Lake Placid!

This past weekend we embarked on what has become an annual trip to Lake Placid. We stayed at cozy cabin located near the edge of town, situated on the Jack Rabbit Trail - a ~40 mile skiing route. We skied at Mt. Van Hoevenberg - site of the 1980 Olympic XC ski events - for two days. The groomed trails there are lots of fun. I also skied from the cabin to Van Hoevenberg one morning. On Monday we explored the area around the Adirondack Loj, which is a gateway to the High Peaks area, managed by the Adirondack Mountain Club. I tried out my new snowshoes for the first time, and made it to scenic Marcy Dam and back, round trip ~4.5 miles, in under two hours. We delayed our trip home a bit because the forecast was calling for a winter storm warning in the Albany area, lasting until early afternoon. Traffic was smooth and roads clear until we arrived in Delaware, when to our surprise, snow began to fall. By the time we reached the Susquehanna River, the snow was coming down hard and the highway was getting slick - and with lots of trucks around, we felt a bit nervous. Thankfully, the BW Parkway turned out to be a better route home. Snow diminished dramatically in the last 5 miles before we reached home, although it was enough to delay the opening of school by 2 hours this morning. More photos of our weekend here (look for Calista skiing with her new best friend "Clifford" the dog).

Hiking and travel links

For years, I have had a personal website. Recently I am having some trouble with it - I can't upload new files. I made the mistake of trying to upload an updated main page, which did not work - but now my main page is blank. The rest of the content is there, but there is no easy way to get to it.

At least as a temporary fix, I am providing links to some of my content below. I also have created some permanent links on the blog, to the right.

Our photos on Picasa and Flickr

Appalachian Trail backpacking journal - with separate pages for each major trip/segment, lost of links and photos, plus Google Earth versions!

My trip journals - covering backpacking, camping, and other trips since the mid-90s

John Muir trail trip report - with a Google map and Google earth versions

Pacific Crest Trail trip in 2010

Winter wonderland

Every year we make several weekend escapes to go cross country skiing. This year we managed some skiing in Michigan on several days while we were there, although conditions deteriorated before we left. But last weekend, we experienced the joys of true winter again in Canaan Valley. Canaan, which usually experienced the best snow cover reachable by weekend trip for those of us in the DC area, is blessed with a quirky cross country ski resort called Whitegrass. This resort has miles of groomed trails traversing nearly 1000 feet of elevation rise, with access to many more miles of backcountry trails.

This year we stayed in a rental house with some friends, and enjoyed swishing through fresh snow for three days. On the second day, I traded off with Tatiana and did a long ski in the afternoon, which provided me with a first-ever opportunity to reach the overlook at Bald Knob while it was bathed in late afternoon sunlight. Conditions were calm, and the snow and ice on the trees was truly beautiful. I also found, for the first time, the connection between the backcountry Cabin Mountain and National Nordic trails. I have more photos here (not many "people" shots this time . . I took all my pics while out on the trails. Still need to coordinate photos from Tatiana!).

We will return to Canaan at the end of February, and also plan to ski at Lake Placid in a few weeks. Thanks to God for snow!!

Christmas

We spent the first part of our Christmas vacation in Hampstead, hanging out with Tyson, Sarah, and Tatiana's parents. The earlier part of the month had been very hectic, with Tatiana finishing multiple projects relating to her first semester of the PhD program, while I graded exams.

From Maryland, we made the 12-hour drive to western Michigan on Dec 27th. No problems on the trip, since the major snowstorm coming in that day stayed well to the east, along the coast. In Michigan we were able to ski several times before the weather warmed up, including a nice all-day outing at Big M. Mike and Susanna were around for several days too. We were able to visit other family too, including Aunt Helen, and Uncle Gord and Aunt Saramae. On the way home, we took an alternate route via I-80 in western PA and Us 322 to Harrisburg - a nice change from the usual turnpike.

Now it's on to other winter challenges, including the start of a new semester (for me) and prepping a new class for the UD semester that starts in a couple of weeks (for Tatiana). And for the fun stuff - we have three weekend ski trips to WV and NY planned during the next two months. Yeah for snow!!

Shenandoah

Since I moved to the East coast after college, I have come to cherish autumn weekends spent in the mountains. We typically spend several weekends backpacking, camping, or taking in the fall colors. This year was a bit difficult, because my foot injury prevented me from doing any hiking. Finally, this past weekend, we got out to the mountains.

Shenandoah National Park has been a favorite location, in all seasons, for both me and Tatiana. We did our first backpacking trips together there in 2001, and have returned multiple times. Both of us had spent considerable time there before we met, and we have hiked the entire Appalachian Trail through the park.


So this weekend, Shenandoah was a great place to see fall colors! We drove out on Saturday morning, and completed a short (~2 mile) hike to Dark Hollow Falls. Calista hiked the whole way without assistance (except with getting over the rocks). Today (Sunday) we hiked to Stony Man Cliffs, one of our favorite spots in the park. Calista climbed the rugged trail with us, approximately a mile round trip. It was cold enough on the exposed ridge for ice to have formed in some of the rock crevices. Later in the afternoon, we completed a 3.3 mile loop hike to South River Falls, 3rd-highest in the park - with Calista along in the backpack this time. These falls lie near the South River Picnic Area, where I started a backpacking trip with my brother Mike (in 2000?), but we did not have time to journey to the falls on that trip. So it was fun to see them now. My foot help up pretty well - it was by far the most walking I have done since the injury.

You might be able to tell from the rest of the photos that the colors were best at lower elevations, while most of the leaves in areas along the ridgetops have fallen already.

Fall

We are well into the heart of fall now. I think the leaves are falling a bit earlier than usual. At the WCAC championship last weekend, there were leaves coating the surface of the stream - something I have not seen before.

I always spend huge amounts of time on cross country in the fall. Often I spend more time planning practices or for weekend meets than prepping for my classes. Managing a team with 75 runners and 5 coaches is not an easy task.

A couple of weeks ago we had a free Saturday, so we went out to the Western Maryland Rail Trail to do some biking. It's a very scenic trail, running parallel to the C&O Canal and the Potomac River. We covered 45 miles, with Calista trailing along behind my bike in her "chariot" (it's a Burley trailer, actually).

We have one more free XC weekend, and then three straight championship races: MD/DC state (private schools), Jesuits, and then Nike SE Regionals. And maybe Nationals, if we run really well.

We also made it through Halloween without too much drama. Calista dressed up as a fairy for a local event - a parade for the kids, followed by trick-or-treating at local businesses. We did not go out house-to-house Sunday night - she was too tired for it to work!

Here are some more pics from our fall outings . .

The rest of our trip . . .

I never got up to updating the blog again during our summer trip, and have forgotten about it since we got home! Here's a recap, with some links to lots of photos:

We had a great family reunion in Trinidad. We stayed at a great house near the ocean, and had lots of fun being together with family. And of course we toured the famous Redwood trees with our local guides!!

Mike and I had a fantastic backpacking trip on the PCT. I have a full trip report posted here (I am having some trouble uploading to my website, so this is on the Gonzaga page).

On the way home, we made lots of great memories and stopped at a bunch more places: Lava Beds National Monument, Lassen National Park, Timpanagos Cave National Monument, Fossil Butte National Monument, Golden Spike National Historic Site, Agate Fossil Beds Nat. Monument, Scotts Bluff Nat. Monument, Homestead Nat. Monument, and Lincoln Nat. Historic Site. We camped the entire way, except the last two nights when we encountered fierce humidity and a heat index of over 100.


Here are the photo sets. Many of the pics were taken with my new GPS-enabled camera, so you can use the map feature (lower right corner) to see where they were taken - or load photo sets in Google Earth:

Reunion (Trinidad/Redwood NP)

Backpacking (Pacific Crest Trail in the Klamath Mountains)

Lava Beds and Lassen National Monument, and the rest of the way home.