These are all 1024x768 resolution....

Hope you Enjoy!

The girls stopped by to say hi

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/3moreelk.jpg

Then it was time to give the new snow plow a work out...

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/snowtractor.jpg

Once the driveway was cleared it was off to see how the bike worked with its 2nd new studded snow tire....

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/snowroad1.jpg

The temp was in the teens. The same old scenes were.....cool

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/5mile1.jpg


talk about a postcard....

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/5mile2.jpg

Even with studded front and back tires, it was sometimes challenge to get through the new snow

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/snowbike1.jpg

A pause to enjoy the river, which is powered by geothermal heat melting the white glacier on Mt. Rainier

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/whiteriver1.jpg

And back to the house to see the moon rise in the east

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/viewfromhome.jpg

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

WOW!

Great pictures. Thanks for the post!

Yesterday we had a full day of lousy rain out here in the NE. No real snow yet to try out my new snow tires...

__________________

Current:
2014 VW Tiguan SEL 4Motion 43,000 miles.

2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (wife's).

Past:
2006 Jetta TDI 135,970 miles. Sold Nov. '13.
1995 E-320 Special Edition. 220,200 miles. Sold Sept. '07.
1987 190-E 16 valve. 153,000 miles. Sold Feb. '06.
1980 300-D 225,000 miles. Donated to the National Kidney Foundation.
1980 240-D manual, 297,500 miles. Totaled by inattentive driver.

Once again, you have our envy. Damn you.

Great pics though!

__________________
Chris
2007 E550 4Matic - 61,000 Km - Iridium Silver, black leather, Sport package, Premium 2 package
2007 GL450 4Matic - 62,000 Km - Obsidian Black Metallic, black leather, all options
1998 E430 - sold
1989 300E - 333,000 Km - sold
1977 280E - sold
1971 250 - retired

"And a frign hat. They gave me a hat at the annual benefits meeting. I said. how does this benefit me. I dont have anything from the company.. So they gave me a hat." - TheDon

Hey!, in that first photo. Did you hit that elk in the nose with a snowball???

It was 81 degrees in the swamp yesterday with 95% humidity.

It's working now... What you saw was the result of the great snowfall turned to freezing rain, causing downed trees, which took out power lines galore and left the server without power for 14 hours. Longest it's been off.

One of those trees tookout part of my deck. What a mess it made!

BTW, Cap’n, while it might look like she were hit in the face with a snow ball, the reason for the snow on the foreheds is due to their having to poke their long faces deep into the snow pack to forage for grass underneath. What is interesting is that they are so well insulated that the snow remains for hours. As this young'n is trying to tell you.... :p

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/laughingelk.jpg

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Thanks!

....here’s, ah, transition series....

A little further up

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/snowroad2.jpg

and a little further up....

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/ForestQueen1.jpg

and just a little further...

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/skis1.jpg

not where we’re heading, but it’s pretty darn nice

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/silverking2.jpg

Ah a nice hilltop view....

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/abovechair3.jpg

Wile looking down Right Angle, it appears someone is beaming in....

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/rightangle1.jpg

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Super nice Tracy, how far/often to you get to the cabin?

Logging

Silver dew falls like a lifetime of tears as a tree is cut down to lie with its brothers and sisters.

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/momentomori.jpg

Trees are cut down so fast you can see the ghost of the tree just after the tree is gone....

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/momentomori2.jpg

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I can't get those last two pics to load. Anyone else had this problem.

Its fixed for the moment. 2 of my servers were toasted by a power spike following the recent ice storm we had....

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Those pictures are difficult to look at.

I spend a lot of time outdoors hiking and all. I don't want to change the focus of your thread but it really makes me wonder:

Is there any such thing as "smart logging"? Why do they find a need to enter into old growth forests? I'm a conservative politically, but even I realize the value of these lands!

__________________

Current:
2014 VW Tiguan SEL 4Motion 43,000 miles.

2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (wife's).

Past:
2006 Jetta TDI 135,970 miles. Sold Nov. '13.
1995 E-320 Special Edition. 220,200 miles. Sold Sept. '07.
1987 190-E 16 valve. 153,000 miles. Sold Feb. '06.
1980 300-D 225,000 miles. Donated to the National Kidney Foundation.
1980 240-D manual, 297,500 miles. Totaled by inattentive driver.

Makes me wish Arkansas had more snow. We could look like that.

__________________
http://comp.uark.edu/~dmgill/signature.jpg

Yes there is. I was a partner in a large timber harvesting company for 12 years. We were under contract to one of the largest paper companies in the country.
My company cut over a million trees during that period. I personally have felled thousands of old growth trees that I really felt bad about having done so.
The paper company would come in and clean up after we harvested and replant as a tree farm. Their interest is future timber so they plan(t) for it. As a matter of fact, we actually planted more trees than we cut so the growth rate was actually higher than the harvest rate. The sad part was when we cut a tract bought from an individual that we knew wouldn't get replenished. That was usually the result of an old farmer dying and his children cashing in.
Logging is a business and if done correctly is a renewable one. However I do agree that a magestic tree going down is a sad sight.
Lebenz, sorry for the distraction. My Ritalin hasn't kicked in yet!

I have a favorite hunting spot that was pristine, one day I showed up to go hunting and found my woods that holds the critters was chainsawed every tree over 17 inches in diameter was gone. I was discouraged at first but the hunting was actually better, the animals love that new growth and tree tops to hide behind.

The images above are not of an old growth forest. It is, in fact, a tree farm. It is sad and even haunting site to watch trees go down so fast. When I stop to think that the forest used to extend uninterrupted from this area down 70 miles to the shores of Seattle, and in fact everywhere west of the Cascades, and over massive areas in our country I'm left disgusted at what humanity has done to the planet. Truly, this is our legacy.

And for this reason it is a pristine example of why the national parks should be left as untrammeled as possible, while permitting human access. Given the slightest opportunity we destroy everything.

Here’s one of an old growth forest, a mere few miles away...

http://mountaintreats.com/pix/SouthOfCrystal1.jpg

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"