From a sign in a backpacker's lodge in Tauranga, NZ.

We wander for distraction but we travel for fulfillment.
Don't follow you dreams, chase them.
Destiny is not a matter of chance but of choice.
If your ship does not come in, swim out to it.
A good traveler has no plans, and is not intent on arriving.

Believe yesterday is history,
Tomorrow is a mystery,
Today is a gift,
That's why it's called the present.

Explore
Dream
Discover...

Hast du Fernweh?

Have you been bitten by the travel bug? Why yes, yes I have. I just finished reserving campsites in North Cascades, Mt Rainier, and Olympic National Parks, for a 12-day hiking tour of the Pacific Northwest. Tom already booked the plane tickets and hotel in Seattle. Now all that's left is picking the rest of the hikes. I am using a wonderful book called 100 Classic Hikes in Washington: North Cascades, Olympics, Mount Rainer & South Cascades, Alpine Lakes, Glacier Peak The book is worth getting for the pictures alone! I am also using the Lonely Planet guide to Washington, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.

Our new rule is no less than two nights per location after our whirlwind through New Zealand.

Just me and Tom for this one. Sorry friends.

Fun With GPS

I love maps. Maps of all types. Historical, political, nautical, fantasy (my favorite is Middle Earth), and especially topographical. And when you mix maps with an portable electronic gadget you have a recipe for fun.

Tom thinks I am crazy for wanting to document every location of every picture I ever take. But I like recording this sort of info especially when we are in the wilderness or traveling. For the longest time I was geotagging manually. This is the process of using a program like Google Earth to point to the spot where you know (or guess) the picture was taken, and then the software records the latitude and longitude coordinates on the exif metadata tags.

Don't get me wrong. Google Earth is great, but the process of geotagging is slow. There are more simple programs out there, but I was still running into the problem of not knowing or remembering the exact location of the photo. And after a ten-day trip, this can be impossible.

That's when I started looking into real-time geotagging devices for my camera. But they are expensive and camera specific (and I would probably need to upgrade my camera). For the same price range you can get a unit with topo maps, bells, and whistles too.

The trick for me was to find out how to use the gps unit to automatically geotag my pictures. Automatic is the key, considering I take about 1000 exposures on a 1-week trip. It took quite a bit of hunting around on the internet and experimenting with my unit before I came up with the solution.

The key to automatically geotagging your photos is simple - time and date stamp. Every camera records the time and date taken, according to what you set of course. It is stored in the metadata tags, an invisible universal packet of info that comes with each photo.

So I knew that all I needed was a gps unit that could record my movement in a file with date, time, and location, and the ability to download the data at the end of the trip. In the gps world, this is called a track, and the universal file format is gpx. It turns out that almost all modern gps units will do this.

From Rocky-Brown Mountain Hike SNP

The next step was to find software (preferable free) to read the gpx track file, interpolate where necessary, and write the metadata tags automatically. Surprisingly, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools easily does just that. It will also allow you to change the time/date stamp if your camera was accidentally set wrong. To make things easy, you just make sure the gps and camera are set to approximately the same time.

From Rocky-Brown Mountain Hike SNP

I purchased a simple Garmin etrex Venture HC. It will save 10,000 track points, and a typical hike takes about 2,000 (you can change the resolution setting). I wish I had spent a little more money (well an extra $100) on a unit that has an optional removable SD memory card (my unit has only 24k) so I could go longer without downloading (I don't typically travel with my laptop). I also got the US Topo Maps.


I plan to track every minute of my trip to New Zealand. Matt said I could use his laptop to download data when needed. I don't have New Zealand maps yet, but I found a NZ Road Map opensource project that looks promising.

NZ Prep Time

A friend asked that I blog more about my trip to New Zealand, so here it is, not to entice jealousy, but to share my excitement.

The 25-day trip itinerary is very full, with 13 days of hiking, 3 days of canoe/sea kayaking, 3 ferry rides, and over 35 hours of driving. Much of the hiking is over steep and rough terrain. Tom and I have been hiking almost every weekend for the last several months to prepare for this aspect of the trip. It seems that since my back injury my feet became soft and my legs complacent. My goal is to be able to hike 12 miles with an elevation change of 3000' in less than 8 hours with a 20 pound pack. Tom is a very good hiker and I have no worries about him being able to complete all of the NZ hikes, and I am about half way to my conditioning goal. My other goal to make NZ more enjoyable is to drop another 15 pounds. I will keep you updated on my hiking and weight goals. To see the hikes completed so far, see my web album.

We will have three free days in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world, so I will be blogging about what to do here.

Another aspect of trip preparation is shopping. We won't have much room for our stuff, but the urge to go wild is overwhelming. "But it's a once in a life-time trip, and I need it." Well, luckily (or not), my wonderful husband has great restraint. My biggest shopping element is hiking boots, which I will talk more about later.

Stay tuned.

Travel Blog Coming Soon.

Tom and I got back from our trip Monday, but since then we have been be very busy. I have been spending my spare time working on the 1000+ photos we took. I have also re-immersed myself completely in working out. The hiking on this trip made me realize how out of shape I am, and how much I need to improve before our trip to New Zealand. That also means losing 25 pounds in 25 weeks, which is quite doable, trips to the gym almost every day, and hiking every weekend.

Check back soon for my travel blog. I journaled every day of the trip, so you will all get accurate first-hand accounts of our activities. Unlike my everglades trip where I tried to make a blog post of every day of the trip, I will be splitting it up into one blog per section: Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Craters of the Moon.

In the mean time, please check out all of my hard work at my web album for photos. Add comments too. If you have a google account, please add me as a "favorite." This is done by clicking on "Add to Favorites" in the top of the right column under "Photos by Jennifer." If you do this I will feel like a million bucks with a fan base, and you can get updates when I add new photos.

Craters of the Moon and Arco, Idaho.

Day 9

While cooking breakfast at the campsite, a young coyote visited us. He just walked through the campsite sniffing the air, and just kept walking. Sorry, no pictures.

From Craters of the Moon NM

We hiked several more trails around the park among the lava flows, including large mounds and craters. I had fun reading the interpretative guide out loud to the guys while we walked from site to site. At least they seemed interested.

From Arco

By noon, things were really cooking, so we decided to make a beer run in Arco. The submarine sail was intriguing and we stopped to take a look. There were torpedos and other war memorials there, along with a retired guy who talked about his work on nuclear sub engine testing at Electric Boat.

Back at camp, we cooked an awesome dinner of chicken fajitas among night hawks flying overhead.

We took down our tent because there was no tree shade at the campsite, and decided to sleep under the stars on a tarp in our sleeping bags. Not too cold, but the moon was sooo bright, I had to cover my eyes with a tee shirt to get to sleep. And no dew in the morning either, it is the desert after all. I slept great, but Tom did not because he was worried about the moths landing on his face.

Craters of the Moon

Day 8 - Friday July 31, 2009, continued.

Craters of the Moon National Monument was only a three hour drive west of Yellowstone and well worth the trip. I was happy to get some desert air before leaving the west. It was such a contrast in environment that it helped round out the entire trip. And it was nice to get away from the crowds.

From Craters of the Moon NM

The park is unique landscape of lava flows that occurred 15,000 to 2,000 years ago, a now dormant thermal feature before it "moved" on to the Yellowstone region.

From Craters of the Moon NM

Soon after arriving, we explored lava tubes, which are caves formed by lava flows. Some were three stories tall, and others were small and deep with ice and mineral deposits. Pete made sure we were well prepared, and told us to pack head lamps, helmets, and jeans. This made it much safer, because the rock was very sharp. These were "wild" caves: no paved floors or built-in lighting.

From Craters of the Moon NM

We stayed in tents at the park campground on the edge of the lava flow. Quite possibly the weirdest place I have ever slept.

From Craters of the Moon NM

Yellowstone to Craters of the Moon

Day 8 - Friday July 31, 2009

After several extensive searches of all three rental vehicles, I concluded that my brand new GPS was lost. I am notorious for misplacing things, so I did not panic when I could not find it the previous day. In my search and disarray, Tom called the park headquarters and found it. It turns out that I left it at the Old Faithful Visitor Center two nights ago, and they took it to the Park headquarters in Mammoth Springs. The only problem is that it was 35 miles out of the way (70 round trip) from the route to our next destination in Idaho. Luckily, everyone in our car was ok with this side trip down a road we had not traveled yet. We were rewarded with a grizzly bear sighting (in the distance) and a bald eagle near the road.


My Lonely Planet Guide turned out to be valuable this trip, but it too has its flaws. We decided to stop in West Yellowstone for lunch, and the recommended restaurant was closed, and replace by another. We decided to give it a try anyway, because of its name, "Kiwi." It turned out to be a New Zealand joint run by a native. We told her about our upcoming trip, and she gave us some tips about eating out in her country. The British style fish-and-chips were excellent.

Yellowstone, continued

Day 7

They say that you will see more wildlife driving the roads of Yellowstone than hiking the trails of Yellowstone. Well, this seemed to be true for us, especially early in the morning. On the way to Mammoth Springs in the north-west part of the park we saw a grey wolf near the road that was supposedly feeding on a carcass in a small hollow. The only way we knew it was there was the people pulled over with a ranger all pointing at the same spot in the distance. After several views through my binoculars (also necessary equipment in Yellowstone), I was able to catch a single shot of the wolf.

From Yellowstone NP

Mammoth Springs was a nice visit and less crowded because we were there early in the morning. These were different from the springs of the Old Faithful area because of the beautiful terraces.

From Yellowstone NP

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and it's waterfalls were beautiful, I just wish that we could have hiked the canyon instead of just driving around it and getting out of our cars to see it. Maybe next time :)


We found a herd of bison near the road, with some bulls surrounding a group of cows and calves. Two bulls had a fight, close enough that we could hear them grunting and their heads clanking together when they charged. Just like on the nature shows. A little too close actually, just enough to make my heart skip a beat.




Off to the side of the same field, I captured one of my favorite images of the Yellowstone portion of the trip. A solitary bull next to the Yellowstone River.

Day 6
A small group of us got up early to see the sun rise over Yellowstone Lake from a marina not far from our campsite. Not much of a show, but we discovered a nice cafe there that served a hot buffet breakfast.

Tom went with Pete and others to hike, including a climb of Mt. Washburn. I decided not to go with them because of my foot blisters and overall body fatigue.

From Yellowstone NP

Saw more thermals at West Thumb Basin, just up the road from our campsite. Springs were smaller here but different because of more unique vegetation and animals, and the pools drained into the lake.

From Yellowstone NP

After lunch we headed back to the Old Faithful area for more thermals, and for what turned out to be my favorite time at the park. We started at the Biscuit Basin and took a nature trail to the Upper Geyser Basin. This was a beautiful flat trail through a mostly open field (also cleared by fire recently, across creeks, and through a small grove of pines to more thermals. We had more good geyser luck, because the best one in the park, Riverside Geyser, that erupts every 6-8 hours, started just as we go there. And the lighting was perfect - evening sun at my back. The plume shot over the river with a lovely grassy hill and pines in the background. Ten times better than Old Faithful.

From Yellowstone NP

West, Phase 2 - Yellowstone

Day 5

Previous night was cold (lower 40s) and we had a heavy dew. We packed up our wet tents and headed to Yellowstone via Rockefeller Parkway. Lost of construction and considerable delays. The road is completely removed in some portions, down to the dirt. I am guessing the were re-grading the road (removing peaks and valleys). Recent wildfires made for a clear view from the car. Many standing and fallen dead trees in a sea of new pines and grasses was a unique environment to see.

From Grand Tetons NP

The group set up camp at Grant Village near Thumb Bay and went straight to Old Faithful. We could not find a parking spot so we headed north so visit the other geyser basins. Everything was beautiful and felt like a different world. Spasm Gyser was just starting to erupt we go there (lucky!) - huge, wide, and we could get very close, feel the seam and spitting spray. My favorite was the Grand Prismatic Poll - the largest and deepest, with a lot of bacteria mats in every direction.

From Yellowstone NP

Then we head backed to Old Faithful which erupted within 10 minutes of arrival (lucky again!). I was not as impressed with it as I was of Spasm Geyser because we could not get as close and it was over in just a few minutes (Spasm was still erupting when we left). But it was nice to sit in the bleachers and talk with others while we waited. A guy was telling us about his troubles with his RV (I am glad we did not have to deal with one).

From Yellowstone NP

After the eruption we visited the Old Faithful Inn, a beautiful old log lodge. We did not have much time to look around, but we did make dinner reservations for the next day.

Grand Tetons, continued

Day 4

Hike around Jenny Lake and visit Jackson Hole, WY

Tom, Clement and I get up early to take Dan to his climbing class. We received a great reward of morning sunlight hitting the Tetons with a beautiful ribbon of clouds. Plus some elk.

From Grand Tetons NP

It was a beautiful start to our hike around Jenny Lake, but within an hour, a total downpoor plus lightening and thunder.

From Grand Tetons NP

Our group is prepared, so we hike on. The lake is smaller than Jackson, but the vegetation is completely different. Much more green. We see fern, columbine and lots of other wildflowers.

From Grand Tetons NP

From Grand Tetons NP

There are few people until we pass the side trail from the ferry. Turns out this is the most popular hike in park. It's funny to watch all the people in tank tops, shorts, flip-flops, and NO rain gear try to navigate the slippery rocks as the temperature drops. The rain helps only somewhat to alleviate the crowds. Cascade Falls are beautiful but crowded.

From Grand Tetons NP

Tom and Jere decide to walk back, the rest of us take the ferry across the lake to avoid the second wave of thunderstorms.

Dinner at Snake River Brewery in Jackson is good and fun. The group has fun exploring the town and many shops.

Day 3

A full day of hiking the Hermitage Point Trail around Colter Bay and Jackson Lake. About nine miles, very little elevation change. We see and/or heard blue herons, geese, ducks, osprey, bald eagles, cormorants, sea gulls, Clarks' nutcracker, juncos, kinglets, and a beaver or muskrat. Lots of chickmonks and ground squirells. Amaizing scenery of the bay, boats, lakes, ponds, rivers, creeks, forest, meadows, wildflowers, and the Grand Teton Montains. The air is clear, the sky is blue with a few fluffy white clouds. Some of the peaks still have snow on them.

The trail is not crowded, but we see plenty of motor boats so we don't even get a hint of back country feel. At least this sculler made for a nice picture.

From Grand Tetons NP

The campground is nice but a little noisy. Motorcycles head in and out at all hours. We get rain almost every evening and the temperatures dip into the 30s every night, but we are prepared. Tom and I have a leak-free tent, warm sleeping bags, and earplugs. It's a nice respite from the sweltering heat and humidity back east.

Day 2
Some of our group arrives late due to delayed flights. Most have been up since 4am eastern, and some have not slept at all. I am just grateful that Tom and I were able to take an extra day from work to arrive the day before and meet the group refreshed and ready to go. Jere stays behind to meet Joe and the other late ones. The rest of us climb into the other two rental vehicles and head the our campsite at Coulter Village in Grand Teton NP. Along the way we stop for groceries.

Our first view of the Tetons. From Grand Tetons NP

After talking to my parents on the phone, I decide to attempt to fix my camera. So I borrow a needle-nose plyer multi-tool from Clement and while waiting for lunch, I bend it back. Not too hard. And the exposure seems correct. Crisis averted.

Day 3, Continued.

Before dinner the group and I decided to explore the island (we were waiting for Tim from Crystal Seas to deliver cooking supplies). It was a beautiful walk along the beach at low tide, so there were lots of things to see. We saw sandpipers and plovers, a nesting osprey, little jelly animals in the sand, lots of pretty shells, and horseshoe crab molted exoskeletons.

The sand here is very fine and white, made of limestone. I am used to the coarse sand in the Chesapeake Bay made of quartz. There aren't many rocks either, just shells and pieces of coral.

After about 3/4 mile along Tiger Key I decided to turn back (after all, it had been a long day), but Rick and some of the kids decided to keep going. I did not know it at the time, but they were determined to walk around the island. First thick brush, then mangroves, then swimming. Dave, one of our guides, got worried when Rick called with his cell phone and requested us to bring the kayaks around before his signal cut out. About an hour later, coming around the back side of the island, we saw several heads bobbing in the water and a canoe. A group of boy scouts camping on Picnic Key saw Rick and picked him up so he could go back and pick up his abandoned camera equipment. The kids decided to swim because it was easier than wading. Luckily everyone made is back safely with only a few scratches.

Trees, Birds and other animals seen while paddling:

• Red Mangroves
• Sea Grape
  
• Little Blue Heron
• Royal Tern
• Swallow-tailed Kite
• Osprey
• Dolphins
  

On Tiger Key:

• Semipalmated Plover
• Sanderling Sandpiper (?)
• Dunlin Sandpiper (?)
• Osprey