Members pic and bio thread! C'mon, don't be shy! Show us your mug!

Hahahahaha. That was a good one.

 

I only wish my legs could be so hairless and silky-smooth like yours. What do airlift guys use? Nair?

 

You'll be ready for moustache March in no time at all.

 

Your next comment will be about my testicle follicles, right? Right.

 

You fired the first salvo sister, this is your Ft. Sumter now..don't be pulling out the chick card.

 

Not pulling any card, but I am tired of the same resets. Next you will tell me I cannot land on dirt or that fighter pilots make movies and bomber pilots make history. Blah blah blah. One day I want to inspire a new, meaner Herkdriver.

Although that will be hard to do as long as you sport shaved chicken legs.

 

Where was that picture taken cenydd? Looks beautiful.

Nice pups. What are they're names?

 

In the Highlands of Scotland, looking across at the Cairngorm mountains (just visible in the top left). The Dogs are Dagon (on the left of the photo) and Wicket.

 

Nice. I should like to visit there someday.

 

Hey, how about all four of them, each in his own way. Actually, two of them are irresistible. Guess which ones?

 

Wicket and Dagon?

 

Yup........

 

No life is complete without a visit to the Highlands, in my opinion - one of the most beautiful places on earth with (in my experience) a unique atmosphere.

Here's another of me and the dogs up there, this time in Glen Nevis:

 

Yup. Wicket is named after the Ewok (my girlfriend's idea, not mine!), and Dagon after an H.P. Lovecraft short story (a compromise - I wanted to call him Cthulu, but she wouldn't have it!) - I used to have the description of the creature from that story as my sig at one time, many moons ago:

"Vast, Polyphemus-like, and loathsome, it darted like a stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith, about which it flung its gigantic scaly arms, the while it bowed its hideous head and gave vent to certain measured sounds. I think I went mad then. "

 

With natural growth, and how small the island is, is half the place not allowed to build on? It seems weird y'all could still have places that free from human development.

 

Cool, thanks.

Do you drive there? I just mapped from Wales to Glen Nevis, google maps shows it to be about an eight and a half hour drive.

 

Yeah, Cthulu woulda been awesome.

I wasn't questioning your pups names, I was responding to Shangrila's comment.

 

They weren't free from people at one time. The Highlands were home to 'clans' and communities of 'crofters', but the landowners chucked most them off the land (often brutally) because sheep were more profitable than people, and large parts of them have been pretty much empty ever since:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances

The Highland clearances are one of the more dispicable episodes in the history of the UK, but they have left a fantastically beautiful landscape largely empty, and with a particular 'haunting' kind of atmosphere (especially when you come across the ruins of a former community's home). Of course, the most haunting place of all (and one of the most beautiful) is Glencoe, the site of an atrocity worse even than the clearances:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Glencoe

 

My parents have a time-share in a cabin on a small site in the Highlands for a week each year, and I've used it a few times. It's a full day's drive from here to the cabin (fabulous drive through the Drumochter Pass on the A9 road), but it's near Aviemore, so reasonably central to explore the Highlands from.

 

That looks like some awesome hiking trail Cenydd. Crisp air, just enough elevation to make it a challenge.

 

I am so sorry , yes you are and a very nice looking one at that!! I was referring to some of the others!! You and JF are the only brave ones!!!

 

Thanks for the links. It is beautiful, but that is horrible.

 

There's an almost infinate number of walks up in the Highlands - I'd be going up the mountains a bit more, but when it comes to walking my girlfriend 'doesn't do up' (and I have to be careful about terrain with the dogs - no rock scrambling stuff). We normally walk up to about 10 miles or so in a day when we are up there, depending on the terrain - even without too much actual 'up', it's never very flat, so we have to plan walks to make them reasonable challenging without wiping us out for the week in one go! This is a pretty good site for finding walks to do:
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/

It gives you clear (printable) directions, with an elevation profile (to see how much 'up' there is!), map, a few photos, etc.. We've done a few walks from that. In fact, the first photo was taken on a walk from that site:
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/cairngorms/ryvoan.shtml
On the way up, near the 'seat with lovely views across to Cairngorm'.

 

I heard they have a motorcycle ride tour that goes through the Highlands. Unfortunately, last time I was there I did not yet have a license to ride a motorcycle which was necessary to do the tour. That would have been epic!

Speaking of the Highlands. I am reading a fantastic series about the 18th century Scottish Highlands;

http://www.dianagabaldon.com/writing/the-outlander/

Here is the first book of the series if your interested: