Saturday, December 24, 2016

Careful Out There

... took a ride out the shooting range last night and discovered this...

... recent large rockfall...

... view from the drop zone...

... splintered this large tree and made a mess of the pistol range...

... included the KJ for scale - that's a big sandstone rock - don't think there's anyone under it - no one reported missing so far... broken in three pieces - the upper arrow indicates it's prior resting place... must have been a pretty spectacular sight to see...

... about three years ago - the lower arrow points to Tim Anderson putting up a new ice route at the time... the upper arrow points to the rock... Wow!... the route forms right at the water seep from the base of the rock strata - note the wet vertical fracture at the tip of the arrow and to the right of the small overhanging sickle located just above Tim's noggin - and the eventual fracture zone if you look again at the previous image... a retrospective Yikes!!...

... we'll let the circumstances speak for themselves...

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Fortress of Solitude (Part 2)

... a recent short documentary...

... thanks 'Red Rock Multimedia' and producer 'Brian Gugliotta' for the use... good work...

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Nevada 156

... a very cool 17 mile stretch of highway linking the low Mojave Desert (via Rt. 95) with the high country of the Spring Mountains and Mt. Charleston, Nevada - an approximate 10,000ft elevation gradient from the desert floor to the Mt. Charleston summit...

(internet image)
... the route bi-sects all six climate zones of the Mojave Desert - the progressive cooler temperatures as one ascends in elevation throughout the climate zones in turn produce life zones where different species of plant and wildlife exist...

(internet image)
... from lowest elevation to the highest, the six life zones are the Lower Sonoran, Upper Sonoran, Transition, Canadian, Hudsonian (sub-alpine) and Arctic (alpine)...

... viewing west from around EL7,000ft toward the Spring Mountains...

... the change in habitat is similar to traveling from the Desert Southwest to the Canadian Arctic...

... Nevada 156 viewing east toward the low desert from around EL6,000ft...

... low desert panorama from near the 'Desert National Wildlife Range', around EL2,000ft...

... that's about as technical as we get - visit local "desert rat/mountain man" (and PhD Ecology) Jim Boone's excellent website, 'BirdandHike.com', to get more information than you can mentally process on this area and the Desert Southwest in general...

... when out visiting 'Strongman Matt' we like to spend at least one day out exploring some new (to us) area of this fantastic wilderness...

... some limestone cliffs...

... Juniper berries...

... Barrel Cactus...

... pine and juniper canyon...

... this past visit we did a bit of "hiking about" between EL4000ft and EL6,000ft, or the Upper Sonoran Zone, and it's diverse mixture of desert shrubs, cacti and Joshua Trees...

... and abundant wildlife such as Antelope Squirrels and Black Tailed Jackrabbits (seen here - look close - he's well camouflaged) - had tallied twenty-five jackrabbit sightings in about a half hour of hiking before we quit counting - managed an acceptable photo of two...

... lots of diverse bird species - saw a few large ravens (above) and a few hawks which themselves are particularly cool to view when cruising low and on the hunt... parked just up-road from a relatively recent roadkill jackrabbit (the day of this image) that we noticed had one large raven and one hawk jockeying for position on the carcass - the hawk actually landed on the stem of a very close Joshua Tree providing a very cool photo opportunity - but after a minute or more of fumbling with changing to a longer camera lens he was gone... couldn't get either bird to circle any closer after that - tossed the jackrabbit off of the pavement surface and into the adjacent brush, hoping to return a bit later after they'd forgotten my presence - came back in about a half hour and the carcass and both birds were gone...

... the entire territory is pockmarked with small wildlife dens and burrows...

... figured we hike over to these distant ridges - about four miles round trip...

... which involved traversing several wide 'arroyos' (or wash, gulch, dry drainage, gully, draw - take your pick)... surprising how rugged the landscape becomes when ya' venture off the pavement - not as flat a desert as it appears...

... was out the previous evening and stumbled across these wild Burros...

... thought we'd have some fun and spend some time trackin' them today...

... not hard, just follow their well worn trails...

... and turds...

... but their pretty cagey - will just circle right back around unseen if you're not smart about it... was a really windy and chilly day, so we hiked across desert to put the wind in our face and circled right back around playing their game - note the obvious wildlife trail in this image...

... Matt tracking along a selected game trail...

... just after stumbling across this large Elk antler shed...

... was a pretty nice one - was a bit surprised to discover it at this lower elevation as the Elk are said to inhabit the higher elevated forest zones... Mt Charleston is the only known habitat of Rocky Mountain Elk in the region...

... after a bit of effort, finally came across this small herd of four Burros - pretty cool...

... they'll let ya' get to maybe within 200 feet of 'em then book - but maintain that buffer...

... a final image we kind of like with this black haired guy (or gal) against the large desert backdrop...

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Fortress Of Solitude

... "One comes to know one's self as few individuals do when battling the odds, an awesome achievement to compliment life"...

                                                                                            - Dave Draper

... ventured west over the recent Thanksgiving holiday to visit 'Superman Matt' (he's recently been upgraded from "strongman" status)... tagged along with him to one of his afternoon workout/therapy sessions at the 'Philippi Sports Institute' located in Las Vegas...

... the 'Philippi Sports Institute'...

... pretty impressive place - they have a clientele ranging from high school all the way through college and on to Olympic and major league athletics... the many flags represent a portion of the college and pro team athletes (speaking of which - think we spotted a 'Superman' insignia up there ta' boot - knew he works out somewhere)...

... facing the camera is PSI owner and strength and conditioning coach 'Mark Philippi' - he's got a pretty impressive resume' when it comes to strength and fitness, including the 'America's Strongest Man' title in 1997...

... that's 'Dr. Aric Cruz', Director of Therapy, workin' Matt on some dumbbell presses - he's been Matt's therapist for several years now - been hearin' a lot about him and was glad to get the opportunity to finally meet him...

... we gotta' give him a lot of credit for Matts' recovery...

... they're doin' some type of resistance warm-up here... they were all business (as it should be) so didn't ask many questions...

... some light barbell presses... 

... some flexibility work we guess...

... back to the iron...

... some lat work...

... some back and upper body strengthening...

... more lat work...

... some final flexibility and stretching...

... combined with some type of laser therapy...

... Dr. Cruz kicked his butt... we're pretty impressed with his his current level of conditioning and fitness considering all the crap he's been through... lookin' pretty good...

... and is still concerned with helping others as well - here's a link to the 'Eleven Thirty Foundation' - a non-profit organization he and a few associates are in the process of establishing to assist others when life's odds appear to be stacked against 'em...

... good work!...

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Wild Rainbows

... been catchin' some big Rainbow Trout in the waters of the 'Yough' the past two weekends...


... so last Sunday 'Muscle Girl Sarah' and 'ZMan' stop over, amped to do something outside... bit of a late start and low energy day on my part - suggested an easy MTB ride up river for a few hours... toted a fly rod along figuring to stop and "cast a few"...

... 'ZMan' and 'Muscle Girl Sarah'...

... cranked up to a usually productive fishing hole that we hadn't fished in a few years... mostly fish alone and seldom have an audience along... had caught two very nice (and large) Rainbows the previous evening further down stream... considering the run I'd been having was hopin' to land something big in the limited time available - only had the one rod along and there's nothing more boring than watching someone fish*...

... this particular location is a pretty deep hole with a moderate current, submerged boulders, a few exposed boulders necking some swift tailouts resulting in some nice eddys, and you're casting from the top of a large boulder about four feet from the water surface - on top of that ya' got a nice submerged rock ledge dropping off into the deep about five feet from the waters edge - bet the hole itself is close to 8ft deep - great habitat...

... had been casting an always reliable muddler minnow for probably ten minutes, gettin' about a two foot "draft" while floatin' maybe forty feet with the mild current in crystal clear water - know that there's trout in there and also know that they're layin' deep... usually not a showoff, but sure would like to hook something considering the captive audience...

... gotta' go deep, so decided to violate one of our most stringent rules and add a split-shot to the system - one "BB" clamped snugly to the 4X tippet did the trick - the muddler was disappearing into the murky depths beyond the submerged rock ledge...

... about fifteen casts alternating between between deep and slow and shallow and swift drifts apparently got some attention - a decent size wild Rainbow emerged  and started sniffin' around the muddler at shallow depth - I was puttin' perfect casts directly in his path which he would intermittently make a fast run on only to jacknife at the last instant... who's playin' who now? ...

... plop!... another perfect cast directly in his face floats by with indifference and I'm watchin' him while habitually workin' the muddler swift and shallow downstream when - wham! - a sudden jerk on the rod and the line is goin' nuts and racing in tight circles - a second fish has shot up and snatched the muddler and is putin' on a show - he breaks surface twice about a foot in the air, all the while kickin' and fightin' - he's gorgeous too with some very vibrant speckled silver and yellows offsetting the signature lateral deep red - nature couldn't have detailed him any better - definitely not a stocked fish...

... so while I'm workin' and lettin' him play himself out I get the brilliant idea to ask Muscle Girl Sarah to grab the camera from my waist belt to snap a photo or two when I bring 'em in - never get any photos of fish we land and this is a good opportunity...

... but in the process of workin' the fish and freein' up the camera and explaining it's functions, I'm playin' him too long - he's a big fish and I know I'm stretchin' the limits of the 5wt/4X rig (combined with the bad news split-shot) while he's swiftly circling the submerged boulders...

... this is takin' too long - gotta' get 'em in - forget the photo - he's about two feet from the waters edge along the rock we're fishin' from - within arms reach - when snap! - the line goes completely slack and he's gone... 

... mu##!!r fxxkr s#n of a b!!t*h dirty b#st!!d !!!!...

... later inspection reveals the 4X tippet snapped right at the split shot! - he's gone, literally "hook, line and sinker"...

... been fishin' off and on since probably six years old and have never, ever lost a fish to a snapped line or leader - and for that matter have never, ever left an injured or wounded critter in the wild... not a great feeling knowing that wild fish is swimming around up there hooked with a fly and about six inches of leader - bugged me all week - anyone who would think any different needs to go set under a big tree for a long period of time...

... he continued to circle the hole, doin' what he does... changed lures and tried to hook 'em again so I could at least release the hook lodged in his lip, but he wasn't goin' for it... two other large Rainbows emerged as well, so now there's four circling about twenty feet from shore or workin' the shallow slackwater directly upstream and a few feet from the shoreline... thank's to my screw-up, however, was feeling completely out of my environment and more like an intruder than anything else and really didn't want to disturb them anymore - so we packed up and left...

... headin' back downstream..

... a short but technical hill climb on the way out...

*... except this, maybe - was taking an open water scuba course at a divers quarry in central PA years ago and noticed four gals who had been setting along the shoreline in lounge chairs. After about two or three hours our group made our way over to their vicinity. We noticed that they hadn't moved out of their loungers all this time. One of our guys asked the gals how it was going - "Oh, we're just watching our husbands scuba dive" was one's response... definitely not our idea of an exciting Saturday afternoon...