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MISH - MASH
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100 Days in Glacier National Park
Day 20, Details
20/May/2009
A mule deer itches off its winter coat, and the light catches the falling hair.
Saw the old man again today, driving around in his SUV
Old man: I want to talk you.
Me: (waiting as he rolls his window down further)
Old man: That South Fork Bridge. It's been delayed for years. They got that stimulus money. Get on that story.
Me: (I say nothing).
Old man: Rolls up his window. Drives away.
Day 19, You're not a duck, either
20/May/2009
Did another evening bike ride up the Sun Road. Raced some bull elk as they ran through the trees, drank a from spring that sprouted from a rock and biked past two black bears to get home. Black bears are generally shy creatures. Even so, I gave this one a wide berth, as he was much larger than I. Photo was taken with a 600mm equivalent lens and it was nearly dark. And yes, I was looking for harlequin ducks again in the creek. The weather was marked with gray clouds and earlier in the day, heavy thunderstorms. So the water is way up and brown. Never even saw a duck...
Sigh.
Day 18, Little birds in big bushes
18/May/2009
Yellow-rumped warblers abound in Glacier National Park, but they're flighty, small, and wary as well. I love warblers, despite the photographic challenges they present. I also used the 8 by 10 field camera today. Met three nice ladies who sat on the dock for me. I'll try to get the film souped in the next couple of days and present the images. The shutter on the lens sticks at long exposures, so I did a little improvisation. The 8 by 10 is a "nervous" camera. It's worth a small fortune and it's not mine, so I'm always worried I'll drop it. The ground glass you focus on is one big piece of exposed glass with grid lines — an accident waiting to happen. I've taken to wrapping it in a sleeping bag, which doubles as my dark cloth. I'm pretty sure I nailed the exposure. I just have to hope I don't screw up the developing. We finally had some sun. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain.
Sigh.
Day 17, Along came a spider
18/May/2009
The marvels of nature. A trillium stays white for only a couple of weeks, then it turns pink or purple as it ages. And yet this spider has adapted to a white hue, blending in perfectly. Be thankful you're not a fly...
Day 16, Akokala Creek, the hard way
18/May/2009
Hiked into Akokala Lake via in the inside road, about 19 miles round trip. It was a beautiful weekend. Sunny. Warm. But the hike in had about 300 downed trees and once I got to the lake there was anywhere from one to three feet of snow and (get this) it was cloudy. The clouds hung on the divide like a veil the whole weekend. So I shot the creek, which is idyllic in its own right.
Day 15, Glacier, the classroom
16/May/2009
Thousands of schoolchildren visit Glacier each year as part of the Park's ongoing education effort. Blindfolded, a child discovers the woods through smell and touch in a fun exercise.
Day 14, More rain
15/May/2009
A brief break as fog hangs in the Apgar Hills...
The days have been going like this: Signs of sunshine and then dark angry clouds full of snow in higher elevations and rain and hail in lower elevations. I really thought it was going to break today. It didn't. The weekend is supposed to be spectacular. Warm, sunny. Planning a backcountry trip, so this won't be updated again until Sunday night at the earliest.
Day 13, Suppertime
14/May/2009
While robins are often viewed as city birds, in Glacier they are as at home in the wilderness as they are around people. Glacier's robins, in general, are more shy of people. But worms are worms, whether they're in a garden or a Glacier swamp. The bright orange breast identifies this one as a male. It didn't rain much today, but it wasn't very nice, either. A few sprinkles and cold. Today (day 14) it's raining in earnest. Ode to joy...
Day 12, Let it snow, let it snow...
13/May/2009
A typical day, really. Rain, hail and in the higher elevations, impressive little snow squalls. I'm getting used to lousy weather. The worse, the better. Also saw plenty of warblers — an orange crowned, a yellow-rumped and a Townsend's. The Townsend's is a striking bird, but simply too high in the canopy for a decent photo. Warblers can be exceedingly difficult to photograph, which also makes them very fun. This was taken with a 400mm across a gaping chasm. Mountain goats like gaping chasms.
Day 11 Feeling green
11/May/2009
No sooner did I get out of the truck than it started to pour. In fact, I believe I've been rained or snowed on at least a little every day but two since I started. No worries. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. The rain greens things up and fills little streams. This one made a brief appearance on the surface, then vanished underground. Found this one on a little four mile hike in the deep woods.
Day 10, Birds
10/May/2009
The idea of this project is also to capture as many bird species as possible. There's about 280 species of birds recorded in the Park. I'll be lucky, however, to get good photos of 100. With bird photos, the challenge is to get them doing something other than just sitting on a tree or on a bush or branch. Here, a Savannah Sparrow greets the day. I had to hide behind a bush to get this shot. They like to sing, but not close to humans. Without binoculars or a high powered lens, you would never see the bright yellow in its head.
Day 9, Situation Normal All, well, you get the picture..
10/May/2009
The idea was to go into the Belly River for the weekend. An easy hike. Got to the trailhead and there was 4 feet of snow and it was snowing. I had checked the Park's St. Mary web cam the day before and it showed the flat snow clear, which was pretty much true. But the farther north I got, the more snow there was. Even at St. Mary, there was a fair amount of snow in the trees. So I bagged the idea of the Belly River at least for a week. I would have done the trip, but didn't have snowshoes with me. I ended up camping at St. Mary and worked the flats around the lake. I have penchant for lone trees in prairies. This lodgepole shows the scars of many an elk rubbing on it. I also picked up a couple of ticks while taking this photo. You DO NOT want to have a tick from Glacier bite you very long. I got Colorado tick fever from a tick bite a few years ago. I thought, quite seriously, I was going to die. This photo is digital coverted to black and white...
Day 7, Good things on bad days
07/May/2009
It simply poured on me today. And when the rain stopped, it began to hail. It was absolutely wretched. I was photographing this trillium blossom, one of the first flowers to bloom in the Park. It was wound tight, like a cigar and as I took photos it slowly unfurled right in front of me and there was a small caterpillar inside. You rarely think of plants in motion.
A short conversation I had with an old man today. I was taking a photo along this dirt road and he pulled up in a huge SUV:
Old man: Who are you?
Me: Chris
Old man: Oh yeah. (Recognition) You should write a story on these beavers. It's a big story.
(The beavers are eating the trees. That's what beavers do.)
I smile.
Old man: You should write a story on that road through the Canyon.
(It's narrow, dangerous)
Me: Maybe I should.
Old man (irritated): Ahhhh.
And then he dismisses me with a wave of his hand and drives off.
Me, grumbling to myself: WTHeck?
Day 5, Hey, you're not a duck!
06/May/2009
Decided to bike up the Sun Road and look for Harlequin ducks in McDonald Creek (most of the road is closed to cars this time of year, but you can hike and bike on it, which is way more fun.). Harlequins are thusly named because the male has a clownish mask. Got a little panicky after a good hour and a half bike ride and no ducks. Plus it started raining and the wind picked up and I was quickly running out of daylight. Decided to keep riding up the Sun Road and found a mountain goat perched on a ledge about 300 feet above the road. I ditched the bike and started up a gully that would get me to a spot where I could take a picture. A big sign was posted on the road that said "Avalanche danger very high, don't pause or stay in gullies and chutes," or something to that effect. But here I was, right in a gully and nasty one it was. It got steeper and steeper with ugly loose scree and rotten logs. I almost ate it twice. Once the rotten log I was standing on crumbled and I just started sliding downhill. Luckily my fat ass stopped. The other time I almost went face first after I lost my balance. The goat, perched on its ledge, seemed to smile. I got a keeper and then on the ride back saw a bull moose. It's always interesting to watch a 1,400 pound animal just disappear in a few steps. Never did see any of those friggin ducks.
Day 4, Cont.
05/May/2009
There's a trail that virtually no one hikes in Glacier that goes into ancient forests with trees 500-plus years old. I went there on Day 4. It was supposed to rain, but never did. Right now, as I write this on Day 5, it's pouring rain. I expect to spend several days in this woods. It's a place for trees. You see little else, but hear woodpeckers way up in the canopy. Few songbirds. I became enamored with this downed tree and finally got under it for this interesting view.
Day 4, First film
04/May/2009
Developed the first film yesterday. This is from the Speed Graphic. The photo has an "old" look, but it's way too grainy, which leads me to believe the development time was too long. The film is 33 years old, too. 33 years! It seems to be fine. It's been forever since I developed film and I forgot what it's like to work in the dark. We'll get the kinks worked out. I screwed the pooch on the 8 by 10 film. Something went way wrong on the development. I've consulted the experts. We'll find solutions. I'm really liking the Graflex. It's actually a compact camera for a 4 by 5.
Day 3, Scouting
03/May/2009
The weather had to break sometime and it did today. Rather gray and showery and it's supposed to stay that way this week. First thing was greeted by a male varied thrush, one of my favorite birds. In the next few days I'll try to get some audio recordings of them. Scouted out the trail for tomorrow's shoot. With gray weather, you generally can't shoot anything higher than eye level. So I'll head to the deep woods. I have some photos in mind...
Day 2 Elk
03/May/2009
Headed up the North Fork with the kid and wandered around a few favorite meadows. Waded out into a beaver pond to get a reflection shot (so-so) and used the 8 by 10 camera as well as the Crown Graflex. Ed Gilliland loaned me his 8 by 10 Horseman, which is a beast of a camera, but surprisingly simple to use (provided you remember the steps). I'll develop the film later today. For now, enjoy this cow elk photo, taken as the day ended. Glacier's elk are extremely wary, as they're range goes outside the Park, where they get shot at regularly. As such, they usually run like hell at first sight of a human. I know this update is a day late, but we got in late last night and all I wanted to do was cuddle up to a bottle of chardonnay.
Day 1, A surprise to start things out
01/May/2009
It started out snowing — hard. I got out at dawn and the idea was to go over to St. Mary and shoot the snow. They had a late spring snowstorm over the past couple of days that dumped anywhere from a few inches to several feet. The weather cleared and it was exceedingly calm. St. Mary is usually windy. I made some good photos, but on the way out I hit it rich. A northern hawk owl was hunting along U.S. Highway 89. The hawk owl is rare in Montana, but in Glacier, it frequents burns. This owl was in the Red Eagle fire of 2006. When forests burn over, sometimes in the years after there is a surge in the vole population. The owls, which hunt during the day, take advantage of it. How and when they find these burns is a mystery. But they found them on the west side of the divide and now on the east side as well. From a naturalist perspective, it was a very cool find. Hawk owls are usually found a good 100-200 miles north of Glacier and they range to Alaska. As their name implies, they look a lot like a hawk.
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