EISPIRATEN

So Saturday I decided to take the kids and wife to Crystal lake and then head up to Windy gap, and Islip. I haven't been up that way in at least 30 years. Last time I went up that side I was in Boy Scouts and that was my first backpack trip. Last time I was at Crystal lake my dad drove me and him up to go fishing and all I remember is I was hung over like crazy. I remember my band played the night before and my dad made sure to wake me up as loud as he could and let me know what a dumb *** I was. That was at least 25 years ago.
Well I'm still a dumb ***, but I haven't been hung over in 10 years 8)
So my wife doesn't do so well with mountain driving, and that sucks because we all love the mountains so much. On the way up we had to stop a couple times so she could repave the road for the bike riders heading up. We finally got to crystal lake, got parked and set out for windy gap. About a mile in the wife looked bad and she decided to head back to the car and sleep a bit while my 7 and 10 year old girls and I continued on. The weather was awesome and the trail was pretty empty. Perfect!! I made sure to take enough breaks for the short legs, and let them enjoy themselves even though I wanted to just push on. They asked some crazy questions, so I gave them some crazy answers. We made it up in decent time and had a snack at the top. We wanted to head up to Islip but we wanted to get back down to my wife so she wasn't totally bored sitting down below. After a nice hike we hit the cafe for a tuna sandwich that was very tasty, talked to the volunteer ranger, then looked for bubba the cat. We were told that bubba was probably in the campground looking for bbq because he was tired of tuna. Well the last pic shows he like squirrel better than bbq or tuna.
oh and the next day we went to my old church I went to as a young lad and ran into one of my old Boy scout leaders and told him about our day and how that was my first backpack trip. He told me he still remembers the first time him and his son went up too. great memories. anyways on to some pics.



Trust fall!!!!!


before breakfast came up









A little tired dad, Ill crash here


Snack time



I hate tuna and bbq!!!!!!! Squirrel!!!!!!


Thanks for looking!!
Its been a weird last few years with the slow down, now that work is picking up I can get out more due to having a back up for my days off. This should be a good year God willing.

Nice one yob. Waiting for the TR from 25 years ago. Something tells me that might be an entertaining read.

Very nice TR and I am sure the Kids will remember it, or the pain after. I hope you got them chili at the end.

Uncle Rico wrote: ↑Nice one yob. Waiting for the TR from 25 years ago. Something tells me that might be an entertaining read.

There are a lot of "trip reports" and photos from 25 years ago that keep me from running for president or any other public office Being on tour for months at times will produce some strange reports.

rck wrote: ↑Very nice TR and I am sure the Kids will remember it, or the pain after. I hope you got them chili at the end.

We didn't have chili but we did have the tuna sandwich, and my wife and I thought it was great. The kids had chicken and fries.
I still have time for them to remember things we did, not the things we didn't do. Since the slow down work has been crazy due to me having to wear more and more hats at work. Now we are able to hire some new people and get our lives some what back to normal. Im glad the company made it, they have been in business for 86 or 87 years. This wasn't their first rodeo 8)

yobtaf wrote: ↑So my wife doesn't do so well with mountain driving, and that sucks because we all love the mountains so much.

My wife has the same issue. We tried opening the window so she could stick her head out into the windstream like a dog, but this isn't much fun without goggles. This actually worked, but not all that well.

Then I tried driving super-slow (pulling over into each and every tiny turnout to let faster cars pass); basically I drove so slow that I never felt ANY sideways acceleration, which isn't easy to do. This was only a so-so solution.

The current/best solution: I pull over just before the winding section of mountain road begins, switch places, and let her do the driving. For some reason, possibly because she is the one in control, or because she has to devote some of her attention to driving (and not her stomach), we now get up into the hills without any "road paving" incidents.

jfr wrote: ↑

yobtaf wrote: ↑So my wife doesn't do so well with mountain driving, and that sucks because we all love the mountains so much.

My wife has the same issue. We tried opening the window so she could stick her head out into the windstream like a dog, but this isn't much fun without goggles. This actually worked, but not all that well.

Then I tried driving super-slow (pulling over into each and every tiny turnout to let faster cars pass); basically I drove so slow that I never felt ANY sideways acceleration, which isn't easy to do. This was only a so-so solution.

The current/best solution: I pull over just before the winding section of mountain road begins, switch places, and let her do the driving. For some reason, possibly because she is the one in control, or because she has to devote some of her attention to driving (and not her stomach), we now get up into the hills without any "road paving" incidents.

We have tried the same ideas. When she hangs her head out her ears flap to hard and kills the mpg's. I tried driving really slow, but really sometimes thats just to dangerous when you are going that slow. Plus I hated the bug splats on my rear window

And let her drive, then I would get car sick cant have that. Plus it would be night time by the time she got to the trail head. But maybe Ill let her drive when the road starts to get bad.

If anyone has any suggestions on car sickness Im needing ideas.

puke and rally

I did Windy Gap and Islip on Sunday, and those carved benches at Windy Gap are pretty cool, I don't remember those from before

I went up Big Cienega though, and I have to say, it's a good deal easier. It adds a couple miles if you want to do the loop because you have to go up and over Islip, but it really did seem a lot easier.

I was surprised at how few people were on the trail (especially compared to how many people there were in the camp sites). I generally feel like Crystal Lake to Windy Gap can be quite busy, but I only saw two other hikers on my day.

HikeUp wrote: ↑puke and rally

nice Ill let her know. I also told her if she would let me cook she might be better off. Glad that thermarest pad is comfy

VermillionPearlGirl wrote: ↑I did Windy Gap and Islip on Sunday, and those carved benches at Windy Gap are pretty cool, I don't remember those from before

I went up Big Cienega though, and I have to say, it's a good deal easier. It adds a couple miles if you want to do the loop because you have to go up and over Islip, but it really did seem a lot easier.

I was surprised at how few people were on the trail (especially compared to how many people there were in the camp sites). I generally feel like Crystal Lake to Windy Gap can be quite busy, but I only saw two other hikers on my day.

We wanted to come down that trail and make a loop of it, but that didnt quite work out. It was awesome not seeing very many people, felt like me and the girls had the whole place to ourselves.
I know down by the spring they had some cut out chairs but yeah never noticed those before when I came up last year from the other side.