Outdoors
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Backpacking | Beginnings
Was going through an old hard drive looking for gallery worthy photos for the website and instead it sent me back into nostalgia. From January 2007… The sketchiest place we’ve ever pumped water from…but there was no other water! These are at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park during our first ever backpacking adventure together. Who knew it would evolve to getting better gear… and walking to Maine…. and the length/part of the width of Florida? Go put on an old external frame Kelty and see what happens…you just never know!
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Pine Top Campsite via the Bush Mountain, Marcus and Tejas Trails
When we left Dog Canyon the next morning the sky was relatively clear. The forecast did not predict any significant problems so we left the campsite with an intent to take it easy along the way to our initial destination, the Tejas campsite. We planned on stopping along the way to enjoy the scenery, take lots of breaks and really soak it all in. On the Bush Mountain trail we headed in a westerly direction along the crease between two hill tops. We followed on the flat terrain for maybe a mile, perhaps less, before starting our wind up the hill. Initially we’d bundled up but as soon we we…
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Dog Canyon | Guadalupe Mountains National Park
We rose at the McKittrick Ridge campsite the following morning to clouds. It had been quite windy the previous night and a few times it sounded like rain outside, but despite all of that, the ground was relatively dry. We ate a hurried breakfast, taking the tent down first in case the bottom fell out of the sky, so that the tent wouldn’t be wet later. I asked Patrice and Justin if they were awake so they could get up if they wanted to get back down to the McKittrick Visitors Center before the rain came. We were expecting at least a 70% chance of rain for the day, as…
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McKittrick Canyon
When I told my dad we were going to Guadalupe Mountains National Park for Thanksgiving he recounted his tale of it being one of the hardest hikes he’d ever done. He regaled me with a story about my brother and him being ahead of the rest of the Boy Scout troop, and climbing and climbing to the McKittrick Ridge campsite they were all supposed to stay at that night, however night fell and they ended up laying out their sleeping bags somewhere in the middle of the trail. Eventually everyone got caught up together but then there was an issue of getting water and the only place was several miles…
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Thanksgiving Morning From The Top of Texas
We arrived at the Pine Springs Visitors Center at Guadalupe Mountains National Park somewhere around 11am MST. Patrice and Justin were going to be meeting us in a few hours and I was surprised that we’d arrived at the visitors center so quickly. That and we didn’t anticipate a time change though I should have figured that we were going far enough west to have one. The extra hour was definitely a bonus. Inside the center we filled out our backcountry slips and took a look around the exhibits, watching the video in the small room behind the main desk. Killing time, we decided to get everything together so we…
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Quick Thanksgiving Re-cap
Husband flew home from Pennsylvania after a flight delay on Tuesday night. Delayed our intention of leaving for far west Texas until the wee hours of Wednesday morning. As in 2 a.m. wee hours of the morning. Arrived in Mountain Standard Time at Guadalupe Mountains National Park and was thus happy to receive an extra hour of hiking. Our friends Deal and Steadee who we know via the Appalachian Trail met us out there and we then climbed up the tallest mountain in Texas. Got my ass kicked by said mountain. Had salad for lunch…I wonder why mountain kicked my ass? Hrm, let’s see here…. Saw a beautiful sunrise from…
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Saguaro Tree
I really think this tree is trying hard to be a saguaro cactus. Sometimes snag trees will have character, but this tree was very much alive and a character of its own. No evidence of a break in the crease so I’m not sure how this tree ended up like this! Want to see it? Hike the Old Loggers Path.
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Forest Magic
Right now the forest here in PA seems magical. It is in the autumn transition of losing leaves and going dormant. Recent rains have everything glistening and dewy. Perhaps I could venture to say soggy! I know my boots are soggy each day I get done. So many different colors and every day it seems less and less leaves are on the trees. The wind sends so many tumbling down to the ground. Beautiful sphagnum moss A ridge top pond we found. These are more common than I expected. I learned that a lot of these trees on top of the ridges are cherries. They were quizzical little meadows that…
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Animal Encounters
Last Friday was a good animal encounter day. My coworker Ann and I had just set off down a dirt road towards the area we were supposed to cover for the day when around the bend of the road I spotted something brown. It took about half a second for me to recognize that it was a bear. I said “Bear” to Ann who quickly looked up and we stopped. The bear looked at us for a few seconds, hesitating, and then turned to take off from us. Having seen 20 bears on the A.T. I was not afraid, definitely cautious and was planning on the whole waving hands and…
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Funky Forest Fungi
It’s been so moist up here that there is a plethora of strange fungi growing. Some are brightly colored, others are just plain large. They definitely add some texture to the forest environment. The top one reminds me of a coral!