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I would tell you about mine, but the sporks are after me right now…

Michael :)

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This pic of me was taken by a Spanish climbing friend on the 'Caminito del Rey', a dilapidated narrow crumbling concrete walkway which runs about 400feet up on the sheer cliffs along the edge of the El Chorro Gorge in Andalucia. I can't remember what scared me more, the rusting supports under the concrete, or the rusting 1/4" wire nailed to the face I was clipped to.

i'll likely change it someday, but that's one of my pups in his down sleep suit and Elton John sunglasses. he's chowing down breakfast on a winter camping trip to Mojave Preserve.

my avatar is a simple self-portrait I took for A Fork in the Trail… not really anything noteworthy

My newest avatar is from a recent trip to the Bear Waller Gap Trail near Carthage, Tennessee. This shot was at the trail's southern terminus at Tater Knob Overlook with views down to Cordell Hull Lake and Cordell Hull Dam.

There's been record amounts of snow in the Cascades this year, my avatar photo was taken near the top of Mount Si on a recent day hike.

1969 Apollo mission to the moon.

Stewart Brand started the Whole Earth Catalog, I was getting ready to start high school, and it seemed like the whole world was changing. I remember going outside and looking up at the moon while Neil Armstrong was doing the Ultimate Ultralight Hike :)

"Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'."

Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin' (but that was 1963)

Arizona Trail logo (obviously)

Enjoyed reading this whole thread…Thank you all for sharing.
It has me changing my own avatar to something a little more meaningful; so my new one is:
how it all started for me with my Hike to Heal!

On a trail in the Poli Poli area known for its Redwood Grove, here on Maui.

Mine is a photo of the West face of North Palisade at sunset. Taken on a recent trip into the Sierra.

I've since changed my avatar. This was taken last Sept on a trip to Yosemite. Location- S. side of Vogelsang pass above Gallison Lake looking SE over Lewis Creek Canyon towards the Clark Range.

Not exactly lightweight, but this is our family car camping tent, a 19' Sioux style tipi. Very cozy on cold winter nights with a warm fire inside.

Wouldn't want to try backpacking with it though!

John

Mine is me at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro July, 07.

Just a day hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Before I purchased a digital postal scale a couple of years ago I spent over a decade dragging the balance beam baby scale that our Mother weighed my sister and I on over a half century ago to every outdoors and mountaineering shop between Denver CO, Seattle WA and Berkeley CA. I became such a fixture that I can honestly attest that upon entering a store without my trusty weighing tool I was once greeted with the phrase,"Hey Dude, where's your scale?"

Here I am in front of Outdoor World in Monterey CA preparing to run/hike the Sierra Nevada's 220 mile John Muir Trail without re-supply. Took 12 days – had the time of my life.

A heavily-cropped photo of me hitting golf balls across the Kunar River, in Afghanistan, Christmas Day 2007. It's a very difficult 214-yard par 3. Local rule #6 states that if an Afghan child absconds with your ball, you may take a drop on the far side of the water hazard at no penalty. The razor wire is in play, however.

Actually, we would buy the balls back from the kids in the village across the river, at about $0.10/ball. This made many of them their family's highest wage-earner. We'd typically get 20 or so kids chasing balls. Eventually a man started coming down to the river with a stick and chasing away all the kids except his own son.

BEST. AVATAR. EVER.

Forgot where I grabbed my avatar. Was influenced by Jerry Falwell comments about the PBS TV show, and the caption that was below the image "compassionate conservative".

Seems to stand out in a crowd…

Steve

Picking up this fun thread from years ago that asked for info on the avatar chosen by folks at BPL. Interesting how folks posting back then really enjoyed the thread, and also that most of them actually posted under their full names. Things have surely changed, as Dylan sagely observed. Anyway, my avatar shows Mt. Washington in Oregon, viewed from the north at a pullout just east of the Santiam Pass over the Cascades. Picked Mt. Washington for memories of climbing it a few times during the late 70's of the last century. It's an easy scramble up the summit pinnacle from the NW ridge on the right side in the avatar. Descent is a short rappel. The first time was with a friend & my wife. My wife planned to just hike up the ridge to tree line, camp with us, then wait there the next morning while my friend & I climbed the summit pinnacle. But the next morning, after watching a young lady in running shorts & wearing a day pack speed thru our campsite to solo the route as we prepared to head up ourselves, she decided to climb it with us because, "if she can do it, I can, too." Ah, nothing like competition!!! Start your engines!!! So she did, and she did it a second time later when we made the climb with another friend & his dad. However, she skipped a third climb of Mt. Washington a year or so later by two of my friends and I, the one where we celebrated on top with a few shots of some beverage (forget what). Made the short rappel a lot more interesting. Moral: Your reach can exceed your grasp & you can do more than you think you can do . . . but whatever you do, don't drink toasts in high places with exposure, thoughts that cross my mind whenever we drive by that turnout. Edited to get rid of one or two dang words dangling at end of paragraphs.

My avatar is the first morning of what was the beginning of my '14 JMT trip. It was my first time in Yosemite and my first time on the JMT. The day prior I hiked in from Tioga Pass Road, making a stop at Indian Rock on my way toward North Dome. That evening I sat across from Half Dome watching as the sun set upon it's face, blasting light through the slight haze of smoke that flowed down into the valley some miles behind me. The sun set with a show of colors, only to light my face with the intense super moon that rose off to the left of Half Dome. Truly an amazing sight. The following morning I rose early to hike out to North Dome. After the show that I experienced the night prior, there was no chance I was going to miss what the morning sunrise had to offer. I hurriedly scrambled down to North Dome in a race with the morning light. I perched myself upon the edge of what seemed like the perfect seat to experience it all. The sun began to crest the Sierras, powering rays through the distant clouds. It had taken me three years to get here…to make this happen. Through rough times brought on by a toxic relationship, followed by the complete and unending, loving support of a new partner (now fiance), I was finally here. A new start, a new beginning. I wept as the sun pierced my eyes with its intensity and warmed my face with its glow. I stood upon the granite in a moment that I had only dreamed would happen for so long. It was finally a reality. I have never felt more present. I will never forget that moment.

Mine is me walking down into Black Canyon Lake…it was just a day hike but it was a great afternoon of fishing.

What I find most interesting is how many of these folks no longer post on BPL. No insinuation, no commentary, I just find it interesting. Someone should do a 'where are they now' story!

Horny toad from Henry Coe State Park. People come and go and get caught up in life basically busy! Member since 2005-GGG here I come 2016.

My current one was taken a few years back by a friend of BPL member Justin Baker, Kyle on a fall trip to the Trinity Alps with a bunch of folks from BPL. Always a good time.