EISPIRATEN

Good news this morning, CalFire shows 3 percent containment and that's the first non-zero number.
Not as much fuel as it heads toward Pinon Hills plus that's downhill.

dima wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2024 12:13 pm The view this morning from the Table Mountain cams.

.....

It's a bit hard to tell, but pretty sure "complete devastation" isn't what happened over there.

Just the fact that the cameras are still operating indicates it wasn't a disaster there. Plenty of other areas are now.

It is CRAZY how the fire exploded northward this afternoon. Wish I had been able to take Dima up on the offer to hike Iron earlier this summer. 😫 Scary stuff. Particularly for Wrightwood... Sheep Mtn Wilderness' number finally came up... Yeah, I was contemplating another camping trip up to Blue Rid...

Every photo looks like it's full of talus. I'd be happy not to step sideways on a rock and roll my ankle.

Wow this thing grew fast, 10x bigger almost overnight. For the next 10 years we'll be limited to the western San Gabes and after that working through poodle dog.

Getting smokier

The smoke plume seems a little more east, this is looking directly up my street in Claremont. About 10 minutes ago I saw a tanker flying up to the area just east of the radio towers.

wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2024 9:10 pm
"You are not real.
YOURE NOT REAL.
You are only made up of... MOONLIGHT."
quote from Geralds Game.

I appreciate the Stephen King reference. This title is on my bookshelf.

I want to believe...

Very nice teke. That is one of my favorite areas, but I've not been to the glacier. Looks cool. I know you're not big on backpacking, so big ups for making that happen for Leisa. I probably have 1-2 backpacking trips in me each year. It's the least I can do for her. ;) You could probably do less......

Looks like there is still some life in that bad boy.

#3 is not Kennedy Meadows, it's mostly Pinon Pine and scrub sage up there - and the Kern River would have water flowing.

Group dynamics can go both ways - helping to get over some fears, also peer pressure getting people into uncomfortable situations.

I found another quarter on my Sierra trip, unfortunately it got lost somewhere else along the way. However I did return home with this cool bandanna that I rescued from a small pine tree near one of the Trinity Lakes.

The Devil's Backbone trail is still there. It's in good shape. The alternative, contouring route along the summit push, however, has seen better days. Much of that tread is covered in rocks. The main path is fine though. Do you mean the section from the Harwood saddle to the summit? That's been a m...

I did this back in June 2006, my notes then were that if it were not the high point no one would do it. You drove up the road much further than I did so we had another couple miles of rutted road walking. We also took a wind break at that rock and also stashed a couple bottles of water for the retur...

I saw some near Brown Mountain dam a couple weeks ago and my image search identified them as Leopard Lilies. uuid=8A10DA82-2BF4-4180-BA32-55F1503AC598&library=1&type=1&mode=1&loc=true&cap=true.jpeg uuid=93B33D8A-700B-4AD2-A916-C2FA878F5B5E&library=1&am...

Great writeup Nate. You and Dima had quite the adventure!

And I didnt even get the cheese.

Thanks for posting this. I'm sorry I never got the chance to walk with Colin.

Sean wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2024 10:40 am Better add a crucifix to your ten essentials.

And some garlic for a dozen essentials.

I can appreciate the "go ahead and get your feet wet" practice, it's much more efficient. And that not crawling = stalling might come back to haunt some of us on the next group excursion.

It’s actually been a couple years since I walked anywhere past San Antonio falls and wow I was surprised at the number of people out here. I counted 64 cars parked along the road above and below Icehouse Canyon and it seemed at least that number parked at Manker. I briefly considered going up Regist...

Sidewinder gets its name on account of the fact that the trail zigs and zags interminably as it climbs to the top of the mesa. That makes it sound like an exasperating experience, but in reality it's really quite nice. The easy incline allows you to take in the magnificent scenery that abounds. It'...

dima wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2024 6:14 pm If a bivy doesn't solve condensation, then what problem does it solve?

It solves the weight and space problem. Of course it's also cramped - one of the tradeoffs.

Do you want just a bivy or since you mention poles do you want a tent? Bivies (and all covers, especially single-wall) tend to get condensation so you still may have a wet quilt. How much do you want to spend? Light is not cheap.Warm is generally not light. Yeah, life is full of little tradeoffs... ...

Yucca are blooming everywhere right now, great to see them!

Nate U wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2024 8:11 pm This route followed by the "mountaineers" path to the summit I think would be my preferred Strawberry summit method.

I think that was the idea for a group hike back in January when it wasn’t so hot. We got rained/snowed out on a couple different weekends.

For Memorial Day weekend I got my Sierra Nevada season started by visiting Kennedy Meadows. This is the unofficial beginning of the Sierras according to Pacific Crest Trail hikers so I planned to invest some miles on this route. A windy night followed my journey north, and in the morning an interest...

PS- Nice Wizard of Oz reference!