Primary Research In The Field: Mid-October Post (as opposed to Post-October Post -- I amuse myself.)

Here it is only mid-October and the avalanche of recent experiences and pictures threatens to virtually suffocate me. Must activate beacon and swim toward the surface! Use hands to make airspace in front of nose and mouth!

I continue to add clothing layers as the temperature imperceptibly but inexorably descends. I'm up to 5 layers on top (plus a couple hats) and up to 3 layers on bottom. I've been wearing long underwear for over a week straight now (and some of you know I mean that literally).

Most days are overcast and dreary and remind me why I don't want to be here all winter. But when the sun breaks through the clouds it's glorious. The wind, demonstrating its unpredictable variability by shifting from SSW to NNW and back again, and blowing continuously at 20+ mph for days at a time, and the enormous pummeling waves, which have become so commonplace as to make one yawn and say, "yes, and. what else.?" continue to captivate.

I'm pretty sure I've enjoyed my final river float of the season and I've begun preparing to exit the region around the end of this month, or maybe the beginning of next month if I decide to stay and haunt the beach this Halloween. So stay tuned if you dare. Otherwise just enjoy these pictures.

Better test out the fireplace. Turns out most heat goes up the chimney (duh) and sometimes a bunch of smoke comes out into the room (and eventually sets off the fire alarm -- at least we know that works!)

Hiking in the back dunes near Doublas/Saugatuk's Oval Beach.

Is this tree crazy? Or am I? Ha ha hah hah haaaa!

Such a normal picture for the summer, but a rarity, and a delight, in the fall.

Even though this was a relatively cool day, the afternoon sun on the back porch was sufficient to entice my final (I'm pretty darn sure!) shirtless afternoon snack for the year.

Likewise my final float on the White River (from 160th St.Bayou to Happy Mohawk, 3.5 hrs)

I got a reasonably early start (11:10 am) and there was still some mist on the river.

If you put your device on night-time (yellow-shift) lighting mode these foliage pictures look much better.

This was kind of a fun trip because the river was somewhat swollen from cumulative rains over the previous 10 days or so and running reasonably quickly. I only had to portage once as I was able to float over all other obstacles, as opposed to my previous outing where I had half a dozen portages.

This documents my 'buried snowfence wintertime retrieval' mechanism, which is not that complicated but requires more explanation than is appropriate here. In short, the blue line is a series of trampoline springs stretched between the emerging snowfence and a grape stake in the distance. There are three of these and I've had to redo them each 3 times now because of prototyping, the learning curve, and continued cliff erosion. I know that won't make sense to anyone I haven't already discussed it with so if you're curious (and have 30 minutes with nothing else to do) you can ask me.