In any event, the hike on Saturday was fantastic. I haven't really done much hiking, and apparently it's a pretty big thing to do out here since there are a lot of places to go. It took about 3-4 hours in total, including water/snack breaks. I'm not exactly sure exactly how many miles we walked, or what the elevation was, but I would say it was a good trail for someone like myself that hasn't really done something like it before.
The hike started out in the foliage sprawling across the mountains, so there was a lot of green to be seen.
We were in there for a couple hours before hitting a bunch of switchbacks one the outside. Some of my favorite parts included walking across logs that spanned over a river, or something to that effect.
At this point, it is now Saturday morning, and I started writing this last Sunday, so my memory of the hike has started to fade. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking:
 |
| The hike begins |
 |
| Found this log... |
 |
| ...decided to walk across it |
 |
| Took my camera across this log |
 |
| Picture from halfway across the log |
 |
| Made it out of the forrest |
 |
| Another artsy-fartsy picture |
Since we were on the coast anyway, we decided to stop at a beach not too far away after the hike. Interestingly, it immediately became overcast once we got there, which was kind of a bummer. As you'll see, the beach was down the side of (yet another) mountain that we had to scale in order to get to the beach. It was actually pretty fun - someone had put a rope in for some of the steeper parts. When you got to the bottom, there wasn't much ground to brace yourself, so the only good strategy was to just run down until you were on flat ground. Otherwise, your momentum was likely to wind you up on the ground.
 |
| Flying-V |
 |
| What we have to climb down |
After looking at the pictures from this trip, I realized how much better uncompressed images are. See, when my camera takes a picture, it actually saves 2 different versions. First is in JPG/JPEG format, which everyone is pretty familiar with. It's a compressed version of the image that saves space and is fairly compatible with a variety of applications. The second is known as a RAW image, meaning it is completely uncompressed, and about 3x the size of the compressed version. In comparing photos from the weekend, I realized there is quite a difference. Unfortunately, due to the vastly increased size of the images, most websites will not let you upload them. So, I'm stuck with the ones you see here, which I guess aren't that bad after all. They're certainly better than the ones I was taking before I got my camera.
Sunday I went to the park to read my GRE book. I finally registered to take the test, so now I can plan out exactly how much time I have to study for it. So far, it seems like a pretty straightforward standardized test, so I'm not too worried. Unfortunately, I fell asleep while reading the book (it's not the most riveting material on the planet). As a result, I got a pretty bad sunburn, which actually hurt a couple of days after the fact. By now (Thursday), it's peeling and doesn't hurt at all.
On Sunday night, my roommates and I went to go see Captain America. Overall, it was okay. It had some really great moments, and they do an awesome job tying it in with other superhero movies for the future Avengers film. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, unless they absolutely love superhero movies. Even then, I'm still on the fence...
Well, I started writing this on Sunday, and it's now almost the following Sunday. A lot has happened since then, but something I would have mentioned if I had finished this in time is that my mom is visiting this weekend. That combined with trampoline dodgeball (not trampolines, not dodgeball... trampoline dodgeball) will make for another interesting few days to blog about. No promises as to when that will actually get finished, though.
