Thursday, May 31, 2007

There’s iron pyrite in them thar hills!

This past weekend Peter and I went to Colorado to attend the wedding of one of my oldest and dearest friends. “Oh, did you know Jeanine in college?” I was asked by other guests at the wedding. No. I went to high school with her. When I think about that, I’m amazed—it’s been 19 years since Jeanine and I were in school together.

Thankfully for Peter, we did more than just wedding stuff over the weekend. On two days, we went hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. The weather was brilliant and we had a great time even though my heart and lungs—spoiled by oxygen-rich sea-level air—had a hard time when we went up some of the steeper, rockier trails.

We found gold iron pyrite in a stream.
Gold! (or iron pyrite) 2

We fed some aggressive animals. (Seriously, they were aggressive! A chipmunk climbed on my lap because I wasn’t feeding him fast enough. [If you click on the duck photo you read see a description that I added. Raise your hand if you understand the reference.])
Best Chipmunk photoPeter and the Duck

We hiked to a waterfall
Us at Fern Falls

and a snowbound lake.
DreamLake

And Science happened!
Ooh! Science!

The Science that happened inspired me to run a contest. It’s a two-part quiz, whoever gets both questions right will be entered in a drawing for this sock yarn.
1) What happened to the bottle above? (Explain in detail—no partial credit if your answer is iffy, I’m not counting it correct.)
2) Why did I get excited enough about the bottle to take a photo of it?

Send your answers to ScoutP(at)gmail(dot)com
Scout will be judging the correctness of the second question.
Answers accepted until noon Central time on my birthday (that's Sunday for those of you who don't stalk me).

15 comments:

Amanda said...

I LOVE Rocky Mountain National Park! Was that aggressive chipmunk from the Aerial Tramway? They get pretty fiesty up there! Right now I wish I could be you.

Karen said...

Chipmunks in your lap!!

Elizabeth said...

The reference is to Peter and the Wolf.

I had a similar thing happen to a bottle in the airplane on my trip to San Diego. That's a hint.

Jennifer said...

Agressive wildlife! That alone would make for an adventurous trip.

Happy early birthday. RM's birthday is Sunday too, so I'll eat some cake for you too! :-)

Anonymous said...

I have never been to the Rocky Mountains but the scenery looks beautiful.

I love science, but I have no concrete idea as to what is going on. I'll be interested to see the answer!

GURO said...

*Guro raises hand...

But maybe a kazoo?

heatherfeather said...

if there were no bassoons when grandfather came on the set, all faith in musical humanity would have been lost...

and i have no idea about the second part of the contest... :(

Anonymous said...

Last time I was at that park I was a skinny little kid. We got out of the car, I saw a big rock, and I darted up it. When I got to the top, I thought my lungs were gonna pop! My mom yelled up to me, "Take it easy, honey. The air is thin up here." What? Thin air?

You got some great photos! Science and Nature!

Anonymous said...

(Raises hand) Yay! I never get references. :-)
What a fun trip! Beautiful photos.

Unknown said...

I have no idea what happened to the bottle, but that chipmunk is the cutest thing I've ever seen!

Terby said...

Happy birthday! I'm happy that I got the reference, and I'm a musical dud. I know part I, but I don't know part II...

Beautiful hiking. I'll miss those photos if you abandon us.

Dorothy said...

Another hand raised here about the ducks/oboes - man, does that bring back memories. Gotta get a recording of that for my granddaughter. As for the bottle, not enough of a science geek to give a rationale answer even though I know it has something to do with atmospheric pressure (I think).

Ingrid Hendy said...

Da di da da daaaah da da daaaa da. Oh I guess I should have been a better stalker cause I knew all the answers...but you explained all that in the next.

Anonymous said...

Craaaaaaap. I missed a contest! I totally would have gotten this contest right, too. Drat.

Glad you had a fun trip! Those squirrel photos are hilarious.

Anonymous said...

Shoot, I missed your contest cuz we were on vacation. I would have gotten them both right, too. We had the same thing (and the opposite thing) happen to water bottles on our trip to the Big Horn mountains in Wyoming; Powder River Pass, 9,666 feet.