Anything you can do...

After Beechmont turned on a beautiful day yesterday, it was Springbrook's turn this evening. My legs felt like lead climbing the mountain in the fading light -- evidently darkness takes a while to actually arrive at this time of year. Nevertheless, it didn't stop the beauty of this place from making itself apparent. First of all was the mist closing in above 920 metres -- always a special delight at night. It was for moments like this that I spent $600 on a lighting system, although that can complicate things with the white, ghostly glow that appears when lighting these conditions.
Right at the top of the mountain, a colony of fire-flies had decided to nest in a tree. The flashes of the light were quite spectacular to behold for a few moments, while I pondered the descent into the mist and the aforementioned white glow. It was soon after this that I got to watch the moon rise -- twice! The first time was on Lyrebird Ridge on the western end of the escarpment. A few minutes and a 350-metre descent later, I was able to behold a repeat performance, this time from the eastern side of the escarpment. Further down the mountain, I got another view of the glow worms that make this place what it is -- even if they're less prevalent under a full moon.
Nights like this are what living is all about.

Mullum Wanderings part II

This was to be the culmination of the whole weekend, and what I'd been planning since my first visit to Minyon Falls over a year ago. The early part of the ride passed through Mullumbimby and Repentance Creek, passing the Crystal Castle along the way. Those names indicate the type of area it is, a series of 2-4km climbs and descents, with stunning scenery all the way.


It's at Coopers Creek that the climb to Minyon Falls begins. The early part of this climb is the steepest, averaging around 11% for the first kilometre before settling down into a slightly more civilised pattern. It's only upon reaching Minyon Grass that the falls come into view. I was a little disappointed at the volume of water coming over the falls -- given the early rainfall this year. One assumes more is needed.

I opted for the walk to the base of the falls and back. Doing the full loop was an option I considered, but I had a lot to cram into this day as it was. The track passed through pretty rainforest virutally all the way, followed by a climb over some rocks to reach the falls. Typically, this was when the rain started. I managed to evade any mishaps on the rock climbs, and returned to Minyon Grass for the ride across to the top of the falls, to take in a different view.



Now the real ride began, I started with the climb to the summit of Peates Mountain, around 640 above sea level. The road was "officially" closed, but apparently few people pay any attention to this, if the tracks through the mud were any indication. The climb passed through some of the oldest rainforest in Australia, and the speed I was riding left plenty of time to take it in. There are also views to be had at the very summit if you take a short detour out on North Rocks Road.


Next came the long descent on Gibbergunyah Range Road. This is quite an interesting descent, 18km in total, passing first through the rainforest, then more open country at the bottom. A strange problem arose here -- lantana. This is a spiky weed that grows in former farming areas and tends to take over everything in it's path. When you're riding down a narrow dirt road with lantana closing in on both sides, it's possible to lose some skin without crashing. Taking one hand of the handlebars at the right time is one possible defence, but beware of having handlebars caught in the vines.


With this descent out of the way, I had a couple of options for returning home. I opted for one more ride in the rainforest, climbing the plateau again on Nightcap Range Road (probably the easiest climb of all the different approaches), before a screaming descent back to Coopers Creek, and a ride home over the rolling hills. There was, of course, the obligatory spectacular save on the descent to avoid a spectacular injury, and a nice, relaxing, pretty ride "home". 108km and over 1,900 metres of climing is all in day's work.

* * * * * * * *
I made a rather interesting discovery during the weekend. The climb that I had previously been referring to as Mt Jerusalem, isn't actually Mt Jerusalem. It passes through the Mt Jerusalem National Park, but the real climb of Mt Jerusalem is somewhere off to the South West. I will, of course, be riding the real one before the year is out, but to get back to the Gold Coast, I had to deal with the impostor.


There's something about the fourth day of a tour that makes the legs grow stronger, and makes climbs like this easier. I've actually taken longer to climb this on days when I wasn't carrying a load. I had been told I'd find a waterfall with a slight detour from the saddle at the top of the range, so being the inquisitive sort that I am, I opted to look for it. South Chowan Road plummets 100 metres in little more than a kilometre -- a nice short detour, but it would take a little longer to come back. The waterfall was easy to find, not of the spectacular "Minyon Falls" type, but very pretty nevertheless.


There is a campsite here that has potential for a few nights away later in the year. I could base myself here overnight, and spend time exploring the whole area -- assuming my back has healed sufficiently to transport a Camelbak by then. In the meantime, I had to contend with a screaming descent on wearing brake pads, a descent made more vicious by the load I still carried. The normally spectacular views to Mt Warning were obscured, but there was still plenty to see.

After this, it was all straightforward. Uki, Murwillumbah, Urliup, Bilambil and home. I absolutely scorched the section between Uki and Murwillumbah, producing the sort of performance that will probably be impossible to replicate ever again, covering it in 30 minutes with a full touring load. The ride through Urliup was pleasant as usual -- even climbing over Bilambil seemed tolerable. The 'Coast was it's usual combination of Road rage and general stupidity, but that just made me even more glad to have escaped for the weekend.

One would think that after the third "tour" in three different states throughout the year, I would be satisfied. Not so, in fact, I've already "noted" a long weekend in late April that I can use for the next adventure. That said, the images of this weekend will stay with me for a long time, a reminder that this truly is a special part of the world. Hopefully I'll find time to fully explore some of the other places I've discovered later this year.

Night sky over the Teton Range

(Above: Deer at sunset near the Snake River)
We were pretty tired after our long day in Yellowstone and our early morning of shooting the Teton Mountains, so we decided to take it easy in the afternoon and just spend some time relaxing in our suite back at the hotel. Which, by the way, was really an incredible place. If you are planning on visiting the Tetons and looking for a REALLY NICE place to stay, check out Hotel Terra (http://www.hotelterrajacksonhole.com/). Its pricey, but if you have a couple of friends to split the cost with, its not so bad.

After getting some rest, we headed back out for sunset. We decided to try Oxbow Bend, another popular place... a bit too popular, as it turns out. When we arrived at Oxbow Bend the parking area was full and the cars were lined up on the sides of the road for quite a ways in both directions. The area was crawling with people, so we just drove past and turned on the next road we came to, which was a gravel road on the left. This road went for a little over a mile and ended up at the Snake River, just upstream from Oxbow Bend. We walked around a little bit, and just decided to head back to Oxbow Bend after the crowds were gone. Our focus this evening was going to be shooting the night sky and the stars. Thinking ahead, I was looking for nice foreground subjects for the star shooting to come later, and thought that the tree in the image above might fit the bill.

We waited until about half an hour after sunset then headed back to Oxbow Bend. Almost all of the cars were gone; only a few remained. We had enough light to make some really nice exposures of the river with Mt. Moran in the distance. An added bonus was the moon, which provided some extra drama to some of the shots:

I know Stuart and Jake were excited to do some night shooting with me... and me, well... I'm always game for staying up late and shooting the night sky :-) We had a perfect night for it, clear skies and no wind! And to top it off, while we were making our long exposures of the sky we could hear bull elk bugling in the distance!!! It was pretty incredible to be sitting under this awesome sky and hearing the mating calls of elk in the distance. Without a doubt, one of the most memorable experiences of my life.


Above and below: 30 second exposures at an aperture of f 4.0, ISO 6400 using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera and Canon EF 17-40mm L lens.


Below: This one was a 29 minute exposure, aperture f 4.0, ISO 100 using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera and Canon EF 17-40mm L lens.

Visitation Totals for Mount Rainier Park

The last graph got me wondering, what was the general visitation totals for Mount Rainier during the same period, 1991 to 2005. As you can see, there has been a decline overall. I gathered these stats from here.

Something's Afoot...

Something's afoot... and... I've known about it for a week at least...
See... these things have shown up and blown up... day by day.
I feel left out...Note from Sammie's mom: Hubbie and I are about to celebrate our 4oth anniversary and we are going to Alaska for a couple of weeks. Sammie has a fabu nanny coming to care for her and guess what? There will be a mystery guest poster for Sammie in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned! Harroooooooooo! You will be able to keep up with her antics and quirks, so check in once in a while!Hugs and Licks from me, Sammie xo

Iceberg Coast

Boy, am I ever loving this winter so much more than last winter! Last winter was such a non-winter that I would rather just not remember it. This year we have more snow and more ICE! This scene was photographed yesterday morning near Cascade River State Park. Fellow photographer and friend Bryan Hansel (http://www.bryanhansel.com) and I met up to photograph this "Iceberg Coast" together. Huge chunks of ice littered this section of coast, some of them towering as much as 10 to 15 feet high, built up by the waves from Lake Superior. The temperature was below zero on this morning, which meant that there was some nice sea smoke drifting around over the surface of the lake. It also meant that the morning was very quiet, with barely a ripple on the surface of the lake. A sublime morning for sure!

Frozen Moss

A patch of moss covered in water from a leaky faucet frozen by the night's cold temperatures.