Contact Pam
Select Page
Select Page
I wrenched my back and I’m bad at recovery

I wrenched my back and I’m bad at recovery

by | Sep 10, 2019 | Blog

She’s down! Pam LeBlanc, passed out in bed this morning after wrenching her back water skiing. Chris LeBlanc photo

Things I don’t do well:

  1. Sit.
  2. Stay.
  3. Heal.

This morning’s water ski run didn’t go as planned.
The water looked smooth and almost glassy up by the Pennybacker Bridge when I zipped up my life vest, yanked on my neoprene calf sleeve (to stop bruising from water spray, which is a real thing) and slipped on my slalom ski just before 7 a.m. today.

Chris hit the gas and I popped up – and almost immediately dropped the rope, thanks to a sharp jab of pain in my lower back.

Here I am water skiing last week. Today’s run didn’t go as well. Chris LeBlanc photo

I’ve been covering adventure and fitness for more than a decade, so I consider it something of a miracle that I haven’t wound up injured more often. I can count my battle wounds, a lathat scene in “Jaws” where the boat captain shows all his scars, on one hand: A broken wrist sustained while horseback riding when I was a kid, plantar fasciitis and a pulled calf muscle sustained while training for a marathon, and a weird thing that happened to the inside of my knee while researching a rope swing story a few years ago.

But I can only walk short stretches – hobbling is more like it – and am headed back to my bed with a heating pad as soon as I finish this post.

But there’s an upside to this. It reminds me how lucky I’ve been thus far to stay healthy and upright, and what a role physical activity plays in keeping me happy.

Onward!

 

 

 

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

Where is Pam?

Click to open a larger map

Follow Pam

It’s 101 degrees, but I’m planning my backcountry cocktails

It’s 101 degrees, but I’m planning my backcountry cocktails

by | Sep 6, 2019 | Blog

This kit containing everything I need to make cocktails on my next hut skiing trip, arrived at my doorstep Friday. Pam LeBlanc photo

Yes, the thermostat at my house is currently registering 101 degrees, but it’s never too hot to think about what cocktails might warm you up on your next backcountry ski trip.

Just today, a care package arrived from my friends at Breckenridge Distillery in Breckenridge, Colorado, where I traveled earlier this year to celebrate the bourbon, gin and vodka-maker’s 10thanniversary. (Read that article at https://www.austin360.com/entertainmentlife/20181127/when-in-colorado-dont-miss-breckenridge-distillery)

I wiped the sweat from my brow as I unloaded a full-sized bottle of bourbon (!!), a collapsible flask, and an assortment of mini bottles of booze and accoutrements to help me prepare sophisticated cocktails on my next hut skiing adventure.

Here’s the gorgeous Sisters Hut where I stayed in January. Photo by Pam LeBlanc

I love the peace and quiet of hut skiing, which gets you off busy downhill runs and into the woods, where you essentially hike up a mountain on special skis, and hang out in a cabin or hut, warming up with cocktails.

I’ve done it several times, and this past year stayed at the brand new Sisters Cabin near Breckenridge. (Other favorites are Artist and Opus cabins near Ouray. Magnificent!)

Austyn Dineen packing it in during our girls’ back country ski trip in January. Pam LeBlanc photo

I’ve always just packed a little straight whiskey for those adventures, but the folks at Breckenridge showed me last February, when they set up a bar in the snow outside of Sisters Cabin, that it’s easy to do one better.

Below are several suggested recipes. They work best in snowy environments.

Cheers!

 

Snowball Old Fashioned

Ingredients:

2 ounces Breckenridge Bourbon

.25 ounces maple syrup

Dash of bitters

Orange zest

Dehydrated cherries

 

Combine all ingredients and stir. Add snowball to your cocktail. (Pack a mini bottle of bitters. Recycle your orange peels and use berries from your trail mix.) Optional: Smoke using a fire log.

 

Hot Smoked Cider

Ingredients:

1.5 ounces Breckenridge Spiced Whiskey

Apple cider packet

6 ounces hot water

6 ounces cinnamon stick

Ignite cinnamon stick and smoke the glass while preparing cocktail. Pour ingredients into smoked glass.

 

Backcountry Tea

Ingredients:

1 ounce Breckenridge vodka

6 ounces hot water

Teako green tea

Honey stick

Combine all ingredients and stir. Pour honey from stick into your cocktail.

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

Where is Pam?

Click to open a larger map

Follow Pam

Bear Creek hike shows power of an avalanche

Bear Creek hike shows power of an avalanche

by | Sep 6, 2019 | Blog

Hikers make their way through the site of an avalanche that occurred in March or April on the Bear Creek Trail in Telluride, Colorado. Pam LeBlanc photo

I got an up close look at the power of an avalanche while hiking the Bear Creek Trail at Telluride in August.

Officials say sometime in March or April a massive slide shot through Bear Creek, about three-quarters of the way up the Bear Creek Trail, which ends at a waterfall not far from town.  As the avalanche raced down the drainage, it swept aspen and pine trees, boulders, debris and massive amounts of snow with it.

The avalanche swept down pine and aspen trees and covered the trail, which crews have cleared. Pam LeBlanc photo

It’s an impressive sight.

I walked up the trail, through patches of purple and white flowers, along the hill above the creek, admiring the views of distant mountains. The trail gets lots of traffic from hikers, mountain bikers and runners.

It took about 30 minutes to reach the debris field, which spanned both sides of the trail for a distance of about the length of a football field. Broken trees and trunks, sliced away by crews clearing the trail after the snow melted, were strewn across the meadow.

The trail has been cleared, and most of it was unaffected by the avalanche. Pam LeBlanc photo

Thankfully, nobody died in this avalanche, but two people were killed in avalanches around Telluride last winter. A man who was skinning was killed farther up the Bear Creek drainage died when a snowboarder apparently triggered an avalanche in February. A back country skier was killed a few weeks later near Lizard Head Pass, 12 miles south of Telluride.

Telluride saw a huge snow year last winter, recording 371 inches for the season.

The views from the Bear Creek Trail are spectacular. Pam LeBlanc photo

Here’s a quick video of the scene:

 

 

 

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

Where is Pam?

Click to open a larger map

Follow Pam

Austin makes list of best trail running cities in the world

Austin makes list of best trail running cities in the world

by | Sep 4, 2019 | Blog

 

Joe Prusaitis runs through the pines on a ranch east of Austin. Pam LeBlanc photo

Like trail running? Welcome to Austin.

This week our city made it to Map My Run’s list of “Best Cities in the World for Trail Running.”

Also making the list were Flagstaff, Arizona; Whistler, British Columbia; Boulder, Colorado; Washington, D.C.; Salt Lake City; Santa Fe; Seoul, South Korea; Queenstown, New Zealand; and the Via Valais through the Swiss Alps.

That’s some pretty hefty company, especially considering the 140-mile Via Valais (which isn’t a city at all, by the way) was designed by runners, for runners and cuts through gorgeous mountain terrain.

I’ve run through Chautauqua Park in Boulder, which made my quads burn in a very happy way, and have heard the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail in DC makes for good running all the way to Pennsylvania.

Joe Prusaitis started a series of trail running races around Austin. Pam LeBlanc photo

Here’s what the company had to say about Austin:

“With more than 20,000 acres of parks inside city limits, there’s plenty of space to run in Austin, even with the booming population. Barton Creek Greenbelt is always a favorite — it starts at Zilker Park and provides a 15-mile round-trip route. The path that runs alongside downtown’s Colorado River is easily accessible and provides views of the water, though it can get crowded. And Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park in north Austin offers an extensive trail system allowing for many different distances, with paths ranging from smooth to technical.”

Nice, and it doesn’t even mention the stuff just outside of town like Bluff Creek Ranch and Rocky Hill Ranch.

Look for my story about trail running in the September edition of Bluebonnet Electric Co-op’s magazine.

 

 

 

 

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

Where is Pam?

Click to open a larger map

Follow Pam

I’ve almost finished my book about J. David Bamberger

I’ve almost finished my book about J. David Bamberger

by | Sep 3, 2019 | Blog

J. David Bamberger spends time every morning reading the New York Times, and spreading the pages out around his favorite armchair as he finishes. Pam LeBlanc photo

I spent a few hours this weekend at Selah, hashing over book titles with J. David Bamberger.

I’ve filled spare weekends and days off for the last few years holed up at the ranch, listening to the 91-year-old conservationist tell me stories about his childhood, his days as a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman, co-founder of Church’s Fried Chicken and, most importantly, his life’s work pumping life back into an overgrazed, worn out patch of land in the Texas Hill Country.

Now I’ve compiled those stories, along with a little bit about my friendship with Bamberger, into a book being produced by Texas A&M University Press. We’re hoping for a spring 2020 publication date.

J. David Bamberger shows off an old family photo of him and his brothers. Pam LeBlanc photo

Bamberger didn’t want his name in the title of the book. “It sounds egotistical,” he told me.

I reminded him that the book is about him, a collection of his stories, and that it’s important to let readers know what’s on its pages. Besides, I told him, his name will only appear in the subtitle, not in the main words splashed across the front cover.

J. David Bamberger, his girlfriend Joanna, and Chris LeBlanc shoot the shit at Selah, Bamberger Ranch on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019. Pam LeBlanc photo

We’ve still got lots of work to do – designing that cover, copy editing the text, blurbs for the back cover, and planning a marketing strategy. Thanks to Shannon Davies for shepherding me through the process.

It’s taken me so long to get to this point that sometimes I felt like I’d never finish. It’s an amazing feeling, knowing now that this project is really going to happen.

 

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

Where is Pam?

Click to open a larger map

Follow Pam

Head to Rockport to celebrate tiny, fast-flapping hummingbirds

Head to Rockport to celebrate tiny, fast-flapping hummingbirds

by | Aug 30, 2019 | Blog

The 31st annual HummerBird Festival takes place in Rockport-Fulton Sept. 19-22, when thousands of ruby-throated hummingbirds migrate through the area. Photo by Juan Bahamon

Every year, millions of tiny hummingbirds pass through Texas, pausing to fatten up before making the 20-hour, 800-mile flight across the Gulf of Mexico to their wintering range.

Rockport and Fulton will roll out the welcome mat for the buzzing birds, whose wings flap up to 70 times per second. The 31stannual HummerBird Celebration, set for From Sept. 19-22, will feature tours, banding demonstrations, photography talks, guided field trips, lectures, workshops, outdoor exhibits and vendors.

The sleekly glamorous ruby-throated hummingbirds, which begin their migration from as far away as Canada, get star billing, but other species, including rufous, black-chinned, buff-bellied and Allen’s hummingbirds, will likely make an appearance, too.

The festival will feature tours, lectures, banding demonstrations, vendors and more. Photo by Phil Stranahan

Private residences, dubbed Hummer Homes, will open for early backyard bird viewing the Saturday before the festival. The three-day festival officially kicks off with a free welcome reception at 5 p.m. Sept 19 at Rockport Center for the Arts, 101 S. Austin Street in Rockport, and an opening barbecue dinner at 6:30 p.m. at the Saltwater Pavilion at Rockport.

On Friday, representatives of Sky King Falconry in San Antonio will make a presentation, and Saturday begins with a Hummer Breakfast on the grounds of the History Center of Aransas County, and ends with the keynote presentation from Greg Miller, a world renowned birder portrayed by Jack Black in the movie “The Big Year.”

A WingDing Event, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Sept. 21 at the Rockport Country Club Clubhouse, will raise money to rescue and rehabilitate injured and abandoned birds. For more information go to www.windsrescuecenter.com.

In between, a host of activities are planned to celebrate and educate the public about the nimble little birds, which can fly fast, screech to a sudden halt, hover and adjust their position up or down like nature’s version of a helicopter.

Hummingbirds flap their wings up to 70 times per second. Photo by Diane Loyd

Don’t blame the organizers if the birds don’t appear in force, although they almost always do. In 2014, a front blew through and the hummers failed to show in their usual impressive numbers.

To purchase tickets, volunteer, or get more information about the festival, go to www.rockporthummingbird.com, or contact the Rockport-Fulton Chamber of Commerce at 361-729-6445. Tickets may also be purchased onsite at the Martha Luigi Auditorium Box Office, 1803 Omohundro Street in Rockport.

 

 

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

Where is Pam?

Click to open a larger map

Follow Pam