Author Archives: Uwe

Quick trip between two monsoonal weather systems up to the Sierra for some peaks. 2 nights of backpacking in the Hilton Lakes area from Rock Creek Lake for Stanford and Morgan, and a day trip up Tioga Pass Road for Gibbs.

We were in Tromsø, Norway, to try to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). Since seeing the aurora is not a given, as it depends on cloudless skies and solar activity we went for a weeklong trip. So we had to fill the days with fun activities.

We flew to Lisbon, Portugal, and after a day of checking out the city took the bus to Porto Covo to hike 9 stages on the Fishermen’s Trail along the Algarve coast.

After last year’s Sierra backpacking trip, Malte wanted another one and came over in September. I came up with a route that gave us some peaks and great scenery in an area that was mostly new to both of us.

I drove up to Independence and found nice spot around 5000 ft along Independence Creek. It was just a short distance on a dirt road from Onion Valley Road and the $40 for a campsite in Onion Valley felt too steep. The temperature was nice and I decided to treat myself to a burrito. SoContinue reading “Kearsarge Pass, August 2025”

There were only a few days left to view Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) and Malte had never seen a Comet. So we decided to climb San Gorgoino (11,499 ft, 3505 m) and spend a night on the peak for our best chance to catch a glimpse.