Post Tagged with: "Cheryl Talbert"

NZ Part 6 – Circling Mount Doom on the Tongariro Northern Circuit, New Zealand

NZ Part 6 – Circling Mount Doom on the Tongariro Northern Circuit, New Zealand

Only the fourth national park established in the world, Tongariro sits at the south-west terminus of a 1600-mile-long string of volcanoes on the boundary of the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates, on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”. The boundary of the park encircles the active Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro volcanoes, with two smaller dormant cones outside the park just to the north and huge Mt Taranaki in view 130 miles to the southwest.

by — January 27, 2014 — 0 comments — Community, Trails
NZ Part 5- In the Center of Nature’s Flow in Aoraki – Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand

NZ Part 5- In the Center of Nature’s Flow in Aoraki – Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand

Never in my life have I felt more in the center of Muir’s flow of nature than from a high windy knob on Ball Ridge under the vertical Caroline Face of New Zealand’s highest peak, Aoraki/Mount Cook.

by — January 8, 2014 — 0 comments — Trail of the Week, Trails
NZ Part 4 – Tramping Above the Clouds on the Routeburn Track

NZ Part 4 – Tramping Above the Clouds on the Routeburn Track

We were on day two of the Routeburn Track, our group’s consensus favorite of the eight different extended trails, from the southern to northern ends of the country, that we would sample during our month-long trekking trip in February of 2013.

by — December 30, 2013 — 0 comments — Trails
NZ Part 3 – Milford Track

NZ Part 3 – Milford Track

In places the green “skin” has sloughed off, leaving stark scars on the cliff face. This is the visual extravaganza offered up all along the Milford Track, the most iconic extended walking trail in New Zealand.

by — December 9, 2013 — 0 comments — Trails
NZ Part 2 – A Multi-Course Feast on the Hump Ridge Track, Southern Fiordland, New Zealand

NZ Part 2 – A Multi-Course Feast on the Hump Ridge Track, Southern Fiordland, New Zealand

Limestone tors, black and lichen-speckled earth-bones, loomed over the choppy water of the several tarns scattered around us on the ridge. We were enraptured. This was the crux of the Hump Ridge, a southernmost promontory of the 450-mile-long Southern Alps of New Zealand in Fiordland National Park, and the goal of the first trekking day of a month-long, multi-trek itinerary that would stretch from the upper end of the North Island to the far south of the South Island.

by — November 26, 2013 — 0 comments — Trails
NZ Part 1 – Why New Zealand?

NZ Part 1 – Why New Zealand?

New Zealand delivers this with great amenities for backpackers. Their extensive backcountry hut system affords inexpensive comforts and international camaraderie throughout the countryside (you could sleep in a hut bed every night even on the remotest of tracks).

by — October 31, 2013 — 0 comments — Trails
Pacific Crest Trail – Washington And Oregon Book Reviews

Pacific Crest Trail – Washington And Oregon Book Reviews

These guidebooks provide good concise descriptions of a selection of nice hikes of 1 to 5 days duration along the PCT in Oregon and Washington, with some handy features and information.

by — May 6, 2013 — 0 comments — Gear
Trekking in Nepal Part 2: Gokyo to Thame

Trekking in Nepal Part 2: Gokyo to Thame

The route that day was the next-to-last of a three-week trek, a combination of transcendent joy and stoic endurance, that had taken our Mountaineers group from Lukla up to Everest Basecamp and the Kala Patthar lookout, then over the grueling pass of Cho La to the lovely “resort” town of Gokyo perched on its jeweled necklace of lakes. The next day we would head west from Gokyo to cross 5340-meter Renjo La on our way through Thame back to Namche.

by — April 3, 2013 — 0 comments — Community, Trails
The Geology of the Thousand Island Lakes and Tuolumne Country

The Geology of the Thousand Island Lakes and Tuolumne Country

As recently as 2000 years ago nearly all of Yosemite National Park, including the promontory of Cloud’s Rest where we sat, had been covered by a 60-mile-long, 2000 foot thick glacier that extended from Mt. Lyell, Yosemite Park’s tallest peak to our southeast, all the way down the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River to our northwest. Only the tips of the highest peaks in the area protruded from the top of the ice.

by — February 19, 2013 — 0 comments — Fireside
John Muir Trail Part 4: Piute Creek to Red’s Meadow

John Muir Trail Part 4: Piute Creek to Red’s Meadow

If the song of the southern John Muir Trail was a Wagner opera, starkly beautiful and moving with long buildups to dramatic crescendos, then the song of the northern Muir Trail was a lilting Vivaldi symphony: many changes of tempo, full of bright loveliness and depth, but sometimes also inspiring tears of pain.

by — February 16, 2013 — 0 comments — Trail of the Week, Trails
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