Favorite Travel Quotes

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts."
-- Mark Twain
Innocents Abroad

"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey." -- Fitzhugh Mullan

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." -- Lao Tzu

Archive for January, 2017

Donald Trump’s Wall

posted: January 28th, 2017 | by:Bert

©Bert Gildart: For the past few days Donald Trump has been discussing “The Wall,” and he’s finding it may not be as easy to separate the U.S. from Mexico with a huge, huge barrier as he had promised.  Yes, some places may need a means of excluding Mexicans from entering the U.S. and that was certainly true in Arizona’s Organ Pipe National Monument. Here, parts of the terrain are ideally suited to stealth, and monitoring revealed that at the height close to 1,000 illegals were stealing across the 30-mile long border on a NIGHTLY basis.  Many were drug runners, and some threatened visitors, and sometimes tragedies occurred.  In 2002 Ranger Kris Eggle was killed by a drug runner.

Dozens of “People trails” were being established and the trampling from thousands of footfalls quickly eroded the critical habitat required for the endangered desert antelope.


Dos Lomitas-6 Dos Lomitas-4 DosLomatis (1 of 7)


Here’s the way a five-mile section of road in Organ Pipe appears.  Some of the fencing is obviously
cheap but one section, perhaps a mile long, was expensive and is used in other sections of the park.
As best I can determine, cost per mile is $2-3M. 
When used in conjunction with other forms of detection, it has worked.


You can’t have this type of impact on a park designated as an International Heritage Park so here, in this specific part of the U.S., a wall was needed.  Americans paid for it and the cost as best as I can determine for the high metal barrier section was $2-$3M PER MILE.


BullPasture-3 OrganPipe1 Dos Lomitas-5 - Copy


It is now safe again to hike remote sections of Organ Pipe, thanks in part to fencing.
It’s also made it safer for law enforcement rangers.

But the border fence didn’t completely solve the problem and to accomplish the goal of eliminating drug runners and, yes, sometimes undocumented aliens simply looking for work, officials had to do lots more, and here are a few of the extra measures that were required: They increased the border patrol from 50 to 500, installed huge monitors and night cameras, and periodically they make helicopter patrols. The combination has worked, and the park, which closed subsequent to the murder of Ranger Eggle, reopened two years ago.  Now there are fences separating the border but some are more effective than others.  The fences shown here separate a five mile segment of the U.S. from Mexico.


43849

Building a wall worked in Organ Pipe and now the beauty of this incredible desert park
can be safely explored, here along the Ajo Mountain Loop Road.



Do we need a wall in other parts of the USA?  Do Americans need the kind of protection Organ Pipe required?

Those are questions I can’t answer, but if we do, I doubt seriously if DT will be able to live up to his campaign promise. What I can say and want to emphasize is that if we do need a wall, it’s not because I agree with “OUR PRESIDENT’S” hyperbole that [Mexicans are] “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists…”

But to give the devil his due he concluded by saying “…some are good people.”


—————–

 

THIS TIME LAST YEAR:

Mountain Biking in Anza Borrego

 

4th ed. Autographed by the Authors

Hiking Shenandoah National Park

Hiking Shenandoah National Park is the 4th edition of a favorite guide book, created by Bert & Janie, a professional husband-wife journalism team. Lots of updates including more waterfall trails, updated descriptions of confusing trail junctions, and new color photographs. New text describes more of the park’s compelling natural history. Often the descriptions are personal as the Gildarts have hiked virtually every single park trail, sometimes repeatedly.

$18.95 + Autographed Copy


Big Sky Country is beautiful

Montana Icons: 50 Classic Symbols of the Treasure State

Montana Icons is a book for lovers of the western vista. Features photographs of fifty famous landmarks from what many call the “Last Best Place.” The book will make you feel homesick for Montana even if you already live here. Bert Gildart’s varied careers in Montana (Bus driver on an Indian reservation, a teacher, backcountry ranger, as well as a newspaper reporter, and photographer) have given him a special view of Montana, which he shares in this book. Share the view; click here.

$16.95 + Autographed Copy


What makes Glacier, Glacier?

Glacier Icons: 50 Classic Views of the Crown of the Continent

Glacier Icons: What makes Glacier Park so special? In this book you can discover the story behind fifty of this park’s most amazing features. With this entertaining collection of photos, anecdotes and little known facts, Bert Gildart will be your backcountry guide. A former Glacier backcountry ranger turned writer/photographer, his hundreds of stories and images have appeared in literally dozens of periodicals including Time/Life, Smithsonian, and Field & Stream. Take a look at Glacier Icons

$16.95 + Autographed Copy




 

Read Comments | 3 Comments »

EXCELLENT ACTRESS

posted: January 16th, 2017 | by:Bert

©Bert Gildart:  I just received an email notice (with attachment) that an image I made several years ago of Actress/narrator Tammy Denease Richardson performing at the much renowned Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, was used in a brochure to attract patrons to yet another of her grand performances.  The event is scheduled for February 12, but unfortunately it will be  staged in Virginia. We’re in Montana and distance precludes our attendance. If we were in the same region we would make the trip.

Ms. Richardson can literally step into the shoes of whomever she is portraying, and you can believe, for example, that she is Sarah Margru, the slave who had been brought from Africa via Cuba to America on the slave ship Amistad.


Denease3

Tammy Denease


 

You can believe that she is Elizabeth “Mum Brett” Freeman, trying to win her freedom after suffering 30 years in bondage.  You can hear the words echoing through the ages as sadness fills the face of  Denease/Freeman.

“Anytime, anytime while I was a slave, if one minute’s freedom had been offered to me, and I had been told I must die at the end of that minute, I would have taken it — just to stand one minute on God’s airth a free woman — I would.”

Ms Richardson acquired some of her outstanding interpretive skills from her ancestors.  Born in Mississippi she spent countless hours with her 100-year old grandmother and great-grandmother, the latter of whom was a former slave who lived to be 125 years old.  Both were well-known storytellers who passed this treasured gift on to Ms. Richardson, their granddaughter.

We hope she’ll return to Old Strubridge Village.  Because of family, we visit there often, and hope our timing will be such that we can see her again.

Today, of course, is Martin Luther King Day, so the arrival of the brochure was well timed.


————————-

 

THIS TIME TWO YEARS AGO:

Ghost Mountain, An Experiment in Living: http://gildartphoto.com/weblog/2015/01/19/ghost-mountain-an-experiment-in-living

 

4th ed. Autographed by the Authors

Hiking Shenandoah National Park

Hiking Shenandoah National Park is the 4th edition of a favorite guide book, created by Bert & Janie, a professional husband-wife journalism team. Lots of updates including more waterfall trails, updated descriptions of confusing trail junctions, and new color photographs. New text describes more of the park’s compelling natural history. Often the descriptions are personal as the Gildarts have hiked virtually every single park trail, sometimes repeatedly.

$18.95 + Autographed Copy


Big Sky Country is beautiful

Montana Icons: 50 Classic Symbols of the Treasure State

Montana Icons is a book for lovers of the western vista. Features photographs of fifty famous landmarks from what many call the “Last Best Place.” The book will make you feel homesick for Montana even if you already live here. Bert Gildart’s varied careers in Montana (Bus driver on an Indian reservation, a teacher, backcountry ranger, as well as a newspaper reporter, and photographer) have given him a special view of Montana, which he shares in this book. Share the view; click here.

$16.95 + Autographed Copy


What makes Glacier, Glacier?

Glacier Icons: 50 Classic Views of the Crown of the Continent

Glacier Icons: What makes Glacier Park so special? In this book you can discover the story behind fifty of this park’s most amazing features. With this entertaining collection of photos, anecdotes and little known facts, Bert Gildart will be your backcountry guide. A former Glacier backcountry ranger turned writer/photographer, his hundreds of stories and images have appeared in literally dozens of periodicals including Time/Life, Smithsonian, and Field & Stream. Take a look at Glacier Icons

$16.95 + Autographed Copy





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Open those Stored Boxes. They Could Surprise!

posted: January 9th, 2017 | by:Bert

PearlHarbor©Bert Gildart:  It’s been many months since I’ve posted but there’ a reason.  During those months I’ve endured three surgeries to remove a precancerous polyp that was located between my stomach and the small intestine. The last surgery kept me in the hospital bed for 23 days.

That can all make a person a bit blue, so I’m trying to look at the positive side of things, and I really don’t have to look very hard.

First, is the uplift friends and family have created for me with their thoughts and prayers, expressed online as well as in cards and by telephone.

Though their support tops the list, there is yet another thought expressed by the photo to the right.  The time at home has enabled me to rummage through the dozens and dozens of boxes my parents left with me 15 years ago.  I was shocked by what I found, but most specifically by this ancient newspaper clip. It’s historic and could even be worth some cash, but I’ll never sell it.

It’s from the front page of the Honolulu Star published the afternoon of December 7, 1941.  It’s significant to me because I was there as a one-year-old toddler.  Obviously my parents were there and whenever army folks stationed on Oahu gather, well you know what they talked about.   I’ve posted on this event before but didn’t realize boxes in the attic contained such historic newspapers.  My dad was a history buff and I’ve got many more boxes to go.

Though I believe we’ll do a bit of traveling in March to see friends in Borrego Spring, by that time, if I can maintain my resolve, should you visit us you’ll see a very orderly house. That’s a bit of the good that will definitely come from this period of convalescence.

 

———————-

 

As an afterthought, and because I need to fill in more of this space, here are two images of birds struggling
YESTERDAY to find food.  Turkeys are drawn to an area immediately below our porch and bird feeders because the grain is often scattered
by the smaller birds.  But with all the cold and snow, they two are having a rough time exemplified by this dove.

 

Birds&Food (2 of 2) Birds&Food (3 of 2)

 

 

THIS TIME LAST YEAR

MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE (Country was spectacular) :  http://gildartphoto.com/weblog/2016/01/16/challenging-mountain-biking-in-anza-borrego-desert-park

 

4th ed. Autographed by the Authors

Hiking Shenandoah National Park

Hiking Shenandoah National Park is the 4th edition of a favorite guide book, created by Bert & Janie, a professional husband-wife journalism team. Lots of updates including more waterfall trails, updated descriptions of confusing trail junctions, and new color photographs. New text describes more of the park’s compelling natural history. Often the descriptions are personal as the Gildarts have hiked virtually every single park trail, sometimes repeatedly.

$18.95 + Autographed Copy


Big Sky Country is beautiful

Montana Icons: 50 Classic Symbols of the Treasure State

Montana Icons is a book for lovers of the western vista. Features photographs of fifty famous landmarks from what many call the “Last Best Place.” The book will make you feel homesick for Montana even if you already live here. Bert Gildart’s varied careers in Montana (Bus driver on an Indian reservation, a teacher, backcountry ranger, as well as a newspaper reporter, and photographer) have given him a special view of Montana, which he shares in this book. Share the view; click here.

$16.95 + Autographed Copy


What makes Glacier, Glacier?

Glacier Icons: 50 Classic Views of the Crown of the Continent

Glacier Icons: What makes Glacier Park so special? In this book you can discover the story behind fifty of this park’s most amazing features. With this entertaining collection of photos, anecdotes and little known facts, Bert Gildart will be your backcountry guide. A former Glacier backcountry ranger turned writer/photographer, his hundreds of stories and images have appeared in literally dozens of periodicals including Time/Life, Smithsonian, and Field & Stream. Take a look at Glacier Icons

$16.95 + Autographed Copy




Read Comments | 2 Comments »