Environment
January 30th, 2010
Tai Shan is leaving National Zoo today for the Giant Panda Breeding Center, Chengdu, China. Video of Tai Shan at the National Zoo made him the most popular Panda ever. Thousands tuned in daily to watch his clumsy antics. All pandas are the property of the Chinese government, on loan for breeding programs around the world, and all must return home. Pandas live in the mountains of Sichuan mainly, but are represented in two other provinces.
Continued appropriation of their bamboo woods habitat has led to designation of them as an endangered species. Captive breeding has reasonable success, but there is not enough habitat to warrant reintroduction to the wild. China’s increasing population leaves little hope of that changing.
We recently rode our bicycle from Chengdu across the SW China mountains (Himalayas and Tibetan plateau). We began in Chengdu and visited the Giant Panda Breeding Center. Lucky, our stuffed panda, made the visit with and was not sure what to think of the really really big (to him) pandas. We did not see any pandas as we climbed through the life zones of the mountains. Though we certainly saw enough bamboo, it was interspersed with villages, farms and other human uses of the land.
Some Photos from the Giant Panda Breeding Center in Chengdu:
 Lucky at the Giant Panda Breeding Center, Chengdu, China
 Giant panda doing what pandas do best, eat.  Breakfast  Focused on food  This panda found a stash of bamboo, and a good place to watch tourists  A young panda looking for trouble  Panda Cubs Like Climbing  The Chinese love their pandas!
March 3rd, 2008
White Sands National Monument sure can look like snow. It even crunches under tires like very cold snow. Spooky.
Cold on the feet too, in the early morning after a cold night.
 Lots more life than expected. The gypsum holds water and the plants are able to get water even when it hasn’t rained in months. All they have to worry about are rockets falling from the sky from the White Sands Missile Range.
June 11th, 2007
 June 10, Vedauwoo, Wyoming. We decided to check out a SE Wyoming bouldering spot; the photos we saw at the Wyoming Welcome Center reminded us of a place in Australia called Devil’s Marbles. It is on BLM land, so the camping was cheap, and half price for me, so we decided to make a day of it and stay the night. The hike around Turtle Rock, from the campground, was four or five miles, just right, and we had lots of daylight. We got distracted by a little bouldering of our own: Claire surprised me by asking to try a little climbing and she did very well. If I remember the old system, we might have done some 5.2, hard core! It was really fun, but the top was truly vertical and we had no gear, so we passed and made our way back down to the trail and finished the hike.
June 6th, 2007
 Dinosaur National Monument Panorama Panorama in Dinosar NM (you should see it large)
 We parked at an overlook near the top of Douglas pass, and after a run-in with a curious cow butting Turtle on the grill, had a peaceful, cool night in aspen country. The next day we spent the morning of June 4, hiking and photographing Freemont rock art of Canyon Pintado for a future story. Then we drove to Dinosaur National Monument Canyon Area visitor center and decided to explore the Harpers Corner road and hike the trail to the Green/Yampa River overlook, a truly spectacular vista of colorful rocks and deep gorges. It was nice to change the sagebrush juniper scents for the pitchy scent of pinon pine and crisp air of 7,000 feet. There were new wildflowers, or perhaps stunted versions of familiar ones; the globe mallow that grows to four feet in Tucson and was maybe four inches here. I would consider this canyon section of Dinosaur NP to be a real hidden gem of the park system. Most people go to the Vernal, Utah entrance where the dino bones are kept, and though nice, it is not as spectacular or remote in feeling as the Canyon District. Having BLM nearby for bush camping is a plus.
 At the overlook we conversed with a pleasant couple from Virginia out for a fast-paced three-month trip in their new class-c. When the subject turned to age, the man and I (we expect an email with their id’s any day) turned out to have the same birth date of 6.7.44, or the day after D-day, the beginning of the end of WWII. Neither of us had ever met anyone born on that day, so we posed for our wives. After that long busy day, we found a county road onto BLM land, drove a couple of miles and had yet another million dollar view for a bush camp (boondocks are in parking lots or on main road, bush camps are hidden on public lands). We had some spectacular clouds that had us wondering about getting stuck, but got only a few sprinkles. The cows left Turtle alone.
BLM bush camp among the sagebrush and cows. Clouds provided only a few sprinkles, thankfully.
June 5. Craig. Colorado.
The library has no wi fi, but we found a hot spot at a local hotel, and parked across the street. We tried to find the manager of the Moffat County Fairgrounds, but failed; we stayed anyway but felt we should leave early. Avoiding those RV parks takes a lot of work sometimes. June 6. Craig. High winds and the local Hot Shots are busy chasing down small fires from lightning and winds are gusting to 50mph. Following this is a cold front our weather radio will take night temps down to the mid 20’s; from summer hot to winter cold in two days. It’s springtime in the Rockies! We were going to ride Rabbit Ears Pass east of Steamboat Springs, but snow and cold are forecast for several days. Bummer. We will work here a couple of days and see what comes next.
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Lucky at the Giant Panda Breeding Center, Chengdu, China
