Spry Canyon Trip --Zion's

For those of you who have never repelled a canyon in Zion's you need to know there is more effort than just showing up and going where you want when you want. The park is very particular how many individuals are allowed to do a canyon each day. For Spry the offer 10 permits per day. There are two locations you can go to get permits. At Zion's main lodge on the south west enterance and in Cedar City. This is no simple go and get what you want. It requires you to stand in line and hope all the people that decided to get up earlier than you aren't wanting permits for the same canyon. The main office opens at 8am. I decided to leave my Kanab at 3am which would cause me to arrive at 4 in Zion's to sit and wait. my intention was to get permits for Pine Creek, a canyon I had done twice. My friend Evan had only been down one canyon and that was key hole a few weeks prior with me. Shanna and Danny this would be their first time. Pine Creek was a good starter and I knew the canyon therefore I could pay more attention to them than where I was going and each repel. Unfortunately there was a gal who showed up at midnight to be in line to acquire all 12 permits for that canyon. i didn't want Evan to have to do the same canyon again so i decided to go for Spry. I was freaked out! 1- I didn't know the approach. 2- never been down the canyon so didn't know what to expect. 3- I was taking beginners...what I quickly learned in canyoneering terms are called 'Newbs'- short of new-bees. after purchasing the permits I was given a canyoneering book from the ranger to study the approach and rout. a guy who was behind me in line...we had been talking throughout the morning...asked what I got. I told him Spry. Luke gave me a website to look up when i got home that he thought would be of great help. http://www.bluugnome.com I looked it up and quickly recognized the name and face of the webmaster for the website. Luke. it was amazing!!!! there were GPS coordinates and pictures for the entire approach, each repel and written explanations also. I was no longer nervous; in fact I felt very prepared after studying everything he offered about the canyon. Then the adventure began!





This is a map of the entire canyon

Time Required - 5 to 7 hours

Distance - 2.9 miles Total, 1.3 miles Technical

Rappels - 11 Rappels, Longest Rappel 190 feet.

Evan, Danny and Shanna standing at the mouth of Spry Canyon after the steep 1.5 mile assent.September 26,

Evan being bold...first person down the 1st Repel (190 ft.)

Shanna going second. You can see the spec of Evanbelow. Shanna decided to go right ending up pengeleming back across...she was thankful for the helmet!



2nd Repel (40 ft.)









-No pics of 3rd Repel





4th Repel (50 ft.)



free hanging















5th Repel (90 ft.)




















Video of my repel

-no pics of 6th Repel (100 ft.)





7th Repel (20 ft.)



Shanna really really wanted to be the first one down this repel...for good reasons it was the last time she was allowed to do so!



Evan showing off is Muscles





and his self cut fro-hawk










Video of Evans repel





8th Repel (50ft)















9th & 10th Repel (over 350 ft had to tie 2 ropes together to do both)





Looking up at the beginning of the 9th repel from the

second platform you repel from the 10th.



Evan



Shanna



Danny





The night ended with one more repel 200 ft. The a huge boulder field to be conquered in the dark! when it was all said and done we had started at 9 and finished at nine; a 12 hour ordeal! five hours longer than expected...but I did have three 'newbs'. The trip was awesome! I would do it again with these three. I was grateful to the Lord we made it through the canyon with no injuries.

Thanks a million to Luke @ for making my canyoneering trip safe, comfortable and a success!

Response email from Luke:

Hey there Erin:

Thank you. That gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. :) When I hear that

someone gets use out of what I am doing it just plain feels good and keeps

me motivated.



Glad your trip went well. Sounds like you had a blast after you got going!

Also that was pretty cool of you to wait for the guys behind you to see if

they were ok.



Thank you again for taking the time to write. It really does make me feel

maintaining the website is a worthwhile endeavor. :)

Luke

Purisima Creek Redwoods

I hope you guys don't mind another redwood shot...

This was at Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve near Half Moon Bay, California. Just 30 minutes before taking this shot, I had been at the site of some of the largest waves in the world, the Mavericks.

A short drive up the road led to this park. I never cease to be amazed at the sheer diversity of environs in California.

I Love Clouds

Out of all the things there are to love about living in Florida, from the time we first moved here at the top of my list right under: Ocean/Beaches and then: Warm Weather are: The Clouds.



I don't know what it is about the clouds that capture my heart so much but they just do.



We will be driving along, looking at many beautiful things and I will say over and over again, look at the clouds. Aren't they incredible? The look like cotton candy fluffs that you could just reach up and grab. Like I'm five years old or something.



Then I get home and I am editing pictures and again, all I can see is clouds. And I fall in love again.



If I had a theme song, it would not be Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It would be something along the lines of Somewhere In the Clouds. Because it just seems to me that is a peaceful place to be.



I guess it is the same reason we lie on our backs as children and try to figure out what objects they most resemble. It is somehow where heaven and earth meet each other in our minds. Whatever the reason, they are lovely to look at and I'm grateful we have them here almost every single day.



Living the life in sunny Florida!

America's Vintage Bike Capital?

I wonder whether there is a way to get some official acknowledgement naming Boston the vintage bicycle capital of the USA. Because the sorts of bicycles we see here - and take for granted - during our daily travels, are not to be believed. Restored 50-year-old roadsters casually locked up outside office buildings, ancient step-throughs with exotic headbadges and enormous baskets, vintage folders of unknown manufacture used as canine transport - these are just some of the bicycles I see every day as I make my way through the city. Normally, I have no time to stop and photograph even a small fraction of it all, but today the Co-Habitant was with me and a couple of the bikes absolutely required documentation.



Just so you understand, this all-original 1950's Raleigh Sports with front and rear dynamo lights and original white Raleigh grips(!) is actually someone's commuter.



Secured with a U-lock to a bike rack outside a small local university, it looked so natural amidst the mixed crowd of other bikes, including a fully lugged Specialized and a couple of Peugeot mixtes.



The headlight and tail light seemed functional. These must provide sufficient lighting for the owner's commute, as there were no other lights attached to the bike. Anybody know how powerful they are?



But exciting as it was to see the beautiful vintage Raleigh, it paled in comparison to what we stumbled upon next.Yes, that is my Gazelle, Linda, parked next to... another vintage loop-frame Gazelle.



What are the chances? Unlike Raleigh 3-speeds, Gazelle "Oma" bicycles of this vintage were never imported into the USA and were never sold here.



Both my bicycle, and the bicycle next to it, have stickers indicating that they were purchased in Germany (not in the same shop or even the same town). And the (yet another) vintage Gazelle I spotted nearby a year ago, had a Dutch shop sticker on it.The bicycles' owners must have at some point brought them on the plane when moving to Boston, probably for grad school or for post-doctoral positions.



Seeing the other Gazelleand remembering the third one I spotted earlier, made me wonder whether they still belong to the same owners who brought them over from Germany and Holland. Either way, those bikes must have been dearly loved, at least at the time. Transporting a 50lb bicycle on an airplane could not have been easy!



Overall, my Linda was in nicer condition than her neighbour, but one thing that evoked her envy was this mudflap on the other lady. Now she is asking me to get one for her, too. I think a leather one (possibly hand-made?) would go well with her saddle and grips, but I am curious whether these Gazelle proprietary flaps are still sold today. Also, they seem to be attached by a bracket that does not necessitate drilling the fender, but makes use of the existing holes for the stays, which seems like a fairly easy installation method.



I think that to spot several bicycles like this in an American city is highly improbable. Surely it is proof that Boston is the vintage bike capital? If you have a better story about your city, bring it on!

Glowing Clouds over McFarland Lake

After making the "Celestial Fantasy" photo I continued driving up the Arrowhead Trail until I arrived at the swimming beach on McFarland Lake, which is one of the best places in Cook County (in my opinion) to watch the northern lights. This beach has a great view to the north and the lake is often very calm at night, which means you can get great reflections of the lights in the water. Unfortunately when I arrived at the lake the sky was still completely covered with clouds. I hung around here for almost two hours hoping the sky would clear, but it never did. Several times, however, the cloud cover got thin enough that the glow from the lights could be seen even through the clouds. This particular photo is from one of those times when the clouds were thinner. It is my favorite photo made during my time at the lake waiting for the sky to clear.