San Diego California

The day I got back from my trip to Morocco, I got a call from work sending me to San Diego. So I finally got to play with my pictures and here is a panorama of San Diego downtown. Enjoy.

Morocco-Mountain Biking Day 2

Mountain Biking Day 2:
We started off from Hotel Ellouze. The picture below is the entrance to the Hotel. We rode through the various alley ways to get to Hotel for the night. As you can see, the ways were made with earth, clay, straw.

Of course, what good is a hotel in the Atlas Mountains without a pack of Camels to keep you company :>.

We transferred to the start of our ride by vehicle. We quickly turn off tarmac onto a rocky, dirt road starting up the red dirt hills boarding the Atlas Mountains.

The previous night it had snowed in the high Atlas mountains as shown below. The red rock, green valley and snow graced peaks, made for stunning scenery. As the trip goes on, the terrain changes nearly every hour or so.

Here is a picture of me riding with amazing scenery in the background.

Here is a group shot on Day 2 of the mountain bike ride. We looked a little different on Day 5 of Mountain biking.

Our fearless guide Charlie tried to roll over this gap and flatted out. So after scoping the landing, I decided I needed clear this. I cleared the gap with no flats. Landing on loose gravel on off camber slopes makes for sketchy landing.

After some good single track it was time for lunch. Our guides always had an awesome place with shade tucked away from the main roads. After lunch, the instructions were to take a left after we pass a small village with a half built house colored light pink to tan. The funny part about this was that every village we passed had a 1/2 built house lightly pink to tan color.

It seemed like this hill would never end. A nice long grind up the hill. We decided this was the village with the 1/2 built pink/tan house. The terrain had changed again. We stopped and waited for the chase vehicles to catch up where they were going ahead to prepare the obligatory "tea" stop.

This tea was rocket fuel. Moroccans like their sugar with their tea. The tea sugar mix had to be just under the saturation point of sugar in water. It was served in shot glasses and that is all about a person could stand. An amazing pick-me-up for the next hour riding. Good thing we weren't diabetic.

Charlie (guide) and I decided to ride the rest of the hill and arrived before the rest of the group. A couple of people walked the next 4 miles, others got a ride 1/2 up the hill and walked the remaining 2 miles. Active group. Abdula (cook) went ahead and sent up with food tent and we found a pair of nomadic herdsmen strolling on through the area. We are now on the Shirwa Plateau in an amazing location.

The surrounding area was amazing. The moon was full, the sun was golden. Awesome night.

This picture says it all. Camping, biking, great moon, golden sunset.

We were way up in elevation so it was getting cold at night. We started a fire and had a relaxing evening.


So I brought my tripod out and it decided to fall apart. So the below pictures are of the fire taken by a mono pod or what was left of my tripod.

Another great fire picture.

End of day 2 of Mountain Biking. Camping on the Shirwa plateau.

Mount Saint Helens

A quick hiatus from Morocco Tails, this post is all about Mount Saint Helens.

July 27th.

The alarm clock went off at 0445. A gentle tap of rain echoed in the tent. I decided it to give it another 20 minutes, but like anytime in a tent, couldn't fall back asleep. Got up, the light rain blew through and fired up with Coleman stove. We made breakfast, broke down camp, geared up and headed out. The temperature was in the low 40's, the path through the trees started in several feet of remaining snow from winter. After an hour 1/2 we broke out of the trees and immediately warmed up. Shedding a few layers, we were blessed with overcast clouds to climb the mountain in. The temperatures stayed cool, nice breeze and the snow melted off ridges and the canyons were full of snow.

It took 4 hours until we got above 7,000 feet where the clouds broke and we could see the summit. The pumas rock was everywhere and it was like walking up a steep hill in pea-gravel.

Around the 5 hour mark, we reached the summit. The cloud level was just below 8000 feet, so we couldn't see much. Rainer would pop out every now and then, but it was still nice. I took a panorama pictures as shown above, but my Pentax W20 seems to have a glitch where it meters 1/8th of the picture at a different light, causing weird things. Bummer...I guess I will have to climb the mountain again :).

The most rewarding part of the trip down was the Glissade. We easily got a good 1 1/2 miles in over several chutes. 1/2 way down, I noticed on my Garmin 301 writ st GPS we were going way off course, so we cut back into the rocks to rejoin the trail.

The way down has a lot of bouldering. Big chunk lava rock that gives the legs a huge workout. Like squatting 300 reps of your body wait. Good thing there are glissade shoots.

After we left the snow and entered into the trees, I found the best sight ever. A pit toilet. Yeah!!!.

Great trip, will have to make the trek up Mount Saint Helens again next year. Next time I will have to include a trek into the Ape Caves. Bring a good light and warm clothes, it was cold down there.

Morocco Mountain Biking

First I want to thank the viewership and comments I have recieved. The global viewership has been outstanding...look on the world map on the left. Now for more of day 1 mountainbiking.

Luckily, the clouds subsided and we were able to continue without the threat of rain. The terrain really struck me. Really red dirt with carefully cut canyons teaming with green palms, wheat and other key crops in the valleys where people lived. The homes, shown in the previous post were earthen structures with straw added. We rode by several areas where mud/straw bricks were drying. The roofs were supported with tree members and covered with earthen mud/straw.
-The only way I can describe this was to like going back in time 500 years ago. Donkeys and mules used for transportation, wheat harvested by hand, ground by hand, baked into bread rounds by hand and cooked in a earthen igloo structure by small fires.
In the High Atlas Mountains, the bizarre aspect of the trip was the ever changing terrain. Every 30 minutes or so we would come to a completely different type of terrain. You can see some of this by the pictures included.
At the end of our ride we saw a small cluster of earthen structures and rode our bikes right through the back alleys and were gretted by a very nice French owner of the place. The stucture had been restored recently, as the straw in the earthen walls looked fairly fresh. The showers had running water, electricity in the walls and a very nice bed with local heavy woolen blankets.
At dinner we sat down at a low to the ground table, walking over local woven Moroccan rugs over the concrete floor. We were treated to freshly made bread, yum, with some balsamic Vinegar and olive oil for dipping. The main course was fish Tangiene. A Tangiene is like a ceramic Dutch oven with a long conical top. Meat in the middle, surrounded by vegetables like potatoes, carrots, surrounded by rice.
-Could not eat enough of the stuff, wonderful. My day that started on Thursday finally, I get a full nights sleep on Saturday. No jet lag issues because I had been going for nearly 2 days without a good nights sleep. What a nice sleep it was.
--I finally accomplished by goal of making it to al 7 continents, now time to enjoy the cultural aspects of the remote Atlas mountains of Morocco.