europe

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    Spring Training

    The sun is finally coming out in the rainy (usually , this year) Bay Area. That combined with the fact that we had to say goodbye to our winter cabin in Tahoe last weekend has given way to spring training!

    Last weekend we headed out to the Briones Reservoir for a 15.5 mile hike. The trails that we used are on East Bay MUD land. I’ve always wanted to visit them but until recently (at least we discovered recently) you needed a hard to obtain permit to legally hike them. Now, you still need the permit but they are much easier to obtain. A quick trip to the EBMUD website and you can buy a 1 year permit for $10, so we did.

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    France -> Switzerland -> Austria -> Italy -> Slovenia

    Video go here

    The planning for our vol bivouac trip continues. We’ve just about got our route nailed down. For the last few months I’ve been studying maps of the Alps, getting acquainted with paragliding sites and flying regions, reading forums and generally madly trying to soak up as much information and I can about how a couple might sky camp their way from France to Slovenia around the alpine arc. I’ve learned the names of many a valley and have become truely inspired by the kind of hiking, flying and adventuring Melody and I will be doing this summer. The Alps look really amazing!

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    Vol Bivouac Across the Alps

    Vol Bivouac literally means “fly camping” though, it is often referred to a “sky camping” in English. I think this is because sky camping just sounds cooler. Sky camping is a form of backpacking where you travel by foot and by (paraglider) wing. On a pure sky camping trip you would not use any form of motorized transport. You fly cross country when the conditions are right, you hike when you can’t fly, camp in the wild at night and are fueled by the spirit of the adventure!

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