Archive for October 2nd, 2008

Enchanting

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

Last Saturday I woke up early and drove to my favorite Bavarian themed American town.  Leavenworth, despite the cheesy faux Bavarian architecture, is an awesome place.  It is located in one of the most impressive natural locations in the state.  My purpose of visiting wasn’t to partake in the beginning of the Oktoberfest celebrations, rather it was to hike the Enchantments.  I had been almost completely out of commission for three weeks due to a back spasm and it was time for me to get back into the swing of things.  The Enchantments are well known for their natural beauty and the grueling hike that depending on which trailhead you start at begins at 1300′ and tops out at 7800′ roughly 10 miles later before decending to the other trailhead.  This makes a 17 mile partial loop through some of the most impressive scenery in the alpine lakes wilderness.

I had plans to hike the whole trail and hitchhike back to the car but I got a little too late of a start and decided to turn around at Snow Lake.  It was a fantastic hike nonetheless.

Here are a couple of pictures from the day.

First stop Nada Lake

Nada Lake from uptrail

The leaves are starting to change

Jumping

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

I’ve often wondered about the sanity of sports.  Basketball makes sense.  It’s fun, it’s good excercise, and there is enough competition to keep it interesting.  Football is a little harder to justify.  The chance of injury is a lot higher and it requires a lot of organization.  For football you have to have 22 people, organized plays, pads, helmets…  Sure you can play touch football with a few friends but that’s really only fun for the fastest sprinter in the group.

Climbing, mountaineering and especially ski mountaineering are even harder to justify but still it kind of makes sense.  There is something understandable about setting a difficult goal and then striving to accomplish it.  It’s a big bonus if achieving that goal has some excitement and adrenaline involved, like skiing does.

Nonetheless, some sports just don’t look fun at all.  Tower Jumping is one of those sports.  The New York Times has a very interesting video about this obscure sport.  Watch it here.