Suwanee River-Florida

Admit it. You started singing as soon as you saw the name.

(Click the title bar and sing along! I won't tell.)

I've never been in a canoe longer than an hour in my entire

life so a five day trip was definitely stepping out for me. I've

taken to hiking mostly because I love it but also because my

legs have much better endurance than my arms. When I found

out I was going to be on this trip I was staying at the YMCA in

Port Arthur, Texas and you'd better believe I started working

my poor little arm muscles getting ready.

There were ten adults and three children aged 3, 6 and 8. All

friends of my hiking buddy John Calhoun and most of whom

had paddled together before. We started in Fargo Georgia and

made our way down to White Springs Florida The river itself

was lower than usual and mostly flatwater with a few small riffles

on the last day. The weather was unusually cold which took a
day or so to adjust to. But the weather was bright and clear and
there were no bugs or predators to worry about.

(Driving the) Florida Trail

1/30-2/7, 2009


The original plan was a
seven day hike around
Lake Okeechobee.





But most of it looked like this.

...and my pack was too heavy
...and my foot was sore
...and I missed the Super Bowl
...etc etc.

SO...

I ditched it.

And decided to spend the week camping along the Florida Trail on my
way to New Orleans. I had done some of the middle section last year
so I had a couple of favorite spots I wanted to revisit. Other places in
the south or the west were new discoveries.




Night 1; Sanchez Memorial Trail








Night 2; Hickory Hammock







Night 3; Hopkins Prairie-
Ocala National Forest







Night 4; Osceola National Forest







Night 5; Motel in Tallahassee.
(Hey it was COLD!!!)
after checking out
Appalachicola National Forest






Night 6; Alabama Connector

Mardi Gras-Olympia Krewe

2/14/2009

Gog and Magog

Oil and water

Matter and anti-matter

How else to explain me at a Mardi Gras parade? Me with
my New England Puritan forebears and Catholic upbringing.
Me, the one that can only stand parties where I know
everyone and have a pre-arranged exit strategy.

When I was a dutiful altar boy, I didn't just see lent as a
season of penance, LIFE was a season of penance.
When my mother told me that some places sneakily take
the last day before Lent for a party I was horrified.
It seemed like cheating.

New Orleans on the other hand sees life as a party and Lent
gives it the religious and cultural legitimacy it wouldn't have
otherwise. Just to show where the priorities are; Lent is 40 days.
This year Mardi Gras (aka Carnival Season) was 50!!
It started on January 6th for the feast of the Three Kings
going all the way until February 24th.

So it was against this backdrop that I went to a Mardi Gras
parade in Covington Louisiana to see a couple of Fernwood
friends (Deryl Boudreau and John Baldwin) don the masks
throw beads all over the place and try to take it all in.

And I'm glad I did.

Some of these things only make sense if you see them and
experience them for yourself and watch the school bands
strut like no one else, hear the music and watch the children's
excitement as the floats came by waving their arms to get
some beads or other goodies thrown from the floats.

I see New Orleans as the long lost grandfather your parents
didn't tell you about growing up. You might have heard the
name and that they were married to so-and-so but everything
else was a secret.

Despite my parents' best efforts, to grow up in the 60's was to
be a child of Rock and Roll. And while New Orleans will always
be a jazz town the blues is the spiritual father to them both.
So in that somewhat hazy musical spiritual sense I feel like I've
discovered part of myself here. Not that I'll be any more fun to
have around at parties just a little more connected to myself and
yet another unique corner of these United States

San Antonio River Walk

(Click on Title Bar for More Pictures)

It took a whole lot of back and forth before I got there.
Got sick my last day in New Orleans
Got some medicine...Stayed and extra two days
Drove to Florida...Still felt sick
Did nothing for two weeks recovering
Watched a Red Sox game...Felt better
Drove to Lake City...Camped Out
Drove to Pensacola (awesome night sleeping on the beach)
Kissatchee National Forest (Louisiana)
Ouachita National Forest (Arkansas)
NO TRAIL MAPS OF OUACHITA?!!! DOH!!!
Emergency plan B...visit Andrea in Austin
(Sounds like the start of an alphabet book)


After a couple of fun days hanging out with Andrea and her
two cuter than cute kids (ages 3 & 4) I headed off for San
Antonio. My goal was the River Walk and it was just as good
as advertised . The whole thing is down below street level and
it's both a peaceful oasis and a wonderful outlet for all sorts of
colorful cafes, shops and hotels. There are places to sit and relax
sprinkled throughout, historical markers from time to time.
There's even an amphitheater at a bend in the river with the
stage on one side of the river and the seating set into the
opposite bank. I went in the morning when things were just
getting going. Many of the boats were for taking water from
the river and watering the plants. I had a lovely (and slightly
spicy) Mexican breakfast just so I could linger a bit and take it in.

West Texas

3/27-4/1
Click on Title Bar for Pictures

Have to admit, Texas had been pretty crowded up to this point.
East Texas or the triangle (Dallas-Houston-San Antonio) is
home to most of Texas' 24 million people.

West of San Antonio things are different.

The desert takes over and you can go for miles without seeing
a single house or building. I went through a rainstorm that
kept getting darker and darker before getting to Del Rio.
From Del Rio I drove along the Rio Grande with the 'hills
of old Mexico' in view. Gradually the Texas side became
more and more mountainous as I got closer to Big Bend.

I ended up at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, home to
the highest point in Texas at over 8600 feet.


This is the end of the Pecos River where it flows into the Rio Grande.
The sides of both rivers are quite steep at this point and one of the
reasons the Rio Grande makes an effective border.

The Rio Grande is hidden from view down in its canyon.
The mountains in the distance are the 'hills of old Mexico'

Guadalupe Peak. El 8749' (Highest point in Texas). Guadalupe
Mountains is a gorgeous park about 100 miles east of El Paso
along the border with New Mexico. Backpacking is next to
impossible because there's no water. I opted for a couple of day
hikes instead.

Gila National Forest-New Mexico

April 2-3, 2009

Click on Title Bar for Pictures

Didn't spend a lot of time in New Mexico. I was basically
just passing through on my way to doing some volunteer
trail work in Arizona. But I spent two nights in the Gila
National Forest and a little time in Silver City, NM

Saguaro National Park, Arizona

April 5-11, 2009

The first thing you notice driving into Arizona from the east
is cactuses. BIG cactuses. This is the northeast corner of the
Sonoran desert, an entirely different and much more varied
ecosystem than the more barren Chihuahuan Desert of west
Texas and northeast Mexico.

The Saguaro is the big cactus that one typically thinks of
when one thinks of the southwest. What I didn't realize
was how big these things are, thirty feet high and more.
They dominate the landscape so it's no wonder that the
National Park takes its name from them.


This was a 'volunteer vacation' that I signed up for while I
was still in Port Arthur back in January. My hope was to
get an introduction to hiking in the desert west and see how
the National Park Service rolled when it came to doing trails.

It turned out to be pretty fascinating going from dealing with
the desert to really taking an interest in it and coming to enjoy
and appreciate it.

Grand Canyon

4/14/2009
Click Title Bar for Photos

Pictures don't do it justice (particularly my pictures). They don't
give you the depth, the layers or the subtle color changes that go
with each of the thousands of striations that line the canyon walls
and tell the story of how the Grand Canyon was formed.

I was prepared to be disappointed and went mostly because it
would have been embarassing to say that I'd been in Arizona but
hadn't gone to the Grand Canyon. Instead I was blown away.

Looking at the trails below I promised myself that I'd return
someday and hike the canyon.

Monticello

(Click title bar for photos)

I've often thought about visiting Monticello in passing
but hadn't given it any serious thought on this trip.
Then I found myself in Virginia with a few extra hours
before visiting friends in Maryland and decided to go
for it.

It was a little discomforting in some ways. There were
lots of people and school groups milling around. The
visitors center isn't 18th century at all with its bustle of
tickets, shops and galleries. The tour guide was very
well informed but seemed disgusted either with us or
the repetitiveness of his job or something.

Monticello was Jefferson's place to experiment on all
sorts of things chief among them being the house itself.
He built up. He tore down. He tinkered. Even now it
has a restless quality to it that reflects Jefferson's
curiosity. His true architectural masterpiece is the
University of Virginia which is lumped together with
Monticello as a UN World Heritage Site.

The grounds around the house are beautiful, full of
gardens of all kinds. The inside of the house seemed
kind of small. It was after all a private house and not
designed for hordes of people.

You need a ticket for the shuttle bus and the house tour
but you can wander around the grounds and check out
some of the self-guided tours for free if you didn't mind
the 10-minute walk up from the visitors center.