Outdoor Discoveries

More photos of North America

The North America section of the photo gallery now looks a little more substantial after adding an album for photos from last year’s trip to the San Francisco Bay Area. There already was one for those from 2019’s trip to British Columbia, and that looked a bit lonely on its own. It is not so easy to claim an interest in exploring another continent with only one substantive visit having happened.

While my appetite for North American explorations has been sated somewhat by those two trips, I cannot rule out the possibility of there being another this year. Seattle and Washington State both look tempting. A visit to Olympic National Park could be a possibility. However, as I know from my designs on Denver and Boulder in Colorado for the summer of 2020, anything could happen that stymies such schemes. Nothing has been planned yet, since I have a few things on my plate at the moment.

Tweakage

Eventually, my ongoing attention to website appearances was going to include what you find here. The changes have been evolutionary and updated some underlying technologies as well. There has been simplification too as well as some rethinking of what should be in the different sections.

All the images in the photo gallery are now the same size and many film photos were rescanned. Some have been replaced with digital ones and the prospect of doing so was the cause of some added trip ideation. In part, the wanderings around Calderdale, Marsden and Hadfield were inspired by this and day trips to Dublin and the Lake District also aided the effort. Some photos were removed without the prospect of any replacement too. Sometimes, images can feature subjects that no longer inspire or have been added when photo albums acted as components of trip reports, things that now appear on this blog. Times change and so do we.

As I was doing all this, knowledge of the happenings in Ukraine hit hard since global wanderings feel more plausible in the absence of global strife. That feeling has eased now and several trips to Ireland have happened. These took me to places new and old. The former of these included Lough Derg, the Slive Felim hills and the Clare Glens while the latter included Killarney and parts of West Limerick like Adare. More may follow yet.

Attending to other things

Ideas for entries on this blog are bubbling up in my mind recently, so there are a number of posts that I’d like to add. However, that idea for a local photographic project has taken flight and I have been sprucing up the Cheshire East album in the photo gallery, even adding new and updated photos. Last Saturday’s sunshine wasn’t wasted since my Cheshire landmarks project had me out on the bike looping from home to Lyme Park and back again; I just couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm for going further afield, something that I’d better not allow to become a habit and that’s too easy at this time of year. Even without the photographic success, the day would have been an enjoyable (and relaxing) one and I’ll be telling you more about it in the fullness time. In the meantime, another bank holiday weekend replete with a mixed weather forecast is upon us, so further writings on here will have to wait.

New photos of Inverness added

This morning, a new box arrived, and the subsequent attention devoted to it took up the most of the day. The result is that I have set up a new main home PC offering a home for the various bits and pieces that have been scattered about the place for the last two months. Laptops and external hard drives are all very fine but I prefer to have a next to everything in a single place if I can. Now that I am more organised again, I can settle things in at my leisure and without any encroachment on taking advantage of whatever walking or cycling opportunities that come the way.

Speaking of the laptop, one of its last acts before its role of main PC was usurped by a desktop computer again was to prepare some photos taken on that stroll in Inverness last month for the photo gallery. You’ll find them in the Northern Scotland section after being deposited there with the new machine. My mind has been set to wondering what other new additions might follow them, but no decisions have been made just yet.

Though heavy rain is passing through, today wouldn’t have been bad for a walking or cycling trip; rain arrived later in the day in my neck of the woods. Also, once the dampness has moved on, tomorrow may well offer its chances for escape out of doors. After all, one whole day messing with computers at a time has to be enough for anyone.

Work in progress

After walking it in a piecemeal fashion over the course of a few years, I finally completed the West Highland Way in August 2007. Following that and a number of entries on this blog, I set up a West Highland Way section on my photo gallery with a view to completing it with more new photos in the fullness of time. In fact, it has taken until now for me to add photos for the piece between Inverarnan and Bridge of Orchy and there could be more when I get to look at some of the photos that I captured on film about the same time (I was capturing more vistas on film than digitally in those days, a trend that was reversed in the intervening period).

Looking back over photos can set the mind to wandering, and various ideas began to bubble up in mine. For one thing, I am considering re-walking the WHW between Glen Coe and Kinlochleven on a sunnier day than the one on which I actually walked that part of the trail. That would let me acquire more pleasing photos than what I have for it already. It wouldn’t be the first time that I walked a section of the way, since I trekked the section between Kinlochleven and Fort William twice. A cloudy day attenuated photographic exploits the first time around, and the weather that I enjoyed on the second occasion couldn’t have been better. Another part that saw me revisiting was a short stretch east of Tyndrum, and that wasn’t done for any other reason than to make good use of a wait for the next train or bus to come and allow me to continue my southbound journey after a weekend spent in Argyll.

Other thoughts followed, with explorations of the hill country at either side of the way lining up for consideration. One such option was a trek from Inverarnan to Dalmally that I undertook last May, but there remain many others. The hills at either side of Strath Fillan attract attention for one thing and those near Tyndrum, such as Ben Lui and Ben Dubhcraig enticing the mind, if only to confirm what hills are in photos that I already made. Looking towards Bridge of Orchy yields a number of options, with making an ascent of the rounded humps of Beinn Udlaidh and Beinn Bhreac-liath as just one of these. My head for heights is far from being of climbing calibre, so I prefer my hills not to have frightening gradients when it comes to reaching their summits and, more importantly, getting back down again. The location of the twosome in question must mean that appealing views towards the Black Mount and Rannoch Moor are on offer. Then, there’s the prospect of longer walks either through Glen Lyon to Killin or through Glen Kinglass to the shores of Loch Etive, with options from the foot of that glen to continue to Glen Coe or Taynuilt. These options might make for two-day backpacking hikes for when I finally get to add wild camping to my repertoire of outdoors skills, but one also could be seen as a long day walk.

All in all, casting my mind over older outings has yielded ideas for the future and in an area that hasn’t seen my footfall for a while. They might come in handy for an occasion that surprises me with good weather, and it’s never any harm to see a new side of an area that you already visited.