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Ski Sundown Hike - 7/30/06

Greg

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Date(s) Hiked: Sunday, July 30, 2006 - 9 am - 11 am

Trails(s) Hiked: Exhibition --> Lower Canyon Run --> Nor'easter --> Gunbarrel --> "The Horn" --> Nor'easter ---> Canyon Run --> Exhibition

Total Distance: ??? 1.5 miles maybe...

Difficulty: Easy

Conditions: Sunny, warm, but comfortable in the shade; calm; dry ski trails

Special Required Equipment: None

Trip Report: Met up with bvibert this morning for a quick hike around Sundown. We had our daughters in tow with the Kelty packs. We started up Exhibition from the base and then Nor'easter. We both commented on how the terrain overall looks steeper in the summer. It's also interesting to see all the terrain variation on the ski trails which are normally smoothed out with snow during the ski season. We took a break at the sundeck to let the kids stretch and then on to the summit. After a look down the "B" liftline, we went over to the top of Gunbarrel to catch a view. Brian then suggested taking the Horn back over towards Nor'easter. We then went on a recon mission to explore a possible tree skiing area. We found it and it indeed looks skiable given enough natural snowfall. We then made our way back to the base. A quick easy hike, but it was a lot of fun to poke around the ski area in the off-season. Plus it just got us even more psyched for the ski season!

Pics are HERE.
 

bvibert

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Nice TR Greg, it was a pleasure to meet up with and meet your daughter. The pics came out great, looks like your new camera is working good! I'll try to remember to load up mine later. It was amazing to me how much steeper things looked while hiking, and how uneven the terrain is. Now I'm really anxious to for the snow to fly again! :snow:

BTW, nice avatar! :D
 

riverc0il

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nice hike! and nice new avatar for the warm weather months. you gotta love hiking ski areas during the summer, i was just at cannon today actually. good point about how you get to see the natural slope of the mountain during the summer but the groomers smooth it out flat during the winter. i always notice this with a frown on my face.
 

Greg

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bvibert said:
Nice TR Greg, it was a pleasure to meet up with and meet your daughter. The pics came out great, looks like your new camera is working good! I'll try to remember to load up mine later. It was amazing to me how much steeper things looked while hiking, and how uneven the terrain is. Now I'm really anxious to for the snow to fly again! :snow:

BTW, nice avatar! :D
Likewise, Brian. Your daughter is a cutie. Gotta love kids that are easy to make smile! :) Yup - this is the first round of scenery pics from the camera and I'm pretty happy with them. It takes great pics overall, but I've found that indoor pics show some brutal redeye. I think it will suit my purpose though. The 6X optical zoom works well. Compare these pics:

View from Gunbarrel:
IMG_0053.jpg


Zoom in on Lake McDonough:
IMG_0054.jpg


Zoom in on base are buildings:
IMG_0055.jpg


You'll notice the humidity/haze was pretty high today and it still resolved the distance shots pretty well...
 
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riverc0il

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woot, that is some nice zoom. what camera did you end up getting? the AZ watermark is nice on those pics. is that generated by the online gallery or done through software? i need to figure out how to do the transparent thing on my pics.
 

Greg

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A Canon Powershot A700. Small, lightweight, uses 2 AA batteries, 6X optical zoom, 6 megapixels, very good video mode. It met all my criteria. We love our Canon digital Rebel so sticking with the Canon brand made sense.

The watermark is applied by Photopost, the new AZ gallery software. I created it by creating an image with a semi-transparent black drop shadow and semi-transparent white text fill. That was it shows up pretty well on both light and dark images. I'd be happy to create one for you. Just need to know your font and have any other images/logos you want included.
 

Grassi21

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Do you think anyone would object to me hiking Sundown with my dogs? Just last week I was thinking of heading up there to hike with the wife and dogs.
 

Greg

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Grassi21 said:
Do you think anyone would object to me hiking Sundown with my dogs? Just last week I was thinking of heading up there to hike with the wife and dogs.
No idea. I'm not even sure how they feel about us hiking it at all. I can't imagine they'd have a problem with it though. On Sunday, we saw one person - a woman who brought a lawn chair to the deck at the base and was just chillin' out on that. Saw nobody else.
 

bvibert

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Greg said:
No idea. I'm not even sure how they feel about us hiking it at all. I can't imagine they'd have a problem with it though. On Sunday, we saw one person - a woman who brought a lawn chair to the deck at the base and was just chillin' out on that. Saw nobody else.
That woman showed up with a guy, I have no idea where he went off to. I think he may have been doing some sort of work there while his wife relaxed on the deck, they didn't stay very long. He didn't say anything to me while I was waiting at the gate for Greg though. I don't see why they'd have any more problem with bringing your dogs then they would with just you and your wife.
 

bvibert

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Greg said:
Likewise, Brian. Your daughter is a cutie. Gotta love kids that are easy to make smile! :) Yup - this is the first round of scenery pics from the camera and I'm pretty happy with them. It takes great pics overall, but I've found that indoor pics show some brutal redeye. I think it will suit my purpose though. The 6X optical zoom works well.

Thanks. Likewise back at ya, your daughter is adorable.

You pictures came out good, you can see a pretty big difference in quality compared to mine, which I loaded into the Gallery:
Mine:
P7300006.JPG

Yours:
IMG_0053.jpg
 

Greg

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Well, in all fairness, I do normally hit my photos with a single sharpen filter before posting. Try that on yours and you should see an improvement. I think my camera has slightly better color; i.e. the trees behind the base (across the street) are a more accurate green; in yours they have a bit more blue tint. The grass in the foreground is also a bit greener. Your camera still takes nice pics; more than adequate for posting on the Web. I'm really digging the zoom on mine. I can't wait to take some skiing action shots this winter from a distance with the zoom.
 

awf170

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Greg said:
Well, in all fairness, I do normally hit my photos with a single sharpen filter before posting. Try that on yours and you should see an improvement. I think my camera has slightly better color; i.e. the trees behind the base (across the street) are a more accurate green; in yours they have a bit more blue tint. The grass in the foreground is also a bit greener. Your camera still takes nice pics; more than adequate for posting on the Web. I'm really digging the zoom on mine. I can't wait to take some skiing action shots this winter from a distance with the zoom.

Does it have image stabilazation? I'm still on the fence whether I want an "A" series camera or an "sd" one like yours. Actually, I'm cheap I'll probably go with an "A" and just suffer with the size. BTW, what is the fps? Did you get a fast memory card for it?
 

Greg

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awf170 said:
Does it have image stabilazation? I'm still on the fence whether I want an "A" series camera or an "sd" one like yours. Actually, I'm cheap I'll probably go with an "A" and just suffer with the size. BTW, what is the fps? Did you get a fast memory card for it?
All specs are here:

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelTechSpecsAct&fcategoryid=145&modelid=12944

I wouldn't call it "suffering" with the size. It's pretty small at 3.72" x 2.62" x 1.71" and 7 oz. (sans batteries). 2.0 fps. I have a standard 1.0 GB SD card.
 

awf170

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Greg said:
All specs are here:

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelTechSpecsAct&fcategoryid=145&modelid=12944

I wouldn't call it "suffering" with the size. It's pretty small at 3.72" x 2.62" x 1.71" and 7 oz. (sans batteries). 2.0 fps. I have a standard 1.0 GB SD card.
Oops, I thought you got the sd700. Yeah, it isn't really that big, but still kind of a pain to put in your pocket. Though the ones I'm looking at(a620 and a610) are slightly bigger because they have 4 bateries instead of 2. Standard memory card? Whats the speed? Because a regular 1.0 gb memory card will get no where close to 2.0 fps and I'm pretty sure you want that for skiing action shots.
Also there is no image stabilazation. Did you notice any of your zoomed photos coming out blurry? And fianlly what did you pay for it? I think I may go for it if it is under $250.
 

bvibert

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Greg said:
Well, in all fairness, I do normally hit my photos with a single sharpen filter before posting. Try that on yours and you should see an improvement. I think my camera has slightly better color; i.e. the trees behind the base (across the street) are a more accurate green; in yours they have a bit more blue tint. The grass in the foreground is also a bit greener. Your camera still takes nice pics; more than adequate for posting on the Web. I'm really digging the zoom on mine. I can't wait to take some skiing action shots this winter from a distance with the zoom.
I didn't sharpen the above pic, but I did on my avatar which there is a notable difference in.
 

Greg

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awf170 said:
Standard memory card? Whats the speed? Because a regular 1.0 gb memory card will get no where close to 2.0 fps and I'm pretty sure you want that for skiing action shots.
You might be right. I know there's a video mode that requires a faster card too. My wife bought the card along with the camera. Not sure what the speed is - it's just a standard ScanDisk SD card.

awf170 said:
Also there is no image stabilazation. Did you notice any of your zoomed photos coming out blurry? And fianlly what did you pay for it? I think I may go for it if it is under $250.
See above. I haven't had the opportunity to try the zoom much with scenery shots. Again, it was a gift. Pricing should be easy to find online.
 

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I was just rereading the Ski Sundown Challenge thread. Did you guys see any evidence of a new trail being cut?
 

Greg

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Grassi21 said:
I was just rereading the Ski Sundown Challenge thread. Did you guys see any evidence of a new trail being cut?
Nope. That's one of the reasons I went. Doesn't look like any expansion for this season...
 

BeanoNYC

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I just looked at your pics (and avatar) Brian. Damn, boy, you said you lost some weight but I wasn't expecting to see a whole new person. Keep up the good work, Man.
 
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