Ahh, now that's more like it!

Finally, spring has come! At least, in the Southwest.

Joshua Tree!


Key's View at JTree
the first of many wildflower pictures for Grandma!

Kelso Dunes in the Mojave Desert National Park

Some dessication cracks in a dry lakebed (there was SOME water) also in the Mojave

I can even identify this flower. It's a wild poppy!
This is Ephedra, it's more powerful than caffeine if you make it into a tea. It's starting to bloom

A Saguaro that must have been blocking the trail
a close up, cool, huh?


close up of another Saguaro

rainbow rocks!

Camping with the WOODSians! Kelsey, Sarahbeth, Lydia, and Harper from left to right. Stephanie joined us later.


this is Phoenix, believe it or not. It was greener than WV is now!
Slide Rock State Park, near Sedona, AZ. It's a natural waterslide!
Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Park. Here's some petrified wood in the painted desert

Hopefully the weather will start being just as nice here as it was there! It is getting a lot better!!

Come visit me,
Stella

only a couple pictures

Micah and I decided to chase the warmth down in North Carolina last weekend. It was warmer, and we got one nice day in, but we guessed wrong with our first destination. They had had an ice storm the day before. It made for some interesting hiking. It still snows here everyday. Today, I had to get my car out of our neighborhood to run errands and stuff. It took an hour, Micah pushing, and I broke one of my snow chains in the process. When I tried chains out on my car first, in the desert (sunny, 65 degrees), it didn't occur to me how hard it would be to put them in the snow. You have to fully lay down in the snow, the chains are cold metal, and you can't use gloves, because they require fine motor control. Damn. I'm looking forward to the desert in March!





-Stella

Here's some winter pictures! Above is some ice on the Meadow River. Below is from the same day, the rock was covered in a microthin layer of ice, making it slippery. But Micah still tried, of course. The rock was so colorful!
The Meadow River on that same day. Our view while bouldering.
Micah found this dead mole. Look at how big its digging claws are! It's amazing! Also on the wildlife front, Micah saw a river otter. He said it was about 4 feet long and beautiful!
Micah bouldering a different day. I think it was just before the extremely cold stretch we just left behind. During that cold stretch, ice waterfalls formed all over the gorge, making ice climbing possible. Micah and I got to try it on one of the warmest days of the cold stretch (22 degrees!). It was hard! Even when you have spikes attached to your feet, its still hard to kick holes in the rock to stand on. It was pretty fun though, I guess. I'll never really be an ice climber, I hate the cold, but I did enjoy it. And, like the river otter, we didn't take our camera. What were we thinking?
day 1 or 2 of the staright month of at least a foot of snow on the ground. It started with these 2 feet. This particular picture is showing our glacier roof. You can see how it's sliding down the roof and curling under.
the"curling under" part meant we opened our door to icicles in our faces!


Somehow the trash can got 3 feet of snow balanced on top of it.
why I couldn't go home for Christmas as early as I planned
I'll post as we take more pictures!
-Stella

Kittens and Our Winter Home

Since the last post, we have moved! We now live in a small cabin right on the edge of the gorge. We walked to Fern Buttress to climb yesterday. The cabin isn't finished (no insulation or drywall), but we have free electricity (and rent), and a small wood burning stove. We've also got a fair amount of kitchen appliances including a stove (6 burners in all, if we really want to go crazy), a grill (one propane and one charcoal), a toaster oven (2 of those too), a waffle iron, and a crockpot/oven. Sweet! The only thing we're missing is water. There is no running water, so we have to go down the road to a spring labeled "Not Potable". That scares the crap out of me, but everyone around here insists that they've been drinking water from that spring for 10 years and they've never gotten sick. But have any of them actually gotten in tested? No. I'm 80% sure drinking this water is going to be a decision I regret come 12 years and I've got mercury poisoning or something. I'm considering a water filter. On the upside, we have a bona fide outhouse with a moon cut in the door and everything.








Here are some pictures of our kittens! They're Megan's kittens now, she took both of them. Kofi is the red collared one (the girl - even though Kofi is actually a boy's name), and Mou is the blue collared one (the boy - pronounced Moe. He's named after my chinese name).

Megan found them on a cold, rainy night and wrapped them up in a towel in her tent for the night, but Mou was bored, so he left. I found him shivering on the porch at Roger's and he spent the night with us in the van.

Since then, Megan has moved on to the Red, and the kittens with her. I miss Mou (and Kofi), but I know Megan's taking good care of them. I'll visit them sometime later this winter.





See you all next time I see you! Love,
Stella

I saw a bear!

Naturally, I have no photographic proof. But it was a black bear cub. We didn't see the mom, despite putting the car into park in the middle of the road and waiting. I had my camera out at that point, waiting to get a picture.

But the day wasn't a total waste. I DID get some other pictures. We took a short roadtrip to the Monogahela National Forest and a couple state parks nearby. It was beautiful! And, because it was higher elevation (we made it to 3800ft.), it was prime fall colors.

Monongahela



this is Watoga State park
Ferns at Beartown State Park. Had to include some green




The Cranberry Botanical Area. These ferns were huge and I felt like there should be dinosaurs around
A gigantic root cluster
Some wildflowers! They're actually tinted purple
Cranberry glades. Cranberries grow wild all over this bog/field
Totally unrelated, this is a climb that Micah bolted and will send soon. It looks like a ship's prow. Unfortunately this isn't the best picture to show that.
Hope everyone (Jay, maybe you're the only one reading this) is having a great season! I love you,
Stella

pictureless update

hey everyone. Not much super interesting is going on around here. Just thought I'd update anyway. My sweet job is no longer my sweet job - the farmer doesn't need my help anymore. Now I'm looking for a filler job - one that will get me some money, but I'm not particularly attatched to. Hopefully that'll happen soon. I've been climbing a little more often now. The group of full-time residents at Roger's campground has increased. Now we have me, Micah, Toby, (Michael jut left today), Vince, Stephanie, Dolci, Brian on and off, Chris, Joel, and Craig. So even when Micah's working, there's still plenty of people to climb with. Not everyone gets along perfectly, but at least drama is interesing? I'm going to stick with that.

My crashpad got stolen the other weekend, I'm pretty sure. If you ever see anyone bouldering with a purple, pink, and yellow crashpad... it's probably mine.

On the upside, this week is supposed to be beautiful - sunny and 80 everyday. I hope I get to take advantage of it and have some fun!

Maybe I'll even take some pictures...
Love,
Stella