Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

It was getting late in the afternoon by the time I came off the Myrtle Falls Trail, time for a quick lunch. The falls trail is on the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge, the trailhead across the road from the refuge information center which has restrooms, pamphlets and even telescopes for looking out over the refuge and spotting said wildlife.

There's a separate large barn and lots of educational activities that go on here. On the edge of the parking lot is this recreation of an eagle's nest.

The refuge is primarily wetlands between the Selkirk mountains and the Kootenai River. Check out this link to see an illustration of the ponds within the refuge. It also shows adjacent trails and an overlook I visited before heading home.

There's also an auto tour road but wouldn't you know it, the road closed for extensive maintenance the very day I was there.

I'd spotted a bench along this path (just out of view to the left) where I decided to sit a spell, enjoy the view and eat my lunch.

Here I thought my hiking was done for the day, but instead, I spotted this sign as I headed to the bench. One last easy trail to enjoy!

I was glad I made time for it. Usually when I get in gear for hiking, it's late in the summer and everything is dried up, flowers past their peek if any at all. Along this trail I found a few worth getting a picture of.

It was quite breezy and I was having difficulty getting a shot of these while they waved in the wind. Just as I was about to click in a pause, this fat bee flew into my shot, its weight holding the flowers in place!

The trail winds around a pond created by beavers, with signage along the way. If you click on the photo you should be able to make out what this sign says about sap suckers and birches.

At one point the trail passes over a bridge where water from the pond escapes. Can you guess what is causing those dark dots that look like paw prints?

Water bugs! I don't know their official name but I remember seeing these often as I fished streams with my dad. First time I've been able to get a good shot of one, resting on the water and creating those bubbles.

Around I went on the loop until I got to a spot to get a good shot of the pond, just after a small fish had jumped out of it. Such a welcome cool spot on a hot afternoon.

And then, peering through branches and tall grass, I spotted a turtle that had crawled up on a log. I've seen so many pictures others have taken of turtles on logs in the area, but I'd not seen one until this day. It was pretty hard to get a shot through waving grass and my own unsteady hand. A tripod would have been helpful.

Nearly time to head home, but I decided first to check out the overlook up the road a bit. The refuge has several of these photography blinds set up, and wouldn't you know, just as I was walking up to it, a heron flew up near it and away. Oh sure, I thought. I wasn't betting on seeing anything anyway, but now that I know you are here, you just fly away before I can get a good look at you?

The view from the blind was lovely, with or without birds, but I could see some far off, probably ducks, and where I thought that heron had set down, in the green area beyond the dark clump on the middle right.

I cranked up my zoom to maximum and started shooting away blindly, hoping to catch something, really wishing I had a tripod now. A pair of binoculars would have been nice too. Note to self, pack both next time. Because look! When I looked at this photo on the computer screen at full size, I spotted two turtles on a rock there on the right. Still don't know what kind of waterfowl I caught in this shot.

I eventually spotted my heron though on the camera's screen. Some sort of falcon or hawk is flying in from the left, heron off to the right, click on the picture for a larger view and see if you can spot anything else.

Even though I couldn't see very clearly, I could see the way that heron strode out of the heavy grasses and into an area where he could spot fish. I did see him snatch one up but couldn't get a picture of it. Dinner taken care of, he strode back into the grasses, mostly out of sight.

This was surely an unexpected and very nice way to wrap up my road trip. And as I returned to the car, this view. I can't get enough of these mountains. 

Refuge...and an Itch to Stitch

Does your studio feel like a refuge or a war zone? I have to admit, mine can be either, but today, it was definitely a refuge, a place to escape to. The "itch to stitch" came back pretty strongly last night, and I worked on a redwork cross panel left over from a class I taught ages ago. Today I couldn't wait to turn my back on computer and lists and responsibilities and get back to work. Not that it went particularly smoothly. Yet that didn't seem to effect my overall feeling of well-being. I just plugged along doing what I needed to do next on Grid 3.

If you click on this picture, you may be able to see what I was playing with. After quilting in all those narrowly spaced lines, I didn't like the way the squares puffed up, so today was my chance to test how to fix that. The three squares show what I tried. The center one is stitched along the inside of the satin stitching only, the bottom one is stitched on the outside only and the top one is stitched on both sides.

I'm still uneasy about using the gold thread to do this. I'd be more comfortable using one of the teal or purple threads. But I am determined to spark this up a bit and have the gold in more than just the horizontal and vertical lines I'll be stitching next. Actually, when you step back, the thread isn't that obvious along the outside.

However, it does show up along the inside.

I liked these version least of all. It would have been ok probably in a thread that blended more, but not this.

So I opted for outside stitching only. I'm still getting some puff, but at least now the squares look more anchored to my eye. And in the end, the stitching may be more for me than for the piece. It sure is subtle at this point.

And then I think I thought way too hard about how to "pull this all together." I'm not planning any additional quilting in the areas that don't have a square appliqued to them, but should I go ahead and run a line of gold stitching as if there were? I'm thinking not, but what do you think?

Holiday Mode

I've written the last Christmas card...except to you my readers, so here it is - Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays! I feel a bit of freedom in my grasp. The picture above is actually a card I received from the Salvation Army. Aren't all those curves the best? What a graceful reindeer!

To be honest, I haven't done anything remotely creative since I finished up the Redwork Quilt last Saturday. Once that deadline was met, it was definitely time to switch into holiday mode. The week's been spent writing on cards, wrapping a few presents for shipping, digging out the car to take said presents to the post office during the window of opportunity between the winds dying down and the next storm, digging out the car from that next storm, cleaning out my desk, cleaning out my e-mail files...Seriously, I find the end of the year much more conducive to a round of "spring" cleaning than spring. It seems an appropriate way to wrap up the year and start the new one with a little less baggage...freedom.

The holiday mode has also been partly vacation mode too. I haven't felt much like "working" in the studio, haven't felt much creative urge, have had no inkling of what I'd do if I went in there. I keep remembering all that free time during school breaks both growing up and when I worked for the schools, time I spent reading, knitting, playing outside in the snow (not shoveling it), doing the opposite of whatever my daily routine/job was. I keep catching myself wanting to recapture that time so I've been shunning my "day job" of quilting. But with the Christmas preparations wrapping up, a bit of guilt has crept in along with a feeling of being at loose ends. I vowed I'd do something in there today and settled on sewing the sleeve on the NY beauty tie quilt. I've decided not to add any more beads so it was time to sleeve it and get it hung. Time to quit avoiding the studio.

It was only after I went in and got going on the sleeve, while hand stitching it to the back of the quilt that I realized being in there felt like refuge again (see here for a post about the different feelings I can have in the studio). It pleased me that the aversion was gone and made me think about why that was. I decided it was because the sorts of things needing immediate attention in there were not creative activities, but follow-up activities, those things that need doing once a quilt is "done." Besides the sleeve, I subconsciously knew I had some documenting to catch up on and straightening up to do. Why I was avoiding it I'm not sure, because once the sleeve was on, I wanted to stay in my refuge and do that follow-up stuff. It was no different than the cleaning up I did in the office all week. The end of the year is a great time to sort and toss and reassess and plan. Suddenly I was grabbing a scrap of paper to write down all the things crowding into my mind that I wanted to attend to in here these last few weeks of the year, including a few creative endeavors. What a lift! Freedom!

With the last Christmas card in the mail, I recaptured some freedom - and freedom is my resolution word for 2008 so it felt very good. With my short time in the studio today, I gained a little more freedom, plus a short list to direct me for gaining more. None of it feels at odds with my wanting to stay in vacation mode. It feels like the perfect way to let the year run down and get a head start on the new year.

This Week's Waterfall

Wednesday I headed north again in search of my next waterfall on Myrtle Creek. About half as far away as Copper Falls - about 40 minutes to the trailhead adjacent to Kootenai  Wildlife Refuge which has also been on my list of places to visit, so able to kill two birds with one stone as it were.

It was also about 10 degrees hotter than the day I went to Copper Falls - mid 80's and a bit muggy - but I knew that wouldn't be an issue once I headed into the forest which is always comfortably cool. But wait. This trail is paved??? And I'm not supposed to be taking extended walks on pavement. Hmmm - well, I'm not backing out now!

Another surprise - this is a storybook trail, like the one at my little park close to my house. No signage about the area you are walking through, but the storybook makes it kid friendly I guess.

Winding path rising gently, big trees abound.

Trees that at some point in their growth became one at the base. Siamese twins, joined at the hip, I couldn't help myself!

Soon I reached a metal bridge crossing Myrtle Creek.

Water downstream from the falls, more than at Copper Creek.

And flowing under the bridge and onward. A real mountain creek, memories of childhood.

On the hillside above the creek I spotted a brush with brilliant red berries.

I was thinking thimbleberries but this closeup shows a cluster of berries different from thimbleberries I know.

The paved trail ended at the bridge. The trail beyond narrowed and was dirt - just what the doctor ordered. In several places springs trickled from the hillside and across the trail, contained by boards to keep them from getting out of hand, a rock strategically placed to aid in stepping over.

I spotted another tree duo, this one separated at the base but eventually leaning on each other and joining farther up.

And right next to the trail was this thick tree that had been charred by fire all around and quite a ways up.

And yet it still lived, surviving whatever fire passed through and continuing to grow. Nature is amazing.

Every now and then I could glimpse the valley floor and mountain range in the distance as the trail climbed steeply and switchbacked its way to the falls overlook.

The trail to the top is supposedly only a quarter mile long but it felt longer, no doubt because of the steepness of the trail. So heavily wooded that even at the overlook, this was all you could see of the valley and mountains across the way.

But no matter, look the other direction and here are the falls! Unlike Copper Falls, these falls do not cascade over a cliff but have cut through a gorge to fall about 100 feet. One source I found said that from the overlook you are looking down 200 feet. The elevation here is a little over 2000 feet compared to the 3400 feet of Copper Falls. I've kept the jpgs that pop up when you click on the picture large so you can explore all the details of the falling water and rock faces if you so desire.

Yes, if you are looking closely at the large versions, there is some sort of cable hanging down into the water. Not visible to the naked eye and I have no idea what that is about.

The photo has flattened this out, but it looked to me like a big round boulder resting against the rock face and covered with moss.

One source I found states: "This great cascade has exposed the native brown quartzites forming a beautifully color filled sprite." As lovely a description as one could want - can't top that!

Someone has given some care to this overlook area, adding this wrought iron backrest to the big rock so one can comfortably rest.

And placing etched pavers and stone steps with animal paw prints to help you move from one observation area to the other.

And of course, you MUST see and hear this waterfall in action! 

I'll share the wildlife refuge part of this trip in the next post.