A Toast to 2015

Cabin In The Woods

Random Hikes from 2013

Traveling in America's Hat.

What is it about Canada? How come no one really goes there? The truth, for most New Englanders at least, is that Canada is no more than a 4 or 5 hour drive away from us at most. Yet for some reason, generally speaking, no one really ever goes there. Yes you can give the passport excuse, and while valid, it doesn't exactly account for why you didn't go there before you needed one. And honestly it's really not that hard to get a passport nowadays. If you've got $100 and an hour you can get one, and you probably should. But I'm not quite sure why no one thinks to go to Canada. It's a whole different country, in fact Quebec which is directly north of us, speaks French as a national language. It's the closest you're going to get to Europe without actually going, to well, Europe. Most of us either know someone, or have ourselves been to Montreal before. After all the drinking age is 18 which is reason enough to have taken a trip there to spend $18 on a pitcher of Bud Light because you didn't know any better. But there are a lot of other places within a reasonable driving distance worth traveling to in Canada, and last weekend I had the opportunity to visit one such place, Quebec City. I'll admit it was one of the hardest times I've had convincing anyone to come on a trip before, mostly because no one had ever herd of the place and partially because I didn't really have much of a plan going into it, and "just trust me" wasn't cutting it.
I don't know if any of you follow Red Bull, but they are a pretty amazing company. Not only do they give you wings but they also sponsor some of the coolest events on the planet. I'm sure most of you are familiar with last years Red Bull Stratos, which broke the world record for the longest freefall, BUT they also host a multitude of other extreme and downright badass events including cliff diving, Skiing, BMX, Stunt Plane, and an almost never ending list of other competitions. It just so happened that one of these, Red Bull Crashed Ice, was taking place in Quebec City this month, so the opportunity to knock off a bucket list item (attend a Red Bull event) and explore a new city, was too good to pass up. And luckily once again I've got some kick-ass friends who helped turn this idea into a reality (Patrick and Mark). So we rocketed 6 1/2 hours up to Quebec on a Friday morning to begin what was to be quite an interesting trip.
Everyone really does speak French there and it wasn't long before our twenty-something male brains were in an immature paradise filled with comical french accents and hilarious words. But to be fair, a country who's most popular gas station store is called Couche-Tard, is asking for it.
Canada largely isn't exactly known for their food and beer superiority, but if you take the time to do some research before you go, you can find some pretty decent places. Yelp and Trip Adviser are great resources for any trip and you should be able to get some good suggestions just by typing in your destination. Its quite challenging to find good places when everything is in French but we were able to find some good breweries in the area and a few decent spots to eat, Mainly La Korrigane, La Pape Georges, and Pub Le Mitan.
Along with the Crashed Ice event, which if I can sum it up into one sentence would be: A gigantic party filled with boose, neon lights, Dubstep, 100,000 people, and one awesome downhill Ice Skating track full of dudes cruising at no-tomorrowish speeds though a glorified castle town. The short version: It. Was. Awesome. I also got the opportunity to put the boots to good use and went on a frozen hike to Montmorency Falls, an 84 meter (or for us normal people 275ft) tall waterfall. That's roughly 100ft taller than Niagara Falls. It was a great hike that culminated with us sitting a few feet away from the base on a dome formed by the freezing of mist crashing off of the falls. Quite a spectacular view in which we were completely dwarfed by the falling water.
All and all a great trip, and Canada has yet again surprised me. Go visit. Besides being our hat, Canada has a lot to offer. Enough so that I might even be able to forgive them for Justin Bieber.

I also did another moderate hike at Ravenswood Park, in Gloucester MA. Pretty standard hike, nothing much to report. Cheers!

Milage: 8 Miles

Just a little guy.

Crashed Ice!

Bad Dudes.

Obligatory photo of Myself.

Over the Falls.

Illuminated Tree.

Waterfall Bridge.

The Gang.

Some Chap.

Hybernation

So why is it that once it starts to get cold out we all tend to stop doing any and all things outside? The mere thought of being cold or having a single snowflake touch us is enough to make most people bundle up and watch TV for 4 months. Now don't get me wrong, I've also been a habitual offender of this in the past. Hell up until last year I hadn't hiked once during the winter since I was in Boy Scouts, it wasn't even something that crossed my mind. "Oh it's cold out? Well it's been fun outside, cya in April." But that's completely and totally dead wrong, and the few people who have realized this will tell you the same thing. Winter is awesome. Remember that sweet waterfall you saw in summer? Yeah there's people Ice Climbing it right now. Remember that place you go swimming every July? There's people walking across it right now like wintertime Jesuses. And remember that mountain you hiked last year? It's still there, only in winter you can sit on your ass and slide all the way down it, cackling like a maniac. I know it's cold, but if you just wear a few layers and move around you'll be fine, I promise. It is completely possible to do most, if not all hikes in New England during the winter, weather permitting, and this season makes even the most familiar areas to you look totally different and surreal. So get out there and hike, just steer clear of any Yeti's.
On the topic of winter hiking, I had the chance to head up to the White mountains this past weekend with Patrick and Emily to enjoy some winter activities before the end of the season. We drove up to Lincoln, NH on Saturday morning with some loose plans and a room at a spectacular one star hotel. Room service never showed up but we were too full from the Woodstock Inn (Shameless plug) to even notice. Upon arriving in the cloud covered, lightly snowing Mountain atmosphere, we headed to the Flume Gorge to get a idea of what waterfalls looked like in winter. The answer, fortunately, was awesome, totally awesome. The waterfalls had frozen over and were covered in people ice climbing, it was a pretty great sight. Now if only I could have picked up an Ice Axe off of SteepandCheap I would have been good to go.
After checking out the gorge we headed over to Loon Mountain to partake in some zip lining. Fun stuff, it's only $26 and they let you go upside down. You should go. This weekend.
The "Death by Sandwich" I had for dinner caused me to slip into a food induced coma before midnight, and when I woke up on Sunday we packed up the car and headed to the Lonesome Lake trail head for a moderate hike up to Lonesome Lake, which at this point was completely hidden in thick cloud cover. After the mile and change hike up the side of the mountain we arrived at a side trail that went for about 50 feet before opening up into a white abyss before us. I honestly didn't even realize for a good 30 seconds that what I was staring at wasn't the edge of the world but actually Lonesome lake. Due to the cloud cover and snow squalls it was impossible to see farther than 75 feet, and the opposite side of the lake. We watched a Man? Woman? Or something cross the frozen lake before setting out and attempting it ourselves. After a brutal but epic trek across the lake we arrived at Lonesome Lake Hut, took our gear off, and belligerently ate some lunch in the crowded mess hall. After the break and warmth, we headed back out across the lake and down the mountain to the parking lot. After a second trip to the Woodstock Inn, we waddled out to the car and drove home. In two words: "Perfect Weekend" pretty much sums up the experience. With one days notice we set out on a trip and ended up accomplish everything we wanted to. Can't much complain about that. What are you doing this weekend? Have no plans and thinking about doing the same thing? I bet you could do it and keep it under $100. In fact I think you should, and let me know if you need any pointers. Thanks for reading guys, I really do appreciate it. Cheers!


Mileage: 5 Miles

Ice Climbers at the Flume Gorge.

Frosty Peaks

The Sheer Power of It!

Average Joe Mountain Man.

White Out.

BAMFs.

Contemplation.

Solo Trekker.

Making our way back across Lonesome Lake.

Lonesome Lake Hut.

Man Bear Pig.

Shoreline.

Built to Roam

I wish I could explain to you the sheer ridiculous amount of travel ideas and plans that pop into my head every day. It easily breaks the single digits, in fact just today I decided I was going to Quebec City, Utah, Colorado, and San Francisco, and that was just before lunch. I can't stop thinking about going new places, I feel as though every day I'm missing out on something, like there is somewhere I'm suppose to be, some plan I have forgot about. It drives me crazy sometimes, and watching 2 hours of GoPro videos doesn't help much. How do those people do it?! How do three dudes with rockin' beards buy a van for $800 and run that shit into the ground traveling cross country doing every single awesome activity you could possibly imagine?! My sensible side thinks, did they register that van and make sure it had the proper insurances and did they plan this trip out first? But my Wanderlust side is like, fuck yeah! I want that van, and a goddamn beard just like that, lets go to New Mexico TONIGHT! WHOOO! So why can't we? Oh yeah that's right, life. Bills, and Cleaning the bathroom, and fiscal years and shit. Bummer. But there is hope for us. While we can't just gallivant around the country 24/7 like our parents own Google, we can go on vacations. That word just brings all the thoughts of Utah and Colorado and Quebec and San Fransisco back into my head, and I'm excited all over again. I can do all these things, and have a permanent address AND my hair won't smell like old fish sticks from living out of a van. So I guess what I'm getting at is, vacations are the key, they are completely, totally, and utterly awesome. So don't waste them. Seriously. Work is always going to be busy, and you're always going to owe money to something. Just plan ahead, and go, wherever it is you wanna go. Wanna see the largest ball of twine and the biggest bouncy ball? GO! Wanna go to Denali National Park and sleep next to huge grizzly bears and glaciers? Go dammit! Because I guarantee in 40 years you're not going to remember what project you worked on or who you had to make a sales call to in 2013, but you will remember when you watched a solar eclipse in Zion National Park or climbed a cliff face in a rain storm. So this year go wherever it is you've been thinking about going, book the plane tickets, cause then you have to go. And oh yeah, take me with you. I know stuff and I'll probably do something stupid at one point and you'll laugh, it will be worth it.
Also, I have gone on a few trips lately and there has been some mileage. I went up to the White Mountains a few weeks ago with my Dad and Brother for some male bonding. We went cross country skiing and explored the Kangamangus highway a bit. It was a lot of fun. I also got a chance to go on a hike on Super Bowl Sunday to Agassiz Rock. It was relatively short but absolutely worth checking out if you have a bit of free time one day. The loop is only roughly one mile but has a few glacial erratics and a semi-view of Gloucester to see. It was during this hike that I thought of attaching the GoPro a tree and then tipping it over.....needs perfecting but footage is sure to follow. Also it was snowing which made this place even better, usually the truth for hiking in New England in the winter.
Don't forget to send me your mileage when you guys go hiking! I really do have a free pair of boots to give out and I want to know where you all have hiked.  Do it!
Finally, there is going to be some changes here at Wanderlust in the next few months, adding some new features so stay tuned. Cheers!

Mileage: 1.5 miles

Fish Eye Guys.

Cross country Skiing.

Not all of it was this flat. It's fun, seriously.

Human Dead Fall trap.

Mt. Liberty

This past Columbus Day weekend I headed up to the White Mountains with a few good friends for a weekend of camping and hiking, during arguably the best weekend for fall foliage. Unfortunately the weather wasn't exactly the best, but that didn't stop us from doing everything we set out to do. As a precursor to this post, I'm moving and I've had very little free time in the past couple of weeks, and while I know I need to write some posts before the memory of the trips start to fade, I'm lazy and this post will prob suffer due to that. While we hiked a few short side trips along the Kancamagus highway, the main event was Mount Liberty, part of the Franconia ridge, which I've been somewhat obsessed with this past year as I've done Lincoln, Lafayette, Garfield, and now Liberty, along this ridge. The hike up wasn't too bad in my opinion (although a few members of the group might beg to differ a bit) we took the Liberty Springs trail up, not too steep and the rain held up for the most part as we made our way to the summit. While the main allure of hiking a mountain is for the incredible views at the top, there is still something to be said about a summit surrounded by fog, which is good because since it was in the clouds we couldn't see jack shit. After eating some heavily processed, loosely deemed chicken products and 3 pounds of golden grahams the rain picked up quite a bit and we were forced to make our way down the mountain. Now a hike in the rain sounds awful, but with the proper gear it isn't all that bad, but if your rocking some homemade jorts, a band tee shirt, and Wal-Mart brand boots it can be the worst experience ever, just ask Patrick. Although the jorts could have been replaced with a open-assed kilt, it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference, and needless to say by the time we made it back to the car, people were ready to go. After getting back we booked it to Oktoberfest at Loon Mountain, pounded some beers on empty stomachs that had just hiked 9 miles and swerved our way over to the Woodstock Inn for some dinner and further drinks, the best end to a day of hiking in the rain you could possibly ask for. The Woodstock Inn is perhaps the best restaurant I have even eaten at, and I've done so every time I've been hiking up there for this blog. I may or may not have already spoken about this place, but I don't care. Go there. Eat some damn meatloaf. Smile. Pass out. Thank me later. And if you don't like meatloaf, well then, get the hell out of here. I'm sure they make good Apple-tini spiced baby sauce that you might enjoy better. All and all awesome weekend with some good friends. Camping is just awesome, and it is possible and enjoyable to do so after Labor day, just as long as you don't wear white. Cheers!

Mileage: 9 Miles

Victors.

Gothic Peak.

Fall Awesomeness.

Strike a pose.

Fall is good.

"That's water"