Harjot Singh's Blog

RV Trip Death Valley, Lake Powell and Las Vegas

2012-01-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

RV Trip November 22 through 26, 2011

I would say that I had some really good road trips in 2011, would say one of the unforgettable years in terms of vacations.

First road trip through Colorado and then a RV vacation, can't ask for more.

Planning for our trip started a month before the trip. We were all sitting at "Salang Pass" restaurant in Fremont and we were thinking that we have to plan something for Thanksgiving vacation and it has to be something different, no more Tahoe and Yosemite ( even though I can visit Yosemite a million times). So, after discussing all the options RV trip sounded to be the most exciting and something that none of us had done before.

So, we started off with planning of RV trip. Couple of things that needed to be accomplished, making reservation for RV, selecting the route and then making reservations for RV campgrounds.
We had 5 days, so we wanted to plan accordingly. We came up with following options for our route:
-- CA 1 starting from San Francisco through Santa Barbara
-- Trip through Arizona [Sedona, Grand Canyon etc]
-- Death Valley, Lake Powell and Vegas

3rd option clicked for everyone as none of us had visited Death Valley and Lake Powell before, even though it was a very long drive.So, after some research we made reservations for RV, we rented out 30ft RV from Cruise America. It was a cab over RV, which means there is a cabin above drivers seating section. It had one master bedroom, one cab over room, sofa come bed and dinning table come bed [ this was the hangout place and my cozy bed], fully furnished kitchen, restroom and shower.

We made reservations for our RV campgrounds, we made sure that we got all the campsites with full hookups [ electricity, water and sewerage]. Done with preplanning, as we came closer to starting our trip, the excitement grew by every movement.

Day 1 ( November 22, 2011)
We started our journey around 6:30 pm from Satin's place in Oakland. We had lot of stuff to stuff into RV. There was lot of home cooked food courtesy Param/Satin,Yogi/Reena and Kullu (I was the only one who did not cook anything).Satin decided to take charge first and started driving the RV. It is not so different to drive an RV except the fact that it is a really big vehicle and you have to be careful while making turns and you had to make sure that have good control as it swayed quite a bit in the wind.

Our first day was mostly driving with couple of pit stops. I took over the control from Satinder half way around and drove till the day 1 destination that was KOA campgrounds @ Lake Isabella around 60 miles from Bakersfield. We reached around 1:45 am in the morning [ its been our tradition to arrive late on day 1 and we stayed upto it]. After reaching campground, we did the hookups and then we brought our kitchen into service and had a late night/early morning meal .. chicken and rice ... yum !!!

After that we called it a night and I slept on the dinning table [The dinning table got converted into the bed].

Day 2 ( November 23, 2011)
Everyone was relaxed now after a good night's sleep, we got up and had hot water showers. I won't consider KOA campsites as campground as they are always right on a freeway or a major connecting road, with amenities like heated showers,swimming pool, and the list goes on, stay in one to experience it.

After getting ready we were treated to hot Chai made exclusively in RV Kitchen and Avacado vegetable sandwiches.After a healthy breakfast, we had a lengthy photo session, not sure what instigated it. Here is one from the photo session.

After that we headed to Death Valley, it was close to 100 miles from Lake Isabella. Death valley is the lowest,driest and hottest place in western hemisphere with best time to visit from November through April, as summer temperatures can rise upto 150F. November seemed to be a perfect time for Death valley with temperatures in low 70's.

I was in awe after entering into Death Valley, huge spans of cactus, serpentine roads, a perfect Hollywood/Bollywood movie location. We camped at Stovepipe wells campaground, one of the two RV hookup campgrounds in Death Valley. After setting our site, we headed to hike "Mosaic canyon". It was beautiful 1.5 mile hike through the colourful canyon, it was amazingly beautiful. Here is a picture from Mosaic canyon.

We completed our hike by sunset,went back to our campsite,relaxed a bit and then went around to see the resort. I saw the cleanest swimming pool right here in the desert where water is gold.After that we watched a football game, had some snacks and then went back to our RV for dinner. After a mouth watering dinner, we went out for a walk and gaze out the clear sky, believe me or not I haven't seen so many stars ever. Here is a shot of sky full of stars [ courtsey Satin].

After that we came back and decided that we didn't had enough of Death valley, so we planned to get up early and see around before heading out of valley. There is so much to do in Death Valley ghost towns, sand dunes, endless hikes, off roading, biking , Badwater basin and list goes on ....

Day 3 (November 24, 2011)

We started our day early at 7am. Satin took the charge for driving and today we had a special guest on the driver seat .. will be disclosed later. We passed across quite a few scenic places like Mequite dunes, devils golf course, artists palette. We stopped at Badwater basin.. it is huge valley floor covered with salt as far as you can see.It is actually the lowest point on the western hemisphere at approximately 286 feet below sea level. We played frisby,football and took a lot of pictures. Here is a picture of the group at badwater basin.

It was a beautiful drive all the way out of Death valley. We had to cover lot of ground today, so we brought Kullu on the driver seat, our "guest of honour" . We drove pass Las Vegas and onto Lake Powell our destination, we passed four states today California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. We played Yatzee and Donkey all the way long, some of the benefits of RV, you can enjoy even while on the road.Finally we reached Lake Powell at around 10 pm. We camped at Lake Powell resorts RV campground in Page, Arizona. After setting up our campsite, we started preparing for barbeque and dinner. We started the bonfire, and I remember Yogi/Reena getting facinated with smell of started log.Yummy "spiced" corns, sauted chicken was the highlight of the evening. I caught cold as it was bit cold and windy, so I was not in the best of spirits but I remember few folks had a long night.

Day 4 ( November 25, 2011)

We woke up to most amazing views in the morning. We didn't realize during the night, but our campsite was right next to the Lake. There are no words to describe the beauty of Lake Powell but in short it is Grand Canyon half immeresed in water. Some stats about Lake Powell, it stretches across two states Arizona and Utah.It is the second biggest manmade reservoir in USA.It has a shoreline of approximately 2000 miles which is longer the west coast .... WOW !!!
It is clear blue lake, heaven for water sports and popular for its weekly/bi-weekly houseboat rentals, yes 14 days are not enough to explore the lake.

After getting ready, we enjoyed RV special scarmbled eggs breakfast ... camping special breakfast. After a nice breakfast we headed for guided boat tour of Antelope canyon. It was an amazing tour through the meandering Antelope canyon, the colored walls of canyon, clear lake left us completely spellbound.

After that we took a small 1 mile beautiful hike to horse shoe canyon. Horse shoe canyon is where Colorado river makes a 270 degree turn which loo like horse shoe when looked from top. Here is a picture of horse shoe canyon.

That was it for Lake Powell, we started our drive back to our last destination ..... Vegas Baby !! We had a new person on the driver seat, introducing Yogi !! The drive back was really beautiful, we got a chance to feel and see Utah red sand. I
want to come back to Utah in 2012. The journey back had some more episodes of "Donkey" game.

We reached Vegas at around 9 pm on Saturday evening, perfect time to be in Vegas. We camped at RV campsite right on the strip in Circus Circus. Did you ever knew that you could camp right on the strip ? That's KOA.

We had dinner in the RV, had awesome homemade paneer and chicken combo, can't get better food than that in Vegas. Now is the time, we got ready and headed to hunt in Vegas, we went around on the strip, but Vegas was pretty empty. We came back early but some folks stayed for casino games and came back at 7 in the morning.

Day 5(November 26, 2011)
We got up, had our breakfast and started with our journey back home as we had to cover around 500 miles. Couple of folks were still sleeping as they came late in the morning, another advantage of RV, sleep in the room while on the road [ I am pretty sure it is not legal ] . We had marathon sessions of "Donkey", we were now all pro in manipulating English words to our advantage. Last day was mostly driving, and everyboday drove for approximately 4 hours except our elitest elite "Kullu". We reached back at around 11 pm in Oakland after approximately 13 hours on road, tired!!

Special thanks to Satinder, Param, Yogi, Reena and Kullu for making this trip a memorable one.

Link to pictures from our trip.

Colorado Road trip

2011-07-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

I am going to write a blog post after a while, but last week was full of such exciting colors and adventures that I cannot miss to write about them.
I took a trip to Colorado with my old time buddy Ashutosh Sharma. We together came to US for our masters but we were on opposite coasts. Its been 3 years since we met so we decided to take a week off and randomly picked Colorado for our adventure trip.

Starting of with trip :

Day 1
Saturday July 9,2011

Arrived at Denver International Airport, met Ashutosh and rented out our third accomplice "Jeep - The gas guzzler".

Without wasting any time we headed out to Estes Park in Rocky Mountain National Park. Rocky mountains is a huge chain of mountains that runs from Alaska to Mexico. We reached our campsite at Moraine park and set up tent [Moraine park campground, Loop D campsite 36] and head out for a small hike to fern lake.We had covered only half a mile when we met a couple who informed us that there is a "Mamma bear and baby bear" on the trail, after listening to them we decided to move back as I was carrying quite a bit of food in my backpack and it was not a good idea to go close to bears as they can smell food and might attack you for food. After that we decided to go around the park and visit "Bear lake" , it was such a beautiful crystal clear lake.We did get some nice shots of the evening just like the one below.

After taking some pictures we went back to our campsite and had some home cooked food which Micky Didi had cooked for us and after that we went to sleep, bringing an easy end to day 1.

Day 2
Sunday, July 10, 2011

We started early around 4 am and headed out on trail ridge road, its a pretty steep and nice drive up in Tundra region of the Rocky mountains. We stopped at Alpine visitor center [highest visitor center of NPS] and took a small hike around in the cold and waited for the sunrise. After sometime we went back to the car and drove to the continental divide [one side of water merged into Pacific and the other side into Atlantic ocean]. Then we drove back to the visitor center, had a light breakfast and headed out for a ranger guided tour of the Tundra region of Rocky's [Lava cliffs]. It was pretty cold at the peak of summer, temperature 25F and winds at 30 mph, it was becoming tough to stand out in the cold but a very good learning experience about Tundra region.
Here is a glimpse of the cold morning at Rocky mountains.

After sometime we headed back to the valley and started hiking around bear lake and did a 1.75 mile hike to Emerald bay.It was a good hike , we passed couple of beautiful lakes and some snow too.In the afternoon we started our journey from Estes park to Mt. Evans. Mt. Evans is at a height of 14,265 feet and there is a drivable road to the top of Mt. Evans. With clouds leading our way to the top it really looked beautiful and surreal.

After that we came back and set up our tent at the Echo Lake campgrounds. We had 10 dry minutes to set up our tent, as it started raining after that, which continued through the whole night. We munched our home cooked food and tried to go to sleep. It was a really cold and wet as it rained throughout the night.One of those nights where we didn't get much sleep.

Day 3
Monday July 11, 2011

We woke up early and it was still raining, we packed our stuff hastily and headed to our longest ride of the trip [300 miles] south towards Black Canyon of Gunnison national park.As usual we would stop at a convenience store to brush and grab a coffee for a kick.On our way we passed some really beautiful towns like Vail, Glenwood, Idaho springs etc. The terrain changed quite a bit while moving from north to south.We reached Black Canyon of Gunnison at around 11 am [its close to a city called Montrose].We headed directly to the visitor center to check out the hiking options available.We were told about that this place is mostly about look out spots but if you want you could hike to the bottom of Canyon [1.75 miles], but that is normally very strenuous and has a elevation drop of 1800 feet. Anyways we decided to do the hike to the bottom of Canyon.It required to sign up for a back-country permit to do this hike, I could smell something fishy [back-country permit for 1.75 miles of hike].We were brave enough to sign up for the permit and then we started our hike to the bottom.Normal time to complete the hike is 1:30 hrs to reach the bottom and 2:30 hrs to climb back to the top. The hike started with couple of switchbacks, followed by a long chain and then a completely rocky terrain. Being a back-country trail it wasn't marked so you had to make sure you mark your path or leave some indications at places where there are multiple options. We took help of our camera to take pictures of the path at every diversion but that didn't help a lot on the way back.What actually helped us were a pile of stones which were placed by some other hikers to indicate the correct trail where there were multiple options.It was really difficult to get a grip on the terrain while going down.It was a tiring journey down to the canyon but we completed in 2 hours.Reached the bottom, rested for a while,had some fruits and started our hike back. Here is a picture from hike that gives you an idea about the hike.

The way back was really strenuous as it was very difficult to walk on the small rocks.We got so tired that we used to literally stop after ever 10 steps.Then after an hour of climbing we reached a place where there were multiple routes and there were no stone indicators, looks like somebody moved them. But we listened to our gut feeling and choose the middle route through the a dry ravine which had an inclination of about 75 degrees and was all mud. Imagine climbing a muddy hill with 75 degree inclination. We really pushed hard to get grip and move up on the dry ravine but we couldn't seem to move after 100 or so feet. We could smell that something is not right, we were clinging to hill like rat for about 15 mins, we were scared also as the clouds were forming and if it rained the ravine would fill up and it would be impossible to reach the top today.
But suddenly then we heard a voice from the bottom and someone said you are going the wrong way. I was angry and happy at the same moment, angry as I had to slide back to the bottom to start again upwards, happy that we won't have to go this muddy route, as we would have never been able to go up this route.We came back sliding, clothes filled with mud,Ashu developed a cramp and I scratched my leg but thats not the concern right now. We started climbing again through the correct route and took a sigh of relief after seeing the chain, which was a symbol that now we are on a correct trail and closer to the top [chain was one third the distance from top].Here is an image of Ashu on the chain :

Just fearing rain gods we were moving quickly to get back as soon as possible [ I was almost wobbling on the chains].We finished 6 quarts of water that we brought along, we drank till the last drop. Finally we reached back all dirty, tired,cramped,scratched but Thanked God for bringing us back safely.
We were dirty so we had to take a shower today [ after 3 days ]. We found a shower at a nearby truck stop and had a good refreshing shower [ first experience of shower at a truck stop, not bad]. Then we head out to the town of Montrose for dinner and found this amazing Mexican place. After dinner we went back to our campsite to find out that it was still raining, so we decide to sleep in the car but wasn't comfortable, so went back to the tent. We were so tired that rain didn't bother us at all and we slept for around 8-10 hours. One of the best days of our trip ...should say memorable one

Day 4
Tuesday July 11, 2011

We started around 8 am from Gunnison towards Mesa Verde National park which is more towards the south. We drove through the scenic San Juan skyway aka "Million Dollar Highway". We crossed the towns of Ouray, Silverton, Durango to fianlly reach Mesa Verde National Park.Here is a picture of the beautiful San Juan Skyway

After reaching Mesa Verde we reserved our campsite at Morefield campgrounds and decided to set up our tent first and then head out for excursions.After setting the tent we went to see spruce tree house,balcony house and cliff tower which were all cliff dwellings used by Indians during the early 1200's. The cliff dwellings left us in awe, their architecture and it did leave us with quite a few questions like how they got to these cliff dwellings etc. Here is an image from Cliff tower

After these tours we had our dinner, had Novajo Indian taco [pretty different from a regular taco] and went back to our campsite. We set up a bornfire and sat under the clear sky for the first time during the trip [it was raining every night before that]

Day 5
Wednesday July 13,2011

We got up at 6, packed our stuff and headed out to Durango. We had breakfast at Durango Diner, Ashu had a nice political discussion with an old lady from Silverton. I do remember some of her awesome quotes.
After a nice breakfast we rented bikes from Hassle free bikes and went out for mountain biking in the Durango mountain resort trail.We had the time of our life biking on the mountains, it was a medium level track but it was awesome. Ashu fell into this small dry ravine and scratched his left arm when he was coming down the hill as couldn't control the bike even after applying the brakes.We didn't give up,went back to our car to apply some medication and then set back for another biking trail "Horse Gultch". It was way too rocky for us to even get started and we were a bit scared from the last incident, so we went back to our older trail and did another round on the one which we fell, but we came out victorious this time finishing the trail and without slipping.

After biking we strolled in the downtown area of Historic Durango and had lunch at this Himalayan/Tibetan/Indian joint [ Not the best food but the most expensive of our trip].
After that we headed over to Pagosa springs, we headed directly over to our campsite in the wilderness of San Juan Forest area. After setting up the tent we came back to the city of Pagosa springs, had Mexcian food and then sat in the hot spring pools at the "Springs Resort".There were 23 hot spring pools with temperatures varying from 99F to 119F. We smelt sulphur for the rest of our trip because of the dip in hot springs. While in the hot springs pool we saw the lightning and it again started raining.After that we went back to our campsite, and you guessed it right it was still raining, another wet night .

Day 6
Thursday 7/14/2011

Woke up early at around 4 as usual, packed and headed out east towards Great Sand Dunes National reserve. Sand dunes in the mountains, sounds weird but yes these sand dunes have been formed from the south westerly winds flowing and depositing sand over a period of time.These sand dunes cover an area of 100 square miles, pretty big !!
We reached around 7:30 am, the visitor center hasn't opened yet, so we went around to look for our campsite, and also came to know about a 4x4 12-mile track. We started on the 4x4 track for couple of miles and then turned back as we decided to gather some information about the track from visitor center before traversing the track.
After sometime the visitor center opened and we looked for options to explore around the area. The ranger totally scared us about the 4x4 track, told us that especially if you have a rental then he won't suggest going on the track and it would cost us $1000 to pull us out if we got stuck. That was lot of money ,probably the whole budget of the trip. So, we decided not to do the 4x4 track.
We started the day by hiking the great dune, it was mile hike on to the top of dune and believe me its really tough to hike up on the dune, but nevertheless it was fun going up.But more fun and exciting was coming down, we ran down the sleep slopes of the dunes.

After that we went to Zapatta falls , it was less than a mile of hike, small falls but really fast and cold.We were tired now so we went back to have lunch at this place called "Oasis", same place where we had our breakfast. After lunch we went to this lake close by where Ashu slept for around half an hour and then it started raining again .....it rained almost everyday on our trip but here it was much needed because it was really dry in the dunes. After the rain stopped then we went back to the dunes and played friz-bee in the dunes, it was lot of fun.
We were supposed to camp at Pinyon flats campground at Great Sand Dunes but we made an impromptu change in our plan and started driving towards our next destination Canon city up north .After driving for around 3 hours we reached Canon city amid showers and booked a room in a motel. We had our dinner at Pizza Hut and finally got to sleep on a bed after 5 days [ We camped the last 5 days], I felt the importance of the bed and slept like a log.

Day 7
Friday 7/15/2011

Started of the day with white water rafting in the big horn sheep river.We were dressed in wet suits topped with jackets as the water was very high because of the snow melt.It was mostly level 3 rapids but it was lot of fun as we were sitting in the front and cold splashes on the face did bring a spark in the body.
After finishing the rafting we had our lunch at this Italian joint in downtown Canon city and then headed out to Colorado springs [ we missed on Royal Gorge, just had a glimpse of it].
After reaching Colorado springs we booked a room in the motel and then headed out to see "Garden of Gods" and "Cave of winds".

Garden of Gods is pretty unique in terms of all the weird rock formations but amazingly beautiful.

Heading on to cave of winds we took the "Lantern tour" [ adventure level :: wild]. Our only source of light through the caves was our lantern, and the caves were pretty big. We had to bend and walk up stairs to move around the caves. The scary part was when the guide turned off all the lanterns and it was pitch dark [ even darker than with your eyes closed]; to make things worse he was telling ghost stories about these haunted caves. It was a good tour but it would have been great if guide would have shared more information about the different formations in the caves.

After that we had Thai food and blasted Punjabi music on our way back to motel.

Day 8
Saturday July 16, 2011

Last day of the trip. Time to travel back to Denver to catch a flight back to California.Reached Denver airport , returned the rental car [happy they didn't catch the crack on front glass pane] and took the flight back to Cali.
I was really in love with Colorado with such beautiful terrains and especially for someone who loves to stay and play in hands of nature , this place is heaven . I may not get so much time again to spend in Colorado but definitely plan to come back again.

Special thanks to Ashutosh Sharma for joining me on this fun,adventurous,scary and memorable trip to Colorado.

I know whoever reads this blog would be hypnotized to visit Colorado. But if don't get a chance to visit Colorado, you can view it through my camera lens. Here is the link to to some of the pictures from our trip :

https://picasaweb.google.com/116774270994619278830/ColoradoTrip

Here Comes 2008

2007-12-31T19:05:00.000-08:00

Wishing you a very Happy New Year

Day Of Surprises

2007-11-18T15:32:00.000-08:00

The Sunday Gurudwara brought a lot of surprises for me. Firstly I got to listen to the awesome voice of Snatam Kaur Ji.I met this cutest couple, I met Sita Kaur from New Mexico a totally unexpected thing and at last I met Valarie Kaur who made the movie "Divided We Fall".

"The Cutest Couple"

Meeting Sita Kaur after a long time " A big Surprise"

With Valarie Kaur "Brave Lady"

Diwali 2007

2007-11-11T22:48:00.000-08:00

Diwali at Los Angeles was a different kind of experience.No lights,no fire crackers.Is that Diwali,I don't think so !!! Anyways we manage to plan something for Diwali. Some of my friends got together and decided to go Hindu temple to see the aarti at the ISCON temple.It was a good experience.After the aarti finished we went to one of the Indian shops and had some really refreshing sweets and some samosas,pakodas and really some good food.
We also bought some Diyas("earthen pots ") and some sweets for house.We came back home and lighted up our house with Diyas and ate some sweets.Here are some pictures:

Epitome of Punjabi

2007-11-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

Here is a perfect example of a Punjabi Person.A Punjabi Person does Bhangra on every tune whether it is a Bhangra tune or not.
On October 22nd,2007 we celebrated Garba at our university campus . But as usual it was less of Garba but more of Bhangra. So,conclusion is Bhangra is for each and every festivity.Here are some pictures .

Guru Gadi Divas

2007-10-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

I had an experience of life time at the "299 th Guru Gaddi Divas Celebration" @ Guru Ran Dass Ashram,Los Angeles.The thing that made this occasion so special for me was that I was one of the "Panj Pyara" for the procession"Jaloos" that was held at this celebration.

I was pretty excited about the whole thing so I reached the Gurudwara half an hour before the scheduled time.I just started doing some "seva" at the Gurudwara by the time all the "Panj's" arrive.Then rang the bell ,time was 5:40 p.m (20th October,2007),it was time to get ready.I wore "White Churidars(skin tight pajamas),White Kurta and on top of Kurta Saffron Chola and a White Kirpan".Here I am all decked up:

Then the lady "Manjit Kaur" who was co-ordinating took us in where "Guru Granth Sahib Ji" was placed,we recited Ardas ,then proceeded with the Guru Ji to the place from where the procession was to start.Then we all started moving with procession ,there were Kids in the front portraying small Panj followed by "Bigger Panj's" including me,then Guru Ji and the Sangat.Sangat were playing different instruments like Gutiar,Dhol,Harmonium to give good feel to holy Hyms being sung.It was a short procession that lasted for half an hour not like the usual one's in India that last the whole day long and go around the whole city.After arriving at Gurudwara we placed Guru Ji in the Palki Sahib and all the Panj sat beind Guru Ji doing "Chaur to Guru Ji" for the whole duration of Gurudwara.The whole Gurudwara was jam packed.

At the end of Gurudwara we placed Guru Ji at its place and recited the Ardaas.After the Gurudwara we had Langar and met some people from New Mexico ,it was really nice to meet them.

I am really thankful to some of the people for giving me support to be one of the Panj.First of all my parents,then Manjit Kaur Ji who gave me this opportunity and attended to whole lot of my queries.In the end thanks to Siri Gopal Singh Ji who took my pictures even though he was busy with his Gutiar.

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

Men are Cruel

2007-09-14T21:36:00.000-07:00

Few weeks back I was attending a camp at Vermont Gurdwara in Los Angeles.After my work I used to go to Gurdwara to take part in the evening events .It was a five day long camp but I think I was hardly able to make to four evening sessions.I used to take metro red line from Union Station to Sunset and then walk from Sunset to Gurdwara.On the way from Sunset to Gurdwara,I used to observe a homeless lady sitting by the side on one of the raised platforms.

It was day 5 of the camp(last day of camp),and I decided to walk up to that lady and just sit by her side and ask her what led her into this state.I was really reluctant at times to approach her because being in an alien country ,you never know how people are going to treat you.But some how at the end of camp ,it was approximately 10 pm ,I was going back ,walking the same stretch where she sits,something beckoned me and I stopped by her side.I started talking to her and she was really pleased to talk to me,because she got a vent for her emotions after a long time by talking to me.She told me her name ,it was "Joyce",she began telling me her story how she came on the road.The story goes like this ,she had a very cruel husband ,and when she was pregnant ,her husband tried to kill her and the to be baby.In one of the attacks she was hurt ,that resulted in death of her to be born baby.She could not take that incident and became imbalanced and her husband abandoned her and started threatening her that if she will try to tell all this to cops ,he is going to kill her.That's how she was here roaming on streets helplessly.But as we were talking I came to know that she had a very good hand at drawing sketches,she showed me all her sketches.After seeing the sketches ,I was like awe struck .It looked like as if those sketches were live speaking to you.As a token of love ,she gave me two of her best sketches .I felt like blessed receiving those sketches from her.Here are those two sketches:

Jaap Sahib Course

2007-09-10T00:04:00.000-07:00

I aatended Jaap Sahib Course from August 5-9,2007 at New Mexico,Espanola.
Jaap Sahib Course was a whole new experience for me. I learnt so many things .I was like a blank person when I came to the course, but by the end of course I was like a pot full of information and confidence.

The main thing that I learnt from the course was that, you can live a very good life without having a lot of money but with enough of spirituality which comes at no cost at all but with some personal effort and dedication.
Other thing that I felt was the power of Jaap Sahib, reciting Jaap Sahib in the sangat gave some kind of confidence and power to me, and I could really feel it. I really felt close to Guru Gobind Singh ji.The other thing I came to know about Jaap Sahib was that it was one of the most musical and the most difficult bani’s of all .I really enjoyed the “Bowing Jaap Sahib” part , in which you had to bow for every reference to “Namo” and “Namastan” (which was approximately 800 times), that means that you had to bow 800 times. This was a really a test of patience for my body for first time, I changed positions at least 50 times, but from second time onwards I just changed positions few times.So,one thing that I learnt from this was that by controlling your mind you can do everything in you life. As it is said in Japji Sahib “Man Jitta Jag Jeet”.It was enduring for the body but rewarding for mind.

The other thing that I developed was my positive attitude towards Nihang Singh’s. The lectures given by Baba Nihal Singh and translated by Dr.Harjot Kaur were really a good source of information about Nihang’s and how they perceive Sikhism, because the general perception is that Nihang’s are always in a state of high .

Then we had to really endure our bodies, by doing some really difficult kriyas like Sat Kriya,Archer pose each for eleven minutes.Gurutej Singh and Guruchander Singh were trying to give us the same training they got from SSS Harbhajan Singh Yogi ji.But it was good to test how much your body can endure ,those were really the most painful classes of the whole course. But our teachers told us that they are painful but they would really make us powerful from inside as well as outside. And I now I realize that it is really true when I try to practice those Kriya’s at home ,I think what they said was really true and I now respect them for what they said at that time.
During the course there had been times of enjoyment also. The best part was the Gatka workout time. It was under the aegis of Chardi Kala Jatha.They taught about the Pantra’s ,which is the basic of Sikh martial arts, they also taught made us to do Sarvan Danda,they had planned a really good workout schedule for us. The best part was that they used to make us play some really rough games like “Lions and Tigers” and “Human Tug of War”. During the whole Gatka workout Jaap Sahib would be played in the background which always gave us some feeling as if we were being trained to serve our Guru Guru Gobind Singh Ji.

During the course I had an opportunity to know a lot about Guru Gobind Singh ji by listening to the Sakhis told by Chardi Kala Jatha,they really recited the stories in a really nice way. Their bold voice can awaken anybody in this world. Then were the stories from Shanti Ji about the role of Singhnia’s in Guru Gobind’s life, that was such a great Sakhi.We also had a chance to know all about the Jaap Sahib ,through the words of Bibi Ji .It was a really informative lecture about Jaap Sahib ,giving in depth detail about each and detail about Jaap Sahib. With these stories we had some Q&A sessions, which were really great. They really gave answers to so many questions to which I could not find answers for a long time.

During the course I had a chance to meet some really great people like Chardi Kala Jatha,Shanti Kaur Ji(“The Punch Lady”,that’s what comes in my mind when I remember her name, as related to the big punch she gave to one of the reporters in India who was trying to sneak into the train cabin in which yogi ji was sitting),Gurujot Singh,twins Hari Singh and Prabhu Singh,Lakmir chand and Siri chand,Gurmustuk Singh(Mr.Sikhnet) and many more. I felt like I have one more family in New Mexico, they were all so nice. And not to forget to mention Bibiji, she is so down to earth that I cannot explain to you, because generally people of her stature are really full of ego and would never meet anybody. But she was such a gentle lady that she would just mix with other people like just a common person. She made such a delicious Indian food for us on the last day, and she would offer anybody to come to meet her anytime they feel like.

Besides these religious affairs we came to know about the entrepreneurs like Gurutej Singh, the way he was rejected by LAPD and then he started his own security company “Akal Security” which is one of the most reputed security companies in USA as of date.

They say that when somebody comes to Espanola, he doesn’t go back. But I thought that what was so special about that would attract people to keep them back in such a non commercial place. At time of leaving Espanola I felt the same way I felt like staying back here, I don’t why?
But I was very much more confident when I left Espanola after the course, both as a Human and as a Sikh.

To look at all the pictures I took during the course, please follow the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/harjotsingh.kochar/JaapSahibCourseSikhYouthCamp

Yosemite National Park,California

2007-09-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

Quarter of Pizza

We went over to Yosemite National Park on the labor day weekend.It was one of the most exciting vacations of my life.Yosemite National Park is located in northern california ,somewhere around 300 miles of Los Angeles.I was accompanied by my room mates Vishant,Suranga,Prakash and Aditya.Vishant and Suranga drove us to our destination ,Yosemite National Park,they were pretty decent drivers ,except Vishant was always threatening Suranga not to drive below 100 miles/hour.It was a pretty smooth drive across I5 ,I99 and then on CA 41.

We reached Yosemite National Park at around 3:00 pm and the first thing that struck us was that we were low on gas and that whether we would get gas inside the park or not.But by luck there were some gas stations inside the park but only at some designated places.This one is a huge park spread over hundred of miles ,so they had to have a gas station.So,we got some gas filled up and headed towards the glacier point.

On our way to glacier point we saw some breath taking views,so decided to take some pictures.So,we made some nice "profile postures" for these pictures.Here are a few of them.

After taking these pictures we headed toward the glacier point .Glacier point was at quite a height and it had a spectacular view of the whole Yosemeti Park.

After glacier point we headed back and decided to go to Yosemeti Valley to visit the visitor centre and get some information about places to visit in the valley ,so that we can plan out our trip for the coming day.But what we found on our way back was a head sign for Bridalveil fall.We all could not stop ourselves to go to the fall and have a nice dip in the water.So,we headed for the fall and when we reached there ,we found a beautiful fall and few people taking a dip in the fall.We decided to give a shot and got ready to take a quick dip,the moment we entered pool of water, wave of shock ripped us apart.It was icy cold water,we could hardly bear it and came out after sometime ,Suranga was cribbling as we were throwing that cold water at him.It was an awesome body shaking dip at 7:00 pm ,an odd time for dip in a waterfall.

After that we headed back to yosemite valley ,our teeth tickling with cold that shocked our body completely.We went to the market and bought some fruits and ready to eat stuff for the trip next day ,which was not yet planned out.But a traditional punjabi mentality says that whether we go to the hike or not ,we should have something to eat.The only person who could guide us for the coming day hike was that daily store's cashier ,so we got all the information from him as he was busy doing the billing ,but he was really helpful.He gave us quite a few options for hiking
"Half Dome " ,"Cloud Rest","Nevada Falls" and a lot many.Among all of these "Half Dome" was the most difficult one.So,we thought that we are no less than anyone and would go for "Half Dome".

Now time had come for some food ,everybody had their gas tanks empty,had to fill them up.
So ,we went over to curry village to have some pizza ,in hurry we ordered two large pizza's ,as we thought that everybody was hungry and we would be able to finish it.When the pizzas were delivered our eyes were wide open as they were really "large",it was a big task to finish them off.But at last we had almost a quarter of pizza left over,which brought a lot of nice people to visit us,you will see that in later part.So,after food we were justing sitting in the common's lobby and relaxing ,were asking people about their experiences of hiking "Half Dome",if they had been there.As we were talking one couple was hearing over our talk and they asked us ,if we were planning to go "Half Dome",they told us that they had just came back from the hike and told us that it was pretty interesting hike and we would be able to cover the whole thing in 10 hrs.This motivated us to further continue on our plan of hike ,which had withered a bit when we had a discussion with one of the guys sitting there ,who said that it was a pretty difficult hike and requires atleast 12 hrs.The earlier couple was over motivating ,and helped us a lot with the hiking tips and told us that if we are not handicaps we can finish the hike in atmost 10 hrs."But we proved to be worst than any handicaps ,you will see later".

Now was time to sleep,we took that "quarter of pizza" along us.We are students and Indians ,so we are not supposed to spend money on things like lodging and of all that we had no reservations for any lodging ,so we decided to stay at "Car Lodge".Me and Vishant flattened out the front two seats ,Suranga squeezed up in the middle seat,making horrible sounds that went on through out the night,but there were some more things horrible than that , Prakash and Aditya at the back with the back seats flattened,those guys were the most comfortable one.I wish I had the picture of this sleeping plan,but anyhow now make a picture yourself from this description.Now starts the fun part,I was finding it hard to sleep ,changing sides,and feeling thirsty at the same time ,after an hour or so Vishant opened his eyes,I asked him for the keys, went out and grabbed some water from the boot.I took a sigh of relief,after drinking water,but who knew there was worse to come.I could not sleep even after that and told Vishant to open my window approximately to the half level,this was the biggest mistake of my life.After that Vishant went to sleep,but I still could not sleep.But what I saw in the coming minutes was the most frigthening moment of my life.I had read on my way that there were 300-400 black bears at Yosemeti,and they had mentioned that they can cause harm to you and your property in order to grab the food ,so you always need to keep all food items in bear safe container.But now I had that a Quarter of Pizza in front of me lying almost open.I think that was the reason that attracted the black bears near our car,they were two of them.Quarter of Pizza in front of me ,my window half opened,bears by the door ,and everybody else sleeping,man that was the most scariest time of my life.I was shivering with fear from head to toe.The only thing I could do was to pray whole heartedly.Interestingly the bear went away after 10-15 minutes,but ask me ,those 10-15 minutes looked 10-15 days to me.I took a deep breath of sigh,may be equal to million people.But even after the bear went away I could not sleep ,and to my surprise again after 2 hours at around 4 a.m the bear came again,but this time I was not ready to take him and woke up Vishant this time ,he was also bit frigthened,but by God's grace the bear went pretty quickly.Say it to be my audacity or my foolishness,I still didn't pull up my window even after this.

According to the plans the previous night we were to get up at 5 ,and leave for hike.But we all are a bunch of lazy ass,everybody got up at 5 and then decided we will get up after half hour,but the next time we got up it was 8.We hurriedly did our daily chores in the public restroom "Desi Style",had our coffee,some quick breakfast and headed towards the start of trail at around 10 am.The trail was "Half Dome",which was a total of 17 mile or 22 km.We started the trail in quite an excited mood,here is how we looked at the beginning of the hike.

But this excitement turned into pain as we started our hike.We were trying to follow some shortcuts,but I think they made us more tired.According to our plan we decided to halt after every fifteen minutes,but I think something was wrong with our clocks,our fifteen minutes used to come after every five minutes.Today I came to know how long a mile is,every mile looked like extended fifteen times.We had our first stop at Nevada Falls ,had some quick food and water ,filled up our water bottles as this was the last point where you can have water,remaining 5 miles had no trace of water.On our way up we met a Forest Ranger named "Brenton",he told us some exciting ranger stories and I also described to him the bear incident that occured by our car due to that "Quarter of Pizza",he told us that we were pretty lucky that bear didn't jumped into our car.Remember I had my window open.As the hike became steep ,we started becoming tired,Suranga was acting as he was going to fade away in any moment.He was saying that "Kill me ,I will pay you for that".I knew that he was not going to make it to the top.When we reached the fag end of our hike,we could see the steep "Half dome " beckoning us.Half of us were planning to drop it half way,but there was one thing that was pinching us that if a girl can do it,why can't we do it.This is because one of our friend "Poornima",who had visited this place earlier had told us to go for this hike ,and we had seen her picture at the half dome (but actually that was picture at glacier point ,that's reachable by car).

So,finaly I and Vishant decided to do the last part of hike and the reamining three decided to stay there and wait for us until we come back.This part of hike was the most dangerous and excrutiating.We had to climb around odd rough 1000 steps,they were really difficult ,then we had to climb to the top of half dome using the metal rope,so had to use gloves.It was really consuming lot of power to pull ourselves along those ropes.It took us around 40 minutes to climb the ropes,normally it takes 15 min.But when we reached the top of "Half Dome",we could see the whole Yosemeti valley.We took the longest time ever to hike the "Half Dome" i.e 9 hrs.Here are some pictures of the last part of hike.

Me and Vishant starting with the toughest part of the hike to "Half Dome".

Finally the two who made it to the top.It looks beautiful up there.

The two victorious showing their strength to other three scary people.

So,after this show of victory we realised that we were becoming too late,it was already 7pm and it was getting dark in the forests.We were the last one to walk back out of that place.We walked back for about half an hour ,and it was totally dark,so had to make use of search lights and the water proof neon candles which Prakash got it along with the earthquake safety kit from Google.Here is how we looked with neon handles in our hand.

You can see the look at our face,we were all so exhausted.Everybody holding their neon lights and Vishant guiding the way from the back using a search light.Prakash was leading the way ,using different words like "Careful,slippery,move on left".Well done Prakash.
As comapred to our way up ,we had very few stops ,may be just two or three.The sky was so filled up with stars that day,I have never seen so many stars together in one glance.We could almost see every constellation(we remembered very few of them),but it was really awesome.We finished the hike on the way back in 5 hours ,so a total of 14 hours ,I think the worst anybody would have done till date.

As we reached the trail end ,it was already 11:30 pm ,we came to know that there are no buses after 10,so had to walk till parking ,that means another mile.Anyhow we reached the parking and were really delighted but at the same time exhausted too.We sat down in the car and had some food ,chips and I kept the" remaining chips on the dashboard".We decided that tonight we will again sleep in the car and would leave early morning at around 6 am ,so that we can reach Los Angeles by 11 am and return the rental car by 11 am,otherwise we would have to pay another $65.So,as we were going to sleep I saw some bears at some distance ,and I quickly rolled up my windows.This time everybody was awake so I showed the bear to everybody.But anyhow we were less afraid this time,but I forgot that I had kept the chips at the same place where I had kept the "Quarter of Pizza " last night.But anyhow we all went to sleep,suddenly at 2:30 am we heard a punching sound on the windows.My first guess before opening the eyes was that it was bear trying to hit the glass of the window.Suddenly we all woke up and what we saw was that National Park Security people banging on our window,we opened the window and they told us that we had violated the law by keeping the food in open sight ("remember those chips on the dashboard"),and we could be fined for this and our vehicle could be impounded for that.But she was good and she let us go on one notice that either we should go the camp ground and stay there or leave the National Park as soon as possible,because there was a bear on the tree ,below which our car was parked and he could damage the car.Again a wave of fear went through us and we decided to leave the park at 2:45 am.I think it was good in a sense that NPS had come over ,because otherwise we would have slept till 10 in the morning and would have ended up paying $ 65 more for the rental car.

To look at all the pictures we took at the yosemite national park ,you can follow this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/harjotsingh.kochar/YosemiteLabourDayWeekend