Bike Trails

Here are some bike trails I have rode this summer.

View Big Basin in a larger map
This was probably a intermediate level dirt trail with quite a bit of elevation gain,
more suited for mountain bikes. We started at about 1600 ft, went down to around
800 ft and then had to climb to 1900 ft to finish off. Damn tiring!

View Halfmoon Bay in a larger map

This is an easy one, with the trail going along the beautiful halfmoon bay coast. More of a fun family ride.

View Arastradero Park in a larger map

This park is located in the Palo Alto hills, a barren trail with no tree cover, we were roasted in the hot sun!

View SFPier41-GoldenGate-Sausolito-Tiburon-SF in a larger map

This is a beautiful route that starts off
from one of the famous SF piers, takes you across the Golden Gate bridge to the
town of Sausolito, then a ride in the country side into Tiburon. We took the
ferry back to SF.

Kirkwood Ski Resort Opening Dates

2012/13 - 11/16 (Opened with Chair 5 and a storm moved in too; Early start to season as it typically is in the pattern of a weak El Nino forecast; Some late october/early-november storms led to snow on the mountains, couple of feet at some places, maybe more on the sierra crest; Cold temperatures and Vail's deep pockets mean good snow making opportunities)

2011/12 - 11/25 (Opened on Nov 25 with Chair 5 spinning, but resort operated only on weekends after a few days with no snow and warm temperatures, then reopened for 7 days a week on 12/17 with Chairs 5, 11, 1 spinning, thanks to snow guns; Bad snow year overall)

2010/11 - 11/24 (Bluebird opening on Nov 24th, after an "Epic" November storm with 5-7 ft of snow in 4 days; Chairs 5, 6, 11 and 1 were turning)

2009/10 - 12/04 (opened with chair 5)

2008/09 - 12/15

2007/08 - 11/25

2006/07 - 11/25

Biking

Summer dawned and I began to suffer from Skiing withdrawal symptoms (symptoms include frequent countdowns to the next ski season - around 180 days for the curious, lurking in the epicski community among other things). So, I took up biking with some friends.

I bought this classy new bike - Trek 7.2 Fx, and was happy riding it all over the place. And then Shit happened! As we drove across the golden gate bridge on our way to some bike trails, with our bikes tied on the back of our vehicle, believe it or not, my bike comes off the rack, flies close to the car behind us, misses it and bounces off the road before crashing. We then treaded along the dangerous narrow freeway shoulder to retrieve my bike. And man was it screwed up, fork twisted out of shape, wheels bent, headset scratched and bent, saddle torn, seat post bent and unusable, front brakes broken. Only the frame held up along with the gear system, so technically not salvage material yet. Later I learnt that this is a common problem with bike racks (WTF?#@!&). I just blame it on my star alignment.

I also got a chance to try out some of Google's Android applications. One application called "MyTracks" deserves special mention. This app uses the gps device available on the G1 to record geo coordinates and store them. Later, when I get net connectivity, I can upload it to docs/spreadsheets, maps etc. That was very cool. Heres my trip around shoreline.


View Travel in a larger map

Bunny to Black

The Mooney we flew on a company offsite(on the way to Truckee-Squaw)

Inside the 4-seater Mooney

Beautiful Sierras

Me doing parallel turns

Our cabin on one of our trips to Tahoe

The title describes my journey as I began to ski for the first time since 2007. What a season! Here I am - a strong intermediate skier, a confidence acquired after 15 days of skiing this year at 6 different resorts ranging from Northstar, Homewood and Squaw in the North Lake Tahoe area to Kirkwood, Sierra-At-Tahoe and Heavenly in the South Lake region.

It has been a great learning experience. One might think that Skiing involves just sliding down a hill, but as I studied more about skiing, I began to understand the limitless expanse of skiing -- the varied skiing techniques, the differing terrain, weather conditions, difficulty levels, degree of gradient, or different surface conditions such as moguls, powder, icy, corn snow, slushy etc.

After graduating the green slopes, it was an absolute delight to tear into the long broad intermediate/blue slopes. These cruisers are an absolute favourite of mine, as they are long, steep and broad that enables me to turn at ease. Some of my favourite runs have been: West Bowl at Sierra, Shirley Lake at Squaw, Bonanza and High Grade at Homewood, Bark Shanty/Juniper/Whiskey area in Kirkwood and Meteor and Comet runs at Heavenly.

Having been comfortable on intermediate slopes, I began to venture into some of the tougher black diamond slopes. Some of the blacks that I tried were the Siberia Bowl at Squaw and Upper Zachary at Kirkwood. Skiing blacks can be tough. They tend to be really steep and it takes some courage to shake off the initial chills and jump in. The presence of bumps along the slopes makes it much harder. These ventures really exposed my shortcomings in technique as a skier, but made me determined to really "learn" skiing. I have now begun to work on the art of carved turns, an elusive technique for most intermediates. The more natural way to ski would seem like using the flat skis on snow, but carved turns requires us to tip the skis on their edges and achieve a certain degree of edge control. With sufficient angulation of the body, the skis tips on their edge, and the body's weight pushes the centre of the ski down, so these parabolic shaped skiis carve their way into the turn. Sounds simple, but has been a difficult skill to acquire.

Many experts suggest that beginners should be taught parallel/carved turns right away as that will prevent them from learning such bad techniques as wedge turns. But I felt that wedge and stem-christie turns, bad as they might be, provided me with a defensive platform and kept me interested in skiing. As I learn to use parallel/carved turns and graduate into tougher terrain, it is comforting to know that I have a stem christie to fall back on for tougher terrain.

Although this has been a great skiing season, I am sad that it is coming to an end with the advent of summer. I am already looking forward to the 2010 season (some 7-8 months away) as I aim to take my skiing to the next level.

Discovering America

I arrived in the United States in Dec 2003 and as I rolled through my grad school years, I took a detached interest in the 2004 Presidential primaries and the elections that followed. As an Indian, I guess my "natural" naive inclination then was towards the democrats. Over the course of the next 4 years, I took an interest in understanding many political ideologies and schools of thought: Socialism, Communism, Objectivism, Libertarianism, Anarchy, Monarchy, Democracy, Fascism/Totalitarianism, Pragmatism, and different economic ideologies such as Free-market Capitalism, keynesian and their numerous morphed versions...in this endless battle between the "Haves" and "Have-Nots".

I have taken a particular interest in the Libertarian ideas -- coupled with the idea that the individuals can make better decisions for themselves than the government can make for them, Constitution and the rule of law, and in the ideas of Free-Market Capitalism. I have also been particularly fascinated by the Austrian school of economics. It also coincided with an introduction to the 2008/2009 republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and his ideas for a free and just society. I was totally blown away by the sophistication of the American/Western political thought, the wisdom of it's founders and their understanding of the value of freedom and liberty.

In 2008/2009, it was surreal to watch Barack Obama galvanise the Americans as he "rode the wave" into the White House. Having watched him talk from a few feet away, I could sense the excitement and inspiration he had on his audience. Surely, Obama was smart, articulate, young, inspirational, but the main question was: will his government-solves-everything policy work? Can an entity such as the government manage trillions of dollars in capital investment or is it best left to private enterprise? I thought Americans missed a trick by not understanding and voting for the Ron Paul revolution. I think a majority of the world's political problems could have been solved with Ron Paul as president. He seemed to have the most sensible, logical non-interventionist foreign policy. He is a fiscal conservative, a constitutionalist (with the belief that the individual should be protected from the government, not the other way round), a proponent of individual liberty, lower taxes (it's possible!), free market and sound monetary policies. But then he is not the president, and maybe, just maybe, the World and the United States missed it's best chance for peace and prosperity.

At the 2004 Republican National Convention, Arnold Schwarzenegger gave a speech and explained why he was a Republican:
"I finally arrived here in 1968. What a special day it was. I remember I arrived here with empty pockets but full of dreams, full of determination, full of desire. The presidential campaign was in full swing. I remember watching the Nixon-Humphrey presidential race on TV. A friend of mine who spoke German and English translated for me. I heard Humphrey saying things that sounded like socialism, which I had just left.
But then I heard Nixon speak. He was talking about free enterprise, getting the government off your back, lowering the taxes and strengthening the military. Listening to Nixon speak sounded more like a breath of fresh air. I said to my friend, I said, "What party is he?" My friend said, "He's a Republican." I said, "Then I am a Republican." And I have been a Republican ever since."