Cloudland Deck Cam, 2/29/04, 10:27am, dark and gloomy - come on RAIN!

2/2/04 What a terrific view out the window this morning! Nothing but fog, thick pea soup. We got some light rain during the night, but not much. Of course, the national weather service was predicting heavy rain, ice and snow all day yesterday, and, of course, it was nothing but sunshine!

We had a great Ozark Highlands Trail Association hike over on the Sylamore District yesterday, and since the forecast was nothing but gloom and doom most of the crowd that had called in to attend (about 50-60 folks) did not show up, but we did have a nice group of 19 folks who braved the sunshine. Since we are so far behind on rainfall this winter, the waterfalls we wanted to visit were mostly bone dry, or nearly so. But all of these areas are quite scenic anyway, so the hike was a lot of fun (especially considering all of that terrible sunshine we had, oops, I mean rain, snow and ice).

The Little Glory Hole

I left the cabin around 5am to drive over for the hike, and while that was plenty of time for me to get to the trailhead early, I was slowed down by a spectacular sunrise, or actually those precious wonderful moments of glorious color just before sunrise. I was driving between Yellville and Mtn. Home, and while the sky was just marvelous, and there were many trees silhouetted on top of hills, I could not find a good scene to shoot from the roadway that did not involve trespassing (which I try to never to do). I had to stop and turn around several times to go back and survey a scene, but only once found an interesting spot to shoot, and I was just a few minutes late for it to be really great, but also about ten minutes early - if I had been able to wait just a little bit longer, I could have captured a really nice sunrise scene reflected in a pond, but I had to get to the trailhead. As it was I shot a few exposures of the curved layer of ice that arched out into the middle of the pond. All the while my McGriddle was cooling down on the seat of the truck, but I don't like my food hot anyway, so it was just fine.

Ice on the pond in the pre-dawn color (you should really see this one in high resolution!)

2/3/04 Got to go on another nice ramble yesterday afternoon, just me and the dogs, out along the side of the mountain to the north of our cabin. It was cool and crisp and cloudy, but not much wind. The hiking was easy, and the views were wonderful. I took a route along the outside edge of a wide bench, and could walk along and look down onto not only one, but two other benches below. With the lighting the way it was (overcast), I could see many fine details of the forest landscape down there, and often times I had to come to a complete halt or risk running right into a big tree in front of me because my attention was focused on the bench below. How wonderful it is to just wander around and LOOK at all there is to see! I discovered some large boulders that I had not noticed before - covered with thick carpets of soft, green moss. Heck one of them towered perhaps 20 feet above the ground below it, yet I could easily walk right out onto the top from up above.

As I got near the end of the ridge the entire expanse of the Buffalo River Valley where Dug Hollow meets it opened up before me, and I could see a long ways downstream towards Boxley Valley. There is another long ridge just across the way but still on our side of the Buffalo. The very end of that ridge has a great view of the canyons below, and is known locally simply as "The Point." I have not been over there in a while, but will make it a point to take a stroll and visit soon.

We had about three or four minutes of heavy snowfall early in the day - some really beautiful, fluffy, giant flakes coming down. And then, nothing, it was all done for the day. While most of it quickly soaked into the forest floor, there were still patches here and there that escaped - mostly just a white dusting tucked away in the folds of a large tree base. Just that little touch of white that caught me eye from time to time as I made my way through the landscape. Winter. Yes, I love winter in the Ozarks.

Later in the evening I had to hike up to the office to count some books. It had been dark for several hours, and I tucked a small flashlight into my pocket. Silly me. While the sky was still solid cloud cover, there was a bright 3/4 moon up there someplace that was beaming down the softest light you could ever imagine, and I had no trouble at all finding my way up to the office. While on my way back towards the cabin I took a detour and wound up hiking in the soft glow of filtered moonlight for a good long while. It was almost effortless, just drifting with the breezes here and there, with no real destination in mind. It was cold, but not really. The chill felt great.

Early this morning I spent the entire pre-dawn and sunrise hours glued to the computer, and while I looked up from time to time to enjoy the light show, I didn't take any photos. Sometimes you just have to be there and enjoy and not take pictures. I am confident that the scene will repeat itself and I will still be here - at least I hope so!

It was a very crisp morning here - the ground was covered with a thin layer of ice, or rather just thick frost. When Pam and I hiked up to the office for a long morning of chores it was CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH all the way. But that BRIGHT sun was up and there were millions of diamonds along the way.

A few hours later when we emerged from the office to head down to the cabin for lunch the fairyland was gone - everything was brown and gray and QUIET - the leaves were damp from the melted frost, and only whispered as we passed.

We had another incredible visitor for a few moments today. A HUGE bald eagle came soaring right over Mom's meadow - in between the gazebo and the cabin, down low, right at eye level. By the time I had grabbed my camera a second eagle had joined him, and the pair were doing loops right there in front of us. I was not able to get my camera mounted on a tripod, but instead decided to simply shoot a few quick snapshots handheld before they disappeared. Sure enough, within seconds they had disappeared - even before I stepped outside to try to get a better shot. So NO, I did not get the one great soaring eagle shot from Cloudland that I had wanted so bad all this time, but I DID get something! I hope you can get some sense from this photo how huge this bird is - one of the largest I have ever seen. Easily the wingspan is more than six feet. What a magnificent critter he is!

Pre-dawn color for just a few moments, then all gray

2/4/04 It's 10pm tonight, and A GIANT clap of thunder just rattled the cabin, along with some incredible lightning outside. And it is 30 degrees with snow on the ground! How weird it that? If you had been looking at the national weather service radar today you would have thought that we got a foot of snow - we were covered with snow all day long. In reality not a single flake or drop came down until after 4pm. I used to be able to trust the radar over all else, but these days it seems the radar is getting so sophisticated that it will pick up stuff that really isn't there, or at least stuff that is way up in the clouds and never makes it to the ground.

Just about the time we did begin to get some snow coming down, I headed out the door for a hike. Within about 60 seconds the ground was completely covered with snow - the flakes were that large. I had to cinch up the drawstrings on my hood to bring it close to me to keep the blowing snow out, at least that was the plan.

Few footsteps I have ever taken that were as nice as hiking in the snow today. It was quiet - not a single sound at all anywhere - except for the constant sizzle of the snow hitting the ground. Normally you really have to listen long and hard to hear a snowflake hit, and even then you are not really sure if it was  all in your head or not. But today there was no problem hearing it. Sounded a lot like pouring down rain. And in fact it SMELLED like rain too.

These were really large flakes, some of them as large as quarters and even Kennedy halves. Really. You've seen them. Today the air was filled with them. I don't think it was the large flakes that were making the noise, but rather all the little ones in between - some of them were even "snail" - a cross between snow and hail, sort of compacted snow pellets. They would splat and sizzle when they hit the ground. It was a marvelous sound indeed.

Lucy getting covered with the big flakes

Before too long I found myself standing at the edge of the cliff and gazing out at Hawksbill Crag. The canyon was filled with blowing snow, and I could hardly see Beagle Point across the way. Man, I wish I had a video camera to capture those giant flakes streaking across the scene way out there. It was mesmerizing to stand and watch. The wind was blowing hard, and I was careful to hold on while near the edge. I suspect there will be some photographers out in the morning trying to get the classic snow scene there. All the snow may be gone by then, or ice-coated, as it has begun to sleet here tonight.

The Crag in the snow

Aspen on the trail

On my way back up the trail I came across one of the deciduous holly trees - the ones with all of those bright red berries. I tried to shoot some photos of the berries but the wind was blowing so hard I could not stop the action. I turned into the wind, bundled up even more, and strode gracefully through the forest towards our cabin, where I was greeted with a blazing fire and my family.

YIKES, another huge lightning strike just rattled the cabin! I hope it all turns to rain, and lots of it tonight. Or snow - I'm easy. As long as it is moisture, we need a lot of moisture. That last one boomed and echoed on and on and on forever. Sounds like a big summer thunderstorm out there...

2/6/04 We ended up with 1-3 inches of snow/slush/ice on the ground yesterday. It continued to sleet a little bit most of the day, but the temps were warm enough - just above freezing - that not much of the ice gathered in the trees. I drove out to the mailbox in the afternoon, and while I was able to make it, I slipped and slid most of the way.

Amber and I (and eventually Pam) got out Santa's main gift this year for the first time - a beautiful six-foot long wooden toboggan, with a bright-red pad running the full length. We didn't have to go far to put it to good use. I drug Amber on it all the way up the hill to the office, then the two of us sped on back down to the cabin (tough to learn to steer one of those things!). I think that was easily the most and loudest that I have ever heard my daughter laugh and giggle! She had a blast, as did I.

Then I disappeared into the office while the girls continued on, making several more runs. I could hear shouts of glee echo through the forest for a good long while.

We had heavy fog for much of the day here, so could not see out much, yet the it was not cold enough for the fog to turn into hoar frost and cling to the branches.

After speaking with a number of folks "down" in civilization, it became obvious that we got a lot more snow and ice up here in the mountains than everyone else did. We were told that Jasper got a solid three inches, and they in fact cancelled basketball games and other stuff for Friday night already on Wednesday night. And I had to make the difficult decision to cancel a program that I was scheduled to give in Morrilton today - I figured the roads would freeze solid overnight and I just didn't want to risk it with both of my ladies with me. Sure enough, sometime during the night the dripping stopped and everything froze solid. The roads out here were nothing but solid sheets of ice (and still are later this morning). So I was glad I cancelled that program, which I think is only the second program I have ever cancelled in more than 20 years of doing this.

Sometime yesterday while slipping and sliding down the hill - and also down a flight of steps that I slipped and fell down - I hurt my back, or actually my  neck. I'm hoping it is just a pinched nerve, but I was in severe pain most of yesterday and last night. It isn't much better this morning. Poor Amber. Pam got a severe sinus headache yesterday, and so here was Amber out of school on a snow day, and had no one to play with! She did get to play in the snow with us in the morning though. School is closed once again today.

Right now (mid-morning) the temp is about 28 degrees, and it is really hazy/foggy out there a little ways. We can see Beagle Point and up the canyons a little bit, but not clearly. There is no wind, and the only movements are the hundreds of birds right outside the windows munching down on birdseed.

Wipeout!

2/7/04 There is the softest snowfall coming down this morning, and it looks like it has been coming down all night long - perhaps an inch of new snow is on the ground. While it is very dry snow and not sticking to the tree branches, it is still a fairyland outside with all of that white stuff floating down to earth.

The temp yesterday never got above 28, and in fact dropped slowly most of the day into the low 20's. The roads around here never melted or cleared off a bit, and in fact were very slick and hazardous. Walking on it was also tough, although the girls were able to get out Santa's sleigh and make numerous runs down the hill in front of the cabin.

Later in the day there was a knock at the door - two Amish men peered inside. It was Carlin and Martin, who had worked on building our cabin many moons ago. They were delivering a load of log siding to us, and had just come back from Colorado with it. Only problem was there were no logs in sight, nor their truck. They had gotten stuck while trying to make it to our cabin, stuck really bad. In fact their rig was blocking the road and no one else could get in or out, although as bad as the roads were probably no one was trying. Four hours later, they were pulled to freedom, and I must say, the guys who did it were masters.

As is always the case when a bunch of good old boys get together, everyone piled out of their rigs and spend a few minutes surveying the situation, and talking about how one would do it this way and another would do it differently. The guys that the Amish men called in from Berryville knew exactly what they were doing - certainly masters at their craft. Not only was the Amish truck stuck in about 3 feet of now frozen mud, but also their 25' long log trailer was too, and both were pushed up against the side of the bank. Getting the rig unstuck was just part of the dilemma - they wanted to do it without damage to the expensive truck. It took them perhaps an hour to get it all figured out and set up, and when they were ready to pull the switch there were pulleys strung up in trees and cables running all over the place. We all held our breaths (actually, since it was 23 degrees no one wanted to breath in that frigid air anyway), as the craftsman put power to their setup, and inch by inch the big rig slowly was pulled right on out of the mud - sideways! I was quite impressed. These guys really knew what they were doing.

One of the guys who had stopped to watch all of this yesterday made a comment to me about how it must be nice to not have to ever work - "you are just on vacation all the time." Yea, right. I only work seven days a week and then take all the rest off! News of what we are up to will slowly seep out from time to time on these pages, but I will tell you right now we are right at the beginning of the most aggressive, time consuming, and expensive load of book projects we have ever attempted. I'm not talking about just one or two books going on at the same time, but actually EIGHT book projects going on at the same time! Not all of them are ours, but we will be publishing all of them (very time consuming and costly), and are working closely with the other authors (actually three additional authors besides us). And one of the books that we're doing will most likely become the most important and best selling thing that we've ever done, and will combine photography with writing and guidebook skills (actually two of them will be like that - one for Arkansas, and one for Missouri). All of these projects we expect to be completed by the end of 2005. More news later on all of this, but I think you will be pleased with what we have to offer.

Still snowing here now, and coming down pretty heavy. There is just enough wind to push the snow back and forth on its way down - no longer just floating to the ground, but rather enjoying a roller-coaster ride all the way.

We did manage to get out of here on Saturday, but the road was solid ice and snow all the way out to the highway. We had a new inch of snow during the night Friday and I'm sure that helped since it coated the layer of ice on the road and helped the tires grip. Just as we were leaving the area the sun began to pop out, and man oh man it was one incredible scene out there - the trees were coated with ice, and then new snow on top. I stopped and got out and took a few photos, but nothing could capture that magical beauty. We went down to Hot Springs to see Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion show live, and it was a special treat indeed. It was so fun to see what all was going on in person - I've been listening to it on the radio for many, many years. He now has a copy of the Arkansas Wilderness picture book in his stash. It was a very long and grueling day, and we didn't get back home until about 11pm, but it was all worth it.

Looking up Whitaker Creek - that is not Hawksbill Crag, but another part of the bluff

Yesterday we had bright sunshine much of the day (and a beautiful pre-dawn sky!), and some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded at Cloudland - at least the wind chill temps. Sometime just before dawn our weather station recorded a wind chill of 24 degrees BELOW ZERO! The actual temp was 9 degrees, and the wind was howling. It was fun just to stand and watch the display: -8, -12, -3, -15, etc. Man it was COLD outside! And the wind chills remained below zero for several hours.

Pre-dawn yesterday - it just LOOKS cold!

And it was really fun watching all of the little birds outside at the feeders. There were probably 75-100 birds here, mostly juncos and finches (several different varieties), but also flickers and doves and bright red cardinals. We've got some doves that look downright hilarious in this sort of weather. They waddle around on the ground and look like hippos with their feathers are so puffed out. All five of the feeders are crowded (which includes two feeders attached to the windows next to the dining table - Aspen sits in "his" leather chair next to the window and just stares at his little friends), but the deck and ground also see a great deal of activity since many of the birds are really fussy and wind up tossing out most of the seed onto the ground. The trees and ground and deck were all alive with motion.

I was sitting there eating breakfast and watching all of this - the birds really don't pay too much attention to you in this cold, and you can get right next to the glass without scaring them. They can see in just fine. Right in the middle of all the congestion a sparrow of some sort landed - his feathers were all ruffled up - looked like he had been in a ballroom fight. He started out on the railing (which had an inch of crusted snow on it), and was almost immediately knocked off by two or three finches. Then he landed on the picnic table, and was attacked from all sides. Down onto the deck he went, and it was a free-for-all with feathers flying all over the place. This poor fellow was just not too well liked! Finally, he made it up onto the windowsill and then hopped up onto one of the feeders and started to chow down. Just then every single bird took off - the air was filled with feathers, and they were gone, no where in sight. I hadn't moved, nor did anyone inside the cabin. I got up and looked around and saw the Fat Cat coming around the corner of the deck.

I spent the day working on various projects, including sorting through more than 40,000 transparencies up at the office, trying to pick out 300 of them to send off to a publisher for a new book project. I know that a lot of you think we make a ton of money on these books, but just to give you an idea of what authors really make, my royalties for this new book will be fifty cents per book. Huh, really? Yep. Fifty big ones. Far and away the smallest slice of the pie goes to the author. That's quite a rip-off if you ask me, but that is the way the system has always worked and so you really don't have much choice. Now if you are John Grisham and sell millions of copies, those royalties add up in a hurry (and John gets a lot larger cut than the rest of us mortals), but for the small books like we do there isn't much in the pile. But that's OK, I do happen to love my job, and that is much more important to me than a big paycheck.

The pinched nerve in my neck seemed to get better and better as the day went on, and I even got out with Amber and had a run or two on the toboggan - the road was solid ice and REALLY slick! I didn't even bother to get out the camera and head out to shoot because the footing was so dangerous - you really had to dig in with each step if you could. I was happy to remain at the cabin all day and work as much as I could, and get in a little bit of play time. It was fun to listen to the radio show when it aired for a second time - the applause in the auditorium was so loud it drowned out much of what Garrison was saying. By the way, if you heard the broadcast this weekend, I must tell you that one of the greatest parts of the show was that twelve-year-old girl from Conway playing the fiddle - good grief she could PLAY! If you ever get a chance to see Garrison's program, I highly recommend it.

2/15/04 HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY a day late! Hope you had a good one. We had a wonderful one here at the cabin, although neither my bride nor I were able to really enjoy it until almost midnight - we both were swamped with things - business wise and other wise all day long. This is the first post in a week, which pretty much sums up how the week has gone - very long and hectic days with little or no free time. Of course, that's the way I like it!

The weather has been interesting all week long. While there was still a lot of snow and ice in the hills and on the roads from previous "weather," we did get one period of HEAVY snowfall, although it was brief. I think it was Wednesday afternoon, late, and all of a sudden the air was filled with white - huge, giant, silver-dollar-sized flakes. There was no wind at all, in fact it has not blown much at all since last Sunday when it was so cold. I was deep in a project on the computer but just had to get up and out for a short hike. It was magical indeed wandering around admist those giant flakes. I stopped several times just to listen. Much of the southern-exposed landscape around here was bare. The temp was nearly 40 degrees, but yet this heavy snow was coming down. When those soft dollars hit the warm and wet leaves, they melted instantly, which made a sizzling sound - really. Stop and lean up against a tree and close your eyes and block out everything in your brain - then you can hear the sizzle quite easily. I suspect some of the flakes were already nearly melted as they hit, having just fallen through all of that warm air.

We wound up with only about 1/2 inch of new snow on the ground that evening right here, although other parts of the mountain got several inches - up to six inches of new snow that stuck to the ground! In fact some of those places are still snow-covered, today, even on non north-facing slopes (snow remains a long time on north-facing slopes because the sun does not hit them directly to melt the snow, while south-facing slopes get direct sun all day long and the snow melts in a hurry - the ground on those slopes also remains warmer, while the north-facing slopes remain cooler and damper all winter long). I guess one reason why the snow piled up so deep in some areas was not the fact there was more snow coming down there, but because the ground was colder and frozen to begin with when the snow first hit, so the snow did not melt and could pile up. Over on our hill, with the ground so warm, most of the snow melted before it had a chance to pile up.

Walking around the area this morning I found many places on the north sides of trees and boulders were there was 1-2 inches of snow and ice still on the ground. In fact the lane that connects the East meadow with our orchard was still completely snow covered. In the winter it pays to live on the south side of the mountain! (unless you like snow and ice and cold)

We've had some odd critter things happen this week, with both the wild and tame kinds. Yesterday I heard a barred owl calling out just before dark - hadn't heard one here in a good long while. And the other day we heard all sorts of birds singing - just like they do in the spring and summer here. I followed some of the strangest critter tracks in the snow this morning - looked like three-toed sloth tracks to me, but I doubt there are any of them here! After looking at the mammal tracks section in the ARKANSAS DAYHIKES FOR KIDS & FAMILIES guidebook, I think what I saw were armadillo tracks, although they don't normally come out in the cold, so what the heck was this guy doing? It would be funny to see one of them hiking around on the snow.

Both Aspen and Lucy came home one day almost totally covered with mud, from head to toe. In fact their faces were solid mud, with only their eyes poking out. Someone had been digging, and I mean way down into the earth! They looked so funny with all of that dried dirt all over their faces. Hum, I wonder if they were digging up armadillos?

We've been having a  problem with our turtle. She is supposed to eat a small fish once every two or three days. When we bought her there were no "feeder" fish at any of the pet stores. We ended up buying a handful of small goldfish from Wal Mart - a huge investment at .10 each. The turtle ate a couple of them the first week, but has not touched any of them since. We thought that perhaps the little goldfish were just too large for her, so when the pet store did get a supply of the even smaller feeder fish, we brought home a bath of them as well (.12 each). But the turtle has not eaten a single one of them. We had only planned on one turtle and a few temporary feeder fish in this tank, but now we have the turtle and MANY fish! We also added a large snail, which has been a lot of fun to watch. Only problem is that the turtle does not like the snail, and will often swim over to it and knock it off the wall, then push the snail back into a corner of the tank. It is a very large snail, about the size of a golf ball. Children, children, we must get along!

Hum, what's for dinner?

Speaking of children, ours had her very first dance at school the other day. She is quite a cutie, just like her momma.

Speaking of her momma, I spent much of the day yesterday working on her Valentine's Day present, and just about got it finished. I might add that this present was for LAST YEAR, but I am just now getting around to producing it. It is a drawing room/studio for her to draw and paint pastels in. Even though the following photo makes the room look pretty large, it really isn't, but the location of the room on the southeast corner of the cabin and all of those windows has already made this room our favorite room in the cabin. The Amish crew who built the cabin six years ago has been doing most of the work - I have just been so swamped with work that I have not had the time to mess with it. But I did put in the floor yesterday - first floor I have ever installed. Not sure if we are going to call this the drawing room, studio, sun room, or what. The Amish still have work to do inside and outside, but Pam will be working in there starting today. The outside is lodge pole pine and the inside is aspen (the wood, not the dog). One wall will be just for artwork, with nice track lighting. With all of those windows and the skylight, it will be warm in the summer and cool in the winter, but I think you'll find us in there a lot - that is if Pam will let me in!

Speaking of my lovely bride, for those of you in the Fayetteville area you might stop by the Bank of Fayetteville main bank on the square this week. Pam's canoe sunrise pastel is on display there as part of an exhibit for students in the Fayetteville Adult Education courses. In fact it's the very first painting in line. I highly recommend it, but I guess I am just a little bit biased. I am very proud of her, and look forward to seeing more of her work now that she actually has a place to draw/paint.

This morning it is clear and smoky outside, with bright sunshine. No wind at all. The temp was just below freezing at first light. I hiked up to the office to turn on the heater up there, then went around for a stroll around the mountain while the place warms up. I'm headed back up there here in a few minutes and will spend the rest of the day and long into the night working on editing pictures for a new book. I am already a week late getting this stuff out the door, and now is crunch time. You may never see a copy of this book - it is not one that we are publishing, and in fact it may not be published at all. A company in Montana has requested my work, but they may not like it. We'll see, and I'll keep you posted.

I spent half a day driving to John Brown University and back to speak to a fine art photography class there. My goodness they have a wonderful facility! I was offered an athletic scholarship there when I was in high school but did not take it because of the long drive. They have certainly come a long way, and are doing some exciting things there. Hopefully there will be an exhibit of my prints in the Art building in the future.

We've been doing quite a bit of driving this week in addition to all of the other work. Several trips to Missouri. Several trips into town for meetings and various events. The roads have been mostly frozen solid in the morning, and sloppy mud during the day. Sometimes you just want to STAY home and not go anywhere! But really, my traveling is just about to begin. My next book project is going to be A NATURE LOVERS GUIDE TO ARKANSAS, and I'm going to visit 125-150 different sites all over the state in the next four or five months, putting together photos and information to go into the book. Pam will draw all of the maps. This is the most exciting project we've done here in a long time. We also will be putting together Glenn Wheeler's SWIMMING HOLES OF THE OZARKS guidebook soon (Pam will be drawing all of the maps), and hope to have it on the shelves by late spring/early summer. (also working with Glenn on his first picture book - it should be a great one - more news about it later.) AND we'll be publishing two books for Don Kurz - one a NATURE GUIDE TO MISSOURI, which should be a terrific project that Don will spend the next year working on; and a brand new wildflower guide from Don that will cover another state (we'll release that info later). We also have several other book projects in the mill, and you'll be the first to find out about all of them! Ray, is yours ready yet?

But for now I have to get off the computer and get my fanny up the hill to the other office and get to work. I can hear the river far below calling out to me to come visit, but that will have to wait. One of these days I plan to take an entire day "off" and just go wandering through the wilderness...

Pre-dawn, with a tiny, crescent moon up high, just left of center.

2/17/04 At 4 this afternoon I was able to steal an hour away and so I quickly headed out the door and ran into the woods. It was warm - nearly 50 degrees - and lots of sunshine, with hardly any wind. In fact we have not had any wind in quite some time here. The dogs were worn out from going on a couple of long hikes today with a cabin visitor, so they remained behind. So it was just me and the forest, and the sun, dipping low in the western sky.

I have been watching the leaves on the ground. Ever since they came floating down to earth many moons ago. Back then they were at first very soft and colorful, then all faded to the same mono-tone brown, but because brittle and made a lot of noise when your foot came down on top of them. As the winter went on the leaves softened once again, and now they are really soft, and nearly noiseless, getting rounded at their edges from those edges being rubbed off by passing chipmunks and hikers. Yes, the forest floor is much softer and quieter now, and seems to be holding its breath. I stopped and looked around, almost expecting to see a trout lily leaf popping up. It won't be long now! Of course, I'm still hoping for about a foot of wet snow one of these days.

Speaking of snow, most of it has disappeared from our south-facing slopes, but every now and there I found a patch or two, especially tucked away inside the gaping holes of hollow trees. No doubt the snow piled up in these mini-caverns to begin with, and now with no sunshine at all hitting them, the white stuff is ever so slowly soaking into the inside of the tree. Looking over to Beagle Point, I could see a lot of white still. Good place to build a snowman when the snow is fresh.

As I approached the river an entire cloud, no fog, of heavenly aroma engulfed me, no overtook me! Good grief the witch hazel bushes were everywhere, and in full bloom and putting out that incredible scent that only they can produce. I stopped and leaned up against a huge sycamore tree and closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, although I really didn't have to breathe too much at all - the air was heavy with that sweet fragrance of the wilderness goddess!

The river was running pretty good, but showed signs of having been about a foot deeper in the last day or two (leaves washed up on the banks and brush) - the result of all that snow melt no doubt. The waters were emerald green and inviting. The music of the river was happy today, as I guess it is just about every day. Sunny afternoons in the middle of winter are times to be celebrated, to laugh out loud, to roll in the leaves, to splash in the shallows, to savor. I did all.

One big work project finished and out the door today, dozens more waiting. It was good to take an hour off and play in the wilderness. I needed that. Now back to work..

Pre-dawn 2/19/04

2/20/04 It was quiet, and STILL, and warm this morning at first light. While Pam and I were sitting at our computers talking her eyes got real big and she pointed out the window - "you had better go get our camera!" There was a huge red ball that just appeared on the eastern horizon, and it was moving fast. There was a dark cloud bank just a few degrees above the horizon, and we knew the ball would only be around for a very short period of time. I jumped up and grabbed the camera, dashed out onto the deck, put on a long lens, and fired off three photos before the sun disappeared and all the color was gone. It happened that fast. But I got one good image, at least for the Journal cam shot.

As I was standing around outside after that, I looked around and realized that the horrific windstorm that we had  endured the night before had indeed pummeled the cabin - there was debris scattered all over the place, from furniture to building materials to tools to insulation to clothing to goodness, all sorts of stuff. A nearly-full can of gas had been tossed about 100 feet down the hillside. Several doors had been ripped off of storage buildings. All in all it was a big mess, although we really didn't sustain any real damage to the cabin or other fixtures, just a lot of stuff all over the place that we had to go pick up and replace.

The storm began yesterday afternoon, and while there wasn't any moisture associated with it, there sure was a LOT of noise and motion. The wind was not just coming from one direction, but rather it seemed like two and perhaps three different fronts were all coming together right on top of us - the wind and trees and everything else were thrashing around in all directions, back and forth, up and down, side to side. Crash, boom bash! All night long. Even before we went to bed the weather station had measured a sustained wind reading of 49 miles an hour, and the gusts got a lot stronger than that during the night. But at dawn all was calm, although our nerves were frazzled!

Smelled like rain this morning, and the temp was 54 degrees. I just knew it was going to rain. But as I sit here on Friday night I can report that not a single drop fell all day. We could sure use some rain, or snow, or whatever...

Yesterday morning I left the cabin early, headed for one of the most scenic wilderness areas in this part of the country - Richland Creek  Wilderness Area over on the other side of Hwy. 7 near Lurton. It was not a play day, but indeed a work day all the way. I have this long list of places all over Arkansas that I intend to visit and photograph between now and May, then will publish a guidebook to them all. They will include my most favorite and scenic places to take nature photos, to hike, to find wildlife, and generally to experience the best of the natural outdoors that Arkansas has to offer. Many of the places will be popular attractions that many folks go to each year, while other spots will be very special places where very few people have ever been in modern times. One of those places that was on my list was my target for today.

While in a meeting with the forest service a couple of weeks ago the subject of this "sandstone castle in the sky" deep within the Richland Creek Wilderness area was brought up - no one knew how to get to it, or had ever been there before. Only that several newspaper articles had been written about it, and that a number of folks were calling in a wanting to know how to find it. Once I got home I did a bit of research and found some of the newspaper articles, and from the descriptions it really did sound like one incredible place - perhaps the last greatest unknown place in Arkansas! It was so secret in fact that one of the guys how led the reporter to the spot (along with some other hikers) made a strict rule that there were to be "no maps, compasses, or GPS units allowed" on the hike! NO ONE was to know where this place was! Funny, for if that were really the case, how come he had taken a newspaper reporter with him with full knowledge that there would be a big article written about it? Anyway, it sounded like an interesting place, and since I needed to go do some other stuff in that area anyway, I decided that yesterday would be the day for me to go look up and find this secret place.

As I got closer to the Richland area there began to be a lot of snow on the hillsides - a LOT more snow than we had on the ground at any time in the past few weeks, even after it had melted over there for days and days. The roads were all clear, but still lots of snow on the ground. I parked at Hill Cemetery and headed off into the wilderness under a pure blue sky filled with sunshine, and warm temps. I almost immediately smelled that alluring fragrance of witch hazel bushes growing along the creek - goodness I love that stuff! I was almost giddy as I actually hopped and skipped along the trail. It was a glorious day in the wilderness.

I followed the creek downstream for a little bit, then crossed the stream and located a pair of heavy stone millstones from another era - there had been a grist mill at this location at some point in history - probably in the early 1900's or even before - nothing was left of the mill but the stones. I have published photos of these in this Journal before - probably back in 1999 perhaps? Anyway, they were really neat, especially since they are literally out there in the middle of nowhere with no other sign of many around for a good long ways.

The millstones and nearby waterfall on Big Devils Creek

OK, there was hint in one of the newspaper article about the location of this secret spot that related to the grindstones, so I took off uphill, following the little creek beyond the stones. Up, up, and up I went - the terrain is rather steep at times, although certainly no steeper than what is right in my own backyard. No trail in this area though, just straight up. I went up the right-hand side of the drainage because there was no snow at all on this side, while the other side was completely covered with white - several inches of snow still on the ground. Up and up and up I went. Then I sat down to rest and suck on a water bottle.

It was at that point that I had a flashback of sorts, a vision of a previous hike I had taken into this wilderness area. It was in 1981, and I was just finishing up a week-long hike on what would become the Ozark Highlands Trail corridor - having started at Lake Ft. Smith State Park. I would end my hike at Richland Creek Campground (no trails of any sort in the area back then). I had arrived in the afternoon - a day early - and had set up camp there to wait for my mom to drive out and pick me up the next day. That evening I was sitting down by the creek and met a couple of old fellows who had come by to sit by the creek too. Turns out one of the old timers said he had grown up on the "Rich Land" (natives always pronounce it as two words), and he had in fact lived in 11 or 12 different homesteads up and down the river. He talked at great length about his youth, and about a lot of the many places where he had lived. He is, in fact, the first one that told me about those mill stones that I had just photographed on my trip today. I don't recall what he said about them, but he told me how to find them. And then it suddenly hit me - he had mentioned the very sandstone cave formations that I was attempting to locate today! Man, my mind has gone, but my I think he said he used to play hide-and-seek up in them when he was a kid. He told me about a lot of places that night, but it really wasn't until the next year that so many of them came into sharp focus.

The very next year I was hired by the forest service to do a "photographic" inventory of several of the "wilderness study" areas in the Ozark National Forest - these were places that were being studied for possible wilderness status, and Richland certainly was at the top of the list (I also photographed Hurricane Creek, East Fork, Penhook, and Leatherwood). My job was simply to go find all the little "x's" that they had placed on the map, and take photos of them. I had both topo maps of the area as well as aerial photographs. Most of them had little notes scribbled next to them. Many where things that were man-made, like old sawmill sites, homesteads, and cemeteries. But there were also the natural scenic features like the waterfalls, bluffs, and other geological formations - and the SANDSTONE CAVES that the old man had told me about were one of them! At last I would get to go visit them, and get paid for it to boot!

The rest of that story is not a very good one, because I wound up having to bushwhack to all those places in the dead of SUMMER and try to get good photos of them in terrible lighting conditions. And that is the way a lot of the photos turned out - terrible! But I did my job and turned all of my negatives over to the forest service. They published them along with the main wilderness study document, which because part of the official papers along the way to Richland becoming an official wilderness area (I also went to Washington D. C. and testified before both the House and Senate committees about this and the other potential wilderness areas - our efforts became the Arkansas Wilderness Bill of 1984, creating about a dozen new wilderness areas and adding to one other. Yippie, we won!

Anyway, while I was sitting on the steep side of the hill yesterday recalling all of that, I remembered that I had indeed visited and photographed some sort of sandstone cave features along one of the many bluffs in the area, but I was not really sure if what I was looking for yesterday was the very same place or not - it was really HOT and buggy when I was there, and I did not get to spend any time there. Nor did I ever return. Hum, I wonder???

Back on my feet again, up and up and up. One thing that I was a little worried about was the fact that I really did not have any hard facts to go on as far as where to find this place - only the sketchy details in the newspaper article, ones that I really didn't even know if they were true or not, since everyone involved seemed to want to keep this place for themselves and not let anyone else find it. I had asked the forest service about it, but no one seemed to know. And the guy who had sent me into the area back in 1982 had long since retired. No matter, even if I didn't find the place, it was still an incredible day to be out in the woods, and I was having a great time, though spending a lot of time huffing and puffing.

My plan was to climb on up to what surely would be a bluffline up there somewhere, then turn left and explore and explore and explore until I either found something, or got another idea of where to look I had planned to be in the area all day and until dark if needed. Perhaps even come back another day and another and another until I found this top secret place.

OK, I could see the beginnings of a small bluffline up ahead of me, so I must be getting there. Got to the base of the bluff and turned left. Son of a gun, wouldn't you know it - I had not gone more than 100 yards when I came to the exact spot noted in the article!!! Dumb luck I guess. Hum, at least I THOUGHT it was the spot. The description of the number and nature of the rooms and pillars and other details seemed about right. When I reached the last part of the cavern area, it hit me - this WAS indeed the very same place that I have visited back in 1982, only I had come straight up to it from Twin Falls (and had visited a couple of other spots along the way as well).

I shot a few photos and explored around the place a little bit, then sat in the caves and thought about the old man I had met down at the campground so many years ago. It must have been some great fun getting to play in this spot as a child - I could just see them scampering all over the place, hiding in the cracks and dark places, hollering out at the top of their lungs.

Outside looking in (left), inside looking out (right)

A giant sandstone pillar holding it all up (not really)

I left the bluff area and climbed up to the top of the hill (would have to return in better lighting with my real camera gear to take photos for the book). Most of the hilltop was clear of snow, but the leaves up there were all "flat" - what would make them that way? Then a little bit later I figured out what it was. I came across several areas up on top of the ridge that STILL had 6-8 inches of snow on the ground, and this was out in the direct sunshine! I figured that this area must have really been dumped on last week - perhaps even a foot or more of new snow. And all of the weight of the melting snow much have flattened the leaves down. Reminded me of some areas out West when bit snowbanks finally melt away in late summer - all the vegetation underneath is squashed flat!

There is an old roadbed that runs along the very top of this long ridgetop above, and there are several old homesites along the way, including stone chimneys and rock walls. And at one place there was the metal band of a wagon wheel leaning up against a tree, rusting away. No wagons had been active in that area for a good long while.

The rusty wagon wheel rim

I followed the road on out to the end of the ridge - there was actually quite a bit of foot traffic on this old road, and I figured that quite a few folks were coming in to see the sandstone caves. Then just before the road/trail came out of the woods and onto the main forest road, the trail veered off of the road and ran out across the woods. Naturally I followed. Soon I found myself standing right in front of a large house at the edge of the wilderness - the folks who live in the house (the one with the giant wild mill - blades no longer attached) venture into the wilderness quite often. What a great place to live and explore! In fact, the entire area along this ridgetop - and especially down both sides of it - could easily take up a week or more of serious exploring. No telling what you would find.

I quietly backtracked to the old road and followed it on out to the main road. Turns out the place to park for this access point is just a couple hundred yards away from the same place where you park to go see Dogwood Falls, which is on the other side of the road. This old road is plainly marked, if you know right where to look. If you just wanted to get in quickly and out the long ridge to the sandstone caves, this would certainly be the easy way to get in there. The route that I took from Hill Cemetery is also very direct, but you have that big hill to climb up. As noted before, you can also get in to the caves by first going to Twin Falls, then simply hiking UPhill behind and in between the falls, all the way up to the bluffline, then turning right until you come to the caves.

After noting the location on the main road, I went back into the woods and bushwhacked on down another ridgeline and then finally straight down the mountain and back to my car at the cemetery. The entire trip only took me two hours.

So  there you have it - Tim's Big Adventure to explore a Top Secret place in the wilderness. I have a list of more than 150 scenic and unique places around the state to visit this spring - most of them I have been to a number of times over the years, but also there are some brand new places for me to explore and photograph. I'll try to post as many of them here in the Journal as I can. And at some point, I plan to post a list of all and see if you have any really scenic places you think should be included.

CLICK HERE to go to a color topo map of this area with the millstones and the sandstone caves marked on it, along with GPS coordinates. This is a very large and detailed color map, and the file is very large too and will take a while to download - it will not all fit on your screen so you will have to scroll around to see it all. GPS coordinates for the caves are: 35.82119 N, 92.96688 W.

We are headed out early tomorrow to go help a friend continue construction on a hiking trail on his property. And Sunday I will be leading a hike to Home Valley Bluff - don't know how well the waterfalls will be running, but I know the view will be spectacular as always, and we're going to go hunt up the old Spanish inscription under the bluff as well.

Speaking of trips, I have several to note for any of you who might be photographers.

First off is a really neat trip by photographer Glenn Wheeler of Harrison (we will be publishing his guidebook to Ozark swimming holes later this spring) will be leading a trip to the Smoky Mountains in April. It is not a workshop, but it will be a photo tour of sorts in that Glenn and others on the trip will be heading out each day to photograph the park. Glenn is providing the transportation, lodging (in a neat log cabin near the park), and all the food! It is a super trip to this really scenic area of the United States at the peak of springtime there, and the cost if bare bones (Glenn isn't making a profit, just wants to make it easy for other folks to go with him!). If you are interested, give Glenn a shout at wheelerphoto@alltel.net. He is kind of a shady character, but I think he will show you a great time!

And I have just added a number of new digital photo workshops here in Arkansas to my list, including expanding the spring schedule to FIVE trips, plus FOUR one-day workshops in the fall, AND new this year will be a 3-4 day Fall Photo Tour to photograph the Ozarks at the peak of fall color (all food and lodging will be provided for this last one). And I have also started booking individualized workshops as well - for one or two people at a time - where you can select exactly how you want to spend your day (shooting all day, shoot then work on the computers, or work on the computers all day). You can find out about all the new dates by going to my workshop page(some are full already).

It is getting late now, and I have to go soak my soon-to-be-wornout bones before I beat them up on the trail tomorrow. Nighttime here lately has been wonderful - no moon and tons of silver spots in the sky against a coal black background. I wonder if any critters will be out hunting or lurking around?

Sunrise - for about a minute - then all dark, 2/20/04

2/23/04 Warm and dark today, and while it looks like rain, it doesn't feel much like rain, although it does appear from the radar there is a big storm headed our way (and I just stepped outside and it really does smell like rain). We could sure use a foot or two of RAIN or snow - I'll take either, we need moisture so badly.

We had a great hike yesterday. I led a small group of folks on an OHTA hike to Home Valley Bluff, including Tea Table Rocks, a slot canyon, waterfalls (not running too much), and to the Latin inscription under the bluff. While there we found another carving - what looked like an Indian in full headgear. No telling how old or authentic either of these carvings are, and no way to be sure. They have been there for a good long while, and I guess whoever can make up the best story about them will be the correct one!

Tea Table Rocks and Home Valley beyond

Under the bluff

Indian headdress and Latin inscriptions in the sandstone under the bluff

I have made arrangements with the guy who owns the main access to Home Valley Bluff for the public to cross his property and visit this magnificent area, which includes several very nice waterfalls. Most of it is privately owned, and he now welcomes responsible folks to come take a look. (Edd French of Buffalo River Realty in Jasper.) The directions are in the Arkansas Waterfalls Guidebook.

I've been working on the OHTA March/April newsletter and will have it posted on the OHTA web site later today. Some nice hikes listed there, as well as our big nine-day maintenance base camp at White Rock Mountain in March. You are not required to be an OHTA member to participate in any of these events, and we would love to have ya. The base came will be especially nice since not only will we be staying at the historic stone lodge at White Rock (one of the most beautiful spots in the country), but OHTA will be furnishing all the food for volunteers! See the newsletter for more details.

2/25/04 Just had a delightful hike in the dim moonlight tonight, out wandering around in between the trees and rocks and leaves and bushes, waiting for the computers to process files. I'm sort of in a weird place out here right now, in that I spend so much of my time in high-tech mode (like having two and sometimes three computers working full-time crunching files), while yet all I do is step out the door and I'm in the middle of wilderness. Guess that sort of sums me up - a true wilderness nerd!

It is chilly tonight, with a wind coming out of the east, which normally means weather, but nothing is predicted. The moonlight was very soft tonight - even more so than normal - because there were thin layers of clouds in the west, which is where the 1/4 moon was setting. But still plenty of moonlight for me to see to get around easily without bumping into anything. Then it was back to the cabin to see how the robots were doing.

I took a break from computing long enough to gaze at the incredible light show in the west just after sunset

I've been working on three prints since this afternoon, and have to get them finished tonight. It is taking several hours to do each print, with much of that time sitting around waiting for the processors to process. We now have a large and very fine film scanner here at the cabin, which I have been using on one of the computers, while the other computer is for processing the files once the film has been scanned in. So nice to get to go back in my mind to when each of these images were created and relive being there and all the circumstances surrounding those moments. One image I'm doing tonight was when I skied into Hemmed-In Hollow after a 14"  snowfall - man I was falling left and right! But I made it down in there, and got some really nice images. It was the morning after the snowfall, with pure blue skies and sunshine. And while it was quite a chore just to get down into there, getting back UP later in the day was really something to remember! Wish we had a good, deep snowfall like that one - I'd be right back out there again with camera in hand, doing my best to keep from plowing head first into the snow.

Pam and I went on a nice hike yesterday afternoon while we were bombing the cabin with bug bombs - all of a sudden we have been bombarded with hundreds of wasps this past week. We fight them in the fall and early winter, but never this time of the year. When Pam woke up in the middle of the night with one crawling across her face enough was enough - get out the bug bombs, and head for the woods!

One of many highlights of our hike was when we came across a relic of days gone by, a genuine part of our pioneer past in the Ozarks. It was a wagon, or what was left of it, that obviously had tried to get across a small creek that was just too much for it - the wagon broke down right then and there and was never to move again. We found an axle on one side of the creek and the other one just across the other side - the wagon was spanning the creek when it gave up the ghost. Nothing left now but the axles and the wooden wheel hubs - you could still see where the wood spokes fit right into the hub. Unfortunately in my haste to run out of the cabin after setting off the bug bombs without inhaling too deeply and killing myself, I forgot my little camera, so there are no photos of the wagon remains. But they are not too far away, and I plan to return one day with camera in hand.

2/26/04 My printing work turned into late night, and then into early morning. It was well after 1am before the third print finally came out of the processor. Very nice prints if I do say so myself!

The cabin is waking back up again now, and 6am is just around the corner. There is a glow in the eastern sky, and soon the hilltops and canyons spread out before us will fill with light. And soon after that, I will be loaded up and out the door headed for the next destinations to be included in my nature guide book. Right now the name of the game is wildlife watching areas, and we have some pretty amazing visual displays in this state. Unfortunately I am too late to catch the best flocks at some of these locals (the birds have left Arkansas and headed back up north), but I have found a couple of areas that still hold good populations, at least I think. Check back here in a couple of days and see if I found anything!

The temp is 29 this morning before first light, and the winds are calm once again. The girls have already left to go catch the bus. I'm headed out for a soak in the hot tub and to collect my thoughts and make sure I have all my gear before loading up and heading out. The sky is ever so slowly moving from coal black to dark blue to lighter blue, with a band of yellow and orange below. The trees huddled around the cabin are all in silhouette against this morning light show, and they seem to be poised and ready for the blast of bright sunshine that will arrive in about an hour from now.

Speaking of my lovely bride, photos, and work, I must tell you a funny story from the other day. Pam and I were out doing volunteer trail work when a lady that was there to observe asked Pam if she was "just a mom, or do you do anything else?" Many folks think that all Pam does is sit around all day and do, well, I really don't know what they think she does, but I sort of get the impression they think she does nothing all day long (boy, that would get old in a hurry!). Of course, none of these folks know my Pamela. As if being a mom isn't enough already, she has had a full-time job ever since she set foot here (sometimes more than one), and a job that often takes a lot more than just 8 hours a day to complete! While I was out hiking in the moonlight last night waiting for the computers, I was hit with bright lights from her truck - coming home at 10pm after being in town much of the day doing business chores and in class. She was up and out of bed soon after 5 this morning, and off to the bus stop a couple miles away with Amber. She will spend today and tomorrow and probably most of the weekend working on a new online gallery of my photos for you to view (we really don't have "weekends" here - they are normal business days just like the rest of the week). These will be 121 images from my most favorite picture book Wilderness Reflections - most of them shot while on a marathon 11 month journey around the United States (I took 50,000 images while driving 40,000 miles to 43 states, all in a single year). For each image she will have to clean the original slide, scan the image with our new scanner, process the digital file, then help assemble it all into a neat viewing gallery that will soon be on the web site. It will take hours and hours and hours to get them all done - very tedious, time-consuming work, but she happily does it with a smile. She also has to process all of the OHTA newsletters and get them in the mail today, and keep up with all of the book business while I am out the door playing with wildlife. Just another typical work day here - how in the world did I ever get along without her? Of course, her biggest job is just putting up with me, something she does quite well, at least from my perspective!

OK, I've been in the tub (the wind WAS blowing, as I discovered when I got out soaking wet - I think some parts froze instantly), Pam is back and already working at the computer next to me, and I can just now see the beginnings of Ozark Glow touching the highest peaks way out there. That pink and yellow light will come streaming into the windows of the cabin here in about five or ten minutes - oops, I had better get going!

2/27/04 I am back from a quick trip to eastern Arkansas to photograph swans, ducks, and geese. The cabin is dark and silent and holding its breath tonight. We nearly lost our good friend Greg Heinze, who was in an airplane crash yesterday evening near Little Rock that killed the person sitting next to him. Greg is in critical condition in a Little Rock hospital tonight, and no one knows how in the world he survived the crash at all. He is the pilot that has appeared many times in this Journal, and is one of those guys who would rather fly a plane than breathe. Our thoughts are with him tonight as he fights to live to fly another day.

In the subdued atmosphere this evening I will simply post a few photos from my trip, and hope that you will find a smile or two in them...

Trumpeter swans at Magness Lake near Heber Springs (above)

Sunrise this morning near Hunter, Arkansas

HANG IN THERE GREG!

2/28/04 Bright sunshine and breezy this morning, but by noon clouds had moved in. The temp is mild, but the wind brings it down a little.

For any of you who are out and about in the Ozarks this weekend - or at least yesterday and the day before - you might have noticed quite a bit of smoke. You are correct, there was a forest fire, in fact many of them. Actually they were all controlled burns set by the forest service and national park service up and down the Buffalo River area, and across the Ozark National Forest. There was thick smoke blowing around all over the place - it looked and smelled like a big forest fire. When Pam came home late last night from taking Amber up to Missouri for the weekend, she saw several large fires burning along the hilltops surrounding Boxley Valley - uncommon in that the park service has normally not burned much in the past, but this year everyone is burning a lot more to keep the fuel load down in the forest to keep from creating very large and out of control forest fires like we had a lot of out West last summer (at least, that is the theory).

Smoke in the canyon

I just spoke with our good friend Greg's wife this morning. She was in Oregon and flew back yesterday to be with him. He is stabilized today, but still critical, and in intensive care. A large portion of the bones in his body were crushed, and while there do not seem to be any internal injuries nor brain damage, it will be a very long and tough road to recovery for him. The other guy with him that died was a commercial pilot with 700 hours experience (he was getting married in two weeks - so very sad). No way two guys with that much experience would let a plane crash if they could have helped it, so there must have been some major failure to the craft itself, although it will be months or longer before an official report is available. I have received quite a few notes from Journal readers, and have passed them onto Greg's wife, who really appreciates your thoughts and prayers.

My exploits of the past couple of days seem rather trivial at the moment, so I won't even get into them, but I hope you enjoyed the swan photos - I spent six hours with these amazing birds and have several hundred photos from my visit.

Trumpeter swans at Magness Lake

This morning Pam heard about a group of hikers that would be making a difficult trip through the wilderness today, and eventually climbing up the ladder trail near the end of their trip. She hustled into the kitchen and baked a batch of special Cloudland Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies for them, then went down to the spot where the group would be climbing up over the bluff, and left the fresh cookies there for them to find - they will need an extra boost after making the steep climb out of the canyon!

The hikers and empty plate of cookies

2/29/04 HAPPY LEAP DAY! Hope you are having/have had a good one. We had a large windstorm during the night that broke apart one of our storage buildings, and sent items flying off into the night. Still windy this morning, and while not too cold, it feels rather chilly outside. The sun popped up for just a few minutes then went and hid behind a wide layer of dark clouds. Normally I would say we were in for a good dumping of rain, but the fact that we NEED IT SO MUCH leads me to believe that we won't get a drop, again. Seems like lately when we have big storms approaching the sky opens up when it gets near us and the storms go to the north and south but not on us. Of course, I'm sure the next time it rains for a week you will hear my complain, although I HARDLY ever complain about too much moisture!

No new news this morning on our friend Greg's condition.

Yesterday Pam and I slipped out for a quick hike around the mountain to clear out a few cobwebs, and we came across the very first flower of spring - a batch of trout lilies in the exact same spot where they come up first each and every year. On the one hand it is nice to see spring on the way, but on the other hand, I'm NOT READY for spring to arrive because we have so much work to do!

Trout lily - the very first flower of spring at Cloudland

This morning I stole away once again for a quick trip down to the river. Followed sets of mule tracks all the way down. Both Whitaker Creek and the Buffalo River were running well, although at lower than normal levels for this time of the year. I walked up and down the river bank for a little bit while Aspen went swimming. Still lots of witch hazel bushes in bloom - in fact more than I have seen all year - although none of them were fragrant. Also another bush that was sprouting the green "worms" that you see all over the place in early spring. Guess that is why the trout lilies are beginning to pop up because the worms are coming out!

The Buffalo River, lower than normal but still running nicely - come on rain!

On my way back up the hill a soft, round shape caught my eye way out there in the forest. Amazing sometimes how such a small object can stand out in the middle of a vast forest of shapes, colors, and sizes, but I zeroed in on this one from more than 100 feet away. It was attached to a small limb that had come down in the big blow last night probably, and landed in a bed of soft leaves and thick sand. I am drawn to some shapes, and this was one of them, not only the fluffy ball, but also the graceful arch of the stem. I got down on all fours and dug myself into the sand for a solid base (I don't carry a tripod with me on these sorts of trips, or with this little point and shoot digital, but this was a special photo for me and I wanted it to come out sharp). I know this probably doesn't mean too much to most people, and you  may think it was a waste of time, but I spent nearly ten minutes taking photos of this little guy; with flash and without, a little to the left and a little to the right, from the front and from the back. I guess that sometimes when it is just me and my camera and a tiny subject like this one I can concentrate on my job so much so that everything else in the world just blurs into the background and I don't have to think about it. Click, click, click.