The other stuff

So now on to the other stuff.

I guess the biggest and all encompassing ‘other stuff’ that I have gotten into is that I began dating a girl at UCR and she’s lots of fun.

So that started early in the quarter which also led me to begin cooking  a whole lot more. We quickly determined that as a couple of graduate students we could not afford to go out to eat too often, so we began cooking each other fancy meals. Most weeks I would say peak at our shared dinners. Yummy!

So in early March, it snowed. not in Riverside, but in the mountains. It had snowed earlier in the year, but it had almost melted at this point in the lower hills. So when it happened, i realized that I needed to get out and play. I hadn’t been almost two years since I had been in the snow, and I needed a new and exciting experience. So I got my friend Chip convinced that it would be a great idea to try to hike to the top. This was pretty exciting because it was the first time that I got to use snowshoes and the first time I’ve had on crampons since New Zealand. So first off, we started early, blah, and it was cold. It was crazy because we left Riverside and it was clear and browning, and we get up to Forest Falls, and it looks like a winter wonderland. 45 minutes and its completely different. Chalk one up for the good things about Riverside. So we stat off hiking in snow shoes, and since it’s early and the snow is still pretty frozen from the night before, we make good progress. The trail starts steep though, and I think we push to hard at first, because by the time it evens out a little we are both spent. HIking with snow shoes, especially on a slant, makes you kinda waddle like a duck. They are huge and you have to swing your foot with each step. This doesn’t make for easy hiking. Secondly. Hiking in virgin snow (there was only one group of people ahead of us on the trail), makes it very difficult to find the trail. I think after the first two miles of switchbacks, the trail effectively ended. At this point we just tried to hike straight up (not recommended in snow shoes). So this was killing us, so we decided to switch to the crampons. I don’t know how many of you have ever walked around with multiple rows of two inch spikes on your boots, but let me tell you, it’s bad ass. Then you kick your foot into the snow and it sticks, and you can walk up steep slippery slopes. But then you get to a part where the snow had got soft and your foot falls in up to your knee and you get stuck and it gets a little less fun. Especially once the snow starts creeping into the cracks and crevices in your clothes and it starts getting cold. So at this point we are postholing every other step but have reached a nice sunny flat spot and decide to stop, have lunch and call it a day. What a gorgeous day.

The trip down was even harder to manage. At this point the snow was soft and mushy and neither the crampons or snow shoes were very effective. Another hint. Snow shoes do not make effective skis. While trying to navigate the slopes we put on the snow shoes and tried sliding down. Hint 2. While trying something stupid like trying to ski on snow shoes, make sure that your ice ax is secure. In the process of falling and rolling down the slope my ice ax flew out of my bag and landed near my head. Would have been kinda bad, considering we were still 4 miles up the trail. Eventually we found an area where many people had been hiking throughout the day and the trail had become pretty compacted. It made it easier, but by the time our boots were soaked through and our legs were chilled. It was amazing how much snow had melted in the few hours that we had been on the trail. We felt lucky to have gotten their so early and seen the area so pristine.

wow. that was more words than i expected to write about that. man, it was fun though.

so other big events (in fewer words):

Spring Training. Heather and I had been dating about 2 months when we headed out to Phoenix for Spring Break to go watch the Chicago Cubs. (she’s from Chicago, a big fan) It was our first big trip together, which was kinda scary, but we spent 4 flawless days camping outside Phoenix and got to see the Cubs play at Home against the White Sox in Mesa, and against the Padres in Peoria.

So the rest of the spring was spent hiking around the area looking at all the pretty flowers. Like I said before, it hadn’t rained here in about 2 years, which meant that there haven’t been any flowers for about two years. We found a bunch of cool random places and I also took her out to Joshua Tree to show her all that I had learned in my two plus years.

Starting in Spring Quarter I became overloaded with classes, and this weird idea that I might need to start thinking about doing school over doing stuff. This also came with the realization that my travel account funds had become substantially diminished. This is also the point where my cooking took a significant upturn…………