Ok, it has been wet and rainy, some mix with snow. I have been somewhat obsessed with trying to get a day time long exposure photo with good results. I found my Canon 30d has an bottom limit ASA of 100 kinda hard to slow it down below 2-3 seconds with a polarizing filter. I could slap a ND filter on there, but I think the stack would show in the wide angle shots.
On Tuesday I went up to the upper, lower Cambell trac and when for a short hike to get to the slot canyon. Damn it, out of batteries. This failed photographic expedition represented the first time my 30d has dried the battery in the field .
Halloween morning I took my son down the inlet to hike out Indian valley and photograph Indian creek. The weather was dark and misting at 11 am when we left. I left the road map on the kitchen counter (which I need to find the little road to the Indian trail head).
After a few wrong turns off the Seward Hwy I find the right road/trail to Indian valley trail head. By now it's pouring and down here (in Anchorage it was about 1500) the snow level was about 500 feet. At the parking lot it is dark, muddy, and really raining and there are no other cars.
Chance, being 6 does not have the best Gore-Tex hiking gear so I am thinking our trek will be short.
We hit the trail with much enthusiasm, but the trail is in horrible shape, like a swamp. Looks like there was a hurricane here. I make a mental note to ask Tom Crockett (head Ranger 'round here) next time I see him. we hike a while while I worry about Chances feet getting wetter and wetter as we go on. Chance tends to want to hike and hike until he is done and then he is DONE; not thinking about the return hike.
We make it about a mile on the muddy, soggy trail. We stop and snap a few photos here and there, but it's really to much of a mess. It looks like a tank came through here. I know if we go much further Chance will get cold and wet.
We turn around, all in agreement. At an intersection with the powerline we follow the powerline back to the parking lot. The trail turns out to be much better in the wide open clearing under the powerline (Many of our trails here follow the powerlines).
Along the way we find a small camp, apparently long deserted but with two tents; one still standing, one flattened, but both good quality. I would never take a tent from the woods when there is a possibility that someone is using it and is gone for the day. As an off note, Wrangle National park a few months back had a report of a missing hiker (an experienced backpacker on a photo trip) from the pilot who was supposed to pick him up in the bush (his camp was 30 miles from the nearest road). What action did the NPS take? A day or so later they flew back up to the camp (still no sign of him) and picked up all his gear. I am not kidding: Packed up all his food, tent and everything else in his camp. If he had been injured and just late back to camp, that would have been a death sentence. At this point his being alive is equal to him showing up at the Mexican border with a great tan. If the tent is still there after snow is one the ground and there is still no sign of activity, I might grab those tents up.
We return to the truck and shed our wet cloths and head home to prepare for Halloween.