Thursday, November 28, 2013

Plans Interrupted

Saturday, July 23

We had plans to go out this weekend. Not to explore or do anything exciting, but just to relax in our condo on wheels. And maybe take care of a few — and I stress the “few” part of that statement — chores around the motorhome.

And then the “heat dome” happened. If you live in the US, you’ve heard of this since it’s blanketing a huge portion of the country. If not, the heat dome is a large high-pressure system in the mid- to upper atmosphere that is pushing warming air to the surface and holding it there. I’m telling you, this is no fun.

Local weather forecasters on TV came out en masse this week, doing all kinds of things outside to prove to people that it is hot, hot, hot … they cooked frozen macaroni and cheese on the pavement, baked a frozen pizza on the sidewalk, and fried a couple of eggs on a cast iron skillet sitting in the sun. By late afternoon yesterday, the 102F (38C) high was officially declared as “feels like” 122F (50C) with the heat index.

image001

this says it all!

With more of the same kinds of oven-hot temperatures and bad-air-quality warnings forecasted over the weekend, we decided to not leave the sticks and bricks. I’m using the time to get blog posts up for our recently-concluded Arctic expedition voyage. I haven’t quite gotten to the glaciers and icebergs portion of our trip, but hop on over to our travel blog and join us for a virtual cool trip (pun intended). The 50F (10C) temps of our pre-voyage days in Tromsø feel awfully good right about now. All of the posts associated with our Arctic adventure will be in the July archives; for background, start here.

P.S. I will return to finish up our North Carolina trip … no worries.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

That explains it


We've never had much of a raccoon problem here. I suspected that the coyotes were taking care of that for us.
At first, this picture made me wonder if coyotes carried nesting material! But when I zoomed in and brightened it, and increased the contrast, I saw a little striped tail sticking out of the coyote's jaws. (Click on the picture to enlarge.)
Now, if only I could get them interested in armadillos...

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Starting on the Way Home



Sunday was the day to start towards home. Packed up the room and loaded the car (no small task). Took a break of loading the car for breakfast.

The hurricane on the East coast is causing problems for some of our group. Lost of airports on the East Coast are closed. Anyway, said my "Good-Bye"s and hit the road. First stop - Hoover Dam.

Had not been at Hoover Dam in over 15 years. New Visitor's Center, parking structure, and of course the new bridge. All kinds of security check-points. Did not want to go through the scanners with the camera, I just walked a part of the dam - enough for some photos.

Lake Meade is VERY low!. I had heard from someone in the reunion was that it was down 22", but it looks like 22 FEET low. Part of the drought in the country.

Was a little leery of driving over the new bridge - open heights and all. I was actually disappointed. The concrete guardrails were so high, you don't even know you are high in the air. Word is that you can wlk over onto the bridge, but what I saw, it means a BiG climb up steps to the observation area. My legs would never handle it.

Back on the road about 2/3 of the way from, the dam to Kingman, there was a sign for Visitor's Information. Not right on the highway, had to drive 4 miles into the town of Chloride. An old mining town, it is said to be the oldest continually functioning post office (and town) in Arizona.

Turned East on I-40. Was thinking of making Winslow, AZ. But i was just too tired. Lucky to make Flagstaff. Got a room and crashed. On to Albuquerque for a couple days.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Lake Hawea - Gladstone track & short section Breast Hill track


According to my garmin the walk was around 4 miles each way. We set off from Johns Creek and followed the track above the lake shore. Brilliant flowers growing wild - lupins, roses, orange Californian poppies, as well as other less ostentatious flowers. New Zealand flax, pines, silver birch and the odd blue gum, as well as some deep pink mesembryanthemums, clearly flourishing on the rocks in the sun. The wind was strong today.


Map of the walk in one direction is here.
14 Dec Hawea walk

The wind has whipped white horses all over the lake, and the waves hit the shore with a crashing sound as stones are rolled back and forth. It sounds like the sea.

We're going to take the track to Lake Hawea village. It runs just in from the shore, through pines, and along cliffs. Today we're pushed along by the wind, but the sun shines and there are flowers everywhere - self set feral flowers?

Lupins, predominantly pink and purple, but with large patches of wild yellow ones too. Californian poppies, with their delicately shaped flowers of rich waxy orange. Wild roses, with their small pink flowers and arching branches. Two different types of yellow flowers, both growing as tall spikes. A blue flower, with pink on it - another spike. Even the birds foot trefoil is bigger and lusher than at home. There's a rocky slope where deep pink mesembryanthemum are sunbathing. The kete flax is everywhere, and we have pines and eucalyptus too.
We stop for coffee at the General Store and Café on the corner of Capell Avenue and Parry Crescent. The way back is against the wind, but still bright and exhilarating.


15 December - short and steep



Uphill a bit . . .

I walk along the Timaru River road, from Johns Creek for about a mile, then for a very short stretch of the Breast Hill Track, part of a long distance walking track.





I meet a man coming down who says it's about an hour to get to the ridge, and very steep zigzags.It does climb very steeply, and one of my excuses for turning back is that my old trainers are not exactly suitable footwear.




The track leaves the Timaru river road






Looking over Lake Hawea


Garmin map

Monday, November 18, 2013

Elgol


If I lived in Elgol, this would be my house. The views! The blue door and yellow window frames! The woodburning stove in the extension at the left! (I know it's there because I zoomed in with my camera to have a good look.) And the little path leading down to the road, which ends at the sea a few yards further on where visiting kayaks are drawn up on the beach.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Taming the Lions


I had been planning to ride the Lions Tourist Road between Rathdowney and Kyogle as a day ride for some time, but for one reason or another, I didn't get around to it during the cooler months when the temperature would have been a little more pleasant. Consequently, I did it yesterday. It was actually a surprisingly pleasant opening to the ride after clearing suburbia, and getting into the Canungra Valley, accompanied by little pieces of mist, apparently left over from some storm somewhere.

It was after passing through Beaudesert and turning south that the ride really began. Early on it's not so interesting on this stretch (although there seemed to be a surprising number of cyclists around, considering I generally never see any here), but shortly after the little deviation around Rathdowney, it began to pick up. Along the way I produced a piece of pure magpie ownage, with a squirt of water from my bottle causing one to do a very sharp about-face and find someone else to harass. This was made even more interesting by the little Butcher Bird (pesky little birds that generally mimic what other birds do, including magpies) doing a very accurate impersonation of what the magpie had done, including the sudden change of direction after getting within squirting range. It was all quite entertaining.
The temperature was increasing, eventually hitting 32 degrees C, but so was the scenery, vistas opening up around every turn.





The final climb to the Richmond Gap pass at the NSW border is 12% -- on absolutely shadeless roads in the heat. It was tough going, and it took me quite a while to recover. I did get some more water after descending to a new cafe in the Valley (although I could only get salad there). After that it was a relatively uneventful ride to Kyogle, before the ride home was suddenly made a lot more interesting by a change in weather.
The wind, which had done nothing all day, suddenly blew like crazy from the north-east (i.e. the direction I was heading). A storm was brewing somewhere around Nimbin, and contending with the heat on the climbs of the Mackellar and Nightcap ranges, I would have been glad to have some rain.
As it turned out, the storm fizzled away by the time I reached Uki (more food and water here). After that, the ride through Murwillumbah and back to Urliup was relatively uneventful. Urliup was beautiful as always, this little dirt road is one of the last great survivors from a bygone era, from a time when narrow winding dirt roads were all the rage in the Tweed Valley. I don't know how much longer it will be there, but it's always a refreshing twist at the end of the ride.
The lights went on at the top of Bilambil, and the remainder of the ride was done in the night air. In the end I finished with 283.6km, and a little over 2,700 metres of climbing. Despite being extremely tired at the finish, I'm already planning to do it again. Maybe I'll try to pick a cooler day this time, but it was an extremely rewarding ride overall.

Sunbeam on a Nasturtium


An illuminated nasturtium is a sight to behold.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Merry Christmas To All

...Gave a luster of midday to objects below;When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature Ozzie with no trace of fear!
The girls had dropped by to bake cookies - what a kick!
And tonight they're laid out for good Old St. Nick. Merry Christmas to all and to all a furry, furry Good Night!

Monday, November 4, 2013

The things you think of later on...


Today I had been tidying in my apartment and throwing out. One of the things I came across was a collection of those caps that go on inner tube valves. As had been my reaction so many times this afternoon, I was wondering why on Earth I had kept it -- why had I accumulated this collection? I promptly threw the lot out. It was later when I was doing my traditional "check the spares" routine, that I realised, a quick look at my old bike showed that I had something of a shortage of these things. I had thrown out the solution to a long-standing problem without thinking about it. Ridiculous! Not a major catastrophe of course, but a little annoying nonetheless.
Still, I got a nice Austinville ride this morning. There are some unique trees in the rainforest, such as this one. It's secrets like these that makes the rainforest such a special place, it's the mysteries of how a trunk could take on such an appearance over so many years that adds to the mystique.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

A weekend without kayaks

This past weekend we headed up to Devils Lake, Wisconsin. We didn't bring boats. We didn't bring bikes. We didn't even bring camping gear. But we did bring family: the four of us, plus Alec's parents and his brother and sister-in-law.

Devil's Doorway. Alec's brother and sister-in-law are in the foreground.



An opportunity to take photos with a non-waterproof camera.



We stayed in the lovely Willowood Inn, hiked in the park, played lawn games (bocce, horseshoes, baggo, ladderball), and indulged our love of exploration.

Hannah samples the local flora: a morel mushroom, sort of.



Alec and Hannah playing bocce with Alec's mother and father.

Travel has always been a way for us to reconnect. We go somewhere with a plan; some of it works and some of it doesn't. Everybody has to be flexible and figure things out together. And in the process, we discover things about the place we're visiting and about ourselves.

On the way home, we stopped at Dr. Evermor's Art Park.



Hannah cuddles up to a scrap metal creature.

We all prowled the scrap yard next door.



We've included this post even though it isn't about paddling because travel, exploration and self-discovery are ( as it says in our blog tagline) "related passions."