2009 Challenge Overview
|
Written by Daniel Hienzsch
|
|
Tuesday, 12 January 2010 |
 Done
Of the challenges, the hardest, by far, was the last one accomplished, climbing Mt. San Jacinto, while the easiest, was achieving my Advanced Open Water certification. The highest point I climbed to was 13,000' on the upper saddle of The Grand, and the lowest point I dove was 120' on the Eureka Oil Platform off of Long Beach.
Those are the bookends though, and certainly for some of these tasks I accomplished in 2009, what I did went far beyond simply attaining an elevation, or descending to a specific depth. Below the fold I'll go into greater detail on each of the challenges.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 13 January 2010 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Daniel Hienzsch
|
|
Thursday, 09 July 2009 |
 On Friday, July 3rd, I hiked to the summit of Mount San Gorgonio, the highest peak in Southern California. I followed that up the next day by diving at the site of Old Marineland, south of the Palos Verdes peninsula and now home to a luxury resort called Terranea.
When I got back from climbing The Grand, I wanted to take advantage of my form and altitude acclimatization, and bang out the hardest hike I had on the list of challenges: Mount San Gorgonio. I didn't hit on this idea until after I'd come back and learned that we had been given July 3rd off as a holiday at work, so I had to submit a wilderness permit application to the Forest Service on two days notice and was approved for my second choice trailhead: Fish Creek. I had originally wanted to hike Vivian Creek, since it's shorter, if more physically demanding. Fish Creek was approved so Fish Creek it would have to be. After I got the approval faxed back on 7/2, I called my dive buddy, Rich, and made sure he was free on Saturday so I could complete the second leg of the challenge. Then I booked a room at the Good Nite Inn in Redlands for Thursday night.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 13 January 2010 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Daniel Hienzsch
|
|
Thursday, 09 July 2009 |
|
Despite the original difficulties that arose with the massive swell and wave conditions on that first attempt out on the Spectre, I was able to finish up my Advanced dives a few weeks later on that same boat again. We had to scrap doing a deep dive, unfortunately, as the swell conditions at that site on the NE "face" of Anacapa proved to be far to choppy to set the mooring lines. So we tried the other side, what is usually the windward side and found a place to do a quick dive.
|
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 January 2010 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Daniel Hienzsch
|
|
Saturday, 31 January 2009 |
 Today I completed my Deep and Navigation dives toward my PADI Advanced Open Water certification. I had it all planned out... since I took a vacation day at work, I was going to go diving in the morning, then go home, rinse everything off, load up my camping gear in the truck and head to Cottonwood campground at Joshua Tree National Park. Deep Dive... Joshua Tree... it doesn't sound like I've screwed anything up does it. Leave it to me, I'll find a way...
|
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 January 2010 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Daniel Hienzsch
|
|
Tuesday, 27 January 2009 |
Well, that didn't go quite as planned. I was signed up to get my advanced certification this past weekend, two dives: deep and navigation on Saturday morning, then three dives off of Anacapa on Sunday: underwater naturalist, search and recovery, and peak performance buoyancy.
I was really looking forward to the boat dives off Anacapa Island where the water promised to be crisp and clean if still cold and not too clear. The weather reports had been getting worse and worse all week though, so I knew there were no guarantees. But really? Did it have to go this way?
|
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 January 2010 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
| |
|
|
Latest Journals
The idea of undertaking a longer trip, more than just a weekend, had been percolating for some time. I wondered if I could do it; I wondered if my bike could do it. Two days of holiday res...
In the previous month, I had already been on sport touring trips to Arizona and Death Valley on my 2000 Triumph Sprint ST, so taking a quick trip up the coast to Morro Bay shouldn't have been a bi...
I like telescopes, particularly the big ones. The first one I ever was able to get up close to was the observatory complex on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawai'i and I was hooked. I j...
With all the media coverage of the "100 year bloom” at Death Valley, I and Robyn decided that we would be fools to miss out. The Sprint had performed marvelously despite both fate a...
I hadn’t really been to Germany in a decade. In fact, since 1991, I had only gone over for a couple of days here and there for funerals and I had never been with Robyn; this was going to...
|
