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

[redsquid2]

Here is a link to more pictures from my week in Ansel Adams Wilderness. These were taken by another participant, and I think he has more of a talent for capturing natural settings, with or without human subjects in them. I hope they are all set on "public" so everybody can see them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100583014@N03/with/9557401519/

 

[lambertiana]

Owen - wondering what you've been up to. Great pics!

 

[OwenM]

Thanks guys. I got busy in May with overtime and other stuff(like sound damping my car, and putting in a stereo system), then my back was screwed up for most of June. I've been getting back to my usual frequency the past month, and have also made two trips to Savage Gulf, to the southwest of Virgin Falls. I did put some pics on backpacker's Southern forum, and will throw them on here, too.

 

[OwenM]

Had to replace my Nikon P310, and now have another one, but it took me awhile to get some of the settings back to where I wanted them, plus I've been dealing with a lot of rain, so my pics weren't what I'd hoped on these two trips.
Both were to Savage Gulf in TN, just on opposite sides
Laurel Falls.

I really like Ranger Falls.

Pictures make it look shorter, and the water look shallower, than it is.

HikingMano sent me a "StickPic" that attaches a camera to your trekking pole. Pretty cool. It'll come in handy for closeups if I run into more pit vipers, too!

Small fall by where Big Creek goes underground.

And the sink...

 

[OwenM]

Above Boardtree Falls.

Upper Boardtree Falls.

Lower Boardtree Falls.

Upper Greeter Falls.

Lower Greeter Falls.

The spiral staircase that gives access to lower Greeter falls, but had me laughing the first time I saw it.

 

[OwenM]

Having not done the North Plateau trail at Savage Gulf, I drove back up there, and did a quick overnighter to Hobb's Cabin, doing the back side of the Savage Day Loop(which I also hadn't done) on the way out.

Decided to test the frogg toggs ultralight poncho.
The Hunchback of Savage Gulf:

This was to be the norm for a good part of the day.

From the suspension bridge early in the Savage Day Loop.

Savage Falls

Above Savage Falls

And from a side trail to the Savage Falls Overlook

 

[OwenM]

The North Plateau isn't very picturesque, but you start along the rim, and it puts you back on the rim above Hobb's Cabin. It finally stopped raining just in time for the latter(though it rained some more later, and during the night, and the next morning..).

Top of the Connector Trail

My night-time trip to the outhouse by the cabin wasn't totally uneventful.

Almost zero vis the next morning.

Stream on the way out.

Lone whitetail sighting of the week on the way out.

 

[HikingMano]

I loved the trip. [...]

Hey Redsquid, it sounds like for a last minute trip, you really got lucky with good company and really "smelling the flowers" on the trip - not just blasting through for mileage. Right on! :thumbup:

Backpacking/camping on Mt. Whitney [...]

Awesome, Whitney is on my list as well. Hope to do it as part of the JMT within the next few years. That trip must have been so awesome, and your pics are great! Love the clouds closing in and the nice creek shot!

Very cool Yosemite series. Looks like an epic trip.

Thanks bud! Just got back from the Ten Lakes area with the GF. Had a great time. Long drive back to the bay due to the Rim Fire, but that's such a minor inconvenience compared to all the folks with their homes and livelihoods threatened.... Anyway, I'll get around to posting pics of that trip soon.

I was thinking the same thing, ever since moving out West my Fall experience is: mosquitoes, "oh hey it's one nice day!", 3ft of snow, -40*. It's one thing I hate about living here, Fall is my favorite time of year.

[...] Also there are little to no bugs that time of the year because its too cold, I never have a problem with Mosquitos. I'm planning another possible trip up there soon. I'll try to get some good pictures.

Yeah, the bane of summer here is mosquitoes, I really welcome the fall. Spring, it's ticks...ugh. But plue, you guys have got some awesome wilderness up there to compensate!

Thanks guys. Yeah the fall is definatly a great time to be in New England, especially because nobody else is camping or anything. I know some people don't like campgrounds because they want their solitude, but if you get a campground up in New Hampshire and Maine during early spring or fall the weather is actually quite nice except at night and nobody is there.

Good to know! Will have to keep that in mind. My GF always wants to go in the fall to see the leaves in person, plus there's some big jack-o-lantern event thing she wants to go to out thataway in October. One of these years...

I haven't been bothering to upload pics much lately, but had a lot of fun this week.[...]

Dude, you wasted no time Thanks for the epic trip reports and great pictures! Love reading them, and I dig how they're all filled with waterfalls. It seems like you folks have so many more cool waterfalls out that way than we do over here in CA...need to make a trip. Lemme know how you like the Aquapac!

White-nose bat syndrome is communicable to humans?

I love how the overwhelming impression I get when looking at your posts, in general, is one of being wet and waterlogged the ENTIRE time Good thing it's more or less warm?

 

[HikingMano]

Here is a link to more pictures from my week in Ansel Adams Wilderness. These were taken by another participant, and I think he has more of a talent for capturing natural settings, with or without human subjects in them. I hope they are all set on "public" so everybody can see them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/100583014@N03/with/9557401519/

I can see em, great stuff! :thumbup: The views from Post Pass are indeed expansive.

 

[HikingMano]

This is a preview of my latest trip:

 

[redsquid2]

Owen, have you identified the species of the snake? A viper? Moccasin?

 

[OwenM]

redsquid, that's a copperhead. They're quite cooperative about having their picture taken, because when you get close to them they tend not to move. That one was already moving when I saw him, so I had to head him off a few times. Met a couple of new friends who were also staying at the cabin that night, and they brought me my camera.

White-nose bat syndrome is communicable to humans?

White nose syndrome is from a fungus. I think the gist of it is...you get it on your gear in one cave, then take your gear to another cave, and infect it, eventually killing the bats.
Really wouldn't apply to me rambling into a non-technical cave in clothes that are going in the wash when I get home, and may never see the inside of a cave again. Regardless, that entrance was like standing in front of a giant air conditioning unit, with cold air just blasting out of it. No way I was going in there without lights and layers!

I love how the overwhelming impression I get when looking at your posts, in general, is one of being wet and waterlogged the ENTIRE time Good thing it's more or less warm?

Yes, well, I'm SICK of the rain! I didn't bother with rain gear this week, because it was so warm and humid. This week the lows were ~70 with 90+% humidity, highs ~90 with ~70% humidity.
You don't get evaporative cooling with high humidity, so you can be soaking wet and still pouring sweat. Better to just get rained on, because it cools you down.


Man, those pics are awesome!

 

[HikingMano]

Ah, I see. And yeah, I hear ya on the lights and layers, better safe than sorry!

I hear ya on the evaporative cooling fail too, same deal, more or less, growing up in HI. I don't think we're quite as humid (and I thought HI was bad). Very easy indeed to overheat in those sorta conditions.

 

[HikingMano]

The girlfriend and I headed up to Ten Lakes in Yosemite on this past Sunday to spend a few days checking out the lakes and views. Here are some pics and vids from day 1 of the trip, with days 2-4 to follow as I finish going through the pics.

We hit the road early so we could get an early start on the trail. Caught a beautiful sunrise half way out.

Butterflies greeted us as we set out from the Ten Lakes Trailhead.

North-easterly views along the trail as you start ascending to Halfmoon Meadow.

At the junction with the trail coming from White Wolf / Lukens Lake.

Continuing along. Very pleasant day despite the overcast weather. We ran into quite a few weekend crowd folks exiting.

The GF checking out Halfmoon Meadow. Nice area.

Lots of these guys flitting about in the meadow. They were much more camera shy than the other butterflies pictured above.

This is at the top, or near the top, of the little climb from Halfmoon Meadow to Ten Lakes Pass.

Whatever sun we had enjoyed earlier was disappearing fast, replaced with cloudy skies.

Some big boys looming in the distance.

GF heading down the trail towards Grant Lakes.

Here we are at the lower Grant Lake!

[video=youtube;6mii51uwIsk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mii51uwIsk[/video]

I wanted to camp at the upper lake since it was off-trail and therefore unlikely to have any other visitors. So we continued along hoping to find a good site up there quickly since an afternoon thunderstorm was building.

Looking back over lower Grant area.

This is upper Grant Lake:
[video=youtube;A4Y-f242BKA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Y-f242BKA[/video]

I didn't get many pictures of the upper lake, or much time to explore for that matter, because lightning started striking within 1-6 miles. We decided to bail to the lower lake rather than risk getting zapped up there. So after just checking it out for a little bit, my GF and I headed back down to the lower lake to a nice and protected campsite amongst the trees at the NE corner of the lake. After getting camp set up and chilling for little bit, the storm fizzled out so I rambled around the eastern side of the lake while my GF took a nap.

The wind was something that night, but my shelter handled it without a problem, especially with the added protection from the surrounding trees. The moon was quite pretty, shining through the trees.

Day 2 comin soon.

I need to stop hosting with photobucket...the image quality is terrible...

 

[milani74]

Keep em coming everyone! I haven't been able to get out much this month so I'm getting my dose of the wilderness through you all!

 

[redsquid2]

Oops! Wrong forum.

 

[eujaee]

OwenM, I lived in the North Carolina coastal area for 4 years. I remember summers having thick soupy air, sudden thunderstorms that come and go in 15 min and dump fat raindrops in a wall of water, mosquito clouds with these big suckers that can bite through anything, chiggers, black widows, black water moccasins, waking up in the morning with an inch of water in the sleeping bag. I agree, getting rained on was a relief. Then ice and snow in the winter, which I never could understand. Is it pretty much the same in Alabama, or possibly worse? I miss the fat catfish fillets, fried oysters, and pitchers of beer, oh and the boiled peanuts.

Those waterfall shots are really cool, I like the ribbon-like water effect, kind of looks like tinsel on a tree. Uh, well maybe not exactly, but sort of. They say crappy weather makes for good pictures.

HikingMano, I really like your sunrise shot, it gives me a certain kind of mood, I don't know how to say it. The colors are really cool and that must of been a pretty slow shutter speed, but it doesn't look blurry.

 

[OwenM]

We don't get much in the way of ice and snow, but winter is usually pretty wet. So far, this whole year has been wet, which is unusual. The mosquitoes haven't been bad at all, though, and I don't know that I've even seen a tick this year. Gnats are what we're ate up with, especially in the evenings. I pull my Buff down over my ears, and sometimes even wear ear plugs and a headnet to keep them from driving me nuts. The only time I've lived in NC was when I was at Ft. Bragg, and the weather was crappy there a lot, too. "Temperate climate" my hiney...hot or cold, humidity makes everything worse. I'm already counting the day's 'til I go back to Utah. 66 and a wakeup!

 

[HikingMano]

Eujaee, let me tell you, that sunrise inspired quite a bit of elation in person :thumbup:

Day 2!

I'm not one to spend much time in a shelter when I can be out and roaming about. Sunrise waking lower Grant Lake.

Campsite. The trees gave a little extra wind protection during the night's variable-direction winds, I think.

Big ole erratic near the site.

Lots of these guys around. Found a few squashed on and under our pads, sorry little fellas.

My GF on the other hand... not so much for the early rising Got breakfast going for her.

Went back out to the lake while she took her time getting up.

Sun broke into the basin.

Grouse, I think. How does one tell a female from a male? My guess is this one is a female. Always hear them, first time I've seen one this close.

More views of Lower Grant in the morning sun.

Some nice rock ledges on the eastern shore of the lake, great for bathing and the like.

We left the lake and headed back up to the Ten Lakes Pass to continue to the Ten Lakes. Ubiquitous deer.

Lovely in the sun.

Heading to the descent into the Ten Lakes basin.

View SW along the meadow up there.

Little guy we met along the trail. He must live near the tarn up there in the meadows.

Whoa! Shtuff just got real!

Wowsa.

We took a break up near the use-trail on the spur east of Colby Mountain overlooking the lower basin. Couldn't capture the scene well with the high contrast, and none of my panorama's from this vantage turned out well, sorry.

South side of basin, looking along wall bordering higher lakes.

View of and across the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne.

We'd be camped at the lake pictured here this night.

Ok, I lied. My GF did manage to snap a shot with her iPhone that shows the view pretty well. Saweeet!

After soaking up the views from on high, we got down into the basin. This is near the drainage of WL8947T, looking SE.

Then we popped over to the unnamed lake N-NW of WL8947T. Charming cliff-backed lake, and we had it to ourselves :thumbup:.

[video=youtube;A1OWKrv54p0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1OWKrv54p0[/video]

As we started the circuit to look for a good site for the night, we ran into some unsightly stuff.

'Twas but a moment's work...

Ah, now, back to enjoying the wilderness as it was meant to be enjoyed.

View from the bank nearest our campsite for the night. Good spot, with nice views even while being far enough back from the water.

[video=youtube;TxCzQbGv6ko]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxCzQbGv6ko[/video]

We lounged around and swam a bit. Then in the late afternoon / early evening, a thunderstorm rolled in and things got a bit dicey with lightning striking within a mile. Almost decided to ditch the trekking-pole supported tarp and sit out separated and in the lightning position under more tree-coverage, but things calmed down after a bit. Didn't get video or pics that night, between finishing dinner and trying to keep our minds off the lightning...


Day 3 comin.

 

[redsquid2]

Mano, Day 2 looks like a wonderful day.

What tarp is that? How do you like it?