Vox’s posts tagged hiking

Mt Rinjani, Indonesia

nobody@vox.com(Wee) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:44:55 +0000

Last week is the biggest day for our Muslim friends. After one month of fasting, the long-waited Hari Raya finally arrived. Many of our friends suited in colorful and pretty Baju Malayu. Visiting each others and tasting great variety of finger foods are marvelous. I love especially Kueh Akok that naturally sweet and juicy; each and every bite would overwelmed us with fresh aroma of pandan leaves.

For some other races, Hari Raya is always the greatest time for a vacation or trip. My Singapore friends went to Mt Rinjani, Indonesia. They spent four days there. Hundreds of places were visited, Thousands of photoes were taken. They said forgot to invite me. Luckily they manage to share some of their photoes. And this is cruel enough to make my desire trembling unstopable. What a friend!

Anyway, although they are cruel, malious; but the photoes really worth to see and the sceneries are marvelous. Taken from my friend's blog,

http://photobytonghwa.blogspot.com

Hope you all enjoy these photoes as well. Cheers!

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TrailRunner 1.8 - discover and share routes for outdoor activities

nobody@vox.com(prMac) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:44:41 +0000

TrailRunner 1.8 - discover and share routes for outdoor activities

http://prmac.vox.com/library/post/tra...

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TrailRunner 1.8 - discover and share routes for outdoor activities

nobody@vox.com(prMac) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:44:00 +0000

Berbie Software announces an update for TrailRunner 1.8, the outdoor oriented route-planning and journaling software for Mac OS X. Among other improvements, the latest update has a full integration with GPSies - a community web site to store, view and share outdoor activities and routes. With this new release, TrailRunner users can easily find routes in their neighborhood and share their own with other hikers, runners and mountain bikers.

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The Story Thus Far

nobody@vox.com(sxoidmal) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 02:20:38 +0000

Busy day, today. Woke up late--I'd been drinking and Rebecca had an Ambien--fed the cats, threw on some clothes, and hustled out to St. Paul before the farmer's market closed. We got there in time to load up on chicken parts and veggies and, most important of all, the locally raised trout. My gods, this fish is so delicious. We've been craving it for a while.

Came back home, showered, researched state park information, dropped some books off at the library, and headed out to Afton State Park for a little hiking. We spent almost two hours wandering around the trails. I took a couple dozen pictures of the most interesting plants, I'll upload them to Flickr later tonight. I asked Rebecca whether I should bite the bullet and become a nature photographer; she assured me there was no dearth of nature photographers.

We returned home, she freaked out a little because of the advanced state of chaos to our apartment, and I fired up the grill. We cooked the trout, sliced some zucchini (I do love grilled zucchini), and roasted some corn on the cob. Our neighbors had also started up a fire and Rebecca led the social charge, wandering over to introduce ourselves and make nice with them. It came as a sigh of relief because they'd wanted to do the same thing, but, you know. We're all Minnesotan and shy. We had a brief conversation and went back to our evenings: R. and I watched an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and had dinner. The cats came up out of the basement (where R. lets them recreate, to give them a sense of getting out and having more space) and Bella's being especially cuddly now. Toki expanded his horizons and tried a little trout... and liked it.

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Hiking Again

nobody@vox.com(Cool Family Ens) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:42:21 +0000

Chris and Jonas got out for another hike this past weekend. With my new wrap having arrived last week (more on that later), Chris got to thinking about how we could still use the ergo carrier for Jonas, so he tried it and found it to feel exceptionally more comfortable than the frame backpack carrier that he'd been using. It's not so much that the frame is poor, but it's harder to carry a load when the load is higher up on and farther away from one's back. The ergo, on the other hand, keeps Jonas close to Chris's back and he sits much lower, just around the waist.

Jonas & Chris: Ready to Hike

They returned to the hoodoos again, though this time the highlight was transportation. For Chris, as mentioned, he was keen on the baby carrier. Jonas however, recalled the trains - like the one parked at the crossing of the trail head they had to wait for before they could carry on - and the helicopters. The day before wed heard drone of 5 helicopters fly in toward the airport from the east. They were dark coloured, likely military I'd expect. The morning of their hike they left again providing Jonas with a show.

Snacktime

DSCF3347

Molly and I went to the library. They we napped.

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Nice

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:56:25 +0000

Finally got a link to the pictures from the Wag'nTrail 08!

So here's a good copy of it, and a link to see the rest of the participants if you want!

Wag'nTrail 08

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Hike Or Bust!

nobody@vox.com(elissabethe) — Sat, 27 May 2006 02:10:03 +0000

I had the privilege of going on a hike this past weekend with about a dozen really great people from our church and, like gardening, there are all kinds of neato hiking analogies that describe life. For one, it is interesting how we naturally all eventually found our appropriate place in line. There is first the leader who, for our group on this day, was training for more difficult hikes by carrying a mondo pack on her back filled with water bottles - wow. That kind of scared me because her idea of fun is a world that is just beginning to open up for me and of course she set a very quick pace at the beginning of our steep hike which had me feeling like I smoked a little too much of something or was reeling from a bad LSD trip of which there was no escaping even though I don't normally smoke or snort anything but when you're hiking, all kinds of far-reaching thoughts come to mind which brings me to my next illation.

While hiking even with a group of people, you have time to think, so much so that I am really questioning this idea of getting away alone somewhere to do nothing in order to figure things out. Have you ever noticed how nothing gets figured out that way anyway? If you want to find the meaning of life, go on a strenuous hike with lots of strangers - that has just become my new motto. The even more boggling thing is that these strangers become the love-of-your-life-long soul mates by the time you reach the top of the mountain. Don't ask me to explain this; somehow it is true. Perhaps it has something to do with the adiabatic process of forming communities based on natural human design but don't ask me to explain that either. So hiking is synonomous with thinking thoughts like, "I am getting closer to that leaf" and "the end is just around the corner" but also deeper thoughts like, "life is A-okay!" and "I never realized we are all on the same team" as opposed to, "I could have bought that dress on sale at that other store." Are you following me?

Oh, and that brings me back to our hiking formation. On many trails there is not room enough to pass up the person in front of you nor allow the Speedy Gonzales behind you to beat you to the top so that where you start out is generally where you will end up and there is always someone or quite a few people actually who at first designate themselves to the wrong spot. Isn't that typical in life? But, depending on how flexible you are, this can really add to the adventure. Like when you offer the person behind you to go in front of you because you don't really like getting flat tires especially when you have enough blisters on your heals already and she says, "oh no, that's okay!" but after the next hairpin turn in the trail, you notice she has slyly made her way before you. This is a very interesting facet in life and I don't know what the solution is because, for fear of confrontation, we avoid it altogether with the human nature art of two-facedness which temporarily keeps the peace but if we start thinking too much, we really don't know what anyone is truly thinking about us. "She acts like she wants to be my friend but maybe she is just being nice?" And we start super-analyzing every move and end up not trusting a thing.

Anyway, after we all caught our breath and found our pace, things were going quite smoothly for our hiking expedition except for my 9-year-old son who had excitedly wanted to join the grown-ups without counting the cost of the tedious repetition of beautiful greenery and trees, trees, trees. Hyperventilating is a non-existent issue for kids and this raises a question that every mother asks herself: how can I remove some of that energy and replace it into my lethargic, slowing way down mama body? To make the hike even more of a challenge, my son wanted to take short cuts on the zig-zags by climbing up cliffs and one could feel the tension from certain people who just wanted everyone to stay in line and not disrupt the steady flow. Now, there is certainly a place for this kind of thinking especially when it comes to walking the path of righteousness and not veering to the left or the right, but I am judging that we all need to be a little more risk-taking in life and trust our Creator to work it all out according to plan. A Zen proverb says "the obstacle is the path" so why not go for it from time to time? Not the jump off the water-tower roof to see if you can fly kind of thing but the let's try something kind of brave sort of action like getting up off the couch and opening the front door.

But if not, that is okay because I am assuming we have people in life to bring up the rear like we had on that glorious conquestial day of hiking. I called this person the caboose and she was way cool because although she was clearly a seasoned hiker/bootcamper/UFC champion? she had the delicate patience to wait for anyone no matter what got them side-tracked which included the answering of nature's calling (although she gave them privacy). I am thinking that we could never have enough caboosers but maybe we have plenty and I am too pre-occupied with my own ambitious aerobiosis to find out who is back there and who is taking care of whom. But they deserve some kind of a special prize (the loyal caboose award?) because we are all extremely grateful for these people at least once in our lives when we hit rock bottom and have to start over.

Now getting to the top of the mountain is a fascinating phenomenon because it is always here that I have the most conflicting feelings. Part of me is let down and says, "oh, we are already there?" which makes no sense at all because I was huffing, puffing and whining the whole way and another part of me shouts, "Don't mess with me Bub. I can pretty much create mountains now!" and still another part is just taking in the magnificent view, calm, tranquil, and seeing what is really important for the very first time. The best things in life cannot be explained with mere language so I am just going to leave you wondering enough to possibly spark a slight motivation to get your tush off the cush.

Going down the mountain is the best part of all (even though it feels like something burning is wrapped around your femur bones and the muscle-shaking above the patella usually begins at this point) because it is literally all downhill. All of the people who were quiet and thinking on the way up because they didn't want to talk and reveal just how breathless they were, are now laughing, singing and taking shortcuts. And we are all the best of friends armed and ready to live in the trenches and fight the next war together. Your kids will grow up with their kids and you will attend their great grandparents' ninetieth birthday party and well, life is just swell no matter what the weather. And as you get in the car to go home after a perfect day, you feel like a better driver, a more understanding friend, sibling, parent and employee or if not that, your eyes are just a little more opened and that really is what life is all about.

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Finding our Normal

nobody@vox.com(Cool Family Ens) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:56:50 +0000

Chillin'

Chris has been back at work for a few weeks now and we're finding our groove here at home. Jonas is usually quite patient with me and will wait at the table or in bed without kicking up a fuss if I'm busy with Molly. He continues to love to point out her every behaviour. Particular favourites are to say:

Molly eyes open.
Molly poo-pee bum.
Bless you, Molly. (At any sneeze, cough or gag.)

We only just finished up the many casseroles from the freezer folks had given us after Molly was born. And last weekend my friend Brianna came up from Vancouver for a few days and replenished our freezer with soups, as well as simply being a wonderful friend and guest around here.

Snack time on the Hoodoo hike

Chris has been trying to take advantage of the remaining warm weather of the season and has gone out for hikes (Did you know Kamloops has hoodoos just outside of town?) and bike rides with Jonas, leaving me some extra quiet time at home.

Kamloops Hoodoos

At the beginning of this month, Jonas returned to daycare for one day a week and is thoroughly loving it. I am, as well. It's nice to get the extra time to sleep, run errands or catch up around the house. Jonas's second planned outing of the week is swimming lessons. He attends a parent and tot class with Chris Friday mornings for 6 weeks as part of our family membership at the Y. He's good for about 10 minutes blowing bubbles and getting his face wet, then spends the rest of the half hour playing at the side of the pool.

Me. I'd decided a few weeks ago to take part in a book club through our church. We meet for about 1 1/2 hours every 5-6 weeks and I think that's a time commitment I can keep. Of course, there is a book to read in the meantime, but with forced downtime, several times a day (Molly insists upon it!) I figure I can get that done. The first novel: The Kite Runner.

Molly is growing and gaining weight. She loves to held. And often is quite discontent unless she is. She'll also go for

Maybe she has a cold?

a few hours without falling back asleep (which is a long time at this stage) and gets crankier and crankier so we hold her and rock her and generally hope and pray for her to sleep. My back is starting to protest. This has prompted me to get a new baby carrier. (We do have a fantastic one, but it's better suited for when the baby is a bit bigger or a toddler.) After a lot of research with all the babywearing options out there and I'm now expecting my Moby wrap to arrive this week. I'm hoping it will calm Molly's fussy evenings a bit, too.

About a week and a half ago I got hit with a cold and felt pretty terrible for a few days. Chris got a milder version and Jonas had a runny nose and Molly got one, too. We don't usually take pictures of runny noses, but we thought this one of Molly, after being held that way for awhile (she's fond of that particular hold) seemed, well, special. ;)

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Full Coverage?

nobody@vox.com(Bridget Ann) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:40:29 +0000

Outdoor past-times should be covered under health insurance; mental health preventative and/or therapy. Once again I've managed to detoxify my mind by spending a few days up north. It's amazing what a few days of smelly peace and quiet can do to help me focus. Absolutely love it! Although the bum knee kind of put a damper on things, we still managed to make it another great trip. 1:30am arrival to parking with a mile hike in to set up camp in the dark, 20 miles before having to be picked-up by the magnificent Cory because of my knee, lunch at the Gunflint Trail Tavern in Grand Marais, Camping on Pebble Beach, Star watching next to the lake, Breakfast at Naniboujou, Devil's Kettle, and dinner at the Anchor bar in Superior with my buddy Ryan and his girlfriend, Elise, on Monday. Mr.Riley really knows how to plan a great trip...even if it is raining the whole time and the girl you're with talks too much!

We started this time at Bally Creek Road and made it to the Kimball Creek parking via the South Bally Creek Pond Campsite, West Devil Track Campsite, and the Cliff Creek Campsite. The last night we spent on Superior with a great view of the stars and the moon reflecting on the lake.

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Mount Bierstadt

nobody@vox.com(moopdog) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:14:27 +0000

Jen already blogged about this, but I have some super high-quality pictures taken with my cell phone to add to the mix.

The only fourteeners we have climbed previously are Gray's and Torrey's, which we did back in 2003. Actually, I climbed Mt Sneffels with Matt, Pat, and Wulfie, but a big nasty cornice prevented us from reaching the summit, so that one's not official.

Bierstadt and Evans are the most popular CO 14ers, mainly due to their proximity to Denver (less than an hour drive to the trailhead). Plus, they are among the easiest, depending on what route you take. The plan was to drive up the night before, sleep at the trailhead, get an early start, summit Bierstadt, then cross the sawtooth ridge over to Evans, before returning to the car.

We stopped in Idaho Springs on the way up, and ate dinner at the Tommyknocker Brewery. Driving up the winding, narrow road to Guanella Pass in the dark was a bit sketchy, but we made it to the trailhead by 10 PM or so. There was a nice thin layer of fresh snow, which looked really cool under the bright moon. Jen and I threw up our tent in the parking lot, and Dom crashed in his Outback. I woke up at 4 AM, and couldn't go back to sleep. We all got up at 5, and it was chilly, but quite beautiful.

Jen and I boiled some water for oatmeal and coffee, while Dom did a breakfast burrito experiment. He made breakfast burritos the day before, wrapped them in tin foil, and brought them along. Saturday morning, he boiled water, and stuck the burritos in, inside a zip lock. After quite some time, the burritos did warm up, but gave him a case of gut-rot during the hike. (He apparently didn't learn his lesson, as he ordered a giant plate of fish and chips Sunday while we watched the Vikings, an hour before he had to play in a 90-minute soccer match.)

We hit the trail at 6 AM, which was our goal. I am definitely sold on the idea of sleeping at the trailhead- I never am able to get out of bed early enough to do anything fruitful in the mountains, but I have no problem getting up if I'm already there. I do think an hour between waking up and hitting the trail is a little much- next time, maybe I'll do energy bars for breakfast.

The hike up to the summit was uneventful, but crossing a talus field when there's a few inches of snow is a bitch! Everything's slippery, and you can't really tell what's solid footing, and what's not.

Snowy_talus

It was nice and sunny on the summit, and we grabbed a bite to eat, and assessed the situation. I was primed to cross over the sawtooth, but my compatriots were not. According to all the guidebooks, the ridge looks worse than it actually is (which is usually the case), but the layer of snow definitely made things sketchier than normal. Add to that the fact that we really had no idea how long it was going to take to cross it, and no idea how long it was going to take to get down the other side, and it was definitely a good idea to scrap the Evans plan.

Bierstadt Summit

Sawtooth (next time, punk!)

As Jen mentioned, coming down was crazy- there were hundreds of people coming up the trail. I can't even imagine what the scene is like in the peak season! The funny thing about these popular hikes is that you see people who obviously don't do this sort of thing very often- wearing jeans, or tennis shoes with short socks (I postholed up to my crotch a few times). We even saw a dude hiking in with a can of beer in his hand- I'm pretty sure he wasn't going all the way to the summit!

I would've given anything for a little more snow, and a pair of skis on the way down. I'm thinking this might be the perfect place to take Jen on her first backcountry ski experience :)

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Lost Creek Wilderness

nobody@vox.com(dk) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:24:26 +0000

I spent the weekend in the Lost Creek Wilderness area. The mixed forests, open meadows, small streams, and incredible rock formations that make up the Lost Creek Wilderness area are contained in nearly 120,000 acres in the Tarryall and Kenosha mountain ranges of central Colorado.

The area gets its name from Lost Creek, a meandering waterway that disappears under enormous rock piles only to reappear suddenly from under another rock pile further downstream. Hiking in from the Goose Creek trailhead, one passes through a short section of the area affected by the 2002 Hayman Fire.

201v

The Hayman Fire, a result of arson, burned more than 138,000 acres (560 km²), although most of Goose Creek valley was untouched by the blaze.

Six years on, this area is offers a startlingly beautiful look at the early recovery from the blaze, before the trail passes into the thicker conifer forest.

Early Saturday evening, a thunderstorm of impressive proportions struck, leaving the morning wreathed in a beautifully mysterious fog that slowly burned away as the morning sun rose higher in the sky.

Everything touched by the sunlight steamed gently.

143v

The day turned warm, and the hiking was delicious, passing through cool, moist canopy, out into sunny meadows carved by the creek, and punctuated by incredible rock formations.

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Grand Tetons

nobody@vox.com(Jeremy) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:32:15 +0000

It was a wet & wild weekend at Grand Teton National Park. On Saturday, Ashley and I enjoyed the giant gift shop that is Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Camping in Grand Teton National Park on Saturday night, it rained pretty much non-stop, including bouts of thunder and lightning, which is always fun. In the early, early hours of the morning we listened to elk call loudly to each other. The rain let up on Sunday morning and we went for a hike around Jenny Lake to Hidden Falls. A bald eagle soared high above us when we began the hike. The falls were beautiful, as was the view from Inspiration Point. On the hike back to the trailhead, we ran into some deer that weren't too camera shy. A little bit later we came face-to-face with a huge mama moose and her calf. We didn't really want to test the mama moose's camera shyness, so no photos of the moose and her baby. Instead we just slowly and quietly walked past them and hoped the mama moose didn't try to crush us. The hike was also filled with an endless supply of juvenile jokes about tetons and the grandness of them.

Grand Tetons

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Hiking in Cienega Creek this Weekend

nobody@vox.com(Zack) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:08:23 +0000

Sunday I went with John and Laura and their dogs to Cienega Creek to go hiking! We had a lot of fun following the stream around and playing with their dogs! Laura had some water proof boots and so she was trudging through the water with ease...John and I on the other hand ended up with some really wet feet!!! Here are some of the pics I took.

Me and John (as twins!)

I had no idea that we matched until I saw this picture :p At least my sleeves were a different color!

Bridges

There were two bridges close to where we went down into the creek, so I went on a hunt for trolls but couldn't find any! Perhaps the story Billy Goats Gruff isn't based on fact? *hmmm*

Sadie and Roxy

Here Sadie and Roxy were doing tricks to get treats. Sadie was pretty good at speak and Roxy did sit (and splash in the mud!)

Laura in the Creek

Here was Laura showing off her water proof boots! Right about now I realized I was covered in mosquitoes and made a fool of myself trying to swat them all away! (no pics of that...sorry)

All in all I had a great time and if you want to see the rest of the pics I posted just click here! You can see the train that went by close to where we parked, as well as my being an total idiot playing under the tracks!

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We came, we climbed, we conquered - one step at a time.

nobody@vox.com(Star) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:59:38 +0000

Mt. St. Helens, viewed from Climbers' Bivouac:

Mt. St. Helens trip 001

We conquered!

Mt. St. Helens trip 042

Photos by Jim. Thanks, Jim.

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Vox’s posts tagged hiking

Mt Rinjani, Indonesia

Photo by tonghwa - Mt. Rinjani

Mt Rinjani - 3726m

TrailRunner 1.8 - discover and share routes for outdoor activities

TrailRunner 1.8 - discover and share routes for outdoor activities

The Story Thus Far

Hiking Again

Nice

Hike Or Bust!

Finding our Normal

Full Coverage?

Mount Bierstadt

Lost Creek Wilderness

Grand Tetons

Hiking in Cienega Creek this Weekend

We came, we climbed, we conquered - one step at a time.