Improved ice bouldering 12.13.11

Laura making the best out of the limited ice currently in the area

Laura and I decided to head out and see if the ice bouldering was still "in". The weather forecast isn't looking too promising for the next week, so we decided to get in what we could. Laura had spent the previous day on the Laurel highlands hiking trail in the vicinity of the ice bouldering with "Shifty" our Doxie want-a-be. He's a 30lb hiking machine that we found at Schoolhouse crag several years ago. Their favorable outing prompted us to take the short drive up the ridge and see if we could scratch around a little. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the ice flows grew a little since my last visit. This was Laura's first visit to our new ice training resource. We spent a few hours traversing the flows and rock getting a bit of a workout in. Laura took advantage of the plentiful sunshine basking and warming when necessary.

Is that a climber in distress? No, its just Laura basking.

Its a lot of fun and a great way to get a little training in. Well worth our time considering it was 45° in Pittsburgh today. We hiked back to the car in a plethora of sunshine and blue skies. A very enjoyable day for sure.

Plenty of training to be had. Lots of traversing on

limestonewith a little ice thrown in.

Hollow Rock Dreamscape

The final location for the night ended up being Hollow Rock Resort along the shores of Lake Superior. As I drove back down the Arrowhead Trail the sky was completely socked in with clouds and a thick fog covered the ground. I thought for sure these conditions would persist all the way home. As luck would have it, however, when I got back to Highway 61 along the Lake Superior shore the fog had lifted and there were some openings in the clouds. By the time I was driving by Hollow Rock the clouds were receding quickly and the sky was full of dancing northern lights. Of course I had to stop at Hollow Rock once I saw these conditions! This is the first time I have been able to photograph the aurora directly over the rock. Since the view here is more east/southeast than north you don't get very many opportunities to see the aurora from this angle. On this night, however, the sky was full of dancing lights and plenty of them were directly above Hollow Rock. This photo was made about 3:30 in the morning and was the last shot I made before heading home and crawling into bed. It sure ended up being a fantastic night!

The Estate of Jacob Switzer :: Amounts Paid to the Estate

There were three men (actually four, another has been found) with the name of Jacob Switzer who resided in Columbiana County, Ohio during the 1805-1860 time period. This estate file is for the Jacob Switzer who is my 4th great-grandfather and who married first Catherine Brinker (in 1811, the mother of his children) and second Leathy Bricker (in 1853). Jacob died on November 2, 1859.

To am't of Sale Bill To am't from Thomas McCoy & Sons on Note To am't from Barbary Manaweck on Note To am't from Daniel Deemer on Note To am't from Jacob Manaweck on Note To am't from Jacob Yarian on Note To am't from John Crowl on Note To am't from Samuel Switzer on Note To am't from Daniel Deemer on Note To am't from J. B. Preston on Note To am't from Daniel Deemer on Note To am't from Jacob Manaweck on Note To am't from Samuel Butz on Note To am't from Geo W. Axe on Note To am't from James Miller on Note To am't from Samuel Switzer on Note To am't from Henry & John Roose on Note To am't from Susan Seachrist on Note To am't from Ann Worman on Note [subtotal] In Interest secured on above notes Total Received	390.3039.14100.001000.00100.00100.0028.8055.00125.0068.00109.52100.00103.48933.2558.00600.00800.0018.008.004412.39481.03$4893.42

SST (That's Sorting, Scanning, Trashing!)

For the two weeks prior to my mother's 80th birthday much of my time was spent in removing the pictures from several of her albums, scanning those pictures and then putting them into archive albums for her. This resulted in approximately 575 scanned image files! I then selected the "best" and printed out perhaps 75 images for display at her open house. I'm very happy to say that the photo-montage was a big hit and well worth the time and effort.

With that project completed I (finally) began the task of sorting my own pictures that have been stored in three "shoeboxes" (not really, but photo storage boxes about the size of a shoebox) into chronological order. I'm trashing the out-of-focus, really bad shots, and giving away duplicates. I did get a good start on scanning some of those pictures the first part of this week but got sidetracked onto another project the latter part of the week.

On Monday and Tuesday I scanned nearly 350 images working about 12 hours total. These were all 3 1/2 x 5" pictures so I could put 5 photos on the scanner bed at once. Of course, I still scanned each one individually but the fact that there would be a series or group of pictures that had been taken at the same event helped to speed things up to where I could scan about 40-45 pictures per hour at times. I also discovered a neat feature of the scanner software that allows me to set a prefix for file names so that all the images from a group or series could automatically be given the designated prefix. Eventually I'll go back and add identifying information to each picture, once I figure out how it is done. The entire process is both fun and tedious. Yeah, right! No, really, it is! So I keep telling myself...

Of the three "shoeboxes" of pictures, half of one box has been scanned. I considered sending the pictures out for commercial scanning, particularly using the free offer at ScanMyPhotos.com that Apple used. The thing is though, after sorting and selecting the pictures to be sent out, there were only about 300 that were of the 4x6" size, which was what was required for the free offer.

While sorting the pictures into chronological order I realized that I had only had prints made of a few of the pictures from my trip through the western states that I took after getting out of the Navy. Those pictures were slides. Prints from slides were expensive back then, compared to the cost of prints from negatives. And I didn't have a job at the time. Anyway, now I'm trying to locate a slide scanning service here in the Midwest. There are lots of places on the west coast. Some that do the scanning onsite and others that send them off to India or some other country. Really, really don't want to send them overseas. And would prefer someplace closer than California.

I've got seven 3-ring binders that each have 500 or so slides in protective pages. That's 3500+ slides, and no, not all of them will be sent out for scanning! Selecting the slides to send out is problematic. I'm trying to figure out a way to jerry-rig a light box or possibly find someone who has a slide viewer. I did scan a test slide on my HP Scanner that has slide/negative scanning built into the lid. I don't have the time or patience to scan those at the rate it took to pre-scan and scan the test slide (several minutes). The scanner added an overall bluish tint to the slide as well. I was able to adjust the image after scanning to get a usable picture, but it took a lot of time to get it close to the original.

The "other" project that I got sidetracked on this week was sorting through the four HUGE boxes of mounted and framed photos that haven't seen the light of day since they were boxed up in 1996! These are mostly photos that were taken while working on my bachelor's degree from Indiana State University. As part of each assignment we had to mount our work "professionally" for presentation to the class. Needless to say the stack of matt board (nearly 4' high) was far more impressive than the photographs themselves. The majority of the photographs were saved though and the matt board went to the recycling center today.

My plan now is to continue scanning the pictures in the shoeboxes, several hours a day, with a goal of completion by June 30th. (I'm setting a goal hoping it will keep me on track and motivated.) Devise a method for selecting the slides to be sent out for scanning; get them selected and sent out as soon as possible. And there are still all those boxes in the garage that need going through! And all those ancestral genea-documents to be scanned. And, well, lots of other things too.

What I've found while doing all this sorting, scanning, and trashing is that it is difficult to wrap my mind around the task of writing. I've stated before, I'm a slow writer, it takes time for me to put together a decent post. I guess the muse has left the building. As a result, posting has been sluggish. Most posts lately have consisted of recently scanned photographs. They don't take much thought, and are somewhat entertaining. Hopefully my few faithful readers will still be around when the muse returns and I get back to writing and, also hopefully, you will be interested in whatever it is I have to say. In the meantime, I hope y'all enjoy the pictures!

Somewhere along the Oregon coast, June 1979.

Wordless Wednesday :: Another Rainy Day

Mother Nature seems to be alternating between two days of gray, gloomy, rainy days then two days of beautiful blue skies and sunshine, etc., etc. You learn to take advantage of the “good” days!

Joslin Rendezvous :: The Homestead

If you had been a young man eager to begin a new life back in the early 1900s and you saw something like this photo below, would you have invested several years of your life trying to make a go of it?





South of Murdo in Mellette County, South Dakota

Twenty-five year old Virgil Newton Joslin did just that in 1916. Tired of working for other men he was determined to have a place of his own. He took up homesteading in west-central Mellette County, South Dakota, almost on the eastern edge of The Badlands. His first abode on the homestead was a dugout in the side of a hill. About the same time or shortly thereafter, his parents Luther and Phoebe (Elliott) Joslin joined him on the homestead. Two years later Virgil married Mary Matilda Hutcheson and he built what he called a “tar paper shack.” It was 12x16 feet, constructed of boards and covered in tar paper that was normally used for covering a roof before the shingles are put down.



Soon a son, Irwin, was born. In 1922, the tar paper shack was replaced by the beginnings of a “real” house - a concrete basement. A few years later a daughter was added to the family and then two more sons – Ruth, Jim, and George were all born in the nearest "large" town, White River.



A barn was built. A dam was constructed across a stream and a pond was dug. Virgil and Mary worked hard on their homestead. His parents helped as much as they could. Virgil still had to work for other men to help feed his growing family.



The dream house was never built. The family was caught up in the wrath of Mother Nature. It started with a prolonged drought. Irwin tells about the conditions in the early 1930s in his memoirs:

“For two or three years there was not enough rainfall to produce crops. Then the wind, which always blows in South Dakota, began picking up the dirt from the dry fields and we had dust storms. They might not have been as bad as in the Oklahoma dust bowl, but I recall them lasting for 2-3 days and the fine dust was everywhere...It literally blew all the dirt out of the fields as deep as it had been plowed.”

“In addition to the drought, depression and dust storms we had plagues of insects. Beetles overran the place once and ate anything green that was growing. Another year it was grasshoppers – the big kind that fly. They were so thick that, at times, when they flew over they made a shade like a cloud. they ate everything – even the dried bark off fence posts that had been in the ground for years. They also ate pitch fork handles because of the salty taste of perspiration from our hands.”

“During these times my father did as everyone else did, and kept borrowing money from the local bank and giving livestock and farm implements as collateral. The taxes on the land couldn't be paid in these years either. Everyone hoped for a better year – next year. but it came too late for most of them – their resources ended. My father finally had to just turn it all over to the banker and let the land go back for unpaid taxes. Then we left the homestead.”

In 1928, Luther and Phoebe Joslin had moved to Missouri where a daughter lived. Virgil and his family remained on the homestead until sometime in 1934 when they moved to Martin, South Dakota. A Sheriff's sale held at the homestead in May 1936 raised $2219.31 all of which went to the state. Soon thereafter, Virgil and Mary and the four children moved to Turkey Ridge, Pulaski County, Missouri not far from where his sister and parents lived.



In October 1986, 50 years after the family left Mellette County, South Dakota the four children of Virgil Joslin “revisited” their homestead. Over the years they returned several more times. George and his wife Lorene made a visit there in September of last year and learned that Mellette County was going to have its Centennial Celebration this year. Descendants of the early homesteaders were invited to return. George and Jim began planning the trip and invited me to join them. I'd heard so much about “The Homestead” that I just had to see it for myself!





I was standing a ways south of where the basement house was located, looking to the north. George was trying to determine where the barn had been – he's standing a little right of the center of the photo.





Hardly a trace of the buildings remain – just a few pieces of concrete where the basement house was dug out. Fred is walking down into the hole where the basement was. It is partially filled with debris and junk. When they were here in 1991, they could still see the square walls of the basement, which have begun to cave in.





Looking to the west from the location of the house.



The pond that Virgil dug out. It lies to the north of the house, below the hill.



The view to the East.



And, looking toward the south.

I was quite surprised to see so much green grass, especially this late in the summer, but it has been an unusually wet summer in South Dakota this year, unlike some areas of the country that are experiencing a prolonged drought. It does look inviting. Coming from a land with an abundance of trees and lakes and streams, I enjoy visiting these “desolate looking” places but I would find it difficult to live here. The folks that do have my admiration even if I do think they are a bit crazy!





The Joslin Clan – standing - Richard (descendant of Luther's daughter Phoebe), Me (descendant of Luther's sister Malissa), Tim (son of George), Babs (daughter of Irwin), Joann (daughter of Ruth), Fred (husband of Sue), Sue (daughter of Ruth). Seated are George, Ruth and Jim (children of Virgil). Irwin passed away in 1990. Ten people came from six states: Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri and Virginia!



Photographs taken August 20th and 21st.



Update August 30, ..: Sue has additional photos of the visit to White River on her blog. Also, see her post The Homestead Tour.

Peak of the Season

Snow on most approaches has started to consolidate with the melt/freeze cycles we've been having. This makes boot-packing to the routes much more feasible. All of the roads in the park, except the Mowich Lake Road, are open to cars. The road crews hope to have Mowich Lake open by the end of July - there's still seven feet of snow at the lake!

At Camp Muir there are now three gallon and five gallon buckets with lids for food storage. The buckets are kept in the Public Shelter for anybody to use. After use, please return the buckets, cleaned out, to the Public Shelter. Hopefully, use of these buckets for food storage while you are climbing or sleeping will help deter foxes from becoming habituated.

Other peaks within the park have been seeing some climbing activity too. Pinnacle Peak, Castle Peak, Little Tahoma, and Pyramid Peak saw ascents this last week. Climbing in the park is about to peak, and stay popular for the next couple of weeks. Statistically, climbers have the best chance of success in July.

Sun-cups are growing larger and the grit is melting out making skiing conditions more challenging. Skiers descended the Wilson Headwall, Fuhrer Finger, Disappointment Cleaver, and Emmons/Winthrop, but all of them reported conditions are worsening - so get up here quick while there's still pleasant turns to be had!

Death Valley :: Desert Flowers #1

Ziva's Help

Long Tail Tales

While I neither own a cargo bike nor intend to own one any time soon, I love the the idea of them and like to live vicariously through those who have them by asking about their experiences. The cargo bike owners/shoppers I talk to are mostly North Americans and I notice that overall they are opting for long-tail bicycles over front-load box bikes. In large part this is because these cyclists tend to live in hilly, bike-unfriendly suburbs that do not lend themselves to the comfortable but unwieldy box bikes. Long-tails, on the other hand, are said to handle with the maneuverability and responsiveness of regular bikes, while allowing room for extra cargo in the extended rear. At Interbike this year there were long tails from all manner of manufacturers, roughly half of them, it seemed, touting electric assist. But rather than feature every random concoction, I will focus on some trusted manufacturers that have come out with updates and new designs.





Yuba had its new "midtail cruiser" on display, the Boda Boda. Named after African bicycle taxis, this model was created in response to requests for a slightly shorter wheelbase and a lower stepover. Featuring 26" wheels, fat tires, swept-back handlebars and derailleur gearing, the aluminum-frame bike weighs 35lbs, is rated to carry over 200lb, and retails for $1,000.





The Boda Boda is described as comfortable, in that it "rides like a European townie bike – upright and casual," yet "will get you there and back, even in hilly San Francisco." Studying this bike I admit skepticism regarding that last part, but I am willing to keep an open mind and will gladly test ride a Boda Boda if the opportunity presents itself. As I stood next to the bike, a couple of women came along and talked at length about how delighted they were with the lower step-over; the bike looked friendlier and more accessible, they said.





The original Mundo model was on display as well, fitted with Yuba's frame-mounted Bread Platform front rack (rated for 40-50lb). Though I rode a Yuba Mundo a couple of years ago, the short ride did not leave me with an impression I can now recollect, so I would like to try again. Owners overall seem very pleased with this bike and describe the handling as speedy.






Between the Mundo, the Boda Boda and the various accessories available with the bikes, Yuba offers a range of choices at comparatively reasonable prices. I loved seeing this enormous suitcase strapped to the side of a Mundo with the help of Rok Straps. Who says you have to compromise on luggage when traveling by bike?






Xtracycle, the company that originally introduced the long tail concept, exhibited a range of bikes and accessories that practically turned their booth into theme park. Xtracycle makes two main categories of products: the Free Radical, which is a bike extender kit that can turn almost any normal bike into a long tail, and the Radish, which is its own line of integrated longtail bikes. The big news at Interbike was that Xtracycle will now be releasing a new bicycle model to supplement the Radish line - the EdgeRunner. This bike will have a mixte-ish, unisex frame and you can see most of it up there on the shelf in bright blue. Unfortunately, I dropped the ball on this one and have no decent pictures that show the entire bike. Mea culpa, and I hope you can imagine the last, long tail bit of it...






...which looks just like this. This is a taupe version of the same model, and yes I only have pictures of the rear! What you see attached to the bike is Xtracycle's new folding side caraccessory.






The cargo platform is fairly light, easy to install (onto an existing Xtracycle system), is rated to carry 200lbs of weight, and folds up when not in use. It looks very cool, though I do wonder how the bike handles on turns with the sidecar addition. Unlike most sidecars, this one pivots - but I imagine not so much when loaded with 200lb.






There were other prototype add-ons on display, like this slatted rear box that can be used for both cargo and small passenger transport. And yes, this is yet another incomplete shot of the new Xtracycles bike - this time in a gunmetal finish.





Also on display was a spruced up step-through Radish (there used to also be a diamond frame version, but I think they've done away with it?), in a new sunflower-yellow colour with matching stem. The steel Xtracyces are heavier that the Yuba bikes (40lb for the Radish), but are rated to carry more weight (350lb).





This yellow Radish was fitted with a prototype Party Deck platform that includes built-in speakers and a beer keg stand.






It's funny to observe how aesthetics can affect a bike's curb appeal. The yellow Radish is much more striking than the original beige/brown versionand people flocked to it.






Visitors took turns hopping in the saddle, and I confess to riding it down the back hallway until a security guard gave me a look. I'd been wanting to try a Radish for some time, but the local bike shops do not carry them - so I talked to the Xtracycle fellows and they'll try to work something out. Based on my brief exposure to it, I really like this bike and would love to try it out on the road. Maybe even with a sidecar...





But the pièce de résistance of the long tail displays at Interbike was the collaboration between Xtracycles and Tern. Yes, that is a folding long tail you are looking at: the Tern Joe with an Xtracycle Free Radical rear extension. And yes, I rode it very briefly - but I can't really get a sense of a bike like this within the confines of a trade show. I am hoping a proper test ride will be possible in the near future.





The result of the Xtracycles and Tern collaboration is the Cargo Joe: a 26" wheel folding longtail with an aluminum frame, hi-ten steel fork, and derailleur gearing, available in 3 sizes. Here is a blog post from Xtracycles showing it loaded up with a bunch of weight.





The simple fold takes about 30 seconds, with the frame unhinging in the middle.






The folding bike then rests on the floor via a kickstand-type contraption under the bottom bracket.





The retail price $1,000 for everything shown here, including the waterproof bags. Adding fenders and lights will increase the cost, but even with that taken into account it seems like a great value. As an owner of a Brompton that I often use as a mini-cargo bike, I can attest that having a bike that hauls weight and stows away compactly is invaluable for someone who lives in a small space, eliminating the problem of storing an enormous cargo bike. And while the Cargo Joe's fold is not minuscule, it nonetheless allows for easy storage, as well as for being taken on trains and in cars. The possibilities are pretty amazing, especially for those who do not own a car.






As far as overall trends for long tail cargo bikes, the main ones I noticed were lower step-over heights and a move toward greater compactness. If this reflects the nature of the customers who are buying the bikes, my guess is that there has been demand from more women, more apartment dwellers, and more multi-modal commuters. I am excited by the possibilities I am seeing with these bikes, and look forward to following the development of long tail designs in the years ahead.

Canyon View

Canyon View, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Looking down the canyon in Las Trampas. I have never seen as much water flowing as there was on Monday. With the rain we had yesterday, the falls will probably be gushing even more.

A New Season

The trees were just starting to bud a few days before I made this image and I was hoping, as I have for the past few years, that I would be able to find an image that would convey the beginning of green-up in the northwoods. The tree is a Mountain Maple, also sometimes referred to as Moose Maple. I found this composition while spending the morning watching a Ruffed Grouse perform his spring drumming ritual. In between drumming sessions the Grouse had walked off into the woods and while waiting for him to return I was looking around at the surroundings for possible images when I spotted this new little leaf poking out from the notch in the Maple. I trained my 100-400mm lens on the leaf and made this image.

Plant Life at White Sands

I was amazed at the variety of plants and vegetation that survive in the dunes of White Sands National Monument. The dunes are constantly on the move, engulfing everything in their path and then slowly uncovering them again. Certain plants have adapted to the environment and manage to survive a little longer – as the sand covers them they grow taller, but when the dune moves on and leaves them exposed they can no longer support their tall growth and then they crumble and die. These are but a few of the plants I saw...



















There was seldom an expanse of the dunes (close to the road) where there were no human footprints. I walked as far as my legs would take me before the knee began hurting and then turned back. There were other footprints in the sand besides those of us humans - - these prints descended the high dune to the ground about 30 feet below and at a very steep angle! Was it a kit fox? They have adapted to the environment by being very small, no more than 5 pounds. They seldom show themselves during the daylight hours.





All photos were taken on Friday, January 6th, ...