One of these days he is going to "fumble" his way into a concept and connections that is significant and groundbreaking just from the wide breadth of topics that are being referenced and interconnected. So grateful Nick is taking us along on this journey, and making details as palatable as is possible for even a novice viewer.
Oh, well done on heading Westbound on Hwy. 12. I'm so sad for the Rimrock fires still raging - fond memories of camping up there. VERY interesting information and beautiful video. Thank you. LOVE IT!
Well I’m one of the people “from far away”, sitting here in the Tope End of the NT in Australia, and while there’s nothing comparable within thousands of kilometres from here I enjoyed the trip down the road. Thanks.
Yes, these shows are making me get in the car and get on the road. After you were at Spirit Lake Viewpoint, I went up there too. 3.5 hours from my home in Mt. Vista, WA. I found the little grocery store on Hwy 12, bought a cold drink and two beautiful little bonsai trees, one for me, one for my son-in-law. And the Spirit Lake overlook was amazing. I was there in 1987 and you can bet it didn't look like it looks today. Thanks for the inspiration to get on the road.
You are awesome! Here I was 3 weeks ago heading up to camp at Bethel Ridge and stopped several times to stare at the various rock formations along this route, Stopped at the overlook and thought "what would Prof. Nick have to say about this area"? Well now I know. Thank you for planting the seed into the mind of a retired senior citizen. Glad to be counted among the other1%rs!
I am embarrassed at how many places I’ve driven past as assumed the “rubble” was just remnants of road building. My list of places to revisit with new eyes is growing! Nick, if you are reading these comments. Thank you for sharing your passion and knowledge is such an accessible way.
I used to drive a semi out that way, and we went out US 12 and crossed the Cascades to the west. One of the most pristine drives I've ever made. My wife was scared to death of falling off the mountain. Great memories!!!
I always enjoy these preliminary videos that start to paint the background of the more focused later presentations. They're very valuable to the engaged viewers.
I love watching these videos with a second window open with google maps street view and looking at the same spot that Nick is at. Someday I hope to be able to see these in person.
I drove Hwy 12 from Packwood about a month ago on a family vacation. We stopped at the Palisades and I thought it was the most impressive roadside stop of the trip - younger Goat Rocks lava that just stops in a columnar cliff. I took a picture of the interpretive sign that showed the lava hitting a glacier and stopping and my thought was, "I wonder what Nick would say about this interpretation." Now I know. Thanks for the great video!
I’ve stopped so many times looking at the different rocks, wondering about their stories. When my children were young, they enjoyed the rock hounding and making up stories of their own. Maybe someday soon I’ll get back up there and explore some more with my grandchildren.
I really enjoyed this wonderful video. Rock hunting on a road trip - and actually understanding something about them for a change - is such a delight. Thank you for the wonderful adventures you take us on. It's one thing to sit in a room and talk about the rocks and the events of the past, very enjoyable, but such a different thing to be there in person. Can't thank you enough for all your efforts, taking us to these places and teaching us so much and broadening our view. Now I'll never forget seeing those columns - amazing!
Just so you know.. Your style and your teaching is 'first class'. I learn so much and yes.. we are planning our next 'get out town' day to head towards White Pass. (We live in Seattle).. Love your stuff. thanks
A funny story for you Nick. I used to take trips from Idaho through White Pass. And this exact shattered outcrop you showed us is where I ran over a rock and blew two tires and had to wait 8 hours to get towed off the mountain a couple years back. Now, I live nearby. Funny to see you exploring an outcrop I spent a *lot* of time at! 😂 Awesome video as always!
My son and I took Rt 12 back from Yakima about six weeks ago. Oddly enough, we noticed the "baby basalt coumns" you stopped at, but had no clue what we were looking at. As usual, you are the bridge between seeing/shrugging and seeing/understanding. I'm so grateful you keep bridging us towards understanding. We're happy to be on this inquiry journey with you! (now I'm off to make sure my son watches this video!)
Exciting to realize that the White Pass, where we go on at least once a year, could offer those outcrops for us to be able to connect the effects of Siletzia hitting the coast! Thank you Nick for stumbling and enjoying the geology with us!!💛💚✨😊
You really put excellent context to those maps you have professor just by visiting those places and explaining about the others who wrote papers about them.
OMG! I NEEDED this video! I've been trying to unpack the Rimrock Lake Inlier, the Summit Creek Basalt, and the concepts from the Idaho Batholith/Eocene Slab Break-off(s). This field trip video is really flippin' helpful! Thank you Nick!
Having just read about these "previously unknown to me" rocks of the Rimrock Inlier, it's great to, virtually, lay my eyes on them. This video provides me with a much fuller understanding of this suite of rocks.
I love the videos you present. If I had been able to finish my bachelor/masters degree, I would be teaching like you. We are from the vintage of all geologists from the mid 80's and early 90's. You are only a year older than me. I wish you had time to spare to read my post. I thank you for all you are doing. By the way, I LOVE YOU TOO!!!
Thanks so much for your fun educational adventure almost as good as being there . As an older person who loved adventure and can no longer go in person this video is a huge gift. Also great for the brain continued learning new things.
Thank you ! Very interesting to me. I have been there,just sightseeing back in 1994,and then again off and on over the years I would drive or ride a motorcycle from White Salmon. One of my favorite spots,now even more as my interest to learn about what I am looking at! THANK YOU
I miss seeing those Elk herds along Hwy 410 & 12. Plus mandatory stop at “newer” summit Rest Area (actually probably 20 yrs old now). So much good info, and we used to ride mtn bike/hike on those SKREE covered trails & not easy to do… Thank You for great video !
Looking forward to seeing nearly in realtime, the questions being entertained with possible new evidence regarding one and possibly two break offs of the subducting ocean plates that may relate to a possible older arc volcano east of the Cascades. Very interesting possibilities! Thank you, Nick!
31:37 I had to use that ramp about 36 years ago. I had started own from the top on the Jake brake but it quit working about 2 miles down the hill. I managed to get the truck into a low enough gear that the engine compression alone kept my speed reasonable. My brakes were smoking pretty badly but I wasn't totally out of control so I rolled up the service road beside the gravel ramp and let things cool for a while before finishing the descent.
I want to say that as a neophyte geology enthusiast, even though I often don’t understand WTF you’re talking about and have to stop and look up words over and over again, I remain intrigued by these things you discover and share from the road. And I continue to try and imagine life 160 million years ago in what we now call Washington State with dinosaurs and a wildly different climate. Indeed the Earth will carry on without us if we don’t get with the program. Till next time.
I have to say these are my favorite videos to watch that you have been doing lately. I just like it when you are out and about showing the various sights of Washington. Better if done with Gary but I like the solo journeys as well. Nothing will rise to the fun of that original backyard series during Covid but these are enjoyable to watch. I feel like the A to Z series sometimes gets bogged down into too many details and I tune out watching them. I think it's great as a gathering of research information from all different sources that you are so good at organizing, but for me, I need a more visual aspect to keep me going. I hope you continue with these type of videos and I hope you do more with Gary Paull. I think the two of you have a very good rapport.
Bruce Nelson! I suppose you can't know every geologist. He was my professor for a couple of geology classes at UW including a field class in the Canary Islands, so definitely an igneous specialist. That was a few decades ago so he might be an emeritus now. And thank you for sharing this video of your White Pass road trip. I live far away now, but traveled that route many times growing up.
I found these rocks to be so strange. They're so different from what I'm used to seeing in road cuts on the east coast, which are mostly sandstone and clay as far as I can tell. Thank you, Nick, for taking us out and about to learn about different things. I don't think I've seen an olivine since Geology 151 lab in 1983 and, without you, would not realize I was seeing one again!
Traveling east from the summit of White Pass, along Rimrock Lake in the Andy Creek area, and eastward, there are forest roads that parallel Highway 12 at Rimrock Lake, where exposed areas of what looks to be lake bottom or now more likely ocean crust that is layered and fragile. The introduction of Rimrock Lake inlier explains how these layers made it into the Cascades. I hope I'm not assuming too much.
Beautiful Nick!. Relived the last big trip with my sister Oct 2022. Stopped at some of the same spots to take in the "rocks". That was BN (before Nick). Found you while trying to research what was to be the next trip, SE Utah. It's been a great learning experience since but still trying to learn more about Utah.
Thanks Nick! I appreciate ANY field trip where you look at rocks and expand my knowledge. Building the story one chapter at a time. 🤎 I love that you give us small digestible bites, some space in between to ponder, and then build on what you have previously shown us. The rocks may have been ugly but the story is beautiful!
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I wish I'd had you as a prof. I might have changed majors (I loved the career I had but there is just something so satisfying about geology).
Enjoying all your videos of the Cascades and the other areas in Washington. Learning about Siletzia and the exotic terranes has been fascinating. While I live in northeast Indiana, I grew up in the Black Hills of SD, and have always been interested in geology. Lots of glacial till around here, and relative flat terrain. But we can find some Devonian fossils in various areas.
Nick, Thank you so much for showing this stuff.. I’ve said it before , I can watch you for hours.. I live in Florida, I’m a long way from this area.. I hope I can get up to visit this area..
This is amazing. I’ve driven over white pass at least a hundred times or more and never knew there was ocean floor from the dinosaur era up there. Thanks Nick!
I always make sure to give you a thumbs up and share you to my Facebook to help with the algorithm. I very rarely leave a comment, but I gotta tell you I am not a scientist. I am a lifelong learner and I love knowing and putting together the pieces of the puzzle about what was and how things become… I’ve always wondered you know those hexagon basalt formations you were standing on in one of your videos and you dropped your hammer and it fell down… Has anyone ever taken like an MRI or CAT scan of the formation? I’d be so interested in knowing it’s construction how tall the pylons are what they connected to and how, I love the show. Thank you for everything. You do much love from Kennewick Washington Washington state on the mighty Columbia River. Our arms are forever wrapped around you.❤
Nick, you might want to check on the color of the green olivine as it weathers. I know in the Palisades of New York (NYC) that they weather to a rusty yellow/orange appearance. Might be some of the "orangy" bursts you say in some of those samples you cracked open. Just a thought. Still enjoying the hell out these excursions, and easier on the feet. ;>)
"Roadside outcrop videos" are chock-full of new info. Thank you, professor, for the great tour !
Check out Shawn Willsey’s random roadcut series!
Got me hooked with 2 minute geology videos, 4 years later , still watching your great content 🫡
One of these days he is going to "fumble" his way into a concept and connections that is significant and groundbreaking just from the wide breadth of topics that are being referenced and interconnected.
So grateful Nick is taking us along on this journey, and making details as palatable as is possible for even a novice viewer.
whoooooooooooa! blown away by the Palisades basalt columns.
Yes love those columns
Oh, well done on heading Westbound on Hwy. 12. I'm so sad for the Rimrock fires still raging - fond memories of camping up there. VERY interesting information and beautiful video. Thank you. LOVE IT!
WHOiii Nick, thanks for bringing these phenomenal lesson of Earth to us. We love you right back buddy.
Well I’m one of the people “from far away”, sitting here in the Tope End of the NT in Australia, and while there’s nothing comparable within thousands of kilometres from here I enjoyed the trip down the road. Thanks.
Yes, these shows are making me get in the car and get on the road. After you were at Spirit Lake Viewpoint, I went up there too. 3.5 hours from my home in Mt. Vista, WA. I found the little grocery store on Hwy 12, bought a cold drink and two beautiful little bonsai trees, one for me, one for my son-in-law. And the Spirit Lake overlook was amazing. I was there in 1987 and you can bet it didn't look like it looks today. Thanks for the inspiration to get on the road.
Nick, your the best and I am glad you took the opprotunity to see these formations while the road is closed.
It's great to be with you again NicK...this is the best part of your teaching style. Thank you.
You are awesome! Here I was 3 weeks ago heading up to camp at Bethel Ridge and stopped several times to stare at the various rock formations along this route, Stopped at the overlook and thought "what would Prof. Nick have to say about this area"? Well now I know. Thank you for planting the seed into the mind of a retired senior citizen. Glad to be counted among the other1%rs!
I am embarrassed at how many places I’ve driven past as assumed the “rubble” was just remnants of road building.
My list of places to revisit with new eyes is growing!
Nick, if you are reading these comments. Thank you for sharing your passion and knowledge is such an accessible way.
Well, ironically, it would be a lot harder to see it without the road building.
Are excavators geologists best friends?
@@brianruff1133That’s a great perspective.
I used to drive a semi out that way, and we went out US 12 and crossed the Cascades to the west. One of the most pristine drives I've ever made. My wife was scared to death of falling off the mountain. Great memories!!!
Thanks for bringing us along
I always enjoy these preliminary videos that start to paint the background of the more focused later presentations. They're very valuable to the engaged viewers.
Thanks Nick, I deeply appreciate your presentations👍
I love watching these videos with a second window open with google maps street view and looking at the same spot that Nick is at.
Someday I hope to be able to see these in person.
I do that with all three of the best TH-cam geologists.
@@hestheMaster
What other channels do you watch that are commercial free?
@@scottcox9108 Shawn Willsey and Myron
Cook
lol same here
I drove Hwy 12 from Packwood about a month ago on a family vacation. We stopped at the Palisades and I thought it was the most impressive roadside stop of the trip - younger Goat Rocks lava that just stops in a columnar cliff. I took a picture of the interpretive sign that showed the lava hitting a glacier and stopping and my thought was, "I wonder what Nick would say about this interpretation." Now I know. Thanks for the great video!
Thank you Nick, from a closet geologist that is fascinated by plate tectonics to silica. Much appreciation from a guy as old as dirt.
i drive white pass all the time and have seen these spots but it was so fun to here history on them, thank Mr Zentner
I’ve stopped so many times looking at the different rocks, wondering about their stories. When my children were young, they enjoyed the rock hounding and making up stories of their own. Maybe someday soon I’ll get back up there and explore some more with my grandchildren.
Fabulous way to spend a Sunday breakfast learning from a wonderful teacher. Many thanks from Cambridge UK
I really enjoyed this wonderful video. Rock hunting on a road trip - and actually understanding something about them for a change - is such a delight. Thank you for the wonderful adventures you take us on. It's one thing to sit in a room and talk about the rocks and the events of the past, very enjoyable, but such a different thing to be there in person. Can't thank you enough for all your efforts, taking us to these places and teaching us so much and broadening our view. Now I'll never forget seeing those columns - amazing!
I always hate to see these videos end - - - thanks so much
Some teachers just teach! Nick, you make the subject interesting and easy to follow. Thankyou!
Hi Nick! Thanks for another wonderful video 🥰🤗
I’ve been saving this till this afternoon, no better way to spend my Sunday afternoon, thank you sir !
Thanks Nick wonderful and intersting geology and wonderto have you as my 2000 miles away tour guide.
Just so you know.. Your style and your teaching is 'first class'. I learn so much and yes.. we are planning our next 'get out town' day to head towards White Pass. (We live in Seattle).. Love your stuff. thanks
Some of your best videos are when you are surprised and excited.
Such a great teacher.
A funny story for you Nick. I used to take trips from Idaho through White Pass. And this exact shattered outcrop you showed us is where I ran over a rock and blew two tires and had to wait 8 hours to get towed off the mountain a couple years back. Now, I live nearby. Funny to see you exploring an outcrop I spent a *lot* of time at! 😂
Awesome video as always!
So Good! Thank you Nick Zentner!
My son and I took Rt 12 back from Yakima about six weeks ago. Oddly enough, we noticed the "baby basalt coumns" you stopped at, but had no clue what we were looking at. As usual, you are the bridge between seeing/shrugging and seeing/understanding. I'm so grateful you keep bridging us towards understanding. We're happy to be on this inquiry journey with you! (now I'm off to make sure my son watches this video!)
Thank you, Nick....for teaching us. 💕
Super familiar with everything Nick is sharing. Been over White Pass a 1000 times
So much interesting geology, presented in a way even a novice can understand in some truly spectacular landscape.
I just appreciate that you or anyone that goes out to the outcrops. Thank you.
Exciting to realize that the White Pass, where we go on at least once a year, could offer those outcrops for us to be able to connect the effects of Siletzia hitting the coast! Thank you Nick for stumbling and enjoying the geology with us!!💛💚✨😊
From a Zentnerd on the opposite coast, love these roadside trips. A good visual beginning makes the more complex easier to digest.
Enjoying the beautiful greenery along with the lesson.
Thanks, Nick, we just did this drive last month. Those Palisades columns are awesome!
Productive road trip Nick, thanks for sharing.
Keep them coming I enjoy the one on one as it seems.
These are great! Love going w you and the explanations - including ‘I don’t know’.
Love all you do Nick, always, just being a "mom" saying get home to be safe...
You really put excellent context to those maps you have professor just by visiting those places and explaining about the
others who wrote papers about them.
OMG! I NEEDED this video! I've been trying to unpack the Rimrock Lake Inlier, the Summit Creek Basalt, and the concepts from the Idaho Batholith/Eocene Slab Break-off(s). This field trip video is really flippin' helpful! Thank you Nick!
Having just read about these "previously unknown to me" rocks of the Rimrock Inlier, it's great to, virtually, lay my eyes on them. This video provides me with a much fuller understanding of this suite of rocks.
I love the videos you present. If I had been able to finish my bachelor/masters degree, I would be teaching like you. We are from the vintage of all geologists from the mid 80's and early 90's. You are only a year older than me. I wish you had time to spare to read my post. I thank you for all you are doing. By the way, I LOVE YOU TOO!!!
Beautiful place my brother is buried there at rainy valley cemetery I haven't been there in years it still looks the same great video
Thanks so much for your fun educational adventure almost as good as being there . As an older person who loved adventure and can no longer go in person this video is a huge gift. Also great for the brain continued learning new things.
Thank you ! Very interesting to me. I have been there,just sightseeing back in 1994,and then again off and on over the years I would drive or ride a motorcycle from White Salmon. One of my favorite spots,now even more as my interest to learn about what I am looking at! THANK YOU
I miss seeing those Elk herds along Hwy 410 & 12. Plus mandatory stop at “newer” summit Rest Area (actually probably 20 yrs old now). So much good info, and we used to ride mtn bike/hike on those SKREE covered trails & not easy to do… Thank You for great video !
Amazing time to be at White Pass! 🌲 🐿️
I have seen area of White Pass on 02/05/1975. The geology of the area is very interesting. Hope to visit again.
Looking forward to seeing
nearly in realtime, the questions being entertained with possible new evidence regarding one and possibly two break offs of the subducting ocean plates that may relate to a possible older arc volcano east of the Cascades. Very interesting possibilities!
Thank you, Nick!
Love these videos.
wonderful little tour, LOL wish there were CEU's for your classes but alas it's just a hobby :) thanks again for bringing us along
31:37 I had to use that ramp about 36 years ago. I had started own from the top on the Jake brake but it quit working about 2 miles down the hill. I managed to get the truck into a low enough gear that the engine compression alone kept my speed reasonable. My brakes were smoking pretty badly but I wasn't totally out of control so I rolled up the service road beside the gravel ramp and let things cool for a while before finishing the descent.
T Y Sir. Keeping this piece of the puzzle for A to Z.
I want to say that as a neophyte geology enthusiast, even though I often don’t understand WTF you’re talking about and have to stop and look up words over and over again, I remain intrigued by these things you discover and share from the road.
And I continue to try and imagine life 160 million years ago in what we now call Washington State with dinosaurs and a wildly different climate.
Indeed the Earth will carry on without us if we don’t get with the program.
Till next time.
As my favorite Laugh Inn character Wolfgang Busch use to say "Very Interesting." I like it Sir Nick!
Great to see and hear you Nick. Expand my mind please😊
I have to say these are my favorite videos to watch that you have been doing lately. I just like it when you are out and about showing the various sights of Washington. Better if done with Gary but I like the solo journeys as well. Nothing will rise to the fun of that original backyard series during Covid but these are enjoyable to watch. I feel like the A to Z series sometimes gets bogged down into too many details and I tune out watching them. I think it's great as a gathering of research information from all different sources that you are so good at organizing, but for me, I need a more visual aspect to keep me going. I hope you continue with these type of videos and I hope you do more with Gary Paull. I think the two of you have a very good rapport.
I'm a big fan of your "Roadside Geology" segments! They are a great way to bring the landscape to life. Thank you for sharing this with us! ⚘
Bruce Nelson! I suppose you can't know every geologist. He was my professor for a couple of geology classes at UW including a field class in the Canary Islands, so definitely an igneous specialist. That was a few decades ago so he might be an emeritus now.
And thank you for sharing this video of your White Pass road trip. I live far away now, but traveled that route many times growing up.
I’m going home that way soon. Glad to know it’s open.
Morning Nick…Thanks ❤
Thanks for sharing this video. I thought it was interesting.
Cool beans! Thats getting a little little closer to my old stomping grounds! Thanks Nick for teaching us about the areas near where I grew up!!!
I found these rocks to be so strange. They're so different from what I'm used to seeing in road cuts on the east coast, which are mostly sandstone and clay as far as I can tell. Thank you, Nick, for taking us out and about to learn about different things. I don't think I've seen an olivine since Geology 151 lab in 1983 and, without you, would not realize I was seeing one again!
Traveling east from the summit of White Pass, along Rimrock Lake in the Andy Creek area, and eastward, there are forest roads that parallel Highway 12 at Rimrock Lake, where exposed areas of what looks to be lake bottom or now more likely ocean crust that is layered and fragile. The introduction of Rimrock Lake inlier explains how these layers made it into the Cascades. I hope I'm not assuming too much.
Beautiful Nick!. Relived the last big trip with my sister Oct 2022. Stopped at some of the same spots to take in the "rocks". That was BN (before Nick). Found you while trying to research what was to be the next trip, SE Utah. It's been a great learning experience since but still trying to learn more about Utah.
Loved it. Added it to future drives list. Reviewing Crazy E, and 351 #26 today.
Love you too Nick! Always enjoy your show! Rock on Dude!
Thanks Nick! I appreciate ANY field trip where you look at rocks and expand my knowledge. Building the story one chapter at a time. 🤎 I love that you give us small digestible bites, some space in between to ponder, and then build on what you have previously shown us. The rocks may have been ugly but the story is beautiful!
On White Pass I stopped often @ Palisades when I lived in Yakima & Ellensburg
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I wish I'd had you as a prof. I might have changed majors (I loved the career I had but there is just something so satisfying about geology).
Great idea to visit when the road is closed
Professor Nick, any vid on rocks is OK in my book, although I have not written one, yet. Just keep on keepin' on, Sir!
The Palisades view point is one of my favorite places in Washington. It's hard to find.
Enjoying all your videos of the Cascades and the other areas in Washington. Learning about Siletzia and the exotic terranes has been fascinating. While I live in northeast Indiana, I grew up in the Black Hills of SD, and have always been interested in geology. Lots of glacial till around here, and relative flat terrain. But we can find some Devonian fossils in various areas.
Almost like you looked at my summer tour after E burg. Love it. Thanks Nick.
Finally the Palisades Rest Area. Stop there every time I head to Auburn and Seattle. a bit of Goat Rocks!
Nick, Thank you so much for showing this stuff.. I’ve said it before , I can watch you for hours.. I live in Florida, I’m a long way from this area.. I hope I can get up to visit this area..
Thanks. I haven't been to that area looking at the geology since i was a geology student some 40 years ago.
That layer of sandstone looks like an old river bed that was pushed upwards
This is amazing. I’ve driven over white pass at least a hundred times or more and never knew there was ocean floor from the dinosaur era up there. Thanks Nick!
When the fires are out. You need to explore bethel ridge basalts. There are huge columns, huge slides.. and strange tall rock formations.
I always make sure to give you a thumbs up and share you to my Facebook to help with the algorithm. I very rarely leave a comment, but I gotta tell you I am not a scientist. I am a lifelong learner and I love knowing and putting together the pieces of the puzzle about what was and how things become… I’ve always wondered you know those hexagon basalt formations you were standing on in one of your videos and you dropped your hammer and it fell down… Has anyone ever taken like an MRI or CAT scan of the formation? I’d be so interested in knowing it’s construction how tall the pylons are what they connected to and how, I love the show. Thank you for everything. You do much love from Kennewick Washington Washington state on the mighty Columbia River. Our arms are forever wrapped around you.❤
Can you imagine cleaning the pit toilets and Nick Zentner just happens to roll up? If that were me I promise not to shake your hand Nick :)
Nice columns Nick. Reminds me of Devil's postpile.
I've drove HWY 12 hundreds of times.
Almost 100K 🤞🤞🤞
Been a lot of fun. Ty from Canadia
Keep on rolling to Packwood, Packwood brewery!
Thanks Nick, interesting roadside trip!
It’s open now just drove through it twice today
Nick, you might want to check on the color of the green olivine as it weathers. I know in the Palisades of New York (NYC) that they weather to a rusty yellow/orange appearance. Might be some of the "orangy" bursts you say in some of those samples you cracked open. Just a thought. Still enjoying the hell out these excursions, and easier on the feet. ;>)
I would read your poetry Nick! Especially if it was about outcrops.