I am Nuts (and Cookies)

After spending the last two years working in the Membership Department at Girl Scouts, I had been looking around for a new challenge. When our Director of Product Sales resigned, I thought it was the perfect opportunity for a job change. It all happened pretty quickly, and, before I knew it, I was in charge of nut and cookies sales. I didn't realize there would be a literal transfer of power between the two Cookie Queens but, on her last day, Sharon bequeathed her Cookie Queen crown and wand to me. Coincidentally, I just happened to be wearing my Girl Scout Cookies T-shirt that day! Perfect...

Highpointer's Quest-Arizona

It was late August when I realized that, with all our traveling, I hadn't managed to climb any of the 50 states' high points this summer. Since the summer was quickly winding down, I felt I had to do something immediately so I talked Pat into making a crazed, 48-hour trip to Arizona to climb Mount Humphries. All I can say is that he is a great sport!



On Friday afternoon, we found ourselves sitting on the 91 freeway, allegedly heading for Flagstaff. The traffic was so terrible that it ended up taking up about 9 hours just to get to the national forest outside of Flagstaff . Of course, the only campground was full so we parked the car along a gravel road and set up camp. It was almost midnight, and the next morning, we were relieved that we weren't in somebody's backyard!

Luckily, we weren't far from Mount Humphries. It is the peak on the left in this picture.

There were lots of people at the trail head, and a very nice sign announcing that we were about to climb to Arizona's highest point.

At first, the trail gradually traveled upward through a shady, cool forest. It was very nice and easy walking.

But, then, around 11,000 feet, we emerged above the treeline. It was very windy and cold! Neither of us felt too great since we had just been at 60 feet of elevation just 20 hours earlier.

There were several false summits, so we went up and then up again.

And, did I mention it was windy? I was freezing, and I had forgotten my hat.


But, there were some nice views, and we could see a few fires in the distance.

And, then we were on top. Interesting, it was not very windy on the summit. We were able to sit for a spell and enjoy the sunshine. Humphries Peak: 12,633. Four down and 46 more to go!

This is the view to the west.

See the smoke from the fire?

We didn't linger too long since we still had a lot of driving left to do. It was down, down, down. Sometimes the downhill hurts worse than the uphill. The hike was about 10.5 miles roundtrip.


This is a view of the parking lot--tantalizingly close! However, we still had three miles yet to go. But, soon enough, we were back at the car. Then, we had the long, hot drive through the desert back to Long Beach. We ended up stopping in Needles for the night and arriving back in LB Sunday afternoon. We drove 1,200 miles and climbed to 12,633 feet in less than 48 hours! What a whirlwind.

Stupidity Rules the Day (and night)-Scandanavia, Part 5)

I'll start this post by saying that if my death ever makes the front page, the headline will probably go something like this "Experienced Hiker's Novice Mistake Leads to Ultimate Price." For those of you who have embarked on our outdoors adventures with us, you might nod your head in agreement and think back to a time when we shared an Epic Adventure. For those of you who haven't had the "pleasure" of these Epic Adventures, this post is a pretty clear example of the sort of thing that we get ourselves into.

It all started right here at the Besseggan Ridge trail head--Norway's most famous and most popular hiking trail. The trail is 9.5 miles long one-way, and most people take a boat from the trail head at Gjendsheim to the far end of the lake and hike back to the trail head. However, we arrived at about 12:30 p.m. and had missed the last boat heading to the trail terminus at Memurubu. We consulted the boat schedule and determined that we could do the hike from Gjendsheim and then take the last boat back from Memurubu at 4:45 p.m. We figured that it would be no problem hiking 9.5 miles in 4 hours--we can usually reel off 20-minute miles with any problem. So, off we went...

The trail climbed immediately, and the views were stunning.

The first part of the trail was a steady uphill but had fairly even footing.

However, as we progressed up the ridge, we found ourselves doing more and more time-consuming scrambling.

We kept reaching what we believed to be the apex of the ridge.


Only to discover shortly thereafter that the trail lost elevation and the gained even more.

Then things got really sketchy. The trail became a series of chutes that required intense concentration, careful foot placement and lots of scrambling.

It took us almost an hour to navigate this ridge, and when we got to the bottom, a nagging thought formed in my mind. It went a little like this: I think we might miss that last boat!

When we finally got to this point and realized the boat dock wasn't in sight, we knew we might be in dire straits. So, we started discussing our options. We figured we could turn around immediately and face the prospect of a 9.5 mile hike turning into a 15-mile hike, including the terrible ridge we had just traversed (but uphill). Or we could try to increase our pace and catch the boat. We decided to quicken our pace and try for the boat.

So, off we went, practically running up and down all the never-ending ridges, but still not making great time. These sheep watched us with interest as we stomped by. Meanwhile, I joked with Pat "Did you bring the credit cards?" since I knew there was a hiker's lodge at Memurubu. He answered in what I thought was the affirmative.

Each ridge seemed to be followed by yet another downhill followed by another steep uphill. The clock kept ticking and soon it was 4:30, and still no boat dock in view.

Finally, we came over a ridge and there it was--the lodge tantalizingly close.

And, there it was: the last boat of the night motoring away from the dock! We estimate that we missed it by less than 15 minutes.



We walked down to the lodge and discussed our options. Even though we had little food, no extra clothing or toiletries, we decided that we should try to stay at the lodge and take the first boat back in the morning. Pat went to the front desk and discovered that it would cost $200 for us to book a shared room with five beds, dinner and breakfast. After a discussion, we decided to go ahead and do that. I told Pat to just charge it on the credit card--we could deal with that later. At that point, he said "I don't have the credit cards!" I had actually grabbed all our Norwegian cast out of the car and stashed it in my jacket at the beginning of the hike but I just didn't know if we had enough. It turned out we had exactly enough to spend the night and purchase the boat fare back. Whew...


Our hopes for having the room to ourselves were dashed when we discovered two out-of-shape overweight Norwegian women already ensconced in our appointed room. The common table was littered with cigarettes and beer cans. They were; however, quite friendly, and we soon struck up a conversation with them although we were too ashamed to admit that we had missed the last boat. Finally, Pat looked at them somewhat dubiously and asked "so you guys hiked over the ridge today?" "Oh, no," one answered, "we took the easy path by the water--it only took us two hours." Pat and I looked at each other incredulously: there was a path by the water? Who knew? We could have hiked back to the trail head in two hours!

After dinner, we walked down to the lakeside trail and took a picture of the sign!


We actually ended up having a nice time at the lodge and got to meet lots of interesting people at the communal dinner. So, I guess all is well that ends well...

The next day, we took the boat back to the trail head. And, of course, we had gotten an overnight parking ticket! From the trail head, we would drive to Oslo, see a few sights there and fly home the next day.

Highpointer's Quest-Galdhopiggen (Scandanavia Part 4)

The next day we left the western fjords to head to the mountains. First though, we had to fulfil our obligation to take a swim. So, we both jumped right into a small arm of the Sognefjord. It was cold but not unbearable.

Our next stop was Spiterstulen, a private hytter in Jutunheimen National Park. We camped across from the lodge but we were able to use all the facilities, including a very cosy common area.

The next day, we began the long climb up to Norway's highest point Galdhopiggen (2469meters, about 8100 feet). This is right after the first sustained climb.

Here is a view of the lodge from above.

The DNT maintains most of the trails in Norway, and they spray paint huge Ts on rocks to show hikers the route.

I was surprised by how the area looked much higher than the actual elevation. It was very alpine.

As you can see, the weather was quite gloomy. There were many snowfields to cross which slowed us up a bit.

At the top, there is a mountain hut!

And, get this: there is a staffed snack bar! So, we bought a coffee and sat inside.


Here is my awful summit photo. It was very difficult to take because there were about 200 people milling about the summit. Seriously--it was quite awful. Apparently, there is an "easy" route (only climbing 600 meters rather than the 1400 our route required), over the glacier, from another trailhead, and several tours had come up that way.

Glaciers and Fjords with Peter (Scandanavia Part 3)

The next day we took the car ferry over to Bergen, the second largest city in Norway to pick up our friend Peter who flew in from Germany. Peter and I met 19 years ago at an EarthFirst! camp in Northern California. Somehow, across the years and the ocean, we've managed to maintain our friendship. However, we hadn't seen each other since my wedding nine years ago so we were very excited to catch up.

After picking Peter up without any snafus, we headed to Flam (pronounced Flawm), a small village along the Sognefjord (Norway's largest fjord) for the evening. Here is our campsite.

Then we headed straight for this building. It might look like a church...

but in reality it is brew pub! Poor Peter bought our first round and was a little shell shocked that he had just spend $35 on three pints of beer. Welcome to Norway!

The next morning, we took the world famous Flamsbana train up to Myrdal station and back down to Flam. This journey is widely known as the most beautiful train ride in the world.

There were many beautiful waterfalls along the way, and the conductor told a story of how beautiful nymphs are known to try to lure men into the forest to spend eternity with them.

Sure enough, when the train stopped at a particularly beautiful waterfall, some very hokey music began to play and out came the beautiful nymph! We couldn't believe this cheesiness! Luckily, neither Peter not Pat were tempted...

Later that same day, we crossed the Sognefjord, and traveled to Mundal, the gateway to Jostedalsbreen National Park and its many glaciers. Here is another campsite shot.

For dinner, Peter made a traditional German dish: dumplings. This happened to be a "pre-fab" version where we just boiled pre-made ones. Regardless, they were yummy.

Then we headed for our hike up to the glacier. Once again, we were reminded that everything in Norway costs lots of money. Parking at the trail head cost $4.

The trail was very steep, and, in some places, there were guide ropes.

After a few hours of climbing, we can to the unstaffed DNT (Norwegian Trekking Association) hytter. We stopped and chatted with some locals and bought a bit of chocolate (leaving money in the box, of course).

In order to get right up to the Glacier, we had to cross the stream flowing from it. The crossing can be summed up in one word: excrutiating! It was icy cold (go figure). My feet were in agony both during and after the crossing.

Drum roll, please. The Glacier!

Another view.


Peter felt compelled to get a picture of himself beside this little iceberg.