Is winter season over in SWPA?

There's still ice at Upper Meadow.

If you don't mind it being a little detached.

Here's what's left of the Schoolyard climbs.

The warm weather sure has put a hurting on our local ice. The winter season has ended for most local tool swinging folks, but Laura and I have been making the most of the ice still left. The recent below freezing temps and snowfall has helped to prolong our climbing just a bit. We thought all hope was lost, but low and behold we squeezed in a few more days of winter climbing since my last post. We spent a few days at Lower Meadow Run in Ohiopyle. Up until yesterday most of the mixed lines were still climbable. Many of the lines are running with a lot of water. Anger Management was in great condition and offered great dry tooling up to the plastic ice at the finish. We managed to climb Season Finale via the direct ice start in the AM only to see most of it come down by afternoon. Yesterday was the last day we climbed. There may be a little left, but I wouldn't expect much. If you're like us and don't want to hang up the tools just yet, get dry tooling. We've got plenty of great choss climbing around to keep your forearms pumped until next season.

Temple Crag and Third Lake

I hiked to this lake back in July. The area around Big Pine and Bishop (California) is awesome. So many lakes and high mountains...

This body of water, Third Lake, is fed by meltwater from the Palisade Glacier, one of the southern-most glaciers in the United States.

Symbolic Cycling in Films

I watched two films over the past week, and it so happens that both not only featured scenes with bicycles, but used these scenes in a similar manner.

Therese and Isabelle is a black and white film c. 1968 based on the novel by Violet Leduc. It is a coming-of-age story about a doomed love affair between two girls at a French boarding school. In the first half of the film, there is a scene where the girls are cycling along an endless tree-lined alley and laughing. (Not that it matters in the context of the film, but they are riding beautiful mixtes with hammered fenders and dynamo lighting.) This is probably the happiest and most idyllic point of the film - where joy, freedom, and limitless possibilities are the dominant themes. Later it all ends badly, but the cycling scene is the antithesis of the tragic ending.

The Sheltering Sky is a 1990 Bertolucci film starring John Malkovich, based on the novel by Paul Bowles. It is about an aristocratic composer and his beautiful wife, who aimlessly travel around North Africa while trying to overcome complex marital difficulties. This film too ends badly. But before things go downhill, there is a bicycle scene - where the husband and wife are traveling through a stretch of the Sahara on his and hers Roadsters, with cream tires and rod brakes. Unlike any of the other trips they take together, this one is infused with positive emotion and hope for a future.

Though the two films could not be more different from one another, the bicycle plays the same symbolic role in both: representing hope, joy, freedom, and simplicity. At the same time, in both films the bicycle is also used as a symbol of the unsustainable. "It is not possible for things to stay this good," the cycling scenes suggest, thereby foreshadowing an eventual tragic ending. In order for these associations to work as cinematic tools - which in both films they do - there has to be a deeply ingrained cultural perception of the bicycle as a symbol of escapism and wishful thinking; the bicycle is something that is incompatible with "real life". And this to me was very interesting to notice. Something to think about, at least.

Oklahoma Wild Flowers

Tuesday, April 12th - - Alongside US highway 70 in Southeastern Oklahoma. These were about an inch or so in diameter. If you look closely, you can see a bumble bee in the center of the picture. It is in between one of the blue and the red flowers. (Double-click the photo to view a larger version.)

Pigeon River Otters

Jessica and I were kayaking on the Pigeon River the other day when we had an incredibly fun experience with an Otter family! We were exploring the small islands in the wide part of the river just downstream from the rapids below High Falls. Jessica was paddling ahead of me and I was looking down a channel between two of the islands when I heard Jessica say in a loud whisper "There's otters right over there!" I looked and sure enough, not more than 25 feet off the bow of her kayak, a family of otters wasswimming around against the bank along the side of the river. I slowly paddled over to get a closer look. They didn't seem bothered by us at all, probably because they are used to boats in this section of the river (it is a popular area for local fishermen). We watched them for a minute or two then realized that there was one otter that was a lot smaller than the others. The little one was adorable as he/she bobbed up and down in the water, trying to get a better look at us. We enjoyed their company for about another 10 minutes then they all swam off down one of the channels in between the islands. We were glowing from the experience as we paddled back to the boat landing :-)

Blue Morning Glories

Boone Hall Plantation

I just so happened to read about this place on another FOTR's blog. I'm so glad I did because this was one of the most interesting places we have visited so far! Boone Hall is a working plantation and is the oldest continuous working plantation in the US.

We took a tour of the lower level of the "big house". The owners still use the upper levels of the house. The house was built in 1936. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The tour guide was dressed in costume and was very friendly and interesting. The TV series North and South with Patrick Swayze was filed here. The movies Queen with Halle Berry and The Notebook were filmed here also.

The next thing you can visit is the row of slave cabins. They date back to 1790-1810 and are mostly in their original state. These were only some of the slave houses and would have been the workers that held more important positions. The houses were built with bricks that were made here and were evidence of the slaves' skills. Some of the bricks still have the handprints from their makers.



As you move through the cabins, each one represents one aspect of the slaves' lives. There are audio presentations to share the information.

Some of the crafts were on display. On top of that, a woman was there making some of the sweetgrass baskets.



The grounds are just gorgeous with gardens and trees everywhere.

We took an open air coach ride to see the fields that are still in operation.

Our favorite thing by far was learning about the Gullah culture. We first heard the word "Gullah" when we listened to the audiobook "The Mermaid Chair" together. We were honored to sit and listen to Carolyn "Jabulile" White, who grew up on the sea islands.



"Jabulile" has travelled to South Africa with the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program Travel Study Seminar for PEace. While there she was given the Zulu name "Jabulile" meaning Happiness and this is what she hopes to pass on thru her stories.



She learned the art of Gullah storytelling from her parents and grand parents. "Jabulile" thought it is only natural that she should sheare these stories with the people in her community, especially the children. She speaks fluent Gullah when telling her stories using Island-dialect just as she heard them on the Island as a child. She tells her stories with the same humor of the old stories told on the Plantations.



If you are in the area, I highly recommend visiting this place. Very interesting history here and it's done in a way that truly makes it come alive!



Living the life in sunny South Carolina!