Backpacking the Great Smoky Mountains National Park 03.2011

To fight off some cabin fever I went with a few college buddies to the Smoky Mountains National Park for a quick 3 day backpacking trip.

We did about 17 miles; 6 on day 1 to site #11, 9 on day 2 to site #16 with a side trip to Abrams Falls, and 3 out on day 3.

The trails were just like I remembered them from a college Spring Break trip 12-ish years ago – nothing is flat!  Nice and scenic but you spend all day hiking up and over mountains and in and out of ravines.

We didn’t see much wildlife and only a few other groups of people outside Abrams falls.  The weather was perfect; mid 70’s with low 50’s at night and not a drop of rain.

After the trip we stayed at a small resort in Townsend, Valley View.  We took advantage of the hot tub and took a trip over to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg for some BBQ and go karts!

Pictures on Flickr

Fall Camping – Kohler Andrae

We did some late September Fall camping at Kohler Andrae State Park.  It was a beautiful weekend like most of this Fall.  Just took one picture which sums it up.

Camping Harrington Beach

This weekend (we haven’t even left yet!) we’ve been camping at Harrington Beach State Park near Belgium, WI.  Harrington Beach is an older day-use park with a new campground and it’s quickly becoming one of our favorites.  The facilities are great, the campsites are grassy and private.

We got in late on Friday, setup and went to bed.  Saturday was huge.  Got up at 9 am, made breakfast.  Napped until 2 (it was raining).  Took a walk. Went to WalMart. Went to a custard place for burgers and dessert.  Lounged around and were back in bed before 10 pm!

Today hasn’t been much more productive except for catching up on all these blog posts.  I had planned to fish in one of the two ponds (both stocked with trout) in the park but just didn’t pull it together.  Maybe next month.

I forgot my cameras but got a couple grainy shots with the iPhone.

Utah 08.2010

I flew out to Utah with a co-worker last month to attend the awesome Outdoor Retailer trade show.  After the show, we spent 3 days in the High Uintas Wilderness doing some backpacking and then a day of sightseeing around the Great Salt Lake.

Backpacking in the High Uintas was awesome.  Lots of small alpine lakes, challenging trail, and high altitude.

We started near Mirror Lake and hiked the Highline trail to Carolyn lake and back.  We originally intended to go all the way to Jean and Dean lakes but we underestimated the distance and our acclimatization to the 10,000+ ft. altitude.

Night one we spent at Carolyn Lake which is loaded with small Arctic Grayling.  I think you could catch a few with anything on the end of a line.

Night two we hiked back to Wilder Lake and made the steep descent down to the lake.  We had camping there all to ourselves and enjoyed some Brook Trout fishing in that small lake.

Great trip overall.

Pictures on Flickr

Milwaukee’s Irish Fest 2010

My Mom and Dad came up for a visit in August during Irish Fest.  We took the boy down for the afternoon.

A few pictures on Flickr (which have very little to do with Irish fest)

Old-ish Pictures: Milwaukee County Zoo October 2009

Last year in October my sister and nieces came to visit.  It was a nice fall day so we took a trip to the zoo.  My camera battery died on picture one but the iPhone grabbed a couple decent ones.

Pictures on Flickr

Weeklong Camping at Kohler Andrae and Harrington Beach State Parks

Later in July this year we took a week long camping trip starting at Kohler Andrae and finishing at Harrington Beach State Park on Lake Michigan.

Three words: Hot, wet, and bugs.  In no particular order.

We had a good time as always but it rained (Milwaukee got 13 inches in July), we got destroyed by mosquitoes, and it was jungle hot.  Night one included the rangers coming through the campground with lights and sirens to wake people up for the massive thunder storm heading for the campground.  It ended up not being that windy but tons more rain fell.

For the first time in years we bailed a day early.  The frustrating part was we had recently bought an air conditioner for the camper but apparently it was busted.  We turned it on and the camper got hotter!

We spent a lot of time in Lake Michigan which was pretty comfortable with the hot weather.

Pictures on Flickr