An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

I've written about this before ( more than once ), but it keeps happening, so I have to kvetch about it again. Any time you play a music gig of any scale, there are in essence three sound systems. First, each musician makes their own noise through their own amplifier or, in the case of instruments like drums, makes plenty of noise without amplification - in any case, each instrument makes its own noise. Second, you have the PA system everyone knows about, which amplifies the band for the audience. The band is behind the speakers from this system and so doesn't generally hear much from it onstage. The third sound system, that non-musicians don't always know about, is a separate system (called "monitors") for amplifying the sound onstage, so that musicians can all hear each other - and also vocals. In a PA of any quality you can have multiple mixes onstage if, for example, maybe I want to hear the bass player through my monitor but the singers just want to hear the...

 If you have read this blog for long enough you've probably come across my annual logs of coffeeneuring , a fun challenge sponsored by the  cycling blog  Chasing Mailboxes . It's not a competition, just a friendly game to get you out riding to new places and enjoying hot bean-based bevarges. As the blog puts it, you "Ride your bike to 7 different locations from Friday October 7 through Sunday November 20, 2022, and drink a coffeeneuring-approved beverage." There are some additional rules, but that's the gist of it. As I've mentioned before , the cycling world just loves little contests, challenges, competitions, themed activities, and the like. Well, sad to say I didn't complete the challenge this year. I did six coffee rides but never got around to doing a seventh. Here are my 2022 coffeeneuring rides: Week 1: 10/7 - 13 Ride 1 (10/9): For some reason, library cards have an expiration date. I guess every once in a while the library wants to check that you ...

I am a glutton for fall foliage. This year I've already sought peak foliage hiking in Shenandoah National Park and Sky Meadows State Park, not to mention the not insignificant foliage pleasures of driving to rehearsal through Rock Creek Park in DC and biking the W&OD Trail through Bluemont Park. But still I wanted more. Part of my foliage addiction is always trying to re-capture peak foliage experiences of the past. Fountainhead is always a sweet spot for foliage paddling, and in 2016  I hit it just right and experienced some truly sublime beauty on the water. I was pretty sure that today, a cloudy day slightly past peak, wasn't going to equal that day, but I decided to give it a try. I hit the water about 9:10 AM. The reservoir level is very low; for those familiar with the boat launch, the water line is about a a foot short of even touching the rubber mats at the ramp (these mats usually extend into the water). I launched and got in about fifteen minutes of paddling befo...

All the hikes I can remember ever having done at Sky Meadows State Park in Virginia start with a walk through the cow pasture (carefully tiptoeing around the cow patties) and then up onto the Appalachian Trail. It turns out there are some other nice hikes in the park, including a loop I hiked with my friend Steve. We were pointed to this hike by Steve's twenty year old hiking guide, which was a little inaccurate in the details (it appears they've reworked one trail junction since the book was written), but which generally steered us right. The hike took us past some magnificent views with valleys filled with pastures and hillsides alive with fall color. Yes, we eventually had to traverse the cow pasture, but coming at it from the other direction you realize that there's a splendid view from the top of it. The day started out cloudy and rainy, and we delayed our departure hoping that the rain would move out. In fact it did, and the weather behind it was better than had been ...

 One of the nice things about being self-employed/semi-retired is that I can do things like make a spur of the moment decision to take advantage of a beautiful autumn day and go hiking at Shenandoah National Park. In all honesty, I don't actually have total control over my schedule - I missed two meetings to do this "hooky day", but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I entered the park at Thornton Gap, and after a quick stop to take in the view at Tunnel View Overlook I parked at Hawksbill Gap and got ready to hike. I had watched the temperature drop by almost 15 degrees as I drove from the valley up into the park and I knew it would be yet colder up top, so I had packed lots of layers and a glove. Wait, what? One glove? Actually, I know for a fact I had brought two gloves since I was wearing them when I left the house, but one of my gloves mysteriously disappeared between home and the trailhead. Either it fell out when I stopped at Tunnel View Overlook (I stopped ...

I took a trip where I was introduced to a type of camping I had never done before - call it wilderness car camping. When I think of car camping I envision something like a state park with a certain degree of infrastructure: defined campsites and conveniences such as water spigots and bath houses. And of course, you can drive your car to your campsite and so you go in heavy with lots of gear. In contrast, when wilderness camping (backpacking or kayak camping) the campsites are remote, have little to no infrastructure (maybe an outhouse), and you have to get yourself and all your gear to the campsite under your own power - in a backpack or a boat - so you travel light. Wilderness car camping sits somewhere in the middle. For my friend Steve camping used to mean only backpacking; however, as his hips and knees have aged he's become more open to car camping. But, he still doesn't like the idea of going someplace as developed as a state park. What he and his usual camping buddies (e...

 Let me tell you about my trip to the Adirondacks. It was amazing. We had all arranged to meet up at Jen's at dinnertime on Friday, and the first order of business was to bond over pizza. Take a look at this delicious slice of pizza! Delicious pizza! (1) The next morning it was time to pack up our boats and get ready to launch. Here's all the stuff I had to fit into my kayak, plus my boat on the dock at Low's Lower Dam, getting ready to launch. Lots of camping gear has to go into the boat (2) Getting ready to launch (3) Off we went, through the Bog River and onto Low's Lake. We got a later start than we expected, so it was dusk by the time we got to our campsite. Getting to the campsite at dusk (4) Boy, the Adirondacks are lovely. Look at this lovely scene from the water! Lovely Adirondack scenery (5) Our campsite was beautiful! And we could hike around and find some neat waterfalls and stuff! Here I am, on a hike near the campsite (6) There is nothing like the beauty ...

 I'm not going to write a whole long post about our trip to Seattle. Suffice it to say we went there and saw all the usual sights. Instead, this is a briefer post focusing on the highlights. First, this was the first trip the four of us have taken together in eleven years - since a somewhat disastrous to Orlando when the boys were still in high school. That was really nice in and of itself. The four of us have been together at home plenty of times since then, but we haven't travelled or spent this kind of extended time where we're all doing things together. So that was nice. Look! We enjoy spending time together! The trip got off to a good start when we all got to SEATAC airport at the same time (serendipitous thanks to Ted having missed his original flight), met up easily, shared a taxi into town and had an excellent meal at a place we chose somewhat at random because it was near our townhouse rental - and then the rental was ready early for us to check in just as we finis...