Thursday, December 27, 2007

puddles

Ranger and I went out to seven mile again , it is one of our favorite places because most of the time Ranger can run free which he loves, and so do I it is so much fun watching him running and exploring everything, and just having a great time.

Here are a few ice shots from there. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.



Friday, December 21, 2007

Selkirks

It was a beautiful sunny day Friday so Ranger and I went out roaming to see if we could find some photos and we found these of Mount Spokane. It is part of the Selkirk mountian range. There is some information at the end of this post about the Selkirk range. The ski area on MT. Spokane is about a thirty minute drive from my house depending on the weather. In the summer you can drive to the top which takes about 45 minutes or so, and I think you can see seven lakes from the top, you can also see into Idaho and Montana it is quite spectacular.
I hope everyone has a wonderfull Christmas



Location: The Selkirks are nestled between the Purcell Mountains on the east and the Monashee Mountains on the west. The eastern boundary is the Kootenai River (in the US), Kootenay Lake, Duncan River, Beaver River, and Columbia Reach on McNaughton Lake. The western boundary is formed by Arrow Lake and the north flowing Columbia River, as well as a section of the Spokane River and, on the far SE, Lake Pend Oreille. The chain encompasses the Rogers Pass Area.

Terrain: The geology of the Selkirks is quite different from the Rockies and from the Purcells and other ranges to the West. Some of the rocks are the oldest outside the Pre-Cambrian shield dating about 600 million years. Before the Rockies were thrust up by continental drift, the Selkirks stood alone as an island of mountains bordering the Pacific Coast with an inland sea separating them from the Shield. The largest peak is Sir Sandford rising to a height of 11580 feet, north of Rogers Pass.

Selkirk Mountains History

The Selkirks were first identified as a separate range of mountains from the Rockies by David Thompson, of the Northwest Company of fur traders in 1807. At this time they were named "Nelsons Mountains". When the Northwest Company was merged with the Hudson's Bay Company, the mountains were given their present name of the "Selkirks", after Thomas Douglas of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the fifth Earl of Selkirk.

It was the Selkirks, and not the Rockies that formed the most formidible barrier to the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the confederation of Canada. In David Thompson's day, the only way to get through the Selkirks was to follow the river valleys such as the Columbia which skirted around the edge. The thing that made the Railway possible was the discovery of Rogers Pass. Initially the railway ran over the top of both Rogers Pass in the Selkirks, and the Kicking Horse Pass in the Rockies but within the first 40 years were made less severe with tunnels: the Connaught tunnel under Rogers Pass and the Spiral Tunnels to reduce the 7% grade on the "big hill" up from Field to the Kicking Horse Pass.

Rogers Pass was initially the hub of mountaineering in Canada, with the CPR providing guides and hotels from the pass. The railway through Rogers Pass continued to be plagued by snowslides, and was eventually abandoned in favor of the Connaught Tunnel under the pass. From then until the Trans Canada highway was completed in the early 1960's, Rogers Pass was deserted, as the road went north around the "big bend" at Mica Creek. Due to tremendous snowfalls, full time avalanche crews now bombard the slopes regularly above the pass in winter to bring down the snow. It is not uncommon for the trans-Canada highway to be closed for 12 or 24 hour periods.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Port Townsend

In October when we went to Wenatchee we also went to Port Townsend where my mother-in law lives, we only had time to stay one day but it was a lot of fun. Ranger and I roamed around town and took some photos. If you want to find out more about Port Townsend you can go to this web address. http://www.ptguide.com/history/ just copy and paste it in your browser, there is a lot of history there. Fort Worden State Park which is in Port Townsend is where they filmed a lot of the movie An Officer and A Gentlemen. Fort Warden is also a very interesting place.

I thought this was a funny sign, I guess it is there in case you can't stay on the sidewalk?




I thought this little church was interesting with its red door . There were also some great shadows and if you look close there is a lot of interesting detail in the building.


Monday, December 10, 2007

MT Spokane

Ranger and I went roaming on Mount Spokane the other day, the last time we were here there wasn't any snow. You can see this spot in my November 4th post it looks quite different.



Picnic anyone?





The reason I don't have more shots of Ranger is this is usauly how they turn out, because it is very seldom he stops long enough to get a shot.



You can see Ranger is having a good time he is smiling.



Something got his attention I don't know what he found but it stopped him for at least ten or fifteen seconds.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Motorcycle

Over the past few months I have made a few comments about our motorcycle so I thought I should post some shots of it. Please excuse the messy garage, cleaning it is one of many projects on the never ending list of things to do. To me one of our most memorable trips was when we went to Jackson Hole Wyoming with another couple, about a 2,000 mile round trip, about, six days. On that trip we went through Yellowstone National Park. If you have ever been to Yellowstone you know that the animals roam free, which when you are in a car is interesting enough, but when you are on a motorcycle, stuck in a traffic jam, and you have Buffalo walking along side the road about three feet from you and they turn that massive head and look at you, you can't help wondering what they are thinking. We are hoping to go on a nice long trip this coming year, maybe down through the Redwoods, if time permitted we would love to go to Brice and Zion, but we will have to see what the next year brings. Hope you enjoy the shots and hope you have a nice day.







Monday, December 3, 2007

More Wenatchee

Here are some more shots from the Wenatchee river






This is Rangers spot in the car , as you can see he looks pretty tired which is unusual for him, but at this point he had been out running, and chasing things around the Tumwater campground for about an hour non stop, which even tired him out, and that is hard to do. It tired me out just watching him, I wish I could tap into some of his energy.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Wenatchee river

Here are a few shots I took along the Wenatchee river before it gets to Leavenworth.







Monday, November 26, 2007

Campground

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Here are a few more shots from the Tumwater campground.






Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The pack

This is Ranger and the rest of the pack, I took these photos yesterday while they were waiting for breakfast, Murray is on the left he is 14 years old so his job now is sleeping most of the time, Tasha is on the right, she is about 11 years old, and still loves to play ball, and can give Ranger a pretty good workout, and of course you all know Ranger he will be 3 years old soon. We got Ranger when he was about 9 months old, Tasha we have had since she was 9 weeks, and Murray we rescued when he was about 6 months.








I left Ranger's eyes like this because it looks kind of wild which also matches his personality .




You can see that Tasha is patiently waiting for her food

Monday, November 19, 2007

Stevens pass

All of these shots were taken at the Tumwater campground which is west of Wenatchee on highway 2.
Ranger wanted his cousins Shasta and Coco to see more of the places he has been roaming.








Friday, November 16, 2007

Last of truck ramp

This is the last series of shots for the truck ramp, everyone is probably glad to here that, nothing like beating a subject to death. I said in one of my earlier post on the old Blewett highway that I like old highways, so I had to put this shot in of the old road. You can see the current highway in the top left of the picture, this is about halfway down the hill.

Here we are at the bottom of the hill as you can see we are now at 785 feet in elevation, so in 6 miles we have dropped 2027 feet. You can see the bottom end of the truck ramp on the left side of the road where the small sign is, and the valley the road goes through.


The next two shots are of the actual truck ramp, and I confess I took these shots while I was driving down the road , but I thought it was pretty safe as there were no other cars on the road, and if I got in trouble the truck ramp was there to stop me, ha ha.



I guess this sign is so people don't stop or park on the ramp.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

more truck ramp

We are back to the road leading to the runaway truck ramp. This is the road just past the
35 MPH curves that are in my first post of this area.


the remainder of the shots are about half way down the hill so you have gone about three miles at this point.

At this point you have dropped 1167 feet in elvation from where you started at the top.

I saw about 10 of these trucks in the hour I was on the hill this is near the curves in the second photo. I would estimate this truck was going between 40 and 50 MPH when he went past me.


As you can see from this shot there is not much room for error.