Stochastic Synaptic Activity

An Interesting Day

So, today has been a pretty busy day, and an interestingly busy day at that.

I started my day early for a Saturday around 7:30.  My buddy James and I headed off to California's 4th congressional district where Charlie Brown is trying dethrone John Doolittle, the 18 year incumbent.  We expected that we'd simply be visiting our independent and democrat friends to remind them to vote on the 7th.  Well, that wasn't the case.  We were actually targeting those who are registered as republicans.  I admit that upon discovering this little tidbit, I felt a brief wave of fear.  After a few minutes I decided that this a good thing and that I'm really more interested in trying to convert some republicans than chatting it up with some people who already already share my world view.  There's a 12+ point spread between the number of registered democrats and republicans in this district, so we need to convert people, not just GOTV.

James and I hit up some 65ish addresses over the course of and hour and a half, and by and large, it was uneventful.  We found a few Charlie Brown supporters, and a whole lot of people not home or not interested in what we had to say.  I had one gentlemen tell me how much he fucking hates liberals and democrats.  The best part was that he didn't even know who the democrat or the republican candidates are.  I wish I was quick enough to say something like, "you should make candidates earn your vote, not simply give away because they call themselves one thing or another."  Another approach would have been, "you have a moral duty as a citizen to make an educated decision; you're doing yourself and your community a disservice by simply voting republican."  I feel like I'm far better prepared after this experience to deal with thick-skulled folks.

We rushed back to San Francisco where I dropped James off and then headed to the Atlantic Day of Ideas tour to catch the last two sessions: A panel with George Lakoff and then a Q & A with Sam Harris.  The panel was interesting, and as always, I wish I was able to articulate ideas as well and George can.  He's got the snack for turning arguments around in such a way that they seem stronger and more correct once he's done (to the chagrin of those to whom he speaks).  Sam Harris was excellent, and I took a few interesting things from the talk:

-- Why is it that the onus is on those who don't believe in god to prove that he doesn't exist?  If gods exist until unproven, how is it that all of the dead gods of the centuries (Thor, Zeus, Ra, etc) aren't still alive?  How were they disproven?

-- Why is it that there's a name for someone that doesn't believe in God (i.e. atheist)?  We don't generally describe people by what that aren't, or what they don't do.  For example, I don't go around describing myself and a non-astrologer or a non-carpenter.  I thought this was pretty funny, especially when Sam brought it up.

-- Regarding the use of religion as a context for building morality: Why use the bible as the source or morality when there are so many great examples in modern society of what is or is not morale.  If one is going to teach morality, they should take advantage of the 2000+ years that happened after Christ and all of its richness to provide examples of both moral and immoral behavior.  Not all of the 10 commandments, the basis of Christian morality, have something to do with morality.  Consider the first 4, which have nothing to do with morality.  People should use a 21st century definition or morality, not one from the 1st century.  We'd all be better for it.  This is especially true considering that either approach is going to require much interpretation.

A great day.  Both experiences leave me a little exhausted physically, but otherwise energized.

Day Hike in the Headlands

I met up with Jenny, who I met on the PCT/JMT over two months ago, for a nice little day hike this morning.  We hiked around Tennessee Valley for a few hours, and despite being pretty gray and overcast, there was surprisingly good horizontal visibility.

Jenny asked me if I thought the recovery time, the time it takes to get back into the swing of things after your return from vacation, increases with the length of the vacation itself.  It took me a while to get back to "normal" after my trips this summer, which was surprising and a little disconcerting.As I walked along the trail, it occurred to me that if it takes one a while to get back to normal (more than the usual few days of catching up and errands), it's a good idea to figure why that is.  We shouldn't have to become re-acclimated to our normal life.  Instead, we should be living a life that is already naturally comfortable.

I get all excited when I make one of these simple, yet very important, realizations.

Here's an almost entirely unrelated quote that makes me happy:

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eyes." -Antoine De Saint Exupery

Pacific Crest Trail

Every time I drove North on 395, East of the Sierra Nevada mountains I find myself drawn to the jagged peaks and the tall granite spires.  Here's a shot from when my brother Kyle was visiting in 2005 (from near Lone Pine).

How could you not want to get into that?

I finally had a proper go at the Sierras this past summer.  I carved out a month to backpack most of the length of the range, and started the trek a mere 36 hours after returning from South America.  So much for giving myself some time to (a) get ready or (b) relax before jumping into the mountains.

Starting at Walker Pass, I hopped on the Pacific Crest Trail and started heading North on Sunday July 30th, after driving all day Saturday with James (thanks James!).  My goal was to hike my way up to Echo Lake, just South of Lake Tahoe, in 30 days.  Kramer's wedding was 32 days after my start, and I needed a few days to hitch hike from wherever I finished to Burning Man.  That's about 450 miles.

I ended up making it to Ebbet's Pass, 400 PCT miles (and 30 miscellaneous miles) from my starting point.  My knees and feet gave me enough trouble that I had to slow up a few days to rest and recuperate.

Here are some random tidbits from the trip:

• Total Miles: 430 (400 PCT Miles + 30 Miscellaneous Adventure Miles)
• Nights spend under the stars (sans tent): 29
• Days of rain: 0
• Days without using soap: 29
• Days before I started smelling myself without trying: 3
• Number of hot showers: 2 (1 in Lone Pine and 1 at Red's Meadows)
• Number of hot baths: 1 (Blarney Hot Springs)
• Number of cold 'baths': A LOT
• Nights I saw a satellite before seeing a shooting star: 17
• Most shooting stars seen in any night: ~40 (August 15th)
• Nights the moon woke me up because I thought it was the sun: 3
• Percentage of mornings where my sleeping bag was frozen: 75%
• Percentage of a lunar cycle observed: 100%
• Days I didn't really hike any trail miles: 5
• Average miles hiked on the days I hiked: ~18
• Most miles hiked in a day: 25
• Average hours hiked each day: 10
• Pounds lost over the course of the trip: 14 (almost 0.5 per day)
• Number of black bears seen jumping through ranch windows: 1 (at Muir Ranch)

I met some fantastic people on the trail: Colm (in real life), Trenton, Annie and Scott, Jenny (and her posse), Tim and his wife Shirely.  I also met two families hiking the John Muir Trail together with their collective 5 children.  No big deal you think?  Well, the kids were 7-11 years old!  They were hiking some 200+ miles over the course of 30 days.  Now that's not letting children get in the way of what you love to do!

I also had a fantastic time on my own.  I would see people almost each day, but almost every encounter was brief because I was hiking upstream so to speak.  Most of the traffic I saw was from the JMT and that's typically hiked North to South.  In fact, I think I'm still trying to get back into the habit of being social again, even though I've been out of the woods for 5 weeks!

Nothing is as incredible as pushing your body to its limits while immersed in some of the most beautiful terrain on this planet, away from computers, phones, cars, and the everyday noise that so often distracts us from what is really important.  No other single experience has had such a profound effect on my state of mind and outlook on life.  The challenge is to not forget it all as the noise of everyday life creeps back in.

With that, I'll show off some of the pictures from the hike...

Landscapes

These three need some explaining.  The first shows me down next to Thousand Island Lake, with Banner Peak (12,936') in the background.  The second one is me on the very top of Banner Peak, with the same lake in the background.  The third is also from the summit, but with Yosemite in the background.

Flowers and Trees

When you're on the trail for too long you develop an overactive imagination.

And the biggest surprise was the wild flowers. They were everywhere, and I'd often find myself wading through them as I hiked along the trail.

Critters

My Feet (on day 9 - these aren't the worst ones)

Panoramics

And of course you will find all of my backpacking pictures in the usual place.  If you search my gallery for '360', you'll find a handful of 360 degree view movies from various landmarks.

Ecuador

As many of you already know, I took a hiatus from work and spent a hunk of time traveling this summer.  Ecuador was the first international destination, after a few days in New Jersey preparing and visiting my family.

This trip was exciting for a number of reasons...

• This was my brother Kyle's first time out of the country.
• It was our first time traveling for more than a few days with one another.
• I hadn't ever been to South America before.
• I haven't ever spent an entire month in a single country on vacation.
• Ecuador is the most biodiverse country on the planet!
• ... a country where I don't know the language.

Mainland Ecuador

Our itinerary was pretty haphazard for the first 2 weeks.  We knew the second half of the trip would be well organized since we were booked on a tour of the Galapagos Islands, so we decided to wing the first 2 weeks on a day-by-day basis.

1. Quito - 1 Day
2. Machachi and Volcan Cotopaxi - 1 Day
3. Banos via Ambato - 3 Days
4. Tena - 1 Day
5. Coca - 2 Days
6. Rain forest (Panacocha Region) - 4 Days (full jungle gallery)
7. Quito - 1 Day

That doesn't add up to two weeks, I know.  We lost a few days traveling by bus on dirt roads, some of which were entirely destroyed by rain and mudslides.  In general, you lose lots of time traveling.  In fact, I think that once you decide to hop from one town to another, you automatically lose a day.

Here are a few of the better shots from the trip...

Check out the complete mainland gallery and the jungle gallery too.

Galapagos Islands

Kyle and I took a 15 day tour of the Galapagos Islands as part of our adventure.  The Galapagos were his idea, and I need to thank him again for picking such a cool place for our vacation.  I did some research and selected Galapagos Travel for the tour, which was the best decision... they were fabulous, and I can't recommend them enough.  If you're thinking about going, check them out and then ask me why I think they kick ass.

We lived on the Tip Top IV, a 120' motor yacht operated by Rolf Wittmer, for 2 weeks with 13 other passengers (and 9 crew).  Our tour guides were Martin (from the National Park Service) and Ron (from Galapagos Travel).  Ron and Martin were perfectly complimentary in their style, and it was definitely great having an extra person around to answer questions and share cool facts with us.  Note that most groups only have one tour guide per 16 passengers.

We were super busy, waking each day by 6 am and active until 6 pm (dinner time).  Over the course of two weeks we visited these places (which won't mean much unless you've been there):

1. Fly into Baltra, Sail to Santa Cruz - Baches Beach
2. Isabela - Horses to Sierra Negra Caldera
3. James (Santiago) - Sullivan Bay; Sombrero Chino
4. James (Santiago) - James Bay; Rabida
5. Santa Cruz - Cerro Dragon; North Seymour
6. Tower - Darwin Bay and Prince Philipe Steps
7. Circumnavigate Roca Redonda; Isabela - Punta Vincente Roca; Fernandina - Punta Espinoza
8. Islabela - Urbina Bay, Elizabeth Bay, and Las Marielas Islets
9. Floreana - Punta Cormorant, Post Office Bay, La Baronesa View Point
10. Espanola - Punta Suarez and Gartner Bay
11. Santa Cruz - Puerto Ayora (Charles Darwin Station)
12. Santa Cruz - De Roy Residence and Cliff Jumping at The Crack; Santa Fe
13. San Christobel - Cerro Brujo and Puerto Baquerizo Moreno; Kicker Rock
14. South Plaza; Circumnavigate Daphne Major; Bartolome (Pinnacle Rock)
15. Santa Cruz - Plaza Islets; Baltra - Flay back to the Mainland

There are tons of highlights.  In fact, each day something really cool would happen either on land or while snorkeling (we snorkeled once or twice each day).  On land, we saw all sorts of incredible animal behavior: courtship, mating, birth, death... the whole life cycle.  Under water, we swam with 3 species of sharks (including hammerheads), sea lions, sea horses, a 12' manta ray, schools of golden rays, several whales, and all kinds of reef fish.

The best thing is that it's all like high school biology class.  There are enough species to make it interesting, but not so many it's overwhelming.  In fact, after 2 weeks you can spot the subtle differences between the various critters (Darwin's Finches).  We learned all about endemic versus native versus non-native species and Adaptive Radiation.  And the timing was perfect: we just came out of the rain forest where it's almost impossible to visualize all of the interdependencies between the gazillion animal and plants species.  In the Galapagos, there are some islands/rocks which only have plant species numbering in the double digits.

We have tons of pictures.  Like more than 500.  Most are moderate at best (new camera and little photography skill mix fantastically, by the way).  Here are a few of the better ones.

Landscapes

Lava Close-Ups

Land and Air Animals

Plants

Under the Water

And of course, you will find the complete Galapagos gallery in the usual place, divided into land activities and snorkeling.

Goodbye Party

Before I left for Ecuador, I threw together a very last minute goodbye party at Nihon is San Francisco.  It was my first time there, and it's pretty damn nice.  They have the largest collection of whiskey in San Francisco, boasting more than 250, of which 150 are single malts.

The goodbye was fabulous because my friends were there.  The restaurant was good, though the service was pretty slow.  We were all happy with the food and overall experience by time we left (a few rounds of whiskey can fix slow service apparently).  I think the key is to go on a non-weekend evening, when it's a little slower and a bit less hectic.

You can find more reviews on yelp.

My complete good-bye party gallery can be found in the usual spot.

Road Trip with Alex

Back in Late May, I flew to Denver one-way where Alex, who was driving cross country from Boston picked me up so I could join in on the roadtrip yumminess.  We spent almost a week in the car cruising through some beautiful places and meeting some interesting folks.  Holding true to the no interstates mantra, we kept to smaller roads less traveled.

Our high level itinerary looked something like this:

1. Denver International Airport
2. Routt National Forest, Colorado
3. Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado/Utah (1 2 3 4)
4. Flaming Gorge, Utah
5. Uinta National Forest, Utah
6. Great Basin National Park, Nevada (and Lehman Caves)
7. Route 395 and 120 (Sonora Pass), California
8. San Francisco

We enjoyed meeting a handful of people along the way, and generally found everyone very friendly and accomodating.  One of my favorite stories is fromt he first day.  We were in Grand Lake, CO which is right near Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park.  We needed to buy some fuel for my latern, and went to a little corner store to see if they carried the right type of fuel.  After describing what I needed, the owner said they didn't carry it.  She asked me to hold a moment though, and then yelled across the store to one of the other patrons.  Apparently the owner of the camping supply store in town happened to be in the store with me.  The grocery owner asked if the camping store was still open.  It wasn't, but the camping store owener said he's open it back up and sell me the fuel because it wasn't much work.  How cool is that?  People willing to work around their schedules to help others out.  It might seem insignificant, but it left both Alex and I with a warm and fuzzy feeling (and a canister of fuel).

The real highlight was when we decided to take a dirt road short cut in the Unita Nat'l Forest.  To make a long story short (and less embarrassing), we ended up stuck in a 150' long patch of almost 1' deep mud.  Alex drives a Scion (the littler one) and the combination of testosterone, excitement, and optimism (read: stupidity) led us to an unusual predicament.  We were very stuck and about 15 miles from either exit, and there wasn't a soul around.  Oh, and it was about 45 minutes from nightfall... when it would get very cold (we were near 10k feet).  We lucked out and found an emergency shelter about a mile away, where we camped for the night.  The shelter had some blankets, a wood burning stove, and fire wood.  It was pretty stocked in fact, and would serve us very nicely for the evening.  We decided that we'd figure out what the hell to do about the car in the morning.  We made a nice fire, ate a surprisingly tasty dinner, and played scrabble (I won, but barely :)).  It ended up being the best night of the trip, despite the misfortune, because we just hung out and made the best of it.  It's usually the unexpected events that end up being the most enjoyable.  In the morning, we hiked for a while and when we crested a saddle between mountains, found ourself with cell coverage.  After a few calls and about 2 hours we had Larry, the one handed tow operator, pulling us from the mud.  It took him all of 10 minutes to get us out.  Nice work Larry.

We had a great time in general, and it reminded me just how much I like to hit the road and meander in a mostly unplanned fashion.

You will find my complete gallery for this trip here.