Ireland Day 5

A majority of today was spent in the car as we were headed from Killarney up to Galway. We took pretty much the same route that I took a couple years ago. This included a stop to Ballyhahill where our relatives lived back in the day.

I considered heading East over to Limerick as I've never visited the city, but decided to opt for the ferry from Tarbert to Kilrush instead to cut down the driving time. Luckily the rain stopped by the time we got to the ferry so we could walk around on the ferry trip.

It started raining again on the drive up toward the Cliffs of Moher so I was worried that it would be raining when we got there. Luckily there were a couple breaks in the rain when we were there, but patience definitely ended up being a virtue picture wise at the Cliffs. After spending time in the gift shop it cleared up enough to get some decent photos.

Final stop was the Amber Hill Guest House in Galway. I stayed here for two nights on my last trip. It's a cute little B&B style place in the Salthill section of Galway.

Ireland Day 4

We've been packing every day full so far on this trip and today was no exception. We decided to stay one more night in Killarney rather than packing up and looking for a hotel in Dingle. This meant that we would do both the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula in one day. We started through one of my favorite parts of Ireland - Killarney National Park. Driving through there I just wish I had more time to go hiking through the park.

We stopped in a few of the interesting photo locations along the way and took a detour out to Valencia Island. I was hoping to find a geocache out there, but couldn't quite find the road that take us to the geocache so we headed down the road. After a quick loop around the Ring of Kerry we headed north to the Dingle Peninsula. Inch Strand (beach) allows cars to drive so of course I had to take the rental car for a spin on the beach. Every bit of the Dingle Peninsula was beautiful and I can tell why people say it's their favorite. We ended up having really great weather for the day trip. We stopped in Dingle at Murphy's Pub for dinner before heading back to Killarney.

Ireland Day 3

I'm currently sitting in the lobby of the hotel waiting for a few pictures to upload. I'm wishing the hotel room had wifi so I could just set it up to upload while I go do something else. Hopefully the next hotel, I will be so fortunate.

I'm sore from today. I probably would have been sore from the horseback ride yesterday but I decided to add to it by hiking up to Ireland's highest point. Corran Tuathail is one of the Macgillycuddy Reeks in County Kerry. I had wanted to climb it last time I was in Ireland, but there wasn't enough time. This time I made sure to plan enough time. It was well worth it and I couldn't have asked for better weather for the climb today. I have to admit, about half way up the section known as the Devil's Ladder, I strongly considered turning back. Going up the Ladder was fine, but knowing I had to come back down had me a bit worried. It was a very steep, skree filled rock scramble section of the climb. I was warned by other hikers that it was dangerous. Luckily I ran into some other hikers that showed me another route that I could come down that would be much easier. I decided to move on since I really wanted to say I stood on top of Ireland.

The cross at the summit was a very welcome sight. I enjoyed taking a few minutes to look for a geocache at the top and explaining to some locals what my Sounders scarf was for. They were quick to ask if I had gotten to see David Beckham play when I said it was for my favorite MLS team. I didn't tell them what a prima donna I had thought he was, but just that he was fun to watch on the field. Walking down from the summit I became known as "The American" and word traveled quickly that people (including the other American making the climb today) needed to talk to me. I enjoyed the fact that hikers earlier had told me not to take the "Heavenly Gate" route as it was aptly named as a trip to Heaven was found more easily on that route - later to have a nice older Irishman tell me that I should take that route. I thought he had enjoyed talking to me up until he told me that. :) The "easier" route down was still steep and narrow, but every bit of it was worth it.

Now I'm hungry.

Ireland Day 2

Day two of the trip feels like ages ago. I do remember waking up earlier than I probably wanted to after getting some much needed sleep. I was okay with getting up early as today my mom and I would head to Tralee to visit the Equestrian Centre there. Mikey and Alice, our wonderful guides, took us on a fun horseback ride. We started on the beach, and headed down to the city of Camp. I wonder if that's where my friends the Camps come from? Maybe not. Anyway, we took a horseback stroll through the village up the hillside where we got some great views of the area. We came down a really fun trail through the trees and across a stream and finally ended up back at the beach. This is where I got to take turns galloping my horse Monster (his personality didn't fit his name) up and down the beach. Definitely a fun experience.

After this we headed back through Killarney and then down through part of Killarney National Park. We ended up at the town of Kenmare. Another cute little town - of course that's what I remember about my last trip here - the towns are all cute.

We finished up the day at the Laurels Pub with a pint of Guinness and I had the lamb stew. I don't ever get tired of Irish Stew.

Ireland Day 1

So I haven't had the best opportunity to keep up with this blog on the trip due to lack of internet in the hotel room and then just plain lack of time. Guess I'm having too much fun! Now I have to remember what fun I was having on Day 1. I decided to take my mom on a very similar first day trip that I had last time. Mind you, this was after about an hour of sleep on the plane and then about an hour of sleep the previous night. I was amazingly awake considering the lack of sleep over the previous two days.

The weather was pretty foggy most of the day, but that didn't stop us. What did stop us were things like visits to the Rock of Cashel. I love driving the road to the Rock of Cashel because you'll see nice farm fields and then you come around a corner and there's an impressive view of a very impressive castle. The city of Castle is equally as impressive, though we just drove through. The next mission after that was to head down toward Cork and on to the city of Cobh (pronounced Cove). The reason I picked this city was because it's where the Titanic set sail from a few years back. It was a cute little town well worth the visit. Finally I decided that my mom didn't already have the gift of gab enough, so we were off to the Blarney Castle so she could kiss the Blarney stone. We'll find out in time if she was given the gift.

Final stop of the day was Killarney where we headed straight to the hotel. After a much needed bath, my mom and I both grabbed dinner and a pint of Guinness in the hotel lounge. I forgot about the fact that they offer you either a pint or a glass most places here. Why would one want to order just a glass? Pint all the way.

And so it begins. Ireland adventure take 2. This time my mom is with me. This time I was smart and planned for a longer trip. This time I will make a loop around all of Ireland and Northern Ireland. I'm currently standing next to an outlet in JFK airport as my phone charges. I'm hoping to sleep on the flight to Dublin rather than play on my phone but just in case I'd like to know it's fully charged.

Already there's been excitement on the trip. Upon arriving at the gate at JFK we were told there would be a short delay before deplaning for a small security issue. After seeing cops as soon as we got off the plane I figured somebody was going to get a special escort off the plane. Sure enough the two guys from the very back row of the plane were being escorted away in handcuffs. A few minutes later I saw someone who looked very familiar. She was wearing sunglasses in the airport. Not a very good cover for a girl who was up for an Oscar just a few days earlier. Michelle Williams passed by my mother and me with her cute little girl. I still get sad when I think about that little girl's father (Heath Ledger) being gone.

A couple more hours until my flight. There's an Irish Pub in this section of the airport. I'm tempted to grab a Guinness before I go so I can remember how much better it's going to taste in Ireland tomorrow.

Countdown...

Mount St. Helens

Well, I finally have some time to write about the experience of reaching the summit of Mount St. Helens. I still haven't even unpacked from the trip, though I've been back in Seattle for three days. Hopefully that will get done today.

So first I'll back up to Tuesday, which was the day my Dad and I went to the Ape Caves. We chose to go through the longer section, which ended up being closer to 1.5 miles and from the time it took to go through, felt more like 3 miles. I decided on this trip, that trails at Mt. St. Helens should both provide the actual distance and then provide the 'feels like' distance. With all the rock scrambling you do, it really adds the time on as you're trying to negotiate where the next best step will be.

The Ape Caves were definitely a worthwhile experience. You cross over 27 rock piles in the 1.5 miles and climb up two rock walls that have ropes to help you up in the very dark, cold lava tube (remains about 42 degrees year round).

Climbing up one of the rock walls

Cool lava tube formation

My Dad getting started up one of the 27 rock piles

Wednesday was our actual climb day. Back in February, my Dad booked our climbing permits. They only sell 100 a day to keep the numbers on the trail low so they can book up fairly quickly for the summer months. Since most of the trail is out in the open you usually have other groups of hikers in your view during most of the day. The other thing you have in view most of the day is the rocks that you get to climb over. I didn't read up on the hike enough to know that a majority of our time would be scrambling up rocks. I enjoy this, but after about a mile of it you'd like to able to just put one foot in front of another rather than negotiating where your every step is going to be.

One of our major breaks during the hike up of course included finding a couple geocaches. There's a traditional cache as well as an Earthcache near a GPS monitoring station. The location also provides some pretty incredible views, so it makes for a nice stop on the trail.

Because of all the rock scrambling, I decided that the hike to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier is much easier than climbing Mt. St. Helens. On the way to Muir you're spending a lot of time on snow, which can be much easier to walk on - and allows you to glissade down so you get to save your knees from some pain! Most of the way going up on St. Helens my Dad and I were worrying about the pain going down might cause. Luckily it actually proved to be a little easier going down than we anticipated - though I know both of us were sore the next day. :)

Getting to the top of St. Helens makes it all worth it. As you come up to the top of the ash-filled skree section at the end, you instantly get an amazing view to the North that had been blocked by the mountain the entire day. It's amazing to see just how big of a chunk of the mountain was removed with the eruption in 1980. You can also see why they warn you about climbing the mountain in winter with the snow cornices - once you get to the top, you don't have much to go to be over the edge down into the crater. It's a pretty quick drop-off. My Dad and I stayed at the top for about an hour eating lunch, getting lots of pictures and talking to a Forest Service Ranger before making the journey back down.

It was a great experience and I'm glad that I got to share it with my Dad. I know he was thrilled to climb the mountain that has such an interesting history. I was already thinking on the way up that I'd like to climb it again sometime - maybe in the Springtime when there's still snow for a different climbing experience.

Dad early on in the day on the trail

Morning clouds and Mt. Hood

Some of the many rocks to climb over

Flowers toward the bottom of the trail

View toward the top with the rocks to climb over

GPS monitoring station

Last stretch up to the top

View of Rainier from the top

New dome forming

Hikers on top and view of Mt. Adams

Mount St. Helens

I'm a little tired and I'm cold since I'm sitting outside using the wifi at the Lone Fir Resort (wifi doesn't reach the cabin) so this post will be short. Basically, we made it! It was a long day, but my Dad and I made it to the top of Mount St. Helens. What a beautiful day it was too - I have the sunburns to prove it.

I'll write a more complete post on the day later with more pictures, but for now, here's us at the top!

Mount St. Helens

A first glimpse of Mount St. Helens on the drive to Cougar

It's been a while since I've written here, but that's mainly because I haven't had any major adventures to write about. Of course I've had lots of little fun adventures but in my mind this blog is about the big stuff. The little day to day stuff goes on facebook.

Right now I'm sitting at the Lone Fir Resort in Cougar, Washington. There's probably not much else to do in Cougar rather than hang out at the Lone Fir Resort or maybe go down to the river. Luckily the resort has wifi so I can stay in touch with the world.

So this latest adventure I'm sharing with my Dad. He drove over from Idaho yesterday so that we could spend a couple days exploring Mt. St. Helens. Today we'll check out the Ape Cave which is a 13,000 foot long lava tube. We have our headlamps for this journey since we'll be underground for just over a mile. We'll make the loop through the Upper Cave which is the more difficult section - but it also has a 'light at the end of the tunnel' since it doesn't dead end like the Lower Cave. After our cave exploration we'll check out Climber's Bivouac to prepare ourselves for the big climb tomorrow.

So the main reason for our journey is to summit Mt. St. Helens. Since I got the big mountain out of the way last year when I climbed Rainier, I've decided I need to do the littler big mountains. Luckily the Volcano alert level for St. Helens has been lowered to "normal" so we don't expect to see any eruptions on our climb tomorrow. We mainly expect a difficult hike with incredible views. Of course we'll be finding some geocaches along the way as well. I haven't seen Mt. St. Helens up close since I was about 13 so I'm pretty excited to tackle the mountain tomorrow. I think my dad's excited too.

The hike is about 4.5 miles each way with about 4500' elevation gain, though the steepness may not be the toughest part. I hear the scrambling and hiking through ash near the top is what makes the climb difficult. My Dad and I opted to go for a summer climb to ensure we'd have nice weather but this also means we don't have the snow to make the climb a little easier.

We have the nice weather, so we should have a great day filled with spectacular views!

Ireland - Last Day

Sadly enough, my journey has come to an end.  I'm off to the airport in a few minutes so this may not be a very long post.  I'm definitely not ready to leave yet, as I told most of the geocachers at the geocaching event last night.  I will be back!  

Yesterday I took a tour of the Kilmainham Gaol which is a pretty amazing place.  The history of the place alone makes it worth visiting.  On the tour we learned that during the famine, a lot of people imprisoned there had done only minor things such as steal four loafs of bread.  Living in prison offered a better life for some of these people since it meant food every day and a roof over their head.  The prison is also used today for filming a lot of movies, including In The Name Of The Father, Michael Collins, etc.

After that I headed down to the shopping district to get a few last minute goodies.  Then I met up with some geocaching friends for a nice afternoon/evening meeting a lot of local-ish cachers.  Many had come over to Dublin just for the day or the weekend.  It was very nice meeting all of them.

Well, I need to get going!  Like I said, I will have to come back!

Ireland Day Six - Dublin

St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Guinness

Guinness

Guinness

Trash Can

Guinness

Guiness

North of Dublin

North of Dublin

North of Dublin

Newgrange

Near Newgrange

Newgrange

Newgrange

I'm sad to say it's my last day in Ireland.  There's so much more I wanted to do and wanted to see.  But that will have to wait until next time.  I know there will be a next time, it's just a matter of when.

Yesterday I drove up to visit Newgrange.  It's amazing to stand in a place that was built in 3200 BC.  You just have to be amazed and wonder how they did it.  Apparently the winter solstice is the best time of year to be there, because for 17 minutes in the morning, the sun hits the entrance just right and it lights up the inside.  You have to win a lottery to be able to be there for that.

Then it was back to Dublin.  I decided to tour the Guinness Brewery.  They have a special tour built just for the tours - more like a Guinness museum.  At the end you come up to the Gravity bar where you get a nice view of the whole city and get a pint of Guinness.  

Since it was only a mile away, I stopped by the 800+ year old St. Patrick's Cathedral after the brewery. Unfortunately I was too late for visiting hours, but it's a beautiful church on the outside. 

Anyway, I must get started on my day now.  I'm meeting some geocaching friends for breakfast, then it's off to do some last touring.  Then this evening there is geocaching event where I'll get to meet a lot of geocachers from the area!