What is it?

I see similarities between the Grand Canyon and mankind – both are old but young, small but large, wise but wild.  The Grand is all of these and more.  I wonder what it will be like in many years.  Will it be around, or just be wiped out by the people it shares qualities with?  Man has changed over ages and so has the Grand changed in looks and in feelings also.

Someone else’s maze

He sought to live life’s hardships through someone else’s gaze

The path was hard to travel, someone else’s maze

Our ways are different each, every one in how we get to the end.

But if you stand and lend a hand

Emotion will be your friend

You’ll live a life to favor

Choosing

What have I learned about being a steward of the natural environment?  I have learned much about the environment and how it needs its “stewards”.  There is not another force to clean up or keep the places we use pristine.  We need to play our part in the process – each and every one of us.  I learned that it is not always easy to be a steward.   Sometimes the easiest way to live life it to not be participating as a caretaker but to just be lazy.  However, when you ask yourself to think, to care, to engage the rewards pay off.  The well-being of the places we love depend on the people who came before us, us now, and the people after us being sustainable.  We should all do our part and do our part and pitch in to keep the places we love pristine.

Shilty

I woke up this morning with a sand dune in my tent.  Shilty I thought.  It is a word I made up, like silty but with an l.  Shilty was the sand blowing in my face, the color of the water and the texture of my hair.  Yup. A sand dune, and of a pretty good size to boot.  The cause of this Sahara dessert in my tent was my fault.  I had faced my tent towards the wind that night before.  Sand, grit and dust had blown in all night, creating a mess but I didn’t wake up even with sand grit blowing into my face.  I was woken up earlier in the morning by winds, not the summer winds that feel good on your face, but the cruel ones that stab at your face.  A storm was coming.  Shoot dang i thought, i wanted to have some solo time outside that day.  I wished for some good weather, such a nice prospect i thought.  I got some breakfast and then went back to the text as soon as it started to rain.  I read for awhile and slept a little, then something amazing happened.  The sun came out to shine on my dreary day.  It was just what i wanted.  I was glad the weather had gotten that out of its system and now just had good weather to share.  I walked up a small side canyon to find a spot to sit and enjoy the weather.  I walked for maybe 15 minutes, then i found my place.  it was near the base of a small waterfall.  Everything around was green and budding.  I sat there for a good part of the day, and what a day it was.

We Leave for the Grand Tomorrow

Tomorrow?  Already?  This trip has been planned from the beginning of the year.  So much detail thought out and planned out before we embark on this great adventure.  I am hesitant but excited.  I feel confident but there is this little voice in the back of my head, “what if?”  What if?  Such a big question to ask oneself.  What if this goes wrong?  What if this happens?  I shove these thoughts out of my mind as if there were gnats – annoying and bothersome.  They keep coming back.  Is this bad?  I don’t know.  I think it is good to be able to have doubts, then to get over them and to learn.  This is good for ones character.  This once in a lifetime experience is going to be great.  I plan to document the trip through photography and journal entries.  It’s going to be a long trip with much effort to get through to the end.  I believe I can do this easily and along the way I can learn things too.  I think that the seclusion from the outside world will help me focus on the things that I want to work on.  I have many feelings about leaving for this trip.  I cannot say which thought I am feeling that is the ruler of them all, because there is no feeling that rules the others.  It is a big pot of feelings brewing together, changing and fusing into one huge lump.  This is how i feel about leaving for the Grand Canyon.

Kittens

i love kittens.  They are so cool.  it is amazing to watch them grow up, the question is do they really know you. “The Kitten Attention Span is both short, and easily diverted to a new track. Anyone who has raised a baby or a puppy is already familiar with the challenges. Why can’t they retain information the first, or five hundredth, time?” http://www.wayofcats.com/blog/the-kitten-attention-span/6123.  According to this blog kittens have a short attention span, but they can also be trained. http://mashable.com/2009/12/30/addthis-2009/.  It seems some people share the same love as kittens as i do.  overall kittens are one of the coolest animals.

http://www.safehavenforcats.com/newborn.htm this is a site i would not trust to use to raise kittens because there is too much information and it is not layed out to be easy to use.

We arrived today in Cobol San Lucas, greeted with weather in the high 70’s

It’s the beach!

and the sun shining.  It was great to feel a warm climate and to be in the sun, because this morning we left Colorado’s winter behind, with numbing temperatures below zero.  Our guides,

Lagoon below Todas Santos

Sergio and Mauricillo, met us in vans at the airport entrance.  They were enthusiastic and ready to teach us a lot about Baja.  We drove north for about an hour and turned down a bumpy dirt road to a beautiful beach to eat lunch, but before a bite was taken our feet had to go into the warm crashing waves.

The hotel is at a really cool spot on a cliff overlooking a fresh water lagoon.  The hotel is family-owned by the guide service.  They have a few dogs as pets and there are a few new puppies that are very spunky and are always running around. When we got to our rooms we exploded our packs and quickly organized ourselves to head to town for a history lesson about Mexico and Baja.

Villas La Mar in Todos Santos

Our guide knew a lot about Mexican history and I think that everyone learned quite a bit of new information.  After our tour of the town, we followed a path down the hillside from our hotel to the beach that it overlooks.  We learned that some beaches can be very dangerous, and that this was one of them.  The water acts in such a way, that if you get caught up in it, you can get pulled out to sea and drown.  At first it was hard to conceive the power a wave can have, but as I sat there watching the waves, I was struck by the raw power water can process.

Lurking in the night

After we left the beach, we had a Spanish lesson and dinner.  The lesson was good  – I learned a lot about how to present myself using Spanish and how to say numbers correctly.  Then after dinner and a group meeting, it was time to hunt for bugs!  We found many species, and from the pictures, we could see that some were even dangerous (scorpions, poisonous grasshoppers, spiders)!

Overall, it was a great first day, and I am looking forward to spending this time in Baja.

Ocean Beauty

OCEAN BEAUTY

I stare at the reefs, caves and coves I wonder where they will all go

Twenty years from now It wont seem very real, now

Sitting here, ocean pristine it is like a most vivid dream

A dream that doesn’t seem real Until you feel, flowing and crashing The abundance of waves, making underneath you, these vast ocean caves.

I want this place to stay like this made out of sand and happiness a place of no worries and woes.   A place for us to go

The ocean is an amazing place.  It means a lot to me and always has, but on this trip I learned even more about what the ocean means to me.  Something about oceans has always amazed me.  Especially when they are clean and are hugely diverse in wildlife.

On our trip we spent a lot of time on the ocean and the sea or Cortez.  These places were some of the best large bodies of water I have spent time around.  I liked learning about all the wildlife that presided in them, there are so much interesting diversity present.  I also really appreciated seeing people around me taking care of the environment that they were in.  Seeing this really proved to me that it is possible for humans to be considerate to the environment that they are in

I think that if everyone did a little bit to help preserve the amazing environment that is around us.  We are always taking from the oceans and seas, but we never give back.  We take and dump back out trash in the oceans.  This is not how we should conduct ourselves.  If you want to preserve the things in nature that you like, be conscience of how you act.

Baja

Only 13 hours till we leave link to head out from link.  I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time.  i have known about the trip since the beginning of the year.  i have been packing for the last few days.  I am excited and anxious about leaving.  Going to a different country will be very different.  There will be different laws, customs, foods, languages being spoken and people of different ethnicities.  I am looking forward to some of the activities planned.  For the first few days we are going to learn how to surf and take spanish lessons.  I am really happy to surf because it sounds fun and i skateboard, and surfing is similar in how you have to balance to i hope ill be able to stay on the surfboard.  I also really love to fish, and i am bringing down some of my gear to Baja to fish.  There are many exotic fish there and i am hoping to catch some.  I also really like take photos and i am taking my camera down there as well.  Last week i bought a cool waterproof case for it and hopefully it will keep it dry!  After a few days of surfing we are going to hike the Baja peninsula, a pretty hard hike down to the Sea or Cortez to sea kayak for a few days.  this is where i hope to catch some fish, and hopefully eat them.  Also when we are kayaking around we might see some whales, sea lions and manta rays. these animals will make good photos if i can get close enough to shoot some photos.  Overall i am really excited to travel with my school to Baja Mexico.

Ice fishing season is just around the corner.

An american pastime, still widely loved today, Ice fishing

Old ice fishing`

Ice fishing season is just around the corner, and even in some locations even starting!  Believe it or not, winter fishing makes up nearly 1/4 the annual catch in Wisconsin.  Ice fishing can be for sport, food and any reason you would like to fish.  there are many methods to ice fish.  Wether your willing to spend cash on big tents with heaters and comfort or you just bundle up, endure the cold and sit outside all methods will work.  Yes you might be more comfortable in a tent, but it will not help or hurt your fishing performance.  Some of the gear you will need will be: an ice auger to drill a hole in the ice to fish and two of the most popular options for catching fish are tipups and jig rods. Tipups are placed over the hole with a lure and a line. They are spring loaded so when a fish bites a flag pops up. Tip ups work well if you live in an area that allows you to fish multiple lines. For a more hands on approach you should use a jig rod, which is basically just a little fishing pole.  If you use the correct tools,be safe with the ice thickness and be patient you have a good chance of catching a fish.

A jig rod.

A tip up rod.

An ice auger.

Additional information on ice fishing:

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/nature/icefish.htm#bait

http://fishing.about.com/od/icefishing/a/end_of_ice.htm

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