Physical and Flu shot

I'm cautiously excited about finally breaking out of one of my many procrastination ruts, and making some progress... yesterday, I completed the online medical self-assessment, in preparation for the new BasicMed private pilot physical. Then today, I had my annual physical with my regular physician, and while I was at it, I signed up for a Flu shot, so that's out of the way. My doc signed the BasicMed paperwork, too, so I guess I'm good to go, to contact my flying club, and start working toward getting the necessary Biennial Flight Review (lots of studying, after six years away from flying), and finally get back up in the air.

McCullough Gulch Hike

We found a really fun, challenging trail, following McCullough Gulch, a little southwest of Breckenridge. This is the most strenuous, and highest altitude trail I've hiked in awhile, and I loved it! Beautiful scenery and happy bubbling stream. We had beautiful blue skies the whole time, with just a hint of clouds building, off in the distance. Very rocky trail in places, sometimes hard to figure out where it goes. I'm glad to have made it up to the first lake - Upper Blue Reservoir - on my first hike here. I know I'll be sore in the next day or two. I suppose I'll need to get in better shape, and start earlier, to make it any farther, the next time I go. Thanks to my friend Joy, for posting about it, as it's now one of my favorites, too.

Devil's Head Lookout Hike

Another adventure today. We started out with a fun, but a little tiring, hike up to Devil's Head Fire Lookout. The hike, and marathon stair climb, was delightful. We were very sad to hear that someone had lost one of their two dogs on the trail somewhere. Even sadder to later see that dog stranded on a ledge, on the cliff about 50 feet down from the fire lookout. I took this picture, which shows the dog at the bottom, before we knew he was there. We were excited to know where he was, but he looked pretty well trapped by the fall risk. Luckily, I got cell coverage back, just when we spotted him. We were trying everything to get word to the owner, and to get the right people involved, to rescue the dog off the cliff. The ranger station referred us to Douglas County, who forwarded us to Douglas County Open Space, who forwarded us to Douglas County animal control. I think the county person got some rope climbing people involved. I also think they had finally got in touch with the owner, so the last I heard was encouraging news.

Update 8/23, 10:15pm: Great news! Jackie, from Douglas County open space, called tonight to tell me that Ranger, the lost dog, has been rescued and returned to his owners! She gave me credit for notifying the right people soon enough, for it to come together today, so that Ranger wasn't stranded on the cliff overnight. Apparently there was also a "National Geographic Wild" crew involved. They filmed the event, and it may air this Fall. I am so happy it turned out so well.

Total eclipse of the sun

Fun adventure! My friend Mike invited us to fly up North a couple hundred miles, to Douglas, Wyoming airport, to hang out on the ground, and watch the total eclipse go by. I guess I haven't had the energy, or motivation, or *something*, in recent years, to make the effort to do a lot of fun things I would've jumped on before. My hat's off to Mike, for providing this last minute opportunity, that was easy to accept.

We left early from Front Range airport, in the Denver area, to ensure that they would have room for us at the airport in Douglas, when we got there. We had a pretty flight up, on a nice clear morning. I've always enjoyed being in the air, when a lot of other folks aren't, as the airspace and radio frequencies are a lot less busy, and there's more time and energy available, to just enjoy the experience. We saw a great sunrise, although I only got one mediocre pic of it. There was a little haze, probably from wildfires upwind of us.

We crossed Highway I-25 shortly before landing at Douglas, and noticed that although the northbound traffic was heavy, it appeared to be moving well. That is, until just before Glendo Reservoir, where we heard over 100,000 people were headed for the viewing. They had closed the grass airstrip there, to make room for people to sit. We could see that the Northbound lanes of I-25 were completely stoppped for miles, before the Glendo exit, and we were feeling pretty lucky, to be flying over all that.

Here we are, the motley crew, immediately after arriving in Douglas. I was glad to have brought my windbreaker, as it started out a little chilly in the morning. The rest of the day was beautiful, though.




We got ourselves comfortably ensconced in our parking spot on the recently mowed grass at the Douglas airport, after about an hour and a half flight. We had bought our eclipse viewing glasses at the Boulder Planetarium, when Bob and his brother and sister and nephew were visiting in June. We figured it would be good to have them, so we could step outside and view the 92% eclipse in Denver. Little did we suspect at the time, that we were going to get to use them to view the total eclipse!


Although we enjoyed getting to see the various stages of partial eclipse, the total eclipse was amazing! For one thing, we were able to safely look up at it without any kind of filter, and see the corona around the outside edge. I tried taking a few eclipse pictures with my iPhone, using a cut-up eclipse filter, and was partially successful, at least until the total eclipse occurred. At that point, there was so little light, that the iPhone camera was completely unable to focus. So here is the series of partial eclipse pictures I took.

...but what we actually saw, was more like each of the images in this sequenced picture that was posted by the Smithsonian. You really need a *good* camera, if you want to take pictures like these!

I suppose I should've expected it, but I was pleasantly surprised, by the sudden coolness and stillness, when the moon's shadow came over us. What a really fun experience that was! And I'm so glad, to have been able to get up there and back home, in such a quick and fun way.

Fun visit with Sis

Mandy and I got back today, from a delightful two weeks visiting my sister on the northern California coast. Mandy did well, traveling in her pet carrier on all four flights. We went for lots of walks in fun places - the Arcata Marsh with lots of wild birds, the Redwoods, Humboldt State University, Sequoia Park in Eureka, the Arcata Community Forest, the Eureka waterfront, the beaches at Trinidad State Beach and Ma-le'l Dunes. We enjoyed a few meals with her friends. We watched the fun TV series Elementary and Foyle's War, and went to see the well-done movie Dunkirk and the so-so movie Valerian. I managed to smack my head into an overhanging tree, during one of our walks, and I'm pretty sure I'll be spending the next few months, recovering from a mild concussion.