Pictures from outdoor exercise.
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Our captain provided lots of information and stories. That is Guffey Butte - the cairn at the peak is at the far right. I have climbed this butte several times. Time to do it again! The new fact I learned is that the rock projection on the left is called Horse *kitten* Point. Good to know.
Just a couple shots of the river.
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The remains of a miner's cabin on the north bank of the river. Great use of local materials.
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Photos of that cabin interior. The beams probably were brought in by boat or overland, but there are no trees of that size in the vicinity of the cabin.
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Some interesting rock formations that I saw for the first time.
Captain Pat. Thank you for a great day in the outdoors, sir!
Jeremy caught a nice catfish. Not much fight for his size, though.
The view from the ground.
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Bringing up the rear.
Petroglyphs. They are carved into thousands of rocks throughout the lower Snake River valley.
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The life force is pretty strong in a mushroom that survives in this arid desert climate.3 -
Exquisite stone work in the walls of this old mission building. Walls are plumb and straight and have very small gaps, considering they were laid up random stone by random stone.
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alteredsteve175 wrote: »Throwing some darts at the atlatl range at Celebration Park south of Melba. Takes some (lots of) practice. Respect for the natives who survived in that desert 13000 years ago.
I've never heard of using an implement to throw "darts" which look larger than an arrow but smaller than a javelin... Very interesting!0 -
alteredsteve175 wrote: »Exquisite stone work in the walls of this old mission building. Walls are plumb and straight and have very small gaps, considering they were laid up random stone by random stone.
Remarkable how they managed to build with such precision... and it's stood the test of time...0 -
fantastic trips and photos0
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alteredsteve175 wrote: »Throwing some darts at the atlatl range at Celebration Park south of Melba. Takes some (lots of) practice. Respect for the natives who survived in that desert 13000 years ago.
I've never heard of using an implement to throw "darts" which look larger than an arrow but smaller than a javelin... Very interesting!
Not really darts -- they are more like spears. The atlatl was a great improvement in weaponry over a hand-thrown spear. It could be thrown accurately and with a lot of speed/energy. I remember learning about them in anthropology class as an undergrad... Oh my how that was almost another lifetime. Someone from BLM (or another agency) had some at an event I was staffing once, and I got to throw one. Also in another lifetime, but pretty neat. It's neat they had one out for folks to try.
Glad someone got a smallmouth. I am having a hard time being back from that river trip, and it's been almost two weeks. I guess I need another one soon.1 -
alteredsteve175 wrote: »Throwing some darts at the atlatl range at Celebration Park south of Melba. Takes some (lots of) practice. Respect for the natives who survived in that desert 13000 years ago.
I've never heard of using an implement to throw "darts" which look larger than an arrow but smaller than a javelin... Very interesting!
Mac - they are really just long arrows. Long aluminum shafts - and carbon fiber for the latest and greatest. The tour guides refer to them as "darts", though. Regardless, would be a tough way to put food in the larder.
They have held some competitions at this park in the past. The professionals are pretty amazing - they can put them all in the X ring at 30 yards.1 -
Glad someone got a smallmouth. I am having a hard time being back from that river trip, and it's been almost two weeks. I guess I need another one soon.
Was pretty slow smallmouth fishing. The one in the photo was the only decent sized one. But that's fishing. Still had an awesome day with my companions.
There's plenty good smallmouth fishing in your neighborhood. I have the Umpqua on my list for a future trip.
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I can literally walk my canoe (on a set of wheels) about a half mile (actually about 0.62 miles) to a ramp on the Willamette River, ferry across, and have TONS of fun hooking up with Smallies Larrys. This one was from May:
That little fishy bit hard on a tiny Hot Shot orange lure on my little rod with 4lb test line. Fun! For bass I generally have lots of fun with a Texas-rigged rubber worm -- snag, free and you have to pay attention. Super slippery barbless hooks so I don't even really have to net 'em unless I want to try to get a picture. I just release tension on the line and the spit out the hook and swim away. Not so much with that little Luhr-Jensen with three hooks -- need to get out the hemostats.
When I get down to the Umpqua, it's usually the North Umpqua for the whitewater. It's a great Steelhead stretch -- fly angling only.
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Tiny Hot Shots - I'll have to give that a try. I've used little Wiggle Warts at times. Agreed on the rubber worm - I usually start with something plastic on a jighead or a Texas rig.
Nice fish. Is "Larry" a name for a big fish?0 -
Larry = Largemouth (Micropterus salmoides)
Smallie = Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu)
I swear we must have some hybrids, too. Markings like a largemouth, but red eyes. We are more likely to find smallies in or near the main current and the largemouths in the still backwaters, but we find both species pretty much everywhere. The smallmouths seem to fight harder; the largemouths seem to get bigger.
We also catch a lot of Pikeminnow. They give one big tug and then pretty much give up. Some people kill them because they eat salmon smolts in the Columbia, but they are native -- I put 'em back. Bass aren't native, and I put THEM back, too. There is no size or bag limit on bass in the area I live. That said, I know that if I fished every day and killed every bass I caught, I would not affect the population. I put them back and hope to see them again on another day. Fun stuff. They are top predators, and there is mercury in the water here (much of it naturally occurring from the Bohemia district and the Row River), so I don't eat them. I take all the barbs off any hooks that have them. Most of the time if I get a fish close to the canoe, I just let off the tension on the line and they spit out the hook. I don't even need to handle them or even net them. Often if I net them, they spit the hook out in the net.
I use spinners, spoons, and jigs for trout (Rainbow and Cutthroat). I didn't buy a salmon/steelhead tag this year. I still hope to catch some Half-Pounders on the Rogue this fall. They are a unique life history of Steelhead that return to fresh water after one season in the ocean rather than two or three years. They weigh about two pounds, are fun to catch, are delicious, and in Oregon they count as trout. They are only found in a few rivers in southern Oregon and northern California.1 -
We had the day off for July 4. Yay! I should have taken Friday off, too, but I'm burning SO MUCH vacation this year, I don't feel like I can afford to take even one more.
A couple neighbor friends and I did a short paddle trip before they hosted folks for the evening. We put in about ten miles upstream and took out a half mile from our house. We saw surprisingly few Bald Eagles. We did see plenty of Osprey, a zillion Cedar Waxwings, some mergansers, some young buck deer, lots of violet-green swallows, some robins, several turkey vultures, and quite a few other groups in boats. I was in an old whitewater canoe that I took the front float bag out of because it failed. My friends were in a sit-on-top kayak and a paddle board. One of them found a BUNCH of agates, one of which was really thin but hand sized; it was like a window with exquisite banding when you hold it up to the light.
I am grateful that this beautiful river runs right through our back yard, so to speak. It has recovered so much from the 1970s when it was subject to so much pollution. It's actually really nice even though some folks still speak poorly of it. They should get out and enjoy it.
Later we enjoyed friends and food and libations, then wandered out to a field near our houses to get a reasonably decent view of fireworks but without dealing with the crowds, traffic, or smoke. Yeah!
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Did some work outside today.
Blueberries are still rocking.
Raspberries, too.
And now the Marionberries are coming in.
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Nice marionberries. They look tasty!
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I was over to the coast today for my shift at the aquarium. I did three dives -- 69, 50, and 45 minutes. I did a LOT of scrubbing. We also cleaned some acrylic, and I did some vacuuming. Mostly - we scrubbed.
Afterwards I took a nice walk on the beach. It was a calm sea; there was lots of boat traffic. I saw some of our resident Gray Whales.
I also saw the USCG doing a stern tow. It was one USCG boat towing another, so I'm not sure it was practice or they had some trouble out there. I carry a VHF radio, and I heard them alerting to the stern tow but no other details.
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I was out at Oregon Country Fair this weekend. I brought a camera, but it never came out of my backpack. I left it in the booth. I had my phone, but I just wasn't in to getting images this year. Monday morning on our last walk along the path, I did get one picture of a multi-media sculpture.
It's hard to tell from the image, but the structure is mostly welded metal, but some of the intricate curves are wood. The eyes are hand-blown glass, and there are lights inside that change color (only visible at night).
Since I didn't live this yer through a lens, here's a couple from previous years.
One of my favorites is the crow in the nest near Main Stage.
And of course Peachy the Dragon!
Some folks like to wear lime on Friday, and this person really went all out.
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Family paddle on the Nottley River in north Georgia. Niece in front, brother and sis-in-law and I’m in the bright blue boat.1
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Hope this loads. Guess I should have tried that first. Ahhh, technology!4 -
Such great pictures!
I keep forgetting to post mine. Here a few from a hike I did a few weeks ago.
One of the many waterfalls along the trail.
Stopping for a water massage.
Another beauty.
A view from above.
Not sure why they are posting sideways, but you get the jist.
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Wanted to share this video of where I live. I am Northern Ontario.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/3421182673 -
@sdereski , you're giving me nostaglia pangs for Algonquin, where I spent happy canoe-in vacations every Fall for many years. Oh, to be at the campsite on Big Thunder Lake again, feeling like I'm perched at the edge of an irregular bowl of a lake, surrounded by trees, lifted up above the rest of the woods that drop away past the immediate surrounding hills, where the loudest sound in the evening is one's own breathing and heartbeat. Miss that.2
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Family paddle on the Nottley River in north Georgia. Niece in front, brother and sis-in-law and I’m in the bright blue boat.
It's been a million years since I've paddled on the Nottely. I spent several summers in the Blue Ridge, and I think I wrote a model Wilderness Management Plan for a section of the Nottely as an undergrad.
I do have one request, and I hope this doesn't sound to preachy -- please consider WEARING your PFDs when you're on the water. ANY time you are on the water. You can ditch the horse collars - there are pretty reasonably priced PFDs that are comfortable to wear. You really never know when they could save your life, and if that time comes, it's too late to put it on.2 -
This counts as an outside pic because it was at a stadium where the Jacksonville Jaguars play😁. Got to see The Rolling Stones Friday and they were amazing!!!4