parags daily digest ...

A new beginning ...

2009-07-01T22:52:00.001-07:00

And this time it is not just to blogging once again but to a whole new ad"venture". Me and my wife Bhagyashri have been been working on a new startup for a few months now. And the product, if you may call it so, is up and live in stealth mode now. You may want to check out our company website at www.stylebuds.in and our brand website at www.sheepstop.com. More details to follow soon. Till then you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Sights on Mt. Whitney

2007-04-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here I am, out of my winter hibernation and looking ahead at what promises to be a truely exciting summer. The highlight of this summer is going to be an attempt to scale Mt. Whitney, which at 14,505 feet is the tallest peak in the contiguous United States ( the tallest peak in USA being Mt. McKinley in Alaska )

Planning for the trip started way back in January since only a limited number of people are permitted on the Whitney trail every day. That means there is a long drawn application process with the number of applicants far exceeding the daily limit. And then the lottery system comes into play and keeps you guessing until the last moment if you will be one of the lucky ones ( This is sounding so much like this years H1-B process :)) Lady luck was with us this time and we have a day permit for the 8th of July.

So we have about three months of time to prepare for this big hike. Apart from the regular running/gym workouts and climbing a few trails, I think it is important to do few treks at high altitudes. As of now plans are to hike Half Dome ( 8836 feet ) and Mt. Dana (13,061 feet) in Yosemite NP. Each of these treks are challenging on their own and should help us prepare for the big one.

So Mt. Whitney, here we come !!

beep beep beep ... Mission aborted

2006-10-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

The "Cactus to Clouds" trail stood true to it's identity as one of the hardest day hikes in the US as we had to abort our mission to the San Jacinto Peak :( The "Skyline trail" which is the initial portion of the trek starting in the town of Palm Springs and winding it's way 11 miles and 8000 ft to the top of the palm springs aerial tramway was itself a monster to handle. Starting at 3:30 am on a new moon night and under a starry sky, it took us more than 9 hours to get to traverse the Slyline trail. And at the end of it we were in no condition ( I would say it was more mental than physical, but not everyone would agree ) to continue on a further 6 miles ( 12 miles roundtrip ) to the summit of San Jacinto peak. But nonetheless it was a great hike to the top. Below are some images from the route.

Stairway to Heaven

2006-10-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I am about to attempt this trek at such a short notice. Here are the vital stats

Trail Name : Cactus to Clouds
Location : Palm Springs, CA
Summit : San Jacinto Peak
Elevation : 10,834 feet (3,302 metres)
Range : San Jacinto mountains
Trail length : 23 miles trip from base-summit-tram station
Altitude gain : 10,700 feet climb, 2,700 feet descent
Estimated time : 14-18 hours
Weather(min/max) : 57/90 F at base, 35/53 F at summit
Rating: Very Strenous

More after i'm back !

Rock-climbing at Mission Gorge

2006-10-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the slightly long hiatus. Had settled into the sleep-work-play-eat-sleep routine and needed something special to blog about. Well, that's not true. Actually a lot has been happening, michigan is 7-0, tennis classes and the TT club is a lot of fun, even had a nice trip to the bay area. So let's face it, I was plain lazy :)

Anyways, coming to the point I had been rock-climbing to mission gorge last weekend. I've done a bit of indoor climbing and have always wanted to try it in the real world. Finally got a chance as the UCSD Outdoor Adventures center organised a full day trip to the Mission trails park which is suprisingly close to San Diego.

The bad part was that we had to leave home at 6:15 am on a Sunday morning in order to beat the crowd as mission gorge is a local hotspot for climbers. A short trek later we were at the cliffs. And were they magnificent. Towering at least 50 feet above us they posed a great challenge. A short introduction to knots and belaying and we were ready to go.

So after a enthusiatic start, a push here and a pull there, missed footings, back-tracings, nervous looks down the valley, sweaty hands, few skipped heartbeats, packed lunch and gatorade, pumped fists, raised hands, some wild swings, scratched limbs, sore muscles and a full day later we finally suceeded in capturing the three treacherous cliffs.

Needless to say, I had the time of my life :)

San Diego Souvenier

2006-09-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

My roommate Daniele worked on this nice little San Diego souvenier post-card in photoshop. It was so good that I had to put it up !!

Ganpati Bappa Morya !!

2006-08-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

Ganesh Festival is here and i'm lucky to be part of the celebrations in Ann Arbor ( or rather i planned my visit that way :)) for the fifth consecutive year. After being part of the decoration team for the past four years, there is nothing more satisfying than to see it being carried on by the newer guys in an even bigger and better fashion !! Kudos to you all ! Also here is a glimpse of the ganesh decorations for the past few years.

AFC Half-marathon pics

2006-08-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

Just got hold of the half-marathon pics from marathonfoto.com. So before I get hold of the high resolution images here are the thumbnails.

This is me passing by the "Star of India" ship on Harbor Drive at about mile 9

Raising my hands before crossing the finish line

I did it !!

Posing with the medal !

13.1 miles through a runners eyes

2006-08-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

So the AFC half-marathon is done but it will forever be etched in my memory as the first race I participated in. Before I come to the results and how I performed let me try and walk you through the 13.1 miles to the finish line.

The alarm rang at the unearthly hour of 4:15 am and woke me from my slumber. It was the day that I had been training for the past 6 weeks. I resisted the urge to hit the snooze button and quickly sprang to my feet. After a bath and a quick breakfast comprising of a glass of milk and half a bagel I got into race gear and was ready to leave home at 5:10 am.

There was hardly any traffic early in the morning and I made it into Balboa Park in 20 min. There were people by the thousands there and just seeing so many people raised my spirits. The half-marathon this year had a record attendence of 7200 people. The weather was near perfect, a cool 67F, and the sun stayed behind clouds for much of the race. We were taken by shuttle buses to the starting line at the Cabrillo National monument. I did a brief warm-up after arriving here and then mingled in with the croud at the starting line. I was all set to hit the road.

The start was slightly slow and I worked my way through the masses. It was amazing to see the diversity in the croud. It was an inspiration to see a lot of older folks as well as very young kids running. The initial couple of miles was rolling hills and I just concentrated on running at a comfortable pace. Also by this time the croud had dispersed slightly so I could pick up my pace for the next couple of miles which were pretty much downhill. My Michigan jersey got me a few "Go Blues" on the way tough I also found a couple of Buckeyes in the croud. I was at the 4 mile marker in about 30 min and going strong. I picked up my first glass of water and continued on. I knew that I was going faster than any of my practice sessions, but decided to stick on to the pace as I was pretty comfortable at the moment. I thought I could always drop off the pace if I got tired later on.

The next part of the race was along the bay with amazing views and I took in the beauty of nature. At the 10K marker the clock read about 50 min. By now the crowd had really spread out and I was moving with a group of people who were more-or-less doing the same pace as me and we stuck together almost till the very end. I walked through the water station at the 7 mile marker and had a glass of gatorade. Also reminded myself that more than half the race was done and I should push on. I pushed myself through the next 3 miles keeping with the pace of my group and concentrated on my breathing. I knew that the next 2 miles was going to be the killer as it was straight uphill through downtown and I wanted to save my breath for this.

And a killer it was. However much I tried, I could not help the uphill run from taking a toll on both my breath and my legs. At one point I contemplated slowing down a bit but got inspiration from a girl in our group who was right in front of me. If she could keep going so could I. The worse thing you can do at such a point is to look ahead and see the road going all the way up. After that I decided to just concentrate on the road in front of me. Few people did overtake me in this stretch, but I could not care less.

It was still all the way uphill at the 12 mile marker and even tough I knew there was just one more mile left, I felt completely zapped of energy. I wished the race would just end at the 12 mile marker. I could hear the croud cheering us to go on. I could not give up at this point. I just pressed on. The hills eventually gave way to flatter land and as my breathing returned to normal I got the energy to step on the gas a bit. But I guess everyone did the same and still our group was all together. We now entered Balboa Park and knew that the finish line was barely 200 meters away. Also there were a lot more people cheering us to the finish. I decided now was the time to change into top gear and sprint to the end.

Just as I overtook a very athletic looking guy from our group he too got inspired and we engaged in a short race on our own. I got into a nice rhythm and the last 100 meters just blazed past me. I remember overtaking at least a dozen people and the cheers from the crowd echoing in my ears. And with hands raised I crossed the finish line. I had done it. And I felt like a winner already !!

The next 5 min after the race were too hazy. I passed through the exit line where they took off the timing chip and I got my medal for which I could barely mumble my thanks. My heart was pounding and legs were bursting with pain. I so wanted to sit down but I knew I shouldn't. I then remembered to look at my cellphone stopwatch to see the time and it read about 1:47. I was elated. I got into the photo line and managed to smile for the snap. Then moved on to the place where they were pinning up the official results wondering if I had made it to the top 1000.

After a short wait the results were out. I had finished at an overall postion of 749 / 7000 and 90th in my division with a chip time of 1:44:36, that's a pace of 7:59 min/mile. It was unbelievable !! That's the story of my first run. Looking forward to many more such runs in the future !

AFC Half Marathon

2006-08-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry that I have to interrupt the sights of San Diego series. But then the AFC Half marathon is just round the corner and deserves some attention. After all i've been training for it since more than a month now :) The marathon begins at 7:00 am on Sunday, August 20 at the Cabrillo National Monument and ends at Balboa Park in downtown San Diego. A total of 6000 people will be participating in the half-marathon. The route is very scenic with great views of Mission Bay. Here is a link which shows the route winding around Mission Bay and then through downtown SD. Make sure that you select G. satellite in the drop down box on the right.

Now to personal targets for the race. Since this is the first marathon I am running (actually that's wrong, I have run a 5K in the Pune International Marathon when I was 12 years old but let's not count that), I have no idea as to how I'll fare. I have done a 15-mile run at a 10 min/mile pace and a couple of 10 milers at 9.2 min/mile. So I am hoping to maintain at least a 9 min/mile pace through the half-marathon. That will get me to a race time of about 1:58:00, which from last years results should put me in the top 2500. Personally I'll be happy if i'm able to get close to a 8.5 min/mile pace or a race time of 1:51:00 which seems pretty challenging at the moment.

On a side note my roommate has promised to treat me to dinner if I manage to break into the top 1000. While the proposition sounds good, chances of this happening are very very bleak :(

Destination 3 : Cuyamaca Rancho SP / Lake Cuyamaca

2006-08-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

Nestled in the Santa Rosa mountains, Cuyamaca Rancho SP is just an hour to the east of San Diego and is an equally good destination for a quick stop on way to Anza Borrego desert, a day hiking trip or for an overnight camping trip. There are several trails that lead to peak summits and scenic overlooks.

Lake Cuyamaca lies at the northern end of the park and is a popular fishing destination.

Here is a view of the Anza Borrego desert as seen from Cuyamaca Rancho

Destination 2 : Mount Soledad

2006-08-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

San Diego is a town of numerous hills and canyons. A nice place to get a view of most of San Diego is the 822 foot tall hill of Mount Soledad. At the summit lies a 29-foot tall cross.

Here is a view from Mt. Soledad looking east. On a clear day you will be able to see as far as the Laguna mountains with ease.

and looking north here is a view of the pacific ocean

Destination 1 : Coronado Island / Hotel Del Coronado / Coronado City Beach

2006-08-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

Coronado is a small “island” town in San Diego Bay, approximately 7.4 square miles in size, connected to the City of San Diego by the San Diego-Coronado Bridge as seen in the picture below

Here is a view of the SD Bay and downtown SD taken from the bridge

Here is a view of the historic Hotel Del Coronado as seen from the Coronado City beach

Coronado has expansive beaches and the hotel serves as a nice backdrop

Sights of San Diego

2006-08-09T19:32:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I been in SD for more than 3 months but haven't posted anything about the city as such. There are so many places to visit here and so many activities to do that I do not know where to start from. I probably waited this long coz I did not have a lot of pics of the place to show off :) but this weekend we went on a travelling spree of SD and now I have more pics than I can handle. I will try and post them here in the next few days.

random things ...

2006-08-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

$ With more and more miles piling up every week it's getting harder and harder to keep myself motivated to follow the training schedule, specially since i've moved the runs to the mornings

$ Had been to a secluded beach last weekend which is well guarded by 300 ft of cliffs and the only way down is by an unimaginably steep set of switchbacks; while the beach itself was very beautiful it was infested with a number of nudists, and the worse part being that almost all were male :p, that definitely wasn't a pretty sight !

$ Another off-roading trip in the Anza-Borrego Desert is planned for the weekend :)

$ Tried making Chicken Penne Pesto for the first time yesterday, think it turned out to be pretty decent !

Old blog ... New look !

2006-07-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

Decided to give my blog a fresh new look. Also updated my blogroll. I think I like this look better :)

Running and Hyponatremia

2006-07-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

Saturdays is usually the scheduled day for my long run of the week. Well yesterday was a record high 102F in San Diego and hence I decided to postpone the run to Sunday morning. Now getting up early in the mornings is not exactly my cup of coffee. So after a couple of snoozes on my cell, I managed to drag mysefy out of bed by 6:55 am. By the time I was ready to start the run it was 7:30 am and already pretty hot, tough the sun was still not out. I knew it was going to be a long hot run, so I took along a bottle of ice-cold water. How I managed to drag myself through the 8-miles in the ever increasing heat is not the point of the post tough I would say the water was definitely my savior.

This is about an article in sports section of the NY Times that caught my eye just after I got back. It was titled "New York Runners Warned About Too Much Water" and talks about a medical condition called hyponatremia which marathon runners are susceptible to. Hyponatremia also known as "water intoxication" is the opposite of dehydration tough the symtoms are the same. It is caused due to low blood sodium, and can occur when long distance walkers and runners lose sodium thru sweat but are unable to replace it. It can be accenuated by continuing to drink large amounts of water and losing further sodium through urination. The article describes a near death experience of Mark Robinson during the 2004 Boston Marathon, who was treated for dehydration when he actually was suffering from hyponatremia. Here is a related article from the NY Times and an article on hypontremia from wikipedia.

My inferences :

* Drink only as much water as needed, do not overdrink.
* Use water to splash on your head, face etc. to keep cool.
* Drink gatorade instead.
* Avoid running in direct sun as far as possible; evenings are better, specially if you lazy in getting up early just like me :)
* Who said SALT was BAD for health ;)

Stretching

2006-07-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

Stretching before and particularly after a run is very important. Came across this page on Hal Higdon's site while looking for some stretching exercises on google.

Also, here are some strength exercises particularly for runners if you are interested.

My new favorite ...

2006-07-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

at Panda Express is ...

Chicken with Mushroom

Favorite combo - Chow Mein with Orange Chicken & Chicken with Mushroom

Today's fortune : "You (I) will be successful through innovation and determination (in bed)" :)

Whats your favorite ?

Quest for a half

2006-07-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

Am thinking of running the AFC Half marathon in downtown San Diego on Aug 20. The only hitch is that I do not have the recommended minimum 8 weeks to train. Just started training last week and that gives me just about 6 weeks till the marathon. Have drawn up a schedule which fits the 8 week program into 6 weeks and am trying to follow that. Hopefully I should be able to ramp up the miles fast enough and be ready to tackle the marathon. For now i'll keep training and take a call in a couple of weeks.

I'm going home ...

2006-07-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

Just booked my tickets for labor day weekend and i'm going home ... i'm so excited ... seeya guys soon !!

Grand Canyon from the backpacker's eyes

2006-07-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

I was getting lazy to put up this post, specially since it was going to be a long one, but at CAR's insistence I'll do it. Also it's good to have a record of the trek and hopefully it'll help others plan a similar trip. You can have a look at the pics here

So the first step to backpacking in the Grand Canyon begins 3-4 months before the actual trip. That's when you apply for your backpacking permits as only a limited number of people are allowed into the canyon every day. If you're planning to go on a long weekend (as most people are), then you need to apply for your permits even more in advance so that you get reservations at the campgrounds of your choice. The backcountry camping information at the NPS website is a very good resource that you should use for planning the trip. We had permits for camping the first night at the Bright Angel Campground and the second night at the Indian Garden Campground.

The rest of my gang was flying in directly to Las Vegas while I was going to drive from San Diego with all the equipment. Expecting holiday traffic I left San Diego at about 2:15 in the afternoon. A brush fire on the way made things even more difficult as there was bumper-to-bumber traffic for almost 10 miles. And 3 hours later I was just 50 miles from home with 280 more miles to go. I eventually made it into Las Vegas by 10 pm. By the time we had dinner and did grocery shopping (mainly gatorade and stuff for next morning's breakfast) it was almost 1 am and it was 4 1/2 more hours to the South Rim.

The rest of the guys decided to take turns at the wheel. I'd already had enuf of driving for the day ! The idea was that everyone gets some sleep so as to be (somewhat) fresh for the strenous trek in the morning. Anyway, since we were meeting after such a long time we chatted on for a long time and I hardly got any sleep through the journey even after forcing my eyes shut for half an hour. Now the temperatures in the inner canyon are extreme between 10 am and 3 pm and the time to get to the river via the South Kaibab trail is 4-6 hrs. So the latest you should start trekking down the canyon is 7am so as to avoid the peak heat, and the earlier, the better. Our other option was to wait till 3pm the next day to start our trek. While this option looked feasible we would end up reaching our campsite at nightfall. We were all carrying flashlights and were prepared for this option but we preferred the travel in the morning.

So we reached the South Rim close to 5:30 am, freshened up, distributed the load amongst all the backpacks and were all ready and raring to go by 6:45 am. We took the bus to the South Kaibab trailhead and were ready to begin our hike at 7:15 am. The only hitch was that we'd hardly had any sleep in past 24 hours. Would our high spirits and enthusiasm make up for that ? We all hoped so. So the destination for the day was the Bright Angel Campground which is just across the Colorado river. The South Kaibab trail is pretty steep and you climb down 4700 ft over 7.1 miles. After being awed by the sheer size of the canyon and taking a few customary start pics we were on our way.

Our first break was after 45 min, the next after 30 mins and then the frequency of breaks kept on increasing as we got more tired and the sun got hotter. The steep, step like jumps all the way on the trail are really harsh on the ankle and knees and you have to be careful so that you don't twist your ankle. Also keeping yourself hydrated is very important. I'd recommend keeping a bottle of water/gatorade right in your hand (as opposed to in the backpack) and taking a sip every 5 min. So in between admiring the wonderful scenery, singing songs, a lot of water / trailmix breaks, clicking snaps, calls of nature, tired legs, motivational words, headaches and emotional outbursts, we managed to reach the colorado river at 1 pm. In a sense we were lucky coz we got some cloud cover in the final hour or so when actully the heat would have been at it's peak. Here's a link to a nice cartoon by jammy which explains our condition on the South Kaibab trail.

I dunno about the others but I was totally zapped of energy. Maybe it was even more so coz of the lack of sleep. I just wanted to cool off, have something to eat and crash. And I did exactly that. There was a stream (Bright Angel creek) running right by the campsite and we sat in there for a while. The water was super-cool and it felt heavenly ! Next was a very quick meal comprising mutter paneer, chana masala and navarathan korma. Yes, it was the ready to eat packets that we had carried. We were loo lazy to heat up the rotis but the sun and the steel plates did a good job at that. We were not carrying tents and hence we made our shelter by suspending a tarp as the roof which would protect us in case it rains. And after that I crashed. I got up briefly for dinner and crashed again.

The next morning I was feeling great, the sleep had done a lot of good to my body. The plan was to spend the day by the Colorado river and then start off for our next destination, The Indian Campground, by 3 pm. Phantom Ranch is just a 5 min walk from the campground and you get excellent breakfast there. So we went in and were treated to bagel with cream cheese and hot cocoa. It's the best bagel i've had, and i'm sure others will agree. We then took our sleeping pads and went down to the river. The temperature by now was 108 F and the water of the colorado was freezing cold. I could hardly stay in the water for 10 seconds. But it felt wonderful. So we generally spent time lazing around on the beach. Also discovered antother nice part of the Bright Angel creek and spent time cooling off in natures jaccuzi. Just a note that we saw three indian groups at the campsite and I also ran into a friend from my undergraduate college in Pune. What a coincidence !

We were back on the Bright Angel trail , and heading for the Indian Garden Campground by 3 pm. It's about a 5 mile hike with a 1300 ft elevation gain. That shouldn't be too hard to handle. But it turns out that the trail goes up, then goes down, then up and again down and eventually the 1300 ft elevation gain is very misleading. We concluded that the term "net elevation gain" should be specified for each trail ! The route itself was very beautiful, going along the colorado river for a while and we came across several small waterfalls and streams along the way. Again at the end of the trek we had just enough energy to cook some food (maggi noodles and flavored rice this time) and crash. From our camping spot we could see the lights on the south rim far away in the distance. They seemed very far away. I was wondering if my sore legs would carry me all the way to the top. Just before crashing we started evaluating the chances of a shower in the night and concluded that whatever the answer no one had the energy / patience to put up our tarp roof. Also we had a point that it hadn't rained the night before. So we just crashed without any cover and as if too prove us wrong there sure was a shower in the night. Luckily it was at 4:00 am and it was almost time for us to get up to begin our final ascent out of the canyon.

We had some more food and hot coffee before hitting the trail at 6:00 am. Sleep really does wonders. I could feel the life back in my legs. The final destination didn't seem that far anymore. And really the hike back wasn't bad at all. It might be strenous but it's not hard on your knees / ankles and you feel more in control. Also we knew that there was water at a couple of points along the trail so we were carrying just 1/2 a gallon of water per head as opposed to the 1 gallon on the South Kaibab trail. That took some load off form the backpacks and also the fact that we had consumed our food made the backpacks a bit lighter. The views while going up are breathtaking and I really enjoyed this part of the trek. And by noon we were at the top, much earlier that we had expected. We were however drenched in sweat and mud and nothing seemed better than taking a nice hot shower.

So after a nice hot shower and a hearty meal in the cafeteria we were back on our way to Vegas. After dropping off these guys at the airport I still had some way to go. I started off at 11 pm and soon realised that I was too tired and drowsy to drive all through the night. So I pulled up at a gas station, removed the blanket from my backpack and slept off right in the car ! Early next morning, energized by a donut and coffee, I made it back to san diego in less than 5 hrs. That was the end to an adventure that i'll not forget in a hurry.

to do list ...

2006-07-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

The Grand Canyon backpacking experience was truely out of the world !! ... i'd highly recommend it to everyone ... in my opinion it's the best way to experience the Grand Canyon in it's full splendour !! No amount of words or pictures will do justice to describe the beauty of the Canyon but here's a link to some pics that we clicked on the way

and here's a list of places / activities currently in my (wish) to do list

* Hike up Half Dome @ Yosemite NP
* Rock climbing @ Joshua Tree NP
* Trek to Havasupai Falls, Grand Canyon
* Highline trail @ Glacier NP
* Ascent ~~any~~ Long's Peak @ Rocky Mountain NP
* Run a marathon

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

2006-06-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

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

Desert Adventure

2006-06-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

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 !

2006-06-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

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 !

Whos who at Halloween !

2004-11-01T12:38:00.000-08:00

L to R : Manali the devil, D'Silva the crossdresser, Komal the catwoman, Amit the Vampire, PD the Pirate, Nikhil the ghost and Raghavan the demon

Labor Day weekend

2004-09-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

this years labor day weekend passed quite peacefully and was a sweet mixture of action as well as relaxation ... it all started with a pre game party at shankar's place on friday nite ... the highlight being meeting sid as he visited ann arbor after managing to escape from francis .. saturday was game day !! the turnout to the game was mindblowing ... and the best part was that we trashed our opponents miami(ohio) 43-10 ... sunday was spent canoeing at the huron river and was a lot of fun as we were a total of 17 people in 8 canoes ... super hungry that we were after the exercise, we had a nice helping of marcos pizza and samosas to end the trip ... also managed to get over our lazy selves to play a game of volleyball in the evening... that was followed by a plan to go for a disco dandiya nite organised by the IASA .. the event turned out to be a complete disaster and eventually we landed up home to have a party of our own ... monday was the relaxing day as we just curled up on our sofas and watched a couple of flicks and got to terms with the fact that the new term was just about to begin !

etc.etc.

2004-09-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

1) We ( Me, Chinar, Nikhil J., Ashish, Rahul, Akshay and Chaitu) won the ME Volleyball Tournament this wednesday. The trophy is awesome and we will have our team name " The Blue Indians" inscribed on it before it passes on to the winner next year. I do not play volleyball regularly and nor am I too good at it ... but this is the second time that i've been part of a team and we won the trophy ... the last time was when we won the Volleyball Championship at the ISA Sportsmeet last year.

2) The fall semester will be starting soon now ( Sept. 7th ) and it promises to be a very very busy semester. Firstly i'm a GSI this semester for a course that has an enrollment of more than 100 students. So even if half of them decide to bug me it's still going to be a pretty big number. Over that i'm taking two full fledged courses and that's going to be topped by my research work. So i dunno how i'm gonna survive thru this term ... i'll probably shed a few kilos over the next four months !

3 ) No plans yet for the labor day weekend ... apart from the fact that I'm going to the first Football Game of the season at the "Big House" on Saturday... we just got the season t-shirts and face tatoos for the ocassion and we're pretty charged up about it ... the pre-game party begins tonite at Shankar's house in Central Campus.

2004-09-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

ME Volleyball Champions

Xvxry Pxrson Is Important

2004-08-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

A very good friend of mine, Sudhanshu Pandit sends out these anecdotes with a lesson every Monday, an attempt to begin the week on a positive note ... thought i'd share them with you all .. every Monday ! so here's the first one ...

One manager let employees know how valuable they are with the following memo:

"You Arx A Kxy Pxrson"

Xvxn though my typxwritxr is an old modxl, it works vxry wxll --xxcxpt for onx kxy. You would think that with all thx othxer kxys functioning propxrly, onx kxy not working would hardly bx noticxd;but just onx kxy out of whack sxxms to ruin thx wholx xffort.

You may say to yoursxlf -- Wxll, I'm only onx pxrson. No onx will noticx if I don't do my bxst. But it doxs makx a diffxrxncx, bxcausx an xffxctivx organization nxxds activx participation by xvxry onx to thx bxst of his orhxr ability.

So, thx nxxt timx you think you arx not important, rxmxmbxr my old typxwritxr. You arx a kxy pxrson.

Have a great week !!

Jai Hind !

2004-08-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

A pic from the flag hoisting cermony at the Central Campus Diag organised by the ISA on occasion of India's 57th Independence Day.

u wont believe this !

2004-08-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

how many times in your life have you met your clone ?? ... well ... i just got a chance not only to be with him but also to engage with him in a friendly "tug of war" at home ... so go ahead and meet my clone ! ... and now that i have the "duplication" code form Agent Smith you could expect to see many more "Me's" in times to come !

image maps

2004-08-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

was playing around with some "image map" javascript today and what i ended up doing was something pretty cool ... made a pin board which points out the places i've been to in the united states ... just like we can add an hyperlink to a text or a complete image, image maps use co-ordinates on the image to do the same on a specified part of the image ... the pin board is a very good example of what image maps can do ... this will be an intersting addition to my travelogue ... but i wont keep you guys waiting for this till the complete travelogue is ready ... so go ahead and see my pin-board at

http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~dixitp/ive_been_there.htm

time to travel ... yipeeeeeeeee !!!

2004-08-04T17:41:00.000-07:00

sorry for not updating my blog for a long time ... actually it's entirely my fault .. the lazy bum that I am ... don't even update my blog even if i'm staring into my computer for the whole day ... so here i am putting up a post before chinar leaves a comment to change my blog title to parag's monthly digest :)... thought i'd write abt something interesting ... and what could be better than talking about trips and drives ... i've been touring the US ever since i came here at such a pace that i'd probably deserve an extra degree in tourism or something :) ... and would i need to add that i just love driving ... thinking back my first trip here was to chicago in oct 01 when my roomate lalith had just gotten his license ... but it was the trip to Madison, Wisconsin in the winter break where i actually learnt to drive ... then got my driving license in march 02 and after that there has been no looking back ... just the other day i was counting the number of states i've visited till now ... and it's a whooping 24 !! ... i've been maintaining a travel log which lists all the places that i've been to with details of the car i drove and the miles i logged ... haven't had a chance to put it up till now so thought why not now ... so here's the link

update : was working on the link to put up here but it's taking quite a while as i'm also uploading pictures for each trip i took ... so please be patient and i'll put it up as soon as it's ready !

Trip to Niagara Falls

2004-07-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

Spent the last weekend visiting Niagara Falls with my parents. I've been the niagara falls before through Canada. The falls are only 5hrs drive through Canada, but with hassles and costs of getting the visa we decided to take the longer route around lake Erie on the US side of the falls which is about a 8 hr drive. Decided to leave on Friday as there are Fireworks on the Falls every friday and sunday nite. Left ann arbor around 10 am and reached our campground ( 4 Mile Creek State Park ) at about 6 pm. The park itself is very beautiful and located on the shores of Lake Ontario and is just a 20 min drive from the Niagara Falls. Pitched our tent and then drove down to see the illuminated falls and firework display. Next morning we visited the historic "Old Fort Niagara" near the vilage of Youngstown and then went back to the falls to take the "Maid of the Mist" boat ride which takes you to the foot of the niagara falls and then left back for home around 1:00 pm. The pic above shows the illuminated niagara falls.

Panoramic Views

2004-07-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

Spent some time putting up some of the best panoramic views that I have taken so far on the web. All the pics here have been taken by me with a Olympus Camedia D-40 Zoom Digital Camera and stitched together using Olympus Camedia Master Software. You can find these pics online at :

http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~dixitp/panorama.htm

Hope you like the pics !

Dayton Air Show

2004-07-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

Had been to the US air force museum and the dayton air show this weekend .. and what an experience it was ! The museum in dayton is amongst the biggest in the country and features exhibits from the first flight flown by the Wright brothers to the latest B2 stealth bombers ... also saw the film "Spacestation" in the IMAX theatre and experienced a flight in a flight simulator at the museum ... also visited a couple of picturesque state parks near dayton on saturday evening ... sunday morning we headed for the air-show ... the show showcased some arcobatic flying by women pilots and demonstrations of some of the best US planes including the very manuverable F-16's, F/A 18 Hornet's and the renowned vector thrust AV-8B Harrier ... the part I liked most was the race between a plane and a 36000 hp jet truck capable of reaching speeds upto 378 mph ... and the truck beat the plane by miles ! the picture above shows ( clockwise ) the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the Aeroshell Acrobatic team and a father-son duo with the father driving the plane crazy while the son did stunts on the body of the plane ... overall it was one hell of a show !

Tennis

2004-07-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

Got back to playing tennis after a real long break ... have completely lost touch with serving tough i hope to get back in touch soon ... I remember it was sometime back when I was in the 6th standard that I got my first tennis racquet ... it was wooden, heavy and not the best of makes ...but it was special and I still have it back home because I had bought it with the first big money that i'd ever earned (~200 bucks) by selling firecrackers before diwali ... since we're talking about earning money i've been quite an entrepreneur right from my early school days :) ... i remember starting a book library ( Sunshine Library ), selling fireworks, starting a Greeting Card company ( Designer Cards ) which later diversified into designing T-shirts for Colleges and then came up it's own brand of T-shirts ( El Nino collections ) ... there are so many things and so much fun i've had doing all this that i'll probably write a seperate post about it ... getting back to tennis i hope to get over my lazyness and get back to playing more regularly now on ... am looking forward to the coming weekend as i'm heading off to Dayton, OH for the famous air-show and it promises to be an exciting affair .. more of that after i come back .. adios !

Up the Lurie Bell Tower

2004-07-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Got a chance to go up the Robert H. Lurie Bell Tower yesterday evening ... the Lurie Tower located on the North Campus Diag is a 165-foot tall poured concrete structure with a veneer of bricks and ceramic tile and a copper roof and cladding ... the tower is actually a Carillon, a musical instrument consisting of at least two octaves of cup-shaped carillon bells, arranged in chromatic series, and played from a keyboard that allows variation of touch ... there are a total of 60 bells, the largest being about seven feet in diameter and weighing close to 6 tons and the smallest about seven inches in diameter and weighing only 20 pounds ... the picture above shows a couple of the bigger size bells ... and the bells which can be heard quite a distance away do sound real loud up there ! also the view of ann arbor from up there is quite mesmerizing

Lazy weekend

2004-07-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

Spent another lazy weekend just chilling at home ... watched "We were soldiers" starring Mel Gibson on Saturday and went ice-skating at the Yost Ice Arena on Sunday .. today was the opening day of the arena for the season after a long summer break .. so I too plan on getting back to skating regularly now onwards !

Panoramic view of Grand Canyon

2004-07-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

This is a panoramic view of Mather Point on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon captured just after sunrise. The view was generated by stitching together 4 different images shot with an Olympus D-40 Zoom camera. Altough I had carried a tripod stand this particular picture was taken without one and actually turned out to be better than the ones that i took with a tripod .. particularly the shadow of the clouds on the canyon walls creates a very sublime effect !

July 4th Weekend

2004-07-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

my july 4th weekend plans had a real early start with an impromptu decision to visit my childhood pal aniket ( aka huggies ) in cincinnati on thursday evening ... aniket was in the US for some official business and was going to fly out on saturday ... on way i dropped harry at dayton and reached cinci by 9:30 pm ... felt real good to see aniket even tough i had last seen him just about 5 months back ... had a hearty chat and went off to sleep .. friday morning aniket had a small presentation at GE ..so i went off to meet my MIT college-mate, Udayan who is doing his MS in Cincinnati ... had breakfast ( half-burnt omlette ;)and spent some time looking around UC campus ... around noon drove back to the Marriott where aniket was staying and we immediately left for Columbus, Indiana to meet Pushkar and to pick up Amit Surve... had a great lunch at Pushkar's place and then we three drove back to Cinci ... had dinner at some indian restaurant downtown and were so full that we changed original plans of driving back to Ann Arbor in the night and helped aniket pack his bags as he had to leave early sat morning ... me and amit left cinci sat morning and picked up harry and soumya on the way at dayton .. oh .. i should'nt forget to mention the amazing brakfast we had at 'Waffle House'! ... reached back to AA right in time for a wondrful lunch that mom had prepared ... Sat evening we headed for some fireworks at Hudson Mills Metropark, Dexter ... and was amazed to see the number of people who had come in there .. there must've been atleast a 1000 cars there ... the fireworks were pretty good tough ! .. Sunday was happening with both Wimbledon and the Euro Cup finals lined up one after the other ... and this was followed up by two back to back films at Showcase ... 'Dodgeball' followed by 'Spiderman 2' ... dodgeball was hilarious and i liked spiderman too ... so had enuf fun to keep me charged for quite some time ( at least till next weekend :))

Hello world ! My first photo blog !

2004-07-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hello world ! This is my first photo blog.... just used the hello interface to upload the snap directly to my blogspot ... found hello extremely easy to use and the photos are uploaded in a snap ... now you will be seeing a lot more pictures on this blog ! ... and btw this particular pic of mine was taken at Willow Beach just near Hoover Dam during my trip to the west coast last month

hello world !

2004-07-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

I remember this as the first program I wrote when I was learning C ... anyways welcome to my daily digest ... wondering about the name of my blospot ... initially looked for something simple like pd.blogspot.com or pds.blogspot.com but was surprised that most common names have already been occupied by people ... so finally settled onto dcube.blogspot.com ... btw that's what most of my friends call me here at ann arbor .. dcube being the abbreviation for Dr. Dr. Dixit ... the 2 Dr.'s indicating that i'll be graduating ( dunno when ! ) with a joint doctorate degree in mechanical engg. and scientific computing from the univ. of michigan, ann arbor ... hope you have a great time at my blog !