Where did July go?

We had an eventful July filled with a bunch of stuff. The Agony ride and the weeks leading up to it were excellent and fellowship filled. Our friend Jamie and my brother Travis were both there:


Rebekah had a crash in the morning (she hit my wheel from behind and went down), but she was fine and the scrapes and bruises are nearly gone already. After getting patched up on the road she insisted on riding the rest of that leg and went on to ride 171 total miles. Our new bikes performed excellently and Rebekah and I have been on three rides since.

Our new software at work is finally starting to take shape as it continues to occupy most of my time.

While we were in California for the Agony ride our plants all grew very nicely. We have two new avocado seeds sprouting and our existing plant has foot long leaves on the top. This weekend we are going back up to Glacier National Park to ride the Going to the Sun Road again.

Going-to-the-Sun

This weekend we had an amazing trip to Glacier. We decided to combine our love of Glacier with our Agony Ride training and the result was taking arguably the most spectacular bike ride in the United States.

 

The starting point was at 3500 feet at the Avalanche campgrounds. We left with a friend from our church who didn't know what she was in for but stuck it out and had an amazing ride on her 20 year old Mountain Bike that weighed more then Rebekah and my bikes combined. We ended 14 or so miles later and at about 6000 feet (the whole Going-to-the-Sun road is still not open). The next picture is the view we had from the top of our ride (taken the previous day).

 

It was quite the sight to look back and know that we had started at the bottom of the valley in the right of the picture.


Riding back down was fast and only a little over the speed limit (okay 24%). So we didn't poke our heads up too much for views like this:

 

Agony Ride

As many of you already know I've been blessed to be a part of Christian Encounter Ministries in some way for my whole life. Every year they have a major fund raising event called the Agony Ride where willing victims get sponsors to support them in their effort to ride a bicycle as far as they can in 24-hours. Here is what they have to say about the event:

Christian Encounter Ministries is a domestic mission organization with the unique purpose of discipling and counseling troubled young people. These young people come to CEM with major damage from families, society, and/or their own poor choices. As a domestic mission, we are dependent on the loving generosity of mission-minded ministry partners. Our annual Agony Ride is an opportunity for our partners to participate in this vital mission. Some of our staff and approximately ninety other riders attempt to push their limits by riding as far as they can in 24 hours. The Agony has become more than just a personal challenge; it now stands as a pointed demonstration of Christ's love for our students as well as a witness for Christ in the communities of the Sierra Valley.

Rebekah and I are going to be riding this year (the 25th anniversary of the ride). While it is easy to see the obvious benefit of the ride in raising monetary support for the ministry what isn't obvious is the other ways that the ride supports the ministry. The students that are enrolled in the program are participants in the massive effort that supports the riders and keeps them safe and well fueled. While they are watching they get to see a working picture of the body of Christ, with each member doing their part to supporting those around them.

I'll post some more in the coming weeks about our training for the ride.

Glacier Animal Identification IV

The largest squirrel you will see in Glacier is not the illegally fed Columbian Ground Squirrel. It is instead the largest of North American ground squirrels, the Hoary Marmot.

 

Named for their speckled gray color, the gargantuan rodents enjoy life on the talus slopes.

 

As you can see by how close we took our photos, they are pretty much oblivious to humans. We did not intentionally approach that closely to them, they just popped out of the bushes right in front of us and went about their business. The one in the first two pictures might have been leading us away from its little baby marmot which, because of the mother's great distraction skills, we didn't notice in time to get in the picture.

 

They have a distinctive whistle that can often be heard when hiking near the tree line.

 

While they may not qualify as Rodents of Unusual Size, they are certainly Squirrels of Unusual Size.

More Deer

We went to Glacier again this last weekend and were pleasantly surprised to have Going-to-the-Sun road opened up most of the way for the first time this season while we were there. It was beautiful as usual, but we were unable to get pictures of any newly identified critters. There were a lot of our deer friends sporting their fresh new summer coats.

 

 

Glacier Animal Identification III

Seeing as it is Easter time, I thought the next animal to be highlighted in our series would be the Pika. In the same order as rabbits, these little mountain fur balls industriously chop and dry hay during the warm months, then stow it in the talus slopes they call home. In the winter they nibble on their hay and I suppose catch up on their reading. While hiking in Glacier, you will hear their distinctive chirp long before seeing one. A sound clip of their call can be found here. We caught up with the fellow pictured here while hiking the Highline Trail from Logan Pass headed to the Granite Park Chalet. It only stood still for one photo, then scurried off. We did see some of its drying hay bales, but I didn't take any pictures of those :(.

The full picture is available here.

Glacier Animal Identification II

Continuing with the animals we have identified in Glacier, we have deer. The first time we went to Glacier we were totally amazed by the exciting creatures unique to the alpine habitat. We had just spent the day with mountain goats wandering around mere feet from us and were about to head down from Logan Pass when we were asked by a couple to take their picture. They seemed excited to be in the park and they lady told us that they had just "seen a deer from their car".  A whole live deer? from your car!?! They have those here? No, no, I just smiled my head and nodded wondering what her reaction would be to a smiling mountain goat walking the trail with her (hopefully they did eventually get out of their car). All that to say, yes, they are just deer, but deer are still really cool to see.

First we have the mule deer (at least we are pretty sure that's what it is). Apparently they like to patrol the trails in the summer.

 

Back up the same trail we encountered an antler-adorned whitetail deer.

 

The whitetail has a much different color and thicker coat in the winter.

 

They are clearly named by the very whitetail which they flare as an alarm when startled.

 

In the last picture the lookout deer (we are guessing the mother) decided we were a danger (even though there was a fast flowing creek between us). The child deer was seemingly not responding quickly enough, causing this response from the mother:

Glacier Animal Checklist

Rebekah and I just got back from visiting Glacier for the first time in the spring. While there wasn't enough snow low enough for us to go Cross Country skiing, we still saw some spectacular mountains and fun wildlife. This inspired me to start a series here on the blog with all the animals we have seen and identified in Glacier. At first I was going to do it in one post, but there is too much to cover, so you will get several.

To start it off, we have the ubiquitous greeter of all park goers and universally loved food source for all carnivores bigger than it, the Colombian Ground Squirrel.

 

They are always alert and looking for attention or the nearest predator, whichever comes first.

 

Oh and a bonus picture so you can see the tail.

 

 

Rebekah conquered Big Mountain (she even did a black diamond).

 

Here is an example of a healthy cat scan.

We got a new camera this Christmas. I couldn't decide between the Canon G7 and the S3 IS. I never found a store that had a G7 that I could play with and there were several things that I thought I would miss about my G3. One of the biggest ones is the flip out screen. I don't really care too much that the screen on the G7 is bigger, it is much more about being able to position it, and tuck it away where it won't get scratched. The draw backs to the S3 included that both viewfinders are LCD's, so there is no "analog" aiming device. The biggest problem with this is that even if you get the shutter lag really good, you have the added video lag. Regardless either one was going to be able to take pictures much more quickly then the G3 does. Neither one had support for a remote control which will be much missed. In the end we got the S3 and I have been quite happy with it so far. Other detracting issues include no built-in recharging (no power adapter at all), no info display on the top like the G3 had.

Now the plusses. The zoom is huge, and the image stabilization (optical) works (you can't expect miracles of course). The picture above was taken from the back seat of my in-law's car (granted it is a Metro so it is the equivalent of the front seat in an SUV) at full zoom while zooming down the Pennsylvania turnpike at 60 mph. Pennsylvania is not know for smooth roads either, but I don't remember any big bumps =). Maybe my hands were just rock steady at that early in the morning (sunrise in Pennsylvania when we had come from California the day before).

The other thing I like is the improved video quality. I will have to take advantage of that...

 

This is from Rebekah driving the Yaris for the first time. The rest of the shots I took were kind of blury. We are still getting used to having the instruments in the middle, especially at night when we think our lights are off.

 
We got our new car last night. More to come...