Camping and Outdooriness

[VonMudra]

This thread is for camping stories, photos, experiences, etc, as well as discussion on camping, places to camp, and that ilk.  So, post away! (coughKADINGcough)

[:| Hi]

Well, up in Alaska the year before last when we were Silver Salmon fishing in Chinook, we were on the river.
We're just slowly trawling along in our boat, when we see 3 bears on the riverbank. Ok, not too bad.
A few minutes later, 4 more bears are on the river bank. Finally, another one comes and they all get in the river. These are all 8-10' tall, and they're standing in the middle of the river. Of course, we had to reel up our lines and move on down the river some more, kinda hard to fish when you're getting surrounded by bears no more than 20' away from the boat.

[Yustax]

Pico Bolivar, I camped at 3800 meters with 7 other friends. It was like a being inside of a freezer that functions with liquid nitrogen. But very beautiful, I get to touch snow and played a snow ball fight with my entire body covered in special clothes...so you get the drift. We stayed there for 5 days and then went back to civilization as a changed man...and with more loving to the juicy hot weather we enjoy.

[Kading]

Love bears. They are like giant 3 year olds who feel no remorse for killing. You should see people at National Parks. They seem to think its a zoo. People will crowd around dangerous wildlife taking flash photos and jamming the tiny 2 lane roads.

I got a good Yosemite story....

Out visiting my friend who was working at Yosemite last July cuz I get in free if I'm friends with an employee. At some point during the visit she says she wants to take a hike to Vernal Falls. Problem is, it's Independence Day weekend so the place is clogged with fat tourists and their fat kids who feed potato chips to the fat squirrels.

Anyway, it was about 3 miles and at least a thousand feet up to the top of the falls up a narrow granite staircase carved into the rocks.
View from before the stairs

Needless to say there was a fatty jam 100 people long because some fat old lady with ski poles (no, not hiking poles, SKI POLES) was dragging her fat ass up at one step a minute. All the time the mist from the falls is soaking me as I get more and more angry. Finally get to a photo op with the falls behind me to take this photo.

Cassie then says "come on! lets go to the top of the falls". I wasn't having any of that, I knew from the foot traffic that there would be at least a thousand fatties at the top taking stupid pictures of the same thing a million other people have seen. I told them that I had had enough and was going back. Went back to the staff tent area and hung out til I met some random park employees who seemed pretty cool and were about to go on a hike to a place I had never heard of: "Hidden Falls". I jumped at the chance for a genuine adventure, even though it would be a 10 mile round trip.
We a trail that had been closed due to a rock slide off Half Dome. So epic, granite rocks the size of houses pinning pine trees that were 5 feet in diameter to the ground like toys. Absolute destruction and fresh granite everywhere...

After an exhausting hike that I failed to bring water for, we made it to the falls. Then time to relax and gaze back at they Yosemite Valley....

Drank lots of water from the stream, tasted better than even the finest bottled water...

Not a single person was there other than the people I had gone with. We bathed in the pools of crisp, fresh water and drank cheap beer and smoked stale bud. Perfect afternoon. They decided to go back a different rout than the way we had come, mostly for fresh scenery. It had it's share of adventure...

The next day was the 4th of July, so I decided to rest my weary feet after 16 miles of hiking, and enjoy my freedom from those oppressive Brits (SUCK IT, KING GEORGE III!!!)

[Biiviz]

Wish I could go hunting in scenery like that.

[Kading]

Wish I could go hunting in scenery like that.

The Yosemite high country looks very much like Finland. Lots of flat wooded areas with marshlands and tall grass.

[Pascucci the Whiner]

Nice photography Kading, you could sell some of those pictures.

[Kading]

Nice photography Kading, you could sell some of those pictures.

Nah, it's not that hard. Just a matter of going there and taking the photo when you go "oh wow".

Like this. Just walking down a beach and saw this. Walked til the "wow" factor in the camera screen matched what I was seeing in reality.

[hslan.totaler_humbug]

Some photos of a trip with my familiy to Southern Tirol



Those litte stonetowers are actually up to two thousand years old, this summit was used a religious place.


Clouds crawling up to us from the valley


The mountain (3000m) my father and me climbed at that day, sadly my mother didn´t wanted to join us, but we forgot the camera in her bag. So no photos from the summit  


The next 15 kilomiteres of way. Was really awesome up there.

[stylie]

No words to describe Yosemite. And Ive seen alot this country can offer in terms of Natural wonders. There is a natural waterslide there if you ever go back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfn-BQjDZow

[Kading]

Epic photos, Humbug. I hate it when I forget my camera, so I feel your pain in spades. But as my adventure buddy Kris always says: "that just means you have to go back to the top".

Stylie, those slides are all over the Sierra Nevada mountains. They are great in the summer when the rocks are nice and warm.

[Gezoes]

I love open water and the woods, but that is a stunning photograph Kading. Holland is so dull and pre-made compared to this. Wonderful pictures. Love the way it makes the eye focus on the water, but at the same time it persists to the brain that that's no lowflying front, that's a wave.

I can make fire, does that count? Tom Hanks and Wilson made me do it.

[Kading]

I love open water and the woods, but that is a stunning photograph Kading. Holland is so dull and pre-made compared to this. Wonderful pictures. Love the way it makes the eye focus on the water, but at the same time it persists to the brain that that's no lowflying front, that's a wave.

I can make fire, does that count? Tom Hanks and Wilson made me do it.

I'm glad you like it. And being able to start a fire is one of the most important survival skills.


Edit:
Needs a photo...

Found lots of these weird plants in the Las Vegas desert. No idea what they are but they are the coolest little things I have ever seen.

[:| Hi]

Welcome to the Mojave Desert, Kading. 

I'm always finding weird plants like that when I ride my bike in the desert

[Kading]

It was only the second time I had camped in the desert, and the other time was a different place. Most of my camping buddies are cold weather/mountain kinda campers so I rarely get to split the gas money to be able to go to such places. At some point, I want to walk from the California border to Las Vegas. That's gonna be a little tricky, because I wont be able to carry enough water...