Splash Dog at Soldier Hollow

We went to Soldier Hollow over in Midway to watch the Sheep Herding and the Splash Dog competition. We've gone and watched the Border Collies do their sheep herding magic before, but I hadn't ever seen the Splash Dog fest before.

It's done with about 30 feet of runway leading to a out of the ground pool, about 30-40 feet long, 15 feet wide and 3 feet deep. A human stands at the end of the runway and tries to get the dog to make as long a leap as possible into the water. You can throw some form of dog toy to give the dogs a target and some motivation.



Different dogs had different styles. This is more of a Superman approach.



but they all ended up with something like this.



OK, not all of them. This pup went to the very end of the ramp, got down as close to the water as possible, and then basically just plopped in. Distance was measured in inches.



You could tell that some dogs lost their enthusiasm about half way through the jump.



Ears flopping, full speed ahead!



Sometimes the owner would toss the toy poorly. Some dogs ignored it and just dove for distance. This owner tossed it too high and the dog went right up after it.



Excellent form!



This Border Collie was about to explode with excitement. This was as close as he would come to sit and stay. His butt stayed in the air to maximize acceleration. Every time the human would turn around, the dog would scoot up.



Some dogs looked like wet dogs. Other looked more like wet rodents. There was a ramp that made it easy for the dogs to get out of the pool and walk down steps to the ground.



I kept trying different angles to find the most interesting pictures. The best splashes came from head-on. My favorite dog pictures were the high speed shots from the side. Here's a series.











If you get a chance to see this competition, you should. What great entertainment.

Perhaps I will post some of my sheep herding pictures later.

Friends of Animals Golf Tournament at Red Ledges

What a great event! This was the first year the Friends of Animals did a golf tournament as a fund raiser and it was awesome. It was held at Red Ledges, over in Heber City. This golf course was picked as the best new golf course in the country in 2009. Not bad.

After a few days of high winds and thunderstorms, the day of the tournament was nearly perfect. A bit of a morning chill and highs in the 70's. The event was sold out with 120 golfers. Check out Mount Timpanogos in the background.



It's always nice to see friends show up to support the dogs and cats. The couple in the red hats are Derrick and Lydia. Derrick is a mountain host with me over at PCMR and they come out to support almost every FOA event. Lydia is an awesome golfer.



Jim McLean is one of the biggest golf instructors in the U.S.. He runs multiple schools, has lots of books, and shows up on TV all the time. He is opening a school at Red Ledges and was at the tournament meeting people and giving pointers. This is a picture of the local school's head instructor, Jim, and the rest of my foursome.



The views at Red Ledges are pretty spectacular. We are about to hit from on high, down to the fairway you see. This is where the golf teachers were, so I was a bit nervous. Fortunately I found a nice swing and put by drive between where you see the golf cart and the green. Nothing like a huge downhill, a wind at your back, and a beer to help with a long drive.



Like I said, great views, even the close ones. The red rock in cliffs and hills in the area look almost like the St George area.



There were lots of contest along the course including a hole-in-one for $50,000, a hole-in-one for a new Subaru, longest drive, straightest drive and closest to the hole. One of my foursome, another Steve, won closest to the hole. You don't get much closer than this without it going in. No one claimed either of the hole-in-one prizes.



After the golf finished, we had a great lunch from Snake Creek Grill, gave out the prizes, and then did a brief auction. Part of the auction was drawings for large gift baskets, which had things like bottles of wine, gift certificates, ski passes,... each basket worth between $500 and $1000.

It began to look suspicious though when some drew Annica's ticket for a basket. Annica (left) was the FOAU board member who created and ran the entire tournament. Celebrating with her is Cathy King, FOAU's executive director.



But here's what it was all really about. The event raised $30,000 for Friends of Animals. What a tremendous success.

All the folks in light blue are the volunteers. The guy in the gray vest is the head of Red Ledges, Mitch Burns. In the dark blue shirt in the back is Jim Kelly. He was our MC, but is better known for his 35+ years of sports broadcasting on ESPN. It's great to have people like Jim living in Park City, willing to help out.

Kelly goes to college

Our niece, Kelly Smale, has moved in and is now a freshman at Gonzaga. Go Kelly!

Why we have fire sprinklers

One of the odd things about building a house in Park City is that you have to include fire sprinklers. Not just a fire extinguisher. You have to have the serious, commercial fire sprinklers you are probably used to seeing in a public building. Why? Because it is dry and windy, and we have a lot of scrubby, half dead trees.

This past week, we were reminded why. Along a trail about a half mile from our house, a fire started. Kids? A cigarette? Who knows? The fire spread and it was on a steep hill with a lot of scrub, so the fire fighters were having a hard time getting water to where it was burning.

The fire grew to about 15 acres and came within about 100 yards of a house. As the ground forces were getting the fire under control, a helicopter with a water bucket joined the fight and knocked the fire out. Here is the result.


It hurts me not to have been taking tons of pictures while all this was going on, but here is one from the Park Record. I was about 10 miles outside of Park City at a Friends of Animals meeting. Between the local radio station and neighbors, we kept up to date with any call for evacuation.



This definitely gives you a little wake up call. We definitely live in fire country and even though we have five fire stations within five miles of our house, that doesn't mean we are safe. Always helps to have a plan on what you would do if you had to evacuate.

If you want to see some more pictures, go here. They normally leave them up for a few weeks.

Flowers from the yard

This time of year there are still lots of flowers blooming. We get such a late start with summer. One interesting thing is how the colors transition. Back in June and July, most of the flowers seemed patriotic: red, white or blue. As fall comes around, almost all the flowers are the fall colors, like yellows, oranges and reds. Interesting. I wandered out with the camera to capture some of the interesting ones on our front hill (which is all wildflowers).

Because it wasn't a fall color, this one stood out. It's actually very small.



We have these by the hundreds. They seem to be on the border between attractive flower and spreading weed.



A little more color. Wish I had more of these.



And the rabbit bush is gorgeous this time of year. Lots of big yellow, spikey blooms. Is spikey a word?



A close-up of one of the flower heads.



Nothing spectacular, but lots of pretty things to look at. I'm glad my wildflower hillside is really beginning to take. It is a fight to "let it grow" but to keep most of the noxious weeds out. With our nasty soil and tough weather, Mother Nature and Evolution have combined to make some incredibly fast spreading, deep rooted weeds.

Wink Self-Timer

Canon has a number of new cameras with a feature called the "Wink Self-Timer". I was curious so I did a quick Google. You set the camera up to take a group picture, either on a tripod or sitting somewhere sturdy. Push the button half way and then wander around to get in the picture. When someone winks, the camera notices, and two seconds later will take a picture.

The computers in pocket cameras are becoming self aware. Soon the robots will take control. Until then, we will get better pictures, easier. Of course, I would be happier with a camera sensor that can capture a much wider dynamic range.

Park City season pass prices

What a difference a year makes. About this time each year, the ski resorts all announce what their ticket prices will be, including season passes and specials for locals. I don't remember the exact numbers from last year, but a Deer Valley season pass was around $1600 and a Park City pass was about $1300. So, in bad economic times, how do they adjust?

This year, the normal Deer Valley season pass is over $1900. Locals can buy early, but it still costs you $1630. Park City is trying a very different approach. You can get an adult season pass for $700. They have some add-on's that can make it more expensive, like underground parking and night skiing, but DV doesn't offer any of these.

I think we are going to see a BIG shift in locals this year. I love skiing DV, but this is ridiculous. If you price a year of skiing for a family of four locals, two adults, a 12 year old and a 6 year old, Park City costs locals $1525. Deer Valley would be $3770.

Deer Valley is mighty proud of a mountain that got almost no capital improvements this year. Park City did over $4M and The Canyons did $10M. I guess they are just banking on being able to sell to the well-to-do's that will stay at the St Regis and the Montage.

Tour of Utah bike race

The Tour of Utah is a pretty impressive stage race for the US. I won't describe the whole thing, but you can click on the link to get all the details.

This year, the next to the last stage was held as a criterium in Park City. The rode about 90 minutes around a loop that went up Main Street and back down Swede Ave, with one extra set of turns thrown in onto Park Ave.

This years race included some pretty big Tour de France names, including Levi Leipheimer, George Hincappie and Francisco Mancebo Perez.

Levi won the whole tour, but Jeff Louder from team BMC won the criterium. It was fun to watch and a bugger to photograph well. There were a lot of places where the sun was setting behind the buildings, leaving the riders in the shade and the buildings behind them in the brilliant sunshine.

Radio Shack had the best looking outfits.



I thought it was ironic that his bike says "FOCUS" in clear letters. That was one of my challenges was focusing on things moving that quickly, so close to you.





This turn had a bump in the pavement. A couple of the racers started peddling out of the turn too soon and caught a peddle on the pavement. Fortunately, they got startled, but not thrown down. Some were very close though.



That's Levi in the yellow jersey.



The only racer I saw wearing one of those breath-right strips on his nose. Sorry, that just won't help much with the adjustment to 7000 feet.







Hard work pushing it up Main Street.



Can you feel his pain? This was right near the end.



Not a great photo of him, but the guy on the right in the red was the stage winner. He actually pulled ahead by one minute, eventually winning by about 30 seconds. That's unusual in a criterium.



This is the pack trying to catch back up to the leader at the end. Too little, too late.



I think everyone did a great job including the racers, the race organizers, all the police and traffic control, and the many thousands of fans. Nice event. I am sure it will be back to Park City again soon.

Next time I will be just a hair smarter about photographing bike races.

Fall? Really?

Come on! It's still August!



This little maple at the end of our driveway seems to have decided to get a jump on things. Pretty, but not a welcome sight yet.

Weather rampage

One difference between living in NC and Utah becomes apparent when you listen to the daily weather. It isn't unusual in Raleigh to have a series of summer storms drop 3 or 4 inches of rain in a day. Salt Lake doesn't get but about 2 inches all summer long. Life in a desert.

Yesterday Salt Lake City got 1.3" of rain in about an hour. Most of that came down in 15 minutes. Imagine getting over a month's worth of rain in 15 minutes. No, the drainage systems can't handle it.

The scariest thing is that it actually snowed at the highest elevations, in August. Yes, it melts off very quickly, but August? On our side of the Wasatch mountain chain, we didn't see any snow, so no pictures. Hoping I won't be able to get any for a few more months.