Hiking Mount Si

Atop Mount Si
More to come... :)

Dominant Federer

The video below is from one of the matches at the Shanghai Masters cup which Federer won with sublime dominance. Enjoy......

Hiking Tiger mountain

Intro
Last Saturday, on a chilly and cloudy afternoon, my roomie and me set forth to scale this beauty of a peak, a glorious 2500 ft asl. For most part this peak was steep, but it wasn't like I was crossing streams or going through dense undergrowth; the path was well laid and well marked, leaving no room for confusion or getting lost in the dense and picturesque old-growth fern-fested forest.

Duration
It took us 1.5 hrs to get to the top of the Tiger mountain III(yep, there's II and I hiding just across from the peak). Coming back, we were on auto-cruise/run mode and it took us a shade less than 45 minutes.

Getting there
We exclusively used bus and strong legs as the mode of transportation. 271 takes one from the university district to Issaquah (1hr ride). 209 from the transfer point, takes around 20 minutes to Highway point, the first stop on the freeway. From there, its around 20 minutes walk to the Tradition lake trail head.

Overall, it was a quick but refreshing trip. We got good views of the Tiger II, Squak ,Cougar mountain, and ofcourse the gorgeous Mount Si from the Tiger mountain III view point.

PS: Maps and pics to be posted soon.

It feels good

It feels good to be alive, to be able to wake up every morning and not worry about what's coming. It feels good to be able to say this, it feels good to have overcome misery in life and comeback strong. Miseries and struggles can't be avoided on the one hand, and make us appreciate the good things in life on the other hand. Its only when you are really miserable can you know what it means to feel good in life. It feels good right now, believe me.

The Irony of it at US open

The man who had won all his matches so far in the US open without losing a single set, lost to Federer in straight sets at the semi final!! But, as Federer mentioned in the post-match interview, it was a major battle for every point in the match. The third set saw 6 breaks between the two players; each player was breaking the other and losing the game on the serve. Federer was down 3-5 in the third set, but made an amazing comeback to win the match 7-5. 6-1, 7-5. Davydenko is an amazing base line player, but on this occasion he was playing against proabably the best tennis player in the history of tennis. Also, the record of 9-0 match wins that Federer has against Davydenko might have been a psychological adavantage to the former in the match.
Federer faces a tough opponent on Sunday, against whom he has a record of 4-1, which is pretty impressive. But, the only loss occured at Rogers cup 2007, Montreal, a few weeks back. So Federer would need to be at his best(which often happens at grandslam finals) to win the final tomorrow hopefully in 3 or 4 sets, Djokovic's antics notwithstanding.