Friday, August 6, 2010

POTG Travelogue Visits Zion Canyon and Friday Round-Up

This week's stop on the POTG travelogue tour is Zion Canyon National Park which is located in Southern Utah. (Click on pictures for larger view)

The area was carved over the years by the Virgin River that cuts through the heart of the red rock walls that line the length of the canyon. There are a few white tops and walls that provide interesting contrasts.












The river is perfect for wading and hiking but is chilly year-round as it is fed by mountain snow runoff as well as springs embedded in the sandstone walls.

From April to October, no personal vehicle traffic is allowed deep into the park as environmentally-friendly gas powered buses carry folks to the various hiking points along the single road that goes to the end of the canyon.












Where the road ends, the Narrows trail begins. After a one mile paved path you must head into the creek bed to continue your hike as far as you want to go into the increasingly narrow head of the canyon.

Zion is a contrast to the Grand Canyon, where you stand at the top and look down. At Zion, you are at the bottom looking up. It is very difficult to capture the true grandeur of the view with normal photographic equipment. It is an area that needs to be visited to be fully appreciated.












In Pred Nation...

In preparation for today's final Bankruptcy Court resolution of the Boots DelBiaggio ownership shares of the Predators, the Nashville Sports Authority approved the deal that will allow the owners to assume ownership. Nate Rau at the Tennesseean also indicates that the NHL and the CIT group are also close to giving final approval to the restructured local ownership group.

Jim Diamond has a piece that had to take a lot of work to put together where he has the top five quotes from the Predators from the past season.

NHL.com has a nice piece about Zach Budish being back at full strength after missing last year's Team USA Junior team after knee surgery.

Forechecker has news of a couple of college games to be played at the Bridgestone Arena this October between UAH and Merrimack.

Section 303 speculates on other players that may be leaving the Predators after the Preds sent Mike Santorelli to Florida yesterday.

Predlines compares the Mike Santorelli situation to that of Rich Peverly before he went to Atlanta. It is amazing how some players transition from the AHL to the NHL differently and some never make the jump.

Mark at The View From 111 has a nightmare revelation in his weekly "My View".

Blake Geoffrion modeled the new Admiral road jersey (rear view) at the Wisconsin State Fair. Here is the front side. Here is the official release from the Ads.

Several Predators are listed as fantasy sleeper picks in a Central Division story at saucerpass.

In a not so complementary piece, Spike named Barry Trotz as a top nine fattest coach. That's a really poor job of journalism as Barry is not really that big. They do admit that it was relative to other NHL coaches.

With fifty votes in at HF Boards, the four leaders in the Mt. Pucknore survey were the same ones I picked initially, David Poile, Barry Trotz, Shea Weber and David Legwand. No one else was really close.

Rebecca does her own version of five reasons why see likes hockey at Hockeyless in Memphis.

Kovi's Korner...

Fire and Ice confirms that the Kovalchuk hearing wrapped up yesterday. So now the wait for the result. @TGfireandice: Kovalchuk hearing in Boston is over. Arbitrator Richard Bloch's decision is due by the end of business on Monday.

While everyone waited for a result, the Devil's Tour moved onward to Hoboken.

Around the NHL...

Launy "The" Schwartz is the leader at this point in the Gillette Drafted 2 contest at The Score. Here's more from the official site. Keep voting for Launy. It is not time to back down.

Chelsea Alexander is the latest to give her Five Reasons that she loves hockey to Puck Daddy.

Anthony Perez has a summery of all the different rumors swirling around the Phoenix Coyotes sale. Take your pick as to which one you believe. Anthony will I'll be live on 1010 AM in Phoenix today from 2-4 p.m. local time to talk Coyotes and more!

James Mirtle has an interesting piece about how odd the arbitration process has become this year.

The Red Wings will have a press conference today to introduce their newest signee, Mike Modano.

Chris Wassel projects the top 25 fantasy goalies at The Program.

Michael Langlois lists his ten favorite moments as a Leaf's fan.

Michael Schuerlein caught up for a one on one with new Islander James Wisniewski in a good interview.

Kent Wilson accesses the cap heavy and cap hungry teams.

Andrew Ladd appeared on the the Fan 960 in Calgary yesterday in a good interview for off season listening.

The Montreal Gazette reports that Glen Metropolit is headed to Switzerland to play. This is a really neat story of a player going to Europe for all the right reasons.

It's three days in a row for Tapeleg and his jerseys. This Plymouth Whaler jersey landed him a picture with Tyler Seguin.

You rarely hear about a 20 year old player retiring due to losing his passion. Eric Mestery is one who did.

Mandy Schwartz, who's search for a marrow doner has received headlines, will throw out the first pitch at Sunday's Seattle Mariner's game.

Odds and Ends...

From @Proteautype: Ricky Gervais taking over for Steve Carell on The Office? Apparently being considered. After watching the British version lately, I had an idea that something like that could happen. Here's more detail on the possibility from New York Magazine.

A man tried to purchase "care-giver" services on Craigslist so he could get women to change his diaper. This is about as stupid as it gets.

It's Shark Week at Cocoa Beach.

An insurance study indicates men have more accidents due to being distracted by scantily clad women that women have being distracted by men. Does anyone find this surprising?

Are you a social media celebrity either for or apart from your company? The social media examiner takes a look at the relationship between the star and the company.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

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