Noisy Varmit

Speaking of wildlife... We had another visitor last night. It would seem that the racoon's are feeling territorial over our yard (more than likely, our compost bin). We were woken by an amazingly noisy ruckus. You would have thought there was some part dog, part rabbit creature being subjected to some sort of medieval torture device in our backyard or something. Jess and I scurried out of bed to see what was up and spotted this one in our tree. Now what would be cool is if we could attract some mountain lions to eat these guys, that would actually be worth getting up over :) Question then is what would eat the mountain lion? I dunno why she swallowed the fly, perhaps she'll die.

Needless to say, my picture shooting skills aren't that great in the early hours of the morning. I didn't even think to grab the tripod that was 5 feet away from me. Oh well. He wasn't sitting all that still anyway. Not bad for a .6 second handheld exposure though f/1.8 ISO 1600

Suburban Elk

Well, I have to say, the fall sure does bring about some wonderful weather here in Colorado. Nice cool nights, perfect for sleeping, with crisp mornings that don't offer much incentive for getting out of bed in the morning. By afternoon though the temperature is near perfect, coupled with the wonderful sun shiny weather that the state is known for. Fall has always been my favorite time of year. It's cooling down in the mountains, and the peaks are starting to become snow covered, which I have a wonderful view of from my office window at work. In fact, 2 local ski resorts have already opened, but only one slope on each so far. Talking to others that have lived here longer than I, soon we'll see some of the other crazy weather Colorado is known for. Unbelievably radical swings in temperature... It's in the mid 70's here today, and they're calling for mid 40's the middle of the week, then a swing back up to the 70's again. Variety is the spice of life I guess.

On another note, and also the reason for the title of this post. The fall weather has brought on a flurry of wild life activity in our area. When I first moved here last year, I had mentioned observing quite a variety of wildlife as well. Well, nature does not disappoint. We were over at a friends house last night, who happens to live across the street from our local park. This lead to the opportunity to witness an elk in an area I would have never suspected one to come. Seems this guy likes to chew his cud in the local ball park.

After running home (literally), and grabbing the camera, I managed to get these shots of him. Turns out he wasn't to afraid of me either. I was probably standing about 15 feet away from him at one point (with a fence between me and him). That was close enough for me. I suspect he wasn't lucky enough to win himself a harem this season. Someone else said he was walking around with a bum leg too. Still, pretty wild that I live close enough to the mountains that these things are around. Several of my co-workers who live further in the mountains have some nice photos to show off of the wildlife they get to see. Let's just hope the cars around here drive with enough caution to not make a mess of things.

AspenGlow

So we took a trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park again this weekend. The leaves are beginning to turn down here in the front range, so I figured that a lot of leaves up at higher elevation must be getting close to peak. I had this planned for at least a week and was quite excited to get back up in the mountains. I've been limited to 7000 foot maximum elevation due to the clinical study I am in. Last Friday was my last session until next year, so I could get to higher elevations now. Of course since I had this planned, the weather forecast wasn't all the great. It was supposed to rain late in the day, with accumulating snow at night in the high country. I decided I wanted to go anyway. I'd just have to pay attention to the cloud activity.

We arrived at the park around 10:30 AM. I had chosen a trial to hike on the western side, since I've been in Colorado now for almost a year and was yet to make it over the continental divide. (Crazy huh?) Well, trail ridge road, and old fall river road were both open. I was in luck. These roads usually close down sometime in October because the road conditions become so bad. I don't blame them The road up is pretty steep and twisty turney. I can see why the close it down. Old Fall River road is dirt, and unidirectional (up only). My wife made the comment that she never intends of driving up that road. I thought it was great. There were several areas that were quite narrow with a significant exposure (drop off) down the side of the mountain, without any kind of barrier preventing you from going over. Anyhow, below is one of the views from Old Fall River road, of the valley. It was pretty much at the base of road, not very high up.
Also, before we started to ascend the road up over the divide, we made a quick "nature break" While my son was doing his thing in the privy, a couple of other photogs (with mighty big lenses and tripods, I must add) spotted this little squirrel gnawing away on a bunch of pine cones. I guess it was fattening itself up for the winter. I pulled out my camera with my measly lens (yes, I had lens envy) and managed to snap this shot. Not to bad for being extended out to 300mm and hand held with no image stabilization, if I do say so myself.

We finally got to the trail head around noon, ate lunch in the car, then headed off up the trail. It was 4.4 miles to the ultimate destination (a lake). I knew this late in the day, we would never make it, but it would be nice just to get out anyway. Below is a picture of a small stand of Aspen that has turned for the season. This picture doesn't really do these trees any justice. They seem to range from an orangy red color all the way to an amazingly vibrant yellow. Almost as if they were luminescent, generating their own light. Several times, walking through the forest, you would spot some aspen through the trees, and they were so vibrant, it was almost as if a ray of sunshine was shining right down on them, even though the sky was overcast.

A little further down the trail, we came across a nice stream. Of course, Geoffrey had to play in the rocks and in the water, etc. He seems to like getting his picture taken, as long as its on his terms.

One of the good things about overcast days in the forest, is you can stop down your lens and get a decently long exposure without having to add filters. I always enjoy taking pictures of water and trying to get that nice flowy, fluid look. I was pretty happy with this shot.

About halfway up the trail, I spoted some mountains in the distance that I was able to see earlier. I always like to track terrain in the distance to use as a reference for my location. The cloud deck dropping down on them. Not a good sign when you want to stay dry. So we turned around and headed back down the trail towards our car. Along the way we spotted this Elk cow grazing on some vegetation. She wasn't to really willing to move, but after slowly approaching here and making some noise she moved for us.

Turns out where she moved to, was with the rest of her harem, protected by this here bull. It was kind of cool the way he followed up through the trees as we were hiking to make sure we weren't going to go after any of his property. That's one guy I would not want to tangle with.


As we were walking about it started to rain lightly, so we called it a day and drove home. It was nice to say that I've now seen water that flows to the pacific instead the Atlantic. In fact, that stream I took a picture of above, is part of the head waters that becomes the mighty Colorado River. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Don't forget you can always click on them to see bigger versions.

Time for a bigger Lens!

So just when I was beginning to come to grips with my camera equipment, what it can do, what it can't, and what I can['t] afford, this guy comes and plops down on my neighbors roof and start munching on what I believe to be a fuzzy rabbit.

Taken with my Canon EF 100-300mm f/4.0-5.6 fully extended to 300mm, which is a Canon XTi equivelant of 480mm. 1/3 sec exposure at ISO 200. The tripod and remote trigger where an absolute must. After much tweaking in Adobe Lightroom, this is about the best I can come up with. The chomatic aboritions were absolutely aweful. I suppose the overcast dusk sky didn't help though. I wanted to expose enough to bring out the color in the bird, which resulted in a crazy bright sky, which in turn make the aboritions worse. Oh well. I'm just really glad that I live in an area where photo opportunities like these present themselves, and of course wanted to share with all of you. I probably took about 70+ photos of him sitting there, more than half were junk due to him moving around and my slow shutter speed. I didn't want to boost the ISO any more since I know I'd be blowing up the photo, and was trying to keep noise to a minimum. Perhaps I'll process a few more pics a little later and put them up on picasa for you to view.

Writers Block?

I know, its been some time since I posted to this blog. Okay its been a long time, almost two months. I don't really have many excuses. Mostly I just haven't had a lot to say. Life has been a lot of the same, go to work during the week, relax on the weekends. Cycling has been sliding, and I haven't ridden to work in a while. Mostly due to the shortening of daylight hours I think. My body has a hard time getting up before the sun does. I can't say I enjoy ridding in the dark either. I have, however, finally acquired a mountain bike though. I've gone on 5 rides thus far, and can ?proudly? say that I've drawn blood on every single one of them. Amusingly, when I ride with friends they tell me that if you don't fall at least once, you aren't riding hard enough. Well, I've got that covered. Mountain biking is worlds harder than I had ever imagined it being. Mostly due to loose rocks, and terrain so steep, its hard to keep the front wheel on the ground. I'm getting the hang of it though, and slowly but surely getting better. My last ride was the first time I didn't actually go over my handlebars. LOL.

Of interesting note though, I have managed to enroll myself in an Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) study. My first "trial" occurs at the end of this week. It consists of a baseline study at local altitude, and then I get to spend 14+ hours in a pressure chamber simulating the atmospheric equivalent of 16,000 feet. I already know that I get sick at altitudes of 14,000 feet from the time I spent at Long's Peak earlier this summer. I wouldn't call it severe, but it was certainly noticeable, so we'll see what adding another 2,000 feet does to me. There are 3 different sessions of this, that include things like MRI's and bike pedaling, and cognitive testing. Each time I'll also take either a medication used to combat the symptoms of AMS or a placebo. Only the prescribing Dr. will know which (the people running the tests will not). This is the first study I've ever been in, but I find the topic pretty cool, as well as the stuff the use for the tests. I've already been in for an initial screening, which involved a VO2 max test. I've always wanted one of those, but not really willing to pay $200 to have one done at a sports med place. I should hopefully find out the results when I go in later this weeks. The person administering it seemed impressed, so I guess I was at least above average.

In other news, I'm scheduled to visit Antarctica again later this fall. Unfortunately, I won't be able to spend Thanksgiving with my family as my current deployment dates have me leaving November 18th and returning December 21st. This time I'll be traveling to LA, California, and then driving to Port Hueneme, where a fellow co-worker and I will be evaluating system at our small office there. Almost all cargo destined for "the ice" (as we like to say) pretty much goes through the port. Hopefully I'll get to drive up route 1 (pacific coast highway) to get there, provided time allows. After spending a day there, we then take the long flight down to Australia/New Zealand, where final destination will be Christchurch, NZ. We'll spend some time there, getting gear issued and recovering from jet leg, before we board a C-17 for the flight to McMurdo Station. If the weather is good, we'll land, otherwise we 'boomerang' back to Christchurch and try again later. Once at McMurdo we'll spend time looking at the systems there, and then take a flight on an LC-130 to South Pole station. Spend a few days there, and then make the journey back to Christchurch. Unfortunately, it sounds like we'll also be taking an LC-130 from McMurdo back to Christchurch. I've heard its a bit miserable due to loud noise and the much longer (~2x) duration of the flight. Oh well. Once back in Christchurch well spend some time looking at the computer systems there, and I hope, taking in some of the sights of the south island as well. After all that, I get to come home in time for Christmas with the family.

So that's pretty much been going on for the last 2 months. I hope to come up with some good things to post about in the future, but no guarantees. I imagine the next thing you have to look forward to is find out how I react to 16,000 feet of altitude. I was thinking of bringing my video camera, and recording how messed up I get. We'll see. ;)

No Pain, no Gain.

Lots of pain, and lots of gain (in elevation), let's hope there's some fitness gains in there too.

Somehow I got it in my head that it looked like it should be fun to bike up Mt. Evans. I think the important part is picking your starting location. Initially I had illusions of grandeur that it would be really cool to start from my house. That changed when I drove the family up Mt. Evans last week. The round trip would have been well over 100 miles, let alone the first half of the trip taking me from about 5800 feet in elevation all the way up to 14,150+ feet. I can safely say that that's not going to happen. Probably not ever, after today's experience. If it does happen, you can also look forward to seeing me in some televised domestic Cat 1 /Pro Tour race somewhere. Either that, or I'm retired and do nothing but bike all over the place and am in the best shape of my life.

I had decided on starting somewhere around Evergreen, CO:


View Larger Map

The grade didn't seem to bad in the car, averaging between 3-7 percent, and 32 miles to the top of the mountain... seemed doable in my head at least. 32 miles couldn't be that bad, and overall, I'd get a nice metric century ride in this summer.

The ride to echo mountain lake wasn't all that bad. Not very much traffic, cool morning, seemed to be in the low 70's, not a cloud in the sky. The no cloud part would be a slight problem, as I forgot to put on or bring any sun screen when I left this morning. At 14,000 feet, you have 40% less atmosphere to block those evil UV rays. I did bring some arm warmers for the descent so I could cover up a little. I still got burned a bit on the top of my legs, and my arms toasted up a little after I got back down and took off the warmers, but all in all, its quite minor. Lesson learned.

Anyhow, at Echo Lake (18 miles from the start, and about 2+ hours later) I queued up with the cars and some other cyclists going up. There's are $3 fee if you plan on stopping anywhere along the way, if you just want to drive/ride up and then turn around and go back down without getting out of your car or off your bike, its free. (Note, its a $10 fee for cars, $3 for motorcycles). I paid the fee, since at this point I already knew once I'd made it to the top, if I made it, I'd want to take a rest. The climb up the road started out well, and I just paced myself, and tried to keep the mindset of the "little engine that could." I was anticipating some pain, and significant respiratory problems but I was up for it. I was in for a surprise though. I really expected to be huffing it in the thin atmosphere, but it was different. I had no problem keeping my breathing and HR under control, but eventually it just felt like my quads where on fire, or someone was injecting acid directly into them. It was so hard to turn them over, and eventually got to a point where it felt like if I would stop, they would seize up and not move again... Ow!

To top it all off, the road up the mountain just seems to keep going, and keep going, and keep going. You can see the top from what's probably 2/3rds the way up. It doesn't look to far away, but never seems to get closer. You'll round a switchback only to be presented with yet another ascent up a long road with a turn way off in the distance. Ugggg. I was so close now. I couldn't give up, as much as I wanted to. I must only be 2-3 more turns I told myself (about 8 times). Finally turned the last round and I saw the parking lot and observatory I was so familiar with. Yay.

Oh, almost forgot to mention. I was talking about doing this at work earlier in the week (and trying to find people to suffer with me). Well, one of my co-workers decided to come up too (in his car). And was sure to find me suffering up the way and point out how nice his engine powered iron horse was working. Thanks Rob! I eventually made it up, and saw Rob coming down from the small foot path that leads up about 50 feet to the top where the USGS marker is, as I was leaving.

I didn't spend much time on the top. It was cold, as expected, and I didn't want to cramp up. So I stretched out the muscles a little, tried to eat my cliff bar, put on my arm warmers and left. At this point I could barely stand up. It wasn't a pretty sight (probably quite comical actually). The ride down pretty much sucked, in my opinion. And as far as I'm concerned, the biggest reason for going up is for the opportunity to go back down. Going up the mountain at 4-7 mph isn't bad and the cracks and bumps in the road aren't really noticeable above the pain emanating from my quadriceps. Going down however was a different story. At 20+ mph, every bump and crack seemed to jar my aching body as I tried to keep my muscles tense enough to support my body above the bike, so as to let bike go easily over them. The wind was also atrocious in spots cooling me beyond comfort. It was only motivation to try and get down faster so I could rest at echo lake, in thicker, warmer air.

I finally made it. Took a good rest, bought some Gatorade at the little shop / restaurant there, stretched some more and tried to prepare myself for the last 18 miles to the car. From Echo Lake, I had to go back up hill a bit and over squaw pass again. The climb was not all that significant in length, so I was able to suffer through it pretty well. Also at the lower elevation my quads weren't burning so much either. I figured the "extra" oxygen and lower altitude was able to buffer out some of the lactic acid that I had built up at higher elevations. I was quite hot at this point though, so I pulled over and took off the arm warmers.

Cruising down the rest of the way was pretty fun. The main road is in much better condition, and where there were bumps and pot holes, someone had outlined them with orange paint so they were easy to spot. Cruising down the curves at 30 miles an hour was a blast. This was what I was waiting for. I guess I got a little to lax towards the end though. About 2-3 miles out from my car, on one of the last turns I crashed. I was slowing for the hairpin when I caught some cinders just before entering the turn, while I was breaking. My back wheel locked up and started to slide right. I let off the rear brake and steered left to correct and catch myself, but at this point I was coming into the turn hot, and at the wrong trajectory. Into the loose cinder burm I went, trying to stop without locking up the front and not smash into the wall in front of me (at least it wasn't a drop off.) I managed to hit a deep section of cinders and my front end stopped abruptly sending me over the bars and off to the left a little. Managed a 3 point landing (my elbow, hip and knee) with minor scrapes and skin removal. I was shaken a little, but not to bad. I was quickly back up and back in the rhythm. The intersection at which my car was parked approached quickly. I've not been so happy to make it back to the car in quite a long time.

You can see most of the details of my ride here at motionbased. I had some problems with the cyclocomputer turning off when jolted hard by a bump (am looking into sending it in for repairs, as its getting worse) and as usual, the HR strap on my body when its windy and I'm cold gives bad readings.

Will I do this again? I don't know. Probably not by myself. Some details of the ride:

Length: 64 miles
Total time: 7 hours
Moving time: 5.5 hours (probably higher when you add in the moments my computer shut itself off)
Total Elevation gain: 9,070 feet (most of this over the first 32 miles... ouch)
Average Heart rate: 160 bpm

Catch Up

It sure seems like a long time since I've posted anything here, not quite a month. Mostly I've just been doing the same routine, work, eat, sleep, etc. Life is good. Parenting is difficult. Work is work. Nothing new really. I did however manage to go on a backpacking trip with a friend from Pennsylvania, and his friend. We spent 4 days and 3 nights hiking around Rocky Mountain National Park, the highlight of which was climbing Long's Peak, my first time above 14,000 feet in altitude.

The above Picture is Long's peak from Boulderfield campsite, the morning of our summit. You can see the weather was perfect. It's quite an amazing experience being up that high, and yes, I certainly could tell there is less oxygen up there... In fact mild symptoms of altitude sickness set in for me on the second day. I had a nagging headache that was there enough to make itself known, and by the time we came down off the peak, I had no desire to eat lunch. It was time to hike down to the next camp anyway, lower altitudes fixed all that.

Before the backpacking trip, the family and I drove up to Cheyenne, WY to check out the Sierra trading post brick and mortar store. Its pretty nice, prices are good, as always, but the selection lacked compared to the online offerings. On the drive up we saw our first wild Antelope playing in the fields, but alas, no roaming buffalo's Bison. The trip also reminded me that I'm not cut out to live anywhere between Denver and the Mississippi River. The plains just do nothing for me. I think I would go crazy without mountains, and at least some vegetation.

Cheyenne, itself wasn't all that exciting either... we drove around a little bit. I didn't see anything to exciting, and the place seemed kind of vacant. Some areas more well kept than others. Given my impression of Wyoming so far, its hard to believe that Yellowstone is in this state... but then again, you'd have the same impression, seeing eastern Colorado too.

So that's what's going on around here... Was feeling bad about not posting in a long while, and wanted to share the pics from my recent backpacking trip. Enjoy.

From RMNP Backpacking

"The Trough" It's steeper than it looks.

New Lens

So I ran out and got what are considered to be some of my friends most favorite lenses.... The Canon 50mm f/1.8. Its my first prime lens, and will take a little getting used to me thinks. I found myself wanting to twist something to zoom in or out on the subject. Also had fun playing with it stopped wide open at f/1.8 and the very narrow Depth of Field it gives you ( as seen in the 1st picture below, notice my boys ear's and neck are out of focus) Overall I think it will be a good addition to my lens collection. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pics out of it at some point to share.



These (above and below) photos are for everyone that's been bugging me for more shots of my family. The one below was from a recent trip to RMNP, though, its low res. on purpose. My camera managed to auto focus on the background instead of us, so the shot didn't really turn out that well. So making it low res was my way of hiding it... :)

Pedal Power

This past week marks the beginning of me using cycling as more than just recreation. Of the 4 days I was in the office this week, I commuted mostly by bike twice. I say mostly because I am driving 10 miles to a park-n-ride close to my house and a convenient bike path. From there it's an additional 23 miles by bike into the office. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll be in enough shape to go from my house, but right now, I'm only averaging about 16.6 mph, and as such it already takes an hour twenty to pedal in. Leaving by bike from my house I think would make for a really long day. I probably could have bike 3 of the 4 days, but I'm trying to ease myself into this. I don't want risk being completely zonked at work all the time.

The ride overall isn't too bad. There's one good section through a park, where on my second time in, I rode across a bridge and around a corner only to almost crash directly into a large buck Mule Deer. Talk about a wake up call at 6 in the morning. The wildlife is great though, I've seen fox, prarie dogs, flickers, kestrels, and warblers to name a few. There are a number if interesctions to cross, which aren't to bad in the morning, but delay my ride back in the afternoon. Since its the afternoon, I don't mind as much though. The ride towards home also seems a heck of a lot more difficult too. The elevation profile (as seen at motionbased, here.) is pretty much 'V' shaped. just happens that one side of the V is more consistantly sloped than the other. Makes for a long climb back to the car. Oh well. If I were to drive this whole route to work it would be about 34 miles (My normal shorter drive is 26 miles)... so I'm still saving some gas and wear on the vehicle, as well as helping my body out.

Hopefully soon, I can pick up my average pace. My goal by the end of the season is to knock 10 minutes off the ride (inbound at least). The equates to about 30 second faster pace per mile on average, which I think is reasonable.

Also further adventures of the bike commute, on the 2nd trip back to the car, a co-worker advised me of a quicker way that knocks 5 minutes off his trip.... I got completely lost trying it out, and added about 7 miles to my trip. So much for quicker. It made me realize something though. I need to eat some carbs a little while before I head home in the afternoon. I was starving by the time I got to the car... Low blood sugar and biking don't mix to well. Of course, biking past the Krispy Kreme shop and smelling the fresh donuts did not help (doesn't help in the morning either).

June 25th is official "bike to work" day here in Denver. I encourage any of you out there, even not in Denver, to bike in as well, just once. At least try it out. The key to successfull commuting is plan ahead. The day before, take in a change of clothes, some extra food, shower / washup stuff. Extra pair of shoes. Leave non-essential things in the office too. IE, don't bring that laptop home, so you don't have to bike it in the next day. Make sure you get plenty of food in you, and hydrate the day/night before. Perhaps the weekend before, get up a little earlier and go for a "test run." See if your planned route will get you where you need to go, and how long it will take you. These steps should get you well on your way to riding in to work. Also, make sure you have a spare tube, an air pump, and tire levers with you too. Don't want to get stranded on your way in. Make sure you know how to use them, if you don't ask your local bike shop to show you. And on a slight side note, when you go home... leave your work at work. It will be there when you get back tomorrow. Enjoy the ride and realize the benifits you're giving your self. You're better off for it. Or if you love to work, see if your IT dept. will set you up with the means to remote into your work, thats what I do, should the need arrise.

Up the Hill

And to top off my already wonderful day, I was able to get in a bike ride today. Weather was warm, and the winds were mostly calm... I figured I'd go climb Lookout Mountain, and check out a new route I found to get to the approach. My previous route had me going through some pretty busy roads. Turns out this new route is MUCH better. I also had the chance to put new batteries in my Heart Rate(HR) strap, and cadence sensor. This would be my first ride in CO where I could actually see my HR after a good ride.

Overall, I think I'm still not in very great shape. It wasn't hard for me to push my HR up there, so I decided to try and cap myself at 180. No need to kill myself. Also found out that my conductivity still drops as skin temp and moisture decrease. I got some erroneous readings while descending, which has been typical of the technology ever since I started using it. I also think it might partly have to do with fit. The strap seems a little big for my narrow skinny self. Oh well.

For those of you interested in the details of the ride, you can get 'em over at Motionbased. Hopefully by the end of the summer I should be in good shape. This coming monday marks the start of my bike commuting to work. It's going to take me to long to get to work from home (I'd have to leave about 2 hours earlier) so I'll be driving about 1/3 - 1/2 way, parking at a park-n-ride bus stop and cycling in the rest of the way, leaving about 20-25 miles to work. So getting in upwards of 50 miles at least 3 times a week should add up eventually I figure.

White kucklin' the Yoke

I had the privilege this morning of taking a ride with a friend of mine up in a cessna 172s. I certainly wasn't going to turn down that offer. What a great experience. I met him early in the morning, and was able to assist him with some of his pre-flight checks. Its pretty cool to see everything you're supposed to go through before you take off. Everything from checking flight surface function, to manually rolling the plane back and forth looking for bald patches on the wheel.
Since it was just him and I, I was assigned co-pilot duties and helped with the in-flight type checks too. There are checks for taking off, cruising, landing, and all that jazz. It was very eye opening.

From First Flight

The above picture is of us right before take off, ready to go... Throttle up! I have to admit, I was anticipating what I would think of the whole experience from the moment I woke up this morning. Though, interestingly, my expected reaction was not how I really reacted. I figured I'd "geek out" over all the dials, guages, knobs, and other stuff to play with, and would probably sit there with a smile on my face for the whole trip. Instead, I was overwhelmed. There were a few things I could figure out, altimeter, heading, "Plane level thingy." But much of the rest was a mystery. Okay, yes, I know what the radios and all that stuff where, but I was at a loss for being able to explain what any of the read-outs and buttons meant. The performance of my pilot was excellent. He demonstrated mastery of all the knobs and buttons, and communicated well with the ground/flight operations staff.

From First Flight

Eventually, I was offered a chance to take a hold of the flight controls and fly around. You can see from the photo above, I had a solid death grip on the yoke. Talk about a rush! Its deffinately a little more difficult than driving a car... There's this whole 3rd dimension you have to deal with. I have no clue how I did, relative to any sort of measure, but we didn't crash! :) I haven't learned to Tao of flying in my first run thats for sure. I kept telling myself to relax, but it wasn't working. Since this was all VFR flying (visual) there's plenty to do, namely keep an eye out for all other aircraft. No radar on this little guy. I was flying southbound right along the start of the mountains. Plenty of winds there to knock the plane around. My pilot told me to just go with it, and proceeded to demonstrate the maneuverability of the aircraft by pushing the yoke down, giving us a -1.5 G fall. I would have loved to see my face when he did that. Oh well. Speaking of maneuver's we also preformed some power on, and power off stalls (not while I was flying it, of course). That was fun, and very informational. He was able to explain what has happening, and going on, and how to fix it.

All in all, a great experience, and I'd definitely go up again, given the opportunity. If you are wondering if Flight School is in my future, well, if I could afford it, and had enough free time, yeah, I think it would be cool. I still have more interest in flying a helicopter though. That might change though, if I ever have the chance to go up in one. Closest I get is my little electric RC helicopter.

From First Flight

On the way home from the airport, I happened to notice this "test sign." Just thought it was funny, and figured I would share. You can see a few more photos that were snapped (with comments) during my flight time here.

Review: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers

I've recently been following many different blogs of various photography gurus in hopes to become better at taking wonderful photos of all the various places I'm lucky enough to visit. Several of the blogs I read often from published professional photographers. One such blog is the photoblog 2.0, by Herold Davis. I've recently got a copy of his most recent book, and found it very useful... Here's my review of it, also posted on amazon.com

Being fairly new to the arena of digital photography, beyond point and shoot cameras, I often found myself underwhelmed with a lot of the pictures I have been taking. I understood what all of the settings on my camera did, and what their effects on the resulting image where, but things just weren't coming together for me. This book has helped me understand that digital photography, really is a process. From choosing the scene, and exposing for the portions that are important, all the way to loading the RAW image into processing software to put on the “finishing touches.” While it doesn't teach you how to go out and shoot an award winning photo, it does give you the knowledge you need to correctly use your camera and computer as a tool to create that photo.

Each Chapter of Mr. Davis' book reads very well, and provides interesting dialog that doesn't seem to speak over my head. It's written in a clear concise manner that goes into just enough detail to help you understand why each step is important. I'm sure that each chapter in this book could probably be a book on its own. There are times that I found myself wishing to know more about a particular topic in the book, but adding such content to it would probably take away from the flow as a whole. The many sidebars in the book give you that extra bit of information you may be looking for, or just urge you to do more research on your own.

In my opinion, the best part of this book is all the wonderful examples that Mr. Davis provides in his discussion. For every concept, idea, and method that is discussed in the book there is at least one, if not multiple images detailing the application of each. Each image has an explanation of why the particular setting in discussion was chosen, along with all of the other settings used to compose each image. Simply browsing through the images and their narrative alone is inspirational and fun.

I often found myself reading this book with my camera on one side of me, playing with each setting as I read about them, and a book about my particular camera on the other side. I would often take breaks between each chapter to explore the ramifications of changing each setting on my camera and learning how it affects different outcomes.

All in all, I would say this book is aimed at people exactly like myself. New to photography as something more than just a point and shoot for the family scrap book, and eager to learn more. It contains just enough detail to help you understand what's going on inside the little box without boring you, and provides real life examples the illustrate them. It provides a window into the mind of a professional photographer willing to share important informational details into what makes a picture good.

Easing into things?

So those of you who have known me for a while, have probably figured out that when I decide to do something, I usually don't start out to small, and work my way up. At least not too much. Well, this past Thursday was no different. Our office had a small, inter-department run / race. Some how I was cajoled into participating on a team with my fellow Information Security comrades. I figured, I used to run in Highschool and College, and I remembered that I was pretty decent at it (especially the 400m). I shouldn't have to much of a problem pushing myself through a 7.5k (4.65 miles) run. I realized I haven't run anything serious since 1998, but I've been biking... granted not much since I moved, but hey... I know how to suffer... I could do it.

Well, Here's me after the 1st of 3 laps around the 1.55 mile loop. The first .75 miles seemed pretty good, but I suddenly hit a wall. I was keeping up with others until then. This is a classic stunt of mine. Those of you who had the joy of riding bikes with me can probably figure out that this is a common practice of mine. I wasn't feeling too great here in the photo, but at least my head was up and I was looking where I was going.

Coming around on the second lap... Not looking so good, and feeling worse. My eyes are fixed in the ground in front of me... but the fact that both feet are off the ground at the same time shows I was still actually running. Actually, I was just trying to make it look good for the camera, and barely succeeding. Uhhhgggg, one more lap to go.

So I did actually finish, and here's a photo of my team... the other two guys carried our team well, and are great motivators. I'd run with them again any day... well, I'll run behind them again at least. Overall though, I was happy with what I did. I was aiming for 10 minute miles as a goal, and I was just slightly over. The trick now is to keep running. The problem is that I currently can barely move. I can't say I ever remember having delayed onset muscle soreness this bad. Going to try and get out for a bike ride tomorrow to see if I can flush anything out of my legs.

So have I learned anything? Probably not. I knew I would hurt afterwards (not this much though). Will I try to ease into something in the future? Maybe, but doubtful. I stopped learning new tricks a while ago, but I fear my aging body my demand I treat it better. I guess the thing now though, is keep up with some kind of running / jogging so all this pain doesn't go to waste. I have some nice trails (with massive hills) just down the street that lots of people exercise on. I suppose I should too. Just as soon as I can comfortable stand up again.

In retrospect of the whole thing though, it was certianly worth it. The feeling you get after a run (commonly refered to as a runners high) was something I had long forgotten, and certainly welcomed back. For those of you out there thinking about exersizing to get into shape, stop thinking and go do! You'll be better for it.

5 years ago

It's hard to believe that its been 5 years now since my son was born, in some ways. In other ways it seems like it should have been 10 years ago. Being a dad is probably the most difficult job I've ever had, and ever will have, but the fun times I have with my family seems to offset even the most difficult things. Happy 5th Birthday son.


The day after I returned home to Denver from Antarctica, and Chile, we decided to goto the local zoo. I turned out to be a great day, and I had some fun material to use as subjects during the last day of rental of the Canon L series lens I took down south with me. One of the exhibits was a Lorikeet aviary, where you could hand feed them some fruity, sugary syrup. It smelt good enough that I wanted to eat it, though I didn't. Overall, we had a great day, and I took lots of pictures, some of them good. Some of them not so good. I've decided that taking pictures of animals at zoos isn't my favorite thing. There's something inherently wrong with a picture of an animal with a brick wall in the background. I guess that's where photographic creativity has to come into play.


Spring time in Colorado has so far been fun. The wildlife is coming out, namely the birds. We've had a pair of Kestrels (above) hanging around our yard, as well as a bunch of Jays. Its cool that these guys sit around in our trees long enough for me to get a shot of them. The shot above was taken with my 100-300mm lens, fully extended to 300mm. Had to crank the ISO up to get shutter speed fast enough to eliminate camera shake, though I was satisified with how it came out. The birds also been leaving dead rodent carcases around our yard too, which I find quite amusing.

It's nice to see such a brown dry place turn green. I don't know how long it will stay green, but it has me looking forward to summer hiking and biking. Hopefully I can get myself back into enough shape to handle a 50 mile round trip bike commute to work. Here's to hoping. I feel like I've slipped so much since I've moved. I can't believe I was racing my back last year plus a month, this time.

They gave me what?

So one of the things I was thankful for during my north and southbound voyage over the drake was a transdermal patch that delivered medication into my bloodstream. This seems more effective than oral medication since you don't have to worry about "keeping it down." I had saved the wrapper from one of the little patches, as I wanted to lookup what this medication was all about when I arrived home, as I had never heard of it before. A little bit of research yielded some interesting facts.

Scopsinceolamine is the name of the drug. While on the boat, I had a chance to talk to an older Doctor who had stories of using the medication on pregnant women to help them through "a procedure," whatever that is supposed to mean. He said that the dosage that was used on them was significantly higher than what is delivered via the patch though, but it often yielded a room full of crazy howling women. The drug essentially plays with your nerves and how they handle acetocholine. I'm kind of surprised that something like that would help prevent nausia, but I'm certianly not a doctor. The only side effect I really had from it was a very dry mouth and throat. During my trip I witnessed others have worse reactions. Some had blurry, vision, and mild halucinations, others had memory loss and disorientation. This is what made me extra curious about this stuff. I was surprised an EMT could have standing orders to just pass this stuff out after reading some information to you.

A little further research led me to find out that this same stuff comes from a plant family thats known to be poisonous. The Datura. Mainly the roots and seed pods are used from the plant to make the drugs. More amusingly, my wife grew these things in our backyard, back in Pennsylvania. If I only knew the potential! Just kidding. Apparently Scopolamine is also used as a drug designed soley for criminal intent, mostly in Colombia, as at the right concentration it can cause its "user" to agree to others suggestions without resistance.

Further looking around at this stuff lead me to a video segment that is produced by and can be viewed at vbs.tv. The show is called "Colombian Devil's Breath." Please be aware that the stuff on vbs.tv often has a fair amount of "adult" language on it, and probably isn't suitable for all family members to view :) Its kind of ashame, since a lot of the stuff on vbs.tv has a documentary kind of nature to it. They also have a series on the big mass of plastic garbage in the middle of the pacific that I thought was quite interesting (and they also showed someone using "the patch, on that). Essentially though, I'm really amused that this drug doesn't seem to be more controlled than it is, considering what the film segmant had to say. Granted, the oral or transdermal routes of the medication take quite a bit longer for the effect to take (3 hours for the patch).

I imagine a lot of the worlds drugs probably have similar stories, but it was fun just kind of fleshing this one out.

Kayland Vertigo High - usage report

Some kind person (Thanks Bill!) made an obvious point out to me about my previous review of the Kayland Vertigo High hiking boot. To be more specific, he was looking to find out more about how I felt the boot was supporting the foot. Especially for those who may be prone to rolling on ankle on loose or rocky terrain.

Well, For those of you who don't follow my blog, and happen to stumble upon it, strictly for the boot review, the nature of my employment recently took me on a trip to the antarctic peninsula, where I happen to bring my new boots with me. The terrain on my trip varied from roads on the streets of the city, to climbing over piles of rocks the size of soccer balls, to tramping up a glacier to see what I could see. Below is a picture where you can kind of see some of the terrain I was on... picture the rocks more varied in size, and looser.

The day I decided to take my climb up the glacier I managed to pick one of the windiest, wettest days there, but I wasn't going to loose the opportunity to hike up a glacier in Antarctica. The boots preformed very well.

I have found the lacing system to work very effectively. In fact, it worked so effectively that I have found that I actually can't tighten these boots like I was used to tightening my old ones. I ended up cutting off circulation to my feet. The tops of the boots come up over my ankle and I'm able to lace the shoes up to have a good snug grip on my whole foot and ankle, all while still providing enough movement to allow me to walk very comfortably. While I myself am not prone to rolling ankle injuries, I found myself on many an odd angle hiking around the "backyard" of Palmer Station. The boot preformed well.

During the weather I also pushed through mud, puddles and a rain/snow mix flying at me in 25-35 knot winds. The boots had excellent grip on the wet rocks. While you still have to be careful of foot placement in this terrain, I didn't feel I had to test every step with my weight. Going up the glacier I encountered hard ice, where I don't think anything short of Yak Traks or crampons would have helped. The boots slipped there, as I would expect them to. I also walked through sections that were there was hard ice but it had been weathered to have pea sized nubs and channels. Mild slippage here, but nothing a little caution wouldn't take care of. Yak Traks would still be preferable here. The glacier also had some loose wet snow where my foot would sink in an inch or three. No problem with traction there. There was one section where I started to post hole a little bit, up to just beyond the top of the boot. This caused my socks to get wet and soak water down into the boot. Had I had my gators with me, this wouldn't have been an issue. Even still, I think the boot did a good job keeping a majority of the water out. I had no problems going through water, nor did my feet ever get cold. Again, I'm very satisfied with these boots. They are still the most comfortable boot I've ever had, and I'd buy them again in a heart beat.

Some Choice Photos

So I spent most of my day going through photos from my trip and playing around with Adobe Lightroom, and comparing it to Apple's Aperture. IMHO, there is now comparison, LightRoom kicked the pants off of Aperture. The reasons why are probably for another post, I will most likely never get to. I don't feel knowledgeable enough to talk about all the features or their differences. I just know I like LightRoom a lot better.

So anyway... Here are some of the pics that I felt represent my trip the best. Most of them certainly aren't post card material, but I'm happy with them. Please feel free to leave comments on them, etc.

Mind over matter, right?

So it's great to be home, and was a real joy to return to wonderful weather, in the 60's or better. Green Mountain is finally starting to show some green too. Its nice to finally experience some warming and greening. Most of my experience in Colorado to this point has only been during the winter. The only other time I was here was in July, when SunRayce97 finished in Colorado Springs. It was that experience that started my desire to live out here.

Anyhow, I live a good distance away from where I work. About 25 miles by car. My morning commute takes me about 30 minutes, and my afternoon can be upwards of an hour or more, depending on traffic and which way I choose to go. I've been wanting to commute by bike to work at least 1 time a week. Mostly for the sake of fitness and my love of riding my bike, but also to help save with gas of course. I figured riding 1 time a week would save me 1 tank of gas every 4-5 weeks, as well as the wear and tear on the car.

Looking at route options, I figured the simplest way would be to take the C-470 Path all the way down to just south of my office building the head north on mostly back roads. It would be quite long... I think encroaching on 30+ miles. I figured I'd give it a test run yesterday to see how it would work out. I didn't really occur to me that I hadn't ridden my bike for at least 2 mos. and not much before that since I moved here in November.

So I took off in the early-mid afternoon and found the trail I was looking for. I felt great, the weather was nice, and I was having fun. I was observing lots of spring wildlife and looking at some of the early flowers blooming around here. I saw an Eastern Meadowlark, and almost ran over about a dozen different prairie dogs. Well, at some point, I realized that I must have missed a turn somewhere since I was now heading North, when I should have been going East, and I was starting to fatigue a little. I abandoned hopes of making it to the office and just wanted to find a way back to trail I was familiar with. Familiar meaning I still had an idea of their location and direction based on what I remember of the map. I've not actually ridden on many trails around here yet. So I saw another trail along a river that I knew headed North and South. Got myself on that trail, and then picked up the C-470 trail back West to go home.

By this time, it had clouded over, and cooled off quite a bit. Also started to get pretty windy. On my way east, I don't think I realized just how much I was going down hill either. I certainly noticed going up hill headed West and North though. My legs were on fire. I couldn't sustain speeds any better than 10 mph and I had at least 15-20 miles to get home. Lord help me.

Obviously, I made it home. Hindsight has me kicking myself in the pants. I don't know what I was thinking, planning a 50+ mile trip with zero conditioning. At least I did get lost, and was able to shorten things up. My body was very adamant on letting me know there was no amount of "thinking" that was going to make it move any faster or hurt less.

So the details of my trip are here. Sorry I don't have the HR band going. The battery in it is dead, along with my cadence sensor. I guess I'll be working up to a commuting distance slowly. Blah. I hate being out of shape. Oh well. At least I'm well on my way to loosing the 10 pounds I gained while traveling to and from Antarctica.

Tag, I'm it...

So I've been growing a little blogging network it seems of people who read my blog, and I reciprocate and read theirs. Not out of obligation, but as a means of entertainment, and joy. Also some of those I read are kind of a nostalgic link to my youth, and are a way to remain in touch with those that were so pivotal in influencing the way I think today. Anyhow, one such blog "tagged" me to describe 7 weird or random things about myself, since they themselves have already done this. I guess its the new form of "chain letter," but hey, it's brought visitors to my blog that may not have normally found it otherwise, through comments and such I've left in response on others. So without any further ado, here they are.

1. It's a goal of mine to visit all 7 continents of this world for "free." Being sent through gainful employment counts in my book. I figure I've gotten the hardest one out of the way (Antarctica). All I have left are Africa, Asia, and Australia. I hope to have Australia out of the way within the next few years, if things go as planned. The other 2 are going to be harder. Haven't quite figured them out yet. Let me know if you see any opportunities! :) And no, the peace corp is not in my list of options. (I have a feeling my "In-Laws" can help with the Asian part, though, I suppose technically, they are in eastern europe.)
   
2. My favorite Mammal (other than my wife) would be the ferret. We used to own 2 ferrets, which were an absolute blast and gave me many happy memories. Who else can say their pets randomly fell out of their basement ceiling?
3. (So Far) My idea of an ideal retirement would be owning a small bed and breakfast in the middle of the mountains somewhere, with a loyal customer base. In addition to the B&B, I'd offer a custom seasonal based dinner menu with a limited number of seats, by reservation only. I don't think I'll ever stop working, and something like that sounds fun. Its cool to meet new people.
   
4. I can probably be considered a "tea snob." I like loose leaf teas, and often find the typical stuff found in American grocery stores to be unsatisfactory. I often enjoy a fine Assam tea. One of my other favorites has recently become Lapsang Souchong. A co-worker of mine told me about it (and pointed me to a local shop to buy loose leaf) and I think its great. I've recently picked up a Mate and Bombilla from Chile as well, and hope to try out some Yerba Mate, in the tradition sense.
   
5. I'm a cat person. For some reason, little yippy dogs get on my nerves, and big dogs are just to much maintenance for me at the moment. I do like big dogs, just don't see myself owning one.
6. I have an OCD issue, where I don't like to drink from the same spot on a glass twice. Its not quite OCD, as I will circle the glass more than once if need be, its just not preferred. Don't ask me why, as I really don't know where I picked it up. Its just something I do.
7. Well, I didn't want to use this one, since its kind of steeling someone elses idea, but I'm struggling to come up with a 7th. I'm not a glass is half full or empty kind of person... Instead, I've decided the glass is too big. I'll admit I didn't come up with that idea, but I totally agree with it.

So there's 7, Mark, Luke, and Jim, if you're reading this, its your turn. You folks don't update your blogs frequent enough.

P.S. I'm home safe in Colorado (YAY!) More to come later.

~72 hours to go.

This will probably be my last post from South America, and probably my last post for at least a little while, but not to long I hope. In just under 72 hours, I'll be landing in Denver, CO. It will be great to see the mountains rising over horizon near my house again, not to mention my family of course. Missing my family was (and still is) the hardest thing about this trip. I'd say coming in at second though, is the food. They just don't use much "flavor" here. A lot of times meat is just cooked "Al la Plancha" or Pan fried in butter. That's just not my thing.

If you were to ask me if I would ever come back here on my own dime? Possibly, but not for what this Port City has to offer. It would simply be a stop on a Journey to Tierre Del Fuego, or Torres de Piane. I had a co-worker head up to the Torres last week, and he came back and said that it was really cool there. He didn't get to hike every where he wanted due to snow and Avalanche Danger, but what he did have to say about his experience was very positive. It would be interesting to try and bike all the way down the west coast of South America or something. You couldn't stay in Chile the whole way, once you get south of Puerto Mont, you are pretty much forced into Argentina. But it might be interesting to try.

In closing, here are a few pictures of this little city.



A fire truck parked in front of one of the many fire houses around. This one is pretty typical looking of most of the apparatus. I didn't get to talk to any of the firemen around, as I never actually saw any.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to be allowed to climb the science mast of the Nathaniel B. Palmer. Here's a view of part of the city. The little thing on the right of the photo is a wind sensor, I'm told they be replacing windbirds with these things... pretty cool. I'll probably crop it out of the picture once I get home.

Here's a picture of the monument of Magellan that's in the square in front of my hotel. I decided to have a little fun with night time shooting.