Max Monclair

Category: Wanders With Moose

How to avoid getting in trouble in the backcountry. And the occasional wildlife encounter story.

Coming Attractions

Tangled Media, Uncategorized, Wanders With Marmots, Wanders With Moose

It’s been a while since I’ve added content here, but I’ve been at work figuring out what is next. Here’s what’s in the works:

  1. I’ve decided to retire the Tangled Media blog for now. My attention on the media business has waned as I’ve put my personal focus on other interests. The content is still available and searchable under that category, but for the time being I won’t be adding more to it.
  2. The Wanders with Moose photo store hasn’t really gone anywhere, so I’m setting that aside as well. I’ll still post photo content on this site, but setting up the store for purchase is something I’ll come back to another time.
  3. I’ve started a new blog here, Wanders With Marmots. This is a companion to my Instagram account, which I encourage you to follow at https://www.instagram.com/wanderswithmarmots/. I cover outdoor activity, photography, travel, and art. With the occasional cute animal or humorous story.

I’m working on content for the blog which will cover recent activities, like backpacking Canyonlands NP, looking for tarantulas in southeastern Colorado, and stupid hiker stories. Please subscribe for future posts or watch for it on Instagram.

Preview of things to come…

Arts, Site News, Tangled Media, Wanders With Moose

It’s been quiet here for a while. I’ve been busy with a number of projects, and there are 3 announcements of things to expect as I emerge from the quiet.

First, I’ve been looking at various options for starting my photography store, Wanders With Moose. When fully launched, it will feature images for sale as well as a gallery of images free to use (so long as I get attribution). You can see a preview of it here: https://maxmonclair.viewbug.com/. That said, while I am currently using ViewBug for it, I am not terribly happy with the results and the difficulty of setting up photos for licensing and sale. Fortunately, their Terms of Service do not deprive me of ownership of the images posted, so I’ll still use it to display photos and will use it to drive exposure to the store, once established.

Second, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on a story that I’ve been trying to decide whether to make it a novella or a full novel. I started working on it for the 2015 National Novel Writing Month challenge. My goal is to have it ready to shop around for publication by the end of 2020. Contact me directly if you’d like to find out more.

Third, there’s been a lot in the media field: 5G, must-see programming on Netflix, the perilous challenge of cable and satellite programming, the ever-crowded OTT broadcasting field, and more than I can list here. That means a lot to write about. I will be working to revive the Tangled Media blog (which admittedly didn’t get much of a start). Keep your eyes here or on my Twitter feed for details.

2020 is going to be a wild ride, for sure.

Image of the Week: December 8, 2018

Image of the Week, Wanders With Moose

One of my favorite short hiking trails in Gilpin County is a nondescript one that begins two miles south of Rollinsville, off of Hwy 119. The only marker for the trailhead is a sign warning to be safe with campfires (though on occasion, the sign goes missing, leaving the sign holder empty). The trails are sometimes hard to discern, but one of them leads to an overlook above South Boulder Creek, looking back on Rollinsville, 500 feet below.

This overlook also affords a panoramic view of the Continental Divide, extending from James Peak to the south, past Long’s Peak, 50 miles in the distance (seen here). This is only a snapshot of the fantastic view of the Divide in early spring.

Image of the Week: November 24, 2018

Image of the Week, Wanders With Moose

Water Installation by Angelo di Benedetto, Gilpin County Arts Assn.

Note: Last week’s featured image was posted on Thursday. Starting this week, I will try to post this every Saturday

I don’t do Black Friday. Fighting crowds for stuff I don’t need is not the epilogue I could use for a week of house cleaning, food shopping & preparations and feasting. Most years, it ends on a high note and dashing it in a mad rush I may not come out of alive seems rather perverse to me.

So this year, we took my wife Laura’s uncle, who came in from out of town, to Central City, just a bit down Highway 119 from our house. Being a fellow history buff, he wanted to see what Central City had to offer for museums and historic sites. One place we visited was the Gilpin County Historical Museum, a few hundred feet east of the old county courthouse. Upstairs from the tiny museum was the much larger gallery of the Gilpin County Arts Association. The space is a combination of the former residence of legendary Sheriff William Z Cozens, the original Gilpin County Courthouse at Washington Hall, and the first jail. The GCAA has operated an art gallery at this location continuously since 1947. You can find out more at the Gilpin County Arts Association.

The image of the week is a permanent water sculpture created by the late local artist Angelo di Benedetto. It utilizes the shape of the mountainside the building is adapted to for its form. If you’re ever in Central City between the hours of 10am-6pm most days, drop in at Washington Hall at 117 Eureka St. Even if the artwork is not your thing, the preserved early settlement architecture is itself worth a visit.