Channeled Scablands

This is the time of year when my thoughts turn to dryside outings.

Living on the wetside, with a beach nearby, is my strong preference, and outings to the mountains are a lifelong favorite, but trips to the rain shadow extending from the East slope of the Cascades are right up there, and this year an excellent new book, Washington's Channeled Scablands Guide, has gotten me even more stirred up.

Having had no trip last year because of the aftermath of chemo has also boosted this year's desire.

So today I pulled Cataclysms on the Columbia: The Great Missoula Floods and Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods off the shelves for re-reading, along with Bretz's Flood: The Remarkable Story of a Rebel Geologist and the World's Greatest Flood for more history (also Kindle),  and On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: A Geological Field Guide to the Mid-Columbia Basin, which is mostly south of much of my favorite territory, but does include such favorites as Lower Crab Creek, Frenchman Hills, and the Drumheller Channels, and in the rest is still very interesting. It will soon be followed by The Northern Reaches in Volume 2 (and maybe, perhaps, someday, The Columbia Gorge and Willamette Valley, in  a third volume?).

Wonderful reading about how huge floods hundreds of feet deep and tens of miles wide surged across eastern Washington about 50 times from about 15,000 years ago to 18,000 years ago, as a glacial dam which flooded extensive valleys in Western Montana broke and release hundreds of cubic miles of water over a period of just a few days, to carry icebergs to the southern reaches of the Willamette Valley. Then the glacier would close the gap again, the lake would refill, and it would all repeat.

There are even videos: NOVA: Mystery of the Megaflood, which I found problematic in places, but still worth watching, and The Great Ice Age Floods, which I haven't seen but is on the way.


But even better is visiting: Whether driving tours, short walks, strenuous hikes, or even kayaking, there are all sorts of opportunities to enjoy the scenic and geologic delights, and imagine water pouring through gaps in the ridge-lines high above - unless you have strenuously hiked up there and are looking down across wide expanses of countryside scribed by visible relics of dry waterways from thousands of years ago.

There are few places where the evidence of dramatic geologic forces is so easily and widely visible.

And of course the wildflowers, lakes, and modern waterways also add to the charm. Best Desert Hikes, Washington, is another useful title, for within and near the flood scablands and coulees.

It's time to go back!

[I intended to include some of my pictures in this post but Picasa seems to have forgotten all my photographs over a year old so it will take a day or three's digging - check back!]

Travelers

A day or three before a vet trip, the carrier comes up stairs where the cats can get used to it & forget that its coming upstairs leads to a trip to the vet.

This picture is after Archie (left) had his visit to the vet, but Webster (in the carrier) still hasn't been (Archy and Mehitabel?).

I had hoped to get a better quality image, with cheerier attitudes, but haven't caught the two of them together.

Archie has spent some time lying in it, but I don't think he's slept there yet.

Webster often sleeps soundly, sometimes with his back to the door. He'll get his trip this week probably, and we'll see how his attitude changes.

Dominoes

Melvin & I play dominoes.

Sometimes I pretend he isn't cheating.

Intrepid Explorer

When Archie came home from the vet hospital on May 10th, Webby was intrigued - "How's this thing work?"

Earth Day

For Earth Day, we participated in the 8:30-9:30 pm "lights out," getting by with two candles, the occasional cell phone screen or pocket flashlight.

I wandered around the house quite a bit at first, appreciating the darkness. Looking out windows. Nobody else seemed to be doing it. Not much publicity, I guess.

Jo spent most of the time sending txt or talking on phone. After I was through wandering, I did some block play & photography.

What with the camera, phones, led flashlights, & various glowing power LEDs here & there, we were far from electricity/electronics-free or totally dependent on candle light. But the candles were our primary illumination for most of the hour, it was interesting to see what we could do.

Sisters

Jo & her sister, Elizabeth

Archie

Seems like I haven't posted a cat picture here for a while. This is Archie at ease.

Since I got out of the hospital after leukemia treatment, he has been spending a lot more time in my lap, but here he is next to me.

I held a magnifying glass in front of my cell phone camera lens to take this picture - I was hoping for some interesting effects, but it seems like all I got was a better closeup than I would have gotten otherwise.

It's a good camera.

Archie's a good cat.