Matt – Page 2 – Matthew Singer

September 21, 2015 Matt Hikes

Wallowas Weekend 2015

After a long summer with not much exploring, the pace has changed and I've had a fairly busy two weeks. The series begins with the return of the Annual Wallowas Weekend. In the six Septembers that I have lived here, I've led a backpacking trip to the Eagle Cap Wilderness four of those years, with this year being the fourth.…

July 19, 2015 Matt Hikes

Seven Devils on the Fourth of July

What do you do when temperatures rise above 100º F? Seek relief at very high elevations. This June was one of the hottest on record for the northwest with several days above 100 degrees in Moscow. So when my friends proposed a backpacking trip for the Fourth of July weekend, i was a bit skeptical, especially given the location's tendency…

June 30, 2015 Matt Travel Stories

Alaska

I was in Alaska from June 10-17. This trip was mostly about business with a little bit of pleasure while I was out there. I attended the 2015 meeting of the Animal Behavior Society. This wasn't my first scientific meeting. But it was my first time at ABS and my first meeting where I was alone. I was the only…

June 2, 2015 Matt Hikes

East Moscow Mountain

[map style="width: auto; height:400px; margin:20px 0px 20px 0px; border: 1px solid black;" gpx="http://www.mineral2.com/wp-content/uploads/Moscow Mountain Hike.GPX"] I had heard about the big trees on Moscow Mountain, but I had yet to experience them for myself. I first drove the road along the ridge back in 2010, the year I moved to Idaho. Back then, I passed some fairly large trees along the…

May 10, 2015 Matt All Things Moscow, Hikes

Small hikes near Moscow

The end of the semester is a busy time, and that often means foregoing larger adventures for some smaller ones closer to home. In the last week, I've been trying to keep active and take advantage of the local trails. One of these trails is the Headwaters trail on the western end of Moscow Mountain. In my five years here,…

April 20, 2015April 20, 2015 Matt Hikes

Blue Mountains: Panjab Loop

We open the 2015 hiking season with a fairly big hike in the Blue Mountains. The Panjab loop takes us up the Panjab Creek trail and back down via the Rattlesnake Trail in the Wenaha Tucannon Wilderness. This hike is full of wildflowers, wildlife, and canyon views. (more…)

April 15, 2015 Matt Personal Updates

Yes, I’m still alive.

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here. The purpose of this post is the reassure you that I'm still alive and kicking. There haven't been many adventures and photo outings this winter for a number of reasons, the least of which is that it's been a pretty lackluster winter in terms of snow fall. But I've also…

September 19, 2014September 22, 2014 Matt Hikes

Annual Wallowas Weekend 2014

[map style="width: auto; height:400px; margin:20px 0px 20px 0px; border: 1px solid black;" gpx="http://www.mineral2.com/wp-content/uploads/Selected Data from wallowas 2014.GPX"] The annual Wallowas Weekend tradition kinda took a hiatus for a couple of years. In 2012, Tyler had to pull out of the trip, and several other people followed. That left me with one other person who still wanted to hike, but also…

September 7, 2014September 7, 2014 Matt Hikes

Oregon Butte

In a world where there are so many playgrounds at arm's reach, the Blue Mountains of southeastern Washington are so often overlooked. They're not as tall as the surrounding mountain ranges - the highest point is just shy of 6400 feet. There are no natural lakes, and the valleys are actually canyons carved into an uplifted basalt lava flow. But…

September 5, 2014September 4, 2014 Matt Hikes, Personal Updates

August Update

I just realized that August has come and gone and I have yet to write about anything that happened during this month. It's not as though I haven't done anything. In fact, I was quite busy every weekend. So, let's see, what happened in August? It got really hot. In fact, it got so hot, that doing things became unpleasant.…

July 29, 2014July 29, 2014 Matt Hikes, Travel Stories

Roman Nose Lakes

[caption id="attachment_605" align="aligncenter" width="344"] Upper Roman Nose Lake with Roman Nose peak rising behind it.[/caption] Last year, I tried to take my family up to Harrison Lake to enjoy a true alpine zone. When we got close, we saw that the lake had been closed due to problematic bear activity. I would have still been ok hiking up there, but…

July 21, 2014September 22, 2014 Matt Hikes

Grandmother and Grandfather Mountains

Since my daughter was born a month ago, I haven't been able to get out and stretch my legs on the trail. So when an opportunity came along to go hiking, I jumped at it. The past few weeks had been miserably hot, even to the point where escaping into the high elevations wouldn't provide refuge from the heat. However, since…

July 1, 2014July 21, 2014 Matt Personal Updates

Introducing Clara

On Thursday, June 19, my 32nd birthday, Erin woke up having contractions that were 10 minutes apart, give or take a minute. This persisted through the morning. By the afternoon, the contractions had gotten closer together. We left home around 2:30 and an hour later, we were at the birth center in Moscow. Clara would have been born at…

June 25, 2014June 25, 2014 Matt Personal Updates

Mexico, Auroras, and other June Fun

I'm a bit late getting some updates out, so I'm going to condense about 3 posts in to one in the hopes that I can get caught up. So let's start with my trip to Mexico. If it wasn't obvious from my last post, I went down to the Mayan Riviera with Erin and the rest of my family…

June 8, 2014 Matt Personal Updates

Flight Paths

[map style="width: auto; height:400px; margin:20px 0px 20px 0px; border: 1px solid black;" maptype="ROADMAP" gpx="http://www.mineral2.com/wp-content/uploads/Flights.GPX"] If you don't already know me, I have a thing for maps and geography. It's an absolute delight to see the landscape from the air. I've been bringing my GPS with me when I fly, mostly to keep track of flight progress and to identify what…

May 26, 2014May 26, 2014 Matt Personal Updates

What might the native prairie have looked like?

It's hard to imagine what America's prairies looked like when they were unspoiled. Today, more than 95% of our prairies and grasslands have been repurposed for agriculture. The last remnants are so highly fragmented that it's a fight to keep non-native invasive species from taking over. Prairies and grasslands were once thought to be ecological wastelands, a monoculture of grass…

May 11, 2014May 10, 2014 Matt Hikes, Travel Stories

Evo-WIBO and the Olympic Peninsula

I'm two weeks on this post, but forgive me because the last two weeks of the semester have been insane. The bi-annual northwest evolution conference, Evo-WIBO, occurred the last weekend of April. If you don't remember, I attended the last meeting two years ago and presented a talk on the results of our selection experiment. This year, I presented a…

March 30, 2014March 30, 2014 Matt Travel Stories

Scenic Drives and Cemeteries

I really enjoy the small historic cemeteries that dot the Palouse. They're tucked away on obscure roads or in the middle of farm fields in places where you wouldn't think to go. They're incredibly peaceful and scenic and full of local history. So, I decided to visit a few local to my house along one of my favorite drives (See…

March 10, 2014March 10, 2014 Matt Hikes

Asotin Creek

[caption id="attachment_483" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Bighorn Sheep at Asotin Creek.[/caption] It's funny that only two weeks ago, I was clearing snow from my driveway, and now there's hardly any sign of winter left on the Palouse. Instead of snow, it rained for nearly a week straight. So when we caught a break in the weather on Saturday, I was quite happy…

March 8, 2014 Matt Photo Blog

Palouse Photography: Waiting for the right light

This post will demonstrate just how fast light can change, especially during sunrise and sunset. [caption id="attachment_478" align="aligncenter" width="500"] View of Moscow Mountain and the Idaho Palouse.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_479" align="aligncenter" width="500"] View of Moscow Mountain and the Idaho Palouse.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_481" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Moscow Mountain and the Idaho Palouse at sunset.[/caption] These three images, taken in the same location on…