Trail Followed: Avalon --> Blackjack --> Little Harbor --> Parson's Landing (via Two Harbors along the coast) --> Two Harbors (along the coast)

Summary: This was a very challenging hike and I developed blisters on both my larger toes and one on the toe next to the big one. I wore cross trainers and felt every single rock. I'd opt to wear trail runners next time to get the perfect mix of durability, comfort, and weight. You won't be traversing anything wet unless its raining. This has the most amenities of the 2 backpacking trips I've done so far (Enchanted Valley and  Havasupi). There's multiple showers at the campsites, food protection in the form of bear cabinets at each site, various spigots along the route so you don't need a water filter, and even delivery service if you schedule it ahead time. Don't let the luxuries fool you though as the length and elevation will wear on you no matter how comfortable you just were. Treat every ounce as an additional half pound as the elevation can be punishing and make sure your hiking shoes are broken in.

Total Mileage: ~40 miles

Total Elevation Gain: ~6,600 feet

Avalon to Blackjack Campsite Pro Tips:

• No gear hauls here and it's the longest and strenuous leg if you start from Avalon. It was warmer in the mountain and didn't have much of a breeze so you can maybe get away with less cold weather gear.
• There are 3 chances to fill water on the way: 1.5 miles in at Hermit Gulch, 5.6 miles in at the Haypress Recreation area playground, and 1-2 more miles in after the playground.
• DEFINITELY FILL YOUR WATER IF YOU ARE RUNNING LOW ON THE TRIAL SPIGOT, BUT TO BE SAFE, DO IT AT THE PLAYGROUND TOO.
• Due to the elevation change, it will be warmer/hotter than the weather at Avalon. When I went it was ~70 in Avalon but 80-85 on the trail. We got cooked and definitely suffered heat exhaustion
• BRING A HAT AND STAY COVERED. It is very exposed and can get hot with no breeze for long stretches
• STAY HYDRATED AND KEEP THE ELECTROLYTE CHEWS/GATORADE ON HAND. We started hallucinating a bit and I started hearing noises that were not there toward the end and on the very tough uphill climb.
• If you get to the fire road and are tanked or really struggling, you can try and hitch a ride to the campsite via Ranger.
• There is a free shower at the Blackjack campsite. Bring your swimsuit!
• Cell Signal: T-mobile had no signal here but AT&T did. No Wifi at the camp

Blackjack to Little Harbor Campsite Pro Tips:

• BEFORE YOU GET THERE: Order firewood logs ahead of time, or find the man in the trailer at the top of the hill in the south side of camp and pay ~$15-20 per bundle. Provision delivery here is done at the Two Harbors convenience store and requires you to purchase it IN-STORE before they ship it. Shipping is also an additional $50 delivery fee. We were lucky enough to have the Ranger (Aaron/Erin?) pick it up for a neighboring camp. Definitely keep an eye out for him and ask nicely :) Fun Fact: he's a 5th generation Calatalinan.
• Stop by Airport in the Sky and get the Bison Brisket Breakfast Burrito which is off menu. You can pass on the other secret item which was definitely not worth it  (the Bison buger) If you are bringing freeze dried meals, pick up a few Tapatio packets for extra flavor.
• Stock up on an ice cold Gatorade or ask to get your fill of ice for the rest of the hike. This is not as bad as the first leg but is still not an easy jaunt
• There is wifi and electrical outlets at the Airport In the Sky if you need to recharge or connect to the world again
• A water spigot is also available by the Corn Hole games
• This trail is a lot breezier on certain parts and you finally get a view
• Recommend resting at each of the little gazebos as they are few and far between (I recall 2)
• There are several free shower locations amongst the campsites
• Cell Signal: T-mobile had no signal here but AT&T did, though spotty and better on the hills. No Wifi at the camp

Little Harbor to Parson's Landing Campsite Pro Tips:

• BEFORE YOU GET THERE: There is NO potable water spigot or delivery services here. Order a locker ahead of time containing 2 gallons of water, 1 bundle of wood, and a fire starter at the Two Harbors Visitor Service Center. If you want to risk it or be a degenerate see the unethical life pro tip at the end.
• When you arrive at Two Harbors get the "Yacht Club", its delicious and the best item there
• Fill up on Ice at the soda machine, buy a gatorade if you want extra provisions
• Stock up on beer at the convenience store if you wanna pack in alcohol to Parson's. It's worth it 🍻
• Showers can be taken here at $2 for 3 minutes of run time. They have cash exchange machines so bring some dollar bills. I made the mistake of lugging around quarters for the first half of this trip. Make sure you're naked when you put in the 8th quarter to maximize on time
• You can make it to Parson's landing via the 6 mile, 1800 feet OR the 8 mile 200 feet route. The 8 mile route is more scenic and a respite if you really suffered the first leg. This is the route we went and we didn't regret it one bit. The 8 mile hike also had actual service for T-Mobile if that matters to you
• There is a decent outhouse ~2.5 miles in from the short route from Two Harbors to Parson's. This'll probably be the cleanest bathroom you get before the campgrounds
• The Boy Scouts camp along the 8 mile route have some spigots but the one closest to the road didn't seem to turn on.
• Sites 4, 5, 6, and 7 are on the north end of the beach
• Cell Signal: T-mobile had consistent signal in certain spots here and AT&T did, though spotty. No Wifi at the camp
• Unethical Life Pro Tip: If you need to get supplies in a pinch... the lockers follow a very logical code system. You can check the locks that are opened and chances are someone has left the code exactly as it is. I was able to solve one column of lockers by seeing the pattern of 3074, 3063, 3052 where the 3rd number went up as you went up and the fourth number went down as you went down the column. Also, the furthest left column's lockbox code for box 3 was 3038 🤫

Misc Pro Tips:

• Beers on the boat are ~$1 cheaper than at the bar
• There are some outlets on the deck in between the bar and the restaurant
• Leaving nice TP, glade air freshners, or water at each site is a nice way to bank some karma on the route and the person coming after you will thank ya.

Gear List:

Total Weight ~35-40 lbs with a full bladder + beer

Backpack: 55L Colombia Titanium Backpack w/ 3L Camelbak

Tent: 2 Person REI Trail Hut (1 person tent recommended to shed weight)

Sleeping Mat: Big Agnes Insulated "Divide" Wide

Sleeping Bag: Mummy rated to 32 degrees (could go something for warmer temps)

Hiking Poles: Definitely saved me and helped distribute weight when carrying all the beer. Helpful on the steep descents as well.

8 Freeze dried meals (3 Breakfast ones), 2 protein bars, 2 Kind bars, 2 packs of Energy Chews, 2 packs of Salt Sticks. I ended up with 1 breakfast meal and could have probably eaten 1 less meal. You could eat more or get "fresh" food at 2 different points on the trips so if you want to pack lighter and bank on these, that's an option I would have done to save a little weight.

Nalgene bottle (good for general liquid storage and less frequent trips to the spigots)

Puffer Jacket (Perfect for Little Harbor and Parson's Landing)

Crocs are perfect camp shoes but you can cut weight with sandals if you prefer

4 shirts, 1 long sleeve. Long sleeve was a luxury item but worth it for the nights when I didn't want to don a puffer

3 pairs of shorts

One pair of board shorts

4 socks

4 undies

Jetboil

Mole skin pack for blisters

Things I should have left home:

• Utility knife
• Trauma Shears
• Quarters (bring dollar bills)
• Electric pump

Breaking out of my COVID travel-less funk to go to Korea was the best thing that happened to me since quarantine. Never before had the urge to see unfamiliar sights, immerse oneself in a language they don't know, bite at me strongly as it did.  

Before going it was only recently announced that Korea had lifted the 2 week quarantine so there were a lot of unknowns when it came to how to actually follow through on what happens when you get there so I'd like to share some pro tips on my trip.

Before leaving the states I was able to use lhi.org in San Diego to do free COVID testing that was accepted by the airlines and Korean officials. This was clutch as it was done just a hair over the 48 hour mark and they didn't seem to care that much. The results came back within a day and a half though if you want a more reliable turnaround you might want to pay for it.

Things you must ABSOLUTELY do upon/before landing:

• Bring a portable battery pack that carries at least 1.5 charges for your phone.
• Buy a Korean sim - This is your key to getting COVID results in Korea, receiving communication from the government, and is literally a requirement for pretty much everything. Do this as soon as you land at the airport. (T-Mobile data is garbage out here and the high speed pass is barely passable).
• Buy a transit card from one of the vending machines in the Airport. This is your key to getting around the public transportation and can be a bitch to find later. Load it with 20-25K which should last you about a week. FTR I hit 22K with heavy use.
• Download Kakaotalk (Main messaging app), Naver Maps(google only works for public transit and not general navigation), and Uber(slow but sometimes does work out there).

Useful tips to know:

• You can pull out cash from banks using your debit card. I was charged 3600 won (~$2.68) and an additional foreign transaction fee by Chase (y doe) so it isn't too bad. I used Woori bank
• Public transit closes around midnight to 1 AM. It opens back up at 4AM if you're willing to tough it out at a bar/club until then.
• Don't fly into Korea late Saturday night or on Sunday. Nothing is basically open or available. We missed taking our mandatory COVID tests within the first 24 hours when landing because none of the centers were open and had to spend time searching in the city to find testing centers. Airport COVID testing closes at 6PM and costs $80 for a PCR test. The mandatory testing didn't seem very enforced at all though its better to be safe than sorry and just do it.
• There are designated public centers you can go to that will do it for free. You MUST Bring your passport.
• I took out 200K won which was helpful in many situations since it my card wasn't always reliable.
• Most things open at ~10-11AM
• Every bus has free wifi that's pretty fast.
• Learn to spot subway exits/entrances to cross streets that don't seem to have clear crosswalks
• Stay in Hongdae, Itaewon, or Gangnam. Jung-Gu was dead and Myeondong was not as vibrant as it usually is due to COVID.
• Cabs are plentiful and not too expensive though you might get kicked out if you aren't Korean ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . It costed me ~$10 to get to most places in Seoul.
• When leaving Korea to go back to the US you only need an antigen test but it MUST be taken in front of some sort of authority. Take home tests are not valid. If you do it at the airport you can present the PDF they send you from the clinic. MAKE SURE YOUR PASSPORT ID IS CORRECT.

Useful phrases to know:

• kam-sa-hab-ni-da - Thanks - 감사합니다
• ann-yeong-ha-seyo - Hello - 안녕하세요
• mool-ju-seyo - Water Please 물 주세요
• maek-ju-ju-seyo - Beer Please 맥주주세요
• hana, duel, set - 1, 2, 3
• yeong-eo hal jul ahrayo - Can You Speak English 영어 할 줄 알아요
• yeong-eo-menyu-ju-seyo - English Menu Please 영어 메뉴
• hwa-jang-sil-eo-di-yeyo - Where is the restroom 화장실 어디예요
• More here

Recommended places to check out:

• Namsan Park - Get the Seoul Tower experience without going to Seoul Tower.
• Any of the Samgang parks. I went to Jamwon next to Banpo bridge
• Hanbok rentals for Gwangbokjung
• Apgujeong for partying in our age bracket (late 20's early 30's) bring ear plugs
• Hongdae for younger college kid scene and buskers
• Itaewon for international feel. Lots of English speakers here and there is supposedly a bar that is geared towards language exchange (something like this perhaps?)
• Hike bukhansan (very difficult one on of the routes) but it has a beautiful view
• Pregame at a convenience store with soju and drink it anywhere

After experiencing a year of being a junior software engineer I set my sights on what it would take to operate at a higher level... Management experience. To me becoming "Senior" means more than just having increased technical knowledge. Skills in leading people, directing conversations, and contributing to a positive work culture amplify your impact at a company and can get you closer to being that fabled "10x" engineer. Since we weren't hiring anymore juniors to work below me I decided on two methods of achieving this. First was moonlighting at a Bootcamp for UCSD and second was starting an intern program at work. TA'ing a bootcamp gave me some beer money and boosted my confidence in the fundamentals and mentoring skills. This allowed me to practice outside of my company and flowed nicely into my next method (If I could handle a class of 20, 3 interns at work should be a cake walk).

The idea for working a bootcamp came through a LinkedIn message and was appealing since I get to work on React which was something I didn't do at work. I had good working knowledge of most of the other tech they were teaching but I actually went through a React course after hours to familiarize myself with it before my interview. It was pretty easy to ace with light review of each topic and so long as you had a strategy with how to approach teaching, I can't see it being difficult.

6 months and one cohort later, I learned that my knowledge of software engineering had more more depth than was originally estimated. Dealing with a variety of personalities and getting teams of an eclectic bunch also gave me the real life scenarios that couldn't read about. Conflict resolution and delegation were definite key take aways. Bolstered by this experience I asked my boss about the possibility of hiring interns for our upcoming summer. The timing could not have been better as the we were just about to launch a company wide internship initiative. Combined with the growth our team was experiencing I pitched it as a way to increase exposure of the company to new budding talent while gaining extra hands to deal with some tech debt.

Following some screening and interviews I ended up with 3 awesome interns (one from the bootcamp!) and was able to onboard the TA from the bootcamp as a full time software engineer. During this time I was able to hone my abilities as a mentor and guide them in a professional setting towards work that would eventually make its way into production. Designing an intern program from scratch would prove to be another beast of it's own (post about this TBD) but the end result was that I now had a program to demonstrate and display my management skills which made it easier for me to get promoted.

The total time it took for this was approximately 10 months if you count the summer internship term and it was well worth it as I was promoted the following year to Software Engineer II. The methods here are just two methods of advancing yourself but there are surely plenty! How have you leveled up?

Bonus: One other notable mention that I did not get to pursue was side hustling for a company named Karat where you act as an outsourced technical interviewer for leetcode style problems. I hadn't done much interviewing at that stage of my career but is another option for others to gain some ground as more senior engineers. Interviewing.io is also a great site to see some of these technical interviews play out if you're looking for practice.

Working from home is awesome... until it isn't. It's been about 10 months since my company shifted over to full remote work and during that time I had to stave off some bad habits and learn some new ones to adapt to this strange new environment. Here are some ways I handled it so that you can establish a solid routine and come out of quarantine a nice and shiny gem.

Social Skills: Talking to strangers is like taking care of a plant. If you don't do it every now and then it's gonna die off. I caught myself slipping when I was talking to my handyman the other day and maybe went a little too far in conversation when I asked him too many personal questions and forgot about such filters... so I use these two habits to remind me to not be an idiot.

HelloTalk: Using this app I started practicing my Chinese and meeting people from around the world! It encourages voice communication so you'll get to stretch those ears and vocal chords a bit. A bonus is that it allows you to have that "international" experience that's out of reach during these times.

Book clubs: An easy group activity to stimulate thoughtful conversation and promote more reading! I found these fairly easy to keep up with and a low pressure weekly commitment. We have a decent churn rate of new and old folks popping in and out that keeps things fresh and it's been an excellent source of meeting new people on occasion.

Physical Fitness: Home gyms and YouTube workouts surged in popularity early on during COVID and while gyms are unreliably open, you don't want your body to literally become one with the couch. Early on I found that I would be glued to my desk until about 5PM everyday and my Apple watch would tell me that I have yet to spend a whole continuous minute standing up. If I didn't want to age into an old man body, this needed to change.

Workout Triggers: Whenever I do our daily "stand up" meeting, I make it a point to constantly do one of the following until the meeting is over: Standing Elbow Knees, Lunge Squats, or Leg Lifts/Raises. These can be put into any reoccurring meetings for maximum effect.

Netflix Stretches: When I pop up a Netflix show, I start on the ground and try to hold some stretches for as long as I can. By idly relaxing into these I've noticed my flexibility go up and it's less shameful because there's literally no one else around you. I've found Pigeon Pose, Runner's Lunge, and Seated Butterfly Stretches that are low effort and open up the hips.

Dumbbell Lifts: Without access to a proper gym I've been able to maintain some decent vanity muscle definition through the acquisition of a bench press and dumbbells that go up to 50lbs. My routine consists of 2 alternating workouts that hit different parts of the body. One is 3 sets of 10-12x Incline Bench,  12-14 Bosu/Yoga ball ab crunches, 10-12 Dumbbell Deadlifts, and 10-12 Bent Over Two Dumbbell Rows. The second is 3 sets of 10-12 Pistol Squats (Feel free to start easy on these), 10-12 Bicep Curls, 10-12 Tricep Dips, and 1-2 minute planks.

Mental Health: If COVID taught me anything, it's that my mental health is a lot more fragile than I had thought and self love is a real thing when you're isolated during a quarantine. Understanding your feelings, recognizing times of stress, and giving yourself permission to be happy with yourself is a practice worth pursuing. For me physical fitness generally takes care of this but with my reduced interactions with people... these are other ways I've found my psychological kicks.

Sunshine/Coffee/Dog Walks: Getting sun onto my skin has a very notable effect on my overall mood being lifted. I make it a point to be able to walk to a nearby park, coffee shop, or area with lots of sunlight before lunch time. Even though I'm not a huge coffee drinker I'll stop by the coffee shop just to see what's up and get some human interaction in.

Online Video Meetings: Want to stay in your sweats and look like you just woke up? Well too bad, this can lead to other lethargic habits and getting into the habit of seeing your co-workers face to face seems to make me remember that there's a human on the other side of that text box. I did a recording of my overall feelings towards the people at work for 2 weeks when I didn't see them on camera and then suggested we do a Friday webcam stand up to see each other's faces. I noticed that my feelings shifted from "this is annoying" to "I'm glad that person seems to be doing well" and is helpful especially with new faces!

10 Minute Morning Meditations: It seems like a lot to ask but in terms of bang for your buck, I can't recommend this meditation video enough. I fell on some dark times during COVID and was really feeling a lot of, well.... depression. Something about this just made things a little better for me each day and the message at the end reminding you to love yourself for the unique being that you are brought a little smile to my face knowing that I had the capacity to also love myself. I hope this does the trick for someone else out there!

The list comprises just some of the things that I try to do on a daily basis and chose to share what was the easiest to implement with the biggest gains. Keep an eye out for your own small hacks don't be afraid to share some of those with me as I'm always looking to improve :)  

The first thing any new engineer should focus on is trying to and learn as much they can and bring value to the team quickly... but oftentimes they express feelings of being lost, overwhelmed, or unhelpful when it comes to code. Limiting yourself to just software takes away what you can bring from other skills you may already have. As a fresh set of eyes you are in a unique position to bring new perspective and energy to a variety of areas that a team may be lacking in. Organizational bottlenecks and inefficiencies exist in every team and are often the result of technical/non-technical debt, hypergrowth, or just not-so-best practices. As the newbie you are actually in the best position to make suggestions since you are free of any office politics alliances and have the veil of ignorance to fall back on. "Oh I didn't know that, I was just wondering if...[Insert Suggestion Here]" has a lot of mileage in your first month. Just don't make it your default response the entirety of your time there.  

How do I get started?

Joining a team with basic skills I learned online and 2 community college courses behind me, I wasn't really handed anything too technical to do and I was starting to decay at my desk as I was reading legacy code for the fifth time over. At some point I felt pretty worthless to the team and as that sank in, I felt the pressure of being an imposter and basically just taking up office space. My solution to this was to try and do something.. ANYTHING to help the team out. I was lucky to have such a receptive team but I believe anyone can do it as long as you come from a point of wanting to help make other people's lives easier.

Some examples of things I did included:

• Organizing the ticket system that has been untouched for about 4 years –> Gave me more product knowledge and depth into the pain points of the project.
• Proposing reduced meeting times to force concise updates –> Yielded more time for the devs to mentor me and made it easier to digest information.
• Writing small scripts to automate cumbersome processes –> Allowed me to write simple code using JavaScript and reinforced my basics.
• Setting up weekly team emails to increase communication on deployments –> Established me as a person who knew what was going on with my team while forcing me to be on top of what was happening.
• Consolidating all our tooling and information into a central source –> Provided me a big picture idea of what we use and how we use it.

Only one of those things required some programming and while it can be argued that those responsibilities could be assigned to a Scrum Master or Project Manager, it built my credibility and trust as a someone who can get things done. A rising tide lifts all boats and when everyone can be more effective, you can be more effective.

But what if there is NOTHING I can work on to improve?

Get permission to start learning something. When I was a QA tester and I started to run out of tests, I began to ask around if there was something I could do to learn how to code understand what I was testing beyond a superficial layer. After taking my own time outside of work to find a reputable program, I began to ask engineers for help on certain concepts or topics that I felt like they might be able to explain in context of what I was working on. This led to the QA team getting access to CodeSchool and even getting dedicated time to learning it each week! If you can tie your goals with the companies and have reasonable people to support you, it will never look bad on you to ask. If you have to pay for it yourself, it shows more chutzpah and an ambition to grow.

They said no to me learning on the company dime, I still have no idea how to contribute, I have no mentorship, and/or they expect me to just do it on my own.

GTFO. Do the bare minimum and prep for another job. The longer you stay here the longer you'll stagnate and it's clear this isn't an environment that fosters growth. It sucks but the only answer here is to keep grinding. That's it.

If you are worried about these things potentially pushing you into a different path... That's a good thing! All the skills learned in the stories above could easily help transition into another role and you never know what you may like. Either way you are improving your whole package. Small wins are important throughout your career eventually lead to bigger wins down the road. Every story will be different but I guarantee you the themes between them will be the same. What's your story?