Time Traveling

I took this photo yesterday at the end of the Minuteman Trail in Bedford, Mass. Looking at it later, it occurred to me that everything here is from another era. This might as well have been taken several decades ago. The Autumn scenery is probably a big contributor to the nostalgic feel.

This train car of the defunct Boston and Maine Railroad is now a merely decorative presence at the end of the Rail Trail. The heyday and downfall of Boston and Maine followed a similar timeline as the heyday and downfall of the Raleigh Roadsters. Will the charming regional train lines ever make a comeback? I would like that. And I hope they allow bicycles on board.

Access, Openings, and the U.S. Army

Opportunity knocks with the park virtually closed. Over the past three weeks, I attended an emergency medical course with the U.S. Army at Ft. Lewis. Beyond the obvious benefit of training, it was a privilege to spend time with our soldiers. The training also explains why there have been few updates to the blog...

I continue to get questions about the best way to access the mountain (i.e. Paradise). For all practical purposes, getting to Paradise is almost impossible. Why? Because there is NO public access allowed along the road corridor above Longmire. That means if you have a trip to Paradise planned for later this winter or early spring, scale back your access expectations and consider other locations.

Access to White River isn't that bad, if you have a snow machine. One party rode into the campground, parked, and then snowshoed up to the Inter Glacier. To the right, a snowboarder breaks trail through Glacier Basin (image by Don Boutry). Perhaps some climbers will follow suit? And while we're discussing access to White River and Sunrise... the current thought is that the projected road openings will go as planned next spring. This is welcome news considering the delayed openings on HWY 123; it was totally severed and may not be fully repaired and re-opened until next fall!

Last week, NPS rangers discovered more facility damage to a few of the fire lookouts. Here is Fremont Lookout from the air. Note that the roof is missing. Similar damage was found at Gobblers Knob (the roof blew off and a wall collasped) but Tolmie and Shriner (the other lookouts in the park) survived OK.

The current talk points to an April 1st road re-opening to Longmire. That would make access to the Westside Road easier and more reliable. As for Paradise, they are cautiously predicting May 1st...

As for repairs, they just paved the road at Sunshine Point. Meanwhile, the road crew is installing more culverts at Kautz Creek. Another engineering obstacle remains at milepost 5, where the uphill lane is slumping towards the river. It may not look like much in this photo, but the embankment below is severely eroded by the Nisqually River.

You may have noticed that I am now managing the photos on Flickr and have finally started posting images in the flood folder. But using blogger for this purpose isn't that easy, so we'll see how much I can do with it...

Spring at Gooseberry + Temperance Twilight

Had a great evening and night doing some photography at Gooseberry Falls and Temperance River. Sunset and twilight at Temperance was AWESOME. Such a beautiful evening :-)

Cycling with a Backpack

After not having owned a backpack for nearly a decade, I recently bought one - mainly for nature walks, which I hope to do more of. The backpack is on the small side, lightweight, with lightly padded adjustable straps. I do not know much about backpacks, but this one is very comfortable for walking and it is waterproof.




Of course having gotten the bag, I was immediately tempted to wear it on bikes that have no provisions for carrying loads. It was fun at first, but now that the novelty has worn off here are some notes:




. I can feel the weight on my back. When I move around on the bike the weight inside the bag shifts and affects my balance.




. The straps rest a little too heavily on my shoulders and their width constrains movement. (Interestingly, I have tried a few cycling-specific backpacks in the store and their straps are even wider - I can hardly move my arms.)




.On an upright bike, it feels as if the weight of the bag pulls me backward a bit.




. On a roadbike, despite being small the bag obscures my vision as I check behind me for cars.




. Each time I have worn the backpack on a bike, my back was drenched in sweat afterward.




. These things notwithstanding,having tried riding with messenger-style bags when I first began cycling, I definitely prefer the backpack. It feels more secure and stable. I've never been able to get a messenger bag to really stay put on my back, even when it's a bicycle-specific design.




In a pinch having a backpack is great, because it makes it possible to carry a load on any bicycle without requiring the presence of racks, baskets or panniers. But if given a choice, I would rather attach things to the bike itself.




On a separate note, I wonder whether there have been attempts to make a backpack for road cyclists to run errands on their way home from a ride. It would fold up tiny, fitting into a jersey pocket like a musette bag but expanding into a large rucksack. It could then be filled with groceries on the way home and would be fine to wear for just the last mile or so. I sometimes wish I could stop by the store on my way home from a ride, without having to switch to my transport bike first. Of course, there is also the issue if locking up the bike...




What has been your experience cycling with a backpack?

Usnea strigosa

We see this lichen here all the time, only usually without quite so many things on it. The technical name for the things is apothecia. If that's exciting to you, you may want to look here for related technical terms. I spent way too much time there, following links and trying to figure out what was meant when they said something was shaped like a skittle. The candy or a British bowling pin?

Anyway, I finally identified the lichen: Bushy beard lichen; Old man’s beard; Usnea strigosa.

I haven't found a good southern or eastern North American lichen identification site. I was lucky and happened on a page that told me that this "is the only Southern Usnea with large, pale, terminal apothecia."¹

The Ohio Moss and Lichen Association has some good photos, including this one that shows what Usnea strigosa more commonly looks like. But there's no key. Let me know if you find a good lichen site.

-----

¹If you could actually get the pdf file to come up, it might be useful. I had to make do with the hodge-podge cached html version.

The meeting of Earth and Sky

Crazy cool, INCREDIBLE northern lights last night! What made the night totally unforgettable was not only the lights but the music of nature. Spring peepers and wood frogs were calling all night long and while I was shooting over a lake I could hear a barred owl calling from across the lake. It was one of the best nights I've ever spent in the woods with my camera! For the first hour of viewing, the Aurora held the form that you see in the photo above. To me it sort of resembled the funnel cloud shape of a tornado. This photo was taken at about 11:00 PM. A couple of hours later the scene was totally wild as the lights easily filled 75% of the sky and were moving much, much faster than they were when the above photo was made. The lights shown in the photo above were hardly moving at all. The variety that exists in the lights of the Aurora never ceases to amaze me!



































The last few times I've gone out shooting the Aurora I've been trying to get more creative with some of my compositions. I've been trying new locations as well as new perspectives. The above photo is one such perspective, with the lights reflecting in the lake and the top corners of the image framed by pine branches. I personally really like this composition. To me it feels like I am looking through a window out into the scene beyond.





































This was such an incredible night of photography, it's hard to imagine being able to top it. Between 1:00 and 2:00 AM the lights were some of the best I've ever seen. At the time the photos below were taken, the lights were flickering incredibly fast and it felt as though they were actually touching the tops of the trees. They were emanating from the sky directly overhead and washing down over the surrounding landscape. Indeed, the Earth felt connected to the Sky that night.

A Hint of Autumn

Monday afternoon. The first "bright" color I've seen in the area. There's still hope for a colorful fall after all.