Red Mountain Hike

I took this picture Sunday, September 13th but when I began to add my title to the blog I discovered it was printing in Hindi.  After becoming frustrated with trying to change it I gave up until today.  Cooler head prevailed and I was able to understand the help advice someone posted on Bloggers FAQ. 

We left Fort Collins to drive up to Red Mountain Open Space to retrace the hike I had done in the moonlight in July.  It was easy to see why the open space is named Red Mountain.  Almost everywhere you look the soil is red.  Some of the areas have sandstone and quartz, but the red predominates.  Although I would have doubted it (during the moonlight hike) the trail is just over 2 miles and is a wonderful trail for someone like me who has been spending too much time on the couch.  It makes a loop from the parking lot through the canyon in the picture to The Big Hole, then around the south ridge and back to the stream.     The stream is still flowing which makes the stepping stones across the water welcome.  The weather was perfect for the entire hike, with clouds moving in to bring some rain as we drove back to Fort Collins.
On the way back we saw this stump which looked like a pump from a distance.  It was positioned on a somewhat hollowed out slope next to the trail.

Some pictures of Red Mountain from the July hike before the sun went down are  posted in my Flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/27063931@N05/3749062117/ 

 

Soapstone Open Space

Susan and I went to the Archeology talk about the Lindemeier site at Soapstone Open Space yesterday, May 16, 2009. There were beautiful views of the mountains. We learned that the Coffin brothers actually discovered what is now labeled "Folsom Points" before they were discovered and publicized in Folsom NM. They were excited about the discovery but didn't get any attention from anyone until the 1930's. Our lecturer was Dr. Jason LaBelle from CSU and he pointed out the dark line on the arroyo which is the layer that is identified as the layer from the Folsom people period.

With all the rain we have had there were lots of wildflowers and mushrooms.

Moonlight x/c Ski

Oh, how I wish I had had a camera last night. My "Don't Hike Alone" group drove to the Colorado State Moose Visitor's Center for the Moonlight x/c Ski and Snowshoe Night last night. We arrived before sundown around 5:15 and had a glorious view of the surrounding mountains tipped by the setting sun. Everyone bemoaned not having a camera to capture it. I guess we will all have to rely on our mental pictures of the sight.

We collected glow in the dark bracelets and headed down the trail as the sunlight slowly faded. The moon was visible with only a few clouds in the sky. One of our number commented that it was a 9/10s full moon, not completely full. However full it was it was gorgeous and lit the trail with the help of various glow sticks to mark the trail.

Conditions couldn't have been better. There was plenty of snow, moonlight and no wind. The temperature was warm enough that many of us had to remove extra layers. There was the silence of the night broken only by the occasional skiers and people on snowshoes. Not only were the two footed critters out but we met our fair share of four footed companions. At least 4 skiers with their huskies pulling them up and down the trail. Some dogs had blinking lights to alert the trail users that they were there.

I had a great time and only the one fall on the last leg. I lost my balance and twisted my ankle on a basically flat part of the trail, how lame is that?

Reflections on PSD 23 Things

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

The puzzle maker from a picture was one of my favorite discoveries. Exploring online applications that I had never heard of and trying to see how they might be used in an educational setting.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

I was aware that there were podcasts available but I had not really explored this area and I think that I will continue to explore it for lifelong learning as it is another tool for my toolbox.


Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I think I may work on blogging more since I created the one I did for this class.


If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

Yes I’m always interested in what is new and may be useful to my endeavors.

Audiobooks

I discovered NetLibrary at the FCPL web site last spring. I was hoping that I would find some picture audio books that my students would be able to listen to as they looked at the book. Even though much of the story is available in the pictures some of our students need someone to read to them and I thought that we could download them to the in class computers and let them listen as they looked at the pictures. . I guess the concept hasn’t occurred to NetLibrary, since there are very few books that would fall into that category available.
I downloaded one of the Jungle Book stories by Kipling and discovered that if I didn’t have time to listen to the whole thing at my computer I would have to start all over from the beginning to listen to it. I couldn’t figure out a way to stop it and restart it at the place I left off. I decided I needed a portable solution and I went to the page that told what players worked best with NetLibrary. As a result I purchased a “Creative Zen” mp3 player and have downloaded books from the Audible.com site that advertised one free book. Now I am hooked I guess.

Podcasting

I went to both Podcast Alley and Odeo. The different language podcasts were alluring, but I didn't decide to go that way for my educational podcast. I tried to get the Hubblecast vodcast to show a couple of times, but was too impatient to wait until it completed the loading process as it seemed to be stuck very close to the end and not progressing any further. I also tried Ed Tech, but decided their openings were far too long, if I was impatient with it wouldn't others be? I finally settled on Our Ocean World that is just a podcast and got down to brass tacks almost immediately. The one I have linked to is about a sea squirt, but they also have podcasts on Seals, whales and other ocean stories.

You Tube

I've watched several YouTube videos in the past year, but I like this one I found tonight and decided to add it to my post.

PlayingForChange
October 31, 2008


The power of music to bring hope and inspiration is more than evident in this clip (cover of Tracy Chapman's song, "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution") from the township outside of Cape Town where we just...
The power of music to bring hope and inspiration is more than evident in this clip (cover of Tracy Chapman's song, "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution") from the township outside of Cape Town where we just built our first connected music school. Join the Movement to help build and connect more schools and students...www.playingforchange.com