Cascade Mountain

Hiking the Cascade mountain trail was the main attraction, so to speak, of our trip to the Adirondacks.  This peak is considered the easiest of the high peaks, the 46 mountains in the area that are over 4000 feet in elevation.

We climbed it August 21 of last year, 2018.  Weather was a little overcast, and with it being August, kind of hazy, too, but luckily not too hot that day.

Here I am at a little look out around 20 minutes or so from the summit.  This trail too is completely forested until you get to the top, and it was a long hike, took us 4 hour round-trip.

A couple of views from the same spot:

We made it!  Here we are coming upon the summit:

We are definitely not alone!  This is a popular hike.

Ed at the summit, with the north view behind him:

Me, with the southeast view behind me:

Same view with no bodies (which is not easy up there, all the hikers and their children and dogs are constantly zipping in and out of the frame like electrons):

I remembered on the way down to take a photo of the trail.  One of the things that made this trail challenging for us, is that the footing is uneven almost the entire way.  You have to watch your step with every step.

View back up at the mountain, once we were back down on the road.

We were glad to have climbed it, but we are in no rush to climb the other 45!  I can't say never, but this hike was very strenuous and mostly without views, or even anything interesting to see, until the end.  We've been spoiled by all the long hikes we have done in the American southwest, we like there to be some payoff along the way.

A Cornucopia of M&Ms

On our way to the Adirondacks on August 20, 2018, we stopped at the Walmart in Ogdensburg as soon as we crossed the border, to stock up on some food items.  As usual we checked for new flavours of M&Ms, and we were not disappointed!

All of these are good.  Ed didn't like the Strawberry nut ones as much as I did, but that's his loss, I loved them.

Dark Chocolate Mint M&Ms:

Pecan Pie M&Ms:

Pumpkin Pie M&Ms:

Strawberry Nut M&Ms:

No, we didn't eat them all at once ... but we did stop again in Ogdensburg on the way home to stock up, before heading back to Canada where we only have the boring, mainstream flavours.

Mount Baker, Adirondacks

August 20, 2018.  We wanted to do a hike on our way to our Air B&B in Lake Placid, to break up the drive.  Mount Baker looked like a reasonable option, a steep hike but under 2 miles there and back.

This first one is from the drive there, it's one of our first good glimpses of the Adirondacks as we drove south from Canada:

I didn't take a lot of photos of the actual trail on the way up.  Adirondack trails (or at least the ones we did) are just hikes through trees, until you get to the summit or close to it.  Here's one of our first peeks at the view:

We made it!  This isn't one of the bald-summit mountains, it's treed, with around 3 little openings to get a view.  Here is Ed:

Proof that I was there too:

The nicest view was into the sun so the photos aren't that great:

Here we are leaving the summit area and headed back down:

This is the pond that we parked beside at the trailhead.

Next up, a peek at what we bought at the Ogdensburg Walmart on the way in ...

Catching up

Okay, I have become a really lazy blogger.  But, I like keeping up my blog, as it's my own scrapbook and photo album, as well as being accessible to friends, and other folks interested in the places I've visited.

To get caught up, I am going to post just the basics of our trips last year to the Adirondacks, Banff, and Las Vegas.  It'll mostly just be the photos that I curated and put on Facebook back when we were there.  It's better than not catching up at all.

Up soon (today, I hope!), Mount Baker just outside Saranac Lake, in New York State.

Quebec City

Back in July 2018 we did a quick little trip to Quebec City.  I didn't take a lot of photos (I did take a lot of Montmorency Falls ... and I can't find them!  I must have copied them to the wrong folder, who knows where they ended up.)  Here are three though that I took at a couple of overlooks:

It was a short but fun trip, it was Ed's first time there.  We also visited a winery on Ile d'Orleans, and a paper factory museum in Trois Rivieres on the way home.

Drive back to Salt Lake City

Just a few photos from the road as we drove back to Salt Lake City on Dec. 8, 2017, before heading home to Ottawa.  Utah landscapes never disappoint:

Route 128 and Negro Bill Canyon

Okay, it has obviously taken me six months to come back and finish blogging about the trip to Utah, which was 13 months ago now.  For some reason processing the photos from December 7, 2017, just never really grabbed me.  I never did finish, but here is what I did process, to wrap up my posts about that trip.

So for our last day in Moab, we took a scenic drive on Route 128 east of Moab.  Here are some photos from the road, they might not be in order:

We wanted to do a loop and go drive up in the La Sal mountains, but the road was unfortunately closed for construction:

We went back to Route 128 and did a hike in Negro Bill Canyon.  We had some trouble finding it, since the guidebooks all still call it Negro Bill, but the signage has changed and it's now called Grandstaff Canyon (Bill's last name).  Bill was the first mixed race (he was half black, and I think half native american?) rancher in the area, and he owned land where the hiking trail is now located.

The sun was already sinking behind the mountains when we set out:

We had to cross this little river numerous times, which the guidebook made sound so fun, but in December, when the air and water are much colder than when most tourists visit, it was a little more of a pain to do so without slipping and falling in:

Ed on the trail:

The trail ends up at this natural bridge, called Morning Glory Arch.  It's huge!

On the way back to the car, I took some photos of Ed hopping over the various crossing points of the stream.  I don't think either of us fell in, which was an accomplishment as the footing was rough and slippery:

And, just a few more photos from the road:

And that was our last day in Moab.  Next day it was back to Salt Lake City.