A Visit To Oregon - Newport, Lincoln and more

We'll be here all week!

Tetons, Golden Eagle, Sandhill Crane, Moose, Etc.

This is where we were.

This is what we came to find.

The next few images are some of what we found.

Then a story.

While tracking the Grizzly Bear, there were some SandHill Cranes

in a marsh area in the forest. One of the Cranes started flying

toward us so I was trying to get the camera up and turned on.

There was a very loud sound coming from behind us that

sounded like a small jet. It was a Golden Eagle stooping down

and turning to get the Crane. It all startled me and I took the

camera down, looked at what was happening and then took

the following images. The camera was set to focus only on the

middle of the view and on one shot. I managed to get off a few

shots in the second that transpired next.

The Eagle chased and hit the Crane but ultimately the Crane got

away and the Eagle went hungry. We were left in the silence

of what had just happened just feet in front of us.

The images are outof focus.... rats.

Neither bird was in the middle.

---------------------------------------------------



And, then we had to come home.
:( 

More Things I have learned...

I learned that in the spring when you see a Canadian goose nest you have to get closer to that nest to see what is in it. I learned that if you stand in the nest to see the goslings, which have just barely hatched, a little closer the parents do not like it. At first they just flap around and make a lot of noise, and then they attack. If you are only about 12 years old and not very tall they are intimidating. They will corner you, bite at you with their beaks, fly at you and beat you with their wings. They will be relentless at protecting their young and you will finally get away with various bruises and sore spots all over your body and head. They will also chase you out of the field before coming back to check on their young. You will go home a little sore but the pain is worth the closer look at nature.




I learned that when (12-13?) you are climbing a very steep side hill in the mountains east of Hyde Park and the snow around you starts to break into big slabs and slide down that even though it seems cool and fun and you keep kicking at the snow to make it do more, it is very dangerous and is often called an avalanche. Avalanches kill people. I was lucky. I learned and understood that later that year.



I learned as a young boy (six or seven) that when the older boy up the street gives you a horse shoe, turns you backward away from the US Post office, lines you up and then says throw it over your right shoulder as far as you can that something is going to go wrong. He said it brought good luck, it did not. I learned that the next sound you may hear is that of the horseshoe entering the Post office through the hole it just made in the glass. Breaking glass is not a soothing sound, even as a kid.



I learned as a very young kid “helping” to haul hay that the mice under the bales, even though they look soft, cute and like they want to be your pet will bite your hand and it hurts.

More to be continued...

Things I Have Learned In Life

Things I Have Learned In Life

by: Dale (ME)

 

 

I once learned, as a kid, that you can only hold two Magpie eggs in your mouth to bring them down from the nest. Three requires that one break. Don’t ask me how I know.

 

            As a new driver, I learned that while coming home from work (1 am)  you never turn off of the highway to an icy dirt road. If you do, never take your eyes off the road while trying to shift the 1974 Bronco your father owns into four wheel drive. You may end up nose down in a ditch with no wheels touching the ground. You may have to thumb a ride home, wake your father and confess to wrecking his Bronco and then meet a highway patrolman at the scene. Don’t ask me how I know.

 

            I once learned (age 6-9?) that when leading your sister to see the bran new kittens in the neighbors’ barn that you should go around the manure pit. Yes, the manure is crusty and it holds you up to walk across it but, your sister is older and weighs a little bit more than you. The crust on the top of the manure pit does not hold her up.

 

            As a young Boy Scout I learned that when you build a camp fire in dry grass in the bottom of a narrow and steep hollow and the wind starts to blow the fire WILL leave the rock circle and burn up the side of the hill at an extremely fast pace. Don’t ask me how I know.

 

            As a 12 year old Boy Scout at Camp Wilderness, I learned that after a campfire put on by the camp staff you may feel tears in your eyes as they play taps at the fire, it is repeated from a hill a ways away and then repeated again somewhere far off in the dark. But you still hide it. On this same camp I learned that after climbing to the top of the mountain to see into the Cache Valley (this mountain is east of Preston Id.) expecting to see the fireworks on the fourth of July that they are not as big as you expected. Just little colored “blips” way off in the distance. It was very disappointing to my young mind as I had expected it to be similar to being there under the fireworks.

 

            The next year at Camp Hunt on Bear Lake I learned that if you take a blue and red magic marker with you to camp you can skip the swim test in the cold water and just mark your swim tag later as “Swimmer” No that is not acceptable. Neither was stealing a fork from the kitchen, tying it to a long stick to make a spear and then checking out a canoe, leaving the bounds of the camp and spearing a very large Carp. I did turn the carp in to staff and won the Big Fish Contest at the last night of camp. I felt better about it then. Still was not right.

 

            I learned that if you ride your bike down a seldom used dirt road that you need to watch out for a single strand of barbed wire that will catch your front tire, flip up and catch you on the nose at eye level. This will in turn stop your forward motion, tear you from the seat of the bike and help you to land on your back and hit your head. Since you don’t know what time it was before the accident, you don’t know how long you lay unconscious

 

I learned that when riding a snowmobile east of Hyde Park in the fields that some of the fences are covered just enough for the top strand of wire to catch the skis of your snowmobile. This tends to stop the snowmobile quite quickly launching you into the air.

 

To be continued...

Images from the weekend.

Utah Tundra Swan Migration

If you want more information go to:

http://wildlife.utah.gov/publications/pdf/tundra_swan.pdf

 

Some 60,000 Tundra Swans migrate through this

area every spring and fall.

We went to see the event yesterday (Sat)

 

 

Mr. Big Deer

 Mr Big Deer honored us

with a visit on this rainy

Sunday afternoon.

Another Teton Trip to change Art Galleries

The above are a few images from a trip

my wife and I took to the Tetons

Jan 11-12 2013

We were there to change art galleries

where her art is hanging and for sale.

She is now located in HORIZONS.

http://www.horizonfineartgallery.com/

Horizon Fine Art Gallery

(307) 739-1540 • horizonfineart@wyoming.com
30 King Street, Jackson Hole, Wyoming 83001
Some of her work can be viewed on their web site.

More at:

www.kathyashcroft.com
www.kathyashcroft.blogspot.com

Images from the back porch...

Found this guy on the back porch

yesterday evening.

It would have been nicer to have an

hour or so in the mountains with a 

natural background.

Great Grey Owl

After many years of trying to

get some good images of a

Great Grey Owl

finally got the chance!

Reunite on the top of Mount. Logan

Three former teenage friends reunite on the top of Mount. Logan.

(9710 feet above sea level)

It seems they are no longer teenagers in body

but the mind would like them to think they are still young.

--------------------------------------

“The reason people can’t be happy

is that they always see:

The past better than it was,

The present worse than it is,

and the future less resolved than it will be.”

-unknown

--------------------------------------

Logan Canyon, Mountain Stream, Help me with information...

Blogger tells me that my free use of their site "Picasa" is full.

There is no more room for images, these are the last.

I don't really want to pay for more storage,

I do not use their storage for backup just hosting

for this blog.

I can't figure out how to erase images now stored.

They don't owe me anything, it was free after all.

I don't want to quit or start a new blog.

I am open to suggestion and education.

1,675 miles 'till home

RED line shows the approximate route of the trip.
Click on image to make it bigger.

 It was a good week for a Motorcycle ride.



  Light morning rain as we left and sunshine the rest of the time.

Moments befor leaving...

On the morning of April 20 2012 at 6:30 am I got on my 'Shadow'

and headed for Hyrum, Ut to pick up a couple of friends, Curtis and Amos.

Sometime around 7:30 we headed out.

Brigham - Salt Lake City - Orem and then up Spanish Fork Canyon.

Near Thistle, Ut we headed south down HWY 89 - Manti - Gunnison -

Salina - Richfield. We camped the first night near Panguitch, Ut.

First nights camping area.



Was adopted by the camp cat

The next morning April 21 we got up and headed out. Panguitch -

Knab - Fredonia, Az - Jacob Lake - Navajo Bridge 

Jacob Lake

Navajo Bridge

Cameron Az and then to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon and Old Fat Guy...

We then rode to Williams Az. and Camped





Williams Az KOA campground

Next morning Interstate 40 to Flagstaff - up 89 to Cameron -

160 through Tuba City - Kayenta and off to Four Corners.

Four Corners

leaving Four Corners - continuing on 160 to Cortez, Colorado.



Cortez, Co KOA campground

The next morning we headed towards Durango, Colorado

Durango to Silverton Historic railroad

We then traveled through the Rockies

Silverton, Co in the background

We continued along the "Million Dollar Highway" -

Grand Junction, Co - Freeway I 70 to Green River, Utah.



Last night camping, Green River KOA campground



The next morning we headed home :(

191 to Price, Ut - Helper - Duchesne and then 40 to Heber -

Interstate 80 - Morgan - Ogden - Brigham - Logan - Hyde Park.

1,675 PLUS miles from start to finish.

Great "Old Guys Rule" vacation!

(all images were with a small point and shoot camera

because I did not have room for my 'real' camera)