Hopewell Rocks

It's been a wile since my last update, been a bit busy with nothing in particular. I've almost completed editing all of my photos from the Canada trip and I figured I should give a quick update and show off some of the pictures from Hopewell rocks.
I think pretty much anyone who's been to New Brunswick can attest that they've visited or at the very least herd of Hopewell rocks. The iconic picture of tide swept rocks in the Bay of Fundy is almost always one of Hopewell rocks. I had much excitement for this stop on the road trip as all of the pictures and websites I had seen of this place looked really great and I couldn't wait to get there and snap some pictures.
All and all it was a pretty cool place, pictures were difficult seeing as 10,000 other people saw the same photos and websites I did too and all happened to be there on the same day, but a bit of patients and some photoshop skills can get rid of any fat tourist. Definitely a tourist hot spot and the entry fee and trail to the rocks leading you through the gift store all proved that, but it was a very cool place and I'm sure off-season it's a million times better.

Mileage: 2 Miles

Horses

Ready to kayak

Twisted

Hopewell Rocks

Low tide

Peggy's Cove

So while in Canada the weather was pretty crappy most of the time, but I was able to squeeze in a few hikes between all the rain. I have to say by far my favorite of the trip, and one of my all time favorites, was the hike we did outside of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.
We went into Peggy's Cove first, which is like, as the guide book put it,"The most picturesque fishing village in all of Atlantic Canada" yeah sick. It was cool if you like 8 billion fat tourists and 7 gift shops. But I will say that it easily could have been really awesome had they not let the tourist attractions take over so much of the town. There was alot of really old, really cool looking fishing huts and houses with the really old bearded typical fisherman to go with them, but the ice cream shops and tour buses kind of ruined the ability to really feel like you were in the middle of an old fishing village in a different time. My parents came here on a vacation over 25 years ago and from what they told me it seemed alot better back then before everyone else found out about it.
That being said, the area itself was really cool. The last ten minutes of the drive into town was dominated by bolder covered hills with green shrub grass covering everything. We asked the guide at the visitor center if there were any good hikes in the area and she told us of one that went along the coast down into a nearby bay. After walking around the town for a bit we headed out to start the hike.
It was awesome, very cool terrain to hike through with boulders to climb over and cliffs to scale along the coast, which Mark was ecstatic about. Also there were pitcher plants everywhere which I have never seen before and are actually pretty damn cool, basically they are "like" a Venus flytrap in that they eat insects for nutrients, but instead of a closing trap they have a flower that hangs over leaves shaped like a pitcher filled with water. When the insects fall off the flower and into the pitchers, the fluid in the pitcher digests them and the plants feed off of the dissolved nutrients. Pretty bad ass I know, but enough of the Biology lesson.
Overall it was a great hike, with a ton of things to see and some very cool terrain to experience. So if you ever go to Peggy's Cove, do yourself a favor and don't just walk to the lighthouse and go in the gift shops and get ice cream, take a two minute drive down the road and go on a quick hike, I promise you won't regret it. Then obviously go back to the town and get some fucken ice cream, cause it's delicious, and it's exactly what we did.
Mileage: about 2 miles

Peggy's Cove lobster traps

Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove boats

Pitcher plant flower

Awesome landscape

Awesome landscape

Cliff down to the ocean

Awesome landscape

Peggy's Cove through rocks

Mark giggling

Saint John in Black and White

I just returned home last night from a week long Canadian road trip with my friend Mark and I decided it was time for a new blog update. I have probably upwards of 1000 pictures from the week and since it's going to take a billion years to look through them and edit the ones I like, I figured I'd do a separate post for each part of the trip. Our first stop was in Saint John, New Brunswick so I decided that would be a fitting place for my first post.
The drive there wasn't too bad, aside from some beach traffic it was pretty much smooth sailing through a whole lot of Maine nothingness. On a side note there's a lot of fucken guns and truck bed covers for sale in Maine in case anyone's looking.
Once we crossed the border the ride was a bit more interesting, a lot of coast and miles and miles of Balsam Fir trees, not to mention a speed limit of 110 which turned out to be in kilometers unfortunately. About ten miles out from Saint John, where we were stopped for the first night, we drove into a thick fog which we would be in for pretty much the next two days. After checking into the hotel we went for a walk around the city in the fog and i snapped a bunch of pictures. I think all fog pictures look better in black and white so for this post I'm putting up my favorite pictures from Saint John in black and white.

Mileage: about 1 mile

Anglican Church Of Canada

Anglican Church Of Canada

Creepy version of the above shot

Art gallery

Alleyway

Lighthouse on the waterfront

Napatree Point

Took a quick and unexpected trip out to Napatree Point in Westerly, Rhode Island the other day. Left the boots in the car and hiked the 3 mile round trip out to the point and back with Nicole. I've been meaning to go here for a few years now but everytime I'm in the area there just isn't time for it or no one in interested.
Besides the annoyingness of having to find parking at Watch Hill an being back before the 2 hour parking time limit is reached (under the watchful eye of retarded looking meter maids) The trip is def worth it, it has everything you could ask for: ocean, secluded beach, crazy bird sanctuary, AND there is an abandoned war for at the end of the point. Completely awesome. Here's some pics, and since it was a beach; no miles to the boots.
Mileage: 3miles (0) added to boots
16 miles on the boots so far.

Hiking the Whites!

I figured I'd start these boots off right and Christen them with a challenge; The White Mountains. A few months ago before I bought the boots I decided to plan a hiking trip to up to the Whites for the weekend. I suckered a couple of my friends into the trip with little knowledge of what they were in for. I had originally planned on hiking Mt.Washington, but after coming to the realization that I haven't backpacked in a few years I should plan somewhat of an easier trip. Completely didn't. I laid out a plan to hike up Mt. Lafayette and head across the ridge to Mt. Garfield and stay the night at a campground, then wake up the following morning and hike out.
The first night we stayed at  Lafayette Place Campground and started the hike Saturday morning.  I have to say Saturday started out great, everyone was pumped, the weather was awesome, then we started hiking. Fucking brutal. Long story short: great trip, awesome views, good company, unplanned trail-side camping, 10 pounds lost, and a bakers dozen of blisters because I neglected to break in the boots save a 2 mile hike* before hiking a bazillion miles strait in them. So hopefully these SOB are broken in because this blog won't last long if they treat me like that again. Thanks to everyone that went! Here's some mileage stats and a few pictures from the hike.
Miles: roughly 13-14miles
*Add 2 miles for a total of 16 on the boots because I hiked a small trail down the street from me called Appian Way, nothing to report besides it was.... Ehhhh.

Outline of hike we took.....It was a bit long that the averaged miles.

Mike looking out on Franconia Ridge

Franconia Ridge

Complete Badasses

Cairns

Giggling

Disgusted

Totally pumped at this point.

New Boots, New Blog!

I recently purchased a new pair of Hiking boots after my old pair exploded on me while hiking Mt. Monadnock last month. The last pair of boots I had lasted for roughly 10 years, making it through hiking in New Mexico, California, New Hampshire and a laundry list of other states. Shortly after these boots shit the bed I got to thinking, " I wonder how many miles I actually hiked in these over the years?", And that got me to thinking about a way I could keep track of how much I hiked in my new boots.
I've tried to start countless blogs on photography and travel in the past but each time I've lost interest and I started to wonder if there was anyway I could tie the two ideas together. I wanted to create a place where I could chronicle my travels through photography, and I figured what better way than to start a blog for my boots listing where they have traveled and how many miles they have hiked, all the while describing the trips and showing the pictures i took. So there you have it, that is why I am starting this blog, to write about my travels and photography and keep track of the distance my new pair of boots have traveled, so if you bored and don't mind some shoddy writing skills, please feel free to follow along.