Taking a Break
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A few weeks ago, I took three weeks off. I’m really fortunate that I had the flexibility and opportunity to do this. Lately, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and burnt out at work. I really wanted a break.
I planned to do a 165 mile hike around Lake Tahoe but ended up only doing 40 miles there and then about 40 miles in Joshua Tree. (Check out those links for some photos.) Before leaving, I changed all of my work passwords and locked my work computer in my desk at work. While I was out, I couldn’t access my work accounts even if I wanted to. I forced myself to disconnect.
At first, this was really difficult. I thought about work often on my first few days of my hike. It was mostly bitter and frustrated thoughts. Each day, I thought about it less and less. Instead I started focused on the beautiful scenery and just enjoying the nature around me.
California Riding and Hiking Trail
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The California Riding and Hiking Trail is a 37.6 mile trail in Joshua Tree National Park.
After getting snowed out in Tahoe, I decided to head down to the desert for some warmer hiking. One of the unique things about Joshua Tree is you have to bring your own water. There isn’t any water in the park and if you happened to find some, it’s protected so you’re not allowed to drink it.
Before I started the hike, I left some water behind some bushes near Belle Camp and Ryan Camp. (I found a lot of good information about this on Bearfoot Theory.) I was pretty worried about water, but it ended up not being a big deal.
Tahoe Rim Trail
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I took three weeks off to hike the Tahoe Rim Trail. It’s a 165 mile trail around Lake Tahoe. Here’s a map.
I was really excited about my first thru-hike. I spent a ton of time working on my gear list, doing research, and planning the details of my trip.
The trip didn’t go as planned though. After only 40 miles, I decided to head home. It started snowing really hard on the 4th day, and I wasn’t really prepared for snow or very cold temperatures.
Dark Mode Stylesheet
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With iOS 13 coming out yesterday, there are a lot more folks are experiencing system-wide Dark Mode for the first time. As you navigate around the system apps in Dark Mode, it’s really nice to see everything be dark. The moment you open up an app that doesn’t support Dark Mode, it can be really jarring. Websites in Safari are one of the biggest offenders for me. We can fix this though.
I recently made my personal website and blog support a dark theme if the user’s device has dark mode enabled. This is really easy to achieve with a relative new features in CSS, custom properties (aka CSS variables). They are already widely supported too!
Here’s how to define variables:
Lost Coast
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This week, I hiked the nothern section of the Lost Coast Trail with 3 friends. It’s 24.6 miles from Black Sands Beach to Mattole Beach. We started at the southern end and hiked north.
Twenty-four miles in 3 days doesn’t sound that difficult, but it was actually pretty tough. Almost all of the trail is on sand. Hiking a long distance on sand—especially with the slope of the beach into the ocean—is really though on your feet, ankles, knees, etc. We were all pretty sore by the end. It was super beautiful though. I would absolutely do it again!
If you’re curious, here’s my gear list for this trip.