Florida 2020 (part 1)

 July 1 - 4, 2020

Big Cypress National Preserve and Dolphin Research Center (Grassy Key, FL) and Florida Key Deer Refuge.

We were headed to the Florida Keys and were in no hurry to get to the house we were renting since check-in time wasn't until 3pm. So, we took our time along the Tamiami Trail through Big Cypress National Preserve. 

We did a short hike along a boardwalk. We could hear gators honking, but did not see any. 

We then stopped at stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center which was closed but had a short boardwalk along a pond where we saw a couple gators up close.

Then we continued to the Keys and meetup with friends. A couple days later we went to the Dolphin Research Center. I don't normally like things like this because it feels like it is exploiting the animals. I don't like most zoos for the same reason. With that said, this was way better than something like Seaworld. And it was neat to see dolphins up close.

My wife and kids got in the water while I took photos. They said it was awesome. 

We took our time getting to Key West because of another afternoon check-in time. 

We took a short hike to the Blue Hole where we heard gators but did not see any.

And then drove around a bit exploring and looking for Key Deer. I saw a couple crossing roads in the distance, but by the time I turned around, they were into the brush. I was hoping that the kids would get to see one so I kept driving. As we passed an intersection, I saw a car stopped a bit up the crossroad and I immediately thought "bear jam" like Yellowstone. So I turned around and drove up the road to find a moron out of her car and feeding a deer. There are signs all over saying that it is illegal to feed animals. I stuck my head out the window and yelled that she was breaking the law and she hopped in the car and quickly drove off. I took a couple photos and left the deer in peace.

A little more wandering/driving.

Flamingo in the distance.

And then off to Key West for the big adventure.

Comet Neowise

July 21 2020

Chimney Top, Red River Gorge

I had been kicking myself for missing a couple of really clear nights with very little moon and not trying to see the comet. I looked at the sky around 7:15 (right after dinner) and there were no clouds in the west. I asked my wife if she minded it I drove out to the gorge to check out the comet. Of course she said go right ahead, see you in the morning. I grabbed my camera stuff and filled a Nalgene with water and off I went. I thought I might catch sunset, but for some reason a stretch of the Mountain Parkway was shut so I had to take a side road that cost me about 10 minutes, so I just missed what looked to be a nice sunset. Oh well, not why I was there anyway.

There was still a lot of light so it was a easy/short hike to Chimney Top where I found about 20 other like minded people. I set up off to the side and away from the crowd and waited for it to get dark. 

While waiting, I caught a glimpse of a 1-day old moon. You can just make out the sliver just right of center in the orange part of the sky (look above the valley). This is the youngest moon I have ever seen without a telescope. 

I'll make it easier for you :)

And then the main event. This is with my zoom lens at 105mm.

And then zoomed out or with my 21mm lens. I was happy that the clouds did not come in and ruin the view.

The photo below is a stack of 12 individual photos to get a little more detail.

The sky to the south was lit up with distant lightning the whole time I was waiting for it to get dark and while photographing the comet. Really glad that this did not come closer. After the comet dropped into the clouds on the horizon, I shifted positions to see the Milky Way and the lightning. 

The bright star is Jupiter.

Twin Arches

Twin Arches (Big South Fork)

Sawmill Trailhead

6/14 - 6/17/20 (2 nights)

2020 Bag nights: 14

The weather was unseasonably cool for the middle of June so I figured I would take the kids backpacking for a couple nights to somewhere new. I have spent some time on the west side of Big South Fork but very little on the east side. In addition, I had heard good things about the Twin Arches area, so our destination was settled. 

I planned out a 18ish mile loop for 3 nights with a potential bailout that would make it more like 13ish miles. This seemed reasonable since 5 mile days have not been a problem in the past (note the foreshadowing here).

As we got closer to D-Day, the weather forecast started to look a little more wet, but not so bad that I thought about bailing. 

So load up food and gear and into the car for a 2.5 hour drive. It rained the whole way down (~2.5 hours) and as we were getting close my son (9 years old) says "I don't feel good". He has a past history of car sickness, so I told him hold on, but there was nowhere to pull over. I told his older sister to give him the lunch bag and I hoped to find a pull over. Of course I found a place to pull over just as he emptied his stomach into the empty lunch bag. Once he puked he immediately felt better, but still not 100% and it was still raining. We were just a couple miles from Pickett State Park where we had got a cabin a couple years ago. I could see this ending up being the trip that made my kids hate backpacking so I stopped to see if there was a cabin available, no dice. By then the rain had stopped, so I surveyed the backseat and everyone wanted to go backpacking :)

10 minutes later we were at the trailhead. We headed down the trail towards Slave Falls and then hopefully a nice campsite before everyone got too tired. 

Slave Falls was pretty cool, but there was not a lot of water. It is likely more impressive in the spring. 

The kids were more impressed by the big rock walls on the way to the falls. 

A little farther down the trail we came to Needle Arch which made a good rest break.

And then not much later we came to a great campsite next to the creek. I thought we would make it farther, but everyone was ready to stop. The kids played in the creek for a bit and then easy dinner and bedtime as it got a little colder once the sun dropped below the ridge.

Woke up the next morning and it was a little chilly for them, somewhere in the upper 50s (I thought it was perfect). We took our time packing up and then headed down the trail towards Twin Arches. 

About 1/2 hour into our hike, my son was in the lead and he says "Bear". I did not see anything at first and assumed he saw an odd shaped log or something. I caught up to him and then came around a large tree and there was a 3ish year old black bear about 15 feet up the hill just looking at us. I was so surprised I said "Oh Shit" and told the kids to get behind me. I waved my hands and banged my hiking sticks together and the bear just looked at us. I told my kids to start talking and my oldest very calmly said "Hi Bear, go away bear" while the other two just sort of yelled. The bear looked at us for a couple more seconds and then ambled up and over the hill and out of sight. 

I was very proud of my kids for not panicking and especially for my oldest being very calm. I have repeatedly emphasized that you don't run from a dog or a bear because either one will want to chase you. Evidently, that lesson has sunk in :)

Not much later, we ran into a mom, dad and two teenage daughters who had heard that there was a bear on the trail ahead of them. They asked if we had seen it and what should they do if they saw it. I told them that the chances of them seeing it were small but do what we did and they should be fine. And then we moved down the trail. 

 

Not much later we got to a trail intersection and "Jakes Place". I suspect it was an old homestead, but all that was left was a sort of open area and these allium like flowers. 

And then we started getting interesting geology, really big rock walls and shelters. This made a good lunch spot and play area.

This is a pano attempt to capture how big a nearby shelter was. The pano makes it look deeper than it really is, but gives an idea of scale, the tree in front is about 100 feet tall and the large rock in the right foreground is about 10 feel tall.

And then we got to Twin Arches. This is the North Arch, the man in the middle provides a bit of scale. 

We climbed the stairs to the top of the arch and then followed a user trail and a short scramble to a great view. As we were climbing down we ran into the family from right after the bear encounter, they never saw a bear. 

Then check out the South Arch, again for scale, my kids are the small color blobs on the lower right. 

Interesting flowers, never seen these before.

We hiked down towards Charitt Creek Lodge (a hike in lodge in Big South Fork) and then had a decision to make. We had originally talked about 3 nights, but we had been going a lot slower than I expected. If we kept going down the trail, we were setting ourselves up for a long last day. I gave them the choice of find a campsite nearby and head to the car after 2 nights or go longer and everyone voted for 2 nights. At this point, the three of them bickering with each other was wearing me out, so two nights sounded pretty good. Not long after, we found a great site next to the creek, not far from the lodge. My son wanted a fire so I sent them off to find wood in a very picked over area. They found enough for one fire and I gave them the choice of evening or morning and everyone voted for morning. 

Here they are in PJs the next morning enjoying the warmth. My son thinks that a Buff is like a face mask :)

We packed up and climbed the steep trail to the gravel road and then a road hike of a couple miles got us back to the car. To pass the time, we played a new game where I was the genie granting them each three wishes, but I twisted it around so their wishes did not work out the way they expected (think King Midas and everything he touches turns to gold, including his daughter). So a box of Twinkies exploded in their faces, the flying dragon choose to feed on the neighbors, the flying car need special fuel. My oldest liked trying to outsmart the genie, but my son hated not getting his way :) Oh well, it made the couple miles go by quickly. 

This ended up being a standard "not what I planned, but still good trip". Most importantly, all three kids had fun and want to go backpacking again.

Edge of the Gorge (part 2)

Somewhere near the edge of the Red River Gorge

5/31 - 6/1/20 (1 night)

2020 bag nights: 12

My last bike trip on the edge of the gorge had left more unseen places than I had expected. The weather forecast looked great for a quick overnight so I decided to do a "real" bikepacking trip. This would allow me to test some new gear, but be short enough that if anything did not work it would not be a big deal. 

I parked at the end of a gravel county road that quickly disappears into the actual creek bed. The Forest Service map shows a road going all the way through, but it switches to a four-wheel drive road at the county line. This area is very popular with the ORV crowd, I encountered a bunch of groups/families out for the day in lifted pickup trucks/jeeps and ATVs, I was the only one on a bike.

In the photo below, the "road" goes from where I'm standing over the creek to the right.

Other parts of the road are high and dry, but this doesn't last long.

It is a very pretty area, but hard to appreciate with all of the noise. If I go back, it would be in the middle of the week vs. Sunday.

Once I got up on the ridge, the crowds thinned out and the road made for nice riding ...

... but there were enough steep parts that I decided to aim for my intended campsite. The two tall boys I carried were a great way to enjoy the views and recover from my hike-a-bike day.

First sighting of Mountain Laurel

Not a bad place to hang a hammock. It was warm in the sun, so I enjoyed a bit of shade while I read in the hammock and waited for dinner time and then sunset (~9 pm).

A little more clouds would have been nice, but I can't really complain.

It was the first quarter for the moon, so I knew there wasn't going to be much astrophotography.

Blue hour with some crepuscular rays

I stayed up late enough to enjoy the stars (and see Mercury), but soon it was time for bed.

I woke up the next morning and enjoyed my coffee and the quiet morning, then packed up and headed back towards the car. My plan was to take the only bike friendly trail in the actual Red River Gorge down to a different road and then around to my car. I knew the trail was steep, but I thought I would be able to ride at least part of it. But, I'm not a very good mountain biker and the trail was very overgrown making it hard to see obstacles. I ended up pushing the bike the whole 2 miles down to the road and then had an easy 5ish mile ride back to my car. 

This ended up being a very good test for bikepacking. I learned that I am much more a gravel road and double track rider vs single track. I also learned that I need to work my bicycle leg strength since the ups seemed to work my legs more than steep hiking does. So, not only a good trip, but I learned something as well.