Yosemite, Again!
November 26th, 2023
posted by ARR
Birthday Boys
October 22nd, 202315 years ago and exactly one year before Silas was born, we celebrated Manu’s birthday with a hike up to Piute Pass fueled by Schat’s Bakery’s pullaway bread. This birthday celebration shared similar themes. Silas and Manu started the day opening presents in a lovely campground outside Bishop near the Buttermilk Boulders. We tore down camp, headed into town for gas, water and a mechanic to help figure out why the tire on our behemoth kept losing air. Next was a stop at Schat’s for pullaway bread, which Manu very heroically waited to tear into while we drove north and then west into Yosemite National Park via Tuolumne Meadows. The pullaway was devoured at Tenaya Lake. We then meandered our way down to The Valley, set up camp in Upper Pines, and then hiked over to Curry for pizza and beer. Too stuffed and tired, we decided to save the cake for breakfast the next morning.
Yes, the “hike” for pizza wasn’t quite on par with Piute Pass, but just you wait. More hiking (and then some!) to come on this trip… 😉
posted by ARR
Solar Eclipse in an Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest
October 22nd, 2023East side of the Sierra Nevadas, California.
posted by ARR
No van, no worries!
October 22nd, 2023Van is in the shop for waaaaay longer than expected. The trip must go on!!!
will fit 4 people, 4 crashpads, a week’s worth of food and clothes, and all our totally not-optimized-for-car-camping camping gear (dumped directly from the van into this behemoth less than 12 hours before departure)
posted by ARR
City to Summit
October 13th, 2023The big event that Paul and Manu have been training for all summer has come: Trail running from the desert base of Mt. Lemmon (Tucson) to it’s mountain forest summit, a 20 mile endeavor with around 7,000 over 8,000 feet of elevation gain.
Well folks, mission accomplished. The boys crushed it.
posted by ARR
Now let’s move the fun factor needle back to max and keep it there for more than just a weekend please
October 8th, 2023Grit, Manu, Rio and Rosa arrived Thursday. And the needle is pegged at max! Woohoo!
posted by ARR
Weekend Play to the Rescue
September 4th, 2023It’s been a heck of a summer. Somehow four months has whipped right past my eyes, a blur of house projects, play dates, teenage social life obligations, gymnastics, gymnastics and more gymnastics and way too much work. Plans to head up to the cool pines of Flagstaff for a day of bouldering kept getting canceled, or postponed. Tired and grumpy seemed to be tainting our usually psyched and happy household. We needed to get out, just the four of us. Needed to wake up in the van, hike out to some good boulders and pull hard, head back to camp and make some simple food, climb into our sleeping bags all sweaty and dirty, wake up and do it again. And if we really wanted to pamper ourselves, throw a big ‘ol epic hike on top of all that. Yes, this is exactly what this family needed.
That’s it. We’re going. And we’re leaving Friday. Or one of us will most definitely spontaneously combust.
posted by ARR
Springtime trip to the Grand Canyon
May 14th, 2023As noted a lot here on apAdventures, many of our best adventures evolve from an idea that gets planted during a prior adventure. This is another one of those instances. This is also one of those instances where when the opportunity presents itself, we jump on it.
While cruising down the South Kaibab trail last October, we took note of this inviting little thread of a trail headed into a massive plateau of sage bush about two thirds of the way down to the river, off to our left. The little thread was a tiny segment of the massive Tonto Trail, a 95 mile path that traverses the canyon lengthwise between the Little Colorado River in the east and somewhere waaaay downstream in the west, Garnet Canyon according to my map. While the link up possibilities of the 95 mile long Tonto are enough to plant a lifetime of future adventure ideas, the one we had that day in October was both simple and achievable, as long as we stayed fit: start/finish on the South Rim, South Kaibab trail to Tonto West to the Bright Angel Trail, around 14 miles in total and maybe 3500 feet elevation descent/gain. Tonto being notorious for no shade and no water meant we would have to get creative on when to fit this in before summertime temps started to climb, otherwise wait until next fall (because the winter bouldering season is of course off the table as an option). Well, fresh off a 14 miler last weekend that went surprisingly well, and two nights in Mather Campground on the south rim that opened up on recreation.gov meant “time to jump boys!” Bonus: it’s Mother’s Day!
posted by ARR
Back at it
May 7th, 2023Tanque Verde Ridge to Juniper Basin, about 14 miles and 3000 feet elevation gain. Very pleased to report that the high mileage base we built last summer and fall with the kiddos is still intact.
It’s gonna be a good summer. 👍
posted by ARR