Mt. Minsi Photos

I will be hiking up Mt. Minsi on Saturday morning and plan to leave early enough that I can get some sunrise shots over New Jersey. That's the plan anyway!

It looks like it will be a beautiful day on Saturday. Check back here for the photos!

Uncadan8's iPhone

BSE Part 2

One of my greatly anticipated trips this summer was a three day hike on the Appalachian Trail with my friend Dave. We linked up with a church group from Vineland, NJ, which was a pretty awesome way to be introduced to overnight camping on the AT. There were a whole lot of camping newbies on this trip, but we all had a great time having new experiences together. Here we all are while we are still clean and fresh smelling, ha!

Some of the local wildlife.

Larry and his supercool rock sculpture.

Books and TV's are a bit heavy to lug around on the trail, so once camp is set up, finding entertainment is as easy as what you see around you. Larry got creative with rocks, and I got creative with my knife and some wood. Most people just enjoyed poking at the fire, a perfectly acceptable camping activity!

Friday is the New Saturday

Since I don't have class on Friday morning, worked Friday night and am at work all day Saturday, I had to take advantage of the free time in the morning. I decided to spend it in Evansburg State Park and see if I could find any wildlife. It was a little rainy and windy, so I wasn't sure if the critters would be out and about or holed up like a human during a storm. But I figured I would take my chances.

The Beginning of the Best Summer Ever (BSE)

It's all getting a bit fuzzy now, but as close as I can tell, the first big adventure of the BSE was a day trip up to Duncannon, PA to do some hiking on the Appalachian Trail. The point of this hike was to do some gear testing and, of course, to have a good time. The weather was really warm and overcast, so while we were sweating buckets, at least we didn't have to deal with sunburn that early in the hiking season.

We had the opportunity to view a little local wildlife (and brought some of our own! - Cassel), and enjoyed a few meetings with other hikers.

Like An Old Friend

I am always on the lookout for a creative way to get a great workout. A couple of guys from the youth group I work with provided me with a new option on Monday, and I am STILL feeling the effects! We had been talking for a while about doing a little wrestling - they wanted to learn, and I wanted to get in better condition. So we finally got things together on Monday and wrestled for a little over an hour. I started out by teaching them the basics of take downs and a little ground work.

About ten seconds into the session, I caught a thumbnail with my left eyelid. So now I have a nice black eye, since the blood seems to be draining into the eyelid. Just like old times! I used to wrestle all through elementary, junior high and high school. It seemed like I always had some mat burn, or scrape or cut or something going on. Monday's session felt a little like reconnecting with an old friend.

Back in the Saddle...perhaps!

I got out on Monday for a short spin...short because I hadn't been on the bike in nearly a month or longer. While I had been plenty active by hiking, doing some bodyweight workouts, and chasing teenagers, I hadn't had time or cooperative weather for any really decent rides. I may have started the habit up again by getting on the bike for the second time in just four days, with the possibility of another ride or two before the week is over.

We shall see. I was surprised at how good I felt on the bike today, especially after getting up at 5:30am for an 8 minute power workout courtesy of Cyclo-Core. That one always leaves me feeling wobbly! Tomorrow I may be walking a little funny, but it will be good to have that slightly sore feeling back.

Summertime...and the Livin' is Easy!

I just wanted to give you all a little glimpse of what my spring and summer were like. Time for a photo blog!

Yep. This was pretty much the best summer EVER!

Catching up...

Okay, so I haven't exactly been prolific around here lately, but that hasn't been for lack of adventure! In fact, I would say that my lack of writing has been due to an incredible amount of adventures, travels, and experiences in the last six months - so many, that I am almost unable to process them and write about them.

Almost.

Now that I am working again, and will have some time on my hands, I will begin posting photos and stories from my time as a foot loose and worry free vagabond. There are a multitude of lessons that I learned from my varied experiences and I look forward to sharing them with you all. If there are any of you still out there reading this!

Snowboarding!

I can't wait...

Zimtstern "Leaves" from Zimtstern Snowboarding on Vimeo.

Skills

Okay, so this is totally unrelated to cycling in any way, other than that it combines a few levels of geekiness into one awesome package. Ya gotta love Bruce Lee.