Blog Posts

Here are all of my blog posts.

Collegiate Loop Day 12 – Hunt Lake to Monarch Crest

Our last day of the loop. The weather was kind, but an unexpected detour briefly dampened spirits. We were not going to let is get us down: Up at…
Collegiate Loop Day 11 – North Fork Chalk Creek to Hunt Lake

With CW03 behind us, the biggest challenge had been accomplished. This day brought peaceful beauty and great variety: Difficult to get up at 5. Samuel has slept well while…
Collegiate Loop Day 10 – Cottonwood Pass to North Fork Chalk Creek

The night wasn’t as bad as it could have been. It stayed above freezing and the wind did not pick up. It felt like it would be quite exposed…
Collegiate Loop Day 9 – Apostle Trail Junction to Cottonwood Pass

Today was about Lake Ann pass and getting ourselves staged for the 15 miles above tree line in CW03. It was always going to be a long, ambitious hike…
Collegiate Loop Day 8 -Willis Gulch to Apostle Trail Junction

It had been great spending some time with Paul (and enjoying the use of his truck for trips to stores and a hotel in Salida!), which was a good…
Collegiate Loop Day 7 – Cache Creek to Interlaken Trailhead

It had been a rainy evening. While we were dry inside the tent, the tent and tarp were soaking. This was when we started to realize how good Paul’s…
Collegiate Loop Day 6 – Harvard Lakes to Cache Creek

We knew we had to hike over 24 miles in the next ~24 hours to meet Paul. Our plan had been to stay night 6 on the shores of…
Collegiate Loop Day 5 – Yale Saddle to Harvard Lakes

After the side trip up Yale, the rest of the day was just about getting to a campsite. The constraint now was arriving at the Interlaken trailhead at about…
Collegiate Loop Day 5 – Yale Side Trip

While not part of the loop, this side trip was a highlight. Yale was our first 14er, at 14,199ft, and the conditions were perfect, and emphasized by the previous…
Collegiate Loop Day 4 – Cottonwood Creek to Yale Saddle

We had agreed that the plan was Yale for day 5, so day 4 was short, but with a long climb with as much water as we could carry…
Collegiate Loop Day 3 – Browns Creek to Cottonwood Creek

Day 3 ended up being a key decision day for the Yale side trip on day 5. During the planning, I had gone back and forth. It had looked…
Collegiate Loop Day 2 – Fooses Creek to Browns Creek

Day 2 felt good. We’d approached the first day carefully, wanting to ensure we did not overdo it, and succeeded. Wanted to remain cautious for day 2. An early…
Collegiate Loop Day 1 – Monarch Crest to Fooses Creek

This is the first of the daily journals from the Collegiate Loop which were written on the trail. I dictated to Samuel each night, who wrote it up on…
The Chisos Mountains in June 2021

Samuel very much wanted to share his backpacking adventures with a couple of his buddies. Trying to squeeze a trip in after school and COVID and with summer coming…
Diving Mexican Cenotes in May 2021

During a family trip to Cancun, Samuel and I very much wanted to dive cenotes. Cenotes are a form of cave in which you are always able to see…
Reflections on an LSHT Thru-Hike

(Originally published on the Lone Star Hiking Trail Facebook page.) (Daily blogs from this hike at https://cajunlimeys.com/lone-star-hiking-trail/) WHAT I DID. I hiked the LSHT westbound in six days, from…
Lone Star Hiking Trail Day 7 – Pond at MM2.5 to MM0!

I tried my breakfast with cold water rather than hot (TJ coffee, Hot Choc mix, instant oatmeal), and it was all pretty good so something to consider in the…
Lone Star Hiking Trail Day 6 – MM16.5 Lake Conroe to MM2.5 pond

Had to take the obligatory morning photo over the lake, but this campsite wasn’t the best for it. The forecast was for major storms to start at 1pm (they…
Lone Star Hiking Trail Day 5 – MM33 Pipeline ROW to Lake Conroe MM16.5

I realized I was using up way too much battery, so left the phone (and hence camera) off today, so very few photos which is a shame. After a…
Lone Star Hiking Trail Day 4 – East 4 Notch Campsite MM51.5 to MM33 Pipeline ROW

Got an earlier start so was hiking by 7am. My main memory of four notch when I did it a couple of years ago was the spiderwebs… That time,…
Lone Star Hiking Trail Day 3 – Magnolia Campsite MM68.5 to East 4 Notch Campsite MM51.5

One mile hike to get out of the woods then the 2.4 mile hike on blacktop to Evergreen Baptist Church and their awesome water faucet! Still early so cool…
Lone Star Hiking Trail Day 2 – Tarkington Campsite MM83.55 to Magnolia Campsite MM68.5

The previous evening’s storms passed. After a fine night at the primitive campsite at MM83.5, the trails had generally drained very well and I managed to keep my feet…
Lone Star Hiking Trail Day 1 – TH15 to Tarkington Campsite MM83.55

This post and the associated series were first shared on the Lone Star Hiking Club Facebook Group page, directly from the trail. I had gained much useful information from…
Thirty Years with Schlumberger

Why do I describe my career on an adventure blog. First, the job itself was quite the adventure, and it inspired many other adventures through the travel it led…
Diving the Oriskany and Lionfish Hunting in July 2020

My research for diving adventures led me to Brady Hale’s Ocean Strike Team which organized lionfish hunting trips out of Pensacola Florida. The dives required the Deep Dive specialty,…
Motorhome Rental

On our journey to motorhome ownership, we have rented units three times: once in the UK and twice in the US. The UK rental was in 2008 when the…
Buffalo Bayou Paddling Trail: Briar Bend Park to Woodway Memorial Park

This is a “catch-up” post from May 2020 to describe our second outing on the Buffalo Bayou. Having successfully completed a solo outing the previous week, I persuaded Samuel…
Buffalo Bayou Paddling Trail: Woodway Memorial Park to Allen’s Landing

This is a “catch-up” post from April 2020, when COVID was just starting to get real. The legacy of Hurricane Harvey in 2017 remained strong. We’d bought our bright-green…
The British Virgin Islands by Sailboat in 2020

We had booked a dream holiday for March 2020. Over the previous year, I had taken courses to qualify as a yacht skipper and Samuel had qualified as crew.…
The Outer Mountain Loop and Guadalupe Peak in 2019

The fifth installment of my West Texas adventures takes Samuel and I back to Big Bend’s Outer Mountain Loop (OML) and to “The Top of Texas,” Guadalupe Peak. The…
A Six-Day Tour of Lake District Peaks

This is a “catch-up” post, written in July 2022, of a fantastic loop trek that a 14-year-old Samuel and I completed in June 2019. When we had lived in…
Diving at Sea Base in March 2019

The catalyst for Samuel to learn how to dive was a trip to Florida’s Seabase with scouts in March 2019. These were his first dives after qualifying the previous…
Our Trip to Israel in 2018/2019

As Janet and I prepare for a trip to Greece in October 2024 to retrace the Apostle Paul’s footsteps, I write this post describing our trip to Israel to…
Ten Days in Colorado

This is the last of my “catch-up” posts for now, and this adventure with Samuel from 2018 is perhaps the most memorable trip we have done. While we have…
The Outer Mountain Loop in 2017

This is the fourth chapter of our experiences in West Texas. While our 2016 trip to Big Bend had been an epic collection of adventures, completing the Outer Mountain…
Big Bend in 2016 With a Pre-Teen

Now for my third visit to West Texas. After an awe-inspiring summitting of Guadalupe Peak, Samuel and I were ready for our next challenge. Spring Break 2016 gave us…
Guadalupe Peak in 2015

This is the second of several posts that describe our multiple exciting adventures in West Texas. Ten-year-old Samuel’s interest in hiking and camping was growing and I was very much…
Pop-Up Camper

A pop-up camper was a memorable step toward our imminent RV ownership. Our hotel-based road trip to DC visiting National Parks inspired us to want a pop-up camper. Janet’s…
Car-Camping

As we prepare to take ownership of our first motorhome next month, I reflect on how we got to this point. One part of that journey has been our…
The Llangollen Canal in 2011

One of the most remarkable canal trips in the UK is the Llangollen canal. First proposed in 1791, it takes you between England and Wales. The route includes the…
Cruising the Norfolk Broads in 2009

The Norfolk Broads are wetlands in eastern England that are best accessed by boat. In May 2009, we rented a boat for a week long holiday. Such boats have…
Flashback: Update on the Kids (from Janet)

15 Sep 2005 Ni hao or hello to all, We realized after reading through the last update email (China update #3) that we hadn’t even mentioned how the kids were…
Flashback: Beijing Blog #6

[This is the last Beijing blog. I can’t remember why we stopped after only four months of our twelve months there.] 6 Nov 2005 It seems appropriate to write…
Flashback: The Beijing Bike Blog

11 Sep 2005 Bi-de’s Beijing Bike Blog Having only ridden about 100 miles on my bike in Beijing – that is commuting to work about 5 times – I hardly have enough…
Flashback: China Update #3

10 Sep 2005 It’s now been nearly 2 months since we arrived, and I think we can say we have now settled in. The main indicator for that was…
Flashback: China Update #2, nearly 2 weeks

24 July 2005 Friends and family, We’ve been here nearly 2 weeks now. I’m not sure how this reads, as we had a few responses saying that we sounded down. …
Flashback: Our First Five Days in Beijing

A recent note from an old blogging site about my posts from China in 2005 has prompted me to repost them. The blog was a convenient way to give…
Big Bend National Park and More in 1999

This is the first of several posts that describe our multiple exciting adventures in West Texas. I start with our first trip in March 1999. Janet and I had…
Belize with Coral Cay Conservation in April 1995

In my passion project of writing up adventurous activities from my past, the time that I spent in Belize has the fewest records and dimmest memories. I have ten…
Irian Jaya (West Papua) in 1992

One of the great attractions of working in the Middle Eastern desert was the amount of time off. As well as short (2-3 week) breaks every few months, there…
Exploring the Auyan Tepui in February 1991

Close to Venezuela’s border with Guyana and Brazil lie many table mountains called “tepuis” in the local indigenous language. They are remote, largely unexplored, and inspired Conan Doyle’s “The…
Hiking the Sierra Nevada de Merida, Venezuela in 1991

After the completion of the Cambridge Columbus Botanical Survey expedition, Mark, James, and I headed to Merida in February 1991 for a backpacking trip in the Andes. Hilary Branch,…
Cambridge Columbus Botanical Study Venezuela 1990

I participated in two amazing expeditions when I was a student. The first involved investigating the effects of oil pollution on the coral reefs in the Gulf of Suez…
Gulf of Suez Reef Survey 1989

This is another catch-up post, written in July 2022, to describe the first post-worthy adventure in my life. In July and August 1989, a team of six SCUBA divers,…