Hiking the South Sister - July '09

The South Sister is the 3rd tallest mountain in Oregon, and yet is totally hikable without any gear. Its about an 10 mile round trip from the trailhead, but the last 1/2 mile to the summit takes about an hour...real steep and loose cinders make for slow going. Mid July I set out with a bunch of scouts to get to the top.


The view is unbelievable -you can see about half the state from the summit; on prior hikes I'd been able to pick out Mt. Rainier to the north, and Mt. Shasta to the south.


Like other times up this mountain, I was reminded that:

1) its really easy to underestimate how much water to bring on something like this

2) really steep downhill is just as bad as steep uphill

3) getting to the top makes it all worth it

Mindblowing snowy peaks and deep blue glacial lakes are impressive, but expected. What's totally unexpected on a hike like this is...butterflies. They are everywhere, especially at the summit. I can't imagine what they doing up at >10,000 feet, but its like being in a windstorm in autumn with the leaves blowing all around you. I tried to get a little video

Sedona May 09

The whole family came to the desert with me on biz for a long Mother's day weekend ...cashed in a few marriott points to stay at a place with waterslides. Also took a drive up north to Sedona to check out the famous red rock formations. We figured with it being 108 in the valley, it would be nice and cool up in the mountains. It was a chilly 95 degrees.


The vistas were spectacular, but it was a little toasty for any real hiking in the middle of the day.








We all pretty much stuck to the path at this roadside rest stop

Phoenix - South Mountain Park -March '09

Not far from Ocotillo is a desert park with a bunch of trails. For somebody that lives in the mossy Northwest, the cactuses and desert plants are still a bit of a novelty. I went for a hike one evening and was amazed to hear a pack of coyotes start howling. I broke out the camera and shot some video so that I could share it hear....I think it was much better in person, the audio that got recorded sounds more like the neighborhood dogs barking at the UPS man. But here it is anyway. Trust me, it was cool

Great Wall in Dandong

Dandong is the home to the Eastern-most portion of the great wall. My overwhelming first impression was...hmmm.. for an ancient landmark, this looks really new. I asked my driver about it, and his reply, with the little English he knows, was "every year, they repair, and it becomes new".
Rebuilt or just well preserved, either way it was still pretty cool. Some really steep steps to get to the top, but an amazing view once I got there.

From the top tower you can see well into North Korea. And its a pretty desolate place. Frozen mud fields and farmers sawing big blocks of ice out for frozen rivers

After walking the length of the wall, we stopped in the adjacent little museum and woke up the curator, who then turned on the heat and lights and showed us around. Lots of spear points and weapons, but nothing too remarkable. Until we stepped outside and I asked my driver what was written on a small sign near a pathway leading away from the museum. He said, " It says that the North Korean border is just a couple of meters in this direction". So we started down the path, me anxious to check off my first visit to the axis of evil. Not far down the path we came to these large, T-shaped structures covered in barbed wire...which I was sure represented an unguarded portion of the border

I bravely stuck my foot beyond the fence and took a picture, certain I had struck a blow for freedom and democracy.

And then discovered another sign on our way back, that when translated, ready "North Korean border 100m"...sure enough, across the canal and through the trees we could see a white 10' high wall. At which point I recognized that the story of my brave infiltration of the hermit kingdom was to be a little less impressive than hoped.

The Museum of American Aggression

Here I am, freezing my tail off, standing on half a bridge. The other half is at the bottom of the Yalu river, sent there by a few well-placed bombs dropped by American jets during the Korean war. The bridge used to extend from the Chinese city of Dandong to North Korea. Since then, they've rebuilt a bridge (to my right), but left the old one, with remaining edge all twisted and gnarly like the day it blew up, as a monument.

At the end of the bridge was a little hut with an old lady selling north Korean money and junky souvenirs. And for 30 cents you can look through some binoculars across the river and try and spot citizens of the hermit kingdom. Oppressive regimes and abject poverty weren't enough to drive the locals outside on a day like this...only the big American (and his reluctant driver) were dumb enough to leave the shelter of their house or car. I'm surprised my eyelid didn't freeze to the binoculars, Christmas Story-style

It was interesting, though. On the Chinese side, the riverfront of Dandong has modern glass and steel highrises. On the North Korean side, single story, dumpy looking buildings. And, for some reason, a ferris wheel. Bizarre

And while the bridge serves a reminder to the locals of what the Imperialists are capable of, the museum on the tallest hill in the center of town gives the rest of the details of the victorious resistance against American aggression

Lots of murals and dioramas depicting war scenes, US pilots surrendering, and pieces of American jets that were shot down. It was fascinating to see the other side of the story. A large carving that my driver translated for me described how the American army has only been defeated twice, and both time it was when the Chinese military intervened in the conflict.


Here's the piece of the downed US jet

And here's a quick video panning across a field full of equipment left over from the war.

Labor Park at New Years

It was a cold, clear Saturday in early January so I decided to check out Labor park in downtown Dalian...on previous trips I've stayed in the hotel across from the park, and couldn't see through the haze to the other side. Bonus this time was they were setting up for the upcoming New Year's party, so the rare blue sky wasn't the only eyecandy.

I've heard legend of some significance of the local soccer team in Dalian...some previous conquest or championship. Whatever it was, it was reason enough to build a giant soccer-ball shaped building in the park
Here's a 360 view around the park

As I'm standing at the soccer ball I can hear music and some thumping beats...and through the trees I can see - skiing. In the middle of the city. I was dying to give it a shot, but after trying briefly to fake my way through some equipment rental with hand signals and no clue how to say "size 12 boot" in Mandarin I gave up. Odds are good there wasn't anything approaching big American foot sizes anyway. Gotta love the improvised fake snow though.

For those without the cash for the ski rental, there's always the tiny wooden sled-for-two with matching tiny poles to slowly scrape your way across a frozen pond. After watching this for several minutes I was unable to understand where the fun came in...these guys were barely moving. Maybe there's a zen-like peace to the whole thing a westerner just can't grasp.

Jin Mao Tower

If you've got a few hours to kill in Shanghai, for a couple of bucks you can ride the express elevator to the 88th floor of the Jin Mao tower (on the right), which was the tallest building in Asia once upon a time. On our way there we tried to get into the other building on the left, which is the Shanghai World Financial center...and discovered that we were the only ones not in tuxedos in the lobby. We made it all the way to the elevator before security decide three Americans in dripping raincoats didn't quite fit the profile of the black tie invite list for the Grand Opening for the second tallest building in the world....and escorted us out. You can't tell by this shot but its way taller than the one on the right.
So we settled for tall, but not epic tall, and went to the top of the Jin Mao. And the view would have been amazing if I had gone one day earlier when the traditional Shanghai smog had lifted. But here's what it looked like from the top with the pollution intact. Check out the steady stream of barges on the river.


And here's a shot looking down the central shaft of the building

A couple of classic signs on this trip too. Check out this one below from a busy six-lane surface street. Only in China can you turn left across three lanes of traffic.

There's a lot of gloom and doom articles that have been written in recent years about the zillions of engineers and scientists graduating from Chinese universities, and the coming competition for the American economy. Now, apparently, they've found a way to accelerate business degrees as well...although for some reason they chose to feature a western looking kid for their kindergarden master's degree

Taking the Bullet to Kyoto

Kyoto - its not just a place where presidents from Texas deny global warming. Its a place where there are tons of ancient Buddhist shrines. Took the bullet train from Nagoya to go do a walking tour - very fast and cool.



Here's a couple of shots from the shrines.





If you've ever wondered where calamari comes from - I learned that its made in a machine like this...simply feed the squid in at the top, and down the chute comes delicous tubes and tentacles, ready to eat
Maybe the worlds cutest little cement truck. Everybody in our group thought it was real funny to get a picture of the big guy next to the little truck. I guess it needs to be this small since the streets are pretty narrow, but it seems like you'd be pouring your sidewalk all weekend long

Here's the Japanese cemetary I mentioned in an earlier post. It was a pretty cool view - and reaffirms that high density living in Japan doesn't just apply to those with a pulse

Shinto Shrine in Ise

Since we were in Ise, Japan visiting an equipment vendor for work, it wasn't hard to find time to visit Jingu, which is located in Ise, and is one of the holiest sites in the Shinto religion. Apparently the place dates back to 4 BC, and part of the belief requires that portions of the shrine are torn down and reconstructed every 20 years. There's a pretty good writeup on the place on wikipedia. My main impression was that the place was beautiful and reminded me at times of old growth forests I've hiked here in Oregon. Like everything in Japan, the place was spotless, neatly organized, and full of polite people

Downtown Nagoya

The Nagoya Marriott is located in the upper floors of a high rise in the middle of town. The lower levels are a swanky mall, and converging in the basement are dozens of of train tracks connecting from all over Japan. At street level there was a huge open plaza, offering some of the most interesting people-watching ever. At any given moment you could look through the crowds of bustling commuters and see about a hundred people all in the same pose, expectantly holding their cell phone out at arms length, waiting for their hook-up to text them.

I ended up with a killer view out my hotel window. Here it is both at day and night.

Factory Construction Progress

The construction crews are cranking along, and at least the structural pieces of the campus seem to be coming up remarkably fast. As always, we got to do a site walk and check the progress, and compare the real life building to the drawings we've been planning to. I thought this perspective below, looking down between the factory and the support building with the city in the background was kind of cool

Shanghai Cricket Market

On previous trips we've walked around the bird market...really more of an narrow city alley functioning as a pet store. Not much tourist traffic here, mostly all locals, and we've gotten some "what are you doing here" looks from the animal dealers as we've walked around. This time there was a change of merchandise - not a lot of birds, because we hit right in the middle of cricket season. Even on the sidewalks surrounding the market, dozens of guys were laying out tarps and setting out the rows of little tuna-cans of crickets for sale, as well as the associated accessories that no cricket should be without, including tiny little porcelain food and water dishes for them

These cricket's destiny is to be more than just a pet though...these are fighting crickets, and crowds would gather around shopkeepers who would use a piece of straw to tickle the back feelers on these tiny brawlers to get them agitated.

I never really saw a cricket fight, and I can't imagine that they can do much damage to each other. What could they do except maybe hop all over each other? Probably a lot of trash talk and posturing, and not a lot of legitimate action...like pro wrestling for insects

Getting Around Shanghai: August

Shanghai is a great place to walk around, and with a population of >20mil, there's lots of opportunities for people watching. There are also lots of creative forms of transportation, including:



The Motorcycle Family Transporter

The Bicycle Family Transporter

The Motorcycle taxi that doubles as a hammock

And my personal favorite, the KFC delivery bikes...thus allowing the Colonel's secret 11 herbs and spices to speed right to you door unencumbered by traffic

Besides a little taxi and subway action, we mostly walked while we were there. While walking I tried to grab a picture of a unique view of the old and the new...the hanging laundry down the street with the new skyscrapers in the background

We visited a Buddhist Shrine that weekend too. I forgot to write down the historical significance of this place, but this cool looking structure was off limits for tourists...locals said it was from the 1600s. There was a pretty good crowd of worshippers there too, and the monks doing their thing in the traditional robes and stuff.