Fedoras afield

[The one from the North]

Unavoidable boring end in (almost) every fine vacation. Oh, how I hate airports...

 

[steur]

Where was I last week? Here's some proof I was elsewhere. The Mossant Oxford Bleu was the hat of choice.

Schiphol airport

Howth

Bull Island

I can recommend this one; good choice of fine Irish Whiskeys.

 

[dh66]

Spent the weekend on Lookout Mountain and Sand Mountain and down in the valley between them.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Such a nice day for a road trip & be outside, I took the backroads.

I always wanted to buy this place should it ever come on the market but it has been in the same family for these last 75 yrs. Built by Elijah Cody, uncle to William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody in 1845. At the time Cody was just a child living nearby with his mother & sisters in the KS territory SW of Fort Leavenworth, at Grasshopper Falls on Grasshopper Creek. Grasshopper Falls is known today as Valley Falls, KS.

Later in the morning I thought I would visit the Stetson Outlet in St. Joseph to look for a summer straw or two. But since their computers were down the store would remain closed until the computers were brought back online.

I did some other errands in the area wearing a Stetson 7X Fifty before returning a couple hrs later only to find the store still closed.

‘Since it was then Happy Hour I sought out a brewpub for a few Gnarly Barley Brewing’s Baltic Oats Porter @ 6.5% ABV, & some spicy Cajun fried alligator tail with country cream gravy. Never made it back to see if the Outlet had opened or not, but it was an enjoyable Spring day.

 

[Rmccamey]

I did some other errands in the area wearing a Stetson 7X Fifty before returning a couple hrs later only to find the store still closed.

Must be something with the corporate culture. Even the Garland outlet is open "whenever".

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Must be something with the corporate culture. Even the Garland outlet is open "whenever".

Since it was Good Friday & there were no employee cars parked in the lot, I did wonder if the manager called an “audible” for a holiday.

 

[JJ Katz]

A mix of hats at London's BFI

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Spent a couple hours walking through Groveland, CA; an old Motherload gold mining town.

My Resistol Pecos in canyon was my hat of choice today.
I poked my head into that really cool bar…almost made me regret not being a drinker.

 

[Zombie_61]

Spent a couple hours walking through Groveland, CA; an old Motherload gold mining town.

View attachment 511118

Well, nuts. Groveland is a bit too "north" for a day trip, but maybe I can find an adventurous friend or two who might be interested in a leisurely weekend trip.

 

[Woodtroll]

Spent a couple hours walking through Groveland, CA; an old Motherload gold mining town.

View attachment 511117 View attachment 511118 View attachment 511119 View attachment 511120

My Resistol Pecos in canyon was my hat of choice today.
I poked my head into that really cool bar…almost made me regret not being a drinker.

Neat place, with great burgers! If I remember correctly they had dollar bills stuck all over the ceiling (for some reason I don't remember now). We stayed a couple nights just across the street in Hotel Charlotte, another neat place if you like old buildings and history.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Well, nuts. Groveland is a bit too "north" for a day trip, but maybe I can find an adventurous friend or two who might be interested in a leisurely weekend trip.

You could always joint the Clampers too?

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Neat place, with great burgers! If I remember correctly they had dollar bills stuck all over the ceiling (for some reason I don't remember now). We stayed a couple nights just across the street in Hotel Charlotte, another neat place if you like old buildings and history.

We walked both sides of the town along Highway 120. We went into a few places, had lunch, and we were still only able to fill a few hours. We saw the Hotel Charlotte too. A neat place if you enjoy gold rush era towns. I think Coulterville and Groveland could make a nice day trip diversion as part of a trip to Yosemite. I usually use the Highway 140 entrance and I’m not well versed in this northern Highway 120 end.

 

[dh66]

Spent some time in the Talladega National Forest yesterday. The mountain laurel were in full bloom.

 

[Woodtroll]

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Spent some time in the Talladega National Forest yesterday. The mountain laurel were in full bloom. View attachment 512920

You visit some beautiful places. Thanks for taking us along on your adventures by posting your photos!

The redbud/serviceberry, mountain laurel, and rhododendron blooms are some of my favorite times to be in the woods. Here in the Virginia mountains, the older folks call rhododendron "laurel" and mountain laurel "ivy". Maybe because "laurel" is quicker off the tongue than "rhododendron"? And the thick patches of rhododendron that you can neither walk through, crawl under, or climb across are known as "laurel hells", quite appropriately!

 

[GHT]

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Spent some time in the Talladega National Forest yesterday. The mountain laurel were in full bloom. View attachment 512920

Having lived in one of the (arguably) most famous cities in the world, that being London, it took a while to settle to the more, some might say rugged, I prefer civilised, style of life that is The New Forest, I can so empathise with these images.

The New Forest Bluebells!

 

[Woodtroll]

Having lived in one of the (arguably) most famous cities in the world, that being London, it took a while to settle to the more, some might say rugged, I prefer civilised, style of life that is The New Forest, I can so empathise with these images.
View attachment 512951
The New Forest Bluebells!

That's absolutely beautiful, thank you! And life in the country is much more civilized, in many ways.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

You visit some beautiful places. Thanks for taking us along on your adventures by posting your photos!

The redbud/serviceberry, mountain laurel, and rhododendron blooms are some of my favorite times to be in the woods. Here in the Virginia mountains, the older folks call rhododendron "laurel" and mountain laurel "ivy". Maybe because "laurel" is quicker off the tongue than "rhododendron"? And the thick patches of rhododendron that you can neither walk through, crawl under, or climb across are known as "laurel hells", quite appropriately!

Spent one of the worse days of my life coming down the side of a mountain during Geology Field Camp at WVU. Was advised not to traverse the “Laurel Hells” but the shortest distance between two points philosophy does not factor time and toil. The ONLY way through such tangle is over the top, literally, which involves balancing step by step on wrist thick convolutions and climbing out of countless holes fallen into. Most of the day later the two of us emerged cut, scraped and dehydrated onto an odd 10-20’ or so circle that looked like someone dumped a ton of sawdust. Shed snake skins prompted quick exit. A hellish day in the Laurel Hell went to hell in a hand basket of a snake pit.
Did i mention i hate snakes, now Laurel.
B

 

[Woodtroll]

Spent one of the worse days of my life coming down the side of a mountain during Geology Field Camp at WVU. Was advised not to traverse the “Laurel Hells” but the shortest distance between two points philosophy does not factor time and toil. The ONLY way through such tangle is over the top, literally, which involves balancing step by step on wrist thick convolutions and climbing out of countless holes fallen into. Most of the day later the two of us emerged cut, scraped and dehydrated onto an odd 10-20’ or so circle that looked like someone dumped a ton of sawdust. Shed snake skins prompted quick exit. A hellish day in the Laurel Hell went to hell in a hand basket of a snake pit.
Did i mention i hate snakes, now Laurel.
B

Haha, then you too have earned the right to call them "Hells"!

I spent some summers doing forestry research work in the spruce-fir forests of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee while I was working my way through Virginia Tech's wildlife program. Two summers involved running transects at set compass bearings down from the highest peaks until we were completely below the spruce-fir zones, the idea being to get random samples at particular aspects and elevations as we went along. I don't know how many patches, big and small, we went through on those transects as they fell into the lower elevations, but of course we weren't allowed to deviate from the set course. For years later among a common phrase among our work group was "F*** a d*** rhododendron!"

The most efficient way to cross the big hells was to try to surf/swim across the top as you suggested, but sometimes my younger-and-much-skinnier self would fall into a hole and give up and crawl for a ways. Luckily, I never came nose-to-nose with any snakes while doing this, but the bumblebee's nests in the ground are a whole 'nother story!

Great times back when I was hardened, fit, and poor, but I wouldn't have missed those experiences for anything! At some point I'll have to dig out some photos of me and my brimmed hat in those woods (just to keep this thread on track!).

 

[dh66]

You visit some beautiful places. Thanks for taking us along on your adventures by posting your photos!

The redbud/serviceberry, mountain laurel, and rhododendron blooms are some of my favorite times to be in the woods. Here in the Virginia mountains, the older folks call rhododendron "laurel" and mountain laurel "ivy". Maybe because "laurel" is quicker off the tongue than "rhododendron"? And the thick patches of rhododendron that you can neither walk through, crawl under, or climb across are known as "laurel hells", quite appropriately!

Always happy to share. A laurel hell...interesting way to call it. I didn't encounter any patches that thick, but coincidentally, this stretch of creek and falls is called the devil's den. I have no idea why.

 

[StoryPNW]

I've spent the last week on a road trip, 4 of those days were on a vehicular scavenger hunt of sorts. It's called a Lemons Rally, and the route we took went from Casper, WY to Idaho Falls, ID to Missoula, MT to Bozeman, MT and finally back to Casper, WY. Each day we had 10-15 checkpoints to locate and take a photo for proof that we were there. Our checkpoints included dams, old bridges, mining sites, a ghost town, Oregon Trail landmarks, and some quirky odd sites thrown in just for the heck of it. I wore my Akubra BP for this trip, it only got blown off my head once in Wyoming, I was able to collect it before it ended up in South Dakota though. I hope you enjoy a few of my favorite pictures from the trip.
Grand Teton:

Wyoming Red Rocks

Granite Ghost Town in Montana:

The Berkeley Pit in Butte, MT:

Fire Tower in Helena, MT:

Wind River Canyon, WY: