Menu

IMK

Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance

Home » Hiking

Hiking

Posts related to hikes I have taken with pictures, location, and history of the region, usually around California.

post

Building and Walking on a Quartz Crystal Pathway

By Leave a Comment

Initially, I wanted to display all the quartz seam samples so you could easily see the jumbled crystal growth between the outer layers of quartz. However, the outside of these small flat quartz rocks is almost as interesting with variety of different colors, striations, and textures as the inside. Some of the quartz has an almost translucent amber color. As far as I can discern, virtually every one of the quartz rocks harbors either crystals or crystalline structure of opaque quartz: silicon dioxide.

post

Hiking Down Oregon Bar in Search of the North Fork Ditch Tunnel

By Leave a Comment

From my car at the Oregon Bar parking lot, to the point where I estimated the first tunnel was located, is a little over 2.65 miles. However, those 2 miles, along the river, over the river cobble, cliffs, and sand bars is some of the most challenging and strenuous terrain I have hiked over. There are points where bare rock juts into the river and you must literally climb up and over the slate or granite.

post

Snowshoeing Through History at Royal Gorge Donner Summit

By Leave a Comment

Snowshoeing is hard work. You can quickly work up a sweat. Unless it is windy and very cold, you will be taking off your heavy goose down jacket shortly after commencing your hike. I have found that a leather jack is very comfortable, similar to what the immigrants wore, because it breaths and does not retain too much body heat.

post

Natural Bridges Tunnels and Tubing

By Leave a Comment

From the main exit, where the main trail ends, I walked the short distance to the entrance or opening where Coyote Creek enters. The entrance is more spectacular than the exit. The exit opening is around eight feet in height. The entrance is at least 30 feet and the interior soars even higher. It is this section that most resembles a gothic cathedral. At the entrance, there are several large bedrock mortars, six inches in width and depth that indicate Native Americans were present long before the Europeans arrived.

post

Anxiety Over the Covid-19 Vaccine

By Leave a Comment

In 2019 I decided to get the shingles vaccine. I figured that since I had never had a reaction to the flu vaccine, nothing would happen other than a hoped for suppression of another bout with shingles. Two weeks after the first vaccine injection I had a raging sinus headache for days. My doctor said it was allergies and prescribed Flonase. Then my shoulders started to get weak. Within a couple days my whole body was itching, head to toe.

post

Sierra Buttes Covid Hiking Break and Getting Lost

By Leave a Comment

As the parent of an adult, you must resist the urge to scold or argue with your child. It is a matter of respect, like you would display with any friend or stranger. This was a point, a moment in time he would not be aware of, where I, his father, swallowed my parental superiority and engaged him as an equal. He calmly sat in the car awaiting my return. “It did not occur to you that after 90 minutes your father might be in distress?” “No,” he said, “You always hike slower than me.”

post

Granite Bay to Anderson Island Hike on the Pioneer Express Trail

By Leave a Comment

The first third of the hike is along relatively level ground until you reach Beeks Bight. Then you climb up the hillside that overlooks Folsom Lake. This portion can have some steep climbs for short distances. While the trail can wind far away from the lake at times, there are usually spots every half-mile or so to venture down to the water.

post

Plumas – Eureka State Park, History and Hiking

By Leave a Comment

The Eureka Peak loop trail starts at the dam and goes up. There are great views of Eureka Lake at several places along the trail. Once at the peak, 7,447 feet, you can look into the valley below and see clear over to Grass Lake.

post

Lundy Canyon Waterfall Hike

By Leave a Comment

To get close to some of the larger waterfalls you will have to find a trail that will take you down the hill. Then you will have to push through some brush and willows to get stream-side. On my hike I encountered no mosquitoes and no rattlesnakes. It was really a nice, but short, hike. Within a span of 2 to 3 hours, you can see lots of waterfalls, spectacular mountain peaks, and a picturesque valley.

gallery

Hawaii Needs To Be Cleaned Up

By 2 Comments

After my son took a geology course in his freshman year at Williams College, he wanted to see the volcano on Hawaii. So we planned a short little trip over the 2016 Christmas holiday. This was only my third trip to the island chain and I came away even more unimpressed about Hawaii than on previous trips.

Spam prevention powered by Akismet