ZapperZ's Great Outdoors Photo Contest

[Astronuc]

I just spent a couple of days at Mt. Hood and Mt St Helens. I'll post pictures later.

Meanwhile, I did a hike a June Lake (no fee) SE of St. Helens and was able to get to the top of the first wall of the lava/debris field. It was about 2 miles and an elevation gain of 1000 feet. I would have had to go another 100 ft or so to get an unobstructed view of the SE flank of St. Helens.

See - http://www.landscapeimagery.com/junelake.html

Yesterday, I was at Johnston Observatory on the northern flank of St. Helens. It's an impressive site. The winds picked up around lunchtime, and huge dust clouds got kicked up. If one hikes Mt. St. Helens, in the drier summer, it's best to have a dust mask to avoid breathing the dust. At one point, I could feel a stinging sensation of the dust being blown against my skin.

Meanwhile, more pictures from folks who've enjoyed the Nature and the Great Outdoors.
http://www.landscapeimagery.com/index.html

 

[Astronuc]

Mt St Helens

I recently visited Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens, with quick side trip past Mt. Rainier.

As promised, here is an image of Mt St. Helens taken from a trail (Trail 1) near Johnston Observatory. One is looking south toward the crater.

 

[jmneutr0nn3]

I recently visited Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens, with quick side trip past Mt. Rainier.

As promised, here is an image of Mt St. Helens taken from a trail (Trail 1) near Johnston Observatory. One is looking south toward the crater.

That mountain looks a little steep. It looks thrilling to climb there but not on the crater part.

 

[Astronuc]

That mountain looks a little steep. It looks thrilling to climb there but not on the crater part.

Access to the crater is off-limits/prohibited, or restricted.

 

[jmneutr0nn3]

Vietnam wins the cable wars

http://talkvietnam.com/uploads/2013/09/facebook-stirred-up-by-bill-gates-photo-on-vietnams-electric-pole-1196912-20130910124315-2.jpg

Omg. That's a lot of electric cables hanging on a static pole.

 

[lisab]

Just finished a three-day hike around Goat Rocks Wilderness in Washington State. Something happened to me there that was remarkable.

On day two, we were hiking along the Pacific Crest Trail in single file. I was hiker #3 in a line of 5. As I passed a tree - maybe the 100,000th tree we had passed on this hike - I heard a loud POP. I thought my friend behind me was playing a joke about Sasquatch (e.g., throwing a rock at a tree and saying, "Did you see the Bigfoot?!").

So I turned to look at her. You can't turn quickly with a heavy back pack, but I turned just in time to see a large tree fall right in between us -- 45 cm in diameter, about 10 meters tall. It was about 1.5 meters from each of us.

No wind, no rain - it was a beautiful clear day.

Weird.

 

[collinsmark]

I'm glad you're okay, lisab!

 

[rolerbe]

Omg. That's a lot of electric cables hanging on a static pole.

The pole is probably irrelevant by now.

 

[Astronuc]

Add this to one's bucket list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinta_da_Regaleira

http://www.portugalvirtual.pt/_tourism/costadelisboa/sintra/regaleira.html

http://altnonfic.com/eye-opening-architecture-quinta-da-regaleira-portugal/

 

[Borek]

 

[Astronuc]

A 7,000-foot-high cliffside trail in China

https://www.yahoo.com/travel/going-to-china-for-the-worlds-scariest-hike-96566561402.html

 

[Astronuc]

A message from one of the National Parks Service.

Think SAFE – Stay SAFE Plan Ahead and Prepare
About 95% of Rocky [Mountain National Park] is designated Wilderness. “Leave No Trace” principles aim to minimize human impacts on our natural world. The first principle is to Plan Ahead and Prepare, which is as important for your safety as it is for protecting our magnificent area:
• Know and obey the regulations and special concerns for the area you'll visit.
• Be physically and mentally ready for your trip.
• Know the ability of every member of your group.
• Be informed of current weather conditions and other area information.
• Know and accept risks associated with backcountry experiences.
• Take responsibility for yourself and your group.
• Always leave an itinerary with someone at home.
• Choose proper equipment and clothing in subdued colors.
• Plan your meals and repackage food into reusable containers.

Be safe and maintain Leave No Trace principles. Not only will you enjoy your visit all the more, you’ll help protect this incredible Wilderness.

http://www.nps.gov/romo/supportyourpark/leavenotrace.htm (NPS/VIP Schonlau) ks

 

[edward]

Occasionally one of the little things in life can be a fun experience. I was trying to get a picture of the moon "setting" early one morning. The trees in the forground totally disrupted the auto focus on my cheapo camera.

I saw some hummingbirds on the feeder in silhouette. I thought I might make the best of it and try to get a picture of the hummingbirds with the moon in the background.

I didn't notice where one hummingbirds beak was until I downloaded the pictures from the camera.

 

[Andy Resnick]

nice! I got something similar one night- this is a plane that happened to fly in front of the Ring Nebula:

 

[edward]

WOW that is a great pic Andy. Then again if you didn't want the plane there... All I got was a crummy hummingbird with it's beak in the moon.

 

[Borek]

Bieszczady - four seasons.

I have posted an image or two form Bieszczady in the past.

 

[edward]

Bieszczady - four seasons.

I have posted an image or two form Bieszczady in the past.

Beautiful! I put it on full screen and just sat back and enjoyed.

 

[Borek]

Beautiful! I put it on full screen and just sat back and enjoyed.

That's what these things are shot for :)

 

[Astronuc]

Scottish Highlands and Loch -

 

[Astronuc]

Everyone has a story.
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/the-amazing-people-i-met-while-hiking-the-appalachian-99061629682.html

Time for a walk?
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/7-most-incredible-day-hikes-in-the-world-85251531237.html

 

[lisab]

Just got back from the last backpacking trip of the year. It was fantastic - Seven Lakes Basin in Olympic National Park. We saw seven bears!

It was a beautiful trip!

 

[Mark44]

It was a beautiful trip!

Was this one taken on the High Divide looking down into Seven Lakes Basin? I've been on the High Divide, but only the piece near where it ends over by Cat Basin and Cat Peak.

Here's my bear picture, taken September of 2013, at Marmot Lake in the La Crosse Basin (Olympic Nat'l Park).

 

[Mark44]

Just finished a three-day hike around Goat Rocks Wilderness in Washington State. Something happened to me there that was remarkable.

On day two, we were hiking along the Pacific Crest Trail in single file. I was hiker #3 in a line of 5. As I passed a tree - maybe the 100,000th tree we had passed on this hike - I heard a loud POP. I thought my friend behind me was playing a joke about Sasquatch (e.g., throwing a rock at a tree and saying, "Did you see the Bigfoot?!").

So I turned to look at her. You can't turn quickly with a heavy back pack, but I turned just in time to see a large tree fall right in between us -- 45 cm in diameter, about 10 meters tall. It was about 1.5 meters from each of us.

No wind, no rain - it was a beautiful clear day.

Weird.

I didn't know you made a trip in Goat Rocks, Lisa. It's one of my favorite places. I've been there six times, including one trip where we climbed Mt. Curtis Gilbert, the main peak in there. From the higher elevations of the PCT, you get a view of the three closest volcanoes, Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens, as well as Mt. Hood across the Columbia in Oregon.

If you're a flower buff, Goat Rocks has an incredibly rich variety of flowers. On the trip where a buddy and I climbed Mt. Curtis Gilbert, we were pretty shot the next day, so we just wandered around the Snow Grass Flats area and above, looking for different kinds of flowers. By our count, we saw 75 different species, including four or five types of lupine, three types of pedicularis (elephant head pedicularis - http://plant-life.org/Scrophulariaceae/large/pedicu_groenla2_lg.htm - looks just like you would think it would ) and many others. We stopped to talk with a guy who was just hanging out, and mentioned that we had seen lots of different flowers. He told us that a group from the Audobon Society had been there a few days ago, doing a plant survey, and they counted 200 different species!

 

[lisab]

Yes, that photo was taken just off the High Divide, on the trail that drops into Heart Lake basin, which is where all the male bears were hanging out.

Goat Rocks had spectacular flowers! But the bugs were pretty bad - mosquitoes were biting even in the rain.

 

[Mark44]

Lisa's pictures in Olympic National Park inspired me to post a panorama of three pictures I took on a recent backpack trip of seven days. This is my first effort at stitching pictures together (using GIMP). I retouched the sky to make it uniform, but the rest is untouched.

This is a view of the northern half of the Bailey Range, in Olympic National Park. From the left edge of the picture to the right edge is about 6 miles. The High Divide, where Lisa was hiking, is the ridge that extends off the left edge of this picture.

After a late start on the first day, we hiked up the Soleduck valley to camp at a small lake near Appleton Pass, near the second bump on the left skyline. It took us most of the second day to get from our camp, to just past the third bump (Cat Peak), camping at a little nook with water on the slope that ascends to Mt. Carrie (the first peak on the left with a snow patch near the top). The third day was spent traversing the section from just beyond Cat Peak to Cream Lake, which is at about the middle of the picture, but is hidden behind the hill in the left foreground. The distance is only about five miles, but you spend a lot of time route-finding and crossing several steep gullies that descend from the ridge.

After leaving Cream Lake, we hiked/scrambled up a narrow steep canyon that evenually opened up into the relatively flat area at the lower right of this picture. We spent the fourth and fifth days wandering around in this area, which has at least a dozen lakes of varying sizes in many small basins
.

The terrain is very rugged. In some places there are trails, but they are as likely to be made by animals as by humans. This route is not for the faint of heart, as there are no maintained trails, and in many places, no trails at all. Although we didn't have to cross any snow on our traverse, we took ice axes, because the exit from the middle of the Bailey Range requires a steep descent down a dirt and gravel slope. If you slip, it could ruin your whole day, or worse.

We were lucky enough to hit a seven-day window of excellent weather, which is not a sure thing after Labor Day in the Olympics. Most days the temps were in the 70s, so we hiked in shorts the whole time. All in all, an excellent trip!

 

[edward]

Yes, that photo was taken just off the High Divide, on the trail that drops into Heart Lake basin, which is where all the male bears were hanging out.

Goat Rocks had spectacular flowers! But the bugs were pretty bad - mosquitoes were biting even in the rain.

You need to quit hanging out around bear males. .)

 

[Borek]

I retouched the sky

Take all pictures in the series using the same settings (typically it requires using some kind of manual settings, may be not available in your camera).

 

[lisab]

I retouched the sky ...

From where you were, Mark, it sounds like you could just step right into the sky!

Fantastic trip report, I'd love to do that trip someday. I hope it inspires other PFers to lace up their boots and get out into the wilderness!

 

[Mark44]

Take all pictures in the series using the same settings (typically it requires using some kind of manual settings, may be not available in your camera).

It might have, but it has many features that I don't know about. I used to have a Minolta SRT film camera many years ago, with separate controls for f-stop and shutter time. My little Canon Powershot might have some of these features, but you have to get to them from a menu, not their own controls.

 

[Mark44]

Here are a couple more pictures that I like a lot, taken on two different trips this summer.

My friend Steve took this one on a hike we did in the North Cascades in August. We're at Iron Cap Pass at the upper end of the Necklace Valley on the E. Fork Foss River. The view is south to several peaks on the other side of the Snoqualmie Valley.

The next picture was taken in Olympic National Park, on the same trip as the panorama I posted earlier in this thread. This shot shows Mt. Olympus, with its covering of glaciers, about five miles away. Even though it's mid-September here, there are still large snowfields present. We're up around 6000', which is well above timberline in the Olympics. This was the fifth day of our seven-day trip, and we were starting to make our exit from the Bailey Range. To do this, you have to climb up a mountain, then climb down the other side of it. After about 7 hours from this point we were back on a maintained trail for the first time in almost a week.