The past few months have been a scramble against time to get as much outdoor activity in before the summer heat would melt my ambition.
I was lucky enough to join the Woodkats, a backpacking group of family and friends, for an easter weekend trek into the Sipsey Wilderness in north west alabama. What was to be a fairly easy 3 day hiking trip turned into a nearly impassable log crawl through countless felled trees. A storm with high winds had passed through a few days before our arrival leaving massive trees covering trails. After climbing through tick infested trees for hours we abandoned the trail and navigated by map and compass to our camp along the sipsey river. The second day we made it to the "big tree," Alabama's largest tree. After talking with several people with local knowledge of the wilderness area we opted to hike out on the third day on an unmarked trail instead of attempting to retrace our steps back through the carnage from which we came. This trip certainly gave me a new respect for storms. In the weeks since our trip, the Sipsey was hit again with a trail of tornados that destroyed towns all across the south.
Eager to get one last spring journey in, I joined UAB's outdoor pursuits group on a backpacking trip into the Savage Gulf of TN. This is part of the south cumberland recreation area with is in between Nashville and Chattanooga. Luckily and unknowingly I boarded the "international" van. Our group consisted of several graduate students from varying backgrounds and cultures around the world. We traded stories along the trails learning from one another. The Savage Gulf proved to be an impressive sight. We took in several beautiful canyon overlooks and dazzling waterfalls. This was a very unique experience I will not soon forget.
I am already yearning for autumn and it is barely June. The heat here is oppressively challenging to overcome. I fill my blood thickening with the heat, but I vow to live in every season. Summer is here.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
April showers bring....mud.
Beautiful sunny days like today make you quickly forget the pounding rain and thunderstorms of the night before. You are also quickly reminded when your afternoon bike ride turns into a major slopfest! I have loop route of about 3.5 to 4 miles that I have worked out around my neighborhood. Most of the trail is an old powerline trail used by off road vehicles, but it makes a pretty good route for a quick trail run or mountain bike ride that is close to the house. I found myself with an extra hour and a cloudless sky this afternoon. So, I thought I would get a quick ride in before I took the dog for a run. As is often the case once the wheels get rolling, I want to go farther or faster. I quickly found myself fording creeks that are usually streams. I found myself making oregon trail type decisions while standing ankle deep in red mud. The same red mud that is now dried om my clothes and face. It was exhilerating flying into a giant bog hoping the momentum will not leave you wading in it. There is a point you reach when you realize that your bike and clothes are trashed and there is really no reason not be a six year old child and jump with both feet into the largest puddle nearby. The only downer is that your responsible parents aren't the ones cleaning up the mess at the end of the day. Neverless, worth it! I still had enough light to get a couple of miles in with the dog. Hot dogs and couch time with my wife round out the best Tuesday I can remember.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Moab, UT
We have just returned from our most recent adventure...The deserts of Southeast Utah. Edward Abbey calls it "The slickrock desert. The red dust and the burnt cliffs and the lonely sky - all that which lies beyond the end of the roads."
My wife has wanted to visit Moab for years and we have made a few failed attemps at planning this trip in the past. Finally we made our first desert pilgrimage during the last full week of March. We were just on the left shoulder of tourist season giving us few crouds to dodge and no heat to avoid. Daylight savings time gave us a solid 12 hours of daylight to see and do nearly everything we had set out to see and do.
We elected to fly to Salt Lake City and drive the 4 hours south to Moab. We got our dodge stratus upgraded to a suburu outback at the budget car rental by a really nice yet slightly crosseyed customer service representative. Snow had been forecasted for the Wasatch Valley and when he saw the Alabama driver's licensce he probably thought he would be somewhat morally responsible if he was the last person to see us alive handing us the keys to a mid-sized rear wheel drive death mobile on ice. Needless to say we were really excited to be in the all wheel drive adventure wagon instead. I have secretly always wanted one. So with keys in hand and big grins we struck out into the brisk air and made our way south.
The drive was spooky at night being in an unfamiliar land with limited visibility. I may have freaked out a couple of times thinking we were driving through feet of fresh fallen snow when we were actually on safe, salted, and scraped roadways. We it made to our super plush base camp of the Red Ciffs Adventure Lodge around 1am Mountain time. Our colorado river view suite was a welcomed site at the end of each long adventure filled day. Originally I had wanted to camp for a portion our stay, but having a frosty cold beer waiting in the refrigerator to be enjoyed at sunset on our porch made a fine substititution. A good nights sleep in a kings size bed and morning hot shower and coffee put the nail in that coffin.
We spent the first day exploring Arches National Park. We saw a number of arches and other sights from the road including park avenue, balanced rock, the petrified dunes and made our way to the devil's garden area for hiking. We stopped off along the way for a picnic lunch and then hiked to tunnel arch, pine tree arch, and out past landscape arch. We then returned to the car and drove through the windows section of the park, taking in the north window, south window, and double arch. The afternoon was reserved for the long awaited delicate arch hike. the last mile up is a cairn trail. Most of my previous hiking experiences have been in wooded ares where paths through trees make trails but out here there are no trees, just rock. so to mark the trails they have stacked rocks to form cairns every 50 yards or so. A new and interesting experience. In preperation for this trip i had seen hundreds of pictures of the delicate arch, none of which does the experience justice. Delicate arch is actually huge and on a mountain. If you are brave enough to venture out under the arch, the gusting wind could easily blow you off the sheer cliff behind the arch.
Our second day was spent split between the Colorado River and the town of Moab. Our morning half day raft trip was cold but very scenic. The section that we rafted was mostly class 1 and 2 rapids as we were very early in the rafting season. The rapids on the colorado depend on snow melt up river from the rocky mountains; whereas most of the river levels for trips in the south are controlled by damns. We had lunch in town and walked around the few shops that dot moab's main street. We killed some time playing in Negro Bill's Canyon before our evening Humer safari. I will be honest and say the humer safari was not initially on my list of things to do. I thought this was going to be very hoky and stupid. The humer tour actually scared the crap out of me. This was some serious off road driving along sheer cliffs. Dangerously fun! The Moab Brewery made a good stop for dinner. The beer is better than the food, but a fun place to eat none the less.
The next morning we went mountain biking in the bar M trail section. A fun introduction to biking on the slickrock and navigating the desert. Also a chance to get on a full suspension bike. I may be forever spoiled. Shortly into our ride a passing storm threatened a quick end to the days activities. We literally were blown off our bicycles by gail force winds and sleet. We pushed through to blue skys and a great day of riding. The afternoon was spent exploring the the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park. We took in a few short hikes to Mesa Arch and Upheaval Dome. We took in the seeping vistas of the green river and colorado river, and spent some time at dead horse point state park before heading back to town for dinner. We stopped off at potash road on the way back to spot a petroglyph wall and watching the local climb the sheer cliffs that the road.
Our last day in Moab we went back to Arches to explore the fiery furnace. Named for its flame like pertrussions when photoraphed from an ariel view. There is no maked trail through this section of the park and is only accesible by guide or ranger permit. With our experienced guide we climbed and crawled our way through the furnace. This was a very memorable experience squeezing through narrow passage ways to make your way from one incredible view of winding spires and hodoos to the next. After conquering the fierry furnaces we headed west to the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park. Here we spotted some pictographs on the cave springs trail. Pictographs were painted by the native americans; whereas, petroglyphs are etched out of the stone. This trail also passes by an old abbonded cowboy camp and requires the use of two ladders and more cairn trail navigation. We then took in the views of the needles along the pothole point trail. I wish we had more time and the means to explore this huge section of the park. This particular area requires off road vehicles or a couple of days to really get into the heart of the needles. The road back out provided amazing postcard views. We stopped at newspaper rock to see a huge wall of petroglyphs before heading back into moab.
This entire trip was really unforgetable. We were certainly never bored or without an activity to do. The slickrock desert is like no other landscape I have ever explored. The desert is a beautiful place beeming with life amidst its desolate climate. Moab has a casual culture all its own. Welcoming and wanting to be explored.
My wife has wanted to visit Moab for years and we have made a few failed attemps at planning this trip in the past. Finally we made our first desert pilgrimage during the last full week of March. We were just on the left shoulder of tourist season giving us few crouds to dodge and no heat to avoid. Daylight savings time gave us a solid 12 hours of daylight to see and do nearly everything we had set out to see and do.
We elected to fly to Salt Lake City and drive the 4 hours south to Moab. We got our dodge stratus upgraded to a suburu outback at the budget car rental by a really nice yet slightly crosseyed customer service representative. Snow had been forecasted for the Wasatch Valley and when he saw the Alabama driver's licensce he probably thought he would be somewhat morally responsible if he was the last person to see us alive handing us the keys to a mid-sized rear wheel drive death mobile on ice. Needless to say we were really excited to be in the all wheel drive adventure wagon instead. I have secretly always wanted one. So with keys in hand and big grins we struck out into the brisk air and made our way south.
The drive was spooky at night being in an unfamiliar land with limited visibility. I may have freaked out a couple of times thinking we were driving through feet of fresh fallen snow when we were actually on safe, salted, and scraped roadways. We it made to our super plush base camp of the Red Ciffs Adventure Lodge around 1am Mountain time. Our colorado river view suite was a welcomed site at the end of each long adventure filled day. Originally I had wanted to camp for a portion our stay, but having a frosty cold beer waiting in the refrigerator to be enjoyed at sunset on our porch made a fine substititution. A good nights sleep in a kings size bed and morning hot shower and coffee put the nail in that coffin.
We spent the first day exploring Arches National Park. We saw a number of arches and other sights from the road including park avenue, balanced rock, the petrified dunes and made our way to the devil's garden area for hiking. We stopped off along the way for a picnic lunch and then hiked to tunnel arch, pine tree arch, and out past landscape arch. We then returned to the car and drove through the windows section of the park, taking in the north window, south window, and double arch. The afternoon was reserved for the long awaited delicate arch hike. the last mile up is a cairn trail. Most of my previous hiking experiences have been in wooded ares where paths through trees make trails but out here there are no trees, just rock. so to mark the trails they have stacked rocks to form cairns every 50 yards or so. A new and interesting experience. In preperation for this trip i had seen hundreds of pictures of the delicate arch, none of which does the experience justice. Delicate arch is actually huge and on a mountain. If you are brave enough to venture out under the arch, the gusting wind could easily blow you off the sheer cliff behind the arch.
Our second day was spent split between the Colorado River and the town of Moab. Our morning half day raft trip was cold but very scenic. The section that we rafted was mostly class 1 and 2 rapids as we were very early in the rafting season. The rapids on the colorado depend on snow melt up river from the rocky mountains; whereas most of the river levels for trips in the south are controlled by damns. We had lunch in town and walked around the few shops that dot moab's main street. We killed some time playing in Negro Bill's Canyon before our evening Humer safari. I will be honest and say the humer safari was not initially on my list of things to do. I thought this was going to be very hoky and stupid. The humer tour actually scared the crap out of me. This was some serious off road driving along sheer cliffs. Dangerously fun! The Moab Brewery made a good stop for dinner. The beer is better than the food, but a fun place to eat none the less.
The next morning we went mountain biking in the bar M trail section. A fun introduction to biking on the slickrock and navigating the desert. Also a chance to get on a full suspension bike. I may be forever spoiled. Shortly into our ride a passing storm threatened a quick end to the days activities. We literally were blown off our bicycles by gail force winds and sleet. We pushed through to blue skys and a great day of riding. The afternoon was spent exploring the the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park. We took in a few short hikes to Mesa Arch and Upheaval Dome. We took in the seeping vistas of the green river and colorado river, and spent some time at dead horse point state park before heading back to town for dinner. We stopped off at potash road on the way back to spot a petroglyph wall and watching the local climb the sheer cliffs that the road.
Our last day in Moab we went back to Arches to explore the fiery furnace. Named for its flame like pertrussions when photoraphed from an ariel view. There is no maked trail through this section of the park and is only accesible by guide or ranger permit. With our experienced guide we climbed and crawled our way through the furnace. This was a very memorable experience squeezing through narrow passage ways to make your way from one incredible view of winding spires and hodoos to the next. After conquering the fierry furnaces we headed west to the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park. Here we spotted some pictographs on the cave springs trail. Pictographs were painted by the native americans; whereas, petroglyphs are etched out of the stone. This trail also passes by an old abbonded cowboy camp and requires the use of two ladders and more cairn trail navigation. We then took in the views of the needles along the pothole point trail. I wish we had more time and the means to explore this huge section of the park. This particular area requires off road vehicles or a couple of days to really get into the heart of the needles. The road back out provided amazing postcard views. We stopped at newspaper rock to see a huge wall of petroglyphs before heading back into moab.
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