Morning on Moscow Mountain

I think I could sell paper towels

Through, what some would call a “concatenation of circumstances” I had a Friday free of school and work. I decided to waste away the morning on Moscow Mountain, a place I have only visited once before, and that was to get some nighttime mountain biking in. This visit, while not as memorable, was still very notable, notable in that, half the mountain trails are still snow bound, and by my Chucks now are in bad need of some tender loving care. I saw tracks of several large mammals, some with claws, some with horns. And for those of you who doubted the width of my palm, I measured and while 5 inches is not 6, it is close. I came prepared, wearing four layers, thin Chuck Taylors, two full Nalgene's, and a hand full of chocolate chips. One camera, two tripods, smoking kit, mushroom book, journal, bible, two - yes dear reader two – pencils, cell phone, a portable magnetic chess board, two decks of cards, and of course my Ipod. So my feet were cold, my back sore, and my ears happy. I shuffled back and forth between Annie’s Spring Study Mix, (sorry not commercially available, but excellent hiking music) and my Moby/Decembrists mix, all great hiking – photo’ing music. I took over two hundred shots, but only liked about 30 and only felt like processing 5 or 6. I might process some more but this is it for today. Enjoy the photos, and dream of spring coming soon to this cold land.

My best water shot of the day

I had to laugh at myself while taking this shot, there was a small deadfall right over this area, it was hard to get to, I had glissaded 20 to 30 feet down a steep ravine wall to get there. After making a mess of my trouserings, and scraping half the hillside down with me I was wondering if it was ethical to move the deadfall. Ethical not so much in the environmental sense, the tree could have easily fallen where I wanted to move it, rather was I allowed to change "nature" to make for a better picture, was this right? Did I want to be that guy? What of truth? What of beauty? - It was a light tree, and lets just leave it at that.

Not quite troubled waters

Chucks - I mean Chuck

I had to earn this shot, 30+ photos to get this one