Malia Melody
September 18, 2018 § 9 Comments
Short post, as it has been a long long time since I have posted anything. I just returned from a week long adventure and I figured I would start my blogging with this story first.
This past Thursday morning, after awaking 3 times in the night (normal for me), where I found the sky cloudless and full of stars, some time around 4:40 in the A.M. frozen precipitation began falling from the sky. To me, it sounded like rain, and by true morning, when I decided to get up again, it was clearly snow and sleet-like hail that had fallen. To be honest, unlike Banff two years ago, this was simply squall after squall with no squall contributing a lot, but the number of squalls began to accumulate.
Hiking With Hunters
January 15, 2018 § Leave a comment
I don’t have any pictures of any of the hunters that we saw/met on the AT this past weekend. When you are unarmed, and miles from witnesses, it doesn’t seem like self-preservation to raise up your iPhone and start recording the dudes with the guns.
Dolly Sods 2017
October 16, 2017 § Leave a comment
I believe this became the earliest late Fall backpacking/camping/hiking trip I have ever done with this crowd. Like all of our adventures together this began with a simple email subject line “Autumn Camping”, sent on August 10th by Bruce C. One hundred and ninety six emails later, some that didn’t really move the planning along, we had a date in early October, and we had more people interested in that date, than have ever been interested in a camping date, and we had all agreed fairly quickly that The Dolly Sods Wilderness would be our destination.
Dolly Sods a.k.a Dahle Sods – 2001
August 18, 2017 § Leave a comment
In September of 2000, I started a new position at a small, growing fast startup called Tellium. I left IBM after only being with them for 2 months after AT&T sold our business unit to IBM for eventual outsourcing, so AT&T could sponsor the new stadium in Denver. There is no evidence that was the case, but the sponsorship deal was 200 million, and the IBM deal was about 190. At Tellium, I was hired to work on a team to in-source the Network Management software FROM India. Tellium was working night and day, and had just entered their third round of Venture funding, and they were gearing up for the big delivery. A brand new architecture in backbone network design, a mesh architecture with home-grown hardware and software.
Mountain Lake Wilderness – 2005
August 16, 2017 § 1 Comment
My first winter backpacking trip was a weekend on the AT out of High Point New Jersey during my first trimester break from college in 1977. I was a freshman at Penn State, and while I was home for the Christmas holidays, my buddy Chris suggested we do a weekend on the AT. I can’t say that everything went great on that trip, but I learned that you can backpack in the Winter, and it brings a different set of circumstances to bear each and every time.
The Devil’s Path
July 15, 2017 § 2 Comments
If you type “The Devil’s Path” into google the summaries in the top hits read like the following:
- The Devil’s Path is a hiking trail in the Greene County section of the Catskill Mountains of New York, often described as one of the more challenging trails in the … (wikipedia)
- Frequently called the most dangerous and toughest hike in the East, most hikers tackle this trail east to west in order to go up the steepest parts. You’ll bag five … (hikingproject.com)
- The Catskills’ Devil’s Path got its name for a reason. (newyorkupstate.com)
- Devil’s Path Trail is a 21.8 mile heavily trafficked point-to-point trail located near Hunter, New York that features beautiful wild flowers and is… (alltrails.com)
- How to prepare for The Devil’s Path in the Catskills in New York – the toughest trail in the Northeast. (thetrek.co)
Appalachian Trail – Annapolis Rocks
January 18, 2017 § Leave a comment
It was mid-October and I was feeling the itch to get back into the woods again. My recent adventures into the Banff Wilderness were still on my mind, and I didn’t want to have to wait until 2017 to hoist a pack onto my back and traipse through the woods. Fortunately I have friends who can be called upon when the woods urge hits, and I think I might have texted Larry, and before long we started one of those long running email chains to pick a date.
When a Fall Backpacking Trip Becomes a Winter Adventure
October 18, 2016 § 3 Comments
The 14 day forecast for Banff looked like the following when we checked 2 days before our 10 day hiking excursion: Sun ————— Sun. You couldn’t ask for better conditions. Sun in the valley doesn’t necessarily mean sun in the high country, but it shouldn’t differ by much. Typically weather can be highly localized in the mountains, and an afternoon shower or snow shower should be expected in the middle of September. I had chosen this time of year for two reasons. The first being cold temperatures means NO BUGS, and second, cold temperatures means fewer humans. It was two weeks past the normal season end, and we should enjoy a certain level of isolation once we got far enough into the back country.
Banff – Drew Butler
October 17, 2016 § 2 Comments
It could be argued (successfully) that I have have known Drew all his life, and that would be true, but you don’t really know someone until you have spent some time in the back-country hiking with them.
Drew and I made up (along with Jim Kirby) Bear Team 1, and together we almost always found the trail to keep moving forward. Almost? Well, we both failed to pursue the apparent loss of the trail heading East out of Wildflower, but no harm done, and we all had fun and were content with the decision made.
Banff – Larry Butler
October 14, 2016 § 1 Comment
“Holy Fuck Larry T Butler!”
“Holy Holy Fuck!!!”
When I climbed out of the Grand Canyon on Bright Angel Trail that day in April 2010, I walked over to a nearby bench that had a comprehensive view of the BAT exit and I sat down to wait for my compatriots, and to call my friend Larry T Butler. I had just had the most fantastic backpacking trip ever, and I was letting Larry know that we were coming back in two years, he, myself and whoever else from our crowd that we could bring along.
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