Nubble Lighthouse, Maine









She fell right after this pic, bruised her face, arm hand, etc. and wound up with a concussion.

Love that whole area, it's gorgeous year-round.

For some reason that lighthouse pic looks familiar

One from the other coast:

Bridgeport, Or, if I recall correctly, from this summer.

i go to clarks fork. we tried this year but went up a week before they reopened the road from the fire. ended up hitting kennedy meadows for a bit instead.

hitting the feather this time of year though. back this weekend

Went to Arkansas to go rock climbing this past weekend. Was a great time and it's always nice to disconnect from technology for a weekend.

Oh man, just thinking about hanging upside down off the face of a cliff is giving me anxiety.
Cool pictures

Beautiful, scary and literally awesome.

Headed to Fresno for in-law visit, do we swing through Yosemite in the wintertime? Yes we do

Wow. Great picture! I was supposed to go to Yosemite again the end of October, but no. The gf's parents decided we'd be better off going to Hearst Castle and checking out the seals (which we'd already seen several times, lol).

I've lived in the Bay Area my entire life and somehow have never been to Pacifica. Fixed that today by taking the kids on a hike along the coast.

Started the morning off by hitting up my sister in law's coffee shop, P Town Coffee and Tea right on HW 1. This is an awesome spot, right across the road from the ocean inside an old red train caboose.

SIL and her boyfriend took over the business just a couple weeks before the pandemic struck here so they didn't qualify for any bailout assistance, but they're still open every day until ~3pm and plugging along. Definitely stop by if you're ever passing through along Highway 1. Good coffee, good food, and great people

And try the Flamin Bacon on a cheddar jalapeno bagel!


After eating we drove a mile or so down the road to park and start our walk on the beach. The day started off overcast and a bit chilly.
First thing we saw was this guy carrying a huge kite contraption. Thought maybe it was for kite-boarding, or possibly just a gigantic regular kite you would fly on a string.



But then he carried it all the way down the beach, and up the hill to top of that cliff in the distance. Weird.


As we walked along the beach looking for crabs and sea shells, the sun finally came out. Turned out to be a beautiful day!
Looking south


And to the north


A couple hours later when we got to the top of the ridge we ran into kite man again

He had taken everything apart and was in the process of putting it back together.


And it turned out that it wasn't a "kite".
That thing was a home made hangglider - that he actual flew in!

It was hand built completely out of old trashed junk. Bicycle parts, lawn chairs, a mower, etc. And it had functional flaps and rudders. The craziest part was that the dude secured himself into the hoop on that contraption with the straps off a regular old backpack.


This is the view from where he launched. Daredevil doesn't even begin to describe this guy!


Ok so I lied earlier. The back strap-in wasn't the craziest thing.
The actual craziest part was that this was the second glider he had built. The first one he crashed into the side of the cliff and it was unsalvageable. He was changing out the fabric on the wings because he "wanted to use the cheaper plastic on the maiden flight in case it crashed". Didn't want to waste the expensive second-hand plastic on a potential deadly wreck lol.

Anyway he still had a lot of work to do, and I didn't really want my kids to see anyone die today, so we continued our hike and didn't get to see him launch. Cool friendly dude, and pretty inventive. If I was by myself I def would've hung out to get some video. And to be ready to administer first aid if needed.

This is where we decided to take a break and end our hike.
If you zoom in you can read the name of the beach that someone built into the side of the hill.

Post cool pics, and look what randoms show up!

Nice to see you Josie and Orange.

your story fell apart when the sun came out. now nobody believes that is Pacifica

Guess I got lucky

Arrived in Silverton, CO today for a week of mountain adventures. The drive in through Ouray was pretty incredible. The San Juan Mountains are beautiful. Hopefully I'll have some good pics to post, but we all know how mountain pics really don't do justice to the scenery. Lots of crazy 4WD only jeep trail passes to be had this week. Lots of wildflowers to photograph. Hopefully some wildlife to see, although with all the ATVs running around wildlife might be pretty scarce. Wish me luck! If you haven't heard from me in 7 days we must have gotten too close to one of the edges of the sheer drops or fell down a mine or something.

We were going to do the Silverton in July, but instead went to Vegas (See TR July 9-12). I'm not sure if we made the right decision yet or not. (No Covid, so that's good)

Super cool, this is a rugged insanely beautiful part of the country. Look forward to photos.

Went up the Eastern Sierras and hung around the Bridgeport area for a few days

Some trees and mountain peaks who have seen a thing or two


Hundreds of feet above Donnell Reservoir


Overlooking the West Walker River snaking through the valley coming down from Sonora Pass


Stayed at the Walker River Lodge and this is the view from the deck off the back of our room


View from the hills above Bridgeport near Travertine Hot Springs



Went to the abandoned mining town of Bodie, way up in the high desert mountains in the middle of nowhere.
Storms abrewin!

This one is more like the Great INdoors, but I thought the old doctor house was pretty cool

And some old stuff just left out in the elements for 60+ years





I love sunsets and I love fishing the East Walker River so here are a few combo shots of both!




This monstrous beast of a fish is a brown trout from Robinson Creek, my younger son's first ever fish


I got pretty much skunked the entire trip except for this decent East Walker rainbow. Was using spinning gear this day and he hit a big rapala. My 8 yr old netted him, and then just as quickly un-netted him before I got a good pic or any kind of measurement, but the bottom of that net is 16" wide for reference.

From the last week of October at Lower Twin Lake




This is what happens when you try to fish when its 7° outside. Didn't even bother getting the fly rod out that morning


Fish on the EW didn't mind the cold though!

Did first trip in a long time, mostly due to the pandemic, and caught a couple of micro-sized Truckee River trout, not worth taking pics of



Obvious spot is obvious

Mostly, though, I wanted to note that the cool, not overly productive spots downstream from Hirschdale are now completely blocked off by boulders and signs

The last time I was able to get in there (late 2019, I think) I happened across a local who was walking down the Hirschdale road and she asked if I'd seen anyone camping by the river. I said no and she said that they'd had problems with people starting campfires there, so I can only imagine post-pandemic that there were folks attempting to live by the river, resulting in the access closures. Sucks, but it is what it is.

Also, I'm a really ****ing bad wader. Like, probably shouldn't be getting in the water at all.

Was just down in Mexico, this cenote Tsukan just west of Chichen Itza was amazing. No on there at the time. Tons of birds overheading crushing insects, had to hope for the best on the flying deuce bombs from them.

oT,
Bummer to hear that. Is access completely blocked where the paved road ends after the Hirschdale bridge? Or can you still drive down the dirt road next to the train tracks on the north side of the Truckee? Haven't been there in a couple years but from what I remember it seemed like most of the south side was posted private property along that section of river (Floriston rd?)

I might be thinking of a completely different area than what you're talking about though.

The two places I'd favored in the past were where the red squigglies are:



The leftmost one is a little dirt road off of the Hirschdale road that was pointed out to me by one of the rafting guides when they were taking the boats out in Floriston and I was fishing. He'd said to take that dirt road all the way to the end to the north and fish the bend. That road is now completely blocked off.

The rightmost one included what looked like a Union Pacific access road that was graded a few years ago (prior to that, it was in pretty rough shape and I almost got stuck once lol). It was nice because you just had to park, walk across the RR tracks and down a hill and you'd have a big stretch of river at your disposal.

There is still a decent amount of availability but it only ever decreases, never increases

My last couple of trips have been up to the Gold Lake area trying to get back to Snake Lake, getting stuck in the snow and turning back to camp at Gold Lake

Did the Misery Ridge hike at Smith Rock State Park in Terrebonne, OR this morning



Don't know how much is being a lump at home during the pandemic, and how much is general old age, but I was dying. I have pics from a Canadian Rockies trip about 12 or so years ago when I was at max fat, probably 25 pounds heavier than now and I don't remember feeling this bad.

Speaking of old, I finally did it a couple of days ago...I took off from a parking area