Aspen was NOT happy about us going away for a week, and tried to become another piece of luggage (313-3)
UPDATED 3/31/03 complete
MILITARY TROOPS AND FAMILIES FOR YOUR SACRIFICE!
3/1/03 Well, all that I can say is that we have had an interesting last few days. March began in the wee hours this morning with us screaming across Kansas trying to get home in time to rescue Aspen from a serious predicament that he had gotten himself into. And this evening we had a fire in the cabin (neither situation related to each other, and everyone is OK, as is the cabin). In between we have been going about the business of getting things back to "normal" here, processing book orders, going though mountains of e and snail mail, and a quick trip back into town for supplies.
First off, we had a wonderful week in the Colorado mountains. It snowed every day, but the temps remained above zero, and actually quite pleasant. Roy and Norma went with us - they were on the downhill slopes while Pam and I were in the backcountry on snowshoes. We would get together at night, and on the last day, when we all snowshoed/hiked along one of Pam's most favorite trails in the country (mine now too!).
My goal with this trip was for us to get completely away from the business - no computers or phones - a REAL vacation for our minds and spirits. That only lasted about one day. I soon got concerned that the flood of junk e-mails might clog up my in box, resulting in other e-mails being rejected. So I found a computer and internet hookup at the local Kinkos - that was a big MISTAKE! Actually, it was a very good thing for me to do because I did wind up deleting hundreds of junk e-mails that I was getting. But in the process I also felt compelled to read and answer many of the normal e-mails that I was getting from folks. And the result was that I spent most of my nights in the mountains agonizing over details from the e-mails, and not sleeping. I don't sleep too well anyway, but that made it pretty bad. So much for my mental vacation.
Oh yea, and I also made the mistake of going into the local bookstore and walking out with a GIANT book about using Photoshop, the main computer program that is used for processing digital photographs. I wound up spending every free moment - day and night - sprawled out on the couch at the condo reading through that book - all 787 pages of it!
OTHERWISE, it was a fabulous week, and we all had a great time.
Just a few quick notes about the week. First, I would like to announce that I did something that probably had not been done by anyone in modern times - I caught a trout with one of my snowshoes! It was quite by accident. I had snowshoed down a trail that followed a nice, flowing creek, wanting to get a photo of the snow-covered boulders in the middle of the rushing stream and snow-covered trees crowded along the banks. After a day or two of looking I found exactly what I was looking for, and six inches of new snow during the night made for perfect conditions.
I had to make my way from the trail down a very steep hillside to the edge of the river - at times I sank up to my waist in snow. The snowshoes are a big help when the snow is packed, or not too deep, but when there is nothing but several feet of loose, dry snow, they aren't too much help. After I had reached the side of the river I began to make my way upstream right along the edge, looking for the perfect spot to stand to take a photo from. But the next step was not a good one - the bank of snow underneath gave way and collapsed into the river, taking me along with it. Actually it only took my right leg, with snowshoe attached - my left leg remained up on "dry" ground, although I had a quick struggle to retain my balance and find a secure spot to keep my left snowshoe on.
My right foot had disappeared down through the crashing snowbank and into the river - the water was probably only a foot deep there, so I was not in grave danger, but I was not a happy camper about getting my one foot wet, or possibly slipping and falling in altogether - that would not have been good. As soon as I secured my left foot, I began to pull my right foot up out of the water. And then much to my great surprise, I looked down just as my snowshoe came out of the water to see a TROUT - about 8 inches long - sitting on TOP of the front part of the snowshoe! I had caught a trout! I didn't know whether to laugh or grab my camera. I did neither, and simply stood there in awe as the little dude wiggled and flipped and finally slithered back into the water. Who needs bait!
The next day, as Pam and I hiked along the same trail several miles downstream, it began to snow, and come down pretty good. We were having a delightful hike, and enjoying the aspens and pines and boulders and river, all engulfed in snow. This was one of the snows that really made a lot of noise - not a calm, quiet snowfall at all. The flakes seemed to get larger and heavier with each few steps that we took. Finally, when the visibility ahead got down to next to nothing, we decided to turn around and head back to the truck. It took us perhaps 20 seconds of discussion to come to that conclusion, and when we turned around to head back - JUST TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF HOW HEAVY IT WAS SNOWING - our tracks had already been COVERED UP!
On the way back I stopped to take a photo, and had to have Pam shelter the front of the camera lens with my hat. After I shot several pictures, I looked up from behind the camera to discover the camera completely covered with snow - all of it but the front of the lens!
Wow, what a magical winter wonderland we got to experience. I suspect most sane folks would have long headed indoors, but we loved it, and took our time getting back.
We watched the weather channel every day and saw how bad Arkansas was getting pounded all week with ice and snow storms - you may have seen that too. Funny thing though, nearly ALL of that weather missed Cloudland! We got about three inches here one day, and then not a single flake or ice cube the rest of the week. Pam's mom Judy was here with Amber, and while there really wasn't all that much on the ground here at the cabin, it was a mess elsewhere, and Amber's bus did not run all week, so she got to stay home and play with grandma!
I heard a number of reports from this area that the waterfalls were up and running wildly while we were gone - mostly from the rains of the week before, but also from some of the new snowfall. We are in the thick of waterfall season now, and I suggest that you get out and go hunting!
Last night, as we were just about to call it a long day of driving and check in to a motel in Kansas, we got a call from Judy about Aspen. Apparently he had gone down and jumped right on over the bluff at the ladder trail - just like he does every time we go hiking down there. Only problem was that no one was hiking with him, which meant there was no way for him to climb back out. Judy did not have a clue where he was, but did eventually realize that he was missing. Thank goodness for Lucy - Judy thought that Lucy might be able to go help find Aspen, and sure enough, Lucy led her right on over to the edge of the bluff, where Judy found Aspen, down there at the base, barking and wanting to come back home. Only problem was that not only was the ladder a real danger for anyone to make an attempt to climb down (icy and very slick), but even if Judy could have gotten down to him there was no way she could have hoisted his nearly 60 pounds up over her head and up onto the top of the bluff - that is something that is a strain on me when I haul him up.
After a few anxious phone calls between our now speeding car and the cabin, we decided to send Judy out into the darkness and toss Aspen's bed down over the bluff, along with some food and water. I was not all that concerned about him spending the night outside - after all, he is a dog (several people brought that to my attention - ya, right). My largest worry was that he would try to climb up the bluff and get back to the cabin, slipping and falling backwards and breaking his legs or worse in the process. So we made the decision to continue driving and come on home ASAP.
After we dropped Roy and Norma off in town, we began a very long drive to the cabin - I had been up since about 3:30am, and had driven about 16 hours already (thank goodness Roy took over in Tulsa so my eyes could get a rest). First, our route was blocked by an accident, and we had to turn around and drive several miles back into town and take another highway. Then we got behind a VERY slow moving vehicle with no passing lanes in sight (I don't pass on a yellow line!). Once we finally got around him I came to the painful resolution that I had not peed since Limon, Colorado, more than 12 hours earlier - I had to pull over and take care of that. Of course, the slow vehicle passed us, and so we got behind him once again. Seemed like only five minutes after we got around him for the second time we ran into a wall of THICK fog, and had to reduce our speed to about 10-15mph. Then once we got onto Cave Mountain Road, we were met with some of the slickest mud and clay that I had ever seen - we were inches from going into a large ditch once, and I had to back up and find another way around the spot - all this time my poor Bride didn't say a word, although I knew she was about to scream bloody murder! If we had gone into that ditch, we would have had to hike several miles to the cabin, and eventually get a wrecker to get the car out.
We were still in heavy fog and driving even slower now, and the conditions outside were getting worse - 32 degrees and light rain. All I could see was my poor dog's lifeless body resting at the bottom of the bluff, his legs broken, and him in deep hypothermia. If only I had gotten there in time! I pushed on the gas pedal, then slide nearly sideways and just missed another tree. I don't recall being quite so anxious before, and it seemed like something was trying to keep us from reaching the cabin.
FINALLY we arrived around 1:30am. I ran inside and grabbed a flashlight and ran down the hill towards my poor dog, fearing the worst, and nearly in tears. No, I was in tears. What if he had gotten injured and was barely alive - would I be able to carry him out and try to get into a vet, knowing all the while he was suffering a great deal? Under what conditions would I give up hope and beg for mercy and put him out of his misery? Oh my goodness, how in the world could I ever be able to do that? Visions raced through my mind of me charging back into the cabin to get a gun while my poor daughter who worships the ground Aspen walks on looked on, not to mention my wife, who would have to explain it all to her. Oh no. Oh no.
When I reached the top of the bluff I quickly looked around in the darkness for my dog - he was nowhere to be found. Nor did he answer my calls. I could not see his bed nor the pack of food and water that Judy had thrown over the edge either. What the heck was going on? I carefully sat down on the wet and freezing bluff and scooted over to the top of the ladder, then made my way down to the base of the bluff. Still no Aspen. And then as I began to widen my search, I found him. The bed was nearly 30 feet down the slope away from the bluff, and Aspen was sitting up right in the middle of it - he was alive, and doing well! I was quite happy to see this little guy.
After we all got a few hours sleep, I processed book orders and downloaded a rather large mountain of e-mails from the week we had been gone (even after deleting all the junk mail, there were hundreds), while Pam and Amber went into town - Amber had been here a record 8 days in a row without leaving! Once they retuned to the cabin we all pitched in and unloaded the truck. At one point I realized that something was wrong, very wrong - the kitchen countertop was on fire, and fire was streaming down onto the floor!
Fire inside a log cabin is always one of your greatest fears, especially being way out here where there is no chance of putting a fire out if it gets out of hand. Fire is not good. No sir.
I'm not very good in emergency situations like this, but I must say that I acted OK this time - perhaps because I was still a zombie from the events of the past 24 hours. I reached out and grabbed the fire extinguisher, pulled out the tab, and put out the fire. That was it - the fire was out in two or three seconds. Man, that fire extinguisher worked REALLY good!!! But the cabin filled with smoke, the smoke of burning plastic, and of the chemicals from the fire extinguisher. After getting the girls outside, I ran around and opened the windows and turned on the fans. Goodness, what else was going to happen! (The fire was a refult of me putting a large cooler full of food on top of the smooth-top cooktop - I do that all the time, but somehow the two-stage switch for one of the burners got turned on, which is was heated up and caught the cooler on fire, sending flames into the air, and flaming plastic down onto the floor.)
It is later in the evening now and things are getting back to normal. Now I have to begin the process of wading through all of the images that I shot in Colorado to pick a few to post here. I am learning a great deal from this Photoshop book, and with the arrival of the new color printer today will soon be able to offer prints of anything on the web site. "Soon" is a relative term here, so don't hold your breath.
By the way, I know that a lot of you are already rolling your eyes when you hear the word "Photoshop." It is far and away the most powerful and complicated image editing program on the planet, and goodness there is no end to what you can do with a photo in this program. I have a number of friends who are anxious to see what strange images I can "create" with this program. But I am here to tell you that my only interest is processing the digital images and not manipulating them. Pam and I decided that we are not going to offer images that are faked or made up. What this program will do is allow me to deliver high-quality prints that are equal to what you see on the screen in the journal - that is my goal with all of this. I will keep you posted as to my progress, and will perhaps even be able to offer journal readers special deals as time goes on.
3/2/03 I got the first good night's sleep last night that I have had in a long while. This morning, as I was soaking in the hot tub and watching the first rays of sunshine light up the ridgetops out in front of me, I sat back in the steaming bubbles and listened to the sounds of the wilderness. The river below was singing a lively tune - SO GOOD to hear it running that much! It is one of those sounds that you can hear many different songs in - all you have to do is imagine.
There were a lot of birds out this morning - or at least being vocal. And there were a number of different layers of their music - some was right up close and loud, others were out there in the mid range somewhere chattering away, while still others were deep in the wilderness with voices that carried their message a long way.
After breakfast we all decided to head out for a hike - the temp was up to 40 degrees, which was WARM for us! My goal was to see if any wildflowers were peeking out to catch the sunshine. With the snow and ice of the past couple of weeks they have not had much chance to wake up.
We all started out on the loop trail together - Pam, Amber, Me, plus all four of our pets. We slowed down and looked around carefully once we got to the prime trout lily section of the trail. Nothing. Not a single spot of green to be found. I decided that Amber and I would go hike this trail and look for the very first wildflower every day after school until we found one - if we get the warm temps they are calling for this week, I don't think our wait will be long. It is beginning to FEEL like springtime out here.
Amber decided she was in the mood to go bushwhacking, so her and I took off down the hillside into the deep woods. The two cats went with us, while the dogs stayed on the trail with Pam. Amber took me STRAIGHT down the STEEP hillside, down three benches, until we were just above the big bluffline that wraps around through the wilderness. "Let's sit down and just listen to the river awhile." Yes ma'am, let's do.
And so we sat there in the drying leaves and listened to the music, and could even see the river below us. We made plans to hike down to the river this summer and spend the day fishing and swimming, then camp overnight and do it all over again the next day. The cats had a delightful time exploring around and climbing out onto dead limbs. I showed Amber how to tell the difference between a live tree and a dead one (a live twig will bend and not break). It was marvelous to be soaking up that sunshine.
We eventually made it back to the cabin, and met up with Pam, who had done the entire loop. She also had been inspecting the water garden in the front yard, and took us around to show the new growth underwater, and along the stream as well. Looks like we are going to have some nice flowers this summer.
After lunch, it was time to get some work done, and all three of us helped get the new flower garden filled with topsoil that we had delivered a couple of weeks ago. Amber pulled sticks and roots out of the big pile of dirt, I moved the dirt with the tractor (ended up with about 8 or 9 bucket loads to fill up the flower bed), and Pam use a couple of different long-handled tools to distribute the dirt once I had it piled up in the flower bed. This is the kidney-shaped bed that I built with native stone last fall, and soon Pam will fill it up with all sorts of flowering beauties.
Eventually Pam and I finished up our duties and went back into the cabin, but Amber remained outside and played in the dirt pile that was left behind. Every time Amber does something like this - wants to stay outside and play, or go bushwhacking, or some other outdoor activity, Pam looks at me and says that Amber is "YOUR child!" Yep, I'll claim her every time!
The shadows outside are beginning to get longer as the afternoon draws on. Pam is upstairs at her makeshift drawing table doing homework (I'm getting her a real one to put in the new drawing room once we get it built), Amber finally came in from outside, and I took this slow, quiet time to dig into the many photo files that we brought back from Colorado and get the images posted. It sure is good to be home.
3/3/03 Some of you might remember that I have a fascination with the number 3. It seems to pop up all the time in my life, especially in the "33" format. I guess today is about as close as I will ever come to the perfect "3" day as far as the date goes, since it is 3/3/03! (I do plan to live another 30 years until 3/3/33, but just in case.) HAPPY 3 DAY!
We could just barely see the log walls on the other side of the cabin when Pam's alarm went off at 5:30am. It has been too dark to see them for the past several months at that time of day, and she has had to get up and turn on a bright light in order to get around. But today for the first time this year it was light enough to be able to see to get around. And, of course, it will continue to get lighter a little bit each day at this same time as the sun heads north along the eastern horizon.
Today the sun rose directly across from my little cabin office window. It was mostly yellow, with just a tinge of red in it. The air is a little bit smoky outside, but it looks like a clear day, with temps climbing into at least the upper 40's. There was frost on the deck when I walked outside a little while ago - frost on your bare feet will wake you up in a hurry!
Several items of note this morning. First, I tend to get a lot of questions about recommending a camera to people. I usually try to dance around the issue - mostly because there are so many cameras out there I have no clue which one would be "perfect" for any given individual. To illustrate this point I just wanted to let you know how many new DIGITAL cameras are being introduced at the international photo show in Las Vegas this week - 2,350! ((And this is in addition to what digital and film cameras are already on the market.) I am always happy to tell you what camera equipment I use and how I feel about it, but don't expect me to make any specific recommendations for you - it is best for you to visit your local camera store and see what they have.
On another camera note, for any of you that are interested in pushing the quality of your own photography up a notch or two, there are still a couple of slots left in both of my spring photo tours. These are mainly for intermediate-level photographers - i.e. those who already know how to use your camera, but are looking for learning some advanced techniques that will help you produce better results with the camera that you already have. We spend a couple of hours on a Friday night going over some of these techniques and talking about equipment, then spend the entire day on Saturday out in the field shooting (or actually the woods), which includes a short visit to Cloudland, then return to town that evening to edit and critique some of what we shot that morning. It is a long, exhaustive day, but we always learn a great deal and get to see some wonderful places along the way. You can read more about the workshops on workshop web page site.
And speaking of the web page, I just wanted to note that we are having a big sale this winter/spring. All posters, calendars, AND hard-cover picture books (Arkansas Spring, Buffalo River Wilderness, & Wilderness Reflections) are at HALF PRICE! That's right, now you can get an autographed copy of the $60 ARKANSAS SPRING or BUFFALO RIVER WILDERNESS picture book for only $30! And my favorite photo book of all time, WILDERNESS REFLECTIONS, is only $25. You can also get all of the other books that we stock at the same time (at the regular prices) and only pay one low $5 shipping fee per order. Go to our secure online store to order. We have had a tremendous response to our new store, which is great because it was such a pain in the rear (and in the wallet) to get up and running. And if you are one of those who does not like to order over the net and would rather either call our 800-838-HIKE number, or mail in a check, that will be fine too.
AND speaking of money, today is TAX DAY at Cloudland. My goal for the day (besides making it to the next one) is to get our taxes done. I'm not sure if that means that I won't have time for a hike, or if I will need to take many hikes in order to calm down! I will make at least one hike later today with Amber, to go check and see if any trout lilies are up yet.
Monday is the BEST day of the week, so besides being a "3" day, HAPPY MONDAY TO YOU!
3/5/03 We had lots of fog this morning, the thick, pea soup kind. And it was rather chilly out, just above freezing. All day long I could never get warm - must have been high humidity or something. We made a quick trip into town to get some fruit trees for our orchard and drove through several areas where the temp was in the upper 20's with hoar frost forming on the trees and fence lines. It seemed that the coldest temps were in the thick fog.
We got a selection apple, peach, cherry, and a couple of other fruit trees for our new orchard. All of them 5-7 feet tall. I'm going to cheat and have a backhoe dig all of the holes to plant them in (he is going to be up here digging a couple of trenches for a new entrance gate anyway, and I needed some more work to make it worth his while - and save my back). It will probably be a couple of years or more before we see anything from the trees, but I suspect it will be a lot of fun (and work), and we will hopefully wind up with some nice fruit to eat and throw at each other.
Just before dark I went out to inspect our wildflower area to see if anyone had appeared yet (nothing in the past couple of days). It felt really COLD outside as I quietly hiked along the trail, carefully searching the ground for any signs of life. I guess, well, it still felt like winter here, and I guess it IS still winter here. But it is March, and we are supposed to be beginning spring. No problem - we will have one spectacular spring I'm sure, so I will be patient.
The forest was rather quiet this evening - only the distant rustling of the leaves where Aspen and Lucy were tearing across the hillside. No wind. No birds. No movement at all. And the woods were almost monocolor - all browns and grays.
I did find a tree whose trunk was covered with small shelf fungi. I always love to see these guys, especially when there are so darn many of them in one bunch. Some of them are very tiny - about as small as you can measure by showing the distance between two fingers. While others can be nearly huge - a foot or more across. I often imagine towering giant trees of some magical, mystical forest, and these shelf lichens large enough to build a house under! Some of them are green. Others are red or orange. These today were simply white, or very light gray.
I turned around and headed back towards the cabin, and then a flash of green caught my eye. Down there in all the brown of last year's fall color there was a single rock sticking out from the forest floor. It was covered with a carpet of thick and brilliant green moss. What a pleasant sight in such a dreary landscape! I got down real close and shot a macro shot that shows the individual stalks (I don't know what you call them). I guess this is where the idea for shag carpet came from, although I much prefer this variety.
Well, I must confess that I have not even started doing the taxes yet - I've been finding every little thing that I can think of to do instead. I hate doing taxes, even though all of the numbers are right there in the computer and in the file, and all I have to do is plug them in where they are supposed to go. There is just something about it.
Speaking of money, we got an all-time record high electric bill today - $274. I promptly built a fire in the fireplace (no, not in the kitchen this time!).
The forest is in sort of limbo right now - not really winter, not yet spring. You can sort of feel it all holding its breath, waiting for a long warm spell with plenty of sunshine. Then all of the buds will pop out and scream out that they are ALIVE! And the landscape will go through one incredible transformation of color, shape, and motion. And smells too. But before that happens, I'm betting on at least one more snowstorm, perhaps even more ice, maybe a couple more of them. That will be fine with me - I still need some more winter photos.
3/6/03 "Hoar frost at the barn!" That's how my bride greeted me upon her return from taking Amber to the bus. It was still dusky dark, but I could see enough to know there was no frost outside here at the cabin. In all of my years of chasing nature photos, I have only seen hoar frost a couple of times, and never really gotten a good photo of it with my "real" camera. This year we have seen it several times. Hoar frost is created by thick fog, as the moisture in the air clings to and actually creates frost crystals. It does not "form" on the ground like regular frost does.
I was dressed and out the door within a few minutes, headed up to the old barn at the high point along our ridge.
While the frost was not quite as thick as it was a couple of weeks ago, it was indeed very nice this morning, and covered just about every bush, fence, and twig in sight. I knew that I would only have a few minutes to get a shot, so I immediately went into work mode. Not only was the sun about to come up and melt everything away, but I had an appointment with a heavy-equipment operator that was supposed to be coming down the road at any minute.
My main objective was to get some good images with the digital camera. All of the previous shots I had made with this camera were lower resolution photos just for the web page. I would need higher resolution shots in order to be able to print them on my new color printer (which I have not used yet). I am still in the experimental stage with this camera-printer setup, and I hope to add a few images to the process this morning.
I spent the next 20 minutes in an intense visual search, my eyes scanning each and every detail before me as I moved along the edges of the road and nearby field. I had a particular scene in mind, but would also shoot anything that struck my fancy. Besides the time constraints, the wind was also blowing - not a good thing when you are trying to get macro shots (you want the subject ABSOLUTELY still!).
It was indeed a winter wonderland, at least up on the very top of the hill, which is the only place where the fog bank had passed through here. Some items were covered only on one side with the frost crystals, while others were completely surrounded in frost. I found the ones half covered to be the most interesting.
One thing I noticed this morning was how tightly focused my eyes were - they were my only means of navigation, and led me from subject to subject - my feet were on auto pilot, and I hardly ever even glanced down at the ground. Good thing there were no open wells in the area for me to fall into!
The scene that I was looking for was a single leaf suspended in a wall of frost. These days most leaves had long since fallen to the ground, but I was hopeful to find one stranded in mid flight. As I worked my way along the edge of a field that had significant frost buildup, I heard the sounds of a big truck approaching - that would signal the end of my photo expedition. At about the same time the sun had begun to break through and burn off the fog layer that had risen above. Luckily, sound carries very well under these conditions, so the truck was actually another five minutes away, so I got to play, I mean WORK, a few minutes longer!
I never did find the exact scene that I was looking for, but I did find several that were close, and so did get a few shots. And at the last minute, I found one cluttered pattern shot that I thought might make a good calendar shot, so I ran back to the truck and got my "real" camera and worked with it for a few minutes, getting one good scene photographed before the sun broke through. I have gotten spoiled with this little point-and-shoot digital camera - it weights practically nothing, and often I don't even need to carry a tripod to use it, although I was shooting from a tripod this morning. Although I must say that after getting used to the digital camera the view through my "real" camera was quite stunning - it's optics are ten times more brilliant then those of the little camera.
By the time the heavy equipment truck arrived my eyes were nearly worn out, and my hands were frozen - it was about 25 degrees with a wind chill much lower, and I had been handling those metal cameras - yikes! It was a great beginning to the day though, and I hope I got a couple of frosty shots that you might enjoy.
It was 9pm before I finally unpacked and set up my new printer. I had to wait for some special ink to be shipped in from Chicago before getting started with the long process of fine-tuning my printing process and seeing if I could get any quality out of my digital files. Normally I would not begin such a long and tedious process so late at night, but I was anxious to see what this new printer would do, and what my little digital files would do. Pam rolled her eyes and went up to bed.
I have been spending quite a bit of time these past couple of weeks totally absorbed in the digital and printing world, reading everything I could get ahold of and trying to learn as much as I could about the equipment and processes - I'm a slow learner, and need a great deal of info thrown at me before I retain much of it. (Right now I have advanced into the first grade from the kindergarden class, but hope to be moving up the ranks rapidly.) From what I had heard and read this new printer could produce some really nice prints, so I wasn't too worried about that. The big question mark would be if the files from my little point-and-shoot digital camera would produce acceptable prints so that Journal readers could get copies of photos that are in the journal.
I must say that I was really surprised when I sent the first file to the printer and picked up the first 8/10 print from it - a perfect match to what I had on the computer monitor! (the seed pod photo above) Few things work as advertised, but I was sold on the printer with this very first print. (I must say though that while the printer was easy to hook up and use, it is HUGE, and takes up nearly the entire table that we have set up for mail processing). I quickly printed off three or four more files, and they all looked quite good. So it looks like I WILL be able to offer prints of photos that appear in the Cloudland Journal, AND also any of the photos that are in the new Arkansas Waterfalls Guidebook too! AND I will additionally be able to offer prints of any image in both the Arkansas Spring and new Arkansas Wilderness picture book, as well as both the 2002 and 2003 wall calendars (I have digital files from all of these publications). I don't have the details worked out just yet about the price and ordering procedures, but I can tell you the price will be a fraction of what I have to charge for custom prints right now ($250 for an 11/14). And at some point I will also be able to offer economical prints up to 13/19 inches from the books and calendars - very high quality prints at a cheap price. I will have to do a great deal more research and experimentation before all of this will be available, but I will let you know when that happens.
3/7/03 Pam has been back from the bus for nearly an hour now and the sun is still not up yet. It is pea soup fog here this morning, although the temp is above freezing so no hoar frost. It is quite beautiful outside though, and I may be forced to go out and take a few pictures. It is just above freezing, and the wind is blowing, so it will still be FREEZING outside!
I am in quite a pickle right now though - do I go sit in the hot tub and simply enjoy the morning and the fog, do I get dressed and run out into the freezing cold to take pictures, or do I stay inside near the roaring fire and PRINT? Life is good at Cloudland today, as it is every day.
Well, I decided to go out and wander around a little bit. The fog was wonderful. It was quiet out, still, even though the wind was blowing, there were no sounds. The soft leaves underfoot were moist, actually coated with a very fine frost (the regular kind, not hoar), and made no sounds at all as I passed.
I'm not sure why this was, but the scene off to my left (looking downhill) was blue, while the scene to my right (looking uphill) was white - the fog that is. It was a very distinct color difference. Hum.
I worked my way on up to Aspen's meadow (thicker frost on the ground and lots of wind up there), then down the eastern slope of the ridge, towards the area where trout lilies first appear. We had not seen anything yet this week, but missed an evening hike yesterday, after a sunny afternoon. Once the fog burned off this morning today is supposed to be bright and sunny and warm - today HAD to be the day for the first flower to appear!
The forest floor was brown as far as I could see, a muted brown by the thick fog that still remained there. And then suddenly I came upon it - a trout lily! It had apparently come up late yesterday in the warm afternoon sunshine. No flower yet, but it is right there, all curled up, huddled against the cold and fog, just waiting for the sun to break through and set it free! These trout lilies (also called "dogtooth spar") are named after the pattern on their leaves - really does look just like the skin of some species of trout. I will be sure to return to this spot later today and see if I can catch the flower opening. Come on little girl!
Speaking of ladies, my bride spent much of yesterday afternoon knee-deep in our pond in front of the cabin, cleaning it out and looking for fish. The water is still too cold for our fish to show much of themselves, and all of the little ones have been hidden away under the big rocks all winter. We have been able to keep an eye on the big ones - they won't fit under the rocks, but have taken shelter under a rock I placed near the bottom of the pond for them to hide in - but their tails stick out one side.
Besides nearly freezing to death in the cold water, Pam reported seeing not one but TWO baby fish in the pond! And loads of tadpoles AND frog eggs. We were both surprised to find the frog eggs so early in the year, but I guess that happens. Looks like we are going to have lots of music from the trees to listen to these summer eves!
We had brilliant sunshine all day long, and warm temps in the afternoon (wasn't it just yesterday that we had all the frost?!). Pam and I loaded up the tractor and headed on over to the orchard, where we planted eight new trees (peach, apple, cherry). Pam actually did most of the planting, while I sat atop the tractor soaking up the sunshine. I am normally NOT a sun worshiper, but it felt just great today, so I felt obligated to partake. It was great to see such good and deep soil in that area of the mountain. I had always heard that many of the early settlers sold out and moved on because the land had been used up. Of course, that was nearly 100 years ago, and I guess the land does tend to reclaim itself.
I went back to check on the trout lily that I had found this morning, but it looked almost the same - the flower was still tightly wrapped up in itself. I guess the snow and ice from last week were still on this little flower's mind, so it decided to remain closed up for at least one more day - maybe tomorrow. I did find a second tout lily leaf, but no flower.
As I hiked on up the hillside from the flower garden area, I suddenly became aware of the color gold - it was all around me, and even at my feet. I was passing through an area where there were several large pine trees, which suffered some ice damage during the winter. There were a number of small branches of pine needles that had broken off and fallen to the ground, now turned golden. That color really stood out against the bleak winter landscape. I got down on my hands and knees and zoomed in close with the little digital camera to capture all the detail of the needles.
Up at eye level, there were many small beech trees. Still clinging tightly to their curled-up leaves, the backlit leaves produced a great deal more gold, and some nice rustling sound as the wind moved them back and forth. It won't be long now before these sentinels of color that have held fast throughout the winter will be pushed out and onto the ground by the new growth that will be here soon. I have always loved beech trees, in part because they do add that little bit of winter color, and remain when everyone else has dropped their leaves and faded into the forest floor. I wonder what the purpose is in their keeping their leaves? Could it be purely for the scenic value of it all, a little bit of golden color to warm the heart and soul on a frigid winter day? Hum, I wonder...
Back at the cabin I found Pam and Amber gazing down into the pond. It seemed that the warm temps brought out many of the little fishes that we thought had long since been eaten by raccoons (or Aspen). But there they were, all golden and red and yellow and white, and swimming all over the place in the pond. They have been napping under the rocks somewhere since last fall. Aspen took the opportunity to wade out into the shallow water and take a look himself. Just to honor the moment, we had grilled fish for dinner (out of the freezer, not the pond!).
3/10/03 It is getting late tonight and I can hardly keep my eyes open. Actually they are open but filled with sawdust - I've been working up at the tractor shed most of the day, building some very large shelves that I hope to fill up one day with much of the "stuff" that is filling up the tractor shed. It was chilly out here today, the sort of cold that you just can't shake. Cloudy all day too, but with lots of birds out singing and playing around. Felt like rain. Or perhaps even snow.
A couple of days ago a group of photographers came by and I took them down into Dug Hollow. Much to our great surprise there was actually some water in the creek, and a couple of nice waterfalls! Even though we have had a good bit of moisture this past couple of weeks, the poor earth in the Ozarks is still so parched from this long winter drought that most of the water has been soaked up - we are still in a very dry condition around here, although the creeks and rivers down low are running OK, but still not up to normal levels for March.
It was great to get out and visit some moving water, and to take a few photos. The sun came out for a few minutes, but quickly retreated when it saw that there were several cameras and tripods down below that really needed cloudy skies for good pictures. When we got back to the cabin Pam and Amber presented us with WARM homemade Cloudland cookies! I gobbled down about six or eight of them as fast as I could grab. Those ladies that I live with sure are terrific gals!
A few ferns coming to life (393-302)
Lots of moss-covered stuff in the canyon (393-303)
The wind howled and thrashed around all day - I don't know what it was mad about, but it sure got my attention. The temps were trying to creep up into the 70's, but that wind kept it down. And sometime in the middle of the day it began to get colder, and the temp dropped from then on until dark.
On Sunday Pam and Amber headed out to lead an Otters Kids Hike over at Alum Cove. I was left behind - just me and my computer and the TAXES, at last! I remained at the computer all morning and long into the afternoon. I hardly noticed the girls return - or their departure again. They had snuck off up to the office to clean up the mess I had been making at the book processing station for the past six months. I was not able to finish work on the taxes before I had to go into town for a couple of meetings, but I did get to walk through a CLEAN office! Did I say my ladies are very nice to have around?
I am headed out into the woods tomorrow to meet and hike with the forest service - they want to show us all of their dead trees along the Ozark Highlands Trail. I've seen them, and they are not a pretty sight. We will try to come up with some sort of plan to keep the trail from being completely covered up with the falling trees (they will want to cut them all down before they actually die - they always seem to want to do that). It is a sad situation out there - what the red oak borer has done to the vast stands of red oak trees in the Ozarks. But that sort of thing happens from time to time in the course of history, and we just have to deal with it the best we can. We have not been hit with the bugs around here yet, thank goodness.
And try as it might, the little trout lily on the loop trail still has not opened up yet. He has been joined by a number of other flowers, each one sporting a beautiful trout-like leaf, and tightly curled up flower. But not color at all to be seen. I guess they feel the cold weather coming on and don't want to burst forth until it has passed. I will continue to visit them each day. You will be the first to know once the first wildflower at Cloudland appears!
3/12/03 "It's like I get to see the sunrise TWICE!" My bride just returned to the cabin from taking Amber to the bus stop and sat down next to me at her computer, then looked out the window. The spot where she drives to in the twilight to wait for the bus is higher on the ridge than our cabin is. Right now they are sitting there waiting while the sunrise is happening. When she drives back towards the cabin the sun actually sets as she goes down the ridge. Then she gets to watch the sunrise all over again!
I spent yesterday morning hiking on the Ozark Highlands Trail with several important forest service folks. We had a good discussion about all of the damage the beetles were doing to the forest, and how it would impact the trail, and hikers using it. The forest service put in motion a master plan to remove the dead and dying trees from roadsides and recreation areas to protect visitors, and the contract crews have been working overtime this past year to cut out the hazard trees. Having a two-ton stick of wood come crashing down on you while sleep or driving would not be any fun. The forest service originally publicized that they were going to do the same thing for their hiking trails as well, but it turns out that was mostly just hype and a slick PR move - they really don't have any money to mess with trails. So at one point in our hike yesterday they stopped and asked me if our hikers would be willing to pay to have all the trees cut down along the trail. We have been most cooperative with them on every other issue, but this was asking just a bit too much. I don't know what the solution to this problem is going to be, but the dead trees will become much more of a priority for our volunteers in the months and years to come, and we will be spending a lot of volunteer time in the woods using chain saws.
At one point we came across this incredible erosion spot - the earth just all of a sudden started to wash away there several years ago, and not the canyon in the making was 15 or more feet wide and 6-8 feet deep. It used to be a tiny stream, only running when it rained. We all gathered around the gaping hole next to the trail (it had consumed the original trail a year ago) and gazed down into it. Turns out that this erosion, plus several others along the trail, were the direct result of the highway department installing new culverts in the highway further up on the hillside. Good grief! Just another example of how when you do one thing you may end up causing something else to happen out of sight. WE ALL LIVE DOWNSTREAM, and so need to think about how what we do in our everyday lives affects everything else along the line.
When I got back to the cabin I found my bride hard at work. She was putting together the drawing table that her hubby had gotten her for Valentine's Day. Pam is very good at putting things together, and when this carton arrived the other day (it was out of stock when I ordered it), I knew it was way too complicated for me to do. It took her a couple of hours, but now she has a really neat solid wood drawing table - it will be the centerpiece of her new room, once we get that built (sometime in the next few months).
The temps rose a little bit during the day, but there was still not enough warmth and sunshine to get our little trout lily to flower today. She has been joined by several others though, and one of these days there will be a miniature explosion of color in the forest here. Come on little lady, you can do it!
I'm headed out the door here in a few minutes to go begin building the little hiking trail over near Mutton Point for Edd French. They are calling for rain (like they did last night - clear skies all night), and the temps are warming already, so perhaps we will get some. While I don't enjoy building trail in the rain (and I have done a LOT of it!), we certainly do need the rain, so COME ON RAIN!
I spent much of the day doing trail work and remembering just how old and out of shape I really am. We had a good day, and got some nice trail built. This trail near Mutton Point that overlooks Camp Orr and the Buffalo goes down a steep hillside that is made up mostly of ROCKS. It was great to get out and work a little bit - my brain has been working overtime at the computer of late, and is getting fried.
When I got home I went to check on the little trout lily and found it wide open and soaking up the warm afternoon temps. These are funny little flowers, and I can't figure out why something so delicate and beautiful would want to hide its head all the time. This flower is only about 3-4 inches tall, so you can perhaps imagine what my position was in order to take the nice photo. Not only was I completely flat on the ground, with the camera dug into the ground, but I even had to dig out a few rocks and make a little hole to get the camera position even lower so that I could look up into the face of the flower just a little bit. Yep, I love this photo stuff - it lets me lay down on the job!
It is getting late outside now and the wind is HOWLING at the top of its lungs. In fact, it's not just howling, but also growling and yelling - making all sorts of noise. And it is really black outside. Let me take that back for a minute. After I wrote that line I stepped outside and discovered that there is a half moon high overhead that is casting some nice light and shadows on the landscape - not really black at all. I guess the mood of the wind just feels like it should be a "dark and stormy night."
3/17/03 It has been a long past three days for us on the road, but we are home now, and the thick fog is rolling in this morning and engulfing the cabin with a blanket of warm, moist, thick air.
When I rolled out of bed at 5am on Friday morning and headed out into the woods, my flashlight only went about ten feet - the fog this morning was the THICKEST that I had ever seen! I had to hike up and mess with our well pump before we left for the day. On the way back to the cabin I held my breath that the batteries would hold out - no way I could have found my way back to the cabin in the total darkness that it was in that thick fog. I would have simply had to wait until it got light enough to see, which would have made us late. As it turned out the thick fog cost us a great deal of time on our drive down out of the mountains to Hot Springs Village, where we gave a program to the Audubon Society and camera club there. Good thing we made it to this program, because we set a record for the most sales at a program ever - THANKS to the great people of Hot Springs Village!
It was a very long drive back to the cabin, where we recycled and headed out onto the road once again, stopping for the night at Pam's parents house. This stop would begin a solid weekend of EATING - no, actually stuffing ourselves at each meal. We started off with a ton of shrimp at grandma's, then mounds of biscuits and gravy for breakfast the next morning. Then we motored on up into the heart of Missouri to visit my sister/brother and their families at the Lake of the Ozarks. We continued our feed there with a huge lunch, then two hours of non-stop eating that evening. The next morning we got up and were fed these wonderful cinnamon rolls "just to tide us over" until we got to the real meal of the day, Sunday Brunch at a wonderful restaurant in town. All in all I think I gained at least 30 pounds, but every bite was quite delicious.
The guest quarters at grandma's house are tucked back into the dark reaches of their basement - there are no windows - it is a terrific place to SLEEP deeply, and is easy to remain there all day long without ever knowing the sun had come up. Our room at my sister's place was on the east side of the condo, and the early morning light flooded in with a vengeance - the following scene is what we woke up to, and I was forced out onto the back deck in my underwear with half-open eyes to get this photo.
All in all we had a terrific three days, and actually got to sit back and RELAX for a little while. Oh yea, did I mention the wonderful FOOD? I'm not eating anything for another week.
Today will be our only day without a major event going on for the next two weeks - if we will only be able to survive until April we will be happy campers! (we've got at least 48 hours of work to get done today) Speaking of events, I'll be giving two slide programs this week, both open to the public. The first one is tomorrow (Tuesday) in Ft. Smith. This is the meeting of a new hiking club there, and it starts at 7pm (The directions to Grace Community UMC are as follows: From I-40, exit onto I-540 at the first Fort Smith/Van Buren exit. Take Exit 12 off I-540. Turn left going south on Hwy 71. When you get to McDonald’s, turn right onto Brooken Hill Dr. Grace is the second building on the right.) The second program is on Thursday at 7pm for the Arkansas Outdoor Photographer's Club meeting (Second Presbyterian Church, 600 Pleasant Valley Dr., Room 65 - close to the I-430 & Cantrell intersection). Both meetings are open to the public. I will be showing the ARKANSAS WATERFALLS and ARKANSAS WILDERNESS slide programs, and will have SPECIAL pricing on all of the picture books!
Pam and I were busy all day, but it was a terrific day to be outside, so we spent as much of it outdoors as we could. One great discovery that Pam made was while she was cleaning out our little pond in front of the cabin - two BABY fish have appeared after the long winter! And the rest of the fish were quite active as the warm afternoon sunshine brought the water temp up to where they liked to swim around.
We planted the last of our fruit trees - two pears and a plum. That makes a total of 12 fruit trees in the Cloudland orchard. I'm not really counting on our thumbs being too green, but it would be great if the trees actually did produce fruit in a year or two.
Towards the end of the afternoon I struck off down the hillside towards the river. After feasting all weekend on terrific food, I decided it was time for me to get into shape, starting today. So I began to count calories - writing down every little thing that I eat or drink, including the 60 calories of Irish Creme that I put into my morning cup of Earl Grey tea.
It was really warm and I was in my shorts, t-shirt, and tennis shoes, with Aspen and Lucy bounding along far ahead of me. It didn't take long for me to start seeing trout lilies - first just one here and there, but soon they were everywhere, on both sides of the trail, and in the middle of the trail - I had to look close and sometimes move my foot at the last minute on the way down in order to keep from crushing one of these delicate wildflowers.
There is one bench near the bottom that always has tons of different wildflowers growing on it, and today was no exception. As I approached the upper edge of it I began to see bloodroot, Dutchman's breeches, toothworts, and tons more trout lilies. It wasn't until I stopped and pulled out the little point-and-shoot digital camera that I realized my batteries were dead, or nearly so. But I managed to get at least one good photo taken of each species of wildflowers. After each exposure I had to take the batteries out of the camera, warm them up in my pocket, and blow hot breath on them - I wanted to extract every last bit of power out of them. After a couple minutes of doing this I could get another exposure before the camera went dead again.
As I passed the first old homesite (just a root cellar, fallen chimney, and hand dug-square well - all made of stone - remained), I could see quite a bit of green - lots of daffodils and daylilies had sprung up, although there was only a single yellow flower in all of that. These guys normally don't bloom too much simply because they are now in the deep woods. The flowers that do bloom have been doing so for at least the past 60 years, the date the last people lived in the area.
The next homesite is where I had hoped to find a sea of yellow - yellow trout lilies that is. Sure enough, there were hundreds and hundreds, perhaps even a thousand plants poking up out of the ground, but, once again only a single yellow flower. I got down on my hands and knees to take his picture. Dead batteries. PLEASE, just one more photo! I got it, and vowed to return in another few days when more of the flowers should be up (most trout lilies are white, but these are yellow, and quite striking).
Next I made my way to the banks of the Buffalo River. Aspen and Lucy had already been swimming in Whitaker Creek, which was flowing quite nicely. But the Buffalo was a lot wider, and provided plenty of watery real estate for the dogs to play in.
Once again I found myself down on my hands and knees - this time looking at the neat rock formations that the recent high water had brought in. Each winter new stones are shaped and polished and moved along the river to be deposited in gravel bars like this one. So many infinite shapes and sizes. I love looking at the polished stones, especially these made of sandstone, because they are really not all that polished, or should I say the polish is more of a smoothing of the rough sand, with the texture of the sandstone still intact. I came upon this one stone that had some bits of red rock imbedded in it, and took its picture. Don't know what the red stuff is, but probably contains a high quantity of iron. And son of a gun, I discovered that it was much warmer along the banks of the river, and my batteries gave me three or four shots.
As I was leaving the river, I noticed some nice color in the shallow rapids. Normally this color will appear late in the day as the sun turns the trees above golden, or the sky and clouds red and orange. In the fall the trees that crowd around the banks get lit up by the setting sun, and that make some really nice color on the water. But today there really was nothing of great color that I could see - the sky was blue and the trees were simply grey. But that color was coming from somewhere, so I had to zoom in and take its picture.
Before long I was back up at the cabin once again, where I found Pam and Amber at the pond, and Aspen ready to lunge in and catch a fish for dinner. So nice to have all of my family out enjoying this fine spring day!
One thing about living at Cloudland, you can expect a great sunrise or sunset just about any day. I was typing away at the computer this evening when the sun began to drop into the trees in the west. I hurried around and loaded some new batteries into the camera, dumped all of the images onto the computer from the little card in the camera, and ran out the door and down into Mom's meadow. I set up the camera and snapped one shot just before the sun disappeared. As with most of my images that you see in this journal (and in my books), this is the natural color and it has not been altered.
Soon after the sun went down and I had returned to the cabin, I looked down and son of a gun, the first POPCORN tree of the season had POPPED out in all of the warm sunshine! Wow, that was totally unexpected! I had not seen them anyplace else before up here (I did see a dogwood and other trees already breaking out down south, but not up here in the Ozarks). I call this serviceberry tree (or "sarvis") a "popcorn" tree because 1) they literally POP out without warning like this one did today; and 2) from a distance the blooms look like someone glued popcorn onto a tree. Many folks mistake these for dogwoods - which will bloom later in April - and they are the first flowering tree in the wilds up here to bloom in the spring (along with wild plums, which are not out yet).
I suspect as the spring marches on you will have very long download times when you log onto the Cloudland Journal - I just can't help myself - when I see neat things in nature, out comes the camera!
ONE NOTE ABOUT THE PHOTOS. I have been using a different method for "processing" the images that I put on the Journal pages here. When I save each file I do so with the photo looking just right on my monitor. But I have no way of knowing how these photos look on YOUR monitor (monitors display photos in different ways). SO, if you typically think that the images here are too LIGHT or too DARK, please drop me an e-mail and let me know (ternst@ArkansasUSA.com). If I get a lot of folks saying the images are one way or the other, then I will try to adjust them and see what happens. THANKS!
Below are some photos that my good friend Clint Sowards took during our visit to Hot Springs Visit last week (THANKS Clint for allowing me to use them!)
3/18/03 It is cloudy and windy early this morning, and that wind is coming from the east - perhaps bringing some much-needed RAIN!!! It has been a dreadful season for waterfalls because of the long winter drought (the worst in modern times around here), but I am still hopeful that we will get a good dose of spring showers that will bring the water table up and provide some nice viewing the next couple of months.
Seems like everywhere you look there is talk of the war. I will add my two cents worth and then shut up. Frankly, I could care less about the political maneuvering in all of this, whether it is right or wrong or a just war or not - none of that matters now. My only thoughts are with our brave service men and women who have choosen to defend our country and protect our way of life, as our military people have been doing for a couple of hundred years. A number of our friends have been called up and are either over there or are heading that direction now. No way to understand how incredible a sacrifice what they are doing is, not only to the individuals themselves, but to their families. In the coming days and weeks I don't plan to dwell on the merits of this war, but rather will spend that bit of my energy with hopes and prayers for the troops - that they ALL come home safely; and for their families - that they are able to pick up the slack and remain intact while their loved ones fight for our freedom. THANK YOU one and all for this tremendous sacrifice!!! The flowers at Cloudland are blooming for you.
3/19/03 I'm having trouble typing this morning - this is the third time I have sat down to write, but got called away by the spectacular light show going on outside that I can see through my office window. We had heavy rain during the night, and lots of it, and now the sky is heavy with dark clouds, blue sky, and layer upon layer of brilliant clouds that the rising sun is trying to fight its way up through. It is a kaleidoscope of warm spectrum color over there in the east, and no way I can capture it on film. But, I keep trying! Oops, gotta run and try again...
OK, the fireworks are over for now. We got more than two inches of wonderful rain during the night, and both the Buffalo River and Whitaker Creeks are singing. They have been sending up mostly New Age music this past week, but today it is all Rock and Roll! The Buffalo is muddy, as is the pond in our front yard. Oh how the wilderness LOVES this rain! Me too. There should be waterfalls all over the Ozarks running well today. I suspect they will be good for a couple of days now - the ones down in the lower reaches of drainages for longer. Canoe outfitters are celebrating this morning. Now, if we could just get a good rain once or twice a week for the rest of the spring I will be a happy camper! Actually, I'll be a happy camper no matter how much it rains - springtime in Arkansas is like no other place on earth.
I had a delightful time at the Trailblazers Hiking Club meeting in Ft. Smith last night, and got to meet a packed house full of hiking and photo folks. Scores of people always come up to me after the shows and talk about how emotional they got during the slides and music - I've seen those programs quite a few times and I have the same reaction every time, often having to compose myself quickly before the lights come back on again (it's not so much my images, but the sheer beauty of our great state, and how they mingle with the music to create the moods). "We are SO glad that he found and married Pam!" That is how I was introduced - by a faithful Journal reader who had been online for a number of years. Good grief, can you believe that it has almost been FIVE years since I started this thing? No way it would have progressed to this point without folks like you to keep me going. And contrary to popular opinion, I NEVER get tired of signing books! The next slide/mucic show will be in Little Rock tomorrow night. I will also be in Russellville on April 3rd, and in Rogers on April 17th. All shows are free and open to the public (details on those later). If you have ever wanted to buy one of the big, expensive picture books but have held back because of the price, we offer them on super special prices at these shows.
Besides the roar of the rivers far below, the air is filled with bird music this morning. The rain has stopped, and the feeling outside is that everything has been scrubbed clean, and that SPRING has arrived. That is good timing, since it will be officially here tomorrow. And, of course, you know what the first day of spring means - my wedding anniversary! I never have to remember the actual date of it, just that it is on the first day of spring, whenever that happens to fall. I will be on the road tomorrow and not able to wine and dine my bride in the correct manner, but I am going to take her to her favorite restaurant today in town - Red Lobster! We both have to be in town all day today, but going our separate ways most of the time. And for those of you who have seen our wholly bear of a dog Aspen of late, please know that he will be getting his summer hair cut today - that will cause him to lose a couple of pounds, and look MUCH better (he has been compared to critters resembling whales lately).
There have been a number of controlled burns in the national forest this past week or two, including one yesterday that burned several thousand acres in between our cabin and the highway at Red Star. As I made my way back home in the rain and darkness late last night I could see dozens of trees on fire along the road (dead trees). It looked to me that this particular burn got a little bit too hot, but still it probably didn't do any actual damage to the forest. The fires are set to help "control" the thick vegetation on the forest floor, mostly to keep the dead fuels from building up and contributing to a really large and wild forest fire at some point in the future. For now the landscape looks pretty grim, but rest assured it all is really healthy for the forest, and springtime will bring on new growth, and the blackened earth will soon disappear. At least, that is what they tell me, and what I have seen in real life over the years. Oh yea, those burns really help control the TICK population too! I'm sure there are down sides to the controlled burns, but for now they are a part of our world, and are what most land managers suggest we do with the forest from time to time. Native Americans used to do this all the time, often to keep prairies and other open areas open.
The sun has now disappeared up into the dark clouds, and it is beginning to look and feel like more rain. All of the wind chimes here are singing out in the strong winds, trying to match the volume of the rivers below and the birds in the trees. No wait, now I can't hear a single bird. Where did they go all of a sudden? Do they know something that I don't? Hum, I had better pack up this hairy beast of mine and get into town! Come on flowers. Come on RAIN!
3/22/03 We did get another inch or two of rain, some of it hard, and the rivers below have been singing their hearts out. We made a quick trip down to Little Rock on our anniversary and gave a program to the outdoor photo club there. I guess when my bride signed on she knew there would be many long days and nights like that one, even on our anniversary. We finally made it back to the cabin sometime after midnight. I have made it my goal in life to give my dear wife the best of the world that I can give each and every day, and don't save any of it up for particular days of the year. If I tried to list all of the wonderful things about her it would take a minute of download time for each star in the sky. She is the best - I am one lucky dude, and thank my lucky stars every day. THANKS my lovely lady, for the two best years of my life - I look forward to the next 48! (Oh yea, all of that goes for my terrific kid too!!!)
We spent Friday and Saturday trying to catch up and recycle - we've got one more week of serious travel and time-consuming projects before we can sit back and enjoy the view. Well, that is not entirely true - we enjoy the view out here all the time!
I must say that SPRING arrived right on time, and is bursting out all over here, at least some of it is. Up in the Ozarks, the serviceberry trees are popping out by the minute. Redbuds, while not really visible yet, are beginning to bud out just a little bit. And certain wildflowers are carpeting the forest floor. Pam has been checking on our brand new orchard, and is reporting that several of the just-planted trees are budding out already. I plan to spend many summer evenings in the future sitting under those fruit trees, munching on whatever happens to fall on my head.
We were able to get out and hike around a little bit today. It was bright and sunny and while the temp was in the low 60's, a breeze kept things just a bit chilly. We went down to check on that very first trout lily that bloomed a while ago and found it surrounded by several hundred other flowers. Other parts of the forest looked just the same, with hundreds and hundreds of trout lilies. The toothworts are beginning to come out up here too. Pam's goal for the day was to find spring beauties (even though I told her I had already found one - right on the trail in front of me!). It wasn't until we had nearly gotten back to the cabin from our hike did she find the first one.
But man it is one terrific year for TROUT! I've never seen so many before - not in just one location, but in dozens of different spots, covering steep hillsides, spread across level benches, up against trees, surrounding moss-covered rocks. Each and every one of them with their beautiful but delicate heads bowed downward.
I found one steep hillside to my liking and spent some time taking snapshots - I was able to get eye-to-eye with them and look up into their very being. Pam helped out with the light - which was strong and contrasty - by casting a shadow to darken the background behind individual flowers. Did I mention that I married a good one? I also needed a reflector to bounce a little bit of soft light up into the face of the flower, but I did not have one with me. Hiking around with a 12oz. digital camera is just a treat, but I often find myself without some necessary item of equipment that I normally carry in my "real" camera bag - that bag often weight 30-40 pounds!
The overall scene in the wilderness is still one of brown and grey - not much color at all. But the long views are revealing many white dots in the forest - the serviceberry trees. I suspect it will be another couple of weeks before that wonderful green hue begins to sweep across the landscape. As evening approaches the shadows grow and reach across the great Buffalo River valley below our cabin. Sometimes I just want to sit and stare for an hour and watch the progression. Since there are two windows next to my computer monitor that look our onto this great scene, I can continue working and still get to take it all in.
Tomorrow I will be heading out for several days of trail work over on the new section of the Ozark Highlands Trail that our volunteers have been working hard on for the past two years. We are just about at the end of a new 30-mile stretch of the trail, and have planned a -day work trip to finish it up. There are more than 25 folks out this weekend working. I'll be in charge of the crews during the week. While it will be great to get out and toil in the forest, I will not be able to make any sort of post here nor answer e-mails until the end of the week. Once I get back I will make a post as soon as I can, probably Friday or Saturday. Until then, I hope you have a wonderful week and get a chance to soak up some springtime sunshine! Of course, as always, come on RAIN!!!
3/23/03 OK, OK, so I am making another post. This will be the last one until Friday or so. While I was sitting in the hot tub enjoying the sunrise this morning, I got to thinking about one of my favorite trees in the whole world. I can see it from my bedroom window, although I have not been down to visit it is three years (a photo of this tree appears in both my ARKANSAS SPRING and ARKANSAS WILDERNESS books). It is a serviceberry tree that lives on the very top edge of the big bluff just below the cabin. It popped out a couple of days ago. This morning when the rising sun really lit it up against the far hillside which was still in shadow. I hurried out of the steaming bubbles and grabbed my camera. It is a short but SERIOUS trip down the hill to the tree, and one that is only taken by sober folks.
Ah yes, what a beautiful tree! It is perhaps my most favorite individual tree in the world. I sat down in the leaves, wrapped my arm around the base of a tree next to me, and held on for dear life while I snapped picture after picture. No way these low-resolution photos can do justice to this tree, although the enlargements that I can make from the shots would look pretty good.
My favorite tree in the morning light (3233-443)
As I was sitting there waiting for the camera to recycle (in the high-quality mode it takes about 16 seconds for the camera to record the image, and before I can see through the viewfinder again - sometimes those few seconds seem like an hour!), a little bird landed in one of the branches. How lucky I was that this little guy just happened to pick my tree for a rest stop on his way to the rest of his day. I zoomed in and snapped one photo before he waved goodbye and flew off. Thank you Mr. Bird!
Hello Mr. Bird! (3233-462)
It is another pure-blue-sky sort of day here in the wilderness, with lots of sunshine, and the rivers below singing lively tunes. Speaking of the river, I must say that right now it is the most wonderful shade of green! Like a giant green snake winding its way through the forest. One of the theories that I have heard about why the water is that color here is because high waters churn up the rocks, grinding off tiny particles of sandstone that become suspended in the water. Once the water clears up a bit those particles affect the color of light that penetrates and is reflected, producing the green color. That sure does make sense to me, because it will often take on that gorgeous color after high water.
OK, now I am off to the woods for a few days...
Clouds being born at Cloudland after a stormy night (3263-482)
3/27/03 Aspen jumped up on the bed and licked me in the face with this "get up you lazy bum and look at the gorgeous sunrise" look on his face. He was right - I was a lazy bum, and the sunrise was pretty nice. Actually, the sun had not even showed up yet and the sky was a multitude of color down near the horizon, with reds and pinks and yellows and oranges all reaching up into a pure blue sky.
I got home from the trail work a couple of days early - tons of great volunteers showed up to work on the trail and it got completed a lot sooner than we had expected, so I came home. We now have a 30.6 mile new stretch of the Ozark Highlands Trail marked and open for business. This is the trail that runs across the Sylamore District of the Ozark National Forest, beginning near Big Creek on the lower Buffalo River, and skirting around the Leatherwood Wilderness Area up north to the White River near the community of Norfork. At some point we hope that the national park service at Buffalo National River will pull their heads out from between their legs and approve the portion of trail yet to be built that lies between the main OHT and this new section - they have only been in the approval process for three years. I think the trail has actually been approved for awhile now, but they are insisting that ten different Native American tribes in New Mexico and Arizona also approve the route. What these tribes have to do with this tiny trail in the Ozarks I have no idea, but that is what they are telling us.
Anyway, I got home early and enjoyed a spectacular spring day with my family. We got an inch or so of rain the night before, and the rivers below were into their loud rock and roll music. We all strolled on over to the new orchard and looked at our trees that were budding out for the first time. I had heard that we were supposed to pinch off all of the flowers this first year - so that the trees can put all of their energy into establishing a good root system - the key to surviving and good health. So here we found these wonderful trees in bloom, then had to pinch off all of the flowers!
One of the reasons why we choose that particular spot for our orchard is because there are already so many fruit-bearing plants that grow there - wild plums, pawpaws, wild strawberries, and what I call "wild" peach trees (they must be from peach pits that someone tossed out eons ago because I have been told there are no "wild" peach trees!). The wild plums are just now beginning to pop out, as are the "wild" peach trees. I took a few snapshots in the sunny, breezy afternoon air.
The trout lilies are almost gone up here now, and many of the other wildflowers that had been in bloom are all shriveled up and fading away - we think because of the cold snap from the night before - the temp got down into the upper 30's. It is supposed to get even colder this next couple of days, so the wildflower boom in the Ozarks may take a few steps backward, but I think they will come roaring back in a hurry.
There are miniature forests of mayapples just now pushing up through the forest floor. It looks like the flowers are coming on at the same speed as the leaves - I don't recall seeing this before. The flowers actually look like tiny "apples" right now. They will burst forth as bright white flowers soon, then will die back and re-emerge as a solid "apple" in another month or so (near the month of May - hence the name). It will be fun to follow their progress.
From the back deck of the cabin I counted more than 20 serviceberry trees in full bloom right around Mom's meadow - they are REALLY popping out in the forest right now! Looking out into the wilderness there are hundreds more all over the place. And also there are a few big oaks that are showing a little bit of green - it is just a little early for them to come out here. Most of the landscape is still brown though, but not for long.
It is very windy here this morning, with gusts up into the 30mph range. I've been watching some of the buzzard flying around and they seem to be having a bit of trouble keeping their balance. I have not seen a hawk in a couple of weeks - I guess most of them have migrated on to other hunting grounds for now.
The wind howled and bent trees over double all day long - gusts were upwards towards 50mph. It didn't' let up. Furniture was on the move, birds were not. The wind chill dipped down into the 20's.
Pam and I ventured out for one quick trip around the loop, and found many dogwood and redbud trees just about to bud out, or just beginning to flower. I believe it will be one super glorious springtime! However, most of the wildflowers that had been exploding this past week had retreated, curled up on themselves, due to the cold weather. Seems like we always get a good cold snap after things begin to bloom. I suspect it will kill some stuff back, but it will all come charging back again and thrill us with the color and the glory.
3/28/03 A cold and dreary day today, with a light mist in the air. Not really rain, just mist. The sky is low and very gray. (Hey, is it grAy or grEy?) About the only color to be seen are the multitudes of popcorn trees in full bloom, and the beautiful green of the river far below.
It is time for me to officially announce the availability of COLOR PRINTS from the new printer setup out here at Cloudland. Not only can you get very nice prints from any photo that you see here on the Journal (beginning with the March 1st, 2003 photos), but you can also get the same high-quality and very inexpensive prints from anything that I have ever published (picture books, calendars, and even the photos in the Arkansas Waterfalls Guidebook - all in COLOR!). Right now the 8/10 prints (printed on 11/14 paper) are only $10, while the 11/17 prints (printed on 13/19 paper) are only $20 - these prices will go up soon. (Also available are 6/9 prints made on 8.5 x 11 inch paper for just $5!) As an example, my normal color prints have been $250 for an 11/14! The image quality is very good, and the archival quality is actually better on the new prints.
How can I offer these prints so cheaply? The answer is simple - I am doing them all myself mostly as a service to my Journal readers and other customers. Yes, they are digital prints printed directly from a computer, but the papers that I use are special premium photo papers - you really can't tell these prints from the expensive ones. I will say that the photos from the Journal will look better in smaller sizes, but the 11/17's I have printed have actually been very good, especially considering they were shot with my little point-and-shoot digital camera! I think you will be quite pleased.
There is a $5 per order shipping charge, regardless of how many prints you order - they are rolled in a tube and sent via the mail or UPS.
To order the prints, simply go to our secure online store and follow the directions. You can also give us a call at 800-838-4453, or you can mail in a personal check. It will take two or three days for me to print whatever you want, depending on my schedule. These prints are all created one at a time by me (and dry overnight), so unlike guidebook orders I have to be here and have the time to print them before the order can be filled.
AND AS A SPECIAL BONUS for Journal readers who simply want a high-quality enlargement of photos from the Journal, I am going to offer for a short time smaller prints for $5. These are printed on the very same high-quality archival paper as the larger sizes, but on 8.5 x 11 inch paper. With borders, the actual image size works out to something like 6 x 9 inches. They look really nice.
The way that you order a print is to either use the special number that is listed with most of the Journal photos that have been posted since March 1st, or to give me the book and page number that you saw the image in, or the year and month of the calendar photo. As an example a guy from Virginia ordered a 11/17 print yesterday, and on the order form he wrote "2003 calendar, December photo." That's all I needed. His print is finished and rolled up in a tube ready for Priority Mail shipment tomorrow. It really is a great deal, and I continue to be quite surprised at the quality.
The # on the Journal photos can be used if you ever have questions/comments about specific photos - the first number is the date, and the second number is the frame number since I started keeping track.
In the future I will try to have some special "galleries" available online for folks to look through (I have them already created - that is the easy part - but I have not been able to upload them to the internet yet). One such gallery will feature photos just of Hawksbill Crag in all seasons.
This is mostly what I have been doing in my "free time" here - getting the printing system up and running so that I could produce high-quality prints at affordable prices. I am very excited about all of this, and hope many of you will be too. The prices at first will simply cover our costs, and they will inch up as time goes on, but my hope is to always be able to offer great prints cheap. Oops, I probably should not use that word "cheap" - they really are cheap in terms of price only, certainly not quality.
OK, enough of the sales pitch.
It is rather chilly out here this afternoon, and there is a big fire blazing away in the fireplace. Still no real rain all day, but that mist continues to hang in the air. They are calling for temps below freezing tonight, and down in the 20's tomorrow night. Come on flowers, hold on tight! Seeing as how I love winter weather, I will be soaking up this last chilly spell. Just a moment ago I stepped out onto the back deck and took in a deep breath of that delicious air. When I was a kid and went grocery shopping with mom I used to run to the frozen foods department and hang over into the bins and suck in that cold air. I probably should have grown up in Alaska, but I am really much too much of a wimp for that - I do love springtime, and even summers here.
3/29/03 Seems like I spent an hour or longer waiting for the pre-dawn light to happen this morning. I have a grand view to the east from my pillow, and being a very light sleeper, even the first tinge of light or color will often wake me up. This morning I kept seeing a brilliant sunrise inside my head, even though it was still dark outside. Finally, some color began to creep up over the horizon. Just one more minute of rest I told myself, then I will get up and take a photo. Hum, that didn't work. Next thing I knew my eyes were wide open and the sky was on fire with color! But it was fading fast. I jumped out of bed and raced down the stairs to get my camera, tripping and falling down the last three steps. By the time I had gotten back up to the loft and out on the little deck there, the middle band of brilliant light was gone. Still half asleep and now quite frustrated that I let a terrific sunrise go, I fired off a single shot, then went back to bed. Later, when I loaded the photo into the computer, I realized that it was a good photo anyway, and I hope you like it.
That will set the stage for the rest of today's entry. I spent most of the morning at the computer - it was in the mid-30's outside - but by the middle of the afternoon I had had enough and was ready to break out and go hiking. The temp was up to 45, and the sun was shining. Seems like all I have been doing and writing about of late is business or the loop trail, so I wanted to take a trip to an unknown area of the wilderness and see what I could find. Mostly though, I just wanted to get outside on this beautiful, if not a bit chilly, spring day.
Aspen had a bad foot, so I blocked the door and kept him inside. Poor guy - he would have given that foot away if he could have gone with me for a long hike! My goal was to drop down to Whitaker Creek, work my way up the left side of it, up into new territory for me. Then I wanted to climb up on top of Beagle Point and end up on top of the bluffs directly across from the cabin. As an afterthought, I grabbed my camera and stuffed it into my fanny pack - I didn't think there would be much blooming with this cold snap.
I dropped on down to the base of the big bluff and just sort of wandered along there, looking at the interesting rock formations, lush vegetation growing right out of the bluff, and inspecting a number of GIANT trees that had recently fallen over, leaving big root balls behind. There were a few things in bloom, but not much. I was definitely blooming though - it was great to be outdoors!
It had been 15 or 20 minutes when I spotted a flash of color up ahead. A redbud tree in full bloom, and it was backlit by the afternoon sun! This was the first redbud I had seen in bloom out here (looks like it is going to be a great year for them). I got down under the main branch and shoot up towards the sandstone bluff that towered above both of us - it was in shadow while the redbud was being lit up by the sun. I have decided to shoot all or most of the images out here in what is called RAW mode in the little digital camera. This is the highest resolution and best quality that the camera can produce. But the files are very large, which means I can't get too many pictures on my 256mb flash card - only 25 shots and it fills up. No problem with that. But what does mess me up some is when you shoot digital in RAW format the resulting image that you can see after the shot is taken is basically GREEN all over - no true colors at all. NO way I could tell if I got the actual color that I wanted in this delicate backlit scene. I would just have to wait until I loaded the image into the computer and hoped the correct thing popped up on the screen (it did).
OK, I got a photo that I could use in the Journal - now I could simply wander around and not worry about taking pictures. Yea, right.
As I was packing the camera back up I looked around and realized that I had not paid any attention to where I had been going, or where I was. I was standing directly beneath Hawksbill Crag! And I could not believe that there was no one up there, especially on a gorgeous spring day like today.
I headed on down the steep hillside towards Whitaker Creek. As I got close to the bottom I could see the telltale green color of trout lilies - and the color was covering the forest floor, and the sides of the canyon wall almost all the way down to the creek. Yellow, they were all yellow lilies. Most of them had either bloomed already or were not going to - only a few were in bloom, and all of those were wrapped up tight against the chilly afternoon breezes.
I was a little surprised to find the creek nearly dry - the side creek coming in was completely dry. This is the HEIGHT of springtime, and the creeks should be full! As I made my way upstream I passed by more and more lush areas carpeted with trout lilies, toothworts, bellworts, bloodroot, and other assorted wildflowers, moss, and ferns - this place was a garden of Eden! But once again, most of those flowers were not in full bloom, mostly because of the cold weather. But man what a soft carpet of green!
There were a number of large boulders that had been tossed down into the streambed, and they too were covered with thick moss, and an assortment of wildflowers and ferns. One boulder in particular was literally covered with "walking" ferns. I see them often around here, but never can get a good photo of them. I was determined to get at least a snapshot of this one batch, but the problem was they were located up high on the boulder, and I had to put myself into a very strange location and hold on for dear life in order to get the shot. There would have been no way I could have gotten this shot with my regular camera - it would have to had been on a sturdy tripod, and no tripod that I know of could have reached up that high. I snapped one quick photo before sliding off of the rock and winding up on the ground.
As I was collecting my thoughts there on the ground and looking around to make sure no one had seen me, I noticed an Adam and Eve orchid right there - actually two of them. They are the guys who put out neat green leaves that lie flat against the ground part of the year, but by the time the actual flower appears in the summertime, the leaves are gone - I've never seen the leaf and the flower together. (I'll tell ya later why you are not seeing a photo of them here.)
The creek now was completely dry, and I spent the next however long working my way up the dry creekbed and thinking that I had never done that before - able to hike up the creekbed when there were thousands and thousands of wildflowers all around me - normally the creek would be full when the flowers are out. It has been a very strange winter. It was a delightful walk - boulder hopping actually - and there was no sound at all since the wind had died down and there was no water noise. Kind of weird, and serene, and wonderful. Hop. Hop. Hop. What a day.
And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I popped up over a boulder and there it was, the river had appeared, and its roar filled the canyon once again. Water is life, and goodness it was dancing all over the place. I shot and shot and shot. Everywhere I turned there were new scenes to photograph. Oops - I only have 25 photos total, remember? With my normal camera it would often take me five or ten minutes or even longer to set the big tripod up and get a shot taken, and I would shoot 75-100 or more exposures. But with this little digital camera, I don't carry a tripod, so all I have to do is pull it out of the fanny pack, turn it on, and blast away. And since I can see my shot right after I take it (sometimes in color, sometimes green), I can often tell if I got the shot I want and don't have to shoot all of those extras. Before I knew it though, I had used up my entire 25 shots. Oops.
I continued to wander on upstream, sometimes along the edge of the creek, sometimes up on a nearby bench - almost always covered with wildflowers, moss, and ferns. This place was LUSH!
When I would come to a photo that I just had to take, I would go back and delete a previous image - that would make room for another shot. Some of those early shots were careless and carefree anyway, just like me.
I came across an especially nice Rue Anemone (why anyone would want to rue an enemy I don't know, but I guess someone did it a long time ago, and then named this wildflower) - delete one photo, shoot another.
Then I found a whole batch of young buckeye trees. One in particular was close to the ground and a very dark color, but with lots of fine detail in the leaves. Delete one photo, shoot another.
I spotted this moss-covered boulder from all the way across the creek - it had been showered with these little tufts of something or other - they turned out to be the tiny seeds from sycamore balls. This is a really neat item in nature - when all the seeds are intact, the ball is rather compact and hard. But once you bust some of it up, a million tiny hairs burst forth and take to the wind - apparently many of them landed on this boulder. Delete TWO photos, shoot two more.
One stretch of the river was filled with boulders, and I didn't know if it looked better with the sun shining on the water or without. Fortunately the sun was going in and out of the clouds, so I got to see it both ways. But I had to wait a little while to get both. While I was standing there on a rock in the middle of the creek waiting for the sun to return (or was it for the sun to go away?), a couple of wonderful things happened.
First, it began to rain golden jewels from heaven. One by one beautiful beech leaves came floating down, until the air was filled with them. I guess it was a combination of a breeze coming up, and the new spring growth just beginning to push out the old leaves at the same time. I stood there and watched them for five minutes. Some of them landed in the rushing waters, and were immediately carried away downstream. Others came to rest on top of a soft bed of moss.
The other thing that happened was that I noticed a bit of commotion in a calm pool just upstream. It was a phoebe bird splashing in the water, jumping up onto a nearby rock, then crashing down into the water once again. I wasn't really sure if it was taking a bath, getting a drink, or what. Then I looked around and realized that I was standing right next to a low overhang on the creek, and tucked away back in there was a phoebe nest. The bird was trying to get my attention and draw me away from her nest. It worked - I left her area and continued my trek upstream. (As luck would have it though, the sun broke through and I got my shot! Or the sun went behind the cloud - I forget which.)
As I was approaching the next split in the creek - the spot where I had intended to turn left and explore upstream, I go to thinking about the time - it was getting late, or so it seemed. Now this may sound sort of odd, but here goes. It was obvious that there were multitudes of neat things up ahead and I could go see, but I would certainly want to photograph them, and I was really out of room on my digital card. So, since there WAS so much wonderful stuff ahead, I decided to abort my mission and head on back to the cabin. It would have been hard on me to see incredible things and not be able to photograph them!
I decided to go ahead with the last part of my plan - to climb up and out of the canyon and make my away across the top of Beagle Point. It was STEEP going - hand-over-fist climbing, but since I was beginning to get pretty chilled I welcomed the work. And then something unexpected appeared - a waterfall!
What, half of the creek was DRY! How could there be a waterfall up here? Actually I had known about and visited an incredible triple waterfall nearby several years ago - they were surrounded with umbrella magnolia trees in bloom. It was a marvelous visit, but the light was not good, and I never got any descent photos. This waterfall that I had just stumbled upon had to be coming from up there, but I did not know it was here. How terrific it was to find a beautiful waterfall, especially when I least expected it!
The route over to the base of this 25 foot tall falls was a little tricky, and I had to hold on for dear life a time or two. But I made it. The best way to shoot waterfall photos is with a polarizing filter, and a sturdy tripod. I didn't have either, but made the best of it and took a photo anyway. Delete one photo, shoot another. Hum, what did I delete in order to take this photo?
As I was scrambling to get back onto the main hillside something odd happened - I ate a bunch of poison ivy! That's right. There was some of it growing along the little bluff where I was, and when I was clinging on for dear life, I turned ahead and moved forward, only to have one of the vines go right into my mouth - yikes! (Later I encouraged my bride not to kiss me for a couple of days, just in case.)
I forgot to mention that while back down on the river bushwhacking through the thick brush a limb slapped my face and dug into my eyeball. I could not focus and could hardly see out of that eye for 15-20 minutes or longer. No broken bones though.
I finally made my way up to the top of the "lower" hill to where the really tall waterfalls were. I had forgot how wonderful a place it really was - only been there once. No magnolias in bloom today, but it was still a magical place. And the main waterfall was running - must be a spring up above somewhere I thought. The sun was getting lower in the sky now and had lit up the middle part of the waterfall. I framed it nicely between two magnolia trees and pulled out my camera. Delete one photo, shoot another. THAT WAS IT! I could not sacrifice any more photos!
At the very top of this waterfall there is an old, twisted cedar tree, hanging on for dear life at the very edge of the bluff. Boy, with the view he has up there I bet he has seen some amazing things in this canyon over the last century.
I made my way further along the base of the big bluff to a point where the bluff just disappeared and I could climb up onto the top of the bluff and begin my trek back to the other end of the ridge - a trip of ten minutes I thought (actually more like 45 minutes).
Once up on top I discovered some popcorn trees in full bloom and simply blazing away in the late afternoon sunshine. Man they were incredible! Just for kicks I spent some time looking around to see if there was a good photo to be made, but I could not find anything that I liked enough to delete something else. They were beautiful though. I counted 43 popcorn trees in bloom on one section of the hillside just across the way.
I knew it was getting late and I still had a long way to go, so I kicked it into high gear. There were a couple of level benches up there and the hiking was easy. I drifted over towards the edge to check on how many people were over at Hawksbill Crag and once again was surprised to find it vacant. It was all lit up with that warm sunshine, and I bet it would have made a terrific napping spot today!
And then I came to yet one more great scene. I'm not sure what these guys are - maples perhaps - but this year these trees are budding out with these incredible RED young leaves - you can see them a mile away. And I found two spots where they were leafing out right in amongst some popcorn trees that were in full bloom. This was definitely worth deleting something for, if I could only find a good vantage point. My problem was that I needed to be up above the trees in order to get that bright red and white up against the dark background of the opposite hillside that was in shadow. But I could not find a good vantage point where I had a clear view of them from up above. When I got down closer to them and did have a clear view, I was below the trees, and the sky was filled with white clouds that messed up the entire scene. I did manage to find one spot where I could isolate a section of the trees against that dark background. Delete one photo (the tall waterfall), shoot another.
It was another 30 minutes before I appeared on top of Beagle Point proper right across from our cabin. I radioed over to the girls that I was coming home and to fire up the grill! Just then the sun put on quite a light show, shining down into the very bottom of Whitaker Creek and the Buffalo River itself. I had been getting quite chilled, and my fingers were numb. I looked around frantically to find an open spot in the trees to shoot the valley and river from, but there was none. No doubt I could have found yet one more photo to delete. But it was not to be. I got to see one nice show though. And I fired off a couple of low-resolution shots of the cabin, just to prove to the girls that I had actually been over on Beagle Point!
I was growing weary and my limbs didn't work too well anymore. I had two choices to get down through the big bluff - go back about 1/4 mile to a safe spot, or attempt a risky descent somewhere near where I was. Several years ago I had rescued a pair of beagle dogs who had fallen half-way down the bluffline at this very spot - they landed on a ledge down there, and I was able to climb up from below and rescue. The year before I found another pair of beagles at the bottom of this bluff - one of them never made it home. Beagle Point is named after them (although the locals call it Berry West Point, but I never knew who he was).
I decided to try the closer route, and five minutes of holding my breath and sliding down on my belly brought me to the bottom of the big bluff. Whew! From that point on down to the bottom of Whitakcer Creek is so steep that man nor beast can stand up straight - the only way down it is sort of a controlled fall, grasping for every small tree that comes along to slow you down. I was glad to make it to Whitaker Creek.
It was a long and tough climb back out, and I must admit that I did stop once on the way up - I always try to make it to the top non-stop, but I just didn't have enough energy left. When I finally did make it back up to the cabin I was met with the aroma of dinner on the grill - that was soon followed with a tall glass filled with bourbon and coke, and a big, fat soft chair!
It was a great hike, even though I never really got started on my exploration trip into unknown territory - there will be plenty of time for that. How many wildflowers did I hike past today - 10,000, 100,000, a million, two? Thank goodness they weren't all in bloom! I need to buy more memory. More memory - can you remember that?
Oh yea, I figured out why I had gotten so cold on my hike - the temp had fallen back into the 30's, and the wind chill was down in the lower teens!
3/30/03 BRIGHT sunshine lit up the cabin early today - no color before he showed up, just a yellow-white ball that jumped up into a pure blue sky. Them temp was 34, but now after only an hour has risen into the 40's - looks like a textbook early spring day in the Ozarks! No wind at all, nor sound outside, only that of the river far below singing it's morning lullaby. After we spend an hour or two cleaning up around the cabin, we have a choice of two trips today - one would be over to hike the Lake Leatherwood Trail in Eureka Springs (it is one of several new trails that I have to do this coming week that will be going to be included in an update to one of my trail guidebooks), or hike down to the river and fish and explore and lay around all afternoon. Or, we may end up being totally consumed with cleaning up the cabin and not do either! Amber just forced me into making her chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast (I had to taste test you know), so there is a lot more to clean up now.
While I was on my little jaunt yesterday my bride did the following drawing of Amber. Pam is still quite self-conscious about her drawings - after all she is still a beginner and we all are that way - but I think she is doing some wonderful work, certainly miles ahead of anything that I could ever do! Now, if I could only get that darn drawing room of her built...
Well, you might have guessed that we picked the river below for our afternoon trip. It was still bright and sunny, but with lots of puffy clouds handing around. The temp remained on the cool side all afternoon. We made it down to the river without any trouble. Even though she has lived here nearly two years, this was Amber's very first trip down "below the rim."
The river was beautiful, and the water was up and running higher than I had seen it in a while. In fact it was so high that I did not get to cross over to a spot where I had wanted to fish. So we settled for simply hanging around the near side of our old favorite swimming hole, and casted about for Spot, our friendly smallmouth bass.
Amber and I did most of the fishing, while Pam sat on the bank with her sketch pad. Mostly we all were just soaking up the sunshine and the beauty of the place. Oh yea, and I got to go dig a few worms.
The water temp was still quite cold - the fish in our pond in front of the cabin, who had been quite active a week ago - were all hiding deep in the pool this week - that was not a good sign for the fish in the river. And it seemed that most of them were hiding down deep today as well. Amber got one strike, and I got nothing. HOWEVER, when I went off to see if I could find a worm under some rotten log, Pam came over and tossed the bait into the river. A few minutes later - just as I was digging out a scrawny little worm - I heard the girls yelling out. Son of a gun, Pam had landed a very nice smallmouth bass! That turned out to be the catch of the day (or should I say catch and release, since we turned the big guy loose).
A little while later the ladies decided to head back on up the hill, while I stayed behind to take pictures. One thing that caught my eye were all the beaver trees that were in the process of being eaten and felled by the hungry beavers. There were "beaver sticks" all over the place - small trees and limbs that the beavers had gnawed all the bark off of. I have never seen an actual beaver dam on this part of the river, but they sure do like to munch on the trees.
On the way back up the hill I found quite a few things to take photos of