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While we were out in Idaho, we had the pleasure of taking a day and hiking. While the Moscow area was devoid of any snow this year, the surrounding mountains still had a bit of the white stuff, and forget about trying to get to the big mountains. It was winter, after all. I’m particularly excited about the nearly year-round hiking available out there. In the summer, I can retreat to the high country. In the winter, I can head low into the canyons where it stays pretty warm late into the fall and warms up quickly in the spring.
Hell’s canyon was a bit far for this trip and may have required driving on some snowy forest service roads in the higher altitude. But as I soon found out, there’s plenty of good terrain closer to “home.” Just south of Lewiston on the Washington side of the Snake River is Asotin Creek. The creek begins in the Blue Mountains and winds its way down to the Snake, carving a deep gorge up to 1500 feet deep in many places.
Unlike the canyons of the southwest, these are carved into Basalt in a slightly less-dry environment. The result is more vegetation, though it’s still mostly grasses and shrubs. There are small patches of evergreen forest on the canyon floor, particularly on the northern walls.
The drive in to the trailhead seemed to take forever, at least 20 minutes on a dirt road. At one point, I thought we’d be at the head of the canyon, not very deep below the rim. But upon further investigation, I found that the trailhead in the state wildlife management area wasn’t even halfway up the gorge. We ended up only hiking about two miles in, but I’m already hooked. I’m looking forward to returning and hiking beyond our stopping point, maybe even spending a night or two down there.
But more importantly, this sets the tone for exploring Hell’s Canyon, a gorge deeper than the Grand Canyon.
 
 
I suppose I ought to let you, my readers, up to speed on my future. In January, I received a notice of acceptance to the University of Idaho. So last week, Erin and I went out that way to visit the school and the area. Long story short, we love it out there. We even found a house with a barn and riding ring that we like and should be able to afford. While I still have outstanding applications at a few other schools, we are more than 90% sure that come August, I will be a Ph.D. student in Idaho.
Idaho? What’s there? I thought it was a big hole in the ground. Go ahead, crack all those jokes. Idaho is a huge state with a population that barely exceeds one million. Much of the state is extremely conservative, people who are very Christian and have the “government should stay out of our lives” mentality of the west. Guns, God, and no Government. It’s sickeningly amusing. But Moscow is an anomaly, a spot of dark blue in a sea of blood red. Moscow is extremely liberal and progressive. I noticed only two car dealerships in town and one specializes in Subaru. Moscow is all about keeping it local. Buy locally grown organic food from the Co-Op. Buy locally made merchandise from any of the shops downtown. Or just support a small, locally owned family business including a book store, game shop, outdoor gear shop, two pet stores, and the list goes on. Moscow is like a very miniature Portland, Maine.
The part about northern Idaho that I really like is the abundance of recreation opportunities. Just outside of town is Moscow Mountain, covered in trails and a mix of private and public land. Hop up to an hour away toward Lewiston for some canyons to explore. Extend your drive to up to 3 hours and you’ve got some big mountains and sweet roadless wilderness areas. To the north is Couer d’Alene, the I-90 corridor, some big lakes and ski areas. To the south is Idaho’s Seven Devil’s Wilderness, to the southwest is Hell’s Canyon (deeper than the Grand Canyon) and Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness, to the east is the Bitterroot range. And for longer trips, Glacier, Mt. Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic Naitonal Parks are all withing driving range. There’s world class white water rafting on the Snake, Salmon, and Clearwater rivers. And when I need some city culture, Spokane is less than 2 hours away and Seattle and Portland are less than 5 hours away.
 Fox sparrow Passerella iliaca  White-crowned sparrow Zonotrichia leucophrys  Northern cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis |
Today I took the camera out to photograph the birds. We’ve got a feeder in the front yard, but all the birds flock to the seed spilled on the ground. So I threw the dogs inside, scattered a can of seed on the ground, sat and waited. It didn’t take long for the birds to come in. Around the farm, I’ve been mostly seeing the usual winter birds: Cardinals, Chickadees, Titmice, Carolina Wren, Junco, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, and some non-feeder birds: American Crow, Raven, Black and Turkey Vultures, Red-tail Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Northern Flicker, and so forth.
During today’s photo shoot, I discovered that we have more sparrows on property than I originally thought. While going through the pictures, I identified Fox Sparrow and White-crowned Sparrow, both of which are uncommon according to the Sibley field guide.
If I learned anything from this photo session, it’s that my lens, the Canon EF-s 18-200 is not very good on the long end. The images are surprisingly sharp, but Chromatic Aberration is difficult to work with, Autofocus is inaccurate much of the time, and it’s really just not long enough for photographing small birds. Someday, I will have a Canon 100-400. But at least this lens is better than my old 70-300. |
Last Saturday, Erin had to go to Towson to take her riding instructor exam. I dropped her off at Goucher College and headed to REI, only to find that they didn’t open for another hour, so I drove down the road to Borders, looked at books I couldn’t afford, and played on the reliable fast internet for a while. It’s funny, when I went into the the store at 9:30, there were barely any cars in the parking lot. When I left at 11:00, the lot was full. I did make it back to REI to play with gear, but Erin called to say she was finished early, so I drove back to the college and picked her up.
We returned to REI so I could exchange my shoes, which had blown out way before their time, and get a new pair. Then, with the whole afternoon ahead of us, we drove into Baltimore. Against my better judgment, we decided to go to the Aquarium. I’ve been wanting to go back ever since I discovered the new addition with the Australia exhibit. It turns out a lot has changed since my last visit in high school. They no longer have Beluga whales, only dolphins. The baby sharks in the old Beluga pool have grown up to be bigger sharks. The deep-sea tanks have become night reef exhibits. The jellyfish have moved to the dolphin pavilion for their own “Invasion of the Jellies” exhibit. The touch tank has been removed altogether. And, of course, the new Australia, which was awesome.
If you’ve never been to the aquarium in Baltimore, it’s worth a visit. Once you enter the aquarium, you’re brought to a big pool, pictured above. Long ago, this used to be where the Belugas lived and performed their shows. But that was a loooong time ago. Since they moved to the bigger amphitheater across the pier, this pool has been used to house small sharks, rays, sea turtles, and open-water fish. It’s kinda sterile, though. I wish they’d add some decoration to make it look more habitat-like. I think it’d make a great Chesapeake Bay exhibit.
From there, you move upstairs for three floors of small-tank exhibits surrounding the big tank. From each floor, you can always look down on the sharks and rays, but you’re mostly too busy enjoying the other fish. From the 4th floor, you rise one more level into the glass pyramid of the Amazon rainforest. This is my favorite part of the entire aquarium. In truth, rainforest exhibits are my favorite part of any zoo or aquarium. They generally exhibit live plants, free-flight birds, other animals, like primates and turtles, a flowing stream with a glass edge to look in, smaller tropical animals in their own habitats (frogs, snakes, lizards, small mammals…). But the birds are what make it. I love the warm, humid atmosphere with all the sunlight and the sounds of the birds.
Coming down from the rainforest, you are perched atop the giant reef tank. The reef is an oval, 15-20 feet deep, and you walk down the middle. Under the reef are the sharks, and under the sharks is the under water viewing area for the big tank we saw at the very beginning. You can see the window in the photo above. From there, an escalator brings you back up to the main level to the gift shop and exit.
But now, before exiting, you can go to the new Australia exhibit, which is very similar to the rainforest. A huge glass enclosure contains a stream with waterfalls and several underwater exhibits. There are also some snakes in tanks and lots of birds in free-flight. I was expecting a multi-level exhibit, but it was only one small path. Still, the open exhibit with all the birds was very nice.
After touring the Aquarium, we drove around the city looking for a place to eat. We were in the mood for Thai, so we found the decent neighborhoods. Unfortunately, it was a Saturday night, so parking was nowhere to be found. So we started driving home and found a place off of Route 40 near Ellicott City. Actually, the entire strip mall turned out to be an asian shopping center. There was a huge asian food market and several asian restaurants of various ethnicities. The entire parking lot was full, but we managed to find a space. That’s usually a good sign, and we chose wisely. The food was great. It was a nice end to a nice day.
For the longest time, I have been wanting to re-design my site to make it easy to update and manage content. At first, I thought a content management system would suit me, but I found them to be a bit daunting. Perhaps later I’ll re-visit the idea, but for the amount of content that I actually publish, a blogging platform would do me much better. I still have the photography up using Gallery2 and the main website is now using Wordpress. I figured if I’m going to provide stories and updates, I might as well do it in blog form rather than use dreamweaver and static content.
So, welcome to the new Mineral2.com. I’m still playing around with the new system, but hopefully this means I can provide updates more often and keep this site active once more. Current projects include integrating photo galleries with wordpress and customizing my own theme design. At lest now I can manage my site on the go.
Enjoy.
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