
I went on a walk around the closed off areas of the campsite, and ended up walking back along the lakeside. When I got back to our campsite Ginger fancied a walk, so we re-traced part of my walk, which was very fortuitous as we were able to see this fantastic sunset over the lake. Note the very cool Crepuscular Rays.
The wind blew hard and unpredictably most of the evening, making sitting round the campfire hazardous at times, but the sparks made up for the absence of fireworks.

Sitting round the campfire on Guy Fawkes night

Bucksaw campsite in the moonlight
05 November 2011 | Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman
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5 November 2011 | Categories: Around Missouri, Camping, Days Out, Hikes, Landscape, Water (Rivers and Lakes) | Tags: Colour, Crepuscular Rays, Gary Allman, Harry S Truman Lake, Missouri, Nikon D7000, Photography, South West Missouri, Sunset | Leave A Comment »

This weekend we’ve been trying out our backpacking gear, but without the actual backpacking. The nearest we got to hiking with our gear was to lug our packs 20-30′ from the car to our campsite.
We decided to cheat on preparing the fire. Not wanting to spend a lot of time and energy gathering and cutting wood, we bought some logs for $4 and I split them with an 8lb non backpacking axe. However, we did successfully light the fire backpacking style using cotton wool pads coated with Vaseline.
20 November 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman
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20 November 2010 | Categories: Activities and Events, Around Missouri, Camping, Days Out, Friends and Family, People, Self Portrait, USA | Tags: Berry Bend, Gary Allman, Ginger, Harry S Truman Lake, Low Light, Missouri, Night, Nikon D40X, Photography | Leave A Comment »

I’ve been posting far too many landscapes, lake and tree pictures over the past few months. In an effort to mix things up a bit I thought I’d include a couple of pictures of us enjoying the scenery.
Friday evening we took Alek, Katie and a couple of kids from youth group to Kansas City for a Church event. We needed to be on hand to collect them again Sunday afternoon, so we left Lanie in the capable hands of Ginger’s cousin Betsy, put Getzger in charge at home and once we’d dropped the big kids off we turned around and went back to go camping at Berry Bend on Harry S. Truman Lake.
We didn’t bother taking the kayaks; we had a very nice quiet day sitting watching the lake and wildlife instead. It gave us a change to try out our Trekker chairs. I was dubious about sitting so low to the ground, but they proved very comfortable. The great thing about the chairs is that they use our existing Therm-A-Rest mattresses for the seat and seat back so there’s very little extra to carry. Which brings me to a problem. My Nikon weighs in at 2lbs. I need something lighter for backpacking, or I’m going to have to compromise somewhere else. We’ll see.
While sitting here we saw loads of different woodpeckers, hawks, and other birds including a bald eagle. We also watched the squirrels and chipmunks rushing around. Over the course of the weekend we also saw a deer, possum, coyote, and evidence of a beaver.
I never did get a chance to read the book I brought along, and I don’t think Ginger got much knitting done either.
20 November 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman
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20 November 2010 | Categories: Activities and Events, Around Missouri, Camping, Friends and Family, People, Self Portrait, USA | Tags: Berry Bend, Camping, Gary Allman, Harry S Truman Lake, Missouri, Nikon D40X, Photography, Self Portrait | Leave A Comment »

On our second day we went on a 6.5 mile Kayaking trip, going up one side of Berry Bend and back along the other shore. There were loads of submerged trees. I’ve not really found the best way to capture them yet.
09 October 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman
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9 October 2010 | Categories: Activities and Events, Around Missouri, Camping, Fishing, Kayaking, USA, Water (Rivers and Lakes) | Tags: Berry Bend, Gary Allman, Harry S Truman Lake, Missouri, Nikon D40X, Photography, Water | Leave A Comment »

This lake is relatively new, filling started in 1974, so there are still a lot of semi-submerged trees about. The great thing about using the kayaks is that we don’t have any worries about getting in among the trees, which means I can fish where other boats can’t go. It also means we can explore all the little coves, and get right in under the bluffs.
08 October 2010 | Copyright © 2010 Gary Allman
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8 October 2010 | Categories: Activities and Events, Around Missouri, Camping, Fishing, Kayaking, Nature, USA, Water (Rivers and Lakes) | Tags: Gary Allman, Harry S Truman Lake, Missouri, Nikon D40X, Photography, Water | Leave A Comment »