Enchanted!!! [Trip to Enchantment lakes -july 31st 2010]

[This blog post is dedicated to Andhonee]
I thought i will never come back to this blog, but when i did a long day hike to enchantment lakes, i decided to blog this experience, for this is definitely a once in a lifetime trip for me.

Enchantment lakes is one of the most spectacular hiking/backpacking destinations in the whole of USA. The forest department allows only 60 permits per day for camping, but there is no such limit for day hiking.
Wiki link here

The biggest challenge for the day hike is the distance and the difficulty of the hike. There are 2 routes to the enchantments. A round trip from either way would be 24 miles. Most people [including us] use 2 cars parked at the two possible route starting places, and do a 20 mile one way trip. [From colchuck lake to snow lake trail heads].

With this idea, 4 people [Me, Nitin, Vivek and Rahul] planned to do this hike in one day.
We carried a lot of food, water and cold weather equipments. I was carrying an ice axe [mostly because i had it, and Vivek had got trekking poles]. So we had a reasonably heavy hiking bags around 20-25 pounds.

We started around 2 AM from our house, and started driving towards the snow lake trailhead in 2 different cars. Having the first car parked there, we went to the colchuck lake trailhead and parked the second car there, and started the hike around 5 AM. It was kind of dark at that time.
[photo on left taken around 5:15 AM when we started the hike. Vivek, Me and Rahul at colchuck lake trailhead]





We made a good start, and moved quickly to colchuck lake which is around 4.5 miles and 2200 ft elevation gain. The morning was cool, and without much sweat, we quickly reached colchuck lake around 7:20 AM. I have been to colchuck lake twice before, but this was the first time i was seeing a reflection of the lake. The early morning stillness showed colchuck lake in all its glory.







[At left is colchuck lake around 7:30 AM in the morning with awesome reflections].
[At right, i am posing in front of the reflections :)]

Once at colchuck lake, Nitin and Rahul decided to take a dip in the icy waters. Vivek and I just washed our face and hands and were satisfied with that. Nitin then started to make sandwiches for all of us with customizations. we had got in cheese, peanut butter, jam bottles, cucumbers, tomatoes etc and Nitin made a great breakfast for all of us. [Photo on left above shows Nitin making sandwiches].

At this point with just 4.5 miles into the trip, Vivek had already sprained one of this legs and was in pain. He still wanted to continue on the trip [he is a marathon runner]. So we decided that we would go up. After refreshing around colchuck lake, we started around 9:15 AM. We had to first go around the lake. It was 10 Am by the time we went around the lake which was around a mile. The next one mile would be the toughest part of the trip. The next one mile was a steep descent over rocky, snowy and icy terrain with some waterfalls on the way too. We were to cross a pass called "Aasgard pass". Once this pass was crossed, we would have reached the upper enchantment basin. It took us around 2 hours to cross the pass which gained 2200 feet elevation in 0.75 mile. It was not easy with all the rocks and snow, but we did it slowly and steadily. There were some steep snow crossings along the way, but we managed to cross those well.

[At left in the picture is Aasgard pass. At right below is Nitin, me and Vivek en route Aasgard pass. ]

Around 12 PM, we reached aasgard pass. There we were greeted by a mountain goat which are very elusive creatures. We also had a superb view of the dragon tail peak glaciers. Both the photos are shown below.

We rejoiced after reaching the pass, and we entered the "upper enchantments basin" . It was around an elevation of 7800 ft. The first lake we saw was called the "isolation lake". Honestly most lakes in the upper basin were all frozen and it was very hard to find any difference between those. But without no question, all the lakes were amazingly beautiful. The backdrop of the lakes under snow capped peaks was amazing. We spent around 30 mins at the isolation lake and started to have lunch. Lunch was just mostly stuff like bananas, power bars and danish [a cream bun kind of stuff with cheese]. Around 1:00 PM, we left isolation lake. [ See pics below for isolation lake and the full gang at isolation lake, the peak behind is named "Little Annapurna"].

The upper basin was full of snow, rocks, granite, ice and frozen lakes. We slowly made our way through the basin. Route finding was difficult from here on. Boot tracks of previous hikers helped many times. The next big lake we saw was called "crystal lake". This lake could be seen down below covered in ice, and looked beautiful.

[Crystal lake on left below]. Around 2 PM, we reached near another lake called "Inspiration lake". We could also see "Perfection lake" on the right. It was at this time, i experienced the fickleness of mountain weather. August is peak summer here in Seattle, but we started getting a hailstorm. The hard ice which came in covered the trails and boot paths, and route finding was to become
more difficult from now on. For the next 1- 1:30 hours, we tried finding some way even though we knew the general route using the map. But we took the wrong route where there is lot of snow, rock etc, and gave ourselves a hard time. Around 3:00 PM, we finally found the route and talked to some other hikers [who were very few at this place] for the correct route. Then we started making our way around "Inspiration" and "perfection" lakes, crossed "leprachaun" lake and finally lake "Vivaine" [All lakes looked equally good, and these were only partially frozen due to slightly lower elevation around 6700ft].

[At left below is Vivek, Rahul and Nitin trying to see how to get down. At backdrop is perfection lake].
At right below is Lake Vivaine. [Lot ot larch trees which will turn glorious yellow during fall]

We had now hiked around 10 miles and it was around 4 PM now. Lake Vivaine was the last enchantment lake we were to see and this was in the lower basin. From here, we were to reach the snow lakes which is around 4 miles. The next 2 miles was over very rocky section with route very hard to find. Luckily, a family of hikers [who seemed very fresh and who were doing the gruelling day hike like us] showed us the right route. The descent started, and it was painful over the rocks. After 2 hours, we reached the upper snow lakes. Before the descent from lake vivaine, we could see the upper and snow lakes from there. [See pic below]

Around 6 Pm, we were at snow lakes [upper snow lake]. The trail was to now go around the snow lakes, cross a dam between upper and lower snow lakes. The trail around snow lake itself was around 1.5 miles and took us around 45 mins. We decided to take some rest and had some snacks. A lot of mosquitoes and bugs troubled us. Bug spray did not help much. After some rest and snacks, we started back around 7:30 PM. We still had around 6.5 miles left to complete.

The descent from snow lake was the toughest part. We had around 4200 ft elevation to lose. With tired legs, they look like even more. Around 8:15 PM, we reached Nada lake.

[Left: Nada lake]

From Nada lake, it was still 5.5 miles left. Around 9 PM, it got dark, we started using our headlamps. Slowly we started going down. Around 10:30 PM, we decided to take a quick 10 minute break. Around 10:50 PM, we were able to see the road, and we knew we were around 1.5 miles from the destination. Around this time, we saw a mountain goat on the trail, which was nice.

Then finally, around 11:45 PM, we reached the snow lake trailhead where we had the first car parked. We all got into the car, and drove towards colchuck lake to pick up the second car. Around 12:20 AM [sunday], the 2 cars left colchuck lake, and we drove towards our home. It was 3 Am when we reached home. The drive was one of the toughest in my life. I pulled over the car 3 times [At coles corner, stevens pass and skykomish] to take some quick rest to avoid sleeping. I even did well to avoid a deer when driving back ;)

It was a long trip but well worth it. Around 20-21 miles in one day and some night :)

I will probably return there for fall when all the larches turn yellow. A few pics of the basin below before signing off.

[complete collection :http://picasaweb.google.com/krraghuram/EnchantmentLakes#]

Trip to Arizona

Last weekend [july (21,22) 2007], 3 of us, Anand, Sivanesh and I planned to goto Arizona and visit the Grand Canyon. The entire plan itenary was planned by Anand. He is a professional-photographer and so has plenty of liking for the sunset and sunrise colors. All tickets were booked one month in advance, courtesy Anand’s awesome planning. I took my flight from Seattle to Phoenix on Friday [20th] evening. The luck [or the lack of it] continued for me this time too. My flight was delayed for upto 3 hours, and I ended up at Phoenix around 11:55 PM instead of 8:30 PM. I was supposed to be the first one to reach Phoenix but my friends reached there much before me and even got the rental car booked. Since they had to do it before I arrived, it meant that I was not of one of the drivers of the car [the insurance won’t apply if someone other than the people signing the contract drives the car]. We were hoping that 2 drivers could somehow pull off the 15-16 hours of pending long drive in the next 2 days.

Around 12 AM Saturday early morning or midnight, we proceeded towards Monument Valley which was a good 5 hour drive from Phoenix airport. We got hold of a GPS for rent, and it seemed to be pretty accurate that used to make me amaze everytime it did something cool J I slept along the journey and Anand and Siva managed to bring it to Monument Valley. Along the drive, after 5 AM, we started taking lots of snaps for the unknown canyons found on the roads. These small towering sandstone colored mountains shone with very interesting colors during sunrise and I am pretty sure Anand would have taken some nice snaps of these while I clicked the pictures I used to do normally. The Arizona highways had a speed limit of 75 miles[ around 120 Km/hr] and we made most use of it. The freeways were through barren desert lands. There were huge stretches of desert land on either side of the roads with the occasional sandstone colored canyon\mountains, and they were such a new sight. I had never seen a desert before and when I woke up around 5:15 AM, it was a pleasant surprise looking at it.

See pic below.

We reached Monument Valley around 6 AM. [ See picture left- monument valley in the far background with the empty freeway surrounded by barren lands].This is supposed to be a valley having interesting formations of sandstones. They had names for all every formation :) There was a 17 mile drive inside the valley on a dirt track. We went on this for around 3 hours, took a lot of snaps, looked at the formations in awe, and then started towards the city of “Page”. Page is supposed to be in between Phoenix and Grand Canyon. It was mostly a resting area and was booming with hotels and that looked to be the main business there. Page also had a some scenic spots near it.

We went to the “antelope Canyon” near Page. [see pic below]. It was a on a

tour package and the entire road [there was not any] was on sand, and after a few struggles, the mini truck made it there. Antelope canyon is like a cave where two sandstone formations almost meet, and there is a narrow tunnel like stuff through which we can walk and go. The height of the tunnel supposedly increases with each flash flood where the sand is taken away. Snaps did not come out well inside the tunnel as it was pretty dark with a few rays of sunshine coming through some of the holes.

Then we went back to Page. From there, we drove on our rental car to a point called “Horse Shoe Bend” about 10 miles from Page. This was my favorite during the trip. [See pic left]The river Colorado takes a U turn across a deep canyon and the whole thing is a pretty sight. It was breath-taking to say the least and even novice photographers could take nice pics here. We then went to one of the most scenic lakes in the area. Lake Powell was surrounded by canyons on many sides and it was a pretty sight. Unfortunately it started raining, but still the beauty of the lake remained.

After visiting the lake, we came back to the hotel RodeWay Inn, had dinner at a Indian restaurant [they are everywhere :D], and then slept off. Next morning we had plans of reaching Grand canyon by 5 AM and so we had decided to start in our car by 3 AM.

As difficult as it looked, we managed to start by 3 AM sharp. It was such a nice achievement I felt. Siva started to drive the car and things were going fine till around 4 AM. Then the unexpected twist happened. As we were going on freewat US-163 around 60 miles [speed limit was 65 miles], a dog tried to commit suicide. It jumped at the wrong time right in front of the car, and the worst thing happened. We all got really upset, and continued slowly. The car was making funny noises and we were extremely worried. After driving slowly for 30 more minutes, we pulled over the shoulder of the road, called up the emergency number 911. After 15 mins, a police cop came in and took the report. He looked at the car and told that the engine fans had broken. So the engines wont get cooled down if we keep driving.

We gave the EnterPrise rental car a ring, and they asked us to return back the car at Phoenix airport which was a good 160 miles away. We thought the car would be ok to drive and started to go in the car. But every 2 miles, the engine would get overheated, and we would stop the car over the shoulder, open the front hood, and wait for 20-30 mins, and then start again. We realized that we would not go anywhere. So we called up the car agency again and they asked us to somehow reach a place which has an address so that they can send us a new car there and take the old one through a towing vehicle. We looked at the GPS and it pointed out that after 10 miles, there was a fuel station with an address. Since it was Sunday, none of the car’s branch nearby was open. Only the Phoenix branch was open, and so the car would arrive only from Phoenix. Since it was to come on a towing truck, it meant that it would take atleast 4-5 hrs. We told them the address of the nearest fuel station and we started moving towards it. The next 10m miles took around 2 hrs. Soon it was 9 AM. When we reached the spot mentioned by the GPS, it was fully empty and there was no sign of anhy life or any place there. We called up the number shown in GPS, and they told that it was another 11 miles… phew.. things were getting worse. We took another 1.5 hrs and managed to cover the remaining 11 miles. We took so many stops on the way. Time was slowly running and we were losing a lot of valuable time.


The place we reached was called “Tuba City” and we had subs there at subway. Then after repeatedly calling the truck driver’s boss, we synced up with the truck, and then around 12:45 PM, the new car came in the truck. The truck driver [Jack] gave the new car and left. We started around 1 PM towards the Grand Canyon. The drive to the great canyon was around 1.5 hrs, and around 3 PM we reached the Grand Canyon. The canyon was really superb. So many folds, so many views, such stunning rising of the sandstone layers, and the river Colorado flowing below at such a depth… [a pic of Grand canyon.. not the best pic]

The canyon had roads around it, and we took a partial drive around it, stopped at many view points, and took snaps. Around 5 Pm, we headed back towards Phoenix as Anand had a night flight. We reached Phoenix on time without any problems [with the occasional wrong lane problems] and the GPS did not falter much after this. Siva and I had a flight only next day morning. So we stayed in a hotel nearby. While trying to go back to the hotel from airport, even the GPS could not help. We made around 5-6 rounds of the entire airport and finally decided to use our own way to come out of airport. We then reached the hotel, and went back to airport and returned the car. We took the hotel shuttle back to hotel, slept for 4 hrs, got up at 4 AM and made our way to the airport to complete a memorable trip. All our return flights were on time and this was a good way to finish the trip.
Anto had come to the airport to pick me up and we then drove home.

Trip to Norway

I had never been to Europe before. The only country i had visited other than India was the USA. I have always heard of Europe's beauty but never really went there. When i was to goto the USA for a 3rd time, i decided that i am going to stop over on the way and have a glimpse of Europe. I never like being alone or travelling alone. Luckily, my friend Parthiban [Banti] was on a 3 month tour to Germany. I talked to him and he was also interested in going to some place outside Germany. I decided to fly Lufthansa so that i could meet Banti, and we could fly together from there.

We had to choose a country from among the various nice European nations. We had to choose a Schengen country as Banti had a Schengen Visa. There were 15 Schengen countries in total, and both of us wanted to be among nature rather than the city kind. We had to choose between Austria, Norway and Iceland. One of my childhood dreams was going beyond the arctic circle. Iceland was just below arctic circle, Austria nowhere in the picture. I looked at the Norway pictures in web and found them to be quite impressive. It had also places which were above the arctic circle, and luckily these places even had airports. Both Banti and I were ok with Norway and thats how we finalized the country.

I landed in Berlin on July 4th around 11 AM. Banti and I went around Berlin around 4 PM and came back by 7 PM. We took some snaps and covered many important historical spots there.

Berlin photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dparthi/WithRaghuInBerlin

We took a flight to Oslo the same night and reached Oslo around 11 PM. We had a flight at 7 Am the next day. Oslo airport was 50km from city, and we felt that it was not worth to take a hotel. So we slept at the airport itself. The security guards and cleaners were so nice in the airport. They encouraged us to spend the night there, and never mumbled any stuff. The sleep was not exactly great, but somehow we took some rest. Next day morning, we took the flight to Tromso.

Tromso is 400km above the arctic circle. The peculiar thing about this place is that in summer it has 90 continuous sunlight days without darkness, and in winter, it has 90 days continuous night. We were at a time where the sun would never set. Tromso is a beautiful town surrounded by mountains on all 4 sides. It has fantastic views from all parts of the city, and one can see snow capped mountains on all sides. The airport was very small, and that was understandable for a small city.

At Tromso, we had booked a hostel, but the hostel lady told that we could checkin only after 4 PM, so we kept our bags there and went off to trek. It was a very sunny day at Tromso, and so the locals were obviously very excited. Tromso is known for drizzling chilly summer days, but this one was special for them. We went to the city center, and had a veggie sub for lunch. To our surprise, the hotel server understood what veggie meant and so we were lucky to have that there.

Then we went off to the Tronsdalstind mountains. The trek is very long. We had to climb around 15 km to reach the top. It was very tiring but somehow we wanted to reach the top. We divulged from the marked trails in the middle, and took our own route, and sure enough it had its share of problems. But still we finally made it. The glaciers from the arctic mountains were melting and we tasted the pure water right at the source.

We then decided to take the long walk back which was again around 14 Km, and we were very tired by then. we went to the hostel around 8:30 PM, bought some food, cooked them in the hostel guest kitchen and slept off.

Pictures of Tromso:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dparthi/TromsoTrailers

Next day [July 6th] we left to catch the flight to Oslo again. The problem we had was all flights between the various cities in Norway had to pass through Oslo. So we flew back to Oslo again and reached that place around 12 Pm. We never knew that Norway was so expensive until we realized that during this day. The Norway govt was so clever that they construct most airports outside the city, and that they charge hefty sums for commuting to and fro the airport. In Oslo, the charge was around 160 NOk [1 NOK = 7 INR] for a ride to city center through express train, 120 NOK in bus, 80 in slower train. Not surprisingly, we opted for the slower train. Oslo is a typical city. It was bustling with life and the weather was again very sunny that day. The city as such had nothing special to offer. We just roamed around it with our backpacks, and we were tired around 4 Pm itself. We covered the entire city by walk and used a map for directions. We saw the Parliament, Royal palace and few other places. But really nothing was very special about Oslo.

Oslo pictures below:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dparthi/OsloOuting

That same night, we took a night train to Bergen at 11 PM. This train is supposed to be one of the most beautiful routes in the world, but we could not see much as it was night, and even though the sun comes out at 4 AM, we were asleep at that time. At 7 AM, we reached Bergen.

Bergen is considered to be the "Gateway for fjords". A fjord is something like mountains cut by sea, and so you can see sea water between various mountains and this whole thing is a very nice sight. Norway is very famous for fjords. Its because Norway has mountains throughout its region, and its west coastline is full of cuts and ridges, and so this leads to lot of fjords there.

For Visiting fjords, we had to take a tour package which started at 8:40 AM. Due to lack of time, we had to take taxi there. We stopped a taxi and asked him the rate to goto hostel. We said 150 NOk and we sent him off. That same guy came back in 5 mins, and said that he is ok for 100 NOK. we accepted the offer. That guy explained that Norway is very costly and they have special [double] rates on weekends. As if the original cost is not too high, they had this little funny thing :)

We checked in at the Bergen Montana hostel, and went off to the station again to take the tour. Again to reach the station on time, we had to call a taxi. This time the taxi driver charged us normal Bergen weekend rate, and so we ended up paying 168 NOK for the trip. Sometimes things are just too costly.

We then took the tour package. The tour comprised of a scenic train journey from Bergen to Myrdal, a mountain train from Myrdal to Flam. This mountain train is supposed to be the steepest in the world but these trains were actually very well engineered that one would never feel a thing. They were pretty fast. The mountains had so many waterfalls and crystal clear water was flowing everywhere. It was no surprise why Norway had so many waterfalls. Norway is a very cold country and is full of mountains. All the winter snow in the mountains would melt in summer leading to tons of waterfalls everywhere. We would have seen atleast 200 waterfalls :). Then after lunch at Flam, we took a ferry across the fjords. This was the highlight of the trip.

Passing through the fjords was a wonderful experience, and it was simply awesome. The water was clear, and the mountains surrounding it added to the scenic beauty. After the ferry ride for 2 hrs, we took a bus to Voss. From Voss, we again took a train back to Bergen and we were back at the hostel [this time we waited and took bus to reach hostel :)]. The weather was sunny even during this day. So we were lucky for 3 days.

Bergen photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dparthi/BergenBoating

Next day [sunday July 8th], we had time till 4:40 PM for the flight. Even the Bergen airport was way outside city and one had to shell out 75 NOK to take the airport bus. The taxi would have been around 1000 NOK i guess on a sunday. I had taken the public transport in Germany and man, its so cheap there. Norway was just too costly.

We went to the Bergen markets after a heavy complimentary breakfast at hostel. Bergen is supposed to be a cultural center. It was famous for fish markets. They were selling reindeer sausage, moose [ a kind of deer] sausage, seal skins, arctic fox skins etc. We took snaps of these, visited a few landmarks like the harbour and the Bryggen market. Then after a light lunch, we took the bus [75 NOK] to airport, and that was finally it. Our trip to Norway had ended here.

From Bergen, we flew to Oslo, and then after an hour, we flew to Berlin that night. A wonderful trip had ended. I had to leave early the next day morning [July 9th] to Seattle. I slept for around 4 hours, got up and made my way to the airport [Banti accompanied me].

Now this was our first trip and there were quite a few things we learned. I think this is something everyone should keep in mind when they are travelling on budget. This is very true for people working in a weaker currency region and travelling to stronger currency nations.

1. Check out the expenses and the cost in that country. Mainly check out the public transport stuff.
2. Travel in group of atleast 4. You can take taxis to many places and still share the burden easily.
3. Stay in hostels if available instead of hotels. Hostels are not only cheaper but very clean too. They have very high standards too nowadays.
4. Choose the right airlines and the right time to fly. If you are short on time, choose a place where you can easily travel from one place to another without going through some other place [For our case, we had to go through Oslo each time].
5. Book tickets well in advance as they are cheaper. Many tour packages are also cheaper when booked in advance.
6. Never buy anything at airport shops unless really required. We found out the food in airport was excessively costly. Norway as such is costly, and buying a few fruits in the airport made us even poor :)

Learning from Steve Waugh's mistake

Every sportsman's dream is to finish on a high. Timing the retirement is something most sportsman dont do well. Most of them end up being kicked out, rather than being sent off with full honours, and the fault lies primarliy with the sportsman himself.

There are two things everybody wants to achieve in their final match - Retire when they are playing well and Retire when their team has won. Steve Waugh made the mistake of announcing his retirement before the 4 match test series started against India in 2003-2004. He was assuming that Indians, given their poor overseas track record would anyway be white-washed and there could not be a more fitting farewell for him. But things did not work out the way most poeple expected. This is where Warne and McGrath were cleverer. They waited till the ashes was won 3-0, and then made the announcements. They ensured that they retired with a win and full honours when they were on top of their game. Great timing and full marks to them for this!!

My first post!!

Hello everyone!! This is just the formal first post and hope to post a few interesting ones in this space soon.