Various Ramblings
Michael Nowak
Cha-cha-changes!
Cha-cha-changes!
Various Ramblings
Michael Nowak
Seeing can mean believing.
Seeing can mean believing.

arizona

#NationalForestWeek continues! #ThrowbackThursday

I want to share a few more photos from my adventures in the forest - this time, the ones I’ve shared with some of my good friends. The forest can be the most amazing experience alone, but every now and then you want that adventure pal or pals with you along the way.

Kayaking down the Salt River (Tonto NF)

I had made the journey out to Phoenix to meet up with a longtime online acquaintance for a backpacking trip in a special canyon. The fear of a flash flood kept us out of the area, and we made a backup attempt in the Superstition Mountains within the Tonto National Forest. The whole thing didn’t work - rain, illness, etc - so we trekked back out and had pizza and beer. The silver lining of all of this was that a day was freed and the Salt River was calling. I had never kayaked. The adventure was fun, I tipped, which felt wonderful, and got to meet another longtime online acquaintance.

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Lazy Days at Blanchard Springs (Ozark/St. Francis NF)

The pandemic was raging and I was in a cabin on the White River near Mountain View, Arkansas with one of my dearest friends. Life was good. We had drinks, we had a campfire, and we had a grill daddy. That’s as funny as it sounds. Nicknames. HA! Anyway, it was great, but only got better with a day trip to Blanchard Springs. The water was turquoise, the trees extra shade, and the streams cold as ice. It was a casual, lighthearted day of no agenda or plans.

Hammock Beers in the most Superior NF

A trip to the cabin rarely involves hiking - unless it’s across the frozen lake. This time, it was late summer, and we took the boat from the cabin to the landing to go for a little hike on the nearby Border Route Trail in Northern Minnesota. We packed our backpacks with beers, our hammocks, snacks, and headed out. There was NO ONE on the trail, so we strung our hammocks across it and had a little break.

#WayBackWednesday - National Forest Edition

It’s National Forest Week here in the USA. I vote to have National Forest Week every week, because they’re just that dang special! I’m going to share some photos of the forest and a couple of little stories for this Way Back Wednesday revival. I have not included EVERY ONE of my favorite National Forests, that would take days, but here are a few for your enjoyment. May the forest be with you!

(Header photo is Tonto National Forest in Arizona)

Superior National Forest - Northern Minnesota

This place is special for many reason - namely the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This series of lakes stretches across Northern Minnesota and offers great adventure for visitors. I’ve only ever been to the east end, this photo is at Pine Lake, but I have big plans to make my way through someday. The second photo is the BRT (Border Route Trail) which follows the US/CAN border.

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Lincoln National Forest - New Mexico

Since starting a job that takes me to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, I have found weekends in the Lincoln National Forest completely necessary and perfect. My aunt and I first visited before I took the job on a pre-fall trip, and I was hooked as soon as I smelled the Pine.

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Santa Fe National Forest - New Mexico

Visiting Santa Fe National Forest is a treat. You climb up, out of the heat and into the trees. I’ve adventured here twice and always want to go back. There are trails, trees, and so much more. Every time I’ve camped, it’s rained, but it was never dull.

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Olympic National Forest - Washington

For this little post, I thought I’d save one of my favorites for last. I feel a connection like no other when I’m on the Olympic Peninsula - including under the canopy of this forest. The National Park and National Forest go hand-in-hand out on the peninsula. From places in the forest you can view Mt. Rainier in all her glory and see the ocean and even Seattle, if that’s your thing. You can go hours without another soul to see or you can end up on a popular trail. There are endless waterfalls, rivers, and hills. It’s a paradise if you love the forest and less than tropical temps, usually. (My apologies if the photos overlap between NPS and USFS)

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#ForestFriday - Arizona

In honor of being in Arizona this weekend…

I haven’t been to many places within Arizona, but I do recall the trees lining the Grand Canyon and think of them as a highlight for my trips there. Here are a few photos from those trips, either in Grand Canyon National Park or Kaibab National Forest. I’m not sure, nor does it matter because the trees are all beautiful. Happy Forest Friday — go find a tree!

#WayBackWednesday - Arizona or bust!

I’m not sure if I have discussed this adventure in another post or not, but here we go (I have, it was the very first #WayBackWednesday)… It was seven (7) years ago, my best friend Kevin moved to Houston for a job. I had moved to Texas the year before, near Fort Worth. It was a pretty cool feeling to have someone who is chosen family in the same state. On January 15, 2012 I was in Houston, hanging out with Kevin before he had to work off-shore for a while. This is the guy you may remember from the four big trips that really got me into road trips. We decided we needed some spontaneity in our lives and that we were going to do something wild and crazy because growing up was really taking a toll on us with schedules, bills, and other responsibilities. Neither of us had been to Saguaro National Park, and it was really only a 15 hour drive; ONLY!? we used to do that all the time back in college. We set off without a real plan, just driving west on I-10 with “fuck it” attitudes and the only caveat being I had to work in a couple of days. It was on.

We left at night, which was another thing we liked to do, because to hell with Houston traffic and any other people in our way. I don’t remember much from the drive to Arizona, but I do remember these things:

  • Seeing the sign for Kerrville, TX and thinking Kern River or thinking that Tim Allen said this on some episode of Home Improvement. Don’t ask, because that is all I remember.

  • West Texas was just as wide open at night, we were speeding for sure.

  • The border check point lights were the brightest lights ever (we didn’t cross into Mexico, but there are many checkpoints as you get closer)

  • This was the closest to Mexico I had ever been and that was weird, despite going to Canada while living in Michigan my whole life

  • We may have stopped at a hotel near San Antonio, but it could have also been on the way home or not at all. Who knows!?

We arrived to Saguaro National Park at some point in the late morning. It was a rainy, gray day but the park was still cool. We didn’t get to hike through anything because of the rain, but we did drive through the park and enjoy the views and moments when the rain let up. We decided to stay in Tucson that night, and got a room at the Hampton Inn. We promptly filled the sink with ice, got a case of beer, and proceeded to enjoy ourselves. I don’t have notes on this trip in the travel journal, but I do remember the ride home being long. We saw immigration bust a u-turn in the middle of I-10 to assist in a pull-over and I think got Taco Bell and/or Starbucks in El Paso. Again, it’s a very fuzzy trip to me.

A conversation with Jen, check out her page, really inspired me to write about this. I saw the “on this day” post in Google Photos, talked with her, and really wanted to keep it real and feed the nostalgic side of adventure. I haven’t been as spontaneous or adventurous as I was in the past, and it has to change. I have shied away from things I’m “afraid” of such as challenging trails or access points, various trips, or local opportunities. It’s time to take back REAL LIFE and make some real adventurous choices. As I work on that, enjoy some more photos from that hazy trip Saguaro seven Januaries ago.

#WayBackWednesday - Grand Canyon North Rim!

This week, the Grand Canyon North Rim opens for visitors.  It's a special place, and it's only open until early October.  I visited in October of 2011, and it was magic.  The aspens were yellow, the sun was bright, and the crowds were minimal.  This was my first time seeing the Grand Canyon, and it set a pretty high standard for the South Rim.  I finally visited the South Rim in 2013, and I must say the North Rim is my favorite but they're both spectacular.  Can't wait to make a trip back to the North Rim, but until then I'll just enjoy the memories through these photos.  I hope you you can find the time and resources in your life to visit this special place - it'll take your breath away in person.  Enjoy the photos and have a great hump day.

We arrived in the evening, here's the moon over the Grand Canyon.

Good morning North Rim!

October 2011 - Yellow aspens, snow on the ground.... almost closing time for the North Rim.

#WayBackWednesday - Something I made up to talk about the Desert

I can remember when I first visited the desert; the year was 2007 and the locations varied through Western Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas via a road trip with friends.  I grew up with hardwood forests featuring scattered evergreens, rolling hills, and the Great Lakes.  My adventures prior to college consisted of trips within Michigan or Canada, staying close to the Great Lakes landscape.  When I visited the Mountains of Colorado and then the Western Slope, I was stunned.  Driving further south, I felt as though I was on another planet taking it all in, mile after mile trying to process this landscape.  I wasn't really fascinated with the desert after that trip, but I was introduced.  Years following, I visited more desert landscapes - Death Valley, Southern Utah, parts of Arizona, and New Mexico.  With each visit, the desert landscape was burned into my brain and quickly became something I couldn't stop thinking about.

Favorite Desert Things:

  • After the rain, when the ground is dark and plants are vivid shades of green

  • The plant life - from the resiliency to the variety (the ecology of a desert is fascinating)

  • Landscape - red/brown hills, snow capped mountains, fields of sand...it all looks good to me

  • When there's the bluest of blue skies with white puffy clouds above a desert landscape

  • The variation in weather/climates per the elevation and location

One of my favorite memories, though we didn't see much, was when my buddy and I drove from Houston to Tuscon just to see Saguaro National Park.  This trip captured the spirit of our past college road trips while incorporating my love for the desert.  I saw those giant, noble Saguaros, and I'll never forget them.  I saw the other wildlife too, and the experience as a whole sparked my fascination in desert ecology.  After the Tuscon trip, I was fully hooked and I needed to go back.  In 2013 I visited New Mexico and Arizona, in 2014 it was back to Utah, and 2015 took me back to Arizona.  It's been a while since I enjoyed the desert landscape, and I'm ready to go back.

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