random pics that YOU have taken.......

[Skip Newsom]

Randomized

[oldE]

In honor of the old fossils here.

Best
Les

[Racerbvd]

My new favorite bartender

I'm in love, must be, one drink turned into 9.
Glad I don't smoke.
Easy clean bathroom if they get blood on the walls (yes, that type of place)
Again, heaven, positive attention I need after the bad news I got last week.

[rcooled]

[Tobra]

July 6, 2024

[Racerbvd]

[Racerbvd]

Hard to believe it was a year ago today

[Skip Newsom]

I'm sorry for your loss(es) Byron, my Dad passed when I was 19, mom just a few days prior to her 80th birthday.
Put me in a funky state of mind for quite a while... Mom's passing hit me hardest. She did live a long good life and left me with nothing but great memories and an example of the deepest love known.

Here is hoping your grief will change into something more positive soon.

There is an amazing world to go experience and embrace-

[Skip Newsom]

Harts Pass area is the highest elevation road in Washington state you can drive a car to at 6204'. You can continue to the end of the main road to the base of Slate Peak at about 7000' (Slate is 7440' and used to be a military radar point).

It's a true "dark sky" area and an area that had a gold rush starting back in 1870 when a lucky prospector found surface gold veins. All kinds of havoc ensued up into the 1910 time frame when going after the gold took lots of drilling and money to keep chasing.
The town of Barron was established up on the side of Slate peak and boomed to 2500 miners with the required saloons, hotels, stores and post office and whatnot.

I finally made it into the old town site, almost 3 miles of very rough rock strewn road on a bicycle and 1000' decent to where the formidable gate is the branches off and back uphill one and a half more miles on foot to the beginnings of town.
There are few remnants left other than some large and small buildings that have succumbed to the relentless winter snow loads. I stuck to the main road and passed several road/trail branches that generally went steeply up hill and out of sight behind trees and hillside- those no doubt have lots of ancient machinery that I'd like to go see some day.

I did not think I was going to get back up there this year because of wildfire and then a big debris flow that blocked the North Cascades highway for much of August. Last Tuesday the hiway was cleared and open, weather was cloudy but clearing so off I went to spend the night up at the pass and go exploring.

Got a great spot to camp for $10 fee, tent set up and then it started snowing very lightly, I thought well that's fun... flake size and intensity increased and went on for an hour. 36 degrees so it was not sticking, slight clearing and then another 30 minutes of snow in August.

It did clear and and cooled to 34 degrees until the sun popped up over the ridge and warmed up gradually to almost 60.
Good biking and hiking weather in brilliant sunshine.

Rutro, 3 season tent, should have brought a 4 season








Picnic table was all iced up in the morning










My new steed, e power Trek Allant+ 8S with better tires than stock for this use. Gotta pedal to make it go, no throttle and I was wishing for suspension... there are some better options for this kind of abuse

[MBAtarga]

We got back from 3 weeks over in the UK and Ireland. These are a few I took. We lucked out and the hotel we stayed at in Dublin was
across the street from the last stop of the AC/DC euro tour and was able to buy tickets the morning of.










Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[berettafan]

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by Skip Newsom

I'm sorry for your loss(es) Byron, my Dad passed when I was 19, mom just a few days prior to her 80th birthday.
Put me in a funky state of mind for quite a while... Mom's passing hit me hardest. She did live a long good life and left me with nothing but great memories and an example of the deepest love known.

Here is hoping your grief will change into something more positive soon.

There is an amazing world to go experience and embrace-

[img][/img]

Thanks Skip, my father passed in 93, my Mother just turned 87, and is in reasonable good health, but balance has become a issue. Your post and pictures always brighten my day, please, keep them coming.

[Skip Newsom]

Thank you Byron, I enjoy your posts too- how many bicycles do you have?


Could be camera angle, but that's waaaaay too close to Frycity

My Son's first fish 1998.


He was a bit freaked out when it was out of the water and moving about, held it as far away from himself as possible.
He liked em best in the water, so we let it go and to this day he's not a fisherman at all.

You can tell alot about kids when you expose them to new activities, if he had immediately grabbed it and taken a big bite we would have fished more.

Fishing has never been high on my list either, good mountain lake activity when you can watch them dart up from 20-50 feet down and hit your lure.
Many lakes here at 3500 and up are crystal clear so at the right sun angle you can see rocks logs and fish a long way down.
I did 99% of my fishing with my big brother during backpacking trips in the 70's and 80's. Big brother would clean, cook and eat em. I squeezed down my barb so I could catch and release.






Still very fun and memorable, happy how far digital photography has advanced in 26 years too.

[GG Allin]

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by Skip Newsom

Thank you Byron, I enjoy your posts too- how many bicycles do you have?

[img]
He was a bit freaked out when it was out of the water and moving about, held it as far away from himself as possible.
He liked em best in the water, so we let it go and to this day he's not a fisherman at all.

You can tell alot about kids when you expose them to new activities, if he had immediately grabbed it and taken a big bite we would have fished more.

Fishing has never been high on my list either, good mountain lake activity when you can watch them dart up from 20-50 feet down and hit your lure.
Many lakes here at 3500 and up are crystal clear so at the right sun angle you can see rocks logs and fish a long way down.
I did 99% of my fishing with my big brother during backpacking trips in the 70's and 80's. Big brother would clean, cook and eat em. I squeezed down my barb so I could catch and release.






Still very fun and memorable, happy how far digital photography has advanced in 26 years too.

A few

[Skip Newsom]

I'm up to 4 bicycles now.

Sherpa semi mountain bike circa 1993 (front elastomer suspension only).
73' Motobecane Mirage- (salvaged from a community bike repair and recycle shop, first bike with a frame big enough for my "frame").
2008 Specialized mountain bike with full suspension and disc brakes
And the most recent a Trek Allant+ 8S electric assisit, also a huge frame that fits me great.

My wife has 3... then there is also a couple more- one of my Son's (70's Schwinn Continental) and an old REI Novara with an elliptical crank sprocket that was my brother's.

And now, for something completely different.

Kids are back in school, crowds and gone from the hills, the weather is great, so my wife and I decided to go visit our local easy to access glacier.
It's at the northern foot of 6160' Big Four mountain and only an hour's drive from home and a little over a mile of good trail.

I was there the first day the road was open and clear of snow back in late April, it's always interesting to me to see how it melts back based on weather patterns. This year it was a wilder shape than normal, a couple more week of hot days and it would have likely melted completely away... looks to me that it will survive and remain a glacier until the winter snows start building it back up for next year.

April 2024




Early September 2024


The main opening is at least 30' high.


No go zone!






We got to hear and see chunks fall off the upper "pagoda" looking bit, it caused quite a ruckus and plenty of crashing sounds as we further distanced ourselves from it.
People do get too close and there has been more than one fatality there when either a rock comes bounding down or people go inside and it collapses on them.
Plenty of signs warning of the danger, but some don't understand nature does not always play nice.

Even though we were only there about 45 minutes, tons of snow dropped off since it was a warm afternoon.
A good zoom lens is the best way to see it from a safe distance. Even then I'm constantly looking up and listening for rock fall they can bounce a long ways before running out of momentum.

[jcwade]

Mobius Arch

Redrock Canyon

Girl and dogs

Yellow Flower

Dried Flower

Sunrise today across the valley.

[Scott Watkins]

Nothing more fun than the first fall Sunday morning flogging!

[Racerbvd]

[944 S2]

Napili Maui