This blog entry is brought to by English class

I recently took a trip into nature. I went running on a loop in the military reserve trails system in the late evening when the sun was going down. The problem with running is you are going faster so you don’t notice as many things, but I am a keen observer so there are few things that I miss. When it is getting dark out more animals come out to feed so by running in the evening you can actually see parts of nature that one would usually not see. In the evening the nocturnal animals are coming out and the daytime animals are going to bed. Also more animals are mobile since it is cooler and a bit safer because they can use the cover of darkness to hide from danger. The only real problem is that it is dark and humans can’t see in the dark. So I had to be a bit more careful about where I was going. Also darkness is when many predators are awake so it is a bit more dangerous, but I tend not to worry about things like that. If four 155mm artillery rounds detonating 5 feet from my head can’t kill me than a hungry mountain lion is welcome to try. I know it is kind of a stupid ideal, but one that I follow anyway. I’m not scared of nature regardless. The fear that early explores had of the wilderness does not have any root in me. I see it more as a wonderful place full of beauty, which can be harsh and unforgiving, but calm and serene too, just as long as you’re not an idiot. Lions and tigers and bears oh my!
I started running on a trail that wound through a dense grove of trees along side a creek. The trees and shrubbery where bathed in a flat grey light that made seeing the hazards of the trail difficult, but my feet found their way easily along the trail. Turnings a corner I saw a small rabbit sitting on the trail probably basking in the warmth coming from the loose dirt. When it saw me it hopped off into the bushes, where its natural camouflage hid it from my view. I continued following the creek until the valley began to come together. Then I turned and began climbing up the sparsely vegetated hill to the top of the ridge. At the top of the ridge I could see the remains of the sun setting over the city. The sky was on fire with shades of purple, red and amber. It was a very beautiful sight. I did not linger long for the runners high was coursing through my veins compelling me to keep going. I started down the other side of the ridge, traversing many steep switch back lined with lots of prickly bushes making the descent even more exciting and dangerous. I could hear small animals rustling in bushes as I careened through their environment. I wondered through my endorphin haze if I was disturbing them and by me being here when humans generally weren’t what effect that would have on that creature. Probably nothing, but I can see that if more people disturbed its nightly cycle than that might change the creature in many ways, such as its scrounging for food or avoiding predators.
Reaching the bottom of the hill I came to the homestretch back to my car that I used to get to my nature experience. As I ran down the trail bats swooped over my head eating insects that buzzed around the densely vegetated creek bottom. By now the nearly set sun had turned everything a dark grey where my surroundings blended together into a hard to see panorama. The last section was in a dense grove of trees that turned everything black. The trail crossed the creek for the last time, where a concrete pad was put to reduce erosion giving a stark reminder of how humans have encroached on nature.
That was my latest natural experience. It was interesting how even close to the city I could still have a wild experience. It was sad though how humanity had affected nature, making not as a natural experience as it might have been. Everything from making the trail, to its use and definitively the concrete pad in the middle of the stream detracted from the natural experience that the area once had. It was still a great experience.

nature

Emerson writes “few adult persons can see nature.” By this I believe that he means that as children we can see nature as what it is. As something beautiful. As we grow older we lose the innocence that we had as children. Our ability to see nature becomes clouded with preconceptions and negative experience that prevent us from truly seeing the beauty of nature. As a child we don’t have any misconceptions or preconceived ideas about something and can see things for what they really are. A adult on the other hand brings things such as experience or knowledge with them and that distracts us from seeing what is really there. A child sees nature clearly with a wonder that most adults don’t have. Most adults see nature from a filter or a rose colored lens. As a child grows older they lose their innocence through experiences that change their view of reality and life, so they begin to lose touch with nature. This innocence can be regained however . Spending a extended amount of time in nature, away from other human contact can repsark the natural innocence that a person has, allowing them to reconnect with nature and see it for what it really is. It has been my experience though that once a person gets back to civilization, with their cell phones, cable TV and internal combustion engines the natural innocence they had fades away. The losing of innocence is sad but to reconnect back with nature one only has to get back out, back way outside and they will be one of the few adult persons to see nature.

A Little Paint Will Make it All Better

Our weekend was pretty mellow with the exception of a few activities. Including but not limited to: Power washing, scraping & painting the new house next door (thanks almost entirely in part to a person mentioned in my next post), cleaning up about half of all the junk underneath our house (no small feat), cleaning the hot tub completely, and constructing a fully functional fire pit (thanks Ben). Paint does wonders as you will see in the before and after photo's below.

Before - Back Side

After - Back Side

Before - Front Side

After - Front Side

 

Idaho gets Northwest’s first geothermal plant

I thought this was good enough news to let everyone know about. It is encouraging to see people in our state use our resources for something that will benefit us all and not destroy our earth at the same time.

Here is the link: http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue_date=08-11-2006&ID=2005111754

Microburst

Last night Jennifer and I where going up to Bogus Basin to do some hiking when all of a sudden this huge dust cloud came and hit the Treasure Valley, fierce winds and all sorts of craziness. Their where winds in excess of 70 miles a hour, debris flying everywhere, trees gettting knocked over(one almost hit my car as I was driving) dust that blocked out the sun, it was nuts. It happened all of a sudden too, we had been watching the weather just a half hour before and it just talked about some thunderstorms on the Oregon border. We could literally see a huge "wall" of dust coming at the city, I had seen storms like this in Iraq but never thought to see one in Boise. Apparently the storm started out as what is known as a gust front and then developed into a microburst. A microburst is a strong downdraft which includes an outburst of potentially damaging winds on or near the ground.

More Cross Country Goodness

4 states, 2 National Monuments, 1 National Recreation Area, 3-4 state parks, at least 10 different rivers (one of which we rafted), 12 lakes, and 1500 miles. What a way to spend 6 days! Pictures below are:
1. Sunset above Vernal Utah in Ashley National Forest
2. Low lying clouds on Blue Mountain in Dinosaur National Monument
3. Flaming Gorge Dam & Bridge
4. Our very own Soldier Mountain Sunset