A momentary pause

 I will be away for a week. Family issues require my attention, a parting thought:







"Benedicto: May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets' towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you --- beyond that next turning of the canyon walls."
Edward Abbey

While I am gone, I just wanted to pass this blessing on to each of you.  I will try and do a mobile post, but I understand my host has no internet connection at his home...I may have to stumble the long mile to reach a "Starbucks" (really, am I considering that?) that has Wi/Fi just to put out a post while I am away.

eBooks (saving our forests one book at a time)

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets."
- Edward Abbey

The wave of the future in books is the rapid expansion and use of electronic Books (eBooks). Environmental issues are raised with these electromechanical gadgets produced mostly of plastic.  However, further research into production of plastic reveals that it is merely a byproduct of North America's dependency on oil--as long as you are driving that gas-guzzling hunk of Detroit metal. The ingredients for plastic have already been ripped from mother earth to feed your need to get there faster than your own two legs will carry you.

Oil Rig on the edge of Canyonlands NP

In 1979 the annual volume of plastics produced exceeded the volume of steel that was manufactured. The annual volume of plastics produced tripled during the period of 1940 to 1945, due to the wartime demand for products. Plastics are essentially a byproduct of petroleum refining.  So as long as we are using petroleum products for energy, plastic will be available without further destruction of the environment, specifically for the production of plastic.

As with all materials, there are environmental costs and benefits associated with the use of plastics. Plastics replace natural materials, including ivory and wood. Synthetic fibers also provide a substitute for cotton, a water- and energy-intensive crop. The use of plastic materials in cars and airplanes reduces their weight and therefore increases their fuel efficiency. The insulating capacity of plastics such as styrofoam reduce the amount of energy required to heat and cool homes.

One of the most significant environmental problems associated with plastics is the improper disposal of plastic goods by consumers. The use of plastics has enabled the development of innumerable disposable products, which has increased the amount of trash that is disposed.  Although paper accounts for most of the trash in landfills by volume, plastics account for 25% of all waste in landfills when buried.
A significant amount of plastic, however, is not properly disposed in landfills and makes its way into the environment. Plastic does not biodegrade quickly which means it remains in the environment for a very long time. Plastic trash has made its way to coastal ecosystems and the ocean, presenting a danger to marine and birdlife.

For my money, the eBook seems the best environmental way to go, and it also makes it easier to carry my library into the field.  Research materials, birding books, plant identification, first aid...all of it able to fill the space of my old copy of  The Monkey Wrench Gang or Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching (I'll have to go look to see if that is on Kindle).

Birds:  110 mile training toss this last weekend...still have two birds in the Beaver I-race...34th and 76th...beat out by my partner whose bird was 32nd.

Honey:  This weekend I will be bottling the Backyard Blonde and cleaning the carboy to start a new batch of Mead that will be ready in March, and with any luck will last us through the summer.

Canyonland NP

Happy Birthday Canyonlands National Park!

On Sept 12, 1964, Canyonlands National Park was established in an area of southeastern Utah.

This is one of my favorite wandering places, and the end of many wonderful river trips have occurred for me at the edge of the Canyonlands.  This area offers desert recreation, escape, and the chance to view artifacts that have remained unchanged and unbothered for centuries.  The official website provides more information...I don't want to share my secrets of the area. 

The Maze section of Canyonlands has always held special interest to me, since reading Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire and his description of entering the Maze for the first time with a friend from Colorado.  When I first traced his approach with my uncle, things were almost the same as described in the book.

Mineral Bottoms at the northern edge of Canyonlands NP

One of the other notable places on the way into the Eastern entrance of Canyonlands, south of Moab, Utah is Newspaper Rock...truly a marvel to see and experience.

Other things of interest that occurred on September the 12th...

Sept 12, 1940 Cave Paintings discovered in Lascuax, France 

Sept 12, 1954. Lassie TV Premiere. This long-running series was originally about a boy and his courageous and intelligent dog, Lassie (played by more than six different dogs, all male). For the first few seasons, Lassie lived on the Miller farm. The family included Jeff (Tommy Rettig), his widowed mother Ellen (Jan Clayton) and George Cleveland as Gramps. Throughout the years there were many format and cast changes, as Lassie was exchanged from one family to another in order to have a variety of new perils and escapades. Other featured performers included Cloris Leachman, June Lockhart, and Larry Wilcox.

9/11

Yesterday was a day of reflection for many of us, a time to ponder the changes brought about by a terrorist attack within our country's borders and the senseless loss of life that this date signifies. Since yesterday's date was so somber, today I had to look for something positive in my life to reflect upon...I believe the establishment of the wonderful, scenic Canyonlands National Park is exactly what my mind and heart needed today.