Juskuz Photography

Osa (dog), Mari and Andy making heading up…

 

 So, I haven’t posted in a while, but the short of the long of it is this…

As the winter semester ended so did Mari’s job at Bates College in Maine. Fortunately, Mari had lined up a job at Johnson State College in Vermont, so just before Christmas Mari and I packed up our things and headed west four hours and are now living in the Burlington area… more specifically Richmond. Currently, Mari is on break as classes don’t begin until the 12th of this month, and I took a job at Stowe Ski Resort in order to secure season passes for the both of us and with hopes of getting to do a lot of skiing this year and maybe even become a decent skier… maybe. 

Anyway, this past Monday was one of my days off and it also happened to be Mari’s cousin Meg and her boyfriend Andy’s last day of break also. So, we made plans to do a little hike and after meeting for lunch in Jericho we headed over to Smuggler’s Notch to hike the Sterling Pond Trail. To tell you the truth I’m not sure that’s the actual name of the trail, but we hiked on a trail that took us to Sterling Pond… therefore in my mind it’s the Sterling Pond Trail. 

The hike started by parking where the Notch Road ended and hiking up the road a little ways. We eventually moved off the road and into the woods and proceeded to head up towards Spruce Peak and Sterling Pond. At this point in the season it’s probably no surprise that there isn’t a lot of snow here. Actually, you might be surprised that there’s any snow in the photos at all. Truthfully though it was pretty great. There was enough snow to make it an exceptionally scenic hike, while not so much snow to need snowshoes or to make forward and upward progress difficult. 

I have to say… it’s nice to get out and just go for a short hike. I love being outside and being with friends and days like today are really special. Hopefully, there will be more days like this this winter.

 

 

Osa looking very dapper… 

 

 

Mari, Andy and Meg… still going up… 

 

 

Almost there… 

 

 

Up and over and down to the pond… 

 

 

Sterling Pond. To the left, about 50 yards or so away is the top of Smuggler’s Notch Ski Resort… cool place for a pond 

 

 

A distant glimpse of the Notch… Vermont is pretty alright

 

 

Mission accomplished… now where did we leave the car..?

 

 

 

 

It seems like this is the first weekend that Mari and I have not traveled somewhere… but I’m pretty sure that’s because I had to work. Anyway, last weekend we got to meet up with our good friends Jill and Hans in Chester, VT. We drove down on Saturday morning to Chester. The rest of that day we hung out at their homestead, went to dinner, hung our around the fire and listened to Jill and Hans practice the guitar.

Sunday, we drove over to Franconia Notch. Little did we realize that Franconia is the weekend hiking destination for the majority of the people in the Northeast. On top of that it was Columbus Day Weekend so in hindsight we probably shouldn’t have been surprised when we showed up and the highway was lined with vehicles due to the lack of parking.

Eventually we found our own spot along the road and started our hike up Mt. Pemigewasset. Jill and Hans had Anika in tow so we didn’t choose anything too strenuous. The hike up was great and the view from the top was very much worth it. I really want to go back to this area sometime when there aren’t so many people.

Anyway, I just wanted to share some photos from the weekend. Here they are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unknown hiker on the Sunset Ridge Trail…

This past weekend Mari and I were again in Vermont. Mari was attending a conference and I was meeting up with Tripp for some play time outside. We drove over on Thursday night so Mari could attend some of the Friday events. Tripp couldn’t make it until Saturday, so on Friday I was on my own and decided to spend the day hiking the highest point in Vermont – Mt. Mansfield.

There are quite a few different routes to the top of Mt. Mansfield, there’s even a toll road that will take you 90% of the way up. I decided to hike the Laura Cowles Trail on the way up and then take the Sunset Ridge Trail on the way down. On the drive over the top of Mansfield was enshrouded in clouds and the Laura Cowles Trail follows a ravine up the side of the mountain offering a little more protection from the wind and from potential lightning. The only issue you might have is with water as quite a bit is routed down the center or the trail.

Fortunately, by the time I arrived at the base the sky was clearing and things were looking pretty good.

 

 

Here’s where the approach trail splits. I went to the right on the way up and came from the left on the way down. The approach from the parking lot is just a touch over a mile on easy, well maintained trail. The colors were just starting to come out and the weather ended up being just about perfect.

 

 

There was a lot of water on the Laura Cowles Trail. At times there were streams on either side of the trail and at other times the trail seemed to go right up the center of some of the streams. It wasn’t uncommon for me to find myself wondering if I had missed the trail and was just following the watershed. However, the blue blazes told me that I was on the right path. Waterproof boots are definitely recommended for this trail.

 

 

 

Here’s a view looking back down the Laura Cowles Trail… yes that is flowing water… and no this is not even close to the wettest or steepest part. I regret not taking more photos of this trail, but it was really steep and wet and I packed my camera in my pack hoping to keep it safe.

 

 

Here’s a look up the Sunset Ridge Trail with the summit of Mt. Mansfield in the background. The Sunset Ridge Trail is a little longer, but much less steep than the Laura Cowles Trail. It follows a ridge and provides some great views along the majority of it’s length. This is definitely the way to go if you happen to have kids or dogs in tow.

Now, I did take quite a few more photos. But, at some point during the hike I must have accidentally changed some of the settings and those images ended up being severely overexposed. I typically use my old D70s for trips like this because it’s lighter and if I did destroy it I wouldn’t be too distraught. However, the dial on top changes a little too easily and I’m not in the habit of checking it every time any more… guess I’ll have to go back.

 

 

 

This past weekend I met up with my friend Dave Tripp in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The day actually started out with me driving Mari down to Boston to catch a flight back to Michigan. I then drove straight from Boston to meet Tripp in New Hampshire. The funny thing is that all of this happened before 11am. I have to say I’m really starting to like the variety of options within such short distances here in the Northeast.

Anyway, I met Tripp at the base of the Mt. Washington Auto Road and since neither of us had been here before and because we knew nothing about the area we decided to take the Auto Road to the top of Mt. Washington to see what we could see and maybe find some more info about hiking in the area. What we didn’t know about was just how much the fee was to use the road – $25/driver & car + $8/passenger = $33 for Tripp and I to drive to the top… next time I think we’ll just hike.

Discounting the fees, the drive up Mt. Washington is pretty spectacular as far as drives go. The White Mountains aren’t as “craggy” as some of the ranges out west, but that makes them much more accessible and once you look at a map of the area it’s obvious that there are hundreds of miles of trails and a lifetime of exploring in this area.

 

Here you can see a section of the Auto Road before it heads down into the clouds…

 

 

Tripp and Ripley at the top of Mt. Washington…

 

 

Tripp and Ripley at crossing over the Peabody River on our way to camp…

 

After returning from our drive up Mt. Washington we decided to stop at the Pinkham Visitor’s Center to find out more about our hiking options and maybe come up with some sort of plan for the rest of the day and Sunday. At the visitor’s center we chatted with a nice park representative who helped us identify a few different campsites where dogs were welcome. With that information and after looking at some maps we decided to connect the Great Gulf Trail with the Osgood Trail eventually putting us at the summit of Mt. Madison.

 

Filling up with water before we started heading up into drier territory…

 

 

Here is our camp for the night. The platforms are nice but they made staking the tents out more of a creative endeavor…

 

 

Tripp and Ripley moving above treeline on Sunday morning…

 

 

Here you can see Tripp and Ripley with our objective, Mt. Madison, in the background…

 

 

Tripp and Ripley on the summit of Mt. Madison…

 

 

Tripp hopping rocks on the way back down Mt. Madison…

 

 

Tripp just before the trail started heading back below treeline. In the background you can see a lodge and the start of the Mt. Washington Auto Road…

 

 

Back in the trees making our way down. The pictures really don’t convey just how steep this trail was. The 2.5 miles from our campsite to the summit climbed upwards at about 1200 ft/mile. Overally we had a great time and I am already planning to go back and do a partial traverse from Madison to Washington and then back.

 

 

 

 

I contacted the guys from UltraFondus over in France and they were kind enough to send me a digital copy of the article about Sam. If you can read french and are interested here is the full copy in .pdf form.

Full Article

I still think that it’s funny that this image of Sam that ran as the lead was shot in our living room just one night when we were messing around. I guess it just goes to show that you should always be playing around and experimenting and shooting… you never know where those images might end up.

Just found out that I had some more images published over in France in their UltraFondus magazine. I knew that Sam had talked to them and that they had done an interview, but I didn’t realize the article was going to run so soon. Anyway, from the sounds of things this these images are going to end up as donations to Sam’s project The Initiative, as no arrangements for compensation have been made. I’m also kind of wondering what or if there is any kind of photo credit. Whatever… it’s still cool. Head over to Sam’s site if you want to know more. Word on the street is that he’s got someone to translate the article.

My portrait of Sam on the index page…

Two images of Sam, and a small copy of the map I designed for his website…

 

 

 

[ Update: Images from the weekend are being uploaded –  You can view them HERE – low resolution copies can be downloaded by clicking on the image to open a larger preview, then "right click" --> "Save as" and you're done. High resolution images and prints are available for purchase as well ]

I’ll try and make this quick…

This weekend was the First Annual Run The Keweenaw trail running festival. Now, this isn’t exactly the first time this event has been held. In the past it has been known as the Keweenaw Trail Running Festival and was organized by Great Lakes Endurance. For certain reasons they were uninterested in continuing on with the event and so the Keweenaw Trail Alliance stepped in to take over. In doing so the name was changed while the event itself was more or less unaffected.

Things kicked off on Saturday morning with a ~6k hillclimb starting in the town of Eagle Harbor and climbing to the top of Mt. Baldy (mt. lookout). The ascent is quite relentless, however you are well rewarded at the top with sweeping views of Lake Superior and the town of Eagle Harbor below.

After the hillclimb the event moves back to Copper Harbor for awards, food (free for all participants), and the kids 2k race. This is a time to rest, relax, socialize, and prepare for the 12k trail run later in the evening.

At 5pm the event continues with the 12k race and 12k non-competitive walk/hike. This year the event began at the community center in Copper Harbor and quickly moved into the woods and up and over the rocky terrain that the area is known for. The course followed the trails up the side of Brockway Mountain taking the participants near the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge then heading back down into Copper Harbor.

On Sunday the 25k race got going at 8am. The course was pretty much a highlight reel of the trail offerings found in Copper Harbor. Early in the race the participants ran up the trail “Stairway to Heaven” a ~1300 ft long, elevated wooden bridge which climbs about 200ft up into the terrain surrounding Copper Harbor, and later in the race the participants got to be the first to use the trail “Mango” which was just finished on the Friday before the event.

Overall, it seemed like everyone had a great time. There was a little rain during the 25k however it didn’t seem to slow anyone down. Anyway, congratulations again to all of the participants, and a big thanks goes out to the Keweenaw Trail Alliance, Down Wind Sports, and the Copper Harbor Trails Club for organizing and running such a great event!

So, I just returned from a great mountain biking trip in Utah with my friends Craig and John . We rode it Salt Lake, Zion, Bryce and Moab. Also, we were fortunate enough to get to ride with Adam Hill and Josh Reese. Justin also lives out there and actually joined us for a few days of riding. Craig and I left Houghton on Thursday after work and drove through the night. At some ungodly hour we met met with John in Des Moines, loaded his crap, and kept on moving. We actually made pretty good time and arrived in SLC a little after 6pm.

Justin didn’t let us waste any time… he had us change, grab our bikes, and soon after we met up with Josh and Adam and were being shuttled up Lower Cottonwood Canyon to make a run. After returning to the car we parted ways, changed, met up for dinner at Squatter’s Brewery, then back to Justin’s for some sleep.

The next day Adam and Josh met us at Justin’s for some breakfast, then we headed off to ride a downhill run called Bobsled found in the mountains above Justin’s place.

Justin ripping down Bobsled (above) – Hilly cleaning the dead-car-drop also on Bobsled (below)

After riding Bobsled we drove across SLC to Adam and Josh’s neck of the woods to ride the Draper XC trails. I would have taken some photos here if I hadn’t been sucking wind and trying to keep up with Adam on the uphill. It just seemed to go on forever… After riding we grabbed lunch, showered at Adam/Josh’s then made the trek south to Zion.

Setting up camp the first night in Zion…

The next morning we got up early and headed up to Gooseberry Mesa. What we didn’t expect was it to be as buggy as it was. Apparently there was a recent gnat hatch and things were a little out of control. Above you can see Justin trying to hide from the gnats while getting his java fix.

One of the lookouts at Gooseberry…

You can see the curvature of the earth from up here…

After finishing our ride at Gooseberry we headed back to town had some lunch and headed into Zion to do some hiking… here you can see Craig getting a little too close to some of the wildlife

Making our way up Angel’s Landing in Zion…

Making our way down Angel’s Landing in Zion…

The next day we were interested in doing a more technical canyon, but due to road construction were not able to access some of the canyons we were initially interested in. After stopping at a couple of different shops in town we decided to attempt a canyon called Yankee Doodle which was just outside of Leeds. Due to less than adequate directions it took us a bit longer than expected to find the entrance. The canyon had some easy down climbing sections but nothing very technical, no water, and in the end we did it as an out and back as the exit directions were again, not very clear.

Justin holding up a huge boulder as Craig and John pass under… Unfortunately this was just before the boulder squashed Justin. Luckily I was able to climb over the boulder after the incident, but if you happen to run into Justin and he looks a little short… now you know why.

Driving back to Springdale after hiking Yankee Doodle…

After finishing Yankee Doodle we headed back to town for some dinner then made the drive east to Bryce National Park. In the morning we got up early and shuttled to the top of the Thunder Mountain trail. This is by far one of the sweetest rides I’ve done in Utah. It’s super scenic on the way up and finishes with a super fast and relatively long descent. Above you can see Justin cranking to the top of one of the climbs.

Justin and Craig ripping along on the Thunder Mountain trail…

One of the coolest sections on Thunder Mountain is this spine you get to ride with hoodoos on either side…

After completing the Thunder Mountain trail we retrieved our car from the upper trailhead repacked some of our gear, and parted ways with Justin. He had some things to do back in SLC and needed to get on the road. Craig, John and I continued our trip by heading into Bryce National Park and decided to do a hike down through the hoodoos…

Here are John and Craig making our way down through the maze of trails that wander in and out of all the hoodoos in Bryce…

The terrain here is just amazing…

Bryce is by far one of the coolest places to visit and hike…

After hiking in Bryce we still had quite a bit of day left and figured we could get in another ride. So, we decided to check out the Caasto/Cassidy/Losse loop suggested to us by one of the shop guys back in Zion. I didn’t take many images on this ride as the trail kinda sucked. Caasto canyon was a sandy, baby-heady 2-track climb up a canyon that wasn’t all too scenic. The Cassidy portion was pretty cool and went through an area call “Little Desert”. But then the end of the ride down Losse was again a sandy single-track mess full of horse dung and lacking in scenery. The Cassidy trail is definitely worth doing if you can access it from other points, but stay away from Caasto and Losee canyons… they aren’t really worth the trouble.

After finishing the Caasto/Cassidy/Losse loop we decided to camp in Bryce one more night so that we could make the trip Escalante to Moab in the daylight. Above you can see Craig taking a break near an area called Hell’s Backbone…

After arriving in Moab we didn’t really have much time to get a ride in so we headed up Negro Bill Canyon to the arch you see above.

Then we headed up to the Sand Flats area to find a campsite and get ready for Slickrock in the morning…

Craig coming down one of the descents on the Slickrock trail…

John and Craig on Slickrock with the Lasals in the background…

After riding Slickrock we decided to go check out Arches National Park…

John and Craig hiking in to see Sandstone Arch…

The well known Delicate Arch… and the couple of hundred people that somehow never seem to appear in the pictures

After hiking Arches we grabbed dinner at the Moab Brewery then headed back to the Sand Flats area to get some sleep. In the morning we woke up and headed back into Moab to the Poison Spider Bike Shop to wait for our shuttle…

Unloading the shuttle at the start of the Whole Enchilada… actually this probably isn’t the true trailhead. The upper trails were not open yet, so they dropped us off at the Hazard trailhead…

Craig somewhere on the UPS/LPS trail…

After finishing making our way to the bottom of the Porcupine Rim trail we rode our bikes back to town, loaded up the car, grabbed some Coke Slushee’s and started the long haul back to the midwest… I cannot wait to head back out there… maybe I can round some people up to go out there this fall… if you’re interested let me know.

Later.

This evening Sam Gardner and I decided it was time to see if we could find his “Secret Spot”. This so called “Secret Spot” is a cave above tree line in one of the cliffs here in the U.P. In one of the images below you can see that it was about 20 or so feet up from the base of the cliff and the view was pretty incredible. We got there a little late and the light was pretty shitty. Also, I forgot my tripod so we pretty much wrote this outing off as a sort of “proof of concept” adventure.

Before we found the cave the light was anything but shitty… as you can see in some of the images.

So, I always tell myself that I need to spend more time practicing and developing my writing skills and that this blog is the place to do it. However, I usually just want to share my images and type a little as possible. So, if you are interested to find out more… let me know in the comments area.

Otherwise… just enjoy the pics.

Greg OUT!

Portrait of Sam taken in my living room before we left. He is working on a project of sorts and these outings are efforts to collect imagery in support of said project.

Getting our bearings while enjoying an incredible sunset… should probably get moving a little sooner next time, as finding caves high up in a cliff proves more difficult when lacking light.

Here you can kind of get an idea of how far up the cliff the cave was… makes for an interesting descent once the lights go out.

Was hoping for an image like this… maybe next time. (this is a composite – cut out the black hole that was the sky and inserted the shot of the moon)

Checking the weather to see if the sky was going to clear up anytime soon… ain’t technology wonderful.

Quick side trip out to McLain State Park to see if the sky was any clearer over the lake… It was kinda/sorta. The fog obscured the horizon, but high above the stars were out in force.