User:Gwillhickers/Intrests

Along with Postage stamp and Postal history collecting, my interests also include Ancient History and American History, and along with photographing various postage issues and postal history, my second love is taking photos of the Gulf Fritillary butterflies that migrate their way along and up the coastal ranges of California along with others types that happen into my part of the countryside. Not an easy undertaking. Half of the time the butterfly only sets for a couple of seconds and is off and away again before your camera is even readied. If you can get your camera into 'gear' quick enough and manage to slowly approach the creature, close enough for a good macro image, you are indeed lucky if you can 'catch' a good shot.

My academic background in history, like many, are from courses taken in World History while in community college, but the bulk of my knowledge and insights into history are the product of years of my own reading and assimilation of the many accounts. I devote much of my editing time providing citations to various (usually philatelic and history) pages when I see they are needed and when I can do so.

Explore
 21st century explorations Along with being sort of a bookworm I love hiking the high country of northern California, where I have often ventured, sometimes for days, deep into the coastal ranges and beyond -- off the beaten path, into the hill, valley and brush, where the Ravens stand as tall as chickens and where Wild Boar, Coyote, Fox, Mountain Lion and Bear still afoot in places where no one has set theirs for centuries, if ever. Living in the 21st century people tend to think our planet has been completely explored. In reality the greater bulk of our planet's surface has rarely, if ever, been witnessed on foot. My gear for a 3-day venture is a small 8-pound pup-tent, a 3-pound summer bed roll, 3 pounds of trail mix (I make my own), a half pound of beef-jerky, and 1 pound of dried apricots (no weighty cooking gear required). Without the beef-jerky the trail mix will quickly go through the stomach and you'll have to be eating again very soon -- can't tread on an empty stomach. Along with a camera I also carry a good bowie-knife, also used as a hatchet, and a compass (no GPS/infrastructure required) -- and a couple of other required items. The cell phone is left in the car, at the point of embarkation, as its presence tends to compromise the serenity and magic of the wilderness -- after ten miles into the jaunt you usually can't get a signal anyway. Once you are up into the high country there are few creeks to choose from, many of them dry, yet I bring only a 2-quart canteen of water as a stand by as there is good drinking water to be found if you know how to look for it, even later in the summer. Along with taking photos I keep an eye peeled for various rocks, minerals, jade, agates and such that occur here in California. After days of dead silence, no traffic, no conversations, no tv, no internet -- I return spiritually cleansed -- all set to come back into 'civilization' to mess up my psyche all over again.