United Statesian

View of Jostalbreen Glacier from Gryta on a cloudy day Dear Citizens of the world! There are a fare share of odd "coincidence stories" in my travels, but this coincidence was just plain weird! We were nearing the end of our trip in Norway and decided to do a hike to a peak behind Stryn. There are great views of the surrounding lakes, mountains and glaciers, but it is not on the tourist route, thus it was deserted. We were enjoying the fact that we had the mountian to ourselves and we were about half-way up the climb to the peak when we heard a mobile phone ringing. We could see for kilometers in every direction and nobody was around. We started to search for the source of the sounds when they sudenly stopped. After a few moments the ringing continued and we found the mobile phone under a boulder! Happy to retrieve their mobile that was lost on the side of "Gryta" mountain . We called the last number in the phone and talked to the owner who had lost the phone the day...

Mountains above the sea... a good mix. Dear citizens of the world, How things can change in just one week. One Saturday we was hiking over an ice-wind swept mountain , and the next we were on the Mediteranian coast, at 700m, a balmy 30 degrees Celsius and a cool sea breeze coming from the beach below. Natural frame in the Desierto de las Palmas, Marina D'or This weekend, will be another wedding in the pueblo ... Hasta pronto! The United Statesian

The afternoon sun through a snowy pine-forrest Dear Citizens of the World! The winter is comming to an end! Yippeeeeeee! Recently we (six fearless mountaineers from the AtuBola Group) were able to go for a hike in the mountains of Madrid. We started in Miraflores de la Sierra and went 500 meters up to Morcuera mountain pass ( gps route in wikiloc ). It was a cold day, but we had lots of sun. The Sierra is beautiful with snow and we had lots of fun trying to hike up and down some of the sections with snow that came up to our thighs. I leave you with a few pics and comments from our trip: Fall's last breath caught in the ice ... Still cold, but... Spring starts to rear it's head amongst the vestiges of last year. A mountain goat moving slowly through the snow near the mountain pass... Shadows of dead weeds... Tones of bare trees and snow... The ice-cicles mix with the roots... Pillows of snow covering the bolders... You are welcome to the villages public slaughtering...and feast!...

Almond tree blooms in Desierto de las Palmas, Castellon, Spain Dear Citizens of the World, Recently, I have neglected one of my favourite hobbies . For some reason, having Galloping Spanish Blightus (pneumonia) reduced my hikes in the mountains to.... zero. Not good for my health - especialy my mental health. Getting a GPS gave me an extra reason to restart my weekend sorties in the mountains of Spain. Now it is possible for me to download tracks from Wikiloc.com and do just about any hike imaginable - as long as my legs will take me. It is quick and easy. Then you can upload your routes, comments and pictures for all to see and use. Here you can find my most recent sortie in Castellon Spain in the Desierto de las Palmas Natural Park. Monestary ruins surrounded by Almond Tree flowers We did 12km and 600m of climbing in this fun hike. The pinkish red rocks, steep terrain, monestaries, hermitages, ruins, views of the coast and mountains were even better with the almond tree blooms. Th...