JimsSummerBlog

Ski Lodge At Big Sky

2011-07-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

Pics of Ski-In Ski-Out Lodge at Big Sky

Downstairs BR

Kids Rm Sleeps 6

Mud Room Lower Entryway

2nd Upstairs BR
Upstairs Game Rm W Pool Table and Wet Bar
Main Floor Study (i.e., Laurie's room)
Master Bath
Master BR Main Flr
Half Bath Main Floor
Dining Room
Kitchen With Viking Range
Living Rm with Chief Joseph Fireplace
Front Deck Near Entry
Entry From Driveway (note view and neighbor)

More pics from Paris...

2011-06-15T16:41:00.001-07:00

Just a few more shots from the day I didn't cover...

This seemed appropriate...

And a Salvador Dali.

This'll drive ur eyes a bit crazy...

Street scene

Notre dame

Pantheon.

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Last full day in Paris; Roland-Garros

2011-05-25T05:14:00.001-07:00

I've always thought 'bucket lists' were a little silly, but a while ago, Kevin and I resolved to see all the 'majors' tennis tournaments. At that time we had both seen Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open, so we were half way there.

It just so happened that our biking vacation in France overlapped with the beginning of the French Open, so we seized the opportunity. Also, being the ever thoughtful husband, I knew Ann wanted a day to shop unencumbered by a spouse looking over her shoulder (;)).

So, we grabbed the no. 6 metro line to the no. 10 and hopped off at Porte D'autueil Station, and followed the line of people to the fabled red clay courts of the french.

As we worked our way back to through the grounds, we felt familiar sights and sounds of tennis fans excitedly talking about the day's matches, and hawkers of expensive tennis clothes in fancy shops scattered throughout the grounds.

But there the similarities faded. Our (inexpensive) grounds passes were only good for the non-stadium' courts. The grounds were very compact and the pathways were narrow, making movement between courts very slow. Also, the arbiters of entry, nicely dressed in suits and dresses, were very stingy about letting people in the courts. So we were glad to have arrived at the red clay of court 17 early for the match between Tommy Haas and a Turkish player (rank 123) named Ilhan. It was an entertaining match, but we concluded Haas was not 100 percent, because he seemed to basically concede the match after a while. The tennis was good quality, but not great. The seats were very nice, being only a few rows above the court and fairly near the middle. The sun was getting intense by the end though, and we were hungry and thirsty.

The food prices weren't too bad, though it was clearly mass produced fare; a baguette with ham and cheese, chips, beer, and cookies.

Next we were off to court 7 to cheer on American Mardy Fish (rank 10), a player both Kevin and I like. Mardy was playing high level tennis for the most part, and despite some spirited rallies from a guy named Mello, including a 20 point tie-breaker which Fish lost (11-9), the americans had something to cheer about in the end. I especially liked it when the French umpire said 'jeu Fish' after each game he won.

We next tried to get into court 2 where Marcos Baghdatis, another entertaining player, was playing his first round match. But it seemed everyone wanted to be in that court, so there was no room. Instead we watched the end of a women's match between Kirilenko and American Coco Vandeweghe. I'm afraid I was not too impressed with Coco's demeanor after she got a questionable (and critical) call from the umpire's chair on set point. She lost rather quickly after that. Kirilenko's fitness was superb.

We happened upon an entertaining match between journeyman frenchman Banoit Paire and Romanian Hanescu. Paire had taken a set from Hanescu, and despite being a crowd favorite (natch), he was a far inferior tennis player, and a bad sport to boot, so it was satisfying to see him lose.

I thought we might be done for the day, but Kevin's iPhone app told us a match was still in progress between a spaniard named Granollers and an American I had never heard of; Alex Bogomolov. We snagged fantastic court side seats to watch the last hour or so of this entertaining match! They were both superb baseline sluggers, and they had some long rallies that featured some of the best, most grueling tennis of the day. Despite playing calmly and trading shots equally with the spaniard, Bogomolov finally lost because his serve just didn't match Granollers.

So, my conclusion was that I was really glad to have visited the French open as the red clay really does provide a different kind of game. The sliding, the entertaining falls, the slightly slower traveling balls, all add an element of difference between this and a hard court tournament. I don't know if Wimbledon or the French will ever change surfaces, but I kind of hope not. While standardization of surfaces might be 'fairer' to assess who is the best tennis player, in fact the diversity of surfaces makes it doubly amazing when someone gets a career grand slam, or even more impressive, wins all four majors in one year. When that happens, I suspect you are seeing the best athlete on the planet at that that point in time.

All in all, an entertaining day at the French, celebrated later with a beer and European style pizza on Rue d'Auteuil late into the evening.

Cheers!

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Another day in Paris-dise

2011-05-22T00:19:00.001-07:00

Today was a 'free' day in the city of love.

Kevin and I had our usual fresh oj, omelette breakfast with cafe au lait at a local place; the waitress recognized us from the week before! Guess we're regulars now.

Meanwhile Ann and Laurie ran 8 miles (seriously!) along the seine and champs élysées!

Then we wandered together down to the most famous museum of the world to be once again overwhelmed by the sheer size of the famous building and art collection. Here we are waiting for tix.

Here are a few images from inside. Sorry for all the nudes, but it was hard to avoid!

Victoire de samothrace ( one of my faves).

David and Goliath.

I like this perspective on Venus de Milo.

The rooms themselves are often works of art.

It's a tradition, right Kate?

I really like this; studying nature.

dedicated to my wonderful daughter.

The three graces.
After a too short time in the Louvre, we crossed the Seine to the Latin quarter and were enthralled by the numerous galleries, restaurants and shops, not to mention the people watching.

We ate lunch here.

couldn't help but think of Dad as we strolled by the hotel where he stayed in a past visit. Given how much we liked this area, we also wished we had called earlier for reservations so we too could have stayed here, because the location is absolutely ideal.

Laurie buying out the place.

No wirework, no beadwork, but feather jewelry is here in Paris as well.

Next we visited St. Chap Elle, a gorgeous little church on isle de la cite.

the highlight of course is the stained glass windows, which transport the eye heavenward.

I have no pictures from the end of our day, but it was great. We had champagne on the terrace at our hotel and the boys presented some anniversay gifts to a stunned, and appreciative, couple of the most amazing women on the planet.

Then, we whisked said women to a wild restaurant called Dragons Élysées, where we enjoyed Asian/Thai food while looking through the floor at an aquarium!

It was probably the most perfect city day I've ever spent.

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Day 6- all good things...

2011-05-20T08:24:00.001-07:00

Today was the last day of the biking portion of our trip. I'm including a few photos of us and our guides from yesterday as well.

Here we are in front of one of the support vans. These met us at strategic places (often 'easy to miss' turns) and provided drinks and snacks. What a luxury!

Here is Anna, one of our guides, clowning around at the van. Anna was fromSalt Lake City, and is an experienced guide. She always had an interesting story to tell and was always so wonderful, smiling and supportive. We all just really liked both our main guides as warm caring human beings. I'm sure they are as nice to each group, but we really did feel a genuine warmth from them and it was greatly appreciated.

Here we are riding along through typical Loire scenery; gently rolling farmland filled with wheat, barley, canola, sunflowers, etc. This was a particularly quiet (little traffic) ride that eventually ended up in Montrichard, a quaint little town with ancient ruins and a lively market.

Unusual tomato variety in the market.

Gorgeous produce.

Smiling and chatty local vendors.

And perhaps a fitting last picture from the market; flowers.

I will always remember the sight and smell of the flowers here, especially the poppies in the fields and the roses in the towns. It inspires me to fence the deer out of our front walkway and really make a serious planting effort.

I will also remember the bird songs. Wonderful wren like calls, mimicids, warblers, cuckoos that sounded like the clocks, and many more.

And I will remember the kind French people we met; the hosts at hotel Diderot and at chateau de Nitray stood out - I would love to have spent more time with both mending my broken French.

After a farewell lunch, we boarded a large bus which returned us to St. Pierre decours and the TGV train to Paris. In the blink of an eye, the 185 mph train whisked us back to the bustling city, where an excellent taxi driver crammed all our luggage into his citroen and returned us to the Best Western Regent Park, where we were last week.

Now the Paris part of our adventure continues...

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Day 5 biking

2011-05-19T10:15:00.001-07:00

Day 5. After a so so breakfast (we're getting blasé about croissants, good butter, jams and strong coffee), we hopped on our bikes for a short ride to Chateau de Chenanceau, a crown jewel of a castle full of regal intrigue, especially between king Henri II and his wife, Catherine de Medici, and his mistress, Diane de Poitiers.

But pictures are again worth a thousand words so...

Here is the walkway to the castle lined by what I think are 'plane trees' which are closely related to sycamores.

This is the the famous view of the castle.

The symbol, not coincidentally, includes a C, a D, and an H.

They pride themselves on flower arrangements.

Here is a portrait of the lovely milk skinned Diane...not a hottie by today's standards but a Rennaissance cougar, by all accounts (she was 20 y older than Henri!).

Here was our guide. Too persnickety to be likable, but she had lots of info.

One of several royal bedchambers.

We then biked ca 12 miles to lunch at a winery; a nice sit down affair with chicken and beef, and wine of course. Delightful hosts, who showed us around chateau de Nitray. I especially liked the owner who had a wonderful sense of humor and a twinkle in his eye.

Here is monsieur showing us the inside of the pigeon building! This is how they accessed the roosts to get eggs! (the ladder swings around the inside of the round building).

A couple of biking scenes from the day...

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Biking day 4

2011-05-18T14:12:00.001-07:00

The weather is getting warmer every day, but it's sunny skies and spectacular weather so no one is complaining. Plus backroads keeps us well stocked with water and snacks.

The hotel we stayed in last night is hotel Bourdesiere. If you're ever in the region, I recommend it!

Today was exciting because we visited the famous town of Amboise, which features an amazing castle frequented by a series of kings. It was clearly built for defensive purposes but was later gilded with renaissance touches learned from Italy.

I couldn't resist posting this scene from the morning bike ride. Is it any wonder the impressionists loved this region!

Here is the view of the amazing castle at Amboise as you enter town.

This is St Hubert's chapel, which is where Leonardo Da Vinci himself is buried.

Many scenes from our visit to the chateau. It was wonderful, followed by an amazing lunch with smoked salmon filled ravioli in a mushroom cream sauce that was to die for....

That afternoon we visited close de Luce, where da Vinci spent the last 3 y of his life. It had a fantastic set of displays of the inventions and thinking of this amaaaaazing man.

Tonight we are staying at chateau de chissay, and we are all tired after a wonderful 5 course meal, wine, and long route biking. We have been doing ca. 40 plus miles per day. Time to sleep, perchance to dream.

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Day 3 biking

2011-05-18T13:53:00.001-07:00

On day 3 we left hotel Diderot and headed out on a one way route by some amazing cute towns and chateaux with picturesque agricultural fields in between.

This is one of our co-bikers, Mark, who works for Culligan out of Chicago...we enjoyed the company of Mark and his wife Veda tonight at dinner of day 4...

The wild poppies here are weeds. And I formed a new theory about why the french are notoriously a bit 'different'...poppies are weeds in their crops...hint, hint....

This is not a French person though...this is Laurie creating a fashion statement before touring the Chateau at Azay-de-Rideau.

Ann entering chateau grounds.

This chateau really was a quite charming place!

Including princes waiting to be kissed. They were very vociferous.

Ah, it looks like one did get kissed...

And here is a princess teaching schoolchildren.

The botanist in me is enjoying the scenery.

Then we arrived at our Hime for night 3. I'm not kidding.

And on the way up the stairs, some rennaissance porn....

Leonardo davinci designed this arch....

The sign said they grow 630 varieties of tomatoes on this property for conservation purposes.

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Day 2 biking

2011-05-16T23:42:00.001-07:00

Today we did a loop from hotel Diderot in chinon, with a main attraction in the morning of visiting the abbeye de fontevraud, where women ruled supreme in the middle ages. I wasn't so enamored of the abbey, though it was huge and impressive, as the numerous small extremely picturesque towns we rode through. Here are some visuals, which are easier to write than typing a thousand words on an iPad!

This is actually at hotel Diderot, but it gives you an idea of the many small alleys and roads in Chinon.

Ad for one of the many wine caves along the route.

Ann riding through a quaint town, one of the plus beaux villages en france.

Inside a local 13th century cathedral.

Typical roadside scene.

Near the confluence of the Loire and Vienne rivers.

Inside the abbey.

Turrets.

Can you imagine the nuns scuffling along these floors?

These roses are everywhere. Sorry...

Kevin and Laurie taking off after lunch.

Still life. I think the snake was dead....

Displaced California poppies.

Local weedy poppies.

Wheat. The most common crop we see, followed by sunflowers and grapes.

The gently rolling countryside.

One of many chateaux.

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Off to Backroads Bike tour

2011-05-16T09:52:00.001-07:00

Got up early despite late dinner (excellent French onion soup!).

Caught taxi to Gare Montparnasse, where we jumped on the high speed train to Tours. A short hour and over 100 miles later, we were meeting our trip leaders and having wine tasting and lunch at a local winery. This is a group of photos from the winery.

This was the proprietor, who oriented us to the local wines....a nice white, nice rose, and a soso red.

The roses here were spectacular, but this has turned out to be the case throughout the Loire we have seen so far. Sorry if you have to look at photo after photo of them.

Here we are eating lunch under grapes and cloudy cool skies.

After this, we biked through the countryside to Chateau d'Usse, the castle that (legend has it) inspired the sleeping beauty story.

It was a fairytale like castle.

I guess they built so many castles so the local feudal Lords wouldn't be embarrassed if the king dropped by for drinks.

You get the picture...It was a very pretty place. Oozing charm.

Late nice dinner in Chinon at our home town for two nights. Great restaurant. Good food, wine, and company.

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End of second day in Paris...

2011-05-16T09:33:00.001-07:00

End of day 2 in Paris. Eiffel tower visit, a required activity for any first trip to Paris...

Looking up! Fortunately Kevin had purchased tix beforehand...so the wait wasn't bad despite great weather and lots of people.

My fave bridge from the top.

Celebrating the conquest of the tower...

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2nd day in Paris

2011-05-14T09:27:00.001-07:00

Today the women folk got up early and ran 4 plus miles while the guys drank cafe au lait and had omelets at a local creperie.

Then on to the bateaux mouches boat ride on the seine to get oriented to the city. Most of these photos were taken along that route...

Pont d'alexandre again. It's my favorite bridge in the world now.

On one of the corner towers of the Louvre.

Liked these faces.

Disciples climbing the roof of Notre Dame?

Bridge after bridge.

Napoleon III

Paris landmarks.

Just another bridge sculpture....

And another.

Alma.

Ttfn.
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Nous arrivons en Paris

2011-05-14T00:26:00.000-07:00

Thursday, 5:20 pm Ann and I leave for Paris via Pittsburgh and Bostonto celebrate our 30 th wedding anniversary. The anniversary was last October 18, of course, but this date was a compromise with Kevin and Laurie, who are celebrating their 20th this coming fall.

Being a resets special, the flight was tiring, but we found the air France bus to l'arc de triumph with no problem and strolled to our hotel, the Best Western Regent Park, a few blocks away. A short nap later and we were ready to embark on our first adventures. We walked back to the arc, and paid the 9.5 E required to go to the top, where we had many wonderful views in all directions of the Etoile. Here are some photos of the views. Uh oh...having trouble with images...check back later.

This was inside the arc en route to the top!

Sacre coeur in the distance.

Busy champs élysées.

Le tour Eiffel.

Lotsa picture taking, under a watchful eye.

Next we strolled down the champs élysées and had dinner at an outdoor cafe. Very slow, but enjoyed the people watching. Next we strolled toward Franklin Roosevelt, then to the Seine and beautiful Pont Alexander...

Statue between trees..

Statue sur le grand Palais (I think).

These bridges are incredible!

Encroyable...

Et plus...

Et plus,

Alors, enfin...

Yellowstone - July 26 - July 31

2010-08-18T05:45:00.000-07:00

Kevin, Colin and I had a fantastic time kayaking into the backcountry around the southeast arm of Yellowstone Lake. Here are a few highlight pictures from the trip.

And a few more...

OK, a few more...

And a last set of five:

Alaska - July 9 - 25

2010-08-18T05:40:00.001-07:00

This is a brief post to share some pictures from my summer travels.

First, year 2 of our Alaska grant, examining ecotypic differentiation and adaptational lag to climate change.

The first part of the trip, we returned to Eagle Creek, Alaska, where I carried out my PhD work. We censused not only Dryas octopetala reciprocal transplant gardens, but also the first of six Eriophorum vaginatum (cottongrass) gardens set up by Ned Fetcher and Gus Shaver.

After visiting Eagle Creek for 3+days, we returned to Fairbanks and headed up the haul road toward Toolik, censusing populations along the way. I didn't take too many photos on the way up this year. Here is one at No Name Creek and another closeup of lichen heath at Coldfoot showing one of Ann's favorite plants (low-bush cranberry; Vaccinium vitis-idaea).

At Toolik, Gus Shaver showed us around a few of the experimental sites, and we enjoyed several days of good cooking and beautiful scenery.

We then journeyed to BP-land, i.e., Prudhoe Bay to visit the transplant garden there. On the return trip, we were delighted to see a herd of muskox!

On the trip back, Cindy Bennington, Caitlin Peterson, and I left early to finish Caitlin's work at Coldfoot, and were treated to a beautiful passage over the Brooks Range...

2009 Eighth Annual Forks of Cheat Forest Triathlon

2009-09-13T07:22:00.000-07:00

Selfishly, needing a motivator for exercise in summer several years ago, I decided to host a triathlon in our neighborhood. At the time, it was, "raise up the flag, and see if anybody salutes!". Well, some athletic neighbors joined in. The next year, some students joined in. This year, some faculty joined in. I added 'teams' this year to encourage participation. It worked!

Now, it's no longer a selfish thing I do (although, it still serves the function); it's something I look forward to doing as a way of contributing to our community's emphasis on healthy living in harmony with the environment. Hey, that's a pretty good slogan...hmmm. Maybe I'll bring it up at our neighborhood visioning meeting next week.

This year's event was greeted by a cool morning (low 60's) and cloudy skies. It was chilly before and after the event, but the weather was perfect for swimming, running, and biking. I had probably prepared for this triathlon less than any in recent years. I had done some running, but virtually no biking (and no bike tuneup) and only one swim. I was surprised that the swim went as well as it did; I managed to do the crawl all the way across, which is a sign that I'm not in too bad shape. During the run I felt a bit sluggish...never did put on my earphones in the interest of time, but I might have run faster with the inspiration of Porcupine Tree. On the bike ride, I don't think I was quite as fast as last year, but I didn't feel too bad. Until, Dick and Jane Lambie came flying by me on a steep uphill with their tandem bike. Impressive.

My only personal achievement I guess was coming in 2 minutes ahead of Lynne Ryan, a bona fide triathlete, who has participated in 7 events this summer and won a number of them in her age class. She was fast! But I was slower than last year by a bit. I need to work on my transition both coming out of the water and getting on the bike - they were painfully slow this year.

Special thanks to Charlie Kramer for driving bikes over to the dam in his truck and to Caitlin McGraw for managing the swim portion, as well as timing the whole event. You guys were indispenable!

Now, my motivator for staying in shape will be....SKI SEASON!!!!

Brothers and Sisters - Sept. 6 and 7

2009-09-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

On our traditional trip to the U. S. Open over Labor Day this weekend. Ann, Kate and I drove up in the new Prius (averaging 53 and 55 mpg on the 2 complete tanks of gas! woohoo!). Trev took the bus up from DC for $19. Ian and Ming are still honeymooning somewhere in the world, if they haven't been eaten by a hippo.

I'll make this a short entry so I can get back to work. The weather was gorgeous this weekend - not too hot, though the sec. 127 seats Ann acquired for us were facing the sun and we sweltered a bit anyway. I guess I'm in charge of seat selection next yr. Trevor's unbelievable seats on Labor Day were great fun - staring right at the server from courtside. At that angle and distance you REALLY get a feel for the speed and power of the pros.

Two fun matches were watching one set of the Bryan brothers playing doubles and later, the Williams' sisters playing doubles in the evening. Both won their matches. Both looked like they were having a lot of fun out there. Here are a couple of pictures from those matches that captured nice moments I thought.

ADDENDUM: THE WILLIAMS SISTERS PHOTO HAS BEEN REMOVED. I CANNOT ABIDE HAVING SERENA WILLIAMS' IMAGE ON THIS BLOG. SHE IS A BLIGHT ON THE SPORT, AN EMBARRASSMENT TO VENUS, AND SHOULD BE BANNED FOR LIFE. SHE ALSO NEEDS SERIOUS PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING.

Aug. 21 etc. - mopping up

2009-09-04T08:15:00.001-07:00

A few last thoughts on the Australia portion of this trip.

1. If you go to Australia, you must go for more than 4 days; OK I was there for 8 days, but half of that was conference. Nevertheless, even with only four days to explore and educate myself about Australia, it was worth it, despite the 35 hr trip back, one leg of which I was seated next to a crazy person (no, not Sara). Try going for at least a month. Maybe 2 if you want to check out Tasmania and New Zealand!

2. I always tell people "You must go to Alaska sometime in your lifetime". Well, I might have to add another A list destination to that with an "...and Australia" on that. It's a super-cool country. I'd recommend reading Bill Bryson's "In a sunburned country" before you go - it's spot on in its descriptions, and hilarious to boot.

The pictures above show another Wendy recommendation: going down to the wharf district for sunset-watching and a drink by the piers. She implied we would see something special. Little did we know it would be a ca. 10 foot fish eating scraps under our noses by the shore. It was 'George the Grouper'. Now, Australians call them Gropers...I think on purpose. I told one of our reef guides the next day that that name might have other connotations in North America and he just smiled. Anyway, both George and the sunset were amazing, and all the tourists seemed quite happy despite the outrageous price of the wine.

Aug. 21 - Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary

2009-09-01T06:19:00.000-07:00

Saltwater crocodile - this thing could eat you, easily...

Sara enjoyed the feeling of this wallabee's paw on her paw

Sara got a kick out of feeding the kangaroo too...well, fortunately she did not get a real kick out of it.

Jim feeds a 'roo'

A nail tail kangaroo

This was the only black stork that had ever nested in captivity!

These ducks just looked happy

I thought these lorikeets were gorgeous

Lorikeet

OK, the chronology is reversed here. Sorry. But when I downloaded these pics, I thought I'd like to share a few. We stayed in a 2 BR apartment in Port Douglas (apartment renting is de rigueur here in Oz) called 'By the Sea' apartments with some new owners who are really trying hard to do a nice job. The head greeter/owner was Wendy, and she made one after another excellent recommendation for our stay in Port Douglas. So, if you're ever going to Port Douglas, I highly recommend By the Sea apartments - 50 yds from a 4 mile beach and a short stroll from the main drag of Macrossan St. where all the restaurant/shop/galleries action is. In other words, perfect location for your stay in Port Douglas. You might even wake up to a kookaburra singing outside, as I did one morning. But I digress.

Wendy's first recommendation when we arrived on Friday was that we zip on down to the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary. Now that sounded like a bunch of caged animals in a zoo to me, but it was a bit better than that, and it provided an opportunity to get a closeup look at some Australia birds and marsupials and reptiles. So here are a few pictures of what we saw there - and despite my reservations about zoos generally, I would have to recommend a stop at this place as a good starting point for learning about Australian zoology.

The Daintree Rainforest

2009-08-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

How about the size of this fern? We thought Cinnamon ferns in Appalachia were impressive!

Palm

Strangler fig doing its thing to another tree.

Like big ferns and palms? This is the place for you.

Looking up at the canopy

And this is what you see!

Leafy vine

Birding is really hard here, but bird diversity is supposed to be incredible.

I thought these palms were the coolest

Buttress roots were common.

Two world heritage sites (I believe there are only 34 in the entire world) sit nearly on top of each other in this little corner of Australia - the Great Barrier Reef (which, truth be told, goes way beyond this little corner of Australia!) and the Daintree rainforest. Why is the Daintree special? Two words: Relictual biodiversity. Huh? OK, most tropical rainforests are diverse, but this one has been around a LONG time, and thus contains relicts of evolution that other places on earth lack. One example, now quite well known, is Idiospermum australiense (idiot fruit!). This endemic tree has been around for 120 million years! That's a long time. The seedlings have 3 or 4 cotyledons (most plants have one or 2, an evolutionary path chosen long ago by most flowering plants). Crazy huh?

The Daintree looks like a scene from Jurassic Park - huge tree ferns, vines, etc. are everywhere. All of this is wonderfully described at the Daintree Discovery Centre, where you can walk right up in the canopy with an elevated walkway and a tower at the end. The audio guide and written guides are both excellent for introducing the animal and plant life unique to the area.

Great Barrier Reef - Return to Shore: The personal music video

2009-08-28T13:48:00.001-07:00

OK, as many of you know, I have indulged in making music videos, mostly of skiing expeditions set to progressive rock, over the past several years. It's a blast to do this and to share the 'art form'.

But in the past year or 2, I've discovered...invented?...not yet perfected, but I'm getting there...a new very personal art form I'm calling the personal music video - a one time performance that nevertheless lingers in the mind way beyond the time it occurs. To be really effective, it has to be planned in advance, kind of like a more formal music video, except you are the only one that experiences it, AND, it is a live interactive performance. So, what do I mean?

Both examples I'll give emerged from my repeated listening to the latest Pendragon album - Pure. Last spring break, one of the songs "The Freak Show' struck a cord with me in two ways. First, I thought about how at times we all step back from our brains and think what a 'freak show' we have going on in there, and how we really don't want people to know about it. That song captures this sentiment perfectly. Second, the rhythm of it struck me as perfect for huge swooping high speed GS turns. Where could I listen to that song and ski a really long, fast set of arcing curves? No better place than Elk Park Ridge at Big Sky Montana. Now, for the personal music video: Cue up the song at the top of the slope, press play, and take off! What happens next depends on how well you've chosen your music and your activity...in this case the conditions of the slope (perfect), the weather (bluebird day), and the state of your mind (freaky). By the middle of the song I had this ear-to-ear grin that I could not wipe off when I reached the bottom! There may have been tears of joy too, I don't recall. And I was skiing by myself. Now, every time I hear that song, my mind veers back to that experience.

So why am I harping on personal music videos? Well, living here in 'almost heaven' I've been thinking about the heaven on earth concept, and realized that perhaps these personal music videos are capturing a piece of that. I'm also mentioning it here because I had planned in my mind a personal music video moment for the boat trip return from the reef! Thus I pulled out my personal assistant (read iphone) and my noise cancelling headphones, sat on the front deck of the boat, and turned up 'Indigo', the first song on Pure, to relatively high volume. Now the first half of the song is about a rather sad boy growing up in a decrepit town where misfortune and misfitting were the main themes...but in the middle of this song it transitions into soaring major chords with visions of the boy escaping his prison and diving into a deep blue lagoon...to swim away from here...it becomes a song of liberation. And I thought the moment of returning from diving in the deep blue lagoon would be a perfect time to play this song due to the vision it conjured. Now of course it would have been better to play it underwater, but I haven't purchased the underwater ipod case yet, so this may have been second best. At any rate, once again, I probably looked like a freak as I swayed to the music, watched the ocean spray up from the bow, and contemplated the numerous dives into the deep blue sea we had just experienced. Personal music videos are very personal. I was curious whether it was transferable, so I plopped the earphones on Sara's head, but I don't think it had the same effect. She didn't know the song, why it was being played, hadn't anticipated the experience as I had. Ah well. That's why your perfect personal music video will be personal

Great Barrier Reef - Going Under

2009-08-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

Some of the corals really glowed; most were not so colorful as this, though they came in fantastic shapes and sizes.

Big schools of these guys; species?

Butteflyfish pair

These are beginning divers hanging onto a line while they get used to breathing naturally underwater I guess.

Lots of small fishes on the reef.

The giant clams were truly phenomenal, and they had glowing green fluorescent dots on their lips!

A wrasse of some kind?

Like birds, many of these reef fish pair up; they really seem to have personalities too.

This is a small parrotfish

These small blue fish were everywhere in darting schools. I saw one get eaten by a very fast triggerfish.

Here I am exploring the reef.

These small stripy fish were everywhere too (Sergeant majors?)

Here's a large fish I saw frequently...

The first site we stopped at had a swift current going by the reef, so there would have been problems with beginning divers (or so we were told) so we moved to a calmer spot on Opal Reef one of the thousands of reeflets that are part of the GBR preserve. I was eager to plunge in but we had to wait for the divers to get their acts together - for those reading this, you may want to consider a snorkel only boat if you want a little more time in the water. We had originally signed up for one, called Wavelength, but they had to re-fit their propeller so we moved to this outfit, which sounded good on the web (and by and large, they were).

Anyway, plunging underwater, we were not disappointed by the wonderful displays of coral and fish. Now, when you've snorkeled before in places like Hawaii, Egypt, the Caribbean, etc. I think you get distorted memories over time...at least I think I do. I remember a place we call 'the aquarium' in Maui is just off the charts spectabulous in every way. But truth be told, I suspect the fish diversity was higher here on the GBR and the corals were most certainly more spectacular. But even after snorkeling here on the GBR, I have a tremendous fondness for the aquarium on Maui and would go back there in an instant.

So technology is amazing isn't it? Here are pictures taken with an $87, 8 Megapixel waterproof camera (Vivitar 8400). I'll let you be the judge about how they came out. I took about 150 pictures in the course of 2 snorkeling bouts, and these are definitely a culling from that, but some of them I hope give you the flavor of the day. Suffice it to say, I was wishing for more days on the reef...enough time to start learning the new fish, etc. So I felt like I just got a taste.

Aug. 22 - Great Barrier Reef; journey to the reef

2009-08-28T12:58:00.001-07:00

Again, there are places in the world that kind of speak for themselves, or pictures speak more clearly than words. Perhaps the Great Barrier Reef is one of those. We met the bus for Haba (our snorkel tour company) in front of By the Sea apartments (more about them later) and were whisked across town (we could have walked) to the wharf where Haba's boat was docked. The boat was not the prettiest in the snorkeling/dive fleet, but it certainly beat QuickSilver for looks, whose boats looked like giant steel grey greyhound buses on the water. Our boat was modest in size with a simple foredeck, a main cabin area with seating for about 70 or 80, then an upper rear deck with seating for perhaps 30. Our group was supposed to only have about 60 people (as opposed to ca. 300 for Quicksilver). It was still a bit crowded on the boat, so we moved to the foredeck where we could watch where we were going and get a little freedom to move. It was nice up there, and here are a couple of shots I took so you get a flavor.

Aug. 21 - To Port Douglas via Cairns

2009-08-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

Today began the vacation...er...um...I mean research on the northeast Queensland World Heritage Ecosystems known as The Great Barrier Reef and Daintree rainforest. Flight from Brisbane to Cairns was ca. 2 hrs. I rented a car from Alamo (read Europacar). Now, I had specifically requested an automatic since I didn't need the extra hassle of shifting left-handed while trying to remember how to drive on the 'wrong' side of the road all the time. But I shouldn't have been surprised when I got the vehicle for a lower price that it was in fact a manual shift Hyundai Getz (a very small econobox). I swallowed deep and took off into Cairns traffic, heading north toward Port Douglas along the coast. First impression - OK driving on the left is not all that bad - you just have to keep reminding yourself. Second - whoa, this coast is beautiful! Reminds me of Hawaii. Not quite as wild and woolly as the drive to Hana on Maui, but really very nice. Third, the coastal tropical scrub forest was burning in a number of places, sometimes right up to the road. Wow. Here are a couple of pics for ya.

Aug. 20: Brisbane Botanical Garden

2009-08-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

I didn't feel like I was really in Australia until I skipped out on the meeting one afternoon and ventured out to the Brisbane Botanical Garden at Mt. Coot-tha, a few km outside of the city center. The garden was divided into different Australian habitats and showcased the tremendous diversity of plants comprising the flora there. There were also plants from around the world. We liked the 'natural' Australian dry tropical forest (where we saw a monitor lizard climb a tall tree, probably looking for bird eggs to munch (see pic). There were also many beautiful birds scattered about, including a mysterious large white loud bird that we later identified as a cockatoo. In this case, pictures really are worth a thousand words apiece, so to give you a flavor of this place, i've included several shots here.

Aug. 17 - 20: INTECOL, Brisbane

2009-08-28T05:04:00.000-07:00

Now the real excuse for going to Australia was INTECOL, the International Congress of Ecology that meets only once every several years. When I found out it was in Brisbane and the theme was global change and sustainability, I thought 'Ahah!' (this was last fall before any wedding plans had been made!) and committed then and there to going to present our recent research on climatic warming and its effects on ginseng. This is the theme of one of my PhD students, Sara Souther. So, she and I had been planning to present here for the last 10 months or so. I had never been to an INTECOL meeting, but I heard good things.

Now for the ulterior motive; I have been to 6 continents in my various professorial and private leisure traveling: Europe (several times), Asia (now twice), South America (twice), Africa (twice), North America (of course), and Antarctica (once). The only continent I had never visited was Australia! So there you have it. A life goal within reach. So it really was with great conflict in my mind that I chose to stick with the Australia meeting when my family was traveling in China after the reception. I would obviously have loved to be with them. But I didn't want to let go of this life goal, and I had made a commitment, so here I was.

Now the conference was what I would characterize as 'pretty good'. Some good plenary talks, and a smattering of very interesting talks in between. One picture shows Sara next to our poster talking with Johan Ehrlen, a well-known plant population biologist. Another shows a very bizarre poster and you can look at it more closely if you dare by clicking on the image. And Brisbane is a neat city. Sculptures lying around (see pic). If you look closely at the city pic, you'll see that there were Prius taxis - now there's a progressive city! We stayed in the Hotel George Williams, a rather spartan hotel but in the center of the city within walking distance of most things. My room was modern, but had a real minimalist air about it that I actually liked - who needs all that luxury if you're just sleeping in a place. Anyway, Sara and I had a nice 4 days in Brisbane. Here are a couple of pics from the meeting and from walking around town. I'll describe the trip to the botanical garden on Thursday in more detail in the next post.

Aug. 16 - Off to Australia

2009-08-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, folks. I was nuts. Flying all the way to Beijing to spend one full day there, and flying out to a conference in Brisbane the next day. Well, at least I got to be there for the reception and I'm sure glad I did it. But do you know how far it is to Australia from China? Pretty far. I left for the airport around 9ish Beijing time and didn't arrive in Brisbane until 7 the next morning. Sure, there was a layover in the nice airport in Seoul, Korea (pic above), but most of the time was in the air. Phew! My back was going to pay for all this air travel over such a short time.

Aug. 15 - Great Wall & Wedding Reception

2009-08-28T04:48:00.000-07:00

Well, the trip to the Great Wall was an adventure, but we were overly-ambitious. Despite Ian warning the taxi driver that he had to have us back by 11:30, the traffic gods had their own plans as construction on the main route on the way to the Great Wall prompted the driver to try a back road on the way back, where we ran into stopped traffic due to, most likely an accident (we never found out). He eventually turned around, and re-joined the originally slow construction-clogged route back to the hotel, but we arrived an hour and a half late. This was all very bad since I was supposed to raise one of the early toasts to the honored couple. But here are a couple of the views we got to see as a result of the over-long excursion.

The reception was great. Exceptional food on a huge rotating platter on each of many tables in the room. Much boisterous toasting was performed followed by ritual downing of rice wine or beer or whatever concoction happened to be in your glass. Must have been a dozen special dishes on the table and all of it was great. I wish I had a picture of the layout but I was so flummoxed by being late I don't think I ever captured one.

Ann performed a toast on my behalf and by all accounts, particularly given the attention she was getting from the men in the audience later, she must have done a fine job. I had men toasting me for marrying Ann! Hilarious...I mean, I was happy to raise a glass to that!

Thank goodness there were no pictures of me singing Elton John's 'Your Song' during the nonstop karaoke session later that afternoon! Everyone was out on the dance floor. I have to say, kind of a trip to have people dancing to your singing! There was some applause afterwards, but thank goodness everyone had had a few drinks by that point. The audience was not highly critical...

August 15 - Great Wall and Wedding Reception

2009-08-16T03:15:00.001-07:00

Only a few minutes of battery left so this will be quick.

Saturday, Ann had a hair appointment (3rd of the short wedding season!) so this was Kate and Trevor's chance to see the Great Wall at Simitai, which is normally not too far from the wedding town of Miyun. Today, it turned out to be pretty far, especially on the way back but on the way out too. On the way out the problem was road construction. On the way back the problem was unknown, but probably a traffic accident on an ill-advised attempt to re-route around the construction. At any rate, we were late for the reception which was to begin at noon. Bad scene, as I was supposed to give a toast near the beginning! Argh.

Anyway, we had to hurry once at Simitai, so we took the cable care up (see photo) and then almost ran up the steps to the wall itself. We only 20 minutes or so to enjoy the immense man-made world wonder. But it is spectacular and the mountainous terrain is quite scenic. I was pleased to be able to beat the kids to the top of the considerable number of steep steps to the top. The ol' man's still got it! Actually trevor was right on my heels. Kate was only a couple minutes behind.

I'm posting 2 pics from this trip if I can beat the battery dying. More on the reception tomorrow!

Marathon Trip to China-Australia begins - Aug 13-14

2009-08-16T03:02:00.000-07:00

I'm running out of laptop battery in the Seoul, Korea airport, so this will be a quick couple of entries. Also, I realized that I somehow left my camera-computer connector cord in Morgantown, so I will only be uploading iphone images in the near-term, for this trip. But now that I know that I can take pics accordingly.

So, I left Pittsburgh at 6ish AM for Wash. DC, which necessitated beginning this trip at 3 AM from my house. 23 hours later I arrived in Beijing with the usual sleep deprivation and jet lag issues. But generally the drive-flight-flight went very well with very few issues. Bags arrived. I arrived. Took a nap when I arrived and had dinner without the need to be alert for interactions with newfound relatives (Ming's family) during dinner, and all went well on the first day. In fact, after dinner, we called on Ming's father's parents and there were several uncles and aunts and cousins in the place too. We are hoping we didn't embarrass Ming or Ian, or Min or Drew (MIng's parents) too much. We presented the grandparents with four bottles of fish oil (don't ask why? it is custom), and they gave us 2 boxes of tea.

The photo above was an image taken from the plane window showing the arctic ice sheet breaking up near northwest Greenland. I don't know that this level of breakup is unusual, but reports over the past several years are that the ice sheet has been melting significantly more than in previous decades, suggestive of a dramatic global warming effect, which could accelerate through feedback by changing the albedo of the earth (water absorbs more heat than ice). Anyway, we flew over the north pole again, though the pilot didn't point it out this time, like he did last time. Even though it was a longish 14 hour flight, you do realize you're flying halfway around the world (12 time zones!), so the world does seem small when this change happens so fast. The feeling of small worldness is accented by the joining together of two families from opposite sides of the globe. Ming's family seem like really nice people, though the language divide makes it hard to get to know them very fast.

Overnight Transformation

2008-10-10T08:01:00.001-07:00

Been working away at BSD. But looking out the window now and then, and snapping an occasional photo when the light is right. So here are two photos, the first taken yesterday, and the second taken this morning. There was more snow than this predicted, and it may yet come as the flakes still fall. I was glad I made the trip to Bozeman last evening to switch out the Mazda 3 for a Toyota Rav4 (all wheel drive) in case the weather improves (i.e., more snow!). Cheers from winter wonderland!

Premonitions of Winter

2008-10-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

Mostly hunkered down to work today. But took a short drive into the park to watch the weather and raptors. Saw more weather than raptors (see photo), though I did watch a sharp-shinned hawk migrating! Or was it a Coopers. Sigh. Oh, and those 'showers'? They're snow showers! Ski season cannot be far away!

Enraptored In the Bridgers

2008-10-05T08:01:00.001-07:00

So this weekend is the bridger raptor festival (bridgerraptorfest.org), celebrating the location of the largest golden eagle migration in the country (several hundred golden eagles fly by every year on their way south). Saturday was a cloudy, blustery day, threatening rain, which finally arrived in late afternoon. So it wasn't a great day to watch birds. But after attending a very informative 1.5 hr lecture by Steve Hoffman of Montana Audubon on raptor idenification, I decided to follow in Kevin and Laurie's footsteps and climb Sacajawea peak, just north of Bridger Bowl Ski Area. The road in was a bit rough for my Mazda 3 rental car, but I didn't bottom out. Though the plants were largely on their way to senescence, the hike was nevertheless quite beautiful, and quickly I found myself above timberline in my alpine element. Virtually no raptors were seen, but at least 22 ravens were acrobatically flying around the peaks. I saw Rocky Mountain goats in the distance, and if you are observant, you may be able to find them in one of the photos uploaded here. After reaching the peak, I noticed heavy rain showers heading across the valley near Bozeman toward the mountains, so I partially ran and walked fast back down to get off the ridge in case of lightning (there was none). The only loud noises were rifles of hunters in nearby foothills. All in all, a great day getting more familiar with the local sights around southwest Montana.

Oh, and does anyone recognize what can only be described as my second favorite plant (now that I have discovered the wonders of ginseng...)?

More Foliage, Montana Style

2008-10-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but...whoever said New England has a corner on the fall foliage market has not been to Montana at this time of year. It's not the same, but it's spectacular. Enjoy!

Back to Big Sky

2008-09-29T18:41:00.000-07:00

Being on sabbatical, it was important for me to maximize the atmosphere conducive to thinking. Hmmm....where to go? (people always ask you 'Where are you GOING on your sabbatical').

Big Sky!!!

I do some of my best thinking there.

Besides, I had never been here at this time of year. I expected it might be cold. Perhaps snowing already. Well, it's been around 70 both days so far. Clear skies. Very sunny. Brilliant foliage.

I took a quick drive into the park this evening (NW corner), hoping to see some wildlife and foliage. There is not an abundance of aspens here, but when they occur, they are gorgeous - brilliant gold, and sometimes with a tinge of orange I don't remember seeing before. But more than this, along the river (Gallatin) there are reds (Vacciniums I think; I haven't stopped to look yet) and yellows (willows) everywhere, grading into the sage green of the upland areas and the deep green of spruces. In the setting sun, the Gallatin Valley was truly spectacular.

I thought I wasn't going to see any wildlife, but then this cutie popped up on the side of the road. He wanted to cross, but headed back as I braked to avoid hitting him. I then turned around and pulled over in a pullout and got this shot of him as he tried again to cross the road.

There was also a rather worrisome looking fire on the back side of the mountain the Lone Moose Chair is on. Not too far from Southern Comfort. Haven't heard what that is all about...but here is a photo.

July 16 - All Good Things Come to An End

2008-07-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

This is the last day in Big Sky country and probably my last blog entry until I return to WV. Today was an errand day and an exercise day. We all pitched in to wash windows and clean the bathrooms, did laundry, worked on the hot tub lid, and mundane stuff like that. Thundershowers and flat tires on the remaining bike cut my mini-triathlon (swim, run, bike) into a biathlon (swim, run). I'm making Jim's famous black bear burritos for dinner tonight so it seems only appropriate that I share one more version of my picture of the fine black bear we saw in Yellowstone...

I plan to head out tomorrow morning and do a couple days of exploring on my own before heading east in earnest. I'm planning to eat breakfast at Huckleberry Cafe to stoke up with some gourmet breakfast food. By the way, the Town Centre of Big Sky has many more restaurants now for those who have been here before. A new chinese place, a cafe, a Choppers grill, Lotus Pad (thai), and several others. So for apres ski, etc., there are many choices, which is a nice improvement. We are working hard to get Big Sky Dream back on the rental market, so all you readers out there, tell your friends to contact Kevin or me and we'll check availability.

All the best, Jim

July 15 - Wolf Day, and a little fishing

2008-07-16T07:14:00.000-07:00

Determined to take one last run at wildlife drive (the Lamar Valley), we arose early, swigged some coffee, and drove away from camp before breakfast. The first thing we encountered (besides the usual bison, pronghorn, etc.) was a large group of people with large, expensive looking spotting scopes, gathered at a pulloff...this is around 7 in the morning! They looked like they had been there a while. Turns out these were the semi-pro wolf watchers, and we were told they were watching a lone dark wolf. However, it was probably over a mile away, and sitting still in some shrubs. Not a great spot, but once again, it was encouraging to see how much these folks cared about these wolves! Many seemed to know them intimately. The wolf (speck) being watched was probably part of Mollie's pack.

The ranger on the scene (Rick McIntyre) was patiently explaining his tracking device to the onlookers - I was also tremendously impressed by his patience and professionalism; Kevin knew him as one of the principal wolf project rangers at the park.

We elected to drive further out the Lamar Valley and scout for wolves on our own. Nothing, as we drove through the Slough Creek pack's territory. Again, nothing, as we crept through the do-not-stop zone of the Druid pack. At a pullout just beyond, we spied an osprey. I tested my optical (10x) multiplied by digital (4x) = 40x zoom capabilities of the camera. Didn't come out too well I'm afraid.

On our return trip, we were intrigued to see a group of cars parked at a pullout that hadn't been there before. I glanced to the left and saw a dark figure trotting along about 300 yds away in the sagebrush. Kevin saw it too and cried 'Wolf'! But this was not the proverbial boy crying wolf. This was a great sighting of a lone black wolf trotting through the shrubs. We scrambled into action, Kevin pulling out his spotting scope, me grabbing my camera and keeping my eye on the wolf, while Colin pulled out his tripod and camera. Everyone was excited. Once again, I paused just to look at the people in the scene - how animated everyone was, how excited, how alive! Biophilia, again. We watched this graceful, powerful, handsome animal for several minutes. This sighting made the entire trip for me. Now I'm not so sure about my 'totem' animal. Hmmm...maybe it is a wolf. At any rate, this member of the Druid pack was an inspiration.

Can you find the wolf in this picture? It was much bigger in Kevin's Swarovski scope! You'll probably have to click on it to make the picture enlarge. See if you can spot the bison too!

When the wolf was finally so far away that observation was minimal, we kept driving back toward Tower Falls. When we arrived we broke camp quickly, packed up, and headed to the Gardner River, where I was determined to wet a line once more in an attempt to repeat the wonderful morning Bill, Jamie and I had had there last year. Unfortunately the water was much higher and the fast flow made it more difficult to see the deeper holes where the trout were waiting. Despite that, I received about 10 or 12 strikes, 'missing' on every one, but coming very close to catching a couple of big fish. Colin had one on for a while, but he needs to work on his knots, because the fly eventually came off. When we first arrived at the stream, I noticed a 'kill', consisting mostly of bones and fur, only yards away from where we were putting our poles together. Upon closer inspection I decided the kill was well picked over and that a visit from the original predator was very unlikely. But I must say, I was never 100% sure that a large grizzly wouldn't appear out of the streamside shrubs and be rather upset at finding intruders. My feeling of being immersed IN nature, with a very real element of danger, returned.

By 1 PM, we had to call it quits and head back to Big Sky. Colin's friend Garrett was flying in from Vermont to visit, and his plane arrived at 6:30. The camping trip was over, with many memories made.

July 14 - Time to Get Active!

2008-07-15T21:06:00.001-07:00

Enough lollygagging around! Today was going to be our only full day in the park, so a full one it was bound to be. We decided to head south of Tower Falls this time. I fired up the Coleman stove, made strong french press coffee, and after a brief jaunt up the hill above camp to watch the sun come up, and a second short hike to see Tower Falls itself, with a wildflower

and wildfauna

photo, we were all ready to head off for more adventures. First stop, Mt. Washburn summit via a steady climb from the Chittendon spur road off the Dunraven Pass area.

But first, we spotted a beautiful black bear in the same area that Kevin and Colin had seen one the week before. We all clambered up the bank to try to get photos, but I think I may have lucked out to get this picture with my 10x zoom. We were probably almost 100 yds. from this bear when it stood up and acted a bit annoyed at being followed.

The photo below was taken toward Mt. Washburn from one of the roadside pullouts.

The hike up Mt. Washburn traversed open meadows and burned over forest (from the '88 fires). As elsewhere in the park, the heavy snows were watering heavily flowering fields that must have been at peak color. Here is just one flower from this hike.

Silky Phacelia. Check out those stamens!

Marmot (i.e., golden eagle food!)

Many hike this trail to see the 'elusive' bighorn sheep. Upon arrival near the summit, we realize that they weren't so elusive and in fact, the ewe and lamb herd seemed to gravitate to the trail, where probably they sensed the 'protection' they were receiving from Yellowstone's abundant predators (grizz, wolf, mountain lion). The lambs, like so many baby animals, were adorable.

Mt. Washburn provides a great vantage point for much of the park and the visitor's building at the top explains the panorama. We were surprised at the number of people who had made the trip, and encouraged by it, since the 1500 ft. vertical climb over 2.8 miles was not trivial. Here is proof that I was still smiling after making the ascent!

Colin, Kevin and I decided to descend to Dunraven Pass via a different route, while Chelsea and Laurie returned to the car. They would later pick us up. Our total hike was 6 miles, and lots of switchbacks and large snowbanks to traverse made the hike interesting. We also happened upon this spruce grouse on the side of the trail, who occasionally puffed up and made deep beating mating sounds, as if, when he saw us, he was not quite sure what a female grouse looked like, so to be sure, he held forth! Apparently this bird's brain was undersized relative to the body...

More wildflowers on the descent. Gorgeous!

After the hike, we moved on to Canyon Village, where we ate a late lunch and enjoyed the Visitor's Center. Then it was on to Hayden valley, land of many bison, pelicans, grizzlies, and the wild Yellowstone River. We stopped to see some thermal features and smell the sulfur (mmm...reminds me of Moffitt Rd. where we had sulfur water). We were going to head toward the shore of Yellowstone Lake, but ran into a traffic jam near Fishing Bridge, found out that it was a motorcycle accident, and that our turn was temporarily blocked, so we pulled a u-turn and headed back north. We spied a bald eagle pair hanging out near the river, a sight that, jaded as we now are, did not keep us transfixed for long. But one sight that did get us very excited was a herd of bison running. They had jammed up traffic because the entire herd was crossing the road toward the Yellowstone. Then they plunged into the swiftly moving river, Moms, Dads, calves and all, swimming desperately to get to the other side. We were sure a pack of wolves was going to appear behind the panicking herd, but if they were there, they never showed. It was quite a sight to see these huge beasts being swept downriver as they swim across. Glad I wasn't fishing on the bank right then!

We also came upon a single car stopped by the side of the road, trying to wave us out of the way. We knew they must be onto something - looked back and saw this handsome brown black bear (black bears come in many color phases). We were much closer to this bear, and once again, he wanted nothing to do with the stopped cars and flashing cameras.

We ate dinner at Canyon Village, and headed out for an evening drive in Lamar Valley again. Can't get enough! Wildlife drive.

July 13 - Yellowstone Camping Trip Day 1

2008-07-15T19:55:00.001-07:00

Vowing to leave Big Sky by 8:00 AM, we roused ourselves fairly early Sunday in order to get to one of the first-come, first-served campgrounds in Yellowstone. We managed to leave only a couple of minutes behind schedule, which is amazing since Chelsea is notoriously slow to get up in the mornings. The five of us (Kevin, Laurie, Colin, Chelsea, and I) with all of our camping equipment, squeezed into K&L's hybrid SUV, and we were reasonably comfortable. It is always difficult to make a beeline to a campground past the many scenic wonders of Yellowstone, but in order to secure a site, it was necessary. Thus it was that we did not stop as our sharp-eyed contingent of kids spotted elk, and eagles, and osprey, and deer, and bison, and gorgeous wildflowers. We reached Canyon, where the campground had the luxury of showers, but they couldn't guarantee a site for 2 days, so we opted to move on to Tower Falls Campground, where my friends Jamie Shumway and Bill Peterjohn had camped last year on our fishing expedition. There were several empty sites, and at the very end of the 30-tent campground was a beautiful site nestled in the huge conifers. We claimed the site, pitched our tents, and jumped back in the SUV to head toward Trout Lake, where Kevin and Colin had observed the otter family, on the off chance that we might be so lucky again.

On the way up the path, we passed famed nature videographer Bob Landis, hauling 50+ pounds of video equipment (including a $50,000+ camera!) up the 1/2 mile grade. Kevin and Colin had met him previously at Trout Lake with their photography mentor Tom Murphy (http://www.tmurphywild.com/). Tom is an amazing nature photographer in his own right, and has several books for sale at Yellowstone visitors centers. Kevin and Colin (Colin especially) continually talked about Tom's pronouncements about wildlife until the rest of us accorded him the status of a minor deity. Both Tom and Bob were so enamored of the otters that they exclaimed it was truly a unique viewing experience. Bob Landis' willingness to haul his equipment up to Trout Lake was proof of that!

Trout Lake was a gem. Surrounded by sage and conifers and wildflowers, the lake reflected these, along with the brilliant blue sky and clouds, blurred only occasionally by light breezes over the shimmering surface. As we walked around the lake, we kept a sharp eye out for the otters. Most visitors were fishing, or watching fish, for Trout Lake was stocked long ago with rainbow and cutthroat trout. These fish have grown huge by being wily enough to spot hooks. At the upper end of the lake, they were massing to spawn in great numbers, attempting to leap a small waterfall in order reach their spawing grounds...er...waters.

But after only 20 minutes, a couple of tourists were pointing at a log, and a photographer with a very long lens was peering intently at that same log. We scurried along the trail to take up positions to see if the otters had returned. Amazingly, they had. This time, two adults (presumably females, since males are driven away - they may cannabilize the young) and ONE young otter were there. All afternoon we wondered where the second baby otter was, and of course hoped that it was simply in the den napping. But these three were after dinner. It wasn't long before one of the adults popped up on the log with a fish in its mouth. She devoured that fish quickly, sharing bits with the other two. For the next hour (plus), we, along with a gathering group of hikers, watched with delight as these playful animals swam, dove, and generally frolicked in the lake; first on the log, then later out in the lake, then later down the shore, then back to the original log. All this time we (and 20 - 40 others!) were only 30 ft. - 50 ft. away! They did keep a watchful eye on us. The delight of everyone in seeing this spectacle really warmed my heart - biophilia at its best. I found myself taking a picture of the people watching, so I could show my Ecology and Evolution class first hand what biophilia looks like. I've included a picture or two for your viewing pleasure, though I don't think the quality quite matches Colin's original posted earlier.

We left the lake very reluctantly in late afternoon. On the way back to Theodore Roosevelt Lodge for dinner, we saw another incidence of biophilia; a group of gawkers in the Lamar Valley staring intently through their scopes at a distant object. A gentleman was kind enough to let us peer through the spotting scope and we caught a short glimpse of a black wolf, probably nearly a mile away. It wasn't much, but there it was, and all of these people were so excited to watch...a dot...running.

Oh, and Chelsea spotted my 'totem' animal - pretty sure it is 'my' animal now - a golden eagle, soaring above the Lamar Valley, majestic.

Oh, and before dinner, we took a ca. 1 mile hike to Lost Lake from near the Petrified Tree. A horse train rode by as we started out on our hike.

Laurie and I looped around to the Lodge, while Kev and the kids returned via car to the lodge. I thought this pond lily shot came out pretty well with my little Canon SX100 IS!

After a nice dinner at the Lodge, we ventured back out into the Lamar at the magic hour, sun setting, watching the hills turn golden and clouds catching the setting sun. A very full first day in Yellowstone, wouldn't you say? What would tomorrow hold?

July 12 - Taking it easy in Big Sky

2008-07-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a day taking it easy in Big Sky: (1) Get up at the lazy hour of 7 AM. Make coffee. Eat light breakfast. Retrieve running clothes from the Prius, where, on the roof, I find FROST from the radiative cooling of the previous night. It's July 12...frost! But the day portends warmth as the intense sun rises over the Gallatins. The sky is clear and as blue as any sky you've seen. Need some exercies, so (2) I don running clothes and set out down the gravel path along the golf course, only to find that the watering guns are spraying full tilt, wetting the path and blocking my way. So I turn left, following the narrow horse path up the draw to the north of the valley. And I do mean up. The path rises about 500 feet in less than a mile, and at this elevation (ca. 6000'), I am huffing, and my heart is threatening to burst through my ribs. OK so I stopped and walked 50 yds a couple of times. My heart still raced, but I did run most of 1.5 miles or so to the high meadow where the stunning wildflowers pulled me up short. Bluebells, columbine, wild pink onion, larkspurs, yellow composites, cinquefoils, potentillas, lupines, and 30 or 40 other species were in full flower. After 15 minutes of wandering through this splendour and suddenly realizing I also had a tremendous view of Lone Peak, I turned to run back into the valley. I was in such a great mood that I ran very fast, managing to avoid turning an ankle on one of the many rocks and horse hoofprints along the trail. Oh, and all of this was done to some of my favoirte music on the tiny ipod shuffle I often carry while running.

I was back by 10:30, just in time to do 30 minutes of Namaste Yoga. Interesting, I found it much easier after running than it is when I first wake up in the morning, my usual time to do it. I guess after a run, I've jolted loose some muscle fibers that make twisting and stretching of Yoga easier.

By then, Colin and Chelsea were up, so it was time to play tennis. We played 3 sets of tennis on the courts located a short 1/2 mile down the road. They had improve a lot since I last played with them. It was great fun, and Kevin and Laurie joined in, Kevin nursing his ACL-repaired knee and being very careful not to twist it.

After eating a late lunch, Kevin and I headed up to the resort where they were having a brew and brat fest, along with several live music acts. The music was a mixture of bluegrass, rockabilly, and some old dude from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The atmosphere was great. THe music, well, let's just say Porcupine Tree it ain't. But there were some nice guitar licks and the brews made the music go down easier.

So there's my relaxing day in Big Sky. The picture shows the stage they had set up, and Kevin bringing a sample of the local brews.

I'm really looking forward to the next 3 days, when we're heading to Yellowstone on a camping expedition. So the blog will be dormant until Tuesday evening, but I hope to have a few images to share with you then from our adventure.

July 11 - Take a boy fishin'

2008-07-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

In the age of cell phones and video games, it's a novelty to find a kid more interested in recreating in the great outdoors than doing what all his friends are doing. But that's Colin. Thus it was I had a ready companion to accompany me to Fan Creek once again to enjoy the wilderness stream and seek out its predatory trout. We had a rather lazy start and got to the trailhead about 12:30. A pair of red-tailed hawks was putting on a show overhead, and Colin was lamenting leaving his camera back at the condo. His new Canon EOS Rebel digital camera is fantastic, and his zoom lens can really do justice to wildlife. As we traversed off the beaten path toward the stream, Colin's comment was "I can't believe I'm going to have to go back to Illinois later this summer, and leave this behind." Amen. Hard to leave. But we were in the moment, plying the waters with attractor flies, and arousing quite a bit of interest from 6" - 14" rainbow and cutthroat trout. The high visibility seemed to be giving the flies away at the last second though, because we had numerous swirling fish turn away at the last second before grabbing the hook. I managed to land one 6" cutthroat, but that was the sum and total of our tangible take for the day. Actually, he wasn't taken at all - he was released back to the stream to grow bigger to provide a thrill for some future fisherman or a meal for some osprey another day. Meantime, we took home great memories of a beautiful pristine stream.

That evening, Kevin and Laurie and I went to the Art Walk in Bozeman. Many of the galleries open their doors to all comers from 5 to 8 PM about once/month during the summer. Enticed by wine, crackers and cheese, hundreds of people, many if not most locals, tour the galleries to sample the area's thriving art scene. It was a beautiful cool evening for July in Bozeman (70's instead of the usual 90's), and we ended up enjoying a great local Sushi dinner with more wine after the walk.

The only down side: The trip to Bozeman destroyed my gas mileage - it went from 58.9 mpg to 56.1 by the time we returned. Sigh. :)

July 10 - HB2Me

2008-07-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

If you could design your birthday day from scratch, what would you do?

One of my top 10 birthday days would be what I did yesterday!

After warming a raspberry danish and sipping Starbucks coffee while watching sunrise over the Gallatins, I assembled my flyfishing gear and headed toward Yellowstone Park. A quick stop for advice and license from a local outfitter, and I was on my way. Hmmm...where to fish? I could wet a line on the Gallatin itself inside the park. The Gallatin, made famous by 'A River Runs Through It' is a quintessential gold medal gorgeous Montana trout river. But the Gallatin is still swollen by snowmelt from the long winter of '08, so I opted to look for a smaller stream. The first one I came to was Fan Creek, joining the Gallatin at the trailhead of Fawn Pass trail on Rt. 191. I had fished this little stream before and gotten skunked, but I was willing to give it another try. There was something appealing about the hike in; a distinct feeling that you could happen upon a grizzly or mountain lion or moose is with you all the way on this hike. That's what I was looking for - that feeling of being within nature - not the dominant member of the food chain, but a wary member of the ecosystem. Call me crazy (many would), but I actually enjoy that heightened feeling of alertness that comes with walking in a truly wild ecosystem.

I veered off the path toward Fan Creek after about 0.8 miles. I then assembled my new stream-fishing fly rod, a lightweight 7.5' rod, tied on the leader, and the recommended fly - an 'stimulator' fly that was supposed to get the trout aroused. Within short order, a beautiful leaping 12" rainbow had taken a liking to the fly and I caught and released him/her. A short while later a tiny 5" trout grabbed the same fly and I discovered the stream had western cutthroats as well. I was quickly becoming a fan of Fan Creek! I moseyed on up the stream, and a few more trout showed interest, but were warier as the sun got higher. As I was getting ready to leave, I gave one last try with a different fly at a pool where I had seen rising fish. On the second cast, a 12.5" rainbow snatched the fly and leaped 3' out of the water trying to throw the hook. What a fighter! After several more leaps and runs, I landed this fish, which you see in the photo. This time I remembered that the park was encouraging fishermen to remove non-native trout from these streams, so I decided this one would be my dinner. And a delightful dinner it was; grilled wild caught rainbow trout...yum.

Later that evening, I returned to the Gallatin to try for one of the lunker browns, but I was rather late getting there, and pretty much just enjoyed the drive up and back, though I did wet a line for a few minutes in the setting sun.

Kevin and Colin returned from their photography expedition with Tom Murphy that evening bearing beautiful images captured from their several days in the park. All I can say is 'Wow'! I pilfered one (it was very difficult to choose) picture of an otter family that Colin took to share. I'll direct you to his web site as soon as he posts more images (and to Kevin's blog). Until then, this little sampling will have to do. By the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, you can click on the picture and it will enlarge, so you can see it in detail. I highly recommend it for this superb photo. Skol!

July 9 - Yellowstone and home...to Big Sky Dream

2008-07-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

The picture above is not too far off from the puzzle picture I loved so much I think...

If I've been to the Tetons 8 times, I've been to Yellowstone 16 times. Well, maybe not quite, but, even more than the Tetons. In part that's because it's closer to Big Sky Dream, but also I've come to appreciate its own not-so-subtle beauty. Plus, it is just teeming with wildlife - it must be the closest thing we now have to what Lewis and Clark would have seen on their journey through the northern Rockies, in terms of animal abundance. I can't even catalog all I saw today in a fairly short jaunt from the southern end of the park to Fishing Bridge and Canyon, over to Norris Junction, to Madison Junction, two loops on the Firehole Canyon (it's one of my very favorite places) and on out along the Madison River to West Yellowstone. That's the other thing about getting to know a place - I didn't look at map all day - I knew the pullouts, I knew when to look for eagles and osprey, where I might see bison by the hundreds, pelicans, swans, geese, ducks, and where to be on the lookout for grizzlies. I wish I knew more where to look for wolves, so I'm hoping Colin and Kevin can teach me those spots. I'm learning where to fish too, but I'm a rank beginner in this realm because it's a huge park. I didn't get going until the lazy hour of 8:15 this morning, and with driving and stopping at pullouts, I was not to West Yellowstone until about 4 PM. I'll let a few pictures tell the tale but some images are only in my mind. I'm not yet quick enough to snatch pixels of the osprey I saw dive into the Firehole and come out with a fish in its talons. I was not ready for the pelican that swooshed its beak into the Yellowstone River and pulled out a huge cutthroat. And as you'll see, my hand was not as steady as I would have liked for the long-distance shot of the mamma griz and her cub, but I at least tried on that one. Enjoy!

Phlox multiflora - this was everywhere along the roadsides today.

Frasera, I believe...

You can bearly tell what they are!

Need a Scroph expert!

July 8 - Winds not so much, Tetons yes as always!

2008-07-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

Sinks Canyon was a small slot canyon (?I think that's the right word) with a major medium size stream at its heart. This stream was feeling quite full of itself and literally roared all night long, no doubt pumped up by the outsized snows of 2008 in the northern Rockies. At any rate, the Popo Agie was a pretty roaring stream, and as the name of the state park suggests, it flows underground. Dramatically! This is like Sinks of Gandy in WV, but the Pop Agie doesn't just flow into the tunnel bored out of limestone, it pours down it like a drain. Pretty cool! Here's one shot to show what I mean:

Before I left this little state park with the $8 ($4 resident!) campsite, I decided to give my birhtday present (Canon SX 100IS point and shoot digital camera) a whirl at closeup flower photography. So I figured out the macro setting and voila. The light was very nice early in the AM so I did snap a couple of decent images. I was pleased at any rate.

I wish I could say the drive along the east side of the Winds was everything I hoped for. But it wasn't. It may have been due to the haze, reported to be from the California fires. It may have been my own mood and expectations, which were so high after the previous evening that anything might have been disappointing. But most likely it was due to the fact that highway 26 north of Lander to the Pass into the Tetons is just not quite as scenic because the road is actually quite some distance east of the Wind River range, and there are intervening ridges that make unobstructed views rare. Next time, I might try the west side through Pinedale. To give it its due, Lander is a cute town, reminding me quite a bit of a small Bozeman, with a smattering of groovy shops and coffee places to give it an upscale feel but an authentic western town nonetheless. Now I'm wondering what that ski area sign is on the map near Lander. That could be a good one...

Things got better as I ascended the Pass. Still getting good gas mileage, surprisingly so given that I ascended to well over 8000 ft., getting to a level where there were scattered snow banks around the road. And of course, the alpine wildflowers added to the beauty of the elevation. Some road construction slowed things down, but eventually the long descent into Jackson Hole began. I realized then that the smoke from CA was real as the haze actually made it difficult to see the Teton Range from only about 25 miles away, which is highly unusual. Later, a ranger confirmed that the smoke was affecting visibility. I tried to get a site at Jenny Lake but at the late hour of 11:45, it was already full. So I zipped up to Signal Mtn campground, and easily found a nice site near Jackson Lake with splendid views of Mt. Moran. Even in the haze, I felt like I had come home to the Tetons. I'm trying to count all the times of been here. Eight or nine? I don't know. All I know is that there is no place like it. We don't really have words in English to describe the way these jagged mountains come straight up out of the plains in a staggering panorama. The sheer rock faces and snow, with a foredrop of sage and deep green conifers, accented by deep blue waters reflecting the deep blue sky. What word describes that? Heavenuphistedness?

In the afternoon, I took a short 2 mile hike around in a peninsula in Jackson Lake near Colter Bay. Many nice wildflowers and more chances to try out my macro lens.

Sorry if the orchid is sideways...alas, I haven't quite mastered blogspot yet.

I think my love of the Tetons can be traced back to our first western trip. Kids aren't much attuned to scenery, but when it clobbers you over the head like the Tetons, even a 12 year old will sit up and take notice. Contributing to its mystique was a big puzzle we did many times when I was a kid - a majestic panorama of Mt. Moran reflected in Jackson Lake. It was my favorite puzzle. Here is one more image from my first day in Grand Teton National Park.

OK, one more...

July 7...moving ever closer

2008-07-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

When you cross from Iowa into Nebraska on I-80, you begin to feel like you're getting to the west. It's a barely perceptible shift from corn to grazing lands, from tree rows between fields to windblown openness. But the change becomes real when you reach Wyoming. Then you ARE in the west. The aridity and elevational gradients and rocks and ecotones become sharper and more extreme. More than this, the towns feel west. They practically shout it. Words like rodeo, cowboy, horses, dude ranch, and the like become, not a descriptor of something 'out there', but something here, something you too can experience. Towns with boardwalks. Towns with dusty back roads. You can almost imagine a shootout in one of those back alleys. Bullets flying, dust kicks up as the bad guy hits the ground, and the townspeople walk away, murmuring things like 'served 'em right', 'cattle rustler', and the like. OK, maybe I've been 'reading' a little too much Bill Bryson.

When I hit Wyoming, I was in a hurry to get to the Wind River range. The 'Winds' as they're known, have always held an attraction for me, for they seem like a big wilderness blank on the map. I've flown over them a number of times and stared down, asking myself, What's in those mountains? Or rather, What's in them thar mountains?

I bypassed the university town of Laramie, and the oil town of Sinclair, for the dusty highway town of Rawlins. I cruised the streets a bit to look for some local flavor to sample for dinner. After seeing all those beef cows, I was ready for a steak. I'm sure there's an excellent steak house in Rawlins, but I gave up after 15 min. and went to Pizza Hut. I know, terribly cliche, but I was hungry.

After refueling myself and RubySipr, I embarked on one of those magical drives that makes you glad you pressed on. Highway 287, a 2-lane road most of the way to the town of Lander WY. Despite, feeling like I was rising in elevation, I was getting 53, then 54 mpg! OK, that's not exciting to a lot of people...or maybe it is with these gas prices. The real exciting part was the scenery and the setting sun. I'm posting just one image from this segment so you can get an idea. After 2 hard days of hard driving (actually not, just LONG), I had finally arrived in the mountains - the Wind River range in the distance, sage and range in the foreground, dramatic clouds and rocks all around. And the road. Add a little sweet music on the ipod, and those of you who have experienced this, what else can it be called?, bliss, will understand how I felt that night. I pulled into Sinks Canyon State Park outside of Lander just before dark, set up the tent next to a roaring stream, the Popo Agie, and fell asleep.

July 6

2008-07-09T18:41:00.000-07:00

This is being written 4 days later. The first day of the trip I was late getting started by about 8 minutes; I departed Morgantown at 6:08 AM, not knowing exactly how far I would get across the country toward my ultimate goal - Big Sky country via the Wind River Range, The Tetons, and Yellowstone. I used Maggie sporadically (our Magellan GPS system); she routed me through Ohio but west on Rte 70; therefore over her protests I headed west on 76 just north of Pittsburgh, heading toward I-80. I wish I could say that Ohio and Indiana and Illinois were great thrills, but it was standard interstate driving, Prius style. The biggest problem with driving the Prius is that it can go so far on a tank of gas you are tempted to go the whole way between gas station stops. That gets close to 500 miles (or more on a couple of my tanks), so it's not advisable. I was very glad to have Bill Bryson and Steven Leavitt as traveling companions that day, along with a little Alanis Morisette and some miscellaneous other tunes. By 10 that night, I had passed Des Moines Iowa and was heading toward Council Bluffs. There was a state park not far off the interstate, but I was so excited to get going early in the morning the idea of pitching and de-pitching the tent had less appeal than usual. Having driven about 975 miles, I was ready for bed. Therefore I found a cheap ($39) hotel which was actually not bad, and slept a whopping 6 hours, with only fitful sleep after 5 AM. I was raring to go!

Oh, and...

2008-06-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

My curriculum also includes individual lectures selected from quasi-random topics that piqued my interest from Itunes U. If you don't know Itunes U, I recommend checking it out - there, you will find videos and audio files of lectures/talks given at various universities around the country. Most of the material is free! Highly recommended!

Summer 2008 - Solo Trip to Big Sky Country

2008-06-27T05:57:00.001-07:00

Dear Blog readers, This year my summer vacation is a two-week self-designed summer school road trip. On July 6, I will be climbing aboard the RUBYSIPR (red Prius) and embarking on a solo journey to Big Sky Montana. Along the way, I will be, in addition to driving, enjoying an auditory curriculum consisting of (1) Langauge (Pimsleur's Chinese, lessons), (2) History (1776), (3) Religion (Krista Tippett's Speaking of Faith series), and (4) Travel (Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country). In addition, I plan to listen to Bill McKibben's 'Wandering Home' book about an extended hiking trip in Vermont and the Adirondacks. I'll intersperse these with music and NPR news to keep me alert and entertained. I hope to find wireless internet along the way and will plan to take the occasional photo or two to share the sights. If I have any insights from my 'readings', I'll share those as well. For my route, I'm hoping to scoot rather quickly across the plains to Wyoming, then work my way northwest across the state by the Wind River Range, with perhaps a foray or two into the mountains. While in Big Sky, I'll be with Kevin's family, so we'll have the usual smorgasboard of activities, before I head back on the 17th or so. This should be fun! It's been a while since I've made the cross-country trek. See you on the road!

Final Comments 2007 Triathlon

2007-09-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

Betty finished the race completely for the first time, and deserves special kudos for finding her way back without incident!

Special congratulations to Jeannine, Shirley, and Barry, our first timers this year. We hope you will come back and join us for many future triathlons!

Congratulations to all participants. As your certificates say, YOU ARE ALL WINNERS!. Seriously, not many can do what you just did, and you should be really proud of the shape you are in!

Thanks so much to our support crew this year. These folks really make the whole triathlon possible. Picture here are Charlie, Jim, Andy, Caitlin and Chris. Thanks to Duane Nichols as well for many of these pictures!

And as Bill likes to remind us: Until next year, Be Well!

Here's to the good life!

(NOTE: more pics, etc. below)

2007 Forks of Cheat Forest Triathlon!

2007-09-13T05:44:00.000-07:00

This year, the SIXTH annual FCF Triathlon was held on Saturday, September 8th. As is the tradition, the triathletes assemble on the McGraw deck at 8 AM. It was a warm, clear, gorgeous September morning. After loading bikes on Charlie's truck, we trundled down the path to the dock, loaded our running/biking clothes into the canoe, and loosened up while the canoe, piloted by Caitlin and Chris, ferried our gear across the lake. This year Jan and Bill donated some extra flotation from their sailboat to help the musclebound 'sinkers' in the crowd stay afloat - 'safety first' is our motto for the triathlon! Because this triathlon is all about having fun. Some of us like to push ourselves a bit to see if we can beat our last year's self, others just want to see if they can do it. It doesn't matter.

Once the race started, I can only comment on my perceptions, but I felt like I swam quite a bit faster this year than last...doing the crawl most of the way across the lake. My best evidence that I was faster was that I was close on the heels of Jan, the premier swimmer in our neighborhood! I emerged from the lake right behind her, and though she threatened to shove me back in the lake off the dock to give Bill an advantage, her better self prevailed. I was amazed that the bulk of swimmers were very close behind the first ones out. It seemed to me that everyone swam faster this year. My biggest problem was getting my new bike shirt on - it was tight! and got stuck half way on. That took a while to untangle. I had also decided to run with my ipod shuffle, and I kept having problems getting the earpiece untangled so it would stay on. Ah well.

The nice flat rail trail (thanks, CLEAR!) and the cool morning air made the run a pleasure. The views along the lake were awesome. I don't think I ran as fast as last year for some reason (perhaps I had spent more energy in the swim), but when I reached the 108 steps at the end by the dam, I had plenty of energy to run up most of them. My transition to the bike was slow - I had taken Ann and my bike over early in the morning, so I had to unlock the bikes, switch to clip on bike shoes and glug some liquids before hopping on my bike. To my surprise, only John Souther was ahead of me at this point.

The bike ride was also really nice this year. I was glad my tires were pumped up and the gearshifts were working. In previous years I had coddled myself going uphill in the lowest gear, but this year even on the steepest section coming up out of Pt. Marion, I kept the front gear on the second gear (what is that, 8th?). Anyway, I felt like the bike ride section was my biggest improvement this year, and I was able to finish more than 3 minutes ahead of last year's time. For those who don't know, the bike ride is pretty challenging; 4.1 miles of 'flat' along the Cheat River below the dam, 0.6 or so in town, then a steep hill climb to Stewartstown. The deceptive part is that there are actually 3 hill climbs in that 2.5 mile stretch. Aerobic fitness is essential there! My calves came razor close to cramping on the last hill.

Jan, Dylan and Cody opted to kayak back to forks-of-cheat forest from the Cheat Lake park, instead of bike - very good exercise in itself...so they completed a 'modified' triathlon; a nice option started by Jan in previous years. On the bike leg, Sara Souther decided the regular route did not traverse enough of the town of Pt. Marion, so she took an alternative route, ultimately retracing her steps and adding several minutes to her time. She still managed to come in first among the women finishers. Ann learned a valuable lesson in bike pre-race maintenance as she had to pump up her tires prior to starting the bike leg of the race...and the presta valves took some figuring out.

Please check out the next post for more!

Last Full Day in Big Sky

2007-07-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

It is always sad to leave Big Sky, so for my last full day here, I had to make the most of it. I had considered climbing a gargantuan peak over near Ennis called Sphinx, but the more I read about it, the more I decided discretion was the better part of valor; I probably shouldn't do that one alone.

Instead I happened upon the Hyalite Creek Trail to Hyalite Lake. In one of our hike books, this was described as the premier hike in the Bozeman area, plus Kevin hadn't done this one yet (to my knowledge!). So I decided to take it on. At 11 miles round trip, and ca. 2000 vertical feet, I knew it would be a vigorous hike, and the description led me to believe, it would be a scenic one as well. Being so close to Bozeman, I suspected I wouldn't be alone hiking the trail.

I arrived at the trailhead, a mere 20 miles south of Bozeman in Hyalite Canyon at 9:40 AM. I was toting all my video/camera gear, this time with compact flash storage, and binocs, and food (minimal), and a full camelback of water, for the weather prediction was for very hot temps (ca. 100 in Bozeman proper).

The trail paralleled Hyalite Creek. Eleven, count 'em, 11 waterfalls were found en route, varying in height and spectacularitude, but all very pretty, and often framed with mossy rocks and gorgeous wildflowers. I was wishing for Colin's nice camera because mine was not up to the task, but you can get some flavor for the hike from the photos above. The only steep section was the last mile or so, where the trail followed a series of switchbacks to get up over the ridge to the beautiful alpine lake, surrounded by towering Rocky Mtn. peaks over 10,000 ft in elevation. I scanned the peaks for animules, but had no luck, other than the birds, a marmot, and some squirrels. Nevermind, the flowers made up for the lack of wildlife and the beauty of the lake made me think of John Denver, cliche as his songs often were, they did describe the glory of the high rockies such as this.

After a dusty, quick descent, I splashed my face and soaked my feet in the icy waters by Grotto Falls, along with other locals who knew about this little swimming hole. All in all, a great hike - I completed it, with many stops for photos, lunch, etc. in about 6 hrs.

This hike would definitely be a hyalite of any visit to Big Sky! (sorry, I couldn't resist any longer...).

The blog wouldn't be complete without mentioning two slight disappointments. Last night, the band at the Big Sky amphitheatre, Toubab Krewe (pronounced 'two bob crew'), was a disappointment. I stayed for only one set. It was a combination of reggae and west afro-pop with no lyrics. It was just rather dull. Second disappointment - after hiking today I went to the Gallatin Co. fair. Let's just say the Clinton Co. fair in NY is much nicer. Could be the 100 deg. temps didn't help my mood, but I was expecting more. I didn't stay long.

Tomorrow I'm considering doing a mini-version of our mini-triathlon in the morning before I leave; swimming some laps in the pool, running on the trail to the community park and back, then taking Kev's bike for a spin toward Lone Peak. There I've said it, now I have get up in time to do it!

Skip Wednesday, Go Straight to Thursday

2007-07-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I took Bill to the airport and did errands in town, then took it easy most of the day.

Sorry, no pics today. But I'll give a brief verbal description of my Thursday July 19.

Decided to follow in Kevin's footsteps today and climb Lone Peak, alone (is there any better way? Somehow it seems appropriate, given the peak's name).

I did it the lazy way. I paid the $18 to take the gondola to the base of the big steep peak, if that can be called lazy. The climb was as Kevin described - steep and rocky! I followed the traditional route up the ridge, reaching the summit in pretty good time - a little under 1.5 hrs. It's not a long hike, but the elevation change (>2000 ft) is substantial, particularly given the starting elevation of over 9000 ft! It was nice to be able to huff up that ridge with reasonable ease. I saw some rocky mtn goat tracks on the way up, so I thought I might have a chance at seeing them.

Once at the top, I foraged on granola and scanned the surrounding mountains for animal life. Mainly lots of mountain bluebirds feasting on abundant insects, which were flying around despite the 10 - 40 mph winds.

The sky was a gorgeous shade of blue, though in the distance there was haze, probably due to distant wildfires, which are abundant this year. I could not make out the Tetons, which we have seen in winter frequently from the summit. Like Kevin, I scurried down to take a closeup look at Big Couloir, the superexpert run we WILL SKI this coming year! It is fairly intimidating, looking more like a v-shaped vertical chasm in summer than anything ski-able.

Back at the summit I decided to take the lifty's advice and try coming down the south side, by which I assumed he meant Liberty Bowl. Well, that was probably a mistake. There was no trail, and the first 300 yds or so was plate-sized rock scree, and fairly steep. Before descending into that morass however, I followed the ridge to the left of the summit and spied some white dots on the slope above the tarn on the back side of Lone Peak. Aha!!! Binoculars showed them to be 10 Rocky Mountain Goats foraging on the alpine vegetation. Cool!

After negotiating the scree and a couple hundred more yards of loose soil/rock, I realized I was going to end up too low to take the cat track back to the Gondola, so I decided I would cut left at that point. Mistake #2. That route led over a near-cliff - now skiers do huck these cliffs in winter, but I've seen some beautiful wipeouts from the vantage point of shedhorn chair below. I didn't want to be one of these wipeouts, especially while out solo hiking. So I picked my way down very carefully over the loose rock and large boulders comprising this 'slope'. Interestingly, the easiest way to go down was the steepest, where the rocks were not loose and the toe and handholds were secure. Well, it was no harder than what we negotiated in South Africa on Table Mountain, so I figured I could do it. And, thankfully, no twisted ankles or bad scrapes occurred. Luckily I had brought along my sturdy boots and an old ski pole as a walking stick - the first time I had ever done that (the stick), and I was glad to have it!

Well, sorry no pics today. That was mistake #3; I brought my camera, but forgot to retrieve the compact flash card from the card reader...sigh. There were some beautiful alpine sights I wanted to share. Luckily Kevin did a great job photodocumenting exactly this hike; see his post of July 12 - exactly one week ago! http://moonlitknight-travels.blogspot.com/

Tonight, I'm going to one of the Thursday night Big Sky concerts - this group sounds interesting. I'll let ya know! ttfn.

Day Three - the best for last?

2007-07-18T07:37:00.001-07:00

On Day 3 we decided to go to Larry Harris' favorite river (Larry is a flyfishing guru who taught our tying class this winter and has had much experience fishing out here); the Gardner River.

Reading the Matthews guide and Larry's recommendation, we decided to drive to the Mammoth-Tower bridge over the Gardner and hike down, fishing the stretch below the bridge (toward Gardner, which lies just outside the park). This part of the park is much drier, and you feel it as you walk through dusty sagebrush vegetation down to the medium size stream.

It didn't take long for Bill to find the 'fly of the day'; a Dirk's tarantula (?) pattern that looked like a gangly spidery thing. Little rainbows were fairly jumping on this beast with every other cast. Jamie and I quickly followed suit and started having success as well. At one pool, Jamie and I hooked fish at the same time. Mine was a nice 12" gorgeous rainbow trout, while Jamie's was a huge brown or cutthroat. We're not sure which because the fish first headed upstream, dragging a bunch of line out of Jamie's reel, then headed downstream where it wrapped the line around its body and combined with the current's pressure, snapped his leader. Alligator tears were shed (not really...) about the one that got away; we think it probably was one of those 'lunker browns' described in Matthews book. It seemed like it could have been ca. 20".

As we moved downstream, I switched to a grasshopper when I stopped getting hits on the tarantula, and lo and behold, the rainbows loved it! I caught the nice rainbow shown in the picture above, which for me was the prettiest, though not the largest fish, of the trip. I don't know; this fish was the essence of fly fishing success for me; it was a hefty 12 or 13" with gorgeous coloration: the photograph just doesn't do it justice. And that fish fought like a demon for several minutes. I even have video. I was so thrilled at having caught this fish that I reached over and grabbed the video camera to take some footage, then grabbed the digital camera to take a still or two before finally landing it and letting it go. Each of us caught some nice fish on the Gardner, and we each began to understand why it was Larry's favorite river!

We spent the rest of the day sightseeing because the river 'closed' at 12. We enjoyed this immensely, despite the peak season crowds. Gorgeous vistas of the yellowstone, nice drive by the thermal features. At one stretch of the road between Canyoh and Yellowstone lake, there was a crowd of cars stopped. We knew what it was because the same crowd had been there 2 days before - WOLVES! We saw 4 pups and a parent across the yellowstone through our binos. What a thrill and a privilege to witness such a family, and to think hundreds if not thousands of tourists have and will experience that thrill as well. The den must be nearby that spot. Anyway, what a charistmatic animal!!!

Day Two at Slough

2007-07-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

Personally, I was excited about yesterday's opening day bonanza possibilities, but realistically, i was anticipating our day at Slough Creek even more. Slough Creek (pronouched 'slew') required a 1.x mile hike from a trailhead that was a bit off the beaten path near Slough Campground. I thought the hike might reduce fishing pressure for the native cutthroats. I had hoped to hike to the second meadow (ca. 4 mi.), but due to very warm weather there was a Fish Advisory posted in which a voluntary stream closure from 12 noon to 6 PM was in effect to reduce the 'stress' on the fish. Perhaps this is what we have to look forward to with a warmer future climate!

At any rate, though we rose fairly early and got to the trailhead by ca. 8 ish, we felt the longer hike would take away too much fishing time. So we fished a small part of the first meadow. The hike there, by the way, was very pretty and worthy of simply the hike, with views back toward the valley of the Yellowstone.

When we arrived, we found a beautiful meadow stream and could easily see small (6") to large (16") cutthroat trout cruising the shoreline. Being in the first meadow, we expected these fish to be a bit more wily than some. However we all had good success! My success came with a fly called a PMD (Pale Morning Dun), followed by a fly called an 'attractor'. I basically stalked the larger fish cruising the shoreline by crouching low and dropping a fly in front of their noses. I caught 3 sizeable fish that way, including the beauty shown in my hand above. It was very exciting to have fish of that size on the line, and I lost a couple of them - one broke my line and swam away with the fly in its mouth.

Slough Creek does have a feeling of remoteness about it - true wilderness. We were alert for bears and whistled the Andy Griffith theme song to alert them to our presence.

Bill found the cutthroat nursery and hauled in several pretty smaller fish, but he was having a great time with his high rate of success. Jamie found a more challenging stretch of river, but managed to land a couple, including a small one that was followed by a huge fish as he reeled it in!

All in all, a very successful morning of fishing, and Slough Creek is one place I must go back to, if only for the beauty and the wilderness experience. This is Yellowstone fishing at its best!

Opening Day, Yellowstone River

2007-07-18T06:49:00.000-07:00

July 15 is opening day for the Yellowstone River between Yellowstone Lake and Canyon in the park. It was one of the reasons we timed the trip as we did, for the reputation is that huge cutthroat trout migrate down from the lake to spawn in the river. And supposedly they are naive fish, not having had flies tossed at them since last year! Every trout fisherman's dream - naive large fish!

Well, we had adventures aplenty. The first place we stopped was a popular fishing spot called Buffalo Ford near Sulphur Cauldron. We hiked out to the river, keeping a nervous eye on the bison all around. We crossed a small branch of the river to get out on an island where we could fish the main channel on the far side with a little, mind you a little, less competition from other fly fishermen. The river was very pretty there - tree- lined but large and sweeping with a couple of smaller eddies and pools along the edge. It seemed perfect.

It was then that we realized that Bill Peterjohn somehow entices bison to SWIM across the river directly toward us, or rather, him, wherever he was standing! Seriously, this happened several times during the morning and early PM hours. Each time, you were forced to reel in the line and wade quickly up or down stream to get out of the behemoth's pathway! Fortunately, they were not much interested in us once they got to our side, and they meandered off into the meadows behind us, grazing. But we were forced to keep a wary eye all around all the time!

On the opposite side of the river, there was a whole herd of bison rolling around in the dust, stomping the ground, and snorting. Flyfishing next to this spectacle, punctuated by steam rising from vents on land AND underwater, produced a truly surreal fishing experience!

Sadly, no trout were to be caught by us that day. I did see the adjacent fisherman pull in a 25" cutthroat, and I offered to take his picture. He was happy I offered, and the fish really did live up to the hype described in the books. However, it was clear most fishermen were not getting anything. After a late lunch we decided to move on.

We found another spot down the river with less bison (this one wasn't called 'Bison Ford'! We learned our lesson there!). Eventually some fish started rising there, but they always seemed just out of reach of our flies. After a couple hours of fruitless casting, we were forced to flee from a huge bull bison that decided, perversely, to swim straight across the river at you-know-who, so we left to get dinner at the Yellowstone Lake Hotel. It was a bit fancy for three tired sweaty trout fishermen, but the food was good and the atmosphere nice.

After dinner fishing at a suboptimal spot led to no more action. So, here is a picture or two of the Yellowstone river in all its glory, taken later...

Friday the 13th; bad day for fish!

2007-07-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

...and good day for us!

We decided to go to the #1 rated river in North America, if not the world, in the Henry's Fork in Idaho. The only problem with this, as I pointed out early on, is that if a fisherman gets skunked on the best trout stream anywhere, what kind of a fisherman is he, or her?

Well, that was not to be a problem.

We received some nice local's advice about where to go, which is always helpful, and even more helpful, some suggestions on what to use. The fly of the day for me was a big yellow stimulator; these basically look like a cross between a large mayfly and a bee.

So when we went to the Box Canyon (usually accessed by driftboating), I caught a nice rainbow on about my 3rd cast with that fly. This was a beautiful river. Large and swift through the Box Canyon, you had to watch your footing. Trees on the bank made backcasting a challenge. I was able to land a couple more fish including one brook trout, that was quite gorgeous. Jamie landed a couple and Bill finally got his due as well. Colin was still finding it challenging, but his time would come later.

Next we went to a lower section of Henry's Fork off Scenic Byway 47 near fish hatchery ford. The river was much wider here; still a strong current, but clearly big river fishing. All the fish were hanging out in the shade near the far side of the river by the rocky vertical bank (we were sure), b/c we had no luck here. But we enjoyed watching the osprey fish, and saw an immature bald eagle calling for mama.

Colin became the photographer for a spell, and thanks to him, we finally have documentation that we did in fact flyfish on this trip! Colin is an aspiring photographer, and would like to investigate this as a possible career path. Judging by his photos, he certainly shows potential! (see above)

After grabbing pizza and a brew at the Wolf Pack Microbrewery in West Yellowstone, we were enticed to wet a line for a third time that day in the park section of the Gallatin. Fish fish everywhere, and I couldn't get one to bite! But Bill got a nice cutthroat (first native!) and Jamie had a sweet fish on. That fish was scared by the arsenal of toys he was carrying, and decided to toss the hook before getting any closer :) Colin finally caught a little rainbow on his last cast, and was a happy camper.

July 12 - Day 1 of Flyfishing

2007-07-14T08:23:00.001-07:00

After driving along and by the great Gallatin River, even rafting it last summer, it was time to see what that beautiful stream had to offer for fishermen.

After arriving at a pullout not too far downstream from the Big Sky stoplight, the gear rolled out of the back of the car in great quantities; vests, waders, poles, reels, pocket knives, zingers, flies, reading glasses, polarized sunglasses, hats, and other flyfishing accoutrements too numerous to mention. Jamie Shumway took the prize, however, as the guy with the most toys (see photo). If this trend continues til his death, he wins!

In fact, Jamie's toys must have helped b/c he landed the first two fish; nice wild Gallatin River rainbows. The rest of us saw rises and had strikes but no lucky strikes.

After lunch, we headed further downstream, and I found a spot to wade across (very strong current! It was a near dunking...). But that gave me access to a couple of pools that were not easy to reach from the near side. I happened upon the right fly for the day (PMD) and landed 3 nice rainbows myself, making sure Colin was witness so it would not be treated as one just so fish story... Unfortunately, no pics of these fish, and they were all caught and released. But the other photos shows us heading off to the stream. We look fairly eager, eh?

I'm Back!!! And it's 2007

2007-07-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

July 11

The long-awaited trip to Montana for a flyfishing adventure came July 11. Bill Peterjohn and I boarded the flight in Pittsburgh after a 1 hr delay, arriving in Minneapolis with only 15 minutes to reach our next gate on the far side of the airport. I was glad I had been running quite a bit this past winter in spring, because it came in handy! We made the flight, and miraculously, so did our luggage. So this was clearly the quickest trip to Bozeman ever. We arrived shortly after 1 PM, got the rental car, bought some grocs, and were on our to Big Sky Dream, our home in the mountains.

No fishing on day one, but Kev and I were eager to hit a few of the green fuzzy spheres, so off we rode on bikes to the nearby community courts. What a way to start getting acclimated to altitude! Felt good.

Jamie arrived later in time for sumptuous pasta dinner, and the planning began for our first day on the river.

We decided to stay relatively close to home on Thursday and fish the Gallatin River outside the park, necessitating purchase of a Montana license.

Summer Blog Over

2006-09-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

It's official. Summer is over. This blog is over. As you can see by the recent portrait of me taken by K8's mac, enlightenment has been attained. May you and yours have a blissful fall as we transition to that wondrous season of the year - winter! Stay tuned for the winter blog.

More renovations

2006-09-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

A few of you loyal blog followers have been clammering for a look at our newly refurbished bathroom. Here's some eye-candy to satisfy your odd cravings! Salut!

Annual Forks of Cheat Forest Triathlon

2006-09-12T08:57:00.000-07:00

In the big scheme of things, our annual triathlon is a pretty trivial little local event. But on the personal level, I find it's really uplifting to have external motivators to keep maintaining my fitness. And there's no better time than the end of summer to hold such a motivating event. So it is that Ann and I have hosted the Forks of Cheat triathlon for five years now, and it keeps getting better! This year we had 17 participants (a record), and I think everyone had a great time. I like it especially because it fits with our little community's emphasis on wellness and living in better harmony with the environment.

The event consists of swimming across Cheat Lake (starting at our dock), running the Cheat Lake Trail down to the dam, then biking 8+ miles over varied terrain back to our house. For most people, the circuit is completed in 1 - 2 hours. Kate's friend Julian finished first this year with a time of 1 hour and 1 minute, which is phenomenal (and I think, the best ever). He probably had the fastest times swimming and running. John Souther was extremely fast on the run and bike portions, passing me early on in the bike portion - on a mountain bike! Bill Reger-Nash at age 50+ is a superstar on his road bike, and he caught me on the 2nd to last hill of the bike portion. I ended up 45 seconds behind him at the finish with a time of 1 hr, 17 minutes. I was very pleased with that and quite sure it was faster than last year. The best part was that I felt strong all the way through to the end.

We celebrated with a brunch of fruit, juices and bagels on the deck.

Now, my next motivator looms in the winter: SKI SEASON!!! I better get cracking on the weight training, lower body and core fitness, etc. as well as aerobic activities. In my usual preference for doing multiple exercises, I plan to play tennis (I miss Trevor though!), run by myself, bike with Ann, swim once in a while, and golf, as well as work in weightlifting in our basement. Life is good!

USOpen2006

2006-09-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

A tradition in our family for 4 years now has been making a pilgrimage to Flushing Meadows each Labor Day to watch the U. S. Open. A special treat is staying with our great friend Lee Stuart, who lives in the Bronx. This year, as always, Lee was our 'Border Collie', herding us through the train/subway/streets of NYC as only a native can do.

This year, we were very fortunate to have the whole family there (ian drove in from Boston, Trevor from Charlottesville, and Kate came with us from Mo'town). On Saturday, we all went to 'Drumstruck', a cross-cultural audience-participation drumming show using bongos. It was amazing that the audience was as capable as it was in providing background rhythms for the performers on stage, who trained us. Our second row seats were ideal for marveling at the dancing and powerful drumming onstage.

Sunday was tennis-day 1. We saw a long 5-setter with Marat Safin finally defeating David Nalbandian; quite an epic match, but we didn't see too much else that day because it was so long! We did get to see Rafa Nadal play against a relative unknown and his intense energy really won over the crowd. We also caught the end of a Lindsay Davenport match which she almost lost - it was exciting because who knows when she will retire, and she had a match point against her, which she saved, only to then win in the tiebreak moments later.

On the second day, Kate and I had Arthur Ashe tix, and she wanted to see Nadal play there. We saw Justine Henin-Hardenne too, but she was just overwhelming her opponent, so we skipped out to watch Elena Dementieva play on Court 11. Those matches are always so much fun to watch because you are right next to the court. Every once in a while I think I could stay on the court and win a game or two against these top-ranked women. A quick trip to Court 11 convinces me otherwise. Dementieva simply crushes the ball on both backhands and forehands. Even her serve, a notorious 'weakness' is far better than mine. Guess I'll have to dream on...

Kate and I watched Andy Roddick play for a bit at the end of the day in Ashe. He was doing very well.

Pretty cool to see two of the eventual finalists live (Roddick, Henin-Hardenne). Though the Roddick match hasn't happened as of this posting, I suspect we saw the two eventual losers...

Slow Progress on the Home Front

2006-08-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

...no, literally the 'home front'! Our builder finally got the frame up for the entryway, so you can begin to see what it will look like. Now, for a roof.

Looking forward to a reunion with Lee Stuart and Kevin and family at the U.S. Open 2006 edition; aka the Andre Agassi farewell show. Ah well, he deserves it. Hope he makes it to Labor Day weekend! I purchased Arthur Ashe tix for Sun. on the off chance that he'll be featured there. Who knows, we might see his last professional match! Wouldn't that be something for the archives? Until then, skol!

Going to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee

2006-08-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

OK, I didn't actually end up going to Graceland. The secondhand description from some of our grad students was enough. Probably a sin to make the trek all the way to this famous southern city and NOT do the pilgrimage (I must admit, I had the Paul Simon song stuck in my head for a while!). But it sounded way over the top and none too classy. The notion of seeing fans fall into fits of weeping at the grave was just too much for me to handle. Besides, we were there for the annual Ecological Society meetings, and it was difficult to find a window of time to get away long enough to visit Elvis' abode.

The meetings were good, the van trip long. Our grad students did us proud. Good food and jazz/blues on Beale street was worth the trip in itself. The only down side was the high population of homeless, always on the lookout for generous-looking tourists. Now it's back to the nonstop street and buidling construction of Morgantown.

Flying High in Mo'town

2006-08-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

While Kevin is flying over the spectacular glaciers of the coast range on the west coast, I am flying over the spectacular hills of WV! Well, not so spectacular, but still always a fun part of my job - going up in a small plane doing remote sensing work. Today we were seeking out Ailanthus from the air, hoping to image females and their attendant seed clusters. My student Matt Kaproth was in the back seat operating our digital Sigma SD9 camera, while I was co-pilot in the front, directing the pilot and saying helpful things like 'Start shooting now, Matt!' The above is one of my photos taken with my handheld digital camera.

People Pics

2006-07-27T05:26:00.000-07:00

The top one - we were fooling around lining up this picture in the Louvre - it attracted a crowd! People were laughing at us.

The second one - my favorite street in Paris!

Third - Kate on our boat road on the Seine

Some Images 4 U

2006-07-27T05:23:00.000-07:00

The top is of Sacre Coeur at night - we saw this the evening we ate at Le Cottage.

The bottom one was taken from Etage Un par Le Tour Eiffel. I thought it provided a unique perspective on that scene (note shadows!)

2006-07-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

This post is exactly one week late! I can't believe we left Paris last Thursday. Well, let me briefly describe our last day, which included some near disasters and some travails along with the travels. Our flight didn't leave Paris until after 5 PM, so we had a good part of the day in Paris. Since we had been seeing sights at such a hectic pace, we decided to take it easy and go for a stroll along the Champs Elysee from the Arc de Triomphe end toward the high fashion district near Place de la Concorde. This was great fun. We bought a postcard and sat down in an open air cafe so Kate could send a report to the WVU Honors Program staff. Then we found a post office and mailed it. We enjoyed visiting car showroom shops where they were showing their 'concept cars' (very cool!), candy stores, and a couple of clothing stores. Finally we made it to the high fashion district. The area where 'If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it!' Indeed the clientele and whole feel of the place changed. We must have walked by Chirac's residence or a place where he was meeting because security was extremely high outside one set of buildings. I think maybe even Kate felt we were in over our heads when it came to even being in that shopping area. We didn't feel comfortable even setting foot inside the door, but it was fun people-watching and window-shopping. We then made our way back to the hotel, retrieved our luggage and they outlined for us the easiest way to Charles De Gaulle airport. By the way, our hotel; l'Etoile Trocadero - was very convenient, centrally located (RE metro, l'Arc, Eiffel, etc.), and the staff was very cordial, helpful, and made us feel very welcome. Despite the tiny rooms, I recommend them - we found them through a package airfare/hotel deal at go-ahead.com.

The trying part of our trip began then - hauling luggage onto the metro, finding the RER station, boarding a packed RER train in the middle of the hot afternoon with luggage (had to be >100 deg. in there!), the 50 minute ride, sweat pouring off of us...nice way to begin a long trip. Getting boarding passes etc. went fine except that British Air Paris personnel 'forgot' to give us our boarding passes for the London-Dulles leg. The flight left 'only' 45 minutes late, but that meant a very tight connection in London - we did have 1.5 hrs to catch the next plane, now reduced to 45 minutes to make the transfer. I thought we'd be OK when I learned we would have to board a bus to get to the terminal and the airline mag. said to allow 50 minutes to get between terminals! Argh. Bottom line, we had to RUN to catch the plane and I was sure our luggage wouldn't make it. And we had no boarding passes. Fortunately, a kindly check-in guy took care of getting those for us and we actually sat together. Taxiing out on to the runway took forever, and we realized something must be wrong. We ended up back at the gate - an ill passenger was taken off the plane, then they had to find her luggage, etc. 1.5 hours later, we still had not taken off. Fortunately, we had no connections to catch at the other end. Once in the air, everything went swimmingly, though little sleep was to be had, so Kate and I checked into a hotel in Leesburg at 1 AM, rather than drive home. We made our way home the next day with no trouble.

Louvre Day

2006-07-24T06:14:00.000-07:00

Today our primary goals were to visit the Louvre and then have a final celebratory dinner at the famous 'Le Cottage Marcadet', the memory of which elicits paroxysms of joy from a certain gentleman I know. Anyhow, first the Louvre. We wended our way there on the Metro lines, which we were starting to feel quite comfortable with, exiting at the station labelled 'Louvre'. Emerging from belowground, we realized that if the Louvre was airconditioned, that would be the place to be! We had to wait in line only 15 minutes, but in mid-morning the temps had already soared to >90, and it felt like more in the sun. I snapped this picture of a street near our hotel - Kate has my other images, so I'll upload some more later when I get them to my office.

It's difficult to imagine that the Louvre could live up to its reputation, but in fact it did. To beat the incoming crowds, we made a beeline for the most famous attractions - the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, passing numerous fantastic pieces of art along the way. Arriving at each of those, the crowds had already gathered, and we therefore stood several people deep away from both. Honestly, Kate and I thought both were overhyped. Part of that impression may have been due to the fact that we really couldn't get as close to them as to the other art on display (ML was behind plexiglas, for example!). What amazed us was how close we could get to everything else! Paintings by da Vinci, Renoir, Matisse, etc., sculptures by Michaelangelo, Rodin; we could walk right up to these and examine the brushstrokes are the chisel marks! We had planned to spend only the morning there, but ended up staying until mid-afternoon, just enjoying some of the main attractions as well as the back rooms with fewer people. I think I could have gone for 5 straight days, spending 5 hours each day, and not gotten tired. The place was huge, the exhibits really well done. They had plexiglass covered explanations in different languages located in most rooms that amounted to a virtual art course if you wanted it. We both thought it was fantastic!

We decided to shower in mid-afternoon and rest prior to heading for Le Cottage. That turned out to be very necessary. I had the hairbrained idea of walking through the Tuileries gardens en route back to our hotel. But it was nearing 100 degrees. We did it anyway, but were drenched with sweat and tired by the time we metro'd back to the hotel.

I won't bore you with all the details of our 5 course meal at Le Cottage. Suffice it to say it was definitely the fanciest and most expensive meal I have ever had. Every course was gorgeously presented, flavorful. and tastefully done. And it took nearly 3 hours! After dinner, we strolled over the hill to Sacre Coeur, which was lit up. Against the deep blue, darkening sky, it was a gorgeous site. Views out over the nightlit city made it obvious why Montmartre, and Paris generally, is so romantic.

Pics? We'll see...battery nearly dead...no converter!

2006-07-19T00:02:00.000-07:00

2006-07-18T23:56:00.001-07:00

Tuesday – first full day en Paris

We slept fairly late on our comfortable tiny twin beds in our tiny room. First, we discovered the sale de petit dejeuner dan l’hotel, a tiny room in the tiny basement with a tiny kitchen. We weren’t at all sure whether it was self-serve or not. We soon found out it was not, And we were served orange juice, croissants, cereal, and yogurt. And coffee. All quite good.

Then we were off to the Louvre. Quelle excitement! We found our way there easily on the metro and sortied to find…an empty plaza in front of the beautiful building. We had arrived early. Yea! We found our way to the ticket booth and read ‘Le Louvre et ferme mardi’. Sadly, I knew this meant we would be visiting the Louvre on mercredi! Not to worry. A short walk across the Pont Neuf would bring us to Saint-Chappelle et Notre Dame, two not-to-be-missed sights of wonderful Paris. It was difficult to find the entrance to Saint-Chappelle and I was beginning to worry about what lay ahead because Kate had a blister and it was becoming very hot by 10:30! And we were both thirsty. Nevertheless, we bought our tickets and entered the church. I knew the small room we first entered was not the ‘main event’, so we didn’t linger long before climbing the stairs to…WOW…one of the most amazing sights of the trip. St.-Chappelle is an intimate church whose walls are covered in the most amazing stained glass from floor to ceiling. The quality of light created by the stain glass was, well, heavenly! I was stunned. I think Kate was too. I had heard it was beautiful, but I wasn’t quite prepared for it. After attempting to capture it in photos, we reluctantly left for the much larger Notre Dame nearby. We had to find water, and a quick walk through the Palais du Justice led us to believe water fountains were deliberately withheld from public areas to ensure water and other beverage sales! We bought spring water on the street.

Notre Dame was impressive as well, but more for its massive frame and round stained glass way up high in the cathedral. We paid an extra five Euro to see the crown of thorns and pieces of the cross and one of the nails that held Jesus on the cross, but all we saw was a small piece of wood supposedly from the cross. The crown of thorns was hidden from public view in what amounted to a public scam to raise $ in my opinion. Anyway, there were some old papal relicts and a huge silver Madonna statue that were impressive nonetheless.

We found lunch in a little café in the streets south of the Seine (on la rive gauche). Alors, then we walked to Musee D’Orsay. The 19th century paintings there (Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Renoir, etc.) were much more to our liking than the Tate Modern in London. We had a nice relaxing walk through the museum. Then we watched boats going up and down the Seine and decided a dinner cruise might be just the thing. So we walked further up the Seine to the right bank and les Bateaux Mouches. Dinner cruises, we discovered, didn’t happen until 8:30 PM, and they cost something like $160 apiece. Well, that killed that idea. Instead, we took an 8 Euro 1 hr cruise on the Seine, which was quite worthwhile and enjoyable, despite the continued heat. After that adventure, we made our way back to the hotel for showers. We found a French café we are going to try for dinner. We may also try a second ascent of the Eiffel Tower, with the goal being to go all the way to the top to see the lights at night. Should be fun!

Hope you are enjoying these pictures. We are taking lots of them, and it’s always hard to select which ones to post. For those who have been here before, we want to bring back memories, and for those who haven’t, try to capture some of the essence of the city. Hope we’re succeeding at that. French TV is a kick, by the way. Just watched an episode of Frasier in French! Bonsoir to all! I'm going to upload this 'sans images' b/c the internet is being flaky and the battery is running low. Hope to add pics later...

2006-07-18T23:56:00.000-07:00

2006-07-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up in London around 6.30 (they don’t use colons in describing the time). Dad and I hopped out of bed and got really for the journey, on what was my first train ride ever. Once on the train, I had the chance to catch up on some sleep, summer reading, and sightseeing. My Dad continued reviewing his French, teaching me words and phrases, such as ‘Je ne parle pa francais’, etc. I forget that means but it sounds cool. I think I’ll say it a lot in Paris and see what happens. We were under the channel for about 20 minutes, but don’t worry; they gave us snorkels and fins…just kidding. It seemed like no time at all and we popped out into…FRANCE! Dad was especially excited because this was a new country for him – one that he had read about and heard about in French class a long time ago. It was a new country for me too, so I was excited. There was lots of farm land, but it looked pretty brown. We didn’t know if this was normal or if they were having a drought. The train ride flew by. The train itself was very quiet, and my only complaint was they needed pillows because the headrests were too high for me. In no time, we were entering Paris and saw the beautiful Sacre Coeur on the hillside to our right. We hope to see that up close and personal later in the trip.

Next we had to navigate to our hotel. Having mastered the London Underground, we found the Paris Metro was still a challenge. Particularly hard was figuring out which way to go once we found the line we were looking for. But in no time we found Line 4 south and disembarked at the intersection with line 9, taking it west to Trocadero station. We then hauled our suitcases a couple of blocks to our hotel on St. Didier, a little cross stree in the direction of Arc de Triomphe. I always hate that part about dragging the suitcases through the streets because I feel like such a tourist – I just want to blend in. Ah well. The good thing was that we found our hotel quickly AND they actually had our name down on the reservation list this time so we didn’t have to switch hotels. Thank goodness! This little hotel is cute. We are on the top floor in room quarante-deux. It is a tiny room with two tiny twin beds and a tiny bathroom with a tiny…well, you get the picture.

Time to play touriste. Nous avons marche a le Tour Eiffel, a nous sommes mange une hot dog en route! Sorry I forgot my accent egu on mange… Haven’t I learned French quickly? OK, OK, my Dad’s actually typing this, but I’m dictating some of it -).

We decided to climb the steps of the Eiffel tower, I mean le Tour Eiffel, then take the lift to the top. Did I mention it was a HOT day? Lotsa lotsa steps later, we arrived to the cool breezes of a couple hundred feet up for splendid views. We had enough money to get to the top (Kevin!) but there was a power outage, and the line built up horribly, so we decided to go back down and try another day (or night…). We then marched down the left bank, finally crossing over in front of the Grand Palais and wending our way up to the Champs Elysee. I designed a Toyota Aygo paint job in a Toyota shop (very fancy) and entered a competition to win a Macintosh computer. It had nice green, purple and blue stripes with pink accents (sorry Grandpa) and black areas. On the back door were the ‘theatre’ faces – happy and sad, and I named it ‘Playgo’ (my Dad thought of that – isn’t he clever?).

We continued up the Champs to arrive at the massive Arc de Triomphe. We climbed up a huge number of steps (did I mention it was a HOT DAY???) to the top for an exhorbitant price, but the view was worth it. Finally, we headed back to our tiny hotel room, picking our way through a Lebanon protest group (quite loud and a little scary!), eating our way through a nice Italian dinner, and finally crashing into bed. The end. More tomorrow!

Sunday in London

2006-07-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

We moseyed out for a light breakfast again, then headed for Harrod's to return the 'universal' adapter which did not successfully charge our devices...hence the tardiness of this computer missive. I was able to return it, then we shopped (unsuccessfully!) for more bathing suits. Prices are fairly outrageous here, from a western viewpoint. I keep thinking about Chinese prices! We got our errands done in time to reach the changing of the guard (see pics!); quite a spectacle on a beautiful day. We then walked across Hyde Park to Speakers' corner where various religious views were being patiently and logically (!) explained to the assembled crowds. Kate just shook her head!

For the afternoon, we decided to head for the Tate Modern gallery via the London Bridge/Thames riverside walk. It was a beautiful walk. The Tate Modern art displays were mostly beyond our ability to appreciate (!) but there were some interesting pieces. We decided at the spur of the moment to visit the Clink Prison (the prison that gave all future prisons the name Clink!). There we learned about various torture devices and generally what people were imprisoned for over the past 1000 yrs of Britain's history. We also saw the reconstructed 'Globe Theatre' (pictured) above, and the Golden Hinde, a reconstructed version of Sir Francis Drake's ship. What impressed me about Drake's ship was how small it was, given where he went as its commander!

Tonight, we're going to try to find an Indian restaurant to expand Kate's horizons. Tomorrow finds us on the road...er, I mean rail, headed for Paris! Yea! Love to all...

Saturday in London!

2006-07-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

We woke up early…OK, not so early. We were up and out by 9:30 AM. We’re finding the Tube easier and easier to navigate. After a breakfast of fruit, croissant and coffee, we found the Tube to Knightsbridge and made our way along the shop-strewn streets to Harrod’s, the department store than swallows up tourists whole for days at a time, and spits them out depleted of their life savings. Harrod’s reminds me of Vegas. Everything is glitzy, overpriced, and designed to seduce. Kate had a bathing suit all picked out that she liked, only to look at the price tag (note: after deciding she liked it) to discover it cost $116. You could get 10% off if you used American Express – whoopee! We didn’t get it. I did, however, purchase a socket converter to allow us to recharge our devices; universal – lots of attachments – would work with anything right? Wrong. But more about that later.

Our next item of business was to visit Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. Unfortunately we had missed it by ½ hr, but we had a nice look at the Palace and the grand statue outside. Our next agenda items was the half price ticket outlet for the famous west end shows. We had two picked out (Avenue Q and Wicked), but when we got there, tickets were available for neither (at half price). However, the Mel Brooks musical comedy ‘The Producers’ was available, and we had good tix for 30 pounds. So we had a date!

Our next stop was the famous Tower of London. We decided against the full tour and instead walked around the outside and down along the Thames for a bit of sightseeing. By that time we were getting a bit footweary, so we hopped on the tube and came back to the hotel for a nap. Refreshed, we set out for the Royal Theatre on Drury Lane. We weren’t prepared for how grand the theatre was on the inside. Beautiful balconies and lights, beautifully decorated. The play was very well done and hilarious. We topped off our evening by dropping by a wild-looking restaurant we had spotted on the way to the theatre. The restaurant was called Sarastro, and was decorated to the hilt in theatre garb. Four wild gypsy-like musicians were strumming wildly away at wild music as we entered. The prawn entrée and stir-fried chicken breast/vegetable dishes were excellent. As we looked around we realized the décor was even crazier than it appeared from the outside, and the bathroom décor was, well shall we say, indescribable. I’ll leave it at that. What a day!

More traditional views of London

2006-07-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

...for your viewing pleasure.

2006-07-14T14:03:00.000-07:00

For breakfast, we walked a block to Pret a Manger for pastries and coffee (relatively cheap!), then headed toward Holburn Tube station, a couple of blocks away. We purchased 3 day passes to give us unlimited movement capabilities, and proceeded down to Waterloo station. The Tube was easy to navigate once we got used to reading the maps. Our first destination was the 'London Eye' - pictured above - a really cool huge ferris wheel looking over much of London. It was a great way to get oriented. After the 30-minute ride we felt oriented to the major landmarks of London. We then walked along the Thames and swung into a Dali exhibit. That man was demented! Much moreso than the melting clocks would indicate! Anyway, genius, demented, whatever, there is no doubt he was incredibly creative. There were some wild sculptures tha we really enjoyed. Next we walked across the bridge over the Thames by the Houses of Parliament and past Westminster Abbey to St. James Park, where we found hot dogs, cokes and fruit, and watched geese and ducks swim on the lake. Next we returned to Westminster Abbey to have the GTODP (great tour of dead people). It really is impressive how many of the people who changed or at least controlled the world for years are interred there. Of course, as a scientist, paying homage to Sir Isaac (Newton), and Sir Charles (Darwin) was a must. It was extremely interesting to me that Charles Darwin's piece of the floor has virtually no special attention paid to it, and the inscription was very brief, not even mentioning what he did! Ah well, perhaps the church of England is still not quite ready for his ideas. But he changed the perspective on the world through his insights far more than 99% of the other bodies in there did! OK OK, maybe I'm biased, but kings and queens come and go, the theory of evolution by natural selection is here to stay! Nuff said!

For our next activity (we were getting a bit foot-tired!) we walked slowly toward Trafalgar Square to take in the sights and tourist traps. We then hopped onto the Tube and headed toward St. Paul's Cathedral. There was supposed to be an organ concert at 5 PM. The Tube was temporarily dysfunctional at one point, so we had to walk part of the way. When we got there, we took a load off and listened to the choir singing in an 'Evensong' service. It was very restful and the echoing sounds of the voices did seem like angels.

This evening we went to a true English pub, and I had steak and ale pie, while Kate had fish and chips. Then we wandered back through SOHO to our hotel, tired and wondering what tomorrow will bring! Cheerio to all!

To England!

2006-07-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

The trip began at 5:20 AM with quick showers, then we jumped in the Prius and headed through the rain to Dulles. The British Airways line was a little slow, but we got to the gate in plenty of time. The photo above was taken shortly after boarding our Boeing 777. The plane was relatively quiet and there were plenty of channels of movies and tv shows to watch. It was a relatively easy flight, and we arrived on time at 8 PM London time. We decided to find our way to our hotel via the Tube, and had no problem with that. We even found our way to Thistle Bloomsbury Park Hotel with no problem. Then the problems began! They had no record of our reservation, despite handing them a voucher. Another guest arriving at the same time had the same problem. Moreover the hotel was full! So, they booked us in a nearby Thistle Bloomsbury (not Park) that was actually a higher grade hotel! So, here we are. The second picture shows that we are in a suite with two levels, connected by a spiral staircase! This place is COOL! So it all worked out. We bought some sandwich at a local shop at 11:30 and took in some of the street scene here, then retired to our lovely suite. I have a sneaking suspicion we're getting a tremendous deal on this room, by sheer luck. Hopefully the rest of our trip will be as lucky! Hope to keep you updated tomorrow night with more pics!

Off To Europe!

2006-07-12T19:47:00.000-07:00

This is papa in the car at the start of your trip to Europe. Left home at 7pm, picked up some little caesar's pizza, and headed away from the sunset. With the help of map-quest and my amazing navagation skillz we managed to make it to the hotel in Leesburg, Va safely. More tomorrow (internet permitting)....signing out... Kate

50th birthday yesterday

2006-07-11T05:44:00.000-07:00

It is quite a summer, filled with landmarks. First footsteps on the Asian continent (one more to go! Australia!), funding of my next big NSF grant, trip to London and Paris, and not least, my 50th birthday. It was a low key day for the most part. Ann alerted the staff who alerted my lab about the occasion. A cold stone creamery ice cream cake, helium balloon and slight indulgence gift certificate arrived to the embarrassing sounds of 'Happy Birthday' echoing down the Life Sciences Building halls. They are a fantastic bunch, these students of mine. Then Ann cooked a wonderful steak dinner with lots of fresh garden ingredients in the salad. The mint juleps weren't bad either!

I wish I had some great words of wisdom from the lofty peak of half a century, but all I can offer is small ones. The first third of my life :-) has been a great joy thanks mostly to you who are reading this blog. And while my (close) vision deteriorates with age, I see much more clearly now than at 40, or 30, what is important in life. And I hope that process of gaining clarity of purpose continues on into 60, 70, and 80, continuing to guide my actions. It is an inconvenient truth that we humans have no choice but to learn to live sustainably on this planet. So I hope to use what minimal talents I have in teaching and research to communicate more effectively what steps need to be taken to make this transition to sustainability more pleasant than painful, more joyful than sorrowful, and to convince people that this all needs to be done with greater appreciation and respect for our fellow planetary travelers; the wonderful animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms of the world. That seems like a modest enough goal for the next century, eh?

Thursday - to Europe!

Meanwhile, Back In West Virginia...

2006-07-10T05:03:00.000-07:00

...we're replacing/re-doing/re-inventing our front entryway. The little shed roof was never a good design. When it rained, the roof ensured you would get dripped on as you stepped onto the entry porch. Made out of untreated cedar, the front porch had rotted away last summer to the point that Trevor fell through it. While I was able to put duct tape on that temporarily, what we needed was a whole new entry. Found this entry design in a Timberframe homes magazine ad. When a walnut tree fell down on the community property, I bought it, and had it sawn in twain. Now, John Garlow, the guy who did our addition, and a post&beam expert, has framed it in something like the picture shown. Ours will not be so grandiose (no upper roof), single, not double door. New cement front porch may be poured today!

Last Full Day In Montana

2006-07-03T09:26:00.001-07:00

Saturday, July 1. While Kevin and family did final packing for Glacier, I packed for a flyfishing day in Yellowstone Park. After goodbye hugs, I drove south on 191, I saw that the Fawn Pass parking lot was not occupied by a truck inspection stop and state police today (as it was on my last trip), so I pulled in and started on my hike to Fan Creek. This little creek is supposed to house 12" cutthroat, rainbow and brook trout. I gingerly crossed the Gallatin over small bridges, nearly flooded by beaver activity, then headed into the woods for the 1.3 mile hike to Fan Creek.

In my Yellowstone fishing guidebook, the header on many stream descriptions has a small shadow outline of a grizzly bear and a moose; an alert to fisherman that they are entering countryside where human animals are not at the top of the food chain. I definitely 'felt' that I was in bear and moose country, a feeling that was only heightened by being alone on the trail. I whistled and occasionally cleared my throat to alert the bears to the presence of unpalatable (hopefully!) human food so they could move out of my way. I kept a wary eye out for trees that I could climb if it became necessary. After a mile, I could hear some animals trotting toward me from the side. Startled I peered over a little knoll to see what was coming, and was extremely relieved to find it was two mule deer bucks. They did not seem particularly frightened of me. I trudged on.

The stream was a beautiful meadow stream, as promised by my guidebook. With my polarizing sunglasses, I saw no fish whatsoever. After an hour of mosquito swatting and casting of multiple flies into suggestive pools, I decided I must be at the right place at the wrong time. So I hiked back out.

In West Yellowstone, I eschewed McD's for a local dive, where I had a 60-year old male waiter serve me a huckleberry shake (good!) and burger. After a visit to a local fly shop and now armed with flies the locals were using, I headed into the Park again. The Firehole river was really tempting me again, because I knew the fish were there. I visited my old favorite 'hole' and tried each of the 3 fly types in succession in a place where I knew there were fish (they were jumping!). Finally, the last fly seemed to do the trick as I got several strikes in succession, and managed to land a small rainbow. Success! Later that day I fished the Gibbon and the Madison. Some more strikes on the Madison, but I was too slow to set the hook. Ah well, it was a gorgeous day to be on the river. I must have stayed until late evening because I didn't get back to Big Sky until after dark.

Oh, one other adventure for the day; I was driving into the park on a 2-lane road with heavy 40mph traffic coming out of the park (toward me). A white Ford taurus veered gradually out of the oncoming traffic as if to pass - the only problem being that I was in his passing lane! I noticed that it was a no-passing zone and there was no place for him to pull back in, so I figured something was wrong. My best quick guess was that he had fallen asleep. I was right. As he approached, the car was still going straight, headed for the shoulder to my right. I pulled in to the centerline as far as I dared to let him pass, and as he got close to me, I honked my horn to wake him up. Out of the rear view mirror, I could see his brake lights flash on and dust flew up as he screeched to regain control of his car. My heart was in my throat for a while after that. After that little incident, I realized that humans were still by far the most dangerous animal in Yellowstone!

Last Full Day In Montana

2006-07-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

Arnold Palmer day...

2006-06-30T17:48:00.000-07:00

Seem to be waking at 5:55 every day! Laurie is usually up before me, already transacting business over coffee. I enjoy some coffee, then catch up on Wimbledon happenings. Let's see if ol' man Andre can defeat the young whippersnapper Nadal - seems doubtful!

This morning I wanted to see what new things were happening up at the mountain, and with clear blue skies, it was a great morning to take the short drive up there. The views were spectacular, with lots of wildflowers along the roadsides. Steamy clouds draped the lower slopes en route, but the summit shone in the morning sun. Still some snow on the upper reaches. The Swiftcurrent lift was running; they shuttle mountain bikers up so they can come careening down the slopes. I haven't done that little adventure. Yet! There was one new building going up near the base, but otherwise it seemed fairly quiet.

After talking with a number of locals about the mountain in summer, we're quite happy we have a place in the meadow. The Big Sky Town Center is really coming along, with new buildings, boutiques, restaurants, etc. opening all the time. Yet we are isolated from the traffic of that.

Kevin and I had a date with the Arnold Palmer designed Big Sky golf course at 11:10. He rented clubs. I used the old ones stored here in the owners' closet. This has to be the most scenic golf course I have ever enjoyed. In fact, golf is really a difficult, trying, game. But played in this unbelievable set of surroundings, even golf is really fun! I had no pars in 18 holes, but several bogeys and double bogeys. Hey, if it has a name, I'm happy! I lost 2 or 3 balls and found 4, so I was ahead in that department. Anyway, check out this scenery. Please ignore my horrible form. I love Big Sky!

Hike to Lava Lake

2006-06-29T15:29:00.000-07:00

Need some exercise (:))! Off to a local favorite hike, which we've never done before. A 6-mile round trip hike to Lava Lake, off 191 north of Big Sky. After watching Wimbledon for a couple of hours, the kids finally emerged from sleep to join the expedition. A short drive later and we arrived at the trailhead. The gradual steady uphill hike was just what the doctor ordered for our exercise starved crew. Nice wildflowers. Nice birds. Hermit thrush. Swainson's thrush. Possible western tanager, but couldn't make it out. After 1.5 hrs of near nonstop trudging, we arrived at Lava Lake to whoops and hollers of other hikers jumping into the 50-some degree water. We watched an immature bald eagle flying from tree to tree along the lake's edge. Fish were rising all over the lake. Beautiful scene. We ate lunch and watched while Colin slowly submerged himself as slowly and painfully as possible into the water. The rest of us were not so bold. We did some botanizing on the way down - yellow columbine, indian paintbrush, engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, baneberry, arnica, numerous vacciniums, and a host of other beautiful flowers. We highly recommend this hike for visitors to Big Sky, and this is a nice time of year with all the flowers and birds. Pictured above is your reward at the end of the trail!

Down Day

2006-06-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Today we had gorgeous weather here in Big Sky - mid 70's to mid 80's and mostly sunny. But it was time to do some errands that had been building up. Washing windows is always fun; the view always sparkles that much more after 1.5 hrs of hard labor. And the garage door track was malfunctioning, so that had to be fixed. Then we met with our property manager to put some additional pressure on to do more rentals. Then some grocery shopping. You get the picture. So I'll give you a picture from the other day's rafting fun. And, as you can see, we did have fun! Until tomorrow...

A Typical Summer Day in Yellowstone

2006-06-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

A typical summer day in Yellowstone begins with an early morning croissant and coffee from the local bakery, followed by a short 45 minute drive through gorgeous scenery to the honky tonk of West Yellowstone. The left turn into the park takes you into another world. The Yellowstone patch of NW Wyoming attempts to be a preserve of the pre-settlement west with natural wildlife interactions and minimal human effects. But with 3 million visitors annually, you can imagine this is hard to achieve. The extent to which NPS is able to preserve Yellowstone's character is remarkable.

After visiting Yellowstone many times, one has to work not to get sanguine about what you see nearly every time: bald eagles ('the' nest on the entry road had two young, with parents hanging around nearby), bison (the massive heads of big bulls never fail to make an impression), elk by the dozens (we've decided females are a bit homely, but males with a full rack - wow, hardly a more majestic ungulate anywhere!), osprey (testimony to the abundant trout!), and the steaming, seething landscape of the geyser region. One never knows what other delights you will encounter around the next corner. Yesterday it was 2 sightings of black bears; one lone male (we think; it was large and by itself), and two bears - a mother and cub about half a mile away. The cub was adorable. Colin won the sharp-eyes contest of the day in spotting the first bear; it was about 100 yds away in deep dark woods. I was probably a close second as I spotted the cub running across the hillside 100 yds above the road as I was driving! We also spotted two coyotes yesterday to add to our list. We really enjoyed birdwatching at blacktail ponds along the Mammoth-Tower road, as well as the discovery of a new (to us) 6 mile one-way parallel road out that way with superb scenery and an off-the-beaten track feel.

To top off the day, we flyfished on the Madison at one of the pullouts. Chelsea Jean showed us all up by catching a small brown trout on a fly (with bobber!). Trout were jumping all around, feeding on an impressive hatch. Photo above was taken yesterday.

Monday

2006-06-27T05:29:00.000-07:00

I could only resist the pull of Yellowstone so long! I really wanted to wet a fly, so I rose at 6 AM, and was on the road by 6:30, new fishing gear loaded into the trunk. By 7:15 I was in West Yellowstone, purchased a fishing license from a local fly shop, and entered the park. First, I had a date with a fish in the Firehole River. Lunker rainbow trout 1, Jim 0. I know they're in there, but either I was using the wrong fly, or....I was using the wrong fly. Anyway, four flies and two hours later, I gave up on Uncle FireholeFudd, and drove back toward the NW corner of the park en route back to Big Sky. I pulled over next to Grayling Creek on the south side of the divide and fished a short stretch of that beautiful clear creek, followed by a nice stretch of the Gallatin on the north side of the divide. The Gallatin was much bigger water than it appeared and the current was powerful. Still no fish were eager to jump on my hook, but I enjoyed the casting practice and the scenery.

Then it was back to Big Sky for a nap before making a Bozeman run. Ostensibly we were going to an art show, but Northwest Airlines mag. got it wrong I guess, b/c there was no evidence of such. Ah well, we strolled the streets, then had a nice late dinner at Boodles - good food, slow service. Off to Yellowstone tomorrow. Promise pics!

Sunday

2006-06-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

I know. I'm posting this a day late!

What did we do Sunday? The two days we've spent so far have been packed with activities. Sunday morning - duel of the tennis titans of big sky at Ophir school! Sorry, no pics of that. Oh, wait a minute. I found one! Here I am reaching for a forehand... Actually, that was Kevin. With 4 extra days of altitude adjustment and practice on the courts, he eked out a 6-4,6-3 victory. The balls were flying off my racquet (long, mostly) - could it be the altitude?

Our next adventure was one I recommend for all our summer visitors here at Big Sky. That afternoon we went whitewater rafting with Geyser Whitewater Expeditions, an outfit located right near Ophir school. We did the lower Gallatin 1/2 day package, with class III and IV rapids (and II). The Gallatin was at a 'medium' level of 1700cfs. Our guide was Dave, an ex-ski bum turned school teacher, who did an excellent job maneuvering us through the boulders. I was quite impressed with the river, having seen class IV and V on the Gauley in WV, and I'd say they were rating the rapids conservatively here. Wet suits were a must for this trip as we got soaked with 42 deg. water repeatedly. But we had a sunny warm day, so for the most part we weren't cold. The trip was 2 hrs long and the action was nicely spaced out. The longest stretch, called the Mad Mile, was class III and one class IV stretch that really got your adrenaline up! Hope to pick up pictures of our expedition today and we'll try to find a way to post it, although they are 'hard copies'. By the way, with five hard paddling people in the raft, Dave said our crew was ideal - we were able to make that raft zoom toward the right place on the river to avoid obstacles. Colin and Chelsea definitely pulled their weight. Indeed, Chelsea made sure we pulled 'THREE FORWARD!' and 'RELAX!'ed at the right times. Great fun!

Home in Montana!

2006-06-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

On the flight from Minneapolis, the guy in the seat next to me said 'Going home?' I thought for a second and said,'Yes, as a matter of fact!' It's really fun thinking about flying to Montana and back to West Virginia and going home both ways!

The flight was the easiest one I remember, made easier by new (cheap) noise-cancelling headphones and my ipod. Left Pittsburgh at 8:30 and was in Bozeman by 1:25 PM, even with a 30 min. delay leaving Minneapolis. A walk around the condo complex looking at the fire damage (almost not noticeable now) at the far end of the complex, followed by Yahtzee, followed by a 2 mile loop run around the golf course, made it a full day. Slept like a log, then up at 6 to take this picture from the driving range back toward Big Sky Dream. K&L saw a bald eagle fighting with an osprey yesterday morning. Nothing so exciting this morning...yet...Kevin and I are going to play tennis at Ophir school, then all will go rafting this afternoon on the Mad Mile. More later from Montana.

Ah well, forgive me, I'm going thru China pics

2006-06-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of an area on a Temple of Heaven complex building that has been repainted recently. This is the way it looked in many places at the summer palace and forbidden city too. The level of detail was astonishing, as you can see. Next post definitely from Montana! Cheers!

OK, OK, another one!

2006-06-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

This is the entry to Temple of Heaven in Beijing, a beautiful temple all refurbished for the Beijing 2008 Olympics! Many of the famous sites are being repainted and spruced up for the Olympics. The Chinese have tremendous pride in playing host to these games. My prediction is that there will be a sea-change in China as a result of the increase in tourism and world awareness of China that will result. It is clear that that is what China is hoping will happen!

One more China pic...

2006-06-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

Can't help it - you have to have a peak at the karst peaks...

China Trip - Extremely Brief Summary

2006-06-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

What a summer! Only the third 'official' day of summer and I feel like it has been one of the busiest and most interesting ever! First was our trip to China in May to visit Ian and Ming. What a trip! It cannot be sufficiently summarized in this blog, but suffice it to say, it was a trip of a lifetime. Most spectacular was the Guilin-Yangshuo area in south-central China; it was so scenic that even the scroll paintings showing steep peaks rising out of rice fields cannot capture it. There were so many of the karst peaks! The river cruise was a great way to see it. World travelers - put it on your list of places to see! The photo shows our traveling party visiting the Great Wall in the spectacular scenery a couple hours north of Beijing. Well, this blog is really starting after that trip, but perhaps we can add more later, or maybe Ann can do a blog on just the China trip (?).

Tomorrow - to Montana!

First blog

2006-06-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

Hey All, This is my summer blog...following on Kevin's lead.