A Year of Pictures Vol. IV
SOOOOOO it's that time of year again! In keeping with tradition, I'm typing my Year of Pictures entry with a look back at some of the great times from 2008 that happened to be captured by camera. This is probably going to be longer than the first three volumes since there were a lot of pictures to take this year! For that reason, I'm going to cut it, 56k beware (does anyone even have that anymore?).
So, like every other year, we're going to start with January...
January:
January 2008 found me still in fabulous Las Vegas with the Dunns. I was set to head back to PA around Jan. 19th, but until then I had New Years on the Strip, some snowboarding and snowshoeing and the Valley of Fire to look forward to.
New Years on the Strip was a world's worth of insanity packed onto a single street.
Some people thought it'd be a good idea to try to climb Mt. Charleston after a fresh dumpage of 2 feet of snow. Avalanches were waiting to be triggered all around us, so this turned into a romp through the woods instead.
Then the following day, Martin and I got on the boards and carved up some freshly laid powder.
A few days before leaving Las Vegas, we checked out the Valley of Fire State Park, which was pretty cool. Here's a nifty arch that I found.
February:
February was pretty boring. Went on a few adventures with Adam but didn't really take many pictures. There was a foot of snow or so out in the "mountains" and Adam and I tried going up there in the HAMMER. Needless to say, it was pushed out of a few snowbanks...
That's Adam about to shoot something with my .30 carbine. Fun times!
March:
March was a fun month. The last snowboarding trip of the year, a little bit of winter fun with Guthrie and some of the gang and then a long awaited hike to Calvary Hill Cemetary. Oh, and St. Patties Day, but it wasn't as memorable as the last two for some reason (mostly a missing Mike).
I dared him to jump out on that rock, thinking he'd end up with wet feet. Little did I know that Guthrie is not slippery when wet (imagine that!).
Having a little fun at the Springs on the last good snow of the year.
Anyone smell tomatoes?
...oh, there they are. On the way to Calvary Hill Cemetary.
Finally made it after three years!
April:
April was a fun month. The weather was starting to warm up, Your Mom was starting to get angsty for some mud, and the Pens were making a Stanley Cup Playoff push.
Billston even showed up at our neighbor's house.
He worked very hard to do this. That rock was pretty heavy and he carried it a good distance to drop it off this 50+ foot bridge.
Jake and I discovered the magic that is Deer Lakes Disc Golf. We played many rounds of the Gentlemens' Sport; I even started to get good again!
No month would be complete without a little beertime with Joshie (and many others). This was taken at the Super Six!
Then I found a gold mine of liquor in the basement in some box. This is all from my parents' wedding in 1983. It's still good, it's still good! The only two that are questionable are the Imperial and the Peach Schnapps (but who wants that anyways?).
Evgeni, before beasting on the Senators in Game 1 of the Playoffs.
May:
At some point, I figured I should start looking for a job. I ended up applying to a handful but received two: a fisheries position in Black Canyon of the Gunnison Park, CO and a wildlife biologist position in Jackson, WY. I chose Jackson, of course. But I didn't end up leaving until early June, so first we have some May to get out of the way...
Myself, Your Mom and Mikey at my last SVC visit for the summer.
The group threw a picnic at Twin Lakes. We chucked the disc around, climbed some trees, toyed with Your Mom and had a good time. Some heartfelt goodbyes were said, as I soon had to leave for Jackson.
June:
This is where the fun starts. In the first week of June I started my 2,000 mile drive to Jackson, WY. My first day of work wasn't slated until June 18th, but I wanted to arrive a little early to see my way around my new home. Once I arrived, I moved into my lil' log cabin near Hoback Canyon and started exploring. I went mountain biking on one of the region's best trails and I bagged two peaks: the nearby Creampuff Peak at 9,665 ft and also Jackson Peak near the Elk Refuge, which sits pretty at 10,741 ft.
My first stop of the trip was in Iowa City, IA, where I got pounded with a storm but then rewarded
with a COMPLETE rainbow.
I was lucky enough to revisit a few favorites...
...and also find a few new ones. These are of Deadwood, SD and Devil's Tower National Monument, WY, respectively.
Soon after entering Wyoming, I realized that summer is negligible at altitude...
I was soon greeted by the Tetons...
...my new home town...
...and my new home.
My first day at the office was also my birthday, June 14th. Here's Zack crunching out some TPS reports.
Another fresh face in the neighborhood.
My first weekend (all weekends were sun-tues.) was dedicated to climbing Creampuff Peak (9,665 ft), my backyard mountain.
The second was mountain biking the 8 mile downhill of the famous Cache-Game Creek Trail.
And the third was set for Jackson Peak (10,741 ft.).
Regardless of the conditions, June means swimming to a Pennsylvanian (although not for very long).
Aside from the busy weekends, most of June was spent in the office.
July:
July started off with a bang. Let's just say that I appreciated the last three weeks (and the rest of the summer) MUCH more than I appreciated the first week. Some things were put into perspective on the slopes of my first Teton peak, Buck Mountain. It ended up being the first and last peak I bagged in the month of July due to TOO MUCH SNOW.
The rest of my free time was spent at work, on Your Mom or floating through town on Flat Creek.
I kicked July off with a bit of mountain biking at the Cache Creek trail network. Look at that beauty.
The first workweek in July saw us all over the Gros Ventres. That's Zack in the middle photo holding the largest morel ever known to man.
On July 7th, I decided to give my first Teton peak a shot. That's Buck Mountain, sitting just under 12k at 11,938 ft.
Although I had crampons and an ice axe, I had two VERY near misses on the upper slopes of the mountain. One was in this icy couloir (which I now call the DEATH CHUTE.)
And the other was on the very steep upper slope just below the summit. In both cases, I lost my purchase, fell and started sliding. In the first case (on the steep slope below the summit), I self arrested with my ice axe before I learned whether or not I had enough momentum to carry me off the cliff at the bottom of this photo. In the second case (in the DEATH CHUTE), I simply got lucky and somehow stopped before hitting some rocks at the bottom of the chute (though I did cut my leg pretty good with my ice axe). Definitely a sobering affair and a good enough reason to stop climbing for 3-4 weeks.
So insead of climbing, I did a lot of biking. Here's Your Mom at the base of Cliff Creek falls in the Gros Ventres.
I also checked out Granite Creek Falls (first pic) and their natural hot springs (second pic). It was dangerous business crossing the VERY fast moving Granite Creek to get to these hot springs, but it was totally worth it.
Zack and I about to put in at Flat Creek on the edge of town. This turned out to be a 4-5 hour float before we took out by the Snake River. It went all the way through town and out into the country. Many small waterfalls were run, barbed wire fences dodged, cow tramplings averted and sunburns irradiated.
August:
August was truly a great month. I was waiting all summer for a few visitors: Josh, Adam and Soltesz. First their trip was on, then it was off, then it was back on, then back off and so on and so on. Finally they worked it out and set the trip to around the first week of August. Awesomeness was had, Yellowstone was visited, the Middle Teton was summited (along with the South Teton and Static Peak) and I also met a kickass dog.
The first week of August was spent out on the range near Pinedale looking for some goshawks.
We didn't see any Goshawks, but we did get to see them trap this GRIZ.
Also, the people we were staying with (70 miles from the nearest town) had the coolest dog ever. This dog and I were great friends.
But soon enough, a group of punkies arrived at my cabin early on Sunday morning (like... 3 am early). We did some fishing soon thereafter and then made the drive to Yellowstone.
Which was cool, but too crowded.
To beat the crowds and taste some backcountry, we set off on our climb of the Middle Teton:
Which was a total haul. The first day (wednesday) was devoted to reaching the Meadows, our campsite at around 8,000 feet in Garnet Canyon.
We made it.
We set out nice and early the next day to bag the 12,804 ft. summit.
It was tiring work, but once again...
We made it. This gets the vote of BEST PICTURE OF 2008!
After the boys left, I found my way up Death Canyon (doesn't look very deadly) to climb...
Static Peak at 11,303 ft.
After a few close encounters I was also able to climb...
The South Teton (12,514 ft.).
But this would be my last time in Garnet Canyon (can you spot the skiier who his earning his summertime turns? Hint: he's wearing red.)
September:
September started off with Your Mom and I hitting up the trails of Teton Pass. I also got the opportunity to work in Grand Teton National Park with a friend of Shawns on a Bighorn DNA study. That was fun. Oh, we also got our FIRST SNOWFALL of the summer/fall/winter. I tried to climb two peaks, Mt. St. John (11,430 ft.) and Teewinot (12,325 ft.), but I failed at both (safety first!). At the end of the month, I began my looong drive home to PA.
I took Your Mom...
...to ride Jimmy's Mom...
...but she rode me instead.
Soon after my dispute with Your Mom, we took a boat across Jackson Lake for our GTNP work about 10 miles into the backcountry of a remote section of the park.
The hike in was very scenic...
...but we soon found our way to our home for the week.
Our first day of work was spent hiking to...
...Moose Basin Divide so we could...
...scan the hills for bighorn sheep in order to...
...collect their freshly dropped poop. Fun times!
Day two was stormy...
...but no less rewarding.
Soon we found ourselves back on the shores of Jackson Lake waiting to be picked up by a boat. Before we could head back, however, we had to check out...
...reports of a visitor to a certain campsite. Griz alert.
Soon enough I was back in the clouds looking through God's window on my way to...
...the Lake of the Crags, which is where I turned around on my Mt. St. John bid.
The scenery was nice on the way down.
I also found a familiar looking photo. This is Jenny Lake.
Heading to the summit of Teewinot...
...but turned around just above the Idol and the Worshipper.
For Wyoming, fall and winter were on the horizon.
As was my last day there.
October:
Now that that behemoth summer is in the books, I can focus on my first Pennsylvania Autumn in two years. My first SVC Homecoming, a few fall hikes and a trip to Seven Springs' AWESOME downhill mountain bike park. October was fun!
The first of the many faces I couldn't wait to see. Here he is almost ready to throw up on top of Laurel Mountain the day before Homecoming.
Beautiful St. Vincent College. We were hanging out at the newly finished Rogers Center enjoying free all-you-can-drink Straubies.
We eventually got out for some fall hiking...
...some fall bacon cooking...
...and some fall-almost-burning-down-Laurel-Mountain-with-my-grease-firing.
Seven Springs Bike Park is INCREDIBLE (note: that's not me)!
November:
The last bits of fall included some biking trips and a camping trip along the Laurel Highlands Trail. Oh, and I got to see Prizzi.
Biking at Deer Lakes Park.
There he is! Former ARHD of Bonnie, everyone, Alex PRIZZI!
Fire and beer.
December 2008:
And finally, to our current month. Most of this month has been filled with insulator hunting along some of the tracks in the area. Nick, Liz, Bip and I went out by SVC, I went along Harmarville and Jake and I went near Deer Lakes. Some good ones were found, some good ones were left (for now), but a good time was always had. Not to mention, the return of the incredible MIKEY to the slopes! What a time that was! Also, most importantly, my brother got back from the Air Force BMT with his fresh Airman chevrons!
There's Liz, lookin' hard for some glass!
Yes, he took all of that home.
Here's Nick modeling a Whitall Tatum CD-154.
Only thing to say about this is: about DAMN time!
Some of the goods near Harmarville!
Jake checking out an abandoned station.
After a hard day's glass huntin'.
One of the many finds
Your Mom got some fancy shmancy new parts.
But to top off the month, Adam graduated from Air Force BMT!
And then came back to visit!
Ok well folks, that's all for now! Another year in the bag. That took FOREVER to type up and right here at the end, a few pictures up, I accidentally hit the back button on my browser. THANKFULLY livejournal has implemented a "restore drafts" feature that autosaves every so often. Such goodness.
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 2008, it's been fun!
So, like every other year, we're going to start with January...
January:
January 2008 found me still in fabulous Las Vegas with the Dunns. I was set to head back to PA around Jan. 19th, but until then I had New Years on the Strip, some snowboarding and snowshoeing and the Valley of Fire to look forward to.
New Years on the Strip was a world's worth of insanity packed onto a single street.
Some people thought it'd be a good idea to try to climb Mt. Charleston after a fresh dumpage of 2 feet of snow. Avalanches were waiting to be triggered all around us, so this turned into a romp through the woods instead.
Then the following day, Martin and I got on the boards and carved up some freshly laid powder.
A few days before leaving Las Vegas, we checked out the Valley of Fire State Park, which was pretty cool. Here's a nifty arch that I found.
February:
February was pretty boring. Went on a few adventures with Adam but didn't really take many pictures. There was a foot of snow or so out in the "mountains" and Adam and I tried going up there in the HAMMER. Needless to say, it was pushed out of a few snowbanks...
That's Adam about to shoot something with my .30 carbine. Fun times!
March:
March was a fun month. The last snowboarding trip of the year, a little bit of winter fun with Guthrie and some of the gang and then a long awaited hike to Calvary Hill Cemetary. Oh, and St. Patties Day, but it wasn't as memorable as the last two for some reason (mostly a missing Mike).
I dared him to jump out on that rock, thinking he'd end up with wet feet. Little did I know that Guthrie is not slippery when wet (imagine that!).
Having a little fun at the Springs on the last good snow of the year.
Anyone smell tomatoes?
...oh, there they are. On the way to Calvary Hill Cemetary.
Finally made it after three years!
April:
April was a fun month. The weather was starting to warm up, Your Mom was starting to get angsty for some mud, and the Pens were making a Stanley Cup Playoff push.
Billston even showed up at our neighbor's house.
He worked very hard to do this. That rock was pretty heavy and he carried it a good distance to drop it off this 50+ foot bridge.
Jake and I discovered the magic that is Deer Lakes Disc Golf. We played many rounds of the Gentlemens' Sport; I even started to get good again!
No month would be complete without a little beertime with Joshie (and many others). This was taken at the Super Six!
Then I found a gold mine of liquor in the basement in some box. This is all from my parents' wedding in 1983. It's still good, it's still good! The only two that are questionable are the Imperial and the Peach Schnapps (but who wants that anyways?).
Evgeni, before beasting on the Senators in Game 1 of the Playoffs.
May:
At some point, I figured I should start looking for a job. I ended up applying to a handful but received two: a fisheries position in Black Canyon of the Gunnison Park, CO and a wildlife biologist position in Jackson, WY. I chose Jackson, of course. But I didn't end up leaving until early June, so first we have some May to get out of the way...
Myself, Your Mom and Mikey at my last SVC visit for the summer.
The group threw a picnic at Twin Lakes. We chucked the disc around, climbed some trees, toyed with Your Mom and had a good time. Some heartfelt goodbyes were said, as I soon had to leave for Jackson.
June:
This is where the fun starts. In the first week of June I started my 2,000 mile drive to Jackson, WY. My first day of work wasn't slated until June 18th, but I wanted to arrive a little early to see my way around my new home. Once I arrived, I moved into my lil' log cabin near Hoback Canyon and started exploring. I went mountain biking on one of the region's best trails and I bagged two peaks: the nearby Creampuff Peak at 9,665 ft and also Jackson Peak near the Elk Refuge, which sits pretty at 10,741 ft.
My first stop of the trip was in Iowa City, IA, where I got pounded with a storm but then rewarded
with a COMPLETE rainbow.
I was lucky enough to revisit a few favorites...
...and also find a few new ones. These are of Deadwood, SD and Devil's Tower National Monument, WY, respectively.
Soon after entering Wyoming, I realized that summer is negligible at altitude...
I was soon greeted by the Tetons...
...my new home town...
...and my new home.
My first day at the office was also my birthday, June 14th. Here's Zack crunching out some TPS reports.
Another fresh face in the neighborhood.
My first weekend (all weekends were sun-tues.) was dedicated to climbing Creampuff Peak (9,665 ft), my backyard mountain.
The second was mountain biking the 8 mile downhill of the famous Cache-Game Creek Trail.
And the third was set for Jackson Peak (10,741 ft.).
Regardless of the conditions, June means swimming to a Pennsylvanian (although not for very long).
Aside from the busy weekends, most of June was spent in the office.
July:
July started off with a bang. Let's just say that I appreciated the last three weeks (and the rest of the summer) MUCH more than I appreciated the first week. Some things were put into perspective on the slopes of my first Teton peak, Buck Mountain. It ended up being the first and last peak I bagged in the month of July due to TOO MUCH SNOW.
The rest of my free time was spent at work, on Your Mom or floating through town on Flat Creek.
I kicked July off with a bit of mountain biking at the Cache Creek trail network. Look at that beauty.
The first workweek in July saw us all over the Gros Ventres. That's Zack in the middle photo holding the largest morel ever known to man.
On July 7th, I decided to give my first Teton peak a shot. That's Buck Mountain, sitting just under 12k at 11,938 ft.
Although I had crampons and an ice axe, I had two VERY near misses on the upper slopes of the mountain. One was in this icy couloir (which I now call the DEATH CHUTE.)
And the other was on the very steep upper slope just below the summit. In both cases, I lost my purchase, fell and started sliding. In the first case (on the steep slope below the summit), I self arrested with my ice axe before I learned whether or not I had enough momentum to carry me off the cliff at the bottom of this photo. In the second case (in the DEATH CHUTE), I simply got lucky and somehow stopped before hitting some rocks at the bottom of the chute (though I did cut my leg pretty good with my ice axe). Definitely a sobering affair and a good enough reason to stop climbing for 3-4 weeks.
So insead of climbing, I did a lot of biking. Here's Your Mom at the base of Cliff Creek falls in the Gros Ventres.
I also checked out Granite Creek Falls (first pic) and their natural hot springs (second pic). It was dangerous business crossing the VERY fast moving Granite Creek to get to these hot springs, but it was totally worth it.
Zack and I about to put in at Flat Creek on the edge of town. This turned out to be a 4-5 hour float before we took out by the Snake River. It went all the way through town and out into the country. Many small waterfalls were run, barbed wire fences dodged, cow tramplings averted and sunburns irradiated.
August:
August was truly a great month. I was waiting all summer for a few visitors: Josh, Adam and Soltesz. First their trip was on, then it was off, then it was back on, then back off and so on and so on. Finally they worked it out and set the trip to around the first week of August. Awesomeness was had, Yellowstone was visited, the Middle Teton was summited (along with the South Teton and Static Peak) and I also met a kickass dog.
The first week of August was spent out on the range near Pinedale looking for some goshawks.
We didn't see any Goshawks, but we did get to see them trap this GRIZ.
Also, the people we were staying with (70 miles from the nearest town) had the coolest dog ever. This dog and I were great friends.
But soon enough, a group of punkies arrived at my cabin early on Sunday morning (like... 3 am early). We did some fishing soon thereafter and then made the drive to Yellowstone.
Which was cool, but too crowded.
To beat the crowds and taste some backcountry, we set off on our climb of the Middle Teton:
Which was a total haul. The first day (wednesday) was devoted to reaching the Meadows, our campsite at around 8,000 feet in Garnet Canyon.
We made it.
We set out nice and early the next day to bag the 12,804 ft. summit.
It was tiring work, but once again...
We made it. This gets the vote of BEST PICTURE OF 2008!
After the boys left, I found my way up Death Canyon (doesn't look very deadly) to climb...
Static Peak at 11,303 ft.
After a few close encounters I was also able to climb...
The South Teton (12,514 ft.).
But this would be my last time in Garnet Canyon (can you spot the skiier who his earning his summertime turns? Hint: he's wearing red.)
September:
September started off with Your Mom and I hitting up the trails of Teton Pass. I also got the opportunity to work in Grand Teton National Park with a friend of Shawns on a Bighorn DNA study. That was fun. Oh, we also got our FIRST SNOWFALL of the summer/fall/winter. I tried to climb two peaks, Mt. St. John (11,430 ft.) and Teewinot (12,325 ft.), but I failed at both (safety first!). At the end of the month, I began my looong drive home to PA.
I took Your Mom...
...to ride Jimmy's Mom...
...but she rode me instead.
Soon after my dispute with Your Mom, we took a boat across Jackson Lake for our GTNP work about 10 miles into the backcountry of a remote section of the park.
The hike in was very scenic...
...but we soon found our way to our home for the week.
Our first day of work was spent hiking to...
...Moose Basin Divide so we could...
...scan the hills for bighorn sheep in order to...
...collect their freshly dropped poop. Fun times!
Day two was stormy...
...but no less rewarding.
Soon we found ourselves back on the shores of Jackson Lake waiting to be picked up by a boat. Before we could head back, however, we had to check out...
...reports of a visitor to a certain campsite. Griz alert.
Soon enough I was back in the clouds looking through God's window on my way to...
...the Lake of the Crags, which is where I turned around on my Mt. St. John bid.
The scenery was nice on the way down.
I also found a familiar looking photo. This is Jenny Lake.
Heading to the summit of Teewinot...
...but turned around just above the Idol and the Worshipper.
For Wyoming, fall and winter were on the horizon.
As was my last day there.
October:
Now that that behemoth summer is in the books, I can focus on my first Pennsylvania Autumn in two years. My first SVC Homecoming, a few fall hikes and a trip to Seven Springs' AWESOME downhill mountain bike park. October was fun!
The first of the many faces I couldn't wait to see. Here he is almost ready to throw up on top of Laurel Mountain the day before Homecoming.
Beautiful St. Vincent College. We were hanging out at the newly finished Rogers Center enjoying free all-you-can-drink Straubies.
We eventually got out for some fall hiking...
...some fall bacon cooking...
...and some fall-almost-burning-down-Laurel-Mountain-with-my-grease-firing.
Seven Springs Bike Park is INCREDIBLE (note: that's not me)!
November:
The last bits of fall included some biking trips and a camping trip along the Laurel Highlands Trail. Oh, and I got to see Prizzi.
Biking at Deer Lakes Park.
There he is! Former ARHD of Bonnie, everyone, Alex PRIZZI!
Fire and beer.
December 2008:
And finally, to our current month. Most of this month has been filled with insulator hunting along some of the tracks in the area. Nick, Liz, Bip and I went out by SVC, I went along Harmarville and Jake and I went near Deer Lakes. Some good ones were found, some good ones were left (for now), but a good time was always had. Not to mention, the return of the incredible MIKEY to the slopes! What a time that was! Also, most importantly, my brother got back from the Air Force BMT with his fresh Airman chevrons!
There's Liz, lookin' hard for some glass!
Yes, he took all of that home.
Here's Nick modeling a Whitall Tatum CD-154.
Only thing to say about this is: about DAMN time!
Some of the goods near Harmarville!
Jake checking out an abandoned station.
After a hard day's glass huntin'.
One of the many finds
Your Mom got some fancy shmancy new parts.
But to top off the month, Adam graduated from Air Force BMT!
And then came back to visit!
Ok well folks, that's all for now! Another year in the bag. That took FOREVER to type up and right here at the end, a few pictures up, I accidentally hit the back button on my browser. THANKFULLY livejournal has implemented a "restore drafts" feature that autosaves every so often. Such goodness.
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 2008, it's been fun!