Three More Days in Piatra Craiului

The week after our hiking road trip Bianca was off to Antwerp Tuesday-Saturday for a work conference so I rented another car and headed back to the Piatra Craiului mountains for three more days of hiking. The weather didn’t completely cooperate and rained a bit each day, but I was still able to get some great hiking in. I car camped in the foothills outside the town of Zărești and went hiking from there. The first day I went on a short day hike up Vf. Ascutit and the second two days I did an overnight hike along the main ridgeline.

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Romania Hiking Road-trip

From 8/8 – 8/14 Bianca and I went on a hiking/camping road-trip around Romania, hitting several of the country’s beautiful national parks all located within the Southern Carpathian Mountains. We started with a nice hike in Bucegi, then two hikes in Piatra Craiului, and finished with a hike to the top of Vf. Moldoveanu, which at 2,544m tall is the highest point in Romania.

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Romania & Hungary Trip

On July 3 I flew from Vermont to Cluj-Napoca, Romania where Bianca is currently living. After spending a few days there with her, I met my college friend Jon in Budapest, Hungary, where we started three weeks of travel and exploration around both Hungary and Romania. We spent the first week in Hungary exploring Budapest and the small city of Eger, and then spent the next two weeks in Romania. Our time in Romania was split between quite a few different cities each with different character: Cluj, Sighișoara, Brașov, Sibiu, and then finally Bucharest.

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San Bernardino East Peak – different than usual

It has been 3 weeks since our backpacking trip to the Desolation Wilderness and we were ready for another good hike. We eventually settled on San Bernardino East Peak since it would offer a new trail and a new peak to part of the group. We met at 6:30am to car pool for the ride. With a quick bathroom stop we arrived at Momyer TH around 8:15am and hit the trail 10 minutes later.Continue reading “San Bernardino East Peak – different than usual”

Alaska Cruise

It started on Sunday morning 26 Aug. No problems getting to the airport, parking in long term lot, shuttle to the airport, check bags, pass through security (we were TSA Pre so went quickly) and at the gate in plenty of time. Uneventful trip, fortunately, non-stop to Seattle. Arrived about 1300, got a shuttle to a motel and got checked in to wait for Bill and Maggie. They arrived a few hours later and we all went out to dinner.Continue reading “Alaska Cruise”

3 Easy Days in Desolation Wilderness

After hiking for 7 days straight it was time for a little more relaxed approach. We spent a day with a friend’s kids exploring a little water fall, hanging out by a fishing pond and balancing on a fallen tree trunk. The next day we went to the ranger station and got a 3 day permit for the wilderness. After that we setup camp in DL Bliss State Park and spent the day napping on a beach of Lake Tahoe and driving along the lake a little for some great views.Continue reading “3 Easy Days in Desolation Wilderness”

7 Day Wilderness Adventure

Our original adventure was to be the epic Tahoe-to-Yosemite hike, one attempted by less than 10 people per year. The Donnell Lake fire which started August 1, and continues to burn 36,350 acres, destroyed over 21 miles of our 180-mile hike.  For plan B we reverted to a modified series of loops through the Desolation and Mokelumne Wildernesses.Continue reading “7 Day Wilderness Adventure”