They said - "when you are in the hills - make a lot of noise - best to sing loudly - then the bears know you are there and can wander away - unless of course they are really hungry...". After 8 hours walking I had exhausted my knowledge of carols, hymns and folk songs and had switched to marches (Col Bogey, Great Escape...) - the gentleman pictured was "just trying out his new rifle" - sitting in the cab of his truck, up a closed off forest road, not in deer hunting season at all, in the middle of nowhere, and blowing on his deer call. Only to hear the strains of the Dam Busters march coming back loud and clear and some crazy limey comes jogging round the corner - arms outstretched in bomber position... at least I got a lift back to civilisation

The commander of the US 9th Army (Alaska) could not make it - urgent business in Hawaii - so he sent is deputy and his chaplain (right - from Alabama and not at all enjoying the weather)

Re-enactment of the Transfer of Alaska from Imperial Russia to the US (it was hard to make a profit when you had to ship the otter furs all the way back to Moscow). The dignatory read out the date of accession for each state - all 50 - and for each one a shot was fired - it took a long time and it was very cold, very wet and very windy...

Alaska Day - The whole town was on parade and even a miltary flypast

A hearty meal at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral - Sitka, "Did you like the Salmon Pie? - My grandmother made the Salmon Pie!"

View into the hinterland north from Sitka - Baranof Island - 85 miles from North to South - 15 miles of road - all in Sitka, 8000 population - all in Sitka - if you head north from Sitka you will pass no settlements, no roads and almost no trails until you run out of island...

Boardwalk - Sitka, Alaska - saw no one all day, no marks of recent human passage - just bear footprints - BIG bear footprints.

The 9th Army band, down from Anchorage for the Alaska Day Ceremonies - Modern Jazz - not so hot, but the Glenn Miller tribute - Brilliant!

They breed them tough up here - Surfing - Northern Pacific, Alaska, it has just stopped snowing, it is late October...

Sitka - 5th largest city in the Alaska - population 8000!

When in Seattle...

Imperial Pines @ Mt St Helens - click on the picture and enlarge - makes my eyes go wonky

I went all the way to Sitka, Alaska - why - because of this little tree - the Sitka Spruce - the favourite of British Agro-forestry - fast growing and very very spiky to run through...

The tiny white dot is Mount Hood - excellent!

The Oregon Trail - or a little part of it at least

Click this link to hear the sound of 3 army chinooks playing over crater lake - stange, really strange (well if you have a decent separation between your left and right speakers that is - otherwise it sounds rather dull)

From the east rim of Crater Lake - you can see 100 miles and it is all trees...

Crater lake again (no it is not what you think - is a water level gauge

This is my first view of Crater Lake - magic

Every morning - two "wraps" for lunch - Subway - only fast food place in the US you can always get healthy food with green bits, even

Autumn colours at Mt St Helens

Mount St Helen's - according to the park ranger "Like, totally gnarly day, you lucked out - it's been rain and fog all month"

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge - now why is this the first place I visited in Washington?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge

First meal in Seattle - $4.95 and 1500 kcal 

Greenland - from 39,000 feet - it was a view like this that got me going on my trip to Baffin Island

Road to Hell's Canyon/Snake River - Very empty, Very twisty, Very Fun - but remember to avoid hitting 4x4 trucks in the back when they politely but unexpectedly brake to let you pass.

A failed confluence visit - "The get-off-my-land of the free"

Another easy confluence - http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=11579 Wagon Tire - pop 2 - was shut - therefore no petrol station in 206 miles of driving

This confluence was a tough one - http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=11378

Another confluence visit - easy-peasy! http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=11590

Only in Covent Garden...

Detour on the way to ACPMM evening in London: "We are not sending them back"

Bill and Ian: It is tough at the top!

Team Bonding @ Bill's Favourite - the Balti Hut - I had PODINAH -"Tender sliced marinated lamb cooked with fresh mint, yoghurt & cocktail sauce. A very aromatic and tasty dish"

Chez Ed: Not so much a conservatory more a second home... unfortunately there isn't a 45 deg. or 30 deg. angle anywhere in the design - those roof fittings are going to cost!!!!

Dinner @ Ryebank Close - Phil had been to Uzbekistan... perhaps that saffron was not such a bargain after all... the rest was very nice though.. thanks Anke!

The BRITISH TEAM at Region 1 ARDF Championships in Serbia (As team manager I got to have drinkies with the dignatories- including the (?now disgraced?) Defence Minister of Serbia and Montenegro.

The full blog can be found here or at http://ardfserbia2005.blogspot.com/

We went to Merry Hill - In search of an inexpensive "Pink MP3 Player"... however the only pink one was the iPOD-mini - looks like Bethan did her research...

I am getting new company car...

August trip to visit my last few Berwyn Summits - this is the view back down the valler from close by the Pistyll Rhaeadr. Avoid the great unwashed by arrving VERY EARLY IN THE MORNING!

Across the top of Pistyll Rhaeadr

Cadair Berwyn on the Left - from the footpath between Moel Sych and Pistyll Rhaeadr

Moel Sych - looking towards Cadair Berwyn

Another "Non-Summit" - Berwyn No 3 on the Moss List (SJ098352) - 617m high - 2km there and back, all in deep heather, and with treacherous hidden trenches near the top

Rubus chamaemorus

Yes there really are cloudberrys on the Berwyns - not going to let on exactly where - there are not many at all - no fruit this year either:


"The late William Condry wrote in his book 'The Natural History of Wales': "Quite a folklore has grown up about cloudberry, dating back to the early days of the Berwyn village of Llanrhaiadr-ym-Mochnant whose church is dedicated to the Celtic saint Dogfan. His annual stipend, tradition says, was a quart of Berwyn berries. In other words he often got nothing. As a parish historian reported last century: 'So scarce is the fruit in some years that a quart of the berries cannot be had throughout the range. The writer, in the year 1869, after a most diligent search was only able to secure some half-dozen berries.'

"A later cloudberry tradition was the claim that anyone who could provide the rector of Llanrhaiadr with a quart of Berwyn berries would be excused payment of his church rates and tithes for one year. There is also the story of Sir Watkin Williams Wyn who offered five shillings (then a fair sum) for a pot of the berries. He also sent a man to get a root of it off Berwyn and had it planted in his garden at Llangedwyn. But there it refused to grow."


As far as I know there are just three places in Wales where this remnant from the ice age survives - Y Berwyn, Plynlimon and a "moss" near Wrexham

Memorial stone at Pen Bwlch Llandrillo - read the story behind this and an challenging winter crossing (that is when we had winters) at http://www.conwyctc.fsnet.co.uk/pages/wayfarer.htm

Self portrait - our-lady-of-the-roads - a wet Friday afternoon - and so many candles - in 15 minutes two other cars stopped to visit the shrine.

My little "Polo" - rather nice indeed

With the Family Hess in Eslohe, Meschede - starndard fare - Pferrerlinge Suppe and then pork loin - with a lovely sauce and some mashed fennel