Snow Shoes, Heras!

I haven't been on a good hike for a long while. I finally broke my dry spell this past weekend with the help of brand-spankin' new snow shoes! I took them up the local ski hill twice already; it was a fantastic hike. Click on the way points for pictures, pop the map open in a new window for a better view:

View Snow Shoeing on Pajarito - January 18th, 2010 in a larger map

I'm going to try to go very early this Friday to get some sunrise pictures; my next goal is to take my snowboard with me so that I can get down quickly.

Fall Hiking in Los Alamos

I went up to Pajarito Mountain ski area today with my family to check out the fall colors on the mountain. Check out the map for pics!


View Pajarito Mountain Hike - October 3, 2009 in a larger map

Sundays are for Hikers

After a long hiatus, I returned to my Sunday hikes this past weekend. It was the first time I was out since May, and things are much greener now.

At the bottom of the canyons:

At the top of the mesas:

Additionally, while at the GEM conference in Snowmass, CO, I was able to sneak away for a quick hike. We rode the ski lifts up the mountain then walked down:

Next week, I'll be going on some longer hikes again, so I'll return to the google-map format.

Sunday Hike - Deer Trap Mesa

Deer Trap Mesa is just north of Otowi Mesa, which was the target of my last hike. Deer Trap trail is not nearly as challenging, but I was far less adventurous as last time. With a Red Wings playoff game on national TV at noon, I wanted to get back quickly. This meant a lot less non-trail extensions to my hike which will likely not be the case next time I go.

Kwage, Otowi, and Deer Trap are all candidates for my kite-camera project: I plan on strapping a camera to my (very large) kite on a breezy day and let all 1000 feet of line out to get the best possible aerial footage of the area. Kwage is close to the airport (bad for high-flying kites) and Otowi is a much more difficult trek. Deer Trap, the northern most of the three, is a good compromise, but there aren't many good places to launch the kite from.

Anyway, check out the path I set up in Google Maps; the waypoints all have pictures. Enjoy.

View Hike - May 3 2009 in a larger map

Time to hike again.

I've had a bit of a hiatus from my hiking, but that came to an end today. Hiking in Los Alamos is amazing, and today was no exception. Based on a tip from a fellow researcher, I set out to hike the Otowi Mesa trail. I originally thought that this would be a shorter walk, but because of the varied terrain, it took around three hours round trip.

Here's a rough idea of where I went:


View Hike - April 19 2009 in a larger map

It was a fantastic time; check out the album on my Facebook page. Here's a preview:

The hike made me feel better about missing out on a snowboarding trip to Colorado on which I was invited. Considering that P.O. Box 1663 was hit with ~5 inches of snow on Friday (and Colorado with even more), I'm certain the powder was great.