Jesse Fornear

Texas Water Safari

2025-06-19T00:00:00+00:00

The Texas Water Safari is a 260-mile canoe race down the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers from San Marcos to Seadrift, Texas. This year I was a team captain, providing land-based support for friends paddling in boat 7203. Here's my journal from the 2025 race.

Day 1: San Marcos to Palmetto State Park

Miles 0-60: Aquarena Springs to Palmetto State Park

The race started at 9:00 AM at Aquarena Springs in San Marcos. Over 150 boats lined up at the starting line. My role was to drive between checkpoints with food and water for our paddlers.

Our first checkpoint was at Staples Dam. The heat was intense by mid-morning. I continued to Fentress, Stairtown, Luling, Luling Zedler Dam, and finally Palmetto State Park. Each checkpoint required careful timing.

Pinto the Chihuahua, our team mascot, surveys the starting area at Aquarena Springs.

Race officials conduct final boat inspections before the 9:00 AM start.

Over 150 boats line up at Aquarena Springs, moments before the race begins.

Boat 7203, our team's boat, positioned and ready for the 260-mile race.

Day 2: Gonzales Dam to Thomaston Bridge

Miles 60-178: Gonzales Dam to Thomaston Bridge

The paddlers were moving through the night, and I had to coordinate with other support crews to ensure we didn't miss our team.

We reached Gonzales Dam at 3 AM, where we could see other teams starting to drop out due to exhaustion and fatigue.

At Hochheim we saw a fridge floating down the river with all the flood debris. I continued driving to Hochheim, Cheapside, Cuero, and finally Thomaston Bridge.

Flood debris including a refrigerator floating down the Guadalupe River near Hochheim.

Boat 7203 arriving at the Hochheim checkpoint in the morning.

Teams taking a brief rest at the Cheapside checkpoint during a storm.

Toyota Land Cruiser parked at the Cheapside checkpoint.

Support crews taking shelter under the bridge at the Cheapside checkpoint.

Day 3: Victoria City Boat Ramp to Swinging Bridge

Miles 178-231: Victoria City Boat Ramp to Swinging Bridge

The final day was a test of endurance for both paddlers and support crew. The paddlers had been on the water for over 40 hours with minimal rest.

We reached Victoria City Boat Ramp at 2 AM. The Victoria checkpoint felt like a zombie apocalypse with sick and tired paddlers wandering around in the dark.

Around 7 AM, race officials made the decision to shorten the race due to dangerous flood conditions. Swinging Bridge (mile 231.6) was the official finish line this year. Our team finished with a time of 50:24.

The eroded boat ramp at the Cuero checkpoint showing the high water conditions.

Historic bridge and graffiti at the Cuero checkpoint along the Guadalupe River.

Vintage Guadalupe River sign marking the Cuero checkpoint location.

Boat 7203 crew in good spirits despite the challenging conditions at Cuero.

Boat 104 crossing the finish line at Swinging Bridge - the official 2025 finish.

Boat 7203 celebrating their finish at Swinging Bridge after 50 hours and 24 minutes.

Photo map created with Pinjour.

Supporting the Texas Water Safari was a fun test of logistics and endurance. From coordinating checkpoints along the San Marcos to navigating rural Texas roads, every mile brought new challenges and unforgettable memories. The 2025 race will be remembered not just for the incredible athletic achievement, but for the unprecedented flood conditions that forced the second-ever course shortening in race history. Being part of a team that completed one of the most grueling endurance events in the world under such extraordinary circumstances was an experience I'll never forget.

If you enjoyed this post, let me know on Twitter (@jfornear).

Zion National Park

2020-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

I finally visited Zion National Park in southwestern Utah. The Zion Canyon Drive is very scenic. I need to return to hike Angels Landing.

View from the Zion Canyon Drive in Zion National Park.

Product Design Books

2020-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

I thought to start a reading list of my favorite books relevant to day-to-day digital product design—here it is so far.

Universal Principles of Design

Grid Systems

The Elements of Typographic Style

Interaction of Color

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Tiny Habits

Creative Selection

The Pragmatic Programmer

Zero to One

If you have any recommendations, let me know on Twitter (@jfornear).

Tahoe Rim Trail

2019-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

The Tahoe Rim Trail is a 172.5-mile loop trail around Lake Tahoe with 29,744 ft of elevation gain. This August, I started clockwise from Tahoe City, took a zero day in South Lake Tahoe to resupply, continued through Desolation Wilderness, and finished in 11 days. It was a challenging adventure with amazing views.

Highlights were seeing a bear on the trail outside Tahoe City, camping on Mount Baldy at 9,200 ft, scenic views of Lake Tahoe from Mount Rose Wilderness, hiking through the ski resort at Diamond Peak, views from Marlette Peak, seeing alpenglow at Star Lake, a mountain thunderstorm on Dicks Pass, the water taxi on Echo Lake, and views of Lake Aloha and Heather Lake in Desolation Wilderness.

Lowlights were the dry August heat, mosquitos, off-leash Dobermans, puncturing shoe soles on sharp rocks, blisters between toes, dry sections at Marlette Lake and Spooner Lake, unreliable water filter pouches and o-rings, night hiking with low headlamp batteries, and slow-charging solar panels.

Leica Q / Summilux 28 / f 16 / ISO 200

Leica Q / Summilux 28 / f 16 / ISO 100

John Muir Trail

2019-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

On July 4th, I hiked from Tuolumne Meadows to Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley on the John Muir Trail. Here are some excerpts from my journal.

Day 1: Tuolumne Meadows

Amtrak from San Francisco to Merced, YARTS to Tuolumne Meadows.

The Tioga Pass didn't re-open until until July 1st due to record snow this year. The ranger station in Tuolumne Meadows didn't have phones or internet service, so I had to get a walk-up wilderness permit.

I could have changed my plan, but I decided to take YARTS to Tuolumne Meadows anyway. As soon as I stepped off the bus, the realization that Tuolumne Meadows was still closed for the season set in when it everything was still boarded up for the winter and no one was around.

Lembert Dome from the Tioga Pass Rd in Tuolumne Meadows.

Tuolumne Meadows.

Day 2: Upper Cathedral Lake

Hike ~10 miles to Upper Cathedral Lake (9,600 ft).

Early in the morning, a ranger woke me up to check my permit. I didn't have one yet, but I did have a PCT permit which happens to go through Tuolumne Meadows. We chatted about bears for a bit, and then I packed up and hiked over to the Tuolumne Meadows Ranger Station.

Walk-up permits aren't issued until 11:00 AM, so I waited with a few other hikers from the Bay Area, Orange County, and Ohio. I had some scheduling issues with the permits, but the ranger hooked me up since most of the reservations were expected to no-show due to the snow.

About 5 miles into my hike, the trail turned into heavy snow and day hikers were turning back. I thought about turning back when I lost the trail in the snow for 2 hours, but I just camped earlier at Upper Cathedral Lake with hopes to find the trail again in the morning.

Around midnight, I woke up to my tent shaking violently from what I later learned was a 2.9M earthquake only 15 miles away in Bridgeport, CA.

Cathedral Peak on the John Muir Trail.

Day 3: John Muir Trail

Hike ~10 miles to the John Muir Trail and Clouds Rest Trail junction.

The next morning I found my way back to the trail with Gaia GPS and continued toward the John Muir Trail and Clouds Rest Trail junction, where I camped last year and saw a wild bear. The views on the John Muir Trail were amazing, and I ended up camping at the same exact spot.

John Muir Trail to the Clouds Rest Trail junction.

Day 4: Mist Trail to Yosemite Valley

Hike ~10 miles to Yosemite Valley, YARTS to Merced and Amtrak to San Francisco.

The only plan was to get back to the valley in time to shower and get pizza before catching YARTS to Merced by 5:00 PM.

Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls, the two waterfalls on the popular Mist Trail, were both at peak flow from all the snowmelt.

Nevada Falls on the Mist Trail.

Vernal Falls on the Mist Trail.

Heavenly

2019-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

This past weekend I went skiing with some friends in Tahoe—here’s a photo of Lake Tahoe from Heavenly.

Lake Tahoe from Heavenly Ski Resort.

Fort Mason

2019-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

Fort Mason is one my favorite spots in San Francisco. On a clear day you can see Sausalito and Angel Island.

Gashouse Cove near Fort Mason.

Fort Mason.

Chatdog Subreddit Chats

2018-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

Since launching Chatdog on Product Hunt earlier this year, a popular feature request has been to add subreddit chats, and here it is!

Reddit is a popular news aggregator website ranked #3 in the U.S. and #6 in the world. Subreddits are sub-communities within reddit dedicated to different topics and moderated by users.

What's New

Here’s what’s new:

Visitors are automatically added to the rooms 'Lobby' and 'r/rarepuppers'.
Subreddit rooms with 'r/' in the URL include a feed with posts and a condensed chat.
Clicking or tapping on reddit posts or images will open the thread on reddit.
Type `/shake` into chat... 😆

r/rarepuppers and r/pics are fun subreddits.

Previous Releases

Prior functionality remains unchanged:

Easily join or create new rooms.
Rooms are public by default.
Copy a room link to share with friends.
No phone number, email address, or app download are required to join a room.
Anonymous usernames are dog breeds (Anonymous Pug, Anonymous Yorkipoo, etc.).
Registering a username is free with an email address and password.
Chats bundle together by user and timestamp.
Most links will include an Open Graph preview.
YouTube links will include a video player.
No chat history.

Visit chat.dog and let me know what you think so far!

Chatdog (https://chat.dog).

For more updates, follow @jfornear on Twitter.

7 Elements Essential to Apple’s Software Success

2018-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

I started reading Ken Kocienda’s Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs over the weekend and it’s great so far.

Ken worked on the iPhone, iPad keyboard, Safari browser, and email parser at Apple in the early 2000s. He demo’d to Steve Jobs and has a unique perspective as an IC during this era.

Here’s an excerpt I highlighted:

“7 Elements Essential to Apple’s Software Success

Inspiration. Thinking big ideas and imagining what might be possible.
Collaboration. Working together well with other people and seeking to combine your complimentary strengths.
Craft. Applying skill to achieve high quality results and always striving to do better.
Diligence. Doing the necessary grunt work and never resorting to shortcuts or half measures.
Decisiveness. Making tough choices and refusing to delay or procrastinate.
Taste. Developing a refined sense of judgement and finding the balance that produces a pleasing and integrated whole.
Empathy. Trying to see the world from other people’s perspectives and creating work that fits into their lives and adapts to their needs.”

I love these and find them well worth writing down.

If you enjoyed this post, follow @jfornear on Twitter.

Yosemite National Park

2018-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

On July 5th I went on a 5-day backpacking trip from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley on the John Muir Trail—here are a few photos and excerpts from my trail journal.

Day 1: Tuolumne Meadows

Amtrak from San Francisco to Merced, then YARTS to Tuolumne Meadows.

At Tuolumne Meadows I met a fun group of 16 or so PCT thru-hikers. Most of them were from Canada, Australia, France, UK, and Israel and taking a detour for Yosemite Valley. The PCT is a 2,650-mile trail from Mexico to Canada.

Watched the sunset and camped in the Tuolumne Meadows backpacker's campground.

Day 2: Cathedral Lakes

Hike ~10 miles to Cathedral Lakes and camp at Sunrise Lakes.

While hiking to Upper Cathedral Lake, I met a fun couple from Boston and a photographer from San Francisco.

I camped in the wilderness near Sunrise Lakes. The mosquitos were brutal at dusk, and the moon was so bright it woke me up in the middle of the night.

View of Cathedral Peak from Upper Cathedral Lake.

Day 3: Clouds Rest

Hike ~10 miles to Clouds Rest and camp at the JMT/CRT junction.

Clouds Rest is a scenic hike with a view of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley from the east.

I had a permit to hike Half Dome and wilderness camp at the JMT/CRT junction, about 4 miles from Half Dome.

I made friends with a PCT hiker from South Korea, and we planned to hike Half Dome together.

Day 4: Half Dome

Hike ~10 miles to Half Dome and Yosemite Valley, then camp at the backpacker's camp.

Half Dome is an incredible hike with the cables at the top.

Me on Half Dome.

A bear approached our camp during lunch, and a bear patrol ranger ran over and scared it away with a paintball gun.

We hiked down the Mist Trail, ate pizza at Half Dome Village, and camped in the backpacker's campground with 3 other PCT hikers.

Day 5: Yosemite Valley

YARTS from Yosemite Valley to Merced, then Amtrak to San Francisco.

In the morning we saw a bear eating berries about 10 yards away from where we were all sleeping the night before.

Filed a bear incident report at the ranger station.

Walked around Yosemite Falls and took photos in the valley.

View of Half Dome from Yosemite Valley.

Franz Josef Glacier

2018-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand is quite scenic despite having receded over the years. The cloudy blue-green water is caused by the glacier erosion and is unique to this region.

Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere Walk.

Sydney

2018-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

Sydney is the nicest modern city I’ve ever visited. I was especially impressed with how clean and safe the public transit and streets were. Highlights include the New Year’s Eve fireworks, ferries, espresso, cricket, flying foxes, beaches, and Daryl Braithwaite.

Sydney from the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Sydney Harbour Bridge from Circular Quay.

Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.

Sydney Opera House.

Sydney Opera House from the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

May Lake

2017-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

This past weekend I went on a short backpacking trip around May Lake in Yosemite National Park with my friends Curt and Shohil. We reserved wilderness permits earlier this summer and were surprised to be snow camping in 20° weather—it was quite the adventure. I would definitely go again in warmer weather.

Curt and Shohil on the May Lake Trail.

May Lake Trail near the trailhead.

Fallen tree on the May Lake Trail.

View of Cathedral Peak from the May Lake Trail.

View of Clouds Rest from the May Lake Trail.

May Lake and Mt Hoffman.

May Lake High Sierra Camp.

May Lake and Mt Hoffman at sunset.

67 Books from the HBS Course Catalog

2017-09-17T00:00:00+00:00

I created this reading list from the Harvard Business School course catalog while it was available online. I figured I’d post it to my blog.

Accounting & Management

Business, Government & International Economy

Entrepreneurial Management

Finance

General Management

Marketing

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets

Organizational Behavior

Strategy

Technology & Operations Management

Typekit Cache

2017-09-08T00:00:00+00:00

If you’ve ever used Typekit to serve webfonts, you’re definitely familiar with the Flash Of Invisible/Unstyled Text problem.

While googling “why doesn’t typekit cache,” I discovered Typekit Cache, a script that stores your Typekit webfonts in localStorage to eliminate the Flash Of Invisible/Unstyled Text.

It’s easy to use, simply copy the contents of typekit-cache.min.js before your Typekit (advanced) embed code.

<script>
  !function(e,t,n,a,c,l,m,o,d,f,h,i){c[l]&&(d=e.createElement(t),d[n]=c[l],e[a]("head")[0].appendChild(d),e.documentElement.className+=" wf-cached"),function s(){for(d=e[a](t),f="",h=0;h<d.length;h++)i=d[h][n],i.match(m)&&(f+=i);f&&(c[l]="/**/"+f),setTimeout(s,o+=o)}()}(document,"style","innerHTML","getElementsByTagName",localStorage,"tk",/^@font|^\.tk-/,100);
</script>
<script>
  (function(d) {
    var config = {
      kitId: 'apz3vzb',
      scriptTimeout: 3000,
      async: true
    },
    h=d.documentElement,t=setTimeout(function(){h.className=h.className.replace(/\bwf-loading\b/g,"")+" wf-inactive";},config.scriptTimeout),tk=d.createElement("script"),f=false,s=d.getElementsByTagName("script")[0],a;h.className+=" wf-loading";tk.src='https://use.typekit.net/'+config.kitId+'.js';tk.async=true;tk.onload=tk.onreadystatechange=function(){a=this.readyState;if(f||a&&a!="complete"&&a!="loaded")return;f=true;clearTimeout(t);try{Typekit.load(config)}catch(e){}};s.parentNode.insertBefore(tk,s)
  })(document);
</script>

If you use this approach, be sure to star Typekit Cache on GitHub!

Fallingwater

2017-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

This week my family toured Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Fallingwater house in Mill Run, PA, just outside of where my dad grew up in Pittsburgh. We were all together for my grandmother’s funeral sadly. The Pennsylvania countryside will always remind me of her calm presence.

Fallingwater / Leica Q / Summilux 28 / f 16.0 / ISO 6400

Fallingwater / Leica Q / Summilux 28 / f 16.0 / ISO 1600

Yosemite in the Winter

2017-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

After a 12-hour, snow-delayed Amtrak trip from Truckee to Merced, I picked up an AWD SUV and tire chains to venture into Yosemite National Park in the snow with my trusty Fuji X-E2.

Ribbon Fall and El Capitan, Yosemite Valley.

Royal Arches, Yosemite Valley.

El Capitan and Bridalveil Fall from Valley View viewpoint.

Bridalveil Fall from Valley View viewpoint.

Squaw Valley

2017-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Tahoe is having a record year for snow this year, and last week I was able to hit the slopes at Squaw Valley. Squaw Valley is one of the largest ski areas in the U.S. and was the host of the 1960 Winter Olympics.

Members Locker Room covered in snow.

Red Dog lift to Snow King (7,550').

Skiers near Red Dog.

KT-22 Express heading up to the top of KT-22 (8,200').

KT-22 base area.

Gold Coast Funitel heading up to the base of Emigrant (8,700').

Exhibition heading up to Schimmelpfennig Bowl.

Squaw Valley Trail Status board.

Resort at Squaw Creek (6,200').

Somewhere on KT-22.

Somewhere on Snow King.

Yosemite Valley

2016-09-07T00:00:00+00:00

This weekend I went camping in Yosemite Valley with some friends. Yosemite is a magical place.

A buck casually crossing a bridge near the Upper Pines campsite.

Stardew Valley for Mac

2016-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

I played Stardew Valley (88/100 on Metacritic), an RPG-style farming game with beautiful pixel art, earlier this year and absolutely loved it.

The creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone recently tweeted the game is set to be released on Mac and Linux Friday, July 29. I can’t wait.

Weblog Design With Jekyll

2016-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

It’s been nearly a year since I’ve touched this weblog. The other day I started on a redesign — here it is so far.

For this redesign, I wanted to optimize for readability and approachability. The single-column layout is mostly unchanged from the early designs of last year. I switched to the familiar San Francisco and Gotham (via Hoefler & Co.) after trying a few other pairings.

If you’re interested, Josef Müller-Brockmann’s Grid Systems in Graphic Design, Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type, and Matthew Butterick’s Practical Typography are my favorite resources for grids and typography.

I like Jekyll because it really is a “simple, blog-aware static site generator.” Jekyll uses the Liquid templating engine to generate posts from markdown files. No database required!

Getting started with Jekyll is easy:

~ $ gem install jekyll
~ $ jekyll new weblog
~ $ cd weblog
~/weblog $ jekyll serve
# => Now browse to http://localhost:4000

This Jekyll project is structured as shown below. Directories with underscores are compiled by Jekyll, and .scss files in /assets are compiled by Gulp.js.

├── _config.yml
├── _drafts
├── _includes
|   ├── JB
|   └── themes
|        └── jfornear
|            ├── default.html
|            ├── pages.html
|            ├── post.html
|            └── settings.yml
├── _layouts
|   ├── default.html
|   ├── pages.html
|   └── post.html
├── _posts
|   └── 2016-05-30-hello-world.md
├── _site
├── assets
|   └── themes
|        └── jfornear
|            ├── build
|            |    ├── css
|            |    └── js
|            ├── img
|            ├── js
|            └── scss
├── CNAME
├── gulpfile.js
└── index.html

This project is still a work in progress — I’ll continue to update this post as I make improvements or add new functionality. The backlog so far includes photo galleries, social sharing, header navigation, next and previous post, email subscribe, and more.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me or tweet at @jfornear on Twitter!