Harvard vs. The Police

What on earth is this country coming to? When I grew up I was taught to respect policemen and if they want your ID, you give it to them and say, "Yes sir." That's what ID's are for. If you yell and scream at them and refuse to identify yourself, well, you get what you deserve no matter what color you are. What makes this whole thing even more absurd is that the President of the United States gets involved and wants to make peace over a beer!!! Excuse me? Haven't you found anything better to do Mr. Obama? This country has really been cleaned up now. So, what is this country coming to? I met a dope dealer yesterday who had to lay off three cops.

Cooper Creek Trail

On the weekend we hiked Cooper Creek Trail. On the way out Nancy took this photo of me by the trail head sign. It's a good thing we got out of there too. Those clouds behind me became very threatening and in fact dumped on us back at camp!

Here is Nancy in wild cabbage above timberline near the top of the drainage. We headed back down about 12:30 or so and met another couple from Florida coming up. I can't imagine how cold and soaked they must've been.

The Columbine was everywhere as well as all the other flowers. We enjoyed the views of the mountains above as well as the lovely flowers beneath our feet.

The trail crossed Cooper Creek a couple of times. Behind me on the trail we had to cross on two old logs shoved together, and one was pretty shaky. All I can say is, those hiking poles sure give you a lot more stability.

Nancy did very well on this trail. The first 1,500 ft. up or so the trail was very steep and relentless. We finally reached this nice little ridge and from there it was just a steady grade up. Just to get some perspective though, if you see the mountain behind her, our car was parked at the bottom of that. This photo was taken almost at timberline. We did about 2,500 ft. in elevation gain total and hiked nearly 8 miles. We started at 10,200 ft. and ended at 12,700.

This photo was taken near the Weminuche Wilderness area between Lake City and Creede. We liked the view so much we stopped to get this photo.

Camping with what?

Nancy and I were in Lake City last Friday. We stopped in for lunch and a quick tour around town on our way to camp out in the wilderness and enjoy some hiking. Unfortunately, our wilderness experience was shared with "boxes." Hoards of tourists in their 5th wheels, motor homes, and pop ups, driving around on ATV's. Not exactly our style. And, it wasn't especially "peaceful."

We camped out about 4 miles past Lake San Cristobal and stayed by this lovely lake, shared of course with motorized campers. While the camping experience was less than desirable, the hiking on Saturday was spectacular. More on that tomorrow.

It's different now

One thing about having grandchildren is that you get all the fun without any of the responsibility. When we had our own children it seemed like we were rushing around, changing diapers, trying to get them to sleep or quit crying, or getting them dressed and undressed, etc. etc. There just wasn't much time to reflect and really take it all in. I can do that now.

The lake by our house

We went for a walk the other day around the lake, near our house. A number of people were fishing nearby so I asked one of the guys how he was doing. "Are the fish biting today?" I asked, "If they are - only one another!" But there are sport fishermen, and then there are those who catch fish.

My future

I watched part of Obama's speech on health care last night. At least I watched as much as my stomach could take. Any more and I would've been at the Doc's. Back in the 1970's Everett Dirksen quipped, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money." Now we're in the Trillions. Where will it come from? Everyone gets health care but not everyone contributes. It's anti-American. And now we're looking at inflation because money is being printed as fast as they can cut down those trees. Not really green is it? Pretty soon I'll see a gumball machine that takes bills. Actually, I don't feel bad about inflation. Why should I? The money I don't have anymore isn't worth as much as it used to be.

What is sin?

What is sin? I think everyone knows, so why bother making it sound less evil or make it PC? It is what it is and we all know it. The sinner, who after all was a woman as well as a sinner (Luke 7:36, 37 ff) dared to go and see Christ at the Pharisee's house, where the Pharisees were all together at a feast - Nicodemus (John 3:2), who regarded himself as a righteous man, dared go to him only at night.

Religion culmintes in this

All religions, including Judaism, culminate in the words of David in Psalm 37:25 "I have been young, and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken by God.

God is compassionate and then Christ says in Matthew 27:46; "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And it is Christianity which turns the world upside down. It is Christ who does for us what we could never do on our own. To put it very simply, He makes us righteous.

Faith Boutique

A man's whole life is secularized, his every thought from morning until evening, his waking and dreaming. In addition, he is of course a Christian, for he lives in this kind of "boutique" church. And in the capacity of being a Christian he is "a stranger and exile in this world." You might say this is like native savages from some far off island making themselves elegant with a single piece of clothing from Nordstroms.

Life on the river

This pretty much says it all. Life on the river takes on a new meaning, or a new book, or just taking a nap. Paul enjoys a little shade along with some sunshine.

During the trip we saw some bald eagles. If you double click on this photo you should be able to see the one we floated under. It's near the middle of the photo and you may need to scroll down a little. So much for my wildlife photography, but it really wasn't a bad shot when you consider I was bouncing up and down in a raft.

Jana, Alison, and Greer were on the trip too. Jana was one of Tyler's students when he did his student teaching in Pagosa Springs. She and her husband Daniel contributed some mighty fine food.

Time on the river

In case you're wondering where I've been, well, I took a couple of days off and then spent the last four days on the Colorado river with Paul and Kathy, their kids, and friends. We had a great time rafting Ruby Canyon.

Time on the river rewarded us with many sightings of bald eagles and the beetles introduced in the area to eat and control the pesky tamarisk trees. The beetles are certainly voracious as they've eaten nearly everyone one we saw.

So we set up a nice party tent and tarp to get some shade from the hot sun. We put the kitchen in the tent along with all the ice chests and water.

Unfortunately, a very high hot wind came up in the afternoon and destroyed our beautiful set up. We did put it up again the next day, only to have the same thing happen again. It was in the upper 80's this day, that was the wind velocity. The mornings were great, no wind. Having shade just wasn't meant to be, so I worked on my tan.

Probably the high point of the trip was the meals. Pancakes, potatoes, and bacon really hit the spot. I have to say, we ate really well.

Time in Bend

I spent the last few days in Bend, OR. This is Mt. Jefferson and the lake we're on is fed by the Deschutes, Metolius, and Crooked rivers. Ken and Susan were especially kind to take me up here for the views and good time. The land on the right is the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

After work, we took this little ride up the deep canyons and had sandwiches and snacks to eat. Below is the arm fed by the Metolius River.

As you can see, I was not unhappy on this little ride. We did of course have ample opportunity to discuss business.

There was a forest fire nearby on Black Butte. When we got back to their house for dinner I took this photo of the sun setting over the mountain. Hey, is my porter in danger?

Chicagoland

A trip to Chicago last week for a quick one day meeting left me catching this nice sunrise of the skyline. There was no time to go into town and see the sites, eat that special pizza, or take in a cubs game.

Our meeting ran from 8 to 5. I didn't even get a chance to go outside and smell the exhaust or feel the heat and humidity. Whew! I'm glad it wasn't worse. There are two sides to every trip!

Colorado Trail

Nancy and I went for a hike yesterday on a portion of the Colorado Trail. We hiked from Jefferson Lake campground up toward Georgia Pass. The mosquitoes were thick from all the recent rain but it was beautiful and we enjoyed it nonetheless.

Here, Nancy crosses Jefferson creek on the Colorado Trail. We saw a few other "through hikers" but we only hiked about 6 total miles and gained about 2500 ft. or so. When we decided it was time to turn around Nancy had prepared a lunch. The problem was, stopping to eat the food meant the mosquitoes stopped to eat us! We decided on a late lunch back at the car!

After our hike, we drove up to Jefferson Lake which is only a couple of miles up the drainage from the trail. Lots of people were fishing and enjoying the beautiful weather.

We hiked part way around the lake and found lots of snow still left from our heavy spring storms. Of course, we were up over 10,000 feet here and it shouldn't be surprising we'd find snow on July 3rd.

Crabbing

My friends from Whidbey Island invited me to go "crabbing" with them recently. I was unable to go because my summer is so busy and planned so far out. Looking at the photo they sent me, I wish I had made the arrangements. These dungeness crabs look pretty good to me. And, I guess they're fun to catch.