Thursday, August 30, 2007

Pediatric Dentistry

I compiled these images and put them into a slide show just for fun.

Windy day in Bandon

Bandon Oregon gets some windy days and we were playing with our cameras. Gay took this picture of me and I took the images of the Coast Guard practicing surfing skills in a big boat. There are also some pelicans touring the beach.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Umpqua River Photo Trip


This is what we call Umpqua River gridlock. Some turkeys in a traffic jam have to see what the hold up is ahead.
The weather was in transition with rain off and on. It made for a beautiful trip. We kept putting rain gear away then getting it out. The tent was a disappointment. We had 2 inches of rain water inside the tent. The items we were most concerned with were with us in the tent and got wet. This did not dampen the enthusiasm for the great trip.

This is a view before you get to the rapid at the Big K ranch.
This is the wide rapid that has a lot of currents that come in at different angles making it difficult. The foam with a big rock in the middle encouraged us to portage this drop.
The overcast day made diffused light, for great picture taking. I liked the erosion patterns of the sandstone river bed.
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Saturday, August 4, 2007

Native caones on Empire Lakes


Doug Barett from the Confederated tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians teaches youth to paddle a head canoe on Empire Lakes. Note the cedar wreath on the bow and the cedar hat on Doug.

















The race is on a "Head" canoe vs a "Yourk" canoe. Both of these boats were used in this area by the local people. The Head canoe was faster but not as fast as our Mad River canoe. Our advantage was being a thousand pounds lighter and having seats where the paddles reached the water better. We also had a 40 year experience advantage.

Bob Sleeth came out to paddle different types of canoes. He has much patience to put up with my incessant lecturing on how to canoe. Here he is paddling a Royalex Mad River. The afternoon winds were making it difficult to control so he shifted his weight to sit in the front seat backwards. You can still see the bow is out of the water and wanted to weather cock in the wind.

Everyone needs to know where is the tipping point for your boat. Bob is finding out for himself how far can you lean before you swim. He kept the canoe dry in this experiment. I was impressed with his courage, bracing the canoe with only one hand on the paddle.
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