Boston!

In the midst of tons of weekends outdoors, I had the opportunity to present some research last week at a DARPA grant progress report meeting/conference in Boston with several others from my lab. The meeting itself involved doing demos, so I got to haul some of my research over there and set it up. Fortunately it all worked well enough. Other notables at the meeting itself included the first night "teambuilding" activities, which consisted of a Nintendo set up playing the "rock band" game where people "play" guitar and drums and sing. Yeah. A bunch of government bigwigs and top-of-their-game professors doing glorified karaoke. Wow. Needless to say the grad students in general did a little better, and our "band" actually got 3rd place (Woohoo. Won a Darpa water bottle!). Fortunately, the drum controllers for the game are sort of like electric drums, so I was able to cobble together a decent showing based purely on actually playing drums.

The conference hotel was interesting. Right by the Charles river, but with a style of architecture that was interesting, but reeked of the 70s.

The most fun of the week involved getting out of the hotel though. A friend who worked in my lab as an undergrad is now at MIT doing grad school. He gave a tour of the media lab, where he works. Impressions? So much creativity, engineering, and fabrication capability in one place its ridiculous. I love the intersection of art, music, and engineering. I don't regret declining MIT's admission offer, but if I had ended up there the Media lab would be where it was at for me.

MIT Media lab lobby. This entire building was full of labs that just emanated creativity and new ideas.

We also wandered through the Stata center, Frank Gerry's famous new building on the MIT campus. Its very... modern. I don't think there's a 90 degree angle anywhere in the building, and it was awesome to wander through and photograph, although fans of classical architecture probably would not appreciate it.

The Stata center, MIT's new(ish) famous computer science building. Very dynamic and fun to try and capture (in picture).

Interior of the Stata center. There were literally buildings within buildings, and it was all so 3D. Never a dull corridor or a boring room.

Next I wandered over to Harvard, which was a couple miles away. Impressions here? I expected more in terms of the architecture. It was nice, but not stunning. It felt like a nicely-kept housing complex, with some old brick buildings, white-framed windows, and a nice traditional quad. I left slightly underwhelmed, wondering if I had even found the right place (although the signs said I had indeed). I suppose that may be part of its charm... that it feels like a smaller school, yet has such highly esteemed programs.

Tree, Harvard campus. Fall colors were not yet peak in Boston, but a few trees were turning anyway.

Nothing else too notable on the trip. I woke up at sunrise the next morning to go for a nice run down the Charles and through downtown. I enjoyed seeing the city again, and secretly enjoyed not being a camera-toting tourist as I ran through, although there certainly would have been some nice shots. My impressions from my previous visit to Boston still hold true... it is a very nice city with a lot of character and a lot of fun to wander around!

The Charles river, by the hotel. Looking downriver towards downtown Boston.

Fall Outdoor Fun!

It's been a good season for outdoors activities! I've been keeping busy with COE (Cornell Outdoor Education) both teaching and taking classes. I decided to try something completely new this semester, so I took a whitewater kayaking course. We spent a few session in the pool, learning how to roll and recover and getting a feel for the little boats, then we took two trips. The first trip was to a standing wave on a river a couple hours north of here in Watertown that was fun to play around. But the whole class was leading up to a weekend trip to actually run a couple rivers.

We packed up the boats and gear Friday night, then took off Saturday morning on a beautiful day. We headed down to northern PA to run the Lehigh River, which was going to be class 2/3 rapids. One thing I didn't know is that they actually do dam releases just so that people can whitewater kayak and raft on these rivers on the weekends. Interesting. The boats themselves are little tiny things that look like they should flip over with someone sitting in them. But they are extremely maneuverable, indestructible, and after the pool sessions I was pretty comfortable with them.

The river itself was nice. Nothing super crazy, just lots of sun, trees, whitewater, and good times. It was a pretty long run, so we ended getting off the river getting on towards evening. We decided to camp nearby at a rafting company campground, which turned out to be an experience. The place was crawling with junior high kids and had the atmosphere of a summer camp. There was a store, a zip line, an arcade... you get the idea. Better yet, after dark just as we were about to crash for the night the camp DJ turned on the lights and music in the pavilion across the field from us and fired up the dance party. You're kidding, right?? I was embarrassed to be there in a COE van, but it did make the whole experience fairly memorable.

Me on the Mongaup. The class 3 section is below the bridge this was taken from. (photo: Scott V.)

The next day we drove to southern NY and ran the Mongaup river, which had an real class three section at the end. It was a shorter run, but a lot more intense. Also extremely nice, in the same northeast tree-lined river sort of way. The Mongaup empties into the Delaware at the bottom, but the first time through I ended up hitting the last rapid too close behind another student and got spit out into the mighty Delaware upside-down, bumping my (helmeted) head against rocks along the bottom. That would never do, so fortunately it was reasonable to carry my boat back up and run it again unencumbered. So I managed to stay up that time, and end the trip well.

I've also been doing as much climbing as time permits, including trips with friends and even leading a COE outdoor climbing class last weekend over the 4 days of Fall Break. The weather was absolutely gorgeous fall weather, with the tree colors in full swing, cold, crisp nights, and days that got warm enough to shed a layer or two. The students were awesome, and we all had a good time. Earlier in the season (and a bit over the summer) I had the chance to work on my trad lead climbing. Always good times to spend a weekend with friends and rock!!

Trad climbing earlier this summer. I obviously didn't lead this one, but I lead for the first time later this day. This imposing overhang is actually only a 5.8. Gotta love the Gunks!

Toproping at Peterskill in the Gunks. Good times! (Photos: Jen)

Summer Catch-Up Post...

Whoops. It's now been a couple months since I posted, despite a three week trip to TX and the northwest at the end of August. Hopefully everyone interested has found the photo galleries from the hiking here and here. I'll summarize the highlights here quickly:

-I was in Austin, TX for a conference, but like the last couple years I was able to spend the weekend before with cousins and family in Arlington. Always amazing to see them, eat some good food, and relax! Highlights of the conference include real tex-mex food. There is nothing remotely good in that vein here in Ithaca. Also, one evening activity was a riverboat cruise along the river that goes through Austin. We were definitely away from the downtown area, cruising through some pretty wealthy neighborhoods. Honestly felt more like CA than TX.

Pennybacker Bridge, Lake Austin. From a riverboat cruise that was part of the conference.

-Got back to the NW just after a heat streak. Did a short hike to Gothic Basin to wet the appetite for later in the week. Weather was dry, but moody which made for fun photos!

Foggy Lake, living up to its name

Looking out over Gothic Basin from Gothic Peak over the clouds socking in the valleys.

-Went on one of the most ambitious backpacking trips I've done. 5 days/72mi along the Alpine Lakes stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail. It was a blast, and a good chance to make use of some of my lightweight backpacking gear which made it quite bearable. The weather definitely could have been better, as we spent a good bit of time hiking through clouds oblivious to the magnificent beauty that was no doubt around us. there were a couple nice days though, so all in all it was well worth it!

Avalanche Lake, on the one sunny morning of the five day backpacking trip

Beneath Cathedral rock, on the one sunny evening of the trip.

Kendal catwalk, on the last day. The fog was awesome here, since it made the cliff just fall down hundreds of feet into oblivion.

-After so many days of bummer weather, I managed to get out on one more day hike before I had to come back to the northeast. This time the weather was picture-perfect, and the hike was the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. Period, no doubt in my mind even two months afterwards. The Enchantments are well know for both hiking and climbing, but are normally done as a 2-3day backpacking trip. However, traveling light and fast it was a decent 25 mile day hike.

Leprechaun Lake. One of about 11 lakes in series, each one stunningly beautiful.

Perfection Lake. I agree.

Prussik Peak. Alpine climbing heaven.