Hiker's Heaven

Enjoyed a beautiful hike this morning along the Superior Hiking Trail near Lutsen, MN. The colors along the ridge between Lake Agnes and the Poplar River Overlook were AMAZING! This is my favorite time of year to be out walking in the woods :-)


Above image: Poplar River Overlook
Last week I hiked the Superior Hiking Trail past Lake Agnes and was intending to hike as far as the overlook of the Poplar River. Unfortunately, there was an error in the communication about how far it was to the overlook, and I didn't make it (I thought I had missed it, so ended up backtracking then ran out of time). This week I went back and hiked to the overlook. As it turns out last week I was very, very close to the overlook (that's the way it goes!). It definitely is an overlook that you can't miss! The view of the Poplar River is incredible. I was hoping there would be a bit more fall color in the view, but even without many colors the view is one you have to see to believe.

Designs by Nature... Digital Souvenirs

Thursday, February 14th - - Since I have limited space available for collecting souvenirs of my travels, I prefer to think of my photographs as my souvenirs - they are much easier to keep and store and often bring back the memories better than any object could.



So, while strolling along the beach, as I find "those shiny objects" or interesting patterns, I simply take a photo...

Another Loose Horse

Here are photos of the loose horse we found on Sunday in the horrible wind storm that went across NM. This one was outside the mares pens when we went to do the morning feed. We figure she is less than 6 months old. And not hand trained. She won't let us touch her. Yet. She will if she stays here. We didn't know what to do with one this little. Was able to slowly work her around so that she entered our yard and then into an empty horse pen. We feed her and she is eating hay and drinking lots of water. She had chunks of cholla cactus in her tail and still does have a few but can't get them out yet. We called the county sheriffs department as we don't have an animal control offerer here anymore. They said they would give us a call if anyone called them. The same with Rio Rancho Animal Control this morning and the livestock board. We put a listing on Craig's List and a sign on the corner and have been watching for anyone that looks as if they are looking for a lost horse. So far nothing. I really don't need another one but couldn't leave her out on the road and hungry. Just hope she doesn't have some weird horsesickness that she will give to mine as she has been nose to nose with all of ours.

Scottish Sport Climbs guide is here

Finally, we have the first stock of the new Scottish Sport Climbs guidebook by the SMC. It’s in the shop here. It has certainly been a long time coming. I first submitted a draft of the sections I wrote in November 2004! A lot of bolts have appeared across the lowlands, highlands and islands since then, so the book is a lot fatter than it would’ve been if it had been released at that time. So the wait has an upside.




Flicking through the guide as I took it out of the box, I was struck by the great selection of sport crags all over the country now. There are 1300 routes in the guide, on 100 crags. Who out of the slightly older generation of Scottish climbers would’ve thought we would have 1300 sport climbs in Scotland. That’s great! As you’d expect from an SMC guidebook it’s a nicely produced book with careful descriptions, good maps and plenty of nice pictures to inspire. So many of Scotland’s new routing activists have been very energetic over the past decade and the options now available for routes to enjoy has basically exploded. Now, there are sport crags for us to visit no matter what corner of Scotland you find yourself in or fancy travelling to. Also, the diversity of locations mean that I can’t see many days of the year where there won’t be some dry rock on which to clip bolts somewhere in the land.




Kudos to all who made the effort to open new sport routes, as well as all the authors and producers of the guide. It is so badly needed. Talking to the new generation of young sport climbers coming into climbing through Scotland’s climbing walls, it frequently nagged at me that so many are unaware of the lovely crags that are out there. Some of them in stunning, wild and far flung locations like Gruinard in the north west. Some of them just up the road from our major towns and cities.




The guidebook pictures brought back some nice memories for me of places like Dunglas just outside Glasgow, where I did my first 6b (Negotiations With Isaac)and 6c+ (The Beef Monster). I remember being very excited when Andy Gallagher asked me to give him a belay on the first ascent of Persistence of Vision (7a+) after watching him bolt it. A year after my first 6c+, my first 7c+ (Dum Dum Boys) was a liberating experience and straight away I wanted to get to the ‘happening crags’ of the day.




I found myself at Steall for the first time shortly afterwards, abseiling down Cubby’s project (Ring of Steall 8c+) and being totally inspired by how poor the holds were. The whole ambience of hard physical climbing in beautiful highland surroundings was where it was at for me. So in the following years, we made after school/uni/work hits from Glasgow to Glen Ogle, Dunkeld and Loch Lomondside sport crags, with weekend trips to Tunnel Wall, Steall, Weem and the Angus Quarries.




Once I got involved in exploring new routes, under the influence of Dave Redpath and Michael Tweedley, I immensely enjoyed tearing about bendy roads in Argyll developing crags like Tighnabruaich and eventually the Anvil.




One thing that I like about Scottish sport climbing particularly is that the easier graded routes in the 6s and 7s are often so much better to climb than those on the continent. In Spain or suchlike, the majority of the time, the hard routes on big overhanging sweeps of limestone are the most inspiring lines, while the easier lines can sometimes be either a bit scrappy or, dare I say it, a little boring. As with our trad, the variety of rock types we have in Scotland often make for much nicer routes in the lower and mid grades too. However, if you are into hard stuff, the two hardest routes in the book (Hunger, 9a and Fight The Feeling, 9a) give as good climbing as you’ll get anywhere. Both were climbed in good conditions in the summer and you wont find any queues or some barky dog wondering about eating your lunch at the base of the crag. The only negative on offer from Scottish sport climbing is, of course, the midge. Just remember that the wind direction is as important as the rain when you look at the forecast. Choose a crag exposed to a breeze on the day, and you’re sorted.




Enjoy the guide, enjoy the climbing. It’s here.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

There are two main attractions nearby Krakow that visitors shouldn’t miss: Auschwitz Concentration Camps and the Wieliczka underground Salt Mine. Both are UNESCO world heritage sites and the tours take half a day only. They are easily booked in the many tourist points in Krakow and all you need to do is compare prices and the schedule that best fits your holiday.

Wieliczka Salt Mine is located not very far from Krakow. It is one of the oldest salt mines in the world. Since the 17th century, the mine was producing table salt, and only until 1996 when the commercial operation stopped. Nowadays, being a UNESCO world heritage site, the salt mine serves as a major tourist attraction of the Lesser Poland region boasting of sculptures and an underground cathedral hand crafted from rock salt by the miners.

I took the afternoon tour. Our group descended the mine cave via wooden stairs, 378 steps in total, and quite a long hike down really but for the unfit, there is a lift. After reaching precisely 327 meters down under, our tour guide announced that we are still above sea level. This is because Wieliczka, the town, sits on high altitude. Sebastian jokingly said that we are still higher than the Netherlands.


The Wieliczka Salt Mine entrance and our jolly tour guide called Sebastian descending the 378 wooden steps to the salt mine.


Here is a clearer view of the wooden staircase, it took some time to get down under. Middle foto is one of the chambers in the salt mine dated 1666 - very old. Right foto is a beautiful angel sculpture, hand crafted by miners from rock salt.


More rock salt sculptures hand crafted by miners. To think they are made of salt is quite mind blowing.


A walk through the history of salt mining, on the left foto you can see a wooden trolley pushed by a miner which is called 'Hungarian Dog' - maybe the Hungarians invented this or its a joke from the Polish side, who knows. Foto on the right shows a horse with a miner. Interestingly, and this is a fact, they managed to bring down a few horses in the cave during the olden days. How they did that before remains a mystery.


The underground stunning rock salt cathedral hand carved by the salt miners. Everything here is made of salt, the altar, the walls, the table, even the chandeliers, they are made of crystallized rock salt. Really impressive and so cool!


My only souvenir foto in the Wieliczka salt mine by the hand carved altar and next foto is a carving replica of the Last Supper on the wall of the underground salt cathedral.


There is also an underground lake and next foto is the fast old fashioned lift (elevator). It takes less than a minute from the bottom to reach the surface.

More fotos here: Wieliczka Salt Mine - Wieliczka, Lesser Poland, Poland

The 3.5 kilometer salt mine tour includes a visit to the underground cathedral hand crafted from rock salt by the miners, sightings of a vast array of rock salt carvings, a walk through salt mining history, passing an underground lake and a visit to a secret lake chamber that includes lights and show. There is a wellness and rehabilitation center as well, souvenir shops, a restaurant, more chapels and many interesting nooks and crannies with salt carvings.

At the end of the tour we boarded this old fashioned yet fast lift. The lift cabin is not entirely sealed; we could feel the wind blowing against our bodies and inside the cabin as we ascended in seconds to the light. Exiting the building I followed a group of ladies who I thought were with the group. As it turned out they were from a different group and when I climbed on to their bus (full of Russians)—they all shook their heads sideways and sang a chorus: “No!” LOL.

I quickly retraced my steps however I couldn’t find the rest of the group. It was becoming late, darkness started to seep in around me and I can see the last set of tourists leaving the property. I wanted to panic but I know myself, I just can’t. I’m always learning about myself every time I am in situations like this. My problem is I don’t remember where our tour bus was parked so with that dilemma in mind I went for a little walk following the souvenir shops down the road. As I was crossing the intersection, I saw a relieved Sebastian waving at me, haha.

It looks like I wasn’t the only one that lost the group. We had to wait for the other 2 French tourists as well!
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Kanapaha Botanical Gardens

We have been in The Villages for two weeks now and it feels like we've been here much longer because of all we have squeezed in during that time. We have so much here that it is easy to see how some people never leave The Villages! We did decide to leave and venture out this weekend though. We headed to Gainesville and visited Kanapaha Botanical Gardens.



We were really impressed with this botanical garden and liked some of the unique features it offered, like its vinery.





I loved the Herb Garden!





The Children's Garden was so whimsical and pretty.





A few signs of human life could be found.



I'm happy to say, much more signs of animal life were present than human.







Most of all, I noticed how very relaxing it was here, even with the sweltering heat! We had a great (Father's) day here.

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Grand Traverse Bay – It is surely Grand!

Despite two days of intermittent rain and heavy clouds, I enjoyed my stay at Hartwick Pines State Park, which is a few miles north of the cute little town of Grayling. It was one of those quiet campgrounds. There was no lake nearby so not many families stayed long. They did have some nice, easy trails – more like walking paths – and several bike paths in the park. It was just a really pleasant place. I didn't even mind the rain – it gave me a chance to review some of the research papers I had accumulated in Ohio and time to try and figure out those Switzer families!



On Tuesday morning (July 26th) I traveled west to Traverse City. My mother and I had been there a “few” years back and enjoyed our visit in the area. I also had another reason for going there – see tomorrow's post!



With the storms having passed through, the temperature dropped dramatically – the high on Tuesday was 75 and it got into the 50s overnight. Great sleeping weather! Deep blue skies and sunshine were abundant. It was a gorgeous day!





The view from the beach at Traverse City State Park, which is across the road from the campground. Thank goodness there is a pedestrian bridge over US 31/Front Street! You'd be putting your life in jeopardy to try and cross it otherwise!



After checking into the campground, assuring myself that I had a place to stay for the night, I drove around the western side of Grand Traverse Bay and on up to the northern tip where the Grand Traverse Lighthouse sits.





The Grand Traverse Lighthouse was erected in 1858. In 1952 it was electrified and modernized. Twenty years later an automated light tower was erected and the lighthouse was closed. In 1986 it was reopened as a museum.





This large “snow-ball” was about 8-inches in diameter! Huge. The entire bush can be seen at the left in the previous photograph.





I love how they have built a circular bench that wraps around this big old tree.

Greetings From... North Carolina

In an attempt to evade the wind and rain, I left the Richmond area the morning of Friday the 13th, heading west and south, stopping for the night in the small town of Stuart, Virginia. It had rained off and on during most of the drive. Sometime during the night, the rain finally stopped.

The next morning I awoke to sunshine and blue skies and drove the few miles west to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The good thing about driving the Parkway this time of year is that there are very few other people doing the same. The bad thing about driving the Parkway this time of year is that all the campgrounds are closed as are the visitor centers and picnic areas.


Near Cumberland Knob, North Carolina
From the Blue Ridge Parkway - November 14, ..

Bouldering with Flo

The Mission 7B, Torridon





Flo from the Mountain Equipment team was over for a few days. The weather was perfect and we had our pick of disciplines (providing we didn’t mind getting cold). Flo was keen to boulder, so we headed to Torridon, the Arisaig Cave and Glen Nevis. It was quite strange for me to visit some of these favourite old haunts of mine with someone else. Normally you won't see another soul at most highland bouldering venues.






Flo enjoying Inward Bound 7B, the classic of the Arisaig Cave.







Flo begins the crux swing on Under the Hat 7C, Heather Hat Boulder, Glen Nevis







Flo clinging to the ship boulder (The Mission 7B), Torridon.







Eyeing up the next edge on A Bridge too far 8A, Torridon.



I hadn't visited the Arisaig Cave for 2 years because I'd basically run out of projects. The one great line still to do there just seemed too hard last time I was there. But having a look at it (As in standing on the ground, just looking, as I still had only one functional leg) I decided that I really ought to return for another scrap with it. Likewise in Torridon I discovered a couple of great lines to go back for soon.