Diet Taco... trying to keep things light

Daypack Additions
Needs more orange...

Getting ready for a trip and adding some tidbits to my daypack:


First, I realized I really had no cord at all in my pack. Cord is of course enormously useful for a bunch of things both routine and in an emergency. In particular I sometimes have to scramble up or down dryfalls and it would be less awkward climbing without my pack and using cord to raise or lower it separately. I've now included about 30 ft of 2.0 mm UHMWPE (aka Dyneema or Spectra) which weighs less than an ounce all together. This kind of cord doesn't lay or handle particularly well but is ridiculously strong (1000 lbs test, but of course if you know anything about ratings the dynamic working strength is way lower than the static test strength and knots will lower it further).

To be clear, I would never use cord like this as a climbing aid in an emergency. Never trust your life to something like this. I carry emergency satellite communications for a reason - so I won't have to do sketchy risky stuff to extricate myself from a situation. But cord is good for repairing things, shelters, splints and such.

Second, I had some nice neon orange kite fabric laying around that I had originally considered using as a signalling tarp but became redundant to my orange emergency bivy sack. Small squares weigh next to nothing and would make good trail markers. The idea being to use one like a cairn that is much more visible and hard to miss when returning. Lay one out in the middle of a wash held down by rocks and should be impossible to miss. I am embarrassed to admit I have walked right past my own natural cairns in the past...

 

Ken that's a great idea. I carry 550 cord in my pack and also have a marine marker panel. The panel I have is vinyl and quite heavy. I think your method is much better. Some cheap safety vests might suffice if I can't find some lightweight pre-cut material like you have.

Just found these on A-zon...a little pricey and I'd guess they might fall apart over time.

$22 4 Pieces 18 x 18"es Mesh Safety Flags Orange Warning Flag Bungee Safety Flag Good Visibility Weatherproof Flag with Grommets and Bungee Cord

https://smile.amazon.com/Pieces-Warning-Visibility-Weatherproof-Grommets/dp/B08GS47QGV?crid=HNH6JMV2QW5N&dchild=1&keywords=orange+marker+panel&qid=1634930588&sprefix=orange+marker+panel%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-6

 

Hey Eric, here is the stuff I had. About $10 on A-zon for 15 sq ft:

$9 emma kites Fluorescent Orange Ripstop Nylon Fabric 40 Denier, Pre-Cut Piece 1-Yard: 60"x36", Ultra-Light Airtight PU Coating Water Repellent

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00ZR82J22

 

NW Death Valley Teaser

It was an epic trip. Lots of photos and some video to go through so I expect it to be a bit before I can start rolling out the trip report. But for now...

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27k Blackstone Oil Analysis
September 2021

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End of September the truck finally got the oil changed after a long unexpected storage period thanks to COVID-19. The truck didn't move from 2/20 until 6/21. As you can see from the report despite being a 3.5 year oil change interval over 7,600 miles everything looks great.

In an earlier test I asked Blackstone if long time intervals between changes were an issue if the miles were still reasonable and they responded that time is rarely of any impact. The miles and the kind of driving are what matter. Since I don't do any short trips and my mileage is dominated by long highway or long off-road journeys with the engine at temperature for almost all the time the expectation is that it should do fine with long time and mileage intervals. This unexpected experiment seems to have proven that out!

This time I was able to ensure the truck had been at temperature for a longer period before the oil sample was taken and so no trace of fuel unlike the last time when it had multiple cold starts and hardly got to temperature before the change.

Based on the reports so far I'm going to target a 7,500 change interval and not worry about the time between changes at all. I'll continue to use Mobil 1 Extended Performance as the additives package is clearly up to the task. If I followed the recommended change every six months from the manual I'd spend time off during a quarter of my trips draining fresh oil from the truck...

As it is I've had the truck for 6.5 years and I've change the oil five times. There are only four reports as it is senseless to test the factory oil and new engine unless you enjoy seeing wild numbers.

 

I am just now coming up on my 10k oil change in my '19 Tacoma. I was thinking about sending off an oil sample to get a baseline. Do you think it would be worth it based on your experience?

 

Getting a baseline is certainly a good idea. You might wait until your 15k oil change to do a baseline though as at 10k likely the engine is still new enough to be elevating a few elements. You can see in the 9,400 mile column in the report that both copper and silicon were higher than both typical averages and all my later reports. Here is what Blackstone said about that in the comments section for the original 9,400 mile report:

KEN: This engine is relatively new, so the extra metal and silicon isn't unusual. The metal comes from the new parts wearing in and silicon is from harmless sealers and gaskets. It usually takes a few oil changes to wash everything out, so we should see progress in the coming reports. Soon, everything should look like universal averages, which are based on ~5,700 miles of oil use.
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Their prediction was proved out in the next report. I've been doing reports on every change which is excessive, but I've been trying to verify my odd use case and oil change interval is working well. Also I change it so rarely it's not like it's a big expense . So for more normal use I'd say maybe get your baseline at 15k so that the engine is old enough to not be still wearing in and then after that maybe only every few oil changes. I'll probably not bother doing a report on the next change now that I've determined my long change interval is fine, but then again I'm a sucker for numbers and measuring things unnecessarily...

 

I know you didn't ask me, but I'd say no.

But if you do, consider using ALS to do the analysis. You can get a kit at Napa for like $15.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/FIL...9W.__x03C2tmxqU4bSAg-1637154476-0-gaNycGzNCL0

then you just ship it to them. Or, you can look to see if they have a location near you. In my case, I was able to find one in the Atlanta area that was like a 10 minute drive from my office. My total cost was just the Napa filter since I didn't have to ship anything. I think my first analysis was at 150k and all levels were "normal".

Per the report I received:


And my actual numbers:

 

Death Valley - Part 1 (Along the way)
October 2021

I will be organizing this trip report a bit differently as some of the hiking locations have little or no reporting on the internet and I feel they should remain that way so locations will not be mentioned. This first post will be on things done and seen along the way and two later posts will cover more detailed explorations.

As usual I was up super early, off to the airport and flying into Las Vegas. Things went sideways once I got there though - the truck wasn't waiting for me. Turns out there was a communications breakdown I had a hint of and should have followed up on earlier. Long story short due to bad timing of other things going on at the storage facility I had over a three hour wait to get the truck. This was exceedingly frustrating because I had planned on getting out of Vegas by noon as usual so I could spent time exploring a new to me entry into the park and still have time to get to Eureka dunes for a sunset photo. Now it was going to be hard to even get to Eureka in time without stopping anywhere which I regretted since the weather appeared timed to have the trailing edge of a front passing by Eureka meaning rare and unusual skies worth capturing.

While waiting I tried to get what little done that I could and optimize my exit plan. Finally getting the truck I provisioned in record time only to then encounter the slowest gas pump I've ever had the misfortune to use. I actually didn't bother filling up all the way since I'd top off later anyway and finally headed up the 95 out of Vegas as the front was passing over.

Stormy Drive​

I got some heavy rain along the way and occasionally some beautiful light that normally I would have stopped to try to photograph. Not this time, I was on a schedule and it was already looking questionable. Super fast fuel stop in Beatty and then headed further north as fast as I reasonably could go, cursing all the way.

The original plan had been to enter Eureka Valley via the road down Cucomungo Canyon and spend a few hours checking out all the sights there. It still made the most sense to enter that way. At least I would get a rapid look at the route but now I wouldn't stop to see anything and probably would get to Eureka too late for the best light. Things looked perhaps worse as I approached the turn off for the road down Cucomungo as a huge dark thunderstorm loomed ahead. A quick check of the topos showed the storm was not going to impact the Cucumungo drainage so I pressed on.

The start of the road up in a juniper and pinyon forest has a lot of little places to explore but is not all that impressive photographically. I raced through that as much as one can race through totally unfamiliar dirt roads. Finally I began the descent into Cucomungo and had to slow on the steeper road. All this time I'd been noticing another storm forming south of the one I was originally worried about. One much closer to my route, but still just north of it. It was still about half an hour before sunset and something interesting was happening with the light ahead. I couldn't really tell for sure until the canyon would bend to the west ahead so I crossed my fingers and pressed on.

Rounding the bend I immediately knew I'd hit the jackpot. There is no better place to be than right on the southern or western edge of a desert thunderstorm at sunset. It's a rare thing to encounter but the light is just otherworldly. If you manage to encounter it in a photogenic location then you've just got to take advantage of it. In this case I was in an entirely unfamiliar location with rapidly changing light so I took as much advantage of it as I could never knowing exactly whether a better composition lay ahead or if the light would fail.

Edge of the storm


Storm Light
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I flew down the road stopping madly at various shooting locations while huge fat rain drops pelted the truck and myself (hurray for weather sealed cameras and lenses). Passing by I tried to take note of some of the side canyons I had meant to explore. This place definitely requires another visit with more time to explore thoroughly on foot. It also looks full of photographic opportunities to be explored more leisurely.

Slowly the storm overran the canyon cutting off the magical light and the rain got more intense. The road crossed the wash a few times and it was beginning to flow just a bit so I was glad to be leaving the canyon.

Serendipity is a funny thing. I had been so annoyed by the many hours delay getting the truck that set all my plans akimbo. I grumbled all through the drive that I'd probably miss the trailing edge of the front passing over Eureka which would have a good chance of producing a stunning sky at sunset. In the end though if I had gotten the truck at the right time I would have passed through Cucomungo canyon much earlier and would have been way down at Eureka patiently waiting sunset when this few times in a lifetime light had filled Cucomungo. As it turned out I know fairly certainly sunset was a fizzle down at Eureka.

Already quite pleased with events the road twisted out onto the northern extreme of Eureka Valley only to show yet another storm running along the edge of the valley.

Eureka Storm
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In fact the whole valley was surrounded by various clouds and storms while wind was whipping up dust in various locations. It was a panoramic view that only a storm wracked desert can produce, and all right at sunset. Eureka indeed...

Eureka Panorama
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I eventually made it down Eureka Road close to my camping spot for the night in deep twilight completely exhilarated by the last hour's views. As twilight deepened the eastern sky occasionally lit up with lightening from a storm behind the Last Chance range. After leisurely snapping some very long exposures as the last bits of light faded in the west I finally backtracked a bit to my camp.

The next day dawned with crisp, clear, rain washed skies while the wind and residual moisture sent up some mountain wave lenticulars over the now well named White Mountain to greet the sun.

White Mountain Sunrise
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Over the next few days I had some delightful hikes as well as pleasant drives with sights along the way. A midday break in the shade of the truck in the middle of Eureka Valley provided a glorious vista.

Midday Eureka
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I also found a striking example of the drought deciduous behavior of creosote bushes. Take a look at these two specimens right next to each other, no more than 10 feet apart:

Two modes of creosote...
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In fact along at least a mile there was a stark delineation between brown, dry nearly leafless shrubs right alongside a narrow swath of vibrant green leafy specimens. Check out the close-ups of the branches from the two shown above:

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The cause of this striking difference was all down to whether a given shrub's root system reached the edge of a wash that had flowed at some point in the previous months. Those shrubs within a few feet of the wash were bright green and covered with leaves they had just recently grown when the wash flowed. Their neighbors were practically bare having dropped all their leaves earlier in the summer and having not had any good reason to grow them again yet.

I must say Eureka Valley Road down to the dunes sure has a lot of traffic on it these days! I counted about eight vehicles in less than an hour, though this may have been a bit anomalous as when I got down to the dunes it appears some of them may have been in a group that was just really spread out coming down the road. Separate from that group was a Tacoma with an AT Habitat. I found it camped behind the dunes and stopped to chat with the owner.

I had been warned here on TW about the condition of Dedeckera but I was going to need to go up it on this trip. Since there was a sunset photo I wanted to take from there I contrived to spend a night at the mouth of the canyon. As I arrived an SUV was coming back down. They had been planning on going up but once they saw the condition turned around. They were trying to get to the springs and I gave them some info on the North Pass route and driving times. Despite my attempts to direct them on the route out of the wash it appears like some folks here on TW they missed the turn...

With camp setup and my tripod and camera all situated to wait for sunset I was puttering around when I heard a honk from up canyon. It sounded like someone bumping their horn by accident. This was shortly followed by a fairly loud bang much like the rear bumper or frame rail of something coming down the stairs. I began to walk up the canyon to see if anyone might need a spotter. As I walked I heard a painfully loud and long SCREEEEEEEEEECCCHHHHH!!!! Yeah, I guess they could have used a spotter.

In not too long a 3rd gen Tacoma emerged with a somewhat sheepish looking solo driver who asked how his passenger side looked. I gave a non-committal "not too bad I suppose, I'm pretty sure the doors will still open". He got out and examined the now dented doors and three nearly full body length deep gouges along the lower door panels. After a grimace he took it very good-naturedly saying, "Well, at least I guess I have street cred now!" He said after all the driving to get there he knew he was coming down those steps no matter what. He'd been past the springs which were predictably completely overrun with people and decided not to stay there.

After a chat he saddled up and headed down canyon. Walking back to the truck I looked up to see a gray dot against the Last Chance Range. I dropped my water bottle and quickly fumbled my phone out.

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This was a solo flight and I had no warning other than happening to look up in that direction well before there as any sound. It seemed a bit late in the day for a pass but I was glad to catch it. The selection of afterburner right above me was a nice touch. But what I really wanted was a video of a plane emerging from behind the dunes - not a likely thing to catch...

I puttered around some more. The sun dropped below the horizon and it was still a good 15 minutes until I would take my sunset shot. The canyon filled with a roar. A quick look up and I didn't immediately see anything. That pass was probably just on the other side of the ridge from me. But I didn't care. I knew sometimes you get flights of two, widely spaced...

And now dear reader, suffer my loquacious pontifications on the "proper" way to capture a jet flying through the desert at Mach 0.9...

If you troll through youtube there are infinite nearly technically perfect videos of jets flying through terrain perfectly framed with 600mm lenses such that you can pick out food stains on the pilot's flight suit. The aircraft perfectly fills the frame wingtip to wingtip.

Bah, I say, bah! What a waste! No context at all. The terrain is reduced to either a green or brown blur sweeping behind the aircraft. Worse still telephoto perspectives rob us of the perception of speed. Honestly other than the different angle these are indistinguishable from a shot taken at an airshow with the blue background substituted for a brown or green one.

To truly appreciate what these passes are like you need a wider field of view. One that shows the flight path and its speed relative to the terrain. Resist the urge to zoom in.

And so here is a pass shot with a crappy phone by a moron who never takes videos but has strong opinions about them nonetheless. I advocate that despite the poor technical quality, something like this gives the perception of speed far better than the technically perfect zoomed in videos. They are to paraphrase Ansel Adams "a sharp video of a fuzzy concept". In this case I got a fuzzy video of a sharp concept (IMHO). Watch the back edge of the dune right at the start. Yeah, it's practically only a dot at first but you almost immediately know what it has to be and that it is going effing fast.

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To further the point one might initially be disappointed that the jet disappeared behind the ridge for a bit. That was purely accidental and beyond my control but actually it works better than if the pass had been continuously visible. The pregnant pause as it disappears just after having clearly turned in the direction of the camera simply loads the viewer with expectation that is satisfyingly satiated as the F-15 roars over the ridge.

Based on the video timings and plotting the shortest reasonable flight path on a topo I calculate the average speed of the pass at just slightly over 600 mph.

And now back to our regular programming...

A little disconcerted by the thoroughly abused Tacoma that came down Dedeckera I still needed to get up it by myself with no spotter. I made it, though it was a very slow process. I spent nearly an hour and a half getting up carefully walking and picking lines. Often I'd advance the truck barely a foot or two and then climb out and walk around it checking my progress.

Despite all that I still nearly got hung up on the biggest step:

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I made a perfect ascent with the front wheels but despite my efforts of lining up the truck perfectly straight the rear wheels drifted to the right and the passenger side encountered a nearly vertical rock surface. The front wheels lost traction at this point and at the same time I began to hear the frame or skids scraping.

As soon as the front wheels spun I stopped and got out. I followed my usual advice of slowing way down when something goes wrong and making sure to do nothing for awhile. In the end after considering many options it was clear that if I could just get forward progress the rear wheels would lift the frame off the road surface. I decided to try the simplest thing to regain traction first - just turning the front wheels. This worked like a charm and the rear climbed right up the rest of the step.

That big step is a good place to get stuck but at least it isn't extremely narrow. There were plenty of signs of vehicle encounters with various rocks in much narrower if not so steep spots. There were red plastic chunks wedged in cracks in one tight place. In fact @mk5's tail light cover adorned one rock though I didn't realize it was his at the time.

Further along Steel Pass I finally remembered to stop in the correct place to visit a famous landmark. So famous it is on the topo map. Well a particular 15' topo map of the past anyway.

Marble Bath
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There were other photo opportunities of the amazing escarpments along the way when the light was right.

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I passed by the springs which were in fact totally overrun as is typical this time of year. Over forty vehicles at the upper (actually middle) springs alone. I stopped for a nice warm shower at the lower springs but had no interest camping with the hordes. Besides Inyo County keeping north and south passes in good condition these days, at the moment Bat Rock Road is as smooth as glass. I doubt I'll be spending a night at the springs until mother nature sees fit to wipe the roads clean off the map again...

And finally it was time to head home taking the long familiar route south out of Saline Valley with a last view behind.

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Ken,

A great write up, pics, and video to boot! Glad to see you got out there and especially the amazing environment coming into Eureka Valley via Cucomungo Canyon. It's a nice drive. Looking forward to your hike report...I know where you went.

 

Sounds like a great trip and a wonderful narrative and photos, as always. I have never been through Steel and Dedeckera and had that route in my plans for a trip later this month or early December, but I’m having second thoughts; stock DCLB though with sliders, and maybe a spotter, but maybe not. I’d go the other way if I go, but I do kinda like my stock plastic rear bumper . In fact if the Springs are getting overcrowded maybe I should avoid ruining my 5 year lucky streak of finding them quiet, and go somewhere different. One of my first desert explorations back in early 1988, in my Ford Ranger, included a trip to Eureka Dunes from Big Pine (no one else there for 24+ hours) and exiting via Cucomonga.

 

@DVexile Very Nice.

 

Great trip report and pictures Ken. I think you should take more videos too, that second video was good.

 

Awesome pics, nice trip writeup as well! I can't wait to get back to DV

 

Death Valley - Part 2 (Canyons)
October 2021

I spent some of my days on the trip exploring a few canyons I had been meaning to get to, one for quite sometime now. They have little or no reporting on the internet and so I'm going to mostly leave it that way as far as any details go.

I'll also apologize in advance that canyons, of course, tend to present vertical compositions more than horizontal ones. Unfortunately TW does not have a very pragmatic approach to dealing with high resolution vertical images so apologies to those who end up seeing unhelpfully gigantic images...

One thing I enjoy about going to new places not reported on is that you don't entirely know what to expect. Some canyons or branches end abruptly with no good way around:

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In other cases after seemingly endless twists and turns and a fair bit of elevation gain you finally emerge at the head into a higher altitude world that seems quite different from the mouth of the canyon where you entered:

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And sometimes it is just a question of discretion vs. courage as to whether the exploration will continue:

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Scale is tricky, the dryfall above is about 12 feet tall. There appears to be a quite achievable bypass just to the left on a steep but sloped wall with finger and toe holds. In this case I knew there was another obstacle almost immediately following this one and I had already tackled some other falls not to mention a very laborious scramble up the side of the canyon. Being solo and in an area with almost no visible sky for satellite communications I decided this was a good place to stop in this particular canyon.

There are often great colors:

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And sometimes, just sometimes, if you look carefully you'll find you're hunch about a place was correct and a particular spot will have some special magic to it.

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The climbs up the sides of canyons can sometimes be rewarding. The higher the climb the better the view from a rare arch.

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A word of warning should you visit this arch, the approach looks deceptively benign but the lower part of the climb is over some of the worst surface imaginable. Not hard rock, that'd be wonderful. Not talus, I can deal with that as annoying as it is. In this case it is a steep hard packed and cemented sand slope, the kind in which at any moment both feet can slip and it is nearly impossible to self arrest. I really, really, really wish I had brought my trekking poles for this climb but I didn't want to drag them along and up dryfall climbs. I should have brought them. Climbing down was worse and I had aching thighs and calves as I pretty much squat scooted down 200 feet using two flat rocks I picked up as makeshift arresting devices. There are some tempting talus chutes that might feel more secure but at their bottom is a 100ft drop so I stayed out of them. The upper part of the climb is on a steep bedrock slope that is tiring but feels much, much safer.

On the way up to the arch I did have a view of the invitingly shady narrows I'd explore later:

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One canyon mouth had an amazing view:

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One canyon had many of these plants I had never seen before:

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They are called Mat Rock Spiraea. While not that uncommon in the broader southwest, they don't seem to be something very common to the Death Valley region specifically.

I found a bit of a room with a ceiling of ridiculously large chock stones:

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And of course both up and down any sort of narrows there is the constantly changing and surprising light:

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Finally I'll just say that often the downside to less explored canyons is that they are often a bit less explored due to long approaches. On the way up I always regret these long slogs up alluvial fans. Their altitude gain is deceptive, they take far more energy than you expect, and the view up is usually a bit restricted and never seems to get as close as you think it should be.

On the way down, however, regret often turns to delight as sometimes the return trip is accompanied most of the way by vistas to rival a peak climb. The recently rain washed skies during my trip presented particularly compelling views.

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I'll leave it at that so others can experience these places with their own sense of discovery.

 

Wow! Pretty amazing locations.

How deep was the cutback on the first dry fall and what was the white coloring?

 

Expansive horizon shot. The Eureka Valley sure is impressive.

 

Loved both of these reports, looking forward to Part 3. I've had your arch and canyon on my list for over a year now. Fingers crossed that it's an early 2022 trip for me. I'll be headed back for the third time in a month in a couple weeks, but that'll be the last time for 2021 and won't include much hiking. Rather, I'll be playing tour-guide for some first time visitors and we'll be visiting some of the more common, off-pavement spots. There are surely worse jobs to have.

 

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Best Christmas Present Ever!!!

Not really truck related, but the whole reason I have to fly to my truck and the deserts that I love is that almost 14 years ago we moved to Maryland so my wife could help get JWST into space and eventually benefit from making her own observations with this amazing piece of engineering. This Christmas morning we nervously watched along with the rest of the world as the Ariane 5 carrying JWST executed a perfect launch. Within 30 minutes we got our last views of JWST as it parted company with the upper stage and successfully deployed its solar array. It still has 29 days of complicated and risky deployments to complete followed by months of instrument check out and calibration. With any luck this summer it will begin science observations on some of my wife's targets along with those of hundreds of other excited astronomers!

Photo Credit: Arianespace

 

How do you have your InReach mounted?