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blackbird
Trad climber
over yonder en th' holler
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 12, 2007 - 11:49pm PT
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Gee… How many of us were subjected to teachers asking for such reports during our grammar school years?! So, in tribute to that dreaded assignment on the first day of school, and to dubiously celebrate the fact that the first two full weeks of students are marked off on both the calendar and plan book (yup, my county's back in session…) here's My Summer Vacation. Sort of!
First week off of school was spent in recovery at home simply catching up on house and yard work and not setting my alarm (I mean, come on… every educator out there at all levels knows exactly of what I speak!)
Midway through the second week of break, I began my venture west via St. Lou. to catch up on life with Crimpie. She was called out of town on urgent family business, so we agreed to try again to catch up with each other on my way back through to the Southeastern Sauna (AKA: the Deep South in the Summer). After a stop somewhere in the middle of Kansas to refuel both my car and my stomach, I headed on to meet up with my partner. The next day, we're exploring Split Rock. While I was busy playing with my camera, Abby was busy finding a spot in which to doze – in the sun!
Delphinium nelsoni (delphinium; larkspur)
After exploring Split Rock for a bit, even getting in a couple of routes, we continue on our journey towards the Wilds of Iris. Once there, we find the perfect spot with the perfect backyard view looking at both the Wind River Range and Wild Iris proper, then set up camp and head off to explore the territory…
My partner manages to climb innumerable routes on practically every wall. Me? Oh, I climbed, and I even lead – bolts (horrors!!) - but I was more perfectly thrilled to be a belay slave (actually, I think the term is "lazy" but we won't mention that...) Pictures of climbing? Of course not! I was busy either sleeping, belaying or perusing the flowers and some of the local wildlife...
Corallorhiza maculata (coral root)
Amerosedum lanceolatum (stonecrop)
As per one of my former students: "yadybuz"
Heuchera parvifolia (coral bells)
A week and a bit later, we head off into the sunset (literally!), making a pitstop midway to visit a childhood friend. After a fantastic breakfast, we are finally on the final leg of our trip with an ETA of 4 hours to our "home" for the next month!!!
Enter BB into the Land of Elevation. While pleasantly surprised at the fact the I didn't have issues with the altitude, I was certainly not going to set any hiking/running speed records (I should take notes from Mrs. Tarbousier, huh?!)
Watching snow melt into crystal clear alpine lakes...
Finding beauty in decay…
Reaping some visual rewards from a summer storm...
Witnessing beauty at every turn…
Senecio cana? S. harbourii? S. purshiana? Can't narrow it down with the book I've got, but regardless,it's a Senecio!) (Wooly groundsel)
Micranthes odontoloma (brook saxrifrage)
blue flax (Hey Bobby D!!! Help a girl out with the Latin here... my book isn't comprehensive... Thanks!)
Aconitum columbinianum ochroleucum (white monk's hood)
Gee… What a horrific way to have to spend time…
A bit over midway through the summer, we headed even further west and away from climbing to Great Sand Dunes NP, where even more visual treats were waiting for us…
Ipomopsis (I've only got the red and white listed...) (blue fairy trumpet)
The end of the summer drew neigh (as does this long winded TR, but hey, it's been a while, so indulge me this bit of verbosity), my partner and I parted ways, and I made plans to visit with Tar, Mrs. Tar, and a couple others in the Front Range, and then with Crimpie on my way through.
Plans became a bit complicated and basically fell through when I decided it would be fun to get a flat (by way of bending one of the rims of my car) on the way from Golden to Bounder; however, The Good Guy (Tarbousier) came riding up in his white car and cowboy hat and saved the day (although, had he not been able to pull strings and get hold of a rim, it would have meant that I had an extra day of vacation and wouldn't have had to be at work at 8 AM that Monday morning… hmmm…!!)
Crimpie also saved the day for me on my final night of vacation by graciously opening her guest room to me. After some rather strong storms heading out of Denver, and sleeping in a Wal Mart parking lot for a couple of hours, I could not possibly have driven any further that day (although I must say, it felt odd to actually sleep in a real bed and not in a tent…!) I was up and on the road early and back in my own house by supper that Sunday night and then… Then, I actually had to set my alarm clock and be at work the following morning… And so my stint in the real world begins again…
Obviously, we did not rope up once after leaving Wild Iris, but rest assured that the summer was more than I could have ever hoped for in a vacation, and every minute was one well spent.
BB
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 13, 2007 - 12:04am PT
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thanks for the TR BB, sometimes you just gotta smell the Irises..
(or should that be just Iris)
Hope you school session goes well!
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blackbird
Trad climber
over yonder en th' holler
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 13, 2007 - 12:10am PT
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Thanks guys!
Hey Ed... check your email...
BB
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 13, 2007 - 12:14am PT
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I will check my email tomorrow morning... I've been gone for over a week and I average hundreds of emails a day, I just can't look yet!
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blackbird
Trad climber
over yonder en th' holler
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 13, 2007 - 12:18am PT
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No biggie - not pressing news, just a bit of catch up. Vacation? If so, I hope you had a wonderful time!
BB
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nita
climber
chico ca
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Aug 13, 2007 - 12:46am PT
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WOW!! great flower pics...no captions? Is one of those pictures a - white monkshood or white pea? What kind of camera are you using?
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cleo
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Aug 13, 2007 - 12:51am PT
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blackbird, stunning photos - glad you had time to "smell" the flowers and share them with us
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Blitzo
Social climber
Earth
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Aug 13, 2007 - 12:56am PT
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Very nice, BB! What dial-up folks?
I don't mind the lack of captions, I don't know how to read any way!
I really like the stonecrop.
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
St. Looney
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Aug 13, 2007 - 02:14am PT
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Yay! Happy to see the TR posted. Those are the tip of the iceberg of beautiful photos. Sorry to have missed BB on her way west, but death knocked on my family's door.
Happy to see her coming back through. We started the afternoon by walking in my little city to the duck pond so Abby and BB could stretch their legs. Then we headed to my standard wine bar hangout out since dogs are welcome. I've been going there for years. Curiously, NO ONE ever talks to me when I'm there. I learned the trick to getting attention - Abby.
I am going to start renting a small cute dog because with one of those, people won't leave you alone. Adults start talking like baby-wabies. Amazing!
It was fun having BB and Ab at the house. Abby was fascinated by my birds. Well...not really, but she was fascinated by the food they'd tossed on the floor of their room.
Great seeing you! Here are a few of the shots from the fun evening...
Check out the way Abby is looking at me! haha. Probably because I wouldn't share my banana/nutella crepe. :)
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Aug 13, 2007 - 10:32am PT
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Lovely pictures in a TR with the climbing all offstage. Sounds and looks like you had a wonderful break.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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Aug 13, 2007 - 01:56pm PT
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Um, aren't you leaving something out?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Aug 13, 2007 - 02:23pm PT
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She left out the part about Abigail's on-site leash-less solo of the Naked Edge:
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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Aug 13, 2007 - 02:49pm PT
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Good claws in the first pitch corner, but that crack at the top is way off width for average paws. I've seen the overhead tail hook work well in the bombay-- bummer for the bobbed!
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TradIsGood
Happy and Healthy climber
the Gunks end of the country
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Aug 13, 2007 - 03:19pm PT
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Making TR's readable suggestion.
You may have noticed that newspapers arrange
their reports in columns and do not run
clear across the page. The reason for that is
to match human physiology, to wit, it is very
difficult for the human eye to return from the
far right to the far left accurately onto the
next line of text.
Unfortunately Supertopo's typesetting is automatic.
Text spans the widest unbreakable thing on the page,
e.g. pictures or really long URLs.
There are two solutions in ST land. First, like above,
hit ENTER at a short fixed width in threads with
pictures. (Painful to edit if you add or delete after
typing, because you need to move the "carriage returns"
around.)
Or secondly, resize the pictures down to reasonable
column widths. Much better. Editing works as you would
expect wrapping words in good places.
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
New York, NY
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Aug 13, 2007 - 04:19pm PT
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Nice, BB! Those were some beautiful pictures, and your TR is very short in comparison to the stuff I put out.....Seems I never learned to travel light with not only gear, but also words...haha.
Crimp - I could have told you the cute dog trick!
Next time you're up here, you can take him for a spin if you want. He'll introduce you to anyone and everyone.
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blackbird
Trad climber
over yonder en th' holler
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 13, 2007 - 05:38pm PT
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nita - I'll work on the captions for ya tonight. I do have all the plants keyed out, I just didn't put the in because I figured there weren't many weirdos out there like me who do that (I guess it's the horticulture background that makes me do that, but generally speaking, immediately upon getting back to base camp I had my nose in a book keying out innumerable plants pretty much all summer long!)
Regarding the camera: Nikon Coolpix L4 for all but the last three shots. That one was a Cannon Powershot A6somethingorother. I liked the Nikon muchmuch better. (Seems BB decided to be oh-so-graceful and bust both her tail and her camera while walking on flat ground - paved flat ground, might I add... I'd change my name to Grace, but one of Crimpie's babies is Gracie and I wouldn't want to make her jealous!)
BB
edit:
Thank you, all, for the compliments. There is no way I could have taken these pics if the gorgeous flowers were not there to admire. Believe me, the camera in no way does any of them justice!
Rhodo... Gee... I dunno to what might you be referring?!?!?!?! A girl's gotta have a few secrets...
And about that leashless solo of Ab's... You should'a seen her; it was an amazing site, to be sure. Tar tried to get my pic in the same spot, but far be it from me to steal Abby's spotlight!!! How'd Lisa's race go that weekend, Tar?
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Hardly Visible
climber
Port Angeles
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Aug 13, 2007 - 05:40pm PT
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Nice pics Blackbird.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 13, 2007 - 05:53pm PT
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Very nice!
My father (81) has a fluffy white small dog (Emma), who takes him for walks everywhere. She attracts girls of all ages, to the point that my father mentioned it - so we told him Emma is his chick magnet. Apparently they work as dewd magnets too, or at least conversation openers. Although Abby is clearly an interesting and attractive hound.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Aug 13, 2007 - 09:28pm PT
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Bump for the incredibly vivid, colorful images.
Got more please?
BB:
Lisa took second place and the US women's team won the North American Central American Caribbean Mtn Running Championships.
Maybe next time we can all be in the same place/time and share that glass of vino!
Cheers,
-Guy with the white car & white hat.
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Ouch!
climber
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Aug 13, 2007 - 11:18pm PT
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Glad you had a nice vacation, BB. The pics are really cool.
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