The NEW Post Your Campsite/gear/knife/hiking/anything Outdoorsy Pic Thread!

[HikingMano]

Continued from above

Day 2

Pic captions are now above the pics, not below, as in the last post. Sorry for the confusion.


The next morning we hit up the still closed Ewoldsen Trail. I've wanted to do this trail for years, but it's been closed since 2008 due to the '08 fires. It's slated to reopen this year, so I figured we'd just check it out since we were down there.
We decided we'd turn back if the conditions were too dangerous or if we felt our hiking was detrimental to any ongoing trail repair and erosion control efforts.

Beautiful morning. We started off on another trail, and kept a look out for the branch off to the Ewoldsen trail.
It turns out the Park folks hid it pretty well through some crafty misdirection. We missed the obscured official branch and ended up following a use-trail which connected with the Ewoldsen trail farther up.

We had to scramble up the side of this little waterfall. I got up the left side, but the ascent was sketchy with all the loose rock. My GF was with me, so I didn't want to risk any accidents. We were about to call it and go to a plan B trail, but we luckily encountered a lost backpacker coming down the right side of the waterfall (which I initially thought looked more dangerous, thus my checking out the left side).
After helping sort the guy out as best we could, and chatting about conditions ahead (where he came from), we scrambled up the right side and continued up the faint use-trail. Much of it was on downed trees and creek-side dirt, so I think we made minimal impact.

The sketchy left side of the falls. Deceptively loose rocks.

Looking back down the trail before ascent up the right side. Didn't get any clear pics going up.

A little shelter someone erected just above the falls.

Beautiful morning light streaming through the trees.

After the short off-trail jaunt, we connected to the Ewoldsen trail and started heading up on a more gradual grade.

After a little climbing, expansive views of the Pacific started opening up.

CA1 a ways below some cliffs we crossed. Beautiful day.

View across McWay Canyon as the trail climbed further.

Trekkin, glamour shot, as Owen likes to call it. First trip with the Osprey Kestrel 28. Love it!

Redwoods give way to Oaks as you near the midway point of the loop, where you take a side trail to a coastal scenic lookout.

As we hiked, we noticed large shadows falling over us from time to time. California Condors were circling above us! I've never (knowingly) seen a Condor before, so this was a superb treat. This endangered species is slowly making a comeback. The current tally is 405 (wild and captive).
Unfortunately, I don't have a fancy camera with wildlife appropriate lenses, so sorry for the poor image quality. And trying to snap a pic of a Condor in flight beyond the optical 5X zoom on my camera is a bit of a pain.

These guys were relatively close to us, and we hadn't even reached the high vantage point yet. After trying in vain to snap a decent shot, we decided to continue and hope we could get closer up at the scenic lookout.

Now here's another cool thing. Apparently they're building a California Coastal Trail (CCT)!! 1,200 mi from Mexico to Oregon!
Future Goal: complete at least the PCT and CCT.

We came across this mystical dancing leaf. I took great comfort in the good omen, knowing the woods gods were looking after me....
[video=youtube;UZS4Qjl2HB8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZS4Qjl2HB8[/video]

The views were absolutely breathtaking upon reaching the scenic lookout. The austere and wild beauty of Big Sur persists despite CA1 running right through it and providing access to visitors like us. Big Sur is a stunning place that will always have a spot in my heart. It really is an epic meeting of land and sea.
I really want to do some diving and start doing more backcountry backpacking there. I'm sure both will deepen my appreciation.

While we had lunch and took in the view at the top, we observed the condors circling. They were closer to us then, with the gain we made in elevation.

Tried to get two in one shot. There were 4 circling together at this point.

Sadly, this is probably the best pic I managed to snap of a Condor. It's surprisingly hard to get a good, clear, pic of them in flight. I'm pretty sure the little blob you see on this one's left wing is part of its tag. In some of my other pics, you can see a little blob on top of the left wings, which I'm betting are tags.

View south from the scenic lookout. Look at that ocean.

Gorgeous Big Sur coast.

View from the lookout:
[video=youtube;h4LnvUk60gg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4LnvUk60gg[/video]

Creek as we headed back down. I had my Sawyer Squeeze filter, but had enough water on this trip, so I had no reason to try it out. The clean water would make filtering a breeze though.

More trail scenery as we finished up the loop and headed back down. Instead of returning the off-trail way, we decided to follow the main trail past where we joined up, to see if we could discover the actual trail beginning.
We were surprised at how crafty the Rangers were in misdirecting folks to keep them off the trail. Impressive!

Cool texture on a tree we passed.

After finishing the trail, we returned to the parking lot and dropped off our packs at the car before continuing to the coast side of the park to take the obligatory McWay Falls pics
The parking lot was packed upon our return, as we expected with the holiday weekend. Doing a closed trail was awesome because we had the canyon to ourselves for the whole morning. We only came across a few other souls on our return leg, in the early afternoon. Perfect hike The solitude was much appreciated.

McWay Falls.

There's good reason for McWay Falls being the iconic Big Sur scene. The beauty of this little cove is utterly unique and awe-inspiring.

The view north of the McWay Falls cove is no slouch either.

Hawaiians and their shaka pics

On the drive back to camp, we stopped by the trailhead to the Tan Bark trail (across CA1 from the historic Partington Cove), just so I could confirm the location for next time. I'll hit this trail up on our next trip, and I hope to make it out to some of the backcountry trails as well.

Anyway, we made it back to camp, had dinner, and I got the fire prepped. All work done with my Fiskars 14" hatchet and Fallkniven F1.

The fine full convex edge of the Fallkniven F1 makes nice shavings without a problem. No fine spine-scrapings this time, but the shavings easily took a firesteel spark.

Not my smoothest 1-strike deal *shrug*
[video=youtube;NLUfaRQojHs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLUfaRQojHs[/video]

Fiyah.

Reading material brought along. Good read!

My GF chillin by the fire with her book.

Apparently one can never have too many fire pics.

A good day! We hit the sack content and looking forward to the next day's fun.

Continued in next post

 

[HikingMano]

Continued from above

Day 3


Morning view, towards the river, from my pad. We took our time getting up that morning, intending to have a chill day without a schedule.

Walked down a few yards from our tent to witness the morning light on the Big Sur River. Looking downstream while in the river.

Looking downstream on our bank.

Looking upstream while in the river.

We headed to Pfeiffer Beach to beat the crowds. Snapped this shot as we left and the beach started filling up. Sure enough, the drive out was slow as inbound traffic built up and impeded outbound traffic on the 1.5 car wide road. Didn't take any shots on the beach, for some reason.

Cypress tress are cool.

After we got back to camp, we had some lunch, then packed and waterproofed a little gear for our trip up the Big Sur River, past the gorge pool most folks stop at. My camera was in my drybag (double ziploc-ed as well) and therefore a pain to get out for quick snapshots (note to self for next time, bring the otterboxes for quick access), so I don't have many pictures from this day, even though the river scenery was spectacular.

There were a few topless and attractive girls at the gorge pool, no pics though, sorry (damn!) We left the party behind as we swam through the gorge pool neck and climbed further up the river. We ran into very few people past the pool, so we were able to fully enjoy the quiet of the river gorge.

This pic is as far as we got up the river. We didn't want to go too far because we'd found a nice swimming hole in the sun, and wanted to return there to just chill out and enjoy the awesome weather and cool river. Next time we're back during a low year, we'll start early and see how far up the gorge we can get.

We returned to the nice spot we'd picked out earlier, just in time to have to share it with two other couples who'd just arrived. Nudity was the rule of the day, at least for quite a few of the women on the river. I really need one of those Lytro lightfield tech cameras We blew up the inner tube we'd packed along, and I hitched it to a midstream boulder to help keep it in optimal position. There wasn't much flow, so it wasn't really needed, but it sure made moving around in the tube much easier

It was a great spot for relaxing and enjoying the sunshine.

Someone loved basking

While she floated, I enjoyed sitting in the water and watching the Steelhead fry swim about. They're curious little fish. It was pretty amusing to observe them through the crystal clear water as they investigated and nibbled on my legs and tabis. Unfortunately, I didn't think to get a picture of em.

[video=youtube;Xu5x3CgOAmM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu5x3CgOAmM[/video]

After the gorge fell into shadow, we made our way back down the river and back to the campsite. We ate dinner with the setting sun and enjoyed our last fire.

That's all for this trip; we broke camp and left early the next morning to beat the Labor Day traffic back into the Bay Area. Much of the ride back along the coast was in fog. Pretty, but doesn't make for great pics from a moving car....

I hope you all enjoyed the pics!

 

[OwenM]

Suddenly car camping doesn't sound so bad! That wasn't a camping trip; that was a vacation!

 

[HikingMano]

Haha, I wish it was longer!

 

[OwenM]

What a beautiful place, and some of those pics are fantastic:thumbup:
I'm in total lust with that inlet with McWay Falls. Imagine camping down there(assuming it doesn't fill up with water with the tide or something)!

Got to sleep some before work, but I skimmed over the ones I took today, and uploaded five.
From Moccasin Island looking toward the "B" side:

Above Moccasin Gap.

These are from what is called the Pipeline Falls section, which is actually 3 separate sets of ledges with all sorts of channels, chutes, and small falls spread out over 3/4 of a mile.

 

[HikingMano]

[...]I'm in total lust with that inlet with McWay Falls. Imagine camping down there(assuming it doesn't fill up with water with the tide or something)![...]

Yeah, that would be a fantastic camping spot. There is a good section set back on the beach a ways that looks to be untouched even with high tide. I saw some writing in the sand down there, so it looks like folks sneak down there from time to time. I'm not sure if access is allowed by boat/kayak, but I know they don't permit access to the beach from the overlook trail (landslide and cliff danger, and environmental impact). I'm pretty sure it's possible to scramble down along the back side, near the waterfall, having ventured there once.

The waterfall is actually kinda funny to think about, because human impact accounts for much of how it looks today. Apparently the waterfall used to fall directly into the ocean, and from a different channel than where it is now. But they rerouted the creek slightly near the fall for some reason, so now the waterfall is more vertical and falls from a greater height. The sand in the cove apparently resulted from a big landslide and highway construction or reconstruction back in the 80s, otherwise the water would have fallen directly into the ocean. I'll look it up in my other pictures, there was a little info sign on it.


Excellent pics! The greenery really pops with the dark water and rocks to set it off. That is a beautiful area :thumbup: This looks like the same spot you shared earlier, that you planned to come back to, alone?

 

[HikingMano]

Oh yeah, one more cool thing about McWay Falls, it's one of the only two waterfalls in North America that fall directly into the ocean (or on a beach). The other is Alamere Falls, in Point Reyes National Seashore:

[video=youtube;NOl738TFLa0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOl738TFLa0[/video]

 

[OwenM]

I like that, when you throw in some history, and additional information. Really adds to just seeing a picture.

This looks like the same spot you shared earlier, that you planned to come back to, alone?

Alone in every sense, this time. School is back in, and nobody goes there during the week except in summer. We went back to the outfitter's wife riding with me to the putin, then driving my truck back to their place, and I had the whole river to myself.
Same place as before, I just never take time to get pics from all the different shoals. The one I've been posting pics from is actually a very small, short one. It's popular because it has the single biggest individual rapid(Moccasin Gap), but several below it are more difficult, IMO, or at least a lot more complex. Lots of channels and chutes, and very rocky. From what I've read, they're also class III when the flow is high enough. Nothing major for someone with a whitewater boat(who wants to paddle the rest of a 6-7 mile run in a whitewater boat, though?), but it was all pretty challenging to a noob with a sit-on-top when I first started out a few years ago. Now that I've been there 7-8 times at a base flow of 2200-2500cfs plus done it at 4k, 6k, 8k, and 9800cfs with no problems, I'm pretty well familiar with all of it. It's actually harder at low flow, but it makes for better pictures of the rocks. The light was changing dramatically due to heavy, but intermittent cloud cover, so a lot of my pics didn't come out so well. Forgot my little mini Gorillapod tripod thing, too. Was deleting 2-3 of 4 to begin with, and so far I've got the ~300 pics that remained cropped down to 146, but that's a big success compared to coming home with 3 last time.
I think my little camera does pretty good for a point-and-shoot. Had lots of doubts about buying anything that was relatively expensive, yet wasn't rugged or waterproof, but I'm so happy about being able to get images that represent what I'm seeing. Some of the others benefitted from changing the settings to compensate for different things, but that second picture I posted, while it may be "plain", it's almost perfect. When the recorded image briefly popped up after being taken, the scene being shown through the lens on the screen didn't change at all, except maybe losing a little detail in the clouds. For someone who is almost always disappointed with my pics vs. the real thing, it was really satisfying, even exciting. I almost felt like a "real" photographer for a minute!

btw, cool vid of that Alamere Falls and the shoreline in the fog, too.

Guess I'll go delete some more pictures
edit: made a new thread rather than post more pics here...

 

[HikingMano]

Very nice :thumbup: You need a GoPro for your rapids runs :thumbup: I'd imagine it is harder at low flow because you're not just flowing over rocks with lots of clearance? Having 146 pics left is pretty darn good. I usually come home with 500-750 pics after a 3-4 day trip. Many of them are replicates of a frame but messing with different settings. Many taken in low light just don't come out well with the camera/hand shake. I'm usually not too keen on lugging around a tripod for my P&S, and the gorilla pod only works well in certain situations.

I'm gathering those pics you posted above were taken under cloud cover? How are your pics with a high contrast scene (bright and light sky with dark water or foliage)?

I can certainly relate to the joy of having pics come out close to what one sees by eye. It's a constant source of fun and frustration to try and have my pics mirror what I'm actually seeing. Often fails, as you can tell with the flat pics of the McWay Falls cove. Dull greens and crappy range flattening. I can only get recorded images that capture the scene accurately (for the most part) with good directional light (near sunrise or sunset depending on area). I'd love to upgrade to a better camera (lusting for a micro 4/3 and some outdoor geared photography classes), but for now, the one I have will have to do. I am going to try and learn how to squeeze the most out of my camera; I'm hoping that in conjunction with being more aware of lighting and positioning I can better my shots without upgrading equipment just yet.

Sweet, I'll look for your thread :thumbup:

 

[OwenM]

Don't tempt me on the GoPro! I want one, and depending on what all I finally decide to do in Utah, may buy one. I'd love to have pics and video from some slot canyons. There's going to be a lot of (cold!)water involved in this trip, so I'll have to be extra careful with my new camera, and probably miss a lot of pics.

Some of those pics were under cloud cover, some in bright light. Heavy, but intermittent cloud cover(I was afraid it was going to rain the whole time at first), so they'd go from everything looking like it was in the shade, to half the image being whited out with the same settings I was using a minute before, or the pic looking like it was taken at nighttime when the clouds blocked out the sun. The ones where the foreground looks dark were probably all taken when it was very bright. I'm still learning the camera, but when the sun is beating down, it seems like some of the pics revolve more around making the best of the worst part of the view(like compensating for the sky), and sacrificing what I really want the picture to be of. Using the Vivid picture control brings out a lot of the colors well in spite of having dimmed the whole picture down, so I've been using that a lot for pics in manual or priority modes(it doesn't work in the auto or scene-select modes? ).

 

[HikingMano]

Dooo it dooo it dooo it!

Since you'll be doing a lot of canyon and water work, it really might be just the ticket though, for recording memories. I really wish I had one when scrambling up the Big Sur River.

I need to try using the vivid mode on my camera. I shoot almost exclusively in the manual ("program" on my camera) mode so I can keep control of the ISO and stuff. But I've never really used the vivid setting before in program. I'm going to play around with it this weekend and see if I can squeeze more performance out of the camera.

 

[OwenM]

Mine has adjustable settings for the vivid mode, so that you have control over how it affects the pic, but I haven't fooled with them yet, and just use the default settings.
Definitely want the GoPro, just don't know about spending the money. Got some other stuff I need before my trip. The sad part is that the more $$$ I'm willing to spend on the trip, the more likely I am to need the GoPro.

 

[Galeocerdoshark]

HM, I totally loved reading all of that and looking at the pics! Great stuff, documented beyond detail .

I just got back from a holiday to Bulgaria. Me and my girlfriend needed some time to relax and get away of everything, so it was mostly a beach/swimming pool/reading/lazy holiday and in that aspect it was more than great. I finished 3 books in 1 week (1reread, though) -The Road, Hitchikers guide to the galaxy & The Little Prince-, was able to swim a lot in the Black Sea and well... It was just great.

We did make time to go on a small guided tour in a southern branch of the Balkan mountains near the border with Turkey. There were some amazing sites. We had some nice walks/soft climbs, some cave exploration and we met some locals in small towns who performed some kind of folklore dance act. Pretty fun, and the day flew by. Since we were packed for a relaxing holiday, we didn't bring along all sorts of hiking gear, but it wasn't really needed either.
Some British girls, however, thought it was a great idea to go on a hiking trip in a dress and flip-flops:thumbdn:. They slowed the whole group down, which was pretty lame, yet amusing to some extent. A lot of the pictures turned out pretty bad, so that's pushing me even more to acquiring a portable camera with which I can take decent pics and shoot some nice vids with as well (GoPro?).

Anyway, on to the pics.

The first part of the hike took us upto a cave. Before we got there, we could see the small yet beautiful river which had its source inside an undeground lake in the cave.

When we got to the cave, we could only go in two-by-two, because it was so narrow and small. First, we had to crawl for a distance of about 10 metres, before we got to a space where we were able to stand. From there out, we were able to see the undeground lake at a sudden drop of about 7 to 8 metres straight down(our camera didn't get a good shot of this lake).
Stalactites:

The space through which we had to crawl for a distance of atleast 10m. It was approx. 80 by 80cm across.

Back outside was the source of the river (where the undeground lake broke the surface, in fact).

Uphill there was a dried out river bed -yet damp beneath the larger rocks-, that was connected to the source of the river. My guess is that this riverbed does contain water in some periods of the year (probably spring when snow starts to melt).

Time for a drink and catching some breath.

When we reached one of the hilltops on our way to the next location, I got one of those moments where you just stand down where you are, and absord the view around you.

Some people live quite remote, however they are equipped with electricity. That's not something you see in every remote village. They do wake up with some amazing views every morning. In that aspect, I envy them.

When we almost arrived at our final locations, some were led to think there were some restrooms. As if there would be any in the middle of nowhere. They sign just pointed to some trees

We finally arrived at a spot where the river dropped down a few metres. Waterfalls, eventhough some of them are tiny, are always fun to watch.

That's about it when I sorted through and selected the somewhat usable pics. A shame, but hey, the most important memories are in my head anyway. Enjoy guys.

 

[HikingMano]

Nice! Sounds and looks like you guys had a great trip! :thumbup: Especially where it's relaxing enough for you to get in 3 books. :thumbup: Crawling through that cave to see the underground river must have been pretty awesome. I wonder how the girls in dresses and flipflops handled that one.... That water probably makes for nice drinking, I'd think.

That restroom sign is plain awesome. The figures are actually squirming, haha!

Thanks for sharing the pics, good stuff! :thumbup:

 

[Galeocerdoshark]

Nice! Sounds and looks like you guys had a great trip! :thumbup: Especially where it's relaxing enough for you to get in 3 books. :thumbup:

I'm a really fast reader, I really am. My girlfriend got through 97 pages, while I got through 500+ while we read at the exact same moment while laying on the beach or next to the pool.

Crawling through that cave to see the underground river must have been pretty awesome.

It was, I love caves. I've visited many in Belgium and France, yet I'd like to discover the less accessible parts of the larger caves, or less accessible caves in general, but as for now I haven't gotten to joining any speleology group. Maybe one day.

I wonder how the girls in dresses and flipflops handled that one....

They didn't, they just stayed outside. One of them was supposedly claustrofobic, and the others stayed outside so that the other one would not have to stay outside "alone". Pffff. What are you even doing on a hiking trip that clearly states you'll be entering a cave, when you're afraid of tight dark spaces?

That water probably makes for nice drinking, I'd think.

It did! It was great to throw some of it on your face, while sipping some of it with your hands. I also refilled my water bottle with a piece of cloth on the front of the bottle. It tasted great.

That restroom sign is plain awesome. The figures are actually squirming, haha!

Thanks for sharing the pics, good stuff! :thumbup:

You're welcome ;-)

 

[OwenM]

The first part of the hike took us upto a cave. Before we got there, we could see the small yet beautiful river which had its source inside an undeground lake in the cave.
.....we were able to see the undeground lake at a sudden drop of about 7 to 8 metres straight down(our camera didn't get a good shot of this lake).

Oh, that sounds awesome. Rolling hills, and waterfalls from the drainage of an underground lake that you can actually go see. Wow.

 

[Galeocerdoshark]

Thanks Owen. It was very interesting to see the underground lake (which was in fact, situated inside the top of a hill, accessible by the cave entry), where the water from the saturated rocks broke the surface, and finally the river getting wider and wider, making it's way down the hills creating rapids and small waterfalls.

The only crappy thing about the hike was the immense amount of mosquitos, as far as I'm concerned:barf:

 

[OwenM]

I'd love to see that, preferably with a minimum of mosquitoes!

Victim of myself today. Beautiful cool morning, and I was literally hopping on the way out of work, but gotta do the yard work I should have done yesterday before going to play
Quick pic-love cloudy mornings as the sun starts to come up!

 

[HikingMano]

I wonder how something like an underground lake in the top of a hill forms and is contained. And I'm guessing it's spring-fed?

Owen, beautiful morning you captured :thumbup: Hope the yard work goes quickly, have fun playing!

 

[Galeocerdoshark]

I wonder how something like an underground lake in the top of a hill forms and is contained. And I'm guessing it's spring-fed?

I'm not from the region, nor did the guide explain a lot about it: "Look, this is cave, spring there. You go inside if want, but watch head". -Kthx buddy , yet I'm guessing that the older layers in the bottem of the mountain might be some metamorph rock that is not easily penetrated by water. The outer layers of rock were clearly limestone, which is easily intruded by water. The water probably sips through the limestone, carving out open spaces -which is usually the case with caves in limestone- until it hits harder bedrock where the water remains stagnant for a longer period. The lake was pretty empty, but the guide did say that in spring, it usually contains a lot more water. As I said, now it was a sudden drop from one of the open spaces in the cave down to the lake inside, but in springtime, the lake is being "fed" with fresh water and as such, the water level rises a few metres so that it's almost level with that open space. With a flashlight you could see where the water had been previously (darkish horizontal lines in the limestone, not corresponding with the flow of the deposited layers).

I love to think about these geological processes. Understanding them makes my prmary hobby (paleontology) a lot easier as well