The Great Outdoors

[AuxiliaryPie]

Who here goes backpacking/hiking/camping/climbing and the like? I'm a total city boy but after going to the Smokey Mountains last year I was hooked to the outdoors! I've hiked the Appalachian Trail up Clingmans Dome, Red River Gorge, Mammoth Cave Kentucky, Hocking Hills Ohio, and in March I'm going to spend 3 nights hiking the Grand Canyon!

Let's talk about how awesome this kind of shit is!

Some pics of my adventures:

Red River Gorge: Ice, stream, sand, leaves, boulders, cliff all in one picture!

Hiking Clingmans (8.5 miles uphill)

Clingmans summit, facing east, looking over the Appalachian Mountains (Cold as fuck)

Kelly's Island glacial grooves, we had special permission to walk around on the grooves...people were salty

Ohio Caverns- water eroded these limestone cavities over millions of years

Hocking Hills (near OU)

moar Hocking Hills

Mammoth Cave, KY. The world's largest cave system. These black marks are known as "Cave graffiti" and are from the late 1700's to early 1800's. Slaves would lead tours of the caves, people would tip the slaves to be allowed to hold a candle up to the rock and leave markings. They are so well preserved because the caves have no wind, nor precipitation, and no direct human contact so they are preserved indefinitely.

 

[The Oi]

Also a lover of the outdoors.

I'd say my biggest highlights have been:

-Climbing Wheeler Peak in Taos, NM. Taos is a really cool little town but Wheeler Peak is where it's at. I believe it's 13-14k feet and there's a beast of a trail there called Bull of the Woods that's 14 miles up to the peak and back down. Got caught in a lightning storm at the top and spent the most terrifying 10 minutes of my life scrambling down a mountain that was literally being hit by lightning while I was on it. Climbed it several times over a month, but only did Bull once. It was exhausting.

-White water rafting on the New River in WV. Some of the best, most challenging white water in the US. Enjoyed camping out for a few days, but the rafting was the best part. The worst part was waking up in the middle or the night to find that our cabin was infested with massive wolf spiders watching us sleep.

-Mountain biking on Big Mountain in Whitefish, MT. Whitefish is another really cool town and the mountain biking is awesome in the summer.

- Hiking through Glacier National Park in MT. Amazing place.

-Running every day in western PA. Seriously. There's legit (But small) mountains out here and a lot of wildlife to see. There's a large preserve that I run out to about 3 miles from my house. I hit every trail on the park and end up between 5-7 miles depending on how long I want to hang in there. I did 7.5 today on pure rock solid ice. It was brutal, but absolutely beautiful.

-Deep sea fishing. One of my favorite hobbies. Best meal I ever ate was fresh caught black tuna cut up into sushi on the dock.

I love the feeling of isolation and being alone, so I like to go by myself. But the best is taking my dog and watching her jumping creeks and logs and sniffing after other animals.

Great thread. I'm sure others are doing far more interesting and challenging things than me.

 

[AuxiliaryPie]

Also a lover of the outdoors.

I'd say my biggest highlights have been:

-Climbing Wheeler Peak in Taos, NM. Taos is a really cool little town but Wheeler Peak is where it's at. I believe it's 13-14k feet and there's a beast of a trail there called Bull of the Woods that's 14 miles up to the peak and back down. Got caught in a lightning storm at the top and spent the most terrifying 10 minutes of my life scrambling down a mountain that was literally being hit by lightning while I was on it. Climbed it several times over a month, but only did Bull once. It was exhausting.

-White water rafting on the New River in WV. Some of the best, most challenging white water in the US. Enjoyed camping out for a few days, but the rafting was the best part. The worst part was waking up in the middle or the night to find that our cabin was infested with massive wolf spiders watching us sleep.

-Mountain biking on Big Mountain in Whitefish, MT. Whitefish is another really cool town and the mountain biking is awesome in the summer.

- Hiking through Glacier National Park in MT. Amazing place.

-Running every day in western PA. Seriously. There's legit (But small) mountains out here and a lot of wildlife to see. There's a large preserve that I run out to about 3 miles from my house. I hit every trail on the park and end up between 5-7 miles depending on how long I want to hang in there. I did 7.5 today on pure rock solid ice. It was brutal, but absolutely beautiful.

-Deep sea fishing. One of my favorite hobbies. Best meal I ever ate was fresh caught black tuna cut up into sushi on the dock.

I love the feeling of isolation and being alone, so I like to go by myself. But the best is taking my dog and watching her jumping creeks and logs and sniffing after other animals.

Great thread. I'm sure others are doing far more interesting and challenging things than me.

funny you mension isolation, on my Smokies trip, the only time i had cell service was the night we did back country camping, full 4G LTE haha. which was a tease, cuz it was the first night.

But really, seeing the Eath blows your mind. I'm a geologist by profession, and the shit still doesnt make sense to me...kinda like how the moon is a big fucking rock, circling us, constantly

 

[Pick6]

Definitely an outdoorsy type. Have done some deep sea shark fishing (biggest one caught was like 2.5 ft though). Looking to do a marlin trip in the future. Not sure if hunting is on topic, but I want to go alligator bow hunting sometime in the future as well as other exotic hunting.

As for hiking, I am new to it. Went on an 8 mile up and down hike in Lake Poway, CA a few months ago. It a lot tougher than I imagined hiking to be. I REALLY want to go to Hawaii to climb the Stairway to Heaven.
Potato chip rock (near the peak of Lake Poway hike). Have some pictures ill post if I ever get them off of my buddy.

Stairway to heaven. Seriously would plan a trip to Hawaii with the focal point being this.

I have also been white water rafting at the Yough River in SW PA twice. Still to this day my favorite trip I'd say. LOVE whitewater rafting.

 

[The Oi]

If you like rafting you gotta hit Gauley River in West Virginia. It is absolutely terrifying

 

[AuxiliaryPie]

NEED Hawaii..omg that pic is sick

 

[Pick6]

If you like rafting you gotta hit Gauley River in West Virginia. It is absolutely terrifying

Pics look awesome. May have to plan this next summer.

NEED Hawaii..omg that pic is sick

Its actually forbidden. You have to sneak your way to it. Worth the potential fine though.

 

[MRMsix6]

Went hiking in Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE over Christmas/New Years. Not the most amazing scenery (rocks, more rocks, and some goats) but fun hike nonetheless. Ran into some locals who were none too pleased with us being there.

Also have a few pictures from snowmobiling through Yellowstone last year. It's absolutely beautiful in winter.

 

[Sebastian]

Spent much of my youth in Alaska. Lived a while in Minnesota and Army took up a lot of time in places that are kind of shitty. When I left the Army, I was able to choose where I wanted to live purely on my own preferences for the first time in my life. I chose Seattle and it was a brilliant decision. On top of the night life and urban living, within 30 minutes of hitting the road I can be balls deep in a river swarming with salmon or on a hike. An hour takes me to a ski resort in the Cascades.

Close to the Olympic Peninsula. This the Hoh River, part of the Hoh National Rainforest. It is the only temperate rain forest on the continent.

It resembles Endor.

A couple hour drive takes one to the open coast. Westport is a great place to go salmon fishing on a charter.

This summer was exceptional. I pulled this King Salmon out in August. It tasted great.

We usually limited out in a couple hours. The whole boat. A mess of Silver Salmon I caught in August. Had to release five others.

Lake Superior on the Minnesota side. During a November storm.

Alaska two weeks after Iraq. After the desert, one needs to be on the water. Two big halibut I caught out of Homer, AK. If you haven't been to Alaska, you must go. Now.

 

[Shakalu M.D.]

I love it too, but I need to find more friends who are willing to go.

I love a good hike, some fishing, finish it all up with some "love take me down to the streets" by Wings.

My grandpa took me all the time, went deep sea fishing with him, been scuba diving to shipwrecks with him, just overall awesome experiences.

The following isn't my photo, but I did dive this wreck. Pictures don't do the experience justice.

 

[gourimoko]

@Pick6 Stairway to Heaven is great... Lots of good hiking in Maui.. Good hunting on the Big Island.

 

[FlatulenciaRoar]

My love for the outdoors started with family camping trips to the Adirondacks in the 50's.

Much later in life I did a lot of backpacking in northern California and kayaking in the Pacific northwest. There have been many memorable experiences.

While on a backpacking trip to Caribou Lakes (not my pics) in the Trinity Alps in N. California was taking a day hike along the snow covered north-facing face of the cirque when I heard an ominous rumble. Looking across the lake I watched a massive avalanche on the south facing side. It sounded like thunder as the sound reverberated around the natural ampitheatre and was a truly awesome sight. I was terrified that the snow on the side I was on would let go. Fortunately it didn't, I turned around and went back to camp.

I've been fortunate to have very close up encounters kayaking with killer whales in Johnstone Straight, BC and humpback whales in Icy Straights, Alaska.

 

[brownindian]

Im on a huge outdoorsy person, SO in order to satisfy my wild side I watched the movie Wild which is about Reese Witherspoon walking the Pacific Trail. Man was it tiring ....

 

[The Oi]

Into the Wild is sad.

Wild sounds sad too, but in a different way.

 

[oracio]

Im on a huge outdoorsy person, SO in order to satisfy my wild side I watched the movie Wild which is about Reese Witherspoon walking the Pacific Trail. Man was it tiring ....

I was an outdoor person, I liked canoes etc, until I watched Deliverance, scary stuff…
USA can be dangerous! Going to stay here in the safe state of Israel.

Now seriously, there are some nice places to hike here like the dead sea:

Mitzpe Ramon:

Banyas waterfall:

Just 3 places that are great to hike and visit from top of my head…