Images from the Ho down |

We drove, we drank, we hiked, we dined. We slept under a stupendous autumn moon, snacked at the foot an immense exctinct volcano. Good times, as Winehiker Russ put it.

With no further ado, here are my pictures from the first-ever International Outdoor Blogger Ho Down:

Friday night: Tom of Trout Underground
admires the campfire.

Saturday morning: Gumboot Lake is a lovely little body of water. Four determined fishermen from the campsite next door piled into this rubber raft in search of bites. To Tom’s chagrin, no fishing transpired among Ho-Downers.

Rick of Best Hikes and Szu-ting (AKA
Little Po) chat amid the morning chill. It was 38 degrees in my tent when I got up just before dawn.

Like I said, lovely lake.

Special guest blogger: Wally the Wonder Dog. He’s a mix between a bassett hound and a black lab, which gives the impression his legs were left in the dryer too long.

The hike: We headed up to a small section of the Pacific Crest Trail and hiked along a ridge to a place called Seven Lakes Basin.

Mount Shasta in the distance.

Climb_CA and The Boy. He may be all about the ‘tude at GoBlog, but he’s an impressively doting father (to say nothing of his strength as a hiker: he went everywhere the rest of us did with The Boy in a backpack carrier and hardly broke a sweat.)

Fall color at the rim of one of the Seven Lakes.

Rocky scenery on the trail back to camp.

The gang minus Your Photographer, from left: Rick, Climb_CA, Szu-ting, Tom (kneeling), John Fedak (whose ankle is mostly fine) and Winehiker Russ

Fedak explores an ammo box full of goodies left for Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers.

Back at camp, Szu-ting and Rick further The Boy’s education.

First course of Russ’s excellent gourmet dinner.

Expended wine bottles around the campfire. Yeah, we all were a bit tipsy. After all the hiking, eating and drinking I went to bed and was asleep about 13 seconds after my head hit the pillow. Woke up the next morning detecting a definite draft and noted that I had neglected to zip up my sleeping bag. It was only 36 degrees in there, so no big deal.