• Tag Archives hike
  • Beating The Bounds

    I do better with a project and a goal.

    – Julie G

    We just got back from a nice walk with Sarah & Marc, part of a project we’re doing with them where we walk the perimeter of the City of Bethlehem. We’re doing it in sections, and doing the easier ones right now: last Sunday was an out-and-back on the towpath heading west (maybe 4 miles), and today was (about 6 miles total) up Club Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue, plus getting to and from the city line. A really pleasant walk, both times. (We also did a hike yesterday, about 5.4 miles around Sals, also really pleasant.)

    FYI: we’re getting ourselves into hiking shape, because we’ll be doing a week on the AT in April. We plan to do the New Jersey section, probably over seven days or so, with our friend Julie G (who did the Alberta ride with us in 2022). We were all joking about how much better shape we were in before that ride, and how getting ready for it lent structure to our fitness regimens at the time, and came up with this trip as our new project. We’re probably closer to physical readiness right now than not, but there’s a lot of other pieces of the puzzle we have to deal with: backpacks, food & logistics, our actual start & end points, etc. We’re working on all of it.


  • Florissant Fossil Beds

    Posted on by Don

    Our trip today was up into the mountains, out near Cripple Creek to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. This was a place where, 34 million years ago, a lake/creek area was buried by volcanic activity — all these giant redwoods were buried to about 15 feet or so, and what was buried got fossilized while what was above rotted away. (All sorts of other plants, as well as fish, insects, and small mammals, were fossilized as well.) Fast forward to about 50 years ago, and this area was saved from development and the national monument was born…

    This was a really fun and spectacularly beautiful way to spend the day, and afterward we stopped for a late lunch on the way home.

    This is our last night in Colorado Springs; tomorrow we head back up to Denver for the final leg of our trip.


  • Garden of the Gods

    Posted on by Don

    Greetings from Colorado Springs!

    We got here Sunday, and did a little bit of walking around Monday, but things got real yesterday when we got up early and explored The Garden of the Gods. This is a spectacular park (and National Natural Landmark) on the edge of town, which features the same kind of up-tilted sandstone formations we saw near Red Rock. There really isn’t much of a narrative here, we just walked around, admiring the views and and taking pictures:

    Right about that last photo is where I somehow managed to change my camera settings to a sort of “focus” effect, which made these last few a bit odd but hey, these are the photos I got:

    And finally, one last shot of Pike’s Peak, from our table at the pub where we had lunch:

    Pike’s Peak From Our Lunch Table

  • Photos: The Flatirons

    We stopped in Boulder on the way home from Estes Park, to visit the National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesa Laboratory. This is a lab and museum partway up a mountain outside of town, designed by I.M. Pei, and with a bunch of hiking trails out back that continue up into the Flatiron Mountains. We hiked about, then visited the museum before continuing home. Here are some pictures from our hike:


  • An Adirondack Hike

    Posted on by Don

    This was our first full day on vacation. Joe and Alex and I were on our own, so we decided to do a moderately difficult hike, maybe four miles or so up to the top of Saint Regis Mountain, just outside the nearby town of Paul Smiths. We took off in the morning and arrived at the trailhead not long after, and started on our way. This map shows the gist of our hike — my GPS didn’t start recording position until we were maybe a half mile in:

     

     

    The trail was easy to follow, fairly well maintained, and kept to an easy grade as it slowly ascended over rolling terrain, until we got to the halfway point and started the real climb. Even this was pretty doable, and the views at the top were well worth it. There was a fire tower at the summit, and we climbed that too. Some photos from the top: