Picture Rocks Yo-Yo Hike 9/22 - 9/23/2012

What do you do when hiking an almost 50 mile trail in one day just doesn't provide enough of a challenge? You do a yo-yo! As in, start at one end of the trail, hike the whole thing, turn around and do it again. All without sleeping! That was the challenge that Roy came up with for this year's monster hike and Pictured Rocks was the trail we would be tackling. Although not as technically difficult as the Coastal Trail, the sheer distance and the conditions provided plenty of challenge. Nine of us started and only two of us completed it. Check out the video.

Boy Scout Isle Royale Trip 8/4 - 8/12/2012

We took the Boy Scouts to Isle Royale for a high adventure activity in August. It was quite a challenge getting the whole troop ready to do a complete week of back packing in a remote location but it was well worth the effort. We started by driving to Copper Harbor and camping for a night at Ft. Wilkins State Park and then took the Queen III to the island which was a three hour trip that turned out to be probably the biggest challenge of the week. The boys learned all about sea sickness first hand! Other than that things went pretty smoothly and I think the boys had some experiences they will remember their entire lives.

Mt. Pierce Family Hike - 7/12/2012

I loved the White Mountains so much after our trip in February that I wanted to take the family back to have the experience of standing on top of one of the summits. We did not have a lot of vacation time available so we planned a quick trip over to New Hampshire. We made a few other stops along the way and packed a lot of fun into a short vacation but the hike up to the top of Mt. Pierce was one of my favorite family experiences of all time. Here is the video!

New Hampshire 2/17 - 2/22/2012

After successfully completing the LSPP Coastal Trail hike Roy invited me along on a winter climbing trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The goal is to climb all of the peaks over 4,000 feet of which there are 48 in New Hampshire. Some people do it in the summer but those who want a bit more of a challenge do it in the winter. I was excited to go but had never done any mountaineering and did not have any equipment. Fortunately Brian Rise who had gotten Roy involved in the winter climbing had equipment that I could borrow since he was not going on the trip this year. So again not knowing anything of what I was about to get myself into off I went. Most of it was fun and challenging but there was an hour or so of "oh crap I'm going to die" kind of stuff. But it was great! And here is Roy's video of the trip.