Our Backpacking Trips

the first time i hiked the santa anita loop it was a great big failure. i had a super big stomach ache and ended up back tracking. i ruined the whole trip.  i’m usually the toughest cookie so that was so unlike me.

initially this was weekend me and mo were supposed to head out to palm spring and do the san jacinto trail… but he got a call from the rangers station last thursday saying the trail is closed due to a possibly that there might be a forest fire. some red alert fire thing, i dont know the proper term. so… a change of plans, we cant simply sit still this weekend especially since we were so looking forward to san jacinto. the easiest option is to do the santa anita loop.

we left around 7:30 am on saturday and had breakfast at denny’s. went over to charle’s house to feed his dogs after a hefty breakfast. after that we jumped on the freeway and headed for a pit stop at REI and stocked up on some freeze dried camp food. i picked up a new pair of trekking pole, a titanium cup, and a new tank top. so we were at rei with kala (the beagle) and they had a sign out there that said “no pets, we welcome guide dogs”. so mo was like, “okay we can make kala into a guide dog, just put some sunglasses on her”. we froze for 3 seconds and was like “dude thats not right”. haha, mo you silly bitch.

after we were done with REI we headed off to the trail head and started our hike around 10:30am. here are the pictures:

we got to base camp (a 4 miles hike) after 2 hours. we got every thing set up and backtracked 2 miles to chill at the waterfall.

the water was freezing!!

my shoes havent been this clean for a long long time. i almost forgot they used to be baby blue.

the water was freezing!! i didnt go in but mo fell in after slipping on a rock. then he had hard nipples for the rest of the time. haha.

then it got too cold. so we hike back the 2 miles back to base camp.

there were a lot of bugs… A LOT. so we gathered a shit load of fire wood and started a camp fire. GREAT SUCCESS!!!

mo wanted me to announce that THIS PICTURE IS POSED. the GIANT fire log was my idea. i hauled into camp from somewhere because as you can see… we are low on fire wood.

see how long that thing was? and see how dirty i get!!

the next morning we hiked Mt Zion and headed down the mountain. it was time to wrap up this trip and go home.

having lunch somewhere along the trail

we found a cave.

/end

All my life I hated to sign any kind of release form, contracts, etc.. those small fine prints are boring to read. Not today! Following are the first 5 lines of HCSC Release of Liabitlity:

I am aware that all camp activities, including but not limited to snowboarding, skateboarding, in-line skating, wakeboarding, wakesurfing, mountain biking, bicycling, swimming, snow skating, basketball, tetherball, camp fires, horse shoes, arts and crafts, hiking, white water rafting, paintball, trampolines, surfing, BMX biking, soccer, dodge ball, volleyball, baseball, dry slope snowboarding and rail training, balance boards and apparatus, bowling and golf, are hazardous sports that include certain risks and dangers and include the risk of serious injury or death. I voluntarily accept full responsiblity for all risks invloved, including risks inherent in all camp activities and in the HALF-PIPES, QUARTER-PIPES, FREESTYLE BUMPS/JUMPS AND OTHER CONSTRUCTED AND NATURAL FEATURES.

God, I don’t even know what the hell is some of those activities… then next 3 lines:

I understand that I may borrow certain recreational equipment from HCSC, and/or other equipment suppliers, distributors, manufactures or sponsors through HCSC or elsewhere, such equipment may include, but is not limited to, helmets, snowboards, boots, bindings and hardware, skateboards, wakeboards, bicycles and other recreational equipment…

HCSC, I will sign as many copies of this liablity form as you want…

Couple funniest moment at Death Valley LiChin forgot to mention. These crack me up everytime I think about it.

1. Flying Base Camp
We were at Bad water and Artist Drive, the wind started to picking up. We were worried about our tent, cause we got there late on Friday night, we just pitched the tent freestanding with no rainfly and no stake down! We hurried back to check on our tent, pheww… still there, good standing under sun shine. Then just about we get out of the car, bang, the tent went flying in the sky, lmao. We arrived just on time, or were we just bad luck…

2. Sweating dog. This has to be the funniest stupid joke I ever heard. We were shooting super soaker all afternoon, people were so jealous we got cooled off like that, and this old Hans guy came to our camp, then saw our soaked Advanture Dog, he goes “oh my, your dog must be hot” We were like hell yea, everyone’s hot, then he shot out this stupid comment “damn, she’s all sweating like that, all soaked” I almost cracked up in front of him, but I held it so hard, we were like are you serious Hans….

3. Bad smells…  humm.. actually no more comments on that, LiChin told me to go see Doctors…

this is lichin reporting:

i have decided to elaborate on the “bad smells”. it wasnt just “bad” it was like getting your mac computer run over by a semi bad. it was so bad that kala started choking on the smell… and this is when i busted out the plastic bag… because she was literally about to throw up in the car. so i bet youre wondering where all this “bad smell” is coming from? dont look at me… cuz i smell good and dont look at kala… she’s a dog. yup, its mo. this motherfucker has the stankest feet ever and he blames it on his “sandals”. his exact words: “oh i know, i took it to the beach and stepped in salt water, maybe thats is why my feet smells”. saying that it smells bad is a total understatement. let me try to describe the smell to you: it is like some sort of steamed fish but got left out in a humid climate for a week and has gone bad. his feet had a very salty and sour smell. the drive back on sunday was hell, with the AC going his foot oder was circulating around the whole car, then kala starts choking again, so i bagged her for the 10th time this trip. bottom line: that kind of smell is not normal…. mo, go see a doctor. 

Last week I was at gym at night. I was exercising by myself, peacefully; then a buff guy came to me, I could tell he is a gym trainer and was coming to me, I was like shit, don’t come! don’t come! then he was there and started talking. “Oh you did this wrong, you did that wrong, why don’t you come have a seat with me let me help you with a plan.. blah blah..” I was like fuck! I am the guy hardly to say no, so we set up an appointment. Of course I ditched that appointment later on, now it’s freaking hard for me to go back to that gym. I don’t want to see his face again, so awkward. That’s why I didn’t want him to walk to me at first place.

He did helped me though. Now I am all trying to avoid him, so I don’t go to gym at night anymore, I am all getting up 5 in the morning to go to morning session, when nobody is there but old people. But guess what, today I was there, there was this old man came to me “young man, you don’t need assist when doing pull ups? let me show you how to do this, i mean i am 70 year old i can do pull ups with out assist” fuck! can people just leave me alone in the gym? how embarrassing, I wish i have a small gym in my garage now.

(damn it, still can’t load picture. I think something wrong with my Windows PC? I was able to load pix on my Safari)

Anywy, I think there is a slight chance I might stay here in LA… Sharon can’t decide. She want to open so bad, but like everyone is against her, so she doesn’t have the fund to open? Anyway, still not sure.. but if I really going to stay, we’re going to have a blast of summer fun. Right now I am already thinking of Apr 25th weekend Death Valley, May 23rd weekend Zion Narrows, and San Jacinto Peak over night trip again in between, then Aug 7 HCSC yay~ let’s do this. I am going to update my iCal when I get back home and sync it to this calender here.

One last thing since you guys like to use strike that much, let me just try one.

oh my god, took me two days to figure out how to post pictures on word press thingy, i am so dumb