Last weekend, we finally got some time and went out to enjoy the spring. Hondo Canyon is not as great as I expected from the 5 diamonds in localhikes. But we still got enough chances to feel the colors of the Spring.
It was a nice walk, also a lot of nice talks with old friends. These days, just got the shadowy feelings that many friends are leaving the area very soon. At least 4 friends are defending next week, 3 of them will leave LA area... yes, they are leaving, finally spreading out all over the world. I wish there will be some old friends staying in the area, and some new friends coming in... and for those old friends who will not be around, hope I could see them often. Or, maybe, we will get back together 15 years later, at that time, the conversation might be:
"How are you these years?"
"Nothing change, just two more children".:P

One weekend later, went to Mt San Gorgonio with Fangqiang, Weijun and Zhimei. Here I share the photo.

The 9-mile trail ascends 3500 ft, not very steep. But this highest peak in southern California is 11500ft, high enough to let us feel altitude symptoms. And the 18-mile round trip is long enough to kill our knees and ankles. This is probably the longest trail I ever took.

Finally, sun sunk and we navigated ourselves in the moonlight. Waha, the whole trip became a moon-light hike, though not planned or expected...

Got back to the car at 8:30 pm.

After driving (or, crawling) carefully (or, tentatively) along a 10mile dirt forest service road full of rocks, bumps and gulches..., with the Ford Escape swinging and roaring powerlessly, we got back to Hwy38 at 9:30 and returned to the civilized world...

Hope everyone is recovered now or very soon.

Fangqiang did a great job in rough terrain driving and he is heading for Philadelphia on 20th. Wish him a wonderful new world there.

I probably won't go any serious hiking in the coming month. Had enough adventure this month and it's the time for reflection...

Went to Chicago in Spring Break with lots of 9# friends. Many posts in 9# told stories of night life in Chicago. Now, let me share some photo about the day life in Chicago -- it's, at least sometimes, really a piece of art.

I will probably keep adding new photos to the series in the next two months.

--The only time I used to update the photo is the time when my computer keeps running simulations...

conceivablely, a desert without hope of life However, if you go there this year, you will find that it has all kinds of lives.

California had record-high precipitation rain fall this year. All the wild flowers are blossoming. Went to death vally at the end of March. We found all kinds of interesting things there...

En... uploaded a treking trip my junior school friends and I did last year. It was exactly one year ago -- right before I flew to LA.

The Antelope Gorge is at the top of Pearl River's delta, close to my hometown ZhaoQing. Very beautiful scene. A short but steep trip to the top of the mountain gave us a wonderful birdview over the winding river in the gorge.

Also in the canyon is the birthplace of Duan Yan (some famous inkstones of Duanzhou). Going against the crystal creek "Duan Xi" is very cool -- mentally and physically.

Finally, the delicious fresh fish, right caught in the river, were served on the table :P

Going back to the the ship we rent, we enjoyed the sunset over the gorge and finally the city lights along the river. What a wonderful day! More importantly, we had so many old friends together... Wondering when we could have such a trip again!:)

Not sure if anyone wants to put his/her face on the web. So I didn't share any photo with front faces. Em... wondering if there is any website that provides different access rights for different photo albums...

-xl

having had three bitter melons (苦瓜), got serious stomachache... still could not concentrate on work for a whole day. So I finish my Paris series today and plan to work tomorrow.

So, enjoy it.:)

Now feeling much better after the salted-egg-conjee -- haha, thx fuling for the suggestion of salted-egg. Probably it is able to neutralize the coldness of bitter melons.

Thanks, to my known friends and unknown friends.

But I feel guilty to waste your time. I've been only uploading one small part of my Paris photo every day... so, you'd better not to see the photo in these several days. You can see the whole collection next week. Now only half of them are online... sorry for not making it clearer...:(

IQ: your travel ads site looks informative. I put it to my one-click list. do you mind? what's your plan in 5-1. Em... I think I will later later later publish some of our photo in treking the Antelope Straight of XiJiang River last 5-1. It's a good memory. Miss you guys all. If nothing to do in 5-1, probably you can organize once more? :)

-xl

em... finish the first batch of photo in River Sein.

the "photo uploader" must be a cool thing. I like the automatic compressing feature. And maybe it is improved by FAST or other special transmission protocol? haha

The photo sharing is quite better than blogger.com now...