A different kind of adventure...

Anka-what?

About 10 years ago, when I was an apprentice Ironworker, I was working on the Froedhert Cancer center expansion and I developed something called Iritis.  After going to the doctor with partial blindness in my eye, painful pressure, and abnormal discomfort to light, I was diagnosed with an irritation of the iris in my eye.  It's not uncommon to get this once or twice, especially if you did something to irritate it.  But then I started getting it about 3 times a year.  Every damn year.  Sometimes it would be so bad that I'd have to keep my eye dilated for up to a month, would lose most of my vision in whatever eye it was at the time, and use a steroid eye drop up to 6 times a day for up to 2 months!

Chronic Iritis is not common at all.  it's very rare to get it all on it's own.  It is common though with any auto-immune disease.  So I went to my regular doctor to have it checked out.  I went through all sorts of tests including the standard blood tests.  That's when they caught my NAFLD.  That's Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.  It turns out, eating staight out of the trough of ice cream and devouring a bag of popcorn every night by myself wasn't healthy.  All that fat had to go somewhere, and it did.  as it turns out, your liver is a fat magnet.  it sucks it up and doesn't let it go.  But after a small diet change, that has been under control for some time now.  But that doesn't explain the Iritis.

But back to the topic at hand, for many years I have had a really sore back.  My sciatic nerve would end up bothering my for a week at a time almost every month.  It was really getting bad.  Back to the doctor I would go and was diagnosed with a generic "lower back arthritis" condition called degenerative joint disease.  Ok, I've got something for an answer, but what can I do about it?  How can I treat the pain?  I was taking far too many ibuprofen for it to do any good for my stomach lining, but it was partially helping the pain.

I would wake up every morning for a few years with back pain.  I never slept in, I couldn't.  The pain was too much.  After a few ibuprofen, my back would loosen up and I would be fine.  After longer drives, my back would hurt.  After sitting and watching TV for a few hours, my back would hurt.  This isn't normal and I was not accepting this current diagnosis.

After my doctor left the practice, I got a new one.  She listened very well and decided to refer me to a rhumatologist.  After talking with him and explaining my symptoms, it was pretty evident what I had to him.  I took another blood test and then another.  He wanted to cover all the bases and leave nothing out.  Although my blood doesn't have the typical HLA-B27 protein marker, it is possible to have my condition without it.  It's called a symptomatic diagnosis.  I had a name for it that I suspected all along.

Ankylosing-Spondylitis.  It is a potentially debilitating disease that could, at worse, leave me with a condition commonly known as Bamboo Spine where the lower spine fuses itself together.  There is no cure.  It affects younger people usually between the ages of 18 and 45.  It's somewhat similar to Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, or even psoriasis.  My system that is used to fight off viruses is attacking my back thinking it is a virus itself.  My sacroiliac joint is always inflamed and that is what is causing the pain.

The treatments?  Now that's was what I was waiting for.  Exercise.  That's a big one.  A body in motion stays in motion.  That makes sense.  Also, for those dormant periods, I've been taking a different anti inflammatory called Diclofenac.  Also, as of tomorrow (7/02/18) I will be on Humira.  It's a shot that I have to take every 2 weeks.  It's early, so I'm not sure how I'll feel or the effects this will have on my, but I guess that'll have to be another story sometime.  I do know that it reduces my chance to fight other infections, so that part is pretty scary.  It'll help my condition, but it could make me sicker or make it harder to fight off the common cold or the flu.  It could make it last longer than normal.  I guess I'll just have to see how it goes.

All I know is that I'm going to continue life as I know it.  Keep moving.  Keep hiking.  Keep photographing.  Keep laughing and loving.  It could be worse.  So I'm looking at this as just another adventure that we're going through.  Stay positive, I got this!



Here's some reference sites if you would like to learn more:

https://www.spondylitis.org/Ankylosing-Spondylitis

https://www.arthritis-health.com/types/general/sacroiliac-joint-pain-and-inflammation

https://www.humira.com/ankylosing-spondylitis

Point Beach State Forest and Door County Wisconsin

We took another trip.  We wanted to see more of Wisconsin.  Where do we want to go?  We knew that sometime we wanted to camp at Point Beach State Forest, just North of Two Rivers Wisconsin.  Once we were there, do we stay there, or explore the area?  As it turned out, we didn't spend much time there at all.  Sure, we were there every night to enjoy a campfire, but we barely hiked there or enjoyed the 6 miles of bike trails.

We checked in on Saturday around 3 and spent the rest of the day there setting up camp and relaxing.

Base camp consisted of 3 tents.  One for  Amanda and I, one for the girls and the dog, and the other for supplies.  We also had the canopy over the picnic table that had LED lights in it for a little light on the site.

An American Redstart.  Remember, we're bird nerds.

The girls spent some time catching frogs.  This one was the smallest one they saw.

On Sunday, we headed over to Door County to see a few of the 5 State parks that are there.  We ended up visiting Newport State Park, Whitefish Dunes State Park, and Cave Point County Park.

 Newport State Park.  The water was very clear and there was great views along the lake edge.

 Inside the canopy offered a very different environment.  It was much quieter and lush with mosses, ferns, mushrooms, and flowers growing in abundance.

This is a popular diving spot in Cave Point County Park.  The weather was in the upper 60's with very chilly water temps, so there wasn't much activity in the water this day.

The rest of the drive was very scenic with curvy roads, forests of trees, big fancy houses, and some old farms sprinkled in here and there.

An old barn in serious need of some repairs

A famous curvy road in Northern Door County, especially in the fall during peak color season.  One of the funnest roads to drive.  I took this one through the windshield of the van.

On Monday, we got up early for a day of island hopping.  Our destination was Washington Island and Rock Island State Park.  We knew little about each place, but it sounded interesting and fun.  A place that we should definitely check out.  We had to drive to the tip of Door County and drive aboard a ferry with the van to get to Washington Island.  We only had one destination in mind here for our first visit, Schoolhouse beach.  Home of one of the worlds very few stone beaches, this one was very unique.  As most people know, we love rocks!  But there was a problem, there was a $250 fine for taking a rock from this beach so we could only look (and skip a few which was allowed).

 A sailboat near the ferry landing

 Not sure what type of boat this is, but I'd like to explore it.

Pilot Island with an abandoned lighthouse and fog building in ruin.  Everything on this island is dead, except for the birds that are always hovering around it.

 The "thumbs up" sign after sucessfully skipping a stone.

A longer exposure of the stone beach.

After this, we headed to the Northern most point of Washington Island, grabbed our backpacks, locked the van, and headed over to the passenger ferry to Rock Island.  There's no wheels allowed on the island, not even bicycles.  No power or running water.  No modern conveniences.  And more importantly, very poor cell service!  Rustic and mostly untamed.  They allow primitive camping which we will look forward to doing in the near future.

 The passenger ferry dock at the old boathouse.

 The fireplace in this old Viking Boathouse

 The view from upstairs looking down (obviously)

 Another out building in the background while Amanda and Evelyn hike up to the Pottawatomi Lighthouse

The Pottawatomi Lighthouse

 A happy Grace!

Pelicans in flight

We only spent a few hours on each island which wasn't long enough to see much, but just long enough to wet our appetite to come back for more.  There's so much more to see in Door County, from the lavender farm on Washington Island, the rocky shores of Rock Island, the darkness of Newport State Park at night (certified a dark sky area), to the goats eating on top of the Al Johnson's Swedish Resteraunt.  Looks like another round of trip planning is in our future!

Getting the Perfect Shot

You see pictures all the time. On the internet, on Facebook, in the newspaper and books, on TV... you get the picture (see what I did there?)  Did you ever think of what they went through to get those pictures?  Where they had to stand?  What conditions they had to be in?  Between the extreme heat and cold, rain and snow, wind... Pretty much everywhere postal workers go, but also in weirder places like water, the edge of cliffs, trees, and even in the sky these days with those weird remote controlled helicopter thingys.  I've been a few weird places myself.  

To get to the lake at sunrise, which is about a 30 minute drive (depending on where I want to go), I have to wake up about 4:00 am and rush out of the house as soon as the coffee is ready.

This shot took a little while to set-up in 90 degree and high humidity weather.  Luckily, I had to stand in this stream to get the shot, which was much cooler.

Here, I'm crossing a river to get the shot by standing on the rock bed in the middle.  This spot is actually deeper than it looks.  Probably about 2 feet deep, but I didn't want to get that wet this day.  

Photo courtesy of Amanda Clausen.

Burrrrr.... think about this.  It's almost 10 degrees below zero with wind chills about 35 degrees below zero.  I'm standing (again) in the middle of the stream for this shot.  Luckily, the water temps were just above freezing here, so it was actually warmer standing in the water than standing on the open land.  I love this place and wouldn't miss a sunrise photo opportunity with one of my best friends in the world for anything.  Especially when 3/4 of the family was there as well.

Here I am on New Year's Eve, first thing in the morning, standing in that river for that shot above.  

Photo courtesy of Val Ewing.

This shot, I was chilly.  It really was a nice day for this.  Temps were around 40 - 45 degrees.  Not too much wind.  Really, a nice day to hike and take a few pictures... for those who are dry.  Now, I was walking up the spring fed stream to take a picture of this dam, when I hit another underground spring in the middle of this innocent looking super-clear stream.  One step was fine, nice and solid.  The next step went just as good as the first.  I guess I was getting pretty cocky to think that I could make it all the way up this spring and get into position without incident.  The third step was right into a spring pocket!  My left leg went straight down, just about up to my hip, without even touching the bottom!  I wonder how deep that pocket really was?  I'm thinking a trip back there in the summer heat to find the depth of that hole might be in order.

This is what it looked like after I went in just before for the shot above.  I was told these boots were supposed to prevent you from getting wet.  Boy, they sure do hold the water!  Next time I'll try harder to keep the water on the outside. 

Photo courtesy of Amanda Clausen.

One of my favorite shots of all time is also one of my favorite spots of all time.  But, to get here, you have to hike either down a waterfall, or the other way is about a 2-1/2 hour hike through hills, plains and lowlands.  By the time you get here, the Ultra-cold water is a welcoming relief.  But standing in it for some time to get off several 20 second shots numbs your feet.  It's going from one extreme to the other in a matter of seconds!  I still wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

Can you guess the hazards in this picture?  Imagine 40 - 50 mph wind gusts, sustained around 30 mph.  It's about 37 degrees and it's drizzling.  It's hard to get the camera to stay dry, but it's impossible to keep myself dry.  That's alright with me, I like the challenge of it, shooting in all kinds of weather.  I'm "outdoorsy".  I can dress for weather like this.  It also helps that I'm going home after this shot to a warm house and a big hot cup of coffee to get the chill out of my bones.

This was me trying to get a shot of the waves exploding onto the pier.  I had to sit on the rail because the water (which was barely flowing down the ramp under me when I showed up minutes before this shot) was now a full blown 6" deep river cascading to the other side of the pier into the marina.

Photo courtesy of Amanda Clausen.

Here's the other end of this river, flowing into the marina.

I will continue to put myself in some precarious positions for the perfect shot.  It's something I have found to be "at the right place at the right time at the right angle".  It makes the picture.  I always practice safety though, I want to be doing this for a long time still, but if I get wet in the process, it's best that I at least save the camera instead of my pride!

Bird Nerds

Yes.  You read the title right.  We are bird nerds.  We go out to a lot of different places, especially in spring time during migration, to find new birds that we've never seen before.  We have a bird book.  We highlight in it and write the dates that we've seen different birds.  We're not really that hardcore about it though, we use the equipment that we've got and mostly stay in our area of the state.  Still, we're pretty nerdy when we find another species that we haven't seen before.  For instance, today (I'm writing this on Friday, April 13th 2018) we saw 6 different birds that we've never before seen.

Here's a few of the smaller birds that we saw.  These are the smaller variety (under 7"):

This is a White Breasted Nuthatch, one that we have seen before, but hadn't had photographed yet.

This is a Female Yellow Rumped Warbler (New)

Male Yellow Rumped Warbler (New)

Male Yellow Rumped Warbler in Flight (New)

This is a Ruby Crowned Kinglet (New)

 Male Golden Crowned Kinglet (New)

Eastern Pheobe (New)

It's fun to scout out the smaller birds.  They seem to want you to take their picture.  They're less elusive.  They're chock full of character and sing beautiful songs that call to you.  But what is birdwatching without some of the larger ones?   These few are between 9" and 16".

Male Red Bellied Woodpecker (seen before, but not photographed)

Lesser Yellowlegs, about 10" (New)

Greater Yellowlegs, about 14" (New)

Male Ring Necked Duck, about 16" (New)

These are just a few of the birds that we've seen this season.  We're always excited to see this time of year birds like Goldeneye Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, Buffleheads, Scaups, Shovelers and Teals.  Some of these are migratory birds, some stay in this area throughout the summer.

Waterfalls

By definition, a waterfall is: a cascade of water falling from a height, formed when a river or stream flows over a precipice or steep incline.  It doesn't really matter how high it is, whether it's a few inches or a few hundred feet.  It is a mighty force.  It can carve and shape rock.  It demands attention.  This is why I like to photograph them.

French Canyon Falls

Wildcat Canyon Falls

Lasalle Canyon Upper Falls

Same Waterfall as above

Again, same as above, but shot from behind.

Most waterfalls that I like to shoot are much smaller than this though.  Only a few inches to about 2 feet high.  There's a lot of character to these mini's.  They're not as powerful, but in a way they're better.  Have you ever sat and just listened to one of these?  They lull you to a peaceful place inside.  They're calming.  They're refreshing on a hot summer day.  Thy're a new kind of wonder deep in the winter when they're encapsulated in ice.  There are many more of these than the massive kinds like Niagara, the Angel, and the Copper Falls of Northern Wisconsin.  This makes them more personal.  Exclusive.  Private.  Most people haven't laid eyes on these.

One of the falls on Reed's Creek in Vernon County

Another of the Reed Creek Falls

One of the Awesome Creek falls

Harrington Beach Quarry Falls

These I will keep shooting.  These are a treasure to find, similar to hunting morel mushrooms in the spring.  Also, different weather brings them out such as spring melts and floods.  These are made out of nowhere, which is a good time to go hunting these.

Awesome Creek courtesy of Val Ewing

Of course, there are always those magical times where the bigger ones just have to be shot too...

One of my favorite shots.  This is the water fall at the bottom of the Sylvan Lake flow in Custer State Park, South Dakota