Just returned from another trip to Sri Lanka – and although I only had a few photos of an outstanding sunset at Bentota beach and some amazing shadows transformed by a solar eclipse into trendy designer patterns, I also took the opportunity to belatedly upload a set from last September when Sanjiva organized a hike up from the southern lowlands to World’s End and Horton Plains.  Supposedly World’s End sports the most dramatic view (and lover’s leap) in Sri Lanka, and the surrounding Horton Plains contain a unique ecosystem.

We didn’t make it quite to the top, but did experience some steep climbing, amazing views and a Dr. Suess inspired landscape,

followed by a long winding return to civilization through an unbelievably steep tea plantation. 

The photos don’t do justice to the experience, but here they are anyway!

Photos from last week’s one-day stopover in Hong Kong on the way to Sri Lanka.  Spent most of the time trolling through the lively markets in Kowloon (flowers, birds, live fish, produce, you-name-it.)  Full flickr set here.

Hiked to the Peter Grubb Hut maintained by the Sierra Club today with a small group of Girl Scouts.  Beautiful November weather after a dusting of snow on the peaks last night and a dusting of moisture lower down to bring out the subtle late fall colors.

Photos here.

Need I say more?

During another of my “day in Hong Kong” layovers I took a ferry to a local island that promised two quaint fishing villages – Sok Kwo Wan and Yung Shue Wan.

Not really as quaint as you might first imagine, in part due to the huge factory on one end of the island with smokestacks peeking over the hills from almost every vantage.  And the thick humid air and overcast didn’t help.

It was however interesting to me that with only a path between the villages, there’s no need and therefore no ability to have full size cars on the islands – just bikes, wheelbarrows and a few go-cart-pickups for moving construction materials.  The result of scaling a village to the human inhabitants instead of to their automobiles does make even a poorly planned, somewhat dilapidated community cute to some extent.

In the end the day proved enjoyable between the ferry ride along Hong Kong’s skyscraper-studded waterfront, walking the hilly footpath between the two villages, and enjoying a beachside seafood lunch.

Complete photoset here.

Had a nice hike partway up Mount Rose today, and snapped a few shots along the way.  Enjoy!

Sanjiva and I spent a couple of days last weekend knocking around the Five Lakes Basin near Yuba Gap in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains.  Photoset here.  Primary goal was to test our equipment and techniques for potentially more strenuous adventures.  Crooked Lakes Basin is a high-reward area, with most trails having a lakes per mile ratio of greater than one.

We started off however quickly traversing the Crooked Lakes Basin and Sand Ridge on our way to the Five Lakes Basin that lies beyond – new territory for me.  We had great views of Downey Lake and the terrain between the Grouse Ridge Lookout and Lake Spaulding.  The mule ears were prolific and covered the exposed hillsides with yellow.

We cooled off at the first of the Five Lakes, and continued up the trail towards the granite cliffs hoping to find more of the Five at the base – but it turned out the pristine lake wasn’t one of the Five and was named Glacier Lake.  Although there were a few parties camped around the lake, the prospect of watching night fall over the lake and the Black Buttes beyond was too tempting and we also pitched camp there.

The rising sun found us climbing the ridge and scaling the Black Buttes, from which we had some amazing panoramic views, and a look into the basin on the south side, including Beyers Lakes and Baltimore Lake. Looks like another cool place to explore.  Here’s a map.

Between the climbing the mountain, traversing scree and snow fields, and some short stretches of vertical, I hope Sanjiva got a good sense of the joys and challenges of being off-trail.

After a long descent, with a bit of boot skiing, we had breakfast and broke camp, heading cross country back towards the Five Lakes Basin, and skirting the cliffs looking for more alpine lakes.  Near the lakes we encountered more streams, waterfalls, and meadows, and followed them down past several of the Five Lakes before retracing our path along Sand Ridge and cutting cross country once more through the Crooked Lakes basin to my favorite one.  We camped on top of the rock outcropping – the “eagle’s nest”, warmed ourselves by a tiny fire and watched the satellites and shooting stars before turning in again.

The morning brought a quick hike out and home so Sanjiva could catch his flight back to Sri Lanka. All in all an excellent trip – about 15 miles almost half of which was strenuous cross country work.  Within that short span we saw a microcosm of the Sierra high country and discovered that even this remote edge of the Sierra holds many charms.

I hardly can leave home without seeing a deer, or a turkey, or a crowd of the other critters that inhabit our bit of wilderness – fox, bobcat, skunk, coyote, possum, raccoon.  But although my neighbors see the occasional bear I’ve never seen one till our return from school this afternoon.  Momma and her three cuddly cubs hastily scooted up a tree and we were able to inch close enough to get a decent snapshot from the wide angle iPhone camera.

Another advantage of the Prius – it’s a good car for stalking wildlife when on battery power. I practically ran over a red-tailed hawk devouring a woodpecker in the middle of the road the other day; only rolling down the window and sticking the iPhone out for a snap excited him enough to take his lunch elsewhere.

While I’m at it I don’t think I ever posted my pic of the small bobcat that peeked in through a window at me before enjoying some r&r poolside a couple of months ago.

[Photoset here.]

Our adventure started as all adventures do in Sri Lanka, with a long drive on progressively smaller roads.  Until the roads give out completely. Sights spin by at a breakneck speed - elephants on a flatbed, chaotic towns and open-air markets, lazy cattle wandering free – too fast to comprehend let alone photograph well.  At a couple of points the ride was so steep and bumpy that the rear hatch of the van failed and a couple of packs tumbled into the road to the alarm quickly turning to amusement of all.

The end of the road in this case was the tiny village of Palabathgala, near Ratnapura, and the eleven of us, plus guide, were deposited at the bottom of a staircase into the rain forest, leading up up and up into a misty escarpment. Already the grey skies were dripping on us.

This is the long way up to Adams Peak and the temple of Sri Pada, a pilgrimage popular I suspect not only because it is said to have Buddha’s footprint, but because it’s just so dang hard to get to. Our path starts with unremitting steps up into the forest. Every hundred the count is etched into the concrete - 1000, 2300, 3900. The humidity is intense and I adopt an old man pace to keep from overheating. Step, breath, step, breath. It works pretty well and although I’m towards the back of the pack my heart rate stays low and my legs still feel strong. However my strategy for keeping dry fails. Not only am I drenched in my own sweat, buy when a drizzle starts I throw my windbreaker over my head and drape it over my pack, leaving my arms cool. But any moisture on the pack quickly transfers to the inside of my windbreaker, and mixing with my copious body moisture my windbreaker is quickly thoroughly soaked inside and out.

After an hour or two, we arrive at a small army base just as a monsoon downpour starts, and take brief refuge as it turns our stairway into a temporary torrential waterfall and then disappears just as quickly as it came.

Finally somewhere near step number 5000, the cement ends and the original rock steps begin. Still unremitting, but somehow the uneven steps are easier to navigate. Maybe it’s because you have more choices than a fixed stairway provides.  Or maybe it just occupies your mind more.

After hours of this we reach a rocky river, spanned by a spiderweb of white threads. It is apparently a custom for new visitors, to weave a thread into the web. All of us newbies partake in this custom (photo courtesy of Udeshika). This is a good spot for lunch and we break out out lunch packets - rice, curry, cal, sambol, all wrapped in plastic and then newspaper - a traditional lunch favorite here.

Then hours more of stairs, as we climb right up into the clouds. The temperature drops to a pleasantly chilly range, but the humidity remains so high everything remains soaked. At last we reach a few nondescript buildings, vendor shacks deserted now on the off season, and dry out a little.

We engage the sole visible resident for some hot water and relish in a hot beverage as only the perpetually wet and cold can.

We’ve been climbing stairs straight for about 5 hours now, and I am rather surprised that this village represents not the end, but the official start of the Adams Peak Climb! Three more hours to go and it’s already after 4PM when we leave. I stride out, glad to have saved my strength for this part. But it’s not long before I’m taking a short rest after every 20th step, then every 5th, and then at times after each one. After approx 20,000 steps (a nearly 2000m climb), I’m in summiting mode - don’t think about the rest of the trail, think about the next step.

This section again has concrete steps, and even rails begin to appear, as the stair grade gradually increases from 40 degrees up to 70. The wind is whipping the clouds against the mountain, and although the wind is fairly dry, as we ascend the wind strengthens and blasts us with more and more rain. The vegetation has changed from jungle to cloud forest, eerie twisted shapes draped with moss in the blowing mist. Sometimes Adams Peak is above the cloud layer and while my hopes were never strong that we might emerge into sunshine, it became clear that the summit was being blasted by 40-50 mph winds. We climbed, clinging to the rail, as the stairs wound between granite outcroppings and sheer cliffs whose true extent remained hidden in the mist.

At last a structure emerged from the mist at the top of the near- vertical ascent and as the wind tried one last time to part us, or at least any gear not tied firmly down, from the mountain, we entered an alleyway between two buildings. A man emerged from a tiny cell and showed us to a small cold monastic cell where we could spend the night. A change of dry clothes raised everyone’s spirits and shortly we all moved up into the caretaker’s cell to squeeze onto his bunkbeds, drink another round of hot tea, and chatter away with him animatedly in Singhalese. I just sipped happily as the singsong swirled around the warm cell and mixed with my exhausted daze.

Now we’ve had our dinner packets - despite being tasty my post-extreme appetite is small and I can’t do much more than sample. With another round of animated chatter we laid mats in our cell and have lined up like sleepy sardines to await the morning.

[Morning]

Well, that night felt like Survivor – with each person having a share of the floor approximately two feet by five, cramping legs, whistling wind and rain, chilly enough to cause shivering, bumping into each other as you turn, occasional snores, and someone scraping through the door to use the bathroom every 45 minutes or so.  I listened to music on my iPhone almost all night, but dozed off a few times for a total of maybe two hours of sleep.  The whole experience felt like something from a 19th century Himalayan explorer’s tale.

The traditional climax of a Sri Pada trip – viewing the sunrise – fell victim to the continued mist and increasing rain.  But after some bread and jam for breakfast we visited the temple.  My preparation for the elements – a complete poncho over clothes and pack – disintegrated in seconds in the howling wind – but I dutifully rang the bell once representing my first visit, and fled.

Guess what came next?  Yes!  More stairs!  We took a different (shorter) route down, leading us down the other side of the mountain.  After coming off of the peak and emerging from the cloud, the steps moderated into a broad trail, and we followed a narrow valley filled with manicured hedgerows of tea.  Dozens of waterfalls sprang from the escarpment, and the rain started to ease at times to provide us broader views.  At last we returned to motorized civilization at the village of Nallathanniya, had another hot syrupy tea.

And as all Sri Lankan adventures ended, so did this.  Hours of the most jolting, harrowing driving on narrow, steep, windy roads, leading us inexorably back to Colombo, a shower, dinner, and late that night to the airport, and eventually home.

If you happen to find yourself travelling half way around the world, and have a few extra hours to burn in the middle, what could be nicer than Hong Kong?  The landscape is conveniently compressed into a vertical form that makes it photogenic and easy to get around.

I landed at around 7AM from SFO and the express train deposited me in central Hong Kong shortly after 8. While my mission was to find something local to eat, I decided first to visit the small market area and see if it was buzzing early.  It was, with seafood, butcher, grocers, eateries, and more packed into alleyways covering a few blocks of the neighborhood.  I wandered around admiring some of the exotic offerings, but the stifling heat and humidity combined with the steep streets to put me into an overheated state pretty quickly.  I made my way back down towards downtown and lost my bearings for a remarkably long time in a maze of air-conditioned upscale shopping malls.  By the time I found myself I was cooled off and decided a ferry ride was more sensible in the heat.

I travelled the short hop across the harbor to Kowloon and investigated another air-conditioned attraction – the Hong Kong Museum of Art.  Three progressively more exciting exhibits – pottery antiquities, showing the gradual refinement from Neolithic pots to Ming dynasty vases.  Amazing to see a pitcher thousands of years old with a form that modern Italian designers would envy, and how the conventions, techniques, and designs subsequently developed in many cases only detract.

Next was an exhibit of painted scrolls, which although ancient capture an expressionism and spontaneity that the European tradition took centuries to reach.  And the juxtaposition of text and image seemed quite trendy!

The final exhibition was contemporary paintings – all of similar aesthetic to the ancient scrolls, but with modern subjects, colors, and compositions.  Although some came across as fairly flat and cartoony, there were quite a number of amazing pieces from both the point of graphical composition and expressionistic brush artistry.  Well worth the visit!

I hopped a ferry back across to downtown and made my way up the series of outdoor escalators that helps bride the downtown to the trendy SoHo neighborhood.  Searching among the dozens of trendy looking eateries featuring cuisines from all over the world, I finally found a simple Chinese eatery, packed with locals, and with very little Arabic lettering in evidence.

I was placed across a tiny table from a man just finishing his meal, and ordered a few items from the minimal English menu they provided – steamed pork buns, squid and garlic, steamed spareribs with black bean sauce.  Solid but simple choices.

Then back to the train, quickly to the airport by about 3PM to await my final flight leg to Sri Lanka.  A report of my adventures there coming soon!

Full Flickr set here.

Sanjiva and I went on a hike yesterday, from the confluence to home, and despite this being my own backyard, we discovered some new things – especially doing some cross-country and bouldering around the abandoned Auburn Dam footings and the newly restored river and kayak park at the former China Bar Rapids.  And after the rain of the past couple of weeks there are quite a few full-fledged waterfalls along the route.  Very cool!

Flickr set here.

A couple of weeks ago I ran across a fun little program that evolves to recreate an image out of overlapping transparent algorithms.  Although not IMO really genetic, it mutates it’s “DNA” over many generations to reproduce a source image.  I’m still having fun with it, trying to figure out if it could be adapted to glass.  Here are a couple of samples:

Check out Roger’s gallery too.

It’s been a busy fall – not much time for taking pictures.  Or uploading them promptly!  Now that we’re in vacation mode, I’m looking through some of this falls photos.  Here’s a small set from a hike with family members up to Donner Peak in early September.  Some amazing rock formations…

Just posted a few snapshots from a Saturday day hike to Loch Leven Lakes, a wonderful and fairly accessible bit of the High Sierras.  Haven’t been there in a while, despite it being a fantastic place for some bouldering with the kids.  It was good to get above California’s persistent smoky haze for a few hours (though later in the afternoon even the high country took on a smoky hue.)

Wishing everyone a last minute happy 4th of July, and for those of you who missed fireworks this year, here’s a couple of photos to hold you till next year.  Full Flickr set here.