Jim Travels The World

Day 5: life in the slow lane From 3 Rivers we enter Sequoia national park, and it's exactly what I expected. Temps are much lower and the park is less populated. After 3 days fighting with other tourists for a seat on the shuttle, this will be a welcome change. plus, there's the biggest tree in the world. Suck on that, Yosemite ! Spend the afternoon doing chill forest strolls among the giant trees. No ruthless inclines, no crowded visitor center. Less infrastructure, as my Aussie boss Rohan would say. Came very close to a bear and cub in a meadow, got to watch them scale trees and play. Came within about 50 feet of them, which is the closest we've ever been to a bear. That alone was worth the trip. Unfortunately, they were scurrying about and we couldn't get any clean pictures. not pictured: bears a-scurryin' Technically no hiking today, but did about 4 miles of forest trails Campsite, dinner, s'mores. I used to hate sitting around at the campsite; I felt like I...

Day 1: in Fresno they got that indo  Flew in to Fresno (100F when we landed... holy crap, we throught fall was almost here), picked up the fly blue rental, then hit up REI for some gear. Rei signs here are bilingual. Don't get that in Boulder. Stop at In n Out Burger, the best thing about the west coast. Drive to Oakhurst and hit the motel  Day 2: into the Yosemite.  kinda hard to miss el cap. it's like bam all up in your face Hit the park then visitor center for trail suggestions. Hike up four mile trail for a good view of half dome. aww shit, that's the stuff right there Then set up camp these signs are everywhere. jeez, it's just a little highly-contagious rodent-borne virus . what's the big whoop. dinner at the deli and a ranger presentation about some big-shit hotel in the park  Day 3: outside the box  Drove 2 hours to Tuolumne (twah-loom) at the northern edge of the park. Good choice because its at 8k feet and much cooler than yesterday. It's mid Sept...

Day 4 Up early and on the shuttle towards Kaibab trail. By the second day I had surrendered my will over to the will of the shuttle routes, and had much more serenity as a result. Left the car at the campsite all day.   Went down Kaibab trail into the canyon, maybe 3 or 4 miles and back out. Spent a good deal of time resting and staring into the canyon. The most amazing thing was, since it as a partly cloudy day, watching the canyon walls change color before my eyes as the sun ducked in and out of clouds. After the trail, I'm exhausted, and go back to the tent to take a nap. Then I begin the long shuttle route journey from my campsite to the west end of the park to watch the sunset. By shuttle, it can take hours to get from one end to the other, with several bus changes. I watch the sunset from one of the most western viewpoints in the park, and its remoteness makes it much less crowded than watching from the visitor center overlook as I did last night. Then, long shuttle ride back...

Day 3 When I first see the grand canyon, I don't have that life-changing experience that some people describe. Maybe because this is as close to nature as your average fat American gets. I do get that feeling (that I often have in national parks) of being small and insignificant compared to the power of nature. The canyon is enormous. First up I take a hike on the bright angel trail, but only a few miles in and then back out, because I don't have that much water and the view stays the same pretty much the whole time. I need a backcountry permit to go down to the river, and I don't have one of those. I've tried to get one for two years now but it's very competitive. After that, frustration sets in when I realize how crowded the park is and how complicated it is to get around. I first try to drive around, but there's no parking anywhere and the roads make no sense. They're mostly one way and some are for shuttle only. I waste a few hours trying to get my beari...

Day 1 Long drive from Broomfield to Holbrook AZ. I'm getting too old for this shit.  Asked for restaurant recommendation from the hotel desk, she recommended the "eye- talian" place. When i went there, the person next to me ordered antipasto, and when the waitress brought it, she pronounced it "ant-eye-past-uh". Day 2 I used to meticulously plan my national parking trips, including exactly which hikes i'd go on in each park. Over the last couple years I've switched to instead going to ask at the visitor center what they recommend. Today that backfired on me, a little bit. Up and at petrified forest national park at 8 am, and did a tour through the park.  Turns out there's not much to do there. No hiking, really, just a few paved nature walks through spaces with petrified wood. The most interesting was learning how the stuff got there.  Huge downed trees got infused with volcanic silt after a flood 200m years ago. I did get to have the park mostly to...

So, I went to Vancouver for a training. One thing I was unprepared for was how ruthless the Customs officials were. Questions like "You are a trainer but you're here for a training? That doesn't make sense." C'mon, we're neighbors. I've been through customs in Singapore, Thailand, and those places were pushovers compared to Canadians. Had some nice weather the first day, which was the only day I was able to get out and about and take some pictures. I have no idea where this is, but the bridge and the mountains look cool. There was a ski resort off to the left, dunno which one. You can see I did my research before going. I didn't buy any Holy Crap. I don't know if I'm emotionally prepared to eat the world's most amazing breakfast cereal. Nor did I hit the treadmill at Steve Nash World Fitness . I'm just glad it's there. I wish more good things for Steve Nash. Two-time NBA MVP and no rings? Poor guy.