Birds

I got up early this morning to see if I could get any pictures of birds. I went down towards the Arizona Trail where there is a reclaimed water marsh/pond. I got a few nice pics, but mostly the birds were hiding in the plants or too far away.

I did see some cool baby coot-chicks hiding in the reeds. There were ducklings too, but their parents herded  them away from me.

coot chick hiding in the reeds

The red-wing blackbirds were busy singing and posing.

A few herons were hunting. One stuck around longer than the others though.

heron

There were some nice flowers too, but the wind made photography difficult.

golden columbine

Annular Eclipse viewing

Dawn watches the moon block the sun

Today I went w/ Dawn and Raechel out to Wupatki NM to watch the annular eclipse. Evidently some other people had the same idea and as we approached the visitor center the road became a parking lot. We turned off to Wukoki ruins and watched from there along with a much smaller and more pleasant group of people. One couple had a telescope set up that had enough magnification to easily see 3 sunspots. We didn't have any eclipse glasses, but others did and passed them around. I was able to take pics through the eclipse glasses, but it was hard to hold them and find the sun and focus and hold everything still. It is much easier to do with the moon because you don't have to hold a filter or worry about burning out your sensor or eye.

one sunspot is visible in the upper center of the sun

As the moon crept over the sun it got noticeably darker and cooler.

The "ring of fire" only lasted a few minutes

The shadows also were pretty cool, forming crescent shapes instead of circles when the light went through a gap. I didn't look at the shadows during the brief "ring of fire" period, but they probably would have looked cool.

odd looking shadows with crescents

watching the sun approaching the horizon

Wukoki ruin during the eclipse

The eclipse was still going on with maybe a quarter of the moon over the sun when it set. We sat around for a while to let the crowds disperse before returning to Flagstaff.

It was an enjoyable little jaunt to photogeek and watch a rare event.

Dawn posted some pics too, you can see them here:

http://dawnkish.blogspot.com/2012/05/solar-eclipse-of-heart-wukoki-ruin-az.html

RRR and Red Rock climbing trip report

Red Rock Rendezvous and Red Rock climbing trip report posted.

I posted my trip report for the RRR and climbing at Red Rock with Yuki here:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/rrrlv2012.html

Yuki climbing "Edward Silverhands"

Grand Canyon Hell Hike

Spring, when a young man's fancy turns to death marches and hell hikes. That's right - time for the annual Grand Canyon Hell Hike. This year coincided with National Park week, so I haven't had to buy a pass yet.
I drove up the night before to bike out Hermit drive to take sunset pics.

dead tree on the South Rim

view into the canyon from above The Abyss

sunset from Pima Point

I started the next morning (4-24-2012) at 4:30 and hiked quickly down the Bright Angel Trail enjoying the emerging birdsong and flowering tree smells and not enjoying the occasional mule smells. I made pretty rapid time down past Indian Gardens and saw plenty of people hiking up with overnight packs on the leg down to the river. I stopped at the river briefly and then hiked on to Phantom Ranch - or at least that side of the river. I was disappointed that I couldn't find any ripe figs in the trees down there. I started back up the South Kaibab Trail around 9:30 and managed to stay ahead of the mule train following me despite stopping to take photos a number of times. Then I cut west on the Tonto Trail. Things were pretty toasty in the sun but not too bad in the shade (80's?) The prickly pears were starting to flower along with a few other wildflowers.

Obligatory Warning shot on the way down - at Indian Gardens the first time

handstand at the Colorado River

Black Bridge - polarizer for max reflections

Black Bridge - polarizer rotated 90 degrees

cactus blooming on the S Kaibab

I was slowing down by the time I got back to Indian Gardens but after a short break in the shade and some indecision I decided to hike out to Plateau Point anyway. I took more pictures there with the interval setting on the camera and tripod and then headed back.

scrambling up to an overlook at Plateau Point

I made it.

My feet were sore and I was tired when I started back up from Indian Gardens at 3:10 but in about a mile I started decompensating. I felt awful. I am not sure what it was but I am suspecting some sort of electrolyte imbalance. I had plenty of calories and water, but I felt nauseous. I pushed on slowly to the 3 mile hut and sat in the shade and attempted to force down a Gu Roctane - with electrolytes and caffeine and all sorts of "goodness". It didn't taste very good and sort of stuck in my throat despite plenty of water. I moved out of the shade shelter because I feared immanent Roctane regurgitation. It would have been a treat for the squirrels but you aren't supposed to feed them and with an effort I managed to keep it all down. I was also experiencing some leg cramps and weird muscle twinges. Eventually I felt better and made my way slowly up the trail. I was unenthusiastic about drinking or eating but I tried to continue both. Meanwhile I leapfrogged with an older couple that was slowly plodding their way out of the canyon too. I took another break at the 1.5 mile rest area and then pushed on to the rim. I didn't finish 'til about 7:10, so the last 4.8 miles took me 4 hours - hardly my best time, but I did make it out and didn't have to call for a rescue or use my headlamp. It was only 23.7 miles according to my map, but there was a good bit of elevation too. I hope that whatever happened to me doesn't happen again though, as my performance wouldn't get me through Day 7. My pack also wasn't particularly light with all the camera equipment, some insulation, food, water, etc. I was really missing my Inov-8 Roclite boots too. The shoes I had probably weighed twice as much and were half as comfortable.

not feeling so good with 1.5 miles to go

After I got to the rim I tried to eat a ripe banana but that didn't feel like it wanted to stay down either. I had plenty of salt with dinner, but I felt merely tired by then.

Here is my somewhat spotty spot track for the Grand Canyon hike.

Kindle

I have been intrigued by the idea of an e-book reader for some time and based partly on Julie's opinion of hers, I pulled the trigger for a kindle 3 3G off of e-bay. The reason I went with this model was because it has unlocked 3G connectivity. This means that I can browse the web or check my e-mail anywhere that it gets a phone signal. Unfortunately the provider is AT&T, so the coverage isn't all that good and also it is the same as my cell phone. Still, this is a pretty slick feature even if it is black and white and slow with a clunky browser and tiny keyboard. I also really like the idea of having hundreds if not thousands of books available to read without having to cart around a huge stack of them. For instance this would have been really cool and handy for the Thailand trip.

here is my kindle with most excellent library pic by Anne Nydam

There are a number of things I really like about this device.

- it has a long battery life, especially if I don't use the wireless. I can read at least a book or 2 or three (I haven't ever run it down, so I don't really know). When reading books it only takes electricity to change the pages.
- the screen is easy on my eyes. If I stare at the computer screen or the Droid for hours my eyes get a bit wombly but this hasn't happened with the e-paper of the kindle so far.
-it is small - smaller and lighter than many paperback books.
-you can search on it - I put my camera manual on it and it is handy to be able to search.
-it remembers your place.
-it has 4G of memory - that is a lot of books.
-the screen is easy to read in bright light - even full sun
-it is easy and quick to transfer stuff from the computer to the kindle

macro image of the e-ink

Things I don't like or would like to be able to change

-no external memory - it would be nice to plug an SD card into it for even more books (and since it plays mp3s, I could do that too).
-typing on the mini keyboard really isn't that easy and I feel like I hit the page forward and backwards buttons by mistake too often.
-I feel like it could be easily broken. I wish it was more bombproof, although I realize that would make it heavier and more expensive. I did make a cover for it which should help.
-when I read it with my headlamp I have to make an effort not to reflect the headlamp off the screen into my eyes.
-rumor has it the kindle phones home and tells Amazon exactly what all you have been reading.
-I wish it had another 3G carrier instead of ATT - maybe Verizon or someone else with better coverage out west.
-it would be cool if it was color and could show movies, but that is probably a bit down the line and more expensive at first (or a backlit battery sucking eye-hurting screen).

I am still figuring things out on it, so I am sure I'll find other things I like and dislike about it. For instance I need to figure out how to get books out of the library for it.

The latest thing I did was make my own screensavers (not technically screensavers - they are what shows on the screen when it is asleep). I made one of me as an author to mimic the ones it came with and I also put one of my sister's block prints on there (see the first pic). I also found some other images from the web and turned some of my photos into pics for it. I liked most of the ones that came with the kindle, but I like mine even better.

here I am masquerading as an author (this pic always cracks me up)

North Six-Shooter Tower

Matt on Supercrack

I'm getting a little out of order here, but I'm going to jump back to Indian Creek where I was climbing before I headed to Red Rocks.

macro image of a lizard near camp

After the rest day where I posted the last bit of Indian Creek Photos we went to the Blue Gramma and Supercrack areas. I tried to lead "fingers in a lightsocket" but fell at the top. I also got a TR burn on "binge and purge", an offwidth, which was a good full body workout.

For my last day there we went up to do the lightning bolt crack on the North Six-Shooter tower. We got a late start because the others went to Moab the night before to get Drew on his way to the SLC airport. I was starting to wonder if we were going to have time to do the tower when they came back. We were on our way around noon. The approach involved some sandy driving up a wash and about 45 minutes of uphill hiking in the sun. The tower looked quite intimidating from the base.

View from the approach hike

Mike and Jase prepare for action

I got the first pitch and I popped off right at the bottom where the fingers start to flare. I started again from the ground and managed to get up to the offwidth section where I got confused and pumped out and had to hang. After re-thinking it I easily laybacked a few moves and finished the pitch. Jase had the next pitch up an overhanging but short crack. Then Mike got a really exciting pitch with some wild exposure past the left side of the roof and plenty of wind. By then I was getting quite cold and regretting not wearing long pants and bringing the balaclava (or any other layers). I followed the next pitch and then continued on past a skull (cow?) and up the squeeze chimney. From the top I belayed the other 2 up and experimented with the insulative properties of ropes (not much when it is very windy). We didn't spend long on top because of the cold wind and late hour but the views were very nice. It took 2 raps back to the ground and some more insulation for the walk back to the car. We were treated to some nice light on the descent and it got pretty much dark before we were done with the 4 wheel drive exit. All in all it was a very satisfying climb although I would have liked more insulation and some time on the top with my camera. After 3 days on we were all pretty wrecked.

The climb started on the right crack then went left before the roof

The light was very nice on the descent

maybe I can climb South Six-shooter next time I am there

N Six-Shooter from the east the next morning

zoomed in you can see some climbers

For a more complete trip report for the Indian Creek trip go here: Tom Grundy's Indian Creek 2012 Trip Report

Red Rock Rendezvous wingsuit skydive

I'll have to get to some more Indian Creek climbing reporting later. Today's post is about a wingsuit skydive at the Red Rock Rendezvous near Las Vegas.

Yogaslacker slacklines set up at the RRR 

For starters I was at the RRR with the Yogaslackers to teach slackline classes. It was also nice to catch up with some other people there that I knew. Now on to the main event...

Beaver, the big man at Prana and all around great guy is also a pilot and the plan was for him to fly Steph and Mario overhead and they would jump out of the plane with wingsuits and fly down and land at the festival. There were a lot of things that could have prevented this from happening from bureaucratic to natural - like excessive wind - so they were keeping the plan on the down low.

The call came in that they were on the way so I grabbed my camera and headed out to the field to wait. Beaver did a flyby for a final check before circling up around to altitude.

They did a flyby before circling up

spotting the plane off in the distance

At the last minute they got clearance for another 1000 feet for the jump. It was hard to see the plane as it circled but some sharp young eyes could see it. Through the telephoto I could see Steph and Mario out under the wing before they jumped. Then they swooped down through the air before opening their chutes and coming in for a landing. Shortly after they landed the wind picked up, but it was just about perfect for the landing.

Steph and Mario out under the wing

Swooping through the air

deploying the parachute

Spiffy new Prana wingsuit and parachute

Mario came in fast 

Steph approaches the landing

Her chute was slower making for a slower landing into the wind

Steph is all smiles back on the ground

and we even got a nice sunset

I any case, it was a pretty cool thing to get to see. They got some cool footage with their helmet cams and Sam took some footage with his camera so I think they will put a video together at some point. I'll try to put a link to it here when I can.

And here it is: Prana Red Rock Rendezvous wingsuit dive video

I'll try to embed it too:

Sunrise at Red Rocks

I finally finished my RRR and Red Rock climbing trip report. It duplicates some of the content here, but has more too. You can see it here:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/rrrlv2012.html