Paris

June 6 - 12

My wife and I had a kid free trip to Paris, here are some of the photo highlights.

We had a hotel near the Seine which proved to be fortuitous for photography, I had not really done any research so did not have any real plans from a photography point of view. My wife had done the basic travel research so we hit some of the tourist highlights.

The Conciergerie is an old palace that was later a prison. Marie Antoinette was held here before she was excuted during the French Revolution. Neat place, but not super photographic (at least to my landscape eye).

The outside of Sainte-Chapelle, an old Gothic Chapel for the French Kings. Outside = kind of boring

Inside = amazing almost floor to ceiling stained glass, just wow

Unfortunately, like most pretty places in Paris, it was packed with people, still totally worth seeing.

Another day we headed north to Sacré-Cœur Basilica. Pretty church, but there was a church service going on and we don't like to be disrespectful to others, so we did not spend much time inside. Outside was a tourist shit show that detracted from the views of the city. We did not linger long.

After dinner one night we got back to the hotel around 10ish, my wife was tired and I was not.
I said, "I'm going for a walk along the river"
My wife said, "Be careful, don't get mugged"
I had a great couple of hours, Paris and the Seine is very beautiful at night.

Along the Seine during the day, not quite as pretty, but still nice.

There are a lot of bridges across the Seine of varying ages/architecture. It made for an interesting walk.

One night, I dragged my wife out after an earlier dinner to see the sunset (about 10pm) and an after dinner drink ...

... and then I went hiking some more,

Musee d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower

And with the moon, I can't decide which version I like better

The next morning, I woke up early for some reason. So I left my wife sleeping and grabbed coffee at Starbucks nearby and enjoyed a couple hours along the early morning Seine. I decided that this was a good time for a different type of reflections.

I did take a couple "normal" reflection photos as well. 

I really liked this old wooden motor boat passing by. I had seen it or something similar the previous day. I think they do expensive private boat tours, sort of wish we had ponied up for something like that :)

The last full day we went to the Musee d'Orsay, it was packed with tourists with selfy sticks. The art was great, but the crowds were horrible. The view of Sacré-Cœur was nice though

Not in the photographic record, we went to the Lourve Museum twice (once by ourselves and once with a private guide). We had a couple nice dinners, we wandered around a couple ok neighborhoods, but nothing I wanted to photograph. We walked past Notre Dame a couple different times, but this was only a couple months after the fire, so scaffolding and fences, i.e. not photograph worthy.

In the end, June in Paris is just to crowded to enjoy the obvious tourist stuff. I'll go back, but only in the winter when it is cold and wet and most of the tourists are somewhere else.

Red River Gorge Veranda

Jun 3 - 4 2019 (1 night)
Red River Gorge (Daniel Boone NF)
2019 bag nights: 4

I wanted to test out a lens for astrophotography and got permission for a quick overnight trip. At the last minute, my wife suggested I take my son for some boy's time, sure why not since I was not planning on anything hard.

We had an easy hike to "The Veranda" where I was a little disappointed to find a solo camper already set up. I figured I'd have the place to myself in the middle of the week. He had a hammock so was back in the trees while we setup the tent near the end and a nice view. I talked to him a little bit before dinner and probably would have chatted more, but this was supposed to be "boys time" with my son.

Texting mom with my InReach

Afterglow from the sunset, this is looking east towards Hansons Point

My son went to bed and I watched the stars and had a splash to drink, but it was pretty obvious that the clouds were going to ruin astrophotography.

I left my camera set up to take photos all night. There was enough humidity that the lens ended up coated with dew by the morning, but you can still see the milky way rising here (about midnight).

We woke up and made a small fire in an existing fire ring. He had hot chocolate and I had some coffee.

While packing up the tent, we found a small praying mantis which he thought was pretty cool. 

Then one last photo ...

... and down the trail 

Grays Arch, notice my son in the lower right corner for scale.

Then pizza at Miguels and home. Note: we don't usually drink soda, but this was a "celebration". He wanted Sprite but they only had Mountain Dew. I told him that I loved it when I was his age (can't stand it now). So his first Mountain Dew, he thought it was awesome and mentions it all the time. I think he needs to go backpacking again if he wants some more :)

A great trip with my son, I'm glad my wife suggested that I take him.

Citico Creek Wilderness

May 20 - 21 2019 (1 night)
2019 bag nights: 3

The weather forecast looked reasonable, i.e. not too hot at higher elevations and not stormy. I had family permission to disappear for a couple nights. So, I decided to check out the Citico Creek Wilderness (TN) which is on the TN/NC border and next to the Joyce Kilmer/Slickrock Wilderness (NC). I've been to Joyce Kilmer a number of times, but never spent much time in Citico Creek.

I started at Beech Gap on the state line and had a short hike to Bob Stratton Bald. The forecast for the bald was lows around 50 and highs around 70, basically perfect hiking weather. I set up my hammock and wandered around a little bit. I had camped here before and was planning on getting water from a small spring on the edge of the bald, but it was mostly dry and muddy. So I hiked back about a half mile to a better spring. Then, I cooked dinner and wandered around some more. A family appeared and ruined my hopes for mid-week solitude, but they were nice and I told them where the good spring was. They ended up camping up in the trees on the edge of the bald and I did not see too much of them.

I laid in my hammock and enjoyed the view for a bit and ...

... waited for sunset ...

... the clouds mostly disappeared, but the sunset was still nice and ...

... I waited for the stars. The milky way was not going to come up for a couple hours and it was close to a full moon, so I wasn't planning on much astrophotography. I was just enjoying the view. I laid in my hammock and watched the moon rise and fell asleep.

It was a little chilly overnight, but I woke to another beautiful day.

Interesting flower

I wanted to explore the wilderness and had plans to hike north on the Fodderstack Trail and loop back on other trails over the next couple of days. There is a waterfall (Old Goat Falls) mentioned in the guidebook for the area, so I headed down the North Fork of Citico Creek to find the falls. I did not have the book with me but I knew it was close to the Fodderstack Trail. It was only about a mile down the trail, but it ended up being ~1000' lower. The falls weren't that impressive/not worth hiking down for, but once I was there I decided to keep heading lower and then would connect with another trail to head further into the wilderness. 

Old logging/railway stuff

The trail is pretty easy to follow, but a little overgrown ...

... and as you get lower, the trail gets wetter ...

... and wetter. Unfortunately, as I dropped further down from the ridge, it also got a lot warmer. Instead of low 70's, it was more like mid-80s and very humid.

I was beginning to regret dropping off the ridge and then I saw this in the middle of the trail. I still hate snakes.

And then not much later I slipped and fell on a rock crossing in the process banging up my knee and opening a nice cut on my shin. And then, I saw another snake (different species).

At this point, I was soaked with sweat, my knee and ankle hurt and I had blood dripping down my shin. The good news was I had not seen anyone since I left the bald, the bad news was I was not having much fun. I looked at the map and realized that I could connect the North Fork with the South Fork and aim back towards the car and I could make a stay or leave decision later. As I got closer the the lower trailhead/intersection the bugs began to get worse and that pretty much made up my mind.

There was a stretch with a lot of mountain laurels blooming, so that made me happy, but the bugs made them hard to really enjoy.

I went from the North Fork Citico to the South Fork Citico to the Jeffery Hell Trail and then to the road and walked the road the last 1.5 miles and 500' up. All in all it made for a long day ~17 miles and ~ 5000' down and 4000' up. I was very happy to see my car, but then had to drive the 4 hours back home. A very long day. 

I decided that late fall through early spring is my ideal time for this area. I'd rather deal with cold and wet vs. hot and humid. And the snakes are all hibernating :)