01/04/2010 Rain (2.1" year to date), high 40's
We sent Daniel off to Spain for the second semester of his Junior year this morning at 7AM. Getting out of the house was a little hectic, as usual. Although he laid everything out on the living room floor yesterday, he didn't actually pack his backpack until this morning. He'd assumed that it would qualify as carry-on luggage but once he had everything packed, we discovered that it was too large and would have to be checked so he had to unpack again and we had to search for a smaller pack in which he could carry his camera, computer and papers. Mission accomplished at the cost of a 10 minute delay in our departure. Fortunately the airport wasn't crowded and he had no difficulty making his plane.
After that it was a slow day because none of us had much sleep last night.

01/05/2010 More rain, mid 40's
A good day to curl up in front of the computer, so I did.

01/06/2010 Yardbirds Mostly cloudy, low-mid 40's
One of the pleasures of a new year is starting a new annual yard bird list. I went out birding on the second and managed to find 26 species including 3 raptors - a sharpie, kestrel and redtail - and 6 sparrows, including one of the white-throated sparrows. Since then we've picked up another 7 species of which the highlight was a merlin flyover this morning. Both merlin and kestrel are tough to get here in the yard so we're off to a good start.
The weather was dry for a change, giving David and me an opportunity to get outside with our cameras. I've been itching to photograph some birds but on rainy days this time of year there just isn't enough light, or at least so I've been thinking.

01/07/2010 Increasing clouds, rain late, 50
Spectacular sunrise this morning, one of the few mornings recently that I've been up in time to see the sun rise though even this morning I was a little late for the best color.

In the past I've been reluctant to push the ISO above 500 but I'm finding that if I can get close to a bird, I can up the ISO to 1250 and even 1600 without much loss of quality as long as the images are sharp. That allows me to use sufficiently high shutter speeds to get away with hand- holding the 300 f4 even on dark days. In darker conditions I can drop the shutter speed as low as 1/60 and still get a few good shots by bracing the camera. Though the D300 produces quite a bit of noise at 1250 and above NeatImg cleans it up pretty well. The images at the top of this page were all shot at ISO 1250. The Towhee and Song Sparrow above under 1/5/2010 were shot at ISO 1250 as well. For the Downy Woodpecker I used 1/250 at f6.3, ISO 800, but I would have been much better off using ISO 1250 and opening the aperature up to f5 in order to use 1/500, since that shot (and the other half dozen I took of the same subject) all suffered from some degree of motion blur.
This afternoon Susan, David and I drove into Bellevue for lunch at a new (to us) Indian restaurant and a visit to the company store then Susan dropped us off at the Union Bay Natural Area while she returned some items at University Village. I'd hoped to find some birds to photograph but under a heavy overcast it was already beginning to get dark by the time we got out there. Then walking along the trail by the lake I spotted a rather tame heron and I got a shot to make the outing worthwhile. Susan liked this image, taken handheld at 1/400 f4.0, ISO 1600 with the 300 f4 lens. I accidentally had the exposure compensation set at -1.0 which increased the noise somewhat but no doubt increased my yield of usable images. This one is sharpened with noise reduction in NeatImg.

01/08/2010 Showers, mid 40's
Another gray day. Sometime around mid-morning Susan asked for help identifying some red birds at the feeder, so I went downstairs to check them out. I expected House Finches since we have a small flock around the house but to my surprise there were two Purple Finches under the feeder. Usually they're not around this time of year though I heard one overhead a few days ago and thought I saw a female at the feeder. At first I thought they might be Cassin's finches but I checked with Sibley and confirmed the id. I tried for photos but of course they flew off and didn't return until after I came back inside. Later though, I tried again and this time got a few shots from my blanket-blind. Very dark there behind the house, so both the House Finch and Purple Finch were shot at ISO 1600, f4.0 using my 300mm f4 lens at 1/200 and 1/80 respectively, so there's a bit of motion blur. On both I cleaned up some of the noise and did some sharpening with NeatImg. Viewing the photos, I finally realized that I can tell these two apart fairly easily by the reddish wash on the wings. The Purple Finch has it; the House Finch does not. In side by side photos the differences are readily apparent but when you see just one by itself outdoors it's not always as easy to tell them apart.

01/09/2010 Sabbath PC-high clouds, around 50. (1.9" rain in the guage)
Due to rain yesterday and last night the bottom of the driveway is flooded but by mid-morning the sun came out and the rest of the day was very nice, quiet and warm with quite a bit of sunshine. David and Nick went biking down in O'Grady in the afternoon and I got out for a late afternoon run, 6 miles of which I did 5 barefoot leaving the bottoms of my feet a little tender. My L AT tendon does not seem to be recovering well from the 50K; it was already a little tight within the first mile but didn't get any worse. Running barefoot doesn't seem to bother it much.
As we were getting ready to get ready to go to church, David succeeded in setting up a Skype connection with Daniel so we spent the next hour talking with him. He's settled in with his host family, a single mother and her daughter, and is loving Granada. He talked at length about the social life there. Apparently the Spanish spend alot of time out socializing with each other, often in tapas (sounded like "topless") bars where you order a beer and it comes with such a large quantity of appetizers (the tapas) that nobody gets drunk because they get too full first. He and his roommate Peter have been spending quite a bit of time just walking around the city, where they're able to pass as locals by speaking quietly in Spanish. Tourists, particularly the Americans, can be recognized because they speak with loud voices in languages other than Spanish.
Daniel himself has been speaking mostly in Spanish and is getting to the point where he doesn't need to mentally translate everything from English. He even found it somewhat difficult at first to speak English with us, and asked that we not talk together too frequently because it interrupts his immersion in Spanish. It was great to be able to see him as well as hear him. He looked pretty tired but that may have been due partly to the low-resolution connection.
David began building his new computer after lunch then finished it up in the evening after Cody, who just finished building his own system, came over to help him figure out where to plug in all the cables. His components (ASUS P7P55D-e Pro, i5-750, 2x2Gb GSkill Eco DDR3 1333, Sapphire Vapor-x 5770, Samsung Spinpoint F3 500Gb, Lian-li Lancool PC-K7) arrived yesterday and all worked the first time, or at least once David and Cody figured out how to plug them in.

01/10/2010 Dry, high 40's, increasing clouds late
Later in the afternoon David and I rode bikes over to 212th near 400th where a few days earlier I'd noticed that someone had printed "Zombie" on the blue flood escape route sign above where it says "Evacuation Route". David wanted to photograph the sign and I was hoping we might come across a hawk sitting on the telephone wires somewhere. No hawks but on our way home on 180th we flushed a tail-less Northern Shrike. Although I saw one back in December by 212th and 180th, browner than today's bird I think, and in posession of a full tail, they aren't common around here; if I've seen any others in the past few years I didn't record the sighting. The photo was taken with my D300 at ISO 1250 using a 300 f4 lens with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/640 at f5.6. I subsequently cropped it to 40% of original dimensions, reduced noise w/ Neatimg, increased contrast in Picasa and sharpened just the bird w/ Elements. The Golden-crowned Sparrow photo on the right was taken this morning in our back yard, 1/125 f4 with the 300f4 lens w/o teleconverter, ISO 1250 with noise reduction in Neatimg and a little sharpening of the bird's face in Elements.

01/11/2010 Wet, 0.7" rain in the guage

01/14/2010 Snowshoeing Wet, mild
A brief break in the weather was forecast for today but it arrived 8 hours early so by the time we set out for Crystal to go snowshoeing, light rain had already begun again. It's been consistently warm and wet recently and the usually snow-packed Crystal Mountain parking lot had just a half inch of new wet snow on top of bare gravel. We started up on snowpack consisting of a foot or two of granular snow saturated with water right down to the ground. The snow half way up to the ridge, though twice as deep and capped with a couple inches of sticky powder, was the same consistency. About that point the wind picked up and it began to snow so we tucked in under a dense fir tree and sat on bare ground to eat our lunch before continuing up the open slope. The wind was gusting to maybe 30mph sweeping clouds of mixed powder and granular snow into our faces as we labored up the hill. On all the hillsides around us the firs were still snow-covered; only on the slope we were climbing were the trees were bare and dark, their snow having been scoured off by the wind. Towards the crest of the ridge the powder was quite a bit deeper and the wind gusts more insistent so we worked our way into partial tree cover for some shelter. Attaining the ridge we were repeatedly enveloped in blowing snow but we lingered to knock off a few cornices and even managed to set off a couple small avalanches on the lee side. It would have been fun telemarking over there had I brought skis. We started down with less than a half hour to go until sunset, picking a route through the trees to avoid the wind. As we dropped into the valley just downwind of the big open slope we met three skiers. Like wild animals they emerged silently from a gray grove of snowy firs, looked us over briefly then fled down the slope, their turns far more graceful than our buttsliding descent. We regained the trail on the bend of the slope below the corniced ridge and followed it back to the parking lot at dusk.

01/15/2010 Guacamole Wet and windy, 50F,
When we were at University Village last week I bought a molocajete at William's and Sonoma. A few years ago I picked one up at a Mexican store in Federal Way as a Chrismas present for Susan but it was apparently made of cement and we never used it. This one is the real article, a heavy bowl on three short legs, squat and rotund like a Pre-columbian figurine, ground out of somewhat porous gray volcanic stone dotted with small white feldspar crystals and accompanied by a stout fist-sized pestle enlarged at both ends like a basalt dumbell.
When we got home I prepped the molocajete according to Diane Kennedy's instructions in her book From My Mexican Kitchen, by grinding a handful of rice to powder, washing out the bowl and repeating until the rice no longer turned gray from basalt dust. After about three iterations both pestle and bowl were noticeably smoother.
Since then I've prepared two batches of guacamole in it. Using the molocajete lends a stone-age feel to an otherwise somewhat tedious food-prep task. As Diane Kennedy promised, grinding the ingredients in a molocajete gives the guacamole a superior flavor, and I have yet to encounter any sand in it. Nick joined us for a late lunch of chips, refried beans (with cumin and a touch of cinnamon added) and the guacamole. He pronounced it delicious and he's from San Antonio, so may be somewhat of an authority. On the other hand, he's David's age and is always hungry so would probably like guacamole however I prepared it.

01/18/2010 David back to school Sun w/ some high clouds, mid-50's; 1.1" rain in the guage
For the past week or so the weather pattern seems to have been gray rainy days with clearing at night, frustrating my plans to get out and photograph yardbirds. Last night was typical - overcast all day with rain in the afternoon, then after dark the clouds breaking up to reveal a deep black sky with bright stars - another beautiful sunny night. Today however broke the pattern and we had sunshine with mild temperatures most of the day.
I thought I might run in the morning before we took David back to school so I fixed breakfast, granola and soymilk with a pear, as soon as I got up then since the sky was bright, I grabbed the camera and headed out to enjoy breakfast in the blind by the bird feeder in hopes that the White-throated Sparrow would show up again. It didn't but I spent much of the morning in the blind anyhow and got a few decent photos, close up but nothing special. After awhile I got tired of the blind and just stood out by the feeder with the camera on a sandbag on top of the tripod. The juncos and purple finches were OK with that arrangement and soon flocked back to the ground under the feeder less than 6' from me. The white-flecked junco showed up too, the first time I've seen it in over a month.
Since I never made it out for a run I took my gym bag and hit the college track while David and Susan went out to lunch. I had a good workout, ran four 880's at 3:33-3:19 w/ 1 easy lap in between, then took off my shoes and ran two more fast ones with a slow lap in between. I ran the second barefoot 880 in 3:08, one of my fastest ever. Two years ago I ran a 3:07, and two years before that, a 6:18 mile which probably included a sub-3:08 half. I'm thinking that with some training I might even be able to break 3 minutes barefoot, and possibly even approach a 6 minute mile.
Speaking of fast, we saw a Peregrine Falcon stoop on a pigeon along the Tacoma waterfront between the grain elevators and Old Town as we were driving David back to school. It dove down behind an overpass where the pigeons were flying about but missed its target and sliced back up into the sunshine, its pale gray back and contrasting black and white head and face leaving no doubt about the id.

01/20/2010 Dry, breezy, low 50's
After taking a few bird photos in the morning I drove over to Landsberg to remeasure the course for the Cedar River Yours Truly 50K this coming Sunday. I've cycled it and measured it using gmap-pedometer but I wanted to double-check it with my GPS. Both the revised gmap-pedometer measurement and the GPS placed the turnaround 50 yards or more beyond my former turnaround. Because in the past a few people thought the course was long I decided not to extend it and used the old turnaround again.
Lots of birds along Lake Wilderness, not very many along the Cedar River. Here's my bird list.

01/22/2010 Sun w/ some high clouds, mid-50's
I finally succeeded in getting photos of both of the White-throated Sparrows today. Although I've seen one or the other from time to time, they're a little more secretive than the juncos and Golden-crowns so I haven't been able to get decent photos. I also haven't seen them together so haven't been sure that both were still around. Studying the photos it's not hard to tell them apart. The one on the left is the adult, with black crown stripes, bright white eyestripe with a fat yellow patch in front of and over the eye and clear gray breast. The first-winter bird on the right has brown mixed with black in the crown stripes, a dull white eyestripe with a narrow yellow wedge in front of the eye and more mottled gray on the breast with an indistinct central spot.
While I waiting in the feeder blind to get a good view of the White-throated Sparrow, a bright male Varied Thrush, the only one around this winter, came by. He is quite wary so I was fortunate to get a few shots without spooking him. He approached the feeder a couple more times while I was still in the blind but I wasn't able to get any more photos.

01/23/2010 Ovc, occ rain, mid 40's
I ran 50K today at Pigtail's Lake Youngs race. Lots of Maniac friends there, including Leslie whom I haven't seen in a while. We ran the last 20 miles together and I got caught up on how she's doing. She's excited about her work in a medical research lab and happy with her running.
Were it not for some stiffness and tenderness in my shin towards the end I'd have been able to run another hour or so. It was cold though; my gloves quickly became wet through so my hands were chilled for most of the race. Holding them in front of Van's propane heater during aid station stops really helped. I probably would have been more comfortable had I kept my rain pants on but having once taken them off, I didn't want to put them back on again.

01/24/2010 Cedar River Yours Truly 50K
Ovc, increasing rain, low 40's
I really enjoyed putting on the race today even though I didn't run. I didn't really start preparing yesterday afternoon until after sunset, mostly because I fell asleep for a couple hours after getting home from Pigtails' race. Getting everything ready and packing up the car took about 4 hours with the help of my packing list from last year. Were it not for making the chili, I could even have been in bed by 10PM. Susan and I worked together on the chili and finished it around midnight.
The race was to begin at 8AM and I was on time for a change. Except for a few early starters I sent everyone off at a few minutes after 8 under a thin overcast with hints of blue sky showing through. Then I packed up again and drove to the trail junction to mark it with flour and set up two 5-gallon jugs on a folding aluminum table for the aid station. Did the same at the turnaround except used a milk crate instead of the table, and left a package of Reese's mini peanut butter hearts that one of the runners had brought. They were a big hit so I'll have to do that again next time.
By late morning when the last few runners came in from the first lap the overcast had thickened considerably and soon after the last runner left, light rain began to fall. Pamela Wuest, who stopped at 25K and stayed around for some chili, helped me set up the canopy. I enjoyed her company but she began to get too cold and had to leave. Figuring I'd have an hour or so to myself I gave Dave Nichol a call but soon afterwards the first 50K runners began to show up and from then on I was busy serving chili and hot chocolate and visiting with the finishers. I appreciated the company, especially considering how cold and wet most of the runners were when they came in. Matt Hagen stayed the longest since he was waiting for Betsy to finish. Both of them ran 50K yesterday too. Matt was a big help. He grabbed the canopy when a sudden gust of wind threatened to carry it away, then backed his Honda Element up to the tent to give us a dry place to sit and some shelter from the wind-blown rain. Even after Betsy and Marie came in they lingered another hour, the two women swaddled in blankets in the back of the Element. Not 10 minutes after they left Mel Preedy finished with a time of 7:51, depriving Monte of LPA (Last Place Again) honors by less than a minute. The stove kept going out towards the end but I managed to fire it up long enough to warm up the hot chocolate for Mel, who finished it along with a cup of still-warm chili. Monte helped me pack up and I was home by 5PM, in time for a long nap before supper.

01/30/2010 Ovc, occ light rain, high 40's
I was anxious and restless last night and didn't sleep well. Those are conditions condusive to remembering dreams and I did remember an interesting one. I suspect the dream has something to do with a couple of interviews Jeff set up for me regarding a fairly challenging SQL developer position he has open. It would be 6-12 months of full-time work - a big change from the past 6 months. The prospect of the interviews is intimidating but the position sounded like a good fit so I'm going for it.
A Mourning Dove that Susan spotted in the driveway late this afternoon was yardbird 42 for 2010, roughly half of the total number of species I'll see here by the end of the year. Its left wing was drooping and it had a streak of missing feathers across its shoulder, both possibly the result of a gunshot wound. I misjudged how tame it was and ended up flushing it while trying for photographs. It flew, apparently without any difficulty, across the street to the far edge of the neighbor's field.

01/31/2010 Snowshoeing at Crystal again Light rain early then partial clearing, around 50
Not much snow up at Crystal, perhaps even less than two weeks ago. On the drive up to the ski area the snow doesn't even begin until close to 4000' - no problem to park in the little pullout at the Norse Peak trailhead, though we continued on up to Lot C at the foot of the old ski slope. Monica came too, her first time on snowshoes and she did very well, following David and me up some steep terrain and sliding down an equally intimidating slope without hesitation. We followed Silver Creek (I think) up from the top of the Gold Hills chair, climbed up a very steep little gorge to attain a hanging valley then turned left up an indistinct but more or less open gully towards the ridge which runs S from Bullion Basin. We ran out of time after lunch so didn't quite reach the ridge and sunshine, traversing left instead and descending another gully which opened up into a narrow avalanched bowl which in turn dropped us back down to Silver Creek below the gorge. Based on the data from my HR monitor my total exertion for the four hour hike was comparable to running 18 miles.

02/02/2010
I'm back at work at Microsoft this week. Though I'm not wild about the commute it's nice to feel productive again. Nick has accumulated a list of a half dozen enhancements to the application. We walked through them yesterday and they look pretty straightforward, probably about three weeks of work including testing and documentation. The application is working well for them as designed so they don't need major changes at this point.
I left early today to do the interviews that Jeff set up. The first interview, with a SQL developer named Neil, put me at ease and got me warmed up for the second interview with Tony. Neil and I chatted awhile then he asked me to diagram the model for the project I'm currently working on. We discussed some of the modeling issues I encountered on that relatively simple project and spent some time on the supertype/subtype modeling question. Overall we spent the bulk of the interview discussing data modeling. I think Neil probably should have asked me at least one tough SQL query question as well as some more specific questions about T-SQL coding; I recall conducting interviews like that in the past, and the difficulty of writing up feedback with insufficient information. The interview with Tony was almost all data modeling. He asked some very good questions well designed to evaluate the depth of my data modeling experience and level of familiarity with both physical and logical models. We also spent quite a bit of time on the variations of the supertype/subtype theme. Towards the end he seemed to relax and we discussed our general data modeling peeves and preferences. I was only expecting two interviews but Tony asked if I would meet briefly with Karl after we were done. I took that as a good sign. The interview with Karl was brief and to the point; he mostly asked whether I had experience with specific aspects of high-volume OLTP database design, programming and optimization and I mostly told him that I did not, but could learn. Although I think I'm probably in the running I expect they'll see candidates with deeper SQL development experience in the areas they're looking for. I drove home feeling satisfied that I did respectably well, whether or not I get chosen.

02/05/2010 Partly cloudy, brief shower, 37-54
Did a 28 mile bike ride this afternoon and a 16 mile run (5 barefoot) yesterday morning. I feel like I'm ready for another marathon but I'm only running a half this Sunday. The next marathon is on President's Day, a week from Monday after a half marathon next Saturday. I'd rather run than go to church but am keeping at least half my Saturdays open for church, even though we often don't make it.
This evening I attended the Friend's of St Thomas discussion group for the first time in several months. Interesting dynamic with mildly skeptical old men on one side of the room and on the other side, an young man, perhaps not yet 20, full of zeal for the truth and a care-worn woman with a warm faith in Jesus. The Pastor did a good job of moderating the discussion, drawing out our points of view while keeping the conversation both somewhat practical and more or less on our topic, whatever that was. Though I enjoyed the conversation, afterwards on the drive home I became discouraged again. Maybe it would be best to drop church entirely for a few years; after a break perhaps I could take up Adventism again with a fresh start.

02/07/2010 Geoduck Gallop, Nisqually Overcast, mid-40's
I ran the Geoduck Gallop Half Marathon in Olympia today, then on the way home we stopped at Nisqually NWR to try for some bird photos. David and his friend Val came along too. While I ran they ate breakfast at Sage's then found some ducks, including a beautiful male Wood Duck (is there any other kind of male Wood Duck?) at a lake near the Capitol. David borrowed my 300mm with the 1.4 converter and couldn't quite fit all of the Wood Duck in the frame. Though I didn't intend to, I ran the race fairly hard, 8:00/mile overall, despite not having brought any gels with me. I slowed down a bit for a few miles in the middle and ran with a woman named Elizabeth who's doing Boston for the first time this coming April, then rejuvenated, ran the next few at about 7:40 before having to slow down a bit for the last couple miles. My right arch has been a bit sore the last few days so I thought I might have trouble with it but everything felt fine during the race.
At Nisqually not much was happening in the woods but things picked up once we got out on the dike near the old barn. Several photographers with huge lenses on tripods were watching the action as Bald Eagles harassed each other out on the flats. The first guy we came up to pointed out a peregrine sitting high up in a cottonwood. He had an old Nikon 600mm f4 which he said wasn't very sharp, not as good as the 500 f4 in his opinion. He was waiting for a Kestrel which had been perched on top of the nearest snag to return to its perch. After chatting with him for a while I stopped to visit with another photographer, this one with the 500 f4 on a tripod. He was using it to photograph distant eagles on perches, and also carrying a D700 with the 300 f4 and 1.4 TC for birds in flight. His tripod was a Gitzo Series 3 w/ Wimberly 2 head. Nice to see this stuff in action. We both took photos of the same eagle because I wanted to compare my D300 with his D700 - his shots were considerably sharper; I'm not sure why. On the way back we got some good close-up views of a pair of Hooded Mergansers and several male Ring-necked Ducks. Turns out the latter actually have a brown ring around their neck; I've never been close enough to notice it before. The duck photos made the day for me.
As I was driving along the Tacoma waterfront after dropping David and Val off, the sun finally burned through the overcast and lit up the paper mill across the bay. It was a striking scene - white columns of steam rising into the steel gray sky with a bright rainbow arching over it all. I turned off down to the waterfront, parked the car, switched lenses and ran back up the bridge but unfortunately the rainbow had nearly faded away, and I overexposed the shots anyhow. But some gulls were eating starfish on the rocks below a little park down there, so I switched lenses again and photographed the gulls. That was fun, especially when a couple showed up with bread for the birds. In a few minutes I had all the gulls I could wish for, flying, perching, squabbling. It was fun.

02/08/2010 Sunny, near 50
Jeff called to tell me I didn't get the job; they found someone with more specific ERP and CRM experience. I wasn't particularly disappointed; though I would like another month or two of work, ten to twelve months might be too much of a good thing. Meanwhile I had a productive day at Microsoft - designed the tables for the binary-source mapping and wrote several procedures for listing excluded files by name or subdirectory. Writing good code is very satisfying.

02/11/2010 Ovc w/ rain later, 57-47
It's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster the past couple of days with the job offer. Jeff called yesterday afternoon to tell me that their first candidate had fallen through and I was effectively second in line. I'd been comfortable with not getting the job in the first place but it was gratifying to hear that I was chosen for the position after all and I began to get excited about the prospect of digging into a challenging assignment. And nervous about it again too. The job would mean missing out on the Southwest w/ David during spring break and Europe with the family this summer; though Susan would still go with David she was particularly disappointed about not returning together on the QM2. On the other hand, the income would enable us to get started on the major remodel Susan has been thinking about for some time in addition to paying for some toys for me.
So today I went in to meet with the data modeler with whom I'd be working closely for the next several months and to have lunch w/ Jeff to discuss details of time off and such. The meeting with Lisa went reasonably well; she explained portions of the conceptual model and we discussed some of the issues she's still researching; though alot was new to me it didn't seem like anything I couldn't get a handle on. As it turned out though, she was looking for someone who could bring the perspective of having done something similar for another organization, which I can't provide. Jeff called this afternoon to tell me that they've decided to look for someone else. Though I did expect to get the job I'm not too surprised; that was the same concern they had before and nothing has changed. Jeff was pretty apologetic for how the whole thing had gone, and I'd probably feel the same way in his position but I tried to reassure him that I was neither surprised nor particularly disappointed, given the sacrifices I'd have to make to take the position. On the way home I actually felt strangely energized by this whole situation, inspired to take advantage of the unexpected gift of the year I might have spent working for Jeff to do some things I've been just getting started on - painting, fixing up the house, learning .NET, getting deeper into SQL Server. Now too I can move ahead with the Maniacs work, a couple of months of redevelopment of the website which perhaps I'll tackle in .NET the way I should have when I first did it a couple of years ago.

03/09/2010
Took another passport picture of Susan this afternoon. This wasn't the one we ended up using (her eyes aren't horizontal) but I thought it was a nice photo of her nonetheless. The daffodils and hyacinths are blooming already along the front walk, relatively early I think.
It looks as though David and I really are going to go on our trip to Arizona for his spring break. I've reserved a spot for us to tour Lehman Cave in Great Basin National Park on Sunday morning, to dayhike Coyote Buttes South on Monday and to backpack into Pariah Canyon on Tuesday. I've spent hours developing multiple itineraries for the trip which vary according to if/when we are able to obtain a permit for Coyote Buttes North via the morning lottery at the Pariah Ranger Station. I'd like to do Coyote Buttes North, lower Antelope Canyon, Water Holes Canyon and the overnight backpack in Pariah Canyon and Buckskin Gulch, all between Tuesday morning and Friday noon when we have to head home in time to get to the CWA auction on Saturday evening. The trick will be getting the CBN permit, and if we don't get it on Monday morning, arranging to be at the BLM ranger station at 8:30AM on subsequent mornings to try again.
The photo gear I ordered for the trip has all arrived as well. I took it out for a spin in the back yard today. The tripod with the ballhead really makes a difference with the 300 f4; even at a 500th of a second the shots from the tripod are detectably sharper than resting the camera/lens on a sandbag as I was doing before. I'm using the Kirk bracket on the lens and the L-bracket for the camera. They snap instantly in and out of the ballhead; I'm very glad now that I paid the extra $20 for the quick release version. The ballhead not only holds the camera steady but also seems to dampen vibration from the shutter release. My only concern is that the tripod-ballhead combination is a bit large to fit in my pack and seems a little heavy to carry around all day, but I won't know for sure until I spend a day in the field with it, perhaps in Buckskin Gulch. Regarding the bird photos, I sharpened all but the house finch in Elements to compensate for the blurring caused by shrinking the originals. Might have overdone it a bit behind the Nuthatch's eye. The junco is the second leukistic one we've had around the feeder this winter. The house finch, a young male from last summer, has a bad left eye and a few feathers stuck in his left foot, perhaps from scratching the eye.

03/12/2010
Waxed the Subaru today in preparation for our trip. The New Subaru that is. Three days ago I took the old one into the shop because it's been running a little warm, and found out that it has a leaking head gasket. No telling how many miles before it blows out completely, but it will take 3-5 days in the shop to get it fixed, and we didn't have 3-5 days before we were to leave on our trip. Susan has been urging me to buy a new car this spring while prices are relatively low, and so we can hand the old one down to the boys to use at school. I was figuring on running the old one for another year but rather than cancel our trip, we bought a new car. We did consider taking the van but I didn't want to risk Susan getting stranded in the Subaru, and we'll probably need all-wheel drive to get to at least one of the trailheads on our trip. Matt's Honda Element impressed me at the YT50K back in January so we went that evening and tried out an Element. Not a bad car - I liked that the cargo area was big enough for me to sleep in, and it does have AWD. The finish seemed a little spare, and I wanted to at least take a look at the current model Forester and maybe the CRV or RAV4 as well. The next afternoon I test drove a 2010 Forester. It's a little bigger than mine and lo and behold, I would be able to sleep in it with the back seats down. I liked the ground clearance too, an inch more than either my old Forester or the Element. Mileage comparable to the Element, better than my old Forester or the Toyota SUV's, and price alot lower than the hybrid Highlander that we looked at a couple months ago. So Wednesday evening Susan and I set out to buy a Subaru. I looked at prices on the Internet and followed up with two dealers, Mike Scarff Subaru in Auburn and Bruce Titus Tacoma Subaru, who both had the model and color I wanted. Both were offering the same price too, just over 24K. We had already pulled into the parking lot at the Auburn dealership when I called Titus to let them know we had decided on Auburn. Over the phone the Titus salesman took another $300 off the price so we turned around and drove to Tacoma instead. I tried paying with a credit card but neither dealer would do that but they settled for a post-dated check and we drove home (via a celebratory dinner at Stanley and Seaforts) with a new red Subaru. An unwaxed Subaru as it turned out, so I did that myself today for considerably less than $300.

03/13/2010 Saturday   Auburn, WA to Ely, NV
We left Auburn last night around 7PM. I'd intended to pick David up at school and leave directly from there but figured we could make up a little of the time we lost by taking I-90, I-82 and I-84, then heading south from Twin Falls to Ely rather than my original plan to go through Portland, Bend, Burns Winnemucca, Carlin and Eureka mostly on secondary roads. I drove to Yakima, David to Pendleton while I slept, then he slept while I drove over the Blue Mountains in a snowstorm. The car handled very well in the snow, as expected. Listening to The Known World, an audiobook I picked up at the library, I was able to drive as far as Baker City. Around 2AM I found the Oregon Trail agate site, along the dirt road which branches right off the gravel road which leaves OR Hwy 86 across from the OT interpretive center, but an inch of new snow obscured the agates when I went looking for a few minutes at dawn. I slept in the back of the car, David in the passenger seat. It was a little cramped but not too uncomfortable.
We stopped at Lime to look for the crystal site I read about some years ago but couldn't find anything but limestone. The cement plant is closed and is deteriorating quite photogenically. I took a few pictures; David wanted to but couldn't rouse himself from sleep. A stiff westerly breeze was blowing so I couldn't stay out long. After Boise the wind turned fierce, scouring the landscape for tumbleweeds and sending them stampeding across fields, vaulting fences and bounding through freeway traffic. Some were barely larger than squirrels, others the size and color of bears, all racing before the wind or gathering in restless piles in gullies and hollows. At Mountain Home we turned south off the freeway to check out the big sand dune at Bruneau Dunes State Park. Dropping through the rim rock on our descent to the Snake River we ran into a big drift of tumbleweeds stretching nearly across the road and deep enough to bury a pickup truck.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Bruneau Dunes is a natural area where ORV's are prohibited. The wind was raking sand off the top of the dunes in a gritty brown curtain, very impressive and certain death to exposed cameras. We took a few furtive photos and hiked to the crest of the big one where wind-blown sand blasted our pants cuffs. I didn't take time to identify the windswept ducks on the lake but did notice a Northern Harrier working the brushy drainage west of the dune. It's a place I'd like to visit again in more favorable conditions, particularly during spring migration.
On our way east to Twin Falls we reached Susan on the phone. I described the wind, the big dune, the dusty yellow clouds and the herds of tumbleweed and she enjoyed picturing the scene. Heading south on US 93 into Nevada we found ourselves pursuing a snowstorm which like a mirage kept fading away ahead of us leaving bright snowy hills under a windy blue sky with cold sunlight streaming in from the west. We eventually caught up to a little snow around dusk just north of Ely but the main event had passed through earlier in the day leaving several inches in town with drifts up to a foot deep around the parking lot of the Rustic Inn, a humble but comfortable (poor but honest...) little place I found in the yellow pages. The proprietor recommended La Fiesta for Mexican food so we went there and spent $25 on too much dinner after checking in to our $50 motel.

03/14/2010 Sunday   Ely, NV to Kanab, UT
We encountered only 3 vehicles in the 60-odd miles between Ely (pronounced Eely) and Baker, at the entrance to Great Basin National Park. Convinced that we were on Mountain Time (having come south and east from Idaho, which is on Mountain Time) we left at 6AM thinking it was 7 and we had an hour and a half to make it to GBNP for our cave tour. That would have been plenty of time had we not used up the half hour and then some on photo stops for elk and snow and vast valleys with long shadows cast by early morning sunshine. Finding ourselves with 40 miles to go in 41 minutes we made it in 35, not bad considering that we encountered several extended sections of black ice which limited us to 50mph or so. Turns out the Subaru is quite comfortable with 80mph and handles 100mph acceptably if given a long enough section of straight, smooth and slightly downhill roadway.
At the Lehman Cave Visitor's Center the ranger was just putting up the flag when we arrived. I was not inclined to believe him at first when he told me they were on Pacific Time and we were an hour early for our cave tour, but that did explain why the clock at the motel in Ely had been an hour slow. We used our extra hour to eat a leisurely breakfast in the sunshine in front of the visitor's center where the snowbanks were just receding from the front lawn and the only clouds in the deep blue sky were hovering over snowy mountains on the horizon 100 miles to the east.
The cave tour was a bit awkward at first. David and I were the only tourists but our guide addressed us as if we were a crowd of 20 rather than 2, proceeding through his presentation despite our comments intended to indicate that we already knew some of this stuff. And we were only half listening anyhow, crouching on the concrete path to brace our cameras for photos of dimly-lit limestone in fantastic formations - columns dripping with stone icicles, shields festooned with stone pendants, globes of stone hanging from the ceiling like inverted onions, thickets of slender stone tubes and multi-branched stalactites with limbs defying gravity in their contortions. To his credit our guide actually knew quite a bit about cave geology and clearly loved his subject. He discussed the phenomenon of cold-temperature calcite recrystallization inside stalactites, something which has always puzzled me, as well as how shields apparently form by extrusion of pressurized carbonate-rich water and straws and helictites by capillary action, and how new food chains are evolving to exploit the carbon smudges left on the cave ceiling by the carbide lamps of 19th century cave explorers.
After a photo stop for a herd of deer as we were leaving the park we headed south on Hwy 21 towards Milford and Beaver, again pursuing a snowstorm which we caught between Beaver and Panguitch. The farther south we drove the snowier the landscape became leading me to wonder what we would encounter around Pariah Canyon. We again stopped for photos all along the way, particularly for birds both north and south of Milford. Birds large and small were attracted to bare ground along the edges of the road. In the last snow-free valley before Milford we had a prairie falcon, a dark-phase Ferruginous Hawk and a Golden Eagle and shortly before Milford we had a pair of Red-tailed Hawks. Just south of town a flock of Western Meadowlarks was foraging on the side of the road and in an adjacent field a colony of ground squirrels had attracted two light-phase Ferruginous Hawks, another Prairie Falcon and another Golden Eagle. Along the way we also tried, unsuccessfully, for photos of Horned Larks and Mountain Bluebirds. I wasn't quite quick enough with the focus. The final photo stop was one I should have made and didn't, for a small group of antelope foraging along and even in the road south of Panguitch. I had to slow way down and honk my horn to persuade the one in the road to move aside - would have been great close-up shots. I figured I'd have another chance but having never seen antelope so close before, I should have known better.
South of Panguitch we finally began to leave the storm behind us but the snowpack continued to increase until we reached the pass north of the turnoff to Zion, 3-4 feet up there and crusty snowfields lingering on shady slopes all the way down to where we stopped for the night, about 7 miles north of Kanab. There we found the ORV track off the east end of the old road and followed it about a third of a mile in before the sand became too soft. We found a campsite there and though it was nearly 6PM, set off to the north across bright orange sand dunes stabilized with juniper, rabbitbrush, oaks and scattered Ponderosa pines. Our objective was Peekaboo canyon, aka Red canyon, a small but colorful slot which runs east-west along the north edge of the dunes. When we hadn't reached the wash in 45 minutes I realized we wouldn't make it so we turned back, reaching the car right at sunset. The evening was cold and breezy so we ate supper in the car, more of the delicious lasagna Susan had sent with us. Thanks to her provisioning and a couple of meals out, we never did have to fire up the stove the whole trip. That was a big help, giving us that much more time to spend out hiking around taking pictures.

03/15/2010 Monday   Coyote Buttes South Our route
Frosty morning with dawn around 6:45 Mountain Daylight Time. We packed up quickly and drove to the Pariah ranger station where we ate breakfast while waiting for the doors to open. About 10 groups were applying for Coyote Buttes North permits; we were assigned number six. At 9:05AM a volunteer ranger spun the wire cage and the first ball she pulled out was #6, so once again, we were in. I thanked Jesus because I'd been talking with him during the night about how I'd been mistaken about the timezone, even though I'd been convinced that I was right, and how I might also be mistaken in my conviction that I'm not saved. Evidently I'm not always correct in my beliefs, and Jesus might be able to do something with that.
The 18.5 mile drive from hwy 89 to the Paw Hole trailhead for Coyote Buttes South was tough. The first 10 miles to the Arizona state line (2 miles past the Wire Pass trailhead) were deeply rutted and often rocky, though fortunately the dirt was hard-packed and only slippery in a few places. The last 2 1/2 miles of soft orange sand after the turn-off to Paw Hole would probably would have been impassable for us were it not firmed up by underlying moisture from winter snow, patches of which still lingered on shady corners.
From the trailhead we poked around the first few deep orange teepees then moseyed north about a quarter mile to the next set of ledges. We couldn't resist scrambling up the first step but it wasn't easy so rather than descend the way we came, we scrambled up the next step, no easier than the first. From there it appeared that one more step would put us on top, but with no guarantee of an easy way of descent we decided to look for another way down instead. We found it on the west side near a pair of striated teepees, skidding down the last 10 feet into a snowbank. About a half mile farther north we found a shady cave in the face of another orange teepee where we ate lunch. After lunch we continued up ledges to a rim. From there I didn't seem much to the north but there did seem to be some red rocks off to the northeast so we headed that direction. We ended up hiking about two miles through sagebrush and juniper before reaching more rock, some red ledges and teepees with a yellowish clump of muffin-topped crags not far beyond. Studying the map later I figured out that we were in the Cottonwood Cove area, but all we knew at the time is that we were a long ways from the car so we didn't explore as far as we'd have liked. We headed back about 2 1/2 hours before sunset and reached the car just as the light became too dim for photos. Other than Side-blotched Lizards, we didn't see any wildlife and only a few birds - Ravens, Pinon Jays and a Townsend's Solitaire up among the rocks and a flock of Mountain Bluebirds, a few Juncos and a Loggerhead? Shrike along the road in. I tried for a photo of the bluebirds but they were restless because of the shrike, which took off in pursuit of one of them as we approached.

03/16/2010 Tuesday   Coyote Buttes North Our route  Photo Gallery
We drove out from Paw Hole at dusk intending to camp at Stateline but we failed to notice the turnoff in the dark so ended up spending the night in the parking lot at Wire Pass. On the way I forgot to stop at a snowbank to replenish the cooler so we unpacked all our food and chilled it overnight in the frost on top of the car. Coyotes serenaded us sometime during the night and at 5:30AM a big pickup roaring by on the road woke us up. By the time the first cars pulled into the parking lot we were all packed up and sitting in the car with the heater running, eating breakfast. We set out for the Wave at sunrise.
Above the two red teepees that the BLM directions reference as landmarks on the way to the Wave, there's a cove enclosed on three sides by weird and wonderful sandstone textures. Daniel and I came across it two years ago on our way back to the car so I took David up there this morning on the way in. It was not far out of our way and well worth the visit.
Continuing south along sloping sandstone slabs, across a ledgy wash and up a sandy gully, we reached the Wave about a half hour after the sun did, and the light was still very good. The pool on the floor was larger than two years ago, better for reflections, but on the other hand the sand in the gully to the right was all tracked out. I didn't think to try to brush it out smooth; fortunately the tracks don't distract much from the stunning patterns and colors of the stone. I took 150 photos in about an hour; going through them all and editing them will probably take days.

After poking around a bit above the Wave (though we missed the Second Wave a hundred meters or so west of the main event), we scrambled up the slope southwest of the wave and crossed above the crack to the arch, where we ate lunch and spied on the hikers taking photos and eating their lunches in the Wave. After lunch we explored further south and west. We found the big bowl with a sand dune in it - that's about 150 meters southwest of the top of the crack above the Wave. We missed the bowl with an arch and a window - I think that might be another 100 meters south and a little east of the sand dune bowl.
Instead we hiked generally south to the head of a big canyon that opens out to the northeast. We considered hiking down it and out towards some red teepees off in the distance but the head of the canyon was a little too steep to descend so we continued south up onto an plateau of irregular white sandstone, descending a bit on the far side into a broad valley of flat striated sandstone, which we followed around to the west. Interesting terrain, nearly flat sandstone ledges with layers dipping at a shallow angle and white or orange teepees scattered about. Eventually we came to the rim of a big wall overlooking the valley which drains out below the Wave. I'd hoped to descend via a nose of smooth red sandstone at the south end of the wall but a 20' section about half way down proved a little too steep. We sat in the shade of a rock near the top of that ridge and ate a bar and a couple of tangerines for the hike back. From somewhere above us I heard kakking like a peregrine, though it seemed a little too hoarse, so I scanned the cliff but found only a golden eagle perched on the very top of the peak.
Hiking back along the rim of the wall, we found several fragments of arrowheads, one nearly complete, made of agate or jasper. We photographed them but left them there. Passing by the sand dune bowl again on our way back, we descended through the Wave again then dropped west into the little canyon, not quite a slot, that runs northeast below the Wave. Following the canyon down we had to straddle potholes several feet across which were filled with sand with a little water on top. David tested the sand and his foot sank instantly; shifting all his weight to his other foot he avoided getting wet but I'll be he'd have sunk at least a foot or two otherwise. Quicksand lurked in two or three of the potholes but after that we managed to avoid it. We hiked up onto the ledges to the left once the canyon opened up and found the dinosaur tracks in the red layer just below the white ledges. Perhaps not definitively of dinosaur origin, they are nonetheless pretty convincing.
Not much wildlife today either - a black bovine along the trail on the way in, several Side-blotched Lizards, Ravens, the Golden Eagle, the possible Peregrine, several Rock Wrens, a pair of Titmice in a bush above the crack (and slightly too furtive for photos) and a flock of Pinon Jays somewhere out there.

03/17/2010 Wednesday   Buckskin Gulch Our route  Photo Gallery
On the way out from Wire Pass, about two miles from hwy 89, we turned right on a side road and found a flat spot to camp about a quarter mile up. Overnight we hung David's pack and clothing on bushes around camp hoping the odor imparted to them yesterday by his poop in a bag would dissipate. He had to go while we were in the Wave and there was no place for it, so we used a couple of ziplock bags in which we'd been carrying our lunch. Later, up on top, I found a somewhat weathered purple fleece pullover and we wrapped the bags in that, but to David's dismay the odor still managed to permeate his pack. This morning his clothes were OK but the pack wasn't quite. We stopped at the BLM ranger station to deposit the bag and I draped the poopy purple pullover on a log in the sun all day while we hiked Buckskin Gulch. It was fine, though still a little sandy, when we returned to the car at dusk.
We stopped in Long Canyon to investigate a cute little slot along the left side of the road. Short, straight and narrow, it wasn't much but it was our first one for the trip so we were pleased. For future reference, the Long Canyon road is the first road which turns south from hwy 89 west of the Pariah River, Not the second, which dead-ends in a local residential area, though a left turn off that second road a block or so south of the highway leads back to the Long Canyon road. We passed more Mountain Bluebirds which were also too skittish for photos on the flats before we entered the canyon. The road to the trailhead wasn't hard to follow - we just stayed on the main drag - but the last mile was soft sand; again I was glad for the 8" clearance in our new Subaru.
We started down from the rim around 10:45 MDT, not exactly the crack of dawn. Pleasant day, sunny and comfortable, the blue sky overhead streaked with jet trails and long narrow alto/cirro-stratus formed from earlier jet trails. The wash is actually an interesting hike in itself with stream-carved sandstone gullies, artistic old Juniper snags and even a flower, a lavender-colored pea. The descent into the canyon was interesting too, and considerably more intimidating than I remembered from two years ago. I didn't find the route Daniel and I followed along the rim of the canyon. David smeared directly down the ledges to the intermediate shelf while I slithered down a foot-wide crack in the sandstone with David below to talk me down over the bottom chockstone. Below that the fun began - downward-sloping ledges covered with loose sand, with a 50 foot fall awaiting if we slipped. I dug sand out of cracks to find a few hand holds and scuffed sand off ledges and hoped my boots would stick. They did, and with a good deal of relief and a slight case of sewing-machine knees we sat down next to muddy Buckskin Creek to put on our waders. The water was opaque pinkish-brown and very cold but nothing a little neoprene couldn't handle. For the most part the stream was only ankle deep and about six feet wide though the water reached mid-thigh level in a few pools and concealed knee-deep quicksand in a few others. The Crocs worked better than I expected. They rarely came off, except in quicksand, and floated right to the surface when they did come off, again except in the quicksand.
The canyon was breathtaking; we made slow progress downstream stopping all the time for photos. We each took several hundred. I carried my tripod and used it for virtually every shot. The quick-release worked great and after a while, I got to the point where I could set up the tripod, attach the camera, frame and take the shot, release the camera and stuff it back into my chest pack and fold up the tripod legs all in less than 30 seconds or so. The main problem I had was figuring out which way was up; there didn't seem to be any consistent indicator of horizontal or vertical unless David was standing in the picture, so on many shots I bracketed for camera angle as well as lighting. He also provided a sense of scale, to show the impressive height of the walls above us.
Absorbed in exploring the canyon we forgot about lunch, then when we finally noticed that we were hungry we couldn't find a sunny spot to stop and eat. The temperature in the deeper shady sections of the canyon wasn't much above 40F and we were a little too chilled to stop in the shade. We continued hiking down the canyon for nearly an hour, passing our lunch spot from two years ago which had been sunny then but was now in the shade, before we found a sunny rock to sit on. I put down my pack then went to set up the camera with self-timer for a photo of the two of us, and by the time I had everything set up and the picture taken, my seat was already in the shade. We were just finishing our cookies, the delicious oatmeal-raisin cookies Susan made for our trip, when we lost the sunshine entirely.
David and I also continued down the canyon after lunch. The canyon became generally deeper and darker the farther down we hiked. I set a turnaround time of 4PM, then extended it a half hour before we actually turned around. I couldn't recognize my turnaround from last time but I'm pretty sure we were farther down the canyon than last time. I also wasn't able to recognize the spot where I took my favorite shot from our last trip. I don't think the canyon was much different but we were there a little later in the day, which made a big difference in how particular places in the canyon were illuminated.
Once we turned around we hiked steadily back up the canyon with only brief photo stops. The light was different on the way back, more pink and red, and almost no direct sunlight. I realized that I'd forgotten flashlights and I wanted to be sure to get out of the canyon before dark. It took us almost two hours to get back to the Middle Route crossing where we'd entered the canyon, about 4 1/2 miles I think. We swapped hiking boots for waders and scrambled up onto the rim just in time to see the sun before it set. We reached the car around dusk and drove to Page in the dark. Thanks to the time change we sat down for dinner in a Mexican restaurant in Page at about 7PM, the same time by the clock that we'd left the trailhead back in Utah.

03/18/2010 Thursday Page, AZ
For today, our last full day before we had to head home, we had three locations left that I wanted to visit - Lower Antelope Canyon, Upper Antelope Canyon, and Water Holes canyon. We decided to see if we could get a permit for Water Holes first, then check out Lower Antelope and maybe Upper Antelope, then try Water Holes if we had time. We drove out to LeChee pronounced "hle-chi'ee" according to the Navajo woman at the LeChee senior center) but the Navajo parks office in the white trailer behind the pink stucco building was closed. The woman at the senior center gave us a couple of phone numbers to try but no-one answered, so we drove back to Lower Antelope Canyon.

Lower Antelope Canyon Photo Gallery
Lower and Upper Antelope Canyons are both commercial sites on the Navajo Reservation just east of Page along Hwy 98. From "downtown" Page take Lake Powell Blvd around to Coppermine Road then turn left on hwy 98 at the bottom of the hill. Or drive a mile or two south of Page on hwy 89 and turn left onto 98. Shortly after crossing the bridge over Antelope Wash and before the power plant turn right into the parking area for Upper Antelope or left, and left again, for the parking area for Lower Antelope. Both canyons are accessible only via guided tours which cost $25 per person (plus a $6/person hiking permit fee) and start at the respective parking areas. Upper Antelope requires a jeep ride up the wash so the tours are somewhat more structured, though once in the canyon it is not difficult to "lose" your tour group. For Lower Antelope you just walk in from the parking lot. Because I was carrying a tripod, David and I received a "photographer's permit" for Lower Antelope which enabled us to stay in the canyon for up to 4 hours. We used 3 of them.
Lower Antelope isn't much of a hike. We paid our $62 and received our photographer tags, then followed our guide, a young Navajo man of indeterminate age down into the wash, across a ledge with a dinosaur track in it, then into a sinuous crack about a foot wide in a flat sandstone ledge at the apparent end of the wash. We lost the rest of our group, a family with a couple of young kids, as soon as we stopped for photos. We came across our guide again an hour or two later and talked with him a bit. Giving tours in Antelope Canyon is a sideline; his main job is welding pipes for the renovation of the middle generator at the powerplant, which explained why no smoke was coming out of middle stack this morning. He told us he'd worked all night and had welded 120 pipes, and in fact had been working for almost 36 hours straight, two 12-hour shifts of his own plus another 12-hour shift in between when he'd filled in for a friend. He explained that by the time the renovation is complete in a couple of years he hoped to have made enough money to retire. That surprised us because we'd guessed his age at about 25. We wondered what he would do after he retired but didn't ask. He was heading home to go to bed until his next shift began this evening. We tipped him $10 towards his retirement, having asked another guide if tips were appropriate.
The photography was trickier than I remembered. On our previous visit I'd been using a Panasonic point-and-shoot without doing anything special with the settings. While the colors in my photos from that trip were stunning, I'd been a little frustrated with high noise levels and the inability to control depth of field. One of the big factors in my decision to buy a DSLR was my plan to return to Lower Antelope Canyon with equipment to match the subject but once in the canyon again, I had trouble getting the settings right on the more complicated equipment. White balance was particularly challenging - "Auto" assumed that the shaded orange walls were neutral gray, leaving orange only in places with strong reflected color. "Sunlight" on the other hand put everything in shades of reddish-brown, accurate but not nearly as beautiful as the rainbow of hues ranging from purple to yellow in the photos from the point-and-shoot. After a while I found another photographer to compare settings with; he was using a D3 I think, and his photos had a beautiful range of deep reds and yellows which I couldn't seem to capture regardless of which WB setting I used. In the end I settled for switching between "Sunlight" and "Auto" with a smattering of more exotic settings thrown in for variety. The photographer I compared notes with was also using long exposures, achieved by stopping the lens way down and using a very low ISO, so towards the end I tried that approach with unfortunate results. It turns out that the 18-105 DX lens has problems with flare at high f-stops. When I shot at f18 and above with a strong highlight in or near the frame, the images were ruined by small pale circles which increased in frequency and decreased in size as the f-stop increased. A shot which would have no discernible flare at f11 or f13 would be littered with pale spots at f22. Unfortunately I didn't figure out the cause of the spots until later, and as a result ruined probably a third of my photos, particularly in the upper canyon where I used high f-stops almost exclusively. And using long exposures didn't even seem to make much difference with color saturation either, though I need to experiment a little more with that. The tripod and ballhead, on the other hand, were again terrific. I could achieve any angle I wanted quickly and easily. The ballhead held the camera perfectly stable and the quick-release meant that I could pack up and move, or re-orient the camera from horizontal to vertical, in a flash.
Having found my photos from last time somewhat cluttered, I looked for simpler compositions this time. Inspecting them on the camera viewfinder I was somewhat disappointed but once I got them onto the computer, I was much happier with the results.

Upper Antelope Canyon Photo Gallery
In a state of aesthetic fatigue after three hours in Lower Antelope Canyon, we drove across the street and signed up for a tour of Upper Antelope Canyon. With two couples from Texas and a young man from Norway we piled into the canopied bed of something like a pickup truck and rode up the wash with our tour guide from Antelope Canyon Navajo Tours. I recalled his name as Mike but the card he gave me says Dalvin Etsitty 928-698-3384. Except while he was actually driving us up and and down the sandy wash, Mike/Dalvin kept us entertained with a nonstop narrative of facts and stories about the canyon, the area and tribal history, politics and lore. Engaged in looking for photos, I didn't pay much attention to his patter and at times even found it annoying; I wanted to be experiencing the canyon itself rather than standing outside the entrance listening to our guide tell tall tales. Our time in the canyon was too brief as it was. At one point Mike/Dalvin offered to help me with the settings on the camera; after a couple of minutes of frenetic button pushing, he handed the camera back to me. Manual mode, sunlight white balance, extra low ISO and high f-stop was essentially what he set up. I didn't do very well with it. Due to the high f-stops lots of shots were littered with flare spots, and due to the very long exposures, many of the others were blurred. I think maybe I didn't tighten down the ballhead enough. For future reference, next time I would use ISO 200, Manual mode, Sunlight white balance, f11 and 2-second self timer, and of course, tight down the ballhead so the lens didn't move during the resulting 1/4 - 2 second exposures.
The canyon itself is more open and spacious inside and much darker than Lower Antelope. Fluted walls of dark reddish sandstone rise directly from a flat sandy floor then close in overhead allowing, during midday from spring to fall, a few beams of sunlight to reach down inside. Reflected light echoes in hot orange, red and yellow hues on the walls high overhead. It was truly an awe-inspiring place, less massive than Buckskin Gulch but incredibly beautiful. It was crowded though. Clumps of people, many lugging tripods and photo gear, huddled around guides who were pointing out each highlight and viewpoint.
One of the guides was playing a flute of some kind, instrusive but at least more fitting than the rock guitar one of the guides in the lower canyon had been playing for a while during our visit this morning. Our guide had whimsical, even silly, names for the different formations he pointed out - an approach which seemed to fall short of the reverence with which the Native Peoples supposedly approach this amazing natural wonder. We lagged behind our group and no-one seemed to mind but we figured we'd better catch up with them at the end, so as not to be left behind. Next time though, I would do my best to lose the group and arrange to be left behind, as did our Norwegian fellow passenger on the ride in. He was an interesting character, coming to Arizona for a month or so every couple of years to explore slot canyons solo. He'd lost all his gear the previous week in the big slot in Zion NP. He'd tossed it across the narrow canyon and slightly upstream intending to swim across (wearing a drysuit) after it but found himself unable to overcome the current to get up to his gear. So he left it there and hiked out to get new gear, explaining "that's what Walmarts are for".

Water Holes Canyon  Our route  Photo Gallery
When I told our guide about our desire to hike Water Holes canyon and our lack of a permit he told us "Just go hike up it and if you see a ranger, pay him the permit fee." That sounded good to us so we drove down there, following 89 west past Page to 98, then south a few miles to park on the left side just north of the bridge. The parking area was fenced and gated with a big weathered sign which stated "Entry without permission is a violation of tribal and federal law" or some such thing. Moreover the gate was padlocked, but the lock was open and several cars were already parked inside, so we opened the gate and pulled in too. I checked the windshields of the other cars, at least one of which was from out of state, and saw no permits so I figured we wouldn't attract any attention. Not until we were hiking back down the canyon around sunset did it occur to me that we would be the last ones out, and we might find the gate locked with our car inside, or worse, with our car towed away. I prayed about that but didn't share my worry with David. He'd find out soon enough.
I anticipated a quick 3-mile hike up to the slot. It turned out to be more like 4 1/2 and almost all in sand, so not quick either. Clouds were beginning to build but the sky was still mostly clear overhead and we were almost hot for the first time in our whole trip. It took us about an hour and a half to reach the entrance to the slot. We set out overland for the powerline, followed a track along the line to the wash then followed a highway of ORV tracks up the wash to the slot entrance. That was fairly impressive, about a quarter mile long with a sandy floor most of its length like Upper Antelope but narrow, sinuous and fluted like Lower Antelope. I'd guess it was about 100' deep at the deepest point though the first part was only 30' or so deep. Had the sun been high in the sky I think the colors would have been very nice but at 4:30 in the afternoon only the top of the rim was still sunlit. Not only were the colors subdued but one corner in the slot was so dark we had to feel our way around it.
The first slot opened up into a wash again but after about a quarter mile we came to a dry pothole falls about 10 feet high. David managed to scramble around above it but I didn't quite dare follow him. By hiking up around to the left there was a place to drop into the canyon above the falls but it too was steeper than I wanted to tackle late in the day. David scrambled out that way after exploring a short ways up one of the branches. The right branch is apparently the one to take; it extends for some distance and is very narrow in places, according to The American Southwest website.
On the way out we hiked along the rim of the upper slot canyon section. That was a little spooky; from above the slot is a black crevasse in the weathered sandstone, narrow enough to jump across in many places though I didn't dare try. Just thinking about still tweaks my innards. David was bold enough to sit on a point of rock over the chasm; the photo doesn't manage to convey how scary that was. Once past the slot we had a long hike out. We ate tangerines and cookies as we walked, and stopped for photographs when the sun emerged to light up the cliffs not long before sunset. Below the powerline we started down the middle section of the slot but when we reached the impassable dry fall we scrambled out on the left and followed ledges along the rim back to the car. As I expected we were the only car left in the parking area, but much to my relief, the gate was still unlocked. About a mile down the road, I noticed a fluttering on the windshield, a note under the wiper. It was from the ranger asking that we lock the gate on our way out so we returned and did so. With gratitude to Jesus and the Navajo ranger.

3/19/2010 Friday   Kanab to Twin Falls (Coral Pink Sand Dunes)  
Though I would have liked to stay another night and hike back up Water Holes canyon, that trip really needs a full day and we'd have had to leave by early afternoon, and then drive 24 hours straight to get back in time for the CWA charity auction Saturday evening, so instead we started home. We didn't even stop at a Mexican restaurant in Page for supper. Instead we made camp off the road down to Coral Pink Sand Dunes state park a few miles north of Kanab. Someone has plowed a bunch of roads back into the juniper woods, apparently to cut some junipers, and we found a comfortable spot to camp along one of them. Rather than cook we ate the last of the food Susan sent with us, baked beets and hommous and cookies, brushed our teeth outside in the cold and dark for the last time and slept well on beds of sand that I leveled with our snow shovel.
In the morning we packed up soon after sunrise and drove down to the dunes for breakfast, granola in our warm car in the sunshine. Outside a stiff northeasterly breeze was blowing but we went out for a short hike on the dunes anyhow. It was cold so we didn't stay out long. Nice light and interesting patterns in the blowing sand.
We left the dunes around 9AM MDT and drove north to 89, then north on 89 to 14 which we followed over the mountains still buried in snow. About 10 miles before Cedar City We passed a flock of wild turkeys but by the time we turned around and got the camera ready, they'd vanished into the bushes. We had better luck with a Ferruginous Hawk a half hour south of Baker and a male Northern Harrier outside of Ely, where we stopped for a late lunch. Sunset caught up to us not far south of Twin Falls. We considered stopping at the Oregon Trail agates site again but would have had to leave there by sunrise so we just kept driving instead. On the way down David had been tired and I'd done most of the driving but from Twin Falls home, David did much of the driving while I slept. I think we got home around 9AM but I don't remember much from the last 12 hours of our trip.