After 2.5 hours this morning, I have June reservations for the Upper Pines campground in Yosemite!

That's one step closer to climbing Half Dome. Upper Pines is right across from the Happy Isles trailhead, which is many steps from the dome.

So now comes the long, arduous task of being sure I'm fit. Actually, I've been exercising and training for some time, getting ready. That Feather Falls trip on New Years, though, reminded me that I need some stairclimber work.

Time to get crackin'!

Oh, one more thing:


Don't ever mess with Jack Bauer. Don't make him kill his close friends, then top it off with blowing stuff up in close proximity. He's pissed now.

I just realized I had to share something.

Backpacking gear-wise, I'm finally to the point where I could go out. Sure, I don't have a stove or "special" clothes, but I have the important stuff. My last purchase was a Therm-a-Lite Prolite 4 self-inflatable pad.

At any rate, I wanted to try it all out, so I invited my 4-year-old to camp in the living room with me. Of course he was more than happy to!

The other day, I had found a gear loft from our monster 8-man family tent that my wife's mother bought for us. The tent is WAY too big, the thing weighs about 40 pounds packed. Anyway, the gear loft...

I hung it inside the backpacking tent, and while it was loose, it was useable. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, my son said, "Daddy, daddy! I made it better!" He managed to loop it on some wider loops to not only tighten the loft, but it's not loose anymore. Gotta love it!

12 hours to go...



I don't have time for this!

Only two days to go...

People rave about Bittorrent. How wonderful it is, blah blah blah. Well, I tried to download "it", and Azureus ran. And ran. And ran, it ran for 4 days, and got 57% complete before I finally gave up on it.

No big deal. The man is back Sunday night.



Now, he may not look very happy in this photo. As a matter of fact, he looks like he's crying. He probably is: Jack Bauer can cry. He's a real man, real men cry.

The reason to watch, though, is for what happens after he cries.

Two hours Sunday. Two hours Monday. Watch, or Jack will ask for a hacksaw. And we don't need that.

For a New Years Day activity, I hiked out to Feather Falls today with the Sacramento Hiking Meetup group. We had a great time, the weather was wonderful, and I finally got to go to the top of the falls.

More importantly, I had no problems at all with the hike. I was tired on the way back, sure, but nothing like in the past. This is good news!

It does tell me I need to do some stairclimbing, or something similar before Half Dome this summer. I'm sore! But that's okay.

Anyway, a few pictures are in order, of course. Here's our group, prior to leaving.



Even though they tend to not change, here's the falls.


And here I am, at the edge of the falls, or at least as close as I was willing to get.


Finally, the edge of the falls. This is the view through a chain link fence that has a million warning signs saying not to get too close. I didn't.


All in all, a great day. I love this place!