Sneaking a Peek at the Peaks

Whilst in Utah for various family reunions, we only managed to log one hike, Lily Lake, in the Uinta Mountains.

This is a view of Black Peak, near where we stayed in Brigham City, Utah.  I’d like to climb it someday.  It is situated in such a way that it is difficult to access.  I think there is a route from the south; but you would need to climb the mountains nearer and hike along the ridge.  The north side is blocked by impassable cliffs (impassable to me at any rate).

This is Christy, as always, outstanding in her field.  Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to sneak up to Wyoming to take a peek at our favorite mountains, the Tetons, even though we didn’t have time to stay and hike.  The location of this photo is just south of Afton, Wyoming.

Standing in front of a very muddy Snake River.

Yep, the Tetons are still there.  We stopped at a turnout just outside of the park, so we didn’t have to pay any entry fees.  The sight of them fills me with longing to go and crawl around on them.  Another day, perhaps.

 

Threat Level: Bears

Squirrels, birds, marmots, porcupines, and frogs are all welcome visitors to our neighborhood.   Even strange insects I tolerate, as long as they don’t try to eat me.  But bears give me pause.

I guess it’s okay, as long as they don’t give me paws, along with the pause.  I didn’t take this picture; but one of our neighbors did.  This is why we can’t have bird feeders outside of our homes.  It may be a bird-feeder to our minds; but these guys think of it as a bear-feeder.

The Snakes of Autumn

It might seem weird to make a post about autumn during the winter; but this is due to my high level of crastination skill.  I am a very good crastinator.  You might even say that I am a “pro” crastinator.

Indeed, I was going to procrastinate this post even longer; but I decided to wait until tomorrow.

We had a few wild visitors this autumn.  Including the snake below.

This little guy (or lady, it’s hard to say, with snakes) came out to say hi.  These snakes are non-poisonous and fairly common at our demesne.

We also had our fair assortment of toads.

That’s probably the reason the snakes keep coming around.

In other news, Bethany tried kimchee for the first time.  Here’s how it went:

Delicious.

Anyhow, I haven’t published any hikes since… since the last one.  The reason for this has been poor health.  I have symptoms of heart failure, kidney failure, thyroid failure, and diabetes; but testing has been negative for all of those things.  In fact, after an echo-cardiogram, my doctor gave me permission to physically exert myself, so I am training hard to be in hiking shape come spring.

I feel like I say that all the time; but this time I’m serious.  I have a trip to the Uinta Mountains scheduled early this summer, and have also committed to a Mount Washington climb with friends in August.

Indeed, I have to go work out right now.  Here’s a picture of autumn 2015 in my neighborhood as a parting gift:

The Bugs of Summer

I was training hard in the spring, hoping to be in good enough shape to tackle the major points of New England, specifically Mount Washington, and possibly Lafayette, and others.  Unfortunately it did not work out.  Although I am in somewhat better condition, I don’t think I’m quite up to the task yet.  Due to this and time constraints, I’m sticking to the smaller trails this year, continuing to improve for some planned fun next summer.

We did encounter some strange bugs that I didn’t have pictures of until now.

This is some species of mantidfly, which I didn’t even realize was a thing until we found this one on our front porch.

This is … a moth.  I don’t know of a good way to find species names of moths yet, so I really don’t have a clue.  The coloration was nice, though, and unusual, at least for the moths in our locality.

And this is… I don’t know, a bug.  Look, from now on, if I don’t know the right species or common name of something, I’m just going to make something up.  This is a White Spotted Halloween Bug.

Here’s a Peppermint Barber Pole crab, a bug of the sea.  We live reasonably close to the Atlantic Ocean, so we went down to the seaside and found this creature.  Okay, we went to the New England Aquarium, which is by the seaside, and found this creature, along with some others.

Like this Heart-bellied Blue Frog.

And this Northern Hand-grabber fish.

Along with Cthulu.

And this Frown Faced Grumpfish.

Not all of us came away from the trip unscathed, however.  Christy’s sister, Amy Jo, was tragically eaten by a shark.  Warning:  The following picture is pretty graphic in its depiction of the aforementioned event.

You were warned.

The Turkeys of Spring

Believe it or not, the snow finally melted.  Weather is warming up.  Almost ready to hit the trails again.  But first, here’s a wild turkey that wandered into the range of my camera lens.He wandered around from the side of a shed whilst I was waiting for Bethany to get out of seminary.  He seemed to suddenly realize that he wasn’t in Pizmo Beach.  He yelled a little bit (I assume that it was “I knew I should have made that left turn in Albuquerque!” in Turkey Language), then he turned around and went the other direction.

Same turkey, a little less in focus, wandering off in the other direction, as if he had meant to do that all along.  Is it Thanksgiving yet?

Long Cold Winter

A long cold winter is what we had.  Looks like it is shaping up to also be a long cold spring.  Today is the second day of spring…and it is snowing.

 

Here are some pictures of what we were up against.That is our back door.  There is actually about an 8 inch drop to the deck, so the snow is really deeper than a yard.  That was from one snowstorm.  I think our official snow total for that storm was 37 inches, so there is some drifting going on here to get as deep as it is.

This is from a different storm, before the driveway was plowed.  We opened the garage door after the snow stopped falling.

The snow melted a little bit; but then it snowed again.  In the howling wind, we spotted this snow-sphinx, and managed to get a picture before it blew away, or got plowed under.

This view was actually from our skylight.

And this is where we  go to church.

And this is our deck.  What hasn’t been obliterated by snow is being seized by the icicles.  I hope it thaws out enough to go hiking this year.  Maybe by June, we’ll be able to see some grass.

 

 

A Few Things

Autumn has fallen in the Eastern U.S.  I have not done any major hikes this year; being in poor condition thanks to various adventures over the last couple of years.  I am in better health overall now than previously, although still badly out of shape.  I am officially in training so that I can hit the trails hard in 2015.  We’ll see how well that works out.  There are still so many places I want to see that I need to get to by hiking.

In the meantime.  Here are some pictures of Fall in my locale.

In my back-yard, the bushes realize it is autumn a little before the trees do.

And this tree seems to be of two minds on the subject.

Amazingly, there are still flowers that find it worthwhile to bloom in the Fall.  I always think of flowers as a Spring thing; but these blooms beg to differ.

There are still a few insects that are active, too, despite the chill in the air.

A katydid. What great camouflage! If he was on a bush instead of my front porch, I probably would never have noticed him.

And speaking of great camouflage, here’s a moth that looks like bird poop. It takes such extreme  measures to avoid becoming actual bird poop.

Conversely, this dragonfly isn’t hiding from anyone.

Various species of fungus continue to delight in the Fall.  This is one I haven’t seen before.

They are so delicate, and look like they are growing with their heads upside down on the stalk.

These are much sturdier.  I have seen these before; but these are fine specimens.

I’m no mushroom expert; but something tells me that eating this might be a bad idea.

These things are right next to my house.  They grow very close to the ground and make a bright contrast to all the green moss and weeds.

This one is just about the tiniest toadstool I’ve ever seen.

So there you have Autumn in New England.  Leaves, flowers, bugs, and the occasional llama amidst the ruins.

 

 

Fecund

Frogs crowd our house nightly; but when we leave the house, which does happen occasionally, there is still plenty of strange new life to encounter.

Like this gorgeous shroom.

And this ant.

And this flower cluster that was loaded with a variety of insects.  Including a bee! (I thought they had all died, to hear people talk)

 

The Frog Diner

Frogs come to the diner from far and wide, mostly for the all night insect buffet, which is served nightly in the summer months on our front porch.  Here we see no less than four little froggies congregated above the door to the garage.  These four are quite small.

But sometimes the more portly fellows come by as well.

And if the diner happens to be full, they line up outside in the grass.  This little beauty was actually found and photographed by Bethany at a youth conference she was attending in Vermont.

The tiny ones are more common.

And usually quite cute when they hold still long enough for a close-up.

Frogs are all well and good; but why so many frogs, and so few actual hikes?  There is a reason, and that is because I have not been hiking this year.  Although I have not had any major surgeries, like last year, I am in poor health generally.  I can barely move, let alone hike.  I can’t even go grocery shopping for more than a few minutes without being in pain.  I have a long list of ailments that I won’t bore you with here.  Doctors want to blame most of my problems on damage done by the high blood-pressure that I’ve had for years, which is now under control with medication. I’m skeptical.  I hiked a lot just fine while I had that HBP.  I think the hypertension is just a convenient scapegoat for when they don’t know what’s going on.

Hopefully I will recover and hike again.  I am in my mid-forties, so it could go either way.  I might recover fully and hike for many years, or I might suddenly drop dead.  In the meantime, I enjoy the wildlife just outside; and, I even try my hand at painting places where I might like to hike someday, if I’m allowed that luxury.

 

The other Big Indian

We’ve already shown you a picture of the Big Indian on the Mohawk Trail (State Highway 2).  We found another big Indian in Massachusetts.  This one is found in the back-streets of Lunenburg, MA.  (Lunenburg doesn’t have any front-streets, only back-streets)

For comparison, I’ll put both pictures here:

A couple of differences stand out to me.  While the chief seems to be wearing a traditional buckskin ceremonial outfit, the second fellow seems to be wearing jeans and work boots.  The chief is waiving a friendly hello, while this guy is raising the same hand; but looks like he wants to squash me like an annoying insect.  There is no gift shop near the second statue.  In fact the whole area is roped off and has traffic cones, almost as if to say “Please do not stop and visit, just move along.”