India bound

Tomorrow I will begin making my way to India. The first three weeks I will be spending with a group of 10 students and a few faculty in the Garhwal Himalayas. We will be trekking and visiting remote villages of the Bhotiya people (Indo-Tibetans) and learning about their lives and the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve where they live. The classes are on mountain development, resource issues, and eco-tourism. After three weeks I will part with the group at the Taj Mahal and they will return home. I will spend the next three weeks exploring India with a friend from school. We are going to float around and see where the winds blow us. I will try to update from India if possible.

More info at:
http://nandadevi.prayaga.org/




This is obviosly not my picture, but it gives you an idea of the trekking scenery. Hopefully in a month or so some of my pics will be up.
ALright, wish me luck everyone! I'll see you on the other side...

Spring Break

Spring break was a while ago but now i am done with the semester so i have some time.  Updates include: Just moved into a new apartment.  It is pretty nice; downtown, it's a house, has a yard, 50 yards from the river.  Also I am leaving to India in a few days.  More to come on that subject...

Many of my very favorite things are contained in this photograph

We went backpacking on the way back at Yakima Canyon.  Made it to camp late
This flower likes this lichen

Some of the scenery we enjoyed

The oasis camp spot

Woke up to this view in the morning

More vistas on the return hike

Magsters covering some pretty trail

I know...It's been a long time

I extend apologies all around.  I have been quite busy these days with school and a couple of jobs and all that.  I know sometimes I watch a movie when I should be updating here, but hey, I do what I can.  So.... we will take a trip back in time today.  Just pretend I posted this a long time ago and all will be well. I'll start off by taking you back to the month of January.  We took a road trip

--This is the ghost town of Bannack.  The first territorial capital of Montana.  The first gold in the territory was discovered here

--This is Trapper Peak on the way South through the Bitterroot Mountians

--Looking out at the Big Hole Battlefield

--Maggie exploring one of the abandoned buildings

--False fronts on the main (only) road

--cemetery is up on top of that hill

--gallows were a vigilante lynch mob hung the sheriff.

--This is the view standing under the gallows.  The last thing about 14 people saw.

--view of the town from the cemetery

--not a bad resting spot

--this is the coolest jail I have ever seen.  

--The only window in the original jail (above picture, right side) looks straight out to the gallows!  That is a smart sheriff.

This is the mason lodge.  

Crisp Montana Winter

So it turns out that Montana is cold.  Who would have thought?  We are only at 3,200 ft in the middle of the Northern US Rockies.  But alas, an inversion has been hanging around for a week or so making it cold, but more noticeable to a camera, frosty.  The following samples will illustrate the words I have written in a visual nature.  

--Large crystals

--The Mist

--Frozen everything

--Cold Buddha

Sunny, snowy days

A trip up the Mt to see the town covered in snow.  

--Snow dusted Rattlesnake from Mt Sentinal

--Dont run in hiking boots.  (It is icy and I needed grip.)  

2009 years ago... time and space were born

We got back to Missoula on the day before New Years.  Maggie and I had a night out on the town.  Not much to do on New Years when you dont drink.  But we had fun.  

--Peace in Cara's Park

--Maggie took this one.  

--And also this one

--New Years Earl Grey

--Our bikes resting from their long journey to Montana.  They will rest all the way till spring.

Home for the Holidays

I decided to go back to Washington for the Holidays.  I took the train.  Of course there is no snow in Montana until the exact day I need to leave.  The train leaves out of Whitefish; a two hour drive from Missoula. The first snow here isn't light, its six inches, forty mile-an-hour winds, and twenty below.  These storms are referred to in some literature as "blizzards".  So the highway is shut down and my ride to Whitefish informed me that it was too dangerous to drive.  I traded in my ticket for the next day.  Blizzard continues.  Traded it in for the next day, and got a Greyhound ticket to Whitefish.  Bus breaks down from cold in parking lot.  Two hours later, a small van takes me and a few others to Whitefish.  A nine hour wait (Amtrack station closed for five hours of it) till the train departs.  Walk about 1.5 miles in -34 degree windchills to the local movie theater.  Longest movie playing= Australia.  All in all I though it was semi-rad.  Nice quite ride to Tacoma after that.

--I thought I would catch a break from the snow in Washington.
--I was wrong

--Armed Tacoma snowman

--The final three pictures compose a segment featuring a spoiled dog named Bango.  Above, he holds his edible 'best dog' xmas card

He is the best dog in dog history

--A new hand crafted large squeeky bone.  His personal favorite.