March skiing...

I know that I've been a bit, um, inconsistent blogging lately...

We have been doing some skiing, and here are a few pictures from a couple of recent trips. Last week Maple and I went up the Wood river. The snow was surprisingly good, and it was a beautiful morning for a ski.

Here is the trail going through an aspen grove on the South Fork of the Wood River:

Maple, of course, wanted to run through and frolic in the snow, but it was deep and soft off the trail, and this is what it looked like where she tried going off trail:

She didn't get too far!

Yesterday we got up early, to beat the warm temps, and headed for Pahaska. The snow was pretty good, and the weather was awesome.

First, Maple checked to see just how 'dog friendly' it really was:

Some snow snails on the side of the trail:

Karen on the trail next to the river:

The East Gate of Yellowstone, peaceful on a March morning:

Into the Park a couple of miles, looking back down the road/trail:

Tourists!

New Kid on the Slopes

On Saturday Kylie made her first ever skiing excursion, and it went pretty well! Karen and I picked up Zack and Kylie and headed for Sleeping Giant ski area, 50 miles west of Cody and a few miles from the East Entrance to Yellowstone. They have a feature called the 'magic carpet', which is a conveyor belt built into the snow on a not-too-steep hill, that is free to ride and a great place for a 3-year-old to try out the sport. It was snowing, and fairly windy, but the snow was nice, and Kylie got geared up:

At the lift entrance, she contemplated her new gear:

And, they're off!

I brought my cross country stuff and headed up the river for a nice little ski in the trees, and they all made a couple of runs before snack time. When I got back, Karen was prepping Kylie for another run, but it got very windy and they decided to pass. All in all, it was a good first outing. Kylie was doing some "Wheee"-ing on the way down, and she loved the snacking (well, she IS a Warner...) and says that she wants to go again.

Mumblings

Just sayin':

• In the current, sure to be passed version of Wyoming's legislative re-districting, Meeteetse is being taken away from the rest of Park County and thrown in with Hot Springs County, which is based in Thermopolis, 50 miles to the south. We have no (ZERO) connection to Hot Springs County, and the only reason any Meeteetse people ever go there is to swim in the pools, or drive through on the way south or west. Our representation on the state level, already kind of shaky with us in the same districts as Cody, will sink to near zero. To continue with the re-districting absurdity, the Legislature, to avoid having two current senators end up in the same district in the southeast, are going to redefine how they count the temporary 'residents' of the state pen so that their districts can stay intact.
• I just read an article that estimated that spending on tv ads only for the 2012 presidential election will top 2 billion bucks. I assume no comment is needed.
• I have a new favorite show on the tv: Portlandia, on the IFC network. It is on Friday nights, and is a silly goofy look at life in Portland (the one in Oregon), always with hip guest stars and funny skits.
  
• I am feeling the beginning symptoms of concert fever coming on--I need some live music to ward it off...
• The children will tell you that we, especially Karen, have a long-standing obsession with the music of The Chieftains, and I am happy to note they are releasing new music on Tuesday, a bunch of it recorded with some of our favorite indie bands, like The Decemberists and Bon Iver. It celebrates 50 years of Chieftains music-making.
• We get paid every other Wednesday, so there are always a couple of months a year when we get 3 checks instead of two. This year, in a rare turn made possible by leap year, we get paid three times in February. I know this means nothing to anybody, but I find it interesting...
• We are not going to the Frozen Four this year. None of the group was really feeling it for hockey in Florida. Apparently the UNH team came to the same conclusion.
  

Yellowstone winter trip, 2012

I put several videos together for this one big vid...if you've got ten minutes to kill...

Pussy Riot

I don't know what you might be expecting with that post title, but here goes...

The other day, driving home, I heard a story on All Things Considered about a protest group in Russia that calls itself Pussy Riot. Russia is a country that could be on the verge of serious unrest and protest for a lot of reasons, including women's rights issues and the fact that Vlad Putin has more or less turned the country into a dictatorship. One of the interesting things to me about protest in our current era is the role that social media plays in spreading the word and connecting like-minded people. Pussy Riot is a collective protest group of young women who have been staging some interesting and angry protests, and they caught the eye of somebody at NPR. The story led me to check out a video of their latest protest, in January in Red Square. This video is pretty amazing. I have no idea what they are singing, but the anger and rage ooze off the screen when you watch.

You can check out the NPR story here, and watch the video below:

Winter Wonderland, 2012 version...

We are freshly back from our latest trip to Yellowstone National Park in the winter, and I have a whole bunch of pictures to share with you. I'm going to keep the commentary to a minimum and let the pictures tell most of the story. We started on Jan. 27 with the drive to Chico Hot Springs, our now traditional launch pad for our winter trips. We added a new wrinkle this year, stopping in Red Lodge at Sam's Tap Room for a delicious 'let's get started' ale. Chico was great, as always. After a nice soak, we had an incredible meal. Hey, any meal that starts with raw oysters is halfway to great already!

We got up early, and headed south for Mammoth Hot Springs, where we would catch the snow coach to Old Faithful. One of the cool things at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel is the Map Room, a large sitting room with a giant map of the US made of inlayed wood. Several different kinds of wood were used, with no neighboring states of the same wood. It is pretty awesome. Here is a close-up of the Wyoming area:



Hey, quit staring at the map and get on the snow coach! OK...
Ready to start:



Buffalo on the side of the road:



The obligatory Roaring Mountain portrait:



A pair of swans on the Gibbon River:



Close-up of Gibbon Falls, one of my favorites:



Buffalo bedded down next to the road:



And then we were at Old Faithful, and the snow was stunning! After a month of warm weather and little snow, there was some nervousness about the snow. But in the couple weeks before our trip, that portion of Wyoming got LOTS of snow, and there was fresh powder all around. We got settled in our cabin, and then strapped on the skis and hit the Fern Cascades Trail, a 3+ mile loop right by Old Faithful that has some uphill, some downhill, and some gliding through the trees, with a serious downhill at the end. I liked it so much that I did two loops, while Karen did one and then headed back to the cabin to rest.

Here are a few snaps from the trail:












I've uploaded all my photos from the trip to a web album, and you can see all of the pictures from the first day by clicking here.

The next day, we had an excursion planned on the DeLacy Creek trail to Shoshone Lake, which left late in the morning, giving us time to walk around the geyser basin a bit. We saw Old Faithful go off and we were the only people there!










Beehive Geyser:




We have made the trip down DeLacy Creek several times, both walking and skiing. It is a Warner favorite. After a quick little downhill, the trail goes through an area of timber before opening into meadows that follow the creek to the lake. It is beautiful any time of year.

The sign at the trailhead:



The snow was so soft, the skiing was amazing:






Only four of us made the trip: Emily, our guide and driver, Curtis, a Xanterra employee who joined us, Karen and me. It was great! We had a lot of fun with Emily and Curtis, the weather was spectacular (i.e., not too much wind!) and the skiing was nothing short of amazing. Emily and Curtis dug out a little sitting spot for us at the lake, and we shared snacks and stories.

The Shoshone group:



Looking out on the lake:



All of my pictures from Day 2 can be viewed here.

Our third day saw us off early to another of our favorite ski trails, the Spring Creek Trail. This one starts on the hill to the southeast of Old Faithful and winds its way along Spring Creek to where the creek meets the Firehole River. From there, it is a short jaunt to Lone Star Geyser, and then back to Old Faithful. All told, somewhere around nine miles total, I think.

You can't scare us with that:



On the trail:






At Lone Star Geyser, it was kind of blowy and snowy, so we didn't hang out for an eruption:



The Firehole River:



It was a great day with fantastic ski conditions, and we celebrated by drinking a bottle of Scottish ale (from Scotland!) that Karen got me for Christmas, an act immortalized in a video seen by clicking here. All of my pictures from this day can be seen by clicking here.

Our next day, we had another excursion planned, this one an all day trip to the Canyon area, including some skiing. On the way, we saw a fox doing some ground hunting near a bunch of buffalo (and people!).

The fox and a buffalo:



Fox solo:



Karen gearing up at the Canyon Visitors Center for a ski to the Lower Falls:



On the trail:



The Canyon was incredibly beautiful, with the sun poking in and out of the clouds, lighting different spots at different times.

Our first view of the Canyon:












A view looking at the Lower Falls, over 300 feet of drop:



The white arch in the foregound is all snow and ice, built up from mist and snowfall:






Our second ski of the day took us up the river above the Upper Falls to Chittendon Bridge:



The river with Mt. Washburn in the distance:






Looking up the river:



A view of the Lower Falls, 109 ft. of ice and water:






Next, we coached up the river to the head of the Hayden Valley, where we had the great treat of seeing two beaver playing on the ice:



Coyote tracks on the river:



A beaver climbing up onto the ice with a stick in its mouth:



We stopped for one final ski on the way back, on the Virginia Cascades road. Great skiing, and the Cascades looked beautiful:



It was a great day! Our guide Crystal was really good, and the rest of the group were a lot of fun. All of the Canyon day pictures can be seen by clicking here.

On our last day in the Park, I got up a bit before dawn and went for a short walk for some early light photos. It was a short walk because all the walkways to the geyser areas were blocked by bedded down buffalo, except for Old Faithful itself. I did get some nice shots of that, with a solitary buffalo and a lone coyote for company at Old Faithful.









The coyote leaves with the mist from the geyser:



After breakfast, we packed up our stuff, got checked out of our room and went for one last walk among the geysers.

Here is Karen in front of the cabin, with our stuff loaded on sleds to take back to the lodge:






Daisy Geyser:



The run-off at Punchbowl Spring:



We had been hearing about a 'thumping' sound coming from Black Sand Pool, so we went to check it out, and sure enough--the ground was thumping! It was sporadic but happened every 15-20 seconds, and it was a 'thump' that you could both hear and feel. A ranger told me it was hot air bubbles collapsing under the weight of the water. Whatever it is, it is weird!

Here is Black Sand Pool:




A coyote walked down the trail right next to us on our way back:






On the snow coach ride back to Mammoth, we stopped at Fountain Flats, and checked out the thermal features there. That was the highlight of a somewhat boring trip back to Mammoth.










Buffalo tracks in a thermal runoff bed:



All of my pictures from our last day can be seen by clicking here.

We spent the night after the coach ride back at Chico, gratefully soaking...

It was another great, great trip, made possible in part because Karen has been working so much overtime this winter. Thanks, Karen!

And, we both hope to be there again next year--perhaps you can join us...