Floridian Foray

With a 4-day weekend in front of me, I decided to try to get out and explore the ol' Florida a bit. Water being its key attraction, I started with grand plans for a float trip that eventually got scaled down to a one-night trip with a dude from the element named Ray, after other parties bailed. The basic idea was to take a canoe and a couple of kayaks down to Ft. DeSoto State Park, paddle across the channel to an island named Shell Key (it appears that to Floridians "key"is to "island" as "snowmachine" is to "snowmobile" for Alaskans), and set up camp. The canoe would transport our gear, then we'd use the kayaks to explore the area and catch fish for dinner.

More trail rated than you can shake a stick at.

A view of our flotilla. To move everything at once, we lashed the kayaks together and dragged them behind us in the canoe. It worked pretty decently, even in a moderate chop.

One of the signs circling the key. Our camp was in the trees - we actually approached from the water on the other side. This was taken on the second day. The first day was cloudy, but warm. We kayaked for several hours without any success catching fish before a thunderstorm chased us back to camp. We got a fire going in time for a torrential downpour, waited that out long enough to eat, then slept. Next time, I'm bringing more than a wool blanket for sleeping.

Our camp. Ray's got a "tent cot" going on in the background. That's right, a cot that is also a tent, kind of like a jungle hammock, but much heavier, and without the damage to trees. Cool concept. Waterproofing needs some work - he had to cut a hole in the cot to drain the water out of it.

We happened upon a sweet rope swing by our campsite.

View from the key's beach. I must admit, the morning view was pretty awesome.

While the second day was gorgeous, it was also fairly cold. While I probably didn't need the hat and rain jacket, I was going with it since I'd just gotten feeling back in my toes.

All in all, sleeping in a tent was awesome, the camp site was pretty sweet, and paddling around randomly was cool, although a fish or two would have been nice. Yep, I think this water camping thing might have some potential.

Road Trip out West

I had a little bit of leave saved up and an itching to be in the mountains, so after Christmas my brother and I headed out on a road trip through the West. The basic idea was to fly into Las Vegas, drive East to Taos for a couple of days of skiing, spend New Year's at Philmont, drive North to Denver, hike a 14er, maybe ski a day, then go home.

We slept the first night at a state park just over the New Mexico border. It felt great to wake up in a tent to a crisp, clear morning. We didn't stay long, though, as the road and Taos were beckoning.

Ahh...the mountains.

Taos was more mogul-filled than I had anticipated, but by the second day of skiing I found something more along the lines of looking for. I don't have any photos of it, but the afternoon I made a few runs down the Kachina Bowl, which was full of sweet steep runs that made me wish I'd hit them up sooner.

Stephen rocking it on skis. It was the first time he'd been on two planks in about 7 or 8 years, so it started off a little rocky. He was solid by the second day, though. After a long holdout, Taos is opening to snowboarders March 19 of this year. Too late for Stephen, though.

You'll notice the snow on my hat...it wasn't placed there intentionally.

After New Year's at Philmont we took a hike out to Lover's Leap. We were out earlier than most of the other hikers, for good reason. It was 14 degrees at the start of the hike. We hiked the road out to Lover's and considered returning via the trail, but some of our party was unaccustomed to the cold, so we ended up going back via the road again.

A ranger from Stephen's time at the ranch named Danny hiked with us out to Lover's Leap. Pretty cool dude.

While it was cold enough for my brother's goatee to gather frost, my stubble sadly garnered none.

The Tooth, as seen with snow on the ground. Unfortunately, unhikeable due to icy conditions on the trail up.

Due to high avalanche danger, climbing the 14er was canceled. With a day to fill, Stephen and I checked out Boulder and too a walk up Boulder Creek. This is from Stephen playing around with his camera.

When the trail got slow, we scrambled around on the rocks for a while.

Stephen bouldering. How literal.

Me doing a little bouldering.

We ended up spending our second Colorado day out at Vail. This is Steve, whose hospitality we enjoyed both in Denver and out at Vail.


You can pay $15 for a spaghetti lunch on Vail. Or you can split $5 and eat summer sausage, cheese, and crackers. Scrumptious.

Stephen, back in his natural environment on a snowboard.

A shot of one of the bowls. I'm the little dot skiing down.

Overall, the trip turned out pretty awesome, and a nice change from the flat, snowless land of Florida. I look forward to being out in the mountains again.