Looking through the server logs as another year draws to a close:

Highlights:

• fedak.net had 267k user page views in 2006.  This was an 18% increase over 2005.
• Robot page views increased a whopping 58% and now account for half the overall site traffic
• 40k access attempts were blocked from IP addresses of known spammers
• RSS readers now account for 6% of the site traffic
• Google generated 17,000 referrals to the site, Yahoo 1,700 and MSN 277
• June was the busiest month, Mondays the busiest weekday, and noon is the highest traffic hour

Most viewed individual photos:

1. Pico Blanco Map  (frequent comment spambot target)
2. Lake Wilma Trailsign (another spambot target)
3. Half Dome Cables (linked to from the Whitney Portal Store board)
4. My Broken Ankle (sigh)
5. Tents near Guitar Lake (linked from a tarp tent thread on Backpacker.com)
6. Clouds Rest/Half Dome from Clouds Rest 
7. Emigrant Backpack Map
8. Half Dome from Clouds Rest
9. Hetch Hetchy Backpack Map
10. Broken Ankle Splint

Most viewed photo albums:
(Curiously, with the exception of my broken ankle album none of these were from 2006) 

1. Pico Blanco (1709 views)
2. Broken Ankle (1531 views)
3. Clouds Rest & Half Dome (1221 views)
4. Emigrant Wilderness Backpack (968 views)
5. Hetch Hetchy Backpack (804 views)
6. Mount Dana (780 views)
7. Ventana Double Cone (710 views)
8. Hetch Hetchy Waterfalls (703 views)
9. Lost Coast Trail (687 views)
10. Kaiser Peak (679 views)

Top key phrases from search engine referrals:

1. fedak 
2. clouds rest
3. lost coast trail
4. kaiser wilderness
5. john fedak
6. wapama falls
7. junipero serra peak
8. chilnualna falls
9. cloud's rest
10. ventana double cone

The Hundred Peaks Section of the Sierra Club refers to the McKinley/San Rafael/Santa Cruz trio as the "HPS Big 3".  All three can be reached out of the Cachuma Saddle trailhead near Los Olivos, CA.  They are doable as a long (~30+ mile) day hike but usually summited as part of a 2 or 3 day backpack trip.

This was my 5th trip to the area and I've had some unfortunate luck with the weather over the years.  On my 1st trip, trailhead access was blocked by the closure of Happy Canyon Road.  (I found out later that there is a back entrance to the trailhead via Figuroa Mountain Road).  No hiking that day.

My second trip was my only summertime visit and my successful summit of Santa Cruz Peak- the most remote of the 3 peaks.

On my third trip it started raining after about an hour and conditions gradually worsened as the day progressed, getting to the point were I was having a difficult time seeing through the rain.  I ended up turning back about halfway to McKinley Springs. (No pics from that trip, the camera I had at the time got wet and never functioned again).   To top off the miserable day, I returned to the trailhead to find that I had left my car's sunroof wide open.

My most recent attempt was earlier this year when I ran into snow starting near McKinley Spring. 

Yesterday was a bit better than the last two trips.  No snow and it held off raining until the last couple of hours.  Unfortunately, The ridge was once again completely enveloped in clouds and visibility was about 20 feet for most of the day.  Despite the weather I was finally able to summit the remaining two HPS Big 3 peaks.  This turned out to be somewhat of a disappointing accomplishment as both peaks were completely whited out.  I think I used up my luck on my Post Summit trip when the clouds miraculously cleared for the 1/2 hour I was on the peak.

Pics and more commentary: here

Got a packet of photos in the mail today from my brother from last month's Southen California trip.
He apparently had taken a picture every time I stopped to take a leak.