San Francisco

"Are those your only shoes?"

I laughed as I told Manny, "Yeah. These are the only shoes and pants I have."

Manny, one of the first friends I made at UCSB and my roommate for the next three years met me at the Powell Bart station in downtown San Francisco. A brilliant guy who's witty sense of humor will eagerly jump at the chance to make a joke if you let your guard down. A personality, style, and face so unique that people stop him on the streets of Washington DC to ask him if he worked at the UCSB rec. center. 

So when I got off the Bart to meet Manny, I was excited for the fun times ahead during the weekend and he was too. During the weekend we ended up finding ourselves in both downtown SF and Santa Cruz. We met up with several other UCSB friends during the weekend and found ourselves at a bar downtown watching the Giants.

Stepping off of Bart onto Powell

Fort Point and the Golden Gate

It seemed as if every person was wearing orange with cream colored jerseys. Lombard street was packed with a sea of orange people as they tipsily tried to find a bar with a seat to watch the game. Every bar was standing room only and cheers would echo down the from every bar. It was loud enough to think you were at the stadium.

By Monday morning it was time for all of my friends to head back to work except for Shelan who came up to give me a tour of the city. I've never spent much time in the city so she was kind enough to give me an amazing tour. We stopped at places like the Palace of Arts, Golden Gate Bridge, and Baker's Beach.

Shelan, another UCSB friend, is another amazingly talented person. She played lacrosse for UCSB which I still can't believe, and is also an amazing photographer combined with a world traveler. She just got back from six weeks of backpacking in Europe and was awesome enough to bring me a gift. When she handed me the gift I said it was really heavy like a rock. Turned out they were small skipping stone sized rocks with the places they were found written on them. I couldn't help but laugh at my guess but was stoked at such a thoughtful and creative gift.

San Bruno Bart Station

The stones from all over

When it was time to part she gave me a big big and dropped me off at the Bart station. From there I headed to Oakland to catch a bus to Mill's College to stay with a friend. After getting off of the Bart praying that I was at the right station I realized I didn't have any cash. I eventually found an ATM thanks to the Iphone and proceeded to find change. Since I was in the city I didn't think it was going to be hard to find an open business at 8pm. Turns out it's really hard in downtown Oakland. CVS, Starbucks, and a coffee shop were closed. 

I eventually found a gas station and made my way back to the bus stop through the empty streets of downtown. Even though it was an hour or so setback, sometimes these setbacks are for the better. I ended up meeting a young looking lady by the name of Lauren taking the same bus as me. Turns out she is a freelance photographer for company's like Levi's, Gap, and Dockers. She too has done her fair share of traveling through the Mediterranean, South America, and Asia. At thirty seven she still takes time off to travel every year.

As quickly as the conversation started, she said "thanks for re-inspiring her to travel and good luck." With that she and her yoga mat headed out into the dark of the Oakland streets. 

The Zimride Experience

Originally I was going to get to the city by having my dad drive me down. But with a seven hour round trip drive I wasn't going to have him do that. Instead I decided to use Zimride again which is an internet ride sharing program. I used it a couple of times before and ended up meeting some really cool people. 

When I committed to this transportation route, I was a little worried that I would get a quizzical look and a few questions about what I was doing. After all, looking at a full backpack with 50ft of rope hanging off may rightly justify some questions when a stranger steps into your car. 

However, this wasn't the case with Trinh who drove me to the bay. When she picked me up there were no questions asked about what the gear was for. From the get go, the drive was full of chatter and laughs. The three or so hours flew by quickly and once again Zimride introduced me to a new friend.

This photo is irrelevant to the post but I snapped this photo at home of some copper and spider eggs using my macro lens for iphone. I liked the colors and textures of it so I decided it would be cool to share. 

And So It Begins

I guess I should start off with a little more about myself. My name is Wyatt Dooley and I was lucky enough to grow up in a family that lives on the coast of California. I was even more lucky to have grown up in a family that surfs. To tell you the truth I didn't like it when I was really young - I never had a wetsuit that fit me right and with the cold water of Northern California not wearing a wetsuit wasn't an option.  I had other ideas anyways. I wanted to fish and snowboard instead. However, by the time I was eight, things rapidly changed and I was out in the water surfing and it became the only thing I ever wanted to do.

Ever since I could remember, the outdoors was the place I wanted to be. It wasn't just surfing that I enjoyed but I wanted to camp, backpack, hike, kayak - anything to get me outside. My parents, family, and friends helped fuel this. We went for camping trips in the redwoods, very hot and dry camping trips in Baja, and backpacking trips to amazing high mountain lakes.

These trips only made me want to travel more and it was around eighth grade I told myself I was traveling after college. After graduating in 2014 from UCSB, I kept hold of my goal and here I go! Lets see how long I end up traveling for.

High mountain lake in Northern California. photo: Karen Stuff

Cold mornings at higher altitudes. photo: Karen Stuff

Chet and Karen, my two friends who I will meet up with in Mexico.

Yeah... I had classes on the beach.
photo: Patrick Fitzpatrick

UCSB graduation in front of Storke Tower.
photo: Bob Miyasaki

Missing UCSB and all of my friends.
photo: Lauren Perkins

While I don't have a lot of experience in creative writing (lots of essays and scientific writing), I will try my best to make it entertaining to read. Also just to let you know, I'm not sure how detailed my posts will be since I will be writing them from an Iphone. While I'll have the convenience of a laptop for now, I won't for much longer. Some posts may only be photos or just a small blurb of what has been happening. Hopefully I can make them longer somehow.

Anyways after graduating, I was working for Fish and Wildlife, and between work I was packing. I will be heading to Kauai for a few months and then meeting some friends in Mexico and head into Panama. For the trip I ended up buying an internal frame backpack that will fit in the overhead compartment of a plane. Lets say making everything fit in one pack for seven months isn't easy. I found myself constantly packing and repacking. In the end you end up taking what's actually important with you. You ask yourself questions like is it more important to have a couple of extra shirts or a couple of extra pairs of underwear? Should I leave the sleeping pad and hope that I can hang my hammock everywhere I need to? Luckily I will be in primarily tropical areas, we will see what happens next year when I will be in multiple climates.

All of my belongings traveling with me.

Bummed I can't take my guitar too :(

Not only do you ask yourself questions such as the ones above, but you question yourself with how far you can push the TSA at the airport and what are you willing to leave behind if you can't take it. I haven't yet figured that out yet but I'll let you know when I get there. Some of the questionable things I'm taking are a camping stove, fuel bottle and rope. No worries I checked TSA regulations and it's fine to carry them on. However, the TSA website doesn't always uphold to their rules from what people say. I'm really hoping I don't have to leave anything behind because I really do need everything I have packed.

Also while packing I found getting vaccinations are bit of an experience in itself. I had to go to the doctor to get prescribed the vaccine mefloquine for malaria and typhoid fever. It was also recommended that I get a yellow fever vaccination. I'm glad I got a second opinion though and didn't end up getting in (thanks Ann for the help). Apparently from reading up on it, it one of the gnarliest vaccinations that you can get. Some of the more serious side effects are nerve problems, coma, and organ failure. It's the highest risk vaccine out there supposedly. But thankfully it's more important for parts of Asia and Africa, not Central America. Felt like I dodged that one.

After going to pick up the prescription, there were plenty of curious people asking me what I was there for. It seemed to calm the tenseness of the pharmacy. When I first walked in, the pharmacists and assistants were madly running around and packing drugs while customers were frustrated and yelling at them. I could only compare it to the DMV.

One man with heavy stubble, faded Levis and an old blue flannel was plenty curious and talkative. The air around him was heavy with the smell of cigarettes and pot. He couldn't help but tell everyone around him he was getting the flu shot and was terrified of needles. He kept saying things like "they are here to put a f!*king lawn dart in me, I should have smoked an entire blunt before I came in here!" Needless to say he was stoked I was going to get "harpooned" with him. I think that calmed him a little bit. When asking me what I was getting lawn darted for, I told him I was traveling to Central America. With his nervous voice he told me I was nuts with all of the cartels down there. Told me I could lose my head. With that he gave me a thumbs up and headed out of the pharmacy.

Well that's all I have to update you on. Heading out tomorrow morning for SF.