Blue Ice :: Portage Glacier

A mutual decision was made to leave Denali National Park a day early, partially because the time that Sue and Fred had in Alaska was limited and, without advance reservations, we had pretty much done what we could in the park. We drove south on Wednesday (August 11th) through Anchorage and part way around Turnagain Arm to Chugach National Forest and the small town of Portage.

We found a campsite at Williwaw Campground in the National Forest then immediately drove to Portage Glacier Lake and caught the last tour boat of the day for our first close-up look of an Alaska Glacier!

In the late 1800s there were four glaciers in this area that came together. Miners and other hearty souls used the glaciers as portage routes. Portage Lake was formed about a hundred years ago when the glaciers began receding. All four glaciers still exist but three of them are called “hanging glaciers” since they have receded so far and no longer come down into the valley.

Our vessel was the 80-foot Ptarmigan, shown here coming in to shore prior to our tour.

From the visitor center, Portage Glacier is hidden behind the mountain outcropping on the right.

Portage Glacier is on the right. It is called a valley glacier since it goes all the way into the valley. It is 450 feet deep but since there is nothing to give it perspective there was no way to really judge how high it was.

Photographs certainly do not do it justice! The rocks facing us in the center are 175 feet high!

A portion of the face of the glacier.

The closest we got was 300 yards away because of the possibility of calving – where ice breaks away and drops into the water. We didn't see any calving but felt the wake of a shooter – where a piece of ice breaks off beneath the surface and pops up out of the water.

There was a Forest Ranger on board who provided some scientific information about glaciers but, honestly, I wasn't paying attention! The blue color of the ice was intense and amazing. If you want to know more about why the ice is blue, check out this Causes of Color website.

In some places the ice hangs over the surface of the water, thus the “dark line” where the ice meets the water.

To put it into perspective, the Captain showed us a photograph taken a few years ago. He let me take a picture of that photograph and it is being used with his verbal permission. The Ptarmigan (the tour boat we were on) is floating in the middle of the bay amongst smaller icebergs in the same location as we were in – 300 yards away from the face of the glacier – and the boat (the largest of the floating objects) is merely a speck in the water.

Tomato Garden Follies

At
the end of year 6 of the Transplantable Rose blog, what better way to start
year 7 than with tomatoes? We like peppers and tomatoes. We like growing them
and we like eating them. I even wrote lyrics about the end of Tomato season for
a music video called Farewell, Tomato.







After
Philo made our small vegetable plot in .. we tried different ways to support
& protect the plants.




For
a few years we just staked them









Our
next phase lasted a few years - a large, strong, painted wooden framework that
could support plants, bird netting & shade cloth. We hoped the net could
slow down attacks by squirrels & birds.






It’s
been fun trying new varieties every year, cramming in 9 or 10 tomato plants and
7 or 8 peppers, watering them by hand while knocking leaf-footed stink bugs
into soapy water every day, with the reward of some salad tomatoes and frying
peppers.









A
post on GardenWeb suggested tying net gift bags over the tomatoes to protect
them from the stinkbugs. I was too cheap to buy more than 2 – a good thing
since the squirrels chewed off the whole tomato stem & ran away with the
bags.









On
Tom Spencer’s radio program we heard him mention one gardener who painted
wooden balls red & hung them in the garden while the tomatoes were green.
The idea was that any critter attacking the fake tomatoes would be convinced
that hard, bad tomatoes grew in that garden. We tried it and saw no effect, but
at least they’re decorative!












Recent
years broke the weather rules and what worked before no longer held up. Last summer after every pepper plant in the
vegetable garden died, I found a few new plants at a local nursery, put them into containers and those
survived. The bird netting kept the birds from taking the tomatoes, but it
allowed them to poke their beaks through the spaces to puncture the tomatoes.











The
tomato frame filled the entire center of our little plot, making it difficult
to get in to weed, prune & tie the plants and even harder to reach the
stinkbugs. The stakes & frames gave the birds a good place to perch while
they attacked the fruit. But we gardeners had no place to perch - the seat made
from a slice of tree trunk had rotted.









So
we tweaked the vegetable plot, moving the compost enclosure and changing the
layout. A central path looks better and gives us better access. There are fewer
plants this year. Five pepper plants grow in containers and we’re getting a
small, steady supply. We bought only 5 tomato plants and we’re getting a few of
those each day, too.




The
tomato vines are sort of draped over wire cages to hold the fruit off the
ground but they’re not staked. In place of the garden netting I bought a few
yards of inexpensive nylon net to sort of pouf over the top, using recycled bricks to keep it from blowing away. With a tighter weave and no convenient
sticks for birdie feet to grasp, they have to work harder to punch holes in the
tomatoes.









They
can still do it… our Blue Jays boldly cling to the kitchen windows and tap on
the panes! The squirrels will chew through anything and possums and raccoons
lurk at night. We know we can’t beat any of them but we're trying to stay in the
game.









If
a stinkbug lands on the outside of the net it can’t fit through the small mesh.
If the little monster is already inside clinging to the net I use the net to
enfold & squish it.









A
central path now leads to the concrete bench, relocated from the Secret Garden
to the Vegetable Patch. Last June we turned two old compost bins upside down,
painted them, added handles and called them tomato guards. This June they cover
two tubs bought at some long ago garage sale, painted white. The tub on one
side of the path has a pepper plant and a ‘San Marzano’ tomato grows on the
opposite side. There’s something going on here but it doesn’t fit the usual
categories… it’s not Potager and it’s not Austintatious and it’s not Garden
Junk. Maybe it’s Transplanted Frugal Midwesterner?









Two
of the tomatoes were supposed to be our favorite ‘Black Krim’. At planting time
I noticed a ‘Better Boy’ tag down the side of the pot. And that one ‘Black
Krim’ has now turned to None. Look at these tomatoes! They all came from the
same mislabled plant – not ‘Black Krim’ but it might take a tomato-genealogist
to figure out what they are.








On the other hand, when that heirloom-lumpy
tomato at far right finally ripened, it weighed in at over 13 ounces. Folly it
may be, but what a delicious folly it was.

SWPA ice climbing season continues (without ice)

This is by far the worst ice season I've encountered in my 15 years of South Western PA ice climbing. The 10 day forecast isn't looking so favorable either. This morning the Laurel Highlands were dusted with a little snow. Enough to motivate me to load up a full winter kit and set off for the woods in search of some new climbs. I figured if nothing else i'd get some mileage in whilst bushwhacking through the greenbriar filled jungles of Dunbar in "Fayetteville Cong".



I took a hike into a seldom climbed area named Rattlesnake Rocks. It's in the vicinity of Krahlick and Elk Rocks. Climbed mostly in the 80's by Ray Burnsworth and pals. It's a short crag that houses a fair number of climbs in the 20 to 30' range. No sport climbing here. All routes were either top roped or led trad. There are numerous moderate cracks and flake options for the aspiring trad climber. Rattlesnake Rocks got its name from the rattlesnakes that are known to frequent the area during the warmer months. I spent some time dry tooling across the base of an overhanging wall.

The left end of Rattlesnake Rocks is a great place for dry tool training

It's a great place to dry tool train with many variations and a nice flat landing. I was alone and climbed sans crampons in my mountain boots. After about an hour of bouldering and a few shots of the area I set off further across the ridge to see what I could find new. I was bushwhacking and scrambling around the hillsides. All of a sudden out of no where I stumbled into this little place.

Slabs stacked like dominos this newly discovered crag is

approximately 50' tall and has some very clean looking trad lines.

There's more crag to the right of what is visible in this photo.

The climbing looks awesome. I didn't notice any signs of previous climbers, but a few ascents may have taken place here over the years. Ed Coll, Ivan Jirak, Cal Swogar... There were a few folks that thrashed through the thickets, climbed what they could and moved on. Unfortunately many of the pioneers of the area are now deceased or have moved on leaving the history a little less than known. Either way, the routes look like a lot of fun and we're planning our first climbing visit this New Years Day. Here's a few of the plums that adorn this crag.

The first line I walked up to,

a seam system unlike many in these parts

Center section of the crag. Nice flakes and corners awaiting us

It was getting later in the day and I still had quite a hike out. I finished exploring a little and made my way to the car dreaming of the great new climbs I found. I had a great day exploring old crags and finding new. After all the time I've spent wandering the ridges and valleys of SWPA, the thing that I enjoy most is what I find next...

Not only new crags, but this is one of the things you might find in SWPA???

Soap gathering

This is how I spent the day yesterday: putting together the goody bags for the annual Alabama Soapmakers meeting.



To start, I make stacks of all the printed materials. Magazines and heavy catalogs go first, business cards and coupons on top.



Persnickety, me? All liquid and possibly-melty things must be segregated in ziplocks! (It's rare that something leaks, but you never know.)



This takes me all day.



My feet are really tired when it's done.



But it's worth it!

-----

Our 10th annual meeting is this weekend. Anne-Marie from Brambleberry is coming! I'm hoping some of her energy will rub off on me.

I wrote about our soap meeting once before here.

I'm so thankful to all our sponsors, who donated door prizes, samples, catalogs, coupons, and all manner of cool stuff. As Vendor Donations Coordinator, I've begged, pleaded, beseeched and harrassed them for the past three years. This year, the economy has sagged. I heard "no" (or silence) more than usual. I can relate -- everybody is pinching pennies. But I'm especially thankful to those vendors who came through for us this time.

NOVEMBER 18

I can't let this day go by without wishing my mother, the Rock of Gibraltar, a very happy birthday. I think it's meaningful that this spot has its place in Greek mythology as my mother deserves her place in storied Greek history as well. But my mother is not Greek; she has Southern roots, and she was born right here in Washington. I hope to contribute to this day by hauling her to my favorite DC Soul place for fried chicken- The Hitching Post. We might go to the Avalon for a movie afterwards-if we survive the heaping portions enough to stagger to the car. My mom used to take the streetcar to the Avalon, and I'm glad it's still there. I'm also glad she is still here!

Happy Birthday to The Rock.

N.O.S.

Oh, that sweet acronym that makes collectors tremble with anticipation! NOS stands for "new old stock." Parts that survived generations unused and untarnished. Parts that look and function now as they did on the day they were new.




It is not often one sees the status NOS preceded by a date in the 1930s. But the things I have seen appear in the hands of collector Chris Sharp over the past week... new old stock chased rubber grips, rod brake handlebars, carbide lamps, original roadster bells, sculptural quadrant shifters... Stunned out of my wits I could only wonder where on earth such things come from 80 years past their hey day.




Up until a few years ago there were bicycle shops in Ireland and the UK that still had spare parts left from way, way back in the day. Usually these shops were run by generations of the same family, never changing owners or locations, which is what made such stockpiling possible. Bikes that went unsold and parts that went unused had been piling up in the cellars and back rooms of these shops for decades, undisturbed. Then one by one, these places closed. And when they did, they would liquidate. Local collectors would then buy out a shop's entire inventories of parts from specific periods or manufacturers. Some bike shops owners were themselves classic bicycle enthusiasts, in which case unsold inventories from decades past turned into personal collections.




It was sad to learn about the last of the old bicycle shops closing in Northern Ireland. But also good to know that there are locals who are dedicated to preserving the things salvaged from them.




I used to think that the purpose of the NOS market was to feed a collector's high, and did not really appreciate NOS bikes and parts myself. After all, I ride all my bicycles, so anything NOS would be wasted on me - its status immediately obliterated through use. But now I understand that new old stock has value: It affords a rare opportunity to appreciate vintage bicycles not just from our current perspective - as old, well-used things covered in mud and rust - butin their original splendor,as the highly coveted machines they once were.

Gunks Routes: Alley Oop (5.7) & Dry Heaves (5.8)

(Photo: L following me up Alley Oop, pitch one. She's about to exit the roof. The Dry Heaves finish is at the next little alcove down to the left.)



Alley Oop (5.7) and Dry Heaves (5.8) sit right next to each other in the Trapps, starting from atop the same boulder pile, to the right of Balrog/Bullfrog and to the left of Cakewalk.



I have only climbed the first pitch of each. All the climbs in this area of the cliff feature easy, lackluster second pitches. Alley Oop and Dry Heaves both share a bolted anchor atop the first pitch, making it easy to quickly run up the first pitch of both climbs. You could also easily toprope Dry Heaves after leading Alley Oop.



Each climb features a low crux, then some mellower climbing to an excitingroof escape.



Alley Oop has a reputation as a climb with a difficult, problematic start. Maybe I was just feeling good when I climbed it the other day, but I thought the start featured simple, good face climbing. Usually, when I hear that a Gunks climb has a bouldery start, it means to me that the moves down low will be two grades harder than the rating suggests they should be, and that there will be inadequate pro until the early challenge is over and done with. Think of climbs like Laurel or Drunkard's Delight and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. But Alley Oop? Not so! The moves are all there, and there's seemingly good pro. Dick Williams says "yellow Alien helpful" to protect the starting move, and when I got to the first horizontal, I thought he must be crazy. The crack seemed too shallow to accept a cam. But then lo and behold, right in front of my face, there was a spot where the yellow Alien fit like a glove. I yanked on the sucker pretty hard, and of course there's a limit to what that kind of testing will tell you, but it appeared to me that it would hold a fall.



Once you place the yellow Alien (a yellow TCU or a #2 C3 might also work), it's another couple thin moves up and right to a stance with bomber gear. From there the pitch follows an obvious corner up and then left to an orange face. Climb past a couple hollow flakes straight up to the corner under the roof. It is not necessary to place gear behind these hollow flakes; look elsewhere for pro, there's plenty. Exit left out the roof, and you're at the bolts. The roof is awkward but not too difficult. It feels pretty airy when you're in the thick of it.



Dry Heaves is a definite step up in difficulty and commitment. The route starts up a nice right-facing corner just to the left of Alley Oop. the corner leads to an overhang about 15 feet off the ground. This overhang goes out right for about eight or nine feet and then turns upward, forming a big flake against the main wall. The strenuous crux involves the underclinging traverse out this overhang to the outside corner of the flake.



There's great gear and a good stance in the corner before the crux sequence. I spent a lot of time standing and fretting in that corner. Again Williams advises that the yellow Alien will be "helpful." For some reason I never even tried to place it on this pitch. I think I know where Dick wants you to put it. About halfway out the traverse the crack under the overhang (which to that point is too small even for fingertips) suddenly widens enough to fit the cam. But there is a much wider opening a couple feet further right, almost at the end of the traverse, and I thought I could reach over there instead and slam in my big #4 Camalot. When I climbed it, I tiptoed out two or three times before I decided to go for it and place my #4. I grabbed the undercling hold, had my feet in place, and edged to the right as I reeeeeached over with the big cam in my hand... but then I dropped the freakin' thing.



I'm lucky I didn't bean my partner L in the head with it.



So then I quickly retreated to the stance, shook it all out again, and recommitted to the sequence. I had to go right away or I was never going to do it. This time I forgot all about the yellow Alien and motored through the strenuous, underclinging crux until I turned the corner of the flake. Then I slammed in a red #1 Camalot and exhaled.



My recommendation to you, dear reader, is that you don't do as I did. If I'd blown it at thecrux I would have had a long swing into the corner. You should place the yellow Alien or its equivalent halfway out the traverse. You can probably get it in before you commit to the undercling and step off the good footholds. It will greatly lessen the pendulum swing backward if you blow the next move.



At the end of the traverse you can fit anything from a #1 through a #4 Camalot. Then it's another couple thin moves up the flake to easier climbing into the final roof problem, which is just as entertaining as the final problem on Alley Oop.



It's a really nice pitch and in my opinion kind of stout for 5.8. I imagine it's good preparation for Inverted Layback (5.9) in the Nears, a climb I've really been wanting to try. Now that I've done Dry Heaves I think I might be ready.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday :: The View from the Other Side

Say Cheeeez! Taking group pictures at the Joslin Reunion on November 23, .. in Springfield, Missouri: Missy, Sue, George, Babs, Tim, Jim, and Linda.

Devil's Tower, Wyoming

We went to Belle Fourche from Spearfish Canyon to see the Geological Center of the Nation - didn't take much time so we decided to drive the hour to Devil's Tower in Wyoming

After about 45 minutes of lovely scenery the Tower comes into viewGetting closer!We find that the traffic jams are smaller here in WyomingWe arrive!Do you see what he sees?More than 20 Native American tribes have cultural ties and legends about Devils Tower and many consider it to be a sacred place. We walked the 1.3 mile paved loop around the TowerThe name "Devils Tower" is fairly recent as the rock has been called Bear Lodge by the Lakotas and other names by other tribes. Indian legends are very similar. In each story, children out playing encountered bears who chased them, wanting to do them harm. The Great Spirit saved them by raising the rock beneath them to a great height that the bears couldn’t climb. The bears tried to climb the steep sides of the rock, but just slid down the steep sides leaving their giant claw marks. .The small arrow points to some rock climbersBecause it is considered a sacred place by many of Native American tribes, there is opposition to the Tower being used for climbing. The National Park Service compromised by closing the Tower to climbers during the month of June when many sacred ceremonies are conducted at Devils TowerActually theTower was formed 50 million years ago when molten magma was forced into sedimentary rocks above itand it cooled underground. As it cooled it contracted and fractured in columns. Erosion over millions of years exposed Devils Tower. It rises 867 feet from its baseMany brightly colored prayer bundles are seen hanging in the trees and bushes along the trail.Definitely worth the trip!

Till Later,Meanwhile we keep on Trek'n

Melissa and Gary