Hiking Dude
Tomorrow, I"m heading to the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area in northern Minnesota for a week of canoe adventure. The weather looks pretty good, the route looks fun, and the menu looks edible. I"m not planning it, just an enthusiastic participant, so the stress level is around zero. :-) You can follow our trip at either of these two links: Hiker Social or Spot (there"s nothing interesting to…
We flew to Seattle to visit Kory last week. After a long 35-mile bike ride around Lake Washington the first day, we headed to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area for a short 35-mile backpacking trip. We hiked over the Kendall Katwalk to Ridge Lake, then Spectacle Lake, then back out on the same route. It was an enjoyable 4 days, except for one afternoon of pretty miserable rain hiking. Read my Alpine…
Kelly and I decided to fly to Europe and hike for a month or so during August and September, 2024. The Tour du Mont Blanc is very popular so that was the main route we wanted to do, but it takes less than 2 weeks to hike. So, I looked around for another trail - as long as we were paying to get to Europe, we figured we should stay as long as possible. The Plan: I found the Kungsleden (King's Trail)…
September 15 - The last mile or so always seems to take so long. Winding into Lagos around 4:00pm over a massive network of boardwalks to keep the hords of tourists off the eroding cliffs, we walked the last mile to our lodging for the night. It was a great day of hiking to end on. Our hike started at a bit after 10am since we chose to wait for a shuttle from the campground back to the trail. But,…
September 14 - Yet another beautiful day hiking along the coast of Portugal. Most of the day offered great views south over the Atlantic but we worked for them. The first 6 miles of trail had only 2 climbs and the rest was mostly flat up on the cliffs. The cliffs here on the south shore are quite a bit lower than the West Coast. The lower plateau made the 10 climbs in the second 6 miles a bit…
September 13 - Friday, the 13th, what could go wrong? Well, nothing actually. Today was a very pleasant uneventful day in which we reached the 'Edge of the World'. After what is becoming our typical breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and granola, we walked out of Vila do Bispo on our last southbound hike in Portugal. Our 13 mile hike was all on dirt road except for about 3 miles. Once we left town, we…
September 12 - This was definitely a day of ups and downs. We slept in and then had some plums, cocoa, and bread for breakfast at the hostel, so we didn't get out of town until almost 9:00, but the dirt roadwalk was pleasant to the coast. The official Fisherman's Trail route had us drop down to three separate beaches today. That also means three climbs back up to the plateau! Each climb was about…
September 12 - This was definitely a day of ups and downs. We slept in and then had some plums, cocoa, and bread for breakfast at the hostel, so we didn't get out of town until almost 9:00, but the dirt roadwalk was pleasant to the coast. The official Fisherman's Trail route had us drop down to three separate beaches today. That also means three climbs back up to the plateau! Each climb was about…
September 11 - We hiked dirt roads out of town for quite a while and lots of cars passed us both ways. About a quarter mile after stopping to put on sunscreen, I noticed my glasses with clip on sunglasses were not hanging on my pocket. A quick, frantic search did not find them, so I hiked back the way we had come. I found them, but one car had found them first. Now, I have flat glasses with one…
September 10 - We had a 6 mile walk before reaching the coast this morning. Quite a bit of it was along a fast, sketchy paved road, but we did pass through a couple neighborhoods where we could see development going on. It also included a very steep, long climb up a hill and down the other side. Once at the ocean, we stopped on a cliff above a large beach to have breakfast and watch surfing…