Brookgreen Gardens

I stumbled across Brookgreen Gardens online and I almost didn't visit because I didn't know if I wanted to forfeit my beach time to visit a botanical garden. My reasoning was that we can visit gardens almost anywhere we visit but the beach is fairly rare as far as how often we can visit.



I'm so glad I pushed past that thinking and decided to branch out and see something different beyond just the beach fun. I had no idea it would be as large or grand or interesting as it is. This place ranks up there on our top ten list of attractions outside of natural attractions. It is that great of a place.



It is huge, with 9,100 acres. It is well done and has a wonderful historic sense, having been founded in 1931 by Archer Huntington and Anna Hyatt Huntington. It is quite frankly, breathtaking. I must have said wow at least once every ten or fifteen minutes.



First off, are the trees. The amazing, some of them 300 year old, trees.





Then there are the gardens. The gardens are laid out the shape of a spread wing butterfly. There are different sections, each with its own theme and beauty. It would take me hours to describe them so I'll just point you to the website: here.



As we walked through them we were so taken by how many spaces were made just to sit and take in the beauty for as long as you'd like.





There are water features throughout the gardens.



And there are even spaces for children's fun in the Children's Peace Garden.





The gardens alone would have been well worth the visit. On top of the gardens, there is also a wildlife refuge and incredible art galleries and sculptures. I'll leave the other parts for another day because there is just too much to tell to fit in one blog post.



If you are in the area, please visit this place. Tickets are $12 for adults and they are good for a whole week. You really can't beat that, can you?



Living the life in South Carolina!

Hubbys Turn

Sonny was better for Lee than he was for me.

Vertical front point crampons?

I have a gear room wall full of crampons. Several versions of each. Black Diamond, Petzl and Grivel are all represented.



Until recently I have been a big fan of the Black Diamond horizontal crampons for most conditions. Sabertooth to be exact. But I have also used the Serac. They both climb exceptionally well. Positive blogs on both can be found here on Cold Thistle. Big fan until they started breaking.BD has yet toacknowledge they have aproblem. To the opposite in fact, they have publically denied any problems. Despite continuing to quietly replace production crampons as they crack orbreak and are returned to BD.











Since the breakageissue was made public on a Canadian blog in Feb of when horizonatals seemed required, Ihavebeen climbing in a heavier, but still outstanding,GrivelG12s. Chromoly is proven technology Itrust. Easier for me to simply change brands than to be required to physically check and then have to still worry about my crampon'sreliability everytime out. I do check my gear...and like the Sabertooth a lot. This oneseems an overly obvious failure just too easy to avoid.







With an exceptionally cold winter inWestern NA and a mid winter trip to the Alps I ended up using vertical front point crampons more this winter than I normally would. Given a choice I really don't like climbing a lot of hard, cold ice. This winter I had little choice. So I climbed in the BD Cyborg, the new Grivel G22 and my old stand by, the Dartwin.







None of the previous mentionedvertical front point 'pons are what I would consider "amazing". Something about each I don't like and somethings about each I do like.



My first complaintis none of them fit well on my boots, the Spantik or Ultra very well. Surprizing the G22 is theworst of the bunch. BD Cyborgsecond "best". Both need new front bails for my boots and my standards.. Easily done. I use Petzl bails on both the other brand crampons. How long is it going to take these guysto figure the bail thing out?The Dartwin has a good front bail obviously.But the back heel lever could be better on the Petzl. The leverage is all wrong on the keeper strap. And the bottom of the heel pieceshape (Grivel and Petzl) will collapse the Spantik sole if tighened very much. So the Petzl heel leverI replace with a BD heel lever, which offers more surface area and a tight crampon. Problemssolved on the Dartwinfor the most part.







Of the three the Grivel has the best front points imo. The Cyborgs 2nd there as well. In comparison theDartwin is the worst performance of the three. But not by much. Only the Cyborg is replaceable and hard to tell the difference in performance of the G22, Dartwinand the Cyborg. But you can if the conditions are bad enough and the ice hard enough. A few bucks to replace the fronts on a Cyborg. The Dartwin and G22 you buy a new front crampon. Expensivethat and unnecessary by today's engineering standards. The Dartwin wears better than the G22 simply because of front point surface volume.



The Cyborg will climb easy ground better than the G22 or the Dartwin.Try walking on smooth 30 degree water ice as an example. The term ice skates will get a whole new definition there. But what you pay for that kind of performancein additionalweight. Too much extra weight imo. Cyborg is a dated design. But then all three are really if you look at what is possible in crampons today. Dartwin is a little better on easy groundthan the G22 imo. All three crampons couldgo back to the drawing board and easily eliminate their down sides with little effort.



Big advantage to the Grivel G22 though on the out of box fit for the TLT5 Dyanafit ski mountaineering boots. Almost like the G22was purposely designedto fitthis boot :) Not perfect but it is a good out of the box fit. You'll likely see a lot of that combo on technical ground next winter. I'll certainly be using them.







weight listed per pair:



Petzl Dartwin 1/2 bot 30.5oz / 865g

Grivel G 22 w/full bot 900g

Black Diamond Stainless Cyborg full bot 39.4oz / 1116g





Dartwin has eight downpoints working for you on moderate ground. The Grivel 22 just six! The Cyborg ten. No wonder the Cyborgis more secureon moderate ground! Not everyone's choice but when allsaid, the fit and performance is good enough on the Dartwin. Whichmakes the Dartwinmy choice in vertical front point crampons. Although it is an expensive one if you are climbing a lot of mixed when compared to the M10, G14or the Cyborg.



Strip a set of Cyborgs down and you have this:



Black Diamond Stainless Cyborg, mono, no bot, 28.6oz / 811g





No stainless Cyborg bodies broken yet that I have heard about. And Cyborgs get used a lot around the world. Something to be said for a dual point that can be converted to a mono and easily replacable,CHEAP to replace, front points. I won't be getting rid of my Cyborgs anytime soon.





BB and Grivel versions come with botts. The Petzl version you have to buy theheel piece. Still nothing up front on the Dartwin.





left to right: Cyborg, Dartwin and G22



There is much more to a crampon than the front points. I start with relaibilityandhow the cramponsfit my boots and move on from there.For me oncetrust in the design is established, fitis the most important issue for picking the rightcrampon.







For those that wonder why I worry so much about crampons fit?



UIAGM Guide Dylan Taylor has a great blog post about climbingthe Ginat that isworth reading.

http://www.tayloralpine.com/tayloralpine-blog//4/10/les-droites-north-face-la-ginat-route.html

"We crossed the Argentiere and simu-climbed most of the route in about four pitches. I found another screw and one broken black diamond crampon stuck in the snow midway up the first pitch. Hmmm..."

I asked Dylan what kind of crampon he found and itscondition fromtheGinat, "I am pretty sure the crampon I saw at the base of the route was a newer BD cyborg or something Ike that. It was definetly the shiny new stainless steel design, and I think it had modular vertical front points, and orange antibot plates. Did you drop a crampon? Hope not! The heel bale was missing completely...Cheers, Dylan"

I've found single crampons in the middle of the Eiger and on other big north faces in NA and Europe. Dropped a crampon myself mid pitch. You have to wonder what the stories are behind any lost crampon, but can't imagine any of them being pretty.

Lugged Non-Steel?

[image via the IF Blog]

I have been curious about bicycles that are lugged, but not made of steel. The first ones I noticed were the lugged carbon fiber frames made by our local Independent Fabrications.I have seen a couple of these in person, and they are beautifully done. The picture above is a detail from the XS model. The lugs are painted titanium, over a clear-coated carbon fiber frame.



[image via theIF Blog]

Here is a detail shot of a cyclocross model where both the lugs and the frame are carbon fiber.



[image via theIF Blog]

And here is a Corvid model frame, from a bicycle built for Boston Celtic Ray Allen - the carbon lugs painted a metallic Celtics green. The lugs on the Independent Fabrications bikes are molded to incorporate the stylised crowns in the company's logo, so the look is especially striking.



[image via Alchemy Bicycles]

Though I have never seen their frames in person, Alchemy Bicycles seems to be doing something similar - carbon fiber frames with aluminum lugwork.



[image via Bruce Gordon]

And Bruce Gordon takes it one step further by making his titanium-lugged carbon fiber frames look like true classics.



Reading the manufacturers' descriptions of the construction, I am wondering how IF and Alchemy integrate the lugs with the frame. I am nowhere close to knowledgeable when it comes to these manufacturing techniques, but don't the lugs run the risk of making the infamously brittle carbon fiber even more so? Is a lugged carbon frame "safe"? And is there any purpose, other than decorative, to lugging these frames? After all, I had thought that the very benefit of carbon fiber construction, was that it enabled the frame to be built in a single mold.



[image via aj_the_first]

But carbon fiber is not the only non-steel material being used in lugged bicycle construction. The above detail is from a wooden Porteur made by a small frame builder.



[image viaaj_the_first]

The lug sleeves here are parts of actual lugged tubing, the lugwork rather elaborately done. Have a look at the flickr pictures that show his process - it's fascinating.



[image via Urban Velo and Sylvan Cycles]

And a lugged faceted frame, made bySylvan Cyclesout of composite wood. The faceted tubing reminds me of this vintage lugged aluminum Caminade bicycleI wrote about earlier. It must feel interesting to ride a faceted bike. I have never heard of Sylvan Cycles before, but apparently they are made in Massachusetts. Amazing how many interesting local builders there are in our vicinity.



[image via antbikemike]

And speaking of local builders and wooden tubing, I still can't get over the antique wooden showbike by ANT.



[image viaantbikemike]

The lugsleeves are copper-plated steel and they were designed to attain the aged look - which makes this bicycle seem wonderfully "alive" to me.



But, same as with carbon fiber, I am wondering whether these wooden bicycles are truly ridable, and what effect the lugwork has on them structurally. Does it improve things, or is it mainly there for the "wow" factor? I would love to try a lugged wooden bicycle or a lugged carbon fiber bicycle some time, and would be interested to hear from those who have ridden one. These construction methods do not receive a great deal of attention, but they are certainly intriguing - and beautiful.

Bull Skull Nest

Last year I found an abandoned nest in the eye socket of my bull's skull but didn't know if they actually used the nest. This year in the other eye socket I saw a nest the other day. There was a pair of what we call red headed finchs going in and out. Some books call them house finchs. When I saw them leave the nest I stuck my hand in and felt a nice, tight little nest made mostly out of horse hair and grass. It is a much better nest than the local sparrows make out of hay, tumbleweeds and the neighbors chickens feathers. I hoped they would come back even though I had put my hand in their home. I was glad when I saw them again in a few days and was able to get a couple of photos of the nest and one of the male finch.

Mirabelle's first camping trip ..

Jennifer and I had been plotting this trip for a while, but weather and work kept getting in the way. This time I had a span of four days off and a better weather window to work from. The goal was to head to the dryer east side of the Cascades, and spend a night in the van. OK, not tent camping, but a start. We considered tent camping, but since we'd be in the van anyway, why bring a tent?

First thing we learned was that Mirabelle needs breaks from the two hour car trip. She slept a bit on the way over, but perhaps awoke from pressure in her ears as we cleared Steven's Pass. We made a few stops on the way over to comfort her and opted to stop in Leavenworth to walk around and give her a nap.

We did touristy things for a bit and then hung out by the Wenatchee River where she got her feet wet and played in the sand. We had dinner in town before setting out to our destination of Glacier View Campground in Wenatchee National Forest.

The Glacier View Campground is a great car camping destination if you are going to be kayaking on Lake Wenatchee. However, it is not well suited to our purpose of just parking the van and camping in it. Most sites have a walk in, so many do not have good platforms to park and camp. We did a lap before opting on site 18 where we got ready for the night.

Camping went well and we all slept in the pop top through the night. I had pillow issues which left me with a stiff neck/back the next day, but Mirabelle appeared refreshed when we awoke the next morning. We intended to hike up to Hidden Lake, but typical of mid summer in the Cascades, the mosquitoes were biting. Since we didn't wish to bundle her up too much, and we wouldn't dream of putting deet on Mirabelle, we turned back and figured we could find a less biting option near Leavenworth.

Mirabelle fell asleep in the car ride and we drove up Icicle Creek hoping for a place to hike. When she awoke we tried to hike up the Snow Creek Trail a bit, but that proved too sunny, even with her hat and sunglasses. We once again went back into town to Riverfront Park. We hiked a bit there before stopping at the same locale on the river to have her play in the sand and eddy.

Overall I think this trip went well. We'll perhaps try our first tent outing this summer as well. We may also return to Leavenworth in the autumn when the sun is not so strong but it is drier than the west side. When we got home MIrabelle was a little flush and we thought she had gotten a sun burn. It dissipated, and we were relieved that we were not bad parents.

Wide Open Spaces...in Florida?

I was telling my SIL, Katie, that if they came to visit us they would like it because we are staying at a park that is in the country this winter. She said she didn't know Florida had "country". So last week, while driving over to Avon Park, I decided to grab some pictures for her. As we were driving, Austin and I talked about how so many people truly don't know there are rural areas in Florida so I decided to share them here too.



There are many places where there is undeveloped land.



There are many places where there are farms.











And I'll be honest, it is some of my favorite land to travel in Florida. It is not maybe the prettiest view. But it is peaceful. Excuse the blurriness, because Austin was driving and he doesn't slow down for me like Nathan does. Something about other people on the road and him not wanting to look lame and all.



And here's another shot of the double rainbow we saw. This time with the "real" camera vs the cell phone camera.



I will try to get more shots when I have an agreeable driver escorting me. In the meantime, enjoy some of Florida that does not look like Ft Lauderdale, Daytona or the Magic Kingdom!