Back from vacation and here are some pictures. Details to follow.
Canoe Trip
Took a caone trip with my brother in law. We put in at the boat landing in South Lincoln and went down the river to my house in Passadumkeag. We had a pretty strong headwind, about 10 mph. Between the wind and current in places, I learned some stuff about making the canoe do what I want.
This dam has been bought by the Penobscot river restoration project. It currently makes about 13 mega watts of power. It will be gone in a few years. Making the portage no longer necessary.
The Dark Knight
I went and saw the new batman, the dark knight. In short it was good. It’s a very heavy film, not light hearted, not funny. I was glad that movie was focused. So many movies have crap like culture references, sex senses, riddled with profanity etc, just to drag young men out to see it, but a good movie should stand by it’s self.
The whole movie is dark, mostly depressing, odds are always seeming impossible, very little hope. Lots of violence chaos, and moments that build out to gory things.
I think the movie had several Christian themes. The dark, depressing environment the movie is set in, is much like the world without Christ. Batman very much is a Christ like figure. Like Christ, who humbled Himself, became a man, even a curse word to some, but knew sin for us, batman really makes himself of no repation. In the movie, batman is the hero from the perspective of the movie, but not people within the movie.
In closing I would recommend the movie to anybody that is able to handle the doom, gloom and violence.
CCMC 08
This weekend was the calvary chapel men’s conference. To put it short, this is the best conference I have ever been to. When I left, I was not only edified and had fun, but I really wanted to change different things about my life.
The conference starts with the worship team lead by Ken Graves. As normal, they are loud and pretty rocking. The worship set was really great. Everybody is pretty excited and ready to get at it and hear from the Lord. Gerry Brown from Calvary Chapel Romoland, CA, who national heads up the U-Turn for Christ drug-rehab program. He is in Philippians chapter 2. Talking about how Paul sent Timothy to them, and from what it says about Timothy, what he must have been. This was very convicting about the type of man that should be in the ministry.
The next speaker is Pat Sure. I didn’t know what to make of Pat Sure at first, he seemed not quite right, but he ended his session very well. About the Caleb and the giants, very classic. This was convicting about just being strong, sort of like spiritually having a set.
Lunch time was great. Few hundred men, maybe 1000 pounds of meat, and one of the biggest BB-Q’s around. The smell of seared meat could be smelled for a few miles in any direction. It was like a tailgate party. It was good. I ate a beef rib eye, venison and squirrel.
After lunch, Steve Wiggins lead worship. He was the front man for big tent revival. Grammy nominated Christian band. Now is the worship lead for harvest crusade. He really can lead worship, it was not about him at all, he really could lead people to the presents of God.
Gerry Brown would teach another session out of 2 Chronicles about Christian men making more of stand on true, seasoned with grace, and then after that, Steve Wiggins would teach a session. This was the biggest surprise of the conference. The guy is a skinny, geek looking worship leader. No offense to anyone, but I guess I never though worship leaders were tough guys.
Steve starts his session, he starts with some issues pertaining to true worship and then moves into 2 Chronicles 34. So far he is start, funny and has really locked your attention. Then he launches into some of the must rugged stuff I have ever heard. It really can’t be described well. I really still have not stopped bleeding yet. It was just hard to swallow, hard to listen. If you weren’t they, it can’t be explained what happen in that auditorium. It was just one of the those things, the Spirit of God moved, everybody was convicted, not a dry eye in the place I would guess. In short he taught about not always putting the Word of God first in your life.
So that was the conference.
Walmart
I am making an effort to stop buying crap from walmart. The quality is just so low. Everything is cheap, poor materials and even worst craftsmanship.
Actually, I don’t really have a problem with Walmart. It’s things made in China. China makes use of child slave labor to support the socialize government. They aggressively persecute Christians. In fact the Christian persecution in China is close to the level of Nero and Titus in the Roman days. They are killing and jailing people that fellow Christ.
So in short I am going to make a big effort to buy things that are designed and manufactured in the USA, and with materials that come from the USA. So far, I am finding this very very difficult.
Katahdin Part 2
One week ago I went up Katahdin. I had a great time. It took a few weeks, but I managed to talk my wife in to coming. I figured I would just would share some more details about the trip.
We left our place at 5:30. We arrived at Baxter state park togue pond gate at 7 (we stopped for a small breakfast). Parked at the roaring brook campground and starting hiking around 7:30. From roaring brook we started up the trail to chimney pond. This trail was a bit over 3 miles long. Roaring brook is so clear, and looks so pure, way better than any bottled water I had ever seen. The trail is a bit rocky and up and down, but not bad. It took us just under 2 hours to get from the roaming brook to chimney pond.
At chimney pond, there is a lot of activity. Tent sites, lean-tos, outhouses and the park ranger cabin. Plenty of people around. This is really the last place below the tree line. This is something to think about, peeing above the treeline can be difficult.
The view of the chimney is incredible. Words and pictures can’t describe. It must be seen to appreciated.
From the pond, we started up saddle trail. Saddle trail is slightly over two miles to Baxter peak of the mountain. The trail gets increasingly difficult until you are on going on all fours going over big rocks. This was the most difficult part of our hike. Once you go about a mile up saddle trail, you reach the actually saddle. The saddle is the low part between the Baxter and Hamlin peaks. The going is pretty easy for about a half mile. After the welcome easy stretch, the last half mail gets pretty steep for the final ascent to Baxter peak, summit proper of Katahdin. My wife found this to be the most difficult part, but I think mostly because it was a bit demoralizing for her. She thought that the top of the saddle would be the end of the tough stuff. But finding more steep stuff really disappointed her.
From the top, the views are incredible. On a day like we had, you can see what seems like most of Maine. I bet you can see 75 miles in each direction. The top also has large amounts of activity. There are six trails to the top, so you can see nobody for miles, but find 25 people at the top. We found a whole boy scout troop.
We had lunch, talked to some people at the top, talked to each other, took a few pictures. My wife’s spirits were quite lifted. From the summit, we headed across knife’s edge. Knife’s edge is about a mile long. It’s not as bad as some people talk it up to be. As long as you are not scared of heights, because you are going to get some 2000 foot views, straight down. The tenth of a mile of knife’s that is at Pamela peak, is nearly a technical climb. Very slow, and you need to think about where to put your hands and feet. It was fun though.
Now we were on the Pamela peak. The views here are also very good. Can see the Allagash and the undeveloped parts of western Maine. We headed down the Helon (pronounced Hee-lon, he was a guy) Taylor trail. Helon Traylor was a good end to our hike. It was long and steady, most of the trail goes at steady pace, no steep places, no flat places. This trail brought was back to roaring brook. We were both pretty pooped. The round trip was 10.5 miles, it took us 9 and a half hours to complete.
Things I learned, hard work pays off, Katadhin is beautiful, and you need sunblock, my wife got a bad burn.
We brought 7 liters of water of with us. We refilled all of our water at chimney pond. 7 liters was about right for the both of us. Any more and you are carrying extra weight. Any less and you will be thirsty. When we got back to the car, we had about 300 ml of water left. We brought plenty of food too. Dried fruit, nuts, cheddar cheese and granola, we really ate quite a bit. You can tell when your blood sugar is low by the headache and dizzy feeling.
I am planning to go back in a few weeks because I had a really good time.
Katahdin
The last time I hiked katahdin, I was owned. Fat, out of shape, not ready for the hike, didn’t make it. This time I had three goals. One to make it to summit proper; Two, cross knife’s edge; Three, do it in under ten hours. Managed to do it in all three.
The rugged beauty of baxter state park is amazing it. Pictures just don’t do it.
Also, watch a youtube video from knife’s edge
The only real bummer about the day is that my wife got a very bad sunburn.
Turtle
So the turtles have been laying eggs for the last few weeks. For whatever reason, I am really fascinated with them. I have seen them in the road, next to streams, in the woods and by the river.
The other day, a huge snapping turtle was in the ditch next to route 2. I decided that I wanted to go see it. The turtle was then trying to cross the road. She got in the road and decided to stay there. I thought I could help the turtle. I was trying to push her across the road with a stick. I would push, but she would again run back into the road. I would push again, but she would always return to the road.
While this is going on, a truck drives up, slowly. At first I am thinking that the truck is going slow to avoid the turtle. The blue lights come up. It’s a warden. At first I thought I was going to get a ticket for interfearing with turtle breeding or messing with wildlife.
The warden then says to me, “Let her bite the stick, then grab her by the tail and pick her up”. I was happy to not get a ticket.
Baxter State Park
Went to Baxter state park with my lovely wife and her little brothers. Had a great time. Went to Sandy Pond Stream. Saw three moose there. Two cows and one small bull. Got some pictures as seen below. Then we proceeded to go up South Turner Mountain. Made it about half way and then one of the kids ran out of gumption. Turned around, it worked out okay though. Overall it was pretty cool.
BSP is a really cool place, I enjoy going there. I wish I could go more often. The beauty is incredible. One of the thigns that I think about, is that God created this earth but because of the sins of man, it’s fallen a great amount. Even before the fall of man, this earth was not created to be a permenate home for us. It was temporary. So we live in a world that is fallen and was not intented for permenate residence. One can only image what heaven is like, give how beautiful this earth is.
