Now that we'd arrived in Chamonix, we were on the verge of hiking more than 100 miles through three countries over nine days. In a situation like that, you need good boots that have been well broken in. Fortunately, I had plenty of advance notice and a major tuneup hike in the the Southwest four months prior to the Tour du Mt Blanc, so in February ( Read more... )

As alluded to in my last entry, I next headed out of town for my annual trip to the The Boundary Waters Canoe Area with my father.

112. Tuesday, June 23 - Itasca Grille - This is by far the best restaurant in the Delta wing of the Minneapolis airport. It's got pretty standard bar food. I usually get the nachos.

113. Thursday, June 25 - Chocolate ( Read more... )

Supposedly the average American eats out five times a week. I don't know how many of those are for fast food, but I've got to assume it's a big number given how expensive other restaurants are in comparison. As I've mentioned before, I eat very little fast food. I'm more than a little smug about this. In fact, I'm so smug I can list all of the fast ( Read more... )

There is no internet in the BWCA. Will return in a week. No songbook this Sunday, obviously.

In 2010, Dad and I went to Boundary Waters with Don, Roy and Mark. This year we had the same crew, and added Chris (Roy's son) and Jim for 7 people in 3 canoes.

We went in on Mudro Lake, which was also the entry point for our 2008 expedition. In 2008 the water at that entry was shallow enough that we had to drag the canoe for a substantial ( Read more... )

I'm going to be offline for a week; if you post something truly important, send me an email.

I have returned from my yearly trip to North Dakota. As typical, the main purpose of the trip was for my father and I to go backpacking in the BWCA. My father typically drags a book or two with him on these trips, and this year was no exception. In particular, he brought along Bill Bryson's chronicle of his attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail, a ( Read more... )

We (being myself, Dad, tigerlily_blue and her boyfriend ABP) returned from BWCA today. We had gorgeous weather - it rained once for about twenty minutes at 2am. The rest of the time was either sunny, or mostly sunny. Of course, to compensate for this unusual display of gorgeousness, we had absolutely the worst mosquitos I have ever seen there in 12+ trips ( Read more... )

Tomorrow I fly home for my annual canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. See you when I get back.

Vacation line items, with explanation ( Read more... )