Just got back from a quick overnight trip to visit the mountain cabin of a friend of mine. It was great. Cloudy, cool, foggy (all attractive when you're on the tail end of a 7 months of hot sunshine!). We grilled out some chicken and tortillas over a bonfire, drank enough beer and rum to do the trick, then sacked out in the cabin.

I didn't take a camera :( but the cabin is great: made entirely of hardwood and bamboo, it has a wonderfully natural, rustic feel to it. When the clouds did open for us, here and there, the views were spectacular.

The whole trip lasted less than 16 hours, but I suspect it will be the event that defines the entire weekend. Funny how that sort of thing happens.

Now if I could just get the smell of bonfire out of my hair...

Labels: camping, Costa Rica, day trip

Tonopah Station. It was cold, they take dogs. Other than that, I don't have much to endorse.	Tonopah proper has some older buildings that I liked	More old buildings in Tonopah	And old cars. There is plenty of "old" there.
...and a CREEPY "clown motel". I'm afraid of clowns, a little, and this place looks to me to be straight out of a Stephen King novel. I *almost* wish we had stayed there. Just to say we did. (note freaky 2/3-size painted guy on wall)	More old. More Tonopah. Pretty mountains	On the road again... with great, big, fluffy clouds	Nevada desert dropping into Eastern California desert
I wish that I had noticed the highway marker before clicking the shutter	Doggy break. Sage.	I have no idea why I took this picture, hope you enjoy it.	Probably an awesome trout stream. Owens Valley, California (and no, we didn't have rods nor licenses, dangit)
First of several hot springs with some hippy-dippy self-appointed caretaker who turned out to be a real peice of work. The best description I can offer is that he was a burnt-out surf goat type who was feeling territorial about "his" mungy little hot spring in the middle of almost-nowhere and sent us looking for a "better" one...	...which lead us down some well-maintained fire roads with towering trees	also soaring vistas -the Eastern Sierra in California is pretty. Go there.	We finally found the "super secret" springs that the Goat had described. So secret that they had posted signs, and were entirely concreted in and no camping allowed.
At least the setting remained spectacular, but we decided to press onward	Soop. Surveying the Scenery serenely.	A lousy picture of a pretty building	Now *this* is more like what we were looking for!
Natural hot spring cascading down into a natural pool formed by naturally(?) stacking rocks in a rough pattern.	Complete with wildflowers	And more wildflowers	and more wildflowers!
Majestic trees, seen from our campsite	We even needed a little 4wd to get to our site	After a soak in the springs, we built a firepit and enjoyed a tasty dinner.	Our site
I like the progress of my insulation when everyone else stayed pretty much the same. Left to right: Steve, Annette, Seth, Soop	Soop put on a different hat, I'm sporting down jacket. The tropis will do that to you.	Campfire beats Casino 10/10 (but isn't as warm).

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, california, camping, day trip, expedition, land cruiser, nevada, photo, vacation

So a friend came by at about 2:30 in the afternoon and said, "Hey, let's go camping."

I said, "Sure. When?"

"Right now!"

"Oh. Okay! Why not?"

We actually got ready and left closer to 4:00. It is cooler out by then. We grabbed miminal gear, the dogs, and drove 10 minutes out of town, stopping for basic provisions, then pitched tents, built a small fire, and kicked back enjoying a spectacular view, fresh breeze (strong breeze, hence very small fire) and very little human-made noise. It was wonderful and relaxing.


The wind was strong enough, and/or the tents were pitched in a not-sheltered-enough location that I woke up several times from the tent smacking me in the head. But other than that, it was tranquil and fabulous.

Labels: camping, Costa Rica, photo, sunset, tamarindo

We had a really pleasant, light dinner with Chad and Devon last night- grilled chicken and grilled eggplant, tomato, bell peppers and squash. Sure is easy to clean up the kitchen after everything gets cooked outside.

It seems that the Gale Force winds have backed off to a pleasantly cool gentle breeze, which is a nice change. We have heard stories about trees down on the highways, rooftops peeled back, and more than 50 power poles knocked down (countrywide) yet here at Casa Broyles the damage seems limited to my banana trees and some worn-out looking palm trees.

As the winds had died back enough, we opted to have another backyard campout. Going to sleep under the stars within an easy walk to all the comforts of home is great. I'm trying to come up with an upstairs outdoor sleeping solution, but it may turn out that the tent is easier, cheaper, and we've already got it. All of those are pretty convincing factors right now.

Caly seems to like it too- as we put the tent up she was right there at the door wagging her tail waiting to go to bed and as soon as she got up in the morning she spent a few minutes rolling around on the lawn, looking about as happy as happy can be.

Labels: camping, dog, tamarindo, weather

I've been looking for 12v LED "christmas" lights for years- mostly to use for ambient lighting around my cruiser while camping or otherwise being outdoors. I don't know the voltage at which these operate, probably 4.5v, but the fact that they run on solar power makes them even better than what I wanted. Can't wait to try them out while camping or even just around the barbecue at home.

Labels: camping, landcruiser

I went back to California to share in celebrating my Grandmother's 95th birthday. Then found out my buddy, Soop, was headed to Moab, Utah for a week and last-minute changed my flight so that I could ride along and share the adventure.

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Like any great road trip, we started ours A) Late (almost 6 instead of almost 1) and B) looking for some electronic gizmo so that we could listen to music. Road trip without music? Are you crazy?	The first morning "on the road" we awoke at my sister's place in Nevada. Great mountain views from that neighborhood. Curious absence of photos of the people in the house, Brian and I were exhausted after 4 hours sleep.	My Sister's home in Sparks, NV. She was kind enough to let us roll in at some ungodly hour (1am? 2am?) and sleep.	Hwy 50. Desolate.
This is a "major landmark" on Hwy 50 according to the sign. So major that they named it.... "Sand Hill". Lots of imagination those Nevada explorers.	Shoe Tree.	Not sure what an L is. Or why it has its own sign. But there is one out there, somewhere, apparently.	Quaint little towns pepper Hwy 50. Ok, maybe not "pepper". More like, once in a great while, a little town pops up.
Mom's Cafe. Looked like a good place for coffee and pie. It was.	Morning 3. Our campsite in BLM. I'll call it Camp1	The first of many, many photos of rocks	There were also wildflowers, really beautiful ones, not infrequently.
More rocks. These were stacked by someone to create a little cave in a natural crevice.	rocks, sky. Lots of that out in Moab.	This is the view to the west from Camp1	Camp1 was pretty much on the trailhead for Kane Creek Canyon. So instead of driving back into town to run a trail with a bunch of folk, we just started driving eastward.
This is just before we started out, the two cameras that I used weren't synched to the same timezone, so there will be occasional chronometric anomalies here.			stopping for a beverage and for the dogs to frolic in the cool water
	I don't know what makes the black face on some of the rocks, I assume minerals, but it was really beautiful and refracted the light into an almost oily-looking sheen.	The predominant feature of Kane Creek Canyon, not surprisingly, is Kane Creek	Thus the trail involves many crossings of the creek
Soop is kind enough to frame the naturally ocurring S in the rock face	If you look carefully, you can make out the upper trail, it is at about the 2/3 height on this image. The lower trail is where you fall if you fall off of the upper trail (and an alternate route). Long ways down.	One of the toughest spots on the trail, big stair step.	More amazing geology
Waiting for some folks to get through the tough spot	Seth. Waiting.	Another time problem... this actually came after the next few shots. A pretty creek.
Here you get a better perspective on the size of the stair steps.	Soop went first. Two tries and he was through.	Requires a little articulation from the truck. Those are 35" tires, by the way, it wasn't small bumps. There was also a dropoff to the right that went about 400 feet down.	We finished off the evening in downtown Moab, decent meal at Slickrock Cafe, then back to camp.

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, california, camping, expedition, landcruiser, moab, nevada, travel, utah, vacation