Feb 4, 2014

I worked at Vineland Memorial covering Child Study Team meetings for the day. I was done by noon and home for the afternoon. I got some dinner from Wildflower and headed up to REI to meet Brenda and Andrea. We spent quite a while there so Brenda could get her rock climbing shoes. I got a chalk bag and then we headed over to the gym. We spent a long time climbing. Andrea enjoyed it, even though she didn't always follow the colored routes. 

After climbing we were all hungry so we went to Iron Hill for dinner foods. We sampled a few beers and had really good meals. Our waiter took forever to bring us the check, but eventually we paid and got out. 

Nov 14, 2013

The day started out a little late so I took my breakfast with me to work since I know the art teacher I was in for, and I knew I had off the first two hours. Unfortunately when I arrived I was told I had to cover a Spanish class. The kids were a little annoying on top of my already being annoyed. Fortune struck in second block when my whole class went to an assembly and I had a free hour to eat my banana with peanut butter and watch Modern Family in peace. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. I worked on things while the students drew.

After work I had some time eat, watch Oz, and look up some information. I met Ryan and we headed up to rock climbing gym for the first time in many months. I thought it would be crowded when we arrived at 6, but I was pleasantly surprised that we were the only ones using the belaying wall at first. We did a few easy ones to warm up, and it became instantly clear that we were not in the rock climbing shape we once had been. We did complete a 5.8, so that was good. Some of the more difficult routes and the slanted walls proved to be a humbling experience, but it was still fun. I hope we continue going often.

On our way home we stopped at Chili's for food and had a good time talking and figuring out the splitting of the bill. It was somewhat late when we got home and I was pretty tired so I did some writing and then got to bed, watching Parks and Rec until falling asleep.

Jun 29, 2013

Joanna and I got up early and snuck of the room as quietly as we could then headed to the trailhead for Bonticou Crag. It was a foggy morning, and the wide trail looked really cool as we found our way via the criss-crossing paths and open fields. There was some uphill on the way, but it was pretty mild.

The trail opened up to a large boulder field that we climbed over, through, and around. This was the fun part. There were a few areas that necessitated hand over hand climbing. It wasn't so bad, but my sneakers were slipping a bit.

We got to the top and wandered around the big open rocks with great views all around. It was a beautiful morning and there were clouds laying low in the distance.

After enjoying the view for a while and jumping around and taking photos on this outcropping, getting too close to the edge, we started back down. After finding out that there was a ridiculous parking fee at the Mohonk House trailhead, we came back to our original parking spot and got a map, beginning our hike about a mile or two earlier. We started at the same spot as our last hike, but branched off soon after that in the direction of Mohonk.

There were several steep climbs on the hiking/mountain biking path up to the Mohonk Reservation, but it was a nice trail; rocky, well-marked, and beautiful with fallen trees and stream crossings. It got a bit confusing when we got on the actual grounds because trails went everywhere, but we followed our instinct and got to where we needed to. The place is beautiful and gargantuan! Look at that monster. There's a reason we're staying in our friends' room at a hostel and not in one of these rooms.

Along the edge of the lake is where the trailhead for The Labyrinth is. It is a bit hidden, but that makes sense. We climbed through the narrow opening and began down the path, over some stairs, and through some more narrow slots we had to climb through.

Our progress quickly halted when we got behind a group of older people on some kind of team-building exercise. These were not outdoors people and they were not really into this. We slowly overtook them, one by one, very slowly, after standing still at each obstacle for minutes at a time. We finally got by them and starting crawling over and under the huge boulders, following the path that was laid out or something like it.

The tight squeezes and big rock climbs were great fun, and we thought it ended too quickly when we finished. So we went back down and did it again! This time there was almost no one there so we got to go at our own pace, up ladders, through the lemon squeezers, and over big gaps. It was a lot more fun on round two. We started to do it again as a race, but it was a little wet, so a short distance in we called it for the day and started hiking back.

After our long hike back down (that's how it always goes) we went back to New Paltz downtown and wandered through the little downtown shops and got something to eat at the health food store. After going back to the hostel for showers, we came back downtown with Chuck and Alex to go to the Gilded Otter Brewing Co. for lunch. I sampled their beers. Nothing of note, really. The root beer was good so I got one of those. We had a good lunch and then went for a walk around the nice, quiet neighborhood.

After regrouping, we went out to the Bacchus Bar for a few beers from their big bottle list and hung out there talking for a while. I'm not sure what I expected, but it was more of a chill evening and we were all kind of tired and not wanting to stay there too long. We headed back to the hostel and hung out there for the night until we were all ready for bedtimes.

Jun 14, 2012

This story is best told through photos. We slept in for a while and then got up to eat and head to the Dragon's Tooth hike along the Appalachian Trail.

The hike started off rocky and uphill. This feature would show up continuously throughout the day.

There were also some nice flat, heavily wooded areas.

It wasn't too long before we got to the Dragon's Tooth feature, which was on an offshoot to the trail. We had to climb up to get to the very top.

The view was beautiful from the top, though it was a little scary standing up straight on the narrow section.

We hung out and had a snack while we sat up there and then we climbed down and hiked back down the trail we came up.

We went to a little gas station to get some snacks and drinks to go with our food for lunch and took them out to a field next to it to have a little picnic. We ate and lay in the grass. And Steph ate her green pepper like an apple. I have never seen that before.

After we hung out for a while, we headed over to the trailhead for McAfee Knob, another Appalachian Trail section. Steph and I waited in the car for a while as Jess hiked ahead.

The trail was interesting and well-maintained with bridges and log steps that took a moderate grade up the ridge.

It got more rocky at some points and we were rewarded with some overlooks along the way. The trail was mostly wooded, though it passed through some open fields and under high tension wires.

When we got to McAfee Knob, it was an amazingly beautiful view. We took a lot of photos of the view and then of each other on the famous outcropping. We had a lot of fun taking different shots and trying not to fall off as we got close to the edge.

The sun started to go down and we were treated to a gorgeous sunset of orange and deep purples. I got some amazing shots.

We took some fun silhouette shots after it got a little darker. We tried a bunch of things like getting Jess and Steph to jump at the same time and make a heart with their arms. Then I had them flip their hair around. We had a good time.

As we walked around we ran into some thru-hikers who had made a fire at the top. They were planning on camping nearby. We talked to them for a while about hiking the trail and how nice the place was.

We went back to the knob area to take long-exposure shots of the stars. I got some nice star trails. This shot looks better after I edited down some of the city light and brought the stars up some.

Our hike back to the car was fun in the dark. We had a couple of flashlights out the whole time, but we were taking it slow so we didn't trip. We did trip. It was slow going and we worried that we might get lost at times, but we found our way back and happily headed back to our camp.

Mar 26, 2012

No jobs came up last night or this morning so I decided to make a list of things to get done since I was up early anyway. I stopped by Chopper's to pay for work done to my car and then headed to some local places to sign them up for New Jersey Craft Beer. After some great success in Millville I headed to Glassboro for a few more meeting with places I've been hoping to get in the club for a while and was met with equally positive reactions! Great day! Hoping that all five businesses will be joining in this week!

After some frustrating driving around in Marlton I found the rock climbing gym and Ryan. We spent an hour or so climbing several paths up the bouldering walls. I did well on a few, but I found some of them frustratingly difficult to accomplish. I need to get better.

On the way home I stopped at REI and got a new pair of hiking boots then met Ryan back at home and did a six mile run in a little under an hour. It was cold out, but I felt motivated to do a long run since it's been a while. Gotta start training harder!

Dec 30, 2011

I met up with Jen in the morning to take a walk around Parvins and catch up in person before she headed back to London. We walked to a bench and sat there discussing our options for online employment and becoming authors.

After leaving the lake I went to Ryan's to head up to the rock climbing gym in Cherry Hill. We were there and hour before they opened, but the guy was there and he was nice enough to let us come in early and climb. We had the place to ourselves.

We did the bouldering section without harnesses. They are lower and have pads below. Even the easy paths were really hard. We spent an hour or so climbing around all the different walls. Some I couldn't do at all, but I was able to get up a few of them. I have a lot of work to do before I'm good at this it seems.

Tracy and I went up to Philly and checked on set times then headed to Manny Brown's for some drinks. I had a sour ale and tried a few others. The Lagunitas Sucks is an awesome holiday IPA. And a great name.

When it was show time we left the bar and headed back down to the TLA. This is the last time I'll see this name on the marquee. (maybe?)

mewithoutYou was great and fun. They played a lot of new songs that I don't know as well, but there were plenty of old ones mixed in. They played for a good long while.

Thursday began their last US show ever playing the same set list as the other night except they added in "Paris in Flames," which I actually said I really wish they had played before.

The rest of the set went as it did at Starland, but it was great to hear the songs one more time for their last show. I have seen them probably around thirty times over the last ten years and it has been amazing almost every time. The holidays won't seem the same without them playing a show.

It was a sad but amazing farewell show. I will remember the intensity of their live shows every time I listen to them turned up loud in the car.

Jul 11, 2011

We returned to Big Daddy's Bagels in the morning and I got this amazing omelet sandwich. So much stuff on there. Then we headed off to Rocky Mountain National Park.

We spoke with a park ranger and ended up going to a climbing spot just outside of the park. We started on the loop trail and decided to take the inside loop because we didn't want to follow stairs to the lake.

We came upon the climber's access trail and took the steep steps up to a fork where we stopped to decide which hike sounded the best. The nice part of having an iPhone is that I could look up info on the different climbs while we sat there.

We decided to do the Bowels of the Owls climb. It seemed doable for us. We came up behind the formation, which looks like two owls from the front, hence the name of this climb.

The narrow chimney was a tough squeeze mostly because I could barely bend my knees to step up any farther. I had to pull myself up with my arms for the most part.

Once we got farther up into the chimney it became more steep and difficult to move forward. There was a climber's rope still hanging above us and we decided that we probably wouldn't be making it all the way.

We went back down and climbed around some of the surrounding areas before heading around the other side of the rocks to make our way to a few outcrops. There was no official path around that side of the owls, but we made our way down around the outside and down the rocks until it met up with the climber's trail again. It was nice up there.

On the hike back to the car I got a shot of the Twin Owls. When someone puts the idea in your head it really looks like owls.

We had some time to kill before heading back so we looked up some courses in the area and found one at Rocky Mountain YMCA. The place was a huge complex like a military base. YMCAs don't look like that around here. We played the first couple of holes and then skipped to the back nine to avoid some big groups. The course was nice at times. Good distance on some holes and others just seemed too much. I almost didn't do the 700' final hole, but I decided to do it for some reason and ended up losing a disc in the thick brush.

We came back to Steve's a bit later, avoiding the storm, and had our leftover Indian food then played games for a while before attempting to go to sleep somewhat early for once.