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The end of September brought about the end of the cycling season and time for some cross-training. This involved my first week-long vacation from work since last Christmas and a week-long trip to Glacier National Park to go backpacking!

Photo gallery of some awesome scenes at the end of the post – mostly taken on Jess’ point-and-shoot since my dSLR was a bit bulky for lightweight backpacking.

The first day in the park we drove the Going to the Sun road on the last day it happened to be open for the season, saw a rainbow, and then made camp at Many Glacier on the East side of the park before starting our hiking the next morning. It rained all night, and a forecast for inclement weather combined with wet gear starting off on a 50+ mile trip made things a little up in the air, but we decided to set off and see where things went.

The first day of hiking was 10 miles with a climb up to Ptarmigan tunnel and a great view out towards Elizabeth Lake, our campground for the night. We made camp that evening and woke up to a fresh layer of snow several inches deep.

Day two was supposed to be a very short day, but due to the questionable weather and muddy, wet trail, we decided to detour a bit past a ranger station to check the weather. We came out of the forest into a clearing with fenced in horses and a small cabin with smoke coming out of the chimney. It felt straight out of a movie. Even the park ranger fit the bill – dressed in a full ranger outfit with a handheld radio to check the weather. After some warm tea and a promising forecast, we headed to Glenns Lake for our second night of camping.

Day 3 was 8+ miles and included a climb up Stony Indian Pass, which was easily one of the highlights of the trip. We woke up to fresh snow and frost for the second morning, and enjoyed seeing all the fresh animal (including bear) tracks on the trail with a complete lack of human footprints – the weather had caused cancellation of most of the other trips that would have been on those same trails that week. The climb up to the pass included a view of a massive cascading waterfall surrounded by snowy hillsides with some autumn colors poking through. We didn’t come up with any photos that did it justice. Coming over the top of the pass, we saw fresh bear tracks, and several hundred yards later we saw the culprit racing away from us across the hillside. That night we made camp at Stony Indian Lake and managed to convince ourselves that the deer outside of the tent was actually a bear.

The next day took us another 8 miles from Stony Indian Lake all the way down into the valley just to immediately climb back up 2900 feet to Fifty Mountain campground. The weather had gotten considerably better by this point, and with the snow melted and the trail dry the going was much easier.

From Fifty Mountain we set out along the continental divide via the Highline Trail, and got a close-up view of several bear cubs with a mother nearby. This was our longest day, which ended up being slightly over 12 miles to Granite Park.

Our final day brought us a final bit of climbing 700 feet to the top of Swiftcurrent Pass, and from there it was all downhill back to the car at Many Glacier.

There are many great stories and experiences to share, but this is just a very broad overview of the trip. 54 miles in 6 days of hiking, and it’s certainly one of the more memorable outdoor experiences I’ve had. It was a great getaway from the everyday routine, complete with the fun of dehydrating some of our own food, seeing bears, staying warm curled up in sleeping bags, and nearly running out of toilet paper. Jess was a great travel-mate and I think she enjoyed it every bit as much as I did (except for perhaps the last mile back to the car)!

Now, some photos!

You probably wouldn’t guess that these photos were taken in February on the Oregon Coast if I hadn’t just told you so. Today was a brief but fun escape from reality to go explore Seaside to Tillamook with Jess, and the weather was perfect.

Here are some of the photos I took of the July 4th fireworks display on the Portland waterfront.  Enjoy.

At least all this rain is good for something.

Lots and lots and lots of pictures after the break.  Check them out.

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Why?  Because you don’t have to go anywhere to find subjects!

With this horrendous weather we’re having in California, I realized that my simple “stick the camera in a plastic bag” solution wasn’t going to address the problem of rain getting on the lens and mucking up the photos of the race tomorrow. I figured a hood might be my best bet, but after checking out the only camera shop I could find that was open on a Sunday, I was out of luck. They had a hood for my lens, but it was $40 and was an off-brand accessory. I set about trying to think up what sort of improvised hood I could come up with, when Joey’s friend Andrew stumbled upon the answer: red drinking cups usually synonymous with alcohol consumption!

Rather than using a bag for the camera, I rigged up the hoods for both lenses and decided to attach and tape a bag to each lens to make sure there will be no leakage between the hood and the bag. Now I just need to run to the store and get another bag for the second lens. That way I’ll have both lenses as options tomorrow.

One of my regular assignments from my aunt and uncle has been pruning trees on their property. At this point, after 8-10 trees, I’d consider myself a near-expert. So yesterday and today I decided to tackle the big tree. Here’s the pile I ended up with:

And the highest branches aren’t even cut yet.

Today’s weather was similar to what’s forecasted for the Bay Area next Monday, so I spent some time adjusting camera settings and taking some test shots panning on cars going by. I’m sure I weirded out a few passing motorists by taking pictures of them. Don’t worry motorists, I didn’t actually want your photo.

It looks like at ISO 400-800 I can get away with 1/125th of a second for objects moving under 20MPH and 1/200-320th for approximately 30MPH. It creates a nice minor action blur while maintaining clarity. As far as zoom, the 70-300mm lens is only useful if I’m at least 30-40 feet away. Any less than that and the 18-55 is my only viable choice. Wondering what on earth I’m talking about? The Tour of California next week, of course!