Posts by Allan Lacoste

Lake Fed by Melted Snow

Nature
image of a lake

The night sky starts as a pale grey before transitioning to dark blue. The lake is well below the docks as opaque sheets of ice slowly lurk across the surface of the water. I can see my breath in the air, but it doesn’t feel cold outside. The temperatures are rising, and the ice and snow at the base of the mountain are starting to melt. It starts to lightly rain. The light of the moon makes the precipitation in the air look like fog. Within a day, the lake will grow nearly one-third of its current size as the ice and snow will soon change into water. I can walk under the docks now, but tomorrow night will tell a different story. A lake fed by melted snow is a beautiful sight to behold.

Dogs – Was Man’s Best Friend, Once Man Himself?

Nature
Dog Image

While I’m out on my ventures, there’s a lot of time spent traveling. And while I don’t have a lot of free time on my hands, I oftentimes find myself using the little bit that I do accrue to drum up and get lost in strange theories. For instance, are dogs just reincarnated people? Perhaps cats? Or any other animal for that matter? In the case of dogs, anyone that has shared a living space with one for some time will most likely attest to the fact that they occasionally exhibit human-like tendencies now and again. Is this due to them watching and learning from us? Or is my Australian Labradoodle the living embodiment of a 9th-century Scandinavian farmer?

Yosemite: The Half Dome

Nature Travel
Image: Yosemite: The Half Dome

Towering nearly 5,000 feet above Yosemite Valley and 8,800 feet above sea level, Half Dome is an untouched picturesque slice of Americana that looks like it leaped right off a California postcard. Half Dome is an iconic location in Yosemite that presents a taxing challenge for hikers. This is not a place for anyone who is out of shape, unprepared, or faint of heart as it will test your conditioning, but as someone who has done it, I highly recommend it for anyone looking for an extreme nature outing to clear the mind and test the physicalities of the body. Thousands reach the summit and for most of them, it’s an exciting, arduous hike; and for others, it’s the adventure that they were looking for.

Camping in the Mountains

Nature Travel
Camp Image

Camping in the mountains is one of the best ways I know to make your senses come alive. From the moment when darkness envelopes the blue sky, enticing the safety and warmth of the nightly campfire to the morning call of the blue jay who ushers in the new day. The tantalizing aroma of sizzling bacon mingles with the scent of robust pines and permeates the atmosphere. I close my eyes and take in a deep breath of crisp mountain air before looking up at the speckled bits of blue sky that poke through the small canopy of trees. I see squirrels scampering from limb to limb while a few birds watch on calmly. When I’m camping in the mountains there’s nothing on my agenda yet so much to do.

The Mechanical Bird Shows us All We Wish to See

Nature
Drone Image

There are people still alive today that were alive when the first Polaroid camera came out, and boy was it ever amazing! Not that I was there, but the sheer thought of capturing a moment to keep and cherish forever was just breathtaking. A memory frozen in time, and conveniently printed on a synthetic plastic sheet of film. That same technology has now evolved into aerial drones that can capture high-definition video and stream it to virtually anywhere in the world. Seeing what the birds see, to experience life through their eyes is a feat that our ancestors could have only dreamt of, now all you need is a smartphone and drone. The telling view of the all-seeing flying machine, capturing life as it happens, as we’ve never seen it before, and in 4K even.