1000 Miles or Bust!

Crater Lake Backpack Trip

The gang and I went backpacking up to Crater Lake from the west side of the Indian Peaks. This is a photoessay: All photos should appear in higher resolution when clicked.

July 29th, 2007 Posted by Tim | 1000 miles, Every last post | no comments

WordPress Spreadsheet (wpSS) version 0.6 released

WordPress Spreadsheet 0.6 is a new development release that offers numerous new features and bug fixes over the previous major version. As usual, you can download a zip file containing wpSS v0.6 from the WordPress SpreadSheet website.

Changes in this release:

• Ranges. It is now possible to use the mouse to select a range of cells and perform most operation on cell ranges.
• Cut, Copy and Paste. Ranges may be copied and pasted using the standard keys (ctrl-x, ctrl-c, and ctrl-v). Formulas in the ranges should automatically adjust.
• Data Interchangeability. A range of cells may be copied to the clipboard and pasted into other spreadsheet programs, or the contents of the clipboard may be pasted into a cell and if it is a range of tab separated values it will paste the entire range into wpSS.
• Increased AJAX Functionality. wpSS now accepts a wider variety of keyboard input, including pgUp, pgDown, ctrl-Home and ctrl-End for navigation within the spreadsheet. Ctrl-s saves the spreadsheet (when so permitted by the WordPress administrator).
• Bug fixes. Several minor display bugs were fixed to standardize the height of the spreadsheet within a WordPress blog entry.

Please read the release notes for greater detail.

July 23rd, 2007 Posted by Tim | Hacking, Every last post | one comment

Chicory Bears on the Big Bluestem

Because of the heat lately, Francoise and I headed out on a 6 am hike this morning. Just our luck—we get up early but have cloud cover and cooler weather, but we still appreciated the early morning start. And it turned out to be a spectacular hike. As you can see from the photo, there were literally seas of chicory flowers shimmering on lower Big Bluestem this morning—making it clear how the trail gets its name. As it turns out, Chicory are day-bloomers—they rarely last into the heat of the afternoon, but hopefully the cloud cover will persist long enough for the build-up-a-thirst hike we have planned for tonight. In any case, they will probably be there the next few mornings, and are well worth the effort.

Early morning also proved to be the right time to see abundant wildlife. In addition to sundry deer and rabbits, we spotted a faun. But the wildlife highlight of the morning came a bit later when, near the junction of the Mesa trail and the northernmost Shadow Canyon cutoff, we almost walked straight into a large black bear (see photo). He was placidly feeding on berries in the bottom of the draw, about twenty-five feet off the trail. He perked up his head, looked at us a moment, noted the absence of dogs, and resumed feeding. We stayed still long enough to get a few photos of him, and then as we approached closer he showed what he thought of us by turning around and taking a crap. And in the woods, no less…

Photos courtesy of FEC.

July 19th, 2007 Posted by Tim | 1000 miles, Every last post | one comment

Cottonwood Pass Peak Bagging

Homeward bound from a week of hiking from Eagle to Crested Butte, we stopped for one last quick jaunt up North Jones Mountain, daring the thunderstorms in the distance to outpace us. Ok, it wasn’t really that close. If it was, we would not have summited. But for a driving day, not a bad little hike. Of course, starting at a 12000 foot pass helps.

July 8th, 2007 Posted by Tim | 1000 miles, Every last post | no comments

Copper Creek Teaser

Today was a short hiking day as Paige and Seth were having their rehearsal dinner in Crested Butte, but we managed to make it to the mouth of a very intriguing valley up Copper Creek. When I was a bit younger and perhaps less wise, I and a couple of friends ski-backpacked up this valley, over Triangle Pass, and down to Conundrum Hot Springs. I haven’t back since. I must admit, I still wonder why. And today, I have to turn back too soon. But I will be back.

July 7th, 2007 Posted by Tim | 1000 miles, Every last post | no comments

Maroon Bells under the Maroon Bells: Stolen Shots in Rustler Park

Sometimes, if you are lucky, you get to take a day hike in a sublime paradise. Today was my day. With two large, unbridged creek crossings to keep the riff-raff out, this spectacular high alpine wildflower hike is simply beyond words. So I won’t bother, other than to put the occasional caption on this photoessay.

Precarious Peak marks the head of a sublime valley and the trail’s end for a spectacular day. All photos should appear at a higher resolution when clicked.

July 6th, 2007 Posted by Tim | 1000 miles, Every last post | no comments

Land of the Obvious

They say that Ohio is a plain-spoken place. Off Ohio Pass, in a little known valley between that separates the West Elk, Storm Ridge and the Anthracite Range, a trail climbs to the base of the Anthracite massif before turning south toward Soapy Basin. To the southwest you can spot the Castles, or the Swamp Castles I prefer to think of them. Someone here had a dry, plain-spoken sense of humor, as you can no doubt tell from the picture of swamp flowers taken at the aptly named Swampy Pass. I am glad it was midday when I passed it by, though when I returned again at 3 I startled a family of ducks happily summering at 10000 feet. The trail, which borders a slough on the pass for some yards, gave the appearance that I was chasing the ducklings, and so I was charged by a daffy duck, wings aflap, trying to distract me as if I were a predator while the little ones hid in the tall fronds.

July 4th, 2007 Posted by Tim | 1000 miles, Every last post | no comments

Beckwith Pass Beckons

The biggest risk in starting the second hike of the day late, in the early evening, is that you will be seduced to linger too long, too late, to enjoy the interplay of the long light and creeping shadows. When that hike is replete with some of the most amazing wildflower meadows I have ever seen, as was Beckwith Pass, that call becomes a siren among sirens, keeping you and your camera until you are sure to stumble back to camp long after dark. The part of me that is still a photographer can never regret a proper dusk hike though. There could never be enough time spent in the West Elk Wilderness, one of the least visited and most spectacular areas of the state. This is the first of a series of photoessays on the blog, meaning that you can click these photos and see a higher-resolution jpg to appreciate this amazing place.

July 3rd, 2007 Posted by Tim | 1000 miles, Every last post | no comments

Up On Crooked Creek

Today was the first high peak summit of the year, the nearly 12000 foot high Mt Thomas, which is really just a minor peak on the enormous massif that divides the Frying Pan River from the Colorado River Valley above Eagle. A beautiful but fairly gentle climb with excellent views of both the Sawatch and the Elk Ranges from atop the 12000 foot ridgeline of Red Table Mountain, it would make an excellent early summer backpack someday (note to self). The wildflowers were amazing, but what really caught my eye was this little guy. A mycologist, however, I am not. Any suggestions as to what this orange fungus is called? He was over a foot long and six to eight inches across.

July 2nd, 2007 Posted by Tim | 1000 miles, Every last post | no comments