Where ya been?

Been a while since there's been a post on the old kneetopia. Life's been busy and I've fell off the writing habit. The Campbell clan had a busy summer and fall. I spent 3 weeks in the woods on fire in August, greatly accelerating summer. It always goes by too fast. Summer was hot as Hades. But fall has been awesome, if not unseasonably warm. But you gotta enjoy the Indian Summer. I had 2 great archery hunting trips, one down towards SW MT and one over in the Missouri Breaks. Both were awesome, lots of bugling bulls but just 20 yards short.

Quick ride up Blue Mtn

William and I's first bow hunt

Will and I saw these elk on our first hunt together

Bear skull that I found on a hunt

The Missouri Breaks!

Reality

Way Out from Yukai Du on Vimeo.

I found this animation very interesting and saddening at the same time. I too find myself being literally sucked into my phone. Looking around at the others in your vicinity doing the same. I'm not saying I'm giving up my phone, but these sorts of things make me wonder what our future holds. This post is a bit heavy and sappy, especially for not having been active on Kneetopia as of late. The trend may continue, so many things to do, so little time. But don't give up on me yet!

However, T and I just did return from a rejuvenating and invigorating trip to Mexico, sans kids. Interestingly and sadly enough, I noticed the same thing in impoverished places in MX, adults and kids living in poverty with their faces glued to the screens. That's the age we live in i guess, cliche and all. The drones and phones will soon dominate all?

Anyway, I'll get some photos up here from our trip. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the family support network that made it possible. You all are the best and I owe you!

Lolo Pass winter time-lapse

I'm intrigued by a time-lapses, especially those that involve snow. I watched this 5 foot dump in Big Bear and this Sunshine Village time-lapse, then decided I might attempt my own.

The technique(s) I used were pretty rudimentary but fairly effective. Basically I visited the MT DOT site and downloaded an image from their Lolo Pass webcam whenever I could remember to do so. I left a huge gap during the month of March, which just so happened to coincide with a serious lack of snowfall. My original intent was to capture the massive snow berms (and their ebb/flow) that usually stack up on the side of the highway. This winter however, was not all that impressive. Nonetheless, it is interesting. Let me know what you think.

Lolo Pass time lapse 2009-10 winter from O.P.I. on Vimeo.

And if you want to see how the pros do it, check out Timescapes.org

Spring storms in Western Montana

Did winter just start? Huh, kinda weird we are getting our biggest dumps of the "season" and it's May 1st. The Stuart Peak SNOTEL shows they got 27" of snow and 4.4" of SWE (snow water equivalent). Translation = a lot of heavy snow. Ideal conditions around here are 12" of snow = 1" of SWE. But we need the moisture and the snow for the rivers this summer, otherwise we may not be fishing or floating. The local snowpack was at about 50% average before this last storm.

We've had some great weather, shorts and flipflops. Lettuce, onions, peas, and broccoli were planted well over a month ago and seem to be doing well. I had my doubts when T was putting things in the grounds mid-March. They seem to be holding up well to the frosts we've had since then.

I've got a new lens and should be putting up some more images soon. I'm loving the Sigma 10-20mm.

Iceland volcano shots

Some mind blowingly great shots over here on the Boston Globe's Big Picture site. The scale of Eyjafjallajokull is unreal.

This link is also well worth visiting National Geographic's International Photography Contest 2009

One of the best POV (point of view) ski segments yet

In my opinion this is some of the best (minus the youtube distortion) pov footage I've seen. This could seriously be what heaven is like. The terrain in this POV footage is unbelievable. While some pillows, especially those to the north, like in Canada can sometime be a bit tight and dicey. This stuff is perfect, room to let'em run. Sage Cattabriga-Alosa makes it look easy.

Pay close attention to the 1:40 to 1:50 mark, that is what dream pillows are made of.


Sage ripping North Cascades Heli


Totally unrelated, but hilarious. A buddys dad took this picture over near Butte, Montana. I guess the fella said the sled is for sale, $8000, he may even throw in the trailer.





*rode 14 miles tonight