Zebra Canyon

Escalante National Monument is 2.42 Rhode Islands in area.  Yes, thats a unit of measurement.  It's slightly over one Delaware.  It's a lot of land and compared with other national parks, largely unexplored.  Directions to trails begin "park just past the cattle guard and follow the wash..." You might drive for an hour on a dirt road and not see another car.  Cell service is unlikely.

Full disclosure: It was desolate enough, that despite not being alone, I had a few mountain lion flashback-panic-attacks on the way in.

...and then again, on the way out. I don't think much can survive there, but it was quiet enough to question.

But that's what makes it special.  No, I'm not going to tell you how to get to one of the most remarkably beautiful and unique places I've been.  You can look on your own, the information is out there.  But if you do go, treat it right.  People are assholes.  Generally speaking, of course.  North Coyote Buttes used to be unrestricted, special, a secret.  When the masses found out, they did what people do.  Now 20 people are allowed to visit per day.  You need to win a lottery; when I showed up there were well over 100 people there for 10 permits. If you don't have a permit, you can be fined $300 for daring to visit.  Ok it just might be worth $300 to see, but still: it would be a shame if Zebra Canyon turned into that.



So, I beg you; if you seek out Zebra Canyon, treat it with respect.  Leave no trace.  Don't drop garbage, don't mark up the walls.  Leave it pristine and perfect for others to enjoy.

The entryway looks unassuming enough.  You're entering a slot canyon.  Which is it's own neat experience. But then:

It's everything that's amazing about southern Utah.

The photos don't do Zebra Canyon justice.  Narrow walls, winding path, red red striped rock. The best photos, actually have people in them. I'm not going to post photos of my ex, and I'm not going to post photos he took.  But, this spot is magical.  It's a very short hike, and while the striped walls slot canyon doesn't last that far, it's an unbelievable sight and feeling.

..and it's free.  Open, unrestricted.  Quiet, beautiful.  Please, if you go there, don't mess it up.

While you're there, make sure to check out Tunnel Slot.

Fordham Brewing (Rams Head Tavern)

Type: Brewpub

Location: 33 West Street, Annapolis MD 21401 (410) 268-4545

Website: http://www.fordhambrewing.com

Cost: Reasonably priced Menu

Visit Date: 06/09/2013

Beers:  Rams Head IPA

            Copperhead Ale

            Helles Lager

            Tavern Ale

            Wisteria Wheat

            Old Dominion Stout

Nearby: The Capital of Maryland, U.S. Naval Academy, Sailboat show

Notes: It's been awhile since I've updated.  I haven't done a lot of traveling or a lot of beering lately.  Studied for and passed my CCNA though!  Now I've got a pile of books for other things I need to learn.  Job goals and whatnot.  Not real exciting, but I got laid off last year.  From a company that seemed like it'd be there forever when I started.  It certainly had been.  Everyone I met had spent their entire career there, business was booming.  Seemed like a nice stable place to land.  Six and a half years later my whole department got walked out.  Finding a new job was relatively easy.  Involved moving, but me and a handful of guys (some of the greatest people you could ever work with) came down to Maryland. I realize I need to keep my skills up to date, nothing is guaranteed.  

But I digress, beer!  It was  my birthday last week, big 3-0.  I'd had a big party for 29, but I really didn't care that I was turning 30.  Sort of feel like I've evolved into a real adult though, not really anxious about 30 like I'm told I was supposed to be.  I still don't know how to go to bed on time, but I vacuum weekly and by god my bathroom is clean.  Also hangovers, and PMS, what is this shit? 

Digressing again, some of my favorite people I know made last minute birthday plans with me, and we met up at Ram's Head in Annapolis.  Spent several hours grazing on appetizers and enjoying the beers.  I'd been here years ago, and I'm pleased to say the place is still great.  And as a city, I love Annapolis.  Small, old, cute.  We should meet up there more often!

And somebody has a statue of Ronald Reagan on their porch.

Kea

Crafty, thieving, little buggers.  Alpine parrots and the coolest birds I've ever met.  Yeah, met.  They were full of personality.

    

Yeah, yeah, we climbed some mountain in New Zealand.  ALPINE PARROTS!  There are parrots that live on mountain tops in New Zealand!  And steal your things.

Look at that face.  He's telling you to step away from your pack.  Aren't I a lovely bird, yes, photograph me, pay no attention to the Kea sneaking up behind you.  

Seriously, I can't remember the mountains name.  It had some name like "Mount Lovely-View" or 

"Mount Fair-Weather." "Mount Holy &%@ Alpine Parrots, HEY! Give me back my hiking pole!"

Seriously, out-smarted by a bird.  Yes, yes photograph me, and all of a sudden, sh*t, it has wings, it's going for your pack!  They didn't take anything from us.  Successfully.  But one guy had his camera bag stolen.  If you go hiking in the southern alps: watch your stuff.  There are thieves with wings.

Sorry, this is a lazy post.  The point is the Kea Photos.  Neat birds.  Not much more to say, easy summit in Arthurs Pass, South Island.  I could have spent hours on top photographing the Kea, but we had a waterfall to hike to next.

Don't stop moving

This is a story that could have ended much differently but for coming prepared and dressing properly.  And dumb luck.  Only 20 something miles.  Five peaks, wintertime, mostly bushwhack.  10% chance of 1/4" of rain.  No biggie.

We'd driven through the night and staged two cars, with about a 2 hour drive between them, for a through hike.  

We both fell in a river within the first hour.  I fell first.  It seemed to have a thick enough layer of ice to walk across the top, but it did not.  Helicoptered out like a cat and between the snow pants and gaiters actually managed not to get wet.  He tried another approach, walking uphill to a narrower section and jumping.  Landed face first in the river.  Kinda wish I'd had the camera ready.  We were both fine and carried on.  The rain started around noon, and was relentless.  1/4" my ass.  I'll need to buy some new rain gear because it did nothing to keep the water out.  But we had layers of synthetics and as long as we were in motion, were fine.  It was harder to walk in the sludge with rain beating down on our faces, but we carried on.  By the time we were at the base of the final peak, which could have been avoided, we decided to go for it anyway.  We summited, and were fine.   We kept moving.  It was cold out, but beneath our layer of synthetics we were sweating.

The adventure started when we got back to the car.

Rain turned to snow.  Fast falling snow.  Luckily we were in his car with 4 wheel drive, or I'm not sure we'd have made it.  Stupidly, our dry change of clothes were in my car.

By the time we were in the car and in motion, there were at least 6 inches of snow on the dirt road, and building.  It was hard to see where the edges of the road were, but I'm pretty sure that I would not have driven off of it.  Unfortunately, I was not the one driving.  Flash of panic.  Now we've been sitting for 20 minutes.  In our drenched clothing.  With the heat on full blast.  We're going to die.  How far along was the last house?  Pretty far, I think.  It's -10 degrees out there.  How much gas do we have?  We'd be better of naked.  What were we thinking leaving our clothes in the other car?  Obviously we weren't.  Ok, we have to do something.  

I don't know why the first thing we tried was having the girl push.   But that's the way it usually was.  He'd get us into a mess and it'd be my responsibility to save the day.  Perched on a tree above a rushing river, pushing his kayak out from under it with my feet because he thought he could jump it.  Yeah.  So we were getting nowhere with him steering and me pushing.  The edge of the road was a ditch filled with muddy water.  I don't even know how deep, but this is a small car without much clearance.  4 wheel drive but low to the ground.  I started collecting sticks.  Getting colder and more and more worried.  Forcing sticks under the tires.  Why am I the one outside?  Put them behind the wheels, behind!  Maybe we can reverse out the way we came in.  Get out here and help!  I convinced him he was stronger and we switched places.  He pushed from the front and I reversed out.  Tires spinning and ohmygod friction!  I'm moving, ohmygod we're out ! We're on the road!  Get back in here!  

I stayed in the drivers seat.  Took it slowly and carefully, down the very center of the dirt road.  The sun was up before we made it to pavement, but we made it to pavement.

Pleased

That was easier than expected.  Original content 100% on blogspot!  For the more than year long battle that drupal was, in only a few hours I have the new site looking pretty much how I'd like.  Very pleased.  All I wanted was something simple.  I'm a nerd at work.  At home, sometimes I just want things to work out of the box.  Thanks google.  Yay freedom.

I still have paper books of brewery notes, and stories from the past few years in my head, but new posts from here on are actually new :)

Captain Lawrence Brewing Company

Type: Brewery

Location: 99 Castleton Street

Pleasantville, NY 10570

United States

Phone: (914)741-BEER

Website: http://www.captainlawrencebrewing.com/

Tours: Friday 4-7, Saturday 12-6

Cost: It's free, make sure to tip the bartenders!

Visit Date: 12/03/2011

Beers:    Drew's Brew

              Family Meal

              Pale Ale

              Double IPA

              Espresso Stout

Nearby:  North County Rail Trail

Notes:  It'd been a couple of years since we stopped at Captain Lawrence. My parent's used to live in the North Bronx, so odds are when we crossed the Hudson we were heading straight there.  When we wanted a weekend adventure, we headed farther away, or otherwise avoided the toll.  I recently got a newer better bike and so we've been seeking out rail-trails more.  On this day we did ~40 miles round trip on North County Rail trail, conveniently finishing up an hour before tours ended.

We were pleased to discover not much has changed.  Great tour, you walk into the bar area, and samples are being handed out, then you are free to enter the brewery and peek around.  There are several "tours" throughout the day, where the group is walked around and the brewing process described.  We missed the actual tour this time, but enjoyed the opportunity to look around and sample some brews.

In no time, my sore quadriceps were loose again.  The stout was my favorite brew but they were all pretty solid.  We hoped to bring home a keg of the Stout, since they're close enough to return it when we're done, but it turns out you need to reserve online beforehand.  They didn't have any kegs of it in stock.  Major bummer, but I guess it means we'll have to be back.

I took a photo of some empty kegs, that's about as good as I could do.

Keegan Ales

Type: Brewery with Bar

Location: 20 Saint James St

Kingston, NY 12401-4534

United States

Phone: (845) 331-2739

Website: http://www.keeganales.com/

Cost: $10 six packs

Visit Date: 01/29/2011, 05/07/2007

Beers:       Mother's Milk

                  Hurricane Kitty

Nearby: The Catskills

Notes: This time around we just stopped in to pick something up to bring back to our hotel room. We were broken, wet, and hungry from a long snowshoe in the catskills.  So much has changed about this place in the past couple of years. 

The last time we were here was in May of 2007, we stopped in while in the Catskills Camping at the North South Lake campground on George's birthday weekend.   I don't remember if we drove down Saturday Night to pick up beer or if we stopped in on our way home Sunday, but it was the most depressing sight I have ever seen.  I hope it was the Sunday scene.  We walked in to a mostly empty bar.  There was a guitarist in one corner, and a woman swaying back and forth.  There was a guy slumped over the bar and a friendly bar tender chatting with a customer who looked to be a good friend.  It seemed like the saddest place in the saddest city in New York.  The bar tender was nice however, and gave us a generous free sample of each of the 3 beers they had on tap (the third, Old Capital, I don't list above because I don't remember much about it).  We picked up a growler of Mother's Milk and left. Mother's Milk was a delicious creamy stout with added (unfermentable) Lactose to give milky flavors.  A real winner, but I don't think we could bear to sit in the bar here.

Judging by this trip, Kingston has been flourishing in the economy that's hurting the rest of the country.  Or maybe people are just drinking more.  Either way Keegan's was packed with a much hipper crowd than before.  Business seemed to be booming this Saturday evening. We picked up a Six Pack of the Hurricane Kitty IPA and the Mother's Milk to bring back to the hotel and recover with.  The atmosphere isn't the only thing that's changed about Keegans. The recipe for Mother's Milk has changed, it's a lot smokier now, and not as Milky.  It's still decent but I wouldn't go out of my way for it like I would have before.  

It also looks like something has changed about the ownership or investorship since they've dropped the "and Sons" from their name and their bottles (they only had growlers previously) say Saratoga Springs, NY.  I doubt they ship the beer up in a truck to bottle, if I had to guess I'd say they are contracting through Olde Saratoga nowadays.   They did and do have a brewery onsite, so if they're like other breweries they probably send their recipes up and get bottles in return and make everything else onsite.  Next time I'll have to get a growler and see if it's the new recipe or the old recipe.  The differences may be in who is brewing it or where the hops and grains are sourced (and I can hold out hope that delicious stout of years past is still brewed somewhere).  If it's getting shipped down has it been pasteurized?  This could also change the flavor.  

I'm glad they're doing well, and that it wasn't such a depressing sight this time around (we struggled to find parking) but disappointed that the beer has changed.  We'll see if a growler is any better next time around.  If not, well, we'll see if there's another next time.  It's likely, only because of convenience, we plan on heading up to the Catskills a lot more this winter.