Look Away Dixieland
We woke up Saturday to cool temperatures, something we hadn’t expected just two days ago when the forecast called for springlike weather in Natchez. The forecast had taken a turn for the cold by the time we left Friday evening, so we packed coats, scarves and long underwear. I’m a hater of the cold, but I decided not to bitch about it like I normally would. This trip is for Gina’s 40th birthday and I didn’t want to ruin things like I normally would.
Cue The GWTW Theme Music
After a pretty long drive through deepest darkest Arkansas and Louisiana, we arrived at Dunleith, our antebellum home in Natchez, Miss., for the next 36 hours.
Team Jackass Redux
Team Jackass reunited for some geocaching on Saturday, this time in the rugged terrain of the Ozarks. Team members were able to overcome the heat, humidity and elevation changes, but six miles of bad road felled the team’s elder statesman. While he was attempting to recover from a punishing case of car sickness, the other members scaled Round Top Mountain near Jasper, Ark., to claim a cache called Knife Edge.
I didn’t document the expedition very well. I think the pressure of topping last year’s film got to me. I didn’t take many pictures and the footage I captured on video is mostly people walking through the jungle-like terrain. I got a decent shot of the sisters, though, and one of Katie examining the goodies in the cache.
Woodsy
We’re spending the weekend at Creek’s End Riverside Retreat in the middle of BFE. West of Parthenon, Ark., down a rough-as-a-cob road. Cabin is very nice, but we can’t figure out how to hook up the Wii to the Dish Network box. Amazingly, this place has high-speed Internet. Grabbed a shot of star trails over the cabin. Inside lights and Christmas lights strung around the outside were way too bright, and I don’t think I got the focus right. Exposure was 20 minutes at f/10.
Another Yampa Tale
For those of you interested in Yampa war stories, I found this trip report this morning: Desolation Dory Blog. Lots of great pics and narrative.
I also found a new YouTube video of a raft flipping in Warm Springs on May 30.
Ahhhhrrrggg
Pikes Peak shot from the dam at Manitou Lake, which is about 7 miles north of Woodland Park, Colo. My photos here turned out pretty noisy because I failed to turn off the auto ISO feature when I switched to manual exposure mode. The camera bumped the ISO to 1600 and I didn’t know it until a couple weeks later. I was pretty bummed because I loved the light and the reflection on the lake. I mean, how many times am I gonna be able to shoot Pikes Peak in such cool light? Lesson learned, I guess.
The Yampa at 23,000 cfs
Dale in Warm Springs rapid.
When I saw the gaping maw of the hole near the bottom of Warm Springs rapid, it occurred to me that I might be better off not being in any boat that had even a slight chance of going in there.
When the two park rangers recommended we portage two of the boats, watching the carnage from the shore became even more attractive.
When the second boat down the rapid flipped in the hole and the upside-down raft and its captain disappeared around the bend, I knew I would be walking around the beast.
It was day three of rafting the Yampa River in northwestern Colorado. I had taken a brief swim in the chilly, brown water the day before and didn’t want to repeat that experience.
We launched from Deerlodge Park on the eastern tip of Dinosaur National Monument into a river barely contained in its banks. The silty water was the color of heavily creamed coffee and carried trash, lumber, brush, and whole trees even. And dead animals: goats, cows, deer, etc. We had 18 people in 8 boats and would be out five days and four nights, May 21-25.
We spent a day and half in the Deerlodge campground rigging boats and running the shuttle under glorious skies and temperatures in the 70s and 80s. We left the comfy weather and luxurious pit toilets behind when we hit the river.
Intents
I took the day off to watch Abby while Gina went to an all-day job interview. I dragged out all my camping equipment to take stock and decide what to take on my float trip to Colorado later this month. Abby and I went Wal-Mart and got a new air mattress, a headlamp and some other stuff.
When we got home, Abby helped me set up the good tent. (The one on the right.) But it took a long time to set up (about 20 minutes) and it looks way big for one person. So I went back up in the attic and got out the 17-year-old 14-year-old dome tent we bought for our honeymoon to Arches National Park. The last time the tent was used was in a west Texas sandstorm in Big Bend National Park. It’s actually only been used five or six times, so it’s still in good shape. Plus it’s smaller and it only took about five minutes to set up. The only drawback is that the queen-size air mattress I bought won’t fit in it. I’ll have to get a twin size.
I thought Abby would get a big kick out of the tents, but she didn’t seem very impressed.
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