All my bags are packed ... I'm raring to go !!

Catch you all after my Grand Canyon adventure ... adios !!

Desert Adventure

I have always had an attraction towards deserts. Probably it's just because i've never actually been to one. So at the first chance to go for a trip after my move to San Diego, I decided to to visit a Desert Park.

Now San Diego sits in a pretty nice location as regards two things: climate and topographical features. I cannot stop raving about the weather in San Diego. It's just perfect !! Almost every day of the year is a nice bright sunny day and there is only a handful of days that it rains. And I think the reason for the great wetaher is it's topographical location. San Diego lies on the Pacific coast. To the east and less than an hours drive away is the Laguna Mountain Range. Nestled in these mountains is the picturesque Lake Cuyamaca which is a part of the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. This is followed almost immediately by the hot and arid Anza-Borrego desert. The Joshua tree national park is another great place close-by, specially for activities like rock-climbing.

So on the memorial day weekend this year, I decided to pay a visit to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. There was one more incentive for visiting this park. The state park has hundreds of miles of dirt roads ideal for off-roading if you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Here is some more information about the most popular dirt trails at the park. The visitors office will provide you with a nice map of the entire park.

If you are driving form San Diego, I would recommend driving through the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. The drive through the mountainous park is a completely contrasting experience from Anza-Borrego and is not worth missing. Lake Cuyamaca lies at the north end of this park and is a fishermans paradise. There are some breathtaking views as you wind down thorough the mountains towards the Anza Borrego desert.

The best part about these parks is their proximity to San Diego. We left home in the morning, picked up a 4 x 4 Jeep from the airport and were on the road by 8:30 am. As we approached Lake Cuyamaca our visiblity was reduced to a few feet because of the morning fog. Here is a picture of Lake Cuyamaca to get an idea of what i'm talking about.

At the heart of the Anza-Borrego State Park is the small city of Borrego Springs. The city has ample restaurants, several stores, a gas station and even an golf course ! After a visit to the visitors center and a quick lunch we were on way to out firat offroading destination. We followed Fonts Wash to Fonts Point and it was a relatively easy trail. Fonts Point offers excellent views of the Borrego Badlands. We then continued along Short Wash to Vista Del Malpais and returned back via Thimble Trail. This part of the trial was a little rough but a lot of fun at the same time. Here's a pic of the dirt road shot from the jeep.

Working our way through these dirt roads took us a couple of hours and we still had time for another route. We decided to do the Split-mountain trail to the Wind caves. This route offers very impressive views of the desert features. The wind caves are about a mile detour by foot. Here are some pics taken along the route.

So that ended our days adventure at this beautiful Desert State park. There are a couple more interesting routes that I wish to do here. One is to start from Canyon Sin Nombre and cut across the Carrizo Badlands to Split Mountain via the Diablo drop-off. The second, and the route which is considered the grand daddy of them all, is to start off at Pinyon mountain road at 4000 feet and cut across the Vallecito mountains via the Pinyon drop-off to Split Mountain at sea level. As per the talk we had with the rangers at the visitor center, the Pinyon drop-off is the scariest part of the route and is termed by them as "heart attack hill". They told us about a ranger who was given a trip thru here by a fellow ranger, and he, never ever in his 30 years at the Park, had the courage to go back again ! Wants me to go back and check out this route even more :)

last thing

With the grand canyon trip just a week away the last thing i needed now is an ankle injury ... just hoping that it heals soon enough !

It's all in the mind !

Even tough I have had a very active childhood, I had never taken running seriously. I mean, I remember running a couple of rounds on our school ground during the PT period but probably that was it. Also I think it's reasonable to say that running for fitness isn't very popular in India. But after coming to Ann Arbor and seeing so many people around me doing it, I too decided to give it a shot. So one fine day I walked into NCRB ( North Campus Recreation Building ) with the thinnest idea of how much I could run. I started round the track and within 10 rounds ( ~ 1 mile ) I was out of breath. Every step after that seemed to be heavier than ever and I thought I had reached my limit. This happened not only on the first day but for quite some time after that. I was terribly disappointed with my stamina and gave up on running. I concluded that in order to run a marathon you needed an in-born talent.

After a long hiatus, I got a chance to get back to running early this year. A couple of my friends were training to run a marathon and I thought that if I could give them company for some smaller runs I could build on my stamina. So I started running. The only difference now was that I knew the distance that I had to complete before each run. I started off with distances between 2-3 miles and could manage them very easily. I was surprised with myself. I learnt that during running there are always these times ( i like calling them peaks ) when you just feel like giving up. But once you get over this peak your body will settle into a nice rhythm and you can just run on for ever. There will be several such peaks on the way but the first few are the strongest. So what started as a futile 1 mile attempt has culminated in a 15 mile run till date. And the feeling is just incredible. I hope to do a marathon sometime soon !

So the strategy is simple. Decide on a schedule you want to follow. Being mentally prepared helps like nothing else. Start off at an easy pace and try and maintain a constant pace throught your run. You should run at a pace so that you are not getting out of breath during or even at the end of a very long run. Press on during the peaks and I guarantee that you'll get to the end ! So you see it's all in the mind !

World's Fastest Supercomputer

Couple of weeks back I had been to Lawrence Livermore National Lab for a project meeting. That's when I saw the location which houses the world's fastest supercomputer, the Blue Gene. With a theoretical peak performance of 367 Teraflops, it is 3 times as powerful as it's closest competetor. So how does this compare to the system most of us are working on. You can think of it as 131072 high performance computers connected in parallel as a single system. Now that's some bunch of raw processing power !

Some interesting facts:

* The San Diego Supercomputer Centre at UCSD ranks at No. 35 on the Top 500 Supercomputers list with 15.6 Teraflops and 2464 processors.

* The Param Padma supercomputer developed by C-DAC in Pune has a maximum performance of about 1 Teraflops. At present there are about 6 supercomputers in India close to this supercomputing power.

Backpacking essentials

Just two weeks from now I will be backpacking into the Grand Canyon. I think it's a fitting time to talk about some backpacking essentials. Well, even tough i'm not an expert on the subject, I have been to numerous day hikes and one backcountry camping trip at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. On that trip we hiked a total of 27 miles over a period of 3 days. That being our first trip, we did extensive research to made sure that we were adequately prepared. Even then we had a few lessons to learn, the biggest one being that a backpacking stove is *NOT* compatible with the standard Coleman fuel canisters that are avilable almost anywhere. Only the innovative use of a gas lantern saved us on that trip. I will try to write in detail about that trip in another post. So here is a list of gear to take along and some tips for the budding backpacker

Backpack:
Buying a new backpack can be an expensive affair. You can get internal-frame backpacks starting from $80 and all the way up to $400 depending on brand, style, capacity etc. If you are a new backpacker I would recommend renting a backpack. Just make sure you choose a top loading, internal-frame backpack with about 4500 cubic inches capacity.

Shoes:
You regular sports shoes should serve you well. Just make sure they have a good grip and most importantly that they fit comfortably. The lighter the shoes, the better.

Tents:
DO NOT try to take along regular camping tents for a backpacking trip. There are special backpacking tents available which are much lighter than the regular ones. Again a rental will be much economical than buying these unless you plan to backpack very regularly. Remember that the tents will be the heaviest item in your backpack.

Stove:
Fires are not allowed in many backcountry camping sites. So a stove is essential for cooking food, boiling water etc. Again DO NOT attempt to carry a regular camping stove which is way too heavy. Special backpacking stoves are available which are super light. Also remember that regular Coleman Fuel available widely at superstores are NOT compatible with back-packing stoves. Make sure that you take along the right kind of fuel for your stove.

Food:
Carry measured quantity of food for the trip. Count the number of meals that you will be eating and then decide on the quantity of food. Dried food like noodles, pasta etc. works well because it is light and you just need water to cook the food. You can carry some ready to eat stuff but make sure that it will not spoil in the heat. Apart from the food for meals you should carry high energy food like energy bars and Gorp / trail mix ( mixture of a variety of dried fruits and nuts ).

Water:
Regular water intake is very necessary during a long backpacking trip. Make sure you carry sufficient quantity of water for the trip. I would recommend carrying at least 1/2 a gallon of water per person / per day. Also you can carry along powdered gatorade to add to the water.

Here is a checklist for things to carry on a backpacking trip.

* Backpack
* Sleeping-bag
* Sleeping pads *optional*
* Backpacking tent
* Backpacking stove / compatible fuel
* Flashlight / extra batteries
* Gas Lantern *optional*
* Food
* Water / Gatorade
* Gorp / energy bars
* Sunscreen
* Sunglasses
* Cap / Hat
* Clothes, just as much as you think you will need, long sleeves might
protect you from the sun, carry light colors *no blues or blacks*
* Light waterproof jacket if you expect rain / cold weather
* Towel / napkin
* 2 extra pairs of socks, needed if you get blisters/sore feet.
* Trekking shoes
* Water bottles
* pair of slippers
* Toilet-kit
* Plastic plate, spoon, bowl, glass
* Camera *optional*
* Walkie-talkies *optional*
* Swiss-knife / pocket knife
* Toilet paper roll
* Cord for hanging clothes
* Utensils
* First-aid kit including tylenol and other such medicines
* Insect repellant
* Garbage bags *in most places you need to carry all the garbage with you*
* Waterless sanitizer
* Bio-degradable soap *for washing utensils*
* Whistle / compass
* Water tablets for purifying stream water
* Waterproof matches
* Trail maps
* Trekking poles *optional*
* Backpacking permits if required

Some final tips. Share the load. If you are a group of people make sure that that you divide the things that you need to get along. For example, we don't need everyone to get utensils or for that matter even toothpaste. Also try and adapt the list above to the your backpacking destination. For example if you're heading to the Grand Canyon you can completely omit the sleeping bags as it's going to be too hot anyways and carry along sleeping pads. The key to a fun trip is not only being adequately prepared but being optimally prepared. Travelling light is the best way to enjoy a trip. And you will believe me after you go through one. Have a great adventure in the wild !

parag's daily digest ... restored

These are heroic efforts to save something that was almost extinct ... "my blog", which slowly evolved from a daily digest - to a monthly digest - to a yearly digest, and was almost on the verge of extinction ... but i'm going to give one last shot to try and get it back to the state it was before ... i know this will take herculean efforts from my side but i'm confident of it's revival ! So here's parag's daily digest for you ... restored !