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Post by Steelernation on Sept 5, 2023 20:03:04 GMT -5
Lame this hasn’t been started yet. This weekend I climbed Challenger Point and Kit Carson peak in southern Colorado. Started off as a debacle, traffic was horrible Friday afternoon so I only made it about 2 hours. Saturday morning I realized I forgot my hiking boots so drove back home to get them, traffic wasn’t as bad though luckily. However because of that significant detour, I got a late start at 7 PM. Double rainbow Saturday evening:  Challenger point from about 1 mile in: >  < Headlight died so I didn’t make it as as I wanted and camped 2.5 miles in on Saturday, leaving a bigger hike than I hoped for Sunday. — Sunday stats: Distance: 12.5 miles (15.0 total) Time hiking: 11 hours Trailhead elevation: 8,850’ Camp elevation: 10,300’ Challenger summit: 14,086’ Kit Carson summit: 14,167’ Total elevation: +4800’ up, -6250’ down Sunday Got a later start than usual, at 8 AM. Trail continued switchbacking up until Willow Lake where I had hoped to camp (4.8 miles from trailhead, 2.3 miles from camp) Willow lake and it’s waterfall: >  < After hiking around the lake, looking back on it and the San Luis valley: >  < After the lake, hiking got harder and steeper but still on a trail. Looking across the valley: >  < However, at ~12,500’ with 1.5 ish miles to the peak, it turned to absolute misery. The rest of the climb until the short summit ridge was all loose rock and scree, had to test every step so I didn’t slide down the mountain. No scrambling, just super slow, tedious hiking. From this point, took 3 hours to the summit for only 1.5 miles. Challenger to the right, Kit Carson to the left: >  < Challenger did have nice views from the summit at least. 14er #12. Summit views: > San Luis Valley:  Kit Carson with the Crestones in the background:  Other peaks:  < After this, descended to the saddle with Kit Carson but finally on solid, large rock so it was easy. Got on Kit Carson Avenue—a sidewalk like ledge that goes around the side of the mountain, unfortunately losing more elevation. After the Avenue, there was one gully to the top with solid rock. Class 3 scrambling was advertised but I didn’t do any, just walking with hands for balance sometimes. Made the Kit Carson summit just 45 minutes after leaving Challenger. 14er #13. Can see all the way down to Willow Lake: >  < And the Great Sand Dunes, Blanca peak in the background >  < After this, it was back to the avenue, back to the saddle, back up over Challenger, then a long, treacherous slog down. Way down felt unsafe with all the scree, fell on my ass twice and it was very unpleasant. Lots of cursing and middle fingers. Then it was back to Willow Lake and a 5 mile slog down to the trailhead. Stopped for a rest and to pack up my tent on the way down. Finally made it down at 7:30 PM after 11 hours. |
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Post by tommyFL on Sept 9, 2023 16:04:16 GMT -5
A walk at Allapattah Flats today. Closest thing to a subtropical paradise you'll ever be able to find.  |
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Post by Doña Jimena on Sept 14, 2023 12:04:37 GMT -5
Low 14C and high 27C in Nesebar, eastern Bulgaria. The sea is still very warm. Tomorrow is the first school day in Bulgaria.  |
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Post by Steelernation on Sept 14, 2023 22:58:59 GMT -5
Climbed Longs Peak on Saturday. You can see it from much of Fort Collins so this was a more special one. It’s also the northernmost 14er in the Rockies and the highest point in North America north of its latitude and east of the cascades/coast ranges. Distance: 15.0 miles Time: 12 hours Starting elevation: 9,400’ Summit elevation: 14,259’ Elevation gain: 5,100’ Started at 2:40 AM and hiked up on the trail in the dark for a few hours. Amazing stars and you could see the Milky Way. That was despite also seeing lots of city lights from the front range. Came out into the boulder field after 5.5 miles just as it was starting to get lighter. Looking up at the Keyhole just before sunrise: >  < The Boulder field was mostly hopping across large boulders and rather tedious. It then climbs sharply uphill to the Keyhole rock formation in the above picture where the scrambling begins. You’re already 6 miles in at this point. Immediately after passing through the keyhole, stunning views open up:  >  < After passing through the Keyhole, the first section is known as “the ledges”. Hiking with occasional east scrambling across ledges. Wider than anticipated and you’re never in danger of falling off although internet pictures look bad. Following the ledges, head up into The Trough—a long, steep gully. More tedious than anything, most of it is hands on hiking, not quite scrambling, but you do need hands to steady yourself and occasionally pull yourself up over some big step ups to another rock. The top of it was more tricky, as you had to walk along a small ledge with a Boulder bulging out over it, making it tricky to not fall off 8-10 feet. Looking down the Trough on the way down later >  < After the trough, it’s back to ledges, this time called the Narrows. The Narrows are narrower and involve more use of the hands but you’re still a safe distance from the edge, often with boulders blocking a fall. More views open up here: >  < After the narrows, you enter the Homestretch—a steep gully of granite slabs. This was the hardest section, requiring actual class 3 scrambling with your hands and feet. Despite being difficult, this section was a lot of fun and didn’t have the tediousness of the trough or the ledges. The homestretch:  The summit was odd for a 14er summit, very flat and huge, could’ve held a football game on it and a big contrast with the rugged route. Spent almost an hour on top. Views of course were stunning: Way down featured a lot of crab walking. Got back to the keyhole around 11 AM, took a long rest, before heading down the very tedious, long 6 miles to the trailhead. Looking back at Longs summit from the Boulder field with the keyhole to the right: >  < Marmot: >  < Chasm lake with Mount Meeker (left) and Longs (right) in the background: >  < |
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Post by Doña Jimena on Sept 21, 2023 0:21:44 GMT -5
Still very green in Riga, autumn comes slower this year.  |
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Post by Babu on Sept 24, 2023 2:13:16 GMT -5
We got some very impressive Kevin-Heimholz clouds yesterday.  They made national news and the meteorologist talked about how jealous he is.  |
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Post by tommyFL on Sept 24, 2023 19:01:38 GMT -5
This evening at the St. Lucie Lock. Was 82 F (28 C) with a 75 F (24 C) dew point at the time.  |
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Post by Doña Jimena on Sept 26, 2023 8:24:39 GMT -5
19C at the moment. Interesting clouds today:  |
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Post by nei on Sept 26, 2023 21:56:21 GMT -5
Lame this hasn’t been started yet. This weekend I climbed Challenger Point and Kit Carson peak in southern Colorado. Started off as a debacle, traffic was horrible Friday afternoon so I only made it about 2 hours. Saturday morning I realized I forgot my hiking boots so drove back home to get them, traffic wasn’t as bad though luckily. However because of that significant detour, I got a late start at 7 PM. Distance: 12.5 miles (15.0 total) Time hiking: 11 hours Trailhead elevation: 8,850’ Camp elevation: 10,300’ Challenger summit: 14,086’ Kit Carson summit: 14,167’ Total elevation: +4800’ up, -6250’ down Sunday did a very similar sized climb on the exact same days. Also horrible traffic jam on Friday, route 99 into Whistler switches from 2 to 1 one lanes and back jamming with the heavy holiday weekend traffic. then discovered a big washout on a very steep section of the gravel road so parked before and had to walk an extra mile. Camped at a lake at the end of the established trail and climbed the peak and went down to the trallhead next day. Distance: 11.0 miles (15.0 total) Time hiking: 12 hours (on Saturday, 3.5 on Friday) Trailhead elevation: 2,250’ Camp elevation: 6,200’ Weart summit: 9,300’ Total elevation gain from my phone GPS 8600 feet, net obviously lower started at 4:20 pm on Friday. not that much to see until the top. got to the campground around sunset lingered the next morning enjoying the sunrise started hiking, at first a trail by a lake  lots of scree  after ascending scree slope (with a few hard rock patches)  end of a mountain glacier went to this little lake, so I touched it finally got a good glimpse of the peak I would climb  ascended the ridge without too much difficultry, wasn't as loose as some earlier stretches  summit views had really impressive glacier views, felt the alitude a bit near the top when it got steep  |
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Post by Steelernation on Sept 27, 2023 14:31:32 GMT -5
Climbed Missouri Mountain on Saturday. Distance: 10.5 miles Hiking time: 7 hours Summit elevation: 14,071’ Starting elevation: 9,650’ Nice aspen covered slopes at the beginning, fall color season is just starting: >  < Eventually left the trees and climbed a few talus slopes. Looking back down: >  < No scrambling on this one although the summit ridge had a few scree sections I had to use my hands for balance. Summit had excellent views:  Back in the valley looking up at the ridge, not sure which one is the peak: >  < More aspens on the drive out: >  < |
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Post by desiccatedi85 on Sept 27, 2023 16:10:22 GMT -5
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Post by aabc123 on Sept 29, 2023 15:36:35 GMT -5
Today afternoon, 23c.   |
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Post by tommyFL on Oct 1, 2023 14:41:40 GMT -5
Epic rains have come to the backyard...now a little over 5" over the past 3 days. Should help some of the wetland sedge and grass species return to the lawn. This was ecologically wet flatwoods before it was developed anyway.   |
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Post by Moron on Oct 1, 2023 19:04:30 GMT -5
Esperance and Hopetoun trip. September 15th: Perth - Quagi beach, mostly cloudy in Perth. Sunny in Quagi beach, maximum around 25C by the end of the day.   |
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Post by nei on Oct 2, 2023 5:49:25 GMT -5
Epic rains have come to the backyard...now a little over 5" over the past 3 days. Should help some of the wetland sedge and grass species return to the lawn. This was ecologically wet flatwoods before it was developed anyway so you can get standing water after heavy rain… what's the plant (looks like a tall shrub or small tree) on the right with the thin narrow leaves? |
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Post by nei on Oct 2, 2023 5:51:36 GMT -5
Esperance and Hopetoun trip. September 15th: Perth - Quagi beach, mostly cloudy in Perth. Sunny in Quagi beach, maximum around 25C by the end of the day. pretty beach, how warm was the water? |
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Post by tommyFL on Oct 2, 2023 6:20:50 GMT -5
Epic rains have come to the backyard...now a little over 5" over the past 3 days. Should help some of the wetland sedge and grass species return to the lawn. This was ecologically wet flatwoods before it was developed anyway so you can get standing water after heavy rain… what's the plant (looks like a tall shrub or small tree) on the right with the thin narrow leaves? Yes, the hydroperiod of wet flatwoods is around a few weeks per year. That's a cabbage palm. |
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Post by Babu on Oct 2, 2023 8:40:55 GMT -5
24th of September I went to the arboretum Reasonably green still within the city.  This particular spot is one of very few places in the entire county with wild Elm.  The fall colors are very weird this year. It's been a very mild September, and it's been greener than the last couple years that have had below average Septembers, but for some reason a lot of trees have been dropping leaves without turning yellow first with lots of completely green areas with completely bare patches. Also, whereas usually one tree would be green, one would be lime and one would be yellow, most "fall colored" trees in the city especially are green but "speckled" with yellow leaves, like 50% of its leaves being completely green and the other half being yellow or brown and shriveled up. Few trees are homogenously yellow or lime colored. Ah, the sweet fall colors of the maple leaf.  Mild and cloudy falls with neither sunshine nor freezing temps can produce these kinds of mediocre fall colors, but September hasn't been particularly cloudy at all this year, and the airport did record two freezes. Here's a random patch of completely bare trees.  Cozy   The trees did have a bit more homogenous appearances at the arboretum outside of the city. Also noticably less green over all.  Mostly green area but also random trees that are completely bare.  I don't think I've ever seen such a high water flow in the rapids before.   Same view on Sep 25th 2021. Comparing with 2021, the fall progression is clearly slower this year. However, despite the colors being more green over all, there are more completely bare trees this year than there was 2021 (4'C colder September that year).  Flooding. September has had more than average precipitation, but not by very much, and there hadn't been any unusual amount of precipitation recently either.     Two guys in their 30s were out picking what I can only assume to be magic mushrooms. I didn't expect them to be as old as they were.  Doubt they were after these mushrooms.    A pretty cute house in the outskirts of the city.  |
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Post by Moron on Oct 2, 2023 8:56:20 GMT -5
Esperance and Hopetoun trip. September 15th: Perth - Quagi beach, mostly cloudy in Perth. Sunny in Quagi beach, maximum around 25C by the end of the day. pretty beach, how warm was the water? 16-17C in esperance this time of year, during the warmer days it was fine to swim in. |
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Post by Babu on Oct 2, 2023 9:13:51 GMT -5
My girlfriend had to go down to Sundsvall on Friday-Saturday so I took the train down with her.   Sundsvall was very noticably greener than Umeå. This might not be odd to you considering Sundsvall is 160 km south of Umeå at 62.4'N vs 63.8'N. However, September was actually 0.01'C warmer at Umeå airport than Sundsvall airport. |
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