Monday, November 30, 2009

It's Almost Here!

At 1 o'clock Wednesday afternoon I ordered a new scanner, the Fujitsu ScanSnap S300. If I had paid the extra $15 for express delivery it would already be here, but the "slow boat" delivery by ground is fine with me. It should show up on my doorstep Monday!


Denise Olson on her Family Matters blog has been extolling the virtues of the S300M (for Mac) that she purchased in July. After reading about her experience with it I started checking out Automatic Document Feed (ADF) scanners for Windows. I've got all those genea-documents that I want to scan and the idea of doing them with my flatbed scanner is more than a little disheartening.

After reading this November .. Review of the S300, I was hooked on the S300! Well, actually, Denise had me hooked, that review clinched the deal. There will still be some things that will have to be scanned using the flatbed, but I think much of what I have can be done by the S300.

So I am patiently waiting.

And trying to getting some things organized for phase two of my scanning project.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Moving On :: The Cassiar Highway

Monday, August 30th - - Cold temperatures with blue skies and sunshine greeted me as I left Watson Lake. It was 33 degrees when I woke up at 6:30 this morning. It had been a clear, dark sky last night and it was the first time I had seen the stars since leaving Montana over a month ago!

I had to backtrack about ten miles to get onto the Cassiar Highway (Route 37) and it wasn't long before I got into a combination of smoke and fog. The smoke was due to the forest fires that started a month or so ago and were still smoldering. The road had been closed to traffic for a couple of weeks.

Early morning sun streaming through the forest. Most of the trees near the road were not affected by the fire but there was a smoky haze and acrid smell that filled the air.

This section was particularly bad because the smoke was “enhanced” by fog from a nearby lake.

Less than an hour later, I was through the burned-out area and back in sunshine.
There isn't much in the way of “civilization” along the Cassiar Highway. It travels through 450 miles of wilderness, making its way through valleys and over mountains. Not much different than many of the other highways I've traveled thus far here in Canada and Alaska. But this seemed more remote. Perhaps it was my frame of mind or the fact that there were few other vehicles on the highway. Or maybe it was because of the wildlife I saw along the way. A multicolored fox with fur of brown and red and black and with a bushy tail as long as its body. And bears. Eight of them were seen, briefly, individually, in a 100-mile stretch of the highway.

About 350 miles into the drive I was looking for a place to spend the night. There was a road that branched off of Highway 37 and it looked intriguing. It was paved, only 40 miles long, and it went to two towns next to each other – Stewart in British Columbia and Hyder in Alaska. I made the turn at the junction and headed west...

The route from Skagway – north, then east, and finally south.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Greetings from... Kansas

Wednesday, May 4th - - Today was a traveling day, 260 miles through southern Iowa. Leaving Fairfield, U.S. 34 took me through mostly small towns and farming country. Ottumwa, the largest town I went through, is home of Radar O'Reilly of M*A*S*H fame. Ottumwa is also known as the 'city of bridges' and it lives up to its moniker, nestled alongside the Des Moines River.



At Red Oak I turned south through Shenandoah and Sidney, spending the night at Waubonsie State Park, just a few miles from Nebraska and Missouri.



Thursday, May 5th - - Heading west from the campground at Waubonsie the terrain changed dramatically in just a few miles. From the heavily forested hill country around Waubonsie back to rolling hills and farmland. The route took me to Nebraska City, Nebraska where I picked up U.S. 75 south to Topeka.



I mentioned in a previous post that I had been doing some research for a very, very distant Joslin cousin while I was back in Indiana. I had an open invitation to visit him (JJ) if I ever got near Topeka so I took him up on his generous offer! It is so neat to actually meet the people that you correspond with and who just happen to be related! We had a wonderful visit. Thank you so much for your hospitality!



JJ and I took the short drive (about 40 miles) to Lyndon to visit the gravesite of Lysander and Lydia Joslin, my 3rd great-grandparents. I didn't get any pictures because my camera was back in Topeka in the van! But I have visited their graves several times, most recently in September .. and posted photos from my visit in November ...





JJ and me. Our common ancestor is the 1635 immigrant Thomas Joslin who is my 10th great-grandfather.



Friday, May 6th - - Greeted by blue skies and sunshine, I headed northeast to Leavenworth, Kansas. Another distant cousin, though not nearly as distant as JJ, is buried at the National Cemetery in Leavenworth. So, since I was “in the area” I figured I might as well go visit the gravesite of Charley S. Joslin, my 1st cousin 3 times removed. He is a bit of an enigma and I'll have a post about him sometime soon. But as close as we've been able to determine he is probably the son of Ida (Joslin) Dressler Lewis, daughter of Lysander and Lydia Joslin. She would have been 15 years old when he was born on March 4, 1879. However, in several of his records in the Leavenworth Old Soldiers Home (available on ancestry.com) he lists Ida Lewis as his nearest relative, giving her relationship as sister.



From online searches I knew which section Charley was buried in but I didn't know where that section was located within the cemetery. Thankfully, they have a computer kiosk in the main office building that provides that information along with a printed map. Very nice.





The grave of Charley S. Joslin is located in Section 37, Row 6, Site 6. It is the sixth stone to the left in the first row pictured above.





Charley S. / Joslin / Missouri / Pvt 17 Inf / April 25, 1934

Then I went to the Mount Muncie cemetery, which adjoins the National Cemetery on its south side and located the gravesite of JJ's ancestor George Washington Joslin (after a stop at the main office to get the location and directions). And yes, I'll be having a post, more like a small series, on the issues we had with researching George's parents, and some rather interesting connections to me (at least I thought they were interesting)!





George W. Joslin / Aug. 24, 1837 / June 16, 1921Matilda His Wife / Sept. 20, 1837 / July 30, 1920Mount Muncie Cemetery, Leavenworth/Lansing, KansasSection 9 Stone 163



After leaving Leavenworth, I headed north toward Atchison and picked up US 36 West. I hadn't planned on going that far north but missed a turn-off just south of Atchison and didn't realize it until later. Except for the wind, which was very strong and a crosswind to boot, it was a pleasant drive. It also got a little warm (85 degrees) and the air conditioning didn't seem to be working very well Will have to get that checked out soon with summer coming on!



Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Wordless Wednesday - Wall Flower

Somewhere in Indiana. Summer of 1981. Digitized ...Copyright © 1981/.. by Rebeckah R. Wiseman.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The Best Morning Glory



I have been taking photos of my morning glories all summer. I keep taking the photos trying to get 'the best' photo I can of a morning glory. I have posted a lot of the photos I have taken which are the best ones. And I have thrown out many more that were awfull. I have decided I like taking the photos of the flowers from the back as much as from the front. In this one you can see a very tiny bug deep in the flower. For those that don't know morning glories blossoms only last one day and usually only a few hours. So every day there is a huge new bunch of blossoms to take photos of. It can be adicting.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Great Blue Heron Family







Some of you may remember that almost a month ago I posted some pictures from a visit to a Great Blue Heron rookery. Yesterday I visited the rookery again and WOW how the babies have grown! On my last visit we only saw a couple of babies and only their heads stuck out above the nests. This time, the babies were a lot more visible because they were a LOT bigger! As far as I could tell, all but one or two of the nests had 3 babies in it. That means there are about 45 young Herons in this rookery.








Friday, November 13, 2009

Climbing "cold"?

Here is a retread from last March I find worth repeating.



I spent 12 hrs out yesterday. Not a big deal but recognised a few things I think worth mentioning.



To climb in the most efficient clothing system I think you have to climb what I consider, "cold". You want to run your clothing system at a level of heat that is well short of sweating the majority of time. So you want to be almost a tiny bit chilled a majority of time if you stop moving. And everyone starting off should feel a tiny bit chilled.



Almost the perfect storm for me yesterday. Dehydrated from the day before and little sleep the night before. Too much to get done in real life so I could get away for the day. Sound familiar? Been nursing a bad knee for several a weeks and finally had another MRI done to make sure I wasn't risking bigger injuries and more down time. So I was tired from the chronic knee pain of the last couple of weeks and had been trying to ignore the massive doses of Ibuprofen which is what I needed to get healed up.



At the trail head there was a huge temperature inversion that we didn't recognize in the predawn start. We had gained 5000' and it was cold. Seemed reasonable.



So I bundled up. With all the wrong things happening in the last 48 hrs I didn't want to be cold and uncomfortable. Being tired, dehydrated and edgy from the knee pain I just didn't tolerate the cold well that morning. It should have been an alarm bell.



Couple of hrs later we were well out of the temperature inversion. It was above freezing now and we were in the sun. I was over heated, sweating and stripping clothes as we climbed higher in the glacier basin. 1/2 way into the walk I noticed 3/4 of my day's water bottle was already gone. That was a little shocking as I generally pay careful attention to how I go through my water. That was my first alarm bell to just how out of it I really was.



What I had brought for water would have just barely been enough if everything went perfectly and we summited in 4 maybe 5 hours. I'd be dehydrated but could easily suck it up till we got back to the car.



Then the final straw was it took a full 6 hrs of trail breaking just to get to our 1500' climb. We knew the game was over 3 hrs into the walk but pressed on anyway to at least see what we in such a hurry to get up. Time to make this one a "teachable moment".



Quick bottom line? I over dressed because I wanted to me more comfortable. Unnoticed, I drank my water quickly because I was dehydrated from the previous 24 hrs. I then over heated because I over dressed, carried more than I should have in gear and clothing and not enough water.



So now as I get even more dehydrated, I get cold feet from wet boots I sweated out from being too warm. Then I am getting cold again because I am dehydrated and physically tired and having to add layers I can't easily technical climb in. Things have gone down hill fast in 6hrs. But it all started 56 or 72 hours beforehand I just didn't recognise it.



Truth is I should have stayed home and gotten some rest and re-hydrated and waited a day or so before going out again.. I would have climbed faster and better if I had done so.



My thought is if you are physically incapable of "climbing cold" do yourself a favor and stay home. I let the weather and my desire to spend time with a buddy sway me. We all do it.



The better we can identify what goes wrong and why the easier it is to have a better trip next time.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Exquisite Beauty

Friday, September 24th - - Words cannot describe, nor photographs convey completely, the simplicity and incredible beauty of this place... Crater Lake National Park.





Monday, November 9, 2009

The Tree of Swirl


The Tree of Swirl, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Whoa! This picture must have been Photoshopped, right?! Wrong - it's all done in camera.

This photo actually shows a tree in my backyard. I got it by zooming in while simultaneous spinning the camera. Pretty cool, huh?

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Taking It Personally or Taking It in Stride?

When drivers behave rudely towards us, we tend to perceive them as being "hostile to cyclists". But what I wonder sometimes, is whether this is a fair assessment given how drivers behave to one another.



Consider that...

Drivers honk at each other all the time.

Drivers cut each other off.

Drivers roll down their windows and shout "learn how to drive, you moron!" at one another while making indecent hand gestures - even if they are the ones at fault.



Is driver behaviour towards cyclists really worse than their behaviour towards other drivers? And if not, should we just take it in stride, rather than taking it personally? One could make that argument.



Of course, the big difference between intimidating other drivers and intimidating cyclists, is that cyclists are considerably more vulnerable - something I am highly aware of when a driver plays "chicken" with me while turning left at full speed as I am trying to go straight through an intersection, on a green light. Bike lanes and protected bike paths do little if anything to solve this problem if there are no cyclist-specific lights at intersections. It is difficult to take things in stride when the competition is stacked against me both in terms of speed and in terms of safety. But I try to remember not to take it personally.

Pit Profile 2/14/



If you are heading to higher elevations, be aware that the top of the slope heading up to Panorama Point was icy on Saturday under a light layer of new snow that has now increased to a depth of about 6".

The current forecast is predicting almost a foot of snow at Paradise this weekend.

Waffles will be happening throughout the day on Monday February 20 in the Old Station at Paradise. Fuel your adventures. Again please bring your own cup/mug and a topping or fixings to donate.

In the Woods

We took our first trip to the Jemez Mountains last Thursday to start woodcutting for the winter. When we got there we had to sit in the truck and wait for a rain shower to pass before we could start cutting. After the rain I noticed this nice pine tree with lots of green moss on the left side and the log and rock at it's base to make a nice photo.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Unfinished Business at Chiricahua

Just in case you might not have noticed, I was fascinated with Chiricahua National Monument and its myriad stone formations. Having spent four days there in mid-March and going away without having attempted the longer trails, I “had” to return to complete them. Besides, it really is a nice place, one of my favorites thus far.

Except for that first day, the weather for the remainder of my second stay at Chiricahua couldn't have been better. Daytime temperatures were in the mid-70s and at night it didn't fall below 40. I had blue skies and sunshine for the next five days (April 24th through the 28th).

The Natural Bridge Trail, is 2.4 miles long. You return on the same trail you went out on, thus the round-trip is 4.8 miles. It takes you up through a canyon, down the other side, and around to another canyon. It is an up-and-down trail, relatively easy walking, with sand and rocks, but some level stretches also.

When you get into the other canyon you are taken through a forest of pine trees and then up a short distance on the canyon walls. The destination, the Natural Bridge, is somewhat underwhelming. It is quite a ways away across the canyon. Still, it is quite a nice hike. You get some good views of the desert floor below and other mountains in the distance as well as of many weird stone formations and the occasional desert flower.

These fellas greeted me as I walked to the trailhead of the Natural Bridge Trail. They really weren't all that friendly though, they didn't say a word as I walked by, just glared silently!

The desert and another range of mountains off in the distance. The trail went through the forest of trees to the left after descending into a second canyon.

Can you see the Natural Bridge? It's there in the middle, right below those clouds. Really.

Okay, here's a close-up view... it is still underwhelming.

Beautiful Cactus Flowers. The only ones I saw on the trail (or anywhere else in the park for that matter).

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Crevasse Falls

The past weekend went by without a hitch (no 911 calls) However, no one made the summit either. The recent climbing trend has involved crevasse falls. In the past two weeks, clients, guides, and rangers have all taken spills somewhere along the Ingraham Glacier Direct or upper Disappointment Cleaver route. No one was seriously injured, but the word on the glacier is that there a number of hidden or sketchy crevasses to cross high on the mountain. The latest report says that the wands have been removed from the Ingraham Glacier Direct, and the guided climbing teams are putting a route up the DC.

The other interesting trend that is being noticed is the number of skiers vs. the number of climbers. Over the past couple of years, I've seen an increase in the number of ski mountaineers on the hill in May and June. There have been quite a few weekends where we've actually seen more skiers than climbers at the high camps! It's no surprise that skiers and boarders flock to Rainier when the conditions are good (April/May/June) but to actually observe fewer climbers is interesting.

And with that said, ski demon Sky has been at it again. On the one day of really good weather last week (Friday), he and Dave Brown stormed the Success Couloirs and made short work of the route on skies. Not to be out done, Jason Hummel posted a sweet Fuhrer Finger trip report (a bit dated, but nice images). Photo by Dave Brown