10.10.2010

Moses Tomb
A self portrait (the new term for it is “selfie”) in front of the famous bus at the parking area for Moses Tomb.

Below is Aaron Moses, all smiles, as he exits the classic 230-foot pit.
Moses Tomb

Moses Tomb
A beautiful fall day!!

06.25.2010

Colorado River Campsite
We checked for an open campsite for the night at Arches . . . they didn’t have one. So we found this outside the park along the Colorado River. Yeah, there were a lot of mosquitos.

But we were camped right next to some awesome petroglyphs!
Colorado Petroglyphs

Arches National Park, Day II
Arches National Park
Chris and I spent the entire day hiking the rest of the trails in the park to see all the obscure arches in Arches National Park. Above is me standing in an unnamed arch we found while hiking to Sand Dune Arch.

Arches National Park
Some pretty rippled sand.

Arches National Park
A portait of the two of us at Broken Arch.

Arches National Park
Me being a goober while hiking to Double O Arch.

08.01.2009

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Chris and I on a motorcycle trip into West Virginia with Greg and Lauren McCoy and Janet and Rex Tinkham. Group pic taken from the Germany Valley lookout spot.

080109 Motorcycle23
I found a mushroom at our camp site!

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At Bear Heaven Campground in the National Forest.

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Rex and Lauren pick out a hike in the Otter Creek Wilderness.

05.25.2009

Cemetery Pit
Chris works on rigging Cemetery Pit on SCCi’s Fox Mountain Cave Preserve. It has an entrance rappel of 153 feet.

Below is me taking a self portrait in the room.
Cemetery Pit

05.07.2008

050708 Wounded Knee ME
En route to Colorado from the Black Hills, we visited Wounded Knee Memorial on Pine Ridge Reservation. The place was erie and heavy. It saddened my heart to stand above the murdered.

A sweetgrass offering on the fence.
050708 Wounded Knee Sage & Sweetgrass

050708 Toadstool Campsite

Western Wonderland Roadtrip

That night we set up camp at Toadstool Geologic Park in northwest Nebraska’s famous Sandhills. I wanted to roam the hills and take some wicked sunset photographs. We set up camp, with no one else there, had a few beers and then got hit by a spring rainstorm. We waited a couple hours for it to pass, but it kept raining harder. So we quickly tore down camp and drove the 20 miles back to a paved road. We were lucky to make it out of there on the sandy, rutted road, slowly being transformed into a mud wallow. We headed to the nearest town of any size — Alliance — and got a hotel for a dry night’s sleep.

05.03.2008

050308 Badlands Bighorns
The Badlands National Park . . . the start of our Western road trip vacation.

Western Wonderland Roadtrip
In early May, I took Chris Coates with me on my first trip home to the rolling fields of corn in central Nebraska in five years. My mission was to see the family and get underground as much as possible in what I lovingly refer to as my “old backyard,” which consists of western Nebraska, South Dakota, eastern Wyoming and Colorado.

And so the voyage started by packing the car and hitting the road after dark and driving the first leg of our trip: 20 hours to Sioux Falls, S.D. We were contacted by caver Bonny Armstrong, a Park Ranger at Jewel Cave, almost at our destination telling us of a freak blizzard that hit the Black Hills in South Dakota. We were unaware that we were heading further into the cold front with heavy rain and 30-degree temperatures. Our plans were to camp and rappel the next day at Palisades State Park. Needless to say, we opted for a hotel room.

That was the least of our worries, as Bonny told us Interstate 90 was shut down from Wall, S.D. into Wyoming. How were we going to get to the Black Hills? We would have to backtrack into northern Nebraska and take highways to access the southern part of the Hills. Fortunately, the next day reached temperatures in the 50s and the 13 inches of snow melted upon arrival the next evening.

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050308 Badlands Snow

050308 Badlands Mirror

050308 Badlands Car

11.23.2007

Sotano de la Golondrinas
Mexico Day 5

The best for last — Sótano de la Golondrinas, 1,150 feet.
Sotano de la Golondrinas
Here Kurt climbs out solo. Since only three of us were on the trip, he let Chris and I tandem climb out of the pit.

Sotano de la Golondrinas
Me at the bottom.

Sotano de la Golondrinas
Signed the register!

Sotano de la Golondrinas
The view of the bottom about a third of the way climbing out.

Sotano de la Golondrinas
Chris at the lip of the massive pit.

Sotano de la Golondrinas
Our guide hauling our rope for us.

Sotano de la Golondrinas
And the parrots circling the pit as we leave our last Mexican pit during our trip.