Recently in Outdoors Category

These photographs of albatross chicks were made in September 2009 on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

~Chris Jordan, October 2009

Chris' creative work on trash and the 21st century has been eye opening. I've followed it now for a couple of years. He has enlightened my perspective on the impact the consumptive culture in which we live is having on our world and its animals.

I didn't realize that our plastic is in fact an oil-based product.  In fact, last summer I read a post in which the writer concluded that a single bottled water should be seen as two-thirds water and one-third oil, because that's how much oil is required to manufacture the plastic and transport it to market.

The, I came across this TED presentation.

I love many things about fall: the shorter days, the nip in the air, the angle of the sunlight, and the fact that the beach returns to the locals after Labor Day weekend.

This afternoon featured a gorgeous sunset with a heavy fog layer down by Santa Monica and Malibu. (You can't really make out the fog in this picture as it was further to the right.) The number of people at the beach and walking along the Strand was reduced by 75%.

Add to all of this a wonderful dinner at an authentic French restaurant. Ahhh. Life doesn't get much better than this.

I'm so glad I had the opportunity to visit Norway in the summer of 2006--just over 3 years ago now. That country has such a pastoral serenity during the summer months. I reflected on my visit because I stumbled upon these two marvelous panos from one of my favorite sites, 360 Cities.

Here are a few of my pictures presented below. You can also visit my Norway gallery if you wish for more of this breath-taking 2006 trip. This post ends with the two panos from Norway that prompted this journey down memory lane. When viewed in fullscreen on a huge monitor, these panos are stupendous!

Click any image below for a larger view.

Solestrand

Loen

Balestrand, Norway

Balestrand, Norway

Balestrand, Norway

Hardangervidda, Norway

Borgund Stave Church, Borgund, Laerdal, Norway in Norway

Ferry Cruise Hellesylt - Geiranger, Geiranger Fjord, Norway in Norway

Sounds like a song, doesn't it!

Well, Last night I felt my third and fourth earthquakes since living here in Southern California. I had already fallen asleep but was immediately awakened with the house rumbling. The sound of the earth moving is quite unsettling--more than feeling the house shaking. I wondered if I needed to get out of the house, but there are trees and power lines all around. I assume being outside would be more dangerous. This quake was the first to "cause damage," pictured to the side, here at the house. Of course, I'm being overly dramatic.

A few minutes later was what I believed to be an aftershock, but what is reported as another earthquake.

I immediately checked Twitter to see who was tweeting what: where was the quake, how serious was it, who was being affected? But Twitter was non-responsive. Imagine that! So, after the adrenalin rush passed, i went back to bed.

This morning I learned several things:

1. The epicenter of the earthquake was 4.45 miles from the house. You can see the tiny map below.
2. The quake was a moderate, 4.7-magnitude, quake 9.3 miles below the surface.
3. What I thought was an aftershock (really mildly noticeable) was in fact another earthquake, 3.1 magnitude, 4.02 miles from the house and 7.1 miles deep.
4. As I looked through the USGS earthquake data site for California and Nevada, I'm amazed to notice how many low magnitude earthquakes are happening in this area, even though I don't notice them!
5. Only minor damage reported in the area: see this article.
6. I don't know the degree of difference in magnitude ratings, but they must be significant if a 6.7 in LA in 1994 did $10 billion in damage and killed 60 people.

For all the news, it really is a big gorgeous world out there. Check out this Pano and the others linked to it...

Sunrise at Robert's Grove in Belize

High today of 82º?!

And I just came in from showing the sprinkler guy what needs to be tweaked in the yard's sprinkler system. You know, here in the desert, since it never rains, if you don't regularly water the yard, it dies!

I think it's already gone higher than they forecast! It's way too hot for January!!

I travel so much I haven't done much of anything here in the greater Los Angeles area to actually appreciate where I live. Well, I take that back. I do walk along the ocean with regularity. And I also ride my bike along the ocean as well. (Yesterday, for example, I rode over 10 miles.)

So today it was off to do a hike in Eaton Canyon in Pasadena. I was impressed with the beauty of the city of Pasedena. The area of the city I had visited before wasn't at all appealing to me. But these homes actually reminded me of Atlanta: they had yards!

At any rate, the hike route I took is shown above (I was wearing my GPS) and was slated as "easy." Well... The first mile in was an easy walk near the creek/river bed. You can see the picture of that area in the top photo of me above. (I know, rare to see me in a picture as I hate having my photo taken!) The last .5 was another matter entirely!

Hikers have probably a dozen creek crossings. At one of them I decided a wet foot was better than a broken one (from sliding off a very round rock). So I stepped directly into about a foot of rapidly flowing, very cold water. That shoe is still drying out.

And then there is another issue: the guidebook said the hike was 1.5 miles. However, the GPS I wore said I hiked 6.1 miles today. So here are the stats:

• Distance: 6.1 Miles
• Time: 3 hours and 19 minutes
• Elevation Gain: 465 feet

At the end of the trail hikers arrive at the base of about a 70 foot waterfall. At least the last part of the hike was in the shaded canyon itself. So the breeze was pleasantly cool as I clawed my way up and down boulders.

In the next day or so I hope to post a few more pictures of the area. Photography simply can not capture the grand scale of the canyon. If I get back to this place (I have others on the list), I'll shoot some 360º panos in here and wear some waterproof boots. But, for now, here's a shot of the waterfall.