While Guy Kawasaki was spelunking in Kuala Lumpur, Victor and Cindy attempted Guitar Hero while engulfing sushi, and Honeyee decided to weed out their bloggers once again, we were playing drinking games in the rain at Bass Lake. About 15 miles south of Yosemite’s South Gates is a Bass Lake, where Sia planned an Memorial Day outing for us. Memorial Day and Rain goes together like Senior Citizens and Technology as one person put it but this is exactly what happened to us. We made the best out of the circumstances and for the most part enjoyed ourselves extensively. Once a lifetime, or so they say…am I correct?

Sia, Shebani, Crystal and I left Friday evening in a rented Chevy Aveo, our baller status of a car was packed nearly through the roof with our luggage, food and alcohol for eleven. After 4 hours of asphalt we finally arrive at the Pines Resort at Bass Lake. After checking in and settling down Navid and Andrea arrived in Navid’s restored FJ-60. As the cabin started to fill up we started to work on the beers and two giant bottles of Kirkland Vodka.

The night was soon a blur and we were cooking breakfast for Saturday morning before I knew it. Crystal and I decided to elope from the group in Yosemite. One thing about Crystal is she’s full of surprises, normally I think of her as the city smart girl that thinks that Golden Gate Park is the equivalent of the great outdoors. She definitely led the charge at Yosemite. “Let’s do this, Let’s do that, Oh we’re so doing this…” She’d say, and I was more then happy to oblige.

After lunch as the majority of the group headed back to the cabins we decided to do some sight seeing, after all we didn’t drive 50 miles into the Yosemite Valley for nothing. Crystal led the way through not only Lower Yosmite Falls but Bridalvail Falls as well. We climbed over rocks, got wet with Fall Mist (is that even a word?) and got completely SOAKED on the trail up to Bridalvail.

As you can see, she’s in good spirits. I also finally felt that the snorkel jacket I bought earlier this year found it’s purpose. Keeping Crystal warm and dry rather then me. She wanted to see, smell, touch, taste, and essentially absorb Yosemite. I found her energy refreshing for a change, and definitely glad that she came along.

Walking through Yosemite reminded me how life thrives through thick, thin, lush or harsh. Vegetation flourished everywhere on the valley floors and even more astounding on pure granite slabs as well.

We got back to the cabin a bit late, where the group was playing yet another round of ‘Shoulders‘ this soon became the cornerstone of our trip. 1,2,3,4,d’oh…drink! I enjoyed myself, so did Crystal. Thanks Sia for setting this up, Navid for suggesting it, and everyone else for adding to the cast of characters. Cheers, and till next year! We Do!!!

Processed Pictures - Click Here
All Pictures - Click Here

-Wallace

PS. Lots of you have asked about Sykes Hot Springs - where is it and how you can get there. You should be able to find everything you need including a gear checklist at www.sykeshotsprings.com

Sykes proves to never disappoint and with 7 new hikers in its never ending cast it proved to be difficult for me this year. Planning for a group of 10 posed endless new challenges, conflicts, and all sorts of last minute details which were minuscule for a small group but quite possibly detrimental to a group our size. Not to mention the ill-timed heat wave which swept through the Bay Area weather system, and the unusually dry winter made this trip a testing one.

With my schedule as loaded as it currently is, I started to prep for Sykes late - this domino effected everything else there after. We seriously reached new heights last year with this trip, completing it in 4.5 hours and being on point for essentially the entire trip. 2008 was different with 10 people, I should have allotted more time, but it took us nearly 6 hours to reach Sykes camp. The heat, exposure to the elements, and inexperience among the group really put us at a disadvantage. Group dynamics were important and I didn’t feel our chemistry as a group paralleled what we had in 2007. Us arriving in three or four different groups, rather then on is testament to this.

Sykes reminded me this year to not tread on it lightly. Depending on when we go and who we go with it can be one of the most relaxing trips I take all year, this year however it was an ass kicker. Although we did not come back defeated, all of us are tired. It wasn’t the same GO! GO! GO! mentality as we had last year, but as Sia put it, “Survive you fat fuck.” mentality. We really started to appreciate Sykes as a group after the fact, but were too tired during the fact to enjoy it’s beauty. So much that I had doubts if I was going to put together a Sykes 2009, or its 5th year anniversary. Sunny’s pushing hard, and everyone on this trip said they’re willing to come again.

After four years of doing Sykes, I’m still learning - how crazy is that? However being able to see the trail change from year to year is truly special. It’s been becoming drier, less kept, but apparently more difficult. Whatever Sykes becomes amongst us who have been - we have shared camaraderie, emotions, and an acme sense of accomplishment.

There were moments of genius, or lack there of that will definitely stay with me for an extended period of time. For example Jenny playing categories and flunking out on not only her first attempt but also her own category. “James Carville” hitting on Katie at the main spring was also pretty hilarious, the guys joked about it until the moon rose and stars shimmered, it was in this moment where Sunny’s stroke of genius hit…although I am sure he was actually serious rather then funny.

Sunny was talking about how the girls kept whining about how far they needed to walk and how heavy their bags were. One could feel the sternness in his breath when he stated that they should have been fully prepared for this, better then the guys ever will with all that shopping they do, the miles they cover within a mall and their arms filled with bags from different boutiques. This certainly earned a round of laughter, and quite honestly one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard at Sykes or any other backpacking trip.

It’s Wednesday, I’m still a bit sore but finally finished processing the photos. Thanks to those of you who have committed to attending this year - Jonathan, Alycia, Sia, Sam, Rob, Tru, Katie, and of course Sunny and Jenny. I enjoyed each of your company, and the little extra that each of you brought. Looking forward to Sykes 2009 - You better believe it, there’s no way I’m letting the 5th year pass just like that.

Cheers, and till next time.

-Wallace

It’s been two days after Sykes now and I’m still recovering, my body aches, my foot blistered, and my mental state tested, but I’m alive and will update you about Sykes when I finish uploading all my processed photos. Just a quick update to what I’ve been up to and then a quick list of what I’ve been appreciating lately.

Prior to Sykes I’ve been keeping to my ‘get fit’ schedule and in the process blew up my rear Shimano XT derailer (supposed to be bullet proof) at Fremont Older, and just prior to Sykes - Stefano, Tru, Jenny and I met up at Google’s campus for the Project Michelle Bone Marrow Drive.

So just what keeps me going these days? Or rather what am I appreciative for?

1. My Bed - There is nothing like coming home to your own bed clad in fresh clean crisp sheets.
2. Plumbing - What you take for granted we had to be reminded of again at Sykes.
3. My Health - I may be out of shape, but I’m feeling quite robust at the moment.
4. My Friends - Who else would take it upon themselves to keep you going when the going gets rough?
5. Alcohol - Oh I can drink again. Did you know that?
6. Older Porsches - I don’t know why I like old stuff, I just do. Porsches included.
7. Gnarles Barkeley’s Odd Couple - I have tracks 11, 12, and 13 on repeat right now.
8. Vero - Carbonara please.
9. Flobots - “I can ride a bike with no handlebars…with no handlebars…with no handlebars…”
10. Crystal - Would I dare forget her? Obviously I fear for my health.

Alright, now back to photo processing.

-Wallace

Got a email from Yih (a cancer survivor in his own right) today with the opportunity to save another person’s life. This decision was an easy one. A decision I didn’t need to think twice about, one doesn’t need to take the hippocratic oath in order to see value in human life. This being said, I will keep my personal thoughts on the project’s delivery to myself and direct your attention to Project Michelle.

I’m not even sure what ailment Michelle possesses which requires a bone marrow transplant but she does. Not only does she need a transplant, but needs to find a donor by June 21, 2008 - that is six short weeks. Don’t ask me what happens at the end of the six weeks, I don’t even know - however I am one to believe in miracles.

Although not clear, I believe the overall goal of Project Michelle is to spread awareness and push people to get registered into the bone marrow donor program. The process is relatively simple and painless, all it involves is a cotton swap to the inside of your cheeks. That is enough tissue to run through and maybe connect you to a match. I don’t know what the actual process is if you do come across a match, but my understanding of that actually happening is pretty slim.

Either way, Michelle has 6 weeks left and there are two drives happening this Friday - one at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in San Francisco and the other at Google’s main campus in Mountain View. Links provided below:

-Wallace

Mum was out of town for this year’s mother’s day so I’ll have to make it up to her another time, however this is not to say that we didn’t celebrate mother’s day. I got to enjoy it with my favorite girl, it was a rather relaxing and extremely enjoyable morning.

We decided to go wine tasting at Ridge, a favorite past-time of ours. In addition to the tasting we decided to pick up some food at Whole Foods and take advantage of Ridge’s picnic grounds. With the sun warming up the air, and wine warming us from inside out it proved to be one of our better ideas. We dined on roast beef sandwiches, roasted corn salsa, orzo salad, snail shaped cookies (appropriate as we were in a garden) and a mild cheese that Crystal picked out which paired beautifully with our 2006 Geyserville.

Ridge had two rather interesting wines this Sunday, its 2005 Carmichael” which was offered to ATP members only and a 2006 East Bench which was not only 100% zinfandel but the first year of its release. I ended up passing on the Carmichael as I thought it was too ‘fresh’ for my taste, but if you prefer fruitier, less complex wines the Carmichael is a good pick - Crystal enjoyed it. I did however pick up a bottle of the East Bench, although not as complex as I prefer it felt like it had potential, and besides 100% zin always catches my attention - especially one from Ridge.

We left Ridge a bit tipsy, a full flight plus half a bottle proved a little bit more then Crystal and I could handle so we went to our next destination, Picchetti Vineyard and Open Space Preserve. We passed on tasting here, but we were really after a good after lunch hike. We walked through the Orchard Loop Trail and checked out the Picchetti Pond. Fun little hike, but I strongly recommend that you do not complete the Orchard Loop Trail, the return climb is a doozy.

Other things we did this weekend were celebrate Jonathan’s Birthday at his house in Los Gatos - Always happy to see Jonathan, Sunny, Tran and Adnan. Nightcaps at Paragon, and chest of drawers shopping at Ikea. However…standard boyfriend contracts state that if you help your girlfriend purchase something that requires assembly you are magically a handyman, at least in Crystal’s opinion. If you’re curious it took us an hour to assemble that four drawer malm chest.

Happy Mother’s Day!

-Wallace

PS. I didn’t take my camera anywhere this weekend, so I snatched these off of Haw’s Flickr account. Thanks Haw!

After getting dressed and taking a gander in the mirror last Friday I noticed that my shirt didn’t fit quite right, so as any Wallace would do I took it off and put on another, it didn’t fit right either. I repeated this three or four times until I came to the inevitable - I got fat. These past thirteen or so months with Crystal in my life has put me on easy street. I mentioned this to her as we drove to Tapestry for dinner and her reaction was, “I was planning to have a chat with you about that.” Still not sure if she was kidding or not, but it was seriously time for me to jump on the ‘Get Fit’ bandwagon.

The Singletrack Group wanted to do Fremont Older this Saturday, the last time I went up this trail I apparently went the wrong, and incredibly difficult way. Not wanting to look like the novice, I took the Stumpy out to the proper Fremont Older parking lot and trailhead this time.

As I unpacked and set up a rush of excitement rushed through me, a part of me was also hoping that this was the correct trailhead, as I did not want to repeat that nearly vertical uphill climb as I did from the Stevens Canyon lot. With all my safety gear on and bike check done I set off, my first destination was Hunter’s Point, it’s a bald hilltop from where one can view the entire valley. You can see what I believe is Ridge Vineyards in the picture above, and if you clicked for the set you’ll also see Moffett Field.

The trail turned into single track at some points, and although the speed demon inside me wanted to push it at times the trail and rain run off reminded me that I was only at their mercy. Flying down Seven Springs Trail my rear wheel caught in a run off, next thing you know I was nearly air-borne. Miraculously I was able to shift my weight back and managed to ground the rear wheel, thus saving me a face full of dirt. I kept a slower pace since then, I am happy to report that although I was seriously beat I wrapped up without incident and absolutely love the way this bike handles.

So this is the start of the real ‘Get Fit’ for me, last winter was a joke as I had no sunlight to ride in, never mind the chill factor and ice. With the sun setting at almost 8pm now, I’m good to go. Speaking of which we caught up with Alan and Zhanna over Yume-Ya last evening. Chit-chatting about day jobs, recreational past times, the future and just life in general, not to mention before we parted Alan showed me his freshly done up Rinspeed 997 Carrera 2 on HRE C93’s - that was fresh. I just want a Cayman on HRE P40’s.

-Wallace

We didn’t leave town this weekend, but never the less had an spontaneous and entertaining two days. For starters we celebrated Friday with a nice dinner and a bottle of wine at Tapestry, a restaurant that I’ve been trying to dine at all year. We walked in 45 minutes prior to the kitchen closing and they still were able to put on a magnificent performance for us; we enjoyed dinner very much.

It wasn’t because we didn’t have anything planned for the weekend, we were supposed to be up in San Francisco all day Saturday for one of those exaggerated shopping sprees…and maybe even a visit to Sonoma’s Infineon Raceway to catch a bit of the Ferrari Challenge; however as Crystal’s fate would have things…she slept clear through noon. Instead of an urban adventure in the city, we found ourselves in the midst of an urban adventure right at home. Since we did not have the full day we wanted to go shopping, an executive decision had to be made - we had to stay local. We ended up visiting the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Jose’s own Kelley Park. It’s been forever since I’ve last been here, and for good reason too.

My folks took me here often on weekends, we had picnics, bar-b-ques and family gatherings under the shade of Japanese maples, however on one of those occasions I literally fell into the pond and the Koi, or Japanese Carp, thought I was fish food. It’s hard to recall the sensation of having countless fish attempt to eat you, maybe best described as hundreds of suction cups being stuck then ripped off your skin. It doesn’t hurt, but it will scare the living daylights out of you, especially if you were only 6 or 8 years old. You see the bridge is constructed of parallel planks laid out next to each other, then repeated again to its right. To cross the bridge you need to walk forward, then right, then forward, and so on. Since I was easily distracted (and still am), my focus was on the Koi beneath us, next thing you know I forgot about the “right” and walked right off the plank. My father caught me, but it was too late, I was already 3/4 submerged and quickly amassing fish hickeys.

I’m not sure if we ever returned back to the Japanese Friendship Gardens as a family, but that was my last memory of the park. I did visit Happy Hollow and the San Jose Historical Buildings on elementary and middle school fieldtrips, but don’t recall visiting the Japanese Gardens again. Why did I decide to take Crystal? I have no idea, but she didn’t lose any time with the jokes.

She did enjoy the ducks, baby geese, the shrubbery and of course the koi. Although this was her first time, and she was spmewhat awestruck, the gardens really took a turn for the worse, although still somewhat scenic, I mean I’d still go again but it’s not as kept as I remembered it. You could once feed the koi through food dispensers, those are long gone. The filtration and clarity of the pond is compromised by algae growth, and the once well maintained paths and trails have succumb with age. Still worth a visit, catch it while it lasts I suppose.

We spent the rest of Saturday enjoying dinner at Hana, then drinks at Vbar, Tanglewood and finally put our dancing shoes to use at Cardiff Lounge. Sunday was a fun day, Crystal thought I was picking up high school chicks at the mall (which turned out to be Hien and Camille), then spent some time in the evening hanging out with a common ground snail. Between the mistaken identities and mucus producing mollusk, Crystal dragged me through a shopping spree though Valley Fair and Santana Row, cooked a dinner (consisting of salmon, raspberries, micro-greens and cous cous), cleaned Sniffy’s hut, and organized Crystal’s room.

Quite productive I think, at least for Crystal. I had fun tagging along. Now…Sykes is coming up fast, and I’m (we all are) STOOOOOOOOOOOOKED!!!

-Wallace

Six short months ago I found myself walking out of an Apple store in Palo Alto with a large sleek, white and incredibly well designed box in my hands. The clouds parted and angels trumpeted for many of you that afternoon, namely Jonathan and Stefano. All this time many of you had profiled me as a Mac user, only to be disappointed to find out I still had my clunky Toshiba Satellite. Although there was nothing physically wrong with the Toshiba, it was getting tired and I needed something more portable - after a quick debate between IBM’s Thinkpad x40 and the Mac, the latter obviously won. It not only had an optical drive, but I also loved the white, and yes, you guys got to me. I figured I’d give the macbook a whirl, if I didn’t enjoy it I would have only been out a little over a grand.

After a short learning curve, and I’m speaking a day or two at most, and also thanks to Jonathan who loaded my fresh mac with every program I could have needed my transition into mac-culture was seamless. My mac goes everywhere with me, the size, usability, and hidden features has really made my life that much easier. It’s intuitive, extremely easy to use, and I don’t miss pc’s at all.

While in London I discovered my topcase had a hairline split, upon further inspection it was beginning to split all the way. Now…to put it bluntly - this sucked. Expecting for an uphill battle I stomped back into the Apple store where a Genius Bar staffer took a look and replied with, “No problem, we can take care of this.” Not only did they fix it, it took them less then a day. Now, that is service. I am totally sold on Apple. I think Zoli said it best, “Apple is great. God forbid, but unless there was no way I could afford an Apple, there is no reason to purchase a PC.”

I love my Mac, however definitely recommend getting a Macbook Pro if you’re on the fence. Although you may not need its processing power or utility, the build is just that much better.

-Wallace

PS. My first computer was actually an Apple (IIe), my second (third, fourth, etc.) have been PC’s until this Mac.