on the loveliest of autumn days. This was the destination of a 22 mile (35 km) out-and-back eMTB ride from Utahraptor State Park with friends this afternoon. Life is good.
Eye of the Whale Arch, Arches National Park. (Click image to supersize.)
"Coffee with the Chief" is an instant success...
in our tiny community of Castle Valley, a small, weekly social gathering, the brainchild of the Fire Chief Ron Drake, shown in the red shirt at the far right in the image below. Read all about it in his weekly column: Coffee with the Chief. Great job, Ron!
The "Halloween launch" at the state line...
had me lofting the pumpkin-colored Moab Man rocket today. The second launch of the rocket involved a drag race with an identical rocket and identical engine.
Milliseconds after ignition, Moab Man accelerates skyward on a F15-4 motor.
Going up! Moab Man clears the rail.
Screen grab from a video of the drag race where both rockets were ignited at the same time. Big fun.
There's an increasing population...
of Common Ravens in Castle Valley this year, or so it seems.
Common Raven (Corvus corax).
Rockin' out at Navajo Rocks...
on the mountain bike trail system during a magnificent autumn afternoon in the high desert.
Red beds of the Dewey Bridge Member of the Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic (174.1-163.5Ma)) share a sharp contact with the underlying cream-colored Navajo Sandstone (Lower Jurassic (201.3-174.1Ma)). (Click to enlargenate.)
Flipped 1,000 miles...
on the new Trek Rail+8 on the singletrack in upper Castle Valley this afternoon. Perfect place to accomplish this milestone. It’s good to be back on Mars.
The view over the handlebars. Click to enbiggen.
UPDATE: This puts me at 72% of the distance of the Earth’s circumference at the equator (since September 2020)!
Porcupine Rim appears on fire...
at sunset this evening, while Adobe Mesa glows warmly in the east.
The Priest peeks out of the mist...
on a dreary and drippy day in Castle Valley where nearly 1.5 inches (38 mm) of welcome rain has fallen during the last several days.
The foul odor and distinctive shape...
of the common stinkhorn fungus is presenting itself right on schedule, triggered by autumn rains.
Common stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus).
Another emerges the day after a gentle rain.
Insects are attracted to the foul smelling head where the spores are contained.
The jays have discovered...
the replenished feeding stations while the rock squirrels enjoy the bath.
Western scrub-jay (Aphelocoma californica).
Rock squirrel (Otospermophilus variegatus).
Soaking up residual warmth...
from a sandstone slab as the sun sets.
Striped whipsnake (Masticophis taeniatus).
Do not disturb nesting raptors...
on Parriott Mesa for the first eight months of the year advises a new sign at the trailhead to the mesa top. How ironic that one shows up off season?!
Rising Hunter's Moon...
above Adobe Mesa this evening, this year’s first supermoon, appearing slightly larger and brighter than usual.
The highest summit in Idaho...
is dusted with the first snow of the season on a stormy afternoon. A violent 6.9 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Lost River Range on 28 October 2983 and created a 21 mile (34 km) long fault scarp at the foot of the mountain front.
Borah Peak (12,662 ft (3,859 m)). Note the prominent fault scarps at the foot of the lowermost slopes created during the 1983 earthquake.
US Forest Service interpretive site along a fault segment created during the 1983 event. Borah Peak is at the center skyline.
My 8th grade earth science teacher...
stoked my early interest in geology and, next to my parents, Ellis Underkoffler is clearly the most pivotal person in my early formative life. Here we are, now years later, at a regional meeting of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, Ellis having invited me to deliver the keynote address at the conference highlighting my adventurous cave research in Central America. It was a fun reunion. Inspiring teachers are important!
Ripened crabapples being enjoyed for breakfast...
by a young buck in the back yard.
Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus).
Enormous compound eyes...
are better to see you with.
Unidentified dragonfly.
This living fossil...
first appears in the rock record about the time of the dinosaurs - Early Jurassic (201.3 - 174.7 Ma) - and it persists on the landscape today and is known by a variety of common names.
Horsetail (genus Equisetum).
The five year anniversary...
of me fracturing my femur and requiring a hip replacement passes with hardly a notice, other than it being memorialized on my calendar on this date. Since then I’ve biked more than two-thirds of the circumference of the Earth, so it seems to be working well.
Research is the key to tomorrow...
according to this ancient and rusty 3M Company sign along a state highway in eastern Washington. Indeed.
