In my last post midday Friday sent from Downieville I thought I still had time to drop my backpack off at Wild Plum, drive up to the Saddle north of the Sierra Buttes and bicycle back down to WP and start my hike that day. But heading back to the car I noticed some kids rinsing themselves off with a hose provided by the town, presumably after a dip in the North Yuba River, and then just before arriving at Wild Plum CG to drop off my pack I saw more people cooling off below the bridge across Haypress Creek, one of Yuba's tribs, and then, further up hwy 49 toward Gold Lakes Road, I again passed that intriguing roadside falls, (here: 39.596716, -120.610646) labeled "Big Springs" in Delorme's N Ca map book which seems to just flow out of the rock layers like a miniature Burney Falls, though in this case I think it's just the road cut that exposed the flow. This time I stopped the car and looked around. There seems to be a fen or mire in the steeply sloped forest just above the fall which might have some interesting plants to find, but it would be a scramble to scale the road cut in that area and I "saved that for later". Instead, I crossed the road looking for the outflow which I hoped I could just stand beneath for a cold shower. Not quite such luck. The flow actually split into two culverts one of which spilt onto a slope of riprap and the other a 3ft drop onto some algae-covered rocks. Not convenient enough. And the North Yuba on closer look was quite nutrient-rich with brown algae coating everything thickly and loosely. Moved on.
...thisWasAdraft-rest2BeReconstructedFromPhotos...
Monday, September 2, 2013
Friday, August 30, 2013
in Sierra City No, in Downieville, Ttrying to set up a shortish hike to Sierra Buttes
Friday Aug 30 1pm update from Mt Creek Restaurant in Sierra City.
After leaving the Pizza Place in Quincy yesterday evening I headed east on
hwy 70 toward Gold Lakes Basin Rd but managed to not see an obvious route sign in the dark resulting in a bit of wasted gas - I initially took a turn that was signed
to the Plumas-Eureka Sate Park, but because i didn't see the hwy89 sign nor a mention of Graeagle, after doublechecking the map I
concluded it was one of several shortcut roads heading southwest before the main hwy 89 turnoff So i continued on hwy 70 abt 10 more miles to Beckworth
before realizing I had missed my turn. Backtracking, I saw the hwy 89 sign
from the other diection - on the same road I had originally thought was
wrong. Ordinarily this would have been another photoop for me, but in the dark, just a waste of gas. made it to a hill-top side-road informal campsite
again and listened to some news programs I had downloaded to my laptop
earlier in Quincy till the battery got low.
Next morning (today, Friday) I headed to Packer Lake road (which has
trailheads to the Sierra Buttes and the PCT) but took the branch to lower
Sardine Lake, the paved rd ending at a resort and jeep trail with a small
interpretive nature loop trail around some small ponds. Parking there I
grabbed my camera but out of habit, locked the doors - then realized I'd
left the keys in the ingition with the radio on. All the windows were closed
tight. Cell phone charging inside. Well at least there was civilization a
few steps away, went to the resort, had a cup of coffee, bought an area map,
and borrowed their phone to call AAA. Got a call back from driver in
Downieville, about a 45 minute wait. Since I had my camera (what luck), I
walked around taking picts of the lake and ponds, both backdropped by the
Sutter Buttes. Got my car opened an hour later and headed off to the
Packer Lake Rd branch, which did lead up to the ridgetop and PCT trailhead, and
further down, TH to the Sutter Buttes lookout, verifying that it would be a
straightforward downhill on bicycle to, ultimately, the Wild Plum CG where I
could catch the PCT for a one-night backpack past the Buttes back to my car
at ridgetop.
So, I'm planning to set myself up to do that tomorrow. This will entail
first leaving my pack at Wild Plum, hopefully with the CG Host there,
driving back up the ridge at Packers Lake Rd, bicycling back down to wild
plum & starting my hike.
But frrst, I wanted to check email for any "takers" to my "invitation" to
hike with someone this weekend at Sutter Buttes, and let everyone know I've
thoroughly scouted out the area... I thought I'd have to go to Downieville
for that, but thought I'd check the library in Sierra City first. It was
closed with no wifi evident, but this Restaurant further down has wifi, so
decided to splurge on a nice Salmon salad while I worked on my laptop for a
bit. Except, their wifi is set up mainly for outside use, and I'm inside
with no connection, so I'm just typing this into notepad for later upload
when I'm done with the salad I,ll briefly go outside on battery power to
check email and send this.
Then, if inbox shows no interest in joining me, I'll probably have time to leave my
Backpack at Wild Plum and do the bike-commute this afternoon, and be on the
trail today, finishing tomorrow evening. Then I'll again overnight in the
area and figure out logistics for a longer hike in the area. I'm not quite
ready to bicycle on hwy 70 during a big holiday weekend, but unless I can
put together something more substantial, I may do that on Tuesday to hike from the Bucks Lake saddle to Belden.
Wellll... after moving to the patio to send this, turns out their internet connection is down. Could connect to the wifi locally, but no IP address available. So... drove to Downieville, walked around there a bit - has some nice ammenities for tourists enjoying the river such as hose to wash up, and here I am on the bench in front of the theatre with a free wifi connection.
I think thre's still time to start my bike ride this afternoon, so I'm going to rush back up to Sierra City to get myself set up.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Last week got Smoked Out, now Planning 2 hikes: around Sierra Buttes & Bucks Lk to Belden
It's been a while...
For now I'll just summarize here... though I hope to later post-date more detailed accounts under the appropriate days (maybe moving whatever I start out stuffing here to there...)
My planned "ride" from Sonora Pass back to Tuolumne Meadows to start a ten-day hike between those two points "bailed" for good reason - the Rim Fire. I was intitially really "burned" by her "renegging" on our agreed upon plan for reasons that seemed to me at the time to be an overreaction. However, her overreaction was lucky for me, else I would have been choking in smoke most of this past week hiking from Sonora Pass to Carson Pass - directly downstream from the Rim Fire - committed to meeting Sandy at Carson Pass this Saturday Labor Day weekend.
Instead, packed & ready to leave Santa Rosa last Friday afternoon (after a morning trimming some of ML's hedges and then a 2pm Dr's appointment that got scheduled "last minute" the day before, I overnighted at Steve&Gina's in Alameda, had a "free lunch" the next day (Saturday) at Laura's with Aiden & Patrick there, then headed by "default" toward Sonora as per my original plans.
Approaching Sonora on hwy 120 from the south-west, I could see the plumes of smoke rising from woods at medium distance from the road, with a low "stratus" of smoke over the whole area, though not quite at ground-level so visibility was still good. Stayed a while at the McDonald's in Sonora still trying to figure some alternative logistics for my original hiking plans in that area, (and hoped for some replies to emails sent earlier trying to coordinate something with ML's planned Woods Lake campout for the weekend following labor Day.) Eventually retreated for the night to my side-road camping spot just inside forestland on hwy 108 east of Sonora, noting a silent flurry of ash-flakes falling on my windshield and a definite thickening of the smoke, like sitting downwind from the campfire.
Woke up the next morning (Sunday) to very dense smoke, and thought I might try finding out how to "volunteer" or even find a paid job supporting the firefighters in the area. Stopped at the Forestry Visitor center but it was closed. Browsed the web for a while at McD's and found a bunch of interesting state jobs via the Calfire site but for more "routine" positions with prisons in the area etc - I'll check those out again later........ (yeah, maybe I'll cancel my retirement....)
Then (somehow forgetting to followup on the Volunteering option...) I headed north, via hwy 49 to 4 (over Ebbetts Pass - to check out the extent of the smoke (it was still smokey) and the feasibility of a bicycle loop-back from there, and the PCT trailhead parking - (I've taken a day-hike north from that pass at the end of one of the CNPS campouts at Highland Meadows a few years back now... so I didn't stop this time.)
I continued east & then north on hwy 89 then west on hwy 88 over Carson Pass (costs $5 to park at the Visitor Ctr/PCT trailhead there - whahhh?) getting there about 4:30, about a half hr before Vis Ctr scheduled to close - except it was already closed "due to smoke", except it was quite clear at the time. Walked around a bit then headed east down to the Woods Lake Campground - hoped to ask Campground Host wheterh I could leave backpack or Bear Canister there in case that would help my logistics (I could hike without bear canister north of Sonora to Carson but if then looped back to Tuolumne, would need cansiter again in Yosemite Park.) No CG Host in sight, so just continued on back up to Carson Pass, further north to hwy 50 then east into S.Lk Tahoe, stopping at a bank to check my bal & get some cash before continuing north along west shore, to Barker Pass Road, and up to the PCT Trailhead at Barker Pass. It was crystal clear at the time, somewhat gusty, but walked around to take some good picts of views east to the Lake & general Pano's of the smoke-free skies, and overnighted there at the trailhead. I tentatively planned to do a morning hike up the peak [name?] just off-trail north of the pass before scouting out a possible loop-back from Alpine Meadows or Squaw Valley, or Donner Pass.
Next morning (Monday) it was smokeed-in, so I skipped the morning hike & headed back down to the lake shore and north to Alpine Meadows. Nice Bike paths alonf the lake, and gentle uphill on 89 to Alpine meadows which is about midway between the lake and Truckee, but a steep grade up Alpine Meadows road to the trailhead to Five Lakes and the PCT. Though, I could abandon the bike lower down and road-walk the last mile.
Continued north on 89 (stopping at a McD's near the hwy 80 interchange to check on some potential Bus routes in the area, etc.) then west past Donenr Lake to the PCT trailhead at the pass there, checking out the bike loop-back potential - it's a steep downhill - my brakes will need to be reliable, but otherwise, quite bike-friendly most of the way.
It was still smoke-free, and I considered doing an out & back hike on the PCT north from there to the Hwy 80 PCT crossing, but then decided to to the hike from the HWY 80 trailhead parking area (at the Boreal Ski Area exit just before the Donner Summit Rest Area, because it offered some shade not available here, so I headed west to 80 then east on 80 to the next (Boreal) exit, and did the 7 mile out&back hike in about three hours, with nice photo-ops under slightly hazy afternoon skies. Planned to explore the PCT area north of hwy 80 the next day, so I just drove across the hwy to the north side and overnighted at the Andesite Ridge Rd Trailhead.
Tuesday morning I was smoked-in, but it seemed to clear as the sun rose so I kept to my plans, left my car there, bicycled back across hwy 80 to the PCT trailhead I was at yesterday, locked my bike there & hiked east along the "loop Trail to the PCT then north under hwy 80 and generally north-west along a small lake adjacent to the west-bound rest area (lots of kids romping around the maze of trails there - I can imagine some of them getting lost...) going a bit further up thePCT than intended, missing an unsigned link shown on the map but maybe the map was wrong... Back at the car, I decided to hve 2nd look at the bike route down from Donner Pass, so headed back west on hwy 80 then east to Donner Pass... then remembered I left my bike back at hwy 80. So back to fetch bike then back to the pass and down to Donenr Lake, then anotehr stop at the McD's to backup picts & check more bus options (trying to find transportation between S Lk Tah & Echo Lake and seeing how schedule changes after Labor Day...) Finding nothing suitable online I thought I'd ask someone at the train depot in Truckee, got some info there (no real good news.)
Now mid-afternoon it seemed late in the day due to heavy smoke, so I decided to get $20 of expensive gas and head further north on hwy 89 to the Sierra Buttes area, stopping first at the PCT trailhead at Loves Falls, which has poor parking possibilities, then east to the Wild Plum Rd Campground which has good access to the PCT with trailhead parking. Not quite late enough in the day yet to camp, I continued on to have a look at Sierra City, then backtracked east a bit (stopping at an odd set of waterfalls by the road with an oversized parking turnout and a memorial to a police officer, then on to the intersection with Gold Lake Rd at Bassetts, which has a quaint single pump gas station still operable though the place just closed a few minutes before I arrived. Drove north on Gold Lake rd a mile or two to a side road to overnight under clear skies.
Wednesday Aug 28 still smoke-free though somewhat hazy, partly cloudy, I continued north to the Gold Lake Boat ramp and 4x4 staging area. Leaving with camera but no pack or water just intending to take a quick look at the condition of the road, I walked the rough cobbly jeep road westward along the south side of the lake, past some occupied camp sites along the lake, and up the ridge toward a junction with the PCT at ridge-top. got somewhat hazy views of the lake, passed by little Gold Lake and a picturesque meadow, up to a newer cabin next to the burned ruins of an older cabin with spectacular views of the lake, and up to the PCT crossing at a saddle with poor views. Returned from this 3.5hr hike by noon. Continued north to Graeagle (where I filled my tank with gas oddly at a 10cent per gallon discount for using my Safeway card.)
Driving on, stopped at a local burger stand at the Johnsville-LaPorte Rd intersection (which as a PCT crossing) to ask about the condition of the road (it is gravel most of the way.) Decidied to bypass that for now, headed on to Quincy, shopped for some fruit & vegs at Safeway, then drove on to the Bucks Lake Summit PCT trailhead. This looked promising, steady bike downhill from there back to Quincy, hopefully hwy 70 bikeride is feasible. Headed back to Quincy & westward on Hwy 70 to Belden, picking up a young hitchiker on the way (he was out of work moving from one family member to another.) Stopped in Belden (an old hotel & cabins & campground compound hidden on south side of a 1 lane bridge crossing the Feather R.) Asked the bartender wheterh I could leave backpack there overnight, they are all set up for PCT kikers with shed for hiker's resupply packages, etc, and open late and "campsite host" available all hours. I said I may be back next day.
I wasn't quite ready to commit to doing that hike, Hwy 70 would eb a very treachurous bike ride, NO shoulder, big trucks & cars going hwy speeds on windy single-lane rd with lots of blind corners. Very suicidal! On the way back up to Quincy, I devised a way to possibly survive this by being ready to stop & dive into ditch or hug the cliff wall if oncoming car and car behind or blind curve behind me. Also, will want to adjust my back brake 1st which at the moment is slightly weaker than front brake is. also, two mirrors, one on handlebar & one on helmet. also, I have three flashing taillights - have them all powered up...
From Quincy, I decided I'd check out the PCT TH on the Quincy-LaPorte Rd, driving up this paved but windy hilly rd til dusk, overnighting on a ridge-top at 6pm with good reception of KPFA evening news.
So this morning, Thursday Aug 29, continued on looking for PCT crossing but missing it, ending at Little Grass Vly Reservoir, a gravel rd on SW shore to the dam, poor views of lake through trees except at the dam, then back up to find the PCT crossing. Ended up going back & forth a few times finally recognizing it un-signed from the rd at a "T" road intersection with the trail "split" with short road-walk inbetween inconspicuous trail tread and faded PCT emblems on trees set back abt 50ft from road. Why so discrete here?
Backtracked a bit to take the other end of the Johnsville-LaPorte gravel rd that I'd asked about the other day at the burger stand. This turned out to be quite a rugged road with varied surfaces and slopes, with some very picturesque vista's along the county border past some of the most prominent peaks in this region [name them.] First gear most of the way abt 25 miles [confirm length] took most of mid-day to get back to the burger stand on hwy 89/70. I then headed back northwest to Quincy, to do my laundry and have some pizza at the place next door, where I've been all this afternoon typing this.
I was intending to head south on 89 from the burger joint intersection, to check out in more detail the Sierra Buttes area, which seemed like a potential day-long loop hike or LaborDayWeekend longer loop hike that I could invite some of YOU-ALL to join me in this coming weekend (alass it's a bit late now - again... last such intention I frittered away the opportunity to setup was the Rae Lakes Loop hike in the high Sierra from Kings Canyon Roads-End, a few months back now it seems?) I guess I'll leave that exploration for tomorrow. I'll be heading back in that direction now.
For now I'll just summarize here... though I hope to later post-date more detailed accounts under the appropriate days (maybe moving whatever I start out stuffing here to there...)
My planned "ride" from Sonora Pass back to Tuolumne Meadows to start a ten-day hike between those two points "bailed" for good reason - the Rim Fire. I was intitially really "burned" by her "renegging" on our agreed upon plan for reasons that seemed to me at the time to be an overreaction. However, her overreaction was lucky for me, else I would have been choking in smoke most of this past week hiking from Sonora Pass to Carson Pass - directly downstream from the Rim Fire - committed to meeting Sandy at Carson Pass this Saturday Labor Day weekend.
Instead, packed & ready to leave Santa Rosa last Friday afternoon (after a morning trimming some of ML's hedges and then a 2pm Dr's appointment that got scheduled "last minute" the day before, I overnighted at Steve&Gina's in Alameda, had a "free lunch" the next day (Saturday) at Laura's with Aiden & Patrick there, then headed by "default" toward Sonora as per my original plans.
Approaching Sonora on hwy 120 from the south-west, I could see the plumes of smoke rising from woods at medium distance from the road, with a low "stratus" of smoke over the whole area, though not quite at ground-level so visibility was still good. Stayed a while at the McDonald's in Sonora still trying to figure some alternative logistics for my original hiking plans in that area, (and hoped for some replies to emails sent earlier trying to coordinate something with ML's planned Woods Lake campout for the weekend following labor Day.) Eventually retreated for the night to my side-road camping spot just inside forestland on hwy 108 east of Sonora, noting a silent flurry of ash-flakes falling on my windshield and a definite thickening of the smoke, like sitting downwind from the campfire.
Woke up the next morning (Sunday) to very dense smoke, and thought I might try finding out how to "volunteer" or even find a paid job supporting the firefighters in the area. Stopped at the Forestry Visitor center but it was closed. Browsed the web for a while at McD's and found a bunch of interesting state jobs via the Calfire site but for more "routine" positions with prisons in the area etc - I'll check those out again later........ (yeah, maybe I'll cancel my retirement....)
Then (somehow forgetting to followup on the Volunteering option...) I headed north, via hwy 49 to 4 (over Ebbetts Pass - to check out the extent of the smoke (it was still smokey) and the feasibility of a bicycle loop-back from there, and the PCT trailhead parking - (I've taken a day-hike north from that pass at the end of one of the CNPS campouts at Highland Meadows a few years back now... so I didn't stop this time.)
I continued east & then north on hwy 89 then west on hwy 88 over Carson Pass (costs $5 to park at the Visitor Ctr/PCT trailhead there - whahhh?) getting there about 4:30, about a half hr before Vis Ctr scheduled to close - except it was already closed "due to smoke", except it was quite clear at the time. Walked around a bit then headed east down to the Woods Lake Campground - hoped to ask Campground Host wheterh I could leave backpack or Bear Canister there in case that would help my logistics (I could hike without bear canister north of Sonora to Carson but if then looped back to Tuolumne, would need cansiter again in Yosemite Park.) No CG Host in sight, so just continued on back up to Carson Pass, further north to hwy 50 then east into S.Lk Tahoe, stopping at a bank to check my bal & get some cash before continuing north along west shore, to Barker Pass Road, and up to the PCT Trailhead at Barker Pass. It was crystal clear at the time, somewhat gusty, but walked around to take some good picts of views east to the Lake & general Pano's of the smoke-free skies, and overnighted there at the trailhead. I tentatively planned to do a morning hike up the peak [name?] just off-trail north of the pass before scouting out a possible loop-back from Alpine Meadows or Squaw Valley, or Donner Pass.
Next morning (Monday) it was smokeed-in, so I skipped the morning hike & headed back down to the lake shore and north to Alpine Meadows. Nice Bike paths alonf the lake, and gentle uphill on 89 to Alpine meadows which is about midway between the lake and Truckee, but a steep grade up Alpine Meadows road to the trailhead to Five Lakes and the PCT. Though, I could abandon the bike lower down and road-walk the last mile.
Continued north on 89 (stopping at a McD's near the hwy 80 interchange to check on some potential Bus routes in the area, etc.) then west past Donenr Lake to the PCT trailhead at the pass there, checking out the bike loop-back potential - it's a steep downhill - my brakes will need to be reliable, but otherwise, quite bike-friendly most of the way.
It was still smoke-free, and I considered doing an out & back hike on the PCT north from there to the Hwy 80 PCT crossing, but then decided to to the hike from the HWY 80 trailhead parking area (at the Boreal Ski Area exit just before the Donner Summit Rest Area, because it offered some shade not available here, so I headed west to 80 then east on 80 to the next (Boreal) exit, and did the 7 mile out&back hike in about three hours, with nice photo-ops under slightly hazy afternoon skies. Planned to explore the PCT area north of hwy 80 the next day, so I just drove across the hwy to the north side and overnighted at the Andesite Ridge Rd Trailhead.
Tuesday morning I was smoked-in, but it seemed to clear as the sun rose so I kept to my plans, left my car there, bicycled back across hwy 80 to the PCT trailhead I was at yesterday, locked my bike there & hiked east along the "loop Trail to the PCT then north under hwy 80 and generally north-west along a small lake adjacent to the west-bound rest area (lots of kids romping around the maze of trails there - I can imagine some of them getting lost...) going a bit further up thePCT than intended, missing an unsigned link shown on the map but maybe the map was wrong... Back at the car, I decided to hve 2nd look at the bike route down from Donner Pass, so headed back west on hwy 80 then east to Donner Pass... then remembered I left my bike back at hwy 80. So back to fetch bike then back to the pass and down to Donenr Lake, then anotehr stop at the McD's to backup picts & check more bus options (trying to find transportation between S Lk Tah & Echo Lake and seeing how schedule changes after Labor Day...) Finding nothing suitable online I thought I'd ask someone at the train depot in Truckee, got some info there (no real good news.)
Now mid-afternoon it seemed late in the day due to heavy smoke, so I decided to get $20 of expensive gas and head further north on hwy 89 to the Sierra Buttes area, stopping first at the PCT trailhead at Loves Falls, which has poor parking possibilities, then east to the Wild Plum Rd Campground which has good access to the PCT with trailhead parking. Not quite late enough in the day yet to camp, I continued on to have a look at Sierra City, then backtracked east a bit (stopping at an odd set of waterfalls by the road with an oversized parking turnout and a memorial to a police officer, then on to the intersection with Gold Lake Rd at Bassetts, which has a quaint single pump gas station still operable though the place just closed a few minutes before I arrived. Drove north on Gold Lake rd a mile or two to a side road to overnight under clear skies.
Wednesday Aug 28 still smoke-free though somewhat hazy, partly cloudy, I continued north to the Gold Lake Boat ramp and 4x4 staging area. Leaving with camera but no pack or water just intending to take a quick look at the condition of the road, I walked the rough cobbly jeep road westward along the south side of the lake, past some occupied camp sites along the lake, and up the ridge toward a junction with the PCT at ridge-top. got somewhat hazy views of the lake, passed by little Gold Lake and a picturesque meadow, up to a newer cabin next to the burned ruins of an older cabin with spectacular views of the lake, and up to the PCT crossing at a saddle with poor views. Returned from this 3.5hr hike by noon. Continued north to Graeagle (where I filled my tank with gas oddly at a 10cent per gallon discount for using my Safeway card.)
Driving on, stopped at a local burger stand at the Johnsville-LaPorte Rd intersection (which as a PCT crossing) to ask about the condition of the road (it is gravel most of the way.) Decidied to bypass that for now, headed on to Quincy, shopped for some fruit & vegs at Safeway, then drove on to the Bucks Lake Summit PCT trailhead. This looked promising, steady bike downhill from there back to Quincy, hopefully hwy 70 bikeride is feasible. Headed back to Quincy & westward on Hwy 70 to Belden, picking up a young hitchiker on the way (he was out of work moving from one family member to another.) Stopped in Belden (an old hotel & cabins & campground compound hidden on south side of a 1 lane bridge crossing the Feather R.) Asked the bartender wheterh I could leave backpack there overnight, they are all set up for PCT kikers with shed for hiker's resupply packages, etc, and open late and "campsite host" available all hours. I said I may be back next day.
I wasn't quite ready to commit to doing that hike, Hwy 70 would eb a very treachurous bike ride, NO shoulder, big trucks & cars going hwy speeds on windy single-lane rd with lots of blind corners. Very suicidal! On the way back up to Quincy, I devised a way to possibly survive this by being ready to stop & dive into ditch or hug the cliff wall if oncoming car and car behind or blind curve behind me. Also, will want to adjust my back brake 1st which at the moment is slightly weaker than front brake is. also, two mirrors, one on handlebar & one on helmet. also, I have three flashing taillights - have them all powered up...
From Quincy, I decided I'd check out the PCT TH on the Quincy-LaPorte Rd, driving up this paved but windy hilly rd til dusk, overnighting on a ridge-top at 6pm with good reception of KPFA evening news.
So this morning, Thursday Aug 29, continued on looking for PCT crossing but missing it, ending at Little Grass Vly Reservoir, a gravel rd on SW shore to the dam, poor views of lake through trees except at the dam, then back up to find the PCT crossing. Ended up going back & forth a few times finally recognizing it un-signed from the rd at a "T" road intersection with the trail "split" with short road-walk inbetween inconspicuous trail tread and faded PCT emblems on trees set back abt 50ft from road. Why so discrete here?
Backtracked a bit to take the other end of the Johnsville-LaPorte gravel rd that I'd asked about the other day at the burger stand. This turned out to be quite a rugged road with varied surfaces and slopes, with some very picturesque vista's along the county border past some of the most prominent peaks in this region [name them.] First gear most of the way abt 25 miles [confirm length] took most of mid-day to get back to the burger stand on hwy 89/70. I then headed back northwest to Quincy, to do my laundry and have some pizza at the place next door, where I've been all this afternoon typing this.
I was intending to head south on 89 from the burger joint intersection, to check out in more detail the Sierra Buttes area, which seemed like a potential day-long loop hike or LaborDayWeekend longer loop hike that I could invite some of YOU-ALL to join me in this coming weekend (alass it's a bit late now - again... last such intention I frittered away the opportunity to setup was the Rae Lakes Loop hike in the high Sierra from Kings Canyon Roads-End, a few months back now it seems?) I guess I'll leave that exploration for tomorrow. I'll be heading back in that direction now.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
feasible logisticts for upcoming 170 miles next 3 weeks
I hadn't been able to find a hitch-hike-free plan to loop-back from Sonora Pass to Tuolumne.
ML's proposed CNPSer's camping trip (possibly with Ann, Ben, Betsy, Betty, Mae, Pat, Peter, and Imp) to Woods Lake Campground just west of Carson Pass on Hwy 88 the weekend after Labor Day might yield a potential ride, although to Sonora Pass this would be quite out of the way.
But today I learned that Sandy was planning to head east over the Sierra this Labor Day Weekend, via Hwy50 she was saying, thinking of lingering around Mono Lake for a day or two, on her way to meet friends exploring Az & Ut for the coming several weeks. Hmm...
I thought I might try persuading her to take Hwy108 over Sonora Pass instead of Hwy50, a slightly longer drive, and indeed this afternoon she seemed to warm to the idea, provided I could find some on-the-way campgrounds and interesting short day-hikes we could do along the way. I immediately suggested the campground at Kennedy Meadows just west of the pass with a potential hike to Relief Reservoir or to Kennedy Lake, and later with a map I scouted out some short-ish two-car shuttle loops including bits of the PCT on either side of Sonora Pass, like south along the PCT to the junction with Tungsten Road then east to a 2nd car at Leavitt Lake, or north on the PCT then west to 2nd car at Clark Fork Rd.
But I was also thinking I really "should" get some hiking in before the Labor Day weekend, and I might be able to leave as soon as this Friday afternoon (after doing some chores for ML Friday morning) and checked a map to see what pieces of PCT north of Sonora Pass I could do. From Sonora Pass to Hwy4/Ebbetts Pass is 33 miles, Ebbetts to Hwy88/Carson Pass is 30 miles, and Carson to Hwy50/Echo Summit is 12 miles. All those 75 miles I could do in 7 or 8 days at my usual 500photos/day pace. Those 4000 Raw files would consume only 5 of my now 8 32GB CF cards, and now I have 7 camera batteries which should last me 8 or 9 days if I'm careful.)
So, I could head for Sonora Pass this Friday afternoon, begin hiking Saturday morning, and be at Hwy50 just about when Sandy was originally planning of passing by there! Although, I might try persuading her to take Hwy88 to the Carson Pass area which I think has more interesting camping & hiking opportunities (such as the Woods Lake campground, though unfortunately it would be a week before the CNPSers would be there) than does the Hwy50/Echo Summit area. That would give me at least one day of slack to meet up with her. I could then ride with her to the Mono Lake area, we might camp around there for a day before we part ways at Lee Vining where I would catch the YARTS bus to Tuolumne, then backpack 95 miles north to Sonora Pass, arriving at my car there just about when ML's planned CNPSer's camping weekend ends - I might be able to drive to Woods Lake before the last CNPSer has left, thus able maybe to persuade one of them to return home a bit circuitously via Hwy50, dropping me off at Echo Summit for a southbound day-hike or overnighter on the PCT back to my car left this time at Hwy88/Carson Pass. I would complete that hike with plenty of time to make it back to Santa Rosa for my Dr's appointment 9am Thursday Sep 12.
We'll see what Sandy thinks of this idea.
ML's proposed CNPSer's camping trip (possibly with Ann, Ben, Betsy, Betty, Mae, Pat, Peter, and Imp) to Woods Lake Campground just west of Carson Pass on Hwy 88 the weekend after Labor Day might yield a potential ride, although to Sonora Pass this would be quite out of the way.
But today I learned that Sandy was planning to head east over the Sierra this Labor Day Weekend, via Hwy50 she was saying, thinking of lingering around Mono Lake for a day or two, on her way to meet friends exploring Az & Ut for the coming several weeks. Hmm...
I thought I might try persuading her to take Hwy108 over Sonora Pass instead of Hwy50, a slightly longer drive, and indeed this afternoon she seemed to warm to the idea, provided I could find some on-the-way campgrounds and interesting short day-hikes we could do along the way. I immediately suggested the campground at Kennedy Meadows just west of the pass with a potential hike to Relief Reservoir or to Kennedy Lake, and later with a map I scouted out some short-ish two-car shuttle loops including bits of the PCT on either side of Sonora Pass, like south along the PCT to the junction with Tungsten Road then east to a 2nd car at Leavitt Lake, or north on the PCT then west to 2nd car at Clark Fork Rd.
But I was also thinking I really "should" get some hiking in before the Labor Day weekend, and I might be able to leave as soon as this Friday afternoon (after doing some chores for ML Friday morning) and checked a map to see what pieces of PCT north of Sonora Pass I could do. From Sonora Pass to Hwy4/Ebbetts Pass is 33 miles, Ebbetts to Hwy88/Carson Pass is 30 miles, and Carson to Hwy50/Echo Summit is 12 miles. All those 75 miles I could do in 7 or 8 days at my usual 500photos/day pace. Those 4000 Raw files would consume only 5 of my now 8 32GB CF cards, and now I have 7 camera batteries which should last me 8 or 9 days if I'm careful.)
So, I could head for Sonora Pass this Friday afternoon, begin hiking Saturday morning, and be at Hwy50 just about when Sandy was originally planning of passing by there! Although, I might try persuading her to take Hwy88 to the Carson Pass area which I think has more interesting camping & hiking opportunities (such as the Woods Lake campground, though unfortunately it would be a week before the CNPSers would be there) than does the Hwy50/Echo Summit area. That would give me at least one day of slack to meet up with her. I could then ride with her to the Mono Lake area, we might camp around there for a day before we part ways at Lee Vining where I would catch the YARTS bus to Tuolumne, then backpack 95 miles north to Sonora Pass, arriving at my car there just about when ML's planned CNPSer's camping weekend ends - I might be able to drive to Woods Lake before the last CNPSer has left, thus able maybe to persuade one of them to return home a bit circuitously via Hwy50, dropping me off at Echo Summit for a southbound day-hike or overnighter on the PCT back to my car left this time at Hwy88/Carson Pass. I would complete that hike with plenty of time to make it back to Santa Rosa for my Dr's appointment 9am Thursday Sep 12.
We'll see what Sandy thinks of this idea.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Agnew to Tuolumne Meadows completed, yet another "break" ahead with additional complication
It took me an extra day to get to Tuolumne from Mammoth... it seems I "got sick" on the first day. Actually threw up on the trail while talking to another hiker. I had been resting because I was feeling sick just about an hour up the trail after getting off the bus at Agnew Meadows and this hiker carrying a little guittar came by, I did mention I wasn't feeling well, and we had told each other where we were heading and I was mid-sentence about taking the YARTS bus back from Tuolumne when out it came... He sort of awkwardly asked if I was going to be OK and I assured him I would now probably start to feel better, and he (I'm sure relievedy) continued on.
Actually I started feeling like I had "food poisoning" from a McDonalds Big Mac I had the evening before I left, at least that seemed to be "stuck" in my stomach along with the next morning's breakfast. But then, maybe it was the salad dish I had at Car's Jr earlier, or Vons'cherry tomatoes or blueberries I had eaten earlier as well...
Or maybe it was something altogether different and seemingly unrelated to what I was eating: all the sitting on hard chairs I had been doing the previous few days had I think cut off the circulation in my legs such that the big ugly varicose vein in my right leg seemed to have clotted up completely from my shin around the inside of my knee and up the inside of my thigh. It was feeling very "bruised"... more so than has ever happened before... although this has been a growing problem for me the past few years and my response has been twofold - to go to the (VA) Dr. and at one point had these veins "mapped" in preparation for "removal" (they said they'd just "yank them out") but an odd thing occurred while they were doing that "mapping" - some person from Washington DC happened to be "auditing" the activities of the VA that day (so I was told ...this was during the time the VA was under some political pressure to "improve" their service efficiency or responsiveness ...) and that person started asking me a bunch of questions as to why I wanted to have that procedure done - implying that it would be just for "cosmetic" reasons...) in any case the intimidation, if that was the intent, worked, and I just postponned a decision as to when I would go through with that procedure, since apparently it wasn't likely to address the main issue I was "imagining" I should be concerned about - blood clots "spinning off", as I imagined, from this "backwater" in my circulatory system, to my brain (although, apparently the most likely such destination would be the lungs.... Anyway, mostly I've been dealing with the problem by minimizing how long I sit down on hard surfaces especially, and taking frequent hikes, since the "massage" from the walking seemed to mitigate and "cure" the occasional odd swelling of my foot and "bruised" feeling in those veins after I'd been sitting too long. So, although this time that vein felt significantly more seriously "clotted", I still assumed after a few days of hiking I'd be fine again, so onto the bus to Angnew Meadow I went last Friday morning.
And indeed it did improve somewhat over the next few days of hiking. That first day I only made it tile about 3:30 in the afternoon, only managing to hike for about 40 minutes at a time with 20minute breaks in between, nevertheless getting a good way towards Thousand Island Lake only because I was taking fewer pictures... I had "re-filled" my stomach with some granola & fruit bars and water, but neither the water nor food seemed to get past my stomach and just sat there and I was just so tired during each break I would snooze off... typically wakened by other hikers passing by, most seemed not even to notice me though I was typically sitti ng in full sun since I was also feeling very cold, like when one has a fever, which I may have had.
Next morning though, I felt a little better, my stomach contents manged to pass on down, and I replaced it with granola and more fruit bars and water. That day I seemed to have my normal energy back for pictures and the scenery was impressive, I was happy not to have gone further the day before I would have missed most of it as if I was a thru-hiker just seeing the ground trying to make some distance. I managed to take a wrong turn and ended up going half way around Thousand Island Lake, almost decided to go all the way around but there was a trail branching off to the north which I assumed would "cut off" further up the trail, although it turned out to double back to the trail that circled the lake, but then I took another small spur trail that seemed to head north but it then petered out at a seried of camp sites, bu t I just continued off-trail northeastward along a ridge-line knowing I would eventually hit the main trail again, which I did just about at Island Pass. All in all it was a pleasant detour and yielded lots of picts.
Even though my energy was back, my leg was still quite sore, but it did seem that the "walking massage" was the appropriate treatment. I did quit a bit earlier than I normally do (normally I've gone on til the sun is gone, when the photo-ops begin to fade. But I quit within a mile of Donahue pass where I would have stopped the first day if I had put in a full 10-12 miles, on a ridge with spectacular views facing east that would be lit early the next morning so I'd be up early. I did take some night-time shots of the sky that night trying to capture some of the meteors I've been seeing, but in about a dozen 30second exposures, I'm not sure I captured any, though a few occurred in other areas of the sky while I was exposing...
Next morning was Sunday, and indeed the morning light was spectacular going over the Donahue Pass by 10am, where I think I got a nice video of some Grouse as I was trying to angle myself for a good shot of the pond just north of the pass, and beyond there had great views of lingering snow on the peaks to the west and views north down into Lyell Canyon, passing stream after stream merging further below as I descended into that broad flat-bottomed green meadowed valley incised by the meandering Tuolumne River. That day I stopped just short of the "no-camping" limit a bit beyond the Evelyn Lake trail junction, further than I had planned to go concerned I'd risk encountering a bear. but I camped on an out-of the way knoll away from any "established campsites" and was only bothered by an annoyed squirrel and some wandering deer.
Monday morning then I made it the remaining 6 miles to the store west of the meadow on hwy 120 by about 1pm, stopping to "do my laundry" via a "fully-clothed" refreshing swim in the Tuolumne just short of the trail junction with the Lodge, in a sandy pool just below a falls over a broad granite outcrop, which served as a good screen to wait for me and my clothes to dry in the sun with a slight breeze, while I ate some lunch. Only one couple passed by on the use-trail along the river while I was drying, though I must have seen a hundred people hiking by on the main trail that day about equally in both directions. This section of JMT/PCT from Agnew Meadows to Tuolumne in eitehr direction is a very popular three day hike for weekenders, as is a two-day out&back to the Thosand Island Lake area from either direction. The second-most popular "weekender" section of PCT was the "Rae Lakes Loop hike from either Kings Canyon or Kearsarge Pass. In terms of hiker traffic though, it's southbound JMT hikers that I've encountered most.
At the Tuolumne Meadow Store I had more lunch, a double-hamburger, bought some grapes and some V8 juice and sat at one of the picnic tables chatting with various people until the YARTS bus back to Mammoth arrived at 4:15. The time went quickly, but it was again a long sit on a hard surface that didn't do my leg much good. That night back at my usual car-camping spot off of the Scenic Loop road above Mammoth Lakes, my "clotted" sore veins feld not much improved from when I'd started.
So now I'm doing more sitting on hard surface in the library, having tried to contact the VA clinic with oddly serious audio connection problems on a call-back from the VA "advice nurse", so I've gotten no-where there, I've researched some nearby VA clinics I might be able to visit - one is in Sonora, which I plan to pass through in my way back to the Bay Area, since my next "stop" on the trail is hwy 108 at Sonora Pass, so I'm also continuing to work out my loop-back logistics to Tuolumne after staging my car at Sonora Pass.
I've had some problem verifying that there is a southbound bus from Reno to Mammoth/Bishop that stops at Bridgeport and Lee Vining as I described in my plans previously, much less where in these towns they stop. I've verified with the driver that I could take YARTS from Lee Vining to Tuolume - for $2 Sr. fare. The YARTS bus to Mammoth stopped in three places near Lee Vining, one at the gas-station/cafe on Hwy 120 near the 395 intersection, one on 395 in town, and finally at the Mono Lake Visitor Center (oddly at the far side of the parking lot there, and that just a sign-post, torture during hot afternoons!) YARTS then took the whole long June Lake loop. On this late afternoon trip, 8 people boarded the bus at Tuolumne, no other passengers boarded or deboarded til one couple left at the McDonalds stop in Mammoth and the rest of us at the ski area where we all must have left our car 3-4 days ago to catch the shuttle to Agnew Meadow.
Rather than looping back via 395 as I've been doing, I may this time also consider heading west to Sonora from the Pass (maybe bicycling to Kennedy Meadows Resort which is about 10 miles west on hwy 108 from the pass) then arranging a hitch from KM to Sonora, then taking the YARTS bus from Sonora to Crane Flat (for $6 Sr. fare) and then the free park shuttle from there to Tuolumne. I'll also need to arrange to stache my backpack at KM, or maybe at Sonora. I may still consider leaving a "contingency-resupply" in a bearbox at Twin Lakes west of Bridgeport on the "east-side" (ought to do that before I head to the Bay Area this afternoon or tomorrow or whenever, to save some unnecessary driving...) but I've also just ordered two additional camera batteries and CF cards to try to extend that constraint on my hiking range, to allow a non-stop Tuolumne to Sonora hke. This order is supposed to ship tomorrow and take 3-4 days so hopefully will see it in my PO box in SRosa by Monday. That is a bit longer than I would ideally have liked to have to hang out in SRosa before resuming my hike, but my leg issue may now delay that even further, depending...
Depending on whether I can get through to them by trying again with my WiFi Google-phone connection here from Mammoth, (or maybe I should try Skype... keep forgetting about that option) whether I decide to "bite-the-bullet" and buy-into another ATT SIM card pay-as-you-go plan (did I tell that story about my expired SIM card?) ...or whether I just try to "show up" at the Sonora clinic and talk to someone in person there... At the moment I'm inclined to "get moving" and investigate the Twin Lakes area and re-explore the Sonora Pass area, though it would be more efficient for me to continue sitting here on this hard surface and do some more online research and re-try my Google-Phone communications.
Either way, I'll cut off this lengthy blather now and get on with it.
,
Actually I started feeling like I had "food poisoning" from a McDonalds Big Mac I had the evening before I left, at least that seemed to be "stuck" in my stomach along with the next morning's breakfast. But then, maybe it was the salad dish I had at Car's Jr earlier, or Vons'cherry tomatoes or blueberries I had eaten earlier as well...
Or maybe it was something altogether different and seemingly unrelated to what I was eating: all the sitting on hard chairs I had been doing the previous few days had I think cut off the circulation in my legs such that the big ugly varicose vein in my right leg seemed to have clotted up completely from my shin around the inside of my knee and up the inside of my thigh. It was feeling very "bruised"... more so than has ever happened before... although this has been a growing problem for me the past few years and my response has been twofold - to go to the (VA) Dr. and at one point had these veins "mapped" in preparation for "removal" (they said they'd just "yank them out") but an odd thing occurred while they were doing that "mapping" - some person from Washington DC happened to be "auditing" the activities of the VA that day (so I was told ...this was during the time the VA was under some political pressure to "improve" their service efficiency or responsiveness ...) and that person started asking me a bunch of questions as to why I wanted to have that procedure done - implying that it would be just for "cosmetic" reasons...) in any case the intimidation, if that was the intent, worked, and I just postponned a decision as to when I would go through with that procedure, since apparently it wasn't likely to address the main issue I was "imagining" I should be concerned about - blood clots "spinning off", as I imagined, from this "backwater" in my circulatory system, to my brain (although, apparently the most likely such destination would be the lungs.... Anyway, mostly I've been dealing with the problem by minimizing how long I sit down on hard surfaces especially, and taking frequent hikes, since the "massage" from the walking seemed to mitigate and "cure" the occasional odd swelling of my foot and "bruised" feeling in those veins after I'd been sitting too long. So, although this time that vein felt significantly more seriously "clotted", I still assumed after a few days of hiking I'd be fine again, so onto the bus to Angnew Meadow I went last Friday morning.
And indeed it did improve somewhat over the next few days of hiking. That first day I only made it tile about 3:30 in the afternoon, only managing to hike for about 40 minutes at a time with 20minute breaks in between, nevertheless getting a good way towards Thousand Island Lake only because I was taking fewer pictures... I had "re-filled" my stomach with some granola & fruit bars and water, but neither the water nor food seemed to get past my stomach and just sat there and I was just so tired during each break I would snooze off... typically wakened by other hikers passing by, most seemed not even to notice me though I was typically sitti ng in full sun since I was also feeling very cold, like when one has a fever, which I may have had.
Next morning though, I felt a little better, my stomach contents manged to pass on down, and I replaced it with granola and more fruit bars and water. That day I seemed to have my normal energy back for pictures and the scenery was impressive, I was happy not to have gone further the day before I would have missed most of it as if I was a thru-hiker just seeing the ground trying to make some distance. I managed to take a wrong turn and ended up going half way around Thousand Island Lake, almost decided to go all the way around but there was a trail branching off to the north which I assumed would "cut off" further up the trail, although it turned out to double back to the trail that circled the lake, but then I took another small spur trail that seemed to head north but it then petered out at a seried of camp sites, bu t I just continued off-trail northeastward along a ridge-line knowing I would eventually hit the main trail again, which I did just about at Island Pass. All in all it was a pleasant detour and yielded lots of picts.
Even though my energy was back, my leg was still quite sore, but it did seem that the "walking massage" was the appropriate treatment. I did quit a bit earlier than I normally do (normally I've gone on til the sun is gone, when the photo-ops begin to fade. But I quit within a mile of Donahue pass where I would have stopped the first day if I had put in a full 10-12 miles, on a ridge with spectacular views facing east that would be lit early the next morning so I'd be up early. I did take some night-time shots of the sky that night trying to capture some of the meteors I've been seeing, but in about a dozen 30second exposures, I'm not sure I captured any, though a few occurred in other areas of the sky while I was exposing...
Next morning was Sunday, and indeed the morning light was spectacular going over the Donahue Pass by 10am, where I think I got a nice video of some Grouse as I was trying to angle myself for a good shot of the pond just north of the pass, and beyond there had great views of lingering snow on the peaks to the west and views north down into Lyell Canyon, passing stream after stream merging further below as I descended into that broad flat-bottomed green meadowed valley incised by the meandering Tuolumne River. That day I stopped just short of the "no-camping" limit a bit beyond the Evelyn Lake trail junction, further than I had planned to go concerned I'd risk encountering a bear. but I camped on an out-of the way knoll away from any "established campsites" and was only bothered by an annoyed squirrel and some wandering deer.
Monday morning then I made it the remaining 6 miles to the store west of the meadow on hwy 120 by about 1pm, stopping to "do my laundry" via a "fully-clothed" refreshing swim in the Tuolumne just short of the trail junction with the Lodge, in a sandy pool just below a falls over a broad granite outcrop, which served as a good screen to wait for me and my clothes to dry in the sun with a slight breeze, while I ate some lunch. Only one couple passed by on the use-trail along the river while I was drying, though I must have seen a hundred people hiking by on the main trail that day about equally in both directions. This section of JMT/PCT from Agnew Meadows to Tuolumne in eitehr direction is a very popular three day hike for weekenders, as is a two-day out&back to the Thosand Island Lake area from either direction. The second-most popular "weekender" section of PCT was the "Rae Lakes Loop hike from either Kings Canyon or Kearsarge Pass. In terms of hiker traffic though, it's southbound JMT hikers that I've encountered most.
At the Tuolumne Meadow Store I had more lunch, a double-hamburger, bought some grapes and some V8 juice and sat at one of the picnic tables chatting with various people until the YARTS bus back to Mammoth arrived at 4:15. The time went quickly, but it was again a long sit on a hard surface that didn't do my leg much good. That night back at my usual car-camping spot off of the Scenic Loop road above Mammoth Lakes, my "clotted" sore veins feld not much improved from when I'd started.
So now I'm doing more sitting on hard surface in the library, having tried to contact the VA clinic with oddly serious audio connection problems on a call-back from the VA "advice nurse", so I've gotten no-where there, I've researched some nearby VA clinics I might be able to visit - one is in Sonora, which I plan to pass through in my way back to the Bay Area, since my next "stop" on the trail is hwy 108 at Sonora Pass, so I'm also continuing to work out my loop-back logistics to Tuolumne after staging my car at Sonora Pass.
I've had some problem verifying that there is a southbound bus from Reno to Mammoth/Bishop that stops at Bridgeport and Lee Vining as I described in my plans previously, much less where in these towns they stop. I've verified with the driver that I could take YARTS from Lee Vining to Tuolume - for $2 Sr. fare. The YARTS bus to Mammoth stopped in three places near Lee Vining, one at the gas-station/cafe on Hwy 120 near the 395 intersection, one on 395 in town, and finally at the Mono Lake Visitor Center (oddly at the far side of the parking lot there, and that just a sign-post, torture during hot afternoons!) YARTS then took the whole long June Lake loop. On this late afternoon trip, 8 people boarded the bus at Tuolumne, no other passengers boarded or deboarded til one couple left at the McDonalds stop in Mammoth and the rest of us at the ski area where we all must have left our car 3-4 days ago to catch the shuttle to Agnew Meadow.
Rather than looping back via 395 as I've been doing, I may this time also consider heading west to Sonora from the Pass (maybe bicycling to Kennedy Meadows Resort which is about 10 miles west on hwy 108 from the pass) then arranging a hitch from KM to Sonora, then taking the YARTS bus from Sonora to Crane Flat (for $6 Sr. fare) and then the free park shuttle from there to Tuolumne. I'll also need to arrange to stache my backpack at KM, or maybe at Sonora. I may still consider leaving a "contingency-resupply" in a bearbox at Twin Lakes west of Bridgeport on the "east-side" (ought to do that before I head to the Bay Area this afternoon or tomorrow or whenever, to save some unnecessary driving...) but I've also just ordered two additional camera batteries and CF cards to try to extend that constraint on my hiking range, to allow a non-stop Tuolumne to Sonora hke. This order is supposed to ship tomorrow and take 3-4 days so hopefully will see it in my PO box in SRosa by Monday. That is a bit longer than I would ideally have liked to have to hang out in SRosa before resuming my hike, but my leg issue may now delay that even further, depending...
Depending on whether I can get through to them by trying again with my WiFi Google-phone connection here from Mammoth, (or maybe I should try Skype... keep forgetting about that option) whether I decide to "bite-the-bullet" and buy-into another ATT SIM card pay-as-you-go plan (did I tell that story about my expired SIM card?) ...or whether I just try to "show up" at the Sonora clinic and talk to someone in person there... At the moment I'm inclined to "get moving" and investigate the Twin Lakes area and re-explore the Sonora Pass area, though it would be more efficient for me to continue sitting here on this hard surface and do some more online research and re-try my Google-Phone communications.
Either way, I'll cut off this lengthy blather now and get on with it.
,
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Mammoth to Tuolumne up next, peering beyond to Sonora
So looking forward...
It just so happens that it was just as well that I've been wrestling these past few days with all these technical puzzles I wrote about earlier, because it ensured I wouldn't be arriving at Tuolumne Meadows during the weekend. I was actually expecting to be back on-trail mid-day today, and just go a little ways this afternoon, in which case my ETA at Tuolumne would have been Sunday afternoon. I'm now planning to leave tomorrow morning (Friday Aug 9), but hike for the full day, so the eta is still the same. I'll be starting from Agnew Meadow, hiking somewhat short of Donnahue Pass so I can do the pass Saturday morning before the thunderstorm risk in the afternoon. Beyind the pass is Lyell Canyon, and there are two constraints about where I can camp in that canyon, one is "legal" - I can't camp closer than 6 miles from Tuolumne Meadows/hwy 120; the other is practical - from all I've read and heard, bears become more likely to be a problem the further down into the canyon I go. So, I plan to camp about ten miles from Tuolumne Meadows, so I can easily hike the distance to hwy 120 on the last day, Sunday. Yep, it's just three days from here to Tuolumne. There's a walk-in hiker's campground at Tuolumne near the general store I'll be staying there Sunday night.
I plan to take the YARTS bus on Monday to get back to my car at Mammoth.
Then I think I'm heading for the Bay Area to check my mail and try to connect with friends & family, maybe even somehow arrange a ride from sonora pass where I hpe tp leave mhy car next, back to Tuolumne Meadows with my backpack to do that longish section.
My basic plan for that section sans help ould be a somewhat more strenuous bike trip up a few hills east of Sonora pass before a long downhill to hwy 395 and 15mile mostly-level pedal along 395 to Bridgeport, then thye "Reno-to-Lone-Pine" bus from Bridgeport to Lee Vining, then YARTS from Lee Vin ing to Tuolumne Meadows to start my hike. I would first have to leave my backpack at Bridgeport or Lee Vining, or Tuolumne Meadows, to make the bike ride feasible. This would be a timeconsuming trip.
I've been looking at alternative logistics of that next section and more generally future sections, mainly with an eye on my main constraint at the moment - camera battery range. I've got 5 batteries, each lasts me about a day. I'm carrying a solar charger but that maxes at about 4watt while the camera battery charger with 12-24V adapter I have says it requires 8watt minimum. Obviously I could buy more batteries, (and a few more CF cards) but they also take some time to charge them all, and time and laptop power to back up the cards for reuse. Also, need to download tracklogs.
It occurred to me I might be able to store a car battery (and my eeepc and del laptop and cables & inverter, in one of the bear boxes, and then be able to leave my car further up-trail. Still need to work out all the details, and evaluate whether this will indeed help...
In the case of the Tuolumne to Sonora section, I might be able to leave the "battery-cache" at the Twin Lakes trailhead SW of Bridgeport, and my car at Sonora Pass. This would be a 10mile one-way detour off the pct, about midway along the pct between Tuolumne and Sonora, similar to the Bishop Pass detour that was about midway between Independence/Kearsarge Pass and Mammoth Lakes/Reds Meadow. My thought is that with just the batteries etc there, that would be more like my recent stop at VVR, rather than splitting the section entirely into two full "loops" requiring an additional trip along the road to twin Lakes.
At any rate, beyond Sonora Pass, there seem to be a lot of options including some day-hikes to negotiate the sections with many roads crossing the pct north to hwy 80. This is also fairly close to bay-area. Maybe I can persuade some of you to join me on a weekend walk late August or September.
It just so happens that it was just as well that I've been wrestling these past few days with all these technical puzzles I wrote about earlier, because it ensured I wouldn't be arriving at Tuolumne Meadows during the weekend. I was actually expecting to be back on-trail mid-day today, and just go a little ways this afternoon, in which case my ETA at Tuolumne would have been Sunday afternoon. I'm now planning to leave tomorrow morning (Friday Aug 9), but hike for the full day, so the eta is still the same. I'll be starting from Agnew Meadow, hiking somewhat short of Donnahue Pass so I can do the pass Saturday morning before the thunderstorm risk in the afternoon. Beyind the pass is Lyell Canyon, and there are two constraints about where I can camp in that canyon, one is "legal" - I can't camp closer than 6 miles from Tuolumne Meadows/hwy 120; the other is practical - from all I've read and heard, bears become more likely to be a problem the further down into the canyon I go. So, I plan to camp about ten miles from Tuolumne Meadows, so I can easily hike the distance to hwy 120 on the last day, Sunday. Yep, it's just three days from here to Tuolumne. There's a walk-in hiker's campground at Tuolumne near the general store I'll be staying there Sunday night.
I plan to take the YARTS bus on Monday to get back to my car at Mammoth.
Then I think I'm heading for the Bay Area to check my mail and try to connect with friends & family, maybe even somehow arrange a ride from sonora pass where I hpe tp leave mhy car next, back to Tuolumne Meadows with my backpack to do that longish section.
My basic plan for that section sans help ould be a somewhat more strenuous bike trip up a few hills east of Sonora pass before a long downhill to hwy 395 and 15mile mostly-level pedal along 395 to Bridgeport, then thye "Reno-to-Lone-Pine" bus from Bridgeport to Lee Vining, then YARTS from Lee Vin ing to Tuolumne Meadows to start my hike. I would first have to leave my backpack at Bridgeport or Lee Vining, or Tuolumne Meadows, to make the bike ride feasible. This would be a timeconsuming trip.
I've been looking at alternative logistics of that next section and more generally future sections, mainly with an eye on my main constraint at the moment - camera battery range. I've got 5 batteries, each lasts me about a day. I'm carrying a solar charger but that maxes at about 4watt while the camera battery charger with 12-24V adapter I have says it requires 8watt minimum. Obviously I could buy more batteries, (and a few more CF cards) but they also take some time to charge them all, and time and laptop power to back up the cards for reuse. Also, need to download tracklogs.
It occurred to me I might be able to store a car battery (and my eeepc and del laptop and cables & inverter, in one of the bear boxes, and then be able to leave my car further up-trail. Still need to work out all the details, and evaluate whether this will indeed help...
In the case of the Tuolumne to Sonora section, I might be able to leave the "battery-cache" at the Twin Lakes trailhead SW of Bridgeport, and my car at Sonora Pass. This would be a 10mile one-way detour off the pct, about midway along the pct between Tuolumne and Sonora, similar to the Bishop Pass detour that was about midway between Independence/Kearsarge Pass and Mammoth Lakes/Reds Meadow. My thought is that with just the batteries etc there, that would be more like my recent stop at VVR, rather than splitting the section entirely into two full "loops" requiring an additional trip along the road to twin Lakes.
At any rate, beyond Sonora Pass, there seem to be a lot of options including some day-hikes to negotiate the sections with many roads crossing the pct north to hwy 80. This is also fairly close to bay-area. Maybe I can persuade some of you to join me on a weekend walk late August or September.
Been hanging in Mammoth Lakes wrestling tech issues after 11 day hike from Bishop Pass
I've actually been hanging around Mammoth Lakes again for a few days now since Monday Aug 5 when I got to Reds Meadow after taking 11 days to get here from the South Lake trailhead above Bishop.
That was actually quite an eventful trek, and eventually I plan to post the "back-dated" details on this blog, but for now I'll just summarize to say I dodged some lightning over Bishop Pass, endured a full night of steady rain, got caught in a hailstorm, had my nose, lungs and photo-ops tarnished by smoke from the Aspen fire most every afternoon and some mornings as well, encountered dozens of southbound JMT hikers each day while leapfrogging a few times with only two northbound PCT hikers in this whole section, charged my camera batteries at "VVR" (Vermilion Valley Resort on Lake Edison) which is what allowed me to stay away from my car/civilization for 10 whole days.
But I still had plenty of good photo-ops to fill up all my CF cards forcing me to ration my memory use by scaling back from full res Raw files to half-rez "SRaw" files for the last three days.
Unfortunately I unknowingly also turned off generating jpg files when I made that switch on my camera, which later caused me some grief and wasted time here in Mammoth while trying to "recover" files I thought I must have overwritten at some point between copying them to my backup disk, and "reorganizing" them on that disk.
That wasn't my only technical problem though:
- The "selection" button on my camera continues to be intermittently unresponsive although I now understand the problem better: in dry, hot conditions it seems that some kind of damaged O-ring or something designed to function like a spring, becomes "mushy", and when I press the button while it's in that state, the button stays "depressed" for several minutes and during that time won't respond to further direct button presses, but will indirectly make "random" selections when I turn the selection-wheel that this button is at the center of, causing unintended menu selections and sometimes changes to camera settings.
- The on/off switch on my Holux GPS data logger broke: the plastic "knob" on the surface just slides loosely back and forth without engaging the underlying switch. I haven't tried prying it off altogether to try to directly access the underlying switch, because fortunately it is currently permanently in the "on" state, and I can just remove the battery at night or during extended breaks to keep from draining the battery. I've contacted Holux Tech Support and they referred me to the US distributer for possible repair ... I haven't yet followed thru with them other than to verify that when I bought the unit via Amazon, the order was actually fulfilled by this vendor.
- The proprietary "ezTour" software that comes with the Holux is frustratingly glitchey! There are unexplained very long delays (tens of minutes...) where the program becomes unresponsive (so says windows.) The program has trouble finding the right usb-com port number - the "auto-locate" option never works, and there seems to be some kind of hide-and-seek game going on where it waits until I manually select a port number, then activates itself on "the other" port number (usually between com3 and com4.) I can then cause the log data to download, and it gives a running count of the amt of data downloaded, and then it says the data is successfully downloaded, but before I can choose one of several options to save the data to disk, I have to wait a few dozen minutes of unresponsiveness while it does some processing to display the tracklog on a Google Map. (There is no option to skip this. I can then save the whole "project" which I assume saves the data in it's "raw" format that may be a semi-proprietary binary compressed format, or I can save it as GPX or NMEA or a number of other formats. But no matter which option I choose, the program then goes into yet another "unresponsive" state for another few dozen minutes - even when just saving the "project". Not very conducive to quickly getting back on the trail! Still, I've so far been able to eventually get a log file saved as a GPX that checks out using another small independent program that I've been using (ezGPS) just to check that I have useable data current to my last day of use - even after my current broken-switch workaround of removing the battery. So eventually I should be able to use these logs to geotag my picts (except for those early glitches that I've described earlier.) Oh, also, snooping on the internet I've read of another similar product using same chip-set, and learned of an open-source program able to read and control that chipset, (it uses GPSBABEL behind the scenes for data-format translations, possibly even for the chipset-reading - not sure at the moment.) I've downloaded it and tried it and it actually seems to be downloading the data, and I've got a "raw data" file stored, but for some reason wasn't able to produce a GPX from that program, not sure why. Will try again when I have more time to play. Am hopeful this could solve the "unresponsiveness" issue of Holux's "oficial" ezTour program.
- The valve of my Katadyne water filter "sticks" so that when I try pumping water it doesn't shut to switch the flow from intake hose to the filter chamber. I've tried "cleaning" it by more violently forcing water through that area where the "ballbearing-valve" is, and added fresh silicone grease to the O-ring on the plunger as recommended, though not to valve part because it seems to me there shouldn't be grease there... I'll play with it some more later but meanwhile can manually constrict the intake hose at the right time though that is very slow...
- still getting confused by the camera file numbering that "rolls over" after 9999, compounded by the various date fields in the file metadata (some of which change when files are copied, looked at, etc..) and which of these dates gets displayed and used to sort the folder lists on my Linux EEEPC and broken Dell laptop running windows XP, and on a few windows terminals at the library. (Missing my big laptop with Lightroom that I've come to rely on to firstly sensibly rename my photos by date-taken to avoid any serial-number-rollover confusion and date-field confusion, then add location data via my tracklogs, then exposure-adjust etc the images before evaluating/selecting/uploading them.)
All this is to excuse my lack of pictures to present, and why I am taking so much more time off-trail than I would like, while I doublecheck to make sure I've got all my photos backed up before I reuse my CF cards. Why just this morning I was thinking I was done but while trying to remind myself via my photos where I had stayed the 2nd night after Bishop Pass while starting to write this blog entry, I discovered I had about 1100 photos missing, which turned out to be on two CF cards that I had misplaced! Yikes! No technical glitch, that.
That was actually quite an eventful trek, and eventually I plan to post the "back-dated" details on this blog, but for now I'll just summarize to say I dodged some lightning over Bishop Pass, endured a full night of steady rain, got caught in a hailstorm, had my nose, lungs and photo-ops tarnished by smoke from the Aspen fire most every afternoon and some mornings as well, encountered dozens of southbound JMT hikers each day while leapfrogging a few times with only two northbound PCT hikers in this whole section, charged my camera batteries at "VVR" (Vermilion Valley Resort on Lake Edison) which is what allowed me to stay away from my car/civilization for 10 whole days.
But I still had plenty of good photo-ops to fill up all my CF cards forcing me to ration my memory use by scaling back from full res Raw files to half-rez "SRaw" files for the last three days.
Unfortunately I unknowingly also turned off generating jpg files when I made that switch on my camera, which later caused me some grief and wasted time here in Mammoth while trying to "recover" files I thought I must have overwritten at some point between copying them to my backup disk, and "reorganizing" them on that disk.
That wasn't my only technical problem though:
- The "selection" button on my camera continues to be intermittently unresponsive although I now understand the problem better: in dry, hot conditions it seems that some kind of damaged O-ring or something designed to function like a spring, becomes "mushy", and when I press the button while it's in that state, the button stays "depressed" for several minutes and during that time won't respond to further direct button presses, but will indirectly make "random" selections when I turn the selection-wheel that this button is at the center of, causing unintended menu selections and sometimes changes to camera settings.
- The on/off switch on my Holux GPS data logger broke: the plastic "knob" on the surface just slides loosely back and forth without engaging the underlying switch. I haven't tried prying it off altogether to try to directly access the underlying switch, because fortunately it is currently permanently in the "on" state, and I can just remove the battery at night or during extended breaks to keep from draining the battery. I've contacted Holux Tech Support and they referred me to the US distributer for possible repair ... I haven't yet followed thru with them other than to verify that when I bought the unit via Amazon, the order was actually fulfilled by this vendor.
- The proprietary "ezTour" software that comes with the Holux is frustratingly glitchey! There are unexplained very long delays (tens of minutes...) where the program becomes unresponsive (so says windows.) The program has trouble finding the right usb-com port number - the "auto-locate" option never works, and there seems to be some kind of hide-and-seek game going on where it waits until I manually select a port number, then activates itself on "the other" port number (usually between com3 and com4.) I can then cause the log data to download, and it gives a running count of the amt of data downloaded, and then it says the data is successfully downloaded, but before I can choose one of several options to save the data to disk, I have to wait a few dozen minutes of unresponsiveness while it does some processing to display the tracklog on a Google Map. (There is no option to skip this. I can then save the whole "project" which I assume saves the data in it's "raw" format that may be a semi-proprietary binary compressed format, or I can save it as GPX or NMEA or a number of other formats. But no matter which option I choose, the program then goes into yet another "unresponsive" state for another few dozen minutes - even when just saving the "project". Not very conducive to quickly getting back on the trail! Still, I've so far been able to eventually get a log file saved as a GPX that checks out using another small independent program that I've been using (ezGPS) just to check that I have useable data current to my last day of use - even after my current broken-switch workaround of removing the battery. So eventually I should be able to use these logs to geotag my picts (except for those early glitches that I've described earlier.) Oh, also, snooping on the internet I've read of another similar product using same chip-set, and learned of an open-source program able to read and control that chipset, (it uses GPSBABEL behind the scenes for data-format translations, possibly even for the chipset-reading - not sure at the moment.) I've downloaded it and tried it and it actually seems to be downloading the data, and I've got a "raw data" file stored, but for some reason wasn't able to produce a GPX from that program, not sure why. Will try again when I have more time to play. Am hopeful this could solve the "unresponsiveness" issue of Holux's "oficial" ezTour program.
- The valve of my Katadyne water filter "sticks" so that when I try pumping water it doesn't shut to switch the flow from intake hose to the filter chamber. I've tried "cleaning" it by more violently forcing water through that area where the "ballbearing-valve" is, and added fresh silicone grease to the O-ring on the plunger as recommended, though not to valve part because it seems to me there shouldn't be grease there... I'll play with it some more later but meanwhile can manually constrict the intake hose at the right time though that is very slow...
- still getting confused by the camera file numbering that "rolls over" after 9999, compounded by the various date fields in the file metadata (some of which change when files are copied, looked at, etc..) and which of these dates gets displayed and used to sort the folder lists on my Linux EEEPC and broken Dell laptop running windows XP, and on a few windows terminals at the library. (Missing my big laptop with Lightroom that I've come to rely on to firstly sensibly rename my photos by date-taken to avoid any serial-number-rollover confusion and date-field confusion, then add location data via my tracklogs, then exposure-adjust etc the images before evaluating/selecting/uploading them.)
All this is to excuse my lack of pictures to present, and why I am taking so much more time off-trail than I would like, while I doublecheck to make sure I've got all my photos backed up before I reuse my CF cards. Why just this morning I was thinking I was done but while trying to remind myself via my photos where I had stayed the 2nd night after Bishop Pass while starting to write this blog entry, I discovered I had about 1100 photos missing, which turned out to be on two CF cards that I had misplaced! Yikes! No technical glitch, that.
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