Biking with Friends

Another magnificent 75 degree day in Chicagoland, and with it a reunion with great friends Patti and Dave whom I haven't seen in 4 1/2 months...



We biked 22 miles on the McHenry Praire Trail/Fox River Trail followed by lunch at Culvers. Great day!

Biking the Millennium/Ft. Hill Trails

I'm back in Chicagoland again after 4 1/2 months wintering in the South, and today was my first bike ride back in my beloved Lake County Forest preserves. I've biked over 800 miles this year already in Florida and Arkansas, but our local preserve bike trails are among the nation's finest. Today I pedaled 20 miles on the Millennium and Ft. Hill Trails and was happy to discover the Loop Trail through the former Four Winds Golf Course has been reopened with the completion of the rebuilding (finally) of the 2 bridges on the former golf cart path seen in the photo below (click to enlarge)...



It was a great way to enjoy the beautiful 78 degree sunny day!

Paddling Arkansas' Buffalo River

The Buffalo National River in Arkansas' Ozark Mountains flows free over swift running rapids and quiet pools for its 153 mile length as it cuts its way through massive limestone bluffs (as seen here) on its course eastward through the Arkansas Ozarks and into the White River. This trip was an experimental or "scouting" trip for a possible future Sierra  Club Outing.

The lower 135 miles flow within the boundaries of an area managed by the National Park Service and designated in 1972 as the Buffalo National River, the first national river in the United States. It remains one of the few unpolluted, free-flowing, non-dammed rivers in the lower 48 states and offers both swift-running and placid stretches. The scenic beauty is unrivaled and eye-delighting vistas appear around every bend in the river -- and the bends are numerous since the river's 153 miles are contained within a park that is only 60 miles in length. The water in mid-May was warm enough to allow swimming and if you look closely, you'll see young Sammy returning to Greg's boat here...



We were not allowed to put in at Ponca due to low water conditions in the upper section of the Buffalo. Instead we put in at Pruitt Landing just north of Jasper, Arkansas, even though the water level was also low in this section and necessitated occasional dragging of the boats over gravel bars, and we paddled the 101 miles to the confluence of the Buffalo and White Rivers.

We camped along the bank five nights, always careful to choose high ground in case the river rose from rains upriver. Despite rain three of the nights, we managed to have a campfire every night and the stars on the clear evenings were breathtaking.



Our group included 5 canoes with Ellen and me, Walt and Marcia ahead to our left, Jake and Scott ahead to our right, and Greg and Sammy in front. Not shown is Graham who is scouting ahead of the group.



With two professional Florida guides as part of our group, meals were a delight, for despite the lack of refrigeration, Greg and Graham prepared delicious meals every morning and evening, such as pancakes and bacon, eggs and bacon, spaghetti and meat sauce, Cuban rice with chicken, and one chilly evening vegetable and sausage soup.



We often paddled together enjoying the scenery and each others company as the miles floated by. Wildlife sightings and scenic wonders could thus be shared with everyone, as well as stories of previous paddles and hikes.



Several times each mile we came across rapids caused by boulders that had fallen from the mountainsides, or trees that obstructed the river, or gravel bars, and though all most were merely ripples or class one rapids, some presented precarious situations when the current took the boats under "sweepers" or "strainers" -- trees that could capsize the boats or sweep the paddlers into the river, or entrap the paddlers within the branches and drown you. Here's one rapid and more are shown on the movie at the end of this post.



Our numerous wildlife sightings included, deer, otters, beaver, bald eagles, vultures, a timber rattler within three feet of our tent, hundreds of turtles, many species of butterflies, woodpeckers, lots of fish, elk tracks near camp, great blue heron and little green heron, and many more. This heron has a snake in its mouth...

Here's a short video I made showing the scenery, the rapids, camp life, and numerous wildlife sightings from our trip...



 Ellen has a great post detailing some of our wildlife sightings here.

Scott's Visit...

... to Fayetteville (AR) has been a whirlwind of fun with a tad of hectic thrown in, as seen below.

First we drove the extensive University of Arkansas campus and walked the main area...


We visited Eureka Springs an hour north of town within the Ozark Mountains and stopped at the Eureka Springs and North Arkansas station and train yard...



Then on to Fay Jones' beautiful Thorncrown Chapel which I blogged about a month ago here. As you can see through the ubiquitous glass, the forest is in full foliage now. It was awarded the American Institute of Architecture's "Design of the Year" award for 1981 and later their "Design of the Decade" award for the 1980s. It recently was awarded fourth on their list of the top buildings of the 20th Century.



Then on to Bella Vista near the Missouri state line for another of Jones' creations, the Cooper Memorial Chapel...



Then on to Bentonville and Sam Walton's first store, which is now the free Wal-Mart Museum which I reported on here two years ago...



We also had a wonderful late lunch at The Station which is two doors down. Finally, after returning home, we took him to a local favorite, the Braum's Ice Cream shop. Great day!

Scott arrived...

... In Fayetteville today, for our canoe trip down the Buffalo River
in a few days. Here he tries out my iPad...

Worthy Quotes #31

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for things we did not do that is inconsolable."
-- Sidney J. Harris

We can forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
-- Plato

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.
--Frank Lloyd Wright

Know this: though love is weak and hate is strong, Yet hate is short, and love is very long.
-- Kenneth Boulding

Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

An expert is someone who brings confusion to simplicity.
--Gregory Nunn

I've always believed in the adage that the secret of eternal youth is arrested development.
-- Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
-- Thomas Jefferson

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from strong won’t.
-- Henry Ward Beecher

Blessed are those who expect little, for they will never be disappointed.
-- Carl Sandburg

Extreme Kayaking Videos

A week from today we begin an 8 day, 130 mile canoe trip down Arkansas' Buffalo River. I've done about 8 multi-day paddle trips on rivers and lakes, but this will be the first that can have some serious rapids -- serious for canoes loaded with a week's worth of gear and food -- so I have some trepidation. To me, someone from the flat and calm waters of Illinois, rapids are best tackled in rubber rafts, so this trip is daunting.

I would never tackle huge rapids and waterfalls in a kayak as seen in this video of several extreme kayakers challenging waterfalls and rapids in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado, and the nearby area.



This historical footage below gives you a view of whitewater kayaking in the early 80s and shows the first sanctioned descent of the Niagara Gorge, North America's biggest rapids. 3000 tons of water spill over Niagara Falls every minute, and then that water continues down through Niagara Gorge. Three men and a woman kayak in this video, through rapids three times the water volume of the vaunted Lava Falls Rapid in the Grand Canyon. This video is from a TV broadcast in the 1980s. To skip the historical review and interviews of the kayakers, go to minute 7 in the video...




Finally, here are extreme kayakers in Patagonia...

" Waterfalls of Patagonia " whitewater kayaking with Demshitz! from jared seiler on Vimeo.

The Truth Hurts (Found on a sign at Har-Ber Village Museum)

Sometime when you're feeling important,
Sometime when your ego's in bloom,
Sometime when you take it for granted,
You're the best qualified in the room,
Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow this simple instruction,
And see how it humbles your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your arm and hand in to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that's remaining
Is the measure of how much you'll be missed.
You may splash all you please when you enter,
You can stop and stir up the water galore,
But stop and you'll find in a minute,
That it looks quite the same as before.

The moral in this quaint example
Is to the do the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself, but remember,
There is no indispensable man.

Tranquility...

Utter peace in Nature:

Packwood Lake in Washington's Goat Rock Wilderness...


Lake Yellowstone in Wyoming...


The Alaska Range from the gravel Denali Highway...



The Yukon from the Alaska-Canada Highway (Al-Can Highway)...

Live your own life (It's not that long)

Steve Jobs delivered the commencement address to the 2005 grads of Stanford University. He spoke of his unwed mother arranging for him to be adopted by married college grads, but when they learned after his birth that he was a boy, they withdrew, and he was given to non-college grads. He then spoke of how he had dropped out of college after 6 months to save his parents their life savings, but "dropped in" on classes he liked for the next 18 months. He spoke of creating Apple Computer and then being fired from the company he had co-founded. And then he told of starting 2 new companies, NEXT and Pixar, returning to Apple, and then being told pancreatic cancer would end his life within 6 months.

He summarized the 15 minute address by telling the grads they will only be able to "connect the dots" of their life backwards in retrospect, and that all they do will aid that process. He told them to love what they do and only do that which they love -- that they should live their own life -- because it isn't really that long a period of time.

Here's the video of his address...



..and here's the text of his recent March 2010 speech at Lucile Packard's Children's Hospital about how California must pass a law to encourage more people to be organ donors: How I Almost Died

Just couldn't resist...

..outside a store called "Oops!"

Rubber Elephant

This is Nomkhubulwane (pronounced Nom-koo-bull-wah-nee) which means "Mother Earth" in Zulu. "Born" in Africa, she has visited Mexico and El Paso and now resides in Fayetteville, Arkansas' downtown square, but will soon continue her world tour as a "global ambassador of creative possibilities" with a goal of "inspiring conversations about things that matter."

Below is a close-up of her "skin" which is recycled rubber tire strips woven onto a steel armature. She weighs 1.3 tons and stands over 9 feet tall and 16+ feet long and is the inspiration of artist Andries Botha of South Africa.



True to all elephants, Nomkhubulwane will move around the world opening up ancient forgotten paths that link the past to the present. She joins 11 other Human Elephant Foundation elephants who are serving as advocates of a shared visionary movement. At some point in the near future, we hope the whole herd may gather in one place.

Nomkhubulwane has a particular mandate around issues of ecology and conservation but she is not restricted to this. She will work to remind us that such an idea can never be achieved without acknowledging the importance of inviting each and every human being into this conversation.

Here is her website.

Stop Banking Corruption!

For the last two years, we've gotten the same old song and dance from Wall Street. We've given our taxpayer dollars to bail them out, yet armies of lobbyists are spending millions to kill financial reform in Congress. Watch this 30 second video and then act!

Buffalo National River Trail Project (AHS)

The Buffalo River, located in northern Arkansas, is 151 miles in length, with the lower 135 miles flowing within the boundaries of an area managed by the National Park Service and designated the Buffalo National River. In 1972 it became the first national river in the United States and is one of the few remaining unpolluted, free-flowing, un-dammed rivers in the lower 48 states and offers both swift-running and placid stretches.

There are over 120 miles of hiking trails in the park, and the 26 mile section currently under construction (about 11 miles completed) runs from U.S. Highway 65 to Arkansas Highway 14 and is mainly due to the tireless efforts of Ken Smith, the author of the guidebook Buffalo River Handbook. Ken was our leader and he heads up a minimum of 6 crews per year, each working for a week or more. This trail section will link segments of the Ozark Highlands Trail and Buffalo River Trail and will ultimately connect with Missouri's Ozark Trail, creating a trail nearly 1000 miles long running from Fort Smith in southwest Arkansas to St. Louis, Missouri.

Below are a few shots of our crew at work, and at the bottom of this post is a link to a movie featuring some highlights from our week's efforts. The section we worked had been roughed-in last fall, but the weather had been wet back then and many sections located in areas with poor drainage had been skipped over, so we fine-tuned them, removing obstructing trees and boulders...



...placing gravel on areas that had been muddy last fall, raising low areas and improving drainage...



...repairing and stabilizing creek crossings to make them safe for hikers and erosion-resistant...



...widening the trail in spots by shoring up tread that was falling down the hillside...



...and constructing steps where tricky uphill slopes existed...



The area is home to black bear, herons such as the great blue, the little green, and the snowy white, woodpeckers, songbirds including finches, cardinals, mockingbirds, whip-poor-wills, wrens, and thrushes, as well as frogs and turtles and coyotes. It is also rife with poison ivy and ticks, both of which afflicted many of us.

We were given Wednesday off and offered the opportunity to hike or canoe the Buffalo. Thirteen of us chose the latter and enjoyed a magnificent day of scenic wonder around every bend in the river...



Here's the group of stalwart and dedicated trail workers (L to r, back row: Chuck, Reid, Scott, Jenny, Ray G., Steve, Duane, and Lynn; front row: Rivi, Sonja, Scott K., Ken M., Ken S., Pat, and Ray A.; not pictured: Bill and Chuck M. Click to enlarge.)



Highlights of our week's labors on the trail as well as life in camp and our 12 mile canoe trip down the Buffalo River on our day off are all documented in this brief movie...




This project was under the auspices of the American Hiking Society.

Buffalo River Handbook by Ken Smith

My other volunteer trail projects (American Hiking Society, Sierra Club, Appalachian Mountain Club, and Lake County Forest Preserve)

Paddling Arkansas' Buffalo River

The Buffalo National River in Arkansas' Ozark Mountains flows free over swift running rapids and quiet pools for its 153 mile length as it cuts its way through massive limestone bluffs (as seen here) on its course eastward through the Arkansas Ozarks and into the White River. The lower 135 miles flow within the boundaries of an area managed by the National Park Service and designated in 1972 as the Buffalo National River, the first national river in the United States. It remains one of the few unpolluted, free-flowing, un-dammed rivers in the lower 48 states and offers both swift-running and placid stretches. The scenic beauty is unrivaled and eye-delighting vistas appear around every bend in the river -- and the bends are numerous since the river's 153 miles are contained within a park that is only 60 miles in length. The water in mid-May was warm enough to allow swimming and if you look closely, you'll see young Sammy returning to Greg's boat here... We were not allowed to put in at Ponca due to low water conditions in the upper section of the Buffalo. Instead we put in at Pruitt Landing just north of Jasper, Arkansas, and paddled the 101 miles to the confluence of the Buffalo and White Rivers. We camped along the bank five nights, always careful to choose high ground in case the river rose from rains upriver. Despite rain three of the nights, we managed to have a campfire every night and the stars on the clear evenings were breathtaking. Our group included 5 canoes with Ellen and me, Walt and Marcia ahead to our left, Jake and Scott ahead to our right, and Greg and Sammy in front. Not shown is Graham who is scouting ahead of the group. With two professional Florida guides as part of our group, meals were a delight, for despite the lack of refrigeration, Greg and Graham prepared delicious meals every morning and evening, including eggs and bacon, spaghetti, ... We often paddled together enjoying the scenery and each others company as the miles floated by. Wildlife sightings could thus be shared with everyone. Several times each mile we came across rapids caused by boulders that had fallen from the mountainsides, or trees that obstructed the river, or gravel bars, and though all were merre ripples or class one rapids, some presented precarious situations when the current took the boats under "sweepers" or "strainers" -- trees that could capsize the boats, or sweep the paddlers into the river, or entrap the paddlers within the branches and drown you. Here's one such rapid and more are shown on the movie at the end of this post. Our numerous wildlife sightings included, deer, otters, beaver, bald eagles, vultures, a rtimber rattler within three feet of our tent, hundreds of turtles, many species of butterflies, woodpeckers, lots of fish, great blue and little green heron, and many more. This heron has a snake in its mouth... Ellen has a great post detailing some of our wildlife sightings here.

Gone diggin'

I'm heading out today for a week-long volunteer trail construction project for the National Park Service at Buffalo National River in Arkansas' Ozark Mountains. I'll post a report next weekend after I return.

Feline Factoids

-- Whiskers are twice as thick as ordinary hairs and their roots are three times deeper.

-- Kittens in the womb grow whiskers before body hair.

-- Cat ears can rotate 180 degrees to funnel sound into ear canals.

-- They can purring during inhalation, exhalation, and vocalizing.



-- They have 5 more spinal vertebrae than humans (30 vs. 25).

-- When walking or running, they step with both left legs and then both right legs (only camels and giraffes also do this.)



-- Their foot pad skin is 70 times thicker than skin elsewhere.

-- Tabby refers to a coat pattern -- with stripes on the necks, legs, and tails and spots on the bellies -- and doesn't refer to a color.

from Cat Fancy, May 2010 issue

Biking into Spring

We've been biking here in northwest Arkansas most every day for the past 6 weeks, despite some chilly temps and very strong winds. We have about 450 miles for the year, but the last week of 70 degree days has Spring busting forth vibrantly and every day is measurably more verdant as seen below...

iPad Review

I've been an Apple devotee for 25 years, but this was the first time I was an "early adopter" of a new gizmo -- the iPad. In 2001, I did purchase the then new iPod, but I bought it several months after its debut, and I also switched from landline to cell phone with the original iPhone, but that was 5 months after it came out.

Eschewing waiting in lines, I pre-ordered the iPad and had it delivered to my door yesterday, and then spent time learning its features and syncing it up with apps, photos, music, videos, etc. and I love it!



It is being touted as a device to save the print industry and I have no doubt it will appeal to publishers of books, magazines, and newspapers. Reuters, NPR, AP, USA Today, New York Times, and BBC already have free apps for the utilizing the huge and beautiful iPad screen. Here's a shot of the NYT...



It is fully interactive -- simply touch a story to change its size, photos can easily be enlarged, and plans are to include video soon, something the print paper can't offer.

The iPad will augment the Amazon Kindle book reader, but does it one better since it's in full, vibrant color. Here's a shot of the free book that comes with the iPad, Winnie-the-Pooh...



You can enlarge print, change fonts, touch a word to display its definition, mark text for later use, cut-and-paste, search, etc. Simply touch a page corner to flip to the next or previous page. At the bottom it indicates I'm on page 58 of 260 and 6 pages remain in the chapter. And Amazon has a free Kindle app so you can read any of their 450,000 books on the iPad.

Below is The Weather Channel app with the current conditions and the forecast for the next 10 days. Time lapse radar is in the lower left corner and national radar picture is in the right corner. Touch an icon and you get video from their website as well as localized severe weather alerts if there are any.



Speaking of video, ABC has a free app that streams recent episodes of their top tv shows (also free.) Below is a shot of last week's "V" episode. The color and clarity on the iPad are astonishing, and if you are looking at the screen from an angle, there is no distortion.



The iPad doesn't do everything a full computer does, but what it does it does simply, intuitively, and with typical Apple style and elegance. The user has no need to understand how the iPad does a particular task, just what it can do -- and it is all accomplished by simply pointing, touching, or using several fingers to bring about a result on the screen. Apple's head designer, Jonathan Ive (who was instrumental in designing the first all-in-one computer, the iMac, and then the iPod, iPhone, and iPad) says "It's the things that are not there that we are most proud of. For us, it is all about refining and refining until it seems like there's nothing between the user and the content they are interacting with."

And the iPad elegantly performs basic tasks like running any of 150,000 apps as well as providing calendar, e-mail, Web browsing, office productivity, audio, video reading books, newspapers, and magazines, and gaming capabilities you would expect of any computer — but your relationship to the device is personal, you touch it like you would a friend or an animal.

The critics pegged it correctly when they state the iPad might not replace a laptop because it doesn't create much stuff except documents, spreadsheets, presentations and spreadsheets using the iWork suite and Bento. Third party apps allow some enhancing of photos and other creative actions and more such third party apps will no doubt be forthcoming expanding its range of operations. But the iPad is infinitely more convenient than a laptop for consuming media–books, music, video, photos, Web, e-mail, games, and so on. Users immediately discover that using your hand to manipulate these digital materials is a wondrous and enjoyable experience–as well as deeply personal.

Sure it's a novel idea and brings fun into the computing arena with this huge touchy-feely interface, but I predict it is also the wave of the future, ushering in a whole new way to compute. The only future improvements I envision will be 1) voice activation of the computer ala Star Trek, and ultimately, 2) ESP -- just thinking what you want the computer to do.

Is the iPad a perfect product? No. And the omissions will give the anti-Apple crowd plenty of ammo -- there’s no camera, no Flash, as of now no multitasking -- all valid criticisms. But despite these "shortcomings", the multifarious tasks it does perform, it does remarkably well. Apple will correct many of the current "deficiencies" with software updates and eventually improved hardware, but it is already a magnificent and magical device, and in just 2 short days, in situation after situation, the iPad has become my favorite computer in the house and the one I turn to for email, browsing, reading news, and more.