also acquainted us with certain paddling instructions. Actually one didn’t need to have a rafting experience to do this activity. However a one-time experience with dragon boat racing made me paddle efficiently. I listened intently on the safety lecture praying I won’t be needing it. Some safety tips that stayed with me were:

“ When you fall off the boat, grab onto the safety lines on the side of the boat.”

“If the fall is a distance from the boat, try to float, keep your legs up, and cover your nose until rescue comes. Float with your feet in front to the direction of the current. This will protect your head from crashing into the rocks.”

“If the boat capsize, don’t panic and make sure to get out of the bottom of the boat fast.”

It was a whole day affair and boy did I enjoy it so much! We rafted down the 18 miles of Merced river tackling class 3 and 4 rapids. We manned a 6-man raft and each raft had its boat guide. Our boatman was the lecturer and I thought that he’s good, he won’t let us fall. I sat at the back near our boat guide because I figured if I fall he will be able to save me quickly. There were 5 boats and 6 people in each boat. Our boat was the last one. When we hit the water, it was so darn icy cold! Even donning a wetsuit and a windbreaker, we were cold from the water. I thought my feet were going to get frostbite. I felt them going numb after a few hours.

The first few distance we hit a class 3 and class 4 rapids immediately. It was scary. The white water can just be so menacing that I couldn’t help but pray for safety every time we hit the rapids. I didn’t know I’ll be using it until our group fell off the boat when we hit a water gouge. When I fell what immediately came to my mind is to float. Then I saw that I was near the boat so I switched tactics  and swam and grab tightly to the safety line of the boat. Our boatman, who didn’t fell off (thank God), hauled me off the water so fast. 2 of my team though got washed away farther and we had to throw a rope to bring them back in. We were ok but I got nervous every rapid we hit.

But our fall couldn’t compare what happened to the other boat. Another boat capsized and one of the members went into a class 4 rapid and he was being hit by the waves so hard that I thought he was going to die. Our boat was actually paddling hard (since we were the last one) to save him. We were able to when we got into calmer water. But all in all nobody got hurt.

The whole 18 miles had intervals of class 3 and 4 rapids. But there was a long stretch where the river was calm and our boatman, Tom,  tried to alleviate the boredom by pointing out flowers/rocks in the surrounding area. We lunched in an island and got back in the water after 30 minutes. I didn’t feel thirsty or hungry because this activity was pure adrenaline-rush. And I think I got full from gobbling too much water from the river every time we hit the rapid. LOL! However I did feel the urge to pee though. We finished the trip at around 4pm and got back to the lodging battered, tired, but well-satisfied.

I was able to view our pictures when I got home. I didn’t know the company has people all over the river and they had taken a lot of pictures of us. There’s a fee for these pictures but I cheated my way out of it though I couldn’t remove the title “picture this”. Do look at my pictures on these highly exciting white water rafting adventure.

View Full Album

Related posts:

1. A weekend at Yosemite part 1
2. A weekend at Yosemite part 3
3. A President’s Day Weekend in Washington DC part 1

I just had the most exciting weekend yet! On Mother’s Day weekend (sorry mom, I wasn’t there to celebrate it with you) together with a group of yuppies, we went to Yosemite for a thrill-seeking adventure. We did white water rafting and trail hiking. It was so fun!

Yosemite Park is a national reserved park famous for its landscape and hiking activities. Late spring is the best time to go to Yosemite because the vegetation is  blooming, the snow has melted and the river is well-supplied with water. Weather is great too – sunny and not too hot. But it’s still good to check the weather forecast.

By summer, the plants are dried up or dead because of the weather and the river turns into a stream. Day 2 of our trip we were met with spring cold shower from the natural rain and from the water spray of the snow melting from the mountains.

For lodging, the nearest lodging would be located at Midpines or Mariposa. Mariposa has a nice downtown area and numerous inns for tourists. It is a distance from the Yosemite Park though. Getting around Yosemite, it is best to have your own car and a map. There is a free shuttle around the area but you won’t be able to explore the area at your own leisure. Some people bring their RVs into the park and just pay the entrance fee.

YOSEMITE BUG

Our group organized by one great lady (Agatha) stayed in this rustic cabin/hostel called Yosemite Bug. For 56/2 nights I guess that’s ok with me. I stayed in the female dorm and my dorm-mates were respectful of one another.   Although the stench of weed sometimes permeated the air. The room is a double bunker with cheap mattress foam that sags wherever your weight is. The place has 2 shower cubicles and 2 toilet cubicles. It was enough because I never experienced fighting for a spot in the shower. In addition to the dormitory, they have private cabins for families and couples. The lodging’s amenities are the cafe, spa, and bonfire.

The cafe serves great food although a little bit slow in the service especially during morning. The food serving is big and can be shared by 2 people and the price is reasonable to high. They also offer trail lunch pack which is a sandwich of different variation. Dinner was really delicious though pricey. They serve steak, roasted chicken, and blackened catfish which reviews were great. The spa boasts of a non-chlorinated jacuzzi, a really good masseuse, and other water therapy services all at different prices. I didn’t try any of the spa services though I really wanted to because my muscles were sore from our activities. Based on my friends’ experiences, it was worth it. However expect the room and the only jacuzzi tub to be crowded though.  To learn more about this place, click here.

In the next blog, I’ll be writing about our adventurous activities inside Yosemite. To plan your visit,  click here.

Related posts:

1. A weekend at Yosemite part 2
2. A weekend at Yosemite part 3
3. A President’s Day Weekend in Washington DC part 4