Went backpacking near this area called Devil's Postpile in Mammoth Lakes with Andrew, Mat, and Ben. Didn't actually go see the postpile, which is a pile of hexagonal colums that have topped over. It is one of the natural wonders of the world. Big positives and negatives about the trip. We really wanted to get there Saturday morning, so we left at 4:30 am…..with absolutely no sleep whatsoever from the night before because they started packing at Friday midnight. So no one could sleep at all because we were worried about the driver falling asleep and plowing us into a semi. So we finally get to the beginning of the trail by 10:30am, dead tired of course, and decide to hike 6-8 miles and 2000 ft up. Fortunately one guy was out of shape so he unintentionally brought us some relief because we only managed to walk 2 miles (still 2000 feet up), then found a nice camp next to a waterfall (completely covered with mosquitos, horse flies, black flies). First thing we all did when we got there was nap for 1-2 hours after we set up our tents. From here it was pleasant minus the bugs. Had a nice dinner and brunch the next day. We took a lot of pita bread because it was a better fit for the bear canisters (lots of bears at mammoth, so we had to put all the food we had in this pretty small canister. Had some tuna and pita sandwiches for lunch, pita and tuna helper for dinner, pita penut butter sandwiches and chicken noodle soup for brunch. We saw a deer around lunch time one the second day, but couldn't get a good shot off with our cameras in time. We hiked up a waterfall and took some nice pictures, then headed out. Good thing we didn’t hike the 6-8 miles. If we did, I don’t think we ever would have caught the shuttle in time, and we’d still be there now. : ) On our way home, we decided to get some steak. So in Bishop, we stopped by this pretty classy looking place (from the inside), we were worried about not getting seated cause we were covered in a lot of dust. But they sat us anyway. One thing odd about the place was the choice of music. Blackstreet boys, ricki Martin, and more outdated teen pop to name a few. Our steaks were pretty good except one guy’s steak was literally at the very most 1/3 of what the other steak was (exact same order too). Our reasoning was that he ordred the “beef” vegetable soup as his side, while we all ordered salads, so the rest of his steak must have been in the soup he had just before the entrée. He didn’t complain, but decided to piss all over the toilet seat instead on the way out. So driving out, 7-12pm the temperature was absolutely ridiculous. It was about 95 degrees for at least half of our commute home. There must have been a forest fire of biblical proportions somewhere near by, because we drove through smoke for a good 2 hours on the way home, which explains the ridiculous temperatures. By no means this was a perfect trip. It could have gone better, but still had a good time.



mosquito bites:

4 on the back of my hands

1 on the arm

1 on the hip

1 on my nose

1 on my head

6 on my neck.



maybe i should have gone for the higher concentration DEET bug repellant lotion. it is really hard to avoid bugs. if you go when the bugs are not there, it's too cold, and when you go away from the bugs you are usually away from water, so you gotta conserve water. if it weren't for the mosquitos the trip would have been a lot better. the bites are fierce. the one I got 2 days ago is still puffy and itches a lot. the other ones are one day old so they are not going away any time soon.



i was gonna just eat my pita and my protein bars, but i ended up not eating any of my protein bars, and straying from my diet this weekend with concentrated foods.



i got home at about 2am this morning, and went to sleep around 3am. was gonna head into work a little late, but then i got woken up by nguyen in the morning about a server that was misbehaving, so i troubleshot half awake, then went to sleep again and woke up at 12:30. i don't think i needed to sleep that late, but it was so hot, i couldn't get up. felt so sluggish. took another nap between 3:30 and 4:30, and then got into rimac at about 5:35. after coming home from the gym, i realized i totally forgot about my abs so i'm gonna hit the gym downstairs in a bit. i bought this thing called "cutting gel". it's a topical gel that you apply to your problem areas (abs for example) and it'll aid in releasing the stored fat in that area to your bloodstream. It sounds like it's a permanent thing, unlike preperation H or any kind of skin dehydrating cream that only lasts for a few days. i should see some results in a week.



just did some research on the cutting gel. it looks like it's good stuff. safe, and effective, and fast results. can't ask for anything more.

http://www.reach4life.com/details.asp?ProdID=4225