Silver City Trailhead

Earlier this week I received from Mill County Conservation, looking for photos of the Wabash Trace and particularly Mineola, Silver City, and Malvern trailheads. I had good photos of Mineola abd Malvern, but not a shot of Silver City. Yesterday, I decided it was a good day to get that shot and a bike ride.
Did my normal ride from Silver City to Malvern (8.5 miles). Stopped at the trailhead/depot for a break, a granola bar, and G2. Allan (another SWINT board member) came by on his bike. He was riding up to Silver City. Had a good ride and conversation. Weather was pretty good, sunny with a light breeze. On the way back, the humidity was climbing. Had problems with sweat in my eyes.
Needed to get out and ride. When I headed out, I was not sure how far I would ride. Glad I made it the whole way to Malvern. Dealing with auto dealers was/is getting to me. But, that is another whole story.

South by West

Thursday, it was 1 deg when I headed West, then South to escape the cold and do some bicycle riding. Two days on the road - destination Albuquerque, NM.

By the time I reached Colorado, it was warming up. By the time I reached Brush, it was in the upper 50s. With the decent weather, I decided to drive South on Colorado 71. This route got me off the interstate and bypasses Denver.

This route takes me close to Bent's Old Fort near La Junta, CO. Looked like La Junta was a good place to stop for the night. Reserved a room at the Super 8. When I got into town, I settled in the room and went to Boss Hogg's Restaurant & Saloon for dinner.

Friday morning, it was warm enough to wear shorts and sweatshirt. I went to Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. It was a reconstructed trading fort along the Santa Fe Trail. The photo above is of Bent's Old Fort. Thankful that i had the cortisone shot in the knee last week - otherwise i would not have been able to walk the long path from the parking lot to the fort!

There will be a page on my web site with photos I took during my visit to the fort. Was back on the road heading to Albuquerque by 11am. The worst part of the trip was arriving Albuquerque during Friday afternoon rush-hour.

Wisteria Gone Wild

Philo and I were on an errand yesterday and passed this amazing sight near the freeway. We were not far from the house so we went back for the camera, and I jumped out to take a couple of shots from the sidewalk.

Susan South of the River recently posted her Wisteria; and last night I saw that Gotta Garden found a huge plant, too. I’ve often wished that I had this vine, but after seeing how far it’s traveled down the creek, maybe it’s better to visit Wisteria than to own it!

Absorption-Method Pasta

Absorption-Method Pasta, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Cooking pasta by the absorption method means cooking it directly in a sauce instead of boiling it in water. The end result is a silky, flavorful, rich pasta that doesn't have the rubbery bounce of normal pasta.
This is a great meal to make if you're in need of something cheap and truly delicious...it's only a jar of pasta sauce and a box of penne. Awesome.

Snow Lake skiing ..

Steve, Toph and I headed up to Snoqualmie Pass for a ski. Steve had all kinds of ideas for where to go in the area, but after some contemplating forecasts and aspects, we opted for a skin into Snow Lake.
There was one other car in the Alpental upper lot when we arrived and the blower was still clearing the lower end of the lot. We parked and geared up as two other cars arrived with skiers. We were trying to stall to let one of the other groups break trail, but we were all too ready to go before they were. So we headed up taking turns breaking trail. The ski area's cat had not yet groomed the road portion, so we were breaking trail from the parking lot. Occasionally we would hear shells from avalanche control above us. The echos they made from across the valley lasted longer and sounded like thunder.
We made good time reaching Source Lake in a little under an hour. We had followed a faint skin track from a previous day. Around this time a group of three caught us and introduced themselves. As it turned out two of the men where avalanche instructors including the locally renowned Gary Brill. They offered to do some of the trail breaking and for us to work as a team of six on the uphill. We agreed. And shortly after crossing under Source Lake and venturing out onto steeper terrain where we were not following a faint skin track, we let them take a turn at the front. It was around this point that instabilities in the snow were being noticed and we took care in the open slope above the lake to reach the next bench.
The course we took on the bench led us a bit too far east and the three of us departed the other group on a more northwestern course to our first run drop in. We snacked and transitioned. Steve took a short run down to check out the line. I then joined him. I felt the steep angle with the trees was a little too tricky for my skill level and traversed skier's left to see if it eased a bit. I passed over a first chute and when coming over the rib to the next a slab cracked above me. I got scared and just kept going to the other side of the chute to safe ground. Steve and I had some discussion and I told him I was going to stay put at least until he or Toph had their run. I was in a position where I could see a portion of their runs, and was safe.
Toph had enough of our talking and came down between us running the first chute and releasing a soft slab with a 8-12" crown. He rode it out to the rib between the chutes and after a pause, he continued down. Once at the lake he advised me to take the next area to my left as it was lower angle. Steve went next and rode the first chute on the clean surface until reaching the debris lower. My run was mellow at the top, but finished in the lower chute with all the debris. The debris skiing wasn't too hard, but transitioning from the packed debris to the deep powder resulted in Steve and I falling.
Now down at the lake we snacked and transitioned again. It was around 11:30am and we had plenty of time for another run. We followed the skin track of the other party up the basin below Avalanche Mountain. We caught them and soon took over duties laying the track. As we went into the trees up to the ridge instabilities in the snow presented themselves. At all the kick turns a slab would crack to a ski length. At one point as I (second to Steve) rounded a turn the cracks propagated multiple ski lengths. We got a running commentary on the conditions from Gary as we stopped frequently to do test blocks. Within 100' of the ridge we stopped as the last turn Steve made calved a block a dozen feet across without sending it anywhere. It was time to turn around.
Our high point (Photo by Steve Machuga)
We transitioned and had a really nice run through the trees back to a tarn where Toph had to post hole to get through rather than split his board. One last steeper section to the next pond and we put the skins back on to ski out the last rolling bits before heading uphill once more.
Soon we caught the other group and we took over trail breaking duties once more. We opted to try and ride out the trees while they continued further west to make runs down to Source Lake in the open. Our last run was tricky. The steep slopes sloughed at every turn. The narrowly spaced trees made turns difficult. We took turns making our way down the slope until we were all in the more mellow open terrain above the lake. Some booting back to the other side of the lake got us back to the "luge run" out. Unfortunately, the luge run was not as fast as I am used to it being and it took a bit of effort to get out due to the slow speeds and rolling terrain.
This was a fun day. Although it was my first experience with an a slab trying to take me down the mountain. It was a scary moment, but I now have a better understanding of the situation. Lucky for me, Toph and Steve are better riders than me and can release slabs and ride them out making conditions for me safer. The second run off Avalanche Mountain was really fun. Steep treed skiing similar to Yodelin. It was also great to have Gary Brill present and constantly discuss the conditions. It was like having a free refresher class in avalanche safety.
My pics are here.

Wolves at the door

The one who was the church clerk
Last week my cousin from New Hampshire was visiting, and we made the genealogy rounds.
Samford University's Special Collections has a treasure trove of old Alabama Baptist church records. In between learning that one ancestor was a church clerk and that another was excluded (thrown out) twice, I overheard this conversation:
"Listen to this. The church has been in two previous locations."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. It says they had to move the first time because the church was built in a spot with no access to water. The second time, they had to move because of too much activity from Timber Wolves in the area!"
Actually I'm sure they meant Red Wolves (Canis rufus), since there never were any Timber Wolves (Gray Wolves, Canis lupus) in Alabama.
The Red Wolf was declared extinct in the wild in the 1980s.
There are now over 16 million Southern Baptists.
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Red Wolf Recovery Project
Red Wolves of Alligator River
Red Wolf Coalition
This page shows the historical range of the Red Wolf. The subspecies that lived in Alabama, called the Florida Red Wolf (Canis rufus floridanus) was completely extinct by 1930. A second subspecies, the Mississippi Red Wolf, Canis rufus gregoryi, was extinct by 1970, leaving only the Texas Red Wolf, Canis rufus rufus, the species being used in the Recovery Project.

The Russians are coming

Following on from my mention of socialist medicine in my last post, I thought you might like to see the Russian flag flying over Edinburgh.

Or rather the very small part of Edinburgh occupied currently by the Moscow State Circus.



I took these shots from a shopping complex and cinema built on former industrial land at Leith docks. This area is a mixture of working docks, mooring for the former royal yacht Britannia, blocks of flats (see my post 'The Concrete Shore'), waste land, and the Scottish Government offices at Victoria Quay. The line of blue lights reflecting in the water is just in front of the government offices.

There didn't seem to be much happening at the circus. It all looked rather forlorn sitting in its bit of wasteland, which was how I felt three long hours later after seeing 'The Hobbit' at the cinema. Three hours of my life I will not have again. Three hours of orcs, goblins and slaying, although there was a cute Amish dwarf for comic relief. Perhaps the circus would have been a better choice.

Edited to say, in the light of comments: make up your own mind about The Hobbit - if you want to see it, go and see it. I am just not a particularly hobbit sort of person. Everyone has their faults...

Wollaston - Strixton - (Grendon)Lower End - Gt Doddington - Wollaston

About 8.5 miles. With Barry and Gordon . Weather misty, but some sun, and a few drops of rain. Fields muddy, but not too muddy.

Garmin ran out of juice, so link shows general area and start of walk. By zooming out, you may be able to work it out! (WHEN I've described it a bit, that is!)





In need of David Hockney's step-ladder to snap the blue plaque! This is on the house next to the start of the footpath in Wollaston. The path leads between fences, past fields of llamas (alpacas?) and a pony or two, before arriving at open fields. Before long the path reaches the A509, which we crossed, then walked along a short distance to the right, to take the footpath, rather than the one marked opposite the crossing.













This tree is dead apart from the ivy. It is a marker of the direction of the path after we crossed the A509, heading towards Strixton.

Too cute to be real?

Too real to be cute?

At Strixton we turned left and walked along the road, for a few hundred yards. Then we turned off to the left, making our way south-east, slightly uphill then down into Lower End.

We turned right and walked along Blackmile Lane to Main Road. On the other side of this we turned north-east, then north-west, making towards a double row of electricity pylons. The path continued in the same direction, leaving the pylons behind until we reached a small road, crossing a field with a few horses, some of which thought we might be a good bet for a snack when we paused to shelter under a tree from the few drops of rain.

We followed a path near one of the old gravel pits, crossing the Nene just before the sewage works.



The path to Great Doddington isn't clearly marked, and we came up to the left of a farm building instead of to the right.



Turn right along the main village street, ignore the first Nene Way signpost, and carry on until you are almost out of the village. The path leads down hill, through a gap in the hedge and down to Doddington Mill.







We crossed the Nene again - lots of fish in the part near the mill. Then we followed the route we took last week, in reverse as far as the Road between Wollaston and Doddington. Instead of turning left along this road, we turned right and then left on to the road to Grendon. After a few hundred yards we took a footpath to the left, across a couple of fields, and the A509, and another short section of footpath before reaching the road leading up into the village.

Pigs on the roof?

A short detour to see the llamas, which were now outside, then we returned to the car.

Black Bear crossing the Pigeon River

I caught this guy swimming across the river just upstream from the mouth today while kayaking on the river. This was the third time I've seen a bear swimming across the river!