I was sleeping with my bedroom window open on the morning of the 29th of April, 2007. At 4:41 a.m. I heard an unusual sound, being groggy from sleep I only vaguely remember the explosion and then the subsequent noise of the gas escaping the pipeline. I went back to sleep.
One of my hobbies is nature recording. I record bird songs and any other interesting sounds I can find in nature. Every night I place my solid state audio recorder in a backpack out in the woods. It records for 9 or 10 hours. The next day I retrieve my recorder, upload the sound clips on my computer and look for any interesting night sounds. This way sometimes I record Barred Owls and coyote choruses. After dawn sometimes I can record the woodland birds if they come close enough to the microphone, like this Carolina Wren.
On the morning of the 29th of April I retrieved my recorder and listened to the following sound clip of the original explosion and gas burning from the pipeline. Several news groups hurried to the scene to gather photos of the tragedy but as far as I know I am the only one to record an audio of the original explosion.
Recently my wife and I vacationed in beautiful Silverton, Colorado. We have a new Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and being anxious to try it out on 4x4 roads we ventured up what the guide book described as an easy trip.
The first picture shows the awesome scenery and the small road that cuts switchbacks up the mountainside.
The second picture is of the Jeep as it nears the top of the road where the last snow had just been plowed to allow us to pass.
The last picture shows the view from the top back down to the valley that we had just come up from. The dot just barely visible in the road is my wife who decided she had had enough and could no longer emotionally handle the treacherous ride to the very top.
