Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

So, I did a couple of them with the table saw which worked just fine. For the last one, I used the bandsaw, and that was fabulous. (Can you tell I'm a woodworker? ) There are many ways to do it of course - a straight edge and sharp utility knife would work well too, I think.

 

Scanning your own books is considered fair use. In fact court ruling a few years ago was that Google scanning books for search was fair use as well because they didn’t actually distribute the whole book but only small snippets around search results. And this even though they got ad revenue from the search pages.

Scanning a book and distributing to others clearly not fair use. Checking a library book out and scanning/copying the entire thing for yourself also not fair use.

Giving your scanned copy to someone else who also has their own physical copy of the book? No idea...

There are actually special cutting machines that will lop off the binding of a book to prepare it for spiral binding. I know at least in the past Kinkos could do it. Great idea by the way!

 

Thank you both for the advice.

 

Those shears are impressive.

There's some info here on what happened with their scanning project. I attended a presentation that talked about the whole scanning process. Oddly low tech but still, pretty cool.

 

Yeah, sorry for the sketchy request.

Perhaps someday there will be electronic copies of these guides available for sale. I'd definitely buy them again if they were so offered!

Searching alone would be worth it. Plus it'd be nice to be able to copy or directly hyperlink from lat/long to your nav software. Instead of having to convert from dms to decimal and type it in manually when I'm lost.

 

How much did the spiraling cost?

 

$4.45 per book, though I assume it's somewhat locale specific. I'm in the Seattle area, so our prices are generally relatively high.

No worries at all, I totally understand the request and really it's probably OK if there's some way of getting proof, since you could do the same yourself. Still, easier to just err on the safe side in today's world, unfortunately.

 

Thanks. A ballpark number is perfect. Awesome idea!

 

Day trip to Owens Lake...

 

Owen's Lake?? You sure about that?

 

Hmm... Sure looked like a lot of Owens Lake water to me?



Also some crumbling concrete in the valley down below...



(Note human on road for scale.)

 

Water no longer flows from Owen's Lake.
What you are looking at there at Powerhouse #1 is water from Los Angeles Aqueduct (tube #1) which originates at South Haiwee Reservoir.

 

Okay, you got me, I guess I was kind of trolling there. Pretty wild history though, and fascinating to finally see some of it in person. Especially the ruins.

And to tie it back to our discussion about scanned books last weekend... I wound up spending a few hours reading up on the history of California's water projects, and stumbled upon a 1972 article about the opening of the California aqueduct in Popular Science. I had no idea, but all the old issues of Popular Science are scanned and available for our browsing on Google Books. Like, from the 1870s to the 2000s!

It sure is fun to hop around through modern history, reading the achievements and predictions of each era's greatest (and/or most hopelessly optimistic) innovators. Few things give me greater appreciation for how much and how little has changed over the years.

Sorry I'm way off topic again. Back to work (I swear!)


Editing to add:

Check it out, Buick engineers paving the way for a-track back in the 70s:

 

If you go to the Interagency Visitor Center (when they open again) they have a section of the aqueduct that you can stand in. Pretty cool.

 

I'm doing a quick last minute trip to Death Valley. I'll be going to Badwater and other POIs from Furnace Creek. Anyone have recommendations on a spot to camp for the night in that general area? I'm 4x4, lifted with 32s. Thanks!

 

Drive up Warm Springs road into the canyon. There are plenty of areas to camp in there. Or continue into further up warm springs to Striped Butte..geologist cabin area and pick an area to camp at.

 

if you want to stay close to Furnace Creek, head 2-1/2 miles SW on 190 and look for a Jeep trail on left to Echo Canyon. Per NPS you need to go a minimum 1 mile from pavement and stay 1 mile away from the mine ruins at end of the main trail. Another 2 miles along 190 will get you to Hole in the Wall trail also on left.

 

Awesome! I was thinking Hole in the Wall as well.

 

One day I'll spend a week here and camp deeper in the backcountry! Thanks for the rec.

 

You are aware there is no backcountry camping due to our esteemed state leadership stay at home order. LOL
It would suck to get a citation out there. I was literally reading earlier today on a FB page about someone having to do online court for a citation in DVNP. While seeing a patrol ranger isn't really common it could happen. I've only seen them a few times in my years of going out there.

You could head out east on the 190 and there are tons of spots outside the park boundary. No worries there.