•  Backpacking in the Desolation Wilderness (16 photos)

Wow. I’m managing about 1 update per year. Hah!

So some months ago I sent out an email to a few friends asking if they were interested in finally going on that hike. The response was surprisingly positive (alarmingly so), and the group kept growing. I finally capped it at 10 people, with Heather, the sole girl, sneaking in to bring the total to 11.

Organizing a backpacking trip for 11 people is tough. Food, permits, transportation, gear - there’s a lot of variables. Thankfully, folks stepped in to help out, and everything went off without a hitch. I’ll write a little bit more about the trip below, but if you want to skip straight to the photos, check out the links.

• Backpacking in the Jennie Lakes Wilderness & Kings Canyon National Park (32 photos)
• View only the OG favorites (10 photos)

Note: I don’t usually post other people’s photos on my site, but I’ve decided to include several oustanding shots from my brother Haskell, and my friends Mike and Heather.

The Trip

People came from all over the country! The breakdown: 2 East Coasters, 3 Midwesterners, 1 So. Cal, and 5 No. Cal. We loaded up one car in San Diego and the other 2 cars departed from San Francisco.

We spent the first night camping near the trailhead at Big Meadows Campground, getting acclimated to 7,500 ft and recovering after a long drive. We had a little bit of rain that evening, and some people retreated to the cars for cover - I found a group of pine trees to shield me. Unfortunately, we were poorly equiped for rain, having only enough tents for 8 people, with a couple of tarps on the side. Lesson: it does rain in California in the summer.

On our first day of hiking, we did about 5 miles to Jennie Lakes with around 1,200 ft of vertical. It drizzled off and on during the hike, but it was a short day and we got to the campsite pretty early. We dropped our packs, and took a swim in the lake. That evening, we ate a sausage and rice dish for dinner (eh), and baked Heather a birthday cake for dessert. Nate V. discovered the wonders of the Nutella s’more, which became a mainstay for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately, we had quite a bit of rain that evening, and some of us (Sassan, Mathias, Nate V., myself) suffered during the night.

The next day was our longest, but the weather cleared up and we had perfect conditions. We descended from 9,000 ft to 8,400 ft and then had to climb over Silliman Pass at 10,100 ft. It was a fairly steep ascent, but we picked a slow pace and everyone made it to the top with no problems. After a long photo session, we descended 1,000 ft to Ranger Lake. All told, I think we did about 8 miles that day.

That night it was pasta & pesto for dinner, with instant pudding for dinner. The pasta was pretty good, but I brought way too much pudding which we then had to pack out. That night, several of us grabbed our sleeping bags and pads and camped out a couple hundred yards away on a rock outcropping to check out the stars. Unfortunately, the nearly-full moon came out not to long afterwards, and diminished the starry view.

The next day we had a short 4 mile hike to Seville Lake. We dropped our bags, ate lunch, and decided to tackle one of the large peaks rising up behind the lake. A couple of folks stayed back to tend camp, and the rest of us started climbing. It was a difficult climb with some tricky scrambles, but we finally made it to the top and enjoyed a good, but not jaw-dropping view.

That night (Saturday), the campsites were all filled with Labor Day hikers — I’m glad we left a few days early because we managed to avoid nearly all the crowds. For dinner we ate burritos (delicious) and attempted a no-bake cookie recipe with mediocre results.

The next morning we got up, drank some coffee and started hiking. We finished our 5-6 mile hike by noon and packed up the cars. On our way out of Kings Canyon National Park, we stopped by one of the Sequoia groves and saw some gigantic trees. We didn’t stay for long — In N’ Out Burger and a shower was calling our names.

A huge thanks to the 10 people who came on the trip with me. It was a great time and I looking forward to doing it again. For those of you who want to come on the next trip, leave a comment below. Let’s make it happen!

New photos are up! There are shots from a bike-ride I took with my upstairs neighbor, Diana, on Ocean Beach. There’s some photos from hikes I took with Haskell (my twin), and with my cousins, Natalie and Meg. Finally, there’s a few random shots I took wandering around San Francisco. Thanks for checking them out!

• San Francisco (20 photos)

(For older photos, scroll down to view previous posts, or browse the archives on the right.)

It’s been a while since I updated everyone on my San Francisco adventure. So what have I been doing for these past 7 months…

My job is proving to be an authentic “startup” experience. The company was flying high in the fall, but now, we’ve fully descended into “sales mode.” Basically, we need to make some money. It’s an exciting ride, but I have no idea how much longer it will last.

I managed to snag a spot in the San Francisco Ultimate Frisbee Spring League, but it required hovering next to my computer when the registration window opened. The league filled up in less than 10 minutes! There’s just not enough field space to handle all the players, so they can only have 14 teams. It’s too bad.

There’s so much good music in this city! I’ve recently seen Andrew Bird play at the Fillmore and Soulive at the Independent. Arcade Fire is coming soon in Berkeley - sold out!

I recently got back from excellent trips to Washington D.C. and Las Vegas. I can’t wait for a trip to Minneapolis over Memorial Day for a wedding and to visit friends. If the startup doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll be visiting a lot more of you.

I’m back today with some new photos. Actually, they’re not even close to being new, but I haven’t posted them before, so they’re new to you. Last February, I made a trip out to Washington D.C. to visit a bunch of friends (Brendan, SJ3K, Nate, Christopher and Wiktors). We did some of the touristy stuff on Saturday and I brought my camera along. Here’s some photos from the inside of a greenhouse, and other “stuff” …

• Washington D.C. (11 photos)

(If you didn’t check out the storm photos from September, you should. Scroll down to the next post.)

In other news -

I’ve now been in SF for over 2 months and have a pretty good feel for the place. I’m enjoying myself, but it definitely feels nice to get outside of the city upon occasion. I think I’ve decided that at some point I’m going to have to be somewhere with about a quarter as many buildings. I can’t wait to see how I feel about SF after the raining season…

My ultimate Frisbee league started last week and I’m pretty excited to get some exercise again. I’ve spent probably too much time playing my Nintendo Wii (yes, I camped overnight to get one), so that’s good. Totally unrelated: I found out on Saturday that someone on the internet jacked my credit card. It’s terribly convenient to have to cancel your credit card right in the middle of the shopping season. That’s the holiday spirit!

Big props to Mike & Heather for visiting me a week ago. Thanks!

I hope everyone has a great holiday - let me know how you’re doing!!

• Storm (4 photos)

More photos on the way…

As you can probably tell, I’ve changed the format of my website. I’ve finally moved to a blog (ugh), so I can do smaller, more frequent updates. Of course, take “more frequent” with a grain of salt, but the plan is to upload new photos every few weeks, rather than a couple times a year. There won’t be as many photos with each update, but in the long run, it’ll encourage me to take more photos, and I can post those 2-3 shots I liked but didn’t fit into a full post. Also, in the rush to get this website online, I admit I didn’t do the design myself, but that’s something I’m planning to work on in the coming months.

After all that, I know you’re here for some photos. Fair enough.

Here are some shots from the backpacking trip I went on with my brother, Hector, a few weeks ago. I drove up to Portland and from there we made our way out to central Washington. As we were nearing our trailhead, we found the road closed due to a fire, so we sort of randomly chose another spot the next morning in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. It ended up being a really spectacular hike. I also took some night shots while we were sleeping outside which are posted separately.

• Backpacking
• Night Shots

As always, comments are encouraged. Thanks for visiting and let’s hope it isn’t another 10 months before I post again.

Administrative update: Since I no longer work for the University, they’re going to take my old email address away (it’s been a good 7 years) so please contact me using ogkent@gmail.com. I don’t have a permanent address yet, but I’m keeping my cell phone number (608-354-3131). Give me a ring!