My Home and Backyard As Seen from the Orbit

This is how my home and backyard look from up above.

Photo twitted from orbit by Chris Hadfield

Isn't the Bay Area stunningly beautiful? And it only gets better the closer you look.

San Pablo Ridge Loop in Wildcat Canyon

On one summer day Anil and I went hiking in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, located in the East Bay near El Cerrito. The hike we did was 6.2 miles long loop made by stitching together Wildcat Creek, Mezue, San Pablo Ridge and Belgum Trails. It took us around 3h to complete this hike as it was relatively flat (just 700 feet elevation gain).

The hike was lovely, leading through a series of rolling hills covered with grass and wildflowers. I could imagine that the views from the top of San Pablo Ridge could be quite spectacular as well, if we had been more lucky and got there on a day in which downtown San Francisco was not covered by a blanket of fog. As it is very easy and quick to get to the trailhead of the hike, I'm sure we will revisit this hike on a better weather-wise day.

Wildcat Canyon Regional Park is dog friendly.


Rolling hills of Wildcat Canyon:

Kayaking in Tomales Bay

In June, Anne and Sebastian invited Anil and I to join them and our common friend, Sophie, on a kayaking trip in Tomales Bay. It was a very first kayaking trip for Anil and he was very excited about it.

The day was perfect: it was sunny, warm but not hot, and there was no sign of fog (which is somewhat unusual for that area.) The water was also pretty quiet: there were almost no waves and the current was not too strong. All that made for a perfect first kayaking experience for Anil and very enjoyable trip for the rest of us.

Then, to top it off, Tomales Bay is an amazing destination for kayaking. There is lots of wildlife (mostly birds) and it is completely oblivious to kayaks and people in them. Thanks to that you can get pretty close to any animal you encounter, and you can observe it in its natural environment.

Anil and I definitely had a great time during this little expedition, even though we were unable to make our kayak go straight forward... I guess we need a lot of practice. We definitely should try to go kayaking again some time soon.


A few photos from our trip:

Montara Lighthouse and Beach

At the end of May I went to Montara Lighthouse to take a few pictures. Sadly, neither weather nor my camera cooperated, and the photos did not turn out as interesting as I had hoped for.

I slept at the Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel, which I would definitely recommend. It is a very nice small hostel located in an amazing location, directly at the coast, with its own private beach, so what's not to love about it! If you get a chance, check it out. Be aware, however, that if you want to get a private room, you need to book it several months in advance.

Hostel's private beach:

High tide:

The lighthouse:

My Very First Art Show

My very first, and hopefully not last, art show took place at the beginning of May at Mission Bay Campus of UCSF. Three years ago UCSF started a tradition of annual art shows displaying artworks by its employees. The two previous years the show was located on the ground floor of the building in which I work, but this year it took place in the atrium of the Bakar Gym. I believe it was a huge mistake.

The organizers probably hoped that hosting the show near the gym entrance will ignite more interest in it, but I do not think that was the case. People who come to the gym are usually in workout-oriented mindset and are not particularly interested in looking at art. Secondly, there are often IT/biotech/pharma exhibits and conferences happening there, so likely, with time, most gym members learned to ignore anything that happens in the gym's atrium. Thirdly and most importantly, the light in the atrium was simply terrible! It was so dark there that enjoying any artwork would not be possible.

The old location, on the ground floor of the Genentech Hall, was much better. There is much more light there and also there were more people interested in taking a break from work and enjoying the art. Hopefully, the organizes made the same observations as I did and will revert to the old location next year.

Despite these setbacks, the art show was a good learning experience for me. I learned the importance of the proper display of art, and I learned that I should make my art more visible by making it bigger :) As I planned to display six pieces, I decided to keep them relatively small (each piece was only 11 inches by 14, including the frame). However, after I submitted my artwork to the organizers, they told me that there is a limit of three pieces per artist. Needless to say, that rule was not communicated to me before. I found it tough to drop half of the series, and I was also not happy that I had to stick with the small photo sizes... I'm sure that my photos would have attracted much more attention, had they been larger.

On the positive side, despite all the things that went wrong, there was a considerable number of people who seemed to be interested in my art pieces:

"Colors of Namibia" - the six pieces series I wanted to display:


Poster-invitation for the show:

Magic Bus

In the middle of May we went with our friends Aldona and Witek on the Magic Bus tour through the San Francisco's '50s, '60s and '70s.

The tour was interesting, even though it was very different from what I had expected it to be. I thought that the Magic Bus would be a hippie bus from the '60s on which we would relive the "summer of love" be listening to and singing along the songs from that era. However, that was only a small part of the tour. It seemed to me that every single time that we started relaxing and getting into the good mood stimulated by the songs of the '60s and '70s, the screens on the bus' windows would remind us about the dark side of those times: war in Vietnam, assassinations of the Kennedys, King, Moscone, Milk and John Lennon. If you ask me, I would enjoy the tour much more if the gloomy events were given less prominence, and if we were allowed to sing more.

Still, I thought the tour was pretty good and well done. As you can see in the photos below, on the bus the audience/passengers sit facing side windows, which can be converted into the projection screens. As the bus rolled over various neighborhoods of San Francisco (Chinatown, North Beach, Financial District, Haight-Ashbury, and Golden Gate Park), the projection screens would roll up to reveal the beauty of the city and to let us have a look at the places that were just mentioned on the documentary. A pretty cool concept!


The Magic Bus:

Inside the bus:

Summer of Love:

If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair:

Aldonka and Witek in front of the bus:

And in front of the heart of San Francisco:

Mt Burdell Hike

In the middle of February Anil and I went hiking with Anne and Sebastian in Mt Burdell Open Space Reserve. At 1'500 feet, Mt Burdell is the highest peak in north Marin.

The round-trip to the top is 5.5 miles and takes around 2-3h. Apparently normally it is possible to see both Mount Tam and Mount Diablo from there, but we didn't see them due to low-hanging clouds. Still, I enjoyed the views from the top - it is always fun to be above clouds (much better than being in or under them...)

The trail to the top of Mt Burdell leads through many lush green hills:

When we got to the top, we could only see the low-hanging clouds:

We spent around half an hour at the top, and during this short time the clouds almost completely dispersed:

Limantour Spit Hike

At the end of January Anil and I went for a hike to Limantour Spit in Point Reyes National Seashore. It was a very easy (flat, ~ 6 miles round-trip) and pleasant hike along a long, narrow spit of sand, located at juxtaposition of ocean, marsh and Drakes Estero. It is a biologically-rich wildlife area, frequented by thousands of birds and seals (and not too many people). We enjoyed hiking there a lot, despite the fact that it was drizzling. The beauty of nature and multiple animal encounters more than compensated for this slight inconvenience.

Limantour Beach:

Marbled Godwit - I was amazed that these birds can put their whole beak into the sand!

Marsh:

Look at this huge crab! When we found it, it was still alive. Anil helped it turn around:

A seagull waiting until we leave, hoping to eat the crab:

Montara Mountain via McNee Ranch

In the middle of January Anil and I went for a hike to the top of Montara Mountain, which provides spectacular views of San Francisco Bay Area.

The top of the mountain can be reached either via trails originating in San Pedro Valley County Park or in McNee Ranch State Park. The former we hiked in September 2010, and the latter will be described in this post.

The trailhead for the hike is located around 4 miles south of Pacifica, just after the Devil's Slide. There is a small parking lot with enough space for around 20-30 cars, which is located on the east side of the road. On weekends it fills up quickly, so I would recommend getting there before 10 am.

The trailhead elevation is around 100 ft, and the top of the mountain is at 1898 ft. This means 3800 ft of elevation change over 7.5 miles, which takes around 3-3.5h to hike (including a picnic at the top).

The hike is pretty strenuous and there are hardly any flatter parts. Luckily, views all along the way are very beautiful, so on the way up one can take many short breaks to enjoy them, without feeling guilty for pausing so often.

The last third of the hike utilizes the same fire road as the hikes originating in San Pedro Valley and the views from the top are exactly the same for both hikes. Compared to the San Pedro Valley hike, the McNee Ranch hike is more exposed and a bit more monotonous. Therefore, if you have time only for one of these hikes, I would recommend the hike starting in San Pedro Valley County Park over this one.


Montara Beach:

Pacifica and San Francisco:

The top of Montara Mountain:

Fire Road:

Devil's Slide:

Dipsea Trail - Mill Valley to Stinson Beach

Last Saturday we hiked the full length of the Dipsea Trail, all the way from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach, and back.

Total distance hiked: 14.8 miles (23.82 km)
Elevation change: 9,276 feet (2,827 m)

As I realized after the hike, that's almost exactly the same distance and elevation change that one has to hike when going to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back. The more proud I am to report that we completed the hike in 6h 30 min!

Since I did not find a good description of this hike anywhere in the internet, I am going to try to be as detailed in my description as possible.

The trailhead for the Dipsea Trail is located in Old Mill Park in Mill Valley, CA (for directions click here).

There are several (free) parking spots in the Old Mill Park along Cascade Drive. Try to park as close to the park entrance as possible, as the trailhead is located just opposite the entrance at the intersection of three roads: Cascade Drive, Cascade Way, and Molino. There are no obvious trail markings and it almost looks like the trail leads to somebody's house: take a look at Google Map street view. Don't get discouraged by that and aim for the staircase located in the driveway on the photo above.

The trail starts with three flights of stairs (adding up to 671 steps). According to the local legend, people who hiked and/or run Dipsea never die, they just reach the 672nd step :)

Once you walked up the first set of stairs, you will need to take a few steps to the right. The second set of stairs will be there. To find the third set, you will need to take a few steps to the left.

After the third set of steps you will find yourself on Sequoia Road. Follow the road (to the west/right) for around 600 ft (200 m), until you get to Walsh Drive. Continue on Walsh Drive and then Bay View until you reach Panoramic Highway. This is where you finally get off the pavement and where the good trail markings start.

The trail will continue on the other side of the highway, slightly to the right of the direction from which you came from. After around 5 minutes the trail will reach Muir Woods Road and will run parallel to it for around 0.4 mile (0.6 km). (In November 2010, this part of the trail was closed due to a mudslide. It's not a big deal, as you can walk on the road and rejoin the proper trail after 0.4 mile. To find the continuation of the Dipsea Trail, look for a sign "Cam Del Canon" and a few mailboxes on the left side of the road. It is so obvious that you can not miss it.)

Starting at Panoramic Highway the trail steadily drops down ~700 feet (210 m), until it reaches the lower parking lot of Muir Woods. From there, over the course of 2.2 miles (3.5 km), you will need to climb ~1400 feet (430 m), until you get to the top of "Cardiac Hill". As the name suggests, "Cardiac Hill" can make your heart start pumping pretty hard, but the views from there are absolutely fantastic and will fully compensate for your climbing efforts. On a clear day you will be able to see San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, Oakland, top of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

If you feel tired and did not arrange for anybody to pick you up at the end of the trail in Stinson Beach, this would be a good place to turn around, as from here over the course of next 3 miles (4.8 km), the trail will drop all the way down to the ocean, and you will loose all the elevation that you gained so far. But if you feel strong, I would definitely recommend going all the way to Stinson Beach, as this part of the hike is the prettiest. From now on, the trail will lead you through a deep misty forest across several Marin hills. Moreover, during the final one mile of the trail there are spectacular views of Stinson Beach and the ocean.

After reaching Stinson Beach you have a choice of either going back the same way you came (this is what we did last Saturday), or you can make your hike even longer by first hiking the Matt Davis & Steep Ravine Trails (described here and here) before rejoining the Dipsea Trail.

All in all this is a fantastic, but challenging hike. It crosses several parks: Mt. Tamalpais SP, Muir Woods NM, the Golden Gate Recreational Area, and it brings you all the way to the ocean and a nice beach. It should not be attempted by novice hikers (unless you do it one-way only). Depending on your strength, it can take you anything from 5 to 8 (or more) hours to complete it. Though there are people who run it in 2h...

For us, the first half of the hike (getting to Stinson Beach) was super-easy and fast, but hiking back from there was not. I started feeling pain in one of my knees at around mile 11 and, therefore, the last 4 miles where a bit unpleasant - especially during the downhills. Absolute killer for me was at the end of the hike when we had to walk down the 671 steps... Every single one of them was hurting.

At around mile 14, Anil renamed the hike "Dip-shit", which expresses pretty well what we felt at that particular moment... Still, we are very proud of ourselves for having finished it and we are surprised that today, a day later, nothing hurts us. I hope that it means that both of us are in a reasonably good shape before our Andean adventure.

The hike begins with 671 steps:

The second half of the trail leads through the beautiful green forest of Muir Woods NM:

The views from the top of Cardiac Hill:

Just a mile away from Stinson Beach:


And finally we reached the beach!