Summer travels :: Part 2

After my adventures in 112 degree TX (heat index... the real temperature was only 107), I was pretty stoked to head up to the Northwest to see family, friends, and the Cascade mountains again. Although there are some nice tall hills on the east coast, there's nothing approaching the rugged beauty of the Cascades. Needless to say, I tried to make the best of my time here. In fact, of the first 9 days I was in the NW, I was in the mountains 7 of them.

The first overnight trip was instigated by meeting up with a friend who recently graduated from Cornell and is spending the entire summer traveling around the NW doing photography. I'm not the least bit jealous. (right...) Anyhow, we headed up to Twin Lakes for one night, up past Monte Christo - a gold-mining ghost town from around the turn of the century. In addition to a bit of interesting history, this stretch of mountains is essentially in the "backyard" of my parents' place (less than 1/2 hour drive to be well into rugged beauty).

The weather report was iffy, and we left under clouded skies, but it began to break as we headed back past the first ranks of mountains. During the 8+ mile hike in, it felt like we were being chased by a view-crushing wall of fog. We could see it literally spilling over the ridge behind us, like dry ice fog over a punchbowl. As we topped the ridge overlooking Twin Lakes, we had no less than two or three minutes before it caught up with us, turning the view to a complete white-out.

It doesn't come off in the picture, but the clouds were literally spilling off the ridge behind us like dry ice

The last ridge holding back the fog from the Twin Lakes. The rock in the center of the picture is about 30 feet tall!

Fortunately, that last ridge held the fog mostly at bay for the rest of the day, and yielded some interesting pictures, including the sunset lighting up the 2000 foot high granite wall behind the lakes a beautiful orange. It's been a long time since I slept in the mountains, and it was a wonderful thing.

The next morning we woke to mixed skies that quickly turned to dense fog. Our hike out followed a ridge for several miles, and we all know what happens to saturated fog as it blows up and across the top of a ridge. Yes, precipitation. Mostly light, but enough to soak the bushes along the boot trail we were following and thus soak us. As we dropped off the ridge, things improved rapidly, and by the time we hit the car, it was a beautiful partly cloudy day. Oh well. It was still an awesome trip that just whetted my appetite for more backpacking.

A beautiful, crystal clear stream ran right by where we chose to camp

The sun "set" ~1 hour earlier at our campsite than a point a couple hundred yards to the left (relative to this picture)

Looking across the upper of the twin lakes

Nice sunset lighting

Dusk across the upper lake

The next morning under a blanket of clouds that we shortly hiked up into.

Summer travels :: Part 1

I've spent the majority of the summer within the borders of Ithaca. Fortunately, here in August I finally have my chance to get out and see a little different scenery. The main reason for the timing revolves around presenting a paper at the Solid Freeform Fabrication conference in Austin, TX. Before that, I managed to squeeze in a couple days with my Dad's brother and family up in Arlington, TX before catching the Amtrak down to Austin. Always fun to spend time with them.

Main lobby of the Driskill

The conference itself went well (as far as those things go). My presentation went by on the first afternoon without any major hitches, and moderate interest. It's more than I expected, given how most of this conference is focused on very specific 3D printing processes that are fundamentally different than what I'm looking at. The most exciting part of the whole thing was probably the hotel they had us staying at. The Driskill Hotel is easily the most famous historic hotel in Austin. Right in the heart of downtown, it was built well before the turn of the century as a premiere luxury hotel. It still retains its historical charm and luxurious appointments. (I think it was the first hotel I've stayed at that has a doorman) Don't let a grad student get used to accommodations like this!

Driskill Hotel, Austin TX, c. 1886

Painting adorning the ceiling of the ballroom at the Driskill

Mezzanine level of the Driskill (left) looking out from the ballroom

Tallest hotel room I've ever stayed in, by a long shot! (right)

Texas state capitol

I also spent some time wandering around downtown. Austin is a pretty friendly, unique city (lots of character!) Known as the live music capital of the world, even on Monday night there was a live band in most of the establishments. I also ventured down to a (relatively) famous bridge at dusk where the largest urban bat population resides. There were certainly a lot of bats! Also, the Texas state capital was within walking distance from the hotel, and was impressively lit up at night.









Inside the dome of the capitol

Adirondacks!

I was just going to post about my big summer travels when I noticed I never got around to posting pictures from a camping trip I went on several weeks ago with some friends up to the Adirondack Mountains (Hills). We camped at Lake Durant (here) right near the geographical center of the Adirondacks. Not really a ton to note other that we spent two nights up there, and did a bunch of short hikes (walks), ate s'mores, and played Uno. Here's a few pics...

Fire tower! (On top of Goodnow Mtn (here) Not in use, but open to climb.

View from the top of the fire tower.

Sunset over Lake Durant (from our campground)

Blue Mountain Lake from Blue Mountain (here)

Another fire tower on our way out, near 6th Lake (here)