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mininghorn88

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Everything posted by mininghorn88

  1. Yes, I am 55 and do most of my hiking alone so I typically over pack with snacks, first aid, water and other “just in case” essentials.
  2. You will have plenty of time to do plenty of them. I was there November 10-12. Many of the trails allow for getting "off trail" to do some boulder climbing for various views. The following are the hikes that I did: Hidden Valley. I did this one the afternoon of my arrival. It is about a mile loop and I took about an hour to do it. The sunset views are not too bad. The next day I did the following hikes: 49 Palms Oasis. I covered about 3.25 miles in about 2:00 hours. Part of the 2 hours was just hanging out at the oasis. Around a 620' elevation gain. It had some nice vista views and the oasis was really nice. No shade until you get to the oasis. I did this one first thing in the morning. Willow Hole Trail. I covered about 7.4 miles in about 3:30 hours. Fairly flat without any shade. Tons of Joshua Trees and interesting rock formation in the middle of the hike. There are quite a few stretches where you are walking in washes which is very sandy. On this trail you can do some rock climbing throughout the hike. A bit of the 3:30 hours was also spent just sitting on a large rock in the shade once I got to the Willow Hole. There is some nice climbing once you get past the "end of the trail". Ryan Mountain Trail. I timed this one so that I would be at the summit at sunset. This requires hiking back down in the dusk/dark. It is uphill all of the way up and all downhill on the return. The elevation gain is just over 1000' in 1.5 miles. I did about 3 miles in 2 hours. Again, I spent a good deal of time at the summit taking in the sunset. Again no shade. The views are fantastic. This is a must. On my last day I did the Lost Horse Mine Loop. This loop is about 7 miles and I covered it in around 3 hours allowing some time to explore the mine ruins. This was my favorite hike as it had the most diversity of views as any of them. The elevation gain is around 900'. No shade. Be sure to drive to Keys West Overlook to have a commanding view of Palm Springs. This is a nice sunset visit as well. I did drive the length of the park. The southern part is quite different than the northern part. Be sure to check out Skull Rock. The park is also nice to visit during the dead of night for some star gazing. I did this in the Skull Rock area. I have posted a few pics that I took in the "Picture You Took" topic under "Hobbies".
  3. Just pulled into Morgantown for the game tomorrow. 3rd time to be here for a UT game. Met some nice WVU fans that we will tailgating again with. Headed to DC for a few days after the game. Then to NC for Thanksgiving with the daughter and family and then back to Texas. Have enjoyed the road trips up here.
  4. I spent a couple of days last week hiking in The Joshua Tree National Park.
  5. While watching the other night I basically said the same thing that all of this would be on ABC's World News Tonight.
  6. I do a lot of hiking and take pride in myself for being in good shape for my age. I have come to the conclusion that the Aesop fable, "The Hare and the Tortoise", is a bit of a lie. Just this past week I spent 2-1/2 days of hiking in The Joshua Tree National Park. Some of the trails I hiked I was alone with my just my thoughts whereas there were a few that were quite popular and thus there were many others on the trail. Being a fairly competitive person I would prefer to pass people than them pass me. I can always make good time except when I am going down steep grades and it is particularly worse when there are steps/rocks to navigate. My right knee does not have the structural integrity anymore to do a deep bend required to lower myself so I am always having to stagger or shuffle my steps so that my right foot is the lead foot to step down. This leads to having to take many more steps and more time. That, and I get passed.
  7. I will be in Morgantown next weekend as tickets are bought and inside the window to cancel hotel. I fully expect to hear Country Roads sung after the game. However, this is my third trip to WVU and I haven’t seen them lose there....yet.
  8. We have a guy that plays basketball with us regularly that gets “hurt” multiple times each time we play (3x per week at lunch). He will drag his foot or leg around like it will fall off if he moves it. Or he will hang his limp arm down like a wounded killdeer. He will do this for a couple of minutes until he is miraculously healed and blows right past you on the next possession. We had a new guy start playing with us a couple of weeks ago who witnessed this firsthand. He was all concerned about the “hurt” guy because he is the one that caused the scene. I told him not to worry about it because he will be more than fine in a minute or two. Sure enough he recovered to only flail around a bit later. The new guy was not amused. One day he will get hurt and no one will notice or care because of all of the false alarms.
  9. Just noticed that the moles on her face flip from side to side...ugh, seen it too many times to start noticing crap like that.
  10. Great grab by a class act. Like the way he got up matter of factly like it was no big deal. No showboating required.
  11. Enjoyed. Well worth the wait for the latest season.
  12. This how far we have fallen. I am usually in on page 1 for this thread. Fully expected to not be checking in so late.
  13. We have done Sedona the past two Novembers. It is cool to pleasant weather that time of year. Can get a bit crowded. Did Devil's Bridge last year. Once we got to the Bridge itself there was like a 45 minute wait to get your picture taken on it. We passed.
  14. Yes. I had forgotten about that series. I enjoyed it as well.
  15. I watch this type of programming in spurts. My main interests in watching these types of shows is to learn something of value or some interesting trivia. Really do not watch any of the competitive type shows unless it is a cooking related show; not so much for the competition, contestants or host, but to see if there is some interesting bit that I can apply to my cooking. Of the "cooking" related shows that I most commonly watch would be Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I absolutely cannot stand the series that profit on drama or stupidity. Do not want to watch a bunch of women (or men) scream at each other or other "youngsters" have drama in their lives. There is enough stupidity in the world already without watching it purposefully on TV. I do not suffer fools. I used to watch American Chopper in the beginning when they would actually show a lot of the builds but then it became too dramatic for my taste. My favorites are the ones that have some historical or educational significance. The British have produced several of these that focus on archeology or some other historical events. PBS has a few that I enjoy catching from time-to-time like Antiques Roadshow, History Detectives, Finding Your Roots. I will also catch American Pickers. These types of shows provide an interesting backstory on people, places and things. Not sure if Aerial America fits in but it is a nice production as well. Another one to watch is How It's Made.
  16. Working from home with what I thought would be a light workload day... but an urgent call from Australia changed all of that. From the presently cool and windy 75650 in NE Texas. FIGHT!!!!!
  17. And look what Royal did.
  18. Last night on the Seahawks/Saints ESPN pre-game show they called out the B12 refs on this ridiculous penalty.
  19. The bicycle was visibly unscathed but I would assume that the bearings were blued a bit from the overspeed and heat condition that they were in.
  20. A few years ago my daughter was home from UT for the weekend. While home she decides to go for a run. Some time later I am working outside in the yard when I see this person on a small 20" bicycle madly pedaling at a speed that would have made peak Lance Armstrong proud. I call out to her but she does not break stride nor even acknowledge me in any way. She is staring straight ahead with a grim, determined look on her face. As she turns into the driveway I call out to her again. Still no reply. She dismounts the bike at near full speed. The bike continued forward under its own power for several feet before it crashes to the ground as my daughter does her best Olympic speed race walker imitation into the house. A bit later she comes back outside and fills in the blanks for me. She was about 3/4 of a mile from home when the moment hit. She sees some random kid (about 8 years old) playing outside. She tells the kid that she has an emergency and that she needs to commandeer his bike with a promise that it will be returned. About an hour after my daughter's mad dash home we throw the bike into the back of my truck and return it to the rightful owner. As we are pulling into the kid's driveway we see the kid in the front yard. A big smile crosses his face. As we are getting out of the truck to retrieve the bike for the kid the mom is coming out of the house with a "look" on her face. Before she could get cross with us I tell her that she has a nice and kind son. I didn't go into detail with her for the need of the bike but was just thankful to them. She did say that she told her son that he would be lucky if he ever saw his bike again. I am assuming that is why he had such a big smile upon its return.
  21. My now ex and I used to live in a neighborhood that was very popular with trick-or-treaters. People from around the community would come in droves to have their kids, all dressed up in costumes, come for the treats. My ex tells me to hand out extra candy to the neighborhood kids. Me: What did you just say? ex: give the neighborhood kids more candy. me: And just how am I to know which ones are the neighborhood kids? The have mask and costumes on. ex: no words, just the look and tone.
  22. I went to an App State game a couple of years ago in Boone. IIRC it was "Senior Night". It reminded me of a large Texas 6A HS game experience for the most part. Nice setting for a stadium.
  23. Missed it. What happened to Overshown?
  24. Working from home in rural 75650 anxiously waiting for the commencement of tomorrows game and ultimately running the table for the rest of the season. FIGHT!!!!!
  25. Funny. I saw the movie this afternoon. I enjoyed if for what it is. I also was wondering about the workers in the factory as well about their pay or thoughts about what they are doing.
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