The Summer of Fog

We sure have had a lot of fog this summer! Thanks to the cooler temps overall this year, Lake Superior has not warmed up as much as it normally would and that means that we've had quite a bit of fog. When we have had warm days, the warm air mass coming from land clashes with the cooler air mass over the lake and creates fog. It seems we've had more foggy days than not this year. In honor of that phenomenon, I'm sharing this photo from earlier this summer. This photo was taken on June 27th of this year and shows a blanket of fog rolling over the top of Hat Point in Grand Portage.

Lyddington - Seaton - Bisbrooke - Uppnham - Lyddington

With Harry and Jenny. Beautiful weather, very hot, good underfoot. Pretty fast pace, considering. Including looking round Uppingham - 8.7 miles.

It's a delight to show our countryside to someone who hasn't seen it before!

sculpture inspired by the fishponds

Lyddington church from the ancient fishponds

The first part of the path is clearly marked as the Rutland Round. We walk across the Green, past the sculpture, through a gate and with the hedge on our left walk through the fields with the traces of the old fishponds. At the end of this field we turn left, skirting a wood, before turning right and heading along a path uphill. This was shaded and cool before we cam out into the fields. We head north east for a little while, then do a dog-leg. This is all clear on the ground with waymarker posts. The path gradually turns further east, alongside a sloping ploughed field.






We come out into Grange Lane, which leads uphill into Seaton.

A solitary wood pigeon

swallows are gathering

We walk through Seaton and take a look at the viaduct from the Glaston Harringworth cross roads, before going back to our path.

Seaton church

The path is not far from Moles Lane, and up a short set of steps. It heads north, and climbs gently before descending more steeply to the dismantled railway. Here it turns north west, and crosses a large field with a stream - again the waymarkers are clear. The path now runs beside trees and is enclosed on each side - it climbs almost unnoticeably into Bisbrooke, emerging behind the church.






We follow the road to the cross roads, meeting the odd chicken, and helping ourselves to some windfalls, offered free outside one of the houses.






At the crossroads we go straight ahead then turn left and right at the corner - the road becomes a track and then a path, and finally we arrive at the Uppingham School playing field and cricket pavilion. Into the town for coffee and lunch at Don Paddys, before looking round the town, and the Goldmark Gallery - there's an exhibition of George Grosz's work, and lots of other interesting items.






We leave Uppingham by taking the path through the church porch and churchyard, then at the road we turn left then right and head south and downhill. There are some juicy blackberries on the way, so we pick them - making use of empty water bottles. Tonight we shall feast.




The path is clear, leading us to the playing field behind Uppingham College. We lose the track briefly, but find it again and it leads south east across a road, and over farmland towards Lyddington.

That's what I call a path "made good"

A short diversion as we feed an apple to a horse, we reach the road into Lyddington and decide to walk through the village back to the car.

This bird is going nowhere!

Grand Canyon :: Sunset at Yaki Point

We had been told that Yaki Point, on the southeast side of the Grand Canyon, was a good spot for viewing the setting sun, so on Thursday evening (April 15th) we caught the shuttle bus and headed that way.

We arrived almost too late, the “color” was disappearing rapidly in the Canyon. This view is looking northeast from Yaki Point.

This shot and the next one were taken about five minutes after the first photo, still looking to the northeast.


Quickly returning to the west side of Yaki Point, I was just in time to catch the sun dipping beneath the horizon. The swirling clouds and dramatic colors show up beautifully when using the 7x zoom!

Other spectators were also photographing and enjoying the sunset.

This is one of my favorite photos. Not just because of the fantastic color (due to the clouds and pollution) but because you can also see multiple ridge lines – to me it “says” Grand Canyon. (Note: Well, you may or may not be able to see the multiple ridge lines... I could see them fine on the image on my laptop but not after uploading the image to blogger. Bummer.)

Tombstone Tuesday :: Jacob & Louisa Phend at Hepton

Hepton Union Church is located in Scott Township, Kosciusko County, Indiana. It is two miles south of Nappanee, Elkhart County and a mile east of neighboring Marshall County. Jacob Phend, my second great-grandfather, was one of the founders of the Evangelical Church at Hepton and owned the land upon which the original church was built. The current church building, shown above, is on or near the site of the original church.

Jacob Phend was also one of the founders of at least two other churches; one in Marshall County and the other one in Nappanee.

In the spring of 1852, Jacob moved his family from Greene County, Indiana to Marshall County. In 1865 he purchased the land in Hepton, eventually selling the land in Marshall County to his two oldest sons John and Christian. Jacob had set aside a portion of that land in Marshall county for the erection of a church.

Jacob and Louisa lived on the Hepton farm until 1890 when they sold it to their son John and moved to Nappanee.

According to the Archives of DePauw University and Indiana United Methodism, the "Nappanee Mission" was organized in the fall of 1891 in the home of Jacob Phend. In 1892 a wooden frame church was built by the Mennonite Brethren in Christ and the Evangelicals together and was dedicated in the fall of 1892. The two groups worshiped there together for five years and then in 1897 the Evangelicals bought out the MBC. The building was then rededicated as the Evangelical church. In 1905 a parsonage was built and at that time the church had a membership of 110 and Sunday school enrollment of 124. A new and larger building was built and dedicated on October 31, 1926.

Hepton Union Cemetery is located on the north side of the Hepton Union Church. The view above is looking north-northwest. The view below is looking to the east. The graves for the Fisher and Phend families are located on the west side of the twin evergreen trees in the center of the cemetery.

JACOB PHEND / JUNE 27, 1828
LOUISA C. HIS WIFE / JUNE 27, 1829 - APRIL 4, 1897
According to his christening record (at the bottom of that post), Jacob was born in 1829, not in 1828. He died on October 7, 1917. Louisa's date of death was also inscribed wrong, she died April 4, 1898.

Three sons - John, Christian, and William - as well as some of their children and one of Louisa's sisters are buried in surrounding graves.

Camp Muir and Paradise

The mountain theme last weekend was snow... and lots of it. Here is an image of Little Tahoma taken by Joe Puryear on Saturday at Camp Muir when the weather cleared. The photo below, however, better represents the weather conditions.

A few teams took a stab at the Disappointment Cleaver, but all turned back over avalanche concerns. The lower portion of the cleaver has a history avalanche, and there were plenty of unique layers in the snowpack to draw some concern from both guides and climbing rangers. Over the past few weeks, the mountain has received at least a two feet of new snow. In many places, there is more due to wind transport. Joe will post some route images and conditions tomorrow.

One quick tip: the Muir Snowfield is in EXCELLENT shape for skiing/boarding, especially now that the wet weather has backed off for a few days.

PARADISE CONSTRUCTION

This weekend, some climbers experienced a few issues regarding construction at Paradise. Most of the upper parking lot is fenced off, which greatly limits the number of parking spaces. On Saturday and Sunday, the parking lots filled REALLY early. We strongly suggest that you arrive early if you want to find parking close the Jackson Visitor Center.

When the Paradise Picnic area melts out, all people planning to park overnight will need to park there. We'll provide more information on the Paradise situation when we have some maps and more to share. Stay tuned...

Sun in Smoke

I tried several different shutter speeds and setting trying to get a shot of the sun with all the smoke in front of it to come out the firey red that it looked like to me, but it just wouldn't come out.

Mt. Adams

Mt. Adams from the Southwest.












Carbo-loading at the Cold Springs base camp.

High camp at Lunch Counter.













Climbers on the South face.

A beautiful day on the summit.

The 2,000' glissade down to Lunch Counter.

Dani glissading.

Wipeout!

Cool Stuff - Alltop and Kronomy

footnoteMaven has been instrumental in getting a Genealogy category created at a new online service called Alltop.com, which the developers bill as a “digital magazine rack” for the Internet. I am honored to be amongst those listed. The site was formally announced in March of this year by Guy Kawasaki. One comment he made in the announcement was to think of Alltop as "aggregation without the aggravation.” For those who don't understand RSS Feeds or don't want to be bothered with setting up a feed reader, this may be a good solution. Of course, for those on facebook, using the Blog Network and/or facebook's, still in Beta, feature the "News Wall" is a more personalized solution.
I checked out some of the other posts on Guy Kawasaki's blog, and noticed something that really caught my interest. Something that could be fun and useful for genealogists and family historians.

First read his post Make Your Life Flash Before Your Eyes. Cool isn't it. Think of the possibilities. Create a timeline of your life, one of your ancestors, or one of your family lines using photographs and digital images of documents. Not just timelines, it is also a social networking site. Just what we need right? But this one looks different. The Kronomy - Share your life website is still in Beta and open only by invitation though you can submit your email address to be notified when it goes public.
Thanks to footnoteMaven and her post All The Cool Kids (And Me) for the heads up on Alltop.com and to Kathryn Doyle for the link to Mr. Kawasaki's blog.

Revisiting Captain Cave Man M7+

Several days ago I heard from Joel Torretti. Joel is a talented PA ice/rock climber that moved away for several years and recently returned to PA and is living up near State College. He was looking to get out and do some tooled climbing. He was excited to be making his first outing of the season. He made the 2.5 hour drive down to our neck of the woods to see what we could do. We checked out the conditions at several of the local areas, SCII and the So. C'ville rod and gun club. Both being not of great condition, we opted to go check out Lower Meadow Run in Ohiopyle. Not to my surprise, the ice was dismal for pure ice climbing. Not a big deal, we opted to get on the great mixed lines. We started on Anger Managment M5 as our warm up. After pumping on that one, Joel tried the obvious "project" line out the center of the cave. Still a project and to all who have tried it, you know why... The next climb we go on was Captain Caveman M7+ a new line that I TRed at the end of last season in much fatter conditions. Joel went first solving the near iceless start to the line. He made it up through the opening moves only to have a crampon slip of and send him into the air. He passed the rope and I tied in for my attempt. I was happy to see Joel smooth the bottom moves (I was a little uncertain that it would go with so little ice). I moved up through the opening making it to the large ledge on the left. I was happy to throw a heel and get a rest. I proceeded to make my way up through the overhanging rockband to the much appreciated ice. The top posed the problem that it was delaminating from the rock like mad. I gently made my way through this section using various dry moves as well as several very insecure ice sticks. I was glad to get it first go. It took me several days of work to get it last year (in much fatter conditions). Joel tied in and took a second go working through the moves and getting a good pump in the process. After our goes on CCM, we went over and did a few laps each on the ever fun Season Finale M6. It was a blast revisiting Captain Cave Man with Joel. Since getting it no falls, first go on TR, I'm really motivated to give it a whirl on the sharp end before it gets wired. Possibly this upcoming week I'll grow a set and do it. I'll be sure to post how it goes. It was a great day climbing with an old friend, I look forward to many great days out this season.

The Keweenaw Peninsula :: Breakfast Nook

Monday, August 8th - - As nice as the weather was, I decided to leave the Keweenaw Peninsula and move on to other places. The campground was great – in full shade for the most part, which would have been really nice in warmer temperatures. But as it was, with temps in the mid-70s and lots of shade, it was a little cool. (Yeah, I know, some people are never satisfied!)



I left the campground early without eating breakfast, hoping to find a nice warm spot in the sunshine.





A beautiful spot for breakfast!



A few geese were the only things around.



How do these things manage to find a foothold, and survive?



It was a most enjoyable interlude.

Cats and Dogs

Some photos of my cats and dogs. Tuffee playing with a toy. Twinkie and Cassie, the cats that we adopted last year.












Tuffee and Ziva resting after running around on the outside of the horse pen while ponies ran on the inside.






Wiley Cat.



Ziva cooling her feet while getting a drink.




Tuffee and then Ziva showing how they get in and out of Star's pen, my blind horse, so they can chase off the nasty neighbor dog that barks at Star. The dogs are very protective of her. Ziva will spend most of the day in her pen with her when I let her, even thou she would probably be more comfortable is some other part of the yard.