Author: cyberhobo

  • Around Round Top Again

    We liked last week’s Round Top hike so much that we invite our friend Grace and her friend Sharli return there with us to hike the scenic loop. The flowers are starting to fade a bit, and with them the mosquitoes, but there’s still plenty of life on display. The curiosity of our guests spurs…

  • Showers Lake Improvised Loop

    Hat tip for this hike to republican president William McKinley, who established in 1899 the Tahoe Lake Forest Reserve that preceded the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit where we wander freely today. Ann navigates to the attractive ridge she spotted yesterday, which in turn has nice views back to Round Top, west toward the hazy…

  • Round Top Peak

    Hat Tip for this hike goes to republican senator Thomas Kuchel who was among the sponsors of the Wilderness Act of 1964 that established the Mokelumne Wilderness. The air is hazy early on, due to fires in Yosemite I guess, but clears up a bit for us as we make our way up Round Top…

  • urb.is – experiences from Reykjavík, Iceland

    This is a Geo Mashup site focused on Iceland’s capital city. I implemented a custom info window with the nice touch of a colored border to match the color of the clicked marker. This is a great example of a site that uses Geo Mashup well with just a touch of customization to make it…

  • Grass Lake to Tahoe Rim Hike

    As usual, we haven’t made any attempt to reserve a campsite. We thought we might try the Mount Rose campground, but we find it’s closed (no reason given, but Ann finds something on the web about construction). Everything we know about Lake Tahoe so far tells us that the Nevada Beach national forest campground will…

  • Mount Rose

    This hike is the main attraction in the area for good reasons. A waterfall, wildflowers, and a good climb culminate in a view that encompasses both Reno and Lake Tahoe. It puts us in a good mood for goofy pictures. Lake Tahoe Us on Mount Rose 1 Us on Mount Rose 2 Us on Mount…

  • A Short Swim in Lake Tahoe

    Ann and I spend the morning exploring the crags on Donner summit, but never settle on a route to climb, and eventually decide to swim instead. It’s pretty windy when we arrive at King’s Beach on the north shore of lake Tahoe. Breakers are rolling in, and it feels good to put on long sleeves.…

  • Thomas Creek Hike

    I’m curious about the trail along Thomas Creek because it’s the only one on the map that reaches the ridge that leads to Mount Rose. It’s also the most difficult trailhead to access on a bumpy forest road that crosses the creek once over several miles of climbing. We stop short, and find the trailhead…

  • Congressional Hunger Center – DataTables!

    I did a lot of custom WordPress development for this site, but the highlight is the browsing interface for their large library of publications. Publications are presented in a table using the great open source DataTables jQuery plugin. We needed even more filtering abilities to refine the table contents, so I wrote an add on…

  • Aspen Four Passes Loop

    My cousins Doug and Liz invite me to join them on a backpack trip with their friends Dave and Shantel in the wildflower wonderland of the Maroon Bells. Who could say no to that? The logistics get a little complicated, but Dad hands me off successfully and we leave the Maroon Lake trailhead right on…