another weekend, two more adventures!

This past weekend I had planned to take a hike on Saturday to check out the fall colors, since my employer was in New York for the weekend.  I had been following Georgia State Parks Leaf Watch to determine which park was going to have the best colors.  I chose Fort Mountain State Park because the report for October 23, 2012 said, "We are nearly at peak!  By this weekend, the color should be at its best."  Saturday morning, I marshalled the troops (this time Marius, Sarah, and her dog Luke) and we headed northwest toward Chatsworth.  It was a 2 hour drive, with a lot of clouds and a forecasted 20% chance of rain.  As we approached Fort Mountain, we drove into the clouds so we were in a thick, thick fog.  We THOUGHT we might drive through and get above it, but this was not to be the case.

Undaunted, we climbed out of the car at the end of the road, and made our way through the fog to the "GAHUTI TRAIL" sign we had seen indicating where the trail had crossed the road.  We started along the trail, and after not too long, came upon an overlook.  It was supposed to have a pretty extensive view which might have been very colorful, but we will never know - this is what we saw:

marius with luke at the "cool springs overlook"

As we left the overlook, we found a sign that informed us that we were NOW at the trailhead.  Oh well, at least it was a loop trail.  As we passed the sign and continued on our trail, it started to rain.  It turned out to be not only extremely foggy the entire 8+mile, 5+ hour hike, but it rained off and on.  Somehow, the fog was wet enough that the rain really didn't matter - except we all shielded our cameras when the rain fell.  Also, this promise of "the color should be at its best" did not impress us.  The overall colors were okay but not brilliant.  Most of the leaves were brown and had already fallen.  Nevertheless, the hike was really beautiful - not IN SPITE of the fog but BECAUSE of the fog.  We had a great time with some slipping and sliding, lots of stopping to take photos, and good company.  Sarah's undergrad major (Wildlife and Fisheries) meant she could educate Marius and me about some of the foliage and wildlife native to these mountains.

i found some fall color in the fog

water and snack break (i think this was supposed to be another great view)

sarah and luke found the mile 5 sign through the fog

a bright spot - pretty maple leaves

yep, a wee bit of fog, it was pretty crazy at times to not see much of the trail ahead

this scene looked somewhat like japanese art

pretty scene through the fog

these are the conditions through which we drove and hiked

Well, Georgia, you've got one more chance to impress me with your spectacular fall color!  So far I've missed out...

Friday night at the climbing wall, I got an offer to go climb outside on Sunday.  I put off my final decision because I have a group project on which I need to work, but by Saturday night I decided to go - I had put in some work after I got back from the hike.  So on Sunday morning, David picked me up and then Brent, and we headed to northwest Georgia (again, for me).  This time we headed to Pigeon Mountain just outside LaFayette, to the Lost Wall which is partway up it.  We hiked in and climbed three different routes - two trad and one sport.  David and Brent led the routes and I followed them up.  It wasn't foggy, just overcast, but the temperature kept dropping.  I ended up very glad that I brought multiple layers, and wished I had brought a beanie.

david belaying as brent leads off

david 2/3 up

proof  i was climbing, too... although i couldn't finish this route

All in all, another successful weekend.  Fun, friends, exercise, good times.  Now back to that project...

celebrating jonathan and priscilla

The rituals for the wedding may have begun earlier, but the first I heard about was the installation of the bridal bed - this occurred during the boat trip on Saturday, with Grandma and aunts going to the couple's house.  Saturday evening, a dinner was held with all attending members of both maternal and paternal sides of Jonathan's family, celebrating his last night as a bachelor.  After dinner, Grandma performed the traditional hair-combing ceremony with Auntie Madeline reading the blessings.

hair combing ceremony

5 girl cousins (queenie, janine, vince, felicia, and me) with uncle fred

Sunday morning I went for a walk, down to Des Voeux Road and back up to Bonham Road.  I discovered that I could get free wireless internet while standing outside of Grandma's building.  Just before noon we were picked up by a chauffeur and taken to Uncle Fred and Auntie Yvonne's house for a buffet lunch.  Much of the family was there, and lunch was followed by the tea ceremony for the Ng side of the family.

waiting for our ride

after enjoying lunch - uncle admond, auntie maggie, grandma, auntie madeline, uncle victor

the all-important couple arrives!

with grandma and #3 (jonathan's parents)

with #4, #7, #8, and #9

After the tea ceremony, we returned to Grandma's so she could nap and I could study for a bit.  Then we were taken to the wedding venue - the exclusive Hong Kong club.  Canapes and cocktails were served, and then the ceremony took place.

saying their vows

cutting the cake

We headed over to the Mandarin Oriental a block away for the wedding banquet - a small, intimate family affair of only 16 tables (more than 160 people!!).  Delicious food was enjoyed by all, and there were speeches by both Priscilla's and Jonathan's parents.  Toward the end, we got a few photos of the cousins together - except Jonathan, since he and Priscilla were busy thanking and greeting their guests.

a photo with the radiant bride

grandma isn't looking, i hope someone else got a better shot

9 of the 14 cousins - alan, vince, joyce, wilson, and jonathan are missing

I left with Grandma to go back to her flat, pack, and get a little sleep while some of the others went out for karaoke with the bride and groom.  I woke up at 5 am Monday to catch a taxi to the Airport Express train station in Central, had plenty of time to catch my 8 am flight.  The return flights were fairly bumpy, but not too bad.  I was even blessed with an empty middle seat next to me on the long flight from Tokyo back to Atlanta, although I was unable to study because I got a headache each time I tried to concentrate.  All in all, it was a wonderful trip, 100% worth the school stress, travel time, and fuzzy-headed jet lag that is currently slowly fading away.  I survived my exam Tuesday and am now back in the swing of things, planning my next hike, preparing for my short-term clinical for two weeks after Thanksgiving, and getting ready to move out and drive back to California in December to spend the first 2/3 of 2013 on the West Coast.

HONG KONG!

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Hong Kong over the brief Fall Break this year, and attend my cousin Jonathan's wedding.  It was a bit of a crazy trip - over 40 hours of travel for just over 80 hours there - but VERY much worth it.

I had three exams before I left - a written Neuro Rehab exam Monday, Neuro Rehab practical exam Tuesday, and then Wednesday morning was an exam in Health Services and Management.  Immediately after finishing my third exam, I walked home and got ready to be picked up and taken to the airport.  I got there with more than enough time to spare (thanks, Brian!!) and did some studying (for an exam less than 22 hours after my return!) in the airport as I waited to begin my 21 hour transit from Atlanta to Hong Kong.

airport studying - since i had an exam coming up 22 hours after my return!

My long flight to Tokyo included complimentary seat-back kicking courtesy of the woman behind me - she held her year old son on her lap and didn't try too hard to control him.  After a layover in Tokyo, my flight to Hong Kong was pretty uneventful.  I arrived shortly before midnight Thursday and was honored to be picked up by Jonathan and his fiancee Priscilla.  They whisked me off to Grandma's flat where I took a quick shower and slept very well - the positive side of the relatively miserable flight ATL-NRT.  The next day I woke up quite refreshed, and got to see Alex's wedding video since Uncle Yan and Auntie Val wanted to show it to Grandma and my laptop was the perfect viewing platform.  We went out for dim sum for lunch - #3, #7, me, and Grandma.  After lunch, while Uncle Fred and Uncle Yan headed out to the airport to pick up Janine, Alex, and Jen, and Auntie Yvonne went to her fellowship, Auntie Val and I "shopped" - walked around and chatted as we passed all the shops we could never afford.  We stopped for a drink and a snack at a McDonald's McCafe before heading up the hill to Uncle Fred and Auntie Yvonne's flat.

mccafe teatime with auntie val - us mcdonald's don't have goodies like this!

That night was a dinner at King Ludwig, a German restaurant, where we dined on pork trotters, bangers, sauerkraut, and potatoes.  Attending were #3, the entire #7 family, one member of the #8 family, and me.

alex, jen, auntie val, uncle victor - uncle yan took the photos

auntie yvonne, me, janine, and uncle fred

After dinner we went out to Lan Kwai Fong - I didn't stay long, but headed back for a good night's sleep after a bit of studying.  The next morning, I headed down to Central Piers, Pier 9, to head out on a boat with Jonathan, Priscilla, cousins, and friends.

15 of us boarded this boat to head around to the south side of hk island

this was the view as we started off

The boat parked off a beach at South Bay - right next to Repulse Bay.  We had lunch, swam in the sea, and jumped off the boat.

jonathan jumping off the upper deck

jen, janine, and me in the water

looking off to the beach

looking over toward repulse bay

After we got back into Central, we cleaned up and reconvened at Grandma's for the tea ceremony for Alex and Jen's nuptials.  Grandma hadn't been able to make it to England for their wedding in May, so a tea ceremony was held on this trip.

jen and alex serving tea to grandma

receiving lycee from auntie yvonne and uncle fred

serving tea to auntie val, uncle yan, and janine

Later that evening the festivities celebrating Jonathan and Priscilla began - more on that in my next post.

epic okefenokee adventure, part III

After I had crawled back into the tent and changed into dry clothes, I lay there listening to the raging storm.  I had left both my phone and iPod in the car, so I had no idea what time it was.  I now can look back at the times photos were taken and get a general sense.  I don't know how long the deluge lasted, but it was a while.  Finally, it eased up, and we could hear more than just the sound of the rain.  It got quieter, and I heard zippers from the other tent.  Marius called out to us that it was clear and the stars were out again.  Dan and I opened up the vents of our tent and were able to look out and see the stars.  It's incredible how quickly that storm hit and then passed completely by.

The rest of the night was spent with a lot of wakeful listening and a little bit of sleep.  Noises included steady dripping from the surrounding trees, frogs, crickets, as well as crazy monkey sounds that it turns out come from the Barred Owl, a common swamp denizen.  The creepiest sounds were splashes and especially the sounds of swimming.  There were definitely alligators swimming right next to our platform...  my ears were peeled for the sounds of steps with claws and the dragging of a tail, but thankfully those sounds never came.

When morning broke, we scrambled out of our tents.  I managed not to decapitate myself on the tent ropes, although I did trip over them.  We surveyed our surroundings, ascertaining that nothing had been lost, the canoes were still flipped over and in place, but the water level had risen noticeably.

dan checking out the aftermath

check out the ropes from that rainfly - tied anywhere and everywhere!

one of many new spider webs after the storm

When getting dressed, I put on a pair of water shoes I had picked up at Walmart Friday night simply because they were on clearance for $2 and looked like they might come in handy.  I was VERY glad to have them since my running shoes were sopping wet after the previous night's escapades.  After a hearty breakfast of oatmeal and tea, we packed up all our gear.  While packing up the tents, I noticed a crazy looking bug and a cute tiny fuzzy caterpillar on the tent.

my first time seeing a stick bug - i even correctly identified it!

fir tussock moth caterpillar - cute little guy!

Once all the gear was packed, we went to flip over the canoes.  For some reason, Dan seemed to think it was a good idea to step out toward the canoe to grab it - his leg sunk into the swamp water, nearly to his hip!  Now he also had a wet shoe.  Thankfully, he had brought sandals, so he still had footwear for the day.  We stowed all the gear in the canoes.  Since Dan again chose the single canoe, I made a point of giving him less weight since it seemed we had given him too much on the way out to the camp.  As a result, he took off much more quickly, and we didn't see him again until we returned to Okefenokee Adventures where we had started.  I think I ended up putting more weight in the double canoe than we had started with the day before.  We paddled back over the same route, marveling at the higher water level and stopping every so often for photos.

swamp cricket frog

we were on the "pink trail" - the 4 on the sign meant we were 4 miles from the main canal, 6 miles from our destination, 1.5 miles away from our camp.  that's one of my awesome water shoes.  yep, my favorite color (NOT).

There were the same areas of "swamp doo-doo" although the rain had made them different than the day before.  Most were easier to push through, although one was significantly worse.  We actually got completely stuck for a little while.

one of the "swamp doo-doo" areas

water lily

We passed a ranger with a group she was guiding out to the spot we had just vacated.  I didn't envy her the task of getting 5 canoes and a total of 6-7 adults and 4-5 kids out through those piles of swamp doo-doo.  Once we got back onto the Suwannee Canal, we saw more boats.  I had a random kayaker take a photo for us since we had both gotten so many photos of Dan the previous day but had none of the canoe we used.  We spent some time just moving slowly along the shady side of the canal, enjoying the relative cool.

marius and me in the canoe

Tired but happy, Marius and I finally made it back.  We found Dan waiting there - he had been so eager to get up off the canoe seat that he had just kept paddling until he got all the way back.   We unloaded the canoes, packed the car, and took advantage of the flush toilets and running water to clean up and change clothes before the long drive back.

dan in the car.  he was ready to leave long before we were!

I got home around 8 PM after dropping both the guys at home, had just enough energy to start a load of laundry and partially unpack, and made the most of the chance to sleep in my bed again!

pretty awesome glove and sock tan lines...

So I did end up with a pretty severe sunburn on about 8 square inches of my left thigh - I suncreened decently but not high enough - my shorts apparently rode up a bit and allowed the burn.  My shoulders and upper back got a bit of burn as well, but not nearly as bad as the leg.  And despite using loads of DEET-laden insect repellent, I am still fighting the urge to scratch my 32+ (I think the final count might be 35) bug bites.

I survived this week of school, this coming week I have a couple days of exams and then I fly off to Hong Kong for a very short trip!

epic okefenokee adventure, part II

We took our snack break before paddling off into Chesser prairie.  After not very long, Marius and I stopped to take pictures of the water lilies.  And sometime around then I had the brilliant idea to use our silly little life vests (kid sized) as seat cushions.  WOW.  That helped a lot!  Those solid plastic seats are NOT made for comfort!

water lily

note the piles of brown on the right of this picture - those are peat blow-ups

 When we were at least 4 miles into the swamp, we encountered our first "peat blow-up" - pieces of peat dislodged from the bottom of the swamp.  It was significantly harder to paddle through and around the mess created, but we made it.  Little did we know that was just the first - we had to struggle through five or six, some worse than others.  Dan started calling it "swamp doo-doo," a name that stuck for the rest of the trip.  We saw white wading birds with curved beaks - the White Ibis, although I ended up not getting any pictures of them.  We also saw Great Egrets, both wading and sitting on the tops of trees.

great egret atop a tree

try paddling through swamp doo-doo sometime...  it builds character!

 After one of the worst sections of swamp doo-doo, thick and around a curve, Marius and I waited for Dan when we hadn't spotted him behind us for a while.  It started to rain, so we turned back to find him, thinking it would not be pleasant to be stuck in the peat, alone, in the rain.  When we finally found him, he decided to put on his rain poncho.  He didn't last long with it on - it was way too warm to do any kind of exercise under a sheet of plastic.

dan in the rain

At the next area of swamp doo-doo, we used my 15' rope to tie Dan's canoe to ours so we could tow him through if it got too tough.  Sometime between 2:30 and 3 pm, we paddled in to Monkey Lake.  We tied our canoes up to the walkway by the composting toilet and unloaded all our gear.

monkey lake from google maps showing our home for the night

success!  we paddled 7.5 miles!

composting toilet outhouse with canoes pulled up next to the walkway

We all got into the larger canoe to check out Buzzard's Roost Lake - it was one half mile past Monkey Lake and had been recommended as a good place to watch the sunset.  We spotted our second alligator on the way there, on the side of the little waterway, and our third once we got out into the lake - it quickly submerged.  Marius attempted to fish for a little while although he had been warned that there weren't many fish for the catching.  He decided a canoe, especially with two other people, was not an ideal fishing setup.

this photo at buzzard's roost lake shows i didn't use enough sunscreen!

We headed back to our camp since it was much to early for sunset and set up the tents to let them dry from the night before.  We made our second fancy dinner- a pared down version of this spicy tuna couscous recipe.  YUM!  I had brought a small container with diced red bell pepper, cucumber (homegrown!), and green onion, all soaked in a little bit of vinegar, since I wasn't about to bring the lemon juice listed in the recipe.  It added just the right touch of sour flavor.

unstaked tents, draped rainflies, plans for calm weather

After cleaning up our dishes, we went back out to Buzzard's Roost to watch the sun set.  It was quite beautiful, and size of the lake allowed us to get back from the trees to get a better view.

sunset at buzzard's roost lake

reflections on the way back to camp

We headed back and enjoyed a cup of tea, sitting around the picnic table.  We heard many strange sounds, including a couple of loud, deep growls.  I have just confirmed that alligators do indeed growl.  I nervously laid on my back to look at the stars, and was soon joined by both of the guys.  The Milky Way was visible, although our limited viewing area didn't present any recognizable constellations.  We did see a few shooting stars.  I tried to get a photo of the stars, but I guess our platform wasn't quite stable enough to get a non-blurry photo, at least not with a 12 minute exposure like this one:

at least you can see the cloudiness of the milky way and a little bit of star trails...

My last attempt at a long exposure photo, I looked up walked out to close the shutter and pick up the camera.  "Pointless," I said, "There are clouds covering most of the stars!"
After I packed my camera back in its case, put away my mini-tripod, and settled in for the night, logic kicked in...  we had been seeing lightning flashes in the distance for hours and hearing thunder, AND clouds had just covered over our sparkling clear view of the stars.  It just might rain!  I convinced Marius (since Dan wasn't moving) to help me flip the canoes over so we wouldn't have canoes full of water in the morning.  A few raindrops fell as we completed this task.  We moved the hanging spot for our food bags from the edge of the shelter to a spot more under the roof.  We tossed anything we saw that might need to stay dry into the tents, then the thunderstorm really hit.  Within a couple of minutes, we were being bombarded with heavy, horizontal rain.  Marius and I scrambled to secure the rainfly of the larger tent to anything and everything in sight.  I ended up tying the lines to the posts of the shelter and the bench of the picnic table, while he tied his side to his smaller tent, which fortunately had needed to be anchored earlier in order to be properly set up.  I was completely soaked when I crawled back into the tent, and incredibly thankful I had thought to bring a full-size towel.  Dan stayed comfy and dry...

So ends part II.  Part III to follow soon.