Great Blue Heron

Jasmine loves chasing the Great Blue Herons. They're big and they squawk a lot when disturbed.

Herons are smarter than you might think... Normally a heron lands on the path and then walks around a bit, looking for a likely place to fish before walking down into the water.

The local ones have learned to land in the pond itself, below Jasmine's vantage point.

Idiotic bored hunters around here sometimes shoot at them, so this one wouldn't let me any closer to take his picture.

Zinnas

These zinnas seem to be the color of the sunsets we have been having.

Thurleigh Circular walk

Led by Barry, with me, Gordon and Eddie. Mostly fine, variable temperature - some muddy fields! Grr!


Just over 9 miles.

Off we go - wagons roll - 'aroo ah???'

Thurleigh church

artefacts to be discovered by future alien cilivisations

More traces of lost cultures

Ready for a shower

No obstacle too great!

Some llamas at Thurleigh Farm park - on our way back!

Yorktown Victory Monument

Today we headed over to Yorktown. While driving around, we came across this monument. We hadn't even heard of this monument before, so we felt quite lucky that we did happen upon it. It was just gorgeous!

Some fun facts:

The concluding battle of the Revolutionary War ended October 19, 1781 in Yorktown, Virginia. General Cornwallis and his 7,157 men surrendered to General Washington. To commemorate the important Allied Victory over the British, the Continental Congress on October 29, 1781, authorized the Yorktown Victory Monument. Construction began a century later with completion in 1884.

Lady Victory, a younger sister to the Statue of Liberty, exquisitely tops a slender pedestal of Maine granite. In 1956, replacement of the original figure of liberty, damaged by lightening, took place.

The shaft is 84 feet high and Liberty is 14 feet high.

This is a monument that we are sure to remember!

Living the life in Historical Virginia!

Sherpa Peak

Sherpa Peak is a large bump on the east shoulder of Mt. Stuart. It does not get climbed near as often as Stuart. It was nice to climb something new in the range. Mark and Doug did it as a day hike.



Climbers near the false summit of Mt. Stuart. There was still a lot of snow at the end of June.




Mark leading the way up the West Ridge.






Doug working his way up.






Sherpa Balanced Rock is a feature visible from all over the Stuart Range. It doesn't get climbed very often. It looks like the wind could blow it over, but it is actually pretty well built. We couldn't leave without climbing it. Mark led the way up and Doug followed. It was nice to finally stand on top of that rock we have looked at so many times.
Sherpa Peak is the shaded peak on the right shoulder of Mt. Stuart as seen in this photo from Longs Pass. It was another memorable day spent above treeline!

Eagle on a cliff

Acouple ofweeks ago we were driving along Highway 61 on our way to do the hike to Eagle Mountain, the highest point in Minnesota. As I was driving, Jessica was gazing out at Lake Superior when all of a sudden she exclaimed "There's an eagle sitting on that cliff!". Of course I had to turn the car around to check it out, since I didn't see it when we first drove by. As we slowly approached the view where she had spotted the bird, sure enough, there he was sitting on the edge of a small (approx. 20 foot tall) cliff overlooking the lake. It was such a strange sight. I've seen eagles on the beach before, mostly going after fish that have been recently cleaned by commercial fishermen. But, I've never seen one perched on a cliff like this. He sat there for a few more minutes before taking off and landing in the top of a nearby tree. The sighting of this bird was a great start to our day, and I took it as a good sign, since we were going to be hiking Eagle Mountain that day :-)

More Toddler Camping ..

Another last minute decision to make the most of time off and go camping. Packing for camping with Mirabelle always seems not worth it as we struggle to wrangle her and gear to pack in the morning of a trip. This usually has Jennifer second guessing our decision to go, and also has us leaving later than I'd prefer. Not to mention forgetting some things. (more on that later)



The idea was to drive up and secure a site at Tinkham campground off I90, then take a hike up to Denny Slide while Mirabelle takes her nap. Securing a site was not a problem and we soon took the short drive over to Denny Creek Trail Head for out hike.



Mirabelle is at an age where she does not want to be cooped up in the pack for a trip and enjoys doing some of the hiking on her own. (Although she is not at an age where she can keep from getting tuckered out pretty quickly.) She wanted out of the pack early and proceeded to inspect every rock leave and hole near the trail. She didn't want to sleep in the pack or the Ergo that we brought along as well. So we all soldiered on to the slide.







It was surprising to see so many people there early on a Friday afternoon. She got good and tuckered out there, and we continued up to Keekwulee Falls while she napped in the Ergo until we got back down to the slide. She did a fair amount of the hiking back to the car and then we headed back to camp where we needed to borrow a lighter to start our stove to make dinner.



After dinner we headed to the river where Mirabelle just had to get in and wade in the South Fork.






As you can tell from the jackets, the air was not warm.




After a breakfast of fresh picked red huckleberry oatmeal, we headed to Twin Falls State Park to get in another hike. Unfortunately, all the hiking Mirabelle did the previous day left her a little too tired to accomplish that hike and we cut the hike short just after the switchbacks leading closer to the falls.






Speedy little hiker