Spring Intramural Season!!!

Hi guys! 

This is Bryan. Welcome back for a new semester! 

The beginning of a new semester also means the beginning of a new intramural seasons! And as the COVID new cases gradually decreases, more intramural sports seem to be opening up for Spring! 

(I mean the e-sports and single pickleballs are all great... but I would rather lose as a team than getting smashed by myself... at least you get to blame your teammate if you play doubles, right? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  )

If you guys don't know what is Intramural Sports: 

And you get to be on their Ins Page

It is basically a sports championship containing multiple different sports organized by the PLU Recreation. Intramural sports is open to all PLU students. Since it's opened to all students, it's not a club sport and it is less serious (no training sections and all games are hosted on-campus). Even if you are bad at the sport or don't even know how to play it, you can still join the intramural. Most people there are pretty nice and friendly, so you should be able to still have some fun! If you are good at the sport and are competitive, top 4 - 6 teams with most wins throughout the season will advance to play-offs to compete for championship. Winner of the season will get a champion exclusive T-shirt!

To register for intramural sports, you need to create an account on https://www.imleagues.com/ and select Pacific Lutheran University as your school. You should then be able to register for the sports under Intramurals section.  

Feel free to look at some photos and videos of intramural on their website. 

There are two intramural seasons every semester; each has different available sports based on the season (winter vs summer - indoor vs outdoor). For the first half of Spring, the available sports are: 

 

Doubles badminton 

Here is a quick video about the rules of badminton.

 

Doubles badminton is usually pretty fun for everybody. There are teams that are pretty good and teams that are beginners. So if you are beginners, you will find somebody of your skill level; and if you are pretty good at this sport, you will find your worthy opponent. 

 

Also, there are no gender requirements for this sport. Meaning you can have a team of two males, two females, or even ten males with ten females if you want to. You can have more than two people in your team and rotate between games for maximum fun.

Doubles Cornhole

Here is a video about the rules of cornhole. 

 

I never play cornhole before. But it's a serious test for your accuracy and big-brain calculations.

 

It's also very beginner-friendly as you only need to master the art of throwing! 

Disc Golf

Here is a video about the rules of disc golf. 

Another one of those sports that I have never played before. As I recalled, this was usually done by asking participants to do a game of disc golf by themselves. After the game, participants would report the score to the IM staff and winner will be announced. 

Finding Teams and Next Season's Plan

It has been a challenge for students to find teammates this year because of COVID. But don't worry if you don't have friends (just kidding), you can sign up as a free agents for teams who need extra members to recruit you. If you see many free agents on the list, you can also make your own team and recruit free agents. This is an excellent way to meet new friends! 

 

As I have mentioned, Intramural is divided into two seasons. The first season (that we have right now) is mainly indoor sports for weather concerns. But as weather gets better in the second season (in April or so) , more outdoor sports will be offered like wiffleball, sand volleyball, and kickball. Be looking out for more announcements later in this semester! 

So that's my short intro for the new Spring season of Intramural. My plan for this season is to participate in the doubles badminton and see if I can improve my badminton skills. I hope I can see you guys on the court! 

 

(Don't forget to wear a mask and complete Attestation before the game!) 

 

Have fun!

Bryan Yuan

2/18/2021

How to Hike up Mailbox Peak AS A BEGINNER

     If you have been hiking around Pacific North West, you probably have heard Mailbox peak trail as one of the most challenging trails around the region. With a 4000 ft (1213 m) elevation gain in 2.7 miles (4.3 km), the Mailbox peak old trail challenges even the very experienced hikers. But with great challenges, comes great views. 

On Mailbox Peak; Mt. Rainier in the distance

Being aware of the difficulty of the old trail, a "easier" new trail was build recently for a safer hike to the peak. The new trail is twice as long as the old trail, but the incline is more gentle and the road is more defined. My friends and I, all being beginner hikers, used the new trails to summit the mailbox peak. For this blog post, I want to share my experience of hiking the mailbox peak new trail and give you some information on what to prepare for this hike. 

Time/Distance/Trail condition

Due to all being beginner hikers, we choose to hike up and down using the new trail. Most people hike up the old trail and down the new trail. Since it is easy to get lost hiking on the old trail as a beginner hiker, and it is physically very challenging, we decided to take the safer route. 

We left early and started hiking at around 7 am.

At around 10:20 am, we reached the mailbox peak with hiking distance over 5 miles and elevation gain over 4000 ft (1200 km). 

After resting for 20 mins, we started hiking down. We finished our hike at around 2:30 pm. 

So it took us 7.5 hours to hike the 10.3 miles long new trail up and down. 

Hiking up

Walking in the woods

The new trial is well maintained and is very defined. The trail is a little bit muddy even when it's not raining, but at least there weren't many bugs. For the first 2 miles of hike, the incline was very gentle, and we were basically just chilling and enjoying the walk in the woods. 

After the first 2 miles, the trail started to grow steeper and narrower; my legs started to burn and the rocks on the road really hurt my ankle. We took some short rests to replenish water and stamina. 

We pushed on for 2 more miles, and the woods started to clear up. We could see some views of the far away mountains and that really cheered us up. There were barely any people at that point. 

At 4.7 miles, roughly 2.5 hours after we started, the new trail is joined by the old trail. The trail started to become crowded and we had to step to the side from time to time for people to pass. 

The rocky trail

The last 1 miles of hiking was the hardest. It started with a rocky trail that is narrow (two-men's-wide) but less steep. Shortly, the rocky trial ends and it turns into a very steep dusty road. It was like a 40~50 degree incline, and we had to use our hands to stabilize ourselves. At that point, my friend was already exhausted, so I tried cheering her up with the ancient technique,  called: "we are almost there."  And it worked wonderfully. 

We reached the mailbox peak at around 10:20 AM.

A woman with her dog at the mailbox peak

Hiking down

Hiking down is physically more challenging than mentally does.  

The dusty, steep trail is hard to hike down at first; but it is manageable if you proceed with caution. 

One mistake we made was walking too fast. We almost ran at some part of the trail, because of that, we ended up needing more rest and consuming more time than we did hiking up. 

Going downhill also hurts our ankles and knees a lot. But knowing delicious food was waiting for us, we pushed on. 

Things to Prepare

Here are the list of things that we took for this hike: 

- 1.5 L of water 

- Lots of Snacks

- Jacket (since it is cold and windy at the peak)

- first aid kit

- One pair of socks (It is possible to get wet when crossing the creek) 

- Camera

- Hand sanitizers/Face mask/tissues/garbage bag

Things to Know

Trail condition: Since the trail is easy to navigate and easy to walk on, we wasn't worried about getting lost on the way. There were a few creeks crossing the new trails, but stepping stones and bridges were set to help crossing. However, please know that it can be dangerous to hike while there are snows covering the trail. And it can get muddy at rainy days. 

Phone signal: There are barely any signals on the trail. But there will be some signals on the peak. 

Time: It is better to start early, because it is not as warm, less crowded, and gives us enough time to hike down before sunset. It can be hard to find parking if you arrive late. 

Trail head: The entrance of the new trail is hard to spot. It will be on your left shortly after you walk up from the parking lot. Look for the information board, and that's the trail head of the new trail. 

Parking: Parking can be hard to find if you arrive late. Discovery pass is also required to park there. 

Mailbox peak trails can be challenging, but the views at the top is definitely worth the efforts and sweats. And it looks like one tradition is to bring some snacks and put it into the mailbox when you reached the peak. We found a sorts of wired stuffs in the mailbox, and we left some energy bars in there too for anyone in need. Lastly, when you reach the peak, don't forget to touch the mailbox and take a photo with your friend to signify your summit!

Best,

Bryan Yuan

09/09/2020

Bryan's Volleyball Journey

Hello hello guys ~ Bryan is here!

How’s everyone’s courses going?

I hope y’all are enjoying your courses this semester. Because, guess what? I am not enjoying my start of the semester so far. I am starting my second semester in nursing program, and we are rushing into a super hard course called Pathophysiology. The professor gave us a quiz during our very first class, and assigned tons of reading to us. So I have been spending my weekend and two snow days just trying to go over the materials TAT.

But that’s fine~ Because I can take a break from all the school works by participating in Intramural sports league!

If you don’t know what intramural league is, basically, you make your own team (or join one), sign up online, play with different teams during the season, and the winners get a T-shirt as the champion of the season!

For my very first blog, I want to share with you guys how I started playing volleyball thanks to the opportunity that intramural league provided to me.

“Haikyuu!” (photo from http://www.geekbomb.net/)

Before I started playing volleyball, I mainly played basketball. Then, someday, I came by an anime called Haikyuu! I was so fascinated by volleyball after I finished watching this anime. I thought volleyball is cool because miracles can always happen in the court. Fantastic receives and “impossible” saves are constantly happening. Hence, I made up my mind to learn how to play volleyball.

I was lucky that my roommate was a volleyball fan too, and he agreed to teach me volleyball. However, we were not able to find a court to play, so we played at Foss field with just two of us. There was nothing much we could do except for hitting the ball and receiving it. I was rolling on the grass trying to make difficult receives. I got myself all messy, but it was so fun!

I liked receiving, but I knew that was only one part of volleyball. I wanted to learn more! So I called some of my basketball friends, set up a court in Olsen gym with badminton poles and badminton net, and we tried to play a game. It obviously did not go well. My friends didn’t like the pain caused by receiving the ball, and the net was too low to play. 

When I was struggling to find a court and teammates to play volleyball, intramural volleyball entered my sight. Intramural league book Olsen gym and set up the court when games are happening, and we just need to show up to play. Additionally, people can sign up to the league as a free agent, whom any team can recruit them. During J-term 2019, I and my roommate created a team in Beginner League Intramural Volleyball. We recruited all the free agents, so we had enough players to play. Our teammates were all interesting people who wanted to learn how to play volleyball. We learned and played together during last season and became good friends. We lost in the semifinal, but I had a fun time playing with my team. Although I am still not as good in volleyball, I will keep practicing my skills in Intramural League. Here is a video of me and my friend practicing spikes in this season.

Volleyball Spike, video by Yohei Masuda (2019)

For those of you who are interested in signing up for intramural sports, team sign up for this season (early spring) has already ended. However, you can ask your friend and join their team at any time during the season. And next intramural sports season is coming up soon after midterm.

Anyway, who wants to play some beach volleyball? 

Snow Volleyball, photo by Dongyou Yuan (2019)

 





















Bryan Yuan
Feb 21st, 2019