I am a huge fan of reflections – here are a few of my favorites!
This image was taken in New Zealand A LONG time ago with a simple Canon point and shoot – coincidentally – this was appropriately called Mirror Lake – somewhere on the South Island. I say somewhere only because it was so long ago and my memory is failing!
The backdrop of this Alpine Lake is high in the Salkantay mountain range in Peru.
Check out other entries via the Word Press Weekly Challenge – Reflections
If you want to experience Denali National Park up close and personal, backpacking through this jewel is the way to go. The chance of coming face to face with a wild animal is pretty much 100% guaranteed. Currently you cannot drive through the park on your own, you must take one of the school-bus transportation options back and forth along Park Road – the main artery through the park. It is all fun and games when you see a grizzly from the safety of a bus, but when one is about a football field away and there is a 50 lb pack on your back in 40mph head winds – that is quite a different situation. It will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up and/or make you pee your pants. At least that was my experience.
Lexi, Todd, Greg and I originally planned 3 nights in the Denali wilderness but it was reduced to one night for 3 reasons: 1) The unit we were allocated did not provide views of Mt. McKinley, so we took a last minute detour to the Wonder Lake Campground (post coming soon) where this massive natural wonder is front and center; 2) One of Lexi and Todd’s tent poles broke. Fortunately they were prepared and had duct tape to keep it together but it made for a challenging tent situation; 3) The winds were howling like mad so our tents were making hideously strange noises during the night. We were ‘confident’ there was a grizzly (or 2) circling around our campsite which happened to be smack dab in the middle of a river bed. Pretty sure none of us slept a wink.
How did we end up bunking in a river bed, prime territory and stomping grounds for grizzlies and other creatures like wolves, moose and caribou (we saw the footprints in the dry mud)?? When we started our trek to our campsite, 5 miles away in Unit 31, we had the option to navigate along the slopes of the East Fork River Bar (EFRB) or increase our chances of a grizzly encounter and make our way directly through the EFRB. Because of the unsettling wild animal encounter videos we were required to watch, we decided the slopes might be the ‘safer’ route.
The slopes at the edge of the EFRB are vegetated with stands of spruce trees or tall willows. One thing to note, there are no marked trails in Denali so you have to bushwhack and find your own way via a topo map or GPS unit. We found out quickly that willows would become our worst enemy. They grow so tightly together, navigation can be tough and slow – it took us 4 hours to go 4 miles loaded with 40 to 50 lb packs strapped to our backs – for experienced backpackers, this was pathetically slow. By the time we got to the 4 mile mark, we were exhausted, cranky and desperate to set up camp at the first dry, flat spot we could find – in the EFRB.
After 24 hours of wild winds, broken tent poles, irrational visions of a highly unlikely animal attack, we decided one night was probably good enough for all of us. In order to avoid some approaching bad weather, we decided to take the path of least resistance back to Park Road directly through the EFRB. All went well until we emerged from the EFRB and were about .5 miles from hopping a bus to safety. The winds were about 35 to 40 miles/hour so we were forced to walk heads down to avoid falling backwards. After several minutes of fighting said evil headwinds, I hear Greg say, “Is that a bear?”. We all stopped DEAD in our tracks and looked up – sure enough there was a male grizzly about a football field away – his big hump bulging high on his back – in our minds, he looked like the size of a VW bug. He stopped for a few seconds, sniffed into the wind and began to head in our direction – I nearly piddled in my pants. The 4 of us huddled together must have looked like too much to handle (or maybe our legs were too skinny to be an enjoyable snack) as he eventually changed his plans and dropped down into the EFRB in search of a tasty morsel.
Although my description of the trip sounds a little crazy – it was one of the most exhilarating experiences on the Life Bus. I highly recommend this trip if you are an avid backpacker seeking an adventure in an iconic Alaskan wilderness. We learned to take the bear and leave-no-trace videos seriously – you never know when a wild animal will cross your path in Denali and it would be nice to keep it pristine for generations to come. One area we could have improved upon was to find a few extra minutes to relax – if you are conscientious and follow the rules, you will be in great shape to survive the journey!
All in all, this is a true, off-the-charts Life Bus experience words cannot fully describe!! The best place to start researching where to hunker down is via the Denali Backpacking Guide documented from the National Park Service. ENJOY!!
So I am thankful for A LOT of things: My awesome husband who lets me drag him around the world, pets who bring me unconditional love, friends who explore, laugh and cry with me, family (most of them), the invention of Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, I could go on and on…..however, for this challenge, I decided to highlight how thankful I am to have the ability to experience nature and the outdoors in the most amazing ways. “Nature is my church” so to speak, and any day I have the privilege of seeing an animal (or 2) in their natural habitat is one more reason I am happy to keep on truckin’.
This image of an Orca family was taken in Glacier Bay, Alaska – what a sweet experience! Wonder what they did for Thanksgiving this year? 🙂
Check out what others are thankful for at the Word Press Weekly Photo Challenge!! ENJOY!
….and he looks like he wants to kill me – lol!
[slideshow]Even though we Life Busers definitely like visiting far-flung corners of the globe, we often say that there is still so much yet to discover just in our own Colorado backyard. This was the motivation behind a recent getaway trip Todd and I took to the western slope of Colorado. We set out to put a little gravel in our travel and discover a lesser known part of Colorado (at least to most of us on the Front Range.) The destination of this road trip was a four day getaway to the Gateway Canyon Resort in Gateway, CO. Gateway Canyons
When this was presented to me as my birthday present, I had never heard of Gateway, CO or of the resort. I quickly got on line to do some research. The resort looked like Todd had done well in choosing this place. The secluded location, the soaring canyon scenery, and the fact that you have to drive along the Unaweep Tabeguache Scenic Byway to get to the resort all really peaked my interest to explore this part of our state. The byway is a 140 mile route that cuts through some of the oldest rock on the planet (1 billion year old pre-Cambrian to be exact) and runs from just north of Delta to Ridgeway. Unaweep and Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway
We arrived at night so didn’t have a chance to see our surroundings until the morning. When we woke up we had a beautiful view of the Palisade right outside our window. For those seriously ambitious folk, the Palisade is a narrow fin of sandstone surrounded on all sides by vertical walls and can be climbed. The leaves on the cottonwoods were still a vibrant golden yellow in the sunlight. The sky was a beautiful, intense, Colorado blue. I would, however, suggest going in early to mid-October to experience peak seasonal colors. This area does have quite a bit of scrub oak which is one of the few plants in Colorado which has that deep fall red color. Unfortunately, all of the scrub oak leaves were already off by the time we were here.
On our first day we went for one of those drives that we call “discover your world.” We headed out onto a dirt, canyon-hugging, road towards an area called Sinbad Valley. On the map, at the Adventure Center, Sinbad valley looked like a really cool depression in the surrounding, unrelenting walls of red rock. We had been told there was a good 4×4 road there and a few years ago Gateway Resort had actually held a trail marathon on this dirt road. The drive in was beautiful vertical canyon walls with a salt wash along the side of the road the entire way. We finally arrived at the turn off (with only one misstep) and pulled over to try our mountain bikes on this road. Of course, Todd had no problems. I found it somewhat challenging as it was misleadingly steep and had very rocky, technical washes one after the other. After going about 3 miles up and back, we headed out to check out the Hanging Flume Historic Site.
The Hanging Flume is perhaps one of the most risky and lofty plans in mining history. The Flume, built on the side of a cliff over the San Miguel RiverIt, is now on the National Historic Register and slated for renovation. It is quite an engineering feat, especially given that it was built between 1889-1891. Even if you’re not a history nerd like I am, visiting the Flume is an effortless pit stop worth making while you’re on the Unaweep Tabeguache Byway. It will truly make you wonder how did they do that!! The Hanging Flume
Given that the Canyons has such beautiful horse stables, we decided to take advantage of this and go horseback riding … even if only for a good laugh. Our guides, Amy Wilkinson Equestrian Manager and her side-kick Cheyenne, were AMAZING!! To call Amy the horse whisperer would be an understatement. She had a wonderful way with both horses and clients. You can see she is a woman who is passionate about her horses and, in turn, they ensure her clients have a great time. Our horses were gentle and yet did show us some spunk as well. Todd’s horse, Frog, got a little feisty which caused my horse and another to get a little feisty and the next thing I knew my horse was up and running … albeit for a short distance. Amy was great at assuring everything was always copacetic!! We rode the horses on some sweet single track trails through scrub oak and cottonwood groves. Cheyenne is a great young girl who helps out at the ranch. Her horse-handling skills were so impressive for someone of her age. Gateway Canyon Stables
From here, we continued the pursuit for gravel and backroads up and over John Brown’s canyon on to the La Sal Mountain Forest Area. We stopped where the dirt road met the paved road. If you continue on, it’s only about another 30 miles to Moab. This back road option to Moab is a much shorter route than driving back up to Grand Junction and on into Moab via 1-70. A nice way to fit some really epic mountain biking in if you’re staying at the resort. At the location where we stopped, there are some magnificent dinosaur prints pretty much right off the road. This area also has some gorgeous scenic overlooks. The edge of these overlooks is not for the faint of heart. The drop is a good several thousand feet down.
The last day I got in a great 8 mile trail run and Todd road mountain bike on the BLM trails a hundred yards or so from the resort grounds. Some beautiful views to be had while running or riding.
On the way home, we drove over the Grand Mesa. There will definitely be posts on the Mesa this coming year. At the bottom of the Mesa we wanted to continue with our backroad theme and wound up on 40 miles of beautiful, uninhabited Colorado wilderness area!!
Oh Colorado, you still have so much for the Life Bus to explore … how are we going to fit it all in?
Seakayaking Kolovesi National Park, Finland
Ho Rain Forest, Olympic National Park
Old Truck outside Aspen, Colorado
Great color. Here are a few random musings on green. Hope you enjoy them!!
Oh how I love this challenge! Green happens to be my favorite color…I don’t know what it is about green, but I am alway drawn to it…perhaps it reminds me of the outdoors and provides me some semblance of inner peace!
Our top favorites so far:
Check out other images via the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Enjoy!
I wish I were as eloquent as Mark Twain!! When I think about the motivation behind The Life Bus, the spirit that we are trying to capture with our adventures and our writings, and the philosophy we try to live by every day, I wish I could have stated it as well as Mark Twain did. HIs words capture the spirit of The Life Bus so wholly there is really nothing more that needs to be said.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
East Turner Lake, Alaska
I have 35 ish days to go before I make the 24+ hour journey to Nepal for a 2.5 week trek to the Everest Base Camp (~18,000) with REI Adventures. Sleeping in a tent for 15 days is going to be cold-as-hell and will test my mental toughness on a daily basis (I am confident there will be a few tears). I have a -20 degree sleeping bag, a fleece liner and a whole slew of hand, foot, and body warmers to keep me warm and toasty. I understand from the REI trip lead, there are 11 other crazy souls taking on this trek in the dead of winter. My hubby Greg is sitting this one out, so I will have a tent all to myself! I will miss my very own personal sherpa on this trip :-(.
For the first time in my history of planning a trek like this, there is a little bit of stress boiling up inside. Mostly because I feel pitifully out of shape. I have about 35 days to get it together. I don’t know about you, but feeling forced to work out is not my idea of fun. Running shoes will be glued to my body while working in Houston during the week and weekends in Colorado will be spent trudging up steep hiking trails to acclimate to higher altitudes – Rain, snow or shine. If it sounds like I am behind in my training, I am – hence the stress. A 2 week bout with the flu has not helped this situation.
Thankfully, I am a gear hound and with the exception of snow goggles, I have it covered. I will, however, continue to test different layering options as I complete my winter training in the Colorado mountains. For instance, this past weekend in Vail, CO, I was painfully reminded I need an additional layer of warmth on my legs just in case the wind decides to kick up to 20 – 25 MPH and create a white-out situation. I have not been that cold in a LONG time. My face was also in incredible pain from the exposure – it literally looked and felt like a cherry popsicle.
On a positive note – not only will I fulfill a bucket list item by having an up close and personal view of Mt. Everest, I will be flying the new United Airlines Dreamliner 787 from Tokyo to San Francisco – VERY excited about that. So much, that I plan on writing a separate blog post on the Dreamliner itself!
Wish me luck while I prepare for this once in a lifetime adventure! It will be amazing and one I look forward to sharing with you in the coming months!
