Fort Sumter 2012

Day two of our 2012 Charleston trip.   We did approximately 5 miles on a trip to and then around Fort Sumter.   Leaving out it was cool and windy.  The water was chilly as well and kind of choppy.  As the day wore on the wind died down and it became an almost perfect day to paddle to one of the great historical sites of South Carolina. 

Fort Sumter 2012

Paddle Out to Fort Sumter 

Bull Island Trip November 2012

Helpdesk, Gusto and Hiking Geer made the trip this year.  On day one we took our bikes out to Bull Island.  The morning air was a bit cool but it warmed up nicely as the day wore on.  We tried placing the GoPro on the bike for some shots of the interior island. However, the trails were just too rough and the camera really bounced around to much to make clear pictures.  But we did get some excellent footage on the beach as we road through Bone Yard Beach on the northern tip of the island.  From there we headed over to Alligator Alley and found quiet a few gators.  I stopped counting at 20 and some were over 10 feet long.  Gusto estimated one at close to 15 feet.  Good thing these boys were fat and happy.  We didn’t look like a steak to them this day.

Bull Island on Bikes

Bull Island–Bone Yard Beach

Green River 2012

Just another great trip down the Green.  Gusto, Helpdesk and Sleepy made the run this time.  Helpdesk wrote a little song about it.  Just a couple verses… sing along in your best Johnny Cash voice.
I hear that water comin’
Running ‘round the bend
I hope to see the sunshine
As we try to score a ten

Sleepy will be backward
No matter what Gusto Said
The water rushing quickly
Helpdesk shakes his head!

The day will be a good one
Another for the list
We are getting older
But giv’n the green our best


Link to all the photo’s

Green River 2012

2012 Spider Lily Run

This year we were a little late for the peak season.   According to the park ranger the lilies peaked about 2 weeks earlier.  While we still had a blast it was a little disappointing that we had missed the best part of the trip in seeing a sea of white lilies from water level.  Gusto, Helpdesk, Hiking Geer and a new addition to the team Niblet made the trip down this great section of the Catawba river on June 1, 2012.   The weather was a challenge but believe it or not we didn’t get rained on while on the water.   The afternoon storms were all around the area but never caused us any real problems.  Enjoy the video of this years trip!

2012 Landsford Canal State Park

Here are the river flows for the few days before and after our trip on June 1st.   Note that we were on the water between 2pm and 5pm

We have paddled this section with water discharge at less than 1,200 cubic feet per second.  So it looks like we were in at about 1,800 or so and it wasn't so bad.  Would like it to be over 2,000 for the best runs.

This graph shows the Gage height.  Looks to be just under 6 feet when we started.

French Broad River 2012

Gusto and Helpdesk made an overnight paddle and camping trip to the French Broad river.  We put in a Rosman NC and paddled ~ 8 miles to a riverside camp.   We spent the night stuffing ourselves with Reds BBQ, chips and salsa with a few cookies to top it off.   We had a pretty good view of the moon after it broke through the scattered clouds.  The night was peaceful except for some coyotes that got a little to close to camp for comfort.  I am sure they were further away than they sounded, but we had a plan if we needed to defend our turf.  Day two we did ~13 miles into Brevard NC.  The second day had much better scenery and was a faster paddle overall.  After leaving the river we hit El Ranchero for lunch before heading back home.
Here is the track: ~21 Miles Total Trip

French Broad River Rosman to Brevard 

 

More photo's click below:

All Photos

French Broad River

Crowders Mountain State Park April 2012

Had the opportunity to join some existing friends and make some new ones on a short but challenging hike up Pinnacle Trail at Crowders Mountain state park.  Based on the trail map, Pinnacle has a difficulty rating of strenuous.  I think to get to that it is a combination of how fast you walk and the kind of shape you are in.  If you stroll up this trail I would say it is fairly easy.  If you walk with real purpose and try to make the fastest time possible you will breath hard.  If you are not use to this you will pass out!  I was somewhere between breathing hard and passing out as we reached the top.  It is not a long trail, only 3.4 miles round trip from ant to the park office.  You start up a small rise and then move along a ridge for the first mile.   The last half mile is more steep and the last 2 tenths are pretty steep and at the very end you are basically rock climbing.  The views were great, as we reached the top of the mountain it was obvious that we were lucky from a weather standpoint.  As I looked west it was raining toward Blacksburg and then I looked east and it seemed to be raining there as well.   The wind picked up and there was a nice cool breeze that gusted at times.   Here is a photo of the view from the top.  Sorry the only camera I had was my blackberry so its not the best shot in the world.

 

click the album below to see the rest of the photos taken on this trip.

Crowders Mtn. Pinnacle Trail

Here is a small part of the trail map for reference.   I will also paste a link to the full map under “Trail Links” to the right.

Helpdesk

Lake Wateree April 2012

Cap'n Dan and Helpdesk made a trip to lake Wateree state park on April 2, 2012.  The weather was great and we paddled around the island.  Wish there was a way to totally circumnavigate the entire island but there is a land mass bridge that we couldn't paddle under.  So, we just paddled each section to accomplish our goal.  See the pictures:

Lake Wateree April 2012

Lake Wateree - GPS and Stats

Steamboat Colorado 2012

When a man turns 50, he can choose how to react. He basically has two choices – 1) he can withdraw and decide it’s time to slow down, do less, cut back and basically start the slide into old age; or 2) he can be bold, go large and do things he has never done before in his previous half century. And so Sleepy, upon reaching this milestone, choose option 2. Because hey, he’d already been doing the slow down, do less and cut back (this does not apply to eating mind you!) stuff for a loooong time!
So a decision was made back in the long hot summer of 2011 that Sleepy, accompanied by Helpdesk and Gusto, would heed the call and head west “not-so-young men”. And so we did. Destination - Steamboat Springs, CO for a week of skiing, snowmobiling, hot springing, sightseeing and good eating. Although no snow fell on us during our week, there was still plenty for us to enjoy on the slopes at Steamboat and in the Routt National Forest, where we traveled about 45 miles on snowmobiles. And to our amazement, we learned something incredible about Sleepy in those 45 miles… truth be told, we learned it in only the first mile or two!
In those first couple of miles, we discovered the one thing that Sleepy does not do slowly. The dude will flat out fly on a snowmobile! Once we got to a large open meadow and were given a green light by our guide to have some get acquainted time with our machines, Sleepy wasted no time in seeing just how fast he and his 550cc Polaris could go! Although he didn’t say anything, his actions screamed “Get back you folks from Australia! Eat my snow spray Helpdesk and Gusto!” as he shot out in front of the group (As Seen on TV – or at least in one of our videos) leaving us to marvel and wonder “who is this guy?”.
Sleepy, we think, has racin’ genes and they were in full effect during our 4 hour snowmobile tour. Sleepy got a new name to reflect his need for speed and his desire to pass everyone that dared be in front of him. On that day, Sleepy became “Freddy Petty”.
Helpdesk and Sleepy got to meet and ski with Gusto’s long time friends Chuck and Laura, who live in Denver. They drove up to spend a few days in Steamboat with us during the first part of our trip. Unfortunately we missed out on the Sunday brunch buffet at the landmark El Rancho restaurant with them because we were delayed for over an hour in leaving Charlotte due to the replacement of an “air bleed valve” on the plane. But, we more than made up for that missed Colorado time on the end of our trip.
Our trip was originally planned to run from Sunday to Friday; but ended up extended to Sunday, when Denver was hit with a record snowfall causing over 600 flight cancellations. We did a bit more sightseeing with our extra time. We went to Craig, CO on Friday and toured a museum that featured exhibits on the early western settlers, cowboys and gunslingers. On Saturday, we made the beautiful drive down to Glenwood Springs, CO. The drive through Glenwood Canyon was spectacular (good thing we traded out a stinky Rav4 for a new Forester with a very large sun roof at Hertz on our first day!). We had a great visit to Glenwood Springs and took in such sights as the tram ride to the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, the Hotel Colorado and the famous Hot Springs. 
It was a great week and a wonderful way to celebrate with Sleepy and ensure he made the right choice on his birthday!

Steamboat 2012

Snowmobile Tour Steamboat Colorado 2012

View all the video on our YouTube channel

View our entire web album for more photos of the trip.