Socal Hike: Holy Jim Falls to the highest point in Orange County: Santiago Peak on Saddleback/Santa Ana mountains

EDIT: I just realized that this was saved as a draft and never posted immediately after our hike on Nov. 30, 2013. Apologies!!! We're 4 days away from our hike to Kilimanjaro.
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Quick Stats from Endomondo:


I always wanted to do this hike but I read that your standard sedans would not make it on the road... and they were right. The roads were SUPER bumpy and full of pot holes. My friend was gracious enough to drive his Tundra.

This hike was a last minute hike. Our original plan was to do Mt. Baldy or San Gorgonio. Mt. Baldy was going to have snow at the summit and my friend and I didn't want to risk slippery and icy conditions a month before our trip. San Gorgonio requires a day permit just to hike! Make sure that you plan at least a week or two in advance because the application form requires 5 business days!

If you're going to do the full hike to the top, I would suggest going as early as possible. I arrived at about 9:30am and didn't come back to our vehicle until closer to 7pm (and the sun had set at 4:30pm! so yes, we walked in pitch black - but with 2 headlamps for the 3 of us)

Which reminds me: ALWAYS bring the 10 essentials when you go on any hike.

Entrance at the trail head. I love this picture!!!
I will keep the comments short and post lots of pics instead!

We started at about 1000 feet above sea level. You can see the antennas in the far distance. That is our summit.

You can see Lake Elsinore from these mountain tops. We hiked the day after it rained so it was beautifully clear and surprisingly dry grounds.

After about 5 hours, we finally reached the top. There's not much of a view but many many antennas.
Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia about the antennas.

Santiago Peak is a radio site with buildings owned by American Tower, Crown Castle, Mobile Relay, Day Wireless, Orange County Communications, the United States Federal Government, the State of California, and Southern California Edison, among others.
Santiago Peak provides radio coverage over much of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, and San Diego counties. It houses both broadcast and two-way communications facilities on virtually every frequency band, including FM broadcast, VHF low- and high-band, UHF, 800/900 MHz, and microwave.

Another picture of the clear beautiful skies and clear mountain/hill lines. A rare sighting in southern california.

Picture of the antennas further away + the pacific ocean.

View of Lake Elsinore from the top of Orange County.

PADI Scuba Certification - Hikes on hold

I haven't been able to train for Mt. Kilimanjaro for a while now. Life has continued to be very very busy!
Still adjusting to my new job, 90 mile RT commute (at least now I'm part of a vanpool - I highly recommend it!), family weddings, and PADI scuba certification!

Here are some pics from my first open water boat dive. I finished my PADI certification with a beach shore dive yesterday but it wasn't very practical to bring my phone/camera.

The boat dive was my first open water experience. I was a little nervous but I seemed to do well and passed all the tests. They're not overly difficult. The main thing is to always breathe and don't freak out.

The boat dives are extra (I paid $115). they are an awesome luxury. I wish I could've done both my dives with the boat but that was just an extra $230 I could spend on gear or something. If you have back issues or other serious physical problems, I would recommend it because I was carrying almost 50% of my weight on my back. It was HARD! I had to walk a few blocks and several flights of stairs.

On a boat dive, they bring everything for you, help you put on all the gear, and have snacks and food for you in between dives.

I went with Beach Cities Scuba from their groupon/living social deal ($200). I'm pretty happy with it! I bought my scuba gear from Sports Chalet with the help of my boyfriend. I saved some money and got the gear quality I want.

I highly recommend everybody at least trying it. It's pretty amazing being able to breathe underwater and watching fishes swim up to you in curiosity. I wish I had an underwater camera but I will post pics when I go recreationally :)

Training Schedule for the next 12 weeks

We are 12 weeks away from Mt. Kilimanjaro. Here is what I am going to do for training.

Week #		Week		Hike
1		21-Oct		6-8 Mile local hike
2		28-Oct		Mt. Baldy, 10,064 feet
3		4-Nov		Recover
4		11-Nov		6-8 Mile local hike
5		18-Nov		Recover
6		25-Nov		San Jacinto Peak (10,834) or San Gorgonio (11,503)
7		2-Dec		Recover
8		9-Dec		6-8 Mile local hike
9		16-Dec		Rest
10		23-Dec		6-8 Mile local hike
11		30-Dec		Rest
12		6-Jan		Rest

Aside from hiking, I will also run (with the training mask), swim, yoga, and work on the elliptical machine at my work gym. Unfortunately, my 10 year relationship with LA Fitness ended last week so I don't have access to a stair climber anymore. It'll only be real stairs from now on.

For my Everest trip, I had no time to train. I'm not too worried this time since I have been relatively active.

6 Mile Conditioning Hike - Crystal Cove

Hello fellow trekkers!

It's been a while and we are now less than 3 months away from our Mt. Kilimanjaro trip. I haven't had much time to train since changing jobs and driving a terrible 3hour commute every day to work.

I have to admit I've been an lethargic on the weekends after fighting traffic all week + learning the ropes of the new job. It's going to change now. I am going to start hiking at least every other weekend.

I went hiking with my friend who will be joining me on Mt. Kilimanjaro. We went for a 6 mile hike at Crystal Cove in Newport Beach, CA.

I wore my EBC (Everest Base Camp) boots by Oboz. Even though I pretty much broke them in IN Nepal, I figured I should get used to it again. My feet were fine but I feel like I have a bruise on my ankle where the upper part of the boots constantly rubbed onto my ankle. My calves were sore the next day but that could be from the serious ascent on the "Cut Across" trail. It was a pure uphill battle.

I track my work-outs with Endomondo. It used to be called something else and then Endomondo bought them out. Out of all the activity tracking apps, I like this one the best. It tells you the distance, avg. speed, calories burned and it also tells you elevation.

I used the "walking" category because I like to underestimate my calories burned. The Hiking category might include additional weight - or maybe that's myfitnesspal. We definitely did more than "walk" - as you can see the almost 1000 feet gain.

If you're interested in my other workouts (mostly private), please contact me and we can be friends on Endomondo.

In the next weekend or two, the three of us will be doing Mt. Baldy or another mountain with a high altitude (for socal). We will all be using a high altitude training mask! I should be receiving this week by mail. Stay tuned!

Nepal: Part 4 - Mt. Everest Base Camp (17,598 ft) and Kala Patthar (18,195 ft)

Welcome to the final Nepal post! I will keep this short and simple with lots of pics. If you have any specific questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at miniglobetrekker@gmail.com :)

After we left Lobuche, we started our trek up. This was the first time I saw ice/snow on the ground. We arrived at Base Camp around mid/late March. It was cold but not so cold that you need super thermal gear. The walking keeps you warm but do as your outfitters tell you :)

There is our first sighting of base camp! From a very far distance, we can see the tiny little yellow tents (and when you arrive, they are HUGE tents that fit, what seems like 30-50 people!). I had my music turned up and was dancing my way to base camp. I was beyond ecstatic.

OK - Here is one of the most amazing moments of my trip. I met Phurba Tashi. He is the main sherpa for Russell Brice's Himalayan Experience Ltd. They are featured on the Discovery channel show: Everest: Beyond the Limit.
There he is in the picture below! This man is a legend. He's summitted Mount Everest 20+ times and that's just what's officially recorded when he guides. He's gone way more than that to fix and maintain the climbing equipment.

Our guide, Thupten and Phurba are cousins! so it was so hilarious when Thupten called Phurba on his cell phone to ask if he was free to meet us! Cell phones, up at almost 18k feet above sea levels. Cell phones, where there are no flushing toilets!!!

I didn't have anything easy that Phurba could autograph so he autographed my pink jacket shell I'm wearing!

It's so amazing when you see all this stuff up here and realize that it was either a fellow human or a yak that carried it up here by foot. Helicopters do not fly to this altitude. There is no machinery that can bring this stuff up. It's 100% manual hard work.
It actually makes me sad to hear stories where an expeditioner wanted to bring their superfluous luxury items up and it's these poor sherpas or yaks that have to carry it. I guess they realize they're "paying" for the service and take advantage of it :|

Here are the cousins!!!

More yak traffic... more expedition yaks bringing climber's stuffs!

Here is an awesome photo of my team mate Deborah. There aren't much colors up at base camp so her bright green jacket contrasts so nicely against the drear. Also, this pic shows how harsh the terrain can be. It's not easy trekking through these mountains over big boulders and trying to keep your balance.

Another example of the amazing sherpas carrying probably a hundred pound of weight. I forgot what the weight restriction is but there is one for people and yaks :)

KALA PATTHAR

As if 17,500 feet wasn't high up enough, the next morning, a few of us woke up at 5am to start our trek up to Kala Patthar at 18,195 feet. I can tell you, it was the most miserable experience of my life. I never felt so much pain and hardship trekking up ONE mountain. It was freezing, my fingers and toes were going numb. I couldn't breathe so every step, every breath was hard. It was so steep that at MULTIPLE times, I wanted to turn back. I kept thinking, this isn't worth the pain...and I have a pretty high threshold for pain folks (ask me about my personal life one of these days). Our head sherpa, "Mr. K" and my team mate, Tim were so encouraging to not give up so I trekked on.

I can't remember how long it took us but it was somewhere between 3-5 hours to summit. It was miserable but so rewarding. Like most things in life (at least my life), it doesn't come easy and you have to fight for it. When you do, you're left with the reward and not so much the pain it that it took to achieve it.

I felt terrible for complaining about how hard it was. Poor Nuri not only carried some of our stuff when I couldn't even hold my dang water bottle anymore, he carried the group's tea and biscuits for us to eat!!! I swear these Sherpas are about the most amazing people on this planet.

Here is one view of what the climb looked like. I took this picture coming down. There was no way I could pull out my camera in the early freezing morning on our way up.

Here is the clearest view of Mount. Everest! It's the one with the cloud cover.

That's the end of my trek. We had a celebratory dinner and dance back at the Lukla lodge we stayed in our first night. It was so incredible to shower and wear clean clothes (luckily, I saved some clean clothes!). We drank their alcohol that was poured out of an old motor oil bottle. It was good times :)

We flew back to Kathmandu the next day through the Lukla airport. I got some good sleep. Had to get up early for an interview with REI :-O


Note: there are some helicopter rescues up to a certain altitude. We witnessed a couple throughout our trek.

Life Event Change!

hey everybody! apologies for the delay in finishing up the final Mt. Everest Base Camp blog!

There have been lots of big changes happening! First, my brother got married!

Ring boy went down!

 On the same day, I gave my two weeks notice/resignation letter to the company I have worked for 8+ years! It's a huge change for me because it's been 80% of my post-college career.

It's a very stressful and demanding career with 80% travel required. I'm opting for a more simpler life without the travel.

So apologies again for not getting the EBC pics up soon enough! The next two weeks will be crazy wrapping things up but I will get cracking on it soon!

In the meantime, I haven't been working out very much. I've been doing some boot camp style workouts at Fit Body Boot Camp. It's pretty killer but I haven't done much hiking.

Nepal: Part 3: Namche Bazaar (11,290 ft) to Lobuche (16,210ft)

Welcome back! This post will cover most of the trekking uphill. The next post will be Mt. Everest Base Camp.

Namche Bazaar
Thupten was kind enough to invite us inside his home when he's not trekking all over Nepal with REI folks. Thupten's father was also a trekking guide. His father won a medal for saving an American's life back in the 60's. They flew his father out to the US and I think Kennedy awarded him this medal.

Hand painted room by Thupten himself, 15 yr Monk

The REI Sherpa staff are so wonderful. They're so service oriented without a single complaint

The sherpas served us 4-5 meals a day, Breakfast, Lunch, Tea, Dinner every day.

The cooks even made us pizza with some pot-stickers and green beans. It tasted heavenly to be, not only be 7,000 miles away in another country but 13,000 feet above sea level and to have pizza.
They don't eat cows or have cows up here so it was "Yak Cheese" :D

Unfortunately, our filmography/camera man got sick due to having soup at a restaurant outside the REI cook's staff. Now, I think this is an important factor when choosing your outfitter. REI knows the trekkers are westerners and cook the food for westerners. They know that food made by Nepalese for the Nepalese might not sit well with westerners that are not used to the food yet. So, to be safe, don't eat other than what the cooks make for you. , .

The amazing Renzi had to carry one of our crew's pack bag down to a lower altitude

A scenic moment. Steep drop off, eh?

Here we are at 3,975 m or 13,041 feet above sea level. Even though we sat down at a restaurant, the REI staff cooked our meals.

Just a really cute Nepalese boy enjoying his meal. I don't know what it is about this country but all the children are really adorable. They all have such rosy cheeks. Unfortunately, rosy cheeks usually means they've been wind-burned :(

Another fine meal cooked by the REI cooks :)

This was an incredibly hard day. I don't know if I was just exhausted or if the elevation gain was VERY high or the weather made the atmosphere kind of dreary but it was just SO hard. Unfortunately for my fellow trekker, he caught a case of traveler's diarrhea. I think the only remedy was to take the antibiotics they require you to bring and to let it pass.

If anybody has watched Everest: Beyond the Limit (I watched it on netflix), you will know the name Russell Brice. I won't go into details other than you should watch it ESPECIALLY if you are planning to do the trek to base camp or everest itself. Well, we ran into the expedition yaks transporting the goods to go to Russell Brice's Himalayan Experience!!!!

Here's a Baby Yak. SO cute :)

Aw yeah! We got to see the hand of a yeti!

We passed by some Nepalese kids on our way trekking. I could imagine these kids were probably laughing at us with our big boots and trekking poles when they do this walk every day twice to go to school and back :P

Once in a lifetime trek for me, every day walking commute for these days :D

More baby yaks! :)

Helicopter rescue! At a certain altitude, helicopters won't be able to do any rescues. the injured trekker will have to descend by foot (or horse) as soon as possible.

The sherpas taught us a card game. Unfortunately for me, I have no aptitude for card games. I forget the names and forget how it was played i can tell you everybody had fun but don't remember anything else :(

Scott Fischer's memorial. I highly recommend reading "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer. It's a Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster is a 1997that claimed 11 lives.

Here we are in Lobuche. The last "city" before we hit the base camp. Everybody stays in this area before they ascend for base camp and Kala Patthar. It was COLD AS hell! Being a native southern california, I am not used to temperatures below 60. so... seeing 22 Fahrenheit with my own eyes was just baffling. My hands felt like they going to be frostbitten.

Mr. Nuri serving our dinner. I managed to crack a smile despite being FREEZING cold. When REI tells you to bring a down jacket, you best bring one! :)

Thanks to Diamox, I got up to pee in the middle of the night about every night since I started taking it at 14,000 feet. I really wanted to try to go the whole thing without but one of the trekkers played some joke on someone that startled me and started a series of head clamped massive headaches. Our guide said I should definitely start on the Diamox so I took his advice. Glad I did because other than having to pee a lot (because I was also drinking a lot of water), I made it strong to base camp.

I originally intended to keep this as one blog but because of all the photos and the amount of time it takes to actually write something, I have ONE more part... Base Camp of Mount Everest itself.
Till next time.