Umbrella Magnolia blossom just opening up
(5/1-31/00, updated 6/2)
(pictures and text are unedited)
5/1/00 I had to get up well before daylight to re-write part of the hiking club newsletter that I had stayed up until midnight writing last night - just needed a little tweaking. Then I had to rush into town to get it to the printers. Since it had rained some during the night, and it was cloudy, I was not happy about having to leave the wilderness behind and head into town, but I had to get the newsletter printed and mailed out this week so I to get with it.
Good thing that I went into town - got a flat tire on my way out, and no telling where it would have happened if I had been out taking pictures.
But I was in a hurry to get out of town and back into the woods since the light was perfect and we had a bit of water during the night. I ended up returning to one of the waterfalls that Ray and I had tried to photograph last week. While there was plenty of water in the mud holes, the waterfall was actually lower than it had been last week - the ground is so dry that most every bit of the rain soaked right into the ground in stead of running off. No matter, there was this wonderful umbrella magnolia tree right in front of the waterfall, and it was just beginning to bloom, so I shot a picture or two, just as the sun popped out. I will return to this spot once again, perhaps next week, once the blooms are open fully.
As we were hiking up out of one waterfall and headed towards a second one, I heard a loud commotion up to my right. I turned just in time to see Aspen the superdog taking a giant leap towards manhood. He had jumped about five feet up in the air, and grabbed a hold of a big fat hen turkey that was taking off flying. Son of a gun, he caught her by her feet. He looked so darn funny up there in the air ahold of this giant bird.
They both plummeted to the ground immediately, and the hen returned quickly to the sky to make good on her escape (I can just see that bird right now flying away with Aspen hanging below). Aspen was stunned, but recovered in a hurry and tore off through the woods pursuing her shadow. Hum, Aspen actually CATCHING a wild turkey? Something was amiss. And I knew what it was. I walked on over and found a full dozen fresh turkey eggs in a neat little nest on the forest floor.
I was a bit surprise to find this nest right out in the open woods where any snake or fox or wandering dog could have an easy lunch, but I guess that is just where they lay their eggs. And the nest itself really wasn't - just a depression in the leaves. The eggs were about twice the size of chicken eggs, natural colored and speckled, and stained here and there. I was careful not to touch any of them, or disturb the nest in any way. I took a couple of pictures, then moved on. If not for Aspen, I would have walked within twenty feet of this hen without ever seeing her.
I wanted to go down below the lower falls and take a look at some ferns down there, so we picked our way down a steep slope and around the end of the tall bluffline, then bushwhacked along the base of the big bluff until we got to the waterfall.
WOW, there were tons of ferns under the overhand that the falls was spilling over, and they were this most incredible color of bright green. I spent the next two hours trying to get a good picture of the ferns and the waterfall. The sun kept popping out, which wasn't a bit problem since most of the ferns were under the ledge, but there was one corner of my scene that was lit up, so I couldn't shoot with the sun out. And not only was there a breeze blowing most of the time - ferns most with the slightest breeze - but the waterfall itself was creating wind that blew many of the ferns around constantly. This just may be one of those terrific natural scenes that just can't be photographed.
But I tried anyway - a few clouds drifted by and the wind stopped a bit - and I will just have to wait and see the processed film to find out if I got anything.
Lots of blue sky and wind now, so it looked liked like the rest of the day would be a wash. So I took the opportunity to continue my hike on down deeper into the wilderness. I got back onto an old logging road and followed it down a VERY steep slope - can't imagine a vehicle or any kind, horse drawn or motorized, coming up this slope. Deeper and deeper we went. I swear the color of the forest got darker, the underbrush thicker, and even the birds sounded different. We were really down in a jungle spot!
Couldn't find anything much to photograph down there, but we did get splash around in the creek a bit before heading back up the steep slope.
It was a tough climb out, but one that I kind of enjoyed - leaning into the hill and working those leg muscles feels pretty good sometimes. It was great to see the car though, at least until I got right up next to it. Another flat tire!!! Same one. The tire place must not have fixed it very well, because it was very flat once again.
No problem getting the tire switched out, but now I had a wounded car with one of those silly donut spares. And I had some serious four-wheel driving to do to get back to the main dirt road, including going through one pretty deep mud hole. But the old truck plowed right on through with no complaints.
I probably didn't get any good pictures, but it was a great trip down into a wonderful scenic area. And Aspen got a little tail.
The wind continued to blow, so I returned to the cabin and had a bite to eat. In all of my rushing around this past week or two I have failed to restock my shelves or frige - it is looking bleak out here. But after raiding Bob's garden yesterday I still had a mess of green onions, so I cooked them up with a pile of rice, and covered it all with some shredded cheddar.
The setting sun cast a wondrous yellow light across the wilderness. Butterflies drifted by in pairs. And a whip-poor-will sang out. It was a good day.
5/2/00 Today is my 25th anniversary! It was in 1975 when I was a sophomore at the University of Arkansas, all of nineteen years old, that I began my photography business - Photographs Unlimited. I started out shooting wildlife pictures - I would go out with 50 or 75 sorority girls for the evening drinking and photograph whatever went on and then sell the prints to them. Soon I was shooting baseball team photos, then graduations, and before long, I took on a partner, hired a secretary and darkroom assistant and a commercial photographer and opened up a regular full-time business. At one time we had nearly thirty part-time photographers on staff. It all was a lot of fun, but exhaustive, and I drank way too much. Lots of money though. I sold the business in 1980 to head into the woods, where I have been ever since.
So I decided to celebrate my anniversary by going out and shooting pictures. Actually I wanted to go back and photograph that yellow lady-slipper orchid that I had shot last week - the light wasn't quite right, but it was foggy and a little overcast this morning, so I drove on over that direction and hiked in and set up my shot. By the time I got there, the clouds were breaking up and the wind was blowing, so I had to sit around and wait a bit.
While I was waiting, Aspen was busy playing in the forest nearby. He let out a loud yelp, so I wandered on over to see what he was up to. He was trying to get into a hollow log, but the opening was too small for him to get anything but his head into. I got him out of the way and peered into the long log. Sitting quietly right in the middle of the eight-foot long log was a little bunny. It was driving Aspen nuts.
When I first began my photography business 25 years ago, I did so partly to get out of going to class. I hated school, wasn't any good at it, and felt like I was wasting my money (most of my "professors" were just grad students that were teaching out of a book - heck, I could read a stupid book, and do it for free). I continued in school for another year, but didn't learn much. Now I attend school nearly every day - gladly - and learn all the time. You see I now go to the University of the Wilderness. I believe that little bunny, who had successfully evaded Aspen, has been going to the same school.
The wind finally died down some and a few clouds came by and I got my orchid shot. Later in the day I had the film processed, and it turned out better than the last one, so I will use it in the book.
5/3/00 For the third morning in a row there was heavy fog around the cabin. I guess May is a real "cloudland" out here. And it had rained a little during the night - about two tenths of an inch. It was really damp out - just the way I like it - so I quickly packed up the truck and headed out for a day of shooting.
I wanted to hike into one of my favorite areas - Bowers Hollow - and check on the umbrella magnolias and the big waterfall there. Within a few feet of the truck I was soaked from head to toe - not from rain, but from the wetness in the bushes and limbs along the trail. Well, actually there is no trail - the Forest Service won't recognize this as a trail, even though it is used a great deal by hikers all year long. It is an old log road which has grown up and nearly closed itself off - really could use a bit of maintenance.
I dropped on down into the valley where the big waterfall is and found the magnolia trees blooming like crazy. The falls themselves were not running much though. There were some nice azalea bushes in bloom along the edge, and I set up and made a shot with them. While doing so I spotted this little white moth on one of the blooms, then became obsessed with getting a picture of it.
Just when I put the macro lens on for the moth, the sky opened up and it began to rain. I wasn't going to let that stop me, so I pulled out my umbrella and kept right on shooting. Aspen was soaked as well, but it didn't seem to bother him much. At least until the rains came down. Then he huddled under the umbrella with the camera. I just stood there in the rain - I was soaked anyway and it was warm so it really didn't matter.
The rains let up and I shot another picture of the sea of magnolia blossoms in this little valley - very impressive! The Ozarks really are somewhat of a sub-tropical paradise. I just wish it would rain more!
Since the waterfalls weren't running very well, I decided to hike out and go elsewhere. Also one of my tripod legs came apart, and an important bolt was lost, so I had to return to the cabin for repair.
The next leg of the day was a trip back towards Richland Creek Wilderness - another favorite location of mine. Along the way I stopped and photographed Falling Water Falls. This is one neat little waterfall that is located right next to the road, so anyone can view it.
Richland Wilderness would still get my vote as the most scenic place in Arkansas, although nearly tied with Indian Creek over on the Buffalo. There is just something magical about Richland, and it sucks me in every time.
Within minutes of arriving I found the scene that I was looking for - lots of whitewater weaving back and forth through a field of smooth boulders, with the creek winding off through the forest in the background. I had to wade out into the middle of the river and climb up onto a large boulder to get the scene, but it was the perfect shot.
In my excitement I dropped a very expensive polarizing filter - it bounced off of the rocks below and into the river. Oops. There goes $450. I climbed on down and took a little swim but came up with the filter. I was stunned to find that it only had two tiny nicks - the glass was not cracked or broken at all. I very carefully dried it off, cleaned it, and put in on my lens.
They sky remained cloudy all day with no additional rain - perfect shooting conditions. I waded on up the river and found several more scenes, including one of a group of Virginia creeper that was growing in a cross pattern on top of a lichen-covered boulder. A lot of folks think that Virginia creeper is poison ivy or oak, but it is harmless and has a nice leaf pattern. I seem to be shooting a lot of leaf pattern shots this spring. Don't know how I am going to edit them for the book - I want to include ALL of them, but that would be a bit much.
I took another serious tumble while looking around for pictures later in the afternoon. Fortunately I was not wearing my camera backpack. I always feel a little silly when my feet slip out from under me and I go down so quickly - good thing no one was watching!
The last shot of the day was another stream shot where I had to climb up on top of a large boulder - the streambed of Richland is filled with these giant boulders, which is part of the magic of the place. Aspen was plum tuckered after a long day of running around, so he found himself a dry spot and took a nap.
It was another splendid day in the wilderness!
5/4/00 More fog this morning, but the sun broke through quickly and burned it all off. Supposed to be rain on and off today. I am stuck in the office all morning, but plan to get out this afternoon and shoot some. What I need most right now is waterfall pictures, and the waterfalls are not running very well. Seems to be a lot more water down in the Ouachitas, but there aren't many waterfalls down there to shoot. We need to tilt the state a bit and let some of that water run up into the Ozarks.
5/5/00 Today found me driving through rainstorms headed down into the delta for a couple days of shooting and R & R. After checking into the haunted room at the Magnolia Hill B&B (a wonderful old Victorian house in Helena), I took off for the White River National Wildlife Refuge (lots of swamps) while my lady friend Lula spent he afternoon doing interviews for a story that she is writing about the Delta Cultural Center there in Helena.
I'm not much of a swamp person, and you really can't do too well on land without a boat, but I did get some good information and found one terrific photo spot after a couple of hours of looking around. I do love those cypress swamps, but they are really difficult to photograph. This spot that I found was actually a DRY cypress swamp, and it was filled with giant cypress trees, most with very interesting shapes. Some of the bases of the trees were 8-10 feet across, and since it was dry, I could wander around all I wanted and get up close and personal with them.
As usual the light was no good, although I did get one scene recorded on film. It would be a terrific place with heavy fog, so I decided to return the next morning and see if I could get some.
Back in Helena with Lula, after eating the most PERFECT eggplant that I have ever tasted, we went across the bridge to spend a few bucks in the casino in Mississippi. I am not a big gambling person, but I do love to hold fistfuls of dollar coins (well OK, tokens), and play the blackjack or poker machines. And while Lula goes to a weekly poker game in her town, she hadn't really hung out in a casino before. They are great places to people watch for sure.
We spent a couple of hours feeding the machines and having a great time. The new poker machines give you the chance to win a lot of money frequently with just a small bet (by doubling up your winnings over and over again). We were way up, way down, up, up again, then down again. It was all great entertainment, which is why I was there.
Then we hit a bad streak, and both of us got real cocky, and the machines ate just about everything we had allotted for the evening. My stash was gone, so I sat next to Lula and watched her put the last two dollars in the machine. She hit the "deal" button and we both got up to head out the door, happy with a great evening of fun. One last glance just to make sure that we had indeed lost the hand, and FOUR ACES rolled up!!! She won so much money that the attendant had to come pay her off. And no kidding - it really was the very LAST dollar that we came to play with!
Now we really felt cocky, and continued to play for a while longer. Fortunately, I did have a very early wake-up call, so we called it quits around midnight, and low and behold we had actually won MORE in that last hour of play!
5/6/00 By the time I was awake I had already driven about an hour, and it was almost daylight. The old road back into my little scenic spot was covered with water in several places - it had rained a bit during the night. When I finally arrived I found no fog. I guess this area is so used to rain that fog does not build up the next morning like it does up at Cloudland.
It was still a good scene without the fog, so I got out and spent an hour or so shooting. Within minutes though I was nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes. I had to return to the truck and put on long pants and shirt.
I arrived back at the B&B just in time for a fancy breakfast with Lula. After a tour around town that included the grand re-opening of the Delta Cultural Center, we headed north and spent some time hiking the Bear Creek Trail near Marianna. I had built this trail back in 1981, and this was my first visit since.
It is a wonderful little trail (less than a mile long) that winds through giant trees and past big grape vines and ferns and all kinds of stuff - it was very lush. Lots of tulip poplar trees in bloom along the way. This is one weird tree, and they only grow wild in Arkansas in this part of the state. I had seen and photographed them in the Smokies before, but never in Arkansas.
We returned to Helena for a special treat in the afternoon - a performance by Levon Helm (founder of The Band and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) and his band that included his daughter Amy. It was just a tiny crowd - probably only a couple hundred folks - but the rain had stopped and it was great to get to be so close to this legend. I would loved to have had a real camera with me instead of just the digital snapshot camera, but I had no idea that I would be standing only feet away from Mr. Helms.
Nightime found us back at the casinos, feeding the machines and having a great time. And then another night in the haunted room of the B&B. There have been a number of "incidents" at this B&B, many of them happening in our very room, but our nights were mostly un-haunted and restful.
5/7/00 After another great breakfast we turned the truck north and bid farewell to the delta. The sun had come out and it was getting very hot and humid.
Later I picked up Aspen, who had been staying at my mom's house, and we drove over to try to photograph this neat waterfall that I had been waiting for high water to shoot pictures off. It had rained quite a bit up here in the Ozarks over the weekend, so I was anxious to get to this waterfall.
I had only visited the falls once, during the winter, and had never shot any pictures of it. Dogs are not allowed on the property of the place where I had accessed the falls before, so we had to park in a different area and bushwhack in through unfamiliar territory. Somebody forgot to bring a map.
An hour later the lack of a map proved to be a problem. And the country looked completely different than it did in the winter. I wasn't exactly lost, but I had no idea where I was, and more importantly where the waterfall was. But I was close, I thought.
So I put on my explorer face and sniffed my way around until I finally came to a spot that I did recognize. Knowing that I would be bushwhacking through thick brush, I had worn long pants, which was a really good idea - there were places where I nearly had to get down on all fours to get through!
OK, I was on the right track, and getting close. Finally, I would get to shoot this waterfall that I had been waiting five years to shoot. And then all of a sudden I was standing right at the base of one of the most interesting waterfalls in the Ozarks.
Two things hit me. First, the waterfall was bone dry - not a single drop coming over it. The water table had been so low that even several days of heavy rains had no effect on the water flow, or the lack of it. I was really disappointed. But my attention soon shifted to my pants. I looked down and discovered that the front of my pants was covered with TICKS! Must have been 60-70 of them, all sizes and moving in all directions. They had already begun to penetrate under my clothes as well.
Within a few seconds I was standing there under the dry waterfall with my clothes off picking ticks. I was not amused. I had followed a horse trail part way to get to the falls, and horse trails happen to be terrific breading grounds for ticks. It took me nearly fifteen minutes to get the bulk of them off of me and my clothes. Yikes - that was more ticks than the rest of the year combined!
During the hike out I made sure to check my pants every few minutes for little dark spots moving around. The only time that I was bombarded with ticks again was while I was traveling along the horse trail. I should have stuck to the creek.
Part of this route takes you directly underneath a great blue heron rookery. Aspen noticed them first, or at least he heard them first. These giant birds make a very strange and deep noise that is very un-bird like. You stop and search for the sound, and finally discover many nests high up in the towering trees overhead. You don't want to hang around under these nests for very long if you know what I mean.
The hike out was hot and sweaty, but no more ticks. And for I think the very first time, Aspen appeared to be a bit tuckered out. He would run ahead a hundred feet and lay down, wait for me to approach, then get up and run ahead and lay down again. I don't think he likes this hot and humid weather. Me either.
It was dark when we arrived back at Cloudland. It had rained about an inch over the weekend, with very high winds. Seems like there was a big party out on the mountain too - Bob's cabin and bunk house were filled with guests all weekend, a group from the TakeAHik hiking club in Russellville had taken over my cabin to escape the rains, and lots of other folks had come and gone as well, leaving notes and packages.
5/8/00 I got up early to enjoy the pre-dawn light show - lots of puffy clouds painted yellow and gold and moving around in the high winds. No power at either the cabin or the office, but it was back on again by 8am. We have a pretty good electric co-op out here that responds quickly to outages. When I called this one in before 7am, they told me a neighbor had already done so an hour earlier and their crew was on the way.
Very HEAVY winds all morning, and mostly blue sky. A good time for me to get some much-needed office work done, including answering 63 e-mails that had piled up over the weekend.
While the wind continued to blow hard all day, and the sun drove the temps up into the 80's, I decided to have a go at a big patch of wild azalea that was supposed to be in bloom on the hillside overlooking Jasper. I had been there ten or fifteen years ago and they were quite stunning, but when I reached them today there weren't very many in bloom. Seems like the area that was solid with lush blooms had now grown up with lots of other types of vegetation. Perhaps it is not a very good year for wild azalea, or still too early. I will continue my search for them this week and next.
There was this one shot that I wanted to take that required a lot of water and afternoon sunshine, so I drove on over to another trailhead and hiked into the waterfall spot. The water was running pretty good, and the sun was curving to the north and dropping low in the sky. But the shot that I had envisioned a couple of weeks ago before the leaves were on did not look too good today - the leafed-out trees obscured the sunshine from hitting the waterfall. I had found this spot where I could get behind the waterfall and shoot the sun beaming through the water. Hoping that the sun might still come through at some point, I decided to wait around for a while.
In the meantime, I found this neat little scene of a moss-covered rock in the middle of a small set of rapids in the creek, all lit up with green light reflecting through the lush vegetation. I went back under the waterfall and got my camera gear and set up and shot the moss and water scene.
As I was finishing up my first roll of the green water, I happened to look around and saw that the sun was now hitting the waterfall at just the right spot. I packed up my gear and scrambled back to the waterfall - the light would not last for long.
I was able to set up my equipment and shoot the sun coming through the pouring water. It looked great through the viewfinder, but you never know with these kinds of pictures if it will turn out that way or not.
While I was sitting in the mud with blood dripping from fresh wounds acquired during my crawl back into the photo position behind the waterfall, and right after I hit my head on the sharp rock ledge just above, very cold water began to drip down my back. Yikes that was cold!
I had no choice but to remain where I was as I fired off 32 shots of the waterfall. I got to thinking that there must be a better way for me to make money. But then I realized that I was not there to make money, and in fact my new picture book may never make me any money. I was there because I had to be. Every now and then I get into this mode of being driven, needing to photograph the natural world and produce as many stunning images and I could. Not just to put them in books or to hang on the wall. But for others to see, to marvel at, to view with awe and joy, and to give the viewer some sense of appreciation for wild things, so that one day, perhaps that very same viewer will make a conscious decision to save something wild - a tree perhaps - or to cast a vote to protect a neighborhood park. That is why I take pictures.
5/9/00 A grey, wet day outside - the PERFECT day for me! I scrambled to get all of my ducks in a row and loaded into the truck. I had been waiting for a nice rainy day for a long while and now I had to make the most of it. A dozen locations raced through my head as I drove towards the main road, but which one would I head for? It was a tough decision, but when I reached the main road the truck turned to the left, then to the left again at the next intersection, then another left, and finally one last left (can you tell that I am left handed?).
We came to rest at the trailhead that leads into Hawk Hollow, one of my favorite places in the world. It had begun to rain pretty good, and we sat in the truck to see what was going to happen. Then I realized that I was going to be completely soaked from head to toe no matter if it was raining or not (from the thick brush along the primitive trail), so I just decided to suit up and head out.
The rain continued, but at sort of a medium pace. There weren't all that many wildflowers out yet, but there was a solid cover of wild roses - they were EVERYWHERE! I have seen these in the past but never really paid any attention to them. Until today - I had no choice. They were simply gorgeous, and the air was filled with this incredible fragrance. Since the wind was blowing I didn't stop to take any pictures, but did make a mental note about this one particular bush that had colored blooms - most are white. I would find it on the way back and hope for calmer winds.
The hike in took about an hour, and I was indeed soaked inside and out - so much for Gore-Tex (I had on a rain jacket, rain pants, waterproof boots and gaiters - all Gore-Tex, all supposed to keep the water out. This stuff works OK, but when it is raining, and you are hiking and producing heat, the product simply does not work - I don't care what they say about it. Never has. But it works better than anything else, which is why I continue to use it.).
I decided to bypass the one giant waterfall that was off the trail a bit and go visit Hawk Hollow proper where I knew there would be many waterfalls. Hawk Hollow is not an official name - there is none - but is the name that I have heard it referred to most often.
As I split off the main trail and headed on down towards the little hollow, an azalea bush beside the trail jumped out at me like a bright neon billboard - the color was just amazing! This was a sign of things to come, because not only are there lots of waterfalls in Hawk Hollow, but it is home to the best patch of wild azalea that I know of, and it looked like they would be in full bloom. My pace quickened.
Two great waterfalls. Then another. And another. While they still weren't pumping full blast, they were respectable. But the rain continued, and got heavier. I stashed my camera gear under an overhang near one of the waterfalls, and ventured out looking for scenes. There are a lot of waterfalls here, but they are difficult to photograph. In fact, I don't believe that I have a single good image of any of them. But the opportunities are there, if I can only find them.
But first I had to go check out the azalea patch. And sure enough, it was marvelous - perhaps the best that I had ever seen. And not only were there tons of them in bloom, but there were a number or really deep-colored ones as well. I staked out one scene and returned for my camera gear. The rain let up some, and by the time I had returned to the azaleas it had stopped completely.
The wind had died down too, and so I got a few minutes of perfect conditions and got my azalea picture. Only problem was that everything was dripping wet - the bushes, my camera bag and tripod, my hat, and the rest of me. So I had to be very careful when handling the camera gear to keep from getting it wet. It was especially difficult to change rolls of film, since you have to use both hands and have to handle the large rolls of paper-covered film - tough to do with everything so wet.
OK, azalea scene shot, now it was time to go find a waterfall shot. I could not shoot anything from up above, so I made my way around and down into the deep canyon. This is very dangerous country, with steep slopes and sharp rocks, but I hoped the views would be worth it. After I had crossed one particularly narrow spot, I turned back and realized that I had literally zero tolerance, and one slip would have sent me over a fifty foot cliff. Hum, and I would have to return the same route. Of course, the superdog bounded on through it without any effort.
I was making my way along the base of this giant sandstone bluff when I found an old and weathered cedar limb that had fallen from a larger tree above. It was leaning up against a part of the bluff that was covered with this brilliant yellow lichen. Click, whir. Click, whir. It was a perfect little scene, and I shot an entire roll of film of it. That shot alone was worth the trip in.
The main waterfall was just around the next corner. I set up and shot one scene of the double-decker falls through the trees. Then found another view, and then another. I finally had to put away the camera gear and just look around and find the very best and most unusual spot. And there one this one view from way back up under the overhang that I particularly liked. Only problem was that at the spot where I needed to be set up there was a steady stream of dripping FRIGID water. It's funny when an entire downpour does not bother you but a single drip will.
I set up the camera gear and fired away. And I even remembered to take a digital shapshot of it. The snapshot doesn't even begin to compare to the real thing with the big camera, but I hope you can get some idea of it.
The rain and wind returned and faded and came back again. I explored around a bunch but never really found a shot that I liked better than the main waterfall. On the way out I was able to photograph the wild rose that was so colorful - I got a close up of two blooms, with several tiny little rose buds with them. Just delightful.
By the time we reached the truck I realized that we had spent SIX hours in there. I shot a total of four scenes. That's a pretty good average! The other day I went back and put together a selection of the stuff that I had shot last spring for this book project. And I discovered that my demands on my own work had become much more refined even in the past year. I guess that is a good thing, but I find myself only shooting scenes that are over and above everything else, and passing up others that are just great. I hope that shows in the new book!
As I drove on the sun began to peak out, then the clouds broke up and the beautiful rainy day was ruined. I returned to the office and spent the rest of the day at the computer and over the light table.
After several hours focusing intently at images on the bright white light, my eyes were pretty much blown out. When I stepped out into the dark night near midnight to return to the cabin, I realized that my night vision had been charred - I could not see a thing, even though the moon was bright enough to cast shadows in the deep woods. I moved down the trail slowly, but after even ten minutes I could not see a thing beyond where my fading flashlight hit. Hum, make a note: don't edit slides before going on night hike near bluffs.
5/10/00 The alarm at my bedside went off at 5am. Since the hot tub is on the blink I had to struggle to life with only a mocha for encouragement. My destination this morning was a patch of Indian paintbrush wildflowers along I-40 near Clarksville. I had to get there before the traffic got too heavy and blew the flowers around too much. It was going to be a bright sunny day, which would be fine for these flowers, but not for other pictures.
After a visit to the Hardees drive-through (sorry about that - I know many of you think I only eat twigs and berries, but I happen to love junk food), I made it to the paintbrush patch. After spending twenty minutes taking a closer look, I decided that while the flowers were simply gorgeous, they didn't quite cut it as a wilderness wildflower patch. We do have paintbrush here in the wild, so I didn't have a problem shooting this planted patch, but the shot just wasn't there.
My other destination for the day was my lab in Fayetteville - Colliers Photo on Dickson Street - to get all of the film from the past week or so processed.
I spent the rest of the day in town trying to cope with the insanity of a small metro area out of control. As I sat there at the seventeenth red light of the day, I looked over and saw the patch of old growth oaks near the mall that the idiots who run the City of Fayetteville are allowing to be cut down (this is where the grandmother is staging a tree-sitting protest to try and protect the grove). They decided to go against a city ordinance that saves such trees and allow a developer of yet another shopping mall to destroy this wild spot. I don't understand how a public official can go against the law like that - yes I can - it is spelled M-O-N-E-Y! They must be being paid off by someone, for I can't think of another reason why they would break their own rules.
Fayetteville has gotten out of control, mainly because of our slumlord mayor there who has done little to protect the quality of life that most folks come there for in the first place. He is the main reason why I left town. I used to encourage folks to move to NW Arkansas, but no more. The mayor and the city council have made it a horrible place to live, and things continue to get worse. Two friends of mine are running for mayor, and I hope the citizens throw the jerk out and replace his money-grubbing ways with one of them. Unfortunately since I don't live there anymore, I can't vote, but I do hope the good people of Fayetteville come to their senses before it is too late and put someone in office that will try to save the town instead of covering it all with concrete, lining his own pockets with gold in the process.
One last political note and then I will get off of my soapbox. My two friends that are running for mayor - one is Dan Coody, who has been out to Cloudland several times. He and his wife Debra own land near here. They are certainly friends of the earth, but yet are also developers, and know how to develop without destroying everything in the path like the current administration has done. And my other friend, Paula Marinoni, I have known since grade school. She too is a friend of the earth, and would give Fayetteville the care it needs. Good luck to both of them, and I certainly hope for the future of NW Arkansas that one of them is elected.
I spent most of the evening bent over the light table once again, going through the film from the last week. Much to my delight some of the images turned out very good. I am getting down to crunch time now, and need to finish the shooting and get going on the book. I sort of have this mental block about such things - I pretty much have to declare that I am finished shooting before I can get started designing and laying out and writing the book. And once I begin that process, it will be constant - 16-20 hours a day seven days a week until it is finished. Only problem right now is that I still need to take a few more pictures, but have to get the completed book on the plane to the printer by the end of the month. It will be one busy end of May for sure!
5/11/00 I decided to take today off, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. When I finally did get up at 6:30 the sky was grey and no sun. It was warm, and I was ready for a hike. During my trip into town yesterday I bought a new pair of low-cut hiking boots (Vasque Avanti - I HIGHLY recommend them!) and a summer hat. I put them on, grabbed my walking stick, and headed out the door.
No specific destination today, but I did want to get started with my bear patrol. The pesky varmits would be coming out and wandering around now, and so I want to keep an eye on them and see what they are up to. I have spent most of the past several months scanning the forest floor for signs of flowers or other neat spring scenes, but now I would have to change the scope of my gaze, put it out there on the fringes of the woods, and look for splashes of darting black color.
But the first flash of color that I saw was bright orange, and up in the trees. Then it was gone. Another one appeared off to the right and quickly disappeared. I scurried around to get a better view, but was too late. Then it hit me - these were bursts of sunlight breaking though the cloud cover! Still heavy black clouds overhead, but it was nice to be playing tag with the early sunshine.
Whatever Bob planted in the east meadow is sure going to town - the stuff was already chest high. Aspen had a time thrashing through it, but we both enjoyed it for sure. Then we dropped on down to check on the showy orchids at the base of this towering ash tree that should be blooming by now. Lots of leaves, but no blooms or stalks yet. It has been a funny year for orchids. The lady slippers bloomed very early, and when I passed by them this morning, they were completely gone now - they are normally peaking around Mother's Day.
We wandered through the open woods, down the steep slope, and landed in Magnolia Canyon. What a magical place this continues to be! The wind was blowing everything around up above, but down in this tiny paradise all was quiet and still. And it was a bit darker than the rest of the forest - those giant umbrella leaves covered everything overhead, creating a green roof to the canyon world.
I sat down and rested while Aspen explored a nearby cave. Way up overhead there were several yellow tiger swallowtail butterflies drifting among the magnolia leaves. It was a peaceful scene, quiet and serene. Today begins my 45th year, and I plan to make it the best ever, for myself, and for those who know me. I want to spend as much time as possible in this little canyon, and in many other wonderful natural places. It will be a fun year, filled with excitement and surprise, with lots of tough work, which I look forward to. And hopefully, a year with lots more RAIN!
From the canyon we made our way along the bluffline until we reached Robert's Falls. It was running pretty good, and there were magnolias in bloom below, with azaleas above. The crashing of the water broke the silence of the day, and it sounded good.
We bushwhacked up through a thick beech forest and came out at the north meadow. The vegetation in this meadow was even taller than in the east meadow - nearly head high! All I could see of Aspen was a white flash every now and then. If there were bears hiding out and sunning themselves in this meadow I would have to stumble right up on one to ever see him.
After checking on Bob's cabin we made our way up the lane towards the Faddis Cabin. Just as we crested the hill a violent gale hit me in the face - the wind was blowing very hard, and steady, laying the tall grasses around the Faddis meadow flat. Nearly blew my new hat away. I took it off and stuffed it in my back pocket.
The meadow is only about knee deep, with patches of daisies here and there, and other wildflowers growing lower to the ground. Most of these little flowers were closed up tight today, protecting themselves from the wind.
The trees in the forest on this side of the mountain were swaying back and forth, many of them singing lively tunes as their bones ached under the stress.
We had been gone a couple of hours and had a fine hike, but it was great to see the glow of the cabin logs through the sea of green - easy to spot because it was the only thing not bent over from the wind! The wind gauge was holding steady in the mid 40mph range - pretty high wind to be steady like it was. Only one deck chair blown over. I guess my furniture out here is learning to cope with the wind. Use to be that any old blow would knock stuff down.
The sky was still filled with dark clouds, and they were racing each other. It didn't feel much like rain. A tornado perhaps, but no rain.
The big clouds and heavy winds stuck around all day - hadn't seen it blow this hard and long for quite a while. My only outdoor activity the rest of the day was a conversation that I had with a speckled king snake that I came upon along the trail up to the office. I spent a great deal of my early childhood hunting snakes around my home place - turning over rocks, rolling logs, looking every place that I could think a snake would hide. And when I found one, it became my playmate for hours on end. I don't get to play with snakes much these days, and I don't see all that many anyway - guess I need to get out and hunt them more often.
Anyway, the grand prize for me is a speckled king snake - I just love their coal black skin with all these tiny bright yellow dots all over. So I was very pleased to find this one today. I got down and spent about ten minutes on the ground with him, but only picked him up once. Aspen was off on some adventure of his own so I didn't have to worry about him.
The rest of my day off was spent up at the office, sorting and mounting transparencies, doing paper work, returning phone calls and e-mail, and generally trying to catch up. Hiking, editing slides for a new book, talking to a king snake - now that is my idea of a day off!
My lady friend Lola rolled in later in the evening, and after a bit of homemade Cloudland pizza and wine, we ventured out into the half-moonlit night and toured Aspen's meadow and the tipis. There was just enough light for us to hike around without a flashlight. While some of the features of the dark forest blended into the night, Aspen's white behind was always easy to spot.
5/12/00 The wind blew at gale force speeds most of the night, which kept the wind chimes on the front porch happy. It is one thing to have a faint jingle with an afternoon breeze, but quite another to have the bells going off for hours at night. The itself was making a lot of musical tones too.
Sunrise came early, but quickly retreated up into a bank of clouds. The clouds wanted to hang around all day, so after a breakfast of fresh fruit and yogurt, we packed up and headed out to take a few pictures.
We parked at the King's River Falls Natural Area trailhead and hiked the easy trail along the river towards the falls. First thing that we discovered was that the entire trail was lined with wildflowers of all kinds. Lots of favorites, but a number of really unusual ones as well. And a big, bright yellow lady-slipper too.
Soon we passed a couple of black snakes making out in the weeds. Aspen bounced right on by without noticing them. And they didn't seem to pay much attention to us, so we let them be and moved on.
The wild azaleas were blooming and smelling great too. I've never seen so many of them along this trail before. And a couple of the bushes were just this incredible deep color. It was springtime alright, and this was a great spot to be.
Once we reached the waterfall I spent an hour or two shooting several different compositions while Lola and Aspen roamed around and explored the area.
We eventually made our way back towards the trailhead, stopping a couple of times to shoot this or that. Those two snakes were in the same spot as we passed by. And I stopped and photographed this really intensely-colored batch of wildflowers - I have no idea what they are, but will try to look them up in the guidebook.
On the way out we stopped and took pictures at a nice patch of daisies, then passed another pair of HUGE black snakes mating right out in the middle of the country road. Hum, I used to do that in high school myself. But usually not in broad daylight.
We fired up the grill and had Cloudland salmon with some special veggie dishes (including rosemary potatoes - we discovered a bush of the herb still alive and doing well just below the lower deck - one sprout of thyme as well, but all of the other herbs that were planted last year either died out over the winter or were dug up by the neighborhood dog). It was all topped off by a homemade chocolate cream pie, my favorite.
A genuine storm blew in after dark, complete with loud thunder, hail, and lightening. There was this one time when both of us were looking right out the windows that face west, when a bolt of lightening hit somewhere out there in the forest - there was this incredible flash of red that bounced around and off of the trees. It was quite remarkable. And then it hailed, with heavy rain. We got an inch of rain in about 40 minutes. Then it was all gone and no more noise or water.
5/13/00 It was a much quieter night - no wind chimes or howling breezes. But it was chilly. And there was a wonderful fog bank down in the valley all around. The trees, the air and the meadow were FILLED with birds! I mean all shapes, sizes and colors. We dug out the binocs, the telescope and the bird book and went to work. Five species. Ten. Then a dozen. And some really colorful ones too. Indigo bunting. Summer tanager. Yellow-throated warbler.
Then it was time for a bit of work. I spent the next hour or two sorting images on the light table, while Lola did research on the internet. I shot a lot of images for the new spring picture book last spring, but did not have them all sorted out. I went through several thousand images, and came up with about twenty to add to the 91 that I have taken so far this spring. I will need to get a couple dozen more before sitting down and making a final edit, ending up with something like 100 images for the book - all new and unpublished. And then the fun will begin. I will have to sit down and design the entire book - figuring out a good spot for each image - then write about each shot. There will be a lot more text in this book than in my previous three picture books. Don't know if that will be better or worse, but I am going to give it a try.
I made up a brunch dish of fresh taters and onions with little smokies and eggs, all tossed together and covered with shredded cheddar cheese.
Bob Chester stopped by with a couple of friends for a look off of the back deck. It was bright sunshine and blue skies and a perfect spring day in the Ozarks. It was great to see Bob on his feet and looking so good. He underwent two different surgerys just a couple of weeks ago and was not supposed to be up and out nearly this soon.
Most of the afternoon was spent on a hike, out to the Crag, to get the mail, and then back again via a different route. We were astonished to find no one at the Crag, nor along the trail. We only passed one small group of folks, and there weren't any other cars at the trailhead. It is not uncommon to see ten or fifteen cars there on a spring weekend. We sat down on the Crag and watched a hawk or two drift by, then continued on towards the mail.
Aspen spends most of his hiking time way out ahead, running from side to side, seeking out whatever he can find. At one point he turned around and started FLYING back towards us. I never saw it, but Lola said that Aspen had something "larger than a squirrel" right out in front of him that he was chasing, and they both came within about twenty feet of her (it was a UBO - unidentified blurred object). I suspect it was a fox. Aspen is pretty good at stirring up such critters, but he has little chance of ever catching any of them, and he soon returned to the trail and we were on our way.
A short detour took us on over to a nice waterfall - actually two of them - and down to an overhang, where we found not one, but two Indian grindstones. One had been split in half and put back together. Native Americans used these stones to grind corn and other grain, and there is a depression in the center of the stone to help them with this chore. They hung out under these overhangs way back when, mostly under the southern-facing bluffs where the winter weather was a bit warmer.
We picked up the mail then walked through a lovely field of waist-high hay. The superdog had a big time running back and forth at breakneck speed, leaping up into the air every chance that he got. He looked a little like this nearly black coyote that we saw crossing a big hay field yesterday. This dude was really moving, but the hay was so high that he could not see too well, so he kept jumping high up into the air. It took him longer to cross the field this way, but at least he could see where he was going.
When we returned to the cabin I fixed a pitcher of strawberry daiquiris and we sat down on the lower deck and counted birds. More and more of them. Here is our unofficial count for the day (plus one from yesterday): Scarlet tanager, summer tanager, goldfinch, indigo bunting, ruby-throated hummingbird, yellow-throated warbler, red-eyed vireo, rusty-capped sparrow, bluebird, turkey vultures, meadowlark, phoebe, peewee, pileated woodpecker, house wren, brown creeper, white-breasted nuthatch, blue heron, red-tailed hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, rock dove, mourning dove. Plus probably a dozen or more that we did not get a good look at or ID. It was a great bird day, and most of them we saw right from the back deck. That little meadow down below certainly does attract a lot of birds!
Dean and Bonnie showed up with a friend and three dogs, and all of us made a pilgrimage up to the teepees. The dogs had a heyday, especially the superdog. The took on this large Doberman, who was thankfully very friendly. Then I made them all look through my potential images for the new book and get their comments and ideas. I can see that my easy selection as the cover shot is not going to be so easy after all.
Oh yea, I almost forgot to tell about the captive bird. Just before we went up to the tipis, we found a bluebird that had come down the chimney and was stuck in the fireplace in the living room. We opened all of the doors and let him out, hoping he would fly freedom. Not so easy. After twenty minutes of all of us trying to get the bird out one of the open doors, we decided to give up for now and see if he would leave on his own.
But when we returned, he was still clinging to the logs, searching for a way to freedom. One problem with my cabin is that there are so many windows, and a number of fixed ones, and they all look like open lanes for them to fly. So this guy flew into several windows trying to escape. I finally taped a fishing net onto the end of a long pole and was able to scoop him right on up. Then he got all tangled up in the thin line, and I had to cut the net to let him out. He was one happy camper to be off and flying again in the open air!
We spent another hour or two down on the lower deck watching for birds and enjoying the evening air. Aspen ran about twenty miles down in the meadow below, criss-crossing it endlessly. I must say that the little meadow down below the deck is becoming rather colorful these days. There are a number of wildflower species blooming right now, including several that I have not seen before. I have a feeling it is going to be one terrific summer bloom down there.
Aspen came bouncing into the cabin, simply filthy and covered from head to tail with mud. I quickly rigged up an extended shower head for him and had the little guy shining and smelling great in no time (I used the same Dr. Bronner Peppermint soap that I use on my coat). Dinner was left-over grilled salmon, and a special pasta primivera that Lola put together. And, of course, another slice of chocolate cream pie!
As the sun and light faded away a whip-poor-will broke the silence of the night. Stars began to shine, and the world was filled with the soft glow of moonlight.
5/16/00 There was a bit of fog hanging around in the valleys at deadlight. It looked like a good day to get out and take a few pictures, so I packed up the truck and headed on over to Sweden Falls, a neat natural area owned by the state.
This is a very lush little canyon area, with tons of moss-covered boulders, ferns, big bluffs, and a terrific waterfall. There are also a number of sensitive plants around, which is one reason why the state purchased the land and is protecting it.
As I made my way around the base of the bluff towards the waterfall, it because apparent that there was no waterfall at all - not a sound in the canyon, and the wind was not blowing. This falls normally makes a great deal of noise. I knew the falls would not be pumping, but I thought there would be something nice because we just had an inch of rain. But when I arrived at the base of the falls, there was only a trickle and no more. Boy, the water table is certainly low, and the vegetation is sucking up every little drop of rain that falls. The creek below the falls was completely dry.
But behind the waterfall area was one of the most wonderful walls of ferns that I had ever seen. They began at the base of the falls and covered the rocky ground all the way up to the bottom of the big bluff. Solid ferns.
Needless to say I took a picture or two. Actually several rolls. One of them will may be used as a two-page image in the new picture book. Did I say there were LOTS of ferns?
The next spot that I visited was also a fern heaven. Some friends of mine own this wonderful spring that rushes out from far back under a bluff - a river coming from a long cavern system actually. And once the water finds daylight, ferns line the banks for a hundred feet. These are different ferns than the ones you find in the deep forest. They have a different quality about them. The light that feeds them is indirect light - the sun never reaches down under this bluff overhang. And the water that mists them is clear and cold, having just emerged from more than a mile of darkness.
Every spot that is not covered with a fern is carpeted with bright green moss. This is a most fragile area, a place where you tiptoe around, being careful not to leave a footprint nor step on a fern or a clump of moss. And much to my surprise and delight there were many Ozark Combine wildflowers growing right in the middle of the ferns. Our columbines are not nearly as dramatic as the ones you find out west, but they have their own subtle beauty just the same.
Not wanting to disturb any of the flora, I set up my bulky tripod right in the middle of the stream and shot a couple of different images - one of the columbines and ferns, and another of an isolated part of the stream that rushes through a narrow chute that is lined on both sides with moss. Very nice indeed.
Later in the day I received a fax from my printers with some vital info about the way they were going to print the new book. I had to have this bit of info before I could begin the design process, and had been waiting on it for a while. With that info in hand, I jumped into the long process of actually laying out the book, a process that I love almost as much as shooting the images themselves. It was midnight before I shut down the computer and made my way back down to the cabin in the moonlight.
5/17/00 An early wake up call and back up to the office for more work on the layout. The very first thing that I do is figure out where the two-page images are going to be, and which images are going to be used for them. Since I am not quite finished shooting yet, I have to guess at a couple of the spots, and hope that the fern shot turned out OK. Then I decide how the book will be divided up - this one will be in three parts: Early Spring (March); APRIL!; and Late Spring, which I am still shooting.
I also have to decide on a front and back cover. This is always tough, since these images - especially the front cover - are the most important ones in the entire book. And everyone has an opinion, and usually a different one from everyone else. I have always asked several folks about which one they would choose, and out of the five that I have asked, there were five different answers. It will all come down to my gut feeling, and I already have one in mind.
So I spent some time scanning images into the computer, then placing them in the cover design and seeing what they looked like. Hum, the one that I really like seems to work out the best so far! Last spring when I was shooting the image of Neil Compton's Double Falls ( I nearly died when I fell over the edge), I said that it would be the cover of this book. Then I realized that I needed a horizontal image, and it is a vertical one. So it won't end up on the front cover of the book, but it is the leading contender for the back cover.
These are just the first steps in the design process of the book. I will spend most of the next week and a half working on it, so please bear with me.
I had to make a quick trip into town to get some film processed and restock the drug counter for my mom. On the way back, I spent some time down in Boxley Valley searching for a bull elk that I wanted to take a picture of. They are in "velvet" right now - that is when their antlers are growing and are covered with hair and most unusual looking. Problem is that most of them are hiding back in the deep woods and not as easy to find as during most of the year. But I had seen this one guy hanging around near the highway a couple of times this week, so I was after him.
I stopped and talked with some friends who own part of Boxley Valley and have worked their land for many years. They tend to hang out on their front porch after the chores are done. They know a great deal about the area, and are avid hikers. They had seen the same bull that I had, but didn't have any reports of others. They told me about the large numbers of turkeys they had seen early in the spring coming down from the mountains and into their fields. Wonderful folks.
My friend Ray Scott had driven up from Little Rock to spend another day out shooting with me, and I met him in the valley searching for the same bull elk. We didn't have any luck, so returned to the cabin.
For some reason my little chat with the folks down in Boxley brought out a desire within me to mix up my favorite summer drink - gin an tonic. Only problem was that I didn't have any limes, but when you live in the mountains you learn to do without. So I mixed up a bit of Bombay gin and tonic, and sat down at the light table with Ray to go over some of my recent images, and some of his, including the ones that we shot during his last trip. Ray doesn't do this for a living, but he is certainly a very good photographer, and is beginning to sell some of his work. Darn, more competition!
After looking at our images, Ray showed some slides from a recent trip up into Alaska, including a number of close up shots of grizzly bears. Won't be long before the bears show up at Cloudland. In the middle of it all I remembered that I had to get my book orders ready for UPS pickup in the morning, so I hurriedly packaged them up while listening to Ray's stories of Alaska. Before I knew it the clock struck midnight - yikes, it had been a long day!
5/18/00 The wind HOWLED all night! I did get a bit of sleep, but not sure when. The alarm went off very early, and we quickly got up and loaded the truck and headed out in search of elk. It was daylight by the time we reached Boxley Valley, but no one in sight. The sky was filled with dark clouds, and it was supposed to rain all day. Hum, fat chance of that.
Our main goal for the day was the Erbie area, another spot besides Boxley Valley were the elk hang out. But first we had to stop and photograph this unique flower that I had been looking for - Goat's Beard. It was growing right next to the highway. While we were at that spot (which we had to hike to since it was located along a stretch of the road where you could not pull a car off), we found a number of interesting things to take pictures of, and spent nearly an hour there. There are SO many different plants and wildflowers in the Ozarks!
We made a quick trip down into Steel Creek, but no elk there either. We ran into a worker who was laying a waterline down to the ranger station there who had his vehicle vandalized the week before. He woke up at home one morning and found a large black bear in the back seat. To get there the bear had ripped off the ROOF of the SUV! The guy had a bucket of feed of some sort in the back seat, and that is what the bear was after. Every day since he has found bears in his back seat. And the bears have been leaving him presents - usually a pile of bear poop on the back seat.
There were a number of places along the dirt road to Erbie that were wildflower hot spots, so we had to stop and burn some film. The first place where we stopped was covered with western daisies (I have been calling them asters) - more than I had ever seen around here. Lots of other neat things to shoot as well. I think we spent nearly two hours at that first stop. At another stop we found this great glade area that was covered with western daisies and bright yellow coreopsis flowers, which made an interesting combination. Only problem was that the wind was blowing like crazy, and the sun was popping out. But there was this giant butterfly that kept hanging around on the big yellow blooms, so we spent some time chasing him around trying to get a picture. I don't think either of us ever got anything of the butterfly.
It was early afternoon before we ever reached Erbie - not a good time to look for elk. So we drove across the Buffalo and hiked on out to Goat Bluff, which a neat area with old twisted cedar trees handing out over the river far below. Some of these trees had limbs that had twisted themselves around several times - very odd looking. The sun was out and the wind was blowing so we didn't even bother to take our cameras. Aspen jumped a covey of two quail in one of the fields along the hike. Not many quail left in the Ozarks, so it was great to see them.
Aspen really got heated up, so we stopped at a small creek along the road and let him get out and swim. There also happen to be several interesting and colorful plants around, plus dozens of butterflies, so there were a few pictures to take. Ray must be learning his photo techniques from me because he knocked his camera and tripod over once and it slammed into the rocks below. Fortunately, the only thing broken was a lens hood.
The road from Erbie out to Compton is one of the worst roads in the Ozarks. It is obvious that the county decided long ago not to maintain it, and the Park Service has followed suit. Ray spotted a group of delicate briars along the way, and so we stopped and spent another hour shooting them, and talking to a pair of hikers who had been hiking the Cecil Cove Loop Trail (they were from Illinois).
It had been a long day, no elk were spotted, but we got some good images anyway. Just as we pulled into the cabin the sky opened up and it began to pour - yea! Ray headed back to Little Rock while I popped a pizza into the oven (hey, these day I don't have much time to bake from scratch, so I have to let DiGiorno cook once in a while).
It rained hard for about a half hour - just about an inch worth - then stopped. After my pizza, I spent an hour de-ticking Aspen. I pulled 47 off of him. Come to think of it, I was pulling ticks off of me all day long. I guess I must now state that TICK SEASON IS HERE! Spray yourself down before going hiking, especially if you will be traveling in old field areas. While there are ticks out in the main woods as well, they aren't as thick as they are in the fields.
Fog banks developed down in the valley, and they moved all over the place as darkness crept over the land. No view of the full moonrise today, but I will take rain instead for sure. It did rain again once or twice, although not very hard. It was nice and wet outside.
I hiked up to the office and put in several hours of work on the book project before retiring for the night.
5/19/00 My bedroom window was open all night, and when an Indigo bunting began to sing from a limb just outside at 5:30am, I woke up in a hurry. Then I settled back into the pillow and let the lovely melody send me back to sleep. Since the hot tub is out of commission, I don't always get up right away. Besides, I could hear the birds, and roll over and see the terrific scene outside the window just fine from bed.
But I didn't stay down too long, as I had a lot of work to do and a visitor coming out at 9:30.
Jennifer Fulford from the NPR radio station in Fayetteville (KUAF - the main radio station that I listen to out here) dropped by to do an interview for their Ozarks At Large show. We spent the next couple of hours talking and wandering around and listening to the sounds of the wilderness. At one point she wanted to record the bird songs going on and have me talk about what birds they were. Since I can only identify three or four of them, that didn't work out too well.
While we were on a hike down to the lookout point below the cabin, a momma whip-poor-will startled us and flew up from the ground just a few feet off to one side. She had been sitting on two eggs. They must camouflage the scent very well because Aspen, the great bird dog, had run within three feet of her and the nest and never saw them. This "nest" was just like the turkey nest from a couple of weeks ago - no nest at all, just eggs in a little depression in the leaves out in the open. I did not have a camera with me at the time, but will try to return and get a picture for the web page.
We saw this huge oak tree that had been blown over by one of the recent storms - must have been three feet thick at the base. I'll bet it made a very loud noise - no matter if anyone was around to hear it or not. And the river was singing a lively tune, and running a bit dingy from the hard rain. That water music will soon be heard coming through many radios across the region (on Friday night Ozarks At Large, perhaps next week).
Jennifer headed on back to town and I returned to the computer. Of course, right after she left, a whole host of birds that I knew the calls for showed up and began to sing like crazy. Wildlife has a sense of humor too.
It remained cloudy but no more rain. I pulled twenty-two more ticks off of the superdog.
Later in the afternoon the sun began to peek out here and there. After much deliberation about whether to stay in the office and work, get some cleaning done at the cabin, or go on a hike, I opted to put on my low-top Vasques and grab the hiking staff. Easy choice.
It was one terrific day to be in the woods. Mild weather with a slight breeze and sunshine. We strolled on down through the long stand of maples. I had a feeling of being a tiny bug making my way through this huge forest with the canopy high overhead. The forest floor is mostly open in this part of the woods, which adds to the feeling of large scale. Lush and green everywhere.
No one at the Crag, nor along the trail. Just me, the superdog, and countless birds and squirrels and turkeys. And a few cactus plants. We don't have too many cactus in the Ozarks, but they are here, usually sitting proudly on top of some giant boulder, gazing out over an incredible view. These particular cactus plants were showing signs of new growth, but not quite in bloom yet. I made a mental note to get back to them at the last possible minute to take a picture for the new book - and maybe, a bloom.
There were tons of wildflowers on top of the big boulders too. Some boulders had every square inch of their tops covered with flowers, while others only had isolated colonies. Most of the flowers were spiderworts, standing tall with deep blue or purple flowers.
We detoured on down to one of the waterfalls and found it barely running - surprise! Actually I was expecting more of a flow, especially after the hard rain of the night before, and how much the main river was running. Lots of vegetation sucking up all that water.
I collected the mail and headed back towards the cabin. There were birds flying around all over the place, especially back at the Faddis cabin - lots of bluebirds there. Bob doesn't have any bluebirds houses up so I'm not sure what they are doing, unless they have natural nests and are just using the meadow as a feeding grounds. He does have a big martin house up (which the bears like to tear down), but no one living there so far this year.
As I made my way through a stand of mayapples, I realized that in less than a week the brilliant white flowers on them had turned into green APPLES! This is one flower that is certainly well named, since the apples show up in May (unlike fire "pink" that is not pink at all, or "red" bud that is not red). The apples are actually edible, although I don't recommend them.
5/20/00 It was a delightful morning at Cloudland! Clouds and fog and absolutely no wind at all. They were calling for rain, but it just didn't feel like it. While it was perfect weather for me to photograph, I was forced up to the office to take care of a pile of paperwork that was covering the desk. I have actually been working on this paperwork for several days, but had promised myself that I would get it finished THIS MORNING no matter what.
By late morning I had enough of the paperwork, and decided it was time to get bundled up and strap on the camera gear and go for a hike. The Ozarks are pretty much a jungle right now, and if you are not hiking on a trail, you need long pants and long-sleeve shirt. Sometimes you feel odd dressed like this, especially if it is 80 or 90 degrees out, but it is required dress for the jungle.
I wanted to shoot this picture from inside Yukon's cave looking out, so we took off down the steep slope towards the river. The route took us through beautiful forests of towering oaks, sweetgums and maples, with floors of solid may apples. Most of the mayapples on this hillside had turned different shades of yellow, some with yellow spots.
Before long we were hiking alongside this wonderful spring that spilled over moss-covered rocks. It took us to my old friend Yukon's grave site. We paused there for a few moments and a short conversation, then made our way on down the hill towards the river.
The last little part of this hike requires a climb down over some exposed rock. Aspen was not at all interested in this part, so he stayed up on the hill.
I made my way back into the cave. This is a neat spot because the mouth of the cave opens right out onto the river (it is flooded during high water, but was fine today). It isn't a very large cave, although Norma and Hete crawled back several hundred yards into a couple of different passageways - all crawling.
I climbed up into a higher level, carefully hauling my camera gear with me. This is where the view is that I like - a good scene out the opening without any sky showing. But the river is in full view, including a set of rapids. My shooting position was in an awkward spot, and I had to use all of the special characteristics of my big tripod to get the camera set in just the right spot. I fired off a few quick images, then packed up and headed on out.
The superdog was waiting for me back up on top. I hope that he got a few tips from Yukon The Wonder Dog about how to be a terrific hiking companion, as Yukon had been to me for fourteen years. Aspen is indeed a superdog, but not quite a Wonder Dog yet!
The next spot that I wanted to shoot was upstream on the main river a bit. We slipped and slid on down another part of the hillside and finally landed on the sandy soil next to the river. First thing I saw was a set of bear tracks. Not very fresh though. This is the first bear sign that I had seen this year.
The brush in the bottomland was very thick and difficult to get through. This would begin several hours of time when I did not see my feet, nor the sky. Did I mention it is a jungle out here?
By the time I reached the spot on the river that I was headed for the sun had popped out and I couldn't take my picture. No matter - it was a thick, green sort of a day and not a water and rock day. So we turned around and bushwhacked on back downstream.
Dug Hollow was my next destination. There should be plenty of water in it for some great images, especially since the sun had gone back into the clouds once again (I couldn't actually see the sky, but could see bright spots of sunshine on the forest floor when it was out, and the wood got really dark the rest of the time). But when I finally broke through the tangled mass of vegetation, I found a dry creekbed. No matter, it was an interesting hike anyway, so I headed on upstream, knowing there would eventually be some water.
A phoebe flew up right in front of me. She must have been sitting on a nest. After a careful search of some giant boulders along the stream, I found her nest. And it was crammed full of tiny babies, no eyes open and nut many feathers yet. I snapped a picture with the digital camera and quickly moved on so as not to disturb her any more.
I found this one Virginia creeper vine that was hanging down about fifteen feet over the edge of this ledge, the bottom end of the vine nearly touching the small pool of water below. It made an interesting scene, but the wind was blowing ever so slightly. So I set up my camera gear and waited. At one point, just as the wind was about to die down completely, Aspen came bounding by and grabbed the end of the vine. Silly dog.
Dug Hollow is a deep little canyon, lush with just about every kind of vegetation that grows in the Ozarks. But one species seemed to be taking over - umbrella magnolia. The leaves of these trees were HUGE! Some of the leaf groups had a diameter of four feet or more. The blooms were long gone though, but still impressive.
It is a tough canyon to hike up. Actually, you don't get to do much hiking - it is mostly scrambling and climbing and falling and picking yourself back up again. And the rocks were especially slippery today. All of it was made even worse by the addition of my 40 pounds of camera gear. But the old pack really didn't seem too heavy for some reason, as it usually does. Must have been that my attention was focused on staying on my feet.
The further up the canyon we went the more water there was. And the darker it got. The last picture that I shot - of some backlit paw paw leaves against a moss-covered boulder and a giant grape vine - the exposure was two minutes long. Very dark down in this rugged canyon.
Before we made it up to the big waterfall area I decided it was time to head for home, so we climbed out, quite literally hand-over-fist up the steep, almost vertical hillside. When we landed in the North meadow the sky appeared for the first time in a long while. Lots of dark clouds. The wheat in that meadow was now over six feet tall. Good grief, and the growing season is just beginning!
We found Bob working in the garden. This is one of the best gardens out here on Cave Mountain for sure. Lots of deer had already found it, and I suspect it won't be long before the bears find it too. I can only hope that I will get to steal enough of the great veggies before they strip everything.
OK, another terrific hike finished, and I even got a picture or two. Now is was time to get in the truck and drive on over towards Erbie and work on another scene that I wanted to include in the book.
After an hour of driving and a bit of hiking, I found this incredible glade area. There simply were wildflowers EVERYWHERE! Scores of tiny blue ones that I had never seen before, this deep purple flower growing from a succulent little plant, some large bright yellow flowers, and scores of western daisies, the goal of my search.
And not only where there splashes of color all around, but there were also wonderful bits of weathered logs and limbs scattered about. This was literally one location where there was so much to photograph that I had no idea what to shoot first. I run into this problem every now and then, and will often spend so much time worrying about finding the BEST shot that I will end up with nothing. But I found this one composition where a twisted and weathered log was engulfed with western daisies - that was the scene that I was after, so I set and began a long wait for the wind to die down. The sun had come out as well, and the lighting was terrible. But I set up a diffusion screen and waited, and waited, and waited.
An hour later I had shot about a dozen pictures of the log and western daisies, but was not really sure if any of them had the wind absolutely still or not. I packed up and headed back towards the cabin, stopping at the grocery store in Jasper for two emergency items that I needed for the cabin - chocolate and ice cream.
The evening was filled with lots of computer work, and two helpings of vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate sauce. Then I worked with the hot tub enough to get it heated up, so I got to relax in the bubbles after a long and sweaty day in the Ozark jungle.
5/21/00 It was about 4:30am when a whip-poor-will began to sing loudly. I wondered if it was the lady down at the edge of the meadow sitting on the nest calling out for her mate to bring some breakfast. Of if it was just a guy bird looking for some action. I rolled on over and dozed off for another half hour before getting up. Not only had the mail and other paperwork been piling up on my desk (which I finally took care of yesterday), but so had the laundry. I knew that I was in trouble when I pulled the very last pair of shorts out of the drawer this morning. I've got about a dozen pair of these special nylon shorts that I wear, so when they are all gone, it is time to do laundry!
There was sunshine at first, quickly followed by clouds. No matter what the day brought, I would be tied to the cabin and to the office today, with three goals: laundry, write the text for the book jacket, and layout the first section of the book - Early Spring, March. A lot to do, but I really have no choice now but to plow forward and get the work done. Besides, I was out of clean shorts.
The sun returned and remained most of the day. It was a textbook spring day in the Ozarks. I did get most of my laundry done, and five or six drafts of the jacket text completed as well, but so far I have not made it to the first section of the book (8pm). I got interrupted a number of times during the day, plus took a hike up to Aspen's meadow, but it was productive just the same.
One of the highlights was when Aspen caught his first lizard. Well, actually he only got the tail. What a wonderful defense mechanism these blue-tailed skinks have! When a predator gets too close and grabs them by the tail, the lizard goes free, and the tail stays behind, squirming like the lizard itself. Aspen played with his prize for several minutes, then got bored and leaped off in another direction.
Since I have a computer down at the cabin, I was able to work and do laundry at the same time. And gaze out into the wilderness, and watch the birds, and do everything that I could do to prolong the real work. It was a busy day on the trail below, and I heard several groups of hikers, and saw one set of backpackers. Their campfire smoke filled the upper valley early this morning.
After dinner I wandered on up to Aspen's meadow to take a look at the building thunderheads. They were quite impressive. Then I realized that I needed to take a REAL picture of them, so I ran on back to the cabin, gathered up my camera gear, and raced down the hillside to a viewpoint nearby that has a great view to the east.
I passed within three feet of the whip-poor-will on her nest and she never moved an inch. What a beautiful bird! I moved slowly past her to get a good look. I knew about the weird shape, but didn't realize what incredible markings she would have. Aspen flew right on by and never noticed.
The thunderheads had gathered on the horizon and looked pretty good. I shot a couple rolls of film, then sat back and quietly waited for the setting sun to light them up. I didn't have time to get properly dressed, and when the no-see-ums and mosquitoes came out and started to bite, they took a toll on my bare legs, feet and arms. No matter, the breathtaking sight of the wilderness spread out below was worth it.
It was actually kind of nice to just sit back and relax for a few minutes, with nothing to do but enjoy. The forest below was quiet, except for the many bird songs that drifted up. Then a pair of swallows came whizzing by. And a summer tanager flew up and perched on a nearby twig. And later, just as the woods below grew dark and the clouds were beginning to light up, a pack of coyotes began to howl way up Whitaker Valley. Hadn't heard any of them in a while. Their music echoed throughout the wilderness, and was a fine accompaniment to the light show above.
Unfortunately, by the time the clouds got this really brilliant orange, they had drifted far off to the east and were not very large, so no picture. I was glad to have had the time though, just to sit and be entertained.
Looks like it will be tomorrow before I get to dig into the first section of the book. It seems that all the little things in this book production business take up all your time, and are the most work. The meat of the book will be a pure joy to put together, so it is fitting that I will get started on it on a Monday, my favorite day of the week. I've got a few more hours of tweaking on the jacket and other work to do tonight, and it sounds like I have another whip-poor-whill just outside my office window for company, so the clock will strike midnight before I know it. Hey, the moon will be up and shining bright for my hike home tonight! (As I am typing this last little bit, there is a whip-poor-will right outside my open window that is BLASTING his song to me - oh, the peace and quiet of the wilderness...)
5/22/00 This morning I beat the whip-poor-will up, and was sitting in the hot tub when she began her morning song. The sky was clear, except for a few pink clouds hanging around the moon, which was straight up in the southern sky, and about two-thirds full. As I was walking through the cool forest this morning I thought it funny that the very same bird sound can either be "blasting" or "singing," depending on your mood. Of course, most music can be that way too I guess.
HELP WANTED - I need to find a couple of pictures. If you are in Arkansas and know of either of these, please send me an e-mail right away: A nest filled with Robin eggs - would need to be someplace where I can get a good view from up above the nest, within two feet of it, and close to the ground if possible. ALSO, a lake or pond with a SOLID cover of some type of water lilies in bloom - would need to be at least several hundred square feet of flowers, and a spot with water level of less than four feet deep (so that I could set up my tripod - out in the middle of a lake would not work - right next to the bank would be ideal).
SCREEN SAVER AVAILABLE.
I know many of you have requested a screen saver with my photos. While
I don't have anything like that, you can get one here on the net by logging
onto the following site: http://www.summitbankdirect.com
This bank in Hot Springs is
making a screen saver with my images available to the public (I sold them
the rights to use the images). All you have to do is sign on and become
a "Peak User," which is nothing more than giving them your zip code (no
address or name). I found it a bit awkward to find the screen saver at
first, but the trick is to log on, then log off again, then the next time
you log on, you will be able to download the screen saver. It is available
in both Mac and that other operating system that most of you use. There
are ten of my images included, and they will have ten more available later
on. Good luck, and enjoy!
Most of my day was spent in the office, putting together the first part of the picture book. I really love doing all of the design work, but getting everything set up and ready to go is very time consuming. After four hours of this I was finally ready to turn on the light table and look at some pictures.
I had already separated the early spring images from the rest, and knew about how many I needed for the book. I laid them all out on the table, and just began to pick one image after another. It was like magic, and within ten minutes I had the first section all laid out. I don't really know about complementary colors and what is supposed to go with what and all that stuff, I just reach for a picture that looks good with another one until I am finished. Wow, all of that buildup and only ten minutes and it's done!
Well, actually just the layout was done. And I spent another two hours tweaking the layout. Then had to sit down and write captions for them all. It was a long day, but it felt good to have finally gotten it all started.
5/23/00 The wind blew hard all night, and that combined with all of the images in my head from the book, didn't allow much sleep. I was up and at it again around 5am. Once the sun came up and got restless and went and got my camera bag and headed out to try to find a mayapple apple picture. I had shot it with the digital camera, but never with my real one. I did find a great shot, but the wind blew and blew. I shot a few images anyway, then returned to the office.
Soon the hot tub repair man showed up and we spent an hour or two getting it up and running - yea!!! Then it was off to town for me to get some film processed.
I don't use any fancy names in my books when describing a particular flower, tree or plant - just the common names. But there were a number of images that would end up in the book that I had no idea what they were. So I called on the experts for a little help.
I drove up to the Ozark Natural Science Center between Huntsville and Eureka Springs. They are a great educational facility, and some of the most educated outdoor folks in the region work there. I walked in with an arm load of images and a light table. It was sort of like the old "ducks on a June bug" thing as they crowded around the little light table, pointing and shouting out this or that Latin name. Yea, right - they were quite literally speaking a different language. One of the text books that they were digging through to find an ID was four or five inches thick! I just stood back and watched, and tried to learn a little something.
When it was all over, I had most of the dozen or so images in question all figured out - the common names. The only ones that were left were all fern pictures. Ferns are very difficult to figure out, unless I had the spores. Sorry, I didn't collect any spores. So don't be surprised when you open the picture book and see a caption something like "ferns, ferns, and more ferns" instead of specific names.
While I was out there I discovered the identity of one of the species of wildflowers that is growing down below the cabin. They are part of a "native Ozark wildflower" mix that I bought from a place in Durham and planted last summer. The Science Center had planted the very same mix, and it turns out that many of the "native Ozark wildflowers" in that mix are far from native. That was somewhat of a relief (since I had been unable to find them in any wildflower book), and somewhat disappointing - I have touted the merits of the wildflower place for several years now, but must be more careful in the future.
Speaking of wildflower books, they had a new book at the center that is better than any other wildflower book that I have ever seen. I have grown weary of trying to locate flowers in the standard "Wildflowers of Arkansas" by Carl Hunter. Carl is a genius for sure, but the book is rather difficult to use for us lay people. It has all of the wildflower in it for sure, but you often have to look through the entire book hoping you will spot what you are looking for.
The new book is called "Ozark Wildflowers: A Field Guide to Common Ozark Wildflowers." Published by Falcon press, it was written, and more importantly PHOTOGRAPHED by a terrific photographer Don Kurz. I highly recommend this book, if only to look at the terrific pictures!
Speaking of pictures, here is the image of the western daisies and the old weathered log that I shot in the glade the other day:
While I was back in town to pick up my processed film, I realized that it was 94 degrees outside - yikes! And it is only May. I fled town as soon as possible and returned to the cooler confines of Cloudland. The temp had topped out at 83 degrees, which is still a bit warm for this time of the year.
I spent the remainder of the evening at the light table, mounting and editing the new pictures. Then got to slip into the hot tub under a sky filled with a million stars. It is great to have the tub back up and running once again. Now I will be able to get the book finished (I get addicted to my hot tub, and just don't feel right when it is out of order).
5/24/00 Up about 5am once again this morning. No wind at all, but clear blue skies, and high humidity. The half moon that was looking down on me in the steaming bubbles was way low in the southern sky. It is a bit odd how the moon is so far in the south right now and the sun is so far in the north.
I spent the entire morning writing up little stories and facts about each of the images in the first section of the book. I want this book to include more than just captions. Sometimes a bit about how the picture was taken, or an interesting fact about the plant or flower or the area where it was taken. And I spent a lot of time pouring over several different guidebooks to make sure that I got the common name just right. One book will list a name one way, and another one a different way. It mostly has to do with one word or two word spellings (like honeylocust for example, or is it honey locust? My books have it both ways.). In the end it really doesn't matter all that much, but I want to be as correct as I can.
Got a good start on the book so far, but still a long way to go.
By early afternoon I had to get out and take a few pictures. It was a bit overcast, and there was this cactus down near the Crag that I wanted to shoot. Naturally, as soon as I got there the sun came out. No matter, I was able to get a good shot of this cactus with some bright green growth sprouting. They don't bloom around here this time of the year - later in the summer. It was kind of difficult working with the camera gear in the heat and humidity - sweat kept dripping onto the camera.
On the way back to the office I spotted a group of horsemint that was being visited by about a dozen bright orange butterflies. It was hot, but I wanted to take a crack and getting a picture of the butterflies. So I made up a plan, hiked to the cabin, then returned to the mint and spent the next hour taking pictures with my small camera and longer lens. The plan was that I would keep cool by sipping on an orange daiquiri. And I must say that the plan worked pretty good! What a setup I had - me standing there next to my tripod with cable release in one hand, mug of daiquiris in the other hand, and the superdog acting as butterfly wrangler - he would chase them back into my view if they tried to wander off. The wind was blowing so I probably didn't get any good pictures, but I had a good time and needed the break from the computer.
Late in the evening I heard thunder. Then everything went black. My computer had a battery backup that will let me continue to work for a few minutes, but I was scanning in images for the second section of the book, and the scanner would not operate, so I just shut everything down and returned to the cabin. I was all hyped up and ready to work long into the night (it was 10pm then), but my plan was foiled because the power remained off.
There was quite a big storm that rolled in though, with lots of lightening, heavy rain, and some incredible THUNDER! The very bedrock in the area shook, which rattled the cabin a bit as well. I sat around for a while in the candlelight, but eventually decided the power was off for a while, so I went to bed.
5/25/00 About a half inch of rain total. Lots of tree limbs down from the strong winds. Still no power at daylight - that was a big disappointment, especially because I REALLY had to get back to work! I spent some time digging through boxes in the warehouse looking for a slide that I wanted to include in the book (via flashlight), and boxed up the week's book orders for UPS, then with nothing left for me to do, I went on a hike.
It was a short hike around the mountain - everything was very wet - and there were lots of branches down everywhere. We snuck past the whip-poor-will, but when we came back she had flown off, so I snapped a picture of the two eggs that she was guarding.
FINALLY, just before noon, the power came back on, and I hit the computer. By dark I had all of the images for the second section of the book all scanned in, sized and placed. Lola rolled in soon after that to spend the weekend. She is also going to edit all of the text for the book (she has been a magazine and newspaper editor for a long time). Since I have to get the book FINISHED this weekend, it will be a long work weekend. Aren't the rest of you going on holiday or something? No complaints here - I love putting together a new picture book!
5/26/00 Mrs. whip-poor-will started singing sometime around 5am. I crawled out of bed a few minutes later, and after a short soak in the tub, hiked on up to the office and fired up the computer. I am in the middle of writing the captions for the second section this morning, followed by the text for that section. That is my goal for today, to get the second section finished, and perhaps some of the third and final section worked out.
I did an initial image count last night for that last section and found that I was about four images short. Oh I have literally tens of thousand of images that would work already shot, but there are still a couple of scenes that I really want to include in this book that I have not shot yet. So I may try to slip away some time this weekend and head south and get them taken, if I can find what I need.
One thing about this book project that has been especially enjoyable is that for the first time I am scanning the images in color, and they look just terrific on the new giant digital computer screen (the main reason why I invested in this screen was for book projects just like this one). I am not able to go through the book and see the color ad detail in the images at almost the same size as the final book will be, which has been really nice!
I just looked around the office and counted no less than twelve reference books that I have been using to make sure that I get all the names correct. And I just realized that one of the books that I am using for reference is one of my own trail guides!
It is cloudy, windy and a bit dark outside today, with a chance of more rain.
OZARKS AT LARGE tonight on KUAF radio at 6pm, or webcast at http://www.KUAF.com. The interview done at Cloudland last week is supposed to be on, although I don't know if she finished the story or not, and if so, how much of the interview will be included (perhaps only a minute or so).
(THE REST OF MAY was somewhat
of a blur for me. It is June 2nd now, and I have not had the time to do
a journal update, but will get through it now as best as I can. It has
been a very long and exhaustive few days, but the sun came up this morning
and I am finished with the book project at last.)
I spent the rest of Friday in
the office working on the book. When I would get a section finished, I
would run it down the hill and pass it on to Lola, who would get to work
with the editing. We had a quick dinner and then went back to work.
(The KUAF interview from Cloudland did not air. I hope they do it sometime in the future, but at this point I feel a little like I cried wolf, so I probably won't mention it again. Thank to those of you who tuned in via the web and reported that the sound quality of thier broadcast was very good.)
Sometime during the evening, the power went out and a HUGE storm blew in. I mean a really big storm. We fired up the candles, but could do no more work. Lola wanted to work on by candle light, but I saw it as a sign to take a break.
Just before the power went out, Ony Banning (a board member of my hiking club) and a friend of hers showed up. They had planned to spend the weekend on the river, but said the campground were super crowded, so they escaped to the woods to get away from all the crowds. Must be a holiday weekend huh. I sent them on up to the tipis to camp for the night. I have not heard what ever happened to them, but their car was gone the next morning, so I assume they survived the storm.
The wind picked up, as did the rain, and hail. An inch of rain in about twenty minutes. Then the power came back on again. Just in time for us to look outside and see the world passing by at MORE THAN 50MPH! It topped out at 53mph, but was blowing a constant 50+mph for quite a while, not just gusts. And the sky was filled with light - while we never saw many actual bolts, it thundered and shook and remained light outside for nearly TWO HOURS! One of the most incredible electric storms I have ever been in. And I say been in because at one point the giant storm had literally engulfed the cabin. It was both a scary and terrific experience. The cabin held up great.
5/27/00 We did survive it all, and much to my surprise, there did not appear to be much damage outside. Winds of that strength have a way of taking out a lot of trees. The power remained on all night, so we didn't have to eat everything in the frige for breakfast. The rain total for the night was just over three inches - very nice.
But we didn't get to hang around long, because I had a photo trip to do. We quickly packed everything up and sped away, just as it began to pour. Only three trees down across the road between the cabin and the highway (nine miles). We could get around the first two, but the third one was right across the road. Oops, I didn't have a chain saw. But I did have this neat saw that I carry in the back of the truck, and it looked like I could cut out enough of the top of the tree for us to go around the rest by driving up into the woods a bit. So I got out in the rain and sawed away.
It took me about twenty minutes, but I did manage to get a path cleared. And as luck would have it, just as I got the last part cut, two cars drove up. Neither had a better saw, but they did help us move everything out of the way. I really should carry a small chain saw with me.
It continued to rain all the way down south. Black skies followed us everywhere. But I was on a mission, and pushed ahead. Unlike the normal nature photographer luck, the rain STOPPED about five minutes before we reached the first destination - a blooming cactus plant. I was actually able to get out and photograph this lovely bloom without getting drenched. You see, I had taken this nice picture of a cactus down near the Crag the other day, but really needed a bloom to go with it, since the cactus up here in the mountain don't bloom for a while yet. The cactus that a friend e-mailed me about down south had a number of blooms on it, but the plant itself was not all that attractive. So I had planned to put a picture of the plant on one page, and one of the bloom on the facing page.
Then the rains caught up with us. I still needed a pond or lake filled with lily flowers, but had no luck finding any such place. We stopped by my friend Ray and his wife Susan's place just outside of Little Rock. Aspen really liked their home, and their hospitality! And they had a bone waiting for him. Luck dog. It rained all during our visit, but began to let up some just as Ray took us to this incredible wildflower field near their place. It appeared that there were dozens of different wildflowers that either were blooming or would be in the near future - a gold mind for a nature photographer who lives just down the road! (Ray has become major competition for me, and is about to get one of his images published in National Geographic! I was tempting to steal several of the images of his that were on his light table and use them in the book, but I kept my hands in my pocket.)
Ray is in a rock and roll oldies band, and had to get to a gig, so he left us there, in the wind and the rain, with all of these great flowers around. Lola got to become a prized photo assistant as she spent the better part of the next hour holding the umbrella over the camera while I tried (in vain) to shoot pictures. The rain was not a big deal, especially with my talented photo assistant on hand, but the wind would not let up, and I didn't really get any good pictures. I take that back, one image of these black-eyed Susans turned out pretty good (and ended up in the book), but I had to use my "double-exposure-blur technique" to get it to work.
On the way out of Little Rock we stopped by this backwater area along the Maumelle River that Randy Johnson from Pinnacle Mountain State Park told me about. Sure enough, there were dozens of pond lilies right there, but only one was in bloom. I spent about an hour wading out into the swamp, photographing and looking around. The rain stopped for a little bit, but it was an odd feeling being knee-deep out in all that water every time that the sky lit up. Hum, not many brains in my head huh. Lola stayed behind in the car and worked on the editing.
Rain, rain and more rain. It was obvious that we had finally gotten the rains that we so badly needed. Only problem for me was that while the waterfalls would be gushing, the waters were so high that they were muddy, which does not make for attractive waterfall pictures. And they were calling for clear skies the next several days, so it didn't look too good for waterfall pictures (I need overcast skies for good waterfall pictures - blue skies and all the harsh light pretty much ruins these types of pictures).
It was very late when we arrived back at the cabin. I returned to the office for more work, while Lola edited. Even though the heavy rains would not help my pictures any at this point, it was GREAT to get the water! The rivers below were simply raging, and were quite loud.
5/28/00 It was 5:10am when a whip-poor-will began to sing right outside the window. Hum, this was becoming a daily routine. But that was OK, because I had to get up and work anyway. So after a quick pre-dawn dip in the hot tub, I hiked on up to the cabin and sat down in front of the computer.
But I soon returned to the cabin because there was this most incredible fog bank down in the valley. Classic Cloudland. Lola had never witnessed it like this before. During the long drive home the night before, I had calculated that I needed ONE more picture for the book. The scene from the back deck looking out into the wilderness was one of the more incredible I've ever seen (my editor tells me that I say "most incredible" a lot, so I need to watch that).
So out came the camera gear, and I snapped away. I also still needed an image for the Cloudland Book Journal jacket cover, so I set up a second camera in a different location and took pictures with it as well. This scene really was nice, hung around for a long time, and I shot a lot of film. I'm sure it was funny to watch me running from one level to the other (where my two cameras were set up) - one series of pictures from the big camera on the upper deck, then another series with the little camera on the lower deck, and on and on. It was a wonderful scene - did I mention that? OK, picture done, now back to the office.
As predicted, the sun rose into a bright blue sky, with not a cloud in sight. That was probably just as well, since if it had been cloudy, I would have been antsy to get out and take waterfall pictures, when I really needed to WRITE and get the book finished. And so I wrote on, not worrying about how many great pictures I was missing.
Ray and Susan drove in sometime in the late morning. Their main goal of their visit was to fix us a wonderful dinner tonight, and to get a little hiking done in the process. While we were all lounging around the back deck (a nice break), it soon became grand central station. At one point, there were something like twenty or thirty folks on the various decks. Bob brought a group by. Scott and Carolyn and Scott's sister came out. And I don't recall who else, but there were a lot of bodies milling around. It was a spectacular spring day, with stereo river below, and a number of kayakers coming down the river.
Ray and Susan wandered off to tour Dug Hollow (they discovered a new route), and Lola and I were eventually left all alone at the cabin. An opportunity for a nice romantic moment at last! Nope - I had my blinders on and went right back to work.
When the Dug Hollow couple returned, we all took a few minutes off to hang out on the back deck and have a pitcher or two of daiquiris with snacks. Then the three of them headed out for a hike to the Crag, while I went back to the computer. (Before we all parted company, I took them down to see the whip-poor-will sitting on the nest.)
Later in the evening, after everyone gathered back at the cabin once again, our guests cooked up this most amazing shrimp dinner! They are certainly welcome back anytime!!! And Lola had prepared a wonderful chocolate cream pie - now how can a guy work with such heavenly delights around? It was a time to sit back and relax, but I was only able to do that physically, because my mind was racing with book details. There was still a great deal to be done. We had finished up all the shrimp, but there was pie left - hum - I planned a midnight attack...
5/29/00 No need to set an alarm. My little whip-poor-will gal began to wail at about 5:15am. Followed by a woodpecker, and then a summer tanager singing a lovely tune. Soon we were all out on the back deck, sipping coffee, munching of blueberry biscuits, and watching a display of bird everywhere. Then it was time for the Memorial holiday to begin - Ray and Susan took off for Dug Hollow once again, Lisa went back to editing, and I returned to the computer. We had heard that the Buffalo River was raging all weekend - most of it closed - and there were reports of it being seven feet above the low-water bridge at Ponca.
OK, I finally got all of the captions and stories written for the book, and then got to work on the chapter intros and other text. Lola had been doing a terrific job of editing, but it soon became obvious that I was not going to be able to make the changes in the computer file in a timely fashion, so she volunteered to do that as well. She can edit lightening fast, but making the changes to the file would take a lot longer. So she worked on that, and I wrote, brining her each new section to edit. It was getting to be crunch time now, for if I simply had to get everything written with time for Lola to edit before the end of the day.
We took a few minutes off when Ray and Susan returned from their adventure, had a bite to eat, then went back to work. It was another bright, sunny day outside, with not a cloud in sight, so no problem with me working inside!
It was after 10pm when we finally shut down the computers. The book was not complete, but the bulk of it was wrapped up, and EDITED!
For those of you who don't know, editors have these special marks that they make on a page - kind of like shorthand. And sometimes they will even make two marks for each change. Like, for instance, if they want to delete a word, they will strike through it and draw a line out to the side and make a special "delete" symbol. Needless to day, several of the pages that Lola worked on were FILLED with these marks! I would say that an average would be maybe twenty or thirty marks per page - yikes! She kept telling me that most of them were little things and nothing major, and that I probably would not even notice that she had done anything. I was afraid to look very close, and just told her to do whatever necessary to make it look right. I would read the edited version at a later date, like when the book came out. After doing it for twenty years, I figured she knew what she was doing.
So we finally made it to the end of a relaxing holiday weekend, and both fell into bed, exhausted.
5/30/00 I finally found a way to take care of that whip-poor-will - I got up at 3:30am and left the cabin long before she had the chance to wake me up! I found out about this swamp filled with water lilies that were in bloom right now, and could not resist the temptation to shoot one last picture. Only problem was that I HAD to get my film processed TODAY, and the swamp was a ways off. So I decided to get there before sunrise (sun would ruin the shot), then drive on to Fayetteville and get my film processed, and return to the cabin later in the day and get the new pictures (from the weekend) selected and scanned into the book file.
Even though I had not gotten much sleep over the weekend, it was an easy drive. That was until I pulled into Turner Bend store to let some guy around me - I don't like to drive through the mountains with someone on my tail at 4:30 in the morning. As I came to a stop, I realized that the guy tailgating me was a cop, and he put his flashers and spotlight on - woke everyone in the campground up I'm sure. I don't speed, nor break other traffic laws, so I knew I hadn't done anything wrong.
"Where are you headed?" He looked a little pissed when I told him that I was going "to take a picture at a swamp before sunrise." "Why did you pull in here?" he asked. " To let YOU around me!" He was not amused. "Got any weapons?" He happened to see my State Police conceal carry permit in my wallet when I got out my license, but I did not have any firearms with me. I said "just my dog and my tripod." I know that cops have a tough job, but this jerk had no reason to pull me over. Sometimes they just get on this kick of thinking that they are God or something and enjoy harassing us little people. There was absolutely nothing that he could do with me but let me go after checking that I was who I said I was. I guess he eventually figured that even a drunk could not make up a story like "going to take pictures of a swam before sunrise."
After following some great directions that were e-mailed to me by a friend from Ft. Smith, I was standing calf deep in swamp water, surrounded by hundreds of lilies, and had made it before sunrise, despite my run-in with the law. It was a terrific scene as promised, but none of the lilies were open. I realized that they probably close up during the night - stupid me. All that fuss and I got there at the wrong time. So I developed this elaborate plan to return later in the day - just before sunset when the light would be good - then take the film back to Fayetteville for processing overnight, picking it back up again the next afternoon.
On my way out of the area I did manage to find and photograph this most incredible wild rose - they have been super this spring, and this bush was one of the best. Then I sped, uh, drove on up to Fayetteville and got my film to the lab.
Sometime during the day, after talking with an expert on water flowers, I found out that they are only open during the MIDDLE of the day. So back down south I drove, to the swamp, where I hoped to find the blooms fully open. My heart sank when I got to the scene - there were only a couple of the flowers open, and none completely. This water lily is an incredible (there is that word again) wildflower, which I really wanted in my book, but I didn't want to show it only half open.
At that moment, standing in the muck of the swamp, I decided that the photo part of the book was OVER! And what a huge relief it was. For the very first time in the past three months, I didn't have to worry with the weather, the wind, the rain, the sun, nor spend every waking moment looking for that special flash of color. Wow, it felt TERRIFIC!
It was late when I returned to the cabin. I spent the next few hours going through the film from the past weekend of shooting. The cactus turned out very good - both the plant and the flower. The fog scene at the cabin was a winner. And several others were good. Even though I was about to drop from exhaustion, I spent the last hour of May - and of spring - over the light table and at the computer, and did not shut everything down until the last image was scanned in and placed in the book file. At last, even though it would take another very long day of technical work, the book was complete!
5/31/00 The "natural" alarm went off right on schedule about 5:10am. I slipped into the hot tub and tried to wake up, but it was tough because there was no mocha in the house. It was going to be a clear, bright, sunshine kind of a day outside. I spent the ENTIRE day at the computer, putting together all of the things that must go with the book files to the printer. It took me four hours just to label all of the transparencies and get their technical info all typed up. And I went through the entire book several times, making little corrections here and there as I went along. It was another long day, and I finally shut down the computer near midnight.
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