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Where did you walk ( locally ) in 2021?

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Phoenix and Chrissy
Fantastic photos
I just can’t work out how you got up there Chrissy?
Well it's not photoshopped and I didn't need ropes. I got up from the far right side, out of view, but was a walkable, but rather hard climb up. The photo is real, but a tad of an illusion.🙂
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
A bit of everything sounds good! Instead of heading out this morning I gutted my room. Translation: I gave my room a severe cleaning! One result is a collection of scans of photos that will soon bite the dust. Among other treasures, a bookmark with a salutary message.
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Then. A few random moments on various caminos. My local walking will be after lunch but this is my contribution for today...
first view of the Cathedral:
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The three musketeers. Myself, my walking compnion, and Catherine, the woman of the French couple we kept pace with over the length of the CF. I think this may have been taken near the large billboard with Castilla/Leon information...
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Where else could this be?

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Wonderful memories. I could not post these on the one photo at a time thread! So they are here!
 
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A good walk along a favourite route to ease tension after a two hour dental appointment :) A few days ago I saw my first owl - a gorgeous Barred Owl. I returned to the same path today and there she/he was right next to my path! You can see her in the photo after the closeup (staredown contest), perched in the tree beside the path. Also along the way a softly coloured mottled rabbit (another staredown contest) and and a Common Yellowthroat bird. Stopped to admire the mosaic stepping stones made by children and inspired by what they saw in the community garden. By then the freezing in my face was gone and I could have lunch!

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A good walk along a favourite route to ease tension after a two hour dental appointment :) A few days ago I saw my first owl - a gorgeous Barred Owl. I returned to the same path today and there she/he was right next to my path! You can see her in the photo after the closeup (staredown contest), perched in the tree beside the path. Also along the way a softly coloured mottled rabbit (another staredown contest) and and a Common Yellowthroat bird. Stopped to admire the mosaic stepping stones made by children and inspired by what they saw in the community garden. By then the freezing in my face was gone and I could have lunch!

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I am always surprised at how many birds and other small animals you are able to get photos of...I barely see any!
 
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Here is my encounter with a pileated woodpecker today. See how dry the forest is. I wore a mask for most of my walk - not because of Covid, but because the air is smoky from wildfires hundreds of km away. The fires have been extensive in the interior of the province for quite a while, but only sometimes do the conditions result in obviously smoky air where I live, closer to the coast.
 

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Some photo's taken during the last couple of weeks.
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One of several roundabouts we have in our town . Most of them are adopted by businesses , that's why they are all different.
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This is outside our Hospital, there is a Pilgrim room in the Hospital and the sign on the right photo says " Provision of food, shelter and hospitality "
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After the terrible floods in Germany , Belgium and the South of Limburg the river wather came just under the edge in our town.
 
Down bag (90/10 duvet) of 700 fills with 180 g (6.34 ounces) of filling. Mummy-shaped structure, ideal when you are looking for lightness with great heating performance.

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Roland 49
Looks like a wonderful trip with some amazing photographs and wondering wistfully if we’ll ever get to the Alps again
loved the photo of the Marmot…we just loved their “whistle” as we approached their living quarters!
Its a species unknown in the UK
They are essentially large ground dwelling squirrels similar to the American groundhog
so….back to look at your photographs again!
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
A walk around the JF Kennedy Arboretum in Wexford which is dedicated to the memory of this president from 1960-63.
it covers 623 acres and contains 4,500 types of trees and shrubs from all temperate regions of the world
we spent so long there is that we did not get to visit in any detail the JF Kennedy homestead, the birthplace of his great grandfather Patrick and whose “Irish” descendants still live there …another time definitely

Anyway this got me thinking and as an aside I Googled how many American presidents had Irish ancestry…..and amazingly came up with 23 of them!
The obvious ones being J Biden ,R Reagan
others would be A Jackson and Ulysses Grant and then a few others had a bit of Scottish thrown in!
B Obama too whose great, great, great grandfather Falmouth Kearney emigrated to New York in 1850 and came from Moneygall, a village on the border of Tipperary and Offaly
Obama visited the village in 2011 and met his cousins
(….ahh and that reminds me…my people came from Tipperary and we did, so my sister tells me have some cousins called Kearney);
anyway, Obama’s 8th cousin Henry Healy still lives in Moneygall and is known locally as Henry the 8th!!
better get my pen and paper out….now what’s the address of that big White House in Washington?D88B371C-5707-4852-801B-B0A46CF34F53.jpeg149B47AD-3B28-4D4E-8F6E-A20831F2F909.jpeg4B715932-D9E2-4B39-BBA7-30882CA798D0.jpegD51EF1B5-5FB9-442C-8CA5-80BAD4D5CE26.jpegD7B2544A-0AA9-495E-B7E7-CB0AE14081B7.jpeg8238E6C4-39E3-44E4-AE89-7F3770211F43.pngFA5060F7-64B9-417A-BD38-E434533B6D40.png
 
Since I am not on the camino, just reading about everybody else being there, I had a walk in my neighbourhood picking up some gold for todays dinner, wondering about when I will have the guts to go to Spain. The temperature is better here anyway, +15C and even some sun, not+45C as in Spain at the time.
 

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Mostly 2-3 mile loops on the trail around my subdivision. For at home entertainment one doe hid her newborn in my small suburban yard this spring and came every day to feed him. Going to put in a gate so I can reach the trail without hopping my short fence (not getting any younger) and I don’t have to worry about fawns getting too big to get out (had to remove a fence panel when I figured out I was fawn daycare)
 

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Roland 49
Looks like a wonderful trip with some amazing photographs and wondering wistfully if we’ll ever get to the Alps again
loved the photo of the Marmot…we just loved their “whistle” as we approached their living quarters!
so….back to look at your photographs again!
We got a lot of rain the 3 days after we started. Thunderstorm at the ascent (950m in 3,25h) to the "Braunschweiger Hütte" and ~0°C and snow at the morning to cross a difficult ridge after the "Braunschweiger Hütte", the Pitztaler Jöchl (2950m). After descending to the glacier we sledded down on our bottoms to the glacier station Sölden. That was so much fun and all the bad weather and all the strain was forgotten! All in all we were a hiking team of 11, but one had to give up due to medical complications. After the crossing the border to Italy the weather got better and warmer. Never been by foot as high as on the "Similaun Hütte", 3019m.

All in all it was a wonderful experience, somehow a bit like a Camino. New people, new regions, new food, new friends!

Some of us will do the following tour from Meran(o) to Triest next year.
 
Visit to Antwerp yesterday.Mostly on the leftbank aka Linkeroever. Walking through the tunnel and back by ferry.
Too busy talking and did not make any pictures but here is a link to get an idea.
Beautiful views of cathedral and the other sights.

 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
@ranthr, what is that photo of your "gold" for dinner? Looks interesting, but unfamiliar to me.
Cloudberries. multebær in Norwegian, and Chantaréllus, the mushroom, kantarell in Norwegian.🙂.
 

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Beukenberg Tongeren with detour to the main market square. Total of 10k.
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With friends. The last 4k back were a bit slower but the Orval Trappist beer might have had some influence...
A new agricultural project to promote the cultivation of flax. A " forgotten " crop here nowadays.
 
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
I most always walk up to 3 miles on the trail by my house. I have posted quite a few pictures of it "here and there". Today I am posting small, wild plum trees on the sides of the trail. The ripened little plums actually taste good, however there is very little fruit between the seed and skin...just a morsel on each.
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Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
Two loops on the route w/ fire road
DC9BD326-AC69-4DA0-BE58-F6107FD918D4.jpeg254B2C89-3C27-44A8-A59B-19D0EAE5978E.jpeg09E045CC-8DB4-4542-B1A5-8A8287736324.jpeg, already hot this am (we’ve been topping 100 lately). Followed Peter Cottontail for a short distance, and checked out how many horses are at the farm across the fire road—up to eight now plus two cows and a calf, either they’re boarding horses or the kids in the family are doing 4H.
 
Two loops on the route w/ fire road
View attachment 106945View attachment 106947View attachment 106946, already hot this am (we’ve been topping 100 lately). Followed Peter Cottontail for a short distance, and checked out how many horses are at the farm across the fire road—up to eight now plus two cows and a calf, either they’re boarding horses or the kids in the family are doing 4H.
A couple of "ribby" horses behind that tank thing! They look like they need a feed.
 
A couple of "ribby" horses behind that tank thing! They look like they need a feed.
I thought the same thing. I emailed my sister (who owns several) to ask if that’s normal…but then all the horses I saw on the Camino looked skinny and my cats are fat.
 
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I thought the same thing. I emailed my sister (who owns several) to ask if that’s normal…but then all the horses I saw on the Camino looked skinny and my cats are fat.
Rib section is not a good indicator on horses. Better to look at the top of their buts. If there is a deep indentation then they are too fat. Flat is good.

Aren't cats fat by definition ;)
 
Have been working all summer in weeks w 1 or two 24hr shifts.
But early in July, I had 12 days where I took myself to a Northern route in Northern part of Denmark, that takes you from Hirtshals to Viborg, a mere 200 kms, a pittance. It also connects to Norway by ferry and so it is possible to walk from Trondheim through Jutland by Hærvejen to Germany...
All days but last two in perfect sunshine, cooling headwind, stayed on the coast to rid of critters...

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Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
Door to door, 17.2km. Walk 20 min, train 20 minutes, walk in and out and up and down, quite a few hours! From the dart to the dart, the circle marked 15km.Then bought hake for dinner, and train 20 mins and walked from train to home. as soon as this is posted, hake into the oven...
Bog of Frogs Loop, Howth. A very varied route, and thoroughly enjoyable. it has been upgraded in many sections, but is still wild. Thankfully. A selection from the many photos I kept taking...

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DE045617-6C34-4890-BDF8-020A95A0F578.jpeg08C10E65-3F23-422A-BB6C-B37BBBFD51A1.jpeg Two mile loop, 541’ elevation change. Most of the climb is switchbacks or gentle circling incline (although the slope of the trail is pronounced in parts), just the last bit is reminiscent of the descent to molinesceca. A few days after the obelisk was found in the desert in 2020, another appeared in Europe, then this one a couple of days after that.

edit: by slope of the path I mean it rises gently but tilts toward the edge
 
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I joined a local hiking group and here we are on our outing yesterday.

It’s berry season here.
 

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€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
15k. walk last Wednesday in another region, so less locally I guess .
Grey but dry!
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More info...


 
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Great hike last weekend with my niece that really got my heart rate up at “Route des Zingues in Papineau-Labelle wildlife reserve” in the province of Quebec Canada.
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Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
Ha! Up and down on the lift, across the tracks, and eventually watched the train disappear, so had to wait for half an hour for the next one! Then on to Glasthule, cycle to The People's Park in Dunlaoghaire, yielded to temptation at the bookstall ( I always do!) and then meandered home cycling and walking, with 2 photos to show for it. We watched some happy seals playing around at Sandycove, where the first photo shows the children over on the right. The second one was taken just by the footpath. The little flowers just looked up and said: hello!
 

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Everyone has such lovely pictures of their walks.
I live in a bland, midwestern small town. I usually take my trail to the east out in the flat countryside and have posted pictures on occasion, but today I went west to town, so I took a few pictures.
The tree was huge, so I used my hat for "scale".
These unique flowers have seen their best day, but I wonder what they are; straight stems come straight out of the ground and they have no leaves.
A neighborhood in town.
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Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Everyone has such lovely pictures of their walks.
I live in a bland, midwestern small town. I usually take my trail to he east out in the flat countryside, but today I went west to town, so I took a few pictures.
The tree was huge, so I used my hat for "scale".
IThese flowers have seen their best day, but I wonder what they are. Straight stems come straight out of the ground and they have no leaves.
A neighborhood in town.
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Lovely photos. I am originally from the bland Midwest and can relate. I often walk in a neighborhood that looks like your town. I believe the flowers are amaryllis belladonna, officially not hardly in northern IL, but reportedly so. https://www.highcountrygardens.com/...ed-bulbs/amaryllis-belladonna-naked-lady-lily
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
And later that same day... took a local train to Maynooth, about 24km from Dublin. Cycled further along the Royal Canal for a time, remembering to switch on a cycling app I installed just before leaving. We cycled along, taking in the silence and the greenery, the cows mooching away in the fields...I did walk some sections, so this qualifies! Hills? Pass.
We saw no otters, but I always take a photo of the sign. The cygnets are getting big for their boots, but still in their infant finery.
 

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Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Kirkie, cycling counts to me, and since the start of covid we are all stretching our wings in our local areas and countries where we live, so the word "local" has taken on a new meaning.
How awesome you could take your bicycle on the train!
 
It depends on the class of train, Chris. There was no option for the fast train, as they only allow 2 bicycles per train, but on the local commuter trains you could nearly take on a combine harvester. Ok, a slight exaggeration! It is a boon, though, and allows for spreading wings as you say. Trick is to be considerate and avoid busy periods for real commuters.
 
A walk at Brunswick Point to see the rare flock of American White Pelicans that have been sighted during the last 2 or 3 weeks. They were too far out to get a good photo and I only post this blurry fuzzy one to give a sense of how many there were. BUT!!... the view through my binoculars was spectacular. I watched them for about 10 minutes until they suddenly all lifted up and flew further away and out of view behind a bank. Off the main path along the point is another trail through the tidal flat. Goldenrod all in bloom and I saw some people collecting rosehips from the Nootka Rose bushes.

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The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
A continuation of the Essex way from Pleashy to Little Leigh’s and return, mainly due to the almost non existent public transport in this area.
Around and through the fields to Village of Great Waltham where we had coffee and visited the church
the oldest house here, built in 1371 had some impressive chimneys and a well in the front garden
passed a pet cemetery on the way B59E8615-9799-42F3-A782-9D4186DE9CDC.jpeg4969E753-0945-4121-A090-F09D6065BCF2.jpeg94291CD7-BB1C-4832-AC2B-75699A278953.jpeg9FDCE48B-90D3-48E2-B48F-542C7FFBE108.jpegF185AEF6-886B-4D27-9788-3648FB5EDD84.jpegCD6EFED5-8219-4394-81DD-993BC426A36F.jpeg60A7F4AD-4186-4A61-A347-5171E833FA84.jpegD62C0A0F-9AB9-4976-88F2-12F67F345FBE.jpeg933D354F-1F8B-4014-B4CA-C74FEDBF768A.jpegFF0C4A17-57CC-4B5B-AF66-6B9A8074AC49.png
a lot of lakes today and the farmer cutting the wheat
beautiful little church at Little Leigh’s where we sat and had lunch on the cemetery bench
 
A walk at Brunswick Point to see the rare flock of American White Pelicans that have been sighted during the last 2 or 3 weeks. They were too far out to get a good photo and I only post this blurry fuzzy one to give a sense of how many there were. BUT!!... the view through my binoculars was spectacular. I watched them for about 10 minutes until they suddenly all lifted up and flew further away and out of view behind a bank. Off the main path along the point is another trail through the tidal flat. Goldenrod all in bloom and I saw some people collecting rosehips from the Nootka Rose bushes.

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I love your bird photos, @Theatregal! I don't think you have ever not included one in your walks. You are a birder extraordinare!
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Still in lockdown here and so all I can do is walk my local suburb. But spring has come, and local gardens are looking pretty, and the smell of the sweet wattle is delicious.
 

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Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
Bike and walk... locally. Out to a spot known as the Half Moon Swimming and Water Polo Club. A Jesuit priest started it in 1898 for working men. How teeth were gnashed when it was eventually - rather recently! - overrun by women!
It is a wonderful spot. No amenities of any description, and quite a walk or cycle out over the large granite stones, so the brave get the prize. A very friendly moving population, some are daily swimmers, year round. Not just fair weather swimmers. Hardy annuals.
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Walked 4 miles on my local, flat trail this morning. It's boring to me, but I am thankful to get to it by walking a few blocks right out my front door.
There are still quite a few wild flowers next to the trail in areas; Queen Anne's lace, coneflower, Sumac, daisies, wild plums...
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Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

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Chateau Thierry, France
Bill at the Marne River

photo taken August 28, 2021

Once again!

Chateau Thierry, France,Bill at the Marne River .jpg

Today for the first time since summer 2019 my husband Bill and I were able to walk together a bit along the Marne River at Chateau Thierry.

This simple act was filled with shared thanks, love and promise for each of us had almost died during the past two years.

To be able to keep on keeping on is a miracle.
 
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Join our full-service guided tour and let us convert you into a Pampered Pilgrim!
Educational path for the little ones...😉
If I saw something like that in Spain I’d have thought “hey, it’s a sparrow walk!” Followed it, got lost, and probably have fallen in a stream for good measure. 🙄
 
IMG_3713.jpg

Colorado suburbia. Today wasn't about the scenery.

Last summer, my “walking/hiking legs” were in pretty good shape, although in pain most of the time. Then in the fall, things fell apart quickly; the only options left were to live with pain/low activity (i.e., little hope of walking another Camino) or to go through the gauntlet of two major reconstructive surgeries to get prosthetic knees. I chose the latter, and the process began just before Christmas 2020.

It’s been a tough road, but worth it. Since I moved from the recovery phase to conditioning, I’ve been slowly building up distance (6+ miles), and have seen a gradual improvement in hiking pace as well. This morning, I focused on establishing an accurate baseline, using a min distance of 3 miles.

After nearly 9 months of surgeries, physical therapy/rehab, and the gradual conditioning process, I’m finally back to where I was a year ago—but now without the pain. Back to an avg pace under 18 min/mile, with several quarter-mile splits in the 17’s and 16’s. (Note: all of it above 7K ft elevation). Just need to keep working on building up distance/endurance.

Feels good, man.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
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Colorado suburbia. Today wasn't about the scenery.

Last summer, my “walking/hiking legs” were in pretty good shape, although in pain most of the time. Then in the fall, things fell apart quickly; the only options left were to live with pain/low activity (i.e., little hope of walking another Camino) or to go through the gauntlet of two major reconstructive surgeries to get prosthetic knees. I chose the latter, and the process began just before Christmas 2020.

It’s been a tough road, but worth it. Since I moved from the recovery phase to conditioning, I’ve been slowly building up distance (6+ miles), and have seen a gradual improvement in hiking pace as well. This morning, I focused on establishing an accurate baseline, using a min distance of 3 miles.

After nearly 9 months of surgeries, physical therapy/rehab, and the gradual conditioning process, I’m finally back to where I was a year ago—but now without the pain. Back to an avg pace under 18 min/mile, with several quarter-mile splits in the 17’s and 16’s. (Note: all of it above 7K ft elevation). Just need to keep working on building up distance/endurance.

Feels good, man.
Phoenix,
How good it is for your digital friends to read of your progress; thank you for sharing your story.
Indeed, keep on "building up distance/endurance".

Ultreia!
 
I took these photos a few nights ago, when I did a long walk in my neighbourhood. Does 20 km qualify for a days worth of local Camino? There are many parks, gardens and rivers nearby but sometimes it’s good to be in our urban environment, in the places where we spend most of our time. It is, after all, the outer limits of what is our home. Let’s hope that my pics and post are enough on topic this time to be left intact.
This is my local Camino during this era of lockdowns and curfews.
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
I walked about 5km on the Pacific Crest Trail the other day and turned around at this lovely alpine lake. The total distance was 10km. Yes, that counts as a local Camino day, for sure!

We met a number of through hikers who had started out on the Mexican border in early April. They were moving fast, trying reach the Canadian border before the snow flies, but probably have another month of hiking to go.

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I took these photos a few nights ago, when I did a long walk in my neighbourhood. Does 20 km qualify for a days worth of local Camino? There are many parks, gardens and rivers nearby but sometimes it’s good to be in our urban environment, in the places where we spend most of our time. It is, after all, the outer limits of what is our home. Let’s hope that my pics and post are enough on topic this time to be left intact.
This is my local Camino during this era of lockdowns and curfews.
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Beautiful photos Lexicos
just love that night sky
 
Some good walks around the neighborhood. Decent variety in terrain, but nothing too tough.
 

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Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Sometimes you just have to break the rules, when it does no harm to anyone or anything. I figured this walk was worth the risk…..
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There is something truly beautiful about real friendship…. and sometimes, just being alive is enough too.
 
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Sometimes you just have to break the rules, when it does no harm to anyone or anything. I figured this walk was worth the risk…..
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There is something truly beautiful about real friendship…. But sometimes, just being alive is enough, isn’t it?
the colors in some of your pictures seem so—alive isn’t the right word I suppose but it’s what’s in my head. Like the colors themselves have their own story they want to tell. They remind me of the mosaic colors in the monastery at Monserrat, I can’t look away.
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
college again.jpg

Although today's walk wasn't very far (from the far reaches of the parking lot to the building and back), it was an important one.

Twenty-nine years after completing my last degree, I walked back into college classrooms today. Officially a pre-nursing student taking many of the prereq courses again (since I took them 30+ years ago - too long for them to count), and hope to enter RN program in 2023.

One just never knows where the first steps of a walk will eventually lead...
 
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Although today's walk wasn't very far (from the far reaches of the parking lot to the building and back), it was an important one.

Twenty-nine years after completing my last degree, I walked back into college classrooms today. Officially a pre-nursing student taking many of the prereq courses again (since I took them 30+ years ago - too long for them to count), and hope to enter RN program in 2023.

One just never knows where the first steps of a walk will eventually lead...
Well once you’re on the wards there will be plenty of steps to make up for any sitting in a classroom. Congratulations 🎉
 
A wonderful 3 hours walking at Iona today - where the Fraser River meets the Straight of Georgia. The tide was out and in one area I could walk out on the sand close to a mile. The rusted remains of some kind of old vehicle washed up on the beach. Many migrating shore birds passing through right now. In the photos, a Caspian Tern and a Sanderling sandpiper running through the bubbly sea foam.

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Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

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A beautiful drive this morning up the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler. I took a gondola to the peak of Blackcomb Mountain, hiked for a couple of hours and then a gondola across to the peak of Whistler Mountain and another hike. Something I've always wanted to do. The air clear and fresh with the sun warming up the cones on the pine trees and the cool mountain breeze carrying the scent along the paths through the trees. A wonderful day. Saw one of the famous whistling Marmots (who Whistler is named for) and a Canada Jay. I stretched out my hand and it flew over and sat for a few moments.

W Gondola.jpg W view.jpg W Batrail.jpg W marmot.jpgW Bltrail.jpg W Btrail.jpg W trail.jpg W Wtrail.jpg W Jay.jpg W B.jpg
 
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A beautiful drive this morning up the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler. I took a gondola to the peak of Blackcomb Mountain, hiked for a couple of hours and then a gondola across to the peak of Whistler Mountain and another hike. Something I've always wanted to do. A wonderful day. Saw one of the famous whistling Marmots (who Whistler is named for) and a Canada Jay. I stretched out my hand and it flew over and sat for a few moments.

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Quite jealous! I’ve had hummingbirds land on my hand but never scrub jays
 
A beautiful drive this morning up the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler. I took a gondola to the peak of Blackcomb Mountain, hiked for a couple of hours and then a gondola across to the peak of Whistler Mountain and another hike. Something I've always wanted to do. The air clear and fresh with the sun warming up the cones on the pine trees and the cool mountain breeze carrying the scent along the paths through the trees. A wonderful day. Saw one of the famous whistling Marmots (who Whistler is named for) and a Canada Jay. I stretched out my hand and it flew over and sat for a few moments.

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I’m almost speechless looking at these wonderful photos
a beautiful setting brought to life by your camera Theatregal
 
Down bag (90/10 duvet) of 700 fills with 180 g (6.34 ounces) of filling. Mummy-shaped structure, ideal when you are looking for lightness with great heating performance.

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A beautiful drive this morning up the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler. I took a gondola to the peak of Blackcomb Mountain, hiked for a couple of hours and then a gondola across to the peak of Whistler Mountain and another hike. Something I've always wanted to do. The air clear and fresh with the sun warming up the cones on the pine trees and the cool mountain breeze carrying the scent along the paths through the trees. A wonderful day. Saw one of the famous whistling Marmots (who Whistler is named for) and a Canada Jay. I stretched out my hand and it flew over and sat for a few moments.

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Theatregal,
These are splendid photos of those mountains. We all dream of "the air clear and fresh with the sun warming up the cones on the pine trees" during these difficult times. Thanks for posting!
 
A walk with 2 of the grandsons in one of our local parks
Valentines is a 130 acre park in the London borough of Redbridge and it’s been a favourite “grandson walking” area for years
we have visited the Victorian Mansions building many times where everything has been restored in Victorian style…kitchens, parlours and bedrooms.
It was built in 1696 for the widow of the Archbishop of Canterbury
Good paths through the many beautiful trees and grounds
The Garden Cafe in the walled garden is a firm favourite
walking towards the boating lake, the boys spent ages feeding the many fairly tame squirrels with the geese and birds soon joining in
then it was on to the adventure playground and the outdoor gym with ice cream to finish off!
a nice walk back to the bus,A Mac Donald’s and home
A good day before school term starts againC2F368E9-FFE0-4D4A-9CC8-6A88C88EA265.png438E1CF1-BAA2-4E15-ADE6-FBFB937442BD.jpegD0C92236-33B5-4177-BB66-CA6A44077E80.jpeg2EE47973-C6A6-468E-B958-99E4590B9414.jpeg6265DF0C-8000-4BCE-80AD-67557DDB3542.jpegAD32E9B1-4583-42B6-AA83-A74F812C46EA.jpegBE641124-DBA0-4B1A-90DD-576CE925EF48.jpegAAF86B29-6155-4DE5-98A5-6B874B356D00.jpeg9CBD416F-A06A-4C44-83A0-2B4556ABE7E3.jpegE33054B9-11F1-4C3F-9A2A-70F76209141B.jpeg
 
This morning I read of a gesture that caught at my heart. Here is a link to the article. In short order, I set out to find it. Although I have lived in this city for umpteen years, and used to visit some students who lived close by, I had never walked through the Memorial grounds. I saw on the way out that there is free parking, so I may someday bring a friend who isn't very mobile. When I arrived, there were volunteers explaining to all the people following up on the news item. I took a photo of the details of four charities that will benefit from donations, and later I will see to that. One of my community sisters was buried on Thursday, having died of Covid 19, so I took one of the bunches of roses and it will be used as the visual in our nightly solidarity moment of silent prayer for frontline workers. We began the practice last year with the onset of Covid, and we have not missed a day. Nor will we till it is less of a beast than it has continued to be.
Roses laid in tribute to those who died from Coronavirus
https://www.e-pages.dk/irishtimes/2...id=ie.irishtimes.ereader&vl_app_version=5.4.3

You can see the figure for deaths from Covid up till yesterday. People are being invited to take one rose, or a bunch, in memory of a loved one who has died.DA6662DD-15A9-4434-B1EF-296843C33843.jpegFBB8A7BC-4611-4DC1-8751-938F2165AB1D.jpegD6715376-90BD-4D28-AFBE-916167F1AF09.jpeg8CBD1BA1-6C77-44C7-BF9D-C81146857D02.jpeg
 
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Umm wait, isn’t the Grail here? I almost walked this way because of that. 😮
 
Although I did have a local walk this morning, I would like to offer this article from the Irish Times. It details a world under our feet, not just the ground pilgrims tramp on. At some point above, St James's Gate, traditional starting point on the Camino from Dublin... as well as the site of the Guinness factory!

DAVE GREENE HAS BEEN INSPECTING THE TUNNELS UNDER DUBLIN FOR 49 YEARS.


It’s a pilgrimage we’re going on, says Dave Greene, as he leads the way through the city’s ancient river tunnel network where the Poddle flows out to meet the Liffey
Patrick Freyne
I’m standing in a redbrick tunnel at the bottom of a manhole near the Palace Street entrance to Dublin Castle. I’m in full PPE, hard hat, head torch and waders, with a harness to winch me to a tripod when I’m climbing in and out. I have a gas monitor hooked to my belt which beeps comfortingly every few minutes, assuring me that all is well.
The Poddle river, which is around six inches deep as I stand there, is running by my feet and Dave Greene, a council employee for 49 years, is speaking rapturously about the city’s underground pipes and tunnels.
“It’s a pilgrimage we’re going on,” he says. “You’ll be a new person when you leave.”
Another council employee, executive engineer Ross Flanagan, walks behind us as we move and is keeping track of time and making sure we’re safe.
Not willing to be responsible for losing two Irish Times staff members in a subterranean waterway, they’ve ensured we’ve done a day of “confined spaces” training, and several more Dublin City Council personnel check in on us at different manholes along the way. I ask one of the men if they’re coming with us as I’m descending the ladder and he laughs. He’s part of the emergency rescue team, he says. “You really don’t want to see me down there.”
So it’s me, Dave Greene, Ross Flanagan, Enda O’Dowd (Irish Times cameraman) and, though I don’t actually spot them, probably some rats. Rats are called “the sewer man’s friend”, according to another man at the entrance.
“Because if you see one, that means that there’s no gas, like canaries in a coal mine,” he says. You can also catch Weil’s disease from them though, something else to worry about that I learned on the day-long training course.
Local lore
Unlike the actual sewer system, there’s unlikely to be dangerous gas in the Poddle now (though it was treated as a sewer at one point in its history). It’s the fifth largest of Dublin’s waterways. It rises in Cookstown, northwest of Tallaght, and comes through Tymon Park, Terenure, Mount Jerome and along the South Circular Road. It’s largely culverted through tunnels now at its lower reaches, but Vikings could once take their boats up the Poddle from the Liffey. Back then, it was around 80ft wide and 40ft deep and it helped form a pool around where the gardens now sit in the walls of Dublin Castle. This was the “Black Pool”, the Dubh Linn, after which the city is named.
For hundreds of years, Dubliners drank its water and used it to energise their mills and it was the city’s main water source before pollution, disease and flooding made it seem like more of a nuisance than a help. “They put a roof over it in the 1860s,” says Greene. “It had a lot of gifts this river. But though they loved it, they had to put it underground and tame it a bit.”
Now out of sight and out of mind for most Dubliners, it lives on in local lore. In the revolutionary era, there were tales of prisoners escaping Dublin Castle through these tunnels. In 1985, some hapless bank robbers attempted to tunnel into the nearby Allied Irish Bank from here. Sometimes the council come down in response to reports of people seen messing with manholes or heard underground. Sometimes they take security personnel to check it for threats before important State visits. More commonly, they’re down here to check if any of the brickwork needs to be reinforced.
It’s not polluted now. The water at my feet looks remarkably clear. If there’s a smell down there, it’s more the musty damp smell of underground brick. At the bottom of the ladder we can go left or right but Greene has a route in mind. The four of us walk back through the running stream beneath the gate of Dublin Castle before turning right and coming to a chamber in which, facing us, are two redbrick arches. Both bring the river in parallel streams out towards Ship Street. “The reason they split this culvert in two is in case they built one single culvert and it was blocked with timbers or bicycles,” says Greene. “If you were to travel back either of those culverts they’d meet one another to shake hands at the Birmingham Tower and Record Tower.”
He notes a sharp section jutting between the arches that looks like the prow of a boat. “This could be a reminder of the Vikings,” he says. “Why did they stop here [in Dublin]? Maybe the Poddle was a miracle they were hoping to see… People would wash their clothes and drink the water of the Poddle.” Children once swam here in the now underground river, he says. “It’s flowing. It’s constant.”
To our right as we face the arches, there’s a narrow tunnel that takes the Poddle beneath Dame Street towards the Liffey. This is the direction Greene wants us to take in order to get to the bigger river while we’re still at low tide. “The tide won’t rest for anyone,” he says, ominously, but he doesn’t seem too worried.
Decades coming down here means that Greene always knows what’s above him. At one point, he gestures upwards and says: “If you got out at this manhole you’d see Eddie Rockets restaurant and also you’d see the Olympia Theatre where our great actors and musicians perform… We’re really going back in time now.”
It’s not an entirely easy route. As we walk, the roof gets much lower in places and we have to stoop and bend. At two locations, large sewer pipes cross our path at around waist height and we have to climb over them. Greene can tell us exactly where these sewer lines come from and where they are headed.
It’s only about 320 metres to the Liffey, but the breathing equipment we have to carry for safety reasons is heavy, it’s hot beneath the PPE, and clambering over the pipes and walking in a crouch is tiring. Greene doesn’t seem tired. He seems energised. “When I started 49 years ago I just got addicted to the underground,” he says, at one point.
There are little oddities along the way. The redbrick gives way to grey stone. At one point the stream is joined by another culvert that leads back to the manhole at which we entered. We would have come this route, if we had walked in the other direction when we first entered the tunnel. At another point, we can see what appears to be a little room to our left. “That could be a basement from times past,” says Greene.
From time to time, Greene points out bits of loose brickwork or stone on the watery floor on which we’re walking. Workmen sporadically have to come down for repairs. “Everything has a life, like ourselves, and the walls have a life and have lived through the centuries and maybe they’re saying goodbye to us now, a lot of the bricks,” he says. “These are the walls from 1860 and they’re still standing today… The people who built it are in the heavens now – stonemasons, general workers.”Does he feel a bond with those people? “You do feel a connection with them. Maybe they keep you safe on the journey.”
As we get closer to the Liffey, the sound of running water gets louder. We reach a section where we can stand straight once more and ahead of us we can see the Liffey through an archway with a sort of portcullis. We walk to the edge of the archway and look out on the river, across to the north quays. “This is where the Poddle says goodbye to us and meets the oceans of the world,” says Greene.
We take it all in for a little while before Greene suggests that we head back to the surface. It’s unlikely that the water will rise much today, he says, but “on extreme days of high flood and heavy rain you may not be able to see this arch”.
At one point when we’re walking back through the tunnels and clambering over pipes, I bang against the low roof and knock my head torch from my helmet into the river. The way ahead is pitch black and for a moment I get a sense of how terrifying it would be to be down here without safety gear and a team of people who know the way. Greene hands my torch back to me. “Without a torch you’d be going around in circles down here,” he says.
He seems completely unafraid. He stops at one point and crouches to let the little river run over his gloved hand. “The river Poddle is quiet now, like all the rivers in Ireland, but from time to time they let us know that they’re very much alive, just like angels and saints,” he says.
Soon we’re at the chamber with the double culvert again and, after stopping there for some photos, we’re back to the manhole at which we entered. I climb up the ladder and out into the daylight of Dame Street. “We’re leaving the old city of long ago and we’re entering the more modern Dublin,” says Greene as he emerges shortly after me. “We’re coming towards the end and we’re travelling back to the new century.”
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Although I did have a local walk this morning, I would like to offer this article from the Irish Times. It details a world under our feet, not just the ground pilgrims tramp on. At some point above, St James's Gate, traditional starting point on the Camino from Dublin... as well as the site of the Guinness factory!

DAVE GREENE HAS BEEN INSPECTING THE TUNNELS UNDER DUBLIN FOR 49 YEARS.


It’s a pilgrimage we’re going on, says Dave Greene, as he leads the way through the city’s ancient river tunnel network where the Poddle flows out to meet the Liffey
Patrick Freyne
I’m standing in a redbrick tunnel at the bottom of a manhole near the Palace Street entrance to Dublin Castle. I’m in full PPE, hard hat, head torch and waders, with a harness to winch me to a tripod when I’m climbing in and out. I have a gas monitor hooked to my belt which beeps comfortingly every few minutes, assuring me that all is well.
The Poddle river, which is around six inches deep as I stand there, is running by my feet and Dave Greene, a council employee for 49 years, is speaking rapturously about the city’s underground pipes and tunnels.
“It’s a pilgrimage we’re going on,” he says. “You’ll be a new person when you leave.”
Another council employee, executive engineer Ross Flanagan, walks behind us as we move and is keeping track of time and making sure we’re safe.
Not willing to be responsible for losing two Irish Times staff members in a subterranean waterway, they’ve ensured we’ve done a day of “confined spaces” training, and several more Dublin City Council personnel check in on us at different manholes along the way. I ask one of the men if they’re coming with us as I’m descending the ladder and he laughs. He’s part of the emergency rescue team, he says. “You really don’t want to see me down there.”
So it’s me, Dave Greene, Ross Flanagan, Enda O’Dowd (Irish Times cameraman) and, though I don’t actually spot them, probably some rats. Rats are called “the sewer man’s friend”, according to another man at the entrance.
“Because if you see one, that means that there’s no gas, like canaries in a coal mine,” he says. You can also catch Weil’s disease from them though, something else to worry about that I learned on the day-long training course.
Local lore
Unlike the actual sewer system, there’s unlikely to be dangerous gas in the Poddle now (though it was treated as a sewer at one point in its history). It’s the fifth largest of Dublin’s waterways. It rises in Cookstown, northwest of Tallaght, and comes through Tymon Park, Terenure, Mount Jerome and along the South Circular Road. It’s largely culverted through tunnels now at its lower reaches, but Vikings could once take their boats up the Poddle from the Liffey. Back then, it was around 80ft wide and 40ft deep and it helped form a pool around where the gardens now sit in the walls of Dublin Castle. This was the “Black Pool”, the Dubh Linn, after which the city is named.
For hundreds of years, Dubliners drank its water and used it to energise their mills and it was the city’s main water source before pollution, disease and flooding made it seem like more of a nuisance than a help. “They put a roof over it in the 1860s,” says Greene. “It had a lot of gifts this river. But though they loved it, they had to put it underground and tame it a bit.”
Now out of sight and out of mind for most Dubliners, it lives on in local lore. In the revolutionary era, there were tales of prisoners escaping Dublin Castle through these tunnels. In 1985, some hapless bank robbers attempted to tunnel into the nearby Allied Irish Bank from here. Sometimes the council come down in response to reports of people seen messing with manholes or heard underground. Sometimes they take security personnel to check it for threats before important State visits. More commonly, they’re down here to check if any of the brickwork needs to be reinforced.
It’s not polluted now. The water at my feet looks remarkably clear. If there’s a smell down there, it’s more the musty damp smell of underground brick. At the bottom of the ladder we can go left or right but Greene has a route in mind. The four of us walk back through the running stream beneath the gate of Dublin Castle before turning right and coming to a chamber in which, facing us, are two redbrick arches. Both bring the river in parallel streams out towards Ship Street. “The reason they split this culvert in two is in case they built one single culvert and it was blocked with timbers or bicycles,” says Greene. “If you were to travel back either of those culverts they’d meet one another to shake hands at the Birmingham Tower and Record Tower.”
He notes a sharp section jutting between the arches that looks like the prow of a boat. “This could be a reminder of the Vikings,” he says. “Why did they stop here [in Dublin]? Maybe the Poddle was a miracle they were hoping to see… People would wash their clothes and drink the water of the Poddle.” Children once swam here in the now underground river, he says. “It’s flowing. It’s constant.”
To our right as we face the arches, there’s a narrow tunnel that takes the Poddle beneath Dame Street towards the Liffey. This is the direction Greene wants us to take in order to get to the bigger river while we’re still at low tide. “The tide won’t rest for anyone,” he says, ominously, but he doesn’t seem too worried.
Decades coming down here means that Greene always knows what’s above him. At one point, he gestures upwards and says: “If you got out at this manhole you’d see Eddie Rockets restaurant and also you’d see the Olympia Theatre where our great actors and musicians perform… We’re really going back in time now.”
It’s not an entirely easy route. As we walk, the roof gets much lower in places and we have to stoop and bend. At two locations, large sewer pipes cross our path at around waist height and we have to climb over them. Greene can tell us exactly where these sewer lines come from and where they are headed.
It’s only about 320 metres to the Liffey, but the breathing equipment we have to carry for safety reasons is heavy, it’s hot beneath the PPE, and clambering over the pipes and walking in a crouch is tiring. Greene doesn’t seem tired. He seems energised. “When I started 49 years ago I just got addicted to the underground,” he says, at one point.
There are little oddities along the way. The redbrick gives way to grey stone. At one point the stream is joined by another culvert that leads back to the manhole at which we entered. We would have come this route, if we had walked in the other direction when we first entered the tunnel. At another point, we can see what appears to be a little room to our left. “That could be a basement from times past,” says Greene.
From time to time, Greene points out bits of loose brickwork or stone on the watery floor on which we’re walking. Workmen sporadically have to come down for repairs. “Everything has a life, like ourselves, and the walls have a life and have lived through the centuries and maybe they’re saying goodbye to us now, a lot of the bricks,” he says. “These are the walls from 1860 and they’re still standing today… The people who built it are in the heavens now – stonemasons, general workers.”Does he feel a bond with those people? “You do feel a connection with them. Maybe they keep you safe on the journey.”
As we get closer to the Liffey, the sound of running water gets louder. We reach a section where we can stand straight once more and ahead of us we can see the Liffey through an archway with a sort of portcullis. We walk to the edge of the archway and look out on the river, across to the north quays. “This is where the Poddle says goodbye to us and meets the oceans of the world,” says Greene.
We take it all in for a little while before Greene suggests that we head back to the surface. It’s unlikely that the water will rise much today, he says, but “on extreme days of high flood and heavy rain you may not be able to see this arch”.
At one point when we’re walking back through the tunnels and clambering over pipes, I bang against the low roof and knock my head torch from my helmet into the river. The way ahead is pitch black and for a moment I get a sense of how terrifying it would be to be down here without safety gear and a team of people who know the way. Greene hands my torch back to me. “Without a torch you’d be going around in circles down here,” he says.
He seems completely unafraid. He stops at one point and crouches to let the little river run over his gloved hand. “The river Poddle is quiet now, like all the rivers in Ireland, but from time to time they let us know that they’re very much alive, just like angels and saints,” he says.
Soon we’re at the chamber with the double culvert again and, after stopping there for some photos, we’re back to the manhole at which we entered. I climb up the ladder and out into the daylight of Dame Street. “We’re leaving the old city of long ago and we’re entering the more modern Dublin,” says Greene as he emerges shortly after me. “We’re coming towards the end and we’re travelling back to the new century.”
Kirkie,
Wow! Glad you made it "back to the new century" and that your underground walk was uneventful. Entering the Medulas' tunnel or crossing the Portomarin bridge will now be a snap.
 
Kirkie,
Wow! Glad you made it "back to the new century" and that your underground walk was uneventful. Entering the Medulas' tunnel or crossing the Portomarin bridge will now be a snap.
Oh dear, sorry if I misled you. The article was written by Patrick Freyne, a journalist who writes for the Irish Times. I am not sure I would have the courage to walk where Patrick walked!
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Yesterday I drove for a hike to the Harz again.
Walked from Ilsenburg up to the Brocken over the "Heinrich-Heine-Weg" (940m Ascent) and back over the Rangerstation "Scharfenstein".
24,9k in total, 5:11h.

Yesterday, there was the Brockenlauf, too.
Oldest mountain-run of Germany, the best runner made his round in 1:40h for almost the same route I did!

Enjoy!
 

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I walked about 4 miles in a nearby forest preserve yesterday. The highlight for me was actually this beautiful painted rock I found. Some of you may recall I found a couple of them last winter when we went south and I posted the pictures on this thread. Anyone can participate by painting a rock/s in an artisic, creative way and then place them somewhere to be found. You can take and keep them or leave them as is. It has become quite a growing trend.
IMG_20210905_103346074.jpgIMG_20210905_103340182.jpgIMG_20210905_095337003_HDR.jpg
IMG_20210905_101331158.jpg
 
Join our full-service guided tour and let us convert you into a Pampered Pilgrim!
I call evergreens mountain trees. I love them.
I love evergreens too, and there are so many varieties, even in Illinois. One interesting little fact is that the Sequoia pine tree (which I have only seen in California) is "the largest living thing" in the world. Ironically, the pine cones it produces are very small.
You get to see palm trees in Cali, whereas we have none.
 
Yesterday we walked through miniature Netherlands called " Madurodam ".
20210908_104457.jpg
The real one keeps a part off the Netherlands dry during bad weather.
20210908_103944.jpg
The "Peace Palace " in The Hague.
20210908_101543.jpg
Th old ss Rotterdam from the Holland American Line is now lying in Rotterdam as a Hotel.
20210908_103903.jpg
The Monument on Dam Square in Amsterdam in memory of all fallen and murdered persons since the Second World War.
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The park and castle in Nijmegen that bears my last name, namely the Valkhof. And no it is / was not from our family . It is unknown where the name comes from. There is an advantage if we go to the museum of the same name, it costs nothing.
After visiting Madurodam we walked to Scheveningen.
20210908_111240.jpg
There is still a cruise ship waiting for better times.
20210908_111700.jpg
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Yesterday we walked through miniature Netherlands called " Madurodam ".
View attachment 108815
The real one keeps a part off the Netherlands dry during bad weather.
View attachment 108816
The "Peace Palace " in The Hague.
View attachment 108817
Th old ss Rotterdam from the Holland American Line is now lying in Rotterdam as a Hotel.
View attachment 108818
The Monument on Dam Square in Amsterdam in memory of all fallen and murdered persons since the Second World War.
View attachment 108819
The park and castle in Nijmegen that bears my last name, namely the Valkhof. And no it is / was not from our family . It is unknown where the name comes from. There is an advantage if we go to the museum of the same name, it costs nothing.
After visiting Madurodam we walked to Scheveningen.
View attachment 108821
There is still a cruise ship waiting for better times.
View attachment 108822
Peter Fransiscus,
Just like that distant cruise ship so are many of us "waiting for better times" although not on the beautiful blue sea in your picture but moored in imaginary dry docks.
 
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