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(more photos here)
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
a little dialogue.
i realize i have been communicating via pictures on this blog for a little while. i thought i would throw some words at you to let you know what's been going on.
with the arrival of the month of march, it's hard to not project to the advent of spring. i am a north country girl at heart and love the winter, but i am ready to see the sun and spend time outside without the protection of multiple layers.
to add to the impatience, we are planning a vacation to sandbridge beach in virginia in may. we will be renting a condo for a week right on the atlantic ocean. the condo is across the street from the back bay federal wildlife refuge and we will be visiting at the same time that the loggerhead turtles come ashore to lay their eggs.
i have also taken a few big steps in regards to my artwork. first, i registered to take a course taught by the talented lilla rogers and am excited to learn and connect with other peers. second, i finally submitted to exhibit for our local third thursday art walk, sponsored by APE.
wish me luck!
sawteeth mountain.
what better way to celebrate your one year wedding anniversary than to hike 14 miles and summit a high peak?
we started from the st hubert's parking area at the ausable club at 8:45, signed in at the amr gate and began walking the lake road. i hate to say it, but there is little interest to this road after the first time you walk it. we arrived at the dam around 10:00 and were glad to start hiking an actual trail. taking the trail beside rainbow falls up, we reached the summit around noon. it was windy and quite cold up top but offered a fine view of the great range.
15 minutes later, with frozen fingers and full bellies we began the descent to ausable lake via the scenic trail. this is a steeper trail and added almost a mile to the trip. there were many lookout points perched on the cliffside scramble down offering views to the southeast that weren't available from the summit. the final portion of the scenic trail that follows the lakeshore was a rugged crawl over glacial erratics. it took us nearly three hours to descend from the summit back to the dam.
the mind-numbing walk of the lake road followed and we were back at the car by 4:45, making it an even 8 hour day.
(more photos here.)
a lot of laughing.
you know, the following pictures might not accurately capture all of this past weekend's camping trip to lake harris. scratch that-they definitely don't.
how could you encapsulate a gigantic amount of awesome laughter, abundant food, positive energy, and fireside banter into a handful of photos?
we were surrounded by amazing people all with the same brash sense of humor and an excellent recall for eighties movies. it made for conversations that always ended in brays of laughter that were so intense your cheeks hurt from the effort.
we considered who our doppelgangers would be and tried to determine their names.
we debated whether that streak across the crystal clear night sky was actually the milky way or just a "bunch of clouds". (it's definitely the milky way.)
there were bald eagles and a roving bunch of very large raccoons who pillaged our food on the second night.
did i mention there was a lot of laughing?
how could you encapsulate a gigantic amount of awesome laughter, abundant food, positive energy, and fireside banter into a handful of photos?
we were surrounded by amazing people all with the same brash sense of humor and an excellent recall for eighties movies. it made for conversations that always ended in brays of laughter that were so intense your cheeks hurt from the effort.
we considered who our doppelgangers would be and tried to determine their names.
we debated whether that streak across the crystal clear night sky was actually the milky way or just a "bunch of clouds". (it's definitely the milky way.)
there were bald eagles and a roving bunch of very large raccoons who pillaged our food on the second night.
did i mention there was a lot of laughing?
quest for beer.
the first major pit stop on our way to virginia was adam's choice. no big surprise that he mapped a course directly to the dogfish head brewpub in rehoboth beach, delaware.
i was road weary and out of sorts from having woken up at 3:00 am. adam was completely rejuvenated and nearly giddy over the fact that he was able to be in the presence of so many of his most-recent-favorite beers.
we grabbed a table on the patio and ordered up some food. adam had the crab cake sandwich and i got the ale macaroni and cheese. still having a five hour drive in front of us, there was not as much beer savoring as would have been preferable but adam was sure to grab a case before we left for our next destination.
whirlwinds and ocean waves.
we just returned from a brief, overwhelming, and incredible trip down the east coast to virginia beach.
it was five days full of intense sun, family, people watching, micro-brew drinking, wave playing, beach lounging, boardwalk walking, slot playing, and overeating.
there was a little sunburn in there too.
lots of pictures were taken. perhaps i'll share some more here when i get acclimatized back to home. for now, i'll leave you with this picture snapped from our hotel balcony in virginia beach.
whistling dixie.
adam and i took our annual memorial day vacation road trip to virginia beach to visit my father. an added bonus was the fact that my brother, future sister-in-law and nephew made the trip too.
adam and i have the comfortable car ride silence down to a science. no awkwardness, just relaxing. audio books are essential and we completed two on this journey; Darkfall by Dean Koontz and In the Dark of Night by John Saul. the latter was the better of the two. Darkfall gave away too much in the beginning and i didn't dig the whole voodoo thing.
for road side food shacks and other regional curiosities, we stopped at the machipongo clam shack. being vegetarian, i don't eat seafood but adam has none of my dietary restrictions. none the less, i can certainly appreciate a local beer and some french fries!
different from previous years, we got a hotel room right on the beach. listening to the ocean every night was incredibly relaxing and waking up to awesome sunrises didn't hurt either.
time flies, especially when you're on vacation but getting back to our furry children was motivation to come home. thinking of how excited the dog and cats would be was enough to power us through those draining new jersey miles. a trip to ikea helped too.
i can't tell a lie...the view from our bedroom window pales in comparison to this:
adam and i have the comfortable car ride silence down to a science. no awkwardness, just relaxing. audio books are essential and we completed two on this journey; Darkfall by Dean Koontz and In the Dark of Night by John Saul. the latter was the better of the two. Darkfall gave away too much in the beginning and i didn't dig the whole voodoo thing.
for road side food shacks and other regional curiosities, we stopped at the machipongo clam shack. being vegetarian, i don't eat seafood but adam has none of my dietary restrictions. none the less, i can certainly appreciate a local beer and some french fries!
different from previous years, we got a hotel room right on the beach. listening to the ocean every night was incredibly relaxing and waking up to awesome sunrises didn't hurt either.
we caught some live music. the hotel bar hosted nature's child, a five piece live reggae band the first night. on our final night, adam and i met up with my father to see the yardbirds in the outdoor neptune park right next door to our hotel. while they only have two of their original band members, it was still a good show.
i can't tell a lie...the view from our bedroom window pales in comparison to this:
and now for something completely different.
if you've been dropping by for a while, you may recall my semi-recent engagement and my aversion to the wedding industry, heteronormative, pretty-pretty princess bridedom thing.
our wedding planning process may be a little more lackadaisical and slow paced than most, but we are making small steps forward.
i now have a dress. i was able to purchase it for $50 (including shipping!) and therefore stayed well within our super small budget. it is strange to have this dress in my closet. it seems to carry so much more identity than any other piece of clothing. weird, huh?
we have also nailed down the total budget and started a "savings plan". a surprise bit of generosity has allowed us to have a honeymoon. we had previously decided that a honeymoon immediately following the wedding wasn't going to be financially possible. now we are overwhelmed with the possibilities. we're 99% sure it'll be a trip to one of the national parks; most likely Glacier, but also in the running are Yellowstone, Yosemite and Denali.
next step: visiting our short list of potential reception venues. yikes!
our wedding planning process may be a little more lackadaisical and slow paced than most, but we are making small steps forward.
i now have a dress. i was able to purchase it for $50 (including shipping!) and therefore stayed well within our super small budget. it is strange to have this dress in my closet. it seems to carry so much more identity than any other piece of clothing. weird, huh?
we have also nailed down the total budget and started a "savings plan". a surprise bit of generosity has allowed us to have a honeymoon. we had previously decided that a honeymoon immediately following the wedding wasn't going to be financially possible. now we are overwhelmed with the possibilities. we're 99% sure it'll be a trip to one of the national parks; most likely Glacier, but also in the running are Yellowstone, Yosemite and Denali.
putnam pond.
we camped with some friends this weekend.
we stayed at a NYS campground in the pharaoh lakes wilderness called putnam pond.
these photos are deceptively peaceful as most of the time was spent more wantonly.
at one point adam had shoes on his hands.
i swore to my friends that i would not post the more debauched (and hilarious) photos; lest you think they are degenerates (in fact they are awesome). it need not be said that a hilarious (and beautiful) time was had by all.
a day early, a mountain short.
it never fails, the first backpacking trip of every season teaches me a little more about humility and priorities. the former being that i am not, nor every will be, a super day trip warrior. the latter is that i hike mountains for the joy and redemptive quality of being in the backcountry. no badge or moniker will be my motivation for pushing past my limits.
we left friday and drove two hours to tupper lake for the coreys trailhead into the seward mountain range. three hours and 5+ miles later we arrived at our tent site near the ward brook leanto. the ward brook trail was mainly level with some serious muddy areas, but the time was due to all of my trailside backpack strap fiddling.
after a full night of rain, we left camp saturday morning to hike seward, donaldson and emmons. the loop was probably under 9 miles, but it took us twelve hours. the mud was legendary (especially between the peaks on the ridgeline) and the scrambling was pretty intense (especially on seward). anyone with knees would think this was a challenging hike.
at the end of the day, we hiked seward and donaldson twice and (thankfully) emmons once. by my calculations, including all the accents and descents, that's 5,630 feet of elevation changes. the weather held out and was mostly sunny the whole day, although this had little affect on the extra mud created by the previous night's rain. there were views at each of the peaks and along the ridgeline, but none were without obstruction. due to the difficulty of the hike and the incessant blood sucking insects, we took significantly fewer photos than usual. an unexpected find was a memory box hidden atop of seward as a memorial to a boy named jon (1998-2006). the pictures and family messages on the outside of the box had me in tears.
suffice it to say, we decided that we would not summit any more mountains this trip. if you looked at me, you would have thought i ROLLED back down seward; bruises, cuts and insect bites. we were both battle worn and tired. we hiked out on sunday, choosing to leave seymour for a later day hike (with crosbi).
we left friday and drove two hours to tupper lake for the coreys trailhead into the seward mountain range. three hours and 5+ miles later we arrived at our tent site near the ward brook leanto. the ward brook trail was mainly level with some serious muddy areas, but the time was due to all of my trailside backpack strap fiddling.
after a full night of rain, we left camp saturday morning to hike seward, donaldson and emmons. the loop was probably under 9 miles, but it took us twelve hours. the mud was legendary (especially between the peaks on the ridgeline) and the scrambling was pretty intense (especially on seward). anyone with knees would think this was a challenging hike.
at the end of the day, we hiked seward and donaldson twice and (thankfully) emmons once. by my calculations, including all the accents and descents, that's 5,630 feet of elevation changes. the weather held out and was mostly sunny the whole day, although this had little affect on the extra mud created by the previous night's rain. there were views at each of the peaks and along the ridgeline, but none were without obstruction. due to the difficulty of the hike and the incessant blood sucking insects, we took significantly fewer photos than usual. an unexpected find was a memory box hidden atop of seward as a memorial to a boy named jon (1998-2006). the pictures and family messages on the outside of the box had me in tears.
suffice it to say, we decided that we would not summit any more mountains this trip. if you looked at me, you would have thought i ROLLED back down seward; bruises, cuts and insect bites. we were both battle worn and tired. we hiked out on sunday, choosing to leave seymour for a later day hike (with crosbi).
south of the mason dixon line.
we just got back from our annual trip to Virginia Beach. oddly enough, i am not a really beach-y person. i burn pretty easily and prefer temperatures around 72 degrees. i did get a bit of sunburn even with SPF 45, but i fared a bit better than adam. he managed to sunburn his inner thighs (honestly there isn't a lurid explanation) which is understandably uncomfortable. it could have been worse considering he almost used Icy Hot instead of a similarly blue colored sunburn lotion as a pain reliever.we drove down in the CR-V because it's still cheaper than flying. plus, you can't really get a feeling for distance and place if you don't drive. Stephen King's, Cell was our driving entertainment (what is up with that ending?!?!). we stopped at Shucker's Pier 13 in Dover, DE on the way down. i don't eat seafood, but they had grilled vegetable and cheese sandwiches and the food was cheap. the atmosphere was odd to say the least, topped off by what could only be explained as significant blood splatter on the inside of the women's bathroom stall door. on the way back home we stopped at the Dog House in New Castle, DE per the recommendation of Roadfood.com. again, i dined like a true vegetarian on the cheese fries (which were stellar), but adam got two of their famous foot long chili dogs. you can't get that on a plane!
we also ate well while in vb; mary's, captain george's, croc's, not to mention karen's home cooking, but i could go on forever about food...
i got to spend some good QT with my father; riding bicycles, chilling on the beach and staying up until all hours drinking and talking. adam partook a bit too heavily of the drinking part, but recovered enough to go to First Landing State Park the next day to check out the cypress swamps and ospreys.
to break up the trip back we got a hotel room in Paramus, NJ. at the hotel we watched 30 Days of Night, an incredibly creepy and disturbing flick which seemed pretty appropriate for our overall NJ
experience. there is little to say about Paramus, except that there is a lot of shopping. and there's the atrocious Route 17. what is the urban planning logic behind this road? what is up with the u-turns?? why does this road inspire such hate???anyway, before departing for home we stopped at IKEA and bought what seemed like enough to furnish a small apartment. we then went to CAMPMOR, where we got a new Ruffwear backpack and boots for crosbi (the dog).
an all around good time...thanks to dad and karen for their hospitality and to russell for watching the "kids"!
dix mountain.
it was a perfect fall day. and we completed a perfect hike.
sure, it was long but 10 of the near 14 miles are relatively level. which means that the other 4 feel as though they are nearly vertical, but whatever.
adam, crosbi and i started at the rte. 73/round pond trailhead for dix mountain around 8:00 AM. with two cameras in tow, we stopped frequently but summited by 1:00 PM. the day was clear and you could see 360 degrees from the peak. we only passed one other party (at least until we were almost out...).
there were many beautiful places to camp within five miles of the trailhead. the sites at round pond, which is less than a mile from rte. 73, were surprisingly enticing and you could not hear the highway. the leanto is RIGHT ON the trail, but i am not fond of staying in leantos anywho.
i would certainly consider coming back here for a few nights stay.
sure, it was long but 10 of the near 14 miles are relatively level. which means that the other 4 feel as though they are nearly vertical, but whatever.
adam, crosbi and i started at the rte. 73/round pond trailhead for dix mountain around 8:00 AM. with two cameras in tow, we stopped frequently but summited by 1:00 PM. the day was clear and you could see 360 degrees from the peak. we only passed one other party (at least until we were almost out...).
there were many beautiful places to camp within five miles of the trailhead. the sites at round pond, which is less than a mile from rte. 73, were surprisingly enticing and you could not hear the highway. the leanto is RIGHT ON the trail, but i am not fond of staying in leantos anywho.
i would certainly consider coming back here for a few nights stay.
dial and nippletop mountains
yesterday adam and i ventured off to hike dial mountain and nippletop mountains. i thought it would be appropriate to get back to the AMR as soon as possible so that i could prevent my single bad experience from becoming my only AMR experience.
we got to the trailhead at 8:30 AM. walking through the clubhouse/golf course/cabin area was a bit nerve wracking. if you can believe it (i still kick myself for not taking a picture), we passed a woman casually walking her large black poodle while reading the newspaper. i was speechless...
we signed in and pretended not to notice the glaring security guard in the gatehouse.
once off the lake road, the trail went immediately uphill. i struggled for much of the morning as i am not at top performance before noon.
although 15 miles long and difficult at times, the hike was amazingly beautiful. you are rewarded in the first three hours by 180 degree views as a result of the 1999 forest fire on noonmark mtn.
we hiked over bear den mtn and onto dial. it was difficult to be certain that you had summited as there is no sign or marker. after a brief stop, we were off to nippletop. those two miles seemed to take forever. going up and over mountains can make each mile feel twice as long.
approaching nippletop, you can see the peak and it appears so pointy and small.
we decided to hike back going toward elk lake pass, if only to avoid going back over dial and bear den a second time. also, we were running very low on water and there was NO water on the trail in. the hike down to the lake road was very steep and we were glad we did not come up that way.
it was a great hike and we only passed three people. we had each peak to ourselves. a redeeming experience, although not for AMR hospitality (it seems to me they would rather not have hikers there at all) but for the sheer beauty of the adirondacks.
we got to the trailhead at 8:30 AM. walking through the clubhouse/golf course/cabin area was a bit nerve wracking. if you can believe it (i still kick myself for not taking a picture), we passed a woman casually walking her large black poodle while reading the newspaper. i was speechless...we signed in and pretended not to notice the glaring security guard in the gatehouse.
once off the lake road, the trail went immediately uphill. i struggled for much of the morning as i am not at top performance before noon.
although 15 miles long and difficult at times, the hike was amazingly beautiful. you are rewarded in the first three hours by 180 degree views as a result of the 1999 forest fire on noonmark mtn.
we hiked over bear den mtn and onto dial. it was difficult to be certain that you had summited as there is no sign or marker. after a brief stop, we were off to nippletop. those two miles seemed to take forever. going up and over mountains can make each mile feel twice as long.
approaching nippletop, you can see the peak and it appears so pointy and small.
we decided to hike back going toward elk lake pass, if only to avoid going back over dial and bear den a second time. also, we were running very low on water and there was NO water on the trail in. the hike down to the lake road was very steep and we were glad we did not come up that way.
it was a great hike and we only passed three people. we had each peak to ourselves. a redeeming experience, although not for AMR hospitality (it seems to me they would rather not have hikers there at all) but for the sheer beauty of the adirondacks.
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