The Bloom

Baby Barreds

2010-04-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

Never would I have expected that another peaceful visit to Rocky Point Glades would make me a spectator to something like this. I stopped by Bill's to say hi to a good friend for the first time since November, when I left for California. He was excited to share the experience:

A very concerned landowner southeast of town contacted the nature center to report that two fuzzball owlings had become lost from their nest. Baby birds, like Barred Owls, leave their nests every spring as fledglings to spend time on the ground in their quest for flight. They may be cute, but are not often pretty or recognizable and are sometimes mistaken for injured adults and are brought to the nature center for rehabilitation. Fledglings should be left alone so that they may learn to fly and to live independently, but these were no fledglings; their eyes were not open and their feathers were only fluff. At this stage in a birds development they belong in the nests. Outside of the nest they are subject to predation and will not be able to feed themselves (thats mom's job!)

The friendly landowner introduced us to the tree under which she discovered the babes- just a short walk and a fence-hop from her long wooded driveway. Barred Owls are cavity-nesters, meaning that eggs are laid in secluded holes and crevasses off of the ground.
It appeared likely that the tree could have hosted a healthy nest because it had the most obvious 'cavity' in sight- a large hole where the trunk began to branch out. The tiny things were carried in a comfy shoebox to the base of the tree with a ladder and the saving operation would have be over quickly.
Our devoted crew searched through the grassy understory for evidence of a nest above- feathers and gaks would have suggested that we were in the right spot, but we found nothing. Bill climbed the ladder to investigate the suspected hole, but found no evidence there, either.
So many mysteries were discussed!
Why were the babies evicted from their nest? What did it? Where was the nest?
The spot where they were recovered was isolated by a fast creek and a driveway. babies this young could not have gotten far enough on their own for their nest to have been anywhere else but in our likely tree, and even if they could, they probably would not have been found together as they were.
We moved the ladder around the trunk so that Bill could climb to investigate another hole, though this one was much smaller than the original. He stuck his hand in and explored it as deep as he could, as he had done earlier, but still found nothing. The nests location was becoming an even deeper mystery.

The owls may have been kicked from the nest by the loving parent of a different species. Birds like jays and cowbirds are notorious for confiscating established nests and nesting sights by throwing existing eggs or babies out and laying their own eggs. It would take a courageous jay to face an angry mom-owl many times its size!
Maybe our babies had fled the nest to escape something else?

We continued to search the ground for even the smallest clue of a nest and Ruth discovered a feather-possibly belonging to an owl- deep in the grass very close to the original hole. We considered that feathers and such may have been washed away by recent severe storms and Bill had to give the hole another look.
He climbed higher on the ladder this time and began to dig into the soggy dirt and dead wood at it's bottom.

He tossed the soggy compost to the ground, one handful after another, until the remains of the nest appeared- fluff, feathers, poop and all! The mood lightened just then and Ruth strapped a backpack carefully loaded with the fragile chicks with Bill continued to puzzle over their eviction.

From the top of the ladder and before blue skies and the first canopy greens of spring he announced his discovery of a spout which emptied into the nest- a drenched hole which could easily have funneled rain-water into the main trunk of the tree from the rotted hole on the top of a branch above.

I imagined the dramatic flooding of the nest from the small hole hidden directly above the helpless babes. The owls may have been wet with direct rain water before it began its torrential poor. Maybe a trickle first, then a steady pour as the storm- perhaps the second or third of the system as they're likely to ravage this part of the state- raged violently around them. What would it feel like to rely on a the delicate trunk of a tree for your life as it is torn and beaten by winds more awful than you knew could exist?

The water would have to have come quickly so that it could fill many feet of the hollowed tree and reach the floating babies to the top.... just a couple of days ago many parts of the county were flooded by such a storm. The hardy hatchings had endured all this and a potentially fatal drop, too- also avoiding hypothermia, hungry predators and starvation on a foreign earth. Still they were alive and well.

The story, however unlikely, was all that we could think of and it appeared that our blind, bald babies were not so helpless after all.

Styrofoam, wire mesh and the toolbox were recruited to plug the hole. Bill spent several minutes ensuring, to the best of his ability, that the nest would not be flooded again and that it would be ready to host its owlings once again. Ruth carried them to the nest and set them inside carefully. Then I climbed with the camera-

What an experience! Thank you Bill!!!

Fishin Pond

2010-04-05T16:49:00.000-07:00

Had a beautiful mornin at Jerry Smith Park with the bro. We started down at the pond where our competing jerk baits landed us a pair of healthy large-mouths within seconds of each other. (mine's the big one!) The bass were released with the others and Elliot's big bluegill.

The pond was ours- didnt see a soul while we were there, but got to share the stories of past visits to the pond and park- REDICULOUS happens frequently here!

Update

2010-01-14T23:38:00.001-08:00

I'm stealin' my roommates Internet to post some pics, Each one has a cool story- Its been 'a hell of a week and lots of cool photos as soon as I get to the town's library; library's been closed of late. All of these images are in RAW format, but I cant wait to fool with 'em on my favorite computer program. Yesterday I worked the top of Chair #11- The storm broke after a miserable, blizzarding early morning. From nearly 9150 ft, the top of chair 3 looked pretty awesome through a coloured polarized lens. The crew thinks I'm kinda weird for takin' so many photos.

I rode up Chair 12 with my roommate, Josh- its a primitive fixed-grip which gives passage to some of the most exciting and least-known intermediate runs on the Mountain. Where the lift ends- high on WhiteBark Ridge- there was an incredible view of this awesome complete circular rainbow around the sun. A friend and coworker suggested that it was a sundog, but I recognize it as something different.

Mike and I had our randomly-assigned days off together. The mountain was smothered in discouraging storm-clouds and we werent going skiing. Instead we drove south- a joy ride of sorts...
And while my co-workers continued to struggle with the wind and snow, Mike and I enjoyed more than 80-miles sunshine, 60-degrees and the amazing scene of a boiling winter range.
The photo is of the mountains very near Mammoth, from the "Green-Church Road" which leads to the local hot springs and some secret fishin' holes.

One of Mikes spots on the Owens river just miles from Mammoth Lakes. We cast in 'a copper John, and I got a short hit, but neither of us could hook a fish.

Mammoth Mountain hosted a/the Olympic-Qualifying snowboard competitions this week. I got to see the famous guys compete in our Halfpipe and over the huge ramps. My roommate Josh took this photo of a qualifier flying over him on the Halfpipe. He got to watch from a bit closer than where i watched from work.

2010-01-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

PLEASE EXCUSE- Just puttin this here for a minute!

Work at 10,525

2009-12-08T13:26:00.001-08:00

The snow report is 5 fresh feet on the mountain- nearly 3 feet in town.
It snowed Friday night, Saturday and Sunday- laying waist-high snow along streets and sidewalks. Car accidents are abound and power outages are equally common.
Work, though, is sweet. The mountain is offering me more hours now that the runs are open and we approach the holiday season. I'm working all over the ski-area: today at 10,525 feet on Lift#3 "The Face Lift Express." I get to the slope and back via bus and snowmobile- its always a bit more exciting than you'd expect work to be and the view cant be beat when its not snowing ! I took some pics early in the day, and experimented shooting through my polarized sunglasses when the sun faded out the horizon.
At work we stand in negative windchills. Infact the other day a gust of wind atop one of the chairs measured 140mph.. Winds over 40, which occur almost daily, shut the lifts down. I can tell you that it's no fun waiting for the lift to start up again in those conditions.

Blanketed

2009-12-04T10:45:00.001-08:00

FRIDAY, NOV. 27

When I walked out of the library Friday evening the world looked much different than when I'd gone in. The miserable-grey sky had been replaced with a dramatic passing-storm one and the ground was all white. The Library looked extraordinary at dusk- with the dark breaking clouds above it. Instead of rocky and grand, the tall range that hid our sunset was nearly black.

I yanked the Canon from my pack and started the cold walk back to the apartment with a photo of the library. I leaned against a parked car to take the shot- the glowing building backed by our first winter storm. Not even a block away I found my shoes cold and packed with dense snow. It wasn't the powdery stuff.

The air was cold enough, though, that the ice in my shoes would not melt- a nice surprise when I came to realize that my toes were still cold and not numb. Some power lines ran down an alley towards the dark mountains to the southwest- I brushed off nearly four inches of snow from the rock that I suspected would make a fair tripod: It took the painful cold to drive me away from the scene some twenty-photos later. Most would surly be blurred; a brisk wind set in quickly and had me shivering over the 1/30 sec exposures.

The silly wind picked up again and I wasn't halfway home when the sun had failed our valley completely and offered passage for the second bout of weather.
...I turned my back to the wind which stung from the direction that I traveled.

The folks of Mammoth Lakes are much more accustomed to foot-travel than the big-city people that come to visit in their cars. Town is not big enough to risk the icy roads in a vehicle and the 20-min. buses are free to everyone. There were many people walking the same road as I. Some looked like simple masses of warm clothing and the rest of 'em were just frozen cowboys. The snow on the ground blew fiercely to my back as even more fell into the glow of streetlights and passing headlights. Six and eight inches accumulated on curbs, but the busy sidewalks were packed short from the rush hour to get home during the storm. I took photos on my walk: street scenes, Christmas lights and some cool ones when the silhouette of a bundled pedestrian walked in front of an SUV's snow-lit headlights. Most of my photos were disappointing, though: Blurred and dark. It was only those where I'd paid special attention to clean the lens of my camera and steady it on a ledge or mailbox that came out.

Icicles began forming by morning. The system was moving south violently, but our storm wasn't over yet. My ski-pass was revoked for the weekend for some silly flubs with administration in the workplace, but I could still ride the gondola on Saturday. I planned to take it to the top.
Saturday morning I hopped onto the bus for Main Lodge. The woman-driver jumped out frequently to chisel the ice from the steps with a small pick, and once we started moving the bus slid on every icy turn. She wasn't having a good time- turning off of old mammoth road the bus went so far as to miss the street-sign by inches and had an oncoming car make an exciting break.

The cars were more numerous than I'd scene them before. At the lodge there were snow-bound vehicles parked on the side of 203 for more than a half-mile down past the overflowed stump-alley lot. Maybe it is the fresh snow that brings them, or the weekend? At the gondola was posted:

TOP CLOSED

I gave the man my pass to see how far I could get- Only to McCoy station, though, at 9630feet in elevation.
The storm was much more than an examination from the bottom of the mountain would have revealed. I couldn't see the lodge or the peak of Mammoth mountain from half-way- only the most devoted riders and a few strips of dedicated conifers. Even the air was washed-out and crispy- It tore at my exposed face more awfully with each gust of icy wind. I walked from the station and up the flatter parts of a few runs. My meandering left me only cold until I found out just how deep the snow was where it wasn't packed down. The well of a tempting pine left me knee-high and unpleasantly surprised. The step I took destroyed my dry snow boots and sent me back to the station perhaps a bit earlier than I would have chosen. After shopping the unreasonable food-stuffs in the station I returned to the gondola and my apartment, assuming that I'd had enough of the storm. With my planned trip up 14-thousand-foot Whitney in mind, its now much easier to see how such a storm could leave you lost or in a bag!

BLACK and WHITE and blues, greys and greens

2009-11-30T12:41:00.000-08:00

Snow is white- it naturally fills in the grey spots with something more exciting, but there is something to be said for the greens and blues of a snowy mountain scape, too. I rode down hwy 395 yesterday- they've opened most of the roads to vehicles with tire-chains or 4-wheel drives after our big snow-dump on the night of thanksgiving (I'll post storm-pics later!)

Anyways, I was somewhere north of the village of Tom's Place when I spotted this gorgeous scene on the foothills of the Sierra. . Took several photos in colour and then considered the black and white-potential of the rough, dark trees and the beautifully smooth slopes. With the shutter speed up only a single click, I leaned again against the railing on the side of the road and snapped several more. When they are together, I think I like the colored-photo better, but individually the grey-scale one makes a more awesome impression on me. Which do you like best?- what could I do to make either of these even better? Adjust the mid-tones? Ups the contrast? More colour? Each seems to be missing something that would make them great! I would greatly appreciate any feedback! THANKS!

Sundog

2009-11-23T17:23:00.001-08:00

'Walked to the Library on Sunday afternoon- after my last training session on the mountain. The library was closed, but I spotted a bright sundog over Mammoth on my long walk back to the apartment. The thing was about 35 degrees from the blocked horizon and there was only one. I noticed the isolated rainbow several minutes after the last of the sunlight had left the valleyand it disappeared as quikcly as it seemed to have come.

Sundogs are a phnomenon which occur when the plate-like ice crystals in high cirrus clouds are shifted with the wind so that direct light is refracted through each crystal at 60-degrees. Sundogs can also form in low-lying ice clouds and generally become further from the sun as it rises and closer as it falls. Sometimes, when there is a sundog to one side of the sun, there will be an equal and opposite sundog that creates the appearance of a halo around the sun. They are said to appear anywhere in the world and at any time of day, but I have seen few in my lifetime and they seem to concentrate in early-spring for Kansas and Missouri.

Daytrip hoover

2009-11-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

October5: We got a late start for the day, and had little in the way of a plan, but Hoover dam was close and something we agreed should be seen.
Traffic outside of the city was hellacious- oncoming lanes flowed free but as we neared the Dam we rolled slower and slower. Neither Kelly nor I had a clue as to what was creating the miles-long line. Then there was the sign: "Police Security Checkpoint ahead". Windows were left down, sunglasses removed, smiles and all of the rest of the police-protocol was done and an hour or so later we were waved on and not pulled aside to be sniffed or searched or whatever they wanted.
The creep down to the Dam continued until we found that it would cost us some sum of money to park. Kelly offered to pay, but opted to be cheap with me and I did a quick U-ey to catch the lookout that we'd passed not to far back. They're building a new bridge over the river that offered better views than the famous dam- still Hoover was exceptional! Our adventure was had after we split for the turn-off to Lake Mead- we found a cool little beach to walk and the water was SO blue! Kelly and I picnicked-it out of the bed of the truck before a nice stroll down the waterline. Families played in the water- it was a little cold for me! I caught interest in the Zebra-muscle shells that littered the beach. She recognized the name and associated it with problems that she'd heard of before. Look at the little buggers: its too bad theyre so cool-lookin'! I spotted a wharf/lookout-thing that needed to be visited- we took the short drive and started walkin-

Kelly thought same as I did. "It sure is further than it looks, huh?"

I played with the cool schists and crystals that I found along the way and she pretended to be interested in learning about them. There was one final climb to do and we found ourselves looking over hundreds of miles of shoreline, including our green beach! We talked philosophy and got deep into wondering how life can take you places. I got to thinkin' about the future and Kelly settled my mind with an awesome john Lennon quote that Id not heard before. "Life" she said, "is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." I like it. Kelley smiled for a photo and we figured out that another night in Vegas was what was to be had.

Mammoth Mountain

2009-11-21T14:16:00.000-08:00

I think they call the cool spikes to the left of the main peak THE MINARETS. I only remember the name from my 2005 Sierra Club trip near the Devil's Postpile. I was eager to go visit the area again- the postpile and Rainbow falls- until I learned that it was all closed for the season and even trespassing would require an 18-mile hike without a snowmobile!

My three-day Lift Operators training started on Thursday, but Saturday was all mine. I drove up onto the Mountain and was skiing early. The things felt awkward on my feet and I took the Discovery run several times. I nearly fell on the thin west slope- my third slow ride down the hill-I wouldn't have been the only one on my butt!

I rode up the lift first with a man from San Diego who was working on his second day of trying to learn the Snowboard. Despite the bruises on his body he seemed to have a smile on his face and was a little confused when he learned that I had come from Kansas. "You ain' in Kansas no more!" The joke seems to be much more common up here than the Twister and Toto ones that were rampant on my visit to Colorado.

They called it a Bluebird-Day- referring to the cloudless sky and the warm air. People on the hill favor this weather, though it seems to be the worst for business while there is so little snow on the ground.

Upon Graduating to The Broadway- the most popular intermediate run on the hill- I rode up lift #1 with a New Jersey couple who warned me of the ice patches on the top. From there, the minarets and whatever peak that is were stunning! I drifted down past the Stump Alley lift to avoid the traffic and take some pics of riders coming off the ridge. ..

With the camera stowed I crossed my fingers and left the safety of flat. It was easy to go as slow as I wanted- Once I found that lifting my uphill ski would let me turn fast and brake. All that stuff they tell you about making a V with your skis to slow down was kinda useless on the steeper parts of the Broadway. I dared to increase my speed on the following lifts and found it amazing how quickly this whole skiing thing came back to me! I did run after run and felt that I'd mastered the Broadway! From there, it was to the top!

They call it "The top of the Sierra." I slid from the peak of Mammoth down to whatever shoot or bowl is a few closer to the Roadrunner and held my breath for the first big drop!

The sound of my skis was something that I'd forgotten and love! Its something close to the sound of a rushing stream, only it was powerful and at my command (most of the time). The fastest part was done and I couldn't help but look up to see what I'd conquered! Cold powdered ice drifted from the slope- The stuff that I'd helped to make airborne on my way down.

I slowed down to pass an injured skier and hit a patch of hard ice that wouldn't allow me to turn or slow. For only a moment I was out of control, but it definitely gave me a nice scare!
I was fortunate not to fall until a little ways after the ice- My first spill of the day, and head-first!
I skipped to a stop and carried one ski uphill to retrieve the other. "Wipe-Out!" a passing boarder shouted in spirit. I was still a bit rattled to offer any good come-backs. ...'took the run to the bottom of Chair #2, the Stump Alley Express, to take me back up to the top of Broadway for my last exhausted go of the day - just a few hours before closing. I'd forgotten how sore it makes you, too... I might just enjoy it up here!

Right 'round Midnight

2009-11-19T17:30:00.000-08:00

The drive was intense. It was only with some last-minute motivation from the fine folks on The Hill that I called Kelly in Plano, TX and asked what she might think 'if I showed up tomorrow morning'. She gave me an excited invitation and I packed for my 5-month adventure and said goodbye to my family. Mom brewed a thermos of coffee for my trip and I was on I-35 'round 'bout Midnight. Emporia passed in a blur and I paid my $6 toll in Wichita while the big-rigs and road-trippers emptied into the rest stops and onto the rural routes for the night. Wichita wasn't very exciting. I began to feel the overwhelming sleepiness long before Oklahoma City. A spectacular thumbnail-moon scooped the horizon through the orange glow of the city. Despite its empty streets, it seemed to give me a bit of a second (or third,..fourth) wind. There appeared always to be a hopeful set of taillights in front of me, though it is very possible that it was just another colourful hallucination. A thick, cloudy fog didnt help either. I drove through nearly continuous clouds rolling over the interstate- they were think and then thin as I gained a bit of altitute- and then the night was crystal-clear again with each ridge and crest. It all seems to have been mashed together with my exhaustion. Dawn came- I first suspected it to be another falsity as I had already spent several hours hoping that the moments of slight-colour in the sky were that. I stopped to fill up just after the peak of colour. The fresh air was good- I spent a few minutes in a dewy-wet field with my camera, and again as I crossed over the Washita River. It was the homestretch from there.

Kelley got her 1-hour notice and the final bout of tiredness diminished as I turned onto the President George Bush freeway. It wasnt until I was deep into the residential streets that i realized the silly directions I'd printed off, 9 hours before, were incomplete. Instead of calling, though, I took a handful of right and wrong turns and recognized the street that she lives on. Kelly met me out front. She showed me some of her latest sketches and ink/watercolour things (a neat series inspired by the mineral exhibit from our visit to the LA Museum of Natural History!!) ... and she took me out to a Brazilian cafe-place for a much-needed omelet!

We had a wonderful day at her favorite local park- one that she described as "how rich people do nature"- and a visit to her grandparents. Georgia, Kelly's wonderful pup, got some good off-leash time with the tennis ball.

Grandma and Grandpa were so sweet! I was quizzed about my photographs and was excited to teach them about their new Nikon DSLR. I talked a lot about night shots, and manipulating the different camera functions to create the effects they liked in my photos. I felt that Kelly was unusually silent through the visit, and later learned that she feared I was being bombarded with questions.
A return to the house- I got to meet her two siblings for the first time and the family crunched-in to fit me at the dinner table. Dad said a short prayer- I felt a bit awkward bowing my head to participate, but still I felt welcomed.

We shared a pleasant walk through downtown Dallas after nightfall. I tried taking some photos, but apparently I have a lot to learn about that as well. After Kelly's morning interview, and some good conversation with the parents, we rode separately to Sherman, where Kelly lived for four years to complete her Art/English degree. She lived in a cool old house that was eerily similar to our old Jarboe home in Kansas City- pink bath tile and all. The house is occupied by friends now, and they put us up in the living room. We spent some time walking across the Austin University Campus- she had a fun story for every building! I got a tour of the old downtown area, too- full of beautiful old Maryville-type buildings and some great ruins of an old train industry. Much of the architecture was like that of Old-Missouri's- maybe a little newer. The town, however, was many times larger than where I'd done school for a semester, covering nearly 40 square miles (compared to Maryville's 5). For sunset I was treated to a stroll down the ancient railroad bridge crossing into Oklahoma over the Red River in the small town of Carpenters Bluff. .. The old wood decking was creaky and burned in places- non existent in some. Kelly had never walked the entire length of the bridge before, and upon our return to Texas we determined that there was more graffiti and damage to the Oklahoma-side of each pylon. The tops of the boards were lightly burned in some places, while the spaces in between them were scorched. I thought that it might mean, while the burned areas appeared fluid like a puddle, that gasoline had been burned on the bridge. A placard told its story:

"ORIGINALLY BUILT AS A RAILROAD BRIDGE FOR THE MISSOURI, OKLAHOMA AND GULF (MO&G) LINE, THIS LANDMARK STRUCTURE ACROSS THE RED RIVER CONTINUES TO PROVIDE A TRANSPORTATION ROUTE BETWEEN GRAYSON COUNTY, TEXAS, AND BRYAN COUNTY, OKLAHOMA. MC&G OFFICIALS DETERMINED THEY NEEDED A LINE THROUGH GRAYSON COUNTY TO CONNECT THERE WITH OTHER RAILWAYS IN ORDER TO SECURE BETTER FREIGHT RATES FOR THEIR SHIPMENTS FROM THE OKLAHOMA COAL MINES. THE NEW LINE, UNDER CONSTRUCTION BY 1910, ENTERED TEXAS VIA THIS BRIDGE AT THE SMALL COMMUNITY KNOWN AS CARPENTERS BLUFF.
COMPLETED IN THE LATE SUMMER OF 1910, THE CARPENTERS BLUFF BRIDGE WAS DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND MAJOR FLOODS SUCH AS THE ONE IN 1908 THAT HAD DESTROYED SEVERAL AREA BRIDGES. ITS DESIGN ALSO INCLUDED A WAGON SHELF, AN EXTRA LANE TO SERVE TRAVELERS ON FOOT AND HORSEBACK, AS WELL AS HORSE-DRAWN VEHICLES, ALL OF WHOM HAD TO PAY A TOLL FOR ITS USE.
IN 1921, OWNERSHIP PASSED TO THE KANSAS, OKLAHOMA AND GULF RAILWAY CO., WHICH MAINTAINED THE LINE UNTIL 1965, WHEN THE COMPANY CEASED OPERATIONS IN TEXAS DUE TO DECLINING RAIL TRAFFIC. THE TEXAS & PACIFIC RAILROAD MAINTAINED THE BRIDGE FOR A BRIEF TIME AND THEN DEEDED IT TO THE COUNTIES OF GRAYSON AND BRYAN. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AGREED TO CONVERT THE STRUCTURE FOR VEHICULAR TRAFFIC, AND UPON COMPLETION OF THAT WORK, THE BRIDGE WAS OPENED AS A FREE PUBLIC THOROUGHFARE.
SPANNING THE RED RIVER SINCE 1910, THE CARPENTERS BLUFF BRIDGE REMAINS A SIGNIFICANT PART OF GRAYSON COUNTY’S HISTORY."

- www.co.grayson.tx.us

I started driving after a night at the old Sherman house- after dark, again. Kelly and I had an awesome goodbye- it was hard not to start spewing travel plans at her- she proposed a couple of road-trippy ideas herself! From Sherman, through Amarillo and all of the way to a 2am rest-stop just 11 miles from the New Mexico Border... Despite a short encounter with a TX hwy patrol-dude (issued me a ticket for having one of my license plate-lights out, @#&*er!) I was out to make time to California! My alarm was set for 6...

I was the only engine running, amongst a huge number of Semi's, at six when i left to reach the NM border before sunrise. By the time I passed Tucumcari, however, I was lookin at snow. My gas tank would be right on empty as I pulled into the cheapest station in Albuquerque- A gamble, but I could always fill up in Santa Rosa.

The town came and went and my new truck was getting mileage better than I'd hoped for! I passed up some reasonable prices, but only because I was feeling too motivated to pull off. the clouds for sunrise were awesome- Like the winter storm which had whitened the medians had only just passed! Low wisps and dark masses- everything was moving and changing above me.

I found myself in a bit of falling snow as i entered into a more mountainous region - cars and trucks coming from the west were covered in snow- they werent so many..?

I was only starting to get excited about the falling snow when I rounded a sharp hill and slammed-on the brakes for all of the red lights in front of me! The inattentive sedan behind me came way to fast- I was ready to stop for the line of Big-rigs, but the little thing whipped from behind me and to my left- deep into the snowy middle of the Interstate. The trucker beside me had his own moment of excitement about the time that my car began to vibrate. The unfamiliar ABS system gave me a bit of a fright, but a trailer spun out in front of me... I slowed to the 3 or 4mph that traffic had slowed to, and imagined that the slushy, icy I-40 couldn't possibly be the cause of all the chaos. My heart beat fast!

...Traffic crept- minivans and pickups crawled along the sides to bypass the holdup, and Semi's began parking on the sides as adrenaline levels dipped to normal. I called a few folks to ask if the interstate was being closed by the storm, but got no answers or replies. My tank fell to empty after an hour or so and I decided to take action before the car died.

It was the first time I'd really used the four-wheel drive- through a flat, open field to whatever highway paralleled the stopped cars. I popped over the highway and across the oncoming lanes- stuck the gears into 4x4 and was up onto the icey flat easier than I'd hoped! I rolled over the snow- it rose up behind me like dust on a dry dirt road... IT was AWESOME! I drove it up to forty and with only one lost pickup following me, I felt like I should have been in a dramatic movie scene or something! About half-way across the field I began wondering about the possibilities of a fence blocking my way onto the small highway that I saw. No worries; I could always drive back.

no fence! I made it over a big ditch and onto highway onetwentysomething! It was a miracle! I pulled into a small gas station on the highway just minutes after getting on- and just minutes before the tank would run dry! With my truck happy again and myself feeling rather accomplished, I slipped behind the closed building for a needed brake. The icy wind from the opposite side of the building was intense- it blew strong waves of ice and snow from the roof- I tried taking a pic of the dumpster being overcome by the white-out, but with frozen fingers and only my silly gadget, I got it in between the most intense bouts of snow. The sun shown through the blowing ice- it all made for a brilliant scene, but I was too cold to try photographing it again. For miles I drove between an equally confused Jeep and the pickup who'd followed me from the Interstate. I tried keeping an eye on the heavy traffic that I'd escaped, but it did not appear to lighten or speed up at all.

I assumed that they'd closed the interstate- a nasty sign for my long drive to California. When I found a patrolman blocking an entrance ramp, I stopped to ask about it all. The man was very friendly- "Your free to park on the ramp" he said. " It'll be about eight to ten hours before they get the wreck cleared. Where ya headed?" I told him I needed to get to Las Vegas and he told me to stick on the highway that I'd come from, and follow it until it intersected the Interstate again, where they should be letting folks on.

Not long after resuming the slower drive I saw the end of traffic- maybe fifteen miles from where I had the adrenaline rush and traffic came to a near-stop. Another mile gave way to the haunting image of two mangled Semi-trailers locked together. One on it's side, I think, and one broken and upside-down. They blocked the entire width of westbound I-40 and emergency vehicles swarmed.

through albuquerque my intentions were to fill-up again in Gallup, New Mexico. The heavy sky turned to wonderful sunshine and another closed I-40. The road was wet, but not icy and the stopping process was aided by EXIT HIGHWAY signs far in advance of the single-file line onto the ruins of another rural highway. I was optimistic- traffic moved relatively quickly at more than ten miles/hour for several minutes. Nope. I parked behind a metallic trailer before we started moving again and took a few shots of the beautiful snowscape to the north- vermillian bluffs and all.

I rolled with traffic for an hour or so. Another truck had closed the interstate- this time with a crunched cab and a no front axle or wheels. He didn't flip, but had plowed through the brush and snow north from the road. His missing axle- bent and many yards from the cab, and another deformed something was lodged against a pole about a tenth of a mile from his place of rest. We filed back onto the Interstate only 30 miles from Gallup.

Only 30 miles later, my credit cards which payed for all of my gas had been cancelled- AFTER I owed a great sum for the gas that i filled the tank with. I called my parents who received a call from the card company notifying them of some suspicious activity in Gallup. Yep, that was me. My mom gave me another card number acceptable to the clerk and I was freed.

By flagstaff my money was turned on again and by sunset I was stuck in the Security-mess before crossing Hoover dam. At 5mph, all of the backside of the Dam was lit up, beautiful and impressive!
Again I laid down my gas money in Las Vegas. Gas was up nearly 30c/gallon from when I visited Kelly in Plano. I drove north where I would cross Death Valley and face my final few hours on the Eastern Sierra. A sign to Pahrump- the city of nearly 40,000 in the middle of nowhere. Pahrump is a modern phenomenon- unincorporated and in the Pahrump valley of 2700feet, originally inhabited by the Shoshone. Until Las Vegas boomed in the '60s, there were no paved roads or telephones in the Valley. I cut across the north end of town on Bell Vista Ave and faced incredible darkness to the west. Not much of a moon, if there was one. My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim- appropriate for having entered California, but the Hotel was nowhere to be found. I grew sleepy enough to feel unsafe driving and so desperate as to park the truck at Death Valley Junction for the night. At nearly 1, I rolled down the windows and slipped into the back for another few chilly hours.

I woke up in a desert- amongst cacti, far mountains and with every liquid thing stored in the truck FROZEN. Again I photographed the telephone poles above me. I once told Kelly that they bring a sense of harmony or rapport to me. Railroad tracks do for her what these long lines do for me. -Im sure there is a better word for it..Any suggestions?

I drove to watch the sunlight sweep across vast Death Valley for the first time since it retreated at sunset. Instantly a warm world appeared that did not exist in the cold night. Birds were more common than I'd seen them in the past few days. Finch-things mostly, but a huge circling flock of what appeared to be snow geese revealed themselves above the Valley floor-. They flew at an altitude nearly equal to the surrounding peaks- Big, white things with black wings. Near Furnace Creek, I was just 18miles from Badwater, the lowest point in the US at 282 feet above sea level, and 110miles from the highest point in the lower 48: Mt. Whitney, 14505ft. As the crow flies, Badwater in only 76 miles from Whitney.

The small village/resort at Furnace Creek is also known for having the highest recorded temp in the Western Hemisphere at 134degrees F.

I stopped in the valley to take photos of the Sand Dunes and the Devil's Cornfield, where vegetation is spaced evenly and elevated several feet above the ground in places due to high erosion that's washed away all sediment from around the plant, leaving it standing on it's roots. I made it through the valley- into the Joshua Tree desert on the West side.

There I spotted a big white pile of the fresh tailings of a mine- high up on a hill and maybe a half-mile north of hwy 190. It was just a speck when I spotted it-there were several- and I immediately pulled up onto the volcanic rock and kicked it into 4-wheel drive. I love it!

Not long after leaving the hwy for the rough desert I came upon an ancient trail. The grown-over ruts appeared to be heading in the general direction of my pile of rocks and I followed it for only a few hundred yards until it was no longer identifiable. I rolled all of the way to the base of the tailings and indeed they were piles of mine-waste. With a pocket knife and a ball of old aluminum foil, I began collecting small bits of quartz and even a small garnet on my way up. I searched the rubble for signs of minerals that might tell me what was being dug, but i dont know enough about that. The matrix was white and grey, soft, waxy and flaky- I recognized it from the Harding Mine that I visited in New Mexico over a year ago. I couldnt tell you its name

Existing amongst the white were many pieces of calcite- like the low-grade optical stuff that we used to find with Beaver Lake's sandstone in Arkansas. I scrambled to the top of the pile to discover the place from where all the mess had derived. In the deep hole of the mine I found handfuls of the garnet-bearing white stuff. The largest crystals are only a few milimeters in diameter, but they are a beautiful gemmy red when you hold them to the light. Most appeared old and weathered- even when I broke the fresh faces of the crystals from the wall of the mine, they appeared rounded and to have something of a worn, matte finish. Alamandine?

I wondered deep enough into the hole as to loose all sunlight and blindly gathered another pocket-full of material.

Still, there was no obvious metal in the stones. The garnets' colour has seeped into the matrix stone in a small layer around each crystal and the facets of many seem to have a metallic patina on them of a bronzish-colour. Can anyone help teach me what they are, or what might have been collected in the mine? There were many smaller prospecting-type holes around the mine, and I never visited the two other tailings piles that could be seen just my right, but I suspect that this mine a more professional operation.

I got out safe- avoided those man-eater, tire-killing cacti that spotted the terrain and was back on the highway with a waterbottle full of garnet-material and a dime-sized bit of opalite. Through the redrocks and past the "Sulfate Farm" thats eating-up dry Owens Lake. the deserted land around owens lake has an incredible history of mining towns and water-rights disputes: Starting in 1866, and for nearly a century thereafter, the Cerro Gordo Mines produced fortunes in Silver and Lead bullion shipped to Los Angeles via wagon, and later zinc ores.

Early mining was hindered by hostile indian activity and the limits of adobe-oven smelters, a 3-day trip to the other side of the lake and no roads. Before the peak of mining in the 1880s, the Bessie Brady barge had cut the 3-day frieght to three hours and modern smelting operations, trains and an improved toll road made for the high-production of ingots shipped to LA.

A second mining boom in 1910 was focused on the discovery of zinc ore, then used in the production of alloys and consumed for nutrition. In 1913, the city of LA established aquaductes which diverted water from Owen's tributaries. The lake dired up and the City was sued by a Soda Products company who used the the $15,000 settlement to build a new plant on the Dry lake Bed which burned down a short time later. Chemicals and minerals were extracted from the lake's Brine. los Angeles was again sued after the wet summer of '37 when it spilled water back into the lake from it's aquaduct. The original court-ordered $154000 fine was taken to supreme court in '41 and ultimitly resulted in the construction of the Long Valley Dam which impounded lake Crowley, to the north, for flood control.

Well, I thought it was cool.

I filled up for the last time in Lone pine, under the shadow of majestic Mt Whitney, and spotted Mammoth Mountain to mark my exit.

Got it!

2009-11-09T09:55:00.000-08:00

Thank You, everyone who helped me find my missing photo!

I got it, and in Full Res., from Steve at the Missouri River Relief who was kind enough to review the archives and offer me the photos of mine from past River Clean-ups like Sioux City!

Honeysuckle!

2009-11-09T09:43:00.001-08:00

Oh, what a success! The large student-workday headed by bill around Swope Park's dinning hall has left the area looking better than ever!

Bill estimated that sixty or seventy volunteers were in attendance from some of Kansas City's universities and made a killer introduction speech on the picnic tables behind the between the hall and the edge of the recently-burned section of The Hill. A lucky handful of Master Naturalists volunteered to work the sunny morn and led groups through the day on areas from the Quarry up to the dining hall.
Woodlands were opened after only the first few minutes of work and smiles were abound. I recognized several folks and it was good to see people again.

The workday's photos were my assignment- shared with Robert Gaines. The city had asked for pics, and Wildlands can always use them. I stuck around to photo Bill's speech and tagged onto a group working around the hall at first. I met students from St Louis and Kansas City and an old classmate from Lincoln High. Volunteers were asked to stick in groups of two or three to manage the cutting and hauling of the bushes, and herbicide (Tordon) application as separate tasks. The small groups who did stick together seemed much more efficient than those who attempted to work individually or in larger numbers. Still, I found nobody who was having a bad time, and work was being done everywhere I wandered. For nearly two hours, the invasive Honeysuckle bushes were cleared around the buildings atop the hill. From here, I followed students down towards the quarry where two more groups worked vigorously. I sparked conversations and few seemed to mind the camera. The fella in blue, above, tore through the biggest trees with a handsaw for his herbicide partners and I got a smile and a laugh when I pronounced him my #1 model.

I hope that Robert got some good pics- mine were okay. It certainly wont take too many more of these workdays to clear the planned acres if volunteers continue to be as enthusiastic as today's group. Less importantly, the huge turnout helped too. .. Maybe we could blame all of the fun happening on the excellent 70-degrees!
Honeysuckle may continue to grow in the cleared areas because of the strong, century-old seed bank that exists in the dirt, but continued burning will help to suppress saplings and kill shallow seeds.

leaf

2009-11-08T13:57:00.001-08:00

My brother found an extraordinary leaf in the lawn. It was so colourful and perfect he brought it in to show! I shaded the window with a white sheet and took a dozen shots or so- came out with some pretty cool ones. It looked like a SweetGum leaf until I realized that there are only Maples around. Maybe it was blown from another block!?

What a Burn

2009-11-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

Larry invited my mother, Bill and I to enjoy and assist with a small private-land burn in Johnson County, MO. The fireline was cleared, and fire was dropped by 10. Prescribed winds increased and humidity levels dropped and WHAT A BURN! The thing was textbook and a real pleasure to witness..
Mr. Rizzo dropped the beginning of a backfire on the Southwest corner of our ~15 acre burn area. The first minutes were fast and intense while the fire spread swiftly up towards an open ridge- propelled by an unexpected wind-tunnel from the large lake that was the western border of the area.

We had already kicked through the leaf-litter in search of any wildlife that might be threatened by our activity: Box turtles and the Red bat were of the most importance. After my exciting red-bat encounter on the fireline earlier in the day, Rizzo cited a recent Northern-Arkansas study which found that the bats may hibernate in the leaf-litter and be endangered by the fire. He found it surprising that the bat was as far north as we were and thought that my sighting was significant enough to report to the experts that he knows. We found nothing to protect from the coming fire.

From Texas Parks and Wildlife:

"Threats and Reasons for Decline:
Given recent discoveries of red bats hibernating in grass and leaf litter, it is likely that some die as a result of controlled burning in winter, especially in deciduous forests."

Cool, huh!? The growing fire sent its smoke towards the sky- we were fortunate to have the warm, cloudless day to burn- such conditions usually result in good lift for the smoke, so that we aren't smoking-out neighboring properties. The wind blew the columns of colourful smoke back over the ridge to shade us from the sun and cast a beautiful and surreal orange glow through the smoke and trees where we stood. Bill and Mom continued to create the backfire further down the line- away from the lake. I was called ahead after the hill had about 30 feet of black on in- My job was to spot developing hazards and put out the smaller fires that creeped on the line. (and take too many photos)

With the steady winds and growing black creating a sense of security and giving us a bit more time to sit back and enjoy, I spent a few dozen exposures on the unfolding scenes. It was obvious that we were in for a beautiful burn!

We neared the end of the backfire and I was asked to walk back to the lake and make sure that everything was in good order. It all appeared fine- no smoke on the wrong side, or flaming trees- until I got down to the water where a towering dead trunk had burned to a few feet up.

I jogged back to report and returned to the tree to kill it with a back-pack sprayer. Living trees had only a few inches of darkened bark at the base, and could not burn. Our leaf-litter fuel was new enough to create the awesome smoke! I caught up with the others, who waited for me so we could begin flanking the property with flames that promised to be a bit more exciting than what continued to creep over the ridge. I reported 60 to 80 feet of black and I relocated the extra torch-fuel and water-pack further up the line while the burnt section of our fireline was triple-checked.

We were ready to get started. Bill and I were positioned on the Northwest corner to light a wind-driven headfire as Mom and Larry turned north to light the flames that would burn towards the lake to (theoretically) meet with the back- and head-fires and safely burn the last of the unburned.

On the Northern line, the wind was to our backs and drove the smoke away and into the forest. It all made for some very cool lighting-effects for my photos, mixing orange smoke, black trees, white linings and blue sky. Bill held at the lines' bend for me to control the grassy lake-side corner, and as he continued to light the flank-fire that would meet with larry's I checked the head-fire line and wondered into the black where things burned and smoldered all around me.

I followed on the burning edge of the headfire- picture-happy as ever- until I spotted Bill and my mom well into the charcoaled-zone themselves. You could stand in a spot for less than a few seconds and be presented with nearly unlimited changing photo-opportunities. Winds change to create a sunlight-spectacle of billowing oranges, browns, whites and blacks, letting white light in where the different shades of smoke were not, and boiling the colour against that brilliant blue. I knelt to see the infinite billowing smoke columns cross the lens of the camera and all sensations of a cool breeze, warm sun and crisp air were turned a bit more hellacious.

Where topography brought different sections of fire together, and suffocated small burning areas of oxygen and rising air, little vortexes spawned and spun with black debris and thick smoke. Each whipped through the hot-spots until they collapsed in cooler, more stable conditions. I turned my bandanna in to a neck guard after the first one spun into me and sizzled the hairs on my face and neck. The burn seemed to be going perfectly when I spotted Larry- with a big smile on his face!

Sure he may have had some good, black ash on his teeth, but he was thrilled! He shared some stories as we walked across our achievement. Previous burns, of which I have attended two on the property, have rarely been as successful... The unburned land was reduced to only a few hundred square yards and he got off on some unrelated observations about raccoons as we skipped over a poop-less log on a burned trench.

The fire smoldered itself out as the small ring consumed the last few feet of fuel in a lovely anti-climax and left the four of us standing together and smokey. Larry started back to finalize our burn with a final examination of the property and fireline- I grabbed a sharp window-scraper from the car to retrieve the giant Bearded-Tooth Mushrooms that I'd spotted growing unusually high on a dead tree. The unmistakable things, nicknamed hedgehog mushrooms for a good reason, are supposed to be good edibles, though have only eaten them once. I gave bill his choice- the Giant one or the huge one- he chose the smaller to take home and try himself. Several Minutes passed and Larry didnt show.

Bill became worried and wondered if we should go back into the fire to assist with whatever had complicated his short line-check. I grabbed the water-pack again- Bill had the rakes and we walked swiftly down the line. It was on that silly southeastern bend- near where Larry had began the flank- that we found him struggling with a trio of burning logs. He was happy to receive the help, though the logs were in the black and not an emergency- The three of us broke the things apart as best we could and I emptied that heavy pack.... What a burn!

RP GLADES

2009-11-03T12:36:00.000-08:00

Trees on The Glades have lost their leaves- this is not true for those on Blue River road. On my way to Lakeside the Blue River was still canopied with light-greens, yellows and oranges.

Blue sage is ghostly grey and patches of oats gave the bright understory it's last highlights of green on the opened sections of the glades. Where the trees have not been thinned Honeysuckle is thick and more noticeable than any other time of year.- to 10 feet or so! It is it's fall-green and ominous red berries are everywhere.... And under the mid-day blues in the sky, it was an awesome colourful day!

My Warmest Birthday

2009-11-03T12:29:00.000-08:00

...In the 60's! Larry, Bill and Ruth were all ready to go when I met them near the dinning hall on the hill; leaf-blowers and chainsaws were prepared for making the trail- THE FIRELINE- that would outline the new burn section for Rocky Point Glades. The few acres have not burned in the history of Swope Park! Larry is confident that in time, our prescribed burns and honeysuckle removal will be able to revive the glade without the thinning of woodies that helped to bring the other sections of Rocky Point Glades back to life. . The exotic Bush Honeysuckle that has taken the understories around swope park is nearly the only green thing left this season. It is usually the first green thing in the Spring and the last on in the fall, thus giving it another sunlight-advantage over the native plants that thrived before it's introduction as an ornamental from Asia. It is the Oriental Ornamental and yes, it is everything towering that is green in the pics. Yikes!

Ruth and I stuck between Larry and Bill to remove larger debris from the trail and spot and remove hanging-hazards from in, over and around the line... Things like vines and dead trees that threaten to fall over the Fireline and introduce wildfires during a burn as well as dead branches and vegetation that the blowers cannot move. The fireline runs across a handful of old camp-buildings and a small stand of weathering picnic-tables will all make for the type of obstacles that I have never burned around before in an understory fire. Being the first year, and with so much green brush around, there is little more than fresh leaf-litter for fuel. It will be an exciting thing to learn from! Bill is a marble-maker. His hobby is making all sorts of way-cool beads and marbles to collect and give as gifts. He gave me this awesome one, made from the colourful scraps of glass from the table! Its soo cool- little viewing windows, swirls and a big vortex on the top! Bill saved the marble for me while I visited Colorado and was delighted to coincidentally gift it to me on my Birthday! Thanks Bill!

The Woodcock.

2009-11-01T12:15:00.000-08:00

I spent some time Downtown this week- I used the 35mm that Vicki lent me as an excuse; I needed to finish the roll of film that I started in California so that the camera could be returned. Of course, I took the new Canon that I bought so that I could have something to put up on the blog.

There was a cloudy night in the plaza; it rained for most of last week and the cold weather broke while I walked through Westport and the Plaza. Halloween-ers filled the streets and I felt unusually safe in some parts of downtown where the freaks are not always so friendly. Sometimes I fear that carrying the cameras and tripod around makes me more of a target for potential crime.
I got away safe on Saturday night, when warmer air prevailed and the moon was big. I managed to get a few okay-photos, too. I did the Liberty Memorial and Union station, and cruised up to the the KC Scout for a somewhat peaceful view of the city's center

An evening with my friend Christine led to the discovery of a very confused American Woodcock stuck near the doors of a Price Chopper here in town. The bird flopped around as I approached it; it was so awkward looking and I was so excited to see one up close.

Ive done Larry's spring woodcock-walk at Jerry Smith Park several times, and have marveled at their acrobatic courting display from afar- Up close, though, they appear to be a much different creature. I flashed the palm of my left hand at an arm's reach to distract him and flung my beanie at him. The thing freaked for a second, but was caught in my hat! I stashed the bird in my arms for the walk back to the car and helped him out of the hat so that he was free in my car. Christine and I spent some more time away from the car, and I returned to find the woodcock resting in the passengers seat.

The radio popped on when I turned the key- causing the poor thing to become alert and skittish again. He flew up and to the back of the car. Several laps around my car had been flown by the time we reached home, and the woodcock had spent several blocks in my lap. I would take the bird to Lakeside Nature Centre in the morning. At Lakeside, Susan checked me in, and told me that the bird was only the second of his species to be checked into the center. (Sorry- I don't know why I decided that the thing was a he)... She saw the camera on my shoulder and asked if I expected photos of my bird. Ruth met me, and held him so that I could snap a few pics. Ruth would take the woodcock to Jerry Smith to release it if he checked out with no injuries. She flipped him upside-down to examine the under-feathers and discovered an intriguing set of short, white-tipped tail feathers. Right-side-up the bird appears round and tail feathers are hard to identify. Larry believes the bird to have been migrating and tells me that they sometimes become confused and disorientated by lights in the city....I swung by the bunny-pen to check up on Dylan, the rabbit that I caught in Holt Co., in July. He's still there!

Going-ons

2009-10-30T11:45:00.000-07:00

Sold the truck for $500 Monday. Maybe I could have charged more money for it, but as a friend put it "I feel sorry for the guy you sold it to." The thing had passed 302K miles and was sold with a cracked windshield, two bald tires and a failing exhaust system... ...some major dents, a wooden 'tailgate', a busted passengers-side mirror... ETC.

I snagged some bobble-heads and superman from the dash, and the few things that hung from rear-view mirror have been divided amongst a couple of people who shared the truck the most! It will spend the rest of its days somewhere it Western Johnson County

I guess 10,000miles in three and a half months is a little much for such a truck.? But check out my shiny new PURPLE SUV! My father helped me get a good deal on a new 4x4 thing- I'm not too sure how I feel about the electronic everythings in it, but it sounds like a sports car compared to the old dodge!

(It looks even better covered in MUD!!!)

Summertime

2009-10-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

A pic that I discovered on a CD from the floor of my room. Taken August 13, but I dont know where I was... Looks a bit like Jerry Smith to me!

I have spent A LOT of time sorting through hard drives and CD's to get as many of my old photos back as possible since the external harddrive which they were stored on crashed. The search has been successful in finding most of the photographs that I used in my 'portfolio,' but am still missing many of my favorites.

There are still a few of them that I am trying to find. Im looking for photographs from the hill and my California, Colorado and Arkansas roadtrips- but especially that awesome lightning pic that I shot in Sioux City in 2008. It was sent around and used several times in presentations and documents (I Know someone has it!)

IF ANYBODY'S GOT A COPY OF THE SIOUX CITY LIGHTNING, I would love to have it! THANKS!

Kansas City River

2009-10-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

AUG. 12
A float by Bill; some photos I found from the beginning of August. Bill and Ruth invited me to float on the Missouri River for an afternoon. The weather couldn't have been better! We launched a mammoth 3-person Canoe from Kaw Point - The confluence was our first obstacle, but the heavy boat kept a smooth course through any turbulence beneath us. We traveled under the first few bridges and a trail blew its whistle on the bridge upstream of city market. There was a good story to the name of our vessel, but I forget both.
Bill tried introducing us to a betting game. "Train-Car Poker"- He explained that the game was played by betting on the last car, the second to last car or the third. When the tail-end finally shows up and reveals the identification numbers of the last three boxes, the numbers- I think that there were like five digits to a car- were played as a poker hand. Bill's last car, "Number-one" started with a lucky pair of 7's and a pair of 2's. Ruth chose to bet on Number 3, which beat my silly second car with a pair of 5's.
The City Market overlook was identified and we tied-off to one of the old wooden pier-supports just down from the overlooks hefty cement ones. We scrambled up the rip-rap, alongside the pillars, and overcame the weeds and briers to hop a fence and walk the stairs the rest of the way. Ruth and Bill posed for a photo, and I took a few of the downstream bridges. The river was beautiful all dressed-up in it's summer greens and with those fluffy afternoon clouds. We glanced across the bridge that connects the overlook-island with the rest of the world. Ruth spotted a small group of friends and everyone met to catchup. Bill tried explaining to me what little he knew of the folks and we showed our finest smiles for Ruth's extended family.

The sun sank into the thicker clouds as we approached another large bridge on the water. I lost another round of Train-Poker and Bill told us that all of the commotion that appeared to be on the next bridge was the beginning of construction for the new I-35. The next bridge was the last one before our take-out. We neared the construction, where they had a HUGE crane floating on a barge, and more equipment and materials on others. The sun vanished below treeline. Bill spotted a beach that he remembered camping on; Ruth told Bill that the large sandbar was not the one that he remembered. The disagreement was definitely a good excuse to stop and investigate. The dark sandbar held only a set of tire tracks and a block of dock-foam, and after Bill was convinced that the sandbar was not the one he remembered, and that night really was coming fast, we launched the dock foam and gathered our things. The canoe could not catch up with the minutes-head-start that the block of styrofoam had with the current and with only a quarter-mile of river to go before our takeout on the opposite bank, the three of us put some effort into paddling for the first time on our four-mile-run. Bill steered us across the river so that we paralleled the nightly shore with only an easy bit left to float. A spark of lightening lit parts of the Northwestern sky and it appeared that we would be on dry land just in time as the unexpected storm approached.

Of course you could hear the surprise and tension in his voice when a gusty front-wind broadsided our placid canoe. The winds whipped across the river and down it's channel, and with nothing to obstruct it, it hit hard. For a moment the wind seemed to push us ashore- it was all-of-the-sudden so loud! My instincts were to get to shore and only a few hundred feet of water flowed between us and the boat ramp. the boat-ramp projected from shore to form a slower current upstream of the thing, and a much faster one around it's point; I wanted to get the boat to shore quickly and I didn't like the looks of the speedy current forming on the ramp itself. I started to paddle towards shore, though I made little progress with two other determined paddles on board. Bill was headed for the ramp! The wind changed directions and thunder and pouring rain started against us at the same moment. We were in the storm way too quick!

Bill shouted a few things that I did not hear and we beached the boat just upstream of the ramp. The scene was chaotic, but we managed to carry the boat and our things up to the lot- tied it to the cables between cement blockades and hid the canoe on the river-side of a block that outlined the parking area. The rain continued and it wetted each of us more than we would have hoped. We piled paddles and packs into Ruth's little car and she got us back to Kaw where the bout of exciting weather had already come and gone. Ruth yelled her goodbyes from the driver seat and left Bill and I to retrieve the boat with Bill's big truck. I asked bill to allow me a few seconds with my tiny camera and the dramatic night scene of Kansas City's Downtown engulfed in the storm.The damn thing didn't do much good for the photo's potential; I gave it up after three very different exposures. It was a beautiful thing, though!

Through Downtown and the city market area that we visited via the river. Bill made one last swing of his arm to point down the way that would take me to the same Overlook-

We loaded the boat in the rain again; the canoe was flipped and moved away from the cement so that Bill suspected aloud that someone had tried to steal it. My immediate thoughts blamed the boat's position on another stray gust of wind that may have come with the storm in our absence. I kept it to myself.

We lifted the canoe in an a light rain, and fastened it to the bed as heavy rain turned heavier. One heavy mess of rain forced traffic to slow down on the ride home.

Dylan and Kelly- OUT

2009-10-01T00:55:00.000-07:00

Libby met Kelly and I in town for a last Dairy King meal. We spent hours doin' the errands-thing and settled in the library for enough time to do emails and music, and for me to answer a phone-interview for the umpteenth job that Ive applied for. I sat in the truck for the phone-call; it hailed and sleeted and winded.
He hired me on the spot; I will operate a ski-lift for the winter season at Mammoth Mountain!

It was the perfect start to our roadtrip! (for me, anyways)...
...South on 34 and blue skies. We stopped in Empire to drop Bob's books off at the Sweet Shop. I ran up to an old gold mine, too; Kelly made an awesome quick sketch of the scene while I picked a handful of Pyrite crystals from the tailings. We drove through the long Eisenhower tunnel on I-70 and caught a stunning sunset many miles east of Grand Junction. Kelly asked me why the city was named Grand Junction. I couldn't answer and she decided to start a list of questions that we had about the things we encountered on the trip.

Why did the sunset appear to last so long?

Why is the city called Grand Junction?

We decided that the sunset had lasted much longer than usual; Kelly theorized that we'd been acclimated to sunset from deep in a mountain gulch and that the mountains had shortened sunset.I explored the possibilities of chasing the sun west. I guess that if earth rotates at 1040 mph, and we traveled at 70mph, it would add something like 9 minutes to the sunset (my math is probably very wrong!). I'm bettin' that Kelly's idea is much more likely! Grand Junction, like the more familiar Junction City KS, is named for the junction of the region's two major rivers: the Colorado River and the Gunnison. Grand Junction is also known as THE RIVER CITY in Colorado. "Grand" is a reference to the Grand River until it was re-named as the upper stretch of the Colorado in '21.... Wikipedia is awesome!
We didn't turn from I-70 until eleven or twelve; ran down Cisco's blue Highway- towards Arches National Park- until I spotted a steep dirt road on the left.

The truck's wheels spun over the loose gravel for a quarter-mile or so; the tent put up on the windless-side of the truck and we camped in small gravel pit. 'Sat in the light of a nearly-full moon, told stories of all of the creepiest critters we'd encountered and watched the cloud's moon-shadows pass over a vast desertscape.

From our tiny 'stealth-camp' sunrise was colourful and exciting. Blues and Oranges, but not much topography. The moon had revealed the flatness of our surroundings overnight, but the vastness of the plain was unexpected to me. Kelly crawled from the tent after the most exciting colours had grown dull.
The tiny camp-stove helped make some fine powered cappuccino-stuff. We each had a couple of glasses of coffee crap and i collected some fine agates before we hopped back onto the unnamed hwy to Cisco.

Im not real sure if the tiny desert town had any habitable buildings, but we spotted a sign that gave the town the nickname Hydrocarbon Heaven and Kelly added the mystery to our list.
Why is Cisco the Hydrocarbon heaven?
... We still dont know.The general store was gutted, stripped and leaning to the right, and a huge train yard sat to the north. Cisco actually hosts a great sheep and wool industry. South of the 'town' we entered a Colorado River-canyon and followed the river for many miles-

Pulled into Arches' Visitor Centre for quick break and some info. I asked a ranger-dude about the best hikes in the park and he gave us a list of short ones. The line of cars exiting the park was forever.

We slipped onto the double arches with a Japanese Couple and a German family in between tour buses. They were massive! Kelly immediately noticed the softness of the sand that we walked on- she compared it to shuffleboard sand. I was fascinated by all of the cacti and yuccas around us- all of the cool orange sandstone, too! My pics were disappointing.

The drive to Delicate Arch- the famous guy on the UTAH licence plate- took us maybe an hour for all of our short stops and hikes. The parking lot (and overflow) for the trail was packed. We went around once and slipped into the spot of a departing Illinois minivan. I was surprised to find a creek on the trail- and an exciting wall of recent petroglyphs marked by a trail sign. They'd been carved between 1600 and 1800-

The trail led over a long, steep slope of exposed sandstone. Short cairns and a barley-visible trail marked our way. The most traveled paths up the sandstone were slightly darker than the orange slope. The trail led us into a dry, sandy desert-type place dominated by huge, unearthly sandstone sculptures. The rolling, rounded structures projected directly from the bedrock and looked like something between the badlands and the loess hills. I wish I could describe them! Thy were of horizontal, waving layers and honeycombed with small pits and caves- Kelly said they belonged on mars, and later placed them to a StarTrek spaceship- ya, she's a dork!
The arch was crawling with people. People on the arch and under it and swarming the edges and trails around it. I spent some time simply waiting for a people-free shot of the arch. Families and friends took turns posing between the legs of the thing- Kelly basked in the sun for a while and spent about the same insane number of photos on her own camera. I hope hers came out better than mine!

We found a crazy dotted-grey line on the park map and hung a left from the main road. The dirt and gravel lasted for many miles- it looked like it MIGHT drop us off near 191 or the interstate, but we began to doubt it after about 20 miles. Kelly spotted a 'sparkly' hill side and we walked a ways to explore. It was a magnificent Selenite deposit!
The crystals were brilliant and clear- some were more than 4 or5 inches in length! I gathered a handful of the soft crystals in an empty littered cigarette pack and a small number of beautiful crystals for micromounts.
Kelly appeared to be as excited about the rocks as I was- impossible, right?- She gathered crystals and asked me all sorts of questions about them that I couldn't answer. My favorite was a 3-inch piece shaped like the leaf of a fern.. It was gorgeous in the dark dirt and I took a photo to share. The thing is very thin; I wrapped it tight in some toilet paper and stashed it where it may make it home.

We spotted the hwy on the other side of a valley and decided we weren't too far. ..The red dirt road led us to maybe a half-mile from our destination and T'd To force us right or left. I hung a right and another left and another right- slowly we made it closer to the highway. Im sure Kelly was thinking that we were very lost at the point where the road took a strait-shot for the hills again- we were- but I kept towards the hills and we popped onto I-70 near exit 182 or somethin- on the backside of a ratty gas station. We filled up on 70- a few miles after the sign that read next services 110 miles- and Kelly drove for a while. It was way-weird being a passenger... We rode through Hanksville, on our way to Zion National Park, and pulled off to check out another coll selenite-hill. Lots of awesome oyster fossils, too! I held one of the Hanksville fossils to the sun for a pic.

Snowy End

2009-09-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

Snow a week ago, and 72*degrees yesterday! Today is the last of the season for Shadowcliff- they're kickin us out. The building is shut down for the winter-doors boarded and all! Its made for a hectic last week of work- the last of our guests left on Sunday.

Its been an excellent season for me- Ive climbed Long's Peak, Cascade, Cumulus and Mt. Ida, and have seen the areas most vivid fall colour-change in years. The people here are awesome.

The season has been very frustrating for me, too. Job-applications have led nowhere, the truck doesn't want to run and the laptop and external hard drive on which ALL of my photos were exclusively saved have crashed and left me heartbroken. (the lack of photos is the reason for the lack of up-to-date blog posts) I even celebrated my first exhibit at the Grand Lake Fall Festival this year. Shadowcliff gave Kelly and I a booth to show my pics and Kelly's excellent artwork. it was a successful one!

I have photos from this season, though, and intend to write and post about all of my fall mountain-adventures as soon as I find a reliable computer! For now, though, Kelly and I are on the road. We will spend many days driving through CO, UT, AZ, NV and beautiful California!

So finally, THANKS and GOODBYE, Shadowcliff! The pic below was the last morning's view from the point- looking on to Shadow Mountain and over Tunnel road. Kelly and I climbed Shadow just last week to look down at the lakes and town from the ol' fire tower. Beautiful!

Our creeping sun

2009-08-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

August 18 __It was a day of only four pictures. The morning's sky was a less-exciting grey, and a light fog smothered the valley and lake same as heavier clouds continued to conceal Flattop Mountain through the afternoon hours. As the sun fell closer to the obscured horizon of the Never Summers, however, western clouds began to break and we were gifted with a few minutes of beautiful light-play on the mountains.
Guests and staff alike fled into the porch's sunlight for the infrequent bursts of warmth- It put a smile on everyones face! For a moment , a wave of light rolled over just the top of Shadow Mountain, and another in the dramatic foreground of Flattop's cold scene. Over the Grandby area- far to the south appeared a brighter sky where the clouds had blown away. i wondered how much warmer it was just 10 or twenty miles south. I bet they didn't get the magic that we were experiencing! The Gore's were lit and colourful for Sunset- we didnt get much more than what they contributed to our dusk.

East Shore

2009-08-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

AUG 17. What fortune to have something like the East Shore trail to hike before work in the morning. The wind from yesterdays storm system- and the rain and clouds- disappeared over night, leaving Shadow lake glassy and calm. The opportunity did not go to waste!
Kelly and I hopped onto the trail and reaped the early morning spectacles- Osprey and geese, beautiful Cinquefoil and the last of the season's rose blooms. There is a designated Osprey Nesting site not too far in, lake-side. The Shadow Mountain trail was to be the point at which we would turn around to make it back in time for Kelly's housecleaning duties- I had work later in the day.

Shrubby Cinquefoil, Dasiphora fruticosa

We made the dip where the big National Forest information board is and rounded the bends- Then there was a Moose. It wasn't until we'd just began playing with the idea of heading for home that we came across the big guy- Kelly spotted him before I did.

It was his Moose-Butt that we saw- right in the center of the trail!. it stopped us both in our tracks. I took some pics, and I'm sure that she got some very nice butt-pictures herself! The moose was aware of our presence- he turned his head just enough to catch a glance before turning again to repossess his space-out on the smooth water. The act appeared to be one of insolence. We dared not pass- thick brush to the left and a drop to the lake on the right left us no safe opportunity to pass, and the moose was definitely not going to move. We were silent. Kelly and I whispered back and forth, but words were useless in communicating the awe that we shared. He was massive- the size of the moose alone was more than impressive- intimidating.

Once our shock was overcome we walked quietly back towards where we'd come from and let the arrogant beast alone. He sensed our movement and gave another glance as I tried to turn my own eyes away. The moose began a slow walk- surly not as careful as ours.

We talked about the encounter for some time on the way back- Kelly checked the time and we'd made the reverse with none to spare. Conversation changed toward artwork- We talked about hers and mine. Kelly has been an accomplished artist since her high school years and she seems to find talent in my photographs. She again proposed the idea of sharing a booth at Grand Lake's Fall Festival at the end of September- she's got the thing planned out, and Bob intends to help us get a booth. I'm not sure that my silly photos have a place in the world of professional art, but it could be fun..?... We talked about the things on the trail and took a small side-trip up a mysterious clearing that looked to lead up the Mountain. We didnt get far- we didn't see much, either: Some rocks and a good puddle.

The 'trail' seemed to disappear and we were finally deterred by a good fallen tree. Some passer-bys expressed their curiosity as we met the main trail again. Kelly's reply to their inquiries was vague- she told them something to the effect of 'dont know whats up there- we didnt find anything exciting. She told them about the moose and made it back to work on time to conclude another successful trip. .

Daytrip; WY

2009-08-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

August 16 I was invited to join Kelly and Libby on their afternoon joy-ride today and when work was finished and things were packed, a spontaneous roadtrip was had. No destination of course- similar previous outings had landed us on the shores of Shadow Lake, Willow Creek Reservoir and as far as Estes Park. ..South was the first decision to be made, though not until the junction of hwy34. I think that it was then Libby's suggestion to visit hwy 125- 16 miles and a little to the west. With everyone in a fun, adventurous mood the unfamiliar turn North was exciting...

Blue skies, good rockin' music and a sunroof- Libby had already been a' ways up this road.

Some of the forming clouds were phenomenal: they appeared right on top of us, and it became as though we were seeing strait down the foretelling line of a cold front. The open road drove us up into the mountains again- the 'backside' of the Never Summer Range, I think. 125 rolled over a low pass and we spotted signs labeling the 4x4 route to Stillwater pass and Grand lake. Kelly took advantage of the unexpected straightaway while theorizing why flat landscapes had never before been as spectacular and beautiful. She proposed the idea that, having spent two and a half months in the mountains, the strange, vast park was beautiful for it's unexpectedness and because it had become so unfamiliar to her. I, too, found it remarkable- though I had spent time driving through such flatness just a day ago.

Rumors of a town named Walden began to arise as the telephone poles continued to string in a strait line. Libby believed that C-14 intersected our highway in Walden, and suggested that we could drive it back to Grand Lake via Estes Park, but the idea went no further. It came quickly-the town of only a few blocks went fast, though Kelly sure had enough time to locate the area's ice cream shop. Maybe on the way back? Shortly after passing through the town we caught up to the befitting pick-up camper. Wyoming plates.

Wyoming? Kelly had been there once and Libby claimed limited familiarity. I think I figured once that the border is 50-someodd miles from Shadowcliff as the crow flies- the map read that 125 would branch from 127 just twentysomething miles from the state.

The Atlas circulated the car and a casual consensus was made. It became important to them to take me to Wyoming, and although nobody was sure what we would find there, it was surely going to be our next stop! The road led us through the Cowdrey community (not quite a town) which had no ice cream shops or much at all and a small ridge appeared in the far distance. high winds gave way to gusts that tore at the dry vegetation and drove awesome waves of cloud-shadows over the plains to where they were more spectacular on the hills. We took the first noticeable bend with the road shortly after the village, and turn infinite again. Kelly made another excellent Music choice and Libby basked when she could through the open top of the car- didn't even have to yield for the awaited turn towards Wyoming!

Walden, CO

The miles counted down until Libby got all excited about the Leaving Colorado sign to our right. we determined that the Welcome to Wyoming sign did not exist before we passed it. our goal was then accomplished and we turned for Walden after a chilly Bathroom break at the restrooms of a gravel turnoff. I stepped out of the car to examine wildflowers and walk and breathe in new territory.

Kelly appeared a few minutes later and yanked me from some short lavender lupines on the side of the lot. The sunroof was closed for a few minutes as we each recovered from the chill- Libby wore the rides' only long-sleeve.

It opened up again shortly after when the sun glared warmth. The long-hair had her dew eaten by the greasy vacuum of the roof in a hilarious event that had us two rollin' and crackin' jokes for quite a few miles. Conversation turned to our most embarrassing nicknames- each with a worthy story. I found my own to be less embarrassing and dastardly than some of the names mentioned... guess Ive been lucky...

Cowdrey appeared even smaller when we rode back through- the excitement had definitely gotten to us as the car shared a few moments of tired silence. Walden was next and I don't think that it was until we were in town that the advertised sweetshop was to be visited. The sky had grown threatening on the drive in, and Waldens' first juicy raindrops fell on our short jaunt around the corner. The town was quiet- only a few trucks were parked and buildings appeared disturbingly dark in the beginnings of the storm. I stepped aside for a second to take a pic.

Inside was a warehouse that made little sense at first. To the left, and around the beautiful old brick building were small displays of for-sale antiques. Old books, old china and the usual everything-else. Kelly was drawn to the highest-stacked bookshelves before anything else- Libby meandered and I gave the two at the ice-cream stand in the middle of the empty floor a quick friendly-nod before entering the carpeted bordering antique displays. The girls were all excited about a huge collection of Louis L'Amour stories. I had to ask about what made them so significant. Turns' out that he was a big Western Story writer and Kelly is a fan.

We got our treats- The large woman taking our orders some comments to the effect of 'been a long day..' and didn't come off as the most friendly of people. Her helper whipped up the sweets in only a few moments and gave a short smile. I wasn't sure about what to think of the encounter- I guess that most of her important patrons- the repeat-business-doers- are the recognisable locals and us one-timers required no more niceties while the sale was completed.

I glanced at the odometer on the far-side of Walden.. when Kelly mentioned the low-gas situation and I found that we were really going to have done 200 miles by the time we got home!

South of town- as we neared again the pass between us and Grandby- The storm which had poured on Walden became spectacular! Rain-bands, lightening and the ever-beautiful park all made for a scene worthy of stopping. Libby was tired, but Kelly braved the cold wind with me to admire what we had driven through. It was soo low to the ground! Amazing!

The surprise-trip had made for an exciting afternoon- we returned to Shadowcliff tired and happy!

In Colorado now

2009-08-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

August 15
The drive seemed shorter than it did in July, and the intended route through Pawnee Buttes remains untraveled. Again the truck's spark-plug wires failed- east of Limon- and I dared not make the risk of becoming stranded before I was able to make it to Shadowcliff where I was to work in only two days.

The skies had been dark for a while at the time I exited 70 to climb over Berthoud Pass and the loud music deafened me to the weary scream of the engine, or just distracted me from it's nerve-racking 4000RPMs on my way to 11307 feet. Arapaho bay was my stopping place, though it was sure that I wouldn't arrive there until after 1am.

...Through Winter Park and into more familiar territory as I found myself to be the only moving vehicle in Grandby, just a few miles south of the damn' (Dam) turnoff. I slipped into spot number four as quietly as I could and made a fire and a bite to eat. My eyes quickly straitened and I regained my hearing- a second wind, it seemed- at least until I tried standing an hour or two after the start of my rest near the fire. I made a sloppy 3am camp next to the truck and was out.

A lonely campground host met me on his way around the drive- I had packed up camp by 5:30 and took a little stroll myself. The air was not too cold, but a heavy mist and a few seconds of rain had the place lookin' a little miserable. "Mornin, Kansas!" The old man had identified my licence plate and told me about how the number of moose sightings had dropped dramatically since the rains stopped in June. He had hoped to find one on such a wet morning as this, but had seen none in two weeks now. I learned that he and his wife were visiting from Texas for the season and intended to travel closer to home when the campgrounds closed. The man was very nice- he asked me if I was hungry and suggested the small bakery in the campground for his favorite warm Blueberry Muffins. Upon the close of our conversation, however, I chose a hike around Monarch Lake instead.

I first noticed that things appeared incredibly dry, despite the moist air. One island in the lake was a peninsula, creeks were shallow and I found no mushrooms. The old steam-donkey was a pleasant side-trip from the path- Some parts of it were especially interesting with the gloss of dew and rain. Flowers on the trail- the dominant Ox-eyed daisies- were blue-tipped. I suspected herbicide, but the blue was also on the vegetation around the flowers. A ranger approached me on the trail and asked where I'd been and what I was doing in something of a demanding tone. I answered and gave my own interrogation: "Whats with the blue?" He told me that the NPS had sprayed the daisies on Tuesday and then left without a smile- I completed my 3- or 4-mile orbit around the lake and spotted some blue in the sky. It was then I realized that i had come upon no precipitation since the steamer, only 1/3 the way around the lake. Things were looking beautiful! Grand Lake brought a smile to my face, but the truck wasn't doing so well. It was good to see my friends again, and I was excited to get started.

In the Nieghborhood

2009-08-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

BLUE RIVER RD- all green and summery

tarryall creek WONDERS

2009-07-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

With Antero under my belt, Ruby Mountain trespassed and St Elmo's gold mines collected of all of their beautiful gems, I turned north to the wonderful foothills of Tarryall. Though many adventures have been had since I last stayed in the Spruce Grove Campground, it was only a few more than 24-hours ago that I left it. The drive would take me only 65-miles up highways 285 and 24- through familiar places like the city of Buena Vista and vast South Park.
Through Buena Vista the drive was simple and easy- it was just about on the north end of town that the long day caught up to me; I began to space out with the dimming day. My thoughts wandered through Shadowcliff and many of my recent western adventures- mountains and flowers and rocks... As the sun set- I realized the drama as I paralleled Antero Resevior- I found myself in a huge basin and between a pair of towering storm clouds. The northerly one, which laid also slightly west of me- was the most colourful. It was nearly comparable to the brilliant thunderstorms I encountered on Day One regarding the deep reds, oranges and blues and not lightning or the dark bands of precip. The clouds that were south of me were a lighter orange- the storm was further from me and almost cream-colored. This southerly one appeared larger and more violent- I spotted several flashes underneath it- more than I would expect to see considering the high amount of light in those beginning stages of sunset.
I let on the brakes and steered into the flat grassy area between the pavement and a rusty old fence. The car bounced a few times and I rolled to a slow stop- It took me only seconds to gather the camera and hop onto the hood for a few nice photos.
The battery-symbol on the camera pulsed red and low -something to do with the 400+ photos I had taken since the nice campground hostess had charged it in her RV two nights ago in Spruce Grove.
The last bit of light settled as I drove through Hartsel. ... TO BE CONTINUED...

Mt. Antero- 14269

2009-07-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

Shaved my head and climbed mighty Antero.
good crystals
great storms
Awesome views!!!

I will share the story (sans-pics; they were eaten by a dying harddrive) when Kelly and I return from our western Roadtrip. Relying on public libraries now, so posting is difficult.

Im Gone

2009-07-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

THANKS SHADOWCLIFF!

Im finally headed south- got a few places in mind, but nothing specific... sounds like a great start to another adventure, right?!

The Secrets of 34

2009-07-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

Libby and I took a very pleasant afternoon tour of some of our favorite spots along Hwy 34. The highway stretches from Grandby, sixteen miles south of Grand Lake and Shadowcliff, north through the park where it is known as trail ridge road. It shoots east through Loveland and way into Nebraska, too, but thats a different day trip.

We jumped in my car and Libby showed me her favorite Pelican-spot on the other end of Shadow Mountain lake- nearly a dozen American Pelicans perched on a long floating log only a few hundred feet from shore. "They're always here' she explained. We couldnt get too close to the water- the ground was soft and wet- but the white birds are enormous and easily observed from our distance.
Osprey, too- A big nest set atop a large dead pine near the Green Ridge Rec. area further down the road. Mama-bird watched us pull up to her fenced tree and flew away only as we neared by foot. A few little heads popped up to peak over the rim of the nest. They were baby Ospreys, but still very large birds. As we watched, mom came a went a few times- flying from her nest and babies to the tops of nearby trees in nervousness. The fence has been placed around the nest like a yard and has been posted with NO TRESPASSING OSPREY NESTING AREA signs.

Even further south we visited the Willow creek and Monarch lake areas. The gravel road to Willow Creek Reservoir was one I recognized from last fall. We visited last year to find the intense fall colours of the large Aspen groves that line the walls of the valley. No yellows and oranges this time, but the gravel road sure offered some pretty amazing views! Monarch was also nice. The windy, dirt-road drive from the highway is always a good thing and Monarch was smooth and glassy. I dont remember things being so green last year (with the exception of the dying trees, of course!)

Ft Collins adventure

2009-07-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

Kelly joined me on an excellent adventure to Ft Collins today. The truck was finally going to run properly again!

We had a noon-time appointment over and out of the Mountains- Ft collins may have taken us a good three hours to reach from Shadowcliff. On trail ridge were the usual traffic-stopping elk and the scared-to-death, low-altitude driver.

We were forced to call in and postpone the appointment another hour. After Estes Park things got a bit flatter and a by Loveland- they were much warmer.

the cloud cover moved in as we walked through town and back towards the mechanics. In town we visited a few shops and a nice little cafe- Got ourselves lost shortcutting through campus in an attempt at a recommended music shop.

It was all fun- the University manages a great flower-garden on city property- the marigolds boasted heads as large as my camera. The mechanics replaced melted spark plug wires for free- four of the six were melted through or badly warped and had not been firing. Mike gave me the depressing report from a look-over they did of the poor truck;

the exhaust system is failing- no converter and the whole thing is in dire need of attention, before I further risk letting it fall off. The Air filter was dead many thousands of miles ago and two of the tires have gone bad. There is some nasty rust somewhere in the engine- its causing some misfiring. The steering column's tumbler has fallen out and they might be able to fix it for a few hundred bucks... I could go on.

Dorothy- the trucks appropriate Kansas name, by Jan, - started up with great power. After so many hundreds of miles on it's heavy two cylinders, it drove like a new car with six!

We hopped over to the recycling center and took car of Shadowcliff's glass and paperboard (There are no capable recycling centers any closer to Grand Lake for these materials)

The drive back was a pleasant one. We rolled through Thompson Canyon and up into Estes-land; Kelly showed me the hotel which inspired "The Shining." It was beautiful and sure doesn't look like it could be very creepy without many feet of snow and a dark sky. I wish I could share more photos of the trip- they are all on the dead hard drive as well.

Storms began to brew as we climbed past Longs Peak and up into the Alpine. The very noticeable lack of evening traffic was came as a wonderful surprise. We took curves at our own pace and never once slowed for a line of elk-crazed park visitors..

the sky grew darker and more colourful for the storms and setting sun- we made a quick, cold jaunt out towards "Marmot Point," a short walk and viewing area high on Trail Ridge- It over looks dramatic Forest Canyon and has a formal name, Im sure!

Above us it was dark and grey, but the southeastern horizon appeared to boil with tangerine-storms. Who knew if they would hit us?? Shadowcliff was still an exciting drive of more than an hour..

As the road straitened out- East of the Visitors center- and we began the slow decent- it was our part of the sky which boiled. The show began and we passed the visitors center for the Rainbow Curve hairpin. lightning began to shoot a bit closer- disturbingly so. Several bolts struck the ridges to our south and west as the nastiest clouds tumbled over us. One old SUV took advantage of our curve until a small car joined us as the pinks and reds grew stronger. A roll cloud formed and dissipated and I we jumped out for photos. I think that she may have been as overly-excited about the phenomenon as I was. A massive, seemingly unstructured cloud shot from the valley on the other side of whatever small range was in front of us.- It traveled strait upwards at some amazing speed and morphed into a thin arch of cloud before our eyes- as if it outlined some invisible bubble that sped towards some lower pressure. Oh, it was incredible!

Seconds passed after the bubble had risen into the boiling ceiling and the same cloud formed at the base of our own valley! Lightening continued, but it was far too awesome to hide in the car. the racing cloud grew dense and more grand and impressive as it sped from the valley floor to the ridge above us. "Here it is" Kelly screamed in the wind as the cold thing overcame us. She spread her arms out like she intended to catch it.

It hit as an intense wall soft coolness. It rushed past us- maybe at twenty or thirty miles and hour or maybe more. For the seconds that we were in the forced cloud- immersed in that very personal part of the storm- we were closer to the Mountains than I have every experienced.

The remaining decent was not too wet at all- only a little rain and none of the hail or sleet which I expected. The cold storm may have come from a much warmer place.

Rocky Mountain High; Trail Ridge rd.

2009-07-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

A few of the shadowcliff staff invited me over Trail Ridge rd this afternoon- Up and over the park's alpine. Hillsides looked green and grey- like nothing special- until we got out of the car. The wildflowers were pretty intense! Check out this tiny alpine loco thing ... Lots of Elk, too!

Chillin'

2009-07-12T21:47:00.000-07:00

Shadowcliff is hosting an HIV Retreat for a few days. Folks living with the virus come from around the country come to learn about it and how to better the quality of their lives. Its been a wonderful opportunity to visit with and learn from a diverse group of people. Mike (Denver) and I were at the base of the driveway this afternoon when this MULE DEER strolled from the woods near Shadowcliff. The doe walked right up to the edge of gravel road and took only a grinding mouthful of grass before she realized that she was watched. The deer trotted across the road- maybe ten or twelve feet uphill from the rock that we leaned on- and into the western woods, ears perked and knees sharp.
Despite the dozens of deer that Ive spotted on the trip thus far, and the few which frequent Shadowcliff's property, this encounter seemed very special to me. I think that maybe it is because we spotted her before she became wary, or maybe it was just 'cause I had someone cool to share the experience with!? THANKS MIKE !

Timber Lake

2009-07-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

An incredible high-altitute hike and a visit to one of my favorite trails in the park. Snow, Moose, beautiful meadows and enchanting crystals...the lakes were full of powerful reflections. .. No photos (hardrive died), but I will put them up when the thing is recovered! Visit last year's Timber lake entry for a less exciting preview!

WEST... and 50-degrees cooler

2009-07-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of my westerly locale with a quick adventure from I-70 near Manhattan, KS- home of the Konza Prairie and a rather attractive stretch of the Kaw. A 100+ heat index is nothing to fool around with; I strolled along a gravel bar after being cooked off the flint hills. From the 177 bridge there is a moderately-sized Kansas beach that stretches upstream for maybe a quarter-mile. My feet were scorched after some shoe-less moments on the sand and rock, but it was nice not having the long hair greased to my face with my own excessive sweat- the morning's heat would have been intolerable.
Maybe two hours passed- no arrowheads or cool Native crafts. My finds included a sanded blue glass bottle and some interesting hunks of time-hardened bone and agate. The small bottle looks like one of those that should contain some smelly oils from a smelly-oil-shop and capped with a cork. I filled it up with my smaller treasures and spent way too long trying to remember which bush I had stashed my shoes under.
Not too far east of Limon- after many hours of monotonous and unexciting high-plains travel- I spotted some very cool clouds. The Vona exit offered a much-needed piss-break and an interesting chance to admire the sky. Minutes passed on the road from the interstate; I traveled only one block into anything that I would consider a town- parked next to Vona's old grain silo on the railroad tracks. across the street were the smaller, more rustic-looking grain towers. I took three or four with the 35mm that Vicki lent me for the trip- my cameras are all busted- and two with the digital gadget. The Olympus point-n-shoot cannot truly be called a camera. : (
I know that I have been spoiled with excellent SRT and the slightly-newer Canon EOS digitals, but the photos made with this new gadget could compare to looking through a dirty window. On the highway, the clouds disappeared again and slowly returned.

More than another 20 miles passed and I was in different terrain- tiny butte-things stuck from the fields like pimples- I wish there was a more beautiful word for it. Maybe like inverted craters- convexities- they were not tall, but could be the only considerable topography and were beautiful as such. One of the first caught my eye on the left side of the highway; the tiny-butte looked like it would make a great landscape photograph and I broke sharply for the next 'AUTHORIZED VEHICLES ONLY' gravel turn-abouts. The freedom of having sun-lit I-70 to myself may have been too much fun!
I followed through on the turn and hit the acceleration. I was rolling; everything was good. The engine made it's engine-noise, and I SHOULD have been accelerating. The RPM's were way above the 3K-mark and I realized that I was getting nowhere fast. Haunting flashbacks of the trucks' dead transmission hit me and I realized how far I was from anything before any other thoughts hit me. My road trip rolled over the white stripe to my right at about 25 and I shifted through the gears. 'Hit the acceleration again and just as I was becoming frustrated with the old truck I realized that I WAS getting power. With the pedal touching the floor I crept up towards forty miles an hour...
The problem was not new to me; the same thing cursed my last drive back from Mt. Ida. The engine of a dodge runs hot; the engine of my silly thing runs too hot. The thermometer read warm, but definitely not dangerously so. I hoped that my top speed of 73ish was only because I had again melted the spark plug wires.

The truck made awful noises, so I -tutted- back to the butte. I broke out the Nikon again and shot until it read that I'd spent 9 of the 24 pics that the roll would allow.

A storm- far south of the interstate and much closer to limon- sprayed lightening through the evening cloudscapes almost continuously. I imagine that if I were still and the engine hushed the sound would have been something of a non-stop rumble spiked with the occasional sharp clap or violent crash. I headed for a direct collision with a nasty rolling arm of the thing- it appeared to be hanging over the interstate. Heavy tapered drapes of dark rain reached close to the ground from the hellacious underside of the deep storm, but from so many miles away any closer encounter remained unpredictable.

The steady dimming sun fell for several more moments as I neared the beast- whether the storm was fleeing quickly in the opposite direction, or my sense of distance was so badly skewed with no landmarks or topography to help my judgement, 65-mph didnt seem to get me closer to the burning rain bands as quickly as I thought it should have. Storms like this one may travel at speeds that exceed my own. The bands morphed into a wall of rain- just a single imposing curtain.
When it's brilliant colours were at their best it became clear that I was not going to get a better opportunity to shoot the stunning clouds. I stuck the gadget out the window and desperately worked for the exposure that could help me share the storm the best. With three or four pictures taken, I became weary of driving into the rain. Not only for the safety of my pathetic camera, but in fear of one of those blinding downpours that I have never experienced at such speeds. The temptation to review the photos was almost unbearable, but a moment of massive raindrops which smashed into the car with intimidating force, and one good one that exploded upon contact with the unprotected window seal- wetting a surprising amount of the cab's inside- distracted me from playing them back. I swerved back into my intended lane and had the window up in a instant- a bit of adrenaline blinded me to my own actions, but the single moment of severe weather was all that I would have. It was almost disappointing that I didn't get to experience what intensity that I'd seen in the sky and which I only assumed that the silly photos i took were unable to justify. My assumptions were confirmed, but the camera still did better than i thought it might have. Wish you were there; such vivid, wonderful things are sure to have done anyone well!

Night came- the interstate grew dark and lonely with no taillights to follow. I thought about How I might better accommodate the trucks injuries. If followed my rough plan, I would take 71 north from limon to visit the Pawnee Buttes area before hitting shadowcliff at the end of the weekend. It would add some serious mileage to the poor thing and I didnt know if it would be able to get me anywhere safer than where I was- as I caught sight of Limon's bright business district.
I was not sure how welcomed i would be if I showed up at Shadowcliff unannounced. No doubt that they would put me up- or at least give me some friendly direction to get the vehicle goin'.

Burthoud Pass wasn't over soon enough; the engine chugged and clunked up the mountain. If it were not that the few other cars on the pass were uncomfortable with the dark hairpins, I would have needed to pull over many times to let them pass- the car just couldnt make the speed limit. It sounded awful and I was very worried at times. I wondered if I shouldn't have parked it there and taken it back into Denver instead of risking it's last working cylinders to make it over the pass.

At three and four thousand RPMs I was amazed that the engine kept moving- some part of me was frustrated enough to kill it- I didn't completely care it the busted thing died. All of the sudden the nose of the truck turned downhill. The road began its descent and at about 10'O'clock
All sorts of feelings of surprise and delight overcame the exhausting frustration that the clunker had given me.

The truck and I clunked through the night and after the pass it seemed like no time at all before I was enjoying my fire at the Arapaho Bay Campground, only miles south of grand lake. Damn, the air was chilly. When I stepped from the fire my bald head froze.

This morning I woke and paid my ridiculous dues to the NFS at the campground hosts'. The host, an old Texan, found me walking back to my truck around 6 and told me about the extraordinary number of moose sightings that'd accompanied the wet months of May and June. "We ain' seen too many these past few weeks" he told me- He shared some of his secret wildlife-viewing spots and told me where to go for a hardy breakfast. 'Told me to order the blueberry pancakes- they were his fav..

Monarch lake was cold and overcast.. Several moments of light rain, but nothing serious. After that initial view of the lake, the first thing I found was a huge 'bush' of lupine. The thing stood several feet tall with lush, tropical-looking leaves and purple-flowered spikes that tapered into creme-coloured buds. I'd never seen such a specimen. It must have cost me upwards of a dozen photographs! I couldnt wait to find the trip's first plump Bolete mushroom; Monarch can be a hotspot for them

IT WAS APPARENT that this would not be the day for mushrooms by the time I hit the ol' steam engine thing. The iron giant was used to pull harvested timber from the forest and downstream to the Colorado River in the late part of the 1800's. I think they called it the 'Steam Donkey.'

Swope Park arrowheads

2009-07-07T20:41:00.003-07:00

Some eight years ago I pulled the sharp top of a flint arrowhead from a dry creek bed on the Hill; the "BlueRock" flint fragment was knapped smooth and still had an edge- and it was soo cool! Today I return to search the creek for artifacts!

I drove up to the Hope building in Swope park and stopped to let Bill know what I was up to. He was far too worn to join me on the hunt, but we yaked and he told me to stop by again if I found anything really cool. From the building I bush-whacked towards the creek. The ground was still dark and damp from the weekend's heavy storms, but recent dry air had surely shallowed the creek. Mushrooms- russulas and bright jack'o'lanterns were common, along with a spongy white coral-mushroom-thing. Those odd, spiny, shelled orb-weaver spiders were thick at about chest-height. I hate to tear their webs down!

Even on the creek bed the webs were abundant- I walked upstream- with few exceptions the creek was dryer than I expected-a pleasant, promising surprise! I walked for a half-mile or so- past the junctions of two tributaries. I walked past the second creek, but turned back before I reached a third; I did find a nice hunk of beautiful petrified wood! It is several inches long and shows great detail! Also, I found a small shelf of exposed rock jetting from the side of the creek. It was tan; soft like sandstone and smooth like limestone and help many marine fossils. Lots of corals and shells... one half-dollar-sized piece shows a detailed leave and a dark, prickly shell-thing. I nabbed it...

The second tributary tempted me when I passed it headed downstream again; I had to turn up the creek. It took me to the railroad tracks where I found a great patch of cone flowers, bee-balms and black-eyed Susan-things. Glade remnants here are likely closely related to Rocky Point's-just on the other side of the hill.

I returned to the truck with no arrowheads or Indian artifacts, but the hike had delivered a needed dose of Summer-in-Missouri!

Sioux City

2009-07-07T20:41:00.001-07:00

Visit Vicki's awesome RiverNotes post; I think that I will only be sharing some pics for this one!

Independence Day Caterpillar.

2009-07-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

This gaudy guy showed up to the family's Fourth-of-July gathering in Holt Co., Mo.. I think he was under an elm, and he may have been as striking and colourful as all of the fireworks around!
Does anyone recognize him? I would love to know what butterfly-thing it will become!? Happy Fourth of July!

Mom's collard lizard

2009-06-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

My mother visited one of the lizard release sites with Larry Rizzo this week and took this stunning photo of a Big, bright male! This guy could have been released this season or this time last year, and appears very healthy! ..It was such a cool photo that I had to show it off for her- enjoy!

Collard Lizards Part II.

2009-06-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

Following up on last years collared lizard relocation project, I was again invited to capture Missouri-natives with MDC. Larry Rizzo was there in uniform and Ruth and Bill, from lakeside nature center, attended as volunteers. The Conservation Department's leading herpetologist, Jeff Briggler was happy to teach the art of noosing a lizard and wanted to capture about a dozen healthy adults to help establish a new population elsewhere in the state. Fishing rod lizard-nooses where tossed from hand to hand-depending on who was closest to a lizard and who had not had the opportunity to catch one yet. With a short loop hung from the end of the pole, a lizard-hunter must slip the loop around the lizard's neck without startling it. Once the string was wrapped around him, we were to pull up, "...as if you were setting a hook while fishing." The result is a very surprised lizard dangling for as short a' time as possible- no lizards were harmed today so it must work well!

I was successful at lizard-noosing last year, but had no opportunities to try it this year- still it was fun! The Collared lizards were fast and were totally at-home amongst the exposed rock. Once the sun came out, the lizards were abundant- basking on the rocks. More than enough lizards were captured and Jeff took notes and measurements of each lizard before stashing them in the shade or setting them free. We released several juveniles and kept more Females than males- Jeff believes that the increased female:male will be better for starting a healthy colony. There are already lizards at the release site- these were released under the same project last year. Folks dispersed after the group accomplished the 11-or-12-lizard goal and left a handful of us to learn more about the lizards from Jeff.

Upon release, one feisty lizard turned back towards Jeff. He recognized the lizards bold defiance and offered a finger several inches above and in front of the lizard. The bright male did not hesitate to launch at Jeff- and made a mid-air chomp at Jeff's hand. The lizard got him good and hit the ground runnin'; he found his home and may be part of a successful future resident of the release site.

Truman WEEKEND

2009-06-03T12:43:00.001-07:00

A few very pleasant days on the lake with my father. The water was high- not so much as to flood any significant part of the campground, but maybe it shrank the size of the park's peninsula by many acres.. Fishing was no good; a few soul-refreshing fires and some beautiful sunsets made the trip instead.

What happened to May?

2009-05-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

the month of May will be marked on the Blog this year with only a few posts..My trips and short hikes have been had this month, but without a working camera.

The big digital that died in Yankton was returned to life with A new lens and a lot of delicate cleaning, but was lifted from the back of my car only a week later. The ol'e Minolta monster destroyed it's last roll of film with a faulty shutter and has been put into retirement...
The other (older) ol'e Minolta monster is still down without a light meter..
It seems that I was left camera-less for too many weeks this month. I couldnt collect the money to replace my favorite stolen camera, but was able to find a sweet waterproof point-n-shoot to begin shooting replacement photographs...

Yankton

2009-05-13T18:29:00.001-07:00

I started off at the Cabin, near Squaw Creek on Big Lake. We had only sun until late, but the area was constantly under a new Severe storm or tornado watch. Some very cool clouds popped up at dusk- they sat underneath a bright moon. I walked down the the cemetery to take a photo with the old 35mm. The trees are beginning to look very green! Thunder and far-off lightning arrived after sunset, but we got no precipitation. I woke up in a thick, wet fog-mist and drive north under menacing clouds and through several short showers- I met Vicki in Yankton on Friday afternoon- just as the Educational event was coming to a close. I hung with Vicki, John and Alex and helped where I could. Yankton was rainy and rather soggy until hours after I arrived. Blue skies shown bright for an hour or so and I got my things into one of the steel boats; the rest of the crew would arrive later in the day to meet us on our island-camp! I set upstream on my short kayak- The camp was only a half-mile or so from Yankton's ramp.

I paddled and worked to compete with the oncoming flow, and made it to the double-decker bridge before a great, ominous shelf cloud boiled it's way over the city. i saw the thing coming and paced myself carefully to make sure that I would be in a shallow spot under the bridge in case the storm became too wicked. It hit with force- a cold northerly wind blasted at, according to one weather report, 45-60 mph, with damaging gusts exceeding 80mph...

Being on the water quickly became a dangerous idea and I worked against a miserable wind to beach the boat. the dark shelf-cloud passed- I took some dramatic photographs of the storm over the bridge on the city from the water, but the driven rain turned into hail and I sought refuge under my life jacket- removing it from my body meant I would become very cold. The rain slowed and I regrouped and took hold of the kayak's front handle- I wanted to walk to regain my body heat.- I know that I should have been better prepared, but I cant imagine that anyone was prepared for the storm that battered the upstream portion of the city! I wondered how John was doing with the boats.

The wind continued, and formed large white-capped waves that sped downstream with the storm. The persistent stinging rain became miserable pretty quick, but I drug my boat to at least some relief; the shore was all flat sand and mud until I needed to cross a slim, deeper braid in the river. I started to wade across. Already wet, I was not afraid to sink stomach-high in the milky water, but I carried my camera with me and returned to shore to hop in the oat and battle the wind across. About halfway across I caught a good gust and sailed onto a sandbar- I had to get out to launch the kayak again. The rain was gone after another tenth of a mile or so- just as my legs began to tire from towing the kayak. The clouds were obviously breaking up and I got out onto the main channel as winds slowed. I made it to the camp where only one tent stood sideways with a shattered pole. With the kayak secured high on the sand I entered camp- I tried messing with the crippled tent for a second; I stood it up, but did not want to make matters worse and left it. I began collecting firewood- the wind was still intense, but it was surprisingly dry- it felt warm. I stumbled into a pair of juicy Yellow Morels and immediately became distracted...
I jogged back to the kayak and grabbed the camera; it took me the length of the short trek back to the mushrooms to realize that the lens had been temporarily rendered useless by bubbling condensation. I picked the mushrooms and walked another few steps to find one more. I stashed them in the mess kit that I had brought over. Nobody came, and I wandered down the beach -towards the bridges with the wind at my back- Maybe there was a cool stone or fossil to be found? Many fossilized bone fragments sat amongst the largest gravel-

I got to the tip of my island-far downstream of camp, where that deep braid returns to the river. The sharp, shallow point was repeatedly overcome by the wind's largest waves. The slightly-green water is still cold from northern snow melt and cool nights. A large, ancient vertebra sat in the shallows of the point- I stubbed my toe on it while only ankle-deep!

I ignored time and made my way back towards the camp and my boat. The wind whipped at my face kept my hair horizontal. It felt good, but just as I began to feel that I must be close, I caught a glance of my bright orange kayak- rushing over a log and propelled by an unusually gust of dry wind. Immediately I thought of the camera that I had let to dry on the anchored boat, and the thing rolled into a tree not far from me- nearly 30meters from where I had left it! The wind hit me with a blast of stinging, blinding sand- My camera was dead- the lens was lodged under a large drift-wood trunk and the unprotected body was partially cracked and filled with camera-killing sand. I was frustrated and saddened by the loss, but the sun came out again and I couldn't feel bad in such a beautiful place. I still had the 35mm........

Glade Planting

2009-05-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

Rocky Point got a makeover today when a small group of volunteers braved the mud to plant a variety of natives; Dozens of flats of flowers were planted- I saw Larkspurs, Blazing stars and Coneflowers among them.
Everybody seemed to have a good time- and the weather, for the most part, cooperated. I'm calling it a success!

Lakeside and the marsh

2009-04-27T19:53:00.001-07:00

"Old-Lakeside" caught my eye the other day; I felt a need to visit and check-up-on the old marsh behind the building at Gregory and oldham.
I found a jack-in-the-pulpit and several large patches of bright-pink wild geraniums... the marsh looks clean- it looks good! Smart weed is dense enough to clog out some of the edges and floating accumulations of green duck weed are thick on the surface.
One creek is dammed with bags of sand or cement- they appear to have stopped erosion well!

Its mushroom season

2009-04-27T19:52:00.000-07:00

Its mushroom season

... the ginger and anemones are going nuts and in accordance with local wisdom the elm's leaf has just outgrown the size of a mouses ear to summon the early spring's morels. Local spots of success in previous years have been disappointing, but the devoted hunters have collected hundreds of pounds from spots new to me.

Ive searched every promising city park- even found a few big ones near the Hogan! And while the Blue gifted me none, a similar urban lowland displayed hundreds of healthy grey and larger yellow morels.

My shroomy expeditions have brought me upon the season's first lethargic reptiles. Snakes and box turtles, mostly...

A few good Black Rats' and a handful of central lined snakes. One big one on The Hill was severely scared across his face, but extraordinarily cooperative when it came to posing for my photos- I still didnt get anything too good.

Mushrooms are just an excuse for most who hunt them- An unnecessary justification for a visit to the finally pleasant outdoors. Me too-

The highlight of the week's short season was never expected to be that 5-lb bag or the hand-sized monster; this week it was Swope's own flowering dogwoods. The bright trees explode from the ridge tops above blue river road and throughout the woods and glades on the hill.

This is the first time I have ever really had the opportunity to see them. Wonderful!

Arkansas Wavellite!

2009-04-25T22:10:00.000-07:00

Through the Ozark mountains and into the Ouchitas- I went on a short crystal hunt south, in Arkansas..

The difference between the two mountain ranges is Awesome; the Ozarks are still pretty bald but only an hour south it seems everything is well into the greening process. There is a lot of sandstone and limestone near ponca, which hosted a boom of lead mining operations in the first years of the 1900's. To the south, Mt. Ida sits on an ancient disappeared salt marsh- the source for many of the Aluminum-Phosphate minerals I searched for on the trip. A quick stop near ponca- I checked up on the ol' lead mines I discovered last trip. Near the highway, a small series of century-old tailings-piles or "dumps" marks where I enter the woods- They kind of look like dunes- Limestone waste piles are white or grey and where they extracted the heaviest ore- in the form of valuable galena crystals- is red from a bit of sandstone that they dug into- both matrices are common in the region. The dumps hold lots of cool stuff- druzy, clear and smokey quartz, calcite, galena and some interesting marine fossils like thick crinoid stems and bivalves.The galena crystals appear as large metallic cubes- some are inches, and all have been dulled and darkened by years weathering and oxidation; beautiful crystals in their matrix are not uncommon in the less-hunted upper terraces of the dumps and mines. In the picture below are two of the pieces I found; both have multiple large and small lead-coloured cubes.

... I swung through Lost valley and visited the river- and the cows- on whatever highway that is.South on 7- and hwy27- I found myself camping near Crystal Vista just outside Mt Ida. It was a cool night... I think the early-morning low may have been just above freezing- It felt crisp only for a second while the sun rose- I packed the big camera bag and had a thing of apple cinnamon oatmeal to get me up the steep trail to crystal vista. Some darker clouds rolled on my ascent of Gardner; Lots of large dogwood blooms added a sense of the Ozarks. Most flowers were past their prime- rotting brown along the edge of each petal-

the flowering trees that I spotted along the highway, just south of 44 to state line yesterday, appeared much more fresh and vibrant. I dont think that Kansas City's dogwoods are blooming yet.

At the top of the mountain- amongst the walls and terraces of the old crystal mine- the clouds were (almost) threatening; They looked bad, but seemed to be doing nothing but passing by. I walked the perimeter of the eroded pit, and dug a few shallow holes to expose a handful of points a a small cluster with a cool magnesium inclusion; spent some minutes examining a crevasse in a far high wall and the morning was over pretty quick. I drove a bit down the road and made a right turn onto a worn gravel road. It led me all the way to my wavellite hole in the County Quarry. - I scouted some nearby rock with a knife and a crowbar to find a wonderful patch of bright green variscite and a few tiny, fiberous cones of burnt-orange cacoxenite or wavellite..

The famed Mauldin Mountain locality is currently closed to collecting, but several local miners and business owners have recommended parking down the street and walking in; apparently nobody really minds! I made my presence obvious to several machine operators in the quarry and only got a few friendly waves.

My original hole yielded some brilliant green wavellite crystals- they grow as the small partial-spheres or botryoidal masses and some are very lustrous and colourful. The darkest of the crystals are my favorite- like a deep emerald-green. Some darker clouds continued to sweep the sky and cast shadows on the Ouchita's- the day grew warm and pleasant. A late-afternoon meal at 'Ida's gas station and a pit-stop near the flooded river and I was off on 27. The fields around I-40 were smothered in yellow and wine-coloured clovers grew in patches along my route throughout the state. The warm air followed me home and it was surprisingly comfortable every time I got out of the car!

Smith

2009-04-19T16:13:00.001-07:00

Jerry Smith Park was- for whatever reason- especially beautiful today; dramatic clouds- a low sun and blue sky- the warm temps and a few wonderful flowers transformed the already-extraordinary park into a more exciting version of itself. It was void of people, and despite a few stormy moments the park was quiet and peaceful. maybe the wind was able to send the sounds of traffic and target practice in another direction- at moments the wind was certainly strong enough.

Some areas of the park are still thick with young trees and cedars- I imagine if this scene- left- is what Larry Rizzo found when he first discovered the prairie remnants near Sager Woods CA.

The ground-cover was green and beautiful, and the still-bald trees could hide less than they will any other time of year. Pink globs of redbud flowers stuck out all over the park! Strawberries were the only flowers on the ground- some cool weathered crinoid fossils too. ..

Spring is Sprung!

2009-04-18T11:45:00.001-07:00

Rocky Point is lookin' like the beginnings of Spring. The trees can still be called leafless, but their understories are definitely green!
The clouds this afternoon made the short hike into something much more beautiful than the glades could have been by themselves- the big, fluffy, cottonball-cumulus floated thousands of feet under a higher cloud-cover that seemed to cast a glow on Swope- rather than sunlight.. The soft light kinda reminded me of one of those indoor plant lights.
On the glades, only verbena, pucoon, and some less-vibrant colours were in bloom. The yarrow is thick and lush, but it's bids weren't yet opened. Grasses are still very short- it made it easy to spot a small group of doe around the big bend that is now taken by Larry's tall deer exclosure- above the glades things were just slightly less-colourful. Trout lilies are easy to spot, but not because they are flowering. Their dark, pointed leaves compensate for the brilliant flowers that will come up soon. I trespassed a bit- into the locked pool near the Hogan- in an attempt to save as many of the handfuls of toads that have become trapped as I could. One took a pose against the white pool-floor. I dont think that he was too happy with me- though I wonder if a more imaginative person than I could recognize a bit of curiosity in the toads face... ?
...Last year Bill put a board in the pool to act as a ramp to the surface and give the little guys a chance to save themselves.

PBRR XIX

2009-04-05T10:26:00.001-07:00

Project Blue River Rescue 2009- this FOLNC event has celebrated it's nineteenth successful river clean up- Sunny and warm was the weather- those who showed seemed to be in an almost festive mood! Coordinators did the usual coordinating and volunteers went about trekking the parking lots to undergo a transformation that would leave them warm, tired and with a brand new T-shirt!

I was signed up for the Coal Mine Road site after Wildcat Hollow was cancelled for at least the second year in a row. Coal Mine has been a known dump site for decades- near an ancient cement mill-thing and a bit east of the stadiums. Immediately I was adopted by Bill in a great big Dump-Truck thing- he always treats me!

An hour or two of set-up and FREE DOUGHNUTS and catchin' up with all of those folks you haven't seen since the last Blue River Rescue and each group began to leave for their designated part of the park.
Today's forests glow with just the slightest yellow-green as trees display their first signs of leaves and buds. The city is still generally winter-like and we've had little precipitation. The group of PBRR's most devoted volunteers went about their annual Morel mushroom predictions- unlike previous years, nobody suggested that mushrooms would be up this day of the clean-up. Bill told me that they were being collected near Osceola!

At Coal mine there was a lot of household Crap like clothes and shoes and cookware and such.. We had two groups to attack both sides of the road- (our side was nicer!) One pool of water- only yards from the road- was filled with plastic and busted windows and was the 'project' for our team of giant mechanical toys. The work was wet, and it sure didn't smell too nice, either, but everyone found the day worth-while!

A young volunteer lifted a pair of over sized gloves to my attention; his hands cradled a delicate skink found amongst a shoe-dump. The cleanup is widely recognized as family friendly and draws volunteers of all ages. Lunch was the next order of business for volunteers- the crowds filled lakeside again before a few crews reassembled to finish cleaning individual sites. Some people became nervous to hear gunfire so close, but what came and went in just a few minutes turned out to be a Police Shooting range and nobody felt endangered.

For Coal Mine Road, this also meant the installation of a few rows of cement and wooden barricades to block dumpers from getting too close to the river. I believe that the long row of impassible objects will prove successful, but I guess tat we will have to wait until next year to find out!

RockyPoint SNOW!

2009-03-30T20:42:00.001-07:00

Is a March 30th-snow so unusual for the city I live in? Its odd how oblivious I am to the norms of a place as familiar as Swope or even my city.

Last night's storm iced The Hill to bootlace-height. The snow is a wet, melting one; the ground is still defrosted from the few days of nice and our newest precip. has been melting since it landed. A forecast of 4-9inches would have been very accurate if the first few hours had an opportunity to accumulate.
....It was enough to make the glades brilliant. The forest above and below them, too! Oakwood was slick, and a pair of vehicles was parked on the bottom. My wheels spun like last December's ice storm... I started to regret the climb when I hit a slow, bumpy curve only half-way up- but I got to the top with a bed full of wet ice. A single pair of tire tracks marked the road-

I slipped onto the glades from behind the pool and did a short circle around the two finest openings- The ground was soggy, and I never found any serious ice. Soon it was the trees that took my attention- they'd been beautiful and crystal-like before and now they rained slush-balls.

Ghost Town, Ark

2009-03-30T20:41:00.001-07:00

"The Ghost town of Rush stands as a mute testimony to the activity of a bygone era.

Zinc carbonate ores were discovered in (the) valley in the late 1890's and the "rush" was on. Soon the hillsides were dotted with mines- sprouting colourful names such as Morning Star, White Eagle, Monte Cristo, Red Cloud, Buelah, Macintosh, Edith and Yellow Rose."

The town is fascinating- but for only a quick moment. A short row of four or five buildings awaits the visitor in the remote Ozark valley of rush. Only a few miles from Hwy 14- this side trip is well worth the left turn from Caney. The Buffalo is in early spring now- Redbuds and anemone's make for a pleasant break from Kansas City's latest bout of winter. The river, in Rush valley, is much larger than the Buffalo I know in Ponca. Still, it is beautiful and clean-looking. A slight green, milky colour today- some good rains lately. The river was the first thing I visited on my trip to Rush. I came to see the mines and did not know that the river was here!

I arrived far too late to brave the unfamiliar trails above the river a spent a sunny, pleasant afternoon by the river. Everything seems pretty soaked and soggy, but a tarp was enough to keep my tent dry on a high-spot of the washed-out campground.

The birds were goin'- it was nice to hear them after the silent winter months. They shouted MORNING, but the smooth walls of the tent were not light enough. My pillow was moist-going on damp, and the bag was wet...

I wanted to believe that the birds were wrong- and that I had time to roll over and space out for a while longer- but a cold, wet sleeping-bag was a miserable thing that I could not ignore. The zipper gave the usual struggle and the bag peeled off of me- I guess that I was already cold enough and the chilly air offered no surprise. I wondered if the grounds had flooded- things were a bit too wet for me to assume that a nightly dew was responsible. Had the river come over it's banks? Had it rained enough to overcome my shallow island?

Sure enough- it was the dew; a thick, slow-rolling fog dominated the valley. It was at first a bit disappointing- and truly weird to feel a light breeze accompany such a stagnant visual. A few finch-things livened up the river-side of my camp, but things were otherwise very still-looking.

I spent a few moments walking the bank of the Buffalo and then cut up a small, flowing stream. It didn't seem like I would see the sun today.

The low bridge leading into the NPS campground had flooded overnight- not threateningly so, but enough to send a loud, shattering wall of water over the top of the truck when I drove over. The flooded portion of the road was dry last night- it was very swift over the road, but covered only fifteen feet or so of road.

I rolled back towards the little town and walked around the few buildings. The dawn's thick clouds have certainly transformed the abandon, rotting buildings! I think it adds something to the sense of dead I found in the town- like it made the ghost-town even ghostlier. The top photo is of the post office/general store as it stood and functioned until only a half-century ago.The trail was short and easy- the old mines and relics of sorts lined every inch. An old ore cart lies off one side of the trail.. stiffened by rust and protected by the high wall that it served to create. Ore tracks- complete with mini-railroad-spikes- were abundant. These too were dying.
I explored around some of the old mine deposits- small bits of lustrous sphalerite were everywhere. Miners called this "Rosin Jack" and relied on it after the depletion of richer Smithsonite ores. Smithsonite was not too hard to find either- "turkey fat" was the name given to the bright yellow, bubbly, fatty-looking zinc crystals. One excellent vein runs down the wall of a bus-sized boulder up-hill of the largest mill.

Rush is a National Parks area though- and it is illegal to enter mines or to collect any of the gravel-sized bits of zinc or laying around. Signs that read DANGER KEEP OUT were posted in front of several mines that'd been gated or locked for the protection of visitors and bats alike. Up and down the hill here- and even across the river- there are many smaller digs and tunnels from early mining operations. The larger ones are big enough to walk in, and are blocked only where they have caved-in on themselves. Cave-ins were a scary part of Rush's history, and occurred more frequently when sophisticated blasting and drilling techniques were introduced to the valley shortly after WWI started. Such things became necessary when miners were forced to dig deeper into the mountain to fetch the ores.

I spent hours pacing the areas above and below the mines- crystals, minerals, old mining equiptment- it was all to be found. An ancient coke bottle and a HUGE platte of druzy quartz were my most memorable finds...

The fog lifted by mid-afternoon, but the sun remained hidden.. High clouds turned into stormy ones and the long ride from rush was gifted with all sorts of wonderful weather happenings...

Awsome clouds over the boston mountains and a thin, twisting rope tornado that never made it all the way... It rained for some hours and the sun set just as the back-end of the storm system glided past. .. rainbows came and went (had a triple going for a second!!!)... the winds picked up with a vengence and I rode a heavy tailwind all the way home-

It just dont get much better...

ponca for a night

2009-03-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

An eve of stars and one of clouds- The deep Ozarks are beautiful and refreshing in nearly any condition. The flowers- delicate spring-ones- are the most unusual, attractive feature of this North Arkansas spring. It looks and feels like there should be mushrooms out, but there is not much around.
We used a different route- hit the Lost Valley area of the Buffalo River by way of hwy 74 and Boxley.

The upper Buffalo is right there- a quick drive-by and short stop to check for elk and photographs- no elk. A group of three or four swans, though!

Their rusty heads were familiar, though I could not ID them as trumpeters without a book...

Just remember that green-banded swans are always trumpeters (Tundra swans like the blue tags!)

This couple displayed tag numbers 1P7 and 2P7 in a small private wetland just south of the national forest campgrounds. I would love to know where they came from! Why are their tag #'s so close?

My mother and I did a bit of running around this afternoon- in addition to visiting the swans, the river and whatever mountain that is on the other side of Ponca, we took Lost valley trail back to the cave and falls; the dramatic Valley here is covered in the same flowers as the road was-

anemone's, beauty's, bloodroots, hepaticas, toothworts, trout lilies and -my favorite- those soft pink Duchman's Breeches.

The dirt is moist and fertile- growing things are everywhere- still there is something more impressive...the same thing that captured my attention on the long drive south and that which has altered the entire span of the Ozarks so dramatically.....Sawdust, fallen trees- mangled, shattered branches- The destruction is as bad on the ground as it is in the standing forest. The winter's disabling ice storm is still wreaking havoc on the healing mountains. Rumor has it that places a little further east are still without power- almost three months after the storm.

The campgrounds filled up quick; we claimed the last spot and tried to tune-out the noisy neighbors for the night. The stars were awesome! I made three exposures pointed north; at 5.6, a forty-minute photo was far too bright. This one was made in only twenty.
On day II mom explored more of the Buffalo. I was dropped off on the top of the hill- almost three miles north of Ponca. Here was shown to be a trio of old lead mines. They date back to the turn of the last century and I knew nothing about them except for where they were supposed to be on the map.

Last time I sought the mines I started by showing the map to the woman who runs Ponca's general store. I was not the only one who'd asked he about the map- lifted from a privately published guide from the 60's- she warned me of the mines and refused to tell me about them.

I walked for an hour- found some cool stone foundations for building and such- Spotted a possible mound about 2.4miles from town... a "tailings-pile" is the heap of waste-material from a mining operation. When I wondered back into the woods- not far from the road- I found galena, quartz in the many piles of discarded material. the heavy, metallic galena crystals were as large as my camera battery and the crystals and fossils were numerous- The mine's tailing's and the only deep shaft I found occupied me until mid-afternoon- My backpack was stuffed with pounds of lead-crystals and I strolled down the highway. Orange Puccoon coloured the dry areas along the road, and bright verbena was in some places, too.

HWY 74- crossing the buffalo near Ponca, ARK

Tried the Ozark Cafe for a meal, but little towns like Jasper close-up pretty early- Jasper's main strip (all four or five buildings) held only a motorcycle and a few pick-ups.

Sibley's River

2009-03-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

Mountainmen and Fur traders, as well as many Osage Indians traveled for days to reach Fort Osage- often floating of hiking the river.
It was in 1804 that the area's first non-indian settler, Pierre Chouteau of the Chouteau Fur Trading family helped take Osage chiefs to meet President Jefferson. The President promised to build the Natives a trading post which, thanks to Chouteau, was erected in '08 and named Fort Clark, after William Clark, who noted the area in 1804:

"high commanding position, more than 70 feet above high-water mark, and overlooking the river, which is here but of little depth"

Clark was also the head of Indian Affairs when the Fort was named. The Fort was one of the first U.S. military installations in the Louisiana Purchase and served as a stopover and trading post for river-travelers and the Osage indians. FOr the military, the post meant regulating trade and was a method of establishing peace (and control) with the Osage people.

The fort was given the name Fort Osage and a gentlemen named George Sibley succeeded Chouteau as the Osage Indian agent. George mingled with traders and visitors alike and made for a welcoming host of Fort Osage with his 16 year-old wife... Frequents knew the Fort by the name Fort Sibley.

the year 1821 marked the arrival of J McCoy, founder of Westport on the Santa Fe, and The admission of the State of Missouri to the Union. A year later, the Fort Osage operation was formally ended by the military, and used as a storage area for posts in Leavenworth and along the Osage River near Nevada, MO (Fort Scott). Cut Wood from the post was salvaged by the early local residents until only the Foundation stood at the end of the decade. George Continued supporting the small community that he helped raise with favors and a small trading post.

Independence and McCoy's "Westport" went on to compete with each other (and later St. Joe and LEavenworth) for the area's trade dominance. McCoy's trading post dominated because of it's strategic location only four-miles south of the missouri at it's confluence with the Kaw- then known as 'the Great Bend." The GReat Bend marked the eastern-most point of the river's southern stretch. This allowed merchandise to be floated almost 20-miles upstream (west) of the existing western stop on the Santa-Fe Trail- Independence.
Travelers began skipping the established trading posts to take advantage of Westport's 20-mile advantage and McCoy's business founded modern-day Kansas City.

Sibley passed and the community which he created claimed township under the name Sibley, Missouri. It remained a relatively quiet place as the Civil war ripped border towns like Westport, Leavenworth and Lawrence; Jackson County remained almost entirely pro-south until the Union ended Confederate military operations of the area in '64 (The Battle of Westport)...

1969 meant the opening of the Missouri's first Bridge, located in McCoy's City of Kansas (Lawrence also wanted the Bridge). The Hannibal allowed for railroad travel from the north- thus triggering a great bloom of population and industry (primarily cattle) for the City.

Almost twenty booming years later, and a year after the Hannibal was partly destroyed by a tornado, Sibley got its own fine railroad bridge- The three-span bridge has existed there- just miles upstream of the busy Fishing river since.
KC's Hannibal Bridge was replaced by a two-level bridge after the turn of the century- The Second Hannibal Bridge opened in 1917 and was replaced again by the Broadway Bridge. Bridge #2 had a top deck just for vehicles!

The foundations of Fort Sibley were re-discovered only sixty years ago and it has since been rebuilt to model the Fort as it appeared in 1812. Fort Osage is a National Historic Landmark which hosts many demonstrations of the 18-teen's lifestyles for public audiences and often is the only thing for which the modern 1-square mile village of Sibley is known..
Cooley Lake conservation Area is mile-marker 339.5 on the Missouri- only about 4 miles upstream of Sibley and the Sibley railroad bridge... .
The bridge itself is certainly worth of the paddle, but today I was after the relics of Ft Osage on the HUGE ISLAND SANDBAR that the bridge supports. Only about a quarter-mile downstream of the Fort are the first signs of the island when the river is as low as it is today(7 ft.) I have been lucky enough to find things like trade beads and wet stones on the sandbar, as well as the fossils and bones that are to be found on the entire length of the river.
There is an SUV in the water- only a few yards from the Cooley boat ramp. The thing has been there at least a year and is still sinking; today only about 8 inches of it stood above the waterline. The eight inches have kept the tan paint well- at least in those places that are not torn with bullet and shot holes. The marks have occurred only since the SUV was abandon; the CA is a hot spot for illegal target practice. The river-buoy which float about a hundred yards from the shore are also graffitied with holes.
The Suv is only half-way between the ramp and another Cooley-landmark: The boat. This small runabout has been upside-down and underwater for much longer-

The bend here at Cooley Lake is in a constant state of change- it's small sandbars and levees will be in a different- grown, shrunk and in a different place: Always, though, there will be one or two spots here, in between the new debris, that one could find a bison tooth.

Early-season 70's make the float warm and peaceful. The wind was picking up, but I stuck to the left bank to escape any gusts. I floated past another busted boat and a few appliances- Spotted a good section of the pipe that was used to create the trash-slide-thing for Jeff City's clean up.

A Missouri River mile-marker; It was low and overgrown- Blue?- hardly visible from down on the water. I spotted it as I cruised past, but had to inspect- made a hard sprint back upstream and climbed the rip-rap up to where I knew it was.
MM 338- an old Blue sign much larger than the functioning ones. This one was nailed to a wood post only about three feet off the ground- also covered in the holes of bullets shot from the river.
DOES ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THE OLD BLUE MM SIGNS???

I took a photo and ripped the vines off of the faded 338. The sign popped off the post; a moment of guilt! I'd never seen one like this before, and now it was dead.
The post was rotten and the nails had no chance- I leaned the sign against it and returned to the boat- I felt guilty for killing the only sign like it- another mark of history here on the river. I was tempted to take it- It was already dead, right?
I started to launch the boat- the cold water inside had turned warm in the sun.

With the sign strapped to the back of my 9' boat I was back on the water- It is only three feet wide, but my kayak was not even two.
I forgot about the wind and traveled to the middle of the channel; the sign hanging from both sides (and the back) of the boat acted like wings!
It was not going to leave the boat- tied with the strong nylon that secures the boat to the top of any vehicle- but it certainly made the boat a bit more vulnerable to a strong side-gust!
I pointed the nose into the wind and the wind gave another push- I worked to get back to the bank that was protected by trees and the straps howled and buzzed like they would on the hwy. Off balance- the nose scooted just an inch to the right and the wind had me!
It whipped around and I was off to the wrong shore. I paddled backwards- lucky to be upright!?
The wind died within only a few seconds to a more manageable speed and long enough for me to slide back into my safe-zone!
Only two miles to the sandbar! The sun baked my shirt- it felt so nice to have the sun back from winter! I took my shirt off and basked for the last stretch of the day's float. The stolen sign made a convenient addition to the back of the skinny kayak- I laid back and felt the river and the sun and breeze.
It is really spring!
More of the sandbar was exposed than Ive ever seen! Much of the new land was gooey mud, but dry gravel was everywhere!
I pulled my things onto the middle of the island- far upstream of the bridge. Today, about two-thirds of the island was upstream of the Sibley bridge- it's length exceeded a half-mile! I crawled towards the bridge- immediately I found pottery and bones. Most of the pottery was of the Fort's era- some cool Indian stuff and lots of crock-lookin' pitchers and jars.
Lots of glass here- jars, bottles and everything else! One small bottle- about the size of a cassette tape and only twice as thick- Reads:

"HINDS HONEY AND ALMOND CREAM- A.S. HINDS CO. BLOOMFIELD N.J.U.S.A."

Turns out that the company who made the cosmetic left the NewJersey factory in '48!
By far the best finds of the day were a very mineralized Bison's jaw and teeth and a piece of green slag glass that had been polished almost completely round by the river- I found a matching piece of glass that was not as polished.

I paddled upstream- over several bouts of rapids and fast water entering and exiting a pair of large box dikes- The sun was low and any shade felt especially cool on my toasty shoulders!
The sign limited the length of a paddles stroke- ended it about six inches short- and hopping the shallow rapids of the river pouring into slow areas was much more difficult than it should have been.
The wind was to my back when I fought the current to cross the river. Sibley's only boat ramp was directly across the strong river from the place where I popped out of the box dike- my mom stood behind her huge dog to watch me loose.
Still, I hit the ramp's shore only a few yards downstream and the last few minutes were easy!
The boat was especially heavy when I lifted it- Ma' helped me carry it to the top of the ramp and empty all of my treasures... Everyday could be this nice!

The road to the Sibley ramp passes over a very cool one-lane bridge!

Osage at the Capital

2009-03-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

There is a dump on the Osage river, only miles from it's confluence with the Missouri in Jeff City- it is one that has certainly not escaped the attention of the River Relief. With well over a half-century's crap flowing down the poor hill over the river, it seemed that treasure-hunting was what kept the majority of our 160-someodd volunteers bagging what they could. The most coveted finds of the day included An old steel toy pick-up, a bucket of antique glass and a mangled, shot, mutilated sign reading:

$50.00 Reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person found willingly mutilating this sign

Volunteers pulled over 13 tons of 'trash' from three separate sites along this section of the osage on Saturday.

From the MRR blog

Filling two 30-yard dumpsters of scrap metal and one 30-yard dumpster of landfill, we found (at least):
106 large bags of Landfill Trash

76 large bags of Scrap Metal2

4 32-gallon trash cans of Broken Glass

210 Car & Truck Tires2 large Tractor Tires

2 Tractor Inner Tubes

3 Refrigerators

9 Washing Machines

1 Dishwasher

2 Driers

3 Hot Water Heaters

1 Tricycle

1 mangled Bicycle

......1Car Fender6 large pieces of Styrofoam20 ft. of Corrugated Pipe42 ft. of misc. Pipe1 Cooler7 5-gallon plastic Buckets6 metal Buckets1 cast iron Pot3 Stoves1 Stove Front & Drawer2 Stove Tops & Pieces1 massive Brake Drum1 metal Love Seat Swing11 Box Springs1 Head Board4 Cow PanelsSeveral rolls of Barbed Wire25 ft. of Cable Wire8 Rolls of Fencing7 Chairs1 Lamp1 Toilet1 MO 98 Road Sign2” Copper fitting (Steam)1 Hog Waterer3 metal Hub Cap’s1 Fender from Antique Truck½ of a Car front end Grill & Headlight1 Alternator1 Crank Shaft1 Car Seat Springs2 Tail Pipes1 Drive Shaft2 pieces of Carpet8 pieces of roofing Sheet Metal½ of a Pasture Gate1 double Kitchen Sink1 Counter Top1 boat full of assorted Wire & Fencing1 ancient Boat Motor1 coil of Heavy Cable1 Sewing Machine1 Culvert1 Tractor Gear Box1 Air Filter for tractor1 mini Ironing Board1 Hide-a-Bed Frame8 welded Wire Hog Panels1 cast iron Furnace Grate1 Brush Hog Deck30 corrugated Metal Panels1 VCR1 push Lawnmower1 antique French Fry Cutter1 Snoopy Soap Dish2 sections of a toy Train Track1 headless Raccoon Statue2 Teapots2 Wash Tubs1 toy metal Dump Truck1 See Saw1 Baseball Glove

1 shot-up Sign that reads: “$50 Reward for information leading to arrest and conviction of any person or persons found willfully mutilating or destroying this sign. The O.J. Gude Co. NY”

1 toy Cash Register

1 soggy book titled “Shaping History”The letter “C”

1 decorative Perfume Bottle ...And this thing; a giant trash shoot cut from materials that floated ashore on the Missouri at Alligator cove, near KC. River Relifers cut the mega-tubes in half and nailed them to the side of the hill so that trash from the largest, steepest dump could be expressed to the boats without all of the busted ankles. We sent dozens of huge trash barrels full of scrap and trash down every hour- the barrels were emptied and recycled back to the top while their contents were sorted, bagged and sent back to the ramp via boats. Genius!

It worked very well; no accidents and several tonnes of trash GONE! The thing was the center of attention throughout the day and even served as a nasty, surprising fast ski-run when paired with the lid of a trash barrel. Congrats RR!

North!

2009-03-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

A parkville adventure!

Wow! How sore are your calf muscles after so many hours on a good sandbar?

I spent more than six hours on my feet Thursday...

The river here was the lowest I have ever seen it; under five feet! The low gauge measurement was enough to get me off of the computer and onto the water- I was hiking up a sandbar by noon.

An unusual hike to the first gravel bar; exceptionally warm and beautiful. This winter day would exceed 80-degrees in sunny Kansas City. A sand dredge was piling material on a barge right in front of the baseball diamond and a crowd gathered to watch from the short fence

Someone has marked up the riverside and trail with all sorts of purple "Keep OUT" paint- so much as to have traced the actual property line on the ground with the paint. Leaf-litter, sticks, rocks- all purple.

That's okay- if I am really trespassing here, I am one of a mob of Parkville folks who have no alternative for a river walk.

The sand and gravel seems endless here. Today the sandbars appear more than three times as wide as they are at a more 'normal' river level- though they don't feel much longer.

New logs are exposed- the dark, heavy things are definitely the first thing I notice- After that, though, my eyes cannot brake from the immediate gravel at my feet. There is so much to be found here .

Fossils, crystals, bones, pottery, and more familiar things like broken ceramics and glass bottles from only a century ago. Most of the newer stuff- the trash, plastics and even tires- all floats until it is caught by a log-jam in a flooded river; these piles of light-weight debris accumulate on the higher parks of the bank- often on the first terrace. the ones here definitely need some help- Amongst the stacks and tangles of natural things are many thousands of plastic bottles, a few 55-gal steel and plastic drums, some sports balls and articles of clothing and even what appears to be a stove.

At the start of the sandbars you can still see the barge-dredge thing; it peeked around the bend, under the 'castle' only half a mile away.

There is little to be found on the first sandbars- I slipped around two very dry wing-dikes to get to the best stretch of adventure. Immediately I found bones and bottles that had not been exposed on my last visit. Much of the bar was unrecognizable- A few objects, maybe, about seven feet inland. That yellow toy tonka-thing (it's sat here for years!) was elevated to the height of my chest when I stood at the water's edge- still tangled in a few crooked branches.
Only one set of footprints had reached as low as I had- I'm sure that their owner collected may wonderful things!

A hint of blue- i knew the colour when I saw it glance from beneath a tiny breaking wave. a single sandy scoop revealed a beautiful fossilized bison tooth! It is by far the most colourful Ive found!

It was more that three hours before I reached the end of the longest of parkville's sandbars-

60lbs of bones and a boulder of coal later...

Hill on Fire!

2009-02-26T15:37:00.000-08:00

Shot a lot of black and white on this one- Something that does not usually work well with our fires. I guess that we started burning early enough to take advantage of the morning light.
Twenty acres is the largest (prescribed) burn that RockyPoint Glades have had- and every acre burnt well!
Winds became iffy, but the thin fuel loads were extraordinarily dry! Our 10-15mph southerly winds turned into a light one and some scary gusts popped out of the east! We watched the eastern line well and had no problems.
Several City people came- the city gave some equipment for the day, too. Other volunteers joined us on the glades- everyone excited for the first local burn in almost a year!
The torches dripped and that familiar smell filled my face- The smoke got thicker and you could taste it. It billowed from the thickest beds of litter and started to cook your eyes... and in some weird way it felt nice. The dirtiest, hottest, most destructive thing to hit the glades, other than a good severe storm, is as refreshing for me as it will be for the soil and vegetation.

all of the black and white was fun, but you've got to get some COLOUR!
At the base of the hill- along Oldham road- the flames grew tall. Any line was invisible, but the leaf-litter was easy enough to manage. A tall stand of thistles and oats lit up and the radiant heat was enough to create a sun-burn sensation on exposed skin. FUN!

The City-Kind of River

2009-02-14T09:29:00.000-08:00

As the Missouri River flows into the Kansas City Area, it enters one of the most developed, engineered and polluted stretches of it's 735-mile channelized route from Sioux city to the Mississippi. Here, the river that created the city- with the construction of the first crossing in 1869, the Hannibal bridge- is degraded, abused and partly destroyed by pollutants. Chemicals as common as fertilizers and herbicides, litter and even the noxious amounts of silt and sediment from it's own floodplain are saturating every part of our local watersheds. Incredibly, the river has been able to endure over 170 years of such disgrace- because we live with the water (and rely on it!) everything we do impacts the river in an unnatural manner- from the electricity we use to the channelization that was ordered by the Pick-Sloan Plan in 1944.

More recently (even in my lifetime!), as Kansas city has become the largest city in the Missouri's basin, increasing sand-dredging operations have degraded the riverbed within city limits as much 4.5ft, according to one 15-year study completed in 2005. The sand is used in the production of cement and our intense rate of growth feeds the industry to the point that we are seriously injuring the river's bed...At the turn of the millennium, about 7.4 million tons of sand and gravel were removed from the navigation channel annually, primarily south of Rulo, Nebraska. (rulo is only like 80miles as the crow flies)
Even as channel dredging poses an increasing threat to the river, it is only a small portion of boat and barge traffic here, and an almost insignificant one compared to the sediment, chemicals and litter dumped into it by other industries and sources in our city. Sand dredging operation: This one, near kaw point, was anchored but not operating.

Please do not think that I find the river disgusting- I love the Missouri!
I cannot say that I dont find it's neglect pretty sickening, but even this is something to be learned and appreciated about the river.

I was invited to cruise the section of river between riverfront park (I35) and Parkville with fellow River relief volunteer and trainee John Jansen while he developed his driving skills on calm water. Dave brought the boat- he played supervisor (and tour guide!) I sat on the trash near the bow- the elevated front of the boat protected me from an icy wind. John and Dave, however, sat in the worst of it and even John's arctic outfit left him frozen! We zipped upstream and Dave gave a history or identification to almost every landmark, bend or barge we spotted!

John and I arrived a bit early- spent our time collecting simple litter at Riverfront's boat ramp. There is no obvious dump here, but the amount of trash left by park visitors wasn't uncommon. Again, fast-food Styrofoam was the most abundant litter, but glass bottles, cans and fishing gear were also bad.

I found several medical-syringe-type bottles and fortunately no needles. An odd contraption anchored to shore with some rusted wire- a trap I guess- The thing was made of a tin can with many holes, about eight feet of wire and a piece of iron rebar. We collected two hefty bags worth of litter, and still the place needed help!

A cold, cloudy February day, but still it was so nice to be out on the water! Thanks John and Dave!

....AND LOTS OF BRIDGES! My favorite of this stretch has got to be the 7th street pair- bottom photo.

Old Plank

2009-02-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

It was already late in the day when I reached columbia and the river. The wind was wicked- 'blew strait down the channel from the south, creating an incredible series of white-caps on the Missouri River. The air was warm- like the rest of the weekend, this beautiful Friday's forecast was sunny and upper 60's! ... perfect for the last-minute Old Plank road Clean Up. Still the wind was tough!
The sandbar was very exposed- more so than Ive ever seen it before and I NEEDED to get out and explore it. My small kayak would surely be beaten by the wind and waves; The water was WAY to cold to swim.

I spent some time taking the ol'e 35mm for a walk around the area, but the sandbar was screaming for me every time I caught a glance of it.

I slipped the lil' 9-foot boat over the mud and hopped in off the backside of a wing dike slightly upstream of the sandbar. ' made a few strong strokes with the paddle and shot off the edge of the dike and into the current- and the wind. It immediately swung the light nose of the kayak upstream, so to minimize my resistance to that nasty wind.
I paddled continuously and as best as I could. The icy waves came over the back of the boat and the wind made it near impossible for me to keep on a strait track- I decided I was not going to be able to reach the sandbar and turned back near half-way; the point of no return!

Got to shore- most of me pretty wet and numb despite the warm air and hot sun. I had not reached the sandbar and it's temptation seemed many times worse than before I'd failed. The thing continued to drive me nuts through the evening.
I changed and returned to the Medfly. Folks I did not know and those River Reliefers I was familiar with continued to accumulate through dusk- A GORGEOUS SUNSET!
Steve, Mel and Anthony were kind enough to put me up in the trailer (really had no idea where I was going to be spending the night!)

There were no more than a few dozen volunteers on Saturday morning; I had a fine meal from one of the Landing's fine cooks and Steve gave a rough plan for the day- Mr. Brady volunteered (or maybe he was volunteered) to take a group of folks up to Hwy K and I joined.

I stuck close to Anthony- We hit Hwy K and had walked our first mile in no time! Anthony caried bags to collect recyclables- Much of the litter we removed Saturday was recycled- Most of the largest trash had already been removed, but the little stuff was everywhere!

Lighters, Cigarettes, fast food containers, beer cans, bum lottery tickets and empty Skoal cans filled many bags pretty quickly, but the torn wrappers of Swisher Cigars were the most common things found on the side of the road...

And whats a clean up without the weird things?
A nearly full bottle of Kiwi Liquor, a dump of glass Clorox bottles, a dead barbie doll and a decapitated dog. Our small group worked about 2.5miles of road, and another group did the other 2.5- All in all, though, we removed only like 35bags of trash!?

The Old Plank Road clean up has maintained this stretch of the road annually; Saturday being it's fourth clean-up.... The trash is less and less every year- last year, Steve said, they picked up over eighty bags of trash. CONGRATULATIONS VOLUNTEERS!

This year was my first time picking trash off of the road as part of this group- Maybe next year the amount of trash will not be worthy of a clean-up event!?
We found other things on the side of the road, too; Folks claimed feathers and skulls for themselves and I found this odd bunch of juicy red berries hanging only a few inches from the ground on a rotting stem. They kinda reminded me of Jack-in-the-Pulpit, but would such things still exist so many months after being produced?

The bags were piled into a long trailer and all troops were returned to the Landing only a few hours after we'd started. A quick group photo and a meal donated by Cooper's Landing; many volunteers disappeared pretty quickly, a few stayed behind to yak with friends..

The air was growing warmer and the thick grey clouds which had smothered the morning were lifting and moving north. It wasnt all good; The wind that had been barely noticeable when we woke up was ripping down the channel almost as viciously as it was yesterday- I still needed to get to the sandbar...

Arrowheads that were taken from the bar had been flashed around all day- big, beautiful tan ones and some that had a hint of pink and purple.- Even a long white spear point- perfect and about 5 inches! I'm bound to find one someday!

Intimidated by the wind and water, I resorted to a stroll down the Katy trail- Its only a minute or two until you reach the BOAT HENGE!

I made my way down to the water and I felt so close to the sandbar- it would make a fine swim if you were not risking HYPOTHERMIA! The wind was a bit more calm down on the water-I decided to try again.

The kayak slid down the steep bank underneath the trailer easily- I tossed a life-jacket on and made a mad sprint upstream in the fastest currents. The wind was certainly not as bad as it was up topside, with a few gusty exceptions.

My paddles tore at the surface of the river in an attempt to squeeze upstream of the tip of a wingdike- The water at the end of the structure moved so quickly as to push me downstream when I was caught putting less than one-hundred percent of my energy and focus into paddling. 'Overcame two of them- smooth, slow water in between- before I was able to pull my boat to the side of Cooper's boat ramp. I made a quick peek up at the trucks and let John know where I was headed- he could only wish me good luck, and I know that he wanted to get onto the islands as much as I did.

Though the wind was strong, it came at an angle that allowed it to be partially blocked by the trees and topography on the west bank and made for an easier headwind rather than one that would push me sideways. The water was cold- a few drops that ran down from the blade felt like ice on the parts of my skin that'd been warmed by the direct sunlight

The first step from my craft landed me knee-deep in a soupy pool of sand- the same spot that appeared firm when I ran the kayak onto it. I feared the loss of my loose shoe, but it stuck with me for the few steps it took to find land. that same icy sensation met the wet part of my legs, though it took an extra second to realize. I pulled the boat until I was sure it was safe from floating away- it would kinda suck to be stranded on the other side of such a cold river!

... It would be several hours before anyone would hear from me again... I finally got my sandbar adventure, and though I never found that arrowhead, I did get a lot of cool stuff! Some shards of ancient pottery and some knappings, a cool scraper. The small dunes that held the largest sediments appeared much darker than the sand-

The materials were sorted by shape, size and density and were painted onto the sandbar like clouds in the sky- I imagine you could learn alot about hydraulics and the river here- universal knowledge that could be used to understand any flowing body of water, and even things like weather and the geography of the mountains and the badlands. It can all be had by studying the tumbled, experienced debris- they are laid in the river's language...

I waded into the cold water- maybe I would have a better chance for an arrowhead if I searched the parts of the sandbars that were submerged and likely undiscovered. I was surprised that my legs and feet withstood the ice for as they as they did- little pain until the end, though not much feeling, either! .. Nor were there arrowheads.. at least none that I found. Still, more cool petrified wood.

The sun went in and out of the clouds and the wind began to die down. . . The sandbar was becoming clam and peaceful; it would be the first time since I saw the sandbar that it could been perceived as such. My thin leather shoes were tight on my feet- Maybe it was the cold, or simply the globs of wet sand in them. It didn't matter, and certainly was not worth the taking the time from my hunt time to investigate!

I walked downstream- maybe a quarter-mile to a small channel that made this bar an island. It looked shallow, and only about ten or twelve feet across. I stepped into the water and it felt much colder than the wading I did just a few minutes earlier- I began to walk across, though my feet led me at more of a diagonal as I discovered more wet gravel piles. The diagonal didn't last long though; The water was turning painful! On the other side there were many more sandbars- about two hours worth with some fast-paced skimming. I gathered two more handfuls and a pocket of the most valuable materials, but no arrowhead. The sun poked out again and light the sandbar- I snapped a photo and then one of the melting ice-lilies that had become trapped in a small cove behind the nicest gravel bar. They were beautiful- had a texture on 'em that was something you could only find on ice- a smooth, polished checkerboard-like pattern. THe black, glassy water and ice made for a kind-of surreal look,

I turned back- It was nearly a half-mile to the kayak! The boat could hardly be seen. It took me a second, but I made it as far as the small channel. TOO MUCH treasure; I filled my pockets and made a pouch out of the front side of my t-shirt. One last wade- I only made it knee- deep before I felt the burny-stingy frozen pain this time- It seemed, also, to go deeper into my skin, as well. I gave it a quick burst of energy and made it out. Alive !

The pain got worse, but then quickly receded; For the last of my short trek my feet would grow increasingly tender and I soon became aware of just how much sand filled my shoes.

Another boat- the big, aluminium canoe that usually rests on the boat ramp was beached near mine. It's two bare-footed paddlers were exploring the sunken part of the sandbar as I had. I made a pit-stop at the kayak to drop my camera and offload all of the wonderful things I'd collected before approaching the men. They, too, wore swollen, jagged pockets and handfuls of rocks. One paddler was excited to share all of his cool agates and the other gave a very enthusiastic spiel about all of the cool flint-workings that they have recovered in the past, and those they'd found today. He showed me some very cool things- scrapers and knappings like I found. They visited my kayak for a glance at my treasures and were most excited about some of the unusually large amber-coloured agates I brought from the other side of the small stream. We exchanged the appropriate wills of good-luck and I slid the boat into the water for the last time.

I tooled through the shallows ahead of the sandbars for only a few moments- the water was clear, but the accumulations of larger stones and such were uncommon. Someone shouted my name from the medfly and I gave a quick sprint across the Missouri. Anthony helped me at shore- I nearly fell into the water! We carried the kayak up to the truck and several folks seemed eager to see what I brought back. Mel loved the clearest agates and I think Steve was as surprised as I was with the amount of Petrified wood- much of which was actually agatized and colourful!

I spent some time ashore; John shared a great history of the land which we sat on... The natives, the old river channels and first settlements. He told me stories of exploring the surrounding hills, many of which, he said, are topped with multiple 'Indian mounds.' I cant wait to do some more exploring! (and I WILL find an arrowhead!)

Full Moon TONIGHT!

2009-02-09T01:00:00.000-08:00

January's Full moon- a gorgeous gold when it was low on the eastern horizon for sunset. It rose up high and appeared just as plain as any other full moon like it- nice, clear skies too! It just lost that extraordinary detail and colour that made so noticable.

Tonight the Moon will be visibly fullest as it rises from the eastern horizon about 1/2 hour after sunset.- The moon is 100% illuminated at about 8:49 this morning, but will be somewhere on the other side of the planet by then and we will not get to see it. It will be just a bit over a 225, 660 miles from Kansas City. Ought to be a cool rise- you should expect the moon to appear coloured when it is closest to horizon; an effect produced when light passes through greater amounts of our atmosphere than when the moon is directly above us. Light reflected off of the moon pick up colours from the pollutants and impurities in the air. ENJOY!

Prairie Sunset

2009-02-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

I headed back for home after the last of my Friday classes; The drive was the best one yet!

The remains of last week's big snowfall reflected everything the sky had to offer... Clouds marbled the sky between the sun and me in a beautiful and threatening way-

The rolling hills north of Savannah were orange, black and white and it all came together to send a mixed message of peace and turbulence.

All sorts of hawks and kestrels- even the occasional eagle. The birds of prey, a few flocks of crows and an early party of American Robins were much closer than all of the geese above, but not as noticeable.

The non-stop black chains of Canada Geese stretched to and from all horizons, as they had all day, but the late-afternoon light kinda forced them to my attention-

Traversing such calm country with no camera batteries was killing me, but I got home soon enough- I made a quick exchange of things and made it to JerrySmith Park as soon as I was able. ..

Almost felt bad for stopping home without seeing or greeting my parents (almost)-- haven't been home in a couple of weeks, but if they had been paying any attention to the spectacular sunset, they would've understood! I spent only a few minutes on the property- I hate having the park's kind caretaker chase me out...

Still, I got some cool photos and a much-needed breathe of something a bit more natural and peaceful than Campus. . enjoy!

DayTrip: Kansas

2009-02-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

My mother and I took advantage of the stunning day yesterday with a last-minute adventure westward. It was forecast to be in the mid-60's and sunny! !
My mother wanted to go to the Konza Prairie, near Manhattan, and I had a few side-trips in mind. Black smoke billowed over I-70 in Topeka; smelled like a building fire- like plastic and treated wood. We exited on hwy 4.
I'd read about a spot to collect invertebrate fossils Northeast of town- where the hwy passes under Hwy24. The directions, from a KGS article on the spot, told us to pass the first ramp and hit a dirt road on the right before we passed under the bridge.
The spot was great! The fossils and rocks were pouring out of the shale and limestone- It is very similar to the fireman's memorial in Kansas City. We spent an hour or so collecting all sorts of reef-type critters; corals and sponges, chrinoids and handfuls of brachiopods and bivalves. No trilobite, but this one is something that is rarely found in Kansas. Many of the fossils had wonderful details like scars ans spines- they've eroded so well from the soft grey matrix that even the hollow spines on the two shells below were clean and clear of any mud. Gorgeous! The ones that were only partially exposed were just as detailed as he loose ones- sometimes scooped out and polished and apparently set on the rock, but still attached. The erosion here is truly art! I placed two of the shells which had good texture on my leg for a photo- what a cool spot! Mom liked the tiniest ones best, but I couldn't get enough of those with so much detail! We never fount the deposit of coal here, or the pyratized wood. Still so worth it! We hopped on Seventy for another while and found ourselves on 177 in no time! I got a kick out of the giant, ugly, 'WELCOME TO THE FLINT HILLS" which is written on a giant slab of limestone above I-70, though I know Ive seen it before. We had to turn around to catch our 'exit.'- McDowell Creek rd- And paralleled the Kaw for several minutes. The river seemed so blue- a great difference from the muddy, frozen Kansas River which we passed and crossed a few times coming from the city.
Konza's small gravel parking area was packed- dozens of other vehicles carrying people enjoying the same great weather! The hills around us- the flint hills- were very impressive! The topography was a surprise to me- Ive never really seen them other than the few times Ive driven the interstate.
The grass was endless- an infinity interrupted only by the occasional woody draw.
The backside of the parking lot was full of trees- many cedars, elms, oaks... One short, gnarly one could have been over four feet in diameter- there for hundreds of years, Im sure. One of the TRAIL signs was leaned against one of the trees- several more signs lay horizontal and beaten.
The woods were most dense near the windy creek, which we crossed twice on a pair of thin wooden bridges. The sides of the creek were very eroded- the gravel was flint and limestone and the water was crystal-clear.
Then we found the prairie- The trees stopped and the grass started and we were back on the surface of a vast ocean of grass. Each and every inch of it was full of detail- I cannot imagine what the place is like in the summer- Big and lively I would assume- It should certainly make a good trip when we find that season.
Lots and lots of native tallgrasses, but not too much else. we passed though a cluster of dried, brown compass-plants on the way up to the 'radio tower' summit. Such structures are the only things interrupting the view behind the hill- from our side, there are many miles of flat farmland visible.
There were many people on the trails- you could see them crawling all over the hills, which resemble the more familiar loess hills in size and steepness.
At the top of the 'mountain' was a spectacular view and an incredible wind- the wind started started when we got about three-quarters up- blowing at a constant 20mph-
at least strong enough to make you remember your hat and jacket. ...

I caught a few people-less panoramas with the 35mm, but the stream of people was hard to work around. The crowds certainly put a damper on our visit, but the area was top of the hill was well worth it!

The windy walk back was a short, beautiful 1.2miles through the same prairie and into a long woody draw. The people were thick near the old homestead. I was tempted to confiscate one of the many fallen, bent and scratched trail signs, but I re-planted a few instead. Maybe next time.

We headed back towards Manhattan and made a couple of quick stops on and over the Kaw for pictures and a 'walk on the beach.'

The large sandbar under hwy 177 is smothered in footprints; 'Cant imagine that the thing hasn't been picked clean of all of the nicest artifacts, but I sure hoped for an arrowhead- Ive only ever found two!

CLOSE ENOUGH! A small shard of pottery.

We gathered up some shards of bones and the fossilized lower jaw from a small deer or something. Some other dark, rusty-coloured bones like a large pelvis and a pair of vertebra were newer- only starting the process of river-aging. The wind was even stronger here- gusts strong enough to force me a step or two sideways or backwards. My mother was often turned from the wind and ducking from the painful clouds of swift sand that constanly pelted and tore at us. I put some extra effort into gaurding the cameras, but the wind worked the sand into every crack. The clouds of sand snaked down the long gravelbar like those wierd lines of snow on the road- and went many feet into the air- I imagine that even the cars on the bridge far above us and dowstream felt some of it.

Finally, a quick run up the east side of Tuttle Creek Reservoir to check out a volcanic Kimberlite formation that I'd read about in another KansasGeologicalSurvey report. The lake was pretty cool- off of the dirt road were rows of harvested corn that stretched to the shore. It made for some nice photographs, but I cant imagine that its any good for the water quality of the lake.

an increase in the turbidity of the water, from adding a fine sediment like cropped dirt, would have a negative impact on the amount of Dissolved Oxygen that fish and invertebrates can use and the amount of sunlight that aquatic-thingies use to decompose matter on the bottom. Somehow, its sure that all aspects of the under-water environments and communities will be influenced by the additional sediments alone. Who knows what kind of chemicals are being spilled into the lake because of the farming!? The poorer water-quality of Lake water is not limited to the Lake, either.

The poor lake-water is sent downstream, eventually landing in the Kansas River, the Missouri and the Mississippi! (Never did find the kimberlite...)

KansasCity's own!

2009-01-25T07:29:00.000-08:00

Robert Gaines and Linda Williams, two of our city's most talented "nature-photographers," have been kind enough to share their artwork as well as their passions for the outdoors and the camera with anyone who may have expressed interest. Better yet, the Master Naturalists have taken the time and effort to facilitate the process by creating their personalized websites.
Though Robert's blog is not yet finished, it already contains a list of links to share some of his excellent websites. His photos and comments tell of his experiences in places like the Flint Hills, the Buffalo River and Big Bend Nat'l Park in Texas. Visit Linda's website for a handful of her nicest galleries or her Blog for all sorts of exciting local bird sightings (Linda had the opportunity to observe a Snowy Owl on Smithville Lake not too long ago!!!)

Please take a moment to check out the works of these outstanding naturalists- you will not be disappointed!

Show Me Photography, by Robert Gaines

Linda Williams Photography or see HERE for Linda's Exciting blog!

As for me- I'm locked up in school for now. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I dusted off my Ancient MinoltaSRT. I bought a few rolls of Ilford100 and hit the streets with a 35mm camera for the first time in almost two years!
A long evening walk downtown and 24 exposures later, I found the antique to be very worthy of my hobby! Maybe it is that it is different or that I just have to be creative with the limited geometric subject matter- Shooting in the city and on campus is a bit more difficult than finding exciting photographs in the woods. I think I enjoy the old thing more than the digital camera; though it does cost about 50 cents per photo to have them developed- Almost 90 cents if you want small prints!

( I seem to have developed the nasty habit of disregarding the number of digital photos I take..)

Taking a photo with the heavy metal box, however, is a long, complex process of evaluations and decisions compared to the Point-Click-Pray method I shoot too many of the digital photographs with. Manual Apertures and Shutter Speeds must be quickly determined and manipulated while focus is had for an ever-changing world of fascinating subjects....Perhaps it is my romantic side coming out, or simply an intense appreciation for a dying tradition and the end of the era of honest photography. These photographs require effort and artistry and are so much more valuable when complete. I'd say its a bit like digging crystals; A quality stone which is bought is worthless compared to one that you put so much work into retrieving- like a special relationship is made with the thing by addressing it on such a personal level.

I spent almost ten minutes preparing for the Western Auto shot below, and I find it to be one of my favorites of my home town.
Anyway..
I cant wait to share photo's of Maryville with you! ...I am working on my second roll of film on this cold little town and the Missouri Northwest Campus, but there is nobody within ~100 miles who is able to develop the film. Lots of exciting spots around, though a very noticeable lack of public wild areas. - I'll get photos up soon! Enjoy!

The Parkville way

2009-01-19T19:19:00.000-08:00

Took a nice walk down the riverside. I was interested in beachcombing- my mother seemed to enjoy all of the ice more! Last week's Arctic temperatures produced some major ice up north- much of which has been broken apart and sent downstream by warmer weekend temps and dropping river levels. In parkville however, most of the ice seemed intact! We skated upstream- the ice was very solid for several feet from the shore. New ice-bridges allowed us to avoid the mud and walk across many hundreds of feet of the Missouri River! We shuffled back and forth between the exposed dikes and the island-sandbars that they hid. Thick ice coated even the largest pools between dikes, but crossing these deep pools was too risky for us.

In many places the ice was solid all of the way down- the rocks and mud at the bottom of the slowest channels were made clearly visible by the ice.

Other things were under the ice too- shiny and colourful things and things that moved in an odd, swimming manner. These swimming things, however, were not swimming- they were flowing and they multiplied and divided like an erie shape-shifter. They came in all sorts of colors, shapes and size, though none stayed the same for very long, and they fled when chased- often dividing, sprawling and spreading when they ran.

It took a couple of glances, but the creepy things were bubbles- big, silvery masses of air trapped several inches beneath me. I ran a large one into a crack in the ice, but it did not burst like I'd hoped; instead the bubble slipped from under the ice and into the atmosphere.

Big 'ice lilies' sped past us- miniature slushy icebergs. many are round with raised edges and it wasn't until I watched them move today that I figured out why..

The ice that we stood on was 4-6 inches thick. It will shatter in place if the water level rises or falls dramatically before the ice melts. The shatters, some many feet long, are rigid and solid when the enter the flow of the river.

As the sheets float, they soften due to slow melting in the water and often accumulate the smaller soft bits of ice when they overtake them. The sheets are floated into each other and the frozen shore and jagged edges are ground to more rounded shapes. The "sawdust" that is made when the edges are polished is often pushed atop the iceberg.

The same thing happens to the ice that remains attached to the shore- it is ground and polished into shapes that accommodate the flow of the water and the excess ice is piled on the waterline. It is very cool to watch- the process is soo slow and reminds me of something like plate-tectonics. I image the ice that is pushed up to be mountains and the longest shore-side ones resemble a range the best.

The constant grinding, crushing, crumbling, shaving, rubbing, mixing sound produced by hundreds of collisions at any given time comes to sound a little more peaceful from shore. A chemical reaction was the first thing that came to mind; like when you add baking soda to lava-coloured vinegar to get a volcano eruption- that sort of soft, fizzing sound. When coupled with the sight of the river here, the sound is relaxing and allows a sense of tranquility that is not often had so close to home- almost blissful.

The concept, too, is inspiring and awesome.

We found some cool stuff, but for the first part of our trip, most of the agates and fossils were frozen to the ground. Mom found a very cool Bison tooth- fossilized and turned blue by time and polished by the river. I got the remains of the skull- it is busted up, but still very cool-looking!

-A pair of ancient antlers, too! My first thought was elk- We've found elk-parts before- but I think it may just be a very large deer. The base of the antlers are more that 1.5inches in diameter! I wonder where it started? Parkville? Leavenworth? Rulo? Maybe not even on the Missouri; Any of our beautiful artifacts could have come from somewhere up a Tributary! The missouri river Watershed drains water and bones from 10 states before it hits parkville- As far as the Idaho/Montana border!

A melting route made for some challenging (and exciting) moments on our adventure back! What Fun! Anyone wanting directions to the sandbars here should e-mail me; their treasures can be collected when the river is under 7ft (see USGS realtime water data for this measurement- link at bottom of blog "USGS MO R @ KC") Hope you get out there while the lilies are still about!

The Glades

2009-01-16T10:51:00.000-08:00

GUESS WHERE I WAS!!??

I WENT TO THE HILL!

I visited the hill- wanted to hit the Rocky Point Glades, but you know what kind of distractions are up there... Some cool morning light on the area of the small storage building across from the Lakewood Shelter- made it seem almost surreal. I made a quick jog back from the hogan to try for a photo. The building used to host some of the critters submitted to lakeside nature center for rehabilitaion, but I think that it is only for storage now. I wonder what it was before the NatureCenter got to use it?? many of the ancient stone and wood structures in this section of the park have inspiring stories and have played significant roles in the history of Kansas City. The glades and all are pretty quiet. ( got there, eventually!)

I did manage to locate that patch of oyster mushrooms that I found last spring. They all looked a bit different this time; the mushrooms were all torn and dehydrated like the puff-balls on the same downed tree. Some cool shelf-fungi on this'n too!

KC Plant Fossils!?

2009-01-15T07:18:00.000-08:00

My Super-secret sandstone fossil spot on a BlueSprings hwy! Shared with me years ago by a very generous Jackson County person, and now visited only very rarely. The golden and tan-coloured sandstone hosts a great variety of plant fossils. Most are different sizes and shapes of ferns, but the rocky remains of the leaves of other similar things, including trees and shrubs are to be found here.

My Visit was a bit nippy for any real collecting, but it was cool to dig through the loose stuff while fescue is thin (relatively) and the Sericea is under winter's control. Today I found several exciting stems of ferns some softer stems and larger broad-leaves. Most of the rough plates are void of such impressions, or display only a few with little contrast, but chipping the edge of a rock here will likely reveal something good that would have been missed otherwise. My favorite was a small fern's. It is not as defined as many that I discovered, but has a very pleasant, natural shape/curve. The tip's still partially covered- this makes for a cool effect! The set of leaves is the only one on the large sandstone block, and is ~two inches in length. COOL!

AlexGeorge Park

2009-01-13T06:56:00.000-08:00

The Blue River's own Alex George Pond. I visited the edge of the 8-acre fishing lake in my way down Blue River rd the other day. I spent a lot of time here with friends and family when I was much younger, but haven't stopped at the park in years. Its peaceful this time of year- a thin sheet of ice over the water and an empty bank made for a lucky stroll down the curved edge of the water. The clouds cleared for a nice bit of warming sun, but only for a few minutes. I found a nice hunk of Cypress??? and a handful of shelf-fungi near the parking area.
The pink cypress wood might be of use to any of you artists out there- I'd hate to see it kicked around there by the fence until some mower threw it into the stream! The log is thick and over four feet in length. good luck if you choose to retrieve it! I want pics of the finished product, be it a chain-sawed bench or a careful sculpture!

River for Sunset

2009-01-09T20:42:00.001-08:00

A quick departure from beneath the town of Parkville and down several miles of the Missouri! Both colour and lively wildlife were plentiful on this unusually warm evening drift- much needed things that seem so rare in the nastiest part of winter!

I couldnt believe the numbers of birds! They showed the second I hit the water- their ridiculous abundance meant they would not go unnoticed- even the sound of 'em was something amazing. Ducks, geese, crows, hawks, eagles and all sorts of excited, colorful songbirds. The geese smothered almost every sandbar and wing-dike; ducks only floated on the calmer surfaces of the river. I saw many that I did not recognise, and nearly all kinds that I would have been able to identify! A pair of common Mergansers were a swift surprise.

There was a species out there that I never got a satisfying look at- a white-breasted something which made a slap on the water with every stroke of it's wings. The result was a sound produced on take-off that was very similar to that of a playing-card stuck in the spokes of a child's rolling bicycle. Dont know why, but that was he first thing I thought of when I heard the ducks skipping off the river. They were shy birds; I was not able to get closer than a river's-width away from any of the small groups I saw.

A curious series of leaf-crunchings sounded the bank's decent by some nearby critter. I stopped paddling and retrieved my camera from my jacket. It was a great surprise to me when I found the first of what would be a large flock of turkeys creeping sideways down the eroded bank of the river. The big guy was so focused on the loose material in his way that he failed to notice my bright-orange craft approaching for some time. I felt terrible when the sight of me- only a few boat-lengths away- startled him and drove him strait up the nasty path which he'd put so much effort into descending. Something in me wanted to get frustrated at the bird for so obviously finding me an enemy, but how could you get angry at a thing with such a gawky silhouette!?

He stood at the top of the bench with his many companions- the sun illuminated only the turkey's brightly-coloured waddle and the tip of his beak- The thin tail and tapered neck of the bird, and it's basketball-body all remained opaque and dark.

The shy things lined up and started a smooth, calm stroll out of my sight. Only their tiny, twitchy heads disrupted the flow of the group.

I became shaded, too- the high wall that protected my new friend from me blocked the direct sunlight before the last of the parade disappeared. Still, I floated. The river propelled me just as quickly or slowly as if there was nothing significant going on. Maybe it knows that every minute out on that water is equal in beauty and value. Such wonderful experiences are to be had on every mile of the river!

I stopped at an unusually bare sandbar and stirred up some invisible geese. The Canada's are al that there are, not that Im complaining!!

They left the edge of the sandbar as I arrived, though not like any ducks would . The geese file off into the air slowly and seemingly organized, not in some rushed explosion expected of their miniatures that burst off of the water upon first becoming aware of me. I think that the geese are wise. They appear more relaxed and more vocal than earlier in the season. The V's fly lower, perhaps adapting to a change in horribly busy hunting seasons- like how a mob of snow geese will vortex vertically to an altitude where they are less likely to be shot before they start a directed flight. Even the slightest collision with a pattern of shot will prove fatal for a goose. Any weakness will make them a fine meal for a deserving predator. I saw only a single injured goose on my float- maybe we are far enough past season that the weakened have already been taken from these flocks.

One section of the river- the mile or so upstream of the 635 bridge- was packed with flying-things! A mess of eagles; I counted 17 in just a few minutes. A massive murder of crows conquered much of the stretch. They were thickest in the tallest trees and seemed to darken the sky above the river here. At times the crows grew so dense that the eagles were forced to vary their flights around the mass as to avoid any unnecessary collisions. They constantly came and left- a stretch of them scattered through the sky from the tree to a northern horizon. Tiny starlings were in no short-supply either!

Several shifting blobs- murmurations I think they're called- transformed the view downstream from the bridge. Cool!

I was excited to slide under the bridge- I dont know why; Something just so thrilling about such a rare perspective.

I am not as familiar with this stretch of the Missouri as I should be. Kaw Point, at the confluence of the Kansas River, was my destination and I suspected two or three bridges and many stream-side buildings along the way. I would surely pass under the cement-giant 635 and by a few private, rusted ports, but mystery and adventure was what was to be encountered on my 10-12 mile float.

Ive passed though this stretch of river three times by paddle and many more while propelled by engine, but none of those trips came to mind this gorgeous sunset. I passed under an unknown pair of steel bridges which were beautiful in the low sun and breathtaking when the clouds moved in. They are the 7th street Trafficway, composed of a larger, northbound bridge called the Platte Purchase bridge and a thinner southbound one, the Fairfax bridge. The NB lanes were built in '57 as a toll bridge next it's older sister, also a toll completed in September 1934.

With the beautiful clouds soon came an intruding swell of grey cover. It started out as a long series of dramatic bands and grew into a boring blanket for sunset (didnt stop the colour!) as I paralleled 169 and ended the strait in wind and cold near the airport. It was hear that I began to wonder where I was. Downtown became lit and the dropping temperatures were beginning to get to me. The Kaw snuck up on me and made for an exciting, challenging rush to catch my exit up the swollen river. The BLACK Missouri was not swollen, but the Kansas definitely seemed high! The river pushed me around at the confluence and had me working up the curved area of slower water downstream of the ramp. Night set in and my 9-footer slipped through the slick mud on the bottom of the ramp.

The mud has always been that perfect consistency here; that leg-eating, boot-stealing, slimy, sticky stuff that will surprise anyone expecting to get back up the ramp in a rear-wheel drive or he who steps off of the cement near the water. It consumed the blade of my paddle when I tried using the thing for support, and I was sure not to make the mistake of sharing my footwear with it.

It was a great sense of relief (and cold!) that met me and my kayak at the top of the ramp. My lost parents were kind enough to pick me up a half-hour later, once they found the place! The wind whipped, and even flurries began to fall, but downtown made for a cool photo here, looking over the confluence. So there you have it! An extraordinary two hours, fifteen minutes of birds, rocks, bridges and a 45-degree drop in temperature! I love it!!!

The glades

2009-01-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

The sign post on the first glade is down. Its stood for like 10 years? and numerous fires, though the burns have taken a toll on the 4x4 that displays the three signs. Ive got dibs on the RockyPoint one! -
I remember when the glade area was all wooded and shrubby and sign-free. The woods above them now haven't changed much- its hard to tell when everything is bald. The winter-version of Swope is something that Ive only had the opportunity to discover in recent years. This frozen season is the second that I have been lucky enough to experience. the woods are different this month- A few stiff polypore, some woody shelf-fungi and the very beginnings of many buds are all the signs of living plants or fungi this winter. A few blue birds and a few nuthatches- the lucky hiker may find something more colourful like a cardinal or a creature a bit larger like a deer or turkey. I found few songbirds on my latest visit, but a RED-TAILED and several crows made for a pleasant surprise. It is cool and dry now- all moisture is hidden under the rocks and logs in the ground as ice crystals.

Blue River defrost

2009-01-06T17:47:00.000-08:00

Minor Park, but only for a short walk. the parking area and trails were unusually busy- lots of joggers. The trail is very rough- horse tracks have turned the mud into a hard, dried trail much rougher than the surrounding terrain. I yanked a rusty square of sheet metal out of a shrub Honeysuckle near the water. The trash is everywhere. There was some lettering on it; a mile-marker or something for the Blue? It was too messed up for a photo: "JACKSON CO., 1-E BLUE RIVER" Any Ideas??
Little ice on the river; it exists only where a branch or rock dips into the water from last night's freeze. Small circles on any twig or vine that is wet- smooth ice-doughnuts with the objects in their centers. Some of the gravel is wet, but today's short bout of sun was enough to thwart the frozen stuff.. it's just water.
The river is lower than I expected it would be- just enough water is running to fill the familiar little channel between the trail a the largest gravel bar. Its got me hopeful now for more sand on the Missouri River!?

Swope Park FOSSILS

2009-01-03T16:50:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful day! Even the bugs thought so; this ladybug enjoyed our 50+degrees at the fireman's memorial where I stopped for a bit of fossil hunting. He wasn't slow, either- the little thing sure didn't want to stop for a photo. He'll be something of a bug-cicle by tomorrow!
I started out on the lip of the second terrace, in between the black shale and edge of the rock where the best fossil-bearing limestone is exposed and eroding. Here, I found all sorts of bryozoa and shells. The wind blew my collection-bag over the edge and I jumped down to retrieve it. On the base of the memorial there are few fossils. Some cool iron deposits. I was lucky enough to come upon some odd calcite crystals and a patch of rainbow-coloured pyrite- the crystals of both minerals are small, though.
I returned to the lip of the bench for oodles of coral-like bryozoa skeletons, detailed shells and small crinoid parts. The trunk segments of the crinoids were most common, but I managed to gather some very cool spines and even a few parts of the flower-like head. Some of the shells I found show remarkable detail. Many are broken or fractured and still on the limestone matrix, but there were several today that were completely eroded from anything and still in fine condition- like they'd been taken from some shallow sea and placed on the bluff just for me!

I moved onto the next bench after an hour or so, where there were many handfuls of larger, clean-looking crinoid segments waiting in a thin, wet vein of soft material running at shoulder height. The vein runs the length of the memorial, but the echinoderms are so abundant in only the far 1/3. Here, also, there are few other fossils. the kinds of things that are found only about twenty feet below, on another terrace, are completely absent from this layer. All of those cool shells and coral-things are below. Crinoids are up on the higher level- and larger pieces are not uncommon!
I did manage to spot a very cool scallop-like shell fossil in the dormant vegetation. The coolest part of this matchbox-sized fossil is that is still shows some of the colour and patterns of the shell. I think that it was THE SCORE for the day!ABOVE are more of the common shells from the lower levels of the memorial. This beautiful trio has been only partially weathered from it's matrix- Such fossils are easy to collect here. I think that these are some kind of Meekella; the remains of one of dozens of species of Brachiopods existing in the deposits at the memorial. Found some cool shelf-type fungi on the the way out...

Jsmith park

2009-01-02T21:25:00.000-08:00

At least my favorite tree is still there. Its been forever since I walked through the park- enough time for a landscaping company, hired by the city to make the park handicap-accessible, to rip a web of long, wide trails from the ground. The trails are shaped and stripped bare of vegetation- the machinery and gravel are all ready for work above the restoration areas. Even the restoration area, however, is seeing it's share of abuse. A braid of trails edged in plastic orange fence leads through the prairie to the new viewing deck.
Even nature has done it's part! Last week's severe storms have left the grass in huge mats- it all lays on the ground now. Trees have shed many branches and the older, dead ones have fallen.
Even the big metal barn-building at the parking area has been hit!
A strip of sheet-metal from the front door is bent in the trees of the fence-row to the east, one from the back door is peeled half-way down and all of the goodies inside are finally visible!
All sorts of cool old farm equipment- from tractors to pull-behinds and even a decaying saddle.
Nothing real special on my little walk, but Jsmith is always a pleasure.

Blue Sage, Salvia azurea, in seed.