Silver Peaks!

Who would have guessed that there would be a back country tramping track just outside of Dunedin? I guess we do live in NZ so it shouldn't come as a big surprise. This track is so close most people start IN Dunedin. We could have started at our apartment and it would have only added 3 hours each way. In the end we wimped out and instead opted for a 25 minute drive to the trail head. This is because I hate the environment and just didn't feel right doing something without increasing my carbon footprint, oh yeah also due to time constraints.

We started on Friday night, walking about 5 km to a camp site.

Because we didn't have to walk far we packed in a pretty nice meal for tramping. See exhibit A:

woke up the next day to this:

Started to walk toward Jubilee hut, via the devils staircase. The views were pretty awesome. One one side of the track you could see Dunedin in the distance and the other way was nothing as far as the eye could see. Crazy.

We ate lunch at the hut, and then carried on to ABC cave and Yellow Ridge. Had a few stream/river crossings along the way

For the most part it was a clear, hot day (a very novel thing in Dunedin) and we were walking through mostly scrub bush without much shade. It was probably the first time I felt thoroughly warm in months. We camped by a river and after a huge hill climb had a flat walk along the road back to our car.

Fiordland Part 1

Our first trip outside of Dunedin! Fiordland National Park!

You might be thinking "hey where is the 'J' in fiord?" well I've got no clue.

The first night we slept here, not a bad view, that is when it wasn't raining. But our new tent seemed to hold up well against the rain.

It's great that the National Park itself is free to enter and the camp sites (all basic sites) are only $5 per person per night. There are also campgrounds outside the park that are FREE per night, run by the Department of Conservation.

The next morning we were off to Milford Sound. The road leading up to the sound is amazing.

Classic big fern from NZ shot.

At last here it is, Mitre Peak and Milford Sound. Spent a few hours looking around here, although not that much to do unless you want to drop some cash on a boat tour and since Kate is a poor student and I'm unemployed we weren't about to do that.

Spent the rest of the sunny day hiking... I mean TRAMPING, around the alpine lakes.

This Kaka bird was in a cage, but you can pretend that we saw it in the wild with a perfectly halved apple.

Part 2 soon….

Camping in Newport

Josh and Ariel rode bikes down to Corvallis and then the 6 of us (Joe and Chelsea too) went camping on the coast in Newport, OR. The first thing we did once we got there was hit up "Moe's" seafood dinner. The claim to fame is the clam chowder, they even have a picture of GWB eating there. My claim to fame is having this picture of Chelsea eating there.

The harbor has a cool bridge over it and also lots of sleeping Sea Lions on the docks.


Our campsite was right on the coast and also under a bridge so we could feel like hobos.

Cooking!

It got cold and we decided to take the camping trip to the Rogue Brewery in Newport, a very good call and we managed to get in on some bar trivia.

Backpacking + Haircut

Made it back from Costa Rica and they let Kate back into the country! yay! This may seem uneventful but it was a bit of a mystery if she would make it back in on the new visa, but apparently it wasn't an issue.

Then it was up to Ft. Collins for a bit of backpacking with Justin & Jayne. They took us to the Roosevelt National Forest about 2 hours outside of Ft. Collins. But first I decided that i needed to shave my head for no apparent reason.


Here are some shots from the hike in:


Here is the lake we camped on:


Kiley looking for chipmunks.....

most amazing invention thanks to Justin Mohar the "S'more-tilla"

note the two-handed technique he uses.... now the rest of us copy.

Jayne with the finished product:


The next day we did a day hike and found some snow



Kiley got tired:


We managed to get a photo of all of us using a stump and the camera timer. I'm still surprised that it actually worked AND that Kiley managed to get into the background of the photo.

Boundary Waters (Aug 23-27)

We spent four nights camping on Ensign Lake in the Boundary Waters canoe area with my parents and a family friend. It was a good time canoeing, exploring and fishing but the "highlight" of the trip came on the last night when i awoke to my dad and Mike yelling about something going through our food. Then the flashlight turned on to reveal a momma bear and two cubs. After yelling, jumping, and cursing at the bears in the end all we could do is make a big fire and watch them chow down on a good portion of our food. It wasn't a big deal since we were leaving the next day and they only went through one of our two boxes of food.

Here we are getting ready to go:


Paddling with dad:

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