CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL - May 2008 Part B, May 9 - present (see part A here) Cloudland Journal Archives, Cloudland Cabin Info Page
Cloudland Deck Cam, May 13th, 7:41am - WINDY! |
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Updated Tuesday morning - fern city!
05/09/08 Ahhhhh yes, the spring ritual has been revived, well, almost, sort of. For many years it has been a great delight for me to officially open the outdoor shower here at Cloudland after a long cold winter of not being able to use it. The shower lives snugly beneath a spreading dogwood tree, and faces out into the open wilderness. The water comes gravity-feed from the top of the hill at Aspen's meadow, and I have one of those "rain" shower heads that just produces the most wonderful flow of water!
In years past I might have had an official shower opening on a Friday night with great music on the stereo, homemade pizza in the oven, COLD dark beer, and a cabin full of ladies. Well, no beer (I'm allergic to it), no pizza (I'm allergic to both the crust and the sauce), no music (our stereo got blown up by lightning), and no ladies either (Pam and Amber are up in Missouri tonight). Well heck, at least it if FRIDAY night and the first shower of the season was TERRIFIC!
And I was not alone - there is a chorus of frogs out there that would have drown out any stereo - not sure what they are so happy about unless it might be that they sensed the moisture from the outdoor shower and thought it was about to rain - they love the rain and always strike up the band when a storm approaches.
I made a quick dash down south for a couple of days - first to deliver a load of canvas prints to a dentist office in Conway - and then to roam around a little bit and see if I could capture some images before having to return home - we're having the first party of the season here tomorrow and there were many chores still left to do.
It was mid afternoon when I climbed up the steep trail to the top of Flatside Pinnacle, one of the few "peaks" in Arkansas, and this one has a stunning view to the west out across the Flatside Wilderness Area (directions and a map are in the Arkansas Nature Lover's Guidebook - the hike up is only a half mile or so). It was cloudy all afternoon, but the clouds were breaking up and creating some interesting shapes out of the mountains that were spread out before me - normally I would not bother to climb a mountain to take photos on a sunny afternoon, but those clouds really made the scene, so I hung out up there until after sunset.
I shot so many photos (of basically the exact same scene - looking west towards my favorite mountain in the state, Forked Mountain) that I had to hike back down to the car to download images onto my computer and make a backup copy on an external hard drive to make more space on my memory cards. The light was changing rapidly, over and over again, and I'm a sucker for a really neat scene, so I kept shooting, over and over. It was some great exercise for me, and I only fell once (hit hard on the rocks though, messed up my forearm).
Just as the sun began to slip into the sea of mountains in the northwest and disappear, the light on the wilderness below got really nice - the layers of mountains grew blue and the sky pink - and I filled up another memory card.
The view from Flatside Pinnacle
My alarm did not go off at 5:15am as planned this morning, but thankfully I had mostly a restless night sleeping in the back of my car without a pad, so I was wide awake with it started to break dawn. Soon I was standing at one of my favorite sunrise spots in the state - Petit Jean's Gravesite at the state park. As I was hiking down from the peak the night before I noticed it was getting chilly and the humidity was high, which meant that fog would form in the low areas by dawn - that would make a nice sunrise shot from Petit Jean. Only problem was that there was SO MUCH fog down there that it almost covered everything up!
I managed to take a few photos anyway, including one or two when the quality of light was extremely gorgeous - something that does not happen all the time. Actually I was shooting the rising sun above that sea of fog when it started to RAIN on me - what? I turned around and saw a dark cloud and lightning, AND a RAINBOW! The color and quality of the light was very rare, and so I turned away from the sunrise and took a few photos of all this wonderful light happening.
ONE SPACE OPEN IN BOTH MAY 17TH AND MAY 18TH photo workshops!
05/13/08 I was sitting in the hot tub at first light this morning, and even before I could make out any details I could see lots of motion in the skies above me. Ozark eagles, and LOTS of them! They were riding, playing, trying to keep from flipping over in the high winds aloft. As it got lighter I could see bands of dark clouds stretched across the sky - the sun was not able to penetrate them and light up with any color. By the time my steaming soak was complete all of the buzzard had left, but there was a long hawk way up there, soaring and playing and having a grand old time.
Speaking of that, we had one too this weekend with the first Bushwhacker party in a long while. It began with a hike over to see the lady slippers - the ladies took rain jackets but the men did not - our gender of the species is not fully evolved yet! We found tons of wildflowers and umbrella magnolias blooming, but only the single bright yellow slipper - same one I photographed the week or two before. All the while the skies above rumbled and there were small drops coming down. On the way back as the rumble got louder the drops increased in size. By the time we reached the East meadow it was raining pretty good, and my pace was fast. There was a beautiful scene in the meadow of red clover and bright green grasses with fog swirling all around - it would have made a great photograph, but I didn't have any camera gear with me - I plan to return before the red goes away, I hope. During a tour of the gallery later I presented each "mom" (which included all ladies present, no matter if they were biological moms or not) with a small framed photo of the doe and baby fawn in honor of Mother's Day.
I made a mad dash out the door yesterday twice - once to cut out a big tree oak that had fallen across Cave Mountain Road, blocking it to all traffic. (Benny and Mildred were already on the scene and he did most of the chainsaw work). My second trip out was to tour around and see if I could find any photographs to take - it was a bright and sunny day (not normally good for nature photos), but I hoped to find some azaleas in bloom for future shots when the weather got "better" (which means soft lighting for me).
The light was good enough for a shot of "Tea Table Rocks" along the top of Home Valley Bluff, so I hiked on down and spent some time there admiring the tremendous view, and I got my photo too. With the harsh lighting I made a series of different exposures (like I normally do anyway) so that I could pickup some of the detail in the shadow areas of the rocks - with normal film or digital it is impossible to get detail throughout the full range of bright to deep shadows - the contrast is just too great. But if you shoot it correctly it is possible to blend parts of the different images together in the computer so that you can "see into the shadows" a little bit.
Even though the guys at AETN just ran a TV show about this particular spot (it has been in my waterfall guidebook for years, and was also included in the Arkansas Nature Lover's Guidebook), public access to the area has already been limited and we may not be able to visit this spot at all in the future - I have already removed it from the newest printing of the Nature Lover's Guidebook. The lady who owns the road going into the property has decided she does not want anyone using her road (and there is no other practical way to reach this bluffline without going onto her property). We have in the past had permission from Edd French to hike to his property, and to get to it you must travel down the lady's road - which is perfectly legal at the moment as long as Edd continues to welcome hikers. Edd owns part of the bluff (which includes some great waterfalls), and forest service land adjoins his, which includes more waterfalls and the Tea Table Rocks.
I've had many conversations with this lady (who lives in Connecticut), and she has been going back and forth on the issue, one time telling me that she bought and protected this land so that others could enjoy it, but then that she did not want anyone else to ever set foot on it! So rather than fight the blowing winds of her mind, I have decided to remove it from all of my publications in the future. She has put up a new gate with a "no trespassing" sign on it, but for the moment we still DO have permission from Edd French to access this road, but that may change in the future. I am all for private property rights and don't want to add to the flames!
Next on my list was to explore the Owens and Rickets Mountains areas to look for wild mountain azaleas in bloom. While I did not find any that I liked in good locations along the top of the big blufflines there, I did find an entire hillside filled with beautiful azaleas in full bloom - some with very deep color. But with the harsh sunlight and blowing winds, plus no "scene" to go along with them, I never even got out the camera bag. I was amazed at how many azaleas there were in bloom on this single hillside though - and the air was filled with their heavy aroma!
While exploring in the area I decided to visit one little spot that has become a sacred location to me - one of the most unique spots I know of around here, yet one that can take the least amount of traffic before it gets trampled to death. It is an area at the base of a tall sandstone bluff where a big chunk of the bluff has come apart and moved about 50 feet away - that block of rock is about the same size as our log cabin, perhaps a little bit later. The floor in between this protected area of stone is covered with giant ferns - the scene literally takes my breath away each time I stand on the edge and gaze into it. At the far end of the fern land there is a shallow pool of water that is fed by constant drips off of the tall bluff. Where there are no ferns there is moss or other vegetation, including more Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers than I've seen anywhere else. It is a special place, and one that I try to only visit once in a great while.
It is also a favorite hangout for rock climbers, and the vertical walls of the bluff and big chunk of rock are covered with their hardware, but you really have to look close to see them. I don't know if this is the reason why the ferns are so lush here or not, but I discovered that the climbers have been cutting back small trees and bushes at the base of the bluff to clear it all out so they have good access to the rock - this has opened up the space to allow more access to the rock for them.
Even though the winds were high elsewhere, there was only a slight breeze in this little protected oasis, which was exactly what I needed for a good photograph - also the sun was below the top of the ridge high above so the area was shaded - yippie! I carefully worked my way into a location near the back of the ferns and set up the tripod and camera, and then waited for the breezes to stop completely - my exposure was a full six seconds and I had to have all ferns completely still the entire time or they would be blurred in the photo.
An hour later I was still standing right next to my tripod, with my hand on the cable release, waiting. I had taken a number of images during that time, but was not confident all the ferns were completely still during the six-second exposures. Once you spend a bit of time doing this - focusing intently on the fine detail of ferns across the entire scene - your eyes can play tricks on you. I normally pick out a single fern out there somewhere and wait until it is completely still, but I often wonder it if is really still, or moving, or if I'm just seeing things? So I shoot when I think it is still, and sometimes even when I'm not quite sure.
At some point in the middle of all this, while just standing there next to my camera waiting for the breeze to stop, the drip, drip, drop into the nearby pool caught my attention. For the life of me I could not figure out exactly what had changed, but the sound was different - was my hearing being affected too? Then I realized it sounded just like Aspen getting a drink of water, and my mind drifted back home. But then I caught a little bit of movement out of the corner of my eye, back in the direction of where the shallow pool was (on the other side of a thick bunch of brush - I did not have a clear view).
Moments later a gray fox appeared at the edge of the ferns, right up next to the base of the big sandstone bluff. He seemed to be on a mission and going somewhere and did not appear to have spotted me, and since there was basically no wind he did not smell me either. I guess I had been standing there in this lush location so long that I had become part of the landscape! This little guy never paused to look around much nor pay any attention to the ferns or the bluff or the ground, he was just hiking on through I guess. There was a trail of sorts around the outside edge of this fern city, and that trail was what he was on - I was standing on the opposite side of the ferns, back up against the big chunk of sandstone.
So naturally I wanted to get a photo of this beautiful gray fox (which, by the way, have a lot of red color in them), but I realized with the camera set at an exposure of six seconds there would be no way - in fact with him moving he would not even appear as a blur - his passing would go unnoticed in the frame, even though he actually walked from one side of the frame all the way to the other. So all I could do was stand there, motionless, quiet, and enjoy the moment, for it was brief, and seconds later he had exited this sacred location and disappeared - he never even glanced my direction. I guess it was possible that he knew I was there all the time and just wanted to torment me since he knew I could not photograph him while he was moving!
I have been privy to many encounters with wildlife during my photo and hunting careers, and this would have to rate right up there at the top of the list. It was an honor for me to have been included along his journey.
After some 200 exposures of the ferns I figured I had one that might be good enough for the new book, so I packed up my camera gear and hiked back to the car. The sun was setting as I made my way back to the cabin, and I came to a screeching halt right in front of the cemetery at Swain to photograph a neat hillside that was mostly bare, but topped with four or five trees, all silhouetted against the colors on the horizon. So I ended my day with three keepers for the new book, and it was a fine day indeed to be in the woods with a camera!
I'll be on my way shortly to the Gov's house in Little Rock to give a program tonight - they say the dress is "casual business" so I plan to wear my best business attire, which for me means hiking shoes and jeans, but I'm not sure what t-shirt to wear...
One bit of "local "wildlife news. My lovely bride installed a hummer feeder on a window that has had a steady stream of hummers to it - including during the nighttime! Pam has been filling it up several times a day to keep up. Yesterday morning a BRIGHT ORANGE Baltimore oriole landed on the feeder, then two, then three, then four, then FIVE of them gathered around! I think we've seen a total of one of these brilliant birds here in previous years. Pam did a little research and found out they like grape jelly (and oranges, but we did not have any oranges), so she dug out all of our jelly containers and has been keeping a bowl filled with jelly for them - and they are loving it! At first light today there were four of them lined up at the breakfast bowl waiting for their jelly donut fix!
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