Day 6- Old Town Fort Collins

Hello everybody,

No time to blog tonight- will have to do the pics for this day when I get back... so sleepy and need to pack- on to College Station tomorrow-

-b

Day 5- Cache la Poudre

Cache la Poudre “hide the powder” River

What? I’m not sure, but that’s where we were today, exploring the various edge conditions along the river, and designing interventions to fix erosion problems, plan for support of more plant life, and allow greater human access to the river while maintaining the health of the river.

This is the Poudre River:

And this is an example of what erosion does to the vegetation when not checked:

Here’s a few fun shots just for kicks,

And Dr. Rodiek laying the smack down on human use and wise planning principles

Here’s a shot of Che-Chia, working some kinda deck planning magic over there,

Che-Chia trying to catch a trout with the tape measure,

And Che-Chia lounging?

and rock that I thought looked very happy.

Here’s a group picture- MLA a la poudre, or you could say ‘friends of the Poudre’ :)

And, my friends, another jewel for the collection.

It’s been a long day, and I must say goodnight.

Goodnight.

Day 4- CITY PARK

This morning I thoroughly enjoyed starbucks espresso roast, ground for a French press in my little travel mug/French press thingy. YUM!!! What a great way to start the day.

We then went to CITY PARK which was loads of fun! It started off with a little bit of drama in the wild world of the food chain- a hawk? falcon? had just nailed a little dove on the ground at the crest of this hill Sara and I had just walked up to. It was still semi-alive and flapping around… but the predator had retreated to the top of a pine tree nearby, to avoid the dive-bombing denizens of the park- all these different types of birds flying all around the tree top, actually coming at the hawk and trying to keep it away from the injured bird. This was crazy. These birds weren’t even the same kind as the injured one! Little black ones, big black ones- probably 3 or 4 types of birds were looking out for their little friend- here’s the hawk, keeping a watchful eye as he is being harassed-

And finally, he gets ousted from the treetop by a big black crow and goes and gets his breakfast- you can see the bird in his talons trailing behind him:

Wow. What a way to start the morning. We soon came upon this gorgeous Russian olive tree- Che-Chia gives us a sense of scale here-

Sara, Che-Chia, and I were walking around together for a while, gawking at the size and beauty of these trees- here’s Sara under a pine? of some sort, laughing with delight!

And if you look really close, you can see Sara at the base of this enormous cottonwood- Sara, Che-Chia, and I could just touch our hands together around the trunk…

One view of the park-

And Sara having a good ‘ole time with a Scarlet Buckeye! (I told you she was a happy girl, didn’t I?

Here's a few pics of sketches I did today- the first, of a house across the street from the park, and the second, an icon of a poppy pod.

And yet another of Sara, atop a gigantic baseball, doing an interpretive dance of the trees

Some poppies-

And a bee, having a good time in a blue cornflower.

Namrata, Che-Chia, Xun, Tasha, and I were done with our sketching early enough to go have dinner at Chipotle before our evening session- Che-Chia noticed this sticker someone put on the crosswalk sign! And a photo of us (minus me) on the walk home.

That's all for the day! looking forward to the morning- Poudre River.

day 3- Rocky Mountain National Park

Well folks, it definitely was an exciting day… our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.

It started rather early, which explains the sleepy smiles on these two-

(keep in mind you can click on any of these pictures to make them bigger)

We arrived at the park after an hour or so of driving along the river at the bottom of the valley- lo and behold, it seems that ‘we’ have already jinxed ourselves! Alas, we drove on and became contributors to the problem- so here’s a question: who is selling out? Is it us who drive these things, the makers who haven’t improved them, the government for allowing it, the NPS for not creating a shuttle system? Is this lack of planning or lack of planning? Dangerous levels of ozone in a national park. Sad.

One of our fellow drivers had at least one opinion about our place in the environment-

The drive up- do the blurry trees help you feel like you’re traveling? Rodiek’s at the wheel- watch out! :)

The drive up, and a pit-stop for some sketches-

On to the ‘ice fields’ which were really a few patches of snow, but very fun nonetheless! AND Namrata’s FIRST TIME TO TOUCH SNOW EVER!!! So glad I got to see that. It was kinda icy, though. Namrata- you need to go experience fresh powder somewhere- it’ll be much better.

Have a look at this video too.

Dila and I were having fun taking pictures, and since I didn’t get a sleepy one, here’s some fun ones of us-

And Xun, with her Tokyo-lens camera. She got some great shots today, and did some stunning sketch work.

The next few are just pics along the way- the plants that grow in the tundra, a marmot, scenic views…

And on to Bear Lake, where people have so kindly put reminders for us all that they had once graced the landscape with their presence…

Beautiful.

A reflection shot,

And some sketching, a la Matt.

And one pic courtesy Tasha Davis Studios.

Our fearless leader,

And a nice river shot to end on.

A great time was had by all-a long and tiring day, but hey, we’re in Colorado. It’s working out just fine.