the "Prone" position

We are well underway on the boat again, headed back to Punta Arenas Chile. We've hit open waters as of last night. I had decided at the beginning
of the trip that I would see if I could handle the waves without drugs on the way back. I was mad at myself for getting seasick on the way down, and figured that it was mostly my fault because I was staring at a computer screen for so long when the sea got really rough. My colleague, Sue had explained to me that we are either prone to get seasick, or not, and there isn't much you can do about it, other than medicate. I had refused to accept that, and wanted to take the mind over matter approach.

I should have listened to her. I was fine all night laying down, and falling asleep for 5 or so minute intervals. It's hard to actually fall asleep when you have to hang on to something so you don't fall out of bed. I got up to try and take a shower, and didn't last 15 minutes... Back to laying down again. I managed to get a hold of the ship's EMT who has protocols for distributing scopolamine (aka the patch) and got some of that, which is what has allowed me to eat, and type this up. Being upright for long durations still doesn't present me with the greatest of feelings though. From the sounds of it though, a lot of people are a lot worse off than I am. Including my roommate. Poor guy has the patch, and he's still losing his food.

I will not miss this portion of the trip. Hopefully we'll get into protected waters late tomorrow, as we sail around the Atlantic side of the tip of South America. I have been up to the bridge to see our progress today. Oh well. I realize the formating of this post is probably screwed up, so I'll try and fix it when I get internet connectivity, again, which won't be until at least April 4th.

(Update, made it back to land safely, and fixed the formating of this post. April 4th, 2008)

Tracking my voyage

I have just found a cool site that tracks various vessels out at sea. Should you wish to see where I am at, as I head back to Punta Arenas, Chile, you can go here. I'll also be working on the Nathaniel B. Palmer when it arrives at Punta Arenas as well, but only while it is in port. You can see the progress of its Journey here.

I'll be traveling on the boat from March 31st, through early morning, April 4th.

Wrapping up

Since the station staff get Sunday's off, we tried to get most of our work all wrapped up today, which, for the most part was accomplished. The weather was really nice this morning, so we managed to get out on a boat ride.


Here's a little pictorial of my adventure. Note that comments listed are for the picture beneath the text, and you can always click on the picture for a larger view. I didn't do much processing out of my camera here, mostly just converted RAW to jpeg.

A view of the LMG and palmer station as we zoom away in our zodiac

An Elephant Seal track on one of the local islands. Is up to you to figure out what the dark spots are going up the middle of its path. ;)

A female (so says station staff) elephant seal peaking up to see who's looking at her.

A pair of Adelie Penguins (yay, I saw a real penguin in nature, and not in the zoo) Aren't they cute? :)

This used to be an ice bridge, but has just recently collapsed.

Here's a view of the LMG as we come back to station. You can see that we got to "drive" though a decent sized section of brash ice. Brash ice is like a slushy mixture of ice and water. All of the ice you see here comes from all the glacier calvings in the harbor

Tomorrow I hope to get out for a nice hike, maybe up to the top of the glacier, or out for a walk around "Old Palmer," which is where Palmer station used to be located, but has since been completely torn down. You can only get there by boat, but from what I understand has some great views.

Nothing Much

Today was spent working again. About the only thing unusual I did today was spend some time in the outdoor hot tub. I would imagine not to many people can say they've been in a hot tub at Antarctica, so I figured why not? It was cool to just hang out outdoors, near the water and hear the glacier calving in background. I'm still in awe about the noise it makes. It must be magnificent to be close to something like that when it happens (though not too close).

Tomorrow I hope to go assist some of the station staff with some work up on the glacier, and then maybe, and hopefully go for a ride on a zodiac. Its important we test the range of the wireless network here :) If not there is always Sunday. I hope to use Sunday for a nice long hike.

I could seriously see myself spending a period of time here. The community appeals to me, as well as the science research going on. I visited the aquarium tonight as well. They have a few display tanks with some of the local see life. A lot of the sea stars, sea spiders, and urchins are really cool. I'll try and get some pictures of them before I leave. Until later!

Work Day

Today was pretty much totally focused on my job tasking, which isn't all that exciting. As a result of working a long day, I can't say I was in all the great of a mood. So I decided that I would go for a walk in the "Backyard" after dinner before sunset. It's still quite overcast around here, and taking a picture of anything and making it look interesting and worthy of framing quite difficult.

I can only describe the backyard as the space between Palmer Station and the Glacier coming down from the island. Its very rocky, all granite from what I can tell. The only vegetation I've seen is some form of Moss on some of the rocks near the sea. I found a colony of some sort of bird to, but have yet to identify them.

The temperature around here still isn't to bad, but we get an occasional wind gust that is pretty harsh. One of them almost blew me over, as I wasn't ready for it. Its kind of neat though, as you can look towards the glacier and see a gust blowing all kinds of snow up, and then watch the ripples in the water as it continues to move towards you.

Another really neat thing here, and kind of depressing at the same time, is to witness the Glacier calving into the water. Its amazing how loud it is. Almost like someone shooting a canon off in the distance. Sometimes you can even feel it, if you are outside. I can't say I've actually seen a piece fall though. I've only heard it, then look out to see a large cloud of snow and ice where it fell, and a significant wave moving away from the site.

So here's the latest picture update. It kind of gives you an idea of where I'm at, and whats around the station. I know I'm not putting up tons of pictures, but like I said, I'm having a hard time getting pictures I'm really prowd of. I've taken about 350 so far probably. Many of them a like, and will provide good memories. But I don't feel many of them on their own have much merit.

I'm hoping for a sunny day so that we can get out on a boat and see some wildlife. There isn't much around the station itself, unfortunately, but i guess there are lots of islands around that provide homes for the local wildlife.

Land Ho!

Yay! We've finally arrived at Palmer Station at 0730 this morning. Most of the day so far has been filled with orientation meetings, tours, and job tasking (the reason I am here). Sadly... my body is telling me to get back on the boat, but for a fairly odd reason... Those of you who are familiar with the feeling you get after running / walking on a treadmill for a long period of time, and then stepping off, will know kinda what I'm talking about. The people I am traveling with call it "Dock Rock." I occasionally get these moments where I feel like my world is still moving. Its really odd, my bunk mate has the same problem, and he said he felt like he was stoned... LOL. It's completely a feeling in my head, and fortunately, not my stomach. Closing my eyes while standing up isn't all that safe yet.

Since I'm not considered station crew (I'll be leaving when the boat leaves) I have to sleep / eat on the boat for my whole stay here, except for a few select meals, Hopefully my "sea legs" won't go away all too much. Being back on the boat kind of helps the dock rock subside a little too. Towards the end of the ride here, I can say that I really didn't notice the boat rock much anymore, unless I looked out a window, to confirm it.

My first impressions of the station are very positive. For being 40+ years old, the place seems like it is in good condition. I went to a presentation to night about the station's history. It's pretty cool. Things sounded like they were much simpler though. Probably because there weren't all these crazy government rules and regulations, and building codes and the such. Also saw pictures of how close the glacier used to be to the station. Its significantly further away now. So far, I've seen a few skuas, a Leopard Seal, and to icebergs calving off the glacier. Unfortunately, I didn't a single picture of any of it.

Speaking of pictures, I've some initial ones up in picasa. You can head over to them here, here and here. It's not all of the pictures I took, just a sampling really. Some could get kind of repetitive if I posted them all. I'm also to lazy to link some to this post right now too. Oh well. I guess that's all I have for now. More to come, stay tuned :)

Life at Sea

Not too much to report today... The scenery is pretty much all the same, lots of water around. About the only thing that varies is the visibility, due to haze, etc. There's always a few random birds flying around the boat, but that's not terribly exciting either..

I didn't get much sleep last night. Pretty much all day Yesterday and into this morning we were having 15-20 foot swells, and 30+ knot winds. This caused to boat to rock almost 30 degrees to port or starboard, for a total close 60 degrees of motion in one cycle. The captain says we have to roll 60 degrees completely to one side before we tip over, which helped my worries. Fortunately, my seasickness has subsided and I don't really notice the movement anymore, unless its severe enough to make chairs and other things to fall over. You can't not notice that. Most stuff on board is secured well, but it seems there's always something.

As a result of the rolling, I can't say I slept all that well. I'm on the top bunk, and on the big rolls, I would start to slide off the bed. That made for a long night. The swells should be quite a bit calmer in a few hours as we approach the Antarctic Peninsula and the islands near it. Last I heard, only 19 hours to go, before we reach Palmer Station. Overall, I'd have to say this has been a cool trip so far. I think my favorite place to be, in the boat, is on the bridge. Lots of ambient light is let in through all the windows there, which is always good for
the spirit, and it's fun to talk to the mates.

The reality of where I am, I don't think has sunk into my head much, perhaps that'll change when we arrive on station tomorrow. Oh well. I've got a bunch of pictures ready to upload too, so that should get done sometime tomorrow as well. They aren't really full of action per say, but you should get an idea of where I've been, and what I've seen so far.

Life on the LMG

The trip so far is more good than bad. Going through the straights of Magellan was fun. I've seen a bunch of Oil platforms and some cargo ships. Seen a bunch of birds, mostly Ptarmigans, Albatross, Terns, and the like.

Yesterday, we reached the open waters, and the ride changed quite a bit. Unfortunately, this land lover couldn't keep his lunch down. The sea became "confused" and we were rocking and rolling every which way, in a seemingly random motion. I have no idea how big the swells were, but it was enough. The Med Tech on board has standing orders from doctors to be able to perscribe "the patch" So I hooked myself up with one (along with about half the other people on board, it seems) Both my roommate and I were stuck up in our cabin most of the afternoon.

I think the Amplitude of the waves are just as high today as they were yesterday, but the motion is much more regular. Seems that way anyway. So between that and this patch that ought to last for 3 days, I think I'm going to be all right. I'll try and go without on the way back, I think, just to see if I can just get used to things without Drugs. The stuff leaves my throat feeling very dry and nasty. A known side-effect I was warned about.

Today I was able to participate in some ongoing science projects, though its not all that exciting. We drop Expendable-Bathe-Thermographs (XBT)in the water and it measures the water temperature as it sinks. They have a long thin copper wire that sends info back to the boat. Its neat to see how the temp changes at depth, and how it varies from latitude to latitude.

That's about All I've been up to so far. I've been taking a few pictures here and there, but all the scenery is starting to get pretty dull. Its very overcast today, and you can't see the horizon. All the people on board are very friendly, and like to share their knowledge. It's fun to go up on the bridge and listen to the Mates and Captain talk.

Well, I just wanted to get a note out to everyone and let you know I'm still alive and stuff. I've been limiting my time at staring at a computer screen, just to play it safe, since that's what set me off yesterday. Cheers!

T minus 3 hours

Our boat is scheduled to leave doc in 3 hours, finally. It seems like I've been here for quite some time now, and I'm ready to get underway with the boat. Let's just hope I have the fortitude to keep my food down. From what I understand, the sailing is pretty smooth for the first 12 hours or so, as we travel through the straights of Magellan, then it gets rougher. Its pretty windy this morning too. I've been able to notice the boat rocking a little bit in the dock, but its not given me any kind of bad feelings. Hopefully I'll be alright. I've also heard rumors that one of the birthing rooms is called "the anti-gravity room" As its located at the forward most point in the ship, of any room. From what I can tell of the floor plans, I have that room. Oh Joy! I took the top bunk, as it has the port hole with a view. I hope I don't regret it.

Punta Arenas is nice. I've got some decent pictures, but since I've been shooting in RAW format, I haven't had a chance to process them to jpegs to upload. I'll make sure I get them all done so I can send them up when I get to Palmer Station. Last night we went to a nice fancy restaurant called "Remezon" where I had some Garlic Soup (amazing!) and some Manta Ray (interesting...)

The boat is pretty cool, even if it is small, its cool to see how things are designed to handle the fact that normally horizontal surfaces aren't always horizontal. The scientific equipment is of course intriguing to me. I wish I could be on a cruise when science would be done, but alas, tis not the mission of this cruise. The food has been really good here too. I had heard cooks in the past just present fried food to the crew, and that's it, but the current cook (Bob) does a really classy job. We've had spice (cumin?) crusted salmon and sea bass, and some other yummy things, of which I have a hard time remembering. I just remember it was good. So as long as I can keep it down, I think it will be a good trip.

Almost there.

So I made it to Punta Arenas, Chili. Landed around 3:30 PM local time (12:30 PM, MDT) Overall, the flight was okay. How can traveling for 22+ hours by economy air actually be good? We were late landing in Santiago, Chili, so we were rushed through customs, and I didn't get to really pay attention to the surroundings our what's going on. About all I noticed was that the area was in a valley, surrounding be pretty tall mountains. It seemed to hold in a lot of particulate in the air. Not sure if you can tell from the bellow picture, but I was able to grab it from the view out the window of my plane before it took




Punta Arenas seems nice. It's certainly not like any other place I've been before. Not really sure how to describe it. Most of the buildings and roofs are all kinds of bright colors, which are neat. There is a square in the middle of town full of what seem to be really old trees and a big Bronze monument. Roomer has it, you have to rub its toe before sailing off for a good trip. I'll be sure to get a picture of it on my return. I'd bet there some cool history here. Some buildings seem pretty neat. Below is a picture of that square as seen from the window of my hotel room.

I'll get my ECW (extreme cold weather) gear tomorrow at 9 AM, and then embark on the LMG (aka the Gould) at 3 PM. I'm not sure about connectivity, but I think there should be a way to post here. I'll spend the first day getting through the straights of Magellan, the next 2 in the Drake Passage ,and the last day under the shelter of the Antarctic Peninsula, heading to Anvers Island where Palmer Station is located.

So given that this is my first time to the Southern Hemisphere, I was excited to flush a toilet. Unfortunately, they are very European in design here, and just seem to "flush down." So I can't confirm that the water acutally spins in the opposite direction yet. I'll fill up the tub a bit tomorrow when I take a shower, in hopes to make the observation. So other than that, I'd say for anyone else making this trip.... It helps to know a little Spanish (of which I know, very, very little) Adios!

Kayland Vertigo High Review

So I have to laugh... Within minutes of posting my previous post, I noticed I had a hit for someone looking for a review on the boots I bought. I figured why hold out for anyone looking. I'll go take a picture of my boots and start my review.

Note this is an initial review, and not totally exhaustive since I have only had them for a few weeks.

First, I suppose I should explain a little about myself and background, so you know what angle this review is coming from.

Age: 29
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 145 lbs
Shoe size: 10.5 US

Backpacking Background:
I've spent most of my life playing outdoors, in various sports activities, namely cross-country running and track and field throughout high school. As a child I would go and spend vacations with my Dad up in the Adirondacks in New York state, where we would climb mountains and just have fun. In college, I was a member of the outdoors club and went on various hikes with that group, and began going on more difficult hikes into the high peaks region of the Adirondacks. I've done numerous hikes along the Appalachian trail in Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as a trip to the everglades, and swamps of Georgia. I consider myself a midweight backpacker. When I go backpacking my pack usually weighs between 30 and 40 pounds for hikes up to about a week in length. When with the right group, or by myself, I hike at a moderate pace of 2-4 mph, depending on terrain.

Product Info:
Manufacturer: Kayland
Model: Passage Vertigo High
Year of manufacture: 2008
Shoe Size: 10.5 USA
Color: Havana
URL: www.kayland.com
Listed Weight: 710 grams ea. (1.5 lbs.)
Weight as delivered: 3.2 pounds for the pair
MSRP: Not listed on web site

Product Description (from website):
This versatile boot delivers outstanding comfort, traction, and stability, scrambling off-trail, or traipsing through mud and snow. Of 110 different models tested, the Vertigo High was awarded the Backpacker Editors’ Choice Award for 2007.

• Enhanced Rocker
• Extended Lacing (laces go all the way to the toe)
• Integrated Absorbing Drive System (IADS) pro
  
• Level of rigidity: 5 (out of what?)
• Sole: Vibram® Tsavo.

Initial Report:
These were the first pair of boots I tried on during my quest to find new hiking boots. My previous pair were EMS brand boots that were gore-tex lined, with a solid full leather upper. After years of wear, the soles had separated from the shoe and were just breaking down. I tried on about 8 different pairs of shoes at 2 different stores, and I came back to these ones. I could tell right away when I put these on, that I'd probably come back to them. Most boots I try on, I tend to find the toe box constricting, and the heel often feels to loose. I find such a fit tends to yield blisters on my heel and big toes. Once I put the Kayland on, my heels felt well supported and adequately confined in such a way that the boot would stay with my heel and little rubbing would occur. The shape seems to be designed around the shape of my foot. I was able to get a good snug fit with the lacing system without feeling like I was cutting off the circulation to my toes. I still had plenty of bend / wiggle room for my toes as well without feeling overly roomy. With a quick walk around the stores, the boot seemed a bit stiffer than what I was used to in a boot, even being brand new. This is actually what I was looking for though. Having just moved to Colorado, I wanted something to provide a little more support for the varied terrain I would be encountering during my attempts to begin summiting the 14ers.

The footbeds that come with the boot seem to be thicker, and potentially more durable than I've seen in other boots as well. The heel section has a black waffle type material on them, topped with a white felt/foam material thats maybe 1/8 inch thick, and the final interface on top being what seems to be an orange leather/suede type material.



Instead of Gore-tex, the Vertigo High's use Event technology to provide water proofing beyond the treated leather. Since its still mostly winter, I can't say how well this stuff lets sweat out of the boot, and keeps water from getting in. My feet do sweat a fair amount when hiking, and no matter what, my feet are usually just slightly damp when removing shoes, despite the activity. Results are no different with these boots thus far. I've hiked through shallow mud and water with them and have no complaints with the water repellency. The tongue is gusseted to the sides of the boot up to the top of the laces where the metal eyes are.

The toe of boot has a rubberized fabric that seems to be glued to the upper. It seems durable and should provide good protection against abrasion around the areas that typically get the most abuse.

As I mentioned previously, the lacing system extends down to the toe and allows me to get even tension across the whole of my foot. When tightening the laces, they don't relax much when you let go of the laces, this is nice as you don't have to keep constant tension on them when tying things up. The lace hooks seem to be well designed are are made of metal. My previous boots hooks stuck out a bit, and I would sometime catch the loops of my laces on the opposite foot when walking, these seem to be designed in a way that this shouldn't happen.

On their first few hikes outdoors, they've seen conditions from dry, loose dirt, to hard packed dirt. Rocks, and grass. Fresh fallen Snow all the way to hard packed snow and ice. The vibram sole seems to grip well when climbing largish rocks, even wet. The are doing well in all the terrain. I'm enjoying the stiffness of these soles, and the uppers are breaking in nice. No blisters, or even hot spots to date. I've done a few 4-6 miles hikes with them.

Overall, my general impressions of this boot is that it is extremely well made, with strong stitching and sturdy construction. I feel like the designers really took into consideration the structure of the foot (at least those similar to mine) when engineering this boot. Its truly a joy to hike in them. I feel like they return a good portion of the energy of my stride and help propel me forward. I look forward to many years of adventure with this boot. I recommend that anyone looking for a serious boot to get them where they need to go, consider this one.

Should you have any questions about these, just post a comment, and I'll do my best to reply in a timely manner.

Aufwietersehen

Well, this is likely my last post before I head to the southern hemisphere, and ultimately, the southern most continent on the planet. Yes, you can say that I am excited. I'm quite nervous too. I've stocked up on some meclizine (I keep wanting to call this stuff mescaline, perhaps I 'm wishing it was, subconsciously) and crystallized ginger, in hopes to curb any unpleasant feelings that this land lover has never felt before. Hopefully I won't need it. I've never been motion sick before, but the ocean cruise is a new experience for me, and I figure I should at least come prepared, especially since the vessel is flat bottomed. I am required to work 12 hours days on the boat after all, being sick isn't conducive to work. The long hours shouldn't be too bad, I don't think. Not like there's much to do on a boat anyway... Work, eat, sleep, and take pictures. There's no science going on during this cruise, that I am aware of, so I probably won't get to see anything cool from that perspective. Let's just hope that waters of the Drake Passage will cooperate. I've heard the seas can be quite rough, and I've seen pictures of the boat I will be riding with its aft section under water. (sounds like fun, if I knew I wouldn't get sea sick, and was wearing a PFD, dry suit, and GPS locater beacon.) I suspect I'll still prefer bombing down mountain pass roads at 50+ mph on my road bike.

I've pretty much gotten all my stuff together. Camera is working and I'm comfortable with it. I've rented a Canon 70-200mm IS f/2.8L lens so I can only blame myself for the awful pictures I'm sure I'll take. From my experience with the lens so far, I'm sure I'm going to have a hard time sending it back to lensrentals.com. [speaking of which, plug for lensrentals.com, they have great customer service and very friendly staff, highly recommended]. I have to laugh, it's one heavy lens, and almost doubles the weight of all my camera gear put together, sans tripod.

I've got a pair of noise isolating headphones for the 11+ hour combined plane ride down to Chili too. I went the route of the Shure e3c's. From all the reviews, they seem to do as well as, if not better than active noise canceling headphones. The though of stopping sound from getting in makes more sense than adding noise to cancel the noise, from the perspective of my ear drums.

I have a new pair of hiking boots too, that are by far the best pair of hiking boots I have EVER put on my feet. They are Kayland Vertigo High boots. Maybe if I get a chance to write a review while I am on my way I will. There don't seem to be too many reviews out on the web about them. But to summarize quickly... As I was told by the super friendly staff over at bent gate mountaineering, the boots are designed for an asymmetrical foot, which from my perspective means the following: The have a nice tight well supporting heel cup, and the toe box is nice and roomy for toe wiggling. The lacing system brings the laces all the way down to the tip of the shoe too, kind of like rock climbing shoes, so you are able to get them laced up for a perfect feeling fit. I've hiked in them for 3 weekends now, and have worn them to the office a few times to break them in. Never had a single blister. So hopefully the time spent in Chili will involve some exploring.

I hope to be updating this blog significantly more often during my trip as well, at least every other day, if not daily. We'll see how that goes, and how I'm feeling. I suppose network connectivity will dictate that as well. If the connectivity is bad, I'll probably at least compose entries locally, and update them as I can.

On that note, cheers! and I'll talk to you all from Chili. Perhaps from a web perspective, this should have been titled aufwietersprechen. (talk to you later?)

Its been about 2 weeks since my last post, and I feel I owe everyone some sort of update. Truth is, these last 2 weeks haven't been all that eventful, in terms of things to report. I suppose the most news worthy thing is that I have been "ticketed" for my Trip to Antarctica in March. I'll leave CONUS (Continental US, wouldn't be a gov't related job without acronyms!) March 19th and will arrive back April 20th. It's an understatement to say that I'm looking forward to the trip. I'll be flying to Santiago, Chili, and then onto Punta Arenas, Chili. From there I'll board the SSV Lawrence M. Gould and take the 4 day trip to Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula. I'll then spend 4 days there and then take a 4 day trip back to Chili. Once back in Chili, I get to wait about 6 days for the SSV Nathaniel B Palmer to arrive at port. Once it does, I'll conduct some business in it, while its in port. Once it leaves, I fly home. Thats about the extent of knowledge about my trip at this point. Hopefully I'll have lots of cool pics to share.

Went skiing last weekend too. I'm getting better, though I'm still highly humbled by what I can't do. I went down some black diamond terrain, correction, across some black diamond terrain. So I must be feeling a little more confident than I have in the past. Bumps / moguls don't seem to knock me around as much as they used to, but I still don't find them fun. Loveland has lift that takes you to the top of the Continental Divide as well, I believe at about 12,ooo feet. I have finally built up the nerve to go ride that lift as well. What a view! Sorry, no pics though. On the way home from skiing, I decided to take route 6 home out of the mountains. For the most part the road runs next too Clear Creek and Indian Creek through the mountains. I had spotted what looked like a trail that walked along the opposite side of the creek as well. The led to my hiking activities with the family yesterday.

I finally have in my possession a tripod as well. Its the Velbon Ultra Luxi. Overall I'm satisfied with the purchase. It's quite compact, but has decent extension and doesn't way a lot. Not having used the finer brands that utilize the carbon fiber, I can't say I know what I'm missing. I'm sure for the better :) Our hike ended short do to not finding the exact trail I was looking for and my son's desire to go home. The pics I did take were nothing to write home about. If you are interested, though, they are here.

I'm also excited to finally bet getting a new pair of hiking boots. I spent the afternoon dragging the family around to stores looking for the "perfect shoe." I believe I found them (The Kayland Vertigo High, for those of you not wanting to check out the link). Initial reaction on this shoe was a roomy toe box and a nice snug heel cup. Of course, this was the first shoe I tried on at the recommendation of the folks over at Bent Gate Mountaineering. I can honestly say its the best feeling hiking boot I've ever put on. Not wanting to jump the gun, I left and checked out some more shoes at REI as well. I have to say the difference in level of service I received at bent gate compared to REI is another thing that makes we want to go back and get the shoes I found there as well. I noticed there aren't many reviews of the boots (except by backpacking magazine) online, so maybe I'll post one in the future as I wear these things in. I intend on taking them south with me as well. Hopefully they'll provide a good platform for me to start attacking the 14ers this year.

Another weekend, another open space park

One thing I'm liking about Jefferson County, Coloardo, is they certianly seem to have no shortage of open space parks and trails to hike around. Today's adventure took us to White Ranch Open Space Park. We stayed on the rawhide trail for a 4.25 mile hike, according to the GPS.

At the beginning of the trail, on the west enterance, there is a bunch of old farm equipment on display, with descriptive signs. I actually managed to get, what is in my opinion, a pretty decent photo. Could be worthy of getting a print of it.

From White Ranch Park

It was Geoffrey's longest hike he's done to date. Beating his previous record by 6/10ths of a mile. The last half was really a struggle for him though. He spent a lot of time playing in the snow, mud and melted snow, so his feet were soaked. This lead to an unhappy miserable little boy with blistered feet. There's simply no way to reason with a 4 year old in that state. We eventually made it back though.

I'm looking forward to summer hiking, more things become accessible as many roads will no longer be closed, and the terrain won't provide so much of a challenge for 22 inch (approximate) legs.

Get Smart and Help the Hungry

I've run across a website yesterday, that I am enjoying quite a bit. Some might say I have even grown slightly addicted to it. This website helps you out with your vocabulary skills. It presents you with a word, and then gives you 4 other words that are synonyms for it. Your goal is to choose the correct one. For every 3 that you get right, you move up a level, and it starts presenting you with harder words, and some of them are certainly obscure. For every one you get wrong, it drops you down a level. Here's the best part though, for every word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice through the UN to help stop world Hunger. I'm sure they don't actually count the grains. Its probably more like 100 grains = 1 gram or something like that, and they go by weight.

You can also set an option to let it save your statistics (through a cookie) so you can track how you are doing. I'm not sure why its so fun... I hated English class in school. Its interesting to see how high up in the levels you can get when you sit down with someone else and play together too. I encourage all of you to go over to freerice.com and start playing.

The last mile

Yesterday, My family and I went for a hike. Jess wanted to go somewhere where there were trees, and I wanted to find some place fun and new to hike... Through various searches, I stumbled across the Beaver Brook Trail. I had a hard time finding actual directions on how to get to a trail head for this thing. The description gave several generalizations as to popular access points, but that's about it. "It's near the Lookout Mountain Nature Center" was about the most useful information I found. I found directions to the nature center, and we drove there. Found a trail head, though not for the Beaver Brook Trail. Fortunately, there was a map of the area at that trail head that gave us a good sense of where we where, and where we needed to be. After driving around for a while, and asking a group of cyclists where Windy Saddle was (the supposed trail head to the trail that led to the trail ;). Anywho, all the driving around led us to a curvy windy road that goes up (and down) the side of Lookout mountain. I thought to myself, "I gotta ride my bike up this thing sometime, it looks like fun!"

So we commenced on our hike, and had a lot of fun. About 3 miles total in distance was hiked. I was surprised, some of the descriptions of this trail that I found said it was really poplular, so I figured it shouldn't be too challening... I guess in the summer time it might not be. Much of the trail this time of year still had plenty of snow on it, and the foot traffic had trampled the snow into some icy patches here and there. To top that off, the exposure of the trail was quite intimidating at times. One slip on the wrong spot and you're going for a ride! I don't suspect that the landing at the bottom is too soft either. Anyway, below are a few of my favorite photos. You can view the whole album here. I think my photo taking is getting a little better, but it still has a long way to go. I also bought a nice circular polarizing filter a while ago, and I keep forgetting to use the darn thing!




I thought this rock looked pretty cool. Kinda looks like there's a skull from some animal on top.





I was trying to be creative here... Not sure I succeed all that well. It looked better in real life I think. This might be another case where messing around with HDR imaging would come in handy. I really need a tripod before I can really make my attempts worth while though.

So anyway, on with the title of this post... The weather today was/is absolutely wonderful, crystal clear skies and 60+ degrees. I thought to myself, "self, why don't you go bike up that road you found yesterday." So that's what I did, and it felt great. I mapped out a route to get over to hill, made a course using the course creator developed by Brad Culberson, and uploaded it to my Garmin 305 GPS / bike computer. Sadly, I couldn't get my heart rate strap, or cadence sensor working. I think the batteries finally bit the dust in them. Oh well. That wasn't going to stop me from enjoying my ride.

I managed to navigate my way through Golden, avoiding most of the really busy roads, though, I also managed to go down a road that was gated at one end. Always fun to hop a fence in roadie shoes as cars and other bikers whiz by. Oh well. After a ten mile warm-up I made it to the base of the hill. I decided I was just going to go up at a pace I could handle, and knew I could sustain for a long time. Since the ride was new to me, I wasn't sure what kind of exertion I could put into it.

There were a ton of cars at the base, all with bike racks. We had seen a lot of riders yesterday while driving, and I think there were even more today. I managed to catch a couple people and pass them on my way up, but some managed to catch and pass me too. Unfortunately, I think more people passed me, than I passed. It was really tough to not hop on the wheel of others as they passed. Was probably a good thing though, I'm convinced that a bunch of people where at least semi-pro, or at least on some organized team of some sort. A couple groups had coaches talking to them out a car, etc. They probably woulda pushed harder just to drop me. I made it to the top, and took a 10 minute breather up at Buffalo Bill's grave.

At my rest, I had the chance to eat a Chocolate flavored PowerGel energy snack. All I have to say, is that if you really, really (and I mean really) like chocolate frosting, you just might be able to handle this stuff. The consistancy is that of a smooth creamy frosting, and the taste is quite chocolaty. It was just too much for me. I felt like all the sweet taste buds on my mouth where hyper stimulated. It took me most of the 10 minute break to choke the stuff down. All I had for a chaser was some Lemon / Lime Gatorade Endurance mix... Yack! The the Gatorade itself I thought was pretty good. Good flavor, not too sweet, and tart enough to keep the thirst working. The pouch I had made a quart, which I found kind of annoying, since my water bottles where 24 oz (as are most bike bottles).

At any rate, I made the wonderful decent back down the mountain feeling great about the climb. Good thing I brought arm warmers with me. I would have gotten cold without them. I haven't ridden since last November, not even on my trainer (I know, I've been bad), and here I was able to climb this thing. I thought I was crazy at the start of my ride, but I did it! Then it hit me... almost home.... Please, please remind me again why I decided to live in house at the top of no small hill, especially after what I had just been through. It was torture! I kept thinking to myself "how am I supposed to have a propper cool down when I have to go up this thing at the end of every ride? arrg" I sucked it up and finished, but not strong. Oh well.

Motionbased Stats are here.

It was a neat ride. Will certainly do it again. Great views, and I got to see some other people enjoying their hobbies. On some of the sharp turns on the climb up (switchbacks), I saw a group of people playing with remote control gliders, riding the wind currents coming up the mountain. I also had a paraglider person swoop over my head as well. That was cool.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography

So my friend Doug and I where chatting the other day, and he mentioned that he was wanting to try out some HDR photography... Typical of myself, being clueless to most things related to photography, (at least I still feel that way) I asked Doug what the heck he was talking about. He explained it well for me, and gave me a good idea of what it is, and how cool it can be. I've run across an example or two (okay, lots) as well as a good explination and tutorial. So I've given it a try. I can't say I felt all that inspired by anything around me today, so the shots aren't all that interesting. I did one indoors, and one outdoors. I suspect the outdoor shot would have been more interesting had it been closer to dusk. And all in all, it gives me further urgency to get a tripod (which has now moved to the top of my photo gear want list).



As you can see from the images, I used a application called Photomatix to do the processing. It seems to work pretty well, and gives you the ability to tweak things quite a bit before the final process is complete. It guides you through the workflow well, IMHO. Small fee required to get rid of the watermarks of course. For playing around and seeing what this stuff is all about though, I'll live through the watermarks. If you are curious what the images looked like before hand, I've sampled some of the image collection it takes to make these, and put them together below. The left being the most under exposed, middle being the average, and actually what my camera's "P mode" decided to use, and the right being the most over exposed. Essentially, I focused the camera and let the P mode decide stuff. Then I translated those settings to manual mode and took 4-5 pictures on each side, either increasing or decreasing shutter speed. (Click on the pictures to get more detail)


I haven't quite figured out what the green aberration is on the lower right portion of the couch is yet. I suspect it might be a reflection on the lens, or possibly the UV filter that's on the front. can't say I'm too pleased about it. Its the first I've ever seen of it though... odd, I got out the lens cleaner and polished stuff up. I have to try and recreate a few shots to see if I can get it to come back. Sigh.

It'll be interesting to see how useful this process because for antarctic photography. I suspect it might yield some nice stuff. I might be taking advantage of the free trial of photoshop CS3 for that though. I found tutorials of doing HDR processing in CS2, so I imagine CS3 has to do it too. Yet another thing to save my pennies for.

GeoTagging

So I've been playing with my Camera a little, trying to get used to it, before I deploy to the ice. I've come across what seems to be a relatively new thing to do with all the pictures you take. It's called geoTagging. There are lots of other discussions out there on what to use, how to do it, etc. Just google it up. I found one GPS tracker that actually will sit in the hot shoe of your camera and record your coordinates when you take each photograph, I thought that was neat, but it was yet another device to buy. I already have a few GPS units. One is old and antiquated, and the other is my Garmin edge 305... soon to be antiquated, I fear, with Garmin's release of the new spiffy edge 705. Darn technology, always getting better, LOL.

Anyhow, from what I've read the work flow for geoTagging seems to go like this... Take a hike, turn on a GPS device to track and record your positions. Take some photos. When you get home, download the photos, collect the data from the GPS device. Then use the software package of your choice to sync up the photos with your GPS data. What it does is look at the time stamp on the photo, and then finds the position where you where at, at that time. Then it adds the latitude and longitude to the EXIF data on the photo. There you have it... geoTagged photos. I have been using an app called PhotoMapper by COPIKS. It can only import jpeg images (I'd love something to tag RAW images), but it can use various formats of GPS data, including .gpx, .hst, and .tcx, as well as a few others. The .tcx is useful to me since I can export that right out of Garmin's Training center, the software that comes with the edge. Just a word of caution though, I've found out so far, if you save a RAW file from Picasa2 to jpeg, and then try to open the jpg up in PhotoMapper, it crashes... not sure why, so for now, I've been using the Canon Utilities to convert from RAW to jpeg. Anyone want to buy me photoshop CS3? :) pretty please?

As far as the results? Well, you can view them in google earth, and other various photo collection sites out on the web. I'm curious to see how well all this web app stuff handles data sourced from the antarctic. We'll find out soon enough I guess. I've uploaded some of the tagged pics to my picasa account if you want to see how it works. I think my favorite pic is of a wind blown tree:
I'm still not all that happy with most of my pictures mostly due to shadows and stuff. I think that its mostly because of the time of day and year though. The sun is low in the sky, and its mid-late afternoon, so the shadows are getting long. Oh well. Only way to get better at composition is to take more photos....

New Camera

So the new camera has finally arrived. I bought a used Canon Digital Rebel XTi off ebay. It came with a battery grip, extra battery, and 2 lenses, 18-55mm and a 100-300mm. Its gonna be a while before I get good at using it I think. Here's the first few shots so far.

I think Everest was getting annoyed at me shoving the camera in his face. I'm really sure he didn't enjoy having the flash go off in his face the night before either.... The next few pictures where taken from Green Mountain Park. The first is of the city of Denver, zoomed in. I was using a 100-300mm zoom lens here, it was probably around 175mm here. I was impressed how close the city seemed zoomed in to 300mm. I don't have a tripod yet, so I can't take any night photos. They'll come soon, I promise.

The next picture was just me trying to mess around with depth of field and stuff. Personally, I think the background is a little too out of focus. The subject here is a seed pod on yucca plant.

And the sign below I just think is amusing, given that it's less than 1/10 of a mile from our house. Its a fairly new addition to the park (the sign). I'd love to get a shot of one of those cats... From a distance of course. Not sure if you can make out the sign, but it basically goes on to say if you get attacked, fight back and don't give up.... walk loudly and carry a big stick.

As always, I'd love to hear your comments and criticism on the photos, or anything else you might have to say.

Post Holiday Update

Well, the holiday's are over, and its been quite a while since I've posted anything, so I figured I aught to at least put something in this here blog for y'all to read. I can't say I have much of interest to post though.

Let's see... The weekend before Christmas I went skiing up at Loveland again, and had a blast. I'm getting comfortable with pretty much any groomed terrain. No fancy tricks or anything, but I can handle things as fast or as slow as I want. Its a different story when you put bump/moguls in my way though. Gotta get better at them though, if I'm ever to join ski patrol, or S&R teams. Below is a picture of the parking lot, looking towards the main "consumer" area.

I wanted to take more pictures from the mountain that day, but it was a whopping 5 degrees Fahrenheit out there with an incredibly cold wind chill. You knew if you had skin showing (and I'm going to Antarctica? I must be nuts). Needless to say, the internal pockets in my coat where not in a good place for a camera, so it just sat in the locker all day.


Christmas Day came along and Geoffrey was very excited to see some presents under the tree. He also got his first sled too. We didn't have much opportunity for sleeding back in PA. We live a couple 100 feet down the street from a park with a nice hill on it here though. I'm not sure he knew what to make of the big blue plastic thing at first.



Geoffrey also got several different versions of building blocks. From the cardboard ones above, to Wooden blocks, to legos. I think he enjoys them all equally. Well, mostly he enjoys destroying anything the he builds up. I have fun playing the the cardboard ones. Its fun to apply simple engineering concepts to see what kind of structures you can build up.

A few of my Co-Workers have headed down to McMurdo Station, and then will be onto the South Pole towards the end of the month. One of them has a blog going... You can read more here about his travels here. I'll hopefully be doing this tour next season. The trip I have scheduled for March is the one he did last season.

My new (to me, thank-you ebay) Camera should be arriving this week (I hope) too. So maybe I'll be able to get some improved upon pictures soon. Though, for a while, they may be worse, LOL, as I have to figure out how all this SLR stuff works. I knew I should have taken that photography class in High School. Oh well. There's a Community College close by, so maybe someday I could take something there. There's plenty of info out on the web though, so hopefully that won't be necessary.

Well, I guess there's not much else to say, other than Happy New Year everyone. Say Hi or something once and a while! Cheers!