2007_09_03-Yellowstone to Littleton

Pictures of my ride from Yellowstone back home to Littleton:

http://picasaweb.google.com/will0967/2007_09_03YellowstoneToLittletonRide

1830 miles, ~35 gallons of gas, couple of close calls, many miles of boredom, but even more miles of beautiful scenery.

2007_09_03-Keystone To Yellowstone

Pictures of my ride from Keystone, SD to Yellowstone National Park:

http://picasaweb.google.com/will0967/2007_09_02KeystoneToYellowstoneRide

2007_09_02-Keystone

Breakfast


Warnings


Beautiful Rushmore Cave


Goats near Mt. Rushmore

My last dive as a HB resident....

Date: June 27, 2007
Time: 5:30pm/8:15pm
Location: Diver's/Shaw's Cove
Depth (feet): 28/39
Dive Time (minutes): 57/58
Surf (feet): 1-3/1-2
Surge (feet): 2-5
Water Temp (fahrenheit): very warm
Visibility (feet): 10-20/8-12
Visibility Description: nicer at Diver's...bit murkier at Shaw's
Notes and Highlights: First dive was the last dive with Scott as a So. Cal resident...he leaves for Colorado tomorrow. We had a great dive to mark the occasion - a lot of surge in areas around the reef...but overall very warm and reasonably clear water. Lots of bat rays from the very beginning of the dive...started to drop and realized there was a large one right underneath me...working quickly to unclip and bring the camera into operation - while still trying to get the last air out of my BC - and not breathing so as not to spook the ray...settled down quietly on the sand next to the ray...just as it decided to finally head out to get away from the blue-faced weirdo....oh well...at least the camera is ready to go and I can breathe again. Camera came in handy quickly too - as there were many bat rays in the area. They were sitting on the sand and "flying" by and over us...I don't think I'll ever get bored of that.

Headed over to the reef area so I could look for the rock-pool blennies with my new macro lens...they were right where they normally were...as was the surge - but I did manage a few decent clips. Headed back from the reef over the sand to see if there were any bat rays we missed on the way out - turns out there were. Surf was 1-3, entry and exit were uneventful. Water was warm...not sure on the exact temp - but warm...with the open sand and decent vis it was certainly one of the more relaxing dives of the year so far...great send-off for Scott, and a good time had by all.

Second dive was the first with David...great to meet you...we were joined by Erik for a night dive at Shaw's. Got a little bit of a late start, but entered the water in 1-2 foot surf (would have been less but we had to enter way to the left to avoid a series of fishing poles/lines two guys were operating from the right side past the middle. David wanted to get some pics of Shelly - I tried to help out lighting with my video lights...looking forward to seeing the result. Spent the rest of the dive working our way back along the reef looking for anything and everything...found several octopi, morays, sheepcrab, Spanish Shawl's, Hopkin's Roses, plainfin midshipman, rays (sting and bat)...vis was down a bit from Diver's...seemed murkier at Shaws...but still enjoyable, a good time had by all, and I look forward to more with David in the future.

(and, yes, I stole this from Peter's logs, since I am too lazy to write my own. Thanks Pete... Please remember to visit his postings at http://www.28thstreetproductions.com/blog/divelog.html)

(and, yes, I stole this idea of stealing from Peter's blog, from Josh's logs, since I am too lazy to write my own. Thanks Josh... Please remember to visit his postings at
http://maldemer.blogspot.com/2007/06/date-may-28-2007-time-630am830am.html)

Unfortunately I was also too lazy to steal Peter's pictures, so you'll have to go to his site to see them. Hopefully Peter and Josh don't get too angry with me for my blatant plagiarism...go check out there websites so they don't sue me!

2007_05_04-PCH Ride

My cousin Kelby came from North Dakota to check out PCH and go on a motorcycle trip. About 850 miles in three days, with lots of scenery and a good amount of beer.

We stopped by Neptune's Net and Kelby got to try some calamari:


A quick break:


After wanting to go here for the past couple years and never having it work out, I finally had some split pea soup, which was very tasty.


The first night we camped at Jalama. The entire day we were riding in 30 mph winds, which was very unpleasant. I was also unsure of actually getting a site, due to the fact that you can't make reservations. We lucked out and there were plenty.


Sunset at Jalama.

2007_04_21_Santa Cruz Channel Island Camping

Jeff and I went out to Santa Cruz Island for a night of camping, some hiking, and some beer drinking. We took a boat out of Ventura, which dropped us off for the night. We showed up (late, after Jeff's car overheated) with backpacking gear and when we arrived to get on the boat, everyone else had car camping gear, including coolers full of beer! Luckily, our neighbors were friendly and had lots of extra!

Pictures from the first day:
http://picasaweb.google.com/will0967/2007_04_21_SantaCruzChannelIslandCamping

Pictures from the second day:
http://picasaweb.google.com/will0967/2007_04_22_SantaCruzChannelIslandCamping

2007_04_17-CatalinaDiving

Pictures from a boat trip out to Catalina Island. We arrived the night before for a trip out to San Clemente Island to play with a bunch of sea lions. We loaded up our gear, drank a bunch of gear, then woke up at Catalina Island. They had attempted the trip out to the Channel Islands, but shortly after leaving the harbor decided against it, due to high winds and choppy conditions. We got in three dives.

Eagle Reef:
http://picasaweb.google.com/will0967/2007_04_14CatalinaEagleReef

Yellowtail Point
http://picasaweb.google.com/will0967/2007_04_14CatalinaYellowtailPoint

And Blue Caverns, posted below.

2007_04_14-CatalinaBlueCaverns

2007_03_27-Shaw's Cove Dive

Dive at Shaw's Cove, with Peter. Played with the wide angle lens on this dive. Vis was pretty bad, but still a good dive!

Link to pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/will0967/2007_03_27_Shaws_WideAngleLens

My current computer setup has 2 monitors, with a regular VGA connection on one and a DVI connection on the other. On the VGA monitor, the pictures all look like crap. On the DVI monitor, they look much better. If they look like crap on your monitor, it may be possibly to adjust the brightness/contrast to get a better picture.

2007_03_25 Dead Man's and Shaw's Cove

First dive was with Peter and Erik, at Dead Mans:

Pissed off looking sheep crab. Like a moray eel, these things always look like they want to rip your thumb off!


Don't know what this is, but it looks cool.



Next dive was with Erik, at Shaw's Cove. Awful visibility, but still a good time.

Erik


Starfish

Closeup of starfish "finger"


I forget what these are called, but they're really ugly, especially up close.


I saw this feather floating around in the surge and it reminded me of American Beauty...only without the video or garbage bag...


We also saw a hermit crab getting tumbled through the surf. It was rather funny (for us at least, I don't think he found it humorous) to watch him try to hold on for dear life, only to go tumbling along the bottom, then get a chance to grab on again, with the process repeating. I have a short video I'll try to get uploaded.

2007_03_24-Marine Land Dive

Heading out for a dive at a new location - Marine Land, north of Huntington Beach, rather than our typical drive south to Laguna Beach. Unfortunately, my camera lens was fogged for the majority of the dive, so my typical bad picture taking was made even worse by this fact! Pictures below:

Spanish Shawl


Spongy & Spiky


Lot's of arms!


Sea Hare

2007_03_21-Fisherman's Cove Dive

Peter's well written dive report:
Click for Link

My short, straight to the point, dive report:


Thanks Peter!

2007_03_07-Shaw's Cove Dive

Pictures from Shaw's Cove:
http://picasaweb.google.com/will0967/2007_03_07ShawSCoveDive

2007_02_04-Ride to the Mud Caves

Rode with John out to the Mud Caves in the Anza Borrego Desert. He has a Warrior, I had the V-Strom. Once we got to the turn off, it was 6 miles, one way, of soft sand and gravel. We both managed to make it without dropping our bikes!

Pictures wouldn't upload right, so here's a link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/will0967/2007_02_04MudCavesRide

2007_01_31 Diver's Cove

Dove with Peter today at Diver's Cove. Here's a link to his write-up:
http://28thstreetproductions.com/blog/2007/02/dive-306.html

Here's a link to some video of a stingray:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7672747028577849183&hl=en

And here are the stingray pictures:

2007_01_27 Death Valley

Now, with more death:


Not sure what that means, but it sounds good.

Picture of the first day:
http://picasaweb.google.com/will0967/2007_01_27_DeathValley

Day Two:
http://picasaweb.google.com/will0967/2007_01_28_DeathValley

2007_01_25 Fishermans Cove Dive

Dove tonight with Josh at Fisherman's Cove. He took the speargun, I took the camera. He shot a lot of nothing, as did I! Here a link to video of a shark we saw swimming around:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6959043776231241698&hl=en

Here's a shot of Josh getting ready to practice catch and release, with-out the catch (which I've also done every time I try the speargun, we're just nice people and don't want to hurt the fish):


Shot down the barrel of the speargun. Would be better without all the scatter!


Josh searching for stuff to kill!


Shark

2007_01_24 Woods Cove Dive...continued

For some reason Picasa only allows 4 pictures to be uploaded at once and I don't know how to upload them any other way, so here's part 2, or part 1, since the blog lists the newest posts first, so if you're reading this, you should scroll down first and read the previous post!


We saw fireworks under water...or not...maybe I could sell it as modern art.


For some reason, most pictures were a trade-off: they were either in focus, with bad lighting, or the ones with better lighting were slightly out of focus.


Peter setting up for a picture of our octopus buddy.


Self photo - notice the closed eyes, even so, I still had a bright flash when it fired!

So, from looking at these pictures, you can come to a couple conclusions - either underwater photography is really hard, or I'm really bad at it! Hopefully it's a combination of the two and the fact that this is only my second time taking pictures means that they'll rapidly improve! Stay tuned!

2007_01_24 Woods Cove Dive

Enjoy the suckiness of my photography skills! Dove with Peter at Woods Cove, in Laguna Beach.

Catalina Island, off in the distance. If you look close, you'll notice that the picture is taken on land. If you take into account that these pictures are in chronological order, you may wonder why there's water on the lens. After walking down one of the tallest sets of stairs in Laguna, Peter realized that he forget his mask, so I took a couple pictures as I waited for him to make the track up to his car and back!



Not the best visibility. Visibility wasn't quite as bad as the reflection in this photo - probably around 10 feet, with plenty of surge and the occasional 3-4 foot wave.



I need a strobe, rather than my flashlight!



An octopus that we played with for about 20 minutes. I took 64 pictures, deleted 10 because I couldn't even figure out what they were, took about 35 pictures of this guy, and this one turned out the best...

My Job