June 2007 - Wittenberg, Cornell, Slide Mountain, Catskills REVISITED
This was exact replication of our 2005 three-day hike, but with a different crowd and with the idea that we shall not repeat previous mistakes (such as running out of water). Well, somehow we managed to do that again - run out of water at the same camp site like last time at the foot of Slide Mountain, and have a night full of dreams of fresh running water... Shared some laughs around the camp fire with an interesting couple of Russian physicists (I think we out-geeked them). Great experience again! Mount Marcy next?
|
First picture before we get dirty and tired... | |
|
Some serious climbing... | |
|
Jia at the camp fire last night. | |
|
Sunrise over Cornell mountain captured by Jawaad. | |
|
Victorious us on top of Slide mountain. | |
December 2006 - Camp Hero day hike, Montauk, Long Island, NY
It is hard to find places to hike on Long Island, and in these final weeks of the semester was hard to get people to undertake a backcountry hike. An article in New York Times caught our attention. Camp Hero at the east end of the island was a miltary base in the 1940s and was rumored to participate in the Philadelphia experiment (trying to make ships invisible by strong magnetic fields). Currently, the place is full of abandoned buildings, a radar tower, several non-functional batteries, unexplained phenomena and supposedly some unexploded amunitions... Well, needless to say, that was the motivation behind our adventure trip. Nothing out of the ordinary happened despite our efforts, but nevertheless the trip was fun!
|
Searching hard for those unexploded amunitions... | |
|
Trying to find a way from Camp Hero down to the beach. | |
|
Picture at the Light House (Montauk) after the hike. |
July 2006 - Day hikes in Santa Ynez Mountains, California
We spent a great summer month in Santa Barbara at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP). During that stay, we did two day hikes in the nearby mountains with scientists in our field. The sun was brutal even though the hikes were not that strenuous themselves...
|
View from Emilia's office at KITP. | |
|
Barbeque with colleagues at the beach, near KITP. | |
|
At the end of a hike with Arkady Pertsov, Irina Biktasheva and the friendly dog Sage, who stayed with us during the whole hike. |
October 2005 - George Washington National Forest, Virginia (2-day trip)
This was an improvised trip from the BMES meeting in Baltimore to Virginia. Relatively easy hike, beautiful weather and sites, but we forgot the camera. Ujas brought along his irresistible "Axe" instead.
August 2005 - Wittenberg, Cornell, Slide Mountain, Catskills (3-day trip)
We conquered three peaks in this trip - Wittenberg, Cornell and Slide. There were some surprises along the way - we ran out of water at the end of day 2 and the expected springs along the trail happened to be dry...
Inventive Harold and Rupinder converted _very_ muddy water into urine-like liquid using a water filter, and we drank, without consequences. Finding a real live spring 0.2 miles from the peak on Slide mountain brought us to exaltation - water will never look the same...
There was some rock climbing - hands and feet, and Elko's knee had to be dealt with on day 3, but overall this was a great experience.
|
The first night's campsite was on a rough patch. You can see that Rupinder has a towel in his hand. He remained the cleanest on the entire trip. | |
|
The view from Wittenberg | |
|
Rupinder standing in front of the view of Slide Mountain | |
|
One of the rough climbs up Cornell | |
|
Our campsite on night two | |
|
Filtering disgusting water | |
|
Harold and Rupinder enjoyed climbing through the treacherous spots | |
|
A group picture atop the peak of Slide Mountain |
July 2005 - Ashokan High Point (2-day trip)
This July 4th trip was executed as planned; we climbed, camped at the peak and came back rather fast. Mike's baked potatoes and the miso soup were a nice touch.
|
Mikhail, Harold, and Emilia | |
|
Mike joins Harold in early morning contemplation | |
|
The campsite was on a nice ledge |