Category: Travel

Test Flights from the Nest

Post author By TravisGood
Post date August 19, 2011
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Kelsey Old Rag — Lots of firsts in the lives of our young ladies. Kelsey climbed to the first plateau of Old Rag with Beth and then continued on her own to the peak. Their flights from the nest are more frequent, more daring and for longer periods

Summers used to be a time when our local swimming pools came into focus and where the girls would play, socialize and work. Now they’re where I go do laps while they galavant around the country. How things have changed!

Courtney spent the summer in Los Angeles working for Southern California Edison in their real estate department. Among other things, her group contracted for land rights to bring energy from remote renewable energy generation plants to the populations of SoCal. This meant learning about how wind, solar, and geothermal energy makes its way to the homes and businesses that consume it. Her experience was right in line with her interests and her degrees in Environmental Science and Economics. After living on the campuses of USC and UCLA she returned in August for her final semester before graduating.

Kelsey didn’t go work in a major city with warm days and sunny beaches. Quite to the contrary she went to the middle of nowhere into the cold mountains of Alaska for a month-long backpacking trip. Along with 14 other 16 and 17 year olds she arrived in Anchorage then disappeared into the wilderness with three NOLS instructors and with supplies on their backs. A month later they emerged with great stories to tell, new skills and maturity, and some deep-quality friendships. Now apparently she’s an “outdoor girl” as she enters her Senior year of high school and starts applying to colleges.

What do I think of all this? Well, I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t admit that it causes me angst to see them flirting with leaving the nest. Courtney by most measures is gone already and Kelsey is champing at the bit to do the same. Not that they don’t love us; it’s natural to want to sample the world. They’re both adventurous girls who we’re immensely proud of but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy watching them go.

We will survive and there are always grandkids to look forward to. 🙂

Family Hike Mountain Travel

Courtney’s First Climb of Old Rag

Post author By TravisGood
Post date August 19, 2011
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Courtney's First Old Rag — No optical illusion here, Courtney was indeed jumping from one boulder to another across a large crevasse. It’s the sort of fun opportunity the rock scramble of Old Rag affords an adventurous hiker. Good fun!

I’ve not even attempted to hide my ambition that all my family experience the joy of hiking Old Rag Mountain in the Shenandoah National Park. For years I’ve hiked up this mountain’s 2,600 foot climb, scrambled across its rocky top and completed its nine mile loop. I love it and knew they would too if only I could get them to take the leap.

The first to accede was Kelsey in December of 2009 though originally I’d thought it would be Courtney. Kelsey has since climbed Old Rag many times much as I’d expected she would after learning the joys of it. If I could get the others to venture out then perhaps the same would be said of them.

For joy, upon Courtney’s return from Los Angeles after driving across the continent she announced that she wanted to go climb Old Rag with me! Early Friday morning we both dawned our bladder packs filled with munchies and headed out the door. Ninety minutes later we were parked and hiking.

Bridge Hike River Travel

Hiking Variety at Harpers Ferry

Post author By TravisGood
Post date July 8, 2011
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Kelsey’s flight to Anchorage was days away after which this girl with no backpacking experience was going to spend a month in backcountry Alaska. We were nearing the end of our “toughening her up” agenda and mixing it up with a little variety of location. Most of our training had been up Old Rag but after many ascents, variety was called for. Harpers Ferry was today’s answer.

Hiking around this little gem pulls lots of fun stuff together. There’s a section of the Appalachian Trail to be hiked. There are three states to tread in: VA, MD and WV. There is a National Park with great exhibits and services. There are wonderful vistas from the hills on all sides above the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. And there’s a wonderful little town with shops, history, and sites worth visiting such as the AT HQ and Storer College, America’s first black university. While weather could have been better, we faired well.

As you can see below, we liked the view so much from a Maryland cliff looking across to Harpers Ferry in WV and the mountains of Virginia that we took two vanity pictures. Enjoy!

Falls Hike River Travel

Twenty One Falls and Electric Light

Post author By TravisGood
Post date June 25, 2011
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Scranton Electric Light — Home of the TV show “The Office” Scranton was first famous as a railroad and steal town ... and for having the first electric trolly car system. A wonderful museum can be visited at Steamtown.

New places to hike and build strength, that’s what Kelsey and I were looking for when we decided to visit Rickets Glenn. I knew it wasn’t too much of a challenge from my previous visit but I love the idea of hiking a trail which took us past 22 named waterfalls. When last I visited there was little running water and hence small falls but this time water was aplenty.

It’s too far for a one-day round trip so we stayed in Scranton. There really isn’t a convenient town to Rickets Glenn and though we wanted to camp the weather wasn’t looking promising. Secretly I also wanted to show Kelsey the history of Scranton at Steamtown, a wonderful National Historic Site built in a converted train roundhouse. Between steal and coal and trains and trollies there’s much to see and do in this wonderful town.

Mountain Travel

Up 6,500 feet over Palm Springs in a Tram

Post author By TravisGood
Post date May 29, 2011
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Tramway — From desert to sub-alpine this tram really changes your world. At $24 per adult ticket it can also empty your wallet pretty quickly. Still, as an occasional treat it’s easy to justify the cost.

A JazzTrax festivals used to be held each year at the top of this cable system in the San Jacinto mountains. Starting in Palm Springs at 2,000 ft elevation this tram takes you to 8,500 feet in just a few minutes. When you arrive you find it’s 30 degrees cooler and has subalpine vegetation.

Knowing this is one thing but today I was going to experience it for myself.

Sure enough … brrrrr … Palm Springs sure seemed small from up here.

Historical Train Travel

The Loop at Tehachapi

I’ve visited the Tehachapi Loop before but I didn’t find it very interesting. This time however was quite a different experience. Today I had an absolutely fabulous visit because my timing was perfect. I arrived in time to see a very long train enter the loop and circle over itself. Crazy!

To understand what you’re about to see you need an overview. The first picture below is a satellite view of the Tehachapi Loop from Google Maps. I’ve annotated it with details which should put the subsequent pictures into perspective. Flow through them and see why it’s such a fascinating spot.

Mountain Road Travel

Red Rock Canyon

I’m a weak man when it comes to red rock, especially if it’s accompanied by blue sky and tall green pine trees. If all I can get is two out of three then I’ll still go out of my way to shoot it. While it’s somewhat disparaging to call a place “the middle of nowhere” I’d have to say that where Red Rock Canyon State Park is located is at least right-close to there.

To find anything else of interest you have to drive great distances and I did. I went to see the Tehachepi Loop. Isabella Lake has a few small attractions. Certainly China Lake was of interest and Boron had some history. However, we’re talking about a few sites in hundreds of square miles of desert. I’m not complaining, no. I’m making the point that I’ll go a long way to see red rock.

Did I get red rock, blue sky & green trees? No, but trees are over rated.

Falls Hike Mountain River Travel

Climbing, Climbing Yosemite Falls and Point

Post author By TravisGood
Post date May 27, 2011
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The park is Yosemite National Park. The river is Yosemite River. The falls are Yosemite Falls. Given the prominence of these fixtures in this park. Given I’d taken pictures of them during each visit. How was it that I still hadn’t climbed the trail leading to these sites called, appropriately enough, Yosemite Falls Trail? It was time to right this wrong!

To be fair, during some visits the river was hardly flowing making the walls barely wet. To be fair, during other visits, just visiting where the falls landed in the valley floor was a satisfying, bone-rattling excitation. Still, I couldn’t be in love with this park and not experience its namesake sites. Today I did.

Historical Lighthouse Ocean Travel

A Lighthouse Hostel: Point Montara

Post author By TravisGood
Post date May 25, 2011
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The appeal lighthouses hold for me is complicated. Do I understand it?!

First, they’re usually at land’s end overlooking the sea and typically in a tortured locale. The waters are rough or weather tends to be wild and/or the waters nearby are riddles with obstructions. Second, it was often a remote, isolated and hard working life that accompanied the choice of managing a lighthouse. Neighbors were few, towns were distant, and life was lonely. Still, there is a sense of romance in being alone on land and fighting the elements with light to keep safe those men at sea.

I’m sure it wasn’t romantic in life but from a distance it seems special. Work was physical and hard, the hours and conditions were terrible, and the never ending boredom must have been mind numbing. Perhaps I’d have found it a romantic life it I’d had automated equipment, a broadband connection and FedEx delivery. Then again, if I had those things they wouldn’t need a lighthouse tender. Darn!

This lighthouse is at Point Montara just south of San Francisco on the coast. It is the second I’ve stayed at in the area. Pigeon Point Lighthouse is the other. Within the Hosteling International network there are many lighthouse hostels but along California’s coast I’ve now stayed in both.

Perhaps I should set as a goal to stay in all of HI’s lighthouse hostels?

Hmmm … that’s food for thought!

Bridge Hike Mountain Ocean Train Travel

Views from Mt. Tamalpias

Beth talks fondly about Mt. Tamalpias from the days before we married. She lived and worked for a time in Marin County just north of San Francisco. While climbing Mt Tam has been (and remains) on my list of things to do, I did drive up today and took the short hike around the peak.

The reason I didn’t hike it today was for lack of a trail. For a short few years there existed a tourist train which made the steep ascent via many switch backs up to the peak. It railway started service in 1896 but by 1930 was closed due to a tragic fire that burned down the facility, competition from the new fangled automotive, and the onset of the Great Depression. However, the path of the original tracks exists to be hiked and next time I’ll find them!