It's thundering and wind is blowing.....
and we are under another severe thunderstorm watch.
Oooh, my favorite! Storms at night. I suppose I will live.

Another trip on the Wisconsin River has come and gone, this time with 11 kids (and two counselors) from an unnamed very affluent neighborhood in the suburbs of Chicago.

For the love of god, parents of the universe! Please teach your children how to communicate effectively with one another. Teach your children the meaning of respect for each other. These 12 & 13 year old boys and girls communicated by complaining, criticizing, yelling and being downright mean to each other. I'm pretty sure they had no idea that the world did not revolve around them.

But anyway, the weather was beautiful, a few of the kids were really sweet, and I enjoyed spending another great night on the river.

I snapped a few more pictures, and this time I didn't erase them.






Oh yea! Ok, so you are not going to believe me, but there is a mountain lion that has been hanging around the Hog's Back. Really! Well, I don't have any visual proof, but I have heard it cry twice and so have others. Upon a little research, Mom found a link to the vocals of a cougar. I listened to the .wav files, and realized that I have been hearing this animal chirping for weeks. Now there is a possibility this is a bobcat (or something else,) but the cougar sounds sound more accurate.

WI just became a little cooler. :)

The aliens came after me the other night....

Ok, well actually, I was on the river for the largest apparent full moon in something like 18 years. Summer solstice on the Wisconsin River during the full moon gives plenty of photo opportunities. If only I hadn't accidentally erased most of the photos off of my digital camera.

So, after I managed to erase the most pheonominal sunset photos ever recorded in human history...ok, ok, maybe the most pheonominal sunset photos I've ever taken, I was able to salvage a few others.

This is the campsite I chose on the second night of the trip. I'd show you the camp on the first night, but damnit, I'm obsessed with the delete command.



Look we have eagles in Wisconsin! Only they are fuzzy and out of focus!

Alright, I promise to do my best to take some decent pictures, and to avoid erasing them before I can post them. Really.

I really wish I could capture an image of the THOUSANDS of fireflies in the yard on these hot and humid nights. My camera doesn't quite have the capability.....

Speaking of hot and humid...

The heat index was 114 degrees on Thursday!

This week is officially my first solo trip on the Wisconsin. I
know it seems late, but typically the river is too high mid-May through
mid-June to safely put canoer's on the water. So, I get to take
out the next trip on Solstice. I'm pretty excited to get on the
river for three days and to see some areas I haven't seen before.



A couple days ago I had a chance to take a kayak out for a few hours to
enjoy the sun, and the rising water. The water on the Wisconsin

went from 5500cfs to 17000cfs in 24 hours due to a dam release up in

the Dells.

It is quite a significant difference....all the sandbars disappear, and

many of the islands and low lying near shore areas flood.















The wildlife at the Hog's Back has been pretty active, regardless of

Miles' efforts to chase the deer around. This picture turned out

pretty fuzzy, but it's still pretty interesting.






Speaking of Miles....
He's at my parents place for the week, since I will be out on a trip

for several days. Mom knows I miss him, so she keeps sending me

photos. Mom is 'special' and a little creative with the digital

camera, it seems.........and you all thought I was the master of 'Doggy Torture'.

Who in their right mind agrees to attend online classes in the midst of summer?


Oh,
That would be me. Idiot.





Well, alright. It's not exactly that bad, but I am seriously lacking any ambition to get this paper done.



Grrrrrrrrrrr! Idiot.


What was the reasoning behind attending school at all again? Hmmmm........




HEY! Please tell me your fall travel plans! I will have a

fair amount of time to road trip this fall and I would love to line up

some fun things to do with any of you. Let me know, as I am game

for travel anywhere.




Ok, I have to go write this f*@$ing paper. (like I need to protect your sensitive ears).




Anyway, heres a photo of something I would rather be looking at (rather than this paper I am about to write).


Nahku Bak, Skagway, AK

ooooooooh, more cloud pictures....

Hey! What do you want me to do? There aren't any mountains here!

Welcome all to my new blog. I

am hoping this can be a place where I can keep track of myself and where I am going (or have been)! Please, comment away...


Bear with me, I'm new to this.


So, I have been in Wisconsin for nearly one month, and it is time to post some pictures. As most of you know, I am working for a tiny little canoeing company, mostly renting equipment and shuttling people to various places on the Wisconsin River. I am also guiding an occasional overnight trip. The section of the WI River that I primarily deal with is the longest undamned stretch of the river. There are also regulations restricting any development within a couple hundred feet of the river banks. Amazingly enough, once you are on the river, you really feel like the wilderness does exist in the Midwest. This part of the river also meanders through what is known as the ' driftless area'. Basically, this area in unglaciated, making the landscape a unique area of Wisconsin. There is nothing flat about this section of the state.

This picture is from the door of my tent while camping on a sandbar in the middle of the river. I couldn't resist the lighting on the new leaves.

This is the view from the patio doors of the house my parents are building. I am 'borrowing' their house while it is in progress.... I had forgotten how beautiful and huge the clouds can get here.

Miles is learning a new trick in my spare time. That white spot on the tree is a marshmallow, and there is no trick photography here! He really is about 3 feet off of the ground. We are working on getting a few feet higher. Look at his little toenails just gripping the bark.

Ok, keep checking back. I will post more photos soon!

It was SO hot today! 88 degrees, and humid.....a beautiful balmy day by Wisconsin standards. A natural furnace to a woman who has been in Alaska for the last seven summers. Seriously, what is everyones problem with women going topless? I would have loved to walk around baring my halibut white chest just like the local guys. Only, I wouldn't have had that cool wife beater tan or nearly enought chest hair to compliment it.
So, to entertain myself, I have been exploring the area a bit. If you didn't know, I didn't grow up in this part of WI, so this is all new to me. One area that is really nice is the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. A fair amount of hiking, biking and believe it or not,
hike in, back country camping. I didn't even know such a thing existed here in WI. While in the Reserve I took a short, beautiful hike with Miles. It is the time of year when everything is reproducing. The plants are flowering......

This is a Large Flower Trillium. There were many of these growing wild along the trail.



Skunk Cabbage....should've added something for perspective. This plant was HUGE!

Forget-Me-Nots, Really I had no idea we even had these in the midwest. I also went into Wildcat Mountain State Park. A fantastic park, and home to 'Acid Cat.' If anyone is game for
it, my brother is plotting to steal Acid Cat.



Acid Cat has the ability to hypnotize!



This area was primarily sculpted by the Kickapoo River. The Kickapoo is a shallow, lazy river that covers 125 miles of distance in a 65 mile area. It is super curvy and passes by beautiful sandstone bluffs.



The Kickapoo Bridges also provide great shelter for Bank Swallows.

There were hundreds of them. The entire time I was near this bridge, they were trying to kill me.

Really.



Ok, so now I need help from everyone. I have been unable to identify this moth. I just can't spend any more time researching this on the web. I'm hoping someone either knows what it is, or knows where to look. It is 4-5 inches wide, and according to my dad, he has seen them much larger.

So, if anyone has any idea, let me know!