Around Heck’s Canyon, 03 July 13, 2010

A couple of nights again, Baker Bloch found another, shallower but longer “canyon” in the northern part of Heterocera. No name has firmly been attached to it yet, but in this post, also from several nights ago, Hucka D. suggests Tawny Canyon, after the sim it mostly lies within. Baker is a bit jealous because a great parcel is available for rent right in the center of the canyon, with the rift almost bisecting its 6800 square meterage. But in terms of property Baker’s hands are more tied now that he holds a premium account again. Oh, he and I would have gotten bored with this property after about a month or so tops, most likely. Best to limit our options, I suppose, in this manner. But I can always dream; Hucka D. dropped a cryptic hint that we, The Bakers, actually already live on this property in some alternate reality, however near or distant that reality may be. I kind of half believe him, as I half believe most of what he tells me.

I may have more to say about this canyon soon. It’s probably about 1/2 the depth of Heck’s Canyon but perhaps close to twice its length. They seem curiously related, but I could certain be wrong about that. Time will tell.

Beautiful little rainbow adorned waterfall marking what could be considered the head of the “Tawny Canyon”. But actually this would be in Engrailed, to the immediate south of Tawny.

Moving away from this canyon now, Baker continues to explore the northern coast of Heterocera in bits and pieces, including a look-see at this horseshoe shaped, heavily vegetated island in Valerian. Baker finds the many textures of the vegetation take some time to rez in, spoiling his experience there somewhat. Certainly a nice idea, though — probably needs more Linden vegetation to balance everything out. I’ve long asserted that the best landscaping involves a high dose of Linden plants, with higher prim plants mixed in as a secondary theme. And avoid numerous uses of sculpties.

Curiously named sim of Ear sharing a (northwest) corner with Tawny. Nice landscaping here as well… Baker will probably return. Most of the sim appears to be owned by Hannah Hannya (say that rapidly over and over for about a minute!) and her creations there include a community park, a non-denominational chapel, and, perhaps most impressive, a domed area called Voice-aholics Headquarters, described as MORE TEXT SOON.

Near Heck’s Canyon, 02 July 10, 2010

A dark-ish blue pool on Cisseps property called the “Backyard of PHYSICAL GRAFFITI 1-2”. Not sure why the last part of that description needs to be SHOUTED, hehe, but it did bring to mind Little Robert Plant Variant again, an entity I admittedly don’t think about much any longer. Could this possibly be another place LRPV has visited, or perhaps even lived? My gut feeling says no, now, although I was more unsure at the time of the property’s discovery.

For the record, this parcel forms what in effect is a continuous forest with that in the upper part of Cisseps owned by a different avatar.

Pictures of some quite interesting rock formations that line the edges of Route 3B on either side, a road our Cisseps forest borders and even crosses, one could put it. On the map, its difficult to tell what they are — could be a parade of elephants that the satellite just happened to capture on film at the time of its last pass-through.* But it indeed is rocks. They extend about 200 meters down from the north end of Route 3B in Cisseps, and are also found in the northwest corner of the Turnip sim bordering Cisseps to the east.

Arial shot of the Cisseps Forest, with Heck’s Canyon in the foreground.

Baker at the upper end of Heck’s Canyon, just inside the forest and looking back at his Canyon’s Edge gallery (it’s still there as I’m writing this, btw, but the Edwardston Station Gallery in Ello is no more, having been deleted last night).

Another arial shot of the Cisseps Forest (left) and Heck’s Canyon (right).

More overhead shot of same.

*****

* here’s a map of Cisseps to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

More!

Near Heck’s Canyon, 01

Interesting set of stairs leading down to the sea in Echo off Route 2, in the northwest part of Heterocera. Baker’s just biking around the general area of Heck’s Canyon tonight, taking in the sights and snapping some photos, as usual.

Big hill in Huckleberry leading up from Route 2, which mainly follows the coast, toward Route 4. The road here is called the Inland Cutoff.

But Baker doesn’t quite make it to Route 4 up this road, for he becomes distracted by railroad track that begins to roughly parallel this Inland Cutoff as he ascends.

Checking his SL map, he sees that the railroad makes a loop almost completely around the Huckleberry sim. From the north, he heads back down toward the sea…

… eventually reaching the northeast part of Huckleberry and this nice waterfall, where the railroad comes closest to the sea.

From here it’s back uphill as Baker bikes south again now. He pauses at a turn in the tracks to take in a nice view of the sea and Route 2.

But soon he returns to the immediate area of Heck’s Canyon, determined to explore more of the large forest in Cisseps just to its north.

More!

About… July 9, 2010

Route 4, the developed part of which deadends at the northern edge of Ello at this time, continues west in undeveloped form through a number of additional sims before merging into a newly paved and still unnamed road in Spectacle. Heterocera has quite an amazing matrix of roads running hither and thither!

Below Baker bites bikes in Shark, I believe, in what amounts to be a shallow canyon the protected route runs through just past where the pavement ends.

Moving to the woods just south of Heck’s Canyon making up most of the Cisseps sims, Baker stands in front of a decorative teleporter, but is afraid to head upwards because the land here is described as a Vampire Grove. Not that they aren’t probably quite friendly and congenial vampires, but Baker doesn’t want to take the chance, being limited in time tonight as usual.

But in checking behind himself today, Baker finds that he cannot use the teleporter anyways — apparently it’s private. And besides, the hover text at the top, also unnoticed by Baker at the time he took the below photo, states that this teleports one to the Mandala bead game, which Baker knows is just across Route 3B from here (road just to his left in the photo). More on that quite interesting place soon.

Just to the north, also in the Cissep Woods, is this nice cabin with accompanying pond and waterfall. Some hover text just outside the cabin states that everyone is welcome to use it. Interesting, given the land description here still includes the phrase “Vampire Grove”. 🙂

Another beauty spot within the woods, the layout of which is complex and dotted with many small ponds. If I stay in this region for any length, I’ll attempt to make a map so that I can understand the topography more myself.

Moving away from Heterocera altogether, Baker takes a snapshot of a lovely, hazy sunrise near the protected top of Dearheart Hill.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dearheart/173/215/137

This night, Baker also revisits the Red Leaf Gallery in Hamnida on the Jeogeot continent, one of the closest listed galleries to his Blue Feather establishment on this landmass. It appears to be in a state of reconstruction of some sort. Hope it sticks around — Baker is interested in the name similarity with the Blue Feather admittedly (another red-blue connection).

The empty land of Gukyeol, part of the 4 sim Hanja Welcome Center, is just behind the now incomplete Red Leaf in the below photo.

A Brief Discussion… July 6, 2010

“Hucka D., just have a moment tonight.”

Hucka D.:

Crack in timescape. Martians enter. Martians are here (!)

bb:

They’re the ones who put that trap in the Rubi Forest.

Hucka D.:

They made the canyon. Ello. The Heck Canyon they called it. Didn’t want to use the word Hell.

bb:

Heck’s Canyon.

Hucka D.:

Yeah.

*****

bb:

Ooo, always nice to see the gallery show up on the world map, Hucka D. (pause) Snapshot 2000 as well.

*****

bb:

But I’m guessing it was called Heck’s Canyon or Heck Canyon, as you said. A kind of watered down version of a Hell’s Canyon, then.

Hucka D.:

Yes.

bb:

But named for the 3 sims it runs through, or, bottom to top, Hydrangea, Ello, and Cisseps. HEC, then. My gallery is perched right on the edge of the center of the gorge. Gorgeous.

Hucka D.:

Yes it is. Needs more cowbell[, though].

*****

* Most famous Hell’s Canyon is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hells_Canyon

But, haha, top google hit for phrase “Heck’s Canyon” is already my Baker Blinker Blog, followed closely by the current Uncyclopedia entry for Idaho which plays on the name Hell’s Canyon as well.
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Idaho

I also was happy to find Nish Mip’s Big Orange post mentioning this gorge.

http://nishmip.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/buses-boats-bibles-butterflies-bends-beads-bugspikes-and-beards/

From one of her expedition maps, it looks like she was freely able to traverse the entire length of Heck’s Canyon, bottom to top, at the time.
http://nishmip.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/map6.jpg?w=496&h=377

Canyon’s Edge, 02

Lake at head of canyon itself (northern part). This would be in Cisseps, just over the Ello line. One wonders if there was a stream coming from the lake at one time, perhaps linked to the stream still present in the lower part of the canyon. If so, only a partial waterfall formed by water draining from the pond remains.

The lake is on the grounds of a rather large, wooded area called Philia’s Woods,which advertises itself as a “Peaceful, secluded Woods- open to everyone!” Nice! Baker will certainly be returning.

Then not far at all from Baker’s new Canyon’s Edge home is the intersection of Route 1 and Route 4. Route 1 shortly leads west to some spectacular views along the northern coastline of Heterocera. This particular shot is taken in the Hummingbird sim.

Looking back toward Baker’s Canyon’s Edge structure over the top of The Starship Diner. Interesting that such a named diner is so near the canyon, given its obvious Martian resonantions (Grand Canyon of Mars, just to name one).

Just last night, before knowing about this diner, I was looking up the largest city called Mars in the US — Mars Pennsylvania — and finding that a popular tourist attraction within the city is a flying saucer sculpture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars,_Pennsylvania

Canyon’s Edge, 01

Looking from my newly positioned Edwardston Station Gallery at Ello down into a rather large forest just to the south, on the opposite side of the canyon from me. I haven’t quite got a name for the canyon yet. Mars Canyon?

View through the center of the gallery down into the canyon itself. What I’ve been calling the Hard To Get To Gallery recently in this blog (but which I might rename for this particular location the Canyon’s Edge Gallery) is the gray square near its lip.

Interesting trees just to the west of my property, near the lip of the northern part of the canyon. In checking, I think these could be the same kind of trees that are found on the top of Mount Pond or Pond Hill in the Pond District.

Unfortunately, the northern, lower part of the canyon is inaccessible at this time, but I thought I’d take some remote view shots of the interesting stream within anyway.

Interesting configuration of LDPW created cypresses at the head of the stream, just inside the banned region.

Waterfall near the stream source.

Baker Bloch admiring the view from the top floor of “Canyon’s Edge.” 🙂

Canyon’s Edge July 5, 2010

“I wonder if *this* is actually the Valley of Nye, Hucka D.?”

Hucka D.:

Yes. (pause) And you are the Eye of Rye peering in. What do you see?

bb:

The last 2 visitors to the Edwardston Station Gallery have been Martians…

Hucka D.:

Yessss (smiles).

bb:

And then in just hopping around SL tonight found this perfect piece of cheap property perched atop this strange canyon on the north side of the Atoll continent. I was able to purchase even a 3rd cheap 512 in the same sim so that I could experimentally move the Edwardston Station Gallery, cube version, up to that lot. It’s there now, along with what I’ve been calling the Hard To Get To Gallery (pictured above on the edge of the gorge). Currently there’s only the crop circle pictures in that particular gallery.

Hucka D.:

Eye of Rye has been squared by the Edwardston Station Gallery. 10×10. You must examine more closely. Produce texts. It’s not just all about the carrcasses.

bb:

I’m seeing that.

Hucka D.:

So… you have more territory to explore now, and from a new home base of sorts.

bb:

Canyon’s Edge, yes.

Hucka D.:

The Valley of Nye could not form in the place you’ve located for it, so it came here. The Eye of Rye had to accom…

bb:

Yes?

Hucka D.:

Someone is peering in.

bb:

The blog?

Hucka D.:

Shhhhhh…

bb:

Martians?

Hucka D.:

We better end.

bb:

I want to explain a bit more about the property… about how it is *directly* north of the Rubi property with *that* Edwardston Station Gallery that I just put up for sale today, even though the properties are almost a continent’s length away. Another coast-to-coast situation perhaps?*

Hucka D.:

Coast to Coast has energy… is tapped into. Listen.

bb:

(pause) All I hear is static (smiles).

Hucka D.:

[no answer]

bb:

Maybe it’s just me as the Martian, Hucka D. I attract the visitors who are named Mar and Mars respectively.

Hucka (obviously still listening):

Yes.

bb:

(pause) I’m going inworld and check out the canyon, then.

Hucka D.:

Shift.

*****

I thought I’d come back and explain my own thoughts more about this most recent move. The gorge in the upper part of the Heterocera continent, otherwise the Atoll continent, is a replica of the Valley of Nye, a microcosm of sorts. I’m going to have to pay very close attention to the environment of the gorge on this one, kind of like I did in Big Sink when I moved there. But this is not really a sink — not wide enough. A sink, I suppose, would have to be comparatively similar in both length and breadth. Unlike Big Sink or any of the other sinks of western Jeogeot — Sunklands — this particular depression is much longer than it is wide, and it’s also quite deep. The part about it being directly north of the Rubi property I was selling, with the present Edwardston Station Gallery on it… well, there’s a number of unusual properties about this, er, property.

*****

* If you moved the ESG-Rubi directly north, it would currently collide with the eastern side of the ESG-Ello. I should add that this n-s alignment is purely accidental on my part. I picked the land for the central location in respect to the gorge.