CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL - APRIL 2005
Cloudland Cabin Cam, 4/11/05, 7:11am, 1" rain overnight | ||
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CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL, updated 4/11/05 Evening Updage
The April Print of the Month 4/01/05 It is raining and cold this morning. Seemed to rain all night long but we only got about 1/4 " total, so the rain was very light - perhaps we will get more this morning. I'm sure the wilderness plants love this sort of rain - slow and soaking. The wind is blowing and it is one of those days that when you are out hiking every fiber of your being gets cold and wet with no way to get really warm. I had planned to make a trip to Mountain Home today for a television interview, but we have decided to do it over the phone (I was going to be over there shooting waterfalls, but they would not be running enough today to make it worth the trip). It is amazing how many of these TV things are done over the phone these days. The big news around here is the Print of the Month - or what it will be printed on. I have been testing a new printer that HP sent me a couple of weeks ago to try our for a while, and I must say that the prints from it are quite nice. The prints that are ordered early this month will be printed on this new printer, and I think you will be quite pleased with the results. You can go to the link above to find out more info on this image that I have been trying to capture for a long time. Turns out that the sunrise on this day was photographed by folks all over the Ozarks, and was hailed as one of the most spectacular of all time around here. When I made the image file for this print this past week I had to tone down the colors some because they were SO incredible that I know a lot of folks would think I just trumped them up on the computer - not so! It is a stunning print of a legendary sunrise. 4/2/05 After a solid 12 hours at the computer and running between two different printers making color and black and white prints for our three programs this week, I had to get out of the cabin - the sun had already gone down and it was getting dark outside. I love to wander around at this time of the day - things tend to quiet down and are more peaceful then. The dogs took off running to the north chasing something, so I took the opportunity to slip off in another direction and I had the forest all to myself, well, sort of. I got to the end of a long and wide flat area near the edge of the hillside, I stopped and leaned up against an old hickory tree. There was a squirrel out there somewhere making a lot of noise and I wanted to see if I could get a fix on his position. The sky was still bright - not quite dark yet not daylight either - sort of dusky dark. I could see a lot of detail in the trees right around me, but the farther away the trees were from me the less and less I could see of their bark. Eventually they were just silhouettes, and in fact tended to melt into one another until the trunks and branches were just one patchwork of black forms against the skyline. Out there somewhere I saw the twitch of his tail - a lone squirrel making a ruckus with both his voice and that old bushy tail. The only other sound in the forest was that of a barred owl way over on the other hillside across the canyon - his voice bounced off our hill and went on down the line. I moved on up the trail and got closer to the squirrel, then I noticed that he was in the top of the largest black gum trees in the area - the upper branches of this mighty tree formed a very interesting pattern - almost like giant arms reaching out and flexing, with the squirrel up on the top muscle. There were several den holes in the tree trunk, spots where smaller limbs used to grow but had long since died or broke off and had been hollowed out by rot, bugs, and woodpeckers. And down at the very base of the tree was an opening large enough for me to stand in, and for Amber to play inside of once a year or two ago. The edges of all the openings were polished smooth, and even in the dim light I could see a light brown color there where all else was faded black. OK Mr. Squirrel, I will leave you and your kingdom and press on around the mountain. As I walked on along the lane towards the orchard I startled a small bird that took to flight just a few feet away from me. With every two or three steps another small bird took off. I guess these little guys had already bedded down for the night and I messed up their slumber. The sky grew colorful, and darker, and it was more difficult for me to see where I was going. But I could sure see those little birds that, like the squirrel, were silhouetted against that western horizon through the limbs. Way on up the lane I saw movement of something other than a little bird - I strained in the dim light to see what it was. Looked like the color of a deer to me at first, but it seemed too small. I could not make out the exact form, but it was moving around a little bit, remaining within the corridor of the lane I was walking on. As I walked closer, it moved farther away. It was more the size of a coyote than a deer. It did not seem to want to run off into the heavy timber, so we walked along together for a little while. Then finally I saw a flash of white - yup, that had to be the backside of a whitetail deer, but a small one for this time of the year. A little later on, as I had stopped to inspect several little birds that had fluttered in the brush off to my side, that old deer let out a LOUD whistle that would wake the dead. They do that sometimes - stand perfectly still (as if I could have seen her in the brush and darkness anyway) and let you get right up close, then they whistle or stomp their feet just to see what you will do. I jumped about a foot in the air, and I'm sure she got a big kick out of it! I peered into the darkness but never did see her. She did not run off. I continued on along the lane past the orchard, to a wild plum tree that even in the near darkness beamed with bright blossoms. I moved in very close and took the sweet nectar deep into my lungs. My GOODNESS that was sweet! I must have been eating my carrots because I stayed out another 20-30 minutes after it got actual dark and never had any trouble finding my way - at least I could see the trail at my feet and the trees nearby to keep from running into them. I just love it out in the woods at night, especially at this time of the year before the snakes come out. It is very quiet outside late tonight, and there are plenty of starts to fill up many buckets. The springtime landscape around here has not really sprung yet - most of the trees are not in bud, and even the popcorn trees are holding back a little bit - at least the ones way out in our view our - there are perhaps a couple dozen that have popped out along the top of the big bluffline that we can see from here, plus most of those right around the cabin are at least beginning to pop out. Just not too many of them out in the main forest. The Buffalo River below is one of those gorgeous turquoise colors right now (or as my bride calls it - beaver pee green). And it is singing quite a lively tune that drifts up and puts a smile on all who will listen. The river is actually not very high right now, but is at one of those levels where it is making a lot of noise, I mean music. We have three big programs this week - one at Arkansas State University in Mountain Home on Tuesday night, at North Arkansas Community College in Harrison on Thursday night; and at the Burr Oak Nature Center near Kansas City on Saturday morning. I'll be showing both of the normal slide programs at all of them, and we'll have specials on books and a very special collection of brand new wildflower prints for sale at special prices as well (some of these images have been in the Journal of late). Plus a few of the black and white fine art prints - those darn things take a lot more time and care to produce than do the color prints, and the paper costs about three times as much as the color - go figure! But by the time I am done with each it is more than a print to me - I develop an emotional attachment to it, which is I guess one reason why I spend to much time and effort to print them in the first place. Anyway, these are the only programs I'll be doing this spring - in fact until next fall - so I hope if you are nearby one of these three places, you will drop in and say hi. All are free and open to the public. My eyes are growing weary so it is off up to the loft for me until the break of a new day brings me back down again... 4/3/05 A textbook early spring day this morning. The sun came up early (oh, actually it was an hour later wasn't it), and the air was FILLED with the sounds of happy birds playing and singing and the river far below racing through the bottom of the canyon announcing to all that it was wild and free and glad to be springtime! It was actually quite noisy outside, but that is what you get when you live out in the wilderness. Soon after getting up I declared a day off for me - the first in a very, very long time. Like most days I had a ton of stuff that really needed to be done, but it just seemed like the right thing to do. The first order of business on this day off was to put my arm around my young bride and I take off for a hike. We found baby mayapples just coming out of the ground, dogwood blossoms just beginning to open up to see what the world is like, wild plum and wild peach and wild cherry blossoms too. We investigated a couple of critter holes that were probably the entrances to fox homes. It was a terrific way to start the day.
When we got back we discovered a fat and juicy luna moth hanging around the cabin, so I spent the next half hour taking her portrait (this was HOBBY stuff not work!). It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful these moths are - they just also happen to be huge, and a very striking color. Up close they are also quite hairy, actually covered with a thick layer of fur.
Pam is well into her training schedule for the big hike for Cancer in June - yesterday she did 12 miles on paved trail in Harrison. Today was only six miles. I was getting ready to get started on a long list of cabin chores outside as she was suiting up to go hike her six miles for the day when a dark cloud descended on the landscape - actually it was dark blue. The smoke from a forest service "controlled burn" nearly 30 miles away was so thick that neither of us could venture outside without coughing and choking, so we were forced to remain indoors for several hours. I called the forest service office to see if this was a controlled burn or a real forest fire - they always say they never get any calls about this sort of thing - but, of course, they are NOT OPEN ON WEEKENDS so the phone just rang and rang. I called the sheriff's department and they had been getting a LOT of calls about the thick smoke, but they could not get in touch with the forest service either. I guess old Smokey Bear was out with a big box of matches. The other day as they were torching another 4,000 acres of our woodlands the wind was gusting upwards of 40mph and above. I called the Jasper office of the forest service and the spokesman there said that it WAS INDEED way to windy for them to burn, but that they were going to burn anyway no matter what the conditions were. Yup, that is our government at work spending your tax money and burning down your forests. There have been a number of letters to the editor in local papers against all of this burning of late, many citing the health problems that all the thick smoke creates. Apparently the forest service realizes they are jeopardizing the health of the public and have offered to pay the motel bills for folks to move while the burning is going on - do you think this is a good thing for our government to be doing? Oh well, we can't stop them, but at least they admit to putting the public in danger - big deal. Your tax dollars at work.
Several hours later the smoke finally cleared and we both got on with our outdoor chores. I got kind of frustrated with some of mine so decided to take a break - my bride is out in the woods somewhere finishing up her training for the day. She will eventually work up to 20-mile days, ALL of the more than 600 miles of training are at 3.5 miles an hour, which is a pretty good clip for anyone. The will do 60 miles during the actual walk for cancer. Most of Pam's "team" of ten ladies has reached their fund raising goal, and they were the #1 team in the entire region for a couple of months. WAY TO GO LADIES, and also EVERYONE who contributed to this most worthy cause. As the day winds down I will mix myself up a little go juice and go jump on the tractor and get in a little road maintenance as the sun sinks slowly into the western horizon. The wind is blowing pretty good here this evening, and all seems well in the wilderness. 4/4/05 - more smoke from fires and we were forced inside once again...
4/6/05 We got home very late last night from a wonderful trip and program to a delightful group during the Gaston Lecture Series at Arkansas State University in Mountain Home. As usual, I got to rolling on along and the president of the university had to get up and shut me down - then he made a joke about Aspen! It was a terrific group and wonderful folks to work with from top to bottom. SO NICE to meet and talk with more Journal readers. We'll be giving the programs at North Arkansas Community College in Harrison Thursday night (along with a great new program from Glenn Wheeler) from 6-9pm. As we tried to get home last night we traveled through some heavy thunderstorm activity, but I am happy to report that we were able to stop just long enough during a break in the weather to fill up with gas where there was a PRICE WAR going on - in the little town of Flippin - gas was about .29 cheaper than anyplace else (under $2 a gallon!). The reason was a new Wal Mart SuperCenter and gas station that just went in, and everyone in town lowered their prices to match. Don't know how long it will last, but if you are heading that direction, I suggest you fill up in Flippin! You should have seen the look on our faces after a nearly three hour struggle to get home in the heavy weather, only to roll up within view of the cabin and be blocked by a big tree that had fallen across the road - and it was pouring rain! We both just laughed at the situation, then got out and moved the tree out of the road. We ended up getting a couple inches of much-needed rain out of the storm here, which got the rivers up and running and singing early in the morning. Our cabin was up early (although I slept in until 6:02 - what a lazy bum), and after Amber got off to school and Pam's dad got off to work at their new house that they are building near Jasper, I took my bride and her mom out for a quick stroll down into Sweden Creek Falls Natural Area. It was a wonderful little hike and the air was filled with the sweet scent of wild plumb trees all around. There are two or three of the best dogwoods in the world right there as well, and they were beginning to open up today - probably will be out in another few days. In fact we have a very unusual sight in the Ozarks right now - the popcorn trees are late, redbuds are late, dogwoods are early, so all three are going to be out at the same time! Not many wildflowers up today - all the rain and cooler conditions kept them hidden. I got a couple shots of the big waterfall at the head of the little Sweden Creek Canyon, and then spent some time down on my hands and knees shooting these tiny British soldiers with my long macro lens. Also found an interesting mud-wasp nest under the big bluff. By the time I was finished I looked up and the ladies had already hiked all the way back out to the truck, and I was left to hike back while being refreshed by a quick rain shower - didn't even bother to stop and put on rain gear as it felt so great. Here are some shots from our little trip:
4/8/05 Don't have much time to write today, but this is the first I've had in a while. Bright sunshine today and warm, an incredible spring day in the Ozarks that is just beautiful all around! Of course, for someone like me who is out hunting waterfalls and wildflowers, the light is very harsh and unflattering. I'm at home for just a few hours trying to recycle as best I can and headed out again soon for Kansas City. We had a great program in Harrison last night, with wonderful Journal readers and future Journal readers in the audience - as always it was a pleasure to meet all of you! Yesterday morning I got up early and worked frantically on business chores, then packed up and headed out the door to try to get a few hours of photos in before I had to get back to my real job. It was foggy here with a heavy mist coming down. Just about the time I reached the far end of Cave Mountain and stopped to take a really neat pasture scene, I realized that I had left my tripod back at the cabin! Darn, lost about 45 minutes going back to get it. Later on I made a quick trip down to Triple Falls at Camp Orr - it was flowing pretty good but so was the rain - I used the attached umbrella to keep the camera and lens from getting too wet.
Where to go next, oh where to go? I could have sped off in any direction and found great scenes to photograph. I decided to take a crack at locating a slot canyon that I had been told about, and that I had also seen one winter day from a long distance away - in fact I spotted while looking through a pair of binocs about five miles away. Just by chance that very same week Randy Wilson commented about finding the same slot canyon, however he was unable to make his way up into it. Hum, I didn't know of slot canyons around here that I could not get up into, so I decided to go see if I could find this one, then see how far I could get up into it. It took me a while, but I made my way up this wonderful little stream that was filled with moss-covered boulders and lined with wildflowers everywhere. Most of the flowers were not open since it continue to rain, but everything was lush, LUSH! The going was kind of slick, and I had to cross the creek about a dozen times. The sides of the little valley began to close in, and then finally, I looked ahead and saw the top of a waterfall of some sort - I began to get a little bit excited. Another hundred yards or so and another creek crossing brought me to the downstream end of the canyon - yup, Randy was correct - there was NO WAY to climb around and get a better view of this thing! The canyon walls above the "slot" were not solid bluffs, but they might as well have been - nothing but almost-sheer slate rock, wet and slick with no place to put your feet down. I put my camera bag down and climbed around a little bit just to see if I could find ANYplace with a better view, but nothing, and soon I returned to the canyon floor. From the farthest point in on the creek I could only see a few feet of the rushing waters coming out of the canyon, and this whitewater spilled into a pool that I could not see the bottom of. Looking upstream it was obvious it was indeed a "slot" canyon, and that it snakes back and forth in a very tight little canyon - all of it ground down over eons by the narrow stream. All of the rock along the sides of the canyon was smooth and quite slick. The creek was cold, and it was raining lightly. What to do, what to do. I figured I could always back out a little ways then climb up to the very top of the high canyon walls, and eventually make my way back down to the head of this slot - but I didn't want to bypass what was most likely the best example of a true slot canyon in Arkansas, so I stood there in the rain and thought. Then I decided that the heck, I was wet anyway, so I might as well give it a go, but without the camera gear. I slowly inched my way over the side of the rock ledge I had been standing on and into the pool of water - I could go no farther upstream on the ledge. One foot deep, two, three, then YIKES, that water was COLD!!! My voice got higher if you know what I mean, but I did hit bottom, thank goodness - I was not prepared to swim on this day. With solid ground underfoot I moved on to the upper end of the pool, and stepped out and into the actual rushing waters. Kind of tough to describe it all at this point, but I will say that the walls of the actual "slot" were perhaps 10-20 feet high, the actual creek in the very bottom about a foot wide, sometimes two feet, and nothing but pure whitewater, and the canyon walls were about three-six feet wide at my chest height. ALL of it very smooth AND slick rock! The very bottom of the solid-rock slot canyon was "U" shaped. I was not in a dangerous situation, but I wanted to NOT slip and go on a ride down the creek, so I proceeded very slowly and deliberately, inch by inch, foot by foot, sometimes taking a minute to take a step - making sure I had both a foothold and a handhold in case I slipped. I made it around the first bend in the canyon, then the second, then up a long shoot to a third bend, then DRATS - there was a waterfall up ahead (in an "S" curve in the canyon) that was perhaps 6-8 feet tall - no way I could ever climb up that thing, so I simply had to turn around and retreat. FOILED! While this was an exploration trip, I also wanted to see if I could get a photo of the slot somehow, somewhere, but it was SO TIGHT and curvy in there I really could not find a scene that really looked good. However, on the way back, just before the last two turns, I did find a view that I liked - YES, I might be able to shoot this, however I would have to use a fisheye lens in order to get everything in because it was so tight in there. Heading back down the slot was a lot tougher than going up it - those foot and hand holds were just not to be found. I almost slipped and went in several times, but managed to remain upright. Then I got back to that pool and made my way across it and on over to my camera gear. It was raining pretty good by this time, and I put up my tripod and umbrella over the camera bag while I got the camera and lens together and packaged up in a large zip lock bag and around my neck. The rain let up a little bit to no more than a heavy drizzle. I returned to the pool with my camera and tripod. YIKES that water was even COLDER this time in! Ever so slowly and carefully I made my way back up into the slot and around the first two turns. Man it was SLICK in there! I had to keep telling myself to be POSITIVE I had a good hand and foot hold for every inch of the way - I had about $9,000 worth of steel and glass around my neck and did not want to fall. I must say, though, that this slot canyon would be a perfect slide for a kid to play in, if the water wasn't so cold. OK, I got to my spot safely, and spent some time trying to get the tripod and camera all set up. Two problems came up - one, there was no way I could get the tripod set up on the floor of the canyon, and you should have seen how I ended up doing it - all three legs were hinged up to 90 degrees and resting on the canyon WALL, with the tripod head and heavy camera out there in the middle of space above the rushing waters. OK, got that problem taken care of. The next issue was that fact that the camera was actually up over my head, and there was no way I could see through the viewfinder - this was the only position I could find for the camera that I thought would give me the view I wanted downstream of the slot. Gosh darn it! But EUREKA, I had a solution - I carry a right-angle finder that fits over the viewfinder and allows viewing the image from a variety of positions, including above or below the camera. That would work just great. Only problem was it was back in the camera bag! So I had to make another trip on down the canyon and through that deep pool, and back again. I hated to leave my poor camera sitting up there under the umbrella, but I crossed my fingers that I would not knock it over as I made my way under it. Ohhhh, that darn COLD pool not once, but TWICE! I made it safely back to the camera position with the angle finder, but I was getting chilled and began to cramp up. It was sort of weird looking UP into the viewfinder, and looking through that fisheye lens as well. I did manage to get a few shots taken, but I really didn't know how they looked until I downloaded them later in the computer. One good thing about that fisheye lens - it has incredible depth of field, and I was able to get everything in focus from 1.5 feet in front of the lens (the canyon wall), all the way to the end of the canyon. So here ya go, the ONLY photo I took in several hours of exploring - I will return, and push farther up into this slot canyon when there is not so much water.
My time was running short and the rains were coming down pretty good, so I decided to head back to the truck instead of climbing on around and up to the head of the canyon - another fun trip for that area! This was one of those days where you want to stay out ALL DAY LONG and take photos - the light was beautiful and lots of water and rich colors all around, but I had a program to get to in Harrison, so had to be back at the cabin early in the afternoon. As I was speeding along I had a thought - I had never given John Paul Hammerschmidt a photo of the waterfall that I named after him. I had lunch with him at a Rotary Club meeting a few weeks ago and he was beaming about the waterfall guidebook that had his waterfall in it. Since the program last night was going to be in and auditorium that was named after him (his office is upstairs), I figured I needed to show up with a photo to give him. So I stopped and hiked on down to Hammerschmidt Falls and spent about an hour taking a photo - it looked pretty nice and the shot was easy to take, but the rains kept coming down and so I had to wait and wait and wait for them to let up (I was LOVING all that rain, even though it was light). OK, got the shot, now for HOME!
When I arrived I had about two hours to process John Paul's image and make a print of it, then mount and matte it. Oh yes, I also had to load up all the gear for the program, take a shower, and get a few other business chores done. But I did it all in record time and was headed into Harrison with print in hand just in time. After the program was over (9:30pm), I continued on east and came to rest for the night at the edge of the Lower Buffalo Wilderness a couple of hours later. I had plans for the next morning. I crawled into the back of the truck and realized I did not have a sleeping pad with me - the floor of this rig is not too smooth in places! THIS MORNING I was awake at first light, and remained in my sleeping bag munching granola out of a bag and sipping on fruit punch Gatorade. When it got light enough for me to see I loaded up the camera pack and headed into the woods. I wanted to get a shot of The Funnel waterfall with redbuds and dogwoods in bloom all around it, and now was the time. The hike down into the little scenic area was easy and went quickly. The eastern horizon was beginning to light up, and I could tell it was clear and blue above - not good for this type of work, but I would have plenty of time before sunshine made it down into the bottom where the waterfall was so no problem. When I arrived at the head of The Funnel, I was thrilled to find both redbuds and dogwoods in full bloom - don't often see them in bloom together. My joy was short-lived though as I quickly realized that it was impossible to get into position to take a clean photo of the flowering trees and the waterfall - a shot I had dreamt of for several years. I put down my camera gear at the base of the falls and spent the next hour hunting around for a good shot - not what I had hoped for, but I did find a composition of both the East and West funnel falls that I liked, so I set the camera up for the first one and waited for the light to get just right. In the meantime, I decided to do a little exploring around the local area and see what I could find. I followed the base of the bluff on around the hillside, fighting through thick and very sharp briars at times. As the bluff began to curve around to the left I came upon an opening in the bluff - hum, I love opening like this, so marched on up there and went it. This was a tall crack - perhaps 15-20 feet tall that extended from the very bottom of the bluff to the top, with straight up and down side walls, and a soft, leaf-and-earth floor. As I entered the crack I immediately began to smell bat guano - hum, I wondered where this little canyon was going to take me? Where it took me was around the corner and up, and past a single large tree growing right in the middle of the narrow canyon - I had to turn sideways to get past it. I was not led into a cave as I first thought but rather emerged at the top of the bluff, after having curved around to the right at a pretty good angle. I came out up on top into another world, one of thick moss-covered boulders, dogwoods and redbuds in bloom, and a view - a view to the east of an incredible sunrise! Oh my goodness, this was just wonderful! The color in the sky and in the air was, well, I don't know what color it was because I'm not sure I have ever seen that color before, but it was quite lovely. Naturally, my camera gear was still back at the base of the waterfall, but no matter - this was on scene that because of the wind and the thick trees all around would have been impossible for me to photograph anyway. CLICK. CLICK. I just stood there awestruck and took photo after photo in my mind - one of those scenes that I will always remember as it is now etched in the film inside of me. Beautiful, gorgeous, just wonderful. After soaking up that light on top, I returned through the crack to the waterfall and spent some time photographing both waterfalls - not too happy with anything, but I did get one that was OK. Once I finished up down there I headed back up towards the top of the bluff because I found a unique rock formation up there while I was enjoying the sunrise - looked like a solid rock pizza had been placed there and sliced apart. One of the slices came down to a fine point, with 10-15 dropoff on all sides, straight down. The tops of all the "slices" were covered with lichens and mosses and it was just all quite delicious. I had to use a very wide angle 21mm lens in order to get all five slices together in one photo, but I managed to get a composition that I liked. I only had about two minutes to get the shot before the sun broke through over the hill and messed up the scene. Remember that tree growing in the middle of the crack? There was not enough room for me and my camera back to get by, so I had to take off the bag, then squeeze both of us through. I found some neat lichen formations on the wall of the crack in the process that I would have never seen if the tree had not "forced" me to stick my nose up to the wall. On my way back I stopped and photographed a nice redbud tree that was growing right up in front of the East Funnel, however I have not been able to process it on the computer as well as I have liked, so I will save that image for another day. The hike on out and back to the truck in the bright sunshine was rather warm, but it was easy and felt great. OK, time to head for home and get back to real work...
Amber has a b-ball game in Kingston tonight, then we are up and out of here before 5am tomorrow headed to Kansas City - oops, I had better go pack... 4/11/05 We've had some nice rains overnight, and now just at daylight the wilderness has a great big smile on its face, with baby clouds being born up and down the canyons. Lots of noise and movement as well, although right now we are in a "calm before the next storm" and everything is dead still outside - kind of eerie actually. I should be out taking photos, but have a few chores to do before I can head out. Hoping to get a lot more rain today, although we will take whatever we can get. Had a nice trip up to Kansas City for a program on Saturday. We got up at 4am-ish, drove nearly 700 miles total, and got back to the cabin around 10pm - an 18-hour work day times two, so 36 hours of work to present one little program! It was nice to meet and greet so many nice folks though, including even more Journal readers. The location of the Bur Oak Nature Center in Blue Springs is very nice, but once again the folks who designed the AV room had zero AV experience - as an example, in order to turn off the lights, you had to exit the room, walk about 100 feet down the hall and go into the office to flip the switch! Goodness, what are they teaching in college these days? There was some excitement going on when we were arriving back home - a daring rescue in the wilderness at night that included a large team of search and rescue and county sheriff folks, an ambulance, and an air-evac chopper. The trailhead was really crowded with emergency vehicles an there were many lights out in the forest. Turns out a lady slipped and sprained her ankle! No doubt she needed a team to haul her out as she could not make it on her own and the guy with her could not assist her (I was told she was rather large, and the guy was kind of small). However, a CHOPPER for a sprained ankle? I guess better safe than sorry. I had meetings to attend in town yesterday, but got to spend a few hours at the cabin trying to plow through chores - didn't get out into the woods once, however I did spend some time up on the roof trying to repair some stuff that the Amish did not install correctly (causing the drawing room to leak every time it rained). Goodness the WIND was blowing pretty darn hard, and I had to hang on for dear life! I am happy to report this morning and the leak has been plugged! The trees are beginning to bud and leaf out here some - really different stages depending on what valley or ridge you are looking at. The dogwoods are beginning to come out now with the redbuds and sarvis and wild plum on the way out. Still lots of wildflowers all over the place. The overall view into the wilderness this morning is taking on a green cast, and it won't be long now before our beloved Beagle Point disappears into it all until late October. Oh yes, one other bit of excitement here - the first snake of the season! Seems that our cats cornered a hognose snake (aka puff adder) in the driveway - I have seen more of these snakes here in a hear or two than everywhere else in my entire life! I guess Cloudland is a mecca for hognose snakes. These guys are kind of funny in that when you get close to one of them they will flatten out their neck and try to act like a cobra. And I must say the body of the snake does look a lot like a poisonous snake, but they are pretty tame guys and won't send you to the hospital. We managed to get the cats away from him and I picked him up and relocated him away from the cats.
OK, it is getting light now and time for me to pack up and head someplace. Hope you have a GRAND Monday, the very BEST day of the week!
EVENING UPDATE. I managed to sneak off before the phone rang again and ended up spending a good part of the day exploring a couple of drainages in a wild area near here. As luck would have it the rain began to fall as soon as I parked and headed into the woods, but that was OK - it was just a light rain. I found this neat little stream and followed it up into its headwaters. Lots of moss-covered boulders with flowing water. I set up and shot a couple of times - actually in the same place. When I got as far up as I wanted to go, I broke off from the stream and began to contour on around the mountain towards another drainage that I hope would have some good stuff in it.
As I hiked the sky opened up and it began to pour - it really came down pretty good, and steady, and kept it up for about an hour. I passed by several overhangs and little caves in the rocks, and continued to just hike and explore around on a mostly level bench that connected the two drainages (or at least I hoped it did - never been in this area before). There were several large van and house-sized boulders sitting on the bench with me, mostly covered with moss and other plants. Up on top of one of them I noticed the leaves of an Ozark spiderwort wildflower - not the flower, just the plants. Then I went on a mission - a mission to find some of those flowers in bloom. We have the regular spiderworts all over the place, but these lighter-colored, almost pale, Ozark variety are more difficult to find. I looked and looked and looked, often stopping to climb up on top of the boulders to see if anyone was home. For some reason these guys just love to live on top of these big boulders. The rains continued. AT LAST, I found a single plant in bloom, and man, oh man was it worth the search - the light was quite lovely, and this flower seemed to glow from within, especially the plant itself. The rains began to let up, and so I began to dig out my camera gear. This flower was up on top of a flat-topped boulder that was about 20 feet square, and the top of it was about 8 feet tall off of the forest floor. The only problem was the fact that this plant was growing about three feet from the edge of the rock - there was not enough room in between the flower and the edge of the rock for me to set up my tripod and use my 180mm macro lens. And the light was just not good from the other side of the flower. What I ended up doing was perching myself and tripod on the side of the rock - it looked really funny, but it worked. Two of the tree tripod legs were clinging to the side of the boulder, while the third one was laid out flat on top of the rock. Since it was still raining I had to keep the open camera bag underneath this setup because the umbrella kept it all dry under there. I spent about 30-40 minutes there on the side of that boulder, just waiting for breaks in the breezes - the light rain was no problem, in fact I had been soaked to the bone already for a couple of hours. I managed to get four or five different bursts of shots during brief lulls in the wind, and got my shot. In fact I shot two different compositions of this wonderful flower. Just something about this wildflower that kept me there until I knew I had a good image.
By the way, for those of you who happen to be digitally inclined, today I was using a brand new backup system inside my camera. The camera actually will hold two different types of memory cards and will record to them both at the same time, giving you a backup copy of everything that you shoot - even though I have never lost a single image, I always worried about doing so. But now every time I push the button on the cable release the camera records two exact images on the different cards - boy, what a great thing that is - just like shooting two different rolls of film with exact duplicate originals on each roll (only times about 500 shots). I am hooked, and highly recommend anyone who has a camera that can do this to do so! OK, got my spider wort, time to press on. The rain was still coming down lightly, which was quite refreshing. Just as I began to head down into the drainage that I had been looking for, I spotted something on the ground in the wet leaves - TEETH! Or rather tusks! The half skull of a wild pig was sitting right there on the ground, complete with a pair of bright-white tusks curving out from either side. I set the skull up on a rock and snapped a few photos, then tried to pull the tusks out of the skull. They were almost two inches long on the outside, but there was at least that much on the inside of the skull, and perhaps even an inch or two more - six inch tusks - YIKES!
Go hogs! By the time I reached the little creek I realized that it must have been really raining hard because the water was muddy - that would eliminate any chance for good photos in the drainage, at least for now. Muddy water just doesn't photograph too well! But I enjoyed exploring down the rough and scenic cascades just the same, only I didn't have to bother to stop and take any photos. Lots and lots and lots of moss-covered boulders the waters danced and pranced down on top of. Before too long I had landed back down at the main creek - it was pretty muddy as well. As I followed it on upstream back towards my truck I did manage to find one scene that I liked, and stopped to take a few photos. So nice to see all of this water flowing, and all the GREEN! By the time I got back to the truck it was time for me to go pickup Amber from the bus, so I bid the backcountry farewell and headed home. As I am writing this (about 6pm) the sun has just broken through the heavy cloud cover and is lighting up the wilderness out there - all of it just now starting to bud and leaf out so it has that light-green glow to it. VERY dark clouds above that are swirling around quite a bit. In fact it seems that the entire wilderness is swirling a bit - the wind is blowing pretty hard, and the temp is dropping. I guess another front is moving in - bring it on! I'm getting my gear and clothes recycled and will be ready to head out once again very early in the morning tomorrow. By the way, looks like I have already reached the end of the room on this page, so the next post will be on a new page, but it may be a couple of days or longer before I post again... | ||
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