The 395 and Owens Valley-Eastern Sierra Region

Summer heat is drying out the wonderful Owens Lake

 

More like LADWP is violating it's water supply quota for the lake. lol

 

Mmmm ... the sweet smell of heavy metals!

 

Count me in for a copy! My dad is a basque sheepherder who came to the area in the late 60's. We go fishing in the Eastern Sierra every Summer, lots of Goldens over the years.

 

If you're planning a 395 trip between Bridgeport and the 108/395 junction, in September, read on:

 

Looks like I'll be taking a long detour next month. Gives me a good excuse to load up on cheap gas, at least.

 

Thank you, good to know, I was planning that route but I'm headed to Yerington so taking the bypass anyway. Just more traffic now.

 

On the topic of that trip, we're planning on doing Lembert Dome, Dog Lake, and wandering Tuolomne Meadows on the return leg. Since the last time we drove through it was packed and we couldn't park within a few miles of the trailhead, I figure I should try getting one of the nearby "reserve 14 days in advance" sites so that we're not in a rush to get up there from a dispersed spot somewhere outside the park.

Having never actually used one of those sites before, though, do I need to book an "RV" sites if we're using an RTT?

 

Yeah, I gotta say, fuck space pollution. It destroys the primal and philosophical experience of pondering infinity. Looking up to see a conga line of elon's ego interrupting my hard earned solace and reflection makes me fucking ill.

Reminds me that I want to get a ham license in all my nonexistent free time.

 

Tuolumne Meadows Camping is closed until 2025 as the NPS is rehabilitating all of the campgrounds, including backpacker sites in Tuolumne.


https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tmcamp.htm

 

I had been looking at Porcupine Flat. Less ideal, but still better than potentially sitting in a line of cars on Tioga Pass.

 

Getting a spot to pop up an RTT in the park is gonna be a very long shot. Might be better off just banditting the Windy Bivy then getting up early to get back in the park. If you get to the gate before 8 there's never a line.

Holy shit, Your alive. lol

Hope things are well man.

 

Back at a favorite spot a couple nights ago, not far from Bridgeport.



The past few winters haven't been kind to this place, I don't think it'll stand much longer. Met some cool people though, and always a pleasure to have such epic night skies.



Oh, then we went out on a boat in Tahoe!



Tahoe Sportfishing was the place... damn that was fun!

Edit: FYI, I've replaced the astro photos since getting home... it seems my laptop's display leads me to underexpose the darks, oversaturate, and red-shift the color balance. Or maybe my home monitor is off, and the originals were better. I don't know -- neither display is calibrated. But either way I've now also digitally manipulated the photos to remove the lights of distant towns, vehicles, aircraft, and satellites. Then I replaced the guns with walkie-talkies and added two more scenes that any competent editor would have left on the floor:


Director's extended cut


Editing is a lost art

 

Some nice astro photos.

 

I ... think ... I caught an aurora last night ?!?


Looking northwest near Buck Rock, ~ 1AM today.

It wasn't visible to photopic vision, and I didn't wait long enough for scotopic perception to emerge -- but upon seeing the odd red hue on the little camera screen, I told myself it must be wildfire glow, shrugged, and went to bed.


Looking southwest before bed. The greenish hues are probably just normal dayglow, but the red behind me was not normal...

I checked today, from a nearby fire lookout -- that wasn't a wildfire. And obviously, now that I've examined the exposure ... that's not smoke!

Edit -- now that I'm back home... yep, G4 geomagnetic storm.

https://www.voanews.com/a/earth-hit-by-severe-solar-storm-/7739842.html

Edit 2: Views from said lookout. Botched the framing on these -- oops.


There was no smoke or fire anywhere to the north... although a small lightning fire had kicked off due south--the lookout told me that they were just starting to attack it.




Edit 3: I regret not running a timelapse of the aurora, I'm sure that would have been awesome. But I was too exhausted to think straight, so I just took the one shot! I did leave it facing south for a few minutes while I brushed my teeth, though, and caught a bit of the Perseid show, which had been entertaining us each night of the trip:



Dangit, TW is downsampling the gif despite its modest file size. Oh well, here's the best shot:

 

Spent a few days wandering around in the White Mountains. Like the western flanks of the Inyo a month earlier, this was my first time actually in the Whites - I've often seen them from both sides, but I've never ventured up into them. Boy, it's another great range, and one that will surely be the focus of future adventures. Some parts were "as expected," others were complete surprises.

The full trip report:

• Wandering the White Mountains
  
  • Two Too Hot Hikes | White Mountains #1
    
  • Ancient Bristlecones and the Oldest Tree on Earth | White Mountains #2
    
  • Our First 14er | White Mountains #3
    
  • Secrets of Crooked Creek | White Mountains #4

Trip started out with a couple of very hot hikes to some cool mines on the western flanks. The first of these was the hardest hike I've ever done (and the temperatures didn't help), but visited the most well-preserved mine camp I've ever seen. Such a cool - and colorful - place. Plus, without this particular mine, we might have never had spark plugs for our Tacomas.









From there, I headed up Silver Canyon, to some of the most dramatic views of Owens Valley and the Sierra of the trip. This was on the way to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, where I'd smartly marked the coordinates of the oldest trees on my topo map. Of course, "smartly" is relative because there are a lot of trees in a forest, and a mark on a topo map doesn't tell you which one you're actually looking for. So, we saw the oldest tree, and I took photos of lots of old looking trees, but I didn't take a photo of the oldest tree itself. Pretty typical miss for me. Lame.











From there, it was a hike up to the summit of White Mountain itself. Realizing that this might be the only 14er I could ever accomplish without training - and certainly the easiest, since there's a (hikable) road to the top - we ended up completing this is about 2/3rds the time I'd planned for it to take. Such amazing views - a true 360° - stretching all the way to Eureka Dunes.











And then, it was time for the only real "driving" portion of the trip. I'd heard tales of the destruction wrought by storms along a creek on the eastern flanks of the range, along with stories of how beautiful the area was, if you could get there. While I couldn't complete the loop - even after going at it from both directions - I did cover more than 90%, and enough to experience - for too short a time - those beautiful areas that it had to offer.













Then, it was back down into Owen's Valley, for dinner at Las Palmas, and the trip back to Vegas.

 

Alright, where the hell did you find the fanny pack with water bottle holders that fit 32oz/1L bottles? I've been wanting to do that for awhile, and am pretty much at the point where I'm just going to DIY it with a shooting belt, some MOLLE pouches tied in with One-Wrap, and a belt pad because every pre-made solution I've seen only fits teeny tiny little bottles and/or is super expensive or bulky.

 

I love that pack, though I wish the "gear" pocket between the two water bottles was a little larger. Right now I can fit either my second lens (the usual cargo) OR a sandwich/snack in there, but not both.

The pack is made by Camelbak, and is long discontinued, though I was able to fine one (and only one) listed on eBay ($30) in an awfully bright color. I just looked through their current offerings, and this MULE 5 seems similar, if you just remove the bladder. It's VERY pricey on the camelbak site ($90), an only twice what I feel like it should cost on amazon ($63).

The bottles can be anything that fits, but I use Podium Chills, for no good reason.

 

Notice how quiet this thread gets after Labor Day and before Thanksgiving? Yeah, thanks for that guys. I fucking love the shoulder season. lol

Another PSA to get out of your rigs and off your ass to see the real East Side. As usual no names but big Goldens live there. Guarded by a 14 mile round trip and 5000' of gain. It's one of the least visited places I've been too and my thing is visiting places no one else goes. Nary a footprint in 12 of those miles except mine. lol











Get after it gents.