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We've got one for pets, we've got one for shoes. Now there's an off topic thread for outdoor adventure.

Just sharing a few photos I take from time to time. I really don't focus on photographs, as I've always maintained the best camera is the Mark I Eyeball, but some things are just too beautiful to pass up. Please add your own contributions, many of our members live in countries I know have jaw dropping landscapes.

First up, an aspen grove and mountain meadow at around 9000 ft (~2750m), taken atop Cheyenne Mountain - yes, that Cheyenne Mountain. This was actually taken last year, on the first day the trail to the (near) summit officially opened to the public. Which happened to be the peak of fall and prime time to see trees that haven't been visited much in the last century. A few weeks later, I ran in the first ever race to the top of Cheyenne, up the same trail. If you're thinking a narrow, newly forged trail up a steep mountain was probably an "interesting" place for an out-and-back race, you're right. Several runners commented that they feared for their lives; I had a blast, it's easier when you go fast and don't think about nonsense like that.



Next up, a view from around 13000 ft (~4000m), well above treeline on Pikes Peak. At this elevation distance becomes difficult to appreciate, the mountains in the distance are even further than they look. This is a hell of a place for a morning run! On a clear day up here you can see Kansas, a couple hundred miles east.



Standing near the bottom of the Bottomless Pit, looking up at sheer rock face measured in thousands of feet. This eye popping view is only a couple miles off Barr Trail not far from treeline, but attracts surprisingly little traffic. Maybe it's because you have to pick through a trail that's barely a trail and then traverse loose talus slopes overlooking a deep ravine with no easy exit to get there. The terrain you see in the near foreground is pretty much what you have to work with.

Awesome thread idea. I need to find my old pictures from when I visited Havasu Canyon years ago.

I just posted about our family hike up to Naches Peak Loop Trail. It's only an hour and a half drive and so worth it. Very easy trail and when the weather is clear, Mount Rainier is a glorious gem of mountainhood.

Ranier is a beauty alright! She's a stratovolcano wearing a permanent glacier, the most prominent (though not highest) mountain in the contiguous 48 states, and one of the only mountains in the CONUS that can't be climbed in a single day.

Love those northwest forests and meadows, everything there is so lush and green.

It's pretty amazing the amount of awesome trails that are within a 2 hour drive. The PNW is something else

Living up to your username with this thread

Does anyone do any long-range rifle shooting around here?

I like this photo because it's deceptive. Everything is much bigger than it appears. The rock tower is hundreds of feet tall, and not as close as it looks. The bare mountainside on the right is the entire south flank of Pikes Peak and hosts a large arctic tundra zone, home to herds of bighorn sheep. In front of me is the Chasm, aka the Crater, a glacial moraine a couple thousand feet deep.



Of course, you can't appreciate that drop without looking into it, now can you? Accidentally got my thumb in the edge of the photo, I maybe got a little grabby with the phone while dangling it over the precipice. A woman actually fell to her death at this very spot last winter in a rare fatality for Pikes, presumably doing something like the same thing I'm doing here, except on ice. In the famous words of Edward Whymper: "Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nought without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end."

Not quite winter yet, but we've had a couple of snowstorms in town already, and above 9000 ft snow is sticking around for the season.

I'm loving it. I love everything about winter. The cold is invigorating and far preferable to heat, and the trails are empty because all the sweet summer children flee indoors. The mountains and forests reveal their true secrets to those brave enough to visit in winter. I have seen many subtle things in winter that have stuck with me, memories of tiny, shimmering crystals of ice covering slopes of brilliant snow, or seasonal streams of snowmelt entombing grass, branch, and leaf so that the entire scene becomes an ice sculpture, formed rather than carved. Tracks that would be invisible in dry conditions remain in snow, revealing the movements of animals and people alike and leaving much sign for those who care to look.

Pictured here is Barr Trail, on this day buried in fresh, virgin snow as yet untrodden. There is a sublime joy in pushing through such snow, in knowing that on this day, one of America's most popular trails, most famous mountains, is all mine, because I have done what no one else could or would.

Nazaré - Portugal

Biggest surfable waves in the World The biggest waves need a jet ski to help surfers catching them

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-KaZ13zJMQ&t=13s[/youtube]

The waves in the previous video, although spectacular, aren't big enough.

It's very hard to measure the height of a wave, but there are waves there over 30m (100ft)



World record 24m (80ft):

Love the waves! Makes me miss the sea. I'm a long way from there now, a couple photos from my morning run, such as it was. Snow was 1-2 ft deep with no layer compacted underneath, footing was a nightmare because any given step could be through deep snow or right into a rock with nothing visible to indicate. Still, the views were amazing, and on the way back through town Matt Carpenter called me a crazy runner.

I haven't seen the sunlight now for at least 3 weeks. Maybe even 4? I'm not sure.

The sun sets at 3 PM and the every day the sky is grey with thick planket of clouds.

Finland is a nice country to visit. Except in November. Stay the F.U.C.K away during November!

theCapraAegagrus wrote:Does anyone do any long-range rifle shooting around here?

Actually I do. Used to do local competitions. Rem. 700 with AICS stock, and floated bull barrel. Tested out to 1.5 MOA @ 900m. Still working on getting sub at that distance.

macstrat wrote:

theCapraAegagrus wrote:Does anyone do any long-range rifle shooting around here?

Actually I do. Used to do local competitions. Rem. 700 with AICS stock, and floated bull barrel. Tested out to 1.5 MOA @ 900m. Still working on getting sub at that distance.

Sweet! It's something that I plan on getting into long-term. It was my initial reason for getting into shooting, but I quickly realized that there are a lot of other things to accomplish, first.

Winter is romantic and all but it quite sucks outdoor-wise if you aren't a ski bunny or into quite winter hikes...
I miss the summer to hit the bike park and have my legs covered in mud again

Actually fall/winter in town has been pretty sloppy this year. I've taken some nice photos on Barr Trail where it's now a beautiful path of neatly compacted snow above 9000 ft, but Garden of the Gods and most of the other city parks are stuck in a cycle of snow/melt/mud. Even better, most of these parks are rich in clay dirt that, when it gets wet, turns into...clay. It clumps up and tries to suck your shoes right off your feet. Then when it dries it turns into concrete in the shape of footprints and bike ruts. I've actually been trying to get my runs finished before the sun melts the mud so at least it's only dirty ice.

Old phone is on its last legs, when I get a new one this month I'll take some pics of Garden.

I'd probably like the weather in Scandinavia. I consider 10F/-12C to be shorts weather as long as there's not a bad wind.

Outsider wrote:I've taken some nice photos on Barr Trail...

You write it, but I don't see them here!

2020 Nazaré Tow surfing Challenge - Waves reached 20m high.
Not world record level but this time the challenge coincided with huge waves and there is a lot of footage from different riders.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5wiOW51Pao&t=35s[/youtube]

Why Nazaré waves are so big



Here is a more detailed (and a bit longer) explanation.

Finland is a nice country to visit. Except in November. Stay the F.U.C.K away during November!

I really would like to visit Finland someday, but definitely not in November. However, duly noted - not November for Finland.

I head out for my first scout campout in a long time. It should be cold and raining. Excellent! [MURRAY]

Räpylätassu wrote:I haven't seen the sunlight now for at least 3 weeks. Maybe even 4? I'm not sure.

The sun sets at 3 PM and the every day the sky is grey with thick planket of clouds.

Finland is a nice country to visit. Except in November. Stay the F.U.C.K away during November!

Only November? From what I read and hear, shouldn't it be November to February?

I never did get a new phone because I hate phones, but I promised Garden of the Gods.

So here it is...from nearly 20 miles across town. You can just make it out, the little bumps of rock at ground level directly below the summit.



Oh, not close enough for you? Then let me just run across town courtesy of our excellent urban trail system to get a better look.



Maybe this will clarify why it's called Garden of the Gods?



It's easy to stay motivated when this is your city park.



Nun liegst du erschlossen
in Gleiß und Zier,
von Licht übergossen
wie ein Wunder vor mir.



Have a happy spring, and remember, there's no social distancing quite like an empty trail!

Outsider wrote:I never did get a new phone because I hate phones, but I promised Garden of the Gods.

So here it is...from nearly 20 miles across town. You can just make it out, the little bumps of rock at ground level directly below the summit.


Maybe this will clarify why it's called Garden of the Gods?


Have a happy spring, and remember, there's no social distancing quite like an empty trail!

Hey, see if you can go to the sign with the Garden of the Gods written on it. Go up close. Under one of the G's there should be 3-5 inch long big scratch.

That was from when the van I was in slid on the snow in Dec 1999 on the way to Bear Trap Ranch. The 15 seater van's rear hit the sign and left that scratch.

Eric Lee wrote:Hey, see if you can go to the sign with the Garden of the Gods written on it. Go up close. Under one of the G's there should be 3-5 inch long big scratch.

That was from when the van I was in slid on the snow in Dec 1999 on the way to Bear Trap Ranch. The 15 seater van's rear hit the sign and left that scratch.

I ran here again today and confirmed what I suspected when you said this - the sign you remember is long gone, probably replaced a few times since and maybe not even in the same place; the current sign is less than a year old. Although I wasn't in the Springs in '99, I think at the time you visited the street still passed between North and South Gateway Rocks; that's been removed, the streets now do a one-way loop around the Garden, and the Central Garden (the area directly around the monoliths) now has broad sidewalks instead.

The outdoors are still open here, but like any sane person I'm avoiding crowds. Rampart Range Road is, as the name implies, an unpaved mountain road, and given that it's wide enough for two vehicles, social distancing is effortless. Not quite the tree cover I enjoy on single track trails, but the views are still well worth it.

I'm basically dying to get out to do some shooting. Been too lazy to drive to secluded state land. Hopefully all of the ranges open up sometime around May 15th.

It's 2.58 am, offical sunrise is in 15 minutes. I think that I am going swimming now. Goddamn I love summer!

Räpylätassu wrote: ↑Sat Jun 06, 2020 6:58 pm It's 2.58 am, offical sunrise is in 15 minutes. I think that I am going swimming now. Goddamn I love summer!

Oh, man. You live in a different universe! June is the first WINTER month, period.

It's summer in Finland, winter in New Zealand, but it's still spring here in Colorado! In fact I woke up to snow in the mountains today, and you know I went right up there to play in it.

Not going to lie though, I'd love to go night swimming in Finland or mountain running in New Zealand, whatever the season. You guys live in some astoundingly beautiful countries.