Pete Curtis
A software architect, endurance athlete, and musician living in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA.
This is my own humble place to share the things I enjoy.
contact (at) petestuff (dot) org
Last weekend was the 2010 City of Lakes Loppet, a full two days of ski-related events and races. On Sunday, I went out to Wirth Park with the camera to catch some of the action.
Here are some of my favorite pictures; go to the gallery for the full collection.
Here's a few photos to make up for my alarming lack of posts recently. It must be the holiday season... so busy... new snow... seasonal affective disorder... yeah, that's the ticket. From my Colorado trip in 2007.
Diamond Head, or Lē‘ahi, is one of the most well known natural features in Honolulu. It's the remains of an old cinder cone, with a central crater that's not obvious from the ground but shows up great from the air:
Most of the roads you see in the crater are not public - they're actually access roads for a military installation and an FAA installation, except for the bottom right one, which is the beginning of the hiking trail up to the high point visible on the right side. I took this trail the afternoon before we left for Moloka‘i. More photos below.
Mānoa Falls is a short skip and a hop from my temporary home, up at the end of one of many steep, lush valleys that rise to the north from Honolulu. At the end of the road there's a small parking lot, and then a rocky, wet, slippery trail up another mile or so, maybe less. This morning we biked up and took the hike. Here's a quick sample.
More photos below.
One of my favorite destinations on the North Shore is the town of Grand Marais. As well as being the gateway to the Gunflint Trail, it's filled with great shops, restaurants, and galleries, and hosts a very progressive community of painters, sculptors, and other artists.
And true to reputation, Grand Marais has also been good to me for photography.
I've posted some more photos from my Colorado/Wyoming trip.
See more photos of runners from Laramie Daze.
Or more photos from Estes Park, Garden of the Gods, and Kite Lake.
Here's one reason.
The aspens are turning, obviously.
On Wednesday we left Estes Park in the morning and arrived near Colorado Springs in mid-afternoon. We got settled in at the campground (which was nothing much to speak of, a commercial deal hemmed in by the four-lane highway) and visited Garden of the Gods in the afternoon.
The "Kissing Camels" are in the top center of this photo.
The next morning, I got a 7 AM start and headed west out of the Black Hills and across the open expanses of eastern Wyoming. At Lance Creek, I headed off into a maze of gravel roads going west to hit the freeway at Douglas. All the land was still open range, with frequent cattle guards, but the view was open and much less unnerving than the confines of the Black Hills. The roads were even in pretty good shape, and I made good time to reach the freeway near Douglas. I wanted to visit an interesting spot mentioned in the gazetteer - Ayres Natural Bridge.
From Hermosa on the east edge of the Black Hills, it's an easy drive west up to Sylvan Lake. It was about 2 PM, and I was planning to do my usual Harney Peak trail hike/run to start getting acclimated to exertion at elevation - which I will have plenty of over the next two weeks. Immediately after entering Custer State Park, we all had to stop for about a dozen pronghorn that wanted to cross the road. I stopped in at the Needles area and climbed around with my camera a bit. There were three climbers atop the spire just on the west side of the tunnel. I was too late to see them climb, but found a good vantage point to watch them rappel down the back side. (I actually went over the tunnel and bouldered up to the narrow top of a rock to get this photo.)
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