Mowing the lawn in a big way

Julie and I have started doing more of our hikes over on the trails at the Park City resort. The Spiro trail and the Crescent Mine Grade are very scenic and comfortable to hike. Today was a gorgeous day. You get a nice view of Park City and the Uintah mountains which are about 25 miles away.



As we continued our hike, we started to hear heavy equipment from a direction where it just didn't make sense. We got closer and found this guy driving a bulldozer up and down the ski runs, dragging a huge mowing bed.



When he got done, the ski runs looked like this.



These are some seriously steep ski runs. This is the toughest lawn mowing I have ever witnessed. How do you put that on your resume'? And what job does it get you?

It is still early yet, but the maples are starting to change color, especially on the north-facing slopes. I am hoping that all the prime leaf color doesn't occur while I am in North Carolina next week!

Photographing the Timpanogos Caves

I belong to the Wasatch Camera Club and they provided a unique opportunity to go into the Timpanogos Caves and learn to do cave photography. Normally the cave tour is very tightly regulated, with almost no opportunity to stop and take pictures. We got to spend two hours in the caves after everyone else was gone. Very cool.

If you don't know where these caves are, you head over to the Sundance ski resort and then go 15 miles on the scenic Alpine Loop. It is scenic, but as the car driver, you don't get to see much. Something about nonstop hairpin turns on a road that's only one and a half lanes wide keeps your focus.

Now that you have arrived, you still have to get there. Somebody figured it was a good idea to put the parking lot 1,065 vertical feet down from the entrance to the cave. That makes for a pretty nice hike, especially for some of the larger, rounder people I saw heading up.



I can't imagine how much effort went into creating this path up the mountainside. It is very steep and very rocky. To get the basic path, they had to do a lot of blasting, including the creation of three small tunnels. Then somebody sitting in an office somewhere thought that the path needed to be paved. Can you imagine trying to pave 1.5 miles of trail, with 1000+ feet of vertical, basically one bucket at a time, each starting at the bottom?



The only vehicle that could go up the trail is a tiny diesel truck. The trail is narrow, steep and full of tight turns. The bad news is that "the guy" who could drive it up the hill died last year. One ranger can now drive half way up, but they haven't got a replacement yet. This isn't some OSHA rule. This is a job for someone with suicidal tendencies.

Even with the paving, there are still some challenges. The rock crumbles, especially after heavy rains or snow melts. It comes tumbling down the mountain, which can be quite deadly.



Still feeling pretty comfortable about the walk up? How about the rattlesnake warning?



Right near the top is the last restroom. Notice the red line on the pavement? Remember the sign we just read about falling rocks? No way in hell was I stopping to use that restroom.



Oh, did I mention that even though they thought to pave the trail, they forgot the railings? There were dozens of places where if you stumbled off the 4 foot wide path you would fall several hundred feet onto rocks. At the bottom of the picture is the edge of the pavement. In the middle of the picture are some people. I am amazed that they don't lose more children. (They do lose some)



Finally we venture into the cave for some pictures. Shooting pictures in a cave is the most awkward photography I have done.

• It's dark, so you can't see the settings on your camera.
• It's dark, so the autofocus doesn't work.
  
• Focusing manually is hard. That whole dark thing again.
• You have to wear your camera backpack on your belly. With it on your back, you are too likely to bump into fragile rock formations.
• Having the flash on your camera doesn't work very well for lighting. The shadows are in the wrong place. Most of us don't know how control the flash (duration, brightness, ...) without it being part of the camera.
• There just isn't much room
  

This was a test shot. Notice my arm in the bottom left, reaching around to try and backlight a stalactite.



The technique is to hold the camera in your right hand and your flash in your left. Decide what you want to shoot. Use a flashlight to figure out the best lighting. Set your camera manually (focus, ISO, and f-stop). Set your exposure to 1 or 2 seconds. Now guess how bright you want your flash and set it manually. Turn off the flashlight. Try to aim the camera correctly in the dark and snap a shot. Before your two seconds are up, use your left hand to manually fire the flash. Good luck!

Until you start getting better, your shots tend to be either completely black, out of focus, or all squiggly like this one. Actually I think this turned out kind of cool.



Try enough and you start getting better at it, even though it feels remarkably goofy.

These caves don't have the huge stalactites and stalagmites that you find in some eastern caves, but there is wonderful variety and beauty. These looked like giant white fangs.



Different minerals make different colors. This looked like someone had tossed all their extra octopi up on a shelf.



Someone left the chocolate soft-serve ice cream on.



This little cone was the closest thing I saw to a stalagmite.



An oozing brown river with some delicate crystalline structures hanging from above.



Attack of the worms!



One room in the last of the three caves was full of different small formations.



Here's a closeup. It almost looks like coral.



I think this was my favorite shot. It has almost everything in it. Double-click on it so you can see the detail.



I think I have a much better idea of how to shoot in a cave, but I don't know when I will get another chance. I asked one of the rangers who had worked there for years and she didn't have any good ideas for how to get back in again.

The ugliest, most majestic bird

Rob Schumacher (our builder) called this morning. We both enjoy watching the large flock of vultures that float around on the late afternoon thermals. He had been driving up to Silverlake and ran across their roost. They apparently bed down in a grove of dead aspen trees right off Royal St. I went up to take some shots.

By the time I got there, only about 20 were still there.



They are big birds, comparable to an eagle. But with that wrinkly head, they tend to be ugly and scary.



It probably doesn't help their image that we normally see them scarfing some roadkill.



In fairness, they can also be amazing to watch. Every once in a while, one would open his wings to the sun for warmth. What a huge spread.



Then they would take off and start soaring around the valley like most of us wish we could.

Technically, I don't think it supposed to be a "flock of vultures". I think it is a "colony of vultures". English can be a demanding language.

Run Forrest Run!

It's been a while since I have done a marathon running update. Today was pretty significant so I figured it was time.

I have been doing a fairly good job of mixing three workouts every week:

• 1/2 mile intervals. Run a 3:30 or better half mile. Jog a quarter mile. Repeat 8 times. This is good for improving my speed.
• Long distance. I have ramped up from from my first run in April of 2 miles to today's run of 19 miles (and 3 more walking at the end). This is where you really start to feel the glycogen depletion. Not terribly pleasant.
  
• Hill climbs. I run from the base of Park City for 3 miles, up to the top of the Crescent ski lift. It's 1800 feet of vertical. That's roughly the run up the Empire State building, twice. It takes me about 43 minutes up, and 22 back down. Running down that steep, that fast, is harder than going up. Good for the thighs and the heart.
  

Now I get to start tapering down. My marathon is in 24 days. I'll still do a lot of running, but nothing quite as long or as hard. I wondered why the multi-week taper was so important. Turns out that a lot of getting stronger involves beating on the muscles and giving them lots of little tears. The taper is supposed to let everything heal, stretch and charge up for the race. I'm just happy to have an excuse to back off a bit.

My little woodpeckers

I just love these little Downy Woodpeckers. They wander up and down these wildflowers all day, eating all the seeds. They aren't quite as fun to watch as the hummingbirds, but most of them have already headed south for the winter.

Michelle and Zack visit

A few years ago we met a very nice couple, Michelle Enus and Zack Murphy. No sooner than we became good friends, they moved to Los Angeles. This weekend they came back to Park City and spent a few nights with us.



Saw a movie. Did some dinners out. But one of our bigger adventures was a hike up Iron Canyon. This was a new hike for Julie and me. It's nice because it is dog friendly and it is too rough and steep for mountian bikers. I don't have anything against mountian biking, but sharing a trail with them can sometimes be a challenge.



After gaining about 1000 feet of vertical, there is a really nice place to stop and look over Park City.



This is what you see. It's a nice view of Park City's two golf courses, the Park Meadows subdivision, and the Uintah mountians off in the distance. I think this may be a gorgeous picture when the leaves are at peak color.



As always, we had a great time with them. Hope we see them several times this winter for skiing!

Many hours of slave labor

I have decided to clean up the landscaping on the hill in front of our house. The wildflowers were pretty cool, but just a little too junky. Now I will go for a bit of formal with a bit of wild.



Most of these will be fairly easy to get in the ground. The killers will be the purple bushes (Diablo Ninebarks). They are in 10 gallon buckets, which require pretty big holes. Here in the mountains, you dig holes with a pick axe, not a shovel. 10 gallon holes with a pick axe can hurt.

This morning I got a 10 cubic yard truck load of mulch. I think I got 9 of them moved around and spread out. Its a lot of lifting, but not heavy lifting. That comes this week.

I am having 12,000 pounds of rock delivered. Each rock with be about one foot cubed and weigh 50-60 pounds. The pisser is that there is no way to deliver them anywhere close to where they have to go. I get to haul them one by one up the hill to their resting place.

Why go to the gym when you can bring the gym to your yard?

Cha-cha-cha-chia'bama

I sent my brother in law, Marty Smale, a Chia Obama for his birthday. He sent me this picture today. He's promised to send updates as it grows!

Wildlife had a wild night

One more tale from "Living in Park City can be weird". How can you tell when the local wildlife had a wild party? When you have to clean up after them the next morning.

25 feet down the street from our driveway was a big pile of moose poop.



And 10 feet further was the scattering of deer poop.



Normally you don't see the deer and moose hanging out together.

Perhaps instead of it having been a party, they might have just stumbled into each other in the middle of the night. Startled them each enough to scare the #$&* out of them.

NCSU football starts Thursday

NC State starts the college football season with a game against South Carolina this Thursday evening. It is nationally televised on ESPN at 7:00 eastern. Pretty unusual to get to see them on TV out here in Utah.




Last year NCSU got hammered, 34-0. One year later, we are a 4.5 point favorite. Hope they are right!

Since we won't be at the game but I have season tickets, I decided to see what I could get for them online. I ended up selling two on stubhub.com and two on ebay. Net sales after all fees: $710. That takes care of half my season tickets right there!