Matthew Singer – Page 4 – Biologist, Photographer, Geocacher, Adventurer, and more…

March 10, 2013March 10, 2013 Matt Personal Updates

Birding in Lewiston

Given my current disabled condition, there's not much I can do to get ouside and enjoy the sunshine, but there are a few places that I can go. There are paved walking and bike trails in every nearby town, and some of them offer spectacular scenery. The Trail of the Coeur D'Alenes, for example, starts in Plummer and meanders for…

March 1, 2013March 1, 2013 Matt Personal Updates, Travel Stories

The Ski Trip to End All Ski Trips

February 17th began as any other trip to McCall. I rolled out of bed around 5:00 am, packed the car with my gear, and 20 minutes later, I was leaving for Moscow to meet up with Tyler and Genevieve. We made it to Brundage around 10:30 local time and headed straight to the Centenial chair where we met up with…

February 5, 2013December 15, 2013 Matt Personal Updates, Photo Blog

Chickadees

For Christmas, I bought Erin a new bird feeder to replace one that had been broken earlier in the summer. A few weeks ago, we finally got some seed and put it outside, but this was in the middle of a cold snap where daytime highs remained in the low 20's, and the nighttime lows, well, we just won't go…

January 28, 2013January 28, 2013 Matt Hikes

Winter Hike to Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

Last weekend, I reported on a snowshoe hike along the Potlatch River and alluded to a second snowshoe adventure the same weekend. In fact, we had planned a little excursion out along Rt. 12 to Jerry Johnson hot springs. It turned out that the hot springs are still popular in winter, at least enough so that the one-mile trail was…

January 20, 2013January 20, 2013 Matt Personal Updates

Snowshoeing: Potlatch River Loop

This week's snowshoeing adventure takes us on the Potlatch Canyon loop trail (Clearwater NF #765). If the view above looks familiar, it's because I have hiked this loop many times in the summer, and first posted about it two years ago. This time, armed with snowshoes, we had a very successful winter hike through the woods. Despite the rising temperatures…

January 13, 2013January 13, 2013 Matt Hikes

Snowshoeing: Palouse Divide

I must have forgotten to post about this trip. This was last week, January 5, 2013. This was Idaho Parks and Recreation's free day in which no parking pass was required to use the Park n' Ski areas or any of the state parks. There are two Park n' Ski areas near Moscow: Elk River and Palouse Divide. The Park…

January 13, 2013January 13, 2013 Matt Hikes

Snowshoeing: Spud Hill

This snowshoeing thing is taking off, and if I keep this up, I'll be in shape enough to not suck at hiking at the beginning of the hiking season. This week's adventure brings us up Spud Hill, also known by some as Mount Deary. Spud Hill was my first Idaho summit, and it's a great little local hike that I…

December 29, 2012December 29, 2012 Matt Hikes, Photo Blog

A walk in the snow

[caption id="attachment_321" align="aligncenter" width="500"] A layer of mist hovers over the snow behind the house.[/caption] Well, now that Winter has finally arrived, we thought it might be fun to tromp through the snow and get some exercise. I dusted off the snowshoes (literally) and we set off for a little hike out of our back yard. As we began our…

December 27, 2012 Matt Personal Updates

Free Meat!

Warning! This post may contain some graphic and delicious images. Proceed at your own risk. (more…)

December 19, 2012December 27, 2012 Matt Travel Stories

Thanksgiving, Parts II & III

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Las Vegas from Lone Mountain[/caption] Holy smokes, it's almost Christmas and I never really finished posting about my Thanksgiving trip to Las Vegas. So, I'm going to give the abbreviated version of the rest of the trip and then move on to some more current events. When I visit Las Vegas, it's not for the usual…

November 29, 2012November 29, 2012 Matt Opinions

What I am thankful for

During the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, many people post about the things they are thankful for. I have been stewing over just how to say what it is I'm thankful for, because it's a little bit different than most people's ideals. There are two major concepts that I am thankful for. Number one is free will. Number two is…

November 29, 2012November 29, 2012 Matt Travel Stories

Thanksgiving in Las Vegas, Part 1: The drive down

One of my best friends from high school invited Erin and I down to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. In fact, we were invited down last year, but we weren't able to make it. Therefore, I decided that we'd make it work this year. Erin still wanted to host our annual Thanksgiving dinner at our house, so we had one on…

October 18, 2012October 18, 2012 Matt Personal Updates

Fall Foliage

I've been spending a lot of time finishing up my dissertation proposal, which is due in a little over a week, and that has kept me from taking time to enjoy the outdoors. We got some considerable rain over the past weekend which lead to some dramatic skies and really clear views on Monday and Tuesday, but I just wasn't…

October 9, 2012October 10, 2012 Matt Personal Updates, Photo Blog

Aurora

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] A test shot from early on in the night. Notice the two meteors captured in this frame. Apparently, I also caught the end of a major meteor shower.[/caption] This story begins Friday night when I learned that a large coronal mass ejection (CME) sent a burst of solar radiation from the sun headed toward Earth.…

September 28, 2012September 28, 2012 Matt Personal Updates

Smoke in the Air

Where have I been the last three weeks? To put it lightly, I have been choking on smoke. Since returning from the Seven Devils trip over Labor Day Weekend, the wildfires in the northwest, particularly in Idaho, have flared up. A fire south of the Devils appeared as well as a large fire just outside of Riggins. There have been…

September 9, 2012 Matt Personal Updates

Huckleberries.

I went up to Freezeout Saddle with some photo club people to pick huckleberries. As I expected, they were still ripe, and very plentiful. But the problem with huckleberries is that you can pick for an hour and still not get very much. I think I came home with maybe a pint of berries. I brought my camera up as…

September 6, 2012September 6, 2012 Matt Hikes

Labor Day Weekend: Backpacking the Seven Devils

This is the story of how Dan Beck and I ended up spending much of our Labor Day weekend in the backcountry of one of Idaho's most scenic and rugged mountain ranges, the Seven Devils. It begins over a week before when I sent out a message for a backpacking trip over Labor Day weekend. I suggested a 3-night trip…

August 21, 2012August 21, 2012 Matt Travel Stories

Fly Fishing on the St. Joe

There's nothing quite like the feeling of getting that perfect cast with your fly rod, landing the fly perfectly on the water exactly where you intended it to land, and having a fish jump for it seconds later. I was in that groove Sunday afternoon where the fish were chasing after my fly, but only one actually hooked. But the…

August 13, 2012August 12, 2012 Matt Personal Updates

Perseoids

Every summer at early-mid August, we enter a portion of the solar system rife with meteors, and ever year around this time, many of those chunks of rock and debris hit our atmosphere and burn up, giving us the Perseoid meteor shower. This year, the shower did not occur during a full moon, and so the skies were dark and…

August 12, 2012August 12, 2012 Matt Travel Stories

Fishing on the North Fork

I went fishing along the North Fork of the Clearwater with Tyler and Dan, two graduate students in the department. Unfortunately, it was a short trip, leaving Thursday morning and returning late Friday afternoon, but that's just how the timing worked, and it was a much needed getaway for all of us. We camped at Kelly Forks campground, luckily snagging…