What's new

Get Your Hike On! - Picture Thread

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
very cool pics Mad Man! that roo is somewhat camouflaged with the tree behind it.
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
That's a great path, Jason. Whereabouts?
Aurora, IL /Sugar Grove, IL

The trail is mostly paved, this was my first time on this part of it. It's an extension of the V.L. Gilman trail which will take you about 20 miles through various cities. follows the Fox River, then trials off (har har) through forest preserves. The part I rode was about 5-6 miles from my drive way to there, I turned around half way though.

There are a lot of great trails around here, The Illinois Prairie Path follows an old train route that they converted to a pedestrian trail. You can ride it roughly 60 miles from the far Chicago suburbs all the way to Chicago's doorstep. Have yet to do that though.

Then we have the Fox River trail which will take you around 30 miles north from where I live following the Fox River. I'm centered in the perfect spot for trail riding, I can go any direction and pick up a trail.
 
These are from Raven Rock State Park in NC with SWMBO. $Photo0279.jpg$Photo0284_001.jpg$Photo0277.jpg
 
Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park, in Niceville, FL.

proxy.php


proxy.php


proxy.php


proxy.php


proxy.php


We saw several different lizards and birds, but they were to fast to catch on camera. Most interesting thing we saw were two armadillos crossing the trail.

This was my son's first hike, about 1 mile. He is hooked. We're going camping next weekend.





 

Not summer hiking, but these are from a hut trip last winter. The 10th Mountain Division huts are available in the summer for mountain bikers. Good times.

View attachment 350869
And one of my favorites from several years back. I think I'm getting eager for snow again in this heat.
 
Went up South Sister near Bend, Oregon a couple weekends back. We could see all the way to Mt. Saint Helens. Unbelievable weather.

View of the false summit of S. Sister.
$P1080898.jpg

The closest little tarn in the snow below is at the false summit. We camped by the lakes near Mt. Bachelor the night before, and that's where our walk started. Mt. Bachelor is the biggest peak in the left of the photo.
$P1080932.jpg

View from the summit.
$P1080946.jpg

Middle Sister, North Sister, Mt. Washington, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Saint Helens (not visible in the photo but visible in person) and some other peaks to the south and east were all visible.
$P1080950.jpg
 
Last edited:
Went up South Sister near Bend, Oregon a couple weekends back. We could see all the way to Mt. Saint Helens. Unbelievable weather.

What a view! Central Oregon is one of my favorite places on the planet, honestly. Wife is from Bend originally and we're trying to figure out a way to live and work there on a more permanent basis.
 

ChiefBroom

No tattoo mistakes!
My son and I made a road-trip to Utah in June to camp and mountain bike on the slickrock near Moab. We pitched a tent, but neither of us put both feet into it during the week we were there. We slept on cots under the stars every night, made coffee and breakfast in camp every morning, rode the Slickrock Trail before the sun rose too high, then drove down into Moab for lunch, after which we pursued various and sundry forms of activity and inactivity during the hot (highs up to 106F) afternoons. One day we drove about 80 miles south and a little west to re-visit some pre-Columbian Anasazi ruins I'd first come across and soon after took my family to see back in 1996, when my son and daughter were 6 and 8 years old, respectively. The first two photos below are from that trip.

Known as the Butler Wash Ruins, these dwellings were constructed and inhabited between 500-1200 AD. They can be viewed from an overlook (third photo) that's only about 1/2 mile hike from a BLM trailhead, which lies at the end of an inconspicuously marked side-road off of Route 95 soutwest of Blanding. Both the hike and the overlook are lovely. The fist time I saw the ruins from there, however, I wasn't satisfied. So I studied the terrain from a high point off the trail, drove back to Route 95, found a place to pull off the road, and then headed up the wash in the hope of finding a place I could scramble and get into the alcoves. FWIW, The BLM discourages but doesn't prohibit such activity, so I wasn't breaking any rules, and I had enough back-country experience to know what I was doing in terms of both respecting the place and staying safe.

Here's a link to a good description of Comb Ridge and Butler Wash.

The photos below are linked from Photobucket. Some have spoiler tags to help this from taking too long to load and scroll through. Just click the <Show> buttons to open/close tagged images. They're safe.

Small cave with kids in 1996

proxy.php


Alcove dwelling with kids in 1996

proxy.php


View from overlook at end of road-accessible BLM trail (6/13). The dark alcove to the left of the larger one in the next two photos is the one we we were standing in front of 17 years ago in the photo above.

proxy.php


Studying off-trail approach to opposite rim (there is a tricky fork)

proxy.php


A view of the wash (looking down) not far up from where we started. This was taken from opposite the side we scrambled up.

proxy.php


Headed up (looks easy but getting this far wasn't altogether trivial)
proxy.php
Butler Wash below the dry-fall and ruins (the grass was not shorts-friendly)
proxy.php
Where we scrambled up and crossed to access the alcoves
proxy.php
Taken from the same spot as the photo above (boo-boo on elbow was from a bike crash that morning)
proxy.php
Three shots from inside the alcove with a single structure (notice the hand imprints in the first one)

proxy.php


proxy.php


proxy.php


A couple of nice kiva shots

proxy.php


proxy.php


Son (now 23) with iPhone (what we used for all of these photos and countless more)

proxy.php


Inside looking out

proxy.php


Pretty little arch above a dry-fall

proxy.php


Cool rock formation
proxy.php
A fallen pinion pine
proxy.php
Flora
proxy.php
A critter (he didn't appreciate company, so we couldn't manage to get a centered shot)
proxy.php
Thanks for looking!
 
Last edited:

ChiefBroom

No tattoo mistakes!
Went up South Sister near Bend, Oregon a couple weekends back. We could see all the way to Mt. Saint Helens. Unbelievable weather.

Love Oregon! Incredibly beautiful state.

Windsurfed in the Gorge a couple of times -- long time ago. Not sure I've ever had more adrenalin pumping.
 
sunrise over the Lyonia Scrubjay preserve


a Scrubjay eating breakfast


Sunrise at Lk Woodruff wildlife preserve


Great Blue heron I got to eat breakfast with at Lk Woodruff
 
Top Bottom