9 Mile Hike to Fairy Falls and a visit to the Grand Prismatic Spring. It was HOT!
Yesterday was a 9 mile hike round trip from Fountain Flat Drive up to the Fairy Falls and the back side of the Grand Prismatic Spring. The Grand Prismatic is a very large ultra hot water cauldron that is a beautiful blue green, steamy, source that flows into the Fire Hole river. Amazing to be so close to boiling water heated by magma just below the service of the earth. Yellowstone is basically a VERY large volcano that last erupted some 640,000 years ago. The caldera of the volcano covers over 40 miles of the park thus providing the thermals, geysers, and hot springs.
After our hike we stopped and soaked some tired feet and knees in the Fire Hole River and had a shaded lunch in the cool breeze.
A promise made many years ago is reminded again in West Yellowstone. The most amazing scene!
I have never seen a double rainbow so brilliant and so complete as the one we saw yesterday in downtown West Yellowstone. My iPhone camera really does it no justice. We are certainly in Big Sky country. 
Second Great Day in Yellowstone and another Bear encounter much closer this time.
The day began very early with a drive into West Yellowstone to find a replacement for our full blow-up mattress. Two nights in a row of going flat and sleeping on the ground proved the trip worthy of the time and views on the west side of the park. We took in Gibbon Falls and stopped for view of the thermals at the Artist’s Paint Pots. It literally looked like left over paint and water mixed together. Cauldrons of goop bubbling up from the ground and forming various hues of green, blue, brown, and azure mixed in with the base off-white.
We drove through the valley viewed the still snow-capped mountains of the Gallatin Range and on to Mammoth Springs where Fort Yellowstone was originally laid out. The “Springs” were more thermals with beautiful cascades hot springs bubbling from the ground and destroying everything as they rolled down.
We spent lunch there under a shade tree and cooked fajitas and vegetables and watched the multitudes of tourist come through the area. Including the Elf Cows with their calf’s lounging around the old Fort Barracks ignoring the gawking we were doing and the constant chastising of the Park Rangers for tourist’s getting to close. “THIS IS THEIR HOME NOT YOURS.” was one Rangers rhetoric and made more sense than the shudder bugs wanting to get in for the close shot. I was talking with one Ranger who relayed one of the tourist logic after he tried to shoo her away – “It’s not like it’s a wolf our something!” she proclaimed to him ” No” he said “that Elk cow protecting her calf is much worse! Back up!”
We moved on to view Tower Falls near Roosevelt Lodge and then to Lamar Valley for the dusk viewing of more wildlife than anywhere in the park. On our way we stopped off at Slough Creek camp ground and as we were coming out – a “brown” Black Bear came rumbling on the left hand side of the road moving towards us with a couple of vehicles in tow. We got a quick video of him which I will down load at later time. One of the vehicles in chase said we had just missed a “black” Black Bear right in front of the brown. They moved down a ravine and crossed Slough Creek as we watched move quacking up and over the far bank and up into the timber.
Finally we moved on into Lamar Valley where we finally found the large Bison herds we had heard so much about. 1,000’s is what it looked like moving along the river and a pace almost undetectable from a distance. Idyllic scene. One I will never forget. Hard to believe we almost lost them.
Setting out on our backpacking trip to Mount Washburn and the backcountry of Yellowstone in the morning. We will update in a day or so. Oh yeah we do have our bear spray.
No. 5 Middle School in Suzhou, China looking for its Christian roots and why an American teacher would come to their city 120 years ago.
Meeting Mr. Shen Zhong Principal and Mrs. “Sophie” Wang You, the English teacher at No. 5 Middle School was quite the providential encounter. Their school is trying to look back further into their founding history and why they have this large bell that was manufactured in Baltimore, MA in 1895 by the Henry McShane Bell Co. And who are their first 2 Head masters Dr. R.N. Hayes and Ralph White. Apparently they were both sent by the American Presbyterian denomination to establish a school in Sozhuo. The school was originally named the Cuiying Academy. The No. 5 Middle school has an extensive history and maintains a school museum but they have very little information of their founder and his purpose in beginning the school.
They took us to the school and showed us all of their facility which really was first rate even the original building built around the turn of the century by the school. Their enrollment is about 1268 students and place the majority of their graduates into the university system. They gave us a book on the extensive history of the school but it was lacking information regarding the Church and Dr. Hayes. After a long conversation and about 4 hours learning about each others schools I told Mr. Zhong and Mrs. Sophie that FCA would be honored to help them research their history and we would consider it as a research project for
students from our school. I also indicated that we would be interested in possibly beginning a sister school relationship with No. 5. I told them I would take this important idea back to our board of directors for their consideration. They were very excited about the sister school idea and would take this idea to their authorities.
I have already begun some initial research into the McShane Bell Co. and found that they are still in business in the Baltimore area! There’s is no telling what their bell may be worth. Please see the pictures to come of the bell, the original building and the school tree that is over 400 years old that sits in the center of the campus along with the bell and a large bust honoring Dr. Hayes and Mr. White.
“The Goodly Fere” are we like Him or more like Mr. Rogers?
The FCA Band of Brothers accountability group meets each Tuesday/Thursday at lunch. Its young men that want to be held accountable about their relationship with God, with each other and their world around them. We are reading John Eldridge Wild at Heart. Today was Chapter 2 and we read the poem by Ezra Pound “Ballad of the Goodly Fere”. Good stuff.
FCA Closing on new construction
FCA board members Tom Clark, Jim Davis, and Headmaster Hugh Harris are joined by TN Bank & Trust officers Roddy Story, Denny Thompson, & closing attorney (& FCA founding board member) Kurt Beasley at the closing on funding for FCA’s new campus.
Great start to FCA Teacher In-Service Week! Can you quote the FCA Vision Stmt from Memory?
Vision – The vision of Franklin Christian Academy is to provide challenging academics, life-giving community, and transforming discipleship.
11 Grilling Mistakes Every Guy Makes
11 Grilling Mistakes Every Guy Makes
By David Joachim, Posted Date: May 4, 2012
Read more at Men’s Health: http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/grilling-mistakes-0#ixzz1y42B8aCH
When the average guy throws down the first steak of the summer, he expects everything to go just right. But while we might imagine ourselves as Bobby Flays of the backyard, the reality is that most of us routinely make dozens of minor mistakes that can detract from ever reaching grilling perfection. Here are 11 of the most common errors, courtesy of David Joachim, author of Mastering the Grill.
1. Never cleaning your grill. Ever lift a friend’s grill lid to find a mess of spider webs and burnt-on burger bits? Not a pretty sight. And it makes it grilling anything decent next to impossible. Think of your grill grate like an open sauté pan. It should be clean before you cook on it. Brush the grate immediately after you take off the food. A hot grate cleans easier than a cold one.
2. Not oiling her up first. Just like a sauté pan, a grill grate needs a little oil to help transfer heat and keep food from sticking. Keep a jar of cheap cooking oil near the grill. Wad up a paper towel, dip it in the oil, and rub it over the hot grill grate just before adding food. Like magic, fish doesn’t stick! Grilled pizza crust browns beautifully! Steaks get deep grill marks!
3. Not getting her smoking hot. A red-hot grill helps prevent sticking, gives you professional grill marks, and cooks food faster. Preheat your grill grate, preferably with the lid down, for at least 15 minutes before adding food. The metal should be hot enough to sear on contact.
4. Grilling cold food. Ever wonder why your steaks take so long to cook? Maybe they’re ice cold! If you take a nice thick ribeye from fridge to fire, it burns on the outside before the inside reaches doneness. Let your steaks, chops, roasts, and even vegetables rest out of the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes to take the chill off. That’s as long as you should preheat the grill anyway.
5. Grilling wet food. It’s a great idea to rinse chicken breasts clean. (Dirty birds!) But pat the meat dry before you toss it on the grill. Food doesn’t start to brown until the surface gets to about 250 degrees—but water can only get to 212 degrees before it evaporates. If the food is wet, it’ll steam before it grills. Bottom line: dry food = better browning = better flavor. Oiling the food also helps because the fat speeds heat transference.
6. Marinating in sweet barbecue sauce. Marinating is good. But not in barbecue sauce. It’s loaded with sugar and burns faster than a marshmallow in hell. No wonder your barbecued chicken always comes out black! Try marinating in a vinegar- or oil-based marinade. Save the sweet barbecue sauce for slathering on during the last 5 minutes.
7. Walking away from the grill. Step away from the fire and the chicken ignites. The pork chops turn to hockey pucks. The burgers incinerate. Here’s a solution: screw a cupholder onto your grill so you have an incentive to stand there. Or just drag your beer cooler to the grill so everyone will hang out with you. Once you get reeeally comfortable with cooking on your grill, experiment with walking away for brief periods.
8. Pressing on burgers. “My burgers always come out dry, not juicy.” Well, pressing all the juices out into the fire aint gonna help. After you toss burgers on the grill, let them sit there without touching them until they’re deeply grill marked. Then, and only then, flip them. Once. You’ll also get a juicier burger by adding 2 tablespoons ice water per pound of burger mixture. And it helps to use hamburger meat with at least 15 percent fat.
9. Guessing doneness. Don’t mess with bacteria. They can kill you. That’s doubly important with hamburgers because grinding meat spreads surface bacteria throughout the meat. Don’t just guess how done your burgers, steaks, and chicken breasts are. Stick an instant-read thermometer in them and find out for sure.
10. Not resting. The steak is cooked to perfection, and the beer-can can chicken has browned up beautifully. Now, get them off the grill and have a beer! The food needs time to rest. Ideally, you want to let food cool to an internal temperature of about 120 degrees before cutting into it. (That’s anywhere from 5 minutes for a thin pork chop to 20 minutes for a whole chicken.) During that time, the meat proteins firm up and they become better able to hold onto the meat’s juices. Every slice of rested meat tastes juicier.
11. Being a boring grill man. Everyone grills burgers and steaks. Think outside the beef. You can grill pizza, fruit, French toast…you name it. If you love burgers, try a bison burger. Want grilled dessert? Toss on some pineapple or pound cake.
Read more at Men’s Health: http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/grilling-mistakes-0#ixzz1y42wAPc8
About
Headmaster, Franklin Christian Academy. 1978 Baylor Univ. BBA, 08 M.Ed TSU
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Recent
- FCA training for Music City 1/2 Marathon Begins!
- On the train headed to Zurich from Salzburg.
- “The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Music.”
- Dachau-a visit to horror past. Moving experience & prompting questions.
- Tour of Disney inspired castle, Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria & other sites of Munich
- We made it to Munich & Pension Lindner
- Can you sleep on an international overnight flight? Here’s what I do.
- A long walk home as a 3rd grader in Waco, TX. 50 yrs ago today.
- On our way! Early flight to NY & then on to Munich, Germany
- AdvancED (SACS) Accreditation Conference
- A hike in the Grand Tetons is well… Grand! Cascade Canyon was spectacular.
- 9 Mile Hike to Fairy Falls and a visit to the Grand Prismatic Spring. It was HOT!
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