Tag: walks
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Very tall, very old things
On our way to the Boy Scout Tree in California’s Jedediah Smith State Park today, our camera found several other old, tall living things along the trail, including a former Scout!
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A Pleasant Hike on Humbug Mountain
It’s been awhile since we’ve given our hiking shoes a real workout, so today we put them (and ourselves) to the test along the 5 1/2 mile Humbug Mountain trail. We hoped the promised ocean views would help distract us from the 1,748 foot climb. The trail immediately began to rise, eventually leading us through…
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Portland…after the storm
Portland got dumped on Tuesday and Wednesday. The expected 3-4 inches of snow piled up into a good foot of the white stuff, sending the city to a screeching halt for the rest of the week. We stubbornly refused to postpone our scheduled trip, and arrived yesterday (Friday) to icy roads and slippery sidewalks…but beautiful…
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Ashland has me seeing red
There is nothing more spectacular than fall color, rinsed clean by gentle rains and positively glowing against gray skies. I took advantage of a break in our weather this morning to stretch my legs and to see what Mother Nature has been up to in our Ashland neighborhood. I hope you'll enjoy what I found!
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Going Green on the Oregon Coast
When we reserved our Harris Beach campsite last week, the weather report for the south coast of Oregon called for several days with mostly blue skies and temperatures in the mid-sixties. The perfect opportunity to sneak in, what might be, one last trailer trip before winter weather arrives. As promised, temperatures have warmed up each…
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Colossal Newberry volcano begs for exploration
Oh, what a difference a day makes! We packed our hiking shoes and a picnic and headed for a second day in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. After a 34-mile drive south and then east from Bend, we were greeted by brilliant sunshine and twin lakes that filled an area bigger than Crater Lake. The…
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Tour du Mont Blanc: Switzerland awaits
Today, our seventh day of walking and our eighth day on the Tour du Mont Blanc, the trail led us 8,300 feet up and over the Grand Col Ferret and down into Switzerland. It was quite a climb! Our first two hours of walking delivered us to Refugio Elena, strategically nestled into the hillside…
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Tour du Mont Blanc: A circular Alpine trek
We will be walking the 110 miles of the Tour du Mont Blanc over the next two weeks, with a couple of breaks. The trek circles Europe's highest peak, which is really a mountain range of Alpine peaks, above 15,000 feet. We are starting in France and will go counter clockwise through Italy and…
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Tour du Mont Blanc: Our challenge begins
We were strongly advised to begin our trek with two gondola rides from Chamonix, taking us more than 5,000 feet up above spectacular terrain to Le Brevant, more than 8,000 feet high. Clouds blocked our view across the valley to Mont Blanc and made visibility poor for most of the day. So, after ascending…
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