Small risk taken, wonderful reward - beautiful hour on the water

Last week, I started rallying the folks at work to bring in their boats and do a quick trip on the Allegheny River near the office one night this week. That day turned out to be today. It was a great site to see a three kayaks and a canoe (mine) on vehicles in the company parking lot. One other set of friends with their canoe I don't work with intended to come as well. However, life decided to not cooperate with everyone's schedule. One guy was unable to go for personal reasons, another couldn't because he's a slave to the Company and worked late. The couple decided to call it off because the weather was pretty terrible all afternoon, and it was still raining steadily at 5pm when I talked to them.


Nonetheless, my coworker, Bruce, and I figured we had the boats on our cars already and that it wouldn't hurt to check out the water and maybe get out for a little bit. If it got bad, we'd not be far from the cars.


We put in the Allegheny at a nice launch in Lawrenceville, under the 40th Street bridge. It was raining, but not very hard. This was the small risk I spoke of in the title to this post. Within the first 15 minutes, though, it stopped raining and got progressively sunnier.


What started out as a marginal day for paddling became a beautiful experience out on the water. This was our wonderful reward for avoiding the gumption trap and getting on the river. The river's surface was smooth and calm. The lighting was great. There was a slight breeze. Pretty much perfect weather for paddling.


We came across a great blue heron in a tree near a factory.


I ended up disturbing it, and it flew upstream, allowing for more photographs in different locations.


We turned around near the 62nd St bridge.


Looking at downtown Pittsburgh in the distance. It's only four river miles to the buildings from where this picture was taken. This is one of my very favorite things about Pittsburgh.

Easterly ride

I got out early for a 25+ mile ride out east of Pittsburgh and then back north through Oakmont and along the Allegheny River. My cell died before I got too far out of the urban areas, so I didn't get many pictures of the winding, forested roads. Nonetheless, I got a few on my way out. I couldn't figure out if the lot above is private or a community garden, but they're growing a lot of food for being in the city. Those are rows of corn.

I also admired a beautiful abandoned bridge with trees growing on top.


And a bit further, there was a former gas station with two old-time pumps without their protective shrouding.

Voyeur

I found this guy waiting for me in shower room at work Friday. It's a house centipede (or scutigera coleoptrata). They eat insects, usually the ones you don't want around. Sorry for the poor picture, it was the best my cell phone camera could do with the low light levels in the room.

Hawk too

On my run this evening I saw this hawk on the pole below a bridge outside of Schenley Park. It was a good day for wild birds in the city. My previous post was about turkeys I saw on my way to work in the AM. This bird was beautiful and my crappy cell phone camera did a poor job of capturing any of its splendor.

Turkeys in Pittsburgh

I ran across turkeys again on my way to work today. My office is just past the bridge in the lower picture and about a mile to a mile and half from the downtown buildings off in the background. I think they're usually more commonly seen in the spring and autumn. This is the same meadowy area (to the right) that sees many families of killdeer spawn every year. It's fun to watch the young run around. It's also fascinating, but sort of disturbing, to see the adults do the injured bird gig to try to draw you away from the nest.

Civil engineers

I wonder if they're thinking, "wow, I wonder how beautiful this area was before our kind concreted it all over with roads, buildings, and parking lots." Was it then that the wicked witch of progress came and froze them where they stood as penance for such anarchist thoughts...?

Bitten

This bad boy bit me on the toe the other day while standing on the sidewalk in the back yard. I didn't die, so it was either a warning shot or the beast is pretty harmless to a big creature like me. Nonetheless, it got my attention.

Mourning dove turns into morning doves

The mourning dove's nest is getting a bit crowded. The picture above was taken today by Bethany. The one below was from the morning of 27 April, four days ago. They seem much bigger in such a short time. An earlier post was this one: Mourning dove family.

Moraine State Park canoeing

We were all feeling sort of pent up, so we decided to spend the day at Moraine State Park. We attempted to get out in the boat for a while, but Silas was uncomfortable in his PFD when he tried to bend in the middle. So, he and Bethany went for a hike while Guthrie and I did a little paddling and then some trail running to catch up to them.




Guthrie really wants to be in the boat when it's leaving the shore, but then changes his mind and would rather be running on land instead. I think he also was sick of being in the sun with his black fur. There's nowhere to escape it in the canoe.


View of one of the spurs of Lake Arthur.

birds

Frick Park is alive with springtime bird activity.

Guthrie and the groundhog

Saturday, I stopped by the office with Guthrie to get some things with the car. There's an entrance ramp adjacent to the building for the busway with a meadowy hill that Guthrie loves to run around on. This day, there was a groundhog (aka woodchuck) at the top of the hill peering down at him. He/she is on the upside of the brown brush patch by the wall at the top. Guthrie, keen of eye and nose, never noticed...

Banff Mountain Film Festival

Friday, I went with some friends to the first night of the 2-day traveling Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. It was a nice collection of films this year, but much less of the adrenaline pumping craziness of years past. I love that type of thing, as I usually find it very inspiring, even if it's over the top nuts.

This year (at least for the first day), there were two long films that took up most of the night. One was an interesting story about world champion paraglider Louise Crandal and her boyfriend falconer training an eagle to fly with Louise. Eagles are the kings of the updrafts.

The other long film, Red Gold, was a touching movie about the people who subsist, intentionally in two river areas that flow into Bristol Bay, Alaska. It's a story about the salmon and the people who inhabit the region that is the most prolific sockeye salmon spawning grounds in the world. At the headwaters to these two rivers, a huge deposit of copper and gold has been found. Evidently, it's the second-largest copper deposit ever found. The film shows all that is to be risked, if the mining project goes ahead. It's interesting to see people who have chosen or been born into a lifestyle that provides satisfaction and wholesomeness, regardless of the monetary income. The mining company is right in one way, these folks could likely make more money with other jobs, but they're completely shortsighted in that money's not the point of the fishing and living from the land of the people who choose to live there. Subsistance isn't just about surving. It's a philosophical and cultural ideal that is satisfying when all is in balance.

Mourning dove family

Spring is really here. The mourning doves have returned to the nest in our back porch awning. If you look at the strata in the nest, this is at least the fourth year they've been using this particular nest. The woman dove has laid her eggs and won't leave the nest, even with Guthrie running back and forth under her as he goes outside a million times a day. The picture doesn't do it justice, but she has a beautiful ring of teal around her eye. I hope we don't stress her out too badly.

You can see our neighbor's magnolia tree blooming in the background too!

Autumn scenery

Some more pictures from the camping trip. I can't decide if I like the horizontal or vertical version better for these first two. Any suggestions?


This was not posed. Bethany was really doing that when I happened to have the camera ready...