Summer in the City

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be alright

And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the city

- M. Sebastian


I spent the better part of this last summer waiting for school to begin again. Most of my time was spent getting ready for my second semester at UWEC, and the rest was actually, for the most part, quite boring. I did take to walking around my new home of Oak Lair (not it's real name) and sometimes taking a few photos. That's pretty much what this article is about. :)

Many of you have already seen the only real excitement that I had this summer. If not, check out my previous entry. I'll remember the river float fondly, we all had such a good time.

Otherwise, I did watch quite a few Brewers games, and they tended to win. This now being late September, however, now they're not doing so good. It sort of doesn't matter, because school is now taking up an awful lot of my time. I've barely had time to process this blog and make any entries. However, I have to do this now, because I've already got two more posts planned; our first two field trips out to Lake Wissota, and our first REAL BIG field trip up to northern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan. Anyway, this whole post is just to catch all of you up with where I'm at in life, right now.

Like any summer, it was hot here. However, it was an average summer; maybe a little on the coolish side, this year. We had a few thunderstorms pass through, but no real bad weather to note.

For the most part, these are just captioned photos taken this summer (well, one from late spring) here in town. I think that my digital camera sure makes my photography look good, but, understand - it's mostly the camera (and the subjects) - and not the operator that makes the difference here. :) Anyways, enjoy!



This one is taken from the top of a local high point called Mount Tom. Like most of western Wisconsin, there are a lot of whitetails in town.

Another high point in town is a place called Mount Simon. This is a photo from my climb to its summit.

This is what the summit looks like. Evidently, it's a fairly-secluded place for the local kids to party. :)

This is a nice shot of one of the views from the summit.

Not too far from Mount Simon is the small lake formed behind the Chippewa River dam in town. It's called Dell's Pond, and the fishing is supposed to be pretty good.

A nice 13+" smallmouth taken from the Dell's Pond dock. Decent. :)

This is a photo taken very close to where I live. The view is to the southwest.

Near the university is this building on Water Street. Gargoyles are cool!

Some elected official forgot that this was Wisconsin. :)

Another view of Dell's Pond. Sigh. :)

I Got a Line on You

Let me take you baby, down to the river bed
Got to tell you somethin', go right to your head
Cause I got a line on you, babe
I got a line on you

- R. California


I've been spending most of my time this summer waiting and preparing for next fall's college term. In the meantime, I've been watching the Brewers do pretty well. Since I don't have a television of my own, I watch the games at the place where I also go to eat. That's handy for me, and this place also gives me somewhere to go when I'm bored. It's called the Amber Inn, and it's run by a very cool fellow by the name of Orv. One day, not too long ago, somebody got the bright idea to have a float on the local river that runs through town. This is the story of that fun-filled event, sponsored by the aforementioned Amber Inn.

Truthfully, in my opinion, the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. I've provided a few captions for you. We had about a dozen people on the float, most riding on some sort of inner tube. Orv sailed a canoe. Myself, I had a brandy-new tube to float on, and I had a very, very good time. I think we all did. Anyway, here you go!

This photo was taken at the Amber Inn's parking lot prior to our group loading up in the van and shuttling down to the start-landing.

Most of our group getting ready to start. The shove-off point on the river was just out of view behind the trees on the left.

Most of our group in the water, just before I got in.

Two views from the river. The large mostly-yellow float is actually a kiddie pool.

Our only stop along the way was this tree-swing. Hoo haa lots of fun!

Another view from the river.

The end of the line. The trip lasted about 4 1/2 hours, so we were pretty tired at this point.

And here we are back at the Amber Inn parking lot. The first thing most of us did was make plans for next year. Count me in!!!

Perpetual Change

And there you are
Saying we have the moon, so now the stars
When all you see
Is near disaster gazing down on you and me
And there you're standing
Saying we have the whole world in our hands
When all you'll see
Deep inside the worlds controlling you and me.

You will see perpetual change.
You will see perpetual change.

- J. Anderson/C. Squire


This entry is a project that I let ferment for a few weeks and decided to publish at this time. Basically, back about 6 weeks ago, I took a photo of the Chippewa River near the University that I attend. The photo was taken from UWEC's footbridge and shows the point bar on the north/west bank of the river as it passes through the U's campus area. The first photo is the same one I used in a previous entry. The rest are all comparison photos, each taken a week apart.

As you can see, the river goes through a fairly low period to a much higher flow and larger volume and then back. This is typical of Midwestern rivers in the spring, the only major difference this year being that we had an awful lot of snow and spring came fairly late - compared to the last 10 years or so.

Anyways, I thought that all of you might like to see these comparisons. The photos speak for themselves; so, without much further ado, I present the "perpetually changing" Chippewa River. Enjoy!

The Seeker

I've looked under chairs
I've looked under tables
I've tried to find the key
to 50 million fables
they call me the seeker
I been searching low and high
I won't get to get what I'm after
'till the day I die. . . .



- P. Townshend



About a month ago, on Saturday, I had the opportunity to accompany one of UWEC's Geology professors, Doctor Grote, and her group of assistants on a project to find an old, abandoned iron mine entrance. This involved a trip to a site near Baraboo, Wisconsin, which is about 2 1/2 hours east of here. She sent out an e-mail to all the undergrads with geology majors asking for volunteers, giving a brief description of what was planned. I was interested because I'd like to get involved with some of the "hands-on" aspects of my chosen major as soon as possible. That, and I'd been through the area in question before and wanted to return - it's very interesting, geologically, and also very scenic. Plus, I thought that it would be fun. I contacted her and was told that I could come along with and help out any way I could. This is the story of that day.

We left Oak Lair (not its real name) in the morning in two vehicles stuffed with high-tech gear. It was snowing when we left but quickly cleared as we proceeded eastward. A few hours later we arrived at our destination without incident. We met the landowner for a preliminary information-sharing meeting. He had some old maps and some other reference sources. The maps were used to get a good "ballpark" area for what we were looking for. Then, we broke out the equipment and assembled the necessary machinery for the next phase.

What we did, for the most part, was use a ground-penetrating radar device to find the long-buried mine entrance. The GPR has the ability to "look through" the surface features and find the interface between the soil layers and the actual bedrock. Basically, what we were looking for was a bedrock/soil anomaly that would indicate the mine entrance. If multiple runs with the detector showed the anomaly in one specific area, and that area coincided with the map, we probably had what we were looking for. All that would be left would be to dig to remove the topsoil and uncover the entrance. That part would be left to some other group, at some other time.

The actual survey was done by first laying out some tape measures and then making a dry run to get a good idea of what the average topsoil layer depth was. Once that was done, we shifted our focus to the "ballpark" area found on the map. We made several runs with the GPR, sometimes switching jobs between the assistants and once taking a short break for lunch. After a few hours our electronic investigation was finished.

At the end, according to Dr. Grote, we think we found what we were looking for. There was a consistent anomaly in one area of our survey. This also jibed with the old map for the location of the mine entrance. We passed our knowledge on to the landowner, and the rest is up to him.

About the time we were finishing our search, the local geology club arrived, and we had an impromptu meeting with them. Doctor Grote explained how and what we were doing, as well as our success. Everybody pretty much hung out together for awhile, while our group from UWEC began disassembling the GPR and other equipment for our return trip. The landowner then took us all up to another area to show us what is thought to be an air/equipment/access shaft for the mine, currently filled with groundwater.

All-in-all, I had a great time, and I learned a lot. Plus, yes, it was fun. :) I really enjoyed the day; and, for all of my readers out there, I took a few photos of the event. They're captioned below. Enjoy! I did.





Shane, Brian, and Roseanne at the area in question. The anomalous spot was just to the left of Roseanne's feet in the photo.





The air/equipment/access shaft of the mine. The green stuff is algal growth on the groundwater now filling the shaft.

These next three photos are Dr. Grote, Roseanne, Brian, and Shane operating the GPR system on-site. High-tech work!

The local geology club that came to visit. Nice people!

Saturday in the Park

Slow motion riders
fly the colors of the day
A bronze man
still can
tell stories his own way
Listen children
all is not lost
all is not lost
ohh no no. . .

Funny days in the park
Every day's the Fourth of July
Funny days in the park
Every day's the Fourth of July
People reaching
people touching
a real celebration
waiting for us all. . .
If we want it
really want it
Can you dig it?
Yes I can
and I've been waiting such a long time
for the day. . . .

- R. Lamm


Hello once again! Yes, I'm still alive - I know that some of you were concerned. Well, maybe one or two of you. Maybe. :) Ya ya, I missed you all too.

There have been a few changes in my life once again. I now live in a new town - "Oak Lair", Wisconsin. I'm still unemployed, but now I'm attending the local university and studying for a geology major.

This winter, in both Black River Falls and here in Oak Lair, it snowed like a sunofabitch this year, prolly at least, oh, lessee, umm, 'bout 35-40 feet of the white shit, total. It's like it snowed every damn day! That made life a real pain in the butt for me and the others around here. However, it's now April, and all of that winter nonsense is now DONE WITH! Today was the first 60 F day of the year, and a Saturday, so I was one happy camper. :) :) :) :)

I anticipate doing a significant amount of fishing this year, so today I planned on getting a Wisconsin fishing license. The Wisconsin DNR is just down the road from the campus, so I figured I would walk over there and get one. This would also allow me to take photos of my relatively new hometown along the way. I guess that I wasn't the only citizen with cabin fever - it seemed like the whole city was out and about today. It was worth it.

I'm finding out that Oak Lair is a very nice place, and I'm enjoying myself here very much. So far, in college, I'm taking one chemistry course and two geology courses. I'm doing good in all three; but, as usual, I know that I can do better - so that's what I try to do.

The people here are really nice - both at and away from the university. In just a few months I've made a lot of friends. I also have a local tavern that I frequent (the burgers there are excellent) where I have even more friends. It helps that I cheered for the Packers when they made a pretty good showing in the playoffs and also pulled for the Badgers in the recent NCAA basketball tournament.

The only bad thing of late has been the absolutely atrocious weather this winter. There was more snow this year than any I'd seen since I was a wee teenager back in central Minnesota; circa ummm errrr, never mind. :) A while back, anyway. The point of this blog-entry is that that season has now passed on to something far more pleasant. People, it was a gorgeous day out there today and IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!!!!!!!!!!

To provide a little historical background, Oak Lair (not it's real name :)) was founded as a logging town on the confluence of two rivers, the Chippewa and the Oak Lair. The Chippewa is a pretty good-sized river, and it's a pretty easy run down to the Mississippi. Business was good, and the city prospered and diversified. It was one of the first cities in Wisconsin with a university. The city is also pretty close to the Minnesota border, so some of that good stuff rubbed off on Oak Lair. :) :) :) Anyways, it was recognized that this was a nice place way back when, and it still is today.

Well, that's enough verbosity. Like I wrote, it was a nice day, this is a nice place, here are some nice pictures. :) Enjoy!

A creek runs through the university campus and flows into the Chippewa, here. As you can see, there is still some snow and ice around. Hopefully not for long. :)

This is a photo of the Oak Lair River, looking upstream from a bridge downtown. The recent snow melt has really raised the level and flow of both rivers in town.

This photo is a close-up of the right-hand bank of the above photo. Notice how far the water is being pushed up the downed tree (about a foot, by my estimate). Quite the flow!

This is a picture of the Chippewa River from the UWEC campus. The confluence with the campus creek is just off the photo to the left. Notice the people in the boat fishing.

This is a shot from the footbridge over the Chippewa at the campus. The students like to make sculptures along the bank with the rocks, and you can see that some of that is covered up by the swollen river.

This is one of the residence halls on campus. In the foreground is a basketball court chock-full of students enjoying today's pleasantness.

Towards the end of my walk I encountered a nice lady who was busy making art with sidewalk chalk. We started talking and were soon joined by a few other people.

The next thing I knew there were about a half-dozen people busy making art while I spectated. :) Nice people, nice time!

Well, I sure did enjoy myself today. I do hope that I conveyed some of that enjoyment to you people out there in cyberspace! I am sorry that it's been awhile since my last post. Oh - and I almost forgot to tell you - that DNR place where I was going in the first place? It's closed on Saturday. Did that bother me? Not today. . . .

Mood for a Day

As I wrote in my previous entry, I spent my Saturday (the first blue-sky day in 2 weeks) taking in the scenery at a nearby lake. The place I was at is called Wazee Lake County Park. It's quite unusual, in that it's a man-made lake formed from an old iron mine.

The Jackson County Iron Mine produced iron from taconite from the 1960s to the 1980s. It is located about 3 miles northeast of Black River Falls. When the market became unviable, the mine closed; and the pit filled up with water. A few years later, the area was reclaimed and turned into a park. It has about 10 miles worth of walking trails and another 10 of biking trails. The lake itself is the deepest in Wisconsin.

One of the interesting activities at Wazee Lake is SCUBA diving. There is a SCUBA shop nearby, and the lake itself has 3 areas specifically for putting-in of divers. It's also a non-motorized lake, but you can canoe it. I talked to a few divers who were coming out of the lake, and they told me that there are HUGE fish in the lake; and that nobody fishes it. That'll change. :) :) :) :)

There is also a very-fine-sanded beach at the east end. From what I understand, during the summer it's supposed to be the local cruise spot for the 20's-or-so year-old set. I haven't had a chance to verify that, yet. :) :) :) :)

There is also a link for the mine with more information and photos of the pit in operation here: http://www.uwrf.edu/~wc01/JacksonFe.html

Anyways, the pictures speak for themselves. It was a beautiful day, as I wrote; and we are in the middle of fall color here. For the most part, the photos show my progress around the lake, counter-clockwise, from the southwest end. One photo (third one down) also shows the clarity of the lake water - in it you can see an old tree that is now underwater. A cool place, and I had a great time there. Enjoy! And please let me know what you think.

Eclipse

There is no dark side of the moon, really -
matter of fact it's all dark.

- background voice at the end of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album.


This post will seem a little odd, even for me. I want to get the funny stuff out of the way first, as I have a few other posts planned.

It has been raining here pretty much every day for the last two weeks. Very dreary, depressing weather; and my mood reflected it. I didn't get out much. Today, when I woke up, there was sunshine. I needed to go have some fun, so I did.

It's mid-fall here, and the trees are turning color. I decided to go a few miles out of town, to a man-made lake, and take my camera with me. I figured that I'd show all of you what a little fall color looks like around here. There were other things to take pictures of, too.

Well, there I was, having fun and taking more than a few photos. I was walking along a trail through the woods near this lake when, all of a sudden, there was a noise like I've never heard before. I looked to where the sound came from, and this is what I saw. I quickly snapped the photo:

What did I get? Nothing less than the ass-end of a porcupine! What I had heard was the little shit raising it's quills. Then it turned away from me. The SOB was mooning me!!! I guess that even the dumb animals here have figured out that I'm in exile from Minnesota. :( Prolly cussed me out too. And farted.

Believe it or not, this the first time I've ever encountered a porkypine in the wild. I've seen and/or been around most other Midwestern wild critters, but this was a first for me. Hell, I haven't even seen one of these as roadkill. I feel lucky that it wasn't drunk and didn't attack. I hear that their quills are tipped with deadly poison and also explode. I didn't even dare moon it back. Fucker.

Anyways, that was only part of my adventure today. The rest is on the way, keep an eye on the next few posts, OK? And don't sit on anything with quills. :) :) :)

Surfin' Bird

Well everybody knows that the bird is the word. . . .

- Frazier/White/Harris/Wilson


Black River Falls, Wisconsin is about an hour's easy drive on I-94 from a very cool place known as Wisconsin Dells. "The Dells" is known as a huge tourist attraction for a couple of reasons. First and foremost are the outstanding geologic formations along the Wisconsin River. The area has also developed into the midwest's premier water park mecca - a Disneyland with a water-based theme. One fine day this summer, my mother, niece, nephew, and two of their friends, went there. We had decided that the day would be split into two parts; first we'd go see the lower dells on a "duck", and then we'd visit a water park.

People who know me know that I'm a world war 2 nut. I like to say that I "study" the war. I also like to build scale WW2 ground-based equipment as a hobby. Seeing the real thing, whether a rebuild or a reproduction, provides me with a major thrill. Wisconsin Dells is famous for its rebuilt WW2-era DUKWs, or "ducks". Needless to be said, a trip there (for me) was something I'd planned on a long while back - hence the first part of our day there.

During world war 2, the GMC corporation modified it's CCKW 353 6x6 truck (the infamous "deuce-and-a-half") into an amphibious version. This became the DUKW. The DUKWs were needed by U.S. military forces because of the requirement of putting troops and equipment ashore (and inland) from troop and supply ships in both the European and Pacific theatres. From what I've read and seen, the "ducks" performed this function admirably. By the end of the war, 21,000 DUKWs had been produced; and the U.S. military forces also acquired more of them post-war before cancelling the contracted builds.

After the war ended, it was realized that it was too expensive to re-deploy the overseas-employed ducks back to the U.S.A. Many of them were sold to the countries they were in, many others "given" to those countries. The DUKWs still left in the states were sold as surplus and/or scrapped. Shortly after the end of WW2, an enterprising entrepreneur from Wisconsin Dells bought some surplus machines and started giving tours on them. Thusly were the "Wisconsin Ducks" hatched. :)

Okay, now that the background information is done, on to the fun part. :)

When we got to the duck-ride area, we were pretty early. We had to wait for about 45 minutes before the first ride went out. We knew which machine we would be riding, so I took the opportunity to talk to the guys getting it ready to go out. One of them was our driver. I must have conveyed a keen interest, because he let me sit at the very front during the trip; and he also "popped the hood" (hey, I just asked for shits and grins) to let me see the original engine. He also answered the myriad of questions I hit him up with during the trip. The first three photos below are of the duck we rode, the third being the in-line 6 cylinder petrol engine in its compartment.

The round-trip tour itself lasts about an hour. It goes through part of town, then into Lake Delton. After that, it travels overland again to the Wisconsin River to see the lower part of the dells. Then, it goes overland back into town to where it started. All-in-all, it's very scenic. People in town wave at you. Ducks (the feathered type that goes "quack") swim by. The engine roars, the gears grind, and the damn thing shakes like a mofo at better than 35 mph - on land. In the water, the ride is smooth as silk at about 5-6 mph.

Some things about the DUKW that I didn't know until the trip: It is a chore to drive this thing. Like I wrote above, I sat up front, right next to the driver - he worked pretty hard. Each axle can be engaged or disengaged as desired for the various amphibious terrain (there are three driven axles - it's still a 6x6). The 3-bladed screw is 45 inches high. Fully-loaded, the DUKW can come out of or go into water at a 45 degree angle, even towing a trailer! On land top speed is just a little under 40 mph.

This is a photo taken just after entering the Wisconsin River. Only the 2 orange lights (required by Wisconsin traffic laws) are not part of the original DUKW build.




These next two photos were taken from the duck while we were in the Wisconsin River. This area is known as the "lower dells". The sandstone formation is Cambrian-era, known as the Potsdam formation. Note, in both photos, how the lower part of the formation is not flat-bedded, but angled, compared to the upper parts.

After our duck ride, we all got into the car and drove a few blocks away to a place called "Noah's Ark". The kids were very excited to go there, and I could see why. The place is chock-full of rides, water-slides, and other fun stuff. We spent the better part of 5 hours there, and everybody had fun (and I had the sunburn to prove it). Noah's Ark is a good family venue. For a family of 5, it'll cost a c-note; but, imo, it's well worth it. You can stay all day, or come and go as you please (they give you a wrist band at the gate). In the 5 hours we were there, not even the kids went on all the rides that they have there. I went on about half of them, because some are a little too tall for my acrophobia to handle. The place was full of people the entire time.

The place is huge, also. There are places to buy food there, and a bar or two. In short, it's got EVERYTHING. Two wave pools. More water-slides than you can shake a wet stick at. The roller coaster gets EVERYBODY wet. Floating bumper cars! You name it, if it can have water in it, on it, or through it, it's there. Quite the fun day, even for this 40-plus year-old who came to ride a duck. :)

These next three photos show what I mean. I put the camera back in the car after about 10 minutes (that's why there are so few photos of Noah's Ark) because I wanted to have some fun in the water, too. The first is one of the 2 wave pools. The next shows one of the many water-slide rides (many of which have more than one chute). The last photo shows the up-ramp for the 4-person rafts used on that particular water-slide (I got halfway up the stairs for that one before deciding it was too high for me). :) :)

My goodness what a fun day we all had!! I know that the kids sure enjoyed Noah's Ark (they couldn't wait to get there and didn't want to leave) and so did my mom and I. What a thrill it was for me to be riding in that fine summer Wisconsin breeze to the tune of that roaring DUKW engine!! The smile on my face couldn't have been bigger. The rides at Noah's Ark, for me, where merely gravy on an already fantastic day. Would I go back? In a heartbeat, and another trip is already planned. Stay tuned! I'll keep you all posted.