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Level 1 Avalanche Course
I’ve been traveling in the winter backcountry for most of my life with no formal avalanche education. While most of my activities have been fairly low risk for avalanche exposure, and I’ve listened to some avalanche awareness presentations, I finally admit that those measures are not sufficient in the long term for my activities. It’s…
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No Eclipse For Us
We go to the Indian Cove campground to watch the eclipse and then sleep in the tent. It’s cloudy when we leave, but occasional gaps in the clouds reveal glimpses of the moon, so we remain hopeful. Moonlit Clouds That’s the closest we get to a clear sky. Shortly after getting the tent set up…
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Ryan Peak
Today we drive further into Joshua Tree to the Ryan Peak trail. We’re doing another hike, but I’m feeling growing urges to climb, for whatever reason. Ryan Peak Trailhead The summit provides great views over both the Colorado and Mojave deserts, but it’s hard to take your attention off of the alluring stacks of rock…
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Lancaster County Tour
Manheim, Pennsylvania is home to several generations of my family on the Kuhn side, but is almost completely foreign to me. Sue Obetz and grandma Eileen Kuhn, our hosts here, give Dad, Sarah, and I a good survey of the county. Our first stop is the old Abe Wallace farm, which grandma Eileen finds the…
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Schenectady Rendezvous
Even though she has a cold, Ann seizes this opportunity to take a train to her old neighborhood in Brooklyn and visit some friends. Meanwhile I spend a few more days in Vermont, then drive to Schenectady to pick her up at the train station there. (A little lesson from people who follow a lot…
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Plainfield Harvest Happenings
Jason gives me a nice peek into the Plainfield community by taking me to a couple of fall events. The first is a harvest party, a pot luck featuring one of Jason’s lambs roasted whole and and fresh apple cider. There’s a cold wind, but everyone has themselves and their children wrapped in layers of…
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Where’s Wal-Mart?
We decide it’s time to embrace Wal-Mart’s liberal overnight parking policies for thrift and expediency of travel. For our first night, the hard part turns out to be finding the Wal-Mart. Our first attempts lands us at a closed store, cruising the abandoned lot in the rainy dark. Plan B is a nearby Target, which…
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Badlands – Sage Creek
It’s time to say goodbye to mountains. Our last black hills campsite wasn’t far from 7,242-ft Harney Peak – the highest peak east of the rockies at about the same elevation as my birth town of Laramie, Wyoming. It seems like a good way to greet the plains is to visit the badlands. Badlands Our…
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Birthday 38
Our days have been so varied and interesting lately that I don’t mind so much when a more mundane occurrence consumes my birthday – our refrigerator quits working. We drive to Laramie to diagnose it, Annemarie and Huntington rescue us with ice, coolers, and a place to park for the night. We learn that the…
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Back to Vedauwoo
Happily in the hills again, we’re visited by Pete, Jim, and Chris B, who I haven’t seen since high school. The moon comes up and says hello too. Evening Campsite