Category Archives: Cool stories

Slow Turning – John Hiatt tune

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whitewater kayaking on the Rio Baker, Baker River, Patagonia, Chile.

Hey Folks,

Here’s my first attempt to bring an mp3 (Dad, that’s an audio file) online.

Plugin for the audio broke. I removed the player.

I have no idea if this will work. This is a tune I recorded with a few friends of mine years ago, for an album a group of John Hiatt fans recorded, called We Love The Jerk. The album is named, tongue-in-cheek, after one of his songs called “She Loves the Jerk”. Each person who wanted to recorded a song, and submitted it to the group, where the compilation was put together, including a cool album cover, and CDs shipped out to the John Hiatt fan club. Kind of a fun little project.

This tune is me playing guitars, my good friend Steve F playing bass, Steve Lusk singing his a** off, Chip Lunsford playing drums and Randy Hoexter playing piano. Randy recorded it at his studio. I really need to get in and do some more recording/writing and get some tunes online — maybe that’s another project I should finish. The song, Slow Turning, is the title track on John Hiatt’s “Slow Turning” album .. one of his best efforts, IMO. Definitely check out that album.

The photo is a friend of mine, Nate, way down in Futaleufu, Chile, right now, about to run the 3rd rapid of the Baker River, or Rio Baker – big, big water. Nate got smashed! 🙂

Cheers

Carl

Moraine Lake Photo, Wenkchemna Peaks, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

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Moraine Lake photo, Wenkchemna Peaks, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.

Hey Folks

Here’s another image from the Canadian Rockies – immortalized on the Canadian $20 bill. Moraine Lake is one of the classic views of the Canadian Rockies, indeed, of anywhere. It’s a special place. The lake is most likely mis-named – it’s probably not a moraine that formed it at all, but a rock slide. The peaks that tower above the inviting turquoise lake are called the Wenkchemna Peaks. “Wenkchemna” is the Stoney Indian word for 10. The Stoney Indians lived in the area, and guided early European settlers and explorers in the region.

Samuel Allen and Walter Wilcox were 2 of the first European explorers in the area, and they’re generally credited with much of the initial exploration of the Canadian Rockies – given, of course, that various Indian Nations already lived there, and had done so for centuries, and called the place home. Wilcox was especially fond of Moraine Lake and Wenkchemna Peaks, Continue reading →

Iditarod photos

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The start of the Iditarod is dog mayhem, Anchorage, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

I know, I know, another photo from 4th street, downtown Anchorage. This was one of the later dog teams of the morning, towards the end of the teams, and they seemed mighty keen to make up for the late start. Right now they’re making their way across the frozen tundra of the Alaskan wilderness, and I bet they’re not quite pushing it as hard as they are here.

Anyway, rather than go on about the race, I want to get back to a subject I briefly mentioned the other day. Customer Service. Whilst a good rant about some lame-a** company who fails at every turn to offer reasonable support is good for the soul, it’s probably more important to throw a word out for those companies we do enjoy doing business with. For me, there are a few, and I’ll try to give a shout out to each as time goes by, but the first one I would like to mention is My Photo Pipe. The good people at this Atlanta, Georgia, store, formerly called Color Genesis, offer the best service around for prints and printing. Continue reading →

Alpenglow, Wrangell mountains in winter

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Alpenglow on the Wrangell mountains, including Donoho Peak, Bonanza Ridge and Jumbo Ridge, the Kennecott and Root Glacier, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks

Well, it’s been a nervous last few days, but here I am in Anchorage. I managed, through sheer luck, to get all the way back to town with no real drama. A little tweaking of cables and a lot of grace, and my van started, and drove me and my buddy Charlie and his 2 dogs, Keba and Musa, all the way back to Anchorage. I’m still in a little bit of shock. My van seems to have some kind of mystery virus, that nobody is able to diagnose. There’s a possibility, one mechanic told me, that it’s as simple as 2 cables poorly soldered together. Which 2 remains anyone’s guess.

I’ll be here (hopefully only) a few days, and then head back to the cabin. Continue reading →

Notes from My Father

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Hey Good People,

Well, here it is, the long-ago promised and highly sought-after follow-up to my dad’s earlier notes about my parents and my recent trip together here in the US. I’ll post it below, only this time, for integrity’s sake, I’ve interspersed a few points along the way, to verify and clarify some of his words. The prequel to this, tales from the first part of our trip, can be found here.

Final Jottings on Our North America Trip

My apologies for the delay with the second instalment. Unfortunately I had some serious affairs of state to attend to, and if you knew how serious our state’s affairs are, then you would understand. Another factor was my agonising over what to buy my wife for Xmas, but I think she really liked her Mars Bar (candy bar) – and it was the extra large size. Continue reading →

Donoho Peak, Wrangell-St. Elias, Alaska

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08_jan5341.jpg

hey Folks

Well, I’m back in the woods, living the quiet life. This image is from a trip I made up to Kennecott a few weeks back, hoping to get a nice morning shot of Mt. Blackburn. I had no luck with Blackburn, so I shot Donoho Peak, instead, along with various other images. This is Root Glacier in the foreground.

It’s been pretty cold here the last few days, so I haven’t spent much time on the computer .. the owners of the house are away, and so the house has no heat. I come over, check my email, (solar power!) and head back to my cabin. Today I turned on a little propane heater, which I’m nearly sitting on, and it’s still freezing! The days are unbelievably clear, but it’s way cold. What’s most frustrating to me is how nothing seems to work well in the cold. The tripod legs stick, the camera fogs up ( I couldn’t even read the historgram yesterday), ad infinitum.I can’t imagine what it must be like trying to start and deal with an automobile.

I’m heading back to the cabin to get warm.

Cheers

Carl

Mt Drum photo, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska

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Mt Drum and Mt Sanford Rise over the Copper River Basin and Willow Lake,, Wrangell St. Elias national park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

OK, here’s another trivia; these 2 mountains, Mt Drum on the left and Mt Sanford on the right, are volcanic mountains.

Mt Sanford is a shield volcano. Shield volcanos are the result of low viscosity lava flows (free flowing) that build up over time – the lava flows and flows, hardens, flows, etc, and the mountains gradually grow. They tend to have a lower profile with shallow, kind of sloping sides .. they become broader mountains, typically, and are sometimes mistaken to be entire mountain ranges.
Continue reading →

Life in the Bush, Alaska

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Hey Folks

Well, it’s been a busy week. Today, for example, I chopped down a tree, to the tune of “I’m a lumberjack, and I’m OK” .. it was kind of weird, to watch a spruce tree fall at my hand, but knowing the tree was already dead kind of made it OK, I suppose. I cut the tree up, trimmed all the limbs off it (spruce trees have many, many limbs), and stacked the wood in the little wood shed I have. Not bad, but a lot of work in the snow – and it snowed all the while I was working.

This morning I shot a few images that I think will work out nicely when I get them on the computer and processed a little. It was cloudy and overcast, and I had commited the morning to doing some writing, when the sun started to come out … I headed out into the woods, and shot a number of images. We’d had some snow the night before, but a little nefarious breeze blew most of it off the trees. Pesky breeze!

Yesterday was gorgeous, and I got a few nice images of Fireweed Mtn, outside the cabin. It was crazy cold though, like 20 below and wow were my fingers chilled!

I’m really enjoying the life in the cabin – it’s quiet, simple, and has a rhythm that is so different from living in a city, or even a small town. The routine is good – wake up, stoke the fire, go back to bed, wake up, stoke the fire, go back to bed, etc .. then I get up, have a little breakfast, some coffee, stoke the fire, then do some reading by the lamp. I have 2 lamps – a kerosene lamp, and a propane lamp. The propane lamp puts out a lot of light, but it doesn’t feel right – even turned down low, I prefer the kerosene lamp .. it just ‘feels’ better for life in a little cabin in the ALaskan woods.

It’s kind of funny how weird it feels to come here and sit on the computer and do emails, etc on the internet, when a few hundred yards I live in a cabin with no power, etc. The rhythm shifts – I’d prefer to simply avoid the computer when I’m in this kind of place, I think. Unfortunately, work calls, sometimes. Mostly I come here and delete spam emails, and/or respond to people who want images for free.

Cheers

Carl

The North Face – and the last supper

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The north face of Mt. Bona, in the University Range, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska. Black and white photo of Mt. Bona..

Hey Folks,

And so, with little to no ado, I bid adieu, for the time being. I’m hitting the road in the morning, and I’m not sure when I’ll have internet access again – hopefully it’ll be no more than a few days between swigs. I’m heading out in the morning to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, to live in a cabin named “Shacky”. I’ll be there a couple of weeks or so at a time, then make a run to Anchorage for some groceries and a little warming up, then back to Shacky. If all goes as planned. If all does not go as planned, I’ll spend a few nights there, say something like ‘this is C-R-A-Z-E-E-E!!!’ and boogie on back to the relative comfort of Anchor-ville. I’ve too little pride to tolerate discomfort long. Continue reading →

Rock Jumping, Futaleufu River, Chile

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Rafters take a quick break for a rock jumping session on the Futaleufu River, Patagonia, Chile.

Hey Folks,

Sometimes we’d run a full river trip down the Futaleufu instead of the more common “Bridge to Bridge” section, which is the standard day-trip, about 12km of solid whitewater. On the full river section, we’d usually make it an overnighter, and enjoy the flatwater runs between the various sections of whitewater. Halfway along the trip is this killer place to go rock jumping. A nice sunny day, a deep, flat pool of water and a high ledge made for great fun for everyone. You’ll notice Gabby in the orange Jackson kayak just downstream, in position in case anyone got hurt jumping and needed some assistance. As always, safety first.

Cheers

Carl