Stephen’s Travels

Chris (one of my college roommates) and I enjoy hiking. We go hiking more than you do, and probably talk more theology and whatnot during our hikes than you do during yours. While I like to think that our discussions rival those of the great intellectuals throughout the ages, they don’t. At the end of the day, we are just two normal guys talking about lofty stuff (with sore muscles of course). While talking about this stuff is fun and and makes us feel smart, the most enjoyable conversation of this trip was when we didn’t talk about theology. We just talked about ourselves, and what it was like to be a guy in today’s world. I can’t think of the another time I was really that brutally honest about myself with someone. It was great.

This experience has really made me think about how our lives can easily become stories we tell people, with certain details we want people to know about embellished, and other less favorable details omitted. What struck me was that this was the first time I had really opened up to Chris, one of my closest friends, someone I trust. Even though we have been friends for a while, I’m not sure Chris actually had a good grasp of the reality of me.

If you were looking for the sights and sounds of the canyon, sorry. I could have spent a while crafting detailed embellishments about how bright the colors were or how big it was, while omitting how miserable the temperature was. But given the nature of the post it didn’t seem quite right.

Go experience the grand canyon yourself. It is worth it.

Over the weekend I was able to make a trip up to Yosemite for some hiking with Chris (my old roommate). We set out from his house in Clovis around 7:30am and began hiking the Yosemite Falls trail at about 11:00am. Even though the hike was labeled as ‘very strenuous’, the selection of trails during winter is somewhat limited, so we decided to do it anyway.

We started off at a hare’s pace, but soon found out that speed was unnecessary. It rained most of the way up and was eventually replaced by snow, which was a real treat as Temecula doesn’t see snow. After ~2.5 hours of switchbacks we made it to the top. The view was not too great with all of the fog/clouds, but I was still able to enjoy it using a combination of the postcards from the visitor’s center and my imagination. I will most definitely be back in the summer or sometime with better weather.

Just to give an idea of the distance covered, take a look at the picture on the right. The trail began in the woods at bottom on the far left and ended at the peak on the top right. We also took a small detour at the upper falls to take in a nice view of the falls and valley. Though as mentioned above, the valley views were somewhat lacking. The total distance we hiked was 8.4 miles with an approximate 3000 foot elevation gain.

If you want to see any additional pictures, you can check them out here.