England in September

We're in the early (very early) stages of planning a trip to the UK in September. A daunting proposition. Unsurprisingly, we're looking for history and lots of cemeteries, and hopefully some ghost-hunting opportunities.

And we find that, in England, there's a fundamental distinction between a cemetery and a "churchyard", and that at initial and post-initial blush, we are unable to find any evidence of a comprehensive online guide to either. Which means, destination by destination, we'll have to find them by province...or *shire, or...um, maybe asking around.

We did find a blog on London cemeteries, and we'll probably reach out to this nice lady at some point soon, although she has not been updating her site recently. We're planning to stay with Chris during our stay in London, and he lives (reckoning via Google maps) about six blocks from Old Brompton, one of the so-called Magnificent Seven of London's cemeteries.

So far, it looks like York, Cambridge, Isle of Wight, Stonehenge...and in London, the Tower and Westminster Abbey. Nine months away, of course, all this is subject to change. Including going at all, which may betray a sliver of sanity on my part.

What's up w/ SNOTEL?

Just as the snows start falling this week, and those of us eager to see basin snowpacks recover from their anemic levels Dec-early Jan, SNOTEL looks like it's down.

Grrr....

Saying goodbye to the high?

The stubborn dome of high pressure that has been send snowstorms north and around Colorado and Utah appears to be running out of juice - the good folks at snowforecast.com are promising heavy snows toward the end of this month.

Went up yesterday, only fourth day so far this season. Awesome weather, and for a thin-cover day, the snow was actually not too bad. Got in 23 runs, then came home to watch the Patriots dismantle the Broncos. Should have stuck it out for 24.

Permits

Happy New Year - sorry for the prolonged absence.

It does appear that the Monticello BLM office has updated their website and their river calendar , both of which have benefitted from a refresh.

The only main difference I see in this year's San Juan application is the addition of a "minimum group size" on the app, basically suggesting that if you really just want to go with your spouse, and others are all "maybe's", you can apply for a minimum of two and increase your odds of a launch date. Presumably, this also is to weed out the applicants who end up scoring a permit for 20 and only launch 7, leaving small groups left without a launch. Nice idea, if those big parties actually play along.

The downside, as I see it, is that the BLM is likely to put more individual parties on the river and potentially produce a nasty bottleneck at the Slickhorns. After last year's ordeal of anemic flow and 25mph upstream winds all day long on our takeout date, this has me a little worried. To say nothing of actually getting a 2 person launch and gently (or not so gently) pushed into one of the slummier last-night sites, like Trimble (which basically doesn't exist anymore after 2010's flash flood) or Steer Gulch, which is a mucky bug swarm.

This is a feature we'll probably take advantage of this year, regardless.

Snow?

Typical for the way this season has been going, Boulder got about 8" or 9" of snow overnight...and Loveland got 3", their first snow in a week. I'd go up tomorrow (Friday, two days before Xmas), but a) I have a Yonder story to do b) I still have Xmas shopping and c) it's supposed to be 8 degrees for a high temp. I am losing my shyness about avoiding stupid-cold weather.

After last year's riotous, snowpack-record-smashing La Nina (was it really La Nina, or maybe just a wet winter?), Upper Colorado is meekly clutching at 68% SWE, and Dolores/Animas at 79% thus far. Not quite calamatous, plenty of show season to go (oh yeah, Happy Solstice), but we are way behind where we were last year.

And the self-bailer thing? Eh...Sharon is sharply skeptical...so we'll hold off for now.

Xmas approaches. Enjoy, everyone...

Self-bailer?

Well, we're toying with the notion of getting a self-bailer this coming year. They're not cheap (even decent used ones), but deep in the not-rafting-season, we're giving it some thought.

Boat. Frame. Oars. Trailer. Cha-ching.

We'll see.

Busy writing season

Four pieces in five weeks, Leftover Salmon (who's recording a new CD in a few months, so I'm guessing my resolution to quit covering them is probably out the window), Mickey Hart, Trace Bundy and Greg Harris. Two more to do in the next couple of weeks.

And no, I'm not linking to them (bad blogger !!!). At least not yet.