John & Anne Wiley

2011/09/10

Cascade

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Smiley Adventure — John @ 01:13

Not far from Stanley we had a planned stop at Cascade to check on a minor fix for Tripp (nose strut losing pressure), and it was quite a delight. Approaching the airport (just above middle, running diagonally up from the right) the snaking iridescent river was striking.

4166 Follow The River Up

4166 Follow The River Up

It seemed to change moment to moment as the sun angle, reflected sky, depth of the river, and varied colors of sand all shifted.

4170 Sand Bar Camping

4170 Sand Bar Camping

The people we met at the airport repair shop were especially mellow, friendly and helpful so we wished time allowed more exploration of the small town nearby. Instead we took off and did a slow climb up the river past the town, and were surprised to see the rapids right at the edge of town.

4171 Rapids Ride

4171 Rapids Ride

People with all sorts of flotation devices would ride the cascade, paddle over to the bank, walk back upstream on the right, and do it all again. A fun and friendly town with an apparently free built-in water slide. As we passed the end of the lake headed North, many inlets presented beautiful patterns of water, land and lifeforms.

4179 Patterns Of Life

4179 Patterns Of Life

I love how much variation there is in seemingly identical land, driven by subtle differences. Nearby the water itself was a glorious artwork.

4181 Water Art

4181 Water Art

2011/09/08

Apex Flight

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,Smiley Adventure — John @ 03:11

After just two nights at Smiley Creek, it felt like we’d been enjoying the serene beauty in this area forever. Partly due to the people and scenery I guess, and partly “prop advance.” That phenomenon we’ve frequently noticed, that seems the opposite of “jet lag.” With the latter you can feel exhausted and confused, and many people say you lose at least a day. With prop advance, you feel exhilarated and invariably seem to gain at least a day. So when we woke in Smiley and I went flying to meet the gals in Stanley, it truly felt as if puttering around the teepee at sunup had been the day before we met at the airport. Since I flew several times every day, it was even stronger and was then compounded by scenery like this.

4098 Redfish Finger

4098 Redfish Finger

Wasn’t it at least a week since we’d met Julie’s friends on the shore of Redfish Lake? Doesn’t looking at the Sawtooths reflected in the deep blue water take the observer out of chronos time to wander in reverie? When we flew up to look at the headwaters of the Salmon River back beyond Smiley, I was flashed back in time to 20-something wilderness hikes in Canada.

4109 Salmon River Headwaters

4109 Salmon River Headwaters

When we flew back past Redfish again climbing to leave the valley, wind patterns on the water seemed to wave a slow motion farewell.

4131 Redfish Reflection

4131 Redfish Reflection

As we looked back at the Sawtooth Mountains a few minutes later, Sawtooth Lake seemed to be waving too.

4150 Sawtooth Lake Farewell

4150 Sawtooth Lake Farewell

Time is such a fleeting thing. A young man wandering the wilderness becomes an old man flying over it. Strong friendships form, and are broken when one departs. People and places we love come and go, and it all passes in reflections on the river of Time.

2011/09/06

High Road to Stanley

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Smiley Adventure,Tripp — John @ 08:31

I’m looking at the pix from 8/18 and am again flying solo from Smiley to Stanley and back. Here are a few more pix from that day, overflowing with Sawtooth scenes high among the mountains that will return yet again in my dreams tonight. First up, a spike of rock guarding a valley of slumbering little lakes.

3988 Shepherd Spire

3988 Shepherd Spire

Now a baby lake hiding above the dominant one that has attracted a large congregation of trees, and the attention of all the nearby peaks.

4021 Peekaboo Lake

4021 Peekaboo Lake

Variations in color deep in this next one makes it for me a translucent smooth gemstone set among the sharp stones.

4026 Flat Gem

4026 Smooth Gem

I just love how clearly the patch of snow was reflected in the deep blue of a long lake that drains in a long cascade at the right. It’s diminutive companion at the left has such delicate shadings from green to blue.

4037 Peaceful Blue Lake

4037 Peaceful Blue Lake

It takes me back to a meditation I once did on the theme of a peaceful blue lake. The one I imagined was much like this, though in less rugged terrain. After a long and relaxing look at this refreshing sight, I turned toward Stanley which is reputed to be one of the coldest places in the continental U.S. (-57F record according to wiki). I decided to descend in a circle over the airport and check out the wind and the runway (running diagonally up from the bottom-right). I knew there had been recent pavement work at one end, but not whether that portion was yet open, so I decided to make my first landing on gravel.

4057 Stanley, ID

4057 Stanley, ID

Gravel has a lumpy bumpy surface like grass landing strips, without the cushion effect but with plenty of loose rocks to ding our beloved Tripp. Propellers in particular are vulnerable, so I took great care with all the precautions for operating aircraft on gravel and Tripp didn’t get a single nick. I met up with Anne, and we posed for this scenic shot taken by the pilot of another plane. If the jeep hadn’t been parked there, this would be one of my fav pix from the trip and perhaps my fav of Tripp. As it is, my eye invariably goes to the jeep and now I’ve probably ruined it for you too.

4064 Zen Imperfection

4064 Zen Imperfection

As with a Tibetan sand painting, that small flaw amid the grandeur is an important contribution. Shall I meditate on that, or photoshop it out for our holiday greeting card? 🙂

2011/08/31

Bay View

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Smiley Adventure — John @ 07:53

I often wish pix could really show what we see when flying, and our relatively low altitude flight along the San Francisco Bay is a prime example. To me this is a magnificent photo.

3307 Downtown SF

3307 Downtown SF

But the camera sees haze more than the eye, and to me that detracts considerably from how it actually looked that day. The angle of light affects pix a lot too, as you can see in this similar scene from the other side after we’d passed the city center.

3316 Past SF

3316 Past SF

Less than two minutes apart, but notably different in the light and color captured. Then keep in mind that we were basically seeing both of these scenes at the same time, plus the rest of a vast field of view. The end result is simply magnificent beyond the ability of pix or words to convey. Yet I keep trying, eh? 🙂

Moments later I snapped this view back across the Bay and the fog, at the city about to vanish behind the fluffy white blanket.

3335 Hidden City

3335 Hidden City

Sausalito was playing a similar game of hide and seed with the fickle fingers of fog, and we passed slowly to admire the many rows of houseboats.

3339 Sleepy Sausalito

3339 Sleepy Sausalito

Something about the fog and the fact we were looking at the houseboats more than on our few prior flights here, gave it all a sleepy look. As if the whole town were about to pull that blanket over itself for a deep slumber.

2011/08/29

Santa Cruz

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region,Smiley Adventure — John @ 23:23

The second day of our Smiley Adventure, we stopped for fuel in Watsonville after the short hop from San Jose. Since we have hundreds of great pix from this trip, I’m posting some different ones to my Edhat & Photo Pages (see links at the right). Even so, I’m going to break up the Day 2 batch. Here then are two from Santa Cruz area, starting with the Boardwalk where I once spent some play time as a kid.

3191 Santa Cruz Boardwalk

3191 Santa Cruz Boardwalk

If you click to see the largest version here, you can make out the water slide at right and what I think is the “Mad Mouse” ride. That ride was a mini-roller coaster in the ’60s, and a lot of fun. At the left end is what was the arcade, with a cotton candy booth outside. The rides and other attractions are probably quite different now, but the basic structure looks about the same. Among dozens of pix of everything from San Jose to almost Half Moon Bay, I’ve chosen a few favs for the other two sites but here’s one more for this blog. A few of the areas just past Santa Cruz with sea caves also have rocks like this. I didn’t notice until reviewing pix just now that there seems to be a gal posing for a photo after having climbed out to a cave in the rock.

3246 Precarious Pose

3246 Precarious Pose

You can click on this pic for more detail and look on the Photo Page for a larger pic with context. I wonder how their pix came out, and whether they took any of us flying past offshore. That mental game of looking at a scene from both ends (plane and cave) kinda takes me back to having roamed these spots when I was the age these kids seem to be. I can feel the Wheel Of Life turning…

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