To mix metaphors and puns, we're still in a holding pattern, here at the ranch. Baby B No. 3 will be arriving any day now. She's taking her sweet time, but it's allowing us to get a lot of stuff done around the house. Brother Kevin and I have built an genuine "Square Foot Garden," which awaits only a little more compost, some mulch around the bases for aesthetics, and planting. Mrs. B has been organizing baby clothes like a ...mad ...organizer ...person. We've also had my mother-in-law with us for two weeks now, a tremendous blessing for everyone.
I do hope that later this year I and the bred'ren can resume our Buffalo River Trail section hiking.
As is my regrettable habit, when I'm not in the field working, I daydream of expeditions and new gear. Along that note, I'll tempt my few readers by giving a shout-out to Boulder, Colorado's Go Lite and their ridiculous new business model. They've removed all retail sales (far's I can tell) and now sell exclusively at their website, www.golite.com. The prices are stunning - which is to say, actually reasonable for those of us on family budgets.
Go Lite gear I can personally recommend:
Poncho-Tarp: I've used the P/T as a shelter on one very rainy excursion (CLICK HERE) with success. Currently out of stock at G/L, but watch for it. I have the old 12 oz. model, the new ones are a silly 7 oz.
Down garments: The Missus has a Demaree Canyon jacket, and I have a Beartooth jacket (discontinued). We're both pleased with the warmth and comfort.
Down sleeping bags: While yet to test them in the field, we also have a 3-season G/L mummy bag for her, and a 3-season quilt for me.
Y-Stakes: Half an ounce, and worthy of confidence in windy weather. Looks like they've modified the design into a V shape now.
Currently playing in my head: Praise my soul, the King of Heaven (Indelible Grace arrangement)
5/3/12
4/7/12
Wedington North Twin etcetera etcetera etcetera
Once again, gainful employ brought me near public lands set aside for recreation. This time, I passed by, and for a few miles, through, the Ozark National Forest near Siloam Springs, AR (managed by the Boston Mountain Ranger District).
I hoofed 5.3 up-and-back miles on the Wedington North Twin Hiking/Mountain Bike Trail. That's a mouthful, and it was more than I could chew. I have yet to find a mileage number for the trail, but I'm guessing the trail is at least 10 miles long, one way. With the daylight afforded me, I made it 2.5 miles up the big hill, then 2.8 miles back (took the Tower road back for a stretch).
The Dogwoods were showy and proud. Truly magnificent to see them strewing a ribbon of light 10-20 feet above the forest floor. Other wildflowers were blooming too: violets, wood phlox, something like a bluet, and more that I can't identify.
The only "big view" I scrounged was down a powerline right-of-way, which made a decent photo, but I'm sure leaf-off views are bigger and broader. Lord willing, we can make a full day of it sometime and bag the whole trail.
Here's the slideshow.
3/30/12
Good Samaritan Bear
In California, a bear saved a man from a mountain lion.
I dunno 'bout Mr. Biggs' assessment of his friendship with this bear, but still, awesome story!
(if true) ;-)
Maybe the lion was calling Mr. Biggs BALDY!
HT: GL
I dunno 'bout Mr. Biggs' assessment of his friendship with this bear, but still, awesome story!
(if true) ;-)
Maybe the lion was calling Mr. Biggs BALDY!
HT: GL
3/26/12
Lately
Life's been filled up with lots of things other than hiking lately, and the few treks I've trekked have gone heretofore unrecorded.
On January 21, I and 8 other brothers from church completed the first of several dayhikes on the Buffalo River Trail. My goal is to complete the entire length of trail as dayhikes in 2012, however with Baby 3 due in a month, I'm not committing any emotional capital to the completion of this goal. Two parties started at opposite ends of the Maumee Section, exchanged car keys midway, and rejoined in Harrison at the end of the day. It was a smashing success, although we were forced to leave KC at 03:00, and did not return home until 23:30. This was the only itinerary that permitted substantial trail mileage while not burdening the several wives/mothers with a night away from families.
The weather was good, the company was superb, and the views were gorgeous. For fantastic photos from this trek, see Andrew's photostream.
I have made a few 1-3 mile jaunts as time has permitted, while traveling for work. I've spent a good deal of time in Oklahoma's Green Country. Post oak forests, mini-Ozark landscapes, and scores of wildlife have made the business travel a little less dreary. I've seen dozens of interesting critters, including bobcats, whitetail, coyotes, quail, bald eagle, skunks, armadillo, turkey, redtail hawk (once picking at a skunk he'd wrapped around a barbed wire fence), many domestic species (including Watusi cattle and the baddest billy goat I've ever seen), and even some "big cat" tracks.
Here's a short slideshow of some of what I've enjoyed:
Resting in the paths Providence brings,
JB
On January 21, I and 8 other brothers from church completed the first of several dayhikes on the Buffalo River Trail. My goal is to complete the entire length of trail as dayhikes in 2012, however with Baby 3 due in a month, I'm not committing any emotional capital to the completion of this goal. Two parties started at opposite ends of the Maumee Section, exchanged car keys midway, and rejoined in Harrison at the end of the day. It was a smashing success, although we were forced to leave KC at 03:00, and did not return home until 23:30. This was the only itinerary that permitted substantial trail mileage while not burdening the several wives/mothers with a night away from families.
The weather was good, the company was superb, and the views were gorgeous. For fantastic photos from this trek, see Andrew's photostream.
I have made a few 1-3 mile jaunts as time has permitted, while traveling for work. I've spent a good deal of time in Oklahoma's Green Country. Post oak forests, mini-Ozark landscapes, and scores of wildlife have made the business travel a little less dreary. I've seen dozens of interesting critters, including bobcats, whitetail, coyotes, quail, bald eagle, skunks, armadillo, turkey, redtail hawk (once picking at a skunk he'd wrapped around a barbed wire fence), many domestic species (including Watusi cattle and the baddest billy goat I've ever seen), and even some "big cat" tracks.
Here's a short slideshow of some of what I've enjoyed:
Resting in the paths Providence brings,
JB
1/8/12
Always bring a backpack - or - Can't nobody break wind like yours truly
Indentured servitude - er - at-will employment took me past Lawton, Oklahoma last week, and as I was burning rubber heading south on I-44 I nearly jumped out of my seat belt when a huge, looming mountain was suddenly on top of me.
Mountains? In Oklahoma? and right smack dab in the middle of the freeway?
Well, the mountains weren't an optical illusion, if their placement was. Some trick of the eye made it appear that the Wichita Mountains were about to land on me. But sure enough, there they were, off to the west, inviting me out for a looksee.
I stopped for a visit on my way home. I started at the Post Oak Lake trailhead, hiked 2.5 miles north to Sunset Pool, then up to the summit of Elk Mountain another 1.2 miles. I scouted for a possible route down the west side of Elk Mt., but turned back after realizing I was out of my bouldering league. With wandering, scrambling, bouldering, and getting lost all combined, I probably walked about 8 miles.
I neglected to bring my standard daypack kit on my business trip, and thus had to make due with supplies and equipment on hand. I did go to Walmart for a cheap backpack (which, incidentally, broke a zipper at the trailhead and will be returned for a refund post haste). The midday high was seasonably on the warm side, but the morning was chilly and breezy. I improvised a windbreaker by cutting some holes in a black trash bag. Worked like a charm. Nobody breaks wind like your humble bloggist.
The scenery was spectacular. What looked like nondescript (if huge) hills from I-44 was actually meticulously sculpted granite, strewn about with convenience-store-sized boulders and cut with small streams and pools. Midwestern winter brown was the dominating color, punched with prickly pear green and a deep blue cloudless sky.
The trails were busy, especially Elk Mountain, traffic for which I was glad: I believe I spent more time off-trail than on. The trails are completely unblazed and unsigned, and at times cross bald rock, making them very difficult to follow. I don't know why the trails weren't blazed, though I suspect a radical wilderness ethic is at work. But blazes do not mar the scenery unduly. Anyway, I was glad for trail company, for as I stumbled my way through the Charon Gardens Wilderness, I was glad to hear distant conversations, reassuring me that I must not be too far off course. This ends my only gripe. Blaze the trails, WMNWR.
I saw longhorns and bison on my drive to the trailhead, but was pleased to encounter them on the trail, too. Just nifty.
Here's the pictures to prove I was there (and that I wore a trash bag as a jacket):
Mountains? In Oklahoma? and right smack dab in the middle of the freeway?
Well, the mountains weren't an optical illusion, if their placement was. Some trick of the eye made it appear that the Wichita Mountains were about to land on me. But sure enough, there they were, off to the west, inviting me out for a looksee.
I stopped for a visit on my way home. I started at the Post Oak Lake trailhead, hiked 2.5 miles north to Sunset Pool, then up to the summit of Elk Mountain another 1.2 miles. I scouted for a possible route down the west side of Elk Mt., but turned back after realizing I was out of my bouldering league. With wandering, scrambling, bouldering, and getting lost all combined, I probably walked about 8 miles.
I neglected to bring my standard daypack kit on my business trip, and thus had to make due with supplies and equipment on hand. I did go to Walmart for a cheap backpack (which, incidentally, broke a zipper at the trailhead and will be returned for a refund post haste). The midday high was seasonably on the warm side, but the morning was chilly and breezy. I improvised a windbreaker by cutting some holes in a black trash bag. Worked like a charm. Nobody breaks wind like your humble bloggist.
The scenery was spectacular. What looked like nondescript (if huge) hills from I-44 was actually meticulously sculpted granite, strewn about with convenience-store-sized boulders and cut with small streams and pools. Midwestern winter brown was the dominating color, punched with prickly pear green and a deep blue cloudless sky.
The trails were busy, especially Elk Mountain, traffic for which I was glad: I believe I spent more time off-trail than on. The trails are completely unblazed and unsigned, and at times cross bald rock, making them very difficult to follow. I don't know why the trails weren't blazed, though I suspect a radical wilderness ethic is at work. But blazes do not mar the scenery unduly. Anyway, I was glad for trail company, for as I stumbled my way through the Charon Gardens Wilderness, I was glad to hear distant conversations, reassuring me that I must not be too far off course. This ends my only gripe. Blaze the trails, WMNWR.
I saw longhorns and bison on my drive to the trailhead, but was pleased to encounter them on the trail, too. Just nifty.
Here's the pictures to prove I was there (and that I wore a trash bag as a jacket):
12/9/11
Laugh at your sister
An extended quote from my latest read:
For the obstinate reminder continued to recur: only the supernatural [worldview] has taken a sane view of Nature. The essence of all pantheism, evolutionism, and modern cosmic religion is really in this proposition: that Nature is our mother. Unfortunately, if you regard Nature as a mother, you discover that she is a step-mother. [But Christianity holds] that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. This gives to the typically Christian pleasure in this earth a strange touch of lightness that is almost frivolity.... Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.
- G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
For the obstinate reminder continued to recur: only the supernatural [worldview] has taken a sane view of Nature. The essence of all pantheism, evolutionism, and modern cosmic religion is really in this proposition: that Nature is our mother. Unfortunately, if you regard Nature as a mother, you discover that she is a step-mother. [But Christianity holds] that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. This gives to the typically Christian pleasure in this earth a strange touch of lightness that is almost frivolity.... Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.
- G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
12/2/11
10/7/11
Copan
I was down in the Copan Lake area, in northern Oklahoma, this past week and got some pictures from a hilltop overlooking the lake and Caney River area. Here are the best of the lot:
There aren't a ton of great trails there, but even the drive on Highways 75, 99, 11, and 20 (to name just a few) is a nice trip.
There aren't a ton of great trails there, but even the drive on Highways 75, 99, 11, and 20 (to name just a few) is a nice trip.
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