Badlands :: An Incredible Landscape

Wednesday, August 24th - - Badlands National Park is comprised of the North and South Units consisting of 244,000 acres. The South Unit was added in 1976 and is managed by the Oglala Lakota Nation. It contains many sites sacred to the Oglala Lakota people as well as a great quantity of unexploded ordnance – the area was used as an aerial bombing range during the Second World War. The South Unit is largely undeveloped with few roads or trails; it is primarily a protected natural area.



The North Unit, sandwiched between Highway 44 and Interstate 90, is the one that the vast majority of visitors see, myself included. The main route through this section is the Loop Road.





I entered the Park on the northwest end, from Wall on route 240. After exploring the Sage Creek area (where I was engulfed by a herd of bison) I returned to the Loop Road and continued eastward.





The Pinnacles Overlook area.













The Ancient Hunters Overlook. This is where evidence has been found that the Ancient Ones stampeded herds of bison over the edge of the cliff and butchered the fallen animals.





Yellow Mounds Overlook.

The yellow and red layers in the formations are fossilized soils, called paleosols. Fossil root traces, burrows, and animal bones found within the soils provide scientists with evidence of environmental and climatic changes that occurred in the badlands over time.







Driving through the Conata Basin.



The Conata Basin. See the car on the road in the lower left corner?



Homestead Overlook.

According to a sign posted at the overlook:

Homesteaders poured into the Badlands when the Milwaukee Railroad completed track through the White River Valley in 1907. Most of the homesteads turned out to be “Starvation Claims” and were abandoned or sold. Starved-out homesteaders moved on to build towns and cities, or to seek another homestead in a land less harsh. Today the ranches of this valley are measured in thousands of acres, and heavy equipment does most of the work once done by callused hands. Even so, unpredictable drought and economic crisis test ranchers today as severely as they tested homesteaders yesterday.

Fossil Trail.



Exiting the park through Cedar Pass.

Autumn at Grand Portage State Park

(Above: High Falls, Grand Portage State Park)

Today's adventure brought me to one of my favorite hikes, the Middle Falls Trail at Grand Portage State Park. With several hundred feet of elevation change each way along the trail and a very rugged trail surface with lots of rocks and tree roots, the Middle Falls Trail is not for everyone. For those that do make the trek, however, its a very rewarding hike.



(Above: Awesome Aspens on the Middle Falls Trail)

Autumn is my favorite time of year to hike this trail. There is a nice variety of color as you progress through the various elevations along the course of the trail. Also, due to its rugged nature and its remote location at the northeast end of Minnesota's north shore, the trail sees relatively little traffic.



(Above: Middle Falls)

(Below: Golden fall colors glow behind the Pigeon River at Middle Falls)



(Below: Looking upstream at Middle Falls)



(Below: "Patterns in wood" - This tree had fallen and blocked the trail, and had been cut by a chainsaw crew. This cool pattern in the wood was revealed after being cut by the chainsaw.)



(Below: Trapped at Middle Falls)

Happy Dance Moments :: Making Connections

When I selected the topic of "The Happy Dance. The Joy of Genealogy." for this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, I did so thinking it would be an easy topic for me to write about. But here it is, just a few hours before the deadline, and I'm still not sure what I'm going to write! The problem is that it really doesn't take much for me to do the "happy dance" and in 25+ years of research, I'm pleased to say, there have been quite a few of those joyous moments. Sure, there have been some disappointments too, but it's the moments of unadulterated joy that make it all worthwhile.

In the early years of research, after manually cranking through rolls of microfilm for hours on end, finding an ancestor in the census records was just cause for a mini-celebration. Most of the time the celebrations were quiet ones with my brain shouting out with joy, but not a peep escaping from my mouth. After all I was in a library. Occasionally though, I just couldn't help myself and the little squeal of delight would also bring smiles to the faces of other researchers who were also cranking the microfilm readers.

Okay, I see a "theme" developing in the random thoughts I just wrote down, so I've decided that the happy-dance moments I'm going to share will be some of those that involved making connections (kinexxions) with distant relatives and the results of those incredible experiences. These are just a few such moments.

In the spring of 1984, I began my quest to find the descendants of my 2nd great-grandparents Jacob and Louisa (Fisher) Phend by writing lots and lots of letters to anyone with the surname Phend. As replies came back, they led to more letter writing with those contacts leading to even more contacts and information. And photographs. And documents. Virtually every reply brought on a mini-celebration. But a major celebration in the journey to publish a book came about on August 18, 1985 when the first reunion since 1942 was held that included descendants from nearly all of the children of Jacob and Louisa.

I can't even begin to describe the feelings of joy that overwhelmed me that day. My grandfather, who was 92 years old at the time, met his first cousins Jacob Phend and Elizabeth Phend Young for the first time! Jacob was 65 years old at the time and Elizabeth was 63. It would be a few more years before I finished the book, which was published in July 1991, and there would be many more of those special moments during that time. The joy of finally getting the book published was tempered somewhat with disappointment in the final product that came from the printers (someday I might write about that!), but even with its printing problems, the book was a huge success, and it was all due to the wonderful responses received from previously unknown relatives.

One of my "most favorite" genea-happy-dance moments came in June .. when I was contacted by Beth who turned out to be my 5th cousin once removed. Our common ancestors are my 5th great-grandparents Lewis Sisley (1765-1826) and his wife Margaret Ellis (1773-1870). A distant relationship to be sure, but her mother, Marge, had the original pages from the Sisley Family Bible! But, to top that off, they lived on the southwest side of Indianapolis, just a three-hour drive away. Of course, my mother and I made the trip south and spent a very pleasant and exciting day with Marge and her family. You can read more about that visit, as well as view the bible pages, in this post that was published in September .. and submitted to the Show and Tell version of the Carnival of Genealogy.

A relatively recent happy dance moment came in May .. when I was contacted by Kathy Foster. She had found my website with pages on my 3rd great-grandparents, John and Susannah (Hoffman) Berlin. Kathy was a descendant of Susannah's sister Mary (Hoffman) Walker. At that time the only information I had on Susannah was that she had been born in Columbiana County, Ohio and could be the daughter of John and Catherine (Coy) Hoffman. That info had come from another researcher in 1999 but with no documentation. Other things took up my time and I never got around to doing anything with that info. Kathy had the estate settlement papers for John Hoffman that named all eleven of his children, including Susan Berlin! In addition, she had done extensive research on the family and was able to take me back another generation on both the Hoffman and Coy sides. So not only did I now have the names of Susan's parents, I had the proof to go along with it, and the names of both sets of her grandparents!

A second happy dance was done in August that year (..) that also involved Kathy. I received an email from her that said she had just gotten an old photo album from one of her relatives which included pictures of Eli and Lovina (Berlin) Yarian, my 2nd great-grandparents! You see, Kathy's ancestor, Mary Hoffman was the second wife of Thomas Walker. Their son, James Madison Walker, was Kathy's ancestor. By his first marriage, Thomas Walker had several children, among whom was William Walker who had married Eli Yarian's sister, Susanna! Kathy and I aren't related at all through that connection, but the families obviously maintained a relationship even though her family was living in Stark County, Ohio and mine in Elkhart County, Indiana. In addition to the pictures of Eli and Lovina she sent pictures of Susanna Yarian and her husband William Walker. I had previously obtained several pictures of Lovina from the Nappanee Library but did not have any photos of Eli, so this was truly one of those amazing happy dance moments.

Eli Yarian, my 2nd great-grandfather.(1839-1895)Photo received from Kathy Foster in August ...

Dynafit TLT6 for Fall of

TLT6 with the unavailable currently CL liner

My TLT6P came with theCR liners which I really like btw.

Everyoneistrying to figure out the actual weight difference of the CL and CR liners.



Edit:

Turns out some of my comments here were based on a preproduction sample.

For the most part the info is accurate but not always on the minute details. An example is the One and TLT6 buckles are very similar but not exactly the same. The last PF-X liner is close but not exactly the same as the production CR liner. My impressions habven't changed o nthe TLT6 but I strive to be accurate in the deatils so you cna better make up you own mind what is important to you.



If you want more detail worth a look here as well on an additional review of a production sample:

http://coldthistle.blogspot.com//09/the-dynafit-tlt6-ski-boot-shake-and.html


The original review below, written in June after a couple of weeks with the TLT6:



OK, I'll admit it, I am a little pissed.



In late winter and earlySpringof Dynafit started deliveringon something special fewof us hadseen before. That was the TLT 5 ski mountaineering boot.






Finally a ski boot that would climb ice almost as well asa decent ice climbing boot and in the right circumstances may be better than some.








So why am I pissed andpointing all this out? Because as everyone knows or should know by now there are plenty of really good ski boots in the world. And damn few, real ski mountaineering boots. Light weight boots you can ski and climb in without your foot wear ever coming to mind. The emphasis is on the mountaineering not the skiing so much.



Dynafit buckled (forgive the pun) under the pressure to build another ski boot and as a result, for the most partfolded up the TLT5 and put it away.



My suggestion if you want to climb technical ground in your ski boots? Hunt the TLT5s down now and buy a pair while you still can. Either model 5, it doesn't matter.



No question the the newest TLT 6 version is a better ski boot than the original TLT5. But sweet Mary!!!....I wish Dynafithad gone in the opposite direction and built a better technical ski mountaineering boot instead of a a "better" ski boot. The public's voice was clear. There are a lot more skiers than ski mountaineers. Even if they aren't reading about it here on Cold Thistle most asked,"Build us a better ski boot!" And Dynafit did just that.



Now, would someone build us abetter climbing boot that skis well?



Overall boot weight is claimed the same on a 27.5 TLT even with the heavier warmer/better fitting TLT 6 inner boot.



Dynafit's published info fro a 27.5:

1050g tlt 5 P

1050g tlt 6 P



"Chris said...

Just received my TLT6Ps with the new CR liner and can compare them to my old
TLT5Ps. In a 29.0, the TLT6 shell weighs about an ounce more than the 5. The
TLT6 CR liner weighs 2.5 ounces more than the flimsy TLT5 P-TF liner. Total weight
difference is 3.5 oz (100g) per boot." TLT5 P being lighter."

Sorry, I don't have comparable sizes yet to weigh. There are subtle changes in the bootsbut the weigh stayed the same mostly by droppingthe LTW inner boot of the TLT 5.



For most of us skiing is the priority on a $1000 retail boot. Which with the carbon Performance version skiing is clearly the priority. $750 for the Mountain version. If the previous boots are any example both ski much better than any light weigh boot has a right to. They simplyski very well. I found a preference in the TLT5 for no tongue or power strap on the carbonPerformance and use the tongue and power strap on the Mountain version unless I amin really light weight skis. I also found I liked the Mountainversion just a tiny bit better for booting and climbing because it is just a tiny bit softer and a more progressive flex when skiing when all buckled up and strapped in.Both are very good boots.



I found the TLT6 version every bit the ski boot and then some of the TLT5.



Eliminating the forward foot flex makes the TLT6 a better ski boot no doubt. But any hiking or climbingin mixed terrain makes me miss that feature immediately. I suspect having a size 29 shell andjamming my footinto it makes that flex something I notice and like. Others simply riveted the TLT 5toe solid their first season if not week. Those that did will really like the TLT6. Smaller toe profile on the TLT6a result of loosing the hinge.













Buckles have changed some but not always as one might assume. Certainly not lower profile in every case. Hopefully they will stay buckled now on breakable crust of the nasty boot packs or even moderate skin tracks. The fist generation TLT5 hasn't. One of the TLT5's few faults imo. Teh nect generation forward buckle with a "stud" did better. The new buckles are a different profile and shape which should solve the problem. The spring snow conditionsI skied the TLT6 in didn't allow me to test my theory on a "better buckle system" for staying shut. I suspect Dynafit did. I did however use pretty much the same two buckles on my Dynafit Onesall of last season and was pleased with them. Although the One's instep buckle is higher up on the foot and better placed to lock in the heel in I think. If the performance on the One is any example it is a better buckle system on the TLT6 by comparison to the TLT5.



If you are looking for a "better AT ski boot" with an emphasis on skiing,the Dynafit One is a pretty good answer btw. I've been very pleased with the One PX TF when used on my 190cm and longer, 100mm+ skis. No lack of power in reasonable conditions and very comfortable. I have a comparison I have been working on since mid summer between the Dynafit One and the Scarpa Maestrale RS. Short version spoiler? "Both are very good ski boots!" :)



The real find here IMO is the boot Dynafit has yet to build. A stripped TLT6 with a fiberglass cuff, the One's upper two buckle sytem and a Pebax lower. I want that boot!
































Instep buckle is larger and has been reversed, then doubled for more adjustment on the TLT6.
















New cuff buckle on the TLT6 (lower picture) does wrap around better (one extra hinge point)and offer a lower profile on the boot.








The TLT6 now has a easily adjustable forward lean adjustment in the cuff. Thankfully this is a part you can buy and upgrade your own boots with. Lots of toys to play with on this boot.








TLT5 mid sole or lack of









TLT6 insulated full length insole



I also failed to mention the TLT6 now comes with a soft and a hard tongue at no extra charge. Yellow and green. Easy to tell apart. In my first reviews of the TLT5 Mountain and Performance several years agothat option seemed likea no brainier for Dynafit.



So if you are listening :) How about a Pebax lower and fiber glass cuff TLT6 with a the two upper buckles of a ONE and no extra nonsense. A metal on metal cuff rivet while you are there as well. No tongues, no power strap and a lwt Palau foam liner? Please?




The TLT6 has been widened in the forefoot to enhance thefit for the general public. 2mm on the instep side, and 1mm added to the outside of the boot. I dare anyone to do a blind test and tell me the TLT6 is a wider boot over the TLT5. Helping addressone of the most easily identified complaints from those using the TLT5lift skiing...boot warmth, is a warmer, full length insole has been added. It is easy enough to see.










Inner boot? Late last season I bought a pair of TLT Mountainsthathave virtually the same inner boot that the TLT6 has now. Gone at least in the US is the excellent (IMO) Palau heat moldable and exceptionally light foam liner except for the race PDG version and theDyNA here in North America. Rumors are the RL liner will eventually be avialable. My guess is Dynafit is simply punishing the American's (rightfully so IMO) for complaining toomuch and then adding Intuitions. (Dynafit comment below sums it up "best for this market") Replacing the liner in the TLTP 6 is a slightly heavier (I am saying 100g +/-max) and better fitting (for my feet) heat moldable liner thisseason in both versions of the TLT6. Although Dynafit claims you don't even need heat to mold them. "Just wear them skiing." I am always leery of that as an option. But that seems to actually be the truth from the early reviews I trust. For a $950+ retail boot you would think they could do much, much better. But may be I just don't really understand the technology here. Seriously. It is possible and I could be wrong. because I really like the CR liner. But I also heat molded them.



Did he say?

"more down hill orienteed"



I've used the original Mountain's liner, the original Performance liner, a Intuition Pro Tour linerand now seemingly the newest version ( or at least a very close copy) that comes in the TLT6P. The new lineris heavier by a few grams but is also better in every way but weight for my feet. Likely most feet.



This from Dynafit on 9/16:

- The TLT6s are available in North America with only the CR liner. They are the best for this market, warmer, more downhill oriented, adeguately thermo customizable (in the mean time it's not compulsory to thermo form them, - The fit of the liners is now done without footbed. In this way the skier can adapt the personal anatomy on the soft bottom layer of the liner. This layer changes thickness between the full and half size





Bottom line? TLT6 is an awesomeback country AT ski boot. Better by a fair bit in several ways that the TLT5. Including the new inner boot I think. Smaller over all outer volume. Same weight, wider fit, warmer boot, better buckles. No metatarsal joint to flex on the boot. Loosing the sole flexalone makes it a better ski boot. It is worth repeating again.."better ski boot".



If you really want a climbing boot to ski in buy the TLT5 if you can still find them on discount.

But you aren't loosing much there either with the newest TLT6. I may not like the trend to a better ski boot over "a better climbing boot" butthe TLT6 is without questionan exceptional boot and clearlyan improved TLT5.






Theliner
options? Guess they didn't just drop a PDG or the old P liner in the new TLT6 as the CL liner.
Turns out the CL is very similar but slightly different, withlaces now, more
reinforcement for durability and a bigger flex cuff in the boot shaft.
Thickness of the foam is different (1mm maybe 2mm, I am still checking) as well between TLT and
EVO. PDG and Evo liners are thinner and offer an even easier ankle flex for a
longer stride. But the thin PDG/EVO linermight be an option if you need
more room in your TLT?! Go down a shell sixe on the tLT6 and use the EVO liner? Might be worth a try.





TLT6 liners? CL liner on the left. CR liner on the right.

Photo courtesy of www.mountainski.eu





Great early TLT6 review here as well:



http://www.mountainski.eu/177/several-days-long-testing-of-prototype-of-new-ski-touring-boots-dynafit-tlt6





Interested to see what the foam liner will actually show,if it is ever available in the US...and what else is available in Europe.











Now, how about a real, "mountaineering/ski" boot?

Anyone going to step up and dominatethat market share?












Late '70s Scott ski boot. With a Vibram sole glued on they were a usefulLWT mountaineering double boot that you could actually ski in.

A group of Horses

Is this Fair Use?

This morning I received an email from someone who was asking me for more information about a person they had found on my site at Ancestry.com but the first thing that popped into my feeble brain was that I don't have a website on Ancestry and I knew that what they were referring to was not on my freepages at RootsWeb!

So I went to Ancestry and did a search for "Phend" which brought up the following screen and didn't see anything out of the ordinary (click on any of the images to make them easier to read):



So I elected to view all 229 results:



The "Internet Biographical Collection" jumped out at me. Notice the padlock? I clicked on that link, but this is a "for pay" subscription database, and since I wasn't logged in I couldn't see the detail any more than the listing of pages, all of which, except for the last one, are from my website and they are definitely NOT part of Ancestry.com!!!



After logging in and clicking on "View Record" on one of the listings, what you see is shown below. No indication of where this came from, only a small link to "View Cached Web Page", Okay, so it says it is a cached page. . .



Click on "View Cached Web Page" (click on these images to make them bigger) you'll see a small link at the top of the page to "View Live web page" and it will then take you to the page, maybe.



For this particular page the link works because my site is still live. But when I was investigating all this I had gone to some obituary links. The site where the obituary was retrieved from is even more "hidden" for lack of a better word - many newspapers only keep obituaries online for a short time so the page is no longer live. I wonder if Ancestry.com is paying those sites to "store" their obituaries and make them available to Ancestry subscribers?

Is this legal or moral? How is it right for Ancestry.com to take my website pages, which I've made freely available, and CHARGE people to use them? And if they can legally or morally do this, how can they in turn say that it is illegal for their users (me and you) to use their images (census records, draft cards, etc.) on our websites or in our books or other publications?

The more I think about this, the angrier I am getting. At first I thought, okay, they say it is a cached web page, but it's not overly obvious. But they are charging people for access to my stuff!!! I really don't think it would bother me so much if this wasn't hidden behind a padlock. The more people that can find my data and possibly connect to me or someone else, the better - but they shouldn't have to pay to see it! Now, Ancestry is probably going to say they are simply providing a service for all of us poor webmasters and making it so that more people will see our stuff - but does that make it right? They are profiting from my work, and not just my work but the work of anyone with a genealogy related website. Will my blog pages show up next?

This is different than Google or Yahoo or any other search engine storing cached pages or providing links to websites. This is a company using other peoples work for their own gain - Ancestry is charging for these 'searches'. That is just not right, and not just because this is my work showing up - if you have genealogy pages out there anywhere they will probably show up as part of this new Ancestry database.

*** Update 4:00 PM Tuesday ***
I spent a while this morning and afternoon putting this post together, and while I was doing so, it appears that "all hel* was breaking loose" on this issue, see these posts with some very good commentary on the subject:

• Kimberly Powell with Has Ancestry.com Gone to Far?
• Janice Brown with Ancestry.com Hijacks Cow Hampshire
• Randy Seaver with Ancestry.com is Caching some web site data
• Amy Crooks with Ancestry.com Nothing but Theifs

*** Update 4:44 PM Tuesday ***

Ancestry.com has now made the "Internet Biographical Collection" a "free" resource. You have to register to view these free records, which is not the same as signing up for a free trial, but why should you even have to register to view the "Internet Biographical Collection"? Registration is not required to view the Ancestry World Tree entries. To my way of thinking, this step by Ancestry does not entirely resolve the issue.

*** Update 11:30 PM Tuesday ***

Dick Eastman's post yesterday on The Generations Network Receives Patent for Correlating Genealogy Records has a lot of comments dealing with the Internet Biographical Collection, which really had nothing to do with his original topic, so you could say the comments thread got hijacked. As can be expected there is a wide range of opinions on the matter. Some make sense, others don't. Some valid, some not. And Dick is really good at playing the devil's advocate!

Thunderhead Clouds

We have been having what is called the New Mexico monsoon season. We have had more rain this year than we have had for several years. This is more like we used to have 25 to 30 years ago and more. Which is really good. Nearly every afternoon we watch the thunderhead clouds come across the Sandia Mountains or else come across the desert from the west until they turn dark and we get a bit of rain. Sometimes just a sprinkle, some times up to a half an inch of rain or so, and then sometimes the clouds just go around us and it rains somewhere else.