Helambu-Langtang

On my recent trip to northern New Hampshire last week, after a climb and a few IPAs and a black bean pizza at The Moat, Mark and I stopped in at the basement consignment shop at IME. North Conway's not so bad, huh?Unfortunately I didn't find anything that fit (if i were a little bit larger, I would have been broke after 20 minutes) but I did grab this old map from the used book section up front. IME leads guided trips to this region and has brought many back over the years. It is a real beauty, and although I wish my scanner was big enough to scan the entire thing, these images of the front of back give you a pretty good idea.Helambu is a region of highland villages in Nepal, close to Kathmandu and Langtang, a region that borders Tibet just north of Kathmandu, is protected as Langtang National Park, the first Himalayan National Park.  And Gosaikund? Well, that's an alpine freshwater lake in the park, located at 14,370 ft above sea level. Pretty useless information if you're at your computer, but the map sure is nice...

Bandelier National Monument

Located in New Mexico an hour from Santa Fe, the 33,677 acres Bandelier National Monument preserves the homes of Ancestral Pueblo People. The park is named after Swiss anthropologist Adolph Bandelier, who researched the cultures of the area in the late 19th century. Bandelier was designated a National Monument on February 11, 1916, while most of its backcountry became a "designated wilderness" in October 1976. .Above are paintings by Pablita Velarde, which were comissioned by Bandelier under the Works Progression Administration in the early 40s. See many more here.

AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM

I finally made time to fly out to NYC a couple weeks ago to see the sights, eat some great food, stay at the Ace, and meet up with Jeff (the founder of this fine blog). At the top of my to do list was checking out the American Folk Art Museum and man did it deliver. I've wanted to see this place for a long, long time. The AFAM has a small permanent Henry Darger collection, which if you haven't heard of/seen Darger's work, please do. A documentary about his life and his made up world titled "In the Realms of the Unreal" came out in 2004. Long story short, this place was a dream come true for me. If you ever find yourself in the big city, go. You can also check out an image library of the museums collection online here.

Wilson Bentley

Wilson "Snowflake Man" Bentley was one of the first known photographers of snowflakes. Bentley was born in Jericho, VT in 1865, and when he turned 15, his mother gave him a microscope. Bentley soon figured out how to capture a snowflake on velvet so it wouldn't melt before he could take a photograph. He captured over 5,000 images in his lifetime, famously never finding two snowflakes that were alike. Awwww.Bentley's 1931 book, Snow Crystals, contains more than 2,400 images and can be purchased right here.

LARRY HAMMAR

In researching for the Transamerica bike trip that I took a couple years back, I ran across this guy's flickr and was floored. Larry Hammar (hammarhead2) was a cycling tour guide (and maybe still is?), leading groups across the country, through Canada and the Yukon, to Alaska and everywhere in between, from the Bikecentennial '76 onward. It took me probably 30 minutes to choose this photo above because they're all so good. When we were on our trip out west we still saw a few of those original 76 Bike Route signs. Some things really don't change all that much, and trips like these remind you of that. Check out all the photos, then start planning a bike trip with your friends. That groundhog didn't see his shadow, you know.