If I live to be 100, I may never see a better day to climb, especially on the fickle Mt. Rainier.
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Click through to my hiking blog to read the lengthy trip report.
Category: hiking
hiking / biking the desert
I’ve been posting trip reports of my adventures on my hiking blog.
in Monument Valley
Gorgeous.
I’d been to Monument Valley before. But the Valley itself was closed for the (very cool) Red Bull Air Race: Photo by Timothy K. Hamilton
This time I did the only independent hike allowed in the Park, the Wildcat Trail (3.2mi). I had low expectations, but it turned out to be superb. I felt like a Mormon trailblazer.
At dusk I tried finding a mountain bike trail just outside the Park. That was a FAIL.
It’s amazing how all this flat desert is mostly impassable.
… moseying off in the general direction of the Grand Canyon.
freezing in Utah
Kelley Durbin told me …
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving.” — Lao Tzu
LauTzy is right.
That’s why I’m holed up in a “camping cabin” at The Thousand Lakes RV Park, Torrey, Utah. Instead of being huddled up in my tent. (As I was the night before.)
Forecast tonight is for 29° F, 60% chance of precipitation (rain or snow). Actually it was the howling wind that finally drove me indoors.
Hmm. … May is considered the best hiking month here.
Tomorrow hiking Navajo Knobs. And driving on to the Muley Twist Canyon tomorrow night. Wish me luck.
… now, where did I pack my snowshoes?
DOH – bumbling through Nevada
I rushed out of the fantasy world of Vegas to search out the best hikes in Southern Nevada for my hiking site.
Of the first 4 I tried to hike this weekend, something went wrong on ALL.
1) snowed in …
2) access road now “NO trespassing”
3) needed an odometer to find the unmarked parking lot. (My Honda has a broken odometer.)
4) part way down the remote 30mi washboard access road I realized I had left behind my oil cap. Merde!
Still, I’m loving driving around the sunny S.W. equipped with a mountain bike!
Here I’m being challenged by a desert tortoise.
I carefully, slowly lifted him well off the highway in the direction I thought he was trying to go. … Unfortunately he seemed to be walking the yellow line when I found him.
offline the next couple of days
… hiking The Lost Coast Trail in California.
UPDATE: … Survived. Trip report and photos to come.
wading a river in Nepal
Oops.
I fell into this one by accident. Then made several crossings setting up my campsite on the other side.
related – Everest Trek – trip report and photos
trek to Mt. Everest?
My 17-day trip report from November with photos are UP now on the besthike blog.
It’s surprisingly easy to walk to Everest Base Camp. You could do it.
Mt. Everest photo
Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting Nepal photos and a trip report over on my hiking blog.
This is Mt Everest as seen from the top of Kala Pattar 5545m (18,192ft).
sacred lakes of Gokyo
Revered by Hindu and Buddhist are a series of high altitude lakes. Very tranquil.
Late November they are freezing, groaning and moaning like some distressed beast.
To visit each I walked up the glacier towards my old friend Cho Oyu, the friendliest 8000+m peak. Eleven years ago we did the same thing, walking towards Cho Oyu from the Tibet side.
It was dark by the time I got back to Gokyo Resort. Mine was the finest room in the last village before Tibet. Expensive at $3. But I’m worth it.
Flying back to Kathmandu tomorrow. My 17 day trek ended.
From Starbucks, Lukla, Nepal.
Rick McCharles 