When You Carry Too Much Stuff
October 7, 2016 § Leave a comment
I started this recent adventure the way I have started all previous adventures. I just start pulling stuff out and putting it all together. This time we were heading into the Canadian Rockies for a mid September romp in the back-country and because of the potential for snow, I had to make sure that both myself and my companions were prepared for the whatever mother nature could throw at us. While the threat of a heavy snow is always present, generally the high country gets smaller accumulations this time of year. We were hailed on twice in 2014 when we spent a week in The High Uintas Wilderness in NE Utah. Though we were about 4000 feet higher in average elevation then, we would be about 400 miles further north in latitude at the same time of year. Anything could happen.
Banff – Andy Shoneman
October 4, 2016 § Leave a comment
My next profile concerns one Andy Shoneman. I met Andy through Mike Barris and his wife Bonnie Marvel when they and some others were trying to put together a monthly or semi-monthly couples dinner out night. At the time, Susan and I were the only ones with kids, but that didn’t affect how often we tried to get out.
Banff – Jim Kirby
October 3, 2016 § Leave a comment
This will be the first of my friend specific Banff National Park 2016 posts where I will profile my individual hiking mates.
A question we were asked often is “How do you all know each other?”, to which it is not a simple answer. I am not sure exactly how long I have known Jim. We either met on a Larry T Butler organized weekend warrior backpacking trip, or we met during one of the infamous Mill Trips, but it has been a fair number of years.
Thirty Years Ago – The Adventures of Frank & Stein – Part II
July 21, 2015 § 1 Comment
June 1st 1981 was the set departure date for the journey that would become known as “The Frank and Stein Route”. We had everything we needed, and the time had come to put the plan into action. We weren’t shipping our bikes and gear to San Diego, so we had to get bike boxes from a local shop, and disassemble our machines enough to re-pack them in these boxes. Fortunately there was room in the box to stuff many of the other items we had as well. What didn’t fit in the bike boxes we crammed into two other normal packing boxes, one each, so that we each had one huge bike box and one rather large box to manage at the Airport. We didn’t need suitcases, because we couldn’t carry them back with us, so disposable cardboard was the way to go.
The Adventures of Frank & Stein Part I
July 3, 2015 § 1 Comment
Every year is an anniversary of “The Adventures of Frank & Stein” played by myself as Stein, and a college friend and roommate Frank Falcione. The name really has to be credited to Thomas Dudek, another college friend. Tom was a somewhat streetwise Philadelphia fanatic that played a great game of pool, and lived in the same student housing slum as both Frank and I. We were in the same small Engineering Science department at Penn State, and we spent a lot of time together in class, at the Rathskeller shooting pool, at The Hub shooting pool, and drinking lots of beer. Somewhere along the line in this friendship Tom gave me the nickname Stein. Pretty soon that was how my circle of friends knew me. Very much the same way that I am known today amongst my cycling contingent as Bird (yes, it is short for Big Bird). I don’t really recall how Tom came up with stein. It was not like we were all looking for nicknames. We weren’t sitting around drinking and smoking dope thinking out loud “We should all have some nicknames….Eric you be stein”. Suddenly it was there, and that was who I was. So the following (and subsequent posts) is a recollection of an adventure that was hatched by me, and drew in Frank so that by the time we left for this adventure it was already being called “Frank & Stein’s Big Adventure” or something like that. “What route are you taking?” “It’ll be the Frank & Stein route.” “What the hell is the Frank & Stein Route?” “It will be the route that we travel, where ever that takes us.” Mostly it should end up being a tale of friendship, and the people we meet along the way. What are stories, but the recollection of past events shared with friends? So here is the recollection of one of my major past events.
High Uintas Wilderness – Day 7 – Final Day
November 1, 2014 § Leave a comment
Our last morning began with the usual queuing for the cat-hole trowel. I was first (as was getting to be normal) and afterwards I grabbed my fly rod and headed down to the pond for one last native trout fishing experience. Forgotten was it that my one week license was purchased through Friday, and that technically I would be fishing illegally, but as they say, ignorance is in fact bliss. I fished the edge for a while until Larry abandoned The Point and then I took up his former location as this was a prime location. I was still fishing the dry cadis, but the morning felt different and I was pretty sure I had the wrong fly. A few casts, and I was about time to hang it up, when a fish took my fly and I managed to set the hook in time. It would be fair to note here that it took me more than a few tries the previous evening to get the hang of “setting the hook”. I could feel immediately that this was no small fry, so I pulled him in and as it turned out he was just barely legal. I was fishing for fun, so catch and release was the name of the game, and after Larry helped me extract the hook, I placed him back in the water and off it swam.
The fire ring, my poles, no one else, just me. The sun on the young Aspens, they will not survive, the Beaver will make a snack of them soon one day.
High Uintas Wilderness – Day 6 – Fishing with Andy
October 22, 2014 § Leave a comment
My initial focus this morning was what I could see. Facing south because I like to sleep on my right side, my view was open as that was the direction I had set my Tyvek shelter the previous night. In those first moments of consciousness I couldn’t help notice the clouds; The dark clouds; While coming into focus they appeared to be coming our way up the basin. “Rohr Oh” were the only words I could mutter and I jumped out of my sleeping bag with definite purpose. If a storm was coming, then I needed to re-orient my shelter away from the wind. I quickly stiffed my bag, and rolled up my sleeping pad. I decided to take another look. Maybe the clouds weren’t heading right for us. Maybe they were moving right to left across my field of view. Maybe I jumped to the wrong initial conclusion.
HDR shot in the early morning. Though ominous looking they looked worse when I first awoke.
High Uintas Wilderness – Day 5 – And it was only 4 miles
October 20, 2014 § Leave a comment
The day would prove to be a lot more challenging than the 4-ish miles we calculated we had to travel. On paper it seemed like it might be an easy day. Eighth mile return to the H55 trail, and then 3.5 miles to and over Bluebell. We had studied the lake documentation and we decided to camp on X25, one of the unnamed lakes without camping restrictions, and we hoped some native cut-throat trout. 🙂
First one up and went for an 8 shot panorama where clearly the exposure changes dramatically from East to West this time of day.
High Uintas Wilderness – Day 4 – Unexpected Pleasures
October 17, 2014 § Leave a comment
Day 4 is upon us. We will be moving camp from our current elevation, back down the Yellowstone, and then up the Bluebell Pass trail to Milk Lake. The net change in elevation will be almost +300′, but we need to lose 600′, and then gain back the 900′. We will be covering some of the same ground that we did on Day 2, however, we will hang a left when we get to the first trail junction. The hike back will have us recross the Yellowstone again, and we will have also to recross Milk Creek, which was a little dodgy the first time. Once we make the left onto Bluebell though, the terrain changes from a long valley walk, to a hill climb. The map indicates switchbacks, but there isn’t anything written which says how many, and how long they last. Reading the map says, there is about 1.2 miles of initial switchbacks, and then it levels off for a bit, re-connects with Milk Creek, and then ascends a little more mildly to the trail junction with Milk Lake. There, a spur will climb the final stretch to the lake where we will commence the search for a fire ring.
Larry Butler in his black attire: Pearl Izumi Cycling tights Moutain Hardware down vest REI Knit Cap Some kind of running shoe Star Bucks Via
High Uintas WIlderness – Day 3 – The roof of Utah
October 16, 2014 § Leave a comment
“Them mountains are mean!!”
I don’t really recall where that statement comes from. It might be from a weekend trip a long time back in West Virginia, but there is a certain wiseness to the statement. Mountains can be mean, because weather can form quickly. The higher the mountain, the more air it traps, and forces upwards where it is cooler, and the moisture begins to precipitate out, forming clouds, and later rain and lightening.
This is actually from the afternoon previous just after we got camp set up, but it shows our camp site from which we departed. The reason I know this is because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky when we began this day hike. Absolutely beautiful wide open blue sky o’er our heads.
Big Bird's Adventures 