Morons I Have Seen

I once saw a clueless tourist walk up to a bull bison in Yellowstone. The bison was lying down in the dust. Massive, one-ton beast. The tourist walked up to the furry critter and leaned back against the bison's spine so that his equally stupid wife could snap a photo.

Unfortunately, the bison took it all in stride and did not squash the two morons into paste. But it could have (and probably should have) been otherwise.

Bull bison. I took this from a great distance. Keep your distance, people.

I once saw an idiot tourist in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park walk up to a bear and begin to toss it slices of bread, one slice at a time. After a few tosses the bear realized the freaking moron had a whole bag of bread and was just doling it out like a greedy asshole. So the bear charged. To, you know, get the whole bag. The moron tourist had his tiny toddler daughter beside him. When the bear charged he ran. Just left his tiny girl there, alone. Fortunately for them all, he dropped the bag of bread and so the bear veered aside at the last possible second and did not trample the toddler. (It had no interest at all in the girl, only the bag of bread.)

Black bear I encountered while hiking in Douthat State Park in Virginia. I took this from a great distance as the fleeing bear turned to make sure I wasn't following him. Keep your distance, people.

A few years back I hiked into the Shining Rock Wilderness Area. It was on a Saturday so that wilderness was packed to the gills with humans, many of them having set up tents. This wilderness does not allow fires (signs posted at all trailheads), and being a wilderness, all plants and trees are protected. As I hiked along the air was filled with firesmoke. Every campsite had a campfire. In addition, I saw people with axes chopping not just dead, dry timber, but actively felling living trees. I even saw some of these scumbags chopping down living rhododendron.

There are few things less likely to burn in your campfire than the wood of a living rhododendron. Don't cut them down.

We don't have anywhere near enough rangers (a classic case of politicians trying to starve our parks and wilderness areas into extinction); but I also cannot imagine being a National Park ranger and having to put up with so many idiots.

The Quiet Hiker Videos

Just some of my more recent video that I'm running on my newly-formed YouTube channel.

Typical scene in Yellowstone National Park.

Seasons

Similar shots of the same place in two different seasons. I took the first shot from below the fire station on the summit of Mount Washburn in August of 2010. The second shot was from the National Park webcam from that tower two days ago. I don't think I'd be hiking that trail along the spine of the ridge without snowshoes or cross-country skis.

The photo I took in August of 2010.

Scene from the fire tower webcam yesterday.

Badass Bison Bull

In 2010 I took my family to Yellowstone. One day my son and I went to go on a hike while my wife stayed at the lodge. On the way back from the hike my son and I got stuck in a bison traffic jam. The Park rangers had halted auto traffic while the bison herd took over an entire lane (they were not "crossing" so much as using the road). I looked in the rear view mirror to see the alpha bull walking toward us. I am not exaggerating when I say that he was the biggest animal I have ever seen in the wild (not counting pilot whales). When I first spotted him he was passing a big tour bus, and the the top of his shoulders were as high as the windows on the bus. It was like seeing something out of the Ice Age. "Look at that monster coming our way! Get his photo," I told Andy. So my son picked up the SLR camera, rolled down the window, and poked the lens out in the direction of the gigantic bull bison.

Apparently this pissed off the bison because when he drew up parallel to us, he paused, turned his face toward my son, and went "BAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" His giant blue tongue stuck out of his giant bison mouth. The sound vibrated through the car. My son was suddenly and instantaneously in my lap.

He did not get a photo.

This is not the bison bull from the story. This one was a midget by comparison.

Spring Planning and Rediscovered Photos

Carole and I have been planning some smaller vacations for 2016. The first good one will be to go camping and kayaking on the Suwanee River in Florida in April. We've already reserved a campsite. There are a number of springs in that part of the state that we've never seen.

While mucking about with the computer to search for some material on that part of the panhandle of Florida, I accidentally stumbled upon some photos from 2010 of our trip to Yellowstone/Teton that I forgot we'd taken. I found some photos of wildlife that I barely recall taking and I'm going to retrieve those and probably post them this week.

In the meantime, here are a few that we took on our last two days in Yellowstone-Teton area, which we mainly spent in the Grand Teton National Park.

This was taken in Jackson Hole. I was warned not to go there, but I did anyway. And why? For the single reason that I wanted my photo taken at this damned arch made out of elk antlers. Yeah, I succumbed to the old tourist sucker bait. As I had been warned, Jackson Hole is a crap-ass joint catering to folk far richer than I am. The next time I go back to see Yellowstone/Teton, I will definitely stay as far from Jackson Hole as I possibly can. But I got the damned photo at the antler arch. Andy took this photo.

This was taken near the Teton Visitors Center. These thrust fault mountains are among the most spectacular peaks in the United States.

Fantastic scenery on Jenny Lake.

Carole had to pry me out of that place. I kept stopping along the road out to take photos. I can't recall if Carole took this one or if I did it by using a tripod and remote.

My Favorite National Park

I have visited a lot of our National Parks. They are all special places and are all worth seeing and enjoying. Some I have visited several times and will never get tired of--for even as you visit and revisit them, there is almost always some new spot to explore. For instance, I have visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park so many times that I long ago lost count. And I'll continue to go there because it is vast and there are still parts of it that I have yet to see.

But my favorite National Park is one that I have only visited once. Yes, I spent ten days there, but even so it still resonates with me. Hardly a day passes when I don't think about it. It is a vast Park, dwarfing even my beloved Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I could go there for decades and still never see but a fraction of it. It is packed with the final vast landscapes of megafauna here in the lower 48 states, and is home to mountains, rivers, plains, canyons, waterfalls, grasslands, forests, geysers, volcanic features, and sights to stun even the most jaded of Americans. Yeah, I'm talking about Yellowstone National Park.

Strangely, I often encounter people who had been to the Park and mention casually that they didn't care for it. My first impulse is to wonder what's wrong with them, or if they saw the same Park that I did. And I slowly realize that it's the latter. In effect, they did not see the same Park that I experienced in 2010.

Because most people see Yellowstone from a car. They sit in their cars and they drive from Point A to Point B and rarely get out of that vehicle. And the places when they do get out, they use to visit a very crowded spot packed with other people and lots of traffic. So I can see how they might not be impressed by Yellowstone.

But that's not the way I saw it, and that's not the way anyone who is able-bodied should see Yellowstone. You have to get out of your cars and wander around. You don't even have to do as I did and climb to the tops of high peaks or wander into the back country. There are countless trails where one can journey away from the roads and into areas where people are left far behind and the landscape and the creatures that live within it open up to you.

I look forward to the day when I can revisit Yellowstone. I want to go back someday, and I will try.

Get out of your cars. Go for a walk.

There were big critters everywhere!

Landscapes to make you feel small.

Big ol' mountains in Grizzly bear country!

Just before I climbed this mountain I saw and photographed a Grizzly bear wandering around on the landscape. (See my bear spray on my belt.)

We hiked down into a canyon where this was just another waterfall.

And views like this one were just a short stroll from a parking lot. Just hop out on the log jam to get a better view of a great waterfall!

Walk along a river. Be careful for thermal features.

We hiked a mile to this warm spring in a river to soak in the water.

Vast areas with giant mammals. The last of the Pleistocene landscapes!

I shot this from the summit of Avalanche Peak.

The West

Carole and I have taken several trips out west. And I took one without her to go backpacking. And when I look at some of the photos I took and recall the places I saw, I still find it hard to believe that I got to go and see those sights and experience those moments.

Two Medicine, Glacier NP.

Devils Tower.

Iceberg Lake, Glacier NP,

Bison, Black Hills.

The Needles, Black Hills.

Blue Lakes, Colorado.

Rocky Mountain National Park.

Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park.

Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado.

Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado.

Absaroka Mountains, Yellowstone National Park.

Geyser, Yellowstone.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Sleeping Grizzly bear. Lamar River, Yellowstone NP.

Bull Moose, Grand Tetons National Park.

Joshua Tree National Park, California.

Outside Joshua Tree NP.

Carole, in Joshua Tree NP.

B'ars, Part II

Not too long ago I wrote a post about bears and posted some photos of various individual bears I have encountered in my treks. So I thought I'd refresh the subject--briefly--since I am going to be camping and walking about in grizzly bear country in less than a week.

I can't count the total number of bears whose paths I have crossed in my years of wandering about in the forests. Many. Since I've done almost all of my adventuring here in the east coast where only black bears live, that is the species I have most encountered. And even though black bears attack (and sometimes kill) more people than do grizzly bears, it's the griz who get all of the bad publicity.

Yesterday there was a story of a man who was killed and partially devoured by a grizzly bear in  Yellowstone National Park. One part of the story struck me because he was killed in an area that I had very seriously considered hiking when I was in Yellowstone, but ended up not doing because I chose to go elsewhere. It was on a medium-sized mountain called Elephant Back. The trail was relatively easy, I had read, and had the payoff of some good views and some solitude.

There are many more dangerous things that can happen to you in the wilds than running into a Grizzly bear. Lightning strikes are a much more likely threat than meeting up with an irate griz. A bison or a moose will gore or trample you before a grizzly bear would consider doing the same thing to you. Basically, being hurt by any kind of animal while hiking or backpacking is pretty darned rare. I'm far more frightened of being hit by a car or being shot by a nut with a gun than I am of being attacked by a bruin.

Still, I will be hiking in what is likely the densest grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states. So I will carry my bear-strength canister of pepper spray. And I'll be sure to make a lot of noise while I'm in the bush so that I have less of a chance of surprising the big ol' beasties. However, I do not want to get mauled and eaten by a grizzly bear, so I will take all due precautions.

Griz the way I like 'em. Far away from me and not interested in anything but where I'm not. I encountered this one just as I was getting ready to start my hike to the summit of Avalanche Peak in Yellowstone. He saw me and immediately went in the opposite direction. I took this photo from a very great distance.

This confused fellow I surprised while hiking alone in Douthat State Park in the mountains of Virginia. He saw me and bolted. I got this shot (from a good distance) with my telephoto lens because he stopped to take a look back at me to make sure I wasn't going to chase him or shoot at him. He, also, didn't want anything to do with me.

The West

My experience hiking and backpacking out west is limited. I've taken a few trips there to enjoy the outdoors, but not as many as I'd like. The scenery out there is quite different from that here in the east. There's a reason they call it "Big Sky Country". The mountains are grander. The terrain is more rugged. The wildernesses are more vast. When I'm out there I walk around gawking at the grandeur of it all.

But that's not to say that I think it's all superior to what we have here in the east. Our wild areas may be more ancient, more eroded, the edges filed down and enclosed by the creep of urbanization; but there is still much to love and admire in our wilderness. We don't have have the megafauna to compare, but our forests are far more diverse and generally more lush. There's nothing to compare with the autumns of an eastern hardwood landscape.

We have been planning our Glacier National Park trip for an entire year. The day is coming for us to head out. Provisions are stocked. The vehicles are ready. Funds are in place. What reservations we can make have been made. Expectations are at their highest level.

Here we go.

Hiking the big peaks.

Looking into the wilderness of Montana.

A Montana lake.

Grizzly country.

Hiking above treeline on talus slopes.

Bull moose.

Brown phase black bear.

Beat Down

Okay. I admit it. I'm too old for my day-job and my body's breaking down. 11-hour nights of deep sleep barely dent the fatigue before I get up and tackle it again. Something's gonna shatter. My guts or my joints. Who knows?

This situation has wrecked my writing time and my production of fiction. If any job has ever defeated me, it's this one at this time. As I said, I'm just too old to be a laborer at this point. Some people can do it into their 60s and 70s, but I ain't one o' those folk.

About the only thing I've had time for on the writing front is to take notes and jot down ideas. And this is why I still carry a notepad about with me.

Until such time as I can relax, that'll have to fill the creative side.

We have been spending some time planning for our long summer trip to Glacier National Park. We're all going together as a family, as we did to Yellowstone and the Florida Keys. I'm hoping we have as good a time in Glacier as we did in the other two spots.

At one of the geyser basins on Yellowstone Lake.

Carole and Andy along the road in Yellowstone.

I took some good photos of Andy from a distance as he explored the Fire Hole Canyon.