DeathValley National Park

Date: 7th and 8th November, 2009

People: Sudharshan (Scud), Fahad, Raghavendra (Du) and /me

Car : Mitsubhishi galant

Miles Travelled: 1350

Expectations were low, but it turned out to be very nice trip. did see waterfalls, deserts (sand dunes), canyons, lake (282 feet below sea level), golf course, castle (history.. manually constructed monument). mountains.

First time in the trip, I actually took time off and slept in back seat of the car while travelling (blame it on changed lifestyle, or jetlag or anything else). Counted stars :p

Lot more to tell.. but well.. may be sometime later.

Photos from Scud's Camera Here

India - just for 15days

Dates : 17th Oct, 2009 -> 3rd Nov, 2009

Got Engaged to Pallavi. Been in native (Hosalli/Hamsagar, Sagar, Shimoga, KA) for a week. Attended Prasad's wedding @ Sirsi. Spent ~10days @ Bengaluru. Mostly time was spent with Pallavi. Watched 'Blue'. Had been to Gluster Office (My first visit to this new building).

Rode Royal Enfield ThunderBird, RX100, RXZ, Bajaj Discover, Honda Activa in this trip :-)

Been to Jogfalls, and KaNNumoogubaayi guDDa, next to our house @ hosalli.

Time just flew away just like that..

Singapore

Date : 17th October, 2009

On my way to India, stopped over @ Singapore. Got Transit Visa at airport, and visited Chaitanya's (my JNVG senior/friend) home. Stayed there during night (landed @ 1:40am in night). Next day morning, went to Sentosa beach and Marina Park. Went on boat ride in Singapore river. Had lunch at Riverwalk Tandoor.

Overall nice stay. Was there for 15hrs in total.

NYC, NY

Date : Sept 30th - Oct 1st, 2009

Visited NewYorkCity for the first time. It was on work, and the customer was @ 5th ave/50th St. Took airtrain/subway from JFK to reach destination. Day went in working with customer, hence nothing interesting.

Evening went on 'Top of the Rock', a ride to the top of rockefeller center. The Lift opened @ 67th Floor. It was the time of sunset. and the view of the city was beautiful. I could see lot of skyscrappers. It was cold wind out there.. I watched sunset, and waited till I see some sight of nicely lit city. But it was getting late to dinner to spend some more time there, also I was alone, which made spending time there more harder.

Met Sowmya after that. went for a walk for time's square. Took photo of NASDAQ center. later headed for dinner. Had dinner at South African Bar and Grill. It was very nice dinner, also this was the first time I met sow for dinner.

Nothing more interesting in this trip as I was very tired of timezone changes, and also I had some work next day. Flew back to Bayarea next day and didn't get any time explore the city.

Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

People: Ashwin (aka, Scud, sudharshan), Kiran, MS, Fahad and /me
Date: 26th and 27th Sept, 2009
Distance : 720miles
Web: http://www.nps.gov/seki

Started from SanJose @ 03:30am in morning. Reached Sequoia @ 8am, Booked Crystal Cave trip. Visited Moro Rock. The experience of the Cave was 'awesome'.. Experienced 'The Darkness' inside cave. Overall, amazing nature. Had lunch, went on a drive to Mineral Kings. Saw a bear cub running across the road. My (and most of the people's) first spoting of wild bear in all these trip.


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Camped at Buckeye Campgrounds. Played Cards.. had nice sleep (thanks to new sleeping bag).

Next day started with few jumping snaps near the river flowing next to camp ground. Visited Hospital Rock where there are some scribbles from native americans, done few hundred years before.
Drove in General Highway towards Grant Grove, and on the way visited General Grant Tree, which is 3rd Largest tree in the world in terms of volume. Drove to Ceder Grove, and passed through the Rock canyons of Kings canyon, inside which flows Kings rivers.

The star attraction of the trip came when we visited Hume Lake Christian Camp (Well, it was indeed a religious place), where we enjoyed the beauty of nature.. A green grass.. lake, green forest and layers and layers of mountain behind... blue sky (view from bottom to top in photo frame). There we saw a sand volley ball court and reserved it for an hour. Played 3 sets. I enjoyed the game in spite of loosing all the 3, because i was diving all around, running across etc :-)

Food part of the trip started in Denny's, and ended in Chipotle. Inbetween, it was all kokila chapati and mint chutneys.. with lot of side (like chukly, koDbeLe etc)

Photos will be shared by janta who took them soon.. (links will be updated once i get them).

weekend - 20090912

Saturday played a outdoor volleyball tournament in SantaClara. Helped Prasad with shifting his house. Watched US Open. Evening swam a little.
Sunday morning went on a drive to Santa Cruz (with Kiran, Scud, MS), saw beach volleyball tourney. Had coffee, came back. Saw US Open. Went to Santa Clara for a hindustani Classical music concert by Vyshali KS, who is natively from Sagar. Overall a good weekend.

Rocky mountains, Colorado

Date: Septemper 4 - 7, 2009 (4 days)
People : Naddy, Scud, Kiran, Shilpa and /me
Distance Travelled in car : 750miles
Total hike : ~21miles. (all small hikes included)
Web : http://www.nps.gov/romo


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Attractions of the trip:
1. Mt Evans (14100+ ft) : Highest altitude paved road of USA takes you to Mt. Evans. Very scenic drive, we could spot some wild life along the way. Wind was very cold on top..

2. Pikes Peak (14100+ ft) : Again, another 14k+ peak where you can drive your car. It has a train which can take you to the top, called 'Cog Railway'. Also you can find lot of bikers (ie, cyclist) on the top.

3. Patel points of Rocky Mountain National Park: We tried and covered almost all the patel points as per the map.

4. Longs Peak (14259ft), camping and hiking: This was the main goal of the trip, camping and hiking. All of us did go up to the camping ground located at 12780ft, just below the Longs Peak, 6miles from TrailHead. It was a night to remember as 3 of us (including me) got altitude sickness <:-( and in the night temperature was in higher 30s (not C, but F). Wind was blowing almost around 70-100mph, which broke the rods of tent, and it fell on us. Happy stories, sad stories, good stories, bad stories.. overall a long night @ longs peak. Next day Scud and Naddy got up and headed to peak. We 3 had altitude sickness, hence packed the tent, and headed back to rangers station. 5. Chasm Lake (11740ft): Me and Kiran went up to the lake which is at the base of Longs Peak, and is a 0.7miles diversion from the longs peak trail. Its gave some nice view of the peak. Photos: From Kiran's Album



Overall a nice trip.