Weminuche Wilderness 2021 – Day 1 What a Fucking Great Train Ride!
November 7, 2021 § 1 Comment
If you read the planning post then maybe you have been wondering 1) Did I even do this adventure?, and 2) If I did do this adventure, when the fuck was I going to get around to writing about it? Well, it wasn’t my only adventure this Summer of 2021, though as I write even that, I realize I am lying to you. While I rode Ride the Rockies, where you can read about that here, here, here, here also, and also here, and “oh look it’s here as well“, I didn’t get around to writing those adventures up until Fall 2021 had begun, which is actually after Weminuche had also completed. Not sure if I will write up the wedding of Daughter #2, but isn’t that also an adventure? So, expect to see something about that as well in the future.
I did write up the planning of this trip which you may have read here, but even as I wrote that, the planning wasn’t really complete, and there was a lot of churn right at the end, that all worked out into a tremendously good time before the adventure even began. I am going to limit this post to the focus of Day 1, and I will leave the details of the days leading to this day to another post.
« Read the rest of this entry »The Weminuchi Wilderness – 2021
June 27, 2021 § 4 Comments
Before we even finished The Eagle Cap Wilderness, we had our next destination decided. It started with a discussion around one of our camp fires where Larry (and maybe Drew) brought up the subject of “Where next?” Now, they came prepared to propose the Weminuchi, but they pretended to let me think I was in control of future destinations. Like I am some kind of adventure tyrant who says “This is our plan, take it or leave it”. In fairness, that is how the 2012 Grand Canyon played out. I chose the route, the dates, and simply said “Be there or be square!”, and they all complied. On a return from Phoenix, my favorite brother-in-law, Walt, gave me a copy of Backpacker magazine which had a lengthy article on The Highline Trail that crossed the expanse of the High Uintas, and I was immediately taken with it, and that is where I picked, and that is where we went in 2014. Banff was next, as Mike B asked me if we could target that and bring him back to the mountains he visited many cycles of the sun earlier in his life. There might have been a woman involved, but I investigated, and picked a route, and that is what we did. Scott attended that trip which his partner home pregnant and a baby girl in their future, and while we were on that trip he mentioned the Wallowas, and the Eagle Cap Wilderness, and that is how 2018 came about. The idea of Oregon allowed our Oregonians (Scott, Mike S, and possibly Dan) to attend, however circumstances always get in the way, and Scott was unable to join us except on our last night in Oregon after the trip before we all flew out. Dan and Mike S camped with us before we went into the back country.
« Read the rest of this entry »Brokeback Mountain Weekend Dec 4-6 2020
April 1, 2021 § 1 Comment
The planning of this weekend has somewhat been discussed, as here for example, already, and perhaps there is some humor and purpose to scribing some of what the weekend actually entailed. There was at least one first for any of these “Weekend Warrior” type trips, and perhaps, to some degree, maybe another, though the former is much more notable, than the latter.
I call it a weekend, but really it’s a three day weekend. The average age of the crew, brought down somewhat by the recent addition of a one Dan G… (name protected to protect the innocent), hovers in the very high 50’s if not almost low 60’s, so, looking back (as I am at the moment) to all the weekends that have come before (and there were many), the trend (some would say not a great trend) has been towards less backpacking, and more hiking. That is to say, backpack in, establish a basecamp (I think one word works fine here), consume beers the rest of Friday which could (not always, but has) include a late night hike (but this weekend did not), and then a hike (sometimes challenging, sometimes not) on Saturday, leaving plenty of time to harvest more trapped CO2 in form of downed timber, followed by more beer consumption, and finally a backpack out. On occasion, there has been a late night hike as well, however, the few times that has occurred has been within the “late night hike rich” confines of Dolly Sods in West Virginia.
« Read the rest of this entry »Planning a Brokeback Mountain Weekend
February 14, 2021 § 1 Comment
When non-camping friends I have ask me just how do these weekend trips get planned, it’s hard to really comprehend all the negotiations that occur to determine a weekend, then to determine where we go, and finally to determine what we will do, besides build a big fire, consume the hauled-in assortment of quality craft beers, cook and share the equally well thought out food stuffs and smoke the many fine cigars and cigarette tobaccos. What is going to be posted here, for all to read, is some, maybe all the correspondence that flies around that great echo chamber known as The Internet as we work these details out.
« Read the rest of this entry »AT Mass 2020 – Postscript
November 13, 2020 § 2 Comments
Ali and I spent a week, only one week, on the AT in Massachusetts for Cripe’s Sake, and though we accomplished our goals, we did not get through the entire encounter at no personal cost. I think Ali fared a LOT better than I did overall, the dude ate bone broth for dinner, and really I did very well on the trail, however, there was no real way my feet were going much further. If I had to put it politely, I complete fucked my feet over. Don’t worry, I am NOT posting any pictures of my feet (that is mainly because I didn’t take any, which implies that if I had, you would be viewing at least one right now), but take my word for it, they paid a price for this journey. When we got back to Ali’s car, I switched from my boots to my sandals, BUT I DID NOT REMOVE MY SOCKS. So, I put that great reveal off until I was comfortably sitting in the safety of my house in Ocean NJ.
« Read the rest of this entry »AT Massachusetts – That’s a Wrap
November 12, 2020 § Leave a comment
When we left off our last discussion, we were three, and happy and warm in Mark Noebels Shelter. For Ali and myself, we had just over a day remaining on the trail, and for Paul, he would accompany us to the summit, and there would branch off onto a side trail for a change of scenery. Mailman was with us as well, and had his own plans for the day. The only downer to start the day, is the rain did finally arrive before the sun came up, and there was a steady, moderate amount still falling from the sky. Today, at least the morning, would require proper rain gear, but, considering we weren’t under any real time constraints, there was no rush to get going. Even Mailman had his reservations about venturing out.
« Read the rest of this entry »AT Massachusetts – Treats on the Trail
November 9, 2020 § Leave a comment
By now you are aware that four of us started this adventure, and now only two remain. We have four days, including our biggest day, behind us now, and 3 and half days ahead of us. Since we started up the Race Brook access trail, we haven’t crossed a road that has contained anything remotely treat worthy, so we have been eating nothing but what we brought with us. While this doesn’t change on Day 5, it does change on Day 6, and then again on Day 7. Also, though Kevin got the call that told him if he wasn’t hiking then he should come home, and so home he went and we would not be seeing him on our last two days, we did pick up a new hiking mate for one night on the trail. That and more details follow in this edition of The Adventures of The Bird and The Persian Prince.
« Read the rest of this entry »The Persian Prince and The Bird
October 29, 2020 § Leave a comment
Ali used his normal a.k.a. as his trail name, The Persian Prince, and I saw no need for yet another alias in my life, so I simply used my cycling nickname, Big Bird, or just Bird. It’s the culture of thru hiking to have an alias. One it gives you a little bit of anonymity, but in another it actually better identifies you. You tell your family you are going to “off the grid” (though that really isn’t the truth anymore), for a long period of time. You tell them where you are going in, where you expect to come out, and more importantly when you expect to come out, and if you are diligent, you sign all the registers along the way, so that should you not come out when you are expected to, then authorities can scan those registers and try and find the last place you checked in.
« Read the rest of this entry »AT Massachusetts – Baby Seal
October 21, 2020 § Leave a comment
Baby Harp seals have to be among the cutest most innocent looking creatures on the planet. I know, there are a lot of critters out there whose young are super cute, and that includes human critters as well, though let us be clear, sometimes, there are some real ugly babies. But this isn’t about ugly babies, it is about cute and innocent, and launching into something with the greatest zeal and perhaps over estimation of just where on the fitness scale one actually sits.
« Read the rest of this entry »AT Massachusetts – Planning
October 19, 2020 § 1 Comment
Last year, 2019 Christmas, I started and knocked out the Connecticut portion of the Appalachian Trail. You can read about that here and here, and maybe even here, however in preparation for that trip, I purchased the AMC guide book for that section, and what came with that was also the maps and guide for Massachusetts as well. So, it should not surprise to anyone, that as I was mass transiting back to NYC, I had already started thinking about what it would take to knock out Massachusetts as well.
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Big Bird's Adventures 