Hiking Rangitoto Island Loop

We had many hours to kill, and pent up energy from having spent an eternity on airplanes.

Friends on the Fourth

Our plans changed completely, but it still ended up being an especially great camping trip with friends.

Five H’s

Helens, Hiking, Hummocks, Heavenly, Hoffstadt, and oh and…Happy

St. Helens foothills

Forty years later it’s amazing both that there is so much life here, and that I can still see the devastating effects of the volcanic eruption.

Rock & Falls

Will came to visit from Rhode Island for two weeks. Prior to this visit he had never stepped foot into Washington or Oregon. I was delighted to be able to show his virgin eyes my favourite part of the world. On our first day back home after Seattle, the day dawned sunny once more, and […]

Mini RT series – two

Day two we headed east and then dropped south from the Columbia River Gorge to explore the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

Volcano Villarrica

Can you believe I got lucky enough to find a volcano during my trip to Chile? Of course you probably already thought of it, but I was delighted to face Volcán Villarrica all day today. Our day started on the overnight sleeper bus. Our sleep was fitful. Margaret heard the bus hit something metal, and […]

Columbus Day backpacking – Is that a bag of poo?

Arno hung a thermometer in the tent and when we checked it in the morning, it read 30 degrees. Below freezing inside the tent.

In the shadow of a volcano

Despite having lived around mountains all my life, or perhaps because of that, I remain in awe of the awesome sweep of snowy mountain slopes that rise from valleys in the way that volcanoes do. I am simply not able to drive along our highways and not feel an emotional surge of admiration for volcanoes […]

Christmas 2011 – Part II

A deep river of lava poured through the valley following a volcanic eruption around 100,000 years ago.