Madison River Valley

Before arriving at Yellowstone National Park, from what I had seen before, and most recently in the Ken Burns’ documentary America’s Best Idea, I had an impression that Yellowstone was going to be a vast, chalky landscape that smelled like sulfur with steam hissing all over the place. And bison, tons of bison. Well, it was that, but it was so much more, as well.

This was a family trip, and as on many family trip, there really wouldn’t be a chance for me to range far and wide, hiking on remote trails to spectacular peaks. Therefore, as on other trips, I was making mental notes on where I would explore if I ever had the chance to backpack in Yellowstone.

Columbia Peak 2 Peak Jacket

Disclaimer: Columbia sent me a free jacket for me to field test. Their purpose was for me to take a survey after I used it out in the field. But I also wanted to write about it here.

When I received the Columbia Peak 2 Peak Jacket in the mail, the first thing I noticed that it was pretty light. It’s not as light as my other super-thin rain shell, but it sure felt more durable. The other thing was the color. Columbia calls it Compass Blue and it is a really nice color. Most of everything else I have is forest green, black, khaki, or white.

I examined the seals and zippers and the pockets all seemed waterproof. The fit was nice and it wasn’t as noisy as some other waterproof clothing I have.

I appreciated the Velcro cuffs and the wire-supported hood and the overall feeling of durability that the jacket offered.

Here are the specs:

Our tent in the Chicago Basin

Our trip last year to Mount Whitney really influenced this trip in many ways. Most importantly, the folks we met while camping at Soldier Lake in the Sierras told us of this cool hike they did in Colorado where they rode a steam train to the trailhead around Silverton.

Around January this year, I did some research and found out what area they were referring to. It looked amazing.

The second major influence last year’s trip had on this trip was to not spend the whole time wearing ourselves out; work some flexibility into the schedule so that we wouldn’t be hiking from dawn until dusk every day. That worked out just fine.

The plan was this: Take the Durango and Silverton Narrow GaugeRailway north halfway to Needleton, get off and hike up to Chicago Basin. Establish a base camp and spend two full days up there doing whatever we wanted. Hike back down to Needleton to take the train north to Silverton. Have a quick bite and take the bus back down to Durango, where we had stashed a duffel bag for showering and changing into clean clothes after our hike. We would take the shuttle back to the airport, catch a flight to Denver and then a plane home to San Diego. It was a good plan.

Primal Strips

Anytime I am offered free products that are even remotely related to hiking and the outdoors, I will jump at the chance to review them. This time it’s Primal Strips – Meatless Vegan Jerky. When I was contacted, I quickly perused their website and didn’t notice that they were vegetarian until I received the package.

I am not a vegetarian, but I do like Gardenburgers and Veggie Burgers, but don’t really crave the Bocca variety. I often order vegetarian patties in restaurants when I crave a burger. I just like the taste of them, and I just don’t eat that much beef, except, for some reason, after hiking a long distance. In that case, I tend to yearn for burgers like crazy. Perhaps it is a learned response to the mandatory McDonalds trips after every hike while I was in Boy Scouts.

Regardless, I am always looking for something tasty that I can eat on the trail. My father, who went hiking with me to Monument Peak on a previous hike, was visiting my house when the package arrived, so I told him to try it, just leave me at least one in each flavor, as they had sent me two of each. I blinked and he had inhaled six of the strips, mumbling, “These are pretty good!”

Once again this year, I was able to get to Joshua Tree National Park. And once again it was only overnight. But any night in the outdoors is a gift these days, since it’s hard to get away.

My friend Marc came with me and, since it was his first time here, I wanted to give him the quick tour. We drove directly to Keys View and were blasted with high winds, which is pretty typical for the area. We then went on a hike to one of the Sierra Club’s Hundred Peaks Section Peaks, Mount Inspiration.

We passed a large rock cairn on an adjacent peak, which looked like it should have been blown over a long time ago. After a few false summits, we reached the first of two summits for the day.

The valley from Mount Inspiration

Mount Inspiration benchmark

The cairn on the way to Mount Inspiration

We then headed down the road a bit and began the longer hike to Lost Horse Mine. The trail showed the signs from burning in May of 2009 and was wide enough for us to hike side by side and talk about our lives. The view from the mine is pretty epic, but we were headed towards the summit of Lose Horse Mountain, which gave us a great view into the valley below, which seemed to go on forever.

The Lost Horse Mine Trail, burnt from May 2009

The Lost Horse Mine

The view of Malapai Hill and into the valley below

We made our way back to the car and drove to Indian Cove, where we hung out by the fire and drank a few bottles of wine. The next day, we had to make our way back home, so we took the route through the Pinto Basin and visited the Cholla Cactus Gardens. It was a nice speed round of Joshua Tree, but very enjoyable.

The moon over Indian Cove

Cholla Cactus Garden

I went to Hawaii on vacation and really enjoyed the Big Island. It was hard to keep my eyes from going to the peaks and mountains. It looked like a great place to do some serious hiking and camping.

On the way from Hilo to Waikaloa, we were able to stop at a small black sand beach called Punalu’u Beach. Due to the high winds, the waves were pretty vigorous, but the main draw for this beach is the near certainty that you will be able to spot sea turtles there. Within a minute of reaching the shore, we spied two turtles swimming in the shallow rocky area, eating algae. Looking a little further we saw another one inching its way up onto the warm sand for a nap in the sun.

Later, while wading on the other side of the beach, we spied 5 more turtles, playing in the surf. It was truly a great experience.

However, at a different beach, I cut my foot on some coral while trying to swim closer to a sea turtle. I need to heal a little bit before I restart my peak bagging.

Sea Turtle on Punaluu Beach