The only place in Canada that's colder right now is Saskatchewan. Go Alberta!

We had our big entertainment yesterday- bought a cheap loaf of bread and went to feed the fish at a private lake.





The catfish were pretty entertaining- they were like sharks circling.



Two osprey having a loud fight:



We were trying to figure out what made this. Beaver? Otter?



It came up out of the brambles on one side of the trail like this:



...and then ended with the little mud-waterslide into the lake.

Catfish! They are huge.

The ones that were brave enough to come into the shallows were about 2 feet long, but I suspect that there are some out in the depths of the lake that are absolutely gigantic.

I was amazed at how sharklike their movements were.

Took the pup out for a nice little hike.



I tried to get a shot of this view with the dog looking at it, but he only stood there for a second before noticing a smell in the woods immediately behind us.


I'm growing a fondness for balds and high-elevation (for the Appalachians at least) areas, though they're kind of ugly and scrubby.


This is the type of color that the leaves are supposed to be, mixed with equally vibrant reds and oranges. The colors this year are kind of dull. Things have been slowly turning yellow and then quickly turning brown.

But the pup didn't care about any of that, he had a million scents to smell.

Mountains and clouds certainly make for a good view. The odd tree sans-leaves thrown into the mix also helps. Those are some great views, Aarghh.



Bit of vertigo here:


Funnel web spider lairs. Deadly. I wear steel toed walking boots because their fangs can easily pierce leather, they can puncture your toenails.

what kind of tree is that from? also those cliffs look awesome.

I think if I visited australia I'd spend most of the time in the fetal position thinking of all the things that could kill me.

My parents once sent a box of glue traps to mom's Australian boss because there was a funnel web spider that liked to frequent his child's potty chair.

agh.

Aarg: It's a paperbark tree. Not a very imaginative name, to be honest.

Kitsa: I'm sure they accepted the glue trap happily, but there is no way that you would want a funnel web spider "trapped" in your house. The best way to get rid of them is to attract them with a tied up goat (live) and then shoot them.

The leaves on that mangled looking tree certainly don't seem "dull" to me.

Also; SLUGS.

Usually more trees look like that! I took the picture of that one mostly because the leaves were so vibrant, but it didn't turn out so great. They kind of look orange in the picture, but were bright pink.

The one immediately after that also didn't turn out so great in the picture. Too much sun, I guess, since the pink is supposed to be pinker and the green is supposed to be greener. Most of the pictures I took didn't turn out, which is disappointing.

The tunnel was neat, though.

Yeah, the tunnel drew my attention first. I don't know what I can say about it other than 'slightly creepy, but I don't know why'.

The tunnel is the attraction for most people to go there. It's an abandoned road project tunnel, so the road ends almost immediately past it. Unfortunately the inside of the tunnel is covered in spraypaint and you kick the occasional beer can walking through. It's a shame people have to fuck everything up.

It's definitely pretty creepy. Not so much, looking in, as it looks very short. It's deceptively long, and by the time you hit the middle it feels like it isn't going to end. I commented that I'd hate to be in a tunnel in any altered state of mind, but I'd love to hear music played in the center of it--that would sound crazy.


All the way through. Even in the middle, in complete darkness. If you had a flashlight, you'd see plenty of crudely-drawn dicks on the wall because people are idiots.


There's a cool canal tunnel in West Virginia I'd like to visit again, since I haven't since I was 12 or so.

You know, I don't remember ever going through a tunnel in my life.

Even on roads? There's a bunch on the Blue Ridge Parkway here, and other places in the mountains.

We have bridges that have underwater tunnels in the middle.

You're not missing much, as much as driving goes. Walking through tunnels is neat, but not as neat as caves!

AAARG.

sí señor

Cooler in person, but I dig the tree reflection in the top.

Awesome.

Pretty sky.

What am I looking at?

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaby.

Yeah, but why is it shaped like that? :(

That I can't tell you, but if anyone could, I'd be interested!

I've never seen it that, uh, long before. It was all over the place up here, though.

Fantastic photos. Great view.

As far as the ice goes, I've always assumed that it's from water droplets forming on the ice, then they freeze, then droplets form on top of them, then they freeze etc etc. ... Could be wrong, I'm just guessing.


I wish it would snow here for Christmas.

I'm going to have to look it up, because I'm curious now. It looks more like fiber optics than ice. Gorgeous, though.

I'm hoping it's not snowing on Christmas day, I have to cross the Appalachians and go home.

And the snow here now is already melting. It kept snowing until 9:30 or so, and now it's 11 and everything's dripping off the roof.

EDIT: that was easy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle_ice

Where you do live at again Aaarg?

In the little excerpt in the corner, the western tip. Somewhere between the dots for Franklin, Waynesville, and Bryson City.

There is a place there called Sparta.

Hey Aaarg, we should take a little bit of some mushrooms and lay a top of the hills in your area.

I need glasses bad. I saw Sparta and thought it said Sports.

Help yourself to the mushrooms, I'll stick to pot!

I went to see the redwoods awhile back. Seeing them in person is something else.

California or what? Pretty sweet. Someday I'll go west.

That's a huge god damn tree. I'd love to see redwoods one day, it's one of my many, many life goals.

We used to have the biggest tree in the Southern Hemisphere in Tasmania, but the government accidentally killed it with fire.

Northern California. Lena (my GF) and I drove the Pacific highway one day and looked at beaches and redwoods (we almost got stuck in that redwood park because we rented a car and the fuel gauge was backward from the ones we are used to so we were dangerously close to empty :P )

Haha, wonderful!

I look forward to seeing the Pacific coast.

I wanted to take some good pictures but as soon as I got out of the car it started slowly raining and quickly picked up, I turned around ~1/4 mile up the trail and was super pissed (but also super wet and the rising winds made me pretty cold). Did not anticipate rain, was not dressed accordingly, only got some pictures of ice:

My internet is spastic at the moment and I can only see one picture. Of ice.

Looks good. For ice.

How cold is it up there about now? We are out of the heatwave period of summer, but it's been crazy with scorching heat and then drenching rain here.

There's two pictures of ice and one of a boring trail surrounded by rhododendron and a bit of ice in the middle, haha.

Yikes, we don't get extreme weather like that.

It gets up to the mid-50's (fahrenheit) in the day and down to maybe the 20's at night. Three weeks or so ago we had a few days in which the highest temperature was 17 degrees F.

its the australian monsoon :O

are they remaking Bambi as a live-action or something

FUCK THE YOUNG PRINCE

I like rhododendron. Still not loading for me though. Oh well.

The FIRE picture is, however. That is AWESOME.

i've seen fires like that :( i never wanted to look away

I can't watch a fire unless it's a good one (fireplace, campfire, etc.) and then I love it.

Our neighbor's house was burning a few nights ago, I looked for a second and felt terrible and couldn't look anymore. I don't imagine seeing a forest fire would make me any less uncomfortable.

well the one i saw was a controlled intentional fire to clear brush off of a clearcut hill rather than a "real" forest fire :(

thats where i got married at :O

is your wife a mermaid :o

he's the incredible mr limpert :O

that was like one of my favorite movies when i was a kid :(


AND I ALWAYS WANTED TO LIVE IT OUT IN REAL LIFE.

i went on a reallllyyyyy creepy hike in the middle of nowhere during a storm, got lost and had to decide between going through thigh-high swampy disgustingness or a pitch black forest. the pictures turned out kinda boring and not very good but i wanted to share this one:



i didn't have time to take a good picture, because once i saw it i was pretty much running my ass out of there, but it was a deep foggy red and totally scary. does anyone know of anything other than the obvious that would have caused this? i don't think it was the obvious because it was pretty big and deep for a little pond thing.

Sorry, I can't see what you see, try as I might. BTW why spoiler tag a muddy sneaker and a panoramic view of ... was that the swamp? I agree - it creeps me out, even in broad daylight - but hardly spoiler material.

What do you think you saw?

If you stare at it long enough you can see the face of God.

how dare you ruin your nice shoes your mother will have a fit

the red was most likely red clay.

do you know how long your mother had to work to put those shoes on your feet?

it looked like a big creepy pool of dark blood in the middle of the forest during a storm not far from swampy disgustingness to me. i tried to convey that by showing just how disgusting this experience was, but i failed :(

Those shoes belong in the INAPPROPRIATE THREAD.

I'm surprised that you're even scared of swamps, rain and forests considering your vast experience.

those shoes are awesome ok, i've had them for seven years

They might look good, and feel comfortable, but how are they going to stop a snake bite, or a twisted ankle? Go and buy some ex military boots. It will make you feel tougher, too, so you wont be scared of spooky swamps anymore.

Also, do your feet not grow? Seven years?!

On the subject of nature, I was attacked by a seagull today after work. I left the building, and while waving goodbye to some people it came swooping down at me squawking. I ducked and swore and people laughed, then it came at me again flapping it's wings, and I ran. I felt like a numpty, and people were laughing at me, but then it swooped at me for a third time and I had to hide behind a car, checking the sky for my attacker. I saw the coast was clear, so I ran doubled over to get to the cover of the bus stop.


I guess it thought I was in it's territory, or was going to take it's food or something like that.

maybe it thought you were a seagull cause you were flapping your arms around waving good bye :O

Hmmm, that sounds like a reasonable explanation.

the secret to seagulls is to punch them

I was walking around the other day and couldn't help myself but marvel at the beauty of the world around me. Every corner had a nice surprise for me and for my wondering curious mind. Talking simply won't do it justice so let these pictures fill in a thousand words in your ill informed, unbeautified minds.


WARNING! The following picture makes the Grand Canyon look like a welfare check.

Spoilers!

VIOLA! Unaltered pictures of the beautiful insight that modern living can bestow upon all. Lets zoom in a little bit closer and we can see that American dream has been right under our noses this whole time. This concludes my point.... God is an American.

A lot of reddish swampwater comes from tannin, from decaying leaves.:themoreyouknow

RED CLAY I TELL YOU

guys i think that elx would already know all of these things

Nothing worthwhile, but the clouds this morning looked pretty neat:

Dude, what happened to your house?

His roof was on fire and he didn't need no fucking water.

That's not just the roof! The entire interior is black and destroyed.

He wasn't home and he lives alone with no pets. He was out drinking when a space heater sparked and took the whole house down. He was drunk when he got a call that his 60 years of possessions were being reduced to ash.

hiking in SW Ohio.

High Crime!!!


Hazardous Cliffs!


Hand-sized spiders! (Pretty sure this is a fishing spider)


Steep cliffs!


Dark caves! Possibly used condoms!


Treacherous paths!

(continued) Actually, it was pretty.

Some more....not too many

Looks very serene. Were you by yourself? The spider and the hole are creepy as hell though.

That reminded me of Watkin's Glen.

Went to Kiser Lake State Park today. We were excited because we knew it had a beach.

Turns out "beach" means "a few hundred feet of raked substrate that's about 80% mud and 19% sand".



"...and 1% banana."



I fared better elsewhere.


(:art)

I hope you kept that feather

nope, OCD and paranoid of mites :(

I do have a great blue heron feather somewhere, though.

edit for zhukov: Thanks, and I was there with family...although if you mean were there other visitors, yes, it was unpleasantly crowded :(

Kit - that looked awesome. Did you actually see any prophylatics in the wilderness, or did you just mean it was a likely habitat?

MLE - I was thinking the same thing. Watkins Glen is a favorite of mine. :)

No used condoms, but a lot of handholding teenagers, so I figured there must be one somewhere. The trash wasn't too bad, which was nice...one diet mountain dew can on a bench, one discarded wad of paper. The fishing-spider was about 3 feet from the mouth of the cave and was quite enough to persuade me not to get too near.

In regard to Watkins Glen...heard of it, haven't seen it. I went to Ithaca and Cornell...same area, different lake. So I can imagine.

Cornell is beautiful, too. Visited that area on the same trip.

Out of all your latest photos, I like the banana one the best, Kitsa.

thank you.

I live about a stones throw away form the beach (well, if said stone was being thrown by a powerful robot) so here's some beach. Or rocks near the beach more like.



Got more, and some of the tessolated stones in the area which geologists FLOCK to see, but my computer is being rather slow right now.

:(

My favorite beach is a wild, sand dune-y area that I think I posted early on in this thread. I love beaches. Not the populated kind, the wildlifey kind.

Can't find them now. Here they are again:











What I like best about these photos is that they were taken with a $2 disposable camera.

Love 'em. Fuck megapixels.

These so-called disposable cameras are such a farce. I took one on my trip to Devenport, now I have no record of a perfectly enjoyable holiday.

When I was a kid, I had this fantasy of running off and living in the crevices between large beach rocks.

Love the coloration of that second one.

I think we all had that one.

I was taking photos of Bondi Beach near Sydney, and I saw a homeless guy living like a king in a cave. The guy had seperate rooms seperated with tarps, along with the usual totems warding away evil spirits.

A few months ago he was in the news for raping several women.

Man, I never run into any celebrities.

I'm curious as to whether you would have been more alarmed if he'd just been in the news for raping several men.

I can see it now..."Ah, no vagina, I'm safe."

Probably not. I sent my ex (who I saw him with) a link to the news report, as a "haha, remember this guy? Look at this!" sort of thing, and she assumed I was trying to scare her about how close she came to being raped or something.

If it was men being raped I don't think I would have even considered myself in danger, no.

I'm not an attractive man, you see.

is it about attractiveness now?

You do all right.

Life is weird with criminal encounters. When I was a kid, I toured the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory while Jeffrey Dahmer was working there. I might have seen him and never known it. The factory's long gone now, but they used to have chocolate pizza in the gift shop...big slab of dark/white chocolate as the crust, red and green cherries as peppers, and white chocolate drizzle as the cheese. When you're a kid, that's some pretty amazing stuff.

I don't think of myself as a valid target, that's all I'm saying. It might be because I am a male, and gay rape or not, it's just not something I worry about.

That's probably it. Gay rape me a bunch of times and I might be singing a different tune.

Jeffrey Dahmer is a big one, certainly beats cave-rape guy. But Martin Bryant lived on the same street as my school, and he killed 35 people. Which beats Jeff.

GUYS THIS ISN'T A CONTEST