Scotland, Antarctica, Puffins and More,
Alaska_2016, Joshua Tree NP, Puerto Rico_2019, New Zealand, Argentina,
East Africa, Nepal, SW--USA_2008,
Svalbard_2008, Norway-Iceland_2008, Camino de Portugues_2015
(amid the covid pandemic)
Fully Posted
 |
| Capital Reef |
I continued to teach skiing and snowboarding at Snowy Range
Worked on some on-line courses, one on Futures Thinking that was pretty cool (Coursera), some UW training, plus earned a FEMA incident certificate.
Also in January I went to Utah to check out some lovely winter canyons with a friend from Colorado.
February saw 3 days to Leadville, CO for some xc skiing and winter mountain biking for my friends. Did a bit of x-c skiing in the local hills as well.
In March I lived in my truck for 10 days and received my WFR in Spearfish, SD through NOLS and WMI, then got stuck in Spearfish due to a major snowstorm in WY. I eventually made it home via Nebraska and Colorado... not exactly the most direct route.
March was a Big Birthday. The last three years, two friends and I have celebrated dinner together at the local Thai restaurant, but with covid, we did take-out instead. But I did, finally, make out my Will. So those of you still stalling, get 'er done!!
Spring also had me doing some snowboarding at Steamboat on my pass from last year that I did not get to use when everything shut down. Then I headed off to Snowbird to visit with my brother and do a couple more days of riding. Then got stuck getting home as I-80 was a mess. Even did a stop over with some friends in Rawlins before the Interstate was open all the way to Laramie.
My long time friend from time at Dartmouth was passing through Laramie and stayed over. It was nice to have a visitor after so many months of isolation.
 |
| Valentina and her kittens |
I continued my volunteering of kittens, having two cuties, Scotty, a beautiful orange tabby, and Dusty, a very shy (but cuddly once held) black kitty. Then there was Valentina with her 4 kittens: Godric, Salazar, Rowena, and Albus (notice a theme to those names?) I worked with LAWS in Laramie to get them all grown and healthy for adoption.
I got my 2x vaccines somewhere in here as well.
 | ||||||
| one of the moose we saw |
In May I paddled the Jefferson River, from start to finish, Twin Bridges to Three Forks, MT with a friend. It was a lovely trip with a few interesting diversion dams to flow over. But quite a bit of early spring wildlife along the way.
In the midst of all this, Yale Women's Soccer decided to do an Instagram profile of some of the older alumni, including me. Check out these LINK1, LINK2, LINK3 to a nice Instagram post about me at Yale playing soccer (you don't need an account to see it). But if you do have an account, I believe there are 2 other posts that I don't have access to.
There was also some field work that was done including some last minute ordering of parts and instruments, and then there was the reordering of a whole lot of parts after the cows ate cables and ran through the instrument installations.
Spent a day putting up a new solar panel platform as well.
It was a lovely early summer and so I spent more than one day hiking in the Snowy Range which is just 40 miles or so west of Laramie.
 |
| Snowy Range, WY |
Then came mid-summer and
I was again invited to participate on the Central Wyoming College, Alpine Science Institute's ICCE to the Dinwoody Glacier in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming. We spent a week getting everyone up to speed with the science objectives and trip planning logistics then we headed up the trail to measure black carbon and micro-plastics on the snow, water run-off from the glacier, macroinvertebrate populations, and used photogrammetry to generate a 3-D image of the remaining glacier.
 |
| Craters of the Moon |
After that trip I cruised through Idaho and stopped in Idaho Falls and Boise to visit friends and took an hour or so to explore the Craters of the Moon. I also passed through Yosemite on my way to a hiking trip in the Sierras not realizing I was supposed to have a reservation for the park,but it turned out that I could just pass through without one. I ended up camping in a Forest Service campground just SE of the park (I will get back to that later).
 | ||||
| Yosemite Canyon |
I had headed to California to join a long-time friend on a "guided" backpack trip in the Sierras. Guided meant that we all (8 clients, 2 guides) carried the food, but the guides cooked and cleaned-up--I was all over that option. We hiked into the woods from Courtright Reservoir into parts of the John Muir Wilderness as well as a bit of King's Canyon NP. We enjoyed Hell for Sure one afternoon then over a pass to summit Mt Goddard, then over into Black Cap Basin and the King's River and out. It was a pretty demanding trip, but spectacularly pretty. We were with TSX
 |
| Sierras |
 |
| Uintas |
Mid-September saw me back in Lander with CWC, planning another trip. Another CWC person and myself plus 2 Forest Service folks hiked to the Castle Rock Glacier in the Beartooth Mountains, just NE of Yellowstone. The train started in Wyoming and continued into Montana. It was a quick trip to GPS the glacier and make some stream outflow measurements. A storm was heading in so it was a quick 4 day trip. The hike out was really pretty in the early season snow storm. I packed up my camera so it would not get wet, but it was a lovely hike in the falling snow!
 |
| Beartooths |
 |
| Escalante |
After that trip I headed to Southern Utah and spent an overnight in Escalante National Monument with a friend and his nephew. You remember that I mentioned staying in a FS campground near Yosemite? Well it turns out that this nephew, from New Hampshire, was the Host for that campground, while I was there. Small world! Anyway, we hiked to Lower Calf Creek Falls to a beautiful pool of green water and a lovely cascade of some 126 feet (just over 38 meters). The next day we did a very short little slot canyon, that I think was called Long Canyon (??) near Boulder, UT. There is a terrific little cafe/shop with a super good "breakfast salad". Great place to stop for a snack or souvenir.
Then off to San Diego...
 | ||||||
| Lower Calf Creek falls |
 |
| Sally, Fricassee, Piccata |
 |
| Cacciatore |
I also finally cut down the large, now dead, cottonwood tree in the back yard. I miss my big trees.
 |
| Russian River area |
In October I spent some time around Guerneville, along the Russian River, and visited Jenner Highlands, Goat Rock, Armstrong Woods, and Bodega Bay.
The first of November, I started driving up the Pacific Coast, I picked up a fun book called Pacific Coasting which has lots of informal suggestions for stops and lovely water color pictures to accompany the text. I tried to see as many lighthouses as possible, go for at least a short walk/hike everyday, and camped mostly in State Parks along the way. The beaches and rocky coast line were amazing as were the various huge trees (redwoods, cedars, spruces..) and the views were lovely. On the other hand, I started my trip right after a huge storm, and it was one of the rainier November for the PNW in while. So, I got wet, my truck bed leaked a bit, and so dampness was part of the deal.
First part was up the California coast from Guerneville and into Oregon. I side tracked to visit some
Laramie friends now living in Portland, another Laramie friend now living in Corvallis, a Yale friend near Portland, and a ski friend in Vancouver, WA.
 |
| Northern CA and OR coast |
 |
| Olympic Pennisula |
Then it was off to the western coast of the Olympic Peninsula where floods and landslides curtailed some of my travel plans. But I stayed with friends of friends in Port Angeles for Thanksgiving and hiked to Lake Angeles before moving off to Seattle to visit a Dartmouth friend.
After that, it was a straight shot back to Gueneville for some stable internet zooming. Then more friends and travel down the CA coast to San Diego. Stayed with a cousin I had not seen in years, more Yale friends nearby, both just south of San Francisco, Antarctic friends in Santa Cruz (with a trip to the Monterey Aquarium and the Butterfly Sanctuary), then more Antarctic friends in San Diego for the rest of the year.
 |
| Monterey |
 |
| Santa Barbara |
And to finish up the year, a New Year's Eve hike in Mission Gorge.
