it can be quite unnerving as you are helpless and being moved around. ive been in a bunch of them so it isnt scary. i was in the big one in l.a. in 1971. called the sylmer quake.
sent the bed flying at 6 in the morning. it was bouncing around on the floor.
looked out the window when it paused and lights were popping all over the sky.

well montana is burning again. whats with that. seems way too many years are getting hot and dry and the forests and plains are going up in smoke. we got one that is finally in control but 250,000 acres.
around my area its getting smoky and ready to ignite. some big ones already about 70 miles away. waiting to see what happens.

The forest service doesn't do enough thinning of timber and allows fuel build up that results in more intense and hotter fires. But that has been an on going debate for decades. But they are better at it than during the early 1900's. This book is a good read, about the big burn in 1910 that burned through parts of your neck of the woods Ray; and in Idaho and Washington. A few score people lost their lives and some entire small towns were burned up. Quite the disaster - and it happened over 100 years ago.

Big-Burn-Teddy-Roosevelt-America/dp/0547394608

sorry but i am not of the ilk that believes fires rage because the forests arent logged.

ive seen enough that the big old growth areas frequently survive because the ground is damp and they have heavy bark to protect the trucks.

but in a giant fire most everything in its path gets burned.

most fires are man caused. and many of the big ones have been caused by loggers. just like the great tillamook burn. and fires dont burn too much of the total forest. i would rather have a forest than what we have in oregon. look at google away from the roads.

Much truth of what you say Ray, but trees get in the way of my view. The forest will never be the same as before European's came to the new world. Nor the Great Plains, nor the barren deserts etc. It all underwent change - even the indigenous Indians (Exploreing Asians) altered the landscape some, though not to the extent that the European's did. It is sad in a way, but how could it have been any different? With millions and billions of people worldwide and industrialization the planet is altered. Even before that the Romans and the people of the Middle Ages altered their landscapes and forest and rivers and plains and built large cities etc.

That's why we need a big space program so the human menace can get scattered throughout the galaxy. Can't wait until we start mining the moon and asteroids.

so no love for me as i havent cashed in the last 4 tournaments. no cards really in these turbo fests. and didnt win the stupid races you are forced into if you dont have a big stack early on. thats why its best to risk going home early to get in a position to win later on.

the smoke from the wild fires is very bad around ares of the pacific northwest. portland and seattle have had many almost un breathable days of bad air.

much of it is coming down from giant fires in british columbia. also many smaller fires, hundreds of them are going strong over the pnw.
it is early in the fire season and without some major rains it will be real trouble soon.
most years it takes snow to put out the major ones in october. hopefully they can at least get them under control.

Bad year for fires for sure. Had to run to a town about 40 miles east of us Fri and on the way back could see a new fire that I would have sworn was very close to the house. Turns out it was a bit further away but the homeowners nearby has to use the garden hoses to save the houses. After the last really close scare I bought a 12 volt sprayer and have it mounted up in the Ranger so I can help with stuff that is close or use to help defend the house. After almost losing the house 5years ago I admit I get jumpy when there is anything near. I am not the only one though.

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i have a 200 and a 350 gallon water tank that fits in the bed of my kubota 4 wheel thing.

i can stick a 12v pump in it and uses a garden hose to spray. or has a 2 1/2 inch discharge pipe on the bottom to let out water fast or fill buckets.

so far its duty is too dump a lot of water on fruit trees when its dry.

It is about the only thing I have ever bought hoping I'd not need to use it. I'll still get use out of it spraying weeds and bugs though

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Hey Ray, have not gotten in the "big" PLO game yet but plan to soon. I did have 3 big game players in our small O8 game on Thursday. They made it interesting and I got a cheap look at their playing style which should help me later. Playing well below their limits they were straddling and jamming every pot. One guy chipped up big, another about the same as me, the 3rd busted. They stacked at least 2 players chasing the oversized pots.

Looking forward to getting back to beach for salmon fishing next week. See you at the Bayway.
Phil

good luck phil. you should do fine in the big game.
the salmon picked up in the lower columbia, so,s.s. beach should get good real soon. a few big ones have been caught.
went out in the ocean in my boat with vanabo all the way down past pacific city looking for any fish to bite. nada. tons and i means tons of anchovies on the bottom so the fish were gorging themselves on them.
the humpback whales are in and close to shore at s.s. and hammond. they too are stuffing on the chovies.
back to montana. see you whenever buddy.

Back to Montana??? What???? And miss the solar eclipse and carmageddon traffic?

Yeah - What the Hell!!

ive seen them before and fell asleep during them. boring.

plus there is a 22% chance the world might tremble and things collapse so i want to be home then.

if i was here i would run my boat out in the ocean off lincoln city and be the first in this part of the world to see it. hows dem apples.

poker game has been okay in montana. we are down to two days a week but the game has been fine. picked up a new player who is in town for awhile and he is top notch. and been winning accordingly.
ive been bored and not paying attention and making some terrible overlooking mistakes. but thats the penalty for not paying attention. still when you get older winning the max isnt really important as being happy.

Pretty much all of these problems wouldve been easily controlled if humans had been pro active about population control. 7 billion people and growing is a major problem that 2 billion people never wouldve been. The biggest failure of the human species is that we didnt take appropriate measures early enough to keep our population at a level the planet could sustain.

Space as the answer is a total joke and a childish copout. Its not feasible, is several generations away still at best, and the problems here on earth are here and now.

Now for what i came here for. I will be making a trip to Southeast BC in early september, possibly follwed by a stop in Calgary. Im thinking about coming down into Montana and then heading west to Portland before returning to the Canadian West coast.

Any recommendations for dog friendly hiking, especially stuff with rivers and lakes to swim in (swimming with my dog is probably my favorite thing in the world), as well as where I can find the biggest or most fun/interesting poker games?

And yeah up in Vancouver we had 10 straight days of smoky air. I was just down in Bend, Oregon and they got some smoky days there recently too.

I went to view the total eclipse. The 2 minutes of totality are incredible, and made everything worth it. Other than that, there isnt much to see other than the novelty of what you can see through the glasses which isnt anywhere near the same experience. No comparison whatsoever to experiencing the totality, when the world briefly becomes dark and cold, you dont need the glasses, and the sun is just a thin ring light around the moon in a dark sky.

great hiking east of bigfork montana in the jewell basin dogs allowed and you keep ending up at nice lakes. wed and fri early afternoon in kalispell for poker. omaha and o/s. 30 limit with most in 100 immediate overs.

no dogs on trails in the national parks. okay in state parks and nat. forest.

other than kalispell, calgary, and western washington, no place where you expect to be a 1,000 or more winner in a game.

the famous sperry chalet in glacier national park burned down from the wildfires. having stayed there i will miss it badly. wonderful hike to it and that is the only way there.. hope the park rebuilds.

picture of the chalet in flames. and on the page some history pics of it

http://flatheadbeacon.com/2017/09/01...park-wildfire/

Just looked to see what the chalet looked like before the wildfires - so gorgeous!!

Seems too beautiful to not rebuild - hopefully they do

everything would have to be brought in by horseback. wont be easy. that how they were built in the early 1900's.

Too bad. That's was a beautiful building. I hope they can rebuild back to the original.

Glacier National Park is a real gem. I did a hike into the heart of the park with friends way back in the mid-1970's. A hiking adventure that I still remember fondly today. Saw a lot of animals (but no Grizzly Bears) and the scenery was just spectacular.

Hey Zee, still haven't played in the "big" omaha game, but doing fine in the hi low. A Seattle buddy met me there Thursday and dropped $2000 in 3 or 4 hours. He is a decent player but probably too much gamble, if that is possible. In the meantime I lost $17 in 10 hours after getting stuck $300. I think I had more fun than my buddy Jim.

winning is always more fun than losing . at least for me anyway. maybe see you soon phil.
ill call you if i ever scoot up that way.

trusty sam, post up a pic of something in nature from where you are from.