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Biking Across the Golden Gate Bridge

Every year as I come close to celebrating another birthday (and this year is a big one), I try to partake in an activity that confronts my fear of heights. Ziplining upside down in Costa Rica or attempting a treetop obstacle course in the Berkshires are two of my most recent examples. Since I hate driving across long bridges, I thought this would be a good time to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. My family took the Powell-Hyde Cable Car to the biking outfitter, Blazing Saddles, located near Ghirardelli Square. At 10 am daily, they lead a guided tour along San Francisco Harbor though the Marina District, taking a brief stop at the Palace of Fine Arts. Striking views of the bridge open up as you head northwest past Crissy Field to Fort Point. We biked up a short hill and were soon starting our ride in a bike line across the bridge. I was nervous at first, but my passion for biking eased my anxiety. I even stopped several times to take in the view of Alcatraz and the rising bluffs of Marin County on the opposite shores. 

 
Soon, we were sweeping downhill into the coastal community of Sausalito. We grabbed lunch at an excellent Italian sandwich shop, Venice Gourmet, and sat outside on benches near the water. Then we took the ferry from Sausalito back to San Francisco. When we returned the bikes at Blazing Saddles, we walked over to the original Ghirardelli’s for root beer floats and sundaes. The perfect end to a glorious 10-mile ride. 
 

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The AMC Huts at 125 Years Young

The 8 AMC huts in the White Mountains are spaced a day’s hike apart. Though not all hikes are created equal. For example, the 7-mile long trek from Galehead to Zealand Falls Hut was a thigh burner with close to 5,000 feet of elevation change, including a grueling uphill climb on the AT from Galehead Hut to the 4,902-foot summit of South Twin mountain. While the 4.8-mile hike from Mizpah Spring to Lakes of the Clouds Hut, if weather is decent, is for the most part a level ridge walk with astounding mountain views all around you. 
 
Whether your legs are weary or feeling strong after your day of bagging peaks, you can rest assured that once you arrive at any of the huts, they are clean and exceptionally well-run by the Hut Crew or Croo as they’re known in these parts. The AMC runs a well-oiled machine. All rooms and bathroom are dirt-free. Lemonade, hot water for tea, and usually a snack like frosted carrot cake is waiting upon arrival. At Galehead and Zealand Falls, we were told by the Croo to find any available bunk bed. Mizpah Spring and Lakes of the Clouds had designated rooms. My wife and I brought bed sheets, which worked fine, but many hikers simply bring a sleeping bag to throw down on the mattress. There are hooks nearby to hang wet clothing (after a day of sweating), jackets, and enough room to store packs and hiking boots.
 
With such a long legacy, you would expect these huts to be small cabins in the woods. 125 years ago, they might have started that way. But the AMC has been revamping these lodgings for years. So now the Lakes of the Clouds has a glorious dining room with floor to ceiling glass windows that overlook the panorama of ridges and peaks. Both Galehead and Zealand Falls offer front porches with more magnificent mountain views. Mizpah Spring’s dining room is a big cavernous space, with high ceiling, where people love to congregate and share hiking stories. At Zealand Falls and Lakes of the Clouds, water is close by to go for a swim or simply cool off those overworked feet. Suffice to say that Joe Dodge, the founder of the AMC huts system knew exactly what he was doing when he chose these locales for his huts. So bite into that fresh baked honey-oat bread and gape in awe at the panoply of peaks, the reward for clambering over rocks and roots all day. 
 
(Photo by Lisa Leavitt)
 
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Norwegian Airlines to Offer Low-Cost Flights from Logan

Great news out of Boston where Norwegian Airlines announced this week that they will be offering reasonably priced flights to London’s Gatwick Airport, Oslo, and Copenhagen, starting May 2016. Flights are already up for next summer and costs are as low as $545 round-trip to London, including all taxes. Also under the radar is the fact that they’re offering direct flights from Logan to Martinique and Guadeloupe, starting this winter. I checked this morning and was delighted to find the price to Guadeloupe over popular Christmas Week is $517 per person direct. Flights on JetBlue and other carriers that fly direct to the Caribbean from Boston during that same time period are already well over $1200 per person. So this is great news for travelers. The competition will hopefully result in other carriers lowering their costs. 
 
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Blown Away in Chicago

The largest annual skydiving contest in the US, the USPA National Skydiving Championships, will return to Chicago from September 10 to 24. Located southwest of the city along the banks of the Fox River, Skydive Chicago will feature the world’s greatest skydivers competing for gold, silver, and bronze in five disciplines. They include formation diving, where teams of 4, 8, 10, and 16 skydivers create formations in the sky before opening their parachutes, and the freestyle artist event, where a jumper performs a graceful dance in freefall. All the championships are free and open to the public.
 

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Great Late Summer Day Hikes, Blue Mountain, Adirondacks

Although it took 26 hours or more on railroads, stagecoaches, and steamboats to get to Blue Mountain Lake from New York City in the 1870s, the remoteness of the Adirondacks proved to be more of an attraction than a deterrent. The wealthy elite, including J.P. Morgan, William Whitney, and Alfred Vanderbilt bought large tracts of lands and built themselves "great camps," sprawling collections of handsome log buildings with massive stone fireplaces. To make traveling more pleasurable, they would create their own private railway car, complete with brass railings, shower, card room, and bed. A fine example of this is on view in the Age of Horses Building at the Adirondack Museum.  

 
Just up the road is the trail to the peak of Blue Mountain.  I took this 2-mile path on a cloudless day, when the bright sun beat down, forcing me to stop and hydrate. An hour later, I reached the summit. Soaked with sweat, I tore off my shirt, took another gulp of water and then stared at the surroundings. Anonymous mountains tumbled over one another, their slopes forming a sea of green. Blue Mountain Lake stood before me, a speck compared to the much larger Long and Raquette Lakes that shimmered in the distance. These names I remember from my adolescence when I canoed a string of lakes, ponds, and rivers nearly 100 miles from Old Forge through Blue Mountain, Long, and Raquette Lakes to the Saranac Lakes in the north. Whether you hike, paddle or sail like my parents loved, you’ll be rewarded for your efforts in the Adirondacks. 
 
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Excellent Meal at The Whip in Stowe

Unlike many New England ski areas, where all amenities are found on a road leading to the mountain resulting in the look of a strip mall, Stowe grew up around a 240-year-old Vermont village. The charm of skiing Stowe is that you can leave the mountain behind and stroll down Main Street (Route 100) past the requisite white steeple atop Stowe Community Church or go inside Shaw’s General Store, open since 1895, to purchase a flannel shirt. Then there’s the Green Mountain Inn, a former stagecoach stop that’s been in operation since 1833. Thankfully, the chef at their restaurant, The Whip, is relatively new and straight outta Texas. Man, can he cook meat! I ordered the veal cheeks, braised like brisket, and so tender and moist it cut like butter. Jake ordered a gorgonzola-topped filet mignon, also tender and tasty. We topped it off with their signature dessert, sac d’ bon bon, a tower of chocolate mousse that we devoured almost instantaneously. One of the best meals I’ve had in Stowe in a long time. 
 
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Maine Huts & Trails Will Open Third Hut on October 9th

Maine Huts & Trails, the nonprofit organization hoping to build 12 backcountry huts over 180 miles of trails in the remote western mountains of the state, has just announced the unveiling of their third lodging, the Grand Falls Hut. The hut is located on the banks of the Dead River, two miles below the cascading waters of Grand Falls. Each of the three huts, including the Poplar Stream Falls and the Flagstaff Lake hut, are spaced about 11 miles apart, so people can reach it within one day of hiking, snowshoeing, or x-c skiing. Now through November 7th, Maine Huts is offering a deal where you stay two nights and get the second night for half price. So for less than $150 per adult, you get to sleep on a bed for two nights, get hot showers, 2 dinners, and 2 breakfasts. The best part is that you have this vast tract of wilderness outside your window, with mountains, large lakes, sinuous rivers, and waterfalls all vying for your attention.
 

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