bren : blog

I always think I’m not much of a goal setter, but then I keep various little mental benchmarks in my head. Sometimes I talk about ‘em, but mostly not. Might as well mention the current goal(s)…
A while ago I was able to convince some friends to plan a climb on Mt. St. Helens with me. [...]

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Went camping with Jeff and Ron yesterday. Snowshoed around Twin Lakes and camped on Upper Lake. Walked out this morning. Here is the full set of pictures.
This was a humbling experience for me. Many times I felt like I was kind of at the edge of my comfort level. It gave me new appreciation for [...]

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Just started organizing the monthly hike pictures in a Flickr collection. Nice way to get an overview! Here it is. I missed a few winter months, so I may need to put the hammer down this summer and bust out more than one per month…

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Good hike yesterday with Frodo. Though he hit the wall just a quarter mile from the car and I had to carry him. What a baby. Found two geocaches on the mountain, and one geodetic benchmark (the first I’ve recorded).
Here are the obligatory links:

Flickr set
Route on Google Maps
Route in Google Earth

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Great hike! Got some pictures and video, as well as the Google Maps track. The full set of pics are here. For the Google Earth track (you’ll need to have Google Earth installed), click here. For the Google Maps track, click here. If you have Google Earth installed, I definitely recommend using that file–Saddle Mountain [...]

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Yesterday, being Good Friday, I didn’t have to work. So I went on a hike up at the Opal Creek Wilderness. It’s was a beautiful day–around mid 70’s up in the mountains. My guidebook said the trail was a 7 mile out and back. My GPS said 6.6 when I got back to the car. [...]

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November’s hike was Mt. Mitchell, near Mt. St. Helens in Washington. Pics are here. The pictures make it look pretty gnarly. It didn’t feel as gnarly as it looks.
I compiled a Google Earth file, but something is amiss with the track and/or geotags. The photos are all on the trail, but they’re in weird [...]

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New camera came today. It’s tiny–the size of a deck of cards! That’s not what I’m most geeked about, though. It’s waterproof to 10′–I can’t wait to get some cool underwater pictures of the kids swimming!
It’s also going to be nice on the monthly hikes. I was a little worried about taking Amy’s camera out [...]

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UPDATE: Forgot to mention the pictures I took. Look for the “map” link to see exactly where on the mountain the picture was taken.
Took the day off of work today (legitimate vacation day, not the sneaky “personal day” with sick leave) and hiked King’s Mountain with Frodo. I’d been up once before and I remember [...]

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