Colorado Rockies Road Trip

This is catch up, now that I've described the drive home I'll go back and cover the trip down and the climbing itself. Should have done it at the time, but camping and climbing don't leave much time/opportunity for blogging!

Sept. 11 - Saskatoon to Gillette, WY

Not much to report. The only campground we could find in Gillette was one in the middle of town, but it actually turned out to be reasonably quiet and clean. Getting in late and leaving early we never did manage to register or even find out the rates. We dropped $20 in the slot, hopefully that covered it!

Sept. 12 - Gillette, WY to Estes Park, CO

Stopped in Laramie, WY for lunch. It seemed like a nice little university town - bookshops and good places to eat. We ate at Jeffrey's Bistro - a good choice, lots of vegetarian options and a pleasant atmosphere. Picked up a copy of Blessed Unrest at the Chickering Bookstore. Driving through busy Fort Collins was a bit of a shock after so many hours of deserted prairie roads. Luckily we got out of the traffic before too long and headed into the mountains. Quite a narrow canyon road up to Estes Park. We camped at Estes Park Campground (recommended by one of the climbing guidebooks). It was fairly empty and quiet.

We stopped in at Trailridge Outfitters to try to get a climbing guidebook but they were out of the ones they recommended. We picked up a guide to the Colorado peaks over 14,000 feet (4267 m) and they were good enough to recommend some rock climbs and photocopy a few pages out of their store copy of a guidebook.

Ate at Sweet Basilico Cafe, it was recommended to us but wasn't anything special.

Sept. 13

Climbed an easy route on the Pear at Lumpy Ridge to get a feel for the rock. (Gina's Surprise
5.4) Interesting descent down into a notch on the back of the Pear. A short day so we could get ready to climb Longs Peak the next day.

Coffee at Coffee on the Rocks just outside town. Good coffee and next to a pond with ducks.

Supper at Dunraven Inn - quite nice.

Sept. 14

Got up at 4:30 am, left the Longs Peak trail head at 5:40 in the dark by headlamp. It got light by about 6:30. We did the Loft route above Chasm Lake, a "classic" Class 3 scramble. Once we left the trail at the shelter below Chasm Lake the route was fairly well cairned and quite straightforward. The ledge that is the key to getting through the cliff band was pretty obvious. It had some icy patches but luckily you could work around them. The morning started out clear but got cloudier. It was increasingly windier as we got higher and more exposed. From the Loft (a large saddle/plateau between Meeker and Longs) you drop down a bit on the far side. Cairns led to the gully where you descend, but after that it was unclear where to start traversing. I think we went a bit too low. According to the guide you should see "Carver's Arrow" painted on the rock but we didn't see it. We passed a ranger a little farther on and asked him about it, but he'd never heard of it! You traverse a bit and then ascend again up to join the standard Keyhole route at the "Homestretch". We reached the summit around 10:40. We were happy enough with 5 hours for 5000 feet of ascent. The summit is large and flat. We had a bite to eat and took a few pictures but didn't hang around too long since it was cold and windy. There were quite a lot of people coming up the Keyhole route but we didn't see anyone on the Loft route other than the ranger. We decided to descend the Keyhole route since we thought it would be faster. Although it's a longer route we were imagining more of a trail than a scramble. But it was actually quite a bit of scrambling, fairly exposed and fairly steep in parts. In retrospect I think it would have been quicker to descend the loft route, but it was interesting to check out another route. We made it back to the car at 14:40 for a round trip of 9 hours, with sore feet after 14 miles (23 km) and a lot of up and down.


Had supper at Mama Rose's - pretty good.

Sept. 15

We drove the spectacular road through Rocky Mountain Park and then south down to Dillon. Stopped for lunch in Grand Lake. We had gotten directions to a "climbing store" in Dillon but it turned out to be a "sport mart" type of place that didn't have any maps or guidebooks. But the mall it was in had a Borders which luckily did have them. We picked up a copy of Rock Climbing in Colorado, which at least gave us an idea what was around.

While we were at the mall we saw a sign across the parking lot that said "Malbec". Since we visited Chile and Argentina (to climb Aconcagua) we've become fans of Malbec wine so it caught our eye. We went over to see what it was. It turned out to be a wine bar/restaurant but it looked like it wasn't finished yet. As we were standing there a women (one of the owners I assume) came out and invited us in. They were planning to open the next day and were having a private celebration. So we had a glass of Malbec wine and hors d'oeuvres. They even gave us a recommendation for where to eat that evening. (The Boatyard in Frisco.) It was a pleasant surprise.

The campgrounds around Dillon were all closed for the season so we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Frisco. (after driving as far a Breckenridge in the dark searching)

Sept. 16

We originally intended to climb four adjacent fourteeners (Lincoln, Cameron, Bross, Democrat) that you can do all in one day. But when we looked at the map there was a note that said access was closed. After trying several phone numbers we managed to find an open wireless connection to the internet and found out that access was indeed still closed. So instead we climbed Quandary, ascending by the West ridge, another "classic" Class 3 scramble. The day started out nice but soon after we started big dark clouds rolled in and it started to rain quite hard. We put on rain gear and very nearly turned around but then we saw some patches of blue sky and continued on. The weather continued to threaten but it didn't rain (and snow) till our descent. The final stretch of ridge was a fun scramble that traverses left and right to circumvent the steep towers. Car to car it took us about 5 hours (only 2600 ft of ascent)

After our pleasant surprise at Malbec the evening before we figured we'd better go back for supper on their opening day. We stayed at the Comfort Inn next door which was handy since we could walk across the parking lot to the restaurant. Supper was very good and quite inexpensive for a "fancier" place. We had a bottle of Zamba Malbec for only $15 - pretty rare to get a bottle of wine so cheap in a restaurant, let alone a decent one.

Sept. 17

Drove south past Breckenridge to Fairplay and then west to Denver which we bypassed to get to Boulder. The rain turned into heavy snow going over one of the passes.

For some reason my image of Boulder was as a small mountain town, but it's actually quite a large place which makes sense considering it's university and it's popularity. One frustration is that there are virtually no campgrounds anywhere around Boulder. I guess land is too valuable. Luckily the information booth in the Pearl Street Mall pointed us to Boulder Canyon Lodge - a small motel with half a dozen campsites. It was perfect for us - close to Boulder, yet quiet and secluded. Luckily it was off season or we probably wouldn't have got in.

Tapas for supper at the Mediterranean - nice.

Sept. 18

Climbed the East Face of the Third Flatiron, an 8 pitch 5.4 "superb classic". The book talked so much about crowds and lineups that we set out early, just as it got light. But we never saw any other climbers - either because of our early start or because it's off season. It was another easy but fun climb. We were down by noon, in time for coffee at the Fulsom Street Coffee Company (free internet). Picked up a copy of Serious Play - An Anotated Guide to Traditional Front Range Classics at the Boulder Book Store, as much for it's hand drawn illustrations and quirky climbing advice as for it's routes.

Supper at Antica Roma - good.

Sept. 19

Climbed East Slab (2 pitches 5.5) and Cozy Hang (3 pitches 5.7+) on the Dome in Boulder Canyon. We need more practice on crack climbs! (don't get much of that in the Canadian Rockies)

Visited the Neptune Mountaineering store. Gary Neptune and his store are somewhat famous in climbing circles and the store is huge and lined with climbing memorabilia. Definitely worth the visit.

Ate supper at Bacaro Venetian Taverna - good.

Sept. 20

To round out our tour of Boulder area rock climbing we went to Eldorado Canyon and climbed Calypso (4 pitches 5.6) on Wind Tower and Clementine (2 pitches 5.5) on Whale's Tail. Unfortunately, we had dressed for the cool of early morning in long pants and long sleeves, but by the time we were done it was +28 and we were sweating!

After climbing we drove in to Denver to the Adam's Mark Hotel where Shelley's International Women in Policing conference was starting the next day. After visiting the Wilderness Exchange store we drove out to Cherry Hills to visit an old high school friend of mine.

And that catches up to where I started describing my trip home.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog

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No Starbucks in Livingston, but Google pointed me to the Coffee Crossing which was even better - a quirky little coffee shop that made me an excellent latte to hit the road with.

RV's towing cars are fairly common, but you don't see too many large RV's towing a large SUV towing a trailer with two large ATV's. Having no personal experience with this sort of combo, I can only guess at the usage. I imagine it as a bit like a multi-stage rocket. First you blast down the interstate burning huge amounts of fuel to make your lift-off. You jettison the RV stage at an RV park (for most of them, "parking lot" would seem more appropriate). Then you head out on the secondary roads with the SUV. Reaching the end of the roads you launch the final stage ATV's. But the purpose of this complex mission is not to stand on the moon. Not even to see seldom traveled wilderness. No, the purpose is to reach some semi-wild corner of America where there is something left to kill. Ah, the noble hunter.

But enough sarcasm and bitterness. I figured the last days driving would go quicker as I left the interesting scenery and reached the long miles of prairie. But I still found a few things to take pictures of. Considering my techie geekness (check out my computer blog), it's a little disconcerting finding myself getting enraptured by early morning patterns of light and dark on the hillsides.

Or more fall colors:


This wind power installation was a ray of sunshine through the dark clouds of all our environmental problems.

And while I was taking pictures of the wind generators some pronghorn antelope ran by. They are beautiful animals, one of my favorites.


With all the hours of driving this trip I was very grateful for my iPod (hooked up to the car audio). My favorite new music for the trip was Jesse Cook's Frontiers. I had loaded up a variety of podcasts, mostly technology, but I ended up mostly listening to the Social Innovation Conversations.

I managed to find another decent coffee shop in Harlowten, but only a mediocre lunch in Lewiston. I thought for sure I'd find some kind of coffee shop in Swift Current, but Tim Hortons seemed to be best they could offer :-(

Despite all the driving, I'm glad we took our car instead of flying and renting. I would have to say the Prius is my favorite of the cars I've driven. Partly because, regardless of the significance of the fuel savings, it's a way of "voting" that you care about such things. Some people think it's ugly, but I don't mind it. The size and shape are definitely functional. Or people complain it doesn't have enough power, but it's ok for me. (But then, I don't drive like I'm practicing for the race track.) The car performed well with no problems. Probably a good thing, I'd hate to have to try to get it fixed in some small town in the middle of nowhere. It wouldn't have been a problem in Boulder - I've never seen so many Prius's in one place! The only minor drawback was on long uphill sections on the mountain roads. Once the battery runs out the relatively small gas engine has a bit of a struggle on its own.

* The title of this post has a history. When I was small my mother would often say "Home again, home again, jiggity jog." The last few years when I would drive her somewhere and we got back to her seniors residence it became a routine for one of us to say "home again, home again", to which the other would reply "jiggity jog". I never really thought about where this saying came from until I used it for this post and did a Google search out of curiosity and found it came from a Mother Goose nursery rhyme.

Tetons and Yellowstone

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Unfortunately, I couldn't see much of the Tetons as storm clouds boiled, thunder crashed, and rain showers poured down. I did do my good deed for the day by picking up a woman hitching a ride with her bicycle. I thought she might have bike problems but she was just trying to escape the storm. She was working ferrying cars for fly fisherman.


Thankfully the rain stopped for at least part of the drive through Yellowstone.


The animals don't seem too bothered by people.


Except for this large elk that started to get excited after I took this picture. I drove away (slowly) but he then proceeded to charge the tourists standing around taking pictures. I couldn't see what happened but hopefully no one was hurt.


Yellowstone is beautiful but it's also slow driving with speed limits of 45 mph and less. I just made it out of the park as it started to get dark. By the time I got to Livingston, Montana it was pitch black and pouring rain. After feeling guilty about the hotel the night before I had been determined to camp tonight. But I gave up looking for campgrounds pretty quickly since I couldn't even see the road signs. I saw a Best Western with a restaurant and gave in. Unfortunately, the restaurant closed at 8 pm and it was 8 pm by the time I checked in so I was forced back out into the rain. I passed a Pizza Hut but decided I wanted something other than pizza. The lady at the hotel had recommended the 2nd Avenue Bistro and I managed to find it. It was a nice looking place, but after being seated I was told it was pizza night! So much for something other than pizza! But they brought around a variety of different pizzas and they were all excellent. I'd definitely recommend this restaurant if you're ever in the area.

More of the (long) Way Home

The world is a marvelously strange place. For me, nature makes up most of the marvelous part and human beings the strange part.


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I got away about 8am. One advantage of being on my own is that I can stop whenever I get the urge to take a picture, like here:


The funny part is that I didn't even realize I was getting the car in the background!

I stopped at the Dinosaur Monument visitor center and decided to drive in to Harper's Corner even though it would add several hours of driving. I was glad I did because the views of the canyons of the Green and Yampo rivers were great.



This canyon was the site of a famous conservation victory where a proposed dam that would have flooded the canyon was blocked. The sad part is that they simply built the dam 100 km up stream at Flaming Gorge (below). And to add insult to injury, although the canyons in Dinosaur Monument aren't flooded, the ecosystem has still been destroyed. Because the spring floods and the silt are blocked by the upstream dam, the original plants and fish are being lost.

I ended up skipping lunch, but I stopped at the Bedrock Cafe (in the town of Dinosaur) for a homemade ice cream and a latte. Both were excellent and the coffee was even fair trade! I sat outside to eat the ice cream where I was serenaded with Christmas music! (I can't stand Christmas music at Christmas, let alone in September!) There was a huge mud coated 4x4 truck parked outside. The "good old boys" were busy inside using a change counting machine to empty their piggy bank jar. Like I said, human beings are strange!

I stopped at Sheep Creek to see what the signs were about and found the creek had Kokanee salmon that were imported to the reservoir and spawn in the streams. It's hard to see through the water but they are strange looking creatures when they're spawning, with their bright orange bodies and strange green jaws.


I love the fall colors. It's hard to capture the brilliance:


Unfortunately, the nice sunny weather turned to pouring rain for the last two hours of driving and I was really wimpy and decadent and checked into the Holiday Inn in Evanston. (Which is why I was able to do this post.)

I had supper at the restaurant next to the hotel. Someone from the restaurant (I'm guessing the owner) had a Lamborghini parked outside and drove off in it! One way to (very publicly) spend your money, I guess. I don't imagine there are too many cars like that around here!

With my canyon tour I didn't make a lot of distance today. Tomorrow I'll go through the Tetons and Yellowstone and after that it should be faster the rest of the way.

The Way Home

I know this is out of order, I'll try to go back and write up the climbing from the last week, but wireless in the campground seemed too good an opportunity to pass up for some stream-of-consciousness blogging.

I left Shelley this morning to start her conference in Denver. After a few round-the-block maneuvers (I hate driving in big cities!) I spent the morning at the zoo. As with any zoo it was a mixture of awe and fascination and pity. Some animals I'm sure never notice the difference between zoo life and a life in the wild. But others are not so lucky. What must it be like for the snow leopards confined to a cage no bugger than a hotel room? Pacing, pacing, pacing, nowhere to go. The Denver Zoo seems to be trying. They are building bigger, more natural exhibits and have plans for more. My love-hate relationship with zoos continues. (As usual I bough a family membership to help support them.) The zoo was filled with mothers and their children (and the occasional father). Children are so fascinated with animals. Why do most people lose that? I haven't!


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I made it out of Denver with no wrong turns and rode the fast stream of traffic out the I-70 - the easiest way to put some distance between me and the city and get back into the mountains. A messy accident in the opposite lanes were a sobering reminder to pay attention.

I planned to stop for coffee after a couple of hours of driving but couldn't find a coffee shop when I needed one! I stopped for gas and pressed on. Finally, Steamboat Springs offered a Starbucks with chairs outside in the gorgeous fall sun. I finished Of Wolves and Men by Gary Lopez. I found the final chapters of the book on the mythology of the wolf a little slow, but the book is definitely worth reading.

There was a state park with a campsite marked on the map at Yampa River, but it turned out to be a rather unattractive open field so I pressed on. Luckily, there was a KOA campground just outside Craig, CO that was a little more attractive. I asked the woman in the office for restaurant recommendations. Her eyes lit up and she asked "do you like steak?". No doubt she did! I didn't have the heart to tell her I was mostly vegetarian. I suspect it would have baffled her. Luckily the other women in the office suggested alternatives, including an Italian place. That piqued my curiosity - Craig hardly seemed big enough (population 9189 as of 2000) for an Italian restaurant. It was called Carelli's and it looked more like a pizza joint than an Italian place. It was decorated with skateboarding, surfing, and snowboarding memorabilia! But they did have wine on the menu and the Pinot Noir wasn't bad. And the spinach lasagna was vegetarian and quite tasty. The Tiramisu was not so great, but I didn't really need dessert in the first place.

I started reading Mexican Days by Tony Cohan. I had an impulse to point the car south. But it also struck me that in many ways traveling through rural America can be just as "foreign" as another country. Every male customer was wearing blue jeans, t-shirt, and ball cap. I find it odd in India or Moslem countries where everyone dresses the same, but I guess we're not so far from that here. I also couldn't help but notice (here and elsewhere) how large a percentage of the people were obese or at least overweight. A sad state of affairs in North America and spreading further.

It's a little bizarre that I can be sitting here at picnic table next to my tent site, with my MacBook and a wireless connection. Soon the internet will be everywhere. In the Apple Store in Boulder I played with the new iPod that has a touch screen similar to the iPhone with wireless built in. Very sleek, slick, and thin. As I wrote this there were fireworks in the distance - some kind of town celebration, I guess.

It was an interesting transition. Last night I was visiting an old friend (David Solsberg) in his neighborhood of multi-million dollar mansions and staying in a fancy downtown Denver hotel. Tonight I'm tenting outside a small town in the countryside. And you know what? I bet I'll sleep better tonight :-)

It's almost 9pm - time to hit the sack and read for a little bit before sleep. It looks like Dinosaur National Monument might make an interesting stop tomorrow morning ...

NCC Saskatchewan Blog: FEATURE SPECIES - Northern Leopard Frog

NCC Saskatchewan Blog: FEATURE SPECIES - Northern Leopard Frog

Formerly Known as Tadpoles

Quite a change from the tadpoles they came from. Surprisingly long back toes.



I'm pretty sure these came from the tadpoles I released since I had never seen frogs in this pond previously. I spotted about half a dozen and I'm assuming there are more hiding that I didn't see. Nice to know some of them have made it this far. It'll be interested to see if they survive the winter and are around next spring.

Wanderlust and Words

My sister Penny has started a blog:

Wanderlust and Words

As you may have gathered, my family has a fairly serious travel addiction :-)

Climbing Weekend

It all started when Shelley heard that the East Ridge of Edith Cavell was in shape. I climbed this long ago, but Shelley hasn't done it and has been wanting to. We checked the weather forecast and it looked good - sunny for four days! But that made us think maybe we should do something that took a longer spell of good weather - like Assiniboine, one that's been on our list for a long time. It takes a few days since you have to hike in and out about 30 km each way. So we planned to go do Assiniboine.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast started to play games, switching from good to bad and back each time we checked. It ended up looking good for Sat. and Sun. but rainy on Thurs. and Fri. When we checked with Assiniboine Lodge we found out that the rain had come down as snow on the mountain and it likely wasn't in good shape for climbing. We figured Edith Cavell would probably be the same.

At this point we were all packed to go climbing so we went anyway. Sat. there were low dark clouds hanging over Canmore so we headed for Yamnuska and climbed another route that was on our list - Grillmair Chimneys. It was nice and sunny at Yam.

Looking up the route from the base.

Shelley started to lead the second pitch.

Me leading the final pitch.

Shelley emerging from the back of the chimney at the top.

A visitor wanting to share our lunch!

The scrambling trail down.

On Sunday the weather was good in Canmore so we did the trad route on the North East ridge of Ha Ling peak - 12 pitches of 5.6 We weren't quite the first party on the route but the one party ahead of us let us pass after it was obvious on the first few pitches that we were moving faster than them. It was nice to be climbing with no one ahead of us, especially as we looked down and saw numerous parties on the route. We had climbed the route once before but a long time ago. We did the approach in an hour and the climbing in about four hours. We were pretty happy with our speed, especially as we'd been fumbling around a bit on Yam, not having done any long routes since Red Rocks last fall.

On Monday before the drive back we spent the morning at Grassi Lakes doing a little sport climbing. But both of us were tired out from the last two days and we didn't get too ambitious. Despite having to change our plans numerous times, the weekend turned out well.

Climbing Web Site and Blog

I just discovered a web site Canadian Alpinist and blog Alpine Artist by a climbing friend Rob Owens who was originally from Saskatoon (now living in Canmore). Rob was on our Cho Oyu expedition many years ago. That was near the beginning of his climbing career - he's come a long way since then.

If you're looking for a climbing guide I'd highly recommend Rob.

Canadian Orienteering Championships

The 2007 Canadian Orienteering Championships were hosted by the Saskatchewan Orienteering Association. I helped out with the web site, map printing, and at the event.

Considering it was one of the first events of any kind put on by the fledgling SOA, it went amazingly well. Of course, we could not have done it without the help from experienced people in other provinces who worked on the maps and course planning and helped officiate.

It was a bit of an eye opener for me - these folks are extremely good at what they do. I guess I should have expected that since they're some of the top competitors in Canada. I helped plan the night course. (It wasn't a world ranking event so we didn't have to bring in the big guns to plan it.) I would not have believed anyone could get all the points (it was a score competition) in an hour. Even knowing where they all were, I don't think I could visit them all in an hour, even in the daylight!

After the sprint event was finished I ran one of the courses with another volunteer (Tony Nadon). We got the fastest time on the course we ran, but it was the second easiest course (aimed at kids and grannies) and we had the advantage of knowing the university campus where it was located. And I still managed to mis-punch one control so technically I didn't finish :-(

I also helped check some of the courses the morning before the events (just to make sure the flags were still there - they had already been checked by experts for location). The first day I checked the third easiest course (out of 10). I assumed it would be quite "easy" and, overconfident, proceeded to thrash around quite embarrassingly. I took an hour and a half to get through a course that had a winning time of about 30 minutes by a 15 or 16 year old. I thought I did better the next day, only taking an hour to check the two easiest courses. The first was won by a 12 year old girl in 25 minutes, the second by a 13 year old boy in 23 minutes. My ego was only saved by telling myself that I had to check two courses (albeit mostly overlapping) plus a several extra points from harder courses. My last experience out on the courses was picking up a bunch of points after the events were over. This time felt a little better. I was more careful and paid more attention to the map and route selection and managed not to get lost at all :-) But I also didn't set any speed records!

I think part of my problem is I'm not used to the quality of maps. That sounds funny - shouldn't a higher quality map make it easier? But when you're used to working with out of date, inaccurate 1:50,000 topo maps, you don't get in the habit of relying on the map too much. Just to give you an idea how different the maps are - the 1:50,000 topo has two contour lines in the whole Ebs Trails area, as opposed to literally thousands of contours and other features on the orienteering map, down to the level of individual trees (just distinct ones - not every tree!). Once I learned to a) trust the map more and b) really use the information on the map, then it started to go better.

On the positive side, one of our local people (Jeff Dmytrowich) entered the middle and long events and got the fastest times on his course on both. That was on an easy to moderate course, but still impressive, considering it was his first actual orienteering event (as far as I know), and everyone said it was some of the most technical, challenging orienteering around (due to the nature of the forest and terrain).

It's too bad Jeff was the only local person to enter. This was partly due to most of the keen people volunteering instead of entering and partly due to people being scared of entering a national event with little or no experience. Although, orienteering seems to be one of the few sports where a national competition isn't limited to the elite.

Now that the event is over, I can get back to finishing the planning for this year's Prairie Pitch!

Cayman Lizards

My father always said "man should not live where Bougainvillea will not grow", meaning you should live in tropical climates, i.e. not Saskatchewan! Presumably this sentiment came from my parents' 10 years in East Africa. I do like Bougainvillea and the climates where it grows, but my own version would be "people should not live where lizards cannot". (There are virtually no lizards in Saskatchewan, certainly not common like in tropical climates.)

This guy was a baby, only about an inch long. We saw it and the one following along the Mastic Trail. We first tried the West end of the trail but after slogging through ankle deep water for 1/2 a kilometer or so, we gave up. The East end of the trail turned out to be much drier and quite an interesting walk, although very hot. We even saw a couple of wild parrots.



This one was on the wall beside our hotel room. I think it's a Green Anole.


And this one is a captive endangered Blue Iguana at the Botanical Gardens.


Common Iguanas are much more, well, common, like this one leaving a parking lot.

As usual, click on the pictures to see a larger version.

NCC Saskatchewan Blog

I just ran across this local blog in an NCC email:

NCC Saskatchewan Blog

it probably won't be of much interest unless you're from Saskatchewan :-)

Monumental

I just finished watching Monumental: David Brower's Fight For Wild America - quite a story. Our (human's) drive to destroy the world is so saddening. Why do we need to fight to stop people from destroying it? If anything it should be the other way around. But we do, and David Brower is a fine example.

In addition to the story, there's lots of interesting old film footage, including climbing.

For some reason it made me want to go back and read some Edward Abbey.

Highly recommended.

Tadpoles to Frogs

After a long period of not many changes (apart from growing in size), the tadpoles are again developing rapidly, first growing back legs, then front legs (arms?), their mouths changing completely, and finally emerging from the water. Their tails gradually shrink during this time and they develop the green color and pattern that is recognizably a Northern Leopard Frog (I wasn't sure what kind of eggs I had found, but I suspected this type of frog since it's the most common around here.)



Since they should now be eating insects which I can't easily supply, I've been releasing them as they get to this stage. The tadpoles I previously released have also metamorphosed into frogs, although it's hard to get much of a look at them since they leap into the water and hide when you approach.

Grand Cayman Butterflies

Here are a few of the butterfly photos I took in Grand Cayman, mostly at the Butterfly Farm. (Click on them to enlarge.) They're not as skittish as some animals, but they do have a bad habit of sitting still until just when you're ready to shoot and then flitting off. Or they come to rest in a spot impossible to photograph. At least in the Butterfly Farm there's a higher concentration so you get more opportunities.







As with most of my nature photos, these were taken with the Canon S3 IS at full (12x) zoom (except for the one with Shelley in the background). The zoom allows you to keep a little distance and not spook them but still get closeups. One problem is that you don't have a lot of depth of focus and since the focusing is automatic it's tricky getting the camera to focus on what you want. A lot of the shots were a write-off because they were out of focus. That's where a DSLR might be better but it would be hard to match the zoom range and the image stabilization, let alone the price.

Here's me busy at the Butterfly Farm (photo by Shelley).

Tadpoles Grow Legs

I haven't posted any pictures of the tadpoles for a while. Apart from getting bigger and developing more color and shape, they've been fairly static. But they've finally started to grow legs. They went from egg to tadpole so fast that I thought their whole development would be faster but they've stayed in the tadpole stage longer than I expected. (I released several batches of them as they grew and the aquarium got too crowded.)

These aren't great pictures - between lighting, reflections, focus, and moving targets it's tricky. But they suffice to show what's happening.





You can click on the pictures to get a larger view. As you can see, there's quite a lot of variation in size and stage of development, even though they're all from the same batch of eggs.

It's interesting to compare these pictures to the first batch.

Now I'm waiting for the arms to show up :-)

PS. The next day I see one of the tadpoles has arms! Either they emerged overnight, or else that tadpole had been hiding. I'll try for some pictures once a few more of them develop arms. I'm not sure when they transition to breathing air, but I added a ramp so they can get out of the water when they need to.

PPS. What does this have to do with "adventure"? To me, nature is a big and integral part of adventure. And an appreciation and knowledge of nature enhances our adventures.

Sunblock

Outdoor activities often require sunscreen. Here's an interesting evaluation of products:

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens/summary.php

This was especially relevant to me since I just got back from 10 days snorkeling and diving on Grand Cayman where I was applying sunscreen multiple times a day.