Jenn and Romy

The Baja Goes For a Spin in Mendocino

2011-11-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

Romy has been working on making a metal front end for the baja for a long long time now. Its been slow going because of all the things in school this semester, like his qualifying exam, a conference, and other stuff. But he finally got it finished, and we painted it and got the baja ready to get off-roading again!

The baja in the Mendocino National Forest.
We decided to go somewhere close (originally we wanted to go all the way to Death Valley) in case something happened. Tools, our across the street neighbor suggested we go to Mendocino National Forest. We kind of forgot about this place, but it was actually the best place to go, since its just about the closest national forest, and we already knew a little about what to expect. We didn't get out of Oakland until about noon, so it was getting dark just as we pulled out of Upper Lake (on the north end of Clear Lake), where the road enters the National Forest land.

Night was fast approaching, and we tried to climb the first mountain as fast as possible. But dark came upon us and we had to find the closest camping spot we could. Luckily, as if by magic, an off-shoot road appeared and we followed it about a 1/4 mile to a nice opening. We could see all of the thin wispy clouds in the sky glowing bright pink and orange with the sunset as we built our tent.

There is a lot of moss or something hanging off the big oak trees.
The next morning, we woke up pretty early, and packed up. We had in plan to explore as many of the M roads as we had time for that day, before having to head home. We started out on M1, and then took the turn to go on M10. This part of the trip was kind of uneventful (except for some fun stream crossings), as the road was nicely graded. We passed by a bunch of rolling hills, climbing one of them steadily. Dense oak tree forests gave way to large open meadows.

A video of the baja doing its first stream crossing!
We made it all the way to Bear Creek Campground, and decided to look at the map, because we already took the route out of Bear Creek CG before, and knew of another road we hadn't gone on yet. Romy, with his eagle eyes, spotted the road on the map, and then spotted something even more interesting: a hot spring! It was marked on the map with the usual symbol, and there was a road that went right to it. So, we made it our goal for the day to reach the hot springs and check them out!

Stopping the fix something!
The road to the hot springs looked like the "main" road on our map (FR17N16), but it sure was not in very good condition as we started driving along. First of all, to get on the road, you had to cross a wide but shallow stream. Then, you had to navigate your way around sections of the road that were washed out, with ditches at least a foot or more deep! It was like this almost the entire way to the turn-off towards the springs. The road followed the ridge of the mountain we were on.

After about 2 miles on FR17N16, we found the turn off for Deer Valley Rd, which immediately started going down, down, down the other side of the mountain. The road was also washed out, and some parts had very loose dirt/gravel, making it kind of difficult. We basically knew about half-way down the mountain that we were committed to going out of the forest on his route because there was NO TURNING BACK! The road was so steep and loose, all you could do was hope for a nice controlled descent. So we were crossing out fingers. . . .

We saw bubbling waters at Crabtree Hot Springs.
Soon we saw a private property sign, and this bummed us out. We were really hoping that this hot spring wasn't another one of the privately owned springs which forbid public access. Then we saw a really weird collection of junk, and a trailer shack thing, and school bus near the bottom. It looked like somebody was living there (more like squatting or something). WTF!? Whoever it was, they didn't look like they were cool hippy types. The set up looked plain old nasty weirdo type people lived there. But shortly after passing that, the land went back to being national forest, so our hopes went back up that the people who "owned" the shacks didn't also own the springs. We hoped anyways.

When we got down to the creek at the bottom of the mountain, we parked the baja. Nobody was there and it was totally silent. We saw on the map that the springs were slightly downstream, so we found a trail and started walking. Only about 5 minutes later did we start to smell sulfur very strongly, and BAM! Bumped right into a no trespassing sign saying the springs were closed. We looked around, but didn't go any further, fearing that one of the freaks who lived in the shacks would come running at us with a shot gun or something! I normally don't get scared of hicks, but this was kind of weird!

More bubbling waters at Crabtree Hot Springs.
We turned around and walked back to the baja. We were hoping that the road out of the forest was passable, since we had no other options. But it turned out to be an okay road, without much events. I was just thinking about the hot springs, wondering about them along the whole way back. It was late afternoon by the time we got out of the forest, so we got back on the highway after taking a small detour to see the Indian Valley Reservoir. What a weird place, too! The reservoir must be kind of new, because the tops of old tall trees are sticking out, or the water level must be really low (although it didn't look like low water). Whatever the case, we want to go kayaking on it and paddle up to the freaky trees!!!!!

Indian Valley Reservoir, with freaky trees sticking out.
When we got back home, I Googled "crabtree hot springs" and was sooooooo surprised to see what turned out. Check out this link! It seems as if we had kept walking past the no trespassing sign, we would've got to some big HOT pools! However, the hot springs are kind of shrouded in some drama right now. Apparently the owners (who many think are squatters) have closed off public access to the springs, after first buying the property with the intention of "saving the springs" and having them be open to the public. Reading some info on the hot springs forums online, they seem to only allow people to come in if they bring a bottle of alcohol with them for the owners, or they are friends of the owners, etc. Also, it seems as if the owners are generally unpleasant people, and have basically ruined the soaking experience of many people who used to go there for years before. The most recent thing I read (as of July 2011) said that the woman owner became ill, and has left the property. The boyfriend of the owner has left as well. The springs are now free of their presence, and the shacks we drove by are supposedly unoccupied. The whole thing seems fishy to me. Hopefully the drama will end soon and the next time we return, we can actually soak without worry of crazy people!

The Dingo Races at Prairie City

2011-10-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the last race of the season for VORRA. The Dingo has been in first place for the entire season, mainly because we've been consistant in showing up to all of the races and we always finish (which is actually a big deal)! We finished the season with first place in Class 11. Yay!

Romy is ready to get in the car for the first moto of the day as co-driver.

These are the pits where everybody lives for the weekend. Lots of VWs in our pit!

Romy is getting strapped in the car before one of the races.

The race this weekend was a double header. Two full days of racing plus three fun races at the end. We came in the bus so that the camping would be more comfy. Since the race was a short track, we were able to sit in bleacher style seats and watch the cars race around the whole track. In the desert races, the tracks are many many miles long and go off in the mountains. You basically never get to see the cars except when they pull into the pits. It was fun to watch all the big trucks. We were the only Class 11 to race this weekend, so when we were "racing" they put us with other classes. Mainly other classes with VW air-cooled engines and funny looking Suzuki things.Romy got to be the driver for two of the 6 motos. He was co-driver for two others. I got to be co-driver for the 4th moto with Bob as the driver, and it was so much fun! It really feels like you're going super fast, but really you're not! Its just because you're going off road, ripping through all the bumps, skidding around in the muddy sections, and going over jumps. Nothing too bad happened to the baja except a weird persistent oil leak from one or sometimes both valve covers. Towards the end of the races, one of the drivers, Dave, overheated the engine by driving the car after the alternator belt popped off. The engine didn't sound very good after that, but it was the last race. Lots of work ahead in getting ready for the next season!

I look so funny in the racing suit and helmet. I look like a little kid!

Packing up the Dingo to take it back home (which is the Santa Cruz Mountains, south of the Bay Area).

Lynda brought her hula hoops which she made out of irrigation tubing. She taught me how to hula hoop and it was so much fun and totally addicting. Especially when the super decked out team next to us in the pits started blasting music. They were all drunk watching us hula hoop. We had a mini audience. Lynda gave me a hula hoop to take home. I got Romy addicted to it too! Watch out Burning Man 2012! Saturday night was a lot of fun because Bob brought an old drum out of a washing machine and it became our fire pit. The tiny holes punched in the drum looked so cool as the flames made them glow all crazy. Best fire pit ever. We told a scary story around the campfire, since it was right before Halloween. It was the kind of story where one person adds a sentence, and then passes it on to the next person. The story turned out really funny. One guy kept changing the weather every time it was his turn!

A video of Romy getting strapped in the Dingo for the 5th moto.

The Desert Dingo Races in Fallon

2011-09-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

The Desert Dingo and Skittles take off, into a cloud of dust.
Over Labor Day Weekend, VORRA held a 24-hour endurance race. It was split over two days, Saturday and Sunday. Each day you had 12 hours (from 8am to 8pm) to get as many laps that you could on the 40-ish mile track. It went winding along the basin and range Nevadan desert, over playas and winding up canyons over the ranges. It was dusty as hell, but surprisingly not that hot!

The start of race day #2 on the playa outside of Fallon, NV.
It only got up to 90F, but you know, "Its a dry heat." So it was very manageable as long as you were in the shade. Romy got to the race early on Thursday night to help put the baja through tech inspection. The rest of the team arrived Friday night or Saturday morning. A lot of the people on the team were actually at Burning Man, so there were a few people helping out this race who normally aren't on the team.

The Desert Dingo pulls into the pits.
Romy had a lot of fun driving the car during both days of the race. I had my first dust experience (which I had avoided until this weekend), and realized that the dust isn't that bad. Its so fine that you don't even notice it, except when it combines with the grease in your hair and forms a sticky form of natural 'hair product.' It gets all over, and can't be avoided, so you just have to accept it.

Another shot of the Dingo in the pits, and Crusty's cool old truck.
Three Class 11 cars started the race, and we were the only to finish! One of the Class 11's broke down on the first lap on the first day due to a busted transmission. They put in a stock transmission another team gave them, and managed 1-3/4ths of a lap before that one broke as well. Then they just started partying. The other class 11 (Skittles) made it through most of the race but were taking it slow. They seemed to stop a few hours before the race ended, but I'm not sure why. We were able to finish 12 laps over the 24 hours! (7 on the first day, 5 on the second) Thats pretty damn good! Actually, it pretty amazing that we FINISHED the race without breaking down like the poor other bajas! This means that the Desert Dingo is still in first place in our class. Yay! First place! But, we did break both shock towers off the front, punch a huge hole in the drivers side fender, and totally screw up the front suspension. Fun!

Next are some pictures I took as the sun was setting at the end of race day #2. The Dingo was on its last lap, but most cars were already done, so the air was quiet, calm, and clear. These next pictures are why I like the desert. Especially at sunset!

Nicole and my shadow.

Beautiful blue sky and poofy clouds.

The sun burst through some clouds to give this shot a glowing effect. I did not photoshop this at all!

I saved my favorite for last. Typical basin and range landscape under a sky speckled with nice clouds.

Backpacking the Hoover Wilderness

2011-08-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

Kerrick Meadows inside Yosemite National Park.
I never knew about the Hoover Wilderness until Romy found a random topo map a few days ago at REI and decided we had to plan a backpacking trip to check it out. Its funny that we never thought of it before, since we've been around the area so many times (its just west of Bridgeport and the Buckeye Hot Springs). Well, we finally made a trip. Romy was kind of in charge of planning it, and he had a good idea about trying to do a thru-hike instead of a loop. It turns out that Marcel & Nicole were also planning a hiking trip for the coming weekend, and they wanted to go to Yosemite, so we asked them if they wanted to hike in the Hoover Wilderness instead (close enough). We would start at one end of the trail, and leave our car there. Nicole & Marcel would start at the opposite end, leaving their car there, and we would pass by each other somewhere in the middle. That way we had a car at each end and didn't have to loop back. We could just do one long thru-hike, never having to repeat the same scenery or terrain.

The view as we hiked up-valley along Buckeye Creek.
We started out Saturday morning after getting our hiking/camping permit from the ranger station in Bridgeport off of Hwy 395. You need one to camp in the Hoover Wilderness. We had to tell them where we were planning on hiking, and give them a quick itinerary. We planned on starting at the Buckeye Campground Trailhead, hike up the valley following Buckeye Creek, and then go south through part of Yosemite towards Peeler Lake. Then we would hike out via the Robinson Creek Trail, past Barney Lake, and out at Mono Village. The whole hike was about 25 miles long, and split up between two days was not bad.

Hiking past gigantic mountains on either side of the Buckeye Creek, nearing Buckeye Forks.
We started out strong at the Buckeye Trailhead. It was hot and dry and sage brush was growing all around us, giving the air a nice smell to it. But it wasn't long before it turned into a muddy, marshy cow pasture! We quickly lost the trail, but we were confined to a pretty narrow valley, and we knew according to the topo map that we were to stay hiking up the valley. The cows were very curious, and some even ran towards us to get a better look. This part of the Hoover Wilderness is the least hiked, and it was pretty obvious because the trail was not maintained at all. At first we tried avoiding getting out feet muddy, but after a while we couldn't do it any longer. Romy almost lost his shoe in some ankle deep mud! But luckily, he pulled it out after a hard fight, complete with the funniest suction sound as his foot came out of the mud, happily with his shoe still on! We joked that we had "feet of mud." Every stream we had to cross we made sure to wash our sandals and legs clean. There were a lot of "dissolved" cow pies in the mud.

Cool clouds in the sky above huge granite peaks.
Eventually we got out of the mud and back on solid ground. Soon we actually entered the Hoover Wilderness, and the cows were no more. We started climbing a little more steeply, and began getting deeper into the mountains. The granite peaks rose high above up on both sides. The sage brush began to disappear, and we hiked through stunted aspen trees, and large pines. Soon we got right up next to Buckeye Creek, which was so crystal clear! We stopped to have a lunch break by the creek around 2pm after hiking about 8 miles. Our goal was to do at least 11 miles that day. After lunch we kept hiking, and soon we got to Buckeye Forks, where the trail splits in two. There was a small cabin, or shelter thing that was in disrepair, but okay I guess if you were stuck in a storm or something. Also, there were soooo many mosquitoes all of a sudden. I kind of was not expecting them so high up in the mountains.

We reached the Yosemite Park boundary and that means we're up and over Buckeye Pass!
We took the left fork that went south, towards Buckeye Pass, which was 9,000+ feet. We had plans on camping somewhere just before the pass. I was starting to get pretty tired as we hiked towards the pass, but after the trail forked, we only had one or two miles left before we decided it would be okay to stop for the day. But Romy had this crazy amount of energy, which he thinks is due to recently starting the gluten-free diet, and he wanted to hike all the way to Peeler Lake, which was still 4 more miles! I wasn't sure, since my feet were getting pretty tired, but after a few breaks, I was feeling okay to keep going.

A panoramic picture of Peeler Lake, where we camped Saturday night.
The trail towards Buckeye Pass was very flat, and was filled with nice meadows and sparse pine forests that had a lot of stunted trees, from the altitude. It made me feel like I was walking around through a different land, where everything was miniature or something (except the huge mountains surrounding us). It didn't really look like we were hiking towards a mountain pass at all. We were walking through meadows of wildflowers and a meandering creek. Before we knew it, we had reached the summit, which also meant we were entering Yosemite National Park, which the trail crossed through for about a mile or so, before heading back into the Hoover Wilderness. We couldn't camp in Yosemite because we didn't have a bear canister for our food, so we were forced to move on to Peeler Lake. The Yosemite part of the trail was really beautiful, especially Kerrick Meadow. We stopped there for a break before finding a camping spot next to Peeler Lake.

Romy standing at Peeler Lake in the morning.
We didn't see any other human beings the entire 15 mile hike from Buckeye to Peeler Lake, but as we got to Peeler Lake, we saw about 5 people! I guess its a popular spot! Some people were illegally camped too close to the water (you need to stay 100 feet away at least) which was kind of annoying. They have that rule on purpose, so that when you look at the lake, you don't also have to look at tents and stuff. We found a nice spot on the granite outcrops surrounding the lake, south of the trail. Unfortunately there were mosquitoes here too, so we quickly built the tent and got inside, away from the bugs. We didn't put the rain fly up, just the mesh part, so that we could see through the mesh and look at the sunset cast different colors on the mountains and clouds. Then at night, we were able to see the sky really clearly, and we saw the milky way.

We spent an hour or so at Barney Lake, where we met Nicole and Marcel.
The next morning we woke up when the sun hit us and it started getting hot. It was about 7:30am. We only had 8 easy miles to go to Mono Village. After breakfast, we packed everything up and hit the trail. It was all downhill from here. As I started hiking, I noticed that both my achilles tendons were hurting when I hiked. I figured out a way to walk so that they didn't hurt. I basically had to limp so that my feet would stay flat. I had to take lots of breaks, and it made the last 8 miles seem really long! But at least they were downhill, and most of the route was shaded out of the sun.

Sage, pine trees, wildflowers, and granite peaks filled our weekend.
When we finally got to Barney Lake, we were expecting to meet Nicole and Marcel, who started their hike that morning in the opposite direction. We got there around 11am, but they weren't there. So we decided to wait for them since it was such a nice spot to sit and relax. After 40 minutes, they came trudging by, and we were so happy to see each other. That meant our plan B, plan C, and plan D (reporting each other missing to the ranger station) didn't have to happen. We almost went swimming in the Lake, since it was so warm, but then the wind kicked up. . . .

We finally made it to the end of the trail at Mono Village! We are triumphant!
I wish we could've stayed there forever, but we had to start hiking the last leg of the journey. We made it to Mono Village in less than two hours, and i was sooooo happy to see the car because of my feet. But we were also warm and all sweaty since it was getting really hot outside. So we decided to go swimming in the Twin Lakes by Mono Village, but couldn't figure out why there wasn't a beach. So we just pulled off the side of the road and took a plunge. IT WAS SOOOOO COLD! I almost had a heart attack when my body met the cold water and I was out just as soon as I jumped in. Thats why there is no beach! Needless to say, we cooled off very nicely, and felt refreshed for our long, long, long drive home. We really like the part of the hike that went through Yosemite, so I think we will be returning shortly, as soon as my tendons heel up. Get it!? LOL!

Another Earthquake!

2011-08-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

A map of shaking intensity from the USGS 'Did You Feel It?' website.

The beach-ball diagram for the earthquake.
There was another earthquake that we felt this morning, just a few minutes before 10am. It was only slightly weaker, a magnitude 3.5, and the epicenter was almost in the exact same place as the magnitude 3.6 last night, on the Hayward Fault near Lake Chabot! For somebody who has never felt an earthquake before, all of a sudden we have two now! This is so exciting! This time, I felt that the shaking was a little bit different. I was opening the dresser drawer in the bedroom ("getting changed" LOL) and I felt a strange strong pressure pulse in my ears. It was completely silent, but it felt like the pressure pulse you feel if you're parked on the side of the road and a big ass truck passes you by fast. My first thought was that it was actually a big truck going down the street, but that would be a crazy big truck for me to feel a pressure pulse so far away and inside the apartment! I'm not a seismologist, but maybe I felt the P wave passing by. This wave is usually not felt by humans, but it makes animals go crazy, because they are sensitive to it. Anyways, right after the pressure pulse, the shaking started but it was very short. I would estimate at most 2 seconds, and it rattled some stuff in the bathroom and on top of the dresser. Here is a link to the USGS report.

Our First Earthquake!

2011-08-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

USGS's 'Did You Feel It?' shaking intensity map.
We've been living in California for just over 3 years, and it was only last night that we finally felt our first earthquake! It wasn't anything crazy, but it did shake the house a little. The shaking started just before midnight. I was sitting on a chair in the living room reading the newspaper, when it sounded (and felt) like a huge truck was going by on the road. At first I didn't think anything of it. But then it started to get very choppy and uneven in the shaking, and began to get stronger. It was very weak shaking, because nothing fell over, but I heard the walls shifting and the art wall panels hitting the wall as they were slightly jostled. If I was sleeping, I don't think it would of woke me up. I think the sound of the walls shifting and the panel jostling made the shaking seem more intense than it really was. It only lasted 3 seconds or so. Five minutes later, there was a small aftershock which I didn't feel, but I saw posted on the USGS website.

The beach-ball diagram of the earthquake.
The USGS report said it was a magnitude 3.6, and the epicenter was just south of Oakland, at a depth of 9.1 km. I think it was on the Hayward Fault, which is the major fault that runs along the East Bay, less than one mile away from where we live!!!!! Also on the USGS's website, you can report the intensity of shaking that you felt on their 'Did You Feel It?' webpage. You report what you felt, and they organize it by zipcode. Then they post the results live, as people in the area go online and report in. It looks like most people who reported in thought the shaking was weak to light, intensity III - IV. I reported in an intensity III last night. Its kind of funny to see some really excited people who report high shaking intensities, higher than the vast majority of the people who live really close to the epicenter.

A Lost Whale

2011-08-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

The night before we left everybody at the EPS grad student camping trip last weekend, one of the new grad students told us about a whale that swum inland, from the Pacific Ocean up the Klamath River, and was just hanging out under the Hwy 101 bridge. Although it was out of the way, since the Klamath River is farther north than we already were by Trinity Lake, we thought it was totally worth going to see a whale before heading home on Sunday! I never saw a whale in real life before.We hoped it would still be there. The Klamath is also in Redwood National/State Park, so we were able to take a detour through the park on the way to the bridge over the river. We saw huge redwoods, and there was little to no fog along the coast so it was warm. The last time we were there in the park with the bus was in 2007, the year before we moved, so driving along north through Redwood was almost like a bus-redwood reunion!

A video of the whale surfacing for air.
I was really excited to see the whale. It took us about two hours of driving to get to where it was. As we got near the bridge, we were really hoping that the whale would still be there, since it had already been swimming in the river for about a month. When the bridge was in view, we saw some orange cones and a scrolling sign that said, "Caution, people on bridge." As we drove over the bridge to get to some parking on the other side, we saw tons of people gawking over the side of the bridge and down into the river. Yay! That meant the whale was still there! After we parked, we literally ran back onto the bridge and got a good spot for the whale watching. The whale was just swimming back and forth under the bridge, as if it was parading for us to see.

Another video of the whale and the Klamath River.
The river was very shallow, so the whale was really visible and it came up for air often. After half an hour of parading under the bridge, it started swimming farther upstream, then stopped, still in view. At that point, a seal started swimming around, and it was munching on some fish it caught. The whale never came back towards the bridge again, but we waited anyways for another half hour. Then we decided it would be a good idea to head back home, since it was already about 4pm and we were very far north still (almost at the Oregon border).

The Klamath River whale, as seen from the bridge.
Apparently, the whale swam up the river with her baby in late June. The mother whale stayed in the river, but the baby ended up swimming back out to sea a month later. Today, I just read online, it beached itself on a sandbar and sadly, died. The scientists studying it don't know what the cause of death is, but they are doing an autopsy. It might of been sick before swimming into the river, or it might of got sick while in the river. It will be buried on the banks of the river, and the whale bones will belong to the Indian tribe, whose land surrounds the Klamath River. While it was alive, people have been coming to the bridge to watch it every day and night, and some people even played music for it (hippies), and some people swam with the whale (crazy hippies)!

People watching the whale as it swims under the bridge.

Mendocino/Trinity Adventures

2011-08-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend we headed north to join up with all the people on the EPS grad student camping trip. It was originally supposed to be in the eastern Sierra near Mammoth Lakes, but at the last minute, the group campground was closed down due to budget cuts, and the students in charge changed the location to the Trinity Alps region on the Trinity Lake in northern Cali near by Mt Shasta. It was a place that we never really have been to (only Shasta) so we were excited to go. We joined up with the group a day later because we couldn't leave as early as everybody else did (Thursday morning at 8am) due to a lab meeting Romy had to be at. After Romy came back from the lab meeting, we packed up the bus and hit the road, about 4pm. But of course, we decided to take the scenic route, which ended up taking us a whole 24 hours before we reached Trinity Lake. On the way, we had a great adventure through the Mendocino National Forest.

The bus under moonlight and the old Deitz lantern, up high in the Mendocino National Forest.
We never went exploring in the Mendocine NF, so it was all new for us. Our journey started with a drive up Hwy 101 until we got up almost to Ukiah, CA. The mountains started to get taller and taller as we drove north, and being that we were looking for a place to camp, I checked out the map to see if there would be any good spots nearby. The only forest land I saw was north of Clear Lake, which was east of the highway, so we stopped on the side of the road near Hopland to see what the best way to cross the mountains into the Mendocineo NF was. As we pulled off the road, we saw what looked like another VW Riviera stopped on the opposite side of the road. So of course we had to say hi! They were a nice and friendly family from Orange County (in southern California) doing a trip along the coast. Their bus was actually a Westfalia, but they replaced the pop top with a Riviera style one instead. Thats because Riviera pop tops are the best, and those with a Westy don't know what they're missing ;-)! Once we introduced ourselves (halfway through the conversation) they recognized our name because they actually had read my blog online. I was kind of surprised - I had no idea people were actually reading the random adventures I write about occasionally, and I'm glad that some people are enjoying it! They gave us some good camping tips, and also explained how to replace our pop top with new canvas from BusDepot.com, which inspired us to make plans to order a new pop top because ours has some tears and the zippers are kind of stuck. Now that we predominantly camp in the Sierras or the desert where bugs don't exist, it hasn't been too much of a problem, but it would be nice to have a good functioning pop-top. Anyways, random meetings of VW people are always fun.

NorCal farmed buffalo between the Coast Range and the Central Valley.
It happened that right out of Hopland was a two lane paved road that went over the Mayacamas Mountains and to Lakeport. Then it was a short drive north of the lake to Upper Lake (very original name again) and into the Mendocino NF. The road (road M1) into the forest first followed a small river, and then started climbing up into the endless rolling mountains of Mendocino county. By this time the sun was getting low on the horizon, so we pulled off the road as soon as we were almost at the top and there was a convenient flat area where it looked like people camped before. The moon was almost full and overhead all night. It was quiet and warm overnight. We used the Deitz lantern as our source of light and ate dinner by lantern-light, pasta with pesto out of tupperware and a 'classy' box wine poured into a plastic wine cup. Dinner in the bus always tastes better.

A video of the bus crossing the water.
The next morning, our goal was to meet up at Trinity Lake to go camping with the EPS people. Since we were on the scenic route agenda, we decided to find a road that went through the Mendocino NF, while also trying to be as direct as possible towards the Shasta area. We found three possible roads. One was close to 100 miles of dirt forest roads which eventually met up with Hwy 36. Another two others were a compromise of about half that distance, give or take about 15 or 20 miles and an unknown elevation gain. We decided to go with the shorter two routes, which were roads M10 and M3. M3 branched off from M10, but both eventually got to Hwy 5 near Redding. So after breakfast, we started on our way. The road turned dirt soon after the junction of M1 and M10, and we saw a lot of dirt bike trails. We even saw some early morning dirt bikers riding along through the forest. The trees were a mix of pine and chaparel type shrubs like manzanita with the red bark. The soil was kind of reddish beige. The dirt road was very well graded and for a while we were able to drive pretty fast. But then the switchbacks started as the road took us deeper and deeper into Mendocino county and we had to slow down. About 25 miles or so down the road, we came up to a small river. There was no bridge. We had to drive through it! So I got out and waded across the river to see how deep it was. It was only a little past my ankles for most of the way, so we decided to drive through it to get across. I took a video of the bus's first river crossing (the one on Pacheco road doesn't count!).

A field full of pitcher plants in the Trinity National Forest.
Soon after, M3 split off from M10. We decided to keep going on M10. Almost immediately after the split, the road quality degraded. There were ruts and deep holes, with rough gravel patches. Then it went up really high along the top of a ridge, called Long Ridge, with death drops on both sides! I didn't get a picture, cuz I was clutching my chair so tightly. Romy noticed I was kind of 'stiff'. It was one of the first times I was actually scared on a forest road! It went on like that for about 5 miles, and then back down. All the while we were kicking up a lot of dust because the roads were very dry. Soon we were over the mountain range and dropping back down towards the central valley. We had the option of getting onto Highway 5, but of course we were on the scenic route so that really wasn't an option. Instead, we stayed on the outskirts of the mountains and drove north, parallel to the highway along farm and ranch roads. Most of them were also dirt, but all were very well graded. We passed by a buffalo farm. It seemed like we were in Yellowstone! I wonder if they are the buffalo that Trader Joes makes buffalo jerky with. They all looked like very happy California buffalo.

A close up of the pitcher plants we saw while hiking.
Before we knew it, we popped out of the ranches and into Red Bluff by Hwy 5. We didn't see any road that we could take as an alternative, so we got onto Hwy 5 at that point and drove north to Redding, where we exited to get on Hwy 299 West. At this point, we followed the directions I printed out to get to Trinity Lake. Right out of Redding, the road climbed up back into more mountains, and we even had some great views of Mt Shasta along the way! The theme of this trip was definately driving through mountains. This isn't really so hard to do in California, since the only flat part of the state is the central valley, and we did our best to avoid it. We got to the group campsite at Trinity Lake just about 4pm, 24 hours after we had left the day before. Nobody was there, since they all went out hiking for the day, so we picked a camping spot and took a swim in the lake. It was soooooo warm! Almost like swimming in a heated pool. Eventually everybody came back from their hike, so it was dinner time, along with copious drinking around the campfire under a full moon.

Swimming in one of the many mountain lakes in the Trinity National Forest, trying to roll a log.
The second day camping at Trinity Lake, we took a group hike to Lake Elanor, and also to another lake a few miles beyond, which was high up in the mountains. Along the way, we saw a whole meadow of cool looking pitcher plants! The hike to the second lake had over 1000 feet or so of elevation gain, so by the time we got there we were all hot. The lake looked so clear and inviting so of course we had to go for a swim. The water was suprisingly warm for its elevation, but it was also pretty shallow, about 10 feet deep. It didn't have a lot of vegetation, so that was good. Everyone had fun swimming, especially when we tried to have a log rolling contest in the water! After having lunch there, we headed back down (which was much easier hiking) and met with the rest of the group who stayed back at the first lake. When we all got back to the camp site, we were all hungry and ready for a cold beer. So the second night followed just like the first, with dinner around the campfire and more drinking. Sunday was the last day, when we all sadly had to go home!

Its Snow Plant Time

2011-07-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

Its that time again for snow plants. Here they come! I saw these in the Eldorado National Forest. I wrote more info about them in a past post, here.

A bunch of bright red snow plants pop out of the ground.

From Ollantaytambo to the Pumamarka Inka Ruins

2011-06-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

The view of the Patacancha valley on the way to the ruins.

While we were in the small ancient Inka town of Ollantaytambo, Peru, we had about half the day to spare on our last day there before we caught our train to Machu Picchu. The people at the hostal we were staying at (Hostal Iskay) told us about a hike we could do to the Pumamarca ruins. They said it should take us about 5 hours round-trip. I was totally up to it (and my mom was kind of unsure), but we went anyways. If anybody reading this is planning on doing the same hike, my story might be useful (I couldn't find anything on the internet when I looked before leaving to Peru).

A Peruvian woman leads her sheep around.

The guy working at the front desk (his name was Jose) was kind enough to draw us a really rough map on how to get there. Basically, the map told us to take the dirt road out of town that followed the Patacancha River, north. There would be three bridges that we would need to cross along this dirt road. Eventually, after the third bridge, the road would take us to a very small town called Pallata. It would be in this town that we would see a sign for the Pumamarca ruins. Then for the way back, he recommended we take a hiking trail which would take us over "the 700 steps." It seemed very straight forward while he was drawing it for us on the back of our receipt. For some time estimates, he told us no longer than 2 hours to Pallata, 1/2 hour up to the ruins from Pallata, and then 1.5 hours on the trail from the ruins back to Ollantaytambo. It sounded perfect to us.

The sign pointing hikers to the ruins was bigger than I expected!

The actual hike we took was more of an adventure than it looked on the hand drawn map! We followed the road north out of town, at a brisk walking pace, starting our hike at 7:40am (I recorded the time that we reached major milestones on the map Jose drew). Soon we walked over the first bridge at only 7:45am. Right after this bridge, the road split into two (but then rejoins again later). You can choose which fork to walk down, and we chose the right fork which follows the river, as this was a pedestrian-only path, and the cars had to take the left fork. I considered the hike to really start here, because the scenery started to get more beautiful as we got farther from the town of Ollantaytambo. Near the river, it was a lush oasis of trees and other plants. We saw school children running past us, late for school I guess, and they all smiled and waved to us. The mountains got taller and taller. At 8:07am we reached the place where the two forks rejoin, and by 8:30am we reached the second bridge.

The Pumamarca ruins and a beautiful blue sky.

We paused here at the second bridge, and saw a man riding a really furry horse pass us by. As he passed us, he asked where we were going (I guess not many gringos walk this way), "Pumamarca?" And we nodded. He didn't show any sign of concern as he rode away, so we assumed we were on the right track. According to our map, we would soon be able to see the 700 steps that Jose drew. From far away they looked like lines on the side of the mountain. When we got closer, you could start to see the terracing, but it was badly overgrown. There were sooooo many terraces! I didn't count, but I don't doubt that there were actually 700! Although it was beautiful mountain scenery, this part of the hike seemed to drag a lot. I don't know why. At 9:09am we reached the third bridge. Jose instructed us to keep going after the third bridge, even though all the cars that drive up to the ruins turn here at the third bridge. So we kept walking towards Pallata. We got there at 9:43am, almost exactly 2 hours after we set off from Ollantaytambo. At the town, we saw a big blue sign marking where we should turn off of the road to go to the ruins. It pointed us down a foot path that took us past a few houses to a creek. When we got to the creek, we were confronted with another fork in the trail which Jose didn't tell us about! There were two bridges over the creek, which lead to two different trails. An old lady leading her sheep around took the left bridge, so we asked her if she was going towards Pumamarca. She just swung her arms up towards the top of the mountain, and kept walking, which was her version of a signalling to us, I guess, of where Pumamarca was. But by this point, we already knew where it was since it is possible to see from the road we were walking on. We just decided to follow her over the left bridge. There was a trail going very steep up the mountain towards Pumamarca which disappeared and reappeared. Then it totally disappeared when it junctioned with dirt road half way up to the ruins.

Detail of the ruined walls at Pumamarca.

We knew where the ruins were, so we just kept taking every opportunity to go up, be it footpath or road. Eventually we got to the ruins, but I think we must of taken a wrong turn somewhere, but maybe not, because it seemed very indirect! It took us over an hour to reach the ruins from Pollata! My mom was dragging behind me, and after a while I got really far ahead of her. When I reached the entrance of the ruins (a small wooden gate) the place was totally deserted. I was the only one there! So I opened the wooden gate and started walking around the ruins. They were so high in the mountains! Everywhere you looked, it felt like you were on top of the world! As I walked in and out of the rooms, I tried to imagine what they were used for. I had no information about these ruins, other than they were really old (8th century AD supposedly, and inhabited continuously until the Spanish conquest). I started to walk back towards the entrance to see if my mom made it yet or not. As I did, a man popped out behind a wall holding a machete. No joke! It was a big machete! I got so scared for a second, but then he smiled and said hello. After the initial scare, I noticed he was wearing a INC uniform (like a national park ranger kind of). OMG, the machete was for cutting overgrown grass and weeds, not for murdering people while they were alone in the ruins!

The color of the rock in the walls matches the surrounding mountains.

I tried to talk to him, even though I don't speak Spanish at all, and tell him that my mom was coming behind me and that I just wanted to walk around and look and take pictures. He said okay, and that he would let my mom know I was here when she showed up. I am surprised that I was able to convey that message to him successfully, although it took me about 5 minutes of gesturing and stuff! These were the most beautiful ruins we had seen so far on the trip. And they were worth hiking to, in my opinion. I don't think my mom thought they were worth it, since she had a really hard time hiking up, at high elevation (over 2,000m). But she eventually made it, and after we saw the ruins, we asked the man with the machete how to get back to Ollantaytambo via the camino, or trail. He pointed us in a direction, but the trail was not very obvious. We figured we'd start walking that way and maybe we would see it as we got closer. As we started hiking back down from the ruins, a nice man named Henry that lived right next to the ruins asked us if we knew were we were going as we passed him by. I said we were trying to find the trail back to Ollantaytambo, and he said he would show us how to get to it. I am so glad he showed us because it was not obvious at all!!!! He took us past bushes, through a farm with a few big cows, and in general along many meandering footpaths that just looked like animal paths, to be honest.

The 700 agricultural terraces on the trail back to Ollantaytambo.

After about 20 minutes of that, the trail got more beaten in, and began to follow an ancient (i'm assuming ancient) aquaduct type thing. He left us at that point, since he felt the trail was obvious enough now that we wouldn't get lost. Thank you Henry!!!! The line on our map that Jose back at the hostal drew began to make me laugh now. At that point I also remembered that Jose said the trail would also take us past some waterfalls, and we would walk on top of the 700 steps. Sure enough, a few minutes after we left Henry, we saw a waterfall! And then we began walking along one of the 700 terraces. You could start to tell that the trail becoming a footpath over one of the highest terrace walls, because you could start to make out the stone walls beneath all of the overgrown vegetation. How awesome! This part of the journey also had the best views, since we were high up on the mountainside. We could see the Patacancha River below us, and the road we walked on earlier that morning. I felt like it might have been better to just get on this trail right out of Ollantaytambo when we were hiking to see the ruins, instead of taking the road next to the river. It certainly would've been more direct, but then again, we wouldn't of had the opportunity to see the 700 steps from below. At least this way we did a big loop, avoiding seeing the same thing twice. It took us about 2 hours to get back to Ollantaytambo on this trail. The place where this trail meets with the road coming north out of Ollantaytambo is behind a house, just past where the two forks in the road rejoin (the pedestrian-only fork and the car traffic fork, between the first and second bridge). We got back to Hostal Iskay around 2pm, giving us a little over an hour to spare before we had to head over to the train station. I read on the internet, before we left to Peru, that this hike was easy to moderate, but I think it's at least moderate, because of the elevation and the steepness near the ruins. But it was well worth it and one of the most memorable of all the ruins we saw in Peru! Oh yeah, and unlike Machu Picchu and a lot of other ruins, it was free to enter!

The trail back to Ollantaytambo.

A Muddy Rodeo

2011-06-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the annual Russian River Rodeo located in Duncans Mills, CA, on the banks of the Russian River just inland of where it meets the ocean. We found out about it via a website I discovered that lists all of the rodeos going on all over the country. Its called rodeoz.com. It was an intensely rainy week before the rodeo, but the website said it was going on rain or shine, so we got our rain gear on and headed over there along Hwy 1.

The American flag gets paraded around a few times by a cowgirl.

We got there about half-hour early, and as it was still raining on and off, we headed over to have a drink at the tavern right across the street before the rodeo started. They had Pliny the Elder (brewed by the Russian River Brewing Co) on tap, so we ordered a pitcher and shared it with Nicole and Marcel, who came along for the rodeo. We had just enough time to enjoy our beer, when we saw all of the cowboys rounding themselves up on the muddy rodeo grounds.

A video of a bull-rider at the rodeo.

We hurried to get a spot in the bleachers, which were only half full because I guess a bunch of people were deterred by the rainy weather. I took a few videos of the bucking horse and bull riding events. We got to sit really close. It was a lot of fun! I hope I get to go the the Bridgeport Rodeo next month. I'm becoming somewhat of a rodeo-addict!

A video of a bucking bronco rider at the rodeo.

First Desert Race: The Desert Dingo

2011-06-01T22:47:00.000-07:00

Romy joined a Class 11 team that does off-road racing. The car is called The Desert Dingo (check out www.desertdingo.com). Here are some pictures from the Yerington, NV, VORRA race this past weekend.

The Desert Dingo and other Class 11's line up at the starting line.

Romy getting ready to drive.

Pit stop time.

Romy and Jim, ready to drive off on the last lap!

For now, electrical tape number.

The Desert Dingo finished the race.

The Desert Dingo is currently in first place with 100 total points in the Class 11.
Next race: USA 500 July 15-17 near Reno-Sparks, NV.

Back Home Via the California Zephyr

2011-05-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

On board the California Zephyr!

We took the train (yes, the train, not plane) back home from Chicago, IL to Emeryville, CA aboard the California Zephyr, which is run by Amtrak. It is a 52 hour journey, passing by some spectacular scenery along the route. We bought two coach seats for slightly less than the price of a plane ticket. You can buy tickets on Amtrak's website in advance. The train also has sleeper cars, but they were very pricey (it would've cost us almost $1000 for the trip in a sleeper room). Although I'm sure its very luxurious, sleeping flat for the two nights of the journey, having access to a shower, and every meal included in the dining car, we weren't going to pay that much! In fact, we thought that the coach seats were pretty good. They were like extra large versions of a plane seat, with ample leg room, and almost fully reclining.

Passing through the flat farmlands of Illinois. Notice how its not very interesting.

We boarded the train in Union Station in Chicago. It leaves here everyday at 2:00pm, and gets to Emeryville two and a half days later at 4:10pm. After leaving the gates at the train station (similar to an airport gate waiting area), we were hustled to the platforms, which were dark, loud with the sound of roaring locamotives, and stinking of diesel fumes. A conductor looked at our tickets outside of the train (which was two stories tall) and told us which car to get on. "Go upstairs, take a right," She told us, and pointed to the first door. She also gave us our seat numbers (55 & 56). She organized the people by their destination. Everyone in our car was either getting off in California, or taking a short trip and jumping off in western Illinois or Iowa. You could tell every person's destination because a second conductor came by shortly after we left the station and pinned a three-letter destination code above each person's seat (ours was EMY for Emeryville, CA).

We spent most of our time in the observation car, which has open seating.

We pulled out of Union Station slowly, but soon the train began to speed up. All the familiar streets were streaming past us. My dad gave me a call, knowing we were leaving at 2:00pm, and told me he was going to wave at our train as it passed by his house, near the Berwyn station. We saw him waving, but we passed by so fast! Before we knew it, we were already in Lagrange, Hinsdale, then Naperville, then Aurora. Then the scenery began to change from urban to country side. We passed many grain silos and farms, but strangely, it seemed all the fields were bare. Either the sprouts did not shoot up from the ground yet, or a lot of farmers were paid off to not grown this year, or something.

The dining car serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all passengers.

There was lots of room in the overhead bins for all of our baggage and food. We had double seats with a full, unobstructed window. There was even a 12 volt plug at every pair of seats. We were halfway between the stairs and the end of the car, which had a double door that opened to get to the next car. Soon we learned that we were seated in the car right next to the observation car (which also has a small cafe in the lower level). How convenient! Although our seats were very comfy, with a huge window, we ended up spending most of our time in the observation car. It has open seating, first-come-first-serve, in swiveling chairs which face towards the windows. The ceiling has curved windows too, so you can see above you if you want to watch the clouds, canyon walls, or tall mountains. There was also 6 tables with bench seating for eating your own meals, playing cards, or socializing.

Having a snack in the observation car.

After the observation car, the next car was the dining car. It was entirely filled with the table and bench style seating, except they put a fancy tablecloth over the tables, and had waiters and waitresses buzzing around. The dining car was almost always full with passengers who were staying in the sleepers, since they had all of their meals included in the price of their ticket. We tried the dining car for breakfast, which was the least expensive meal they served, just for the experience. I remember when we took the Trans-Siberian train in Russia and went into the dining car once for a beer and pistachios. It was completely deserted (Russians seem more frugal).

The train starts to climb into the Rockies, outside of Denver.

The majority of the people taking the train were taking it for pleasure, and were retired. The retirees were mostly staying in the sleeping cars, while the younger people stayed in the coach seats. We had an interesting car. The guy behind us looked like he was straight out of Burning Man, complete with weird juggle balls that he swung around when the train stopped long enough. On the opposite side of us we had who we called Grumpy California Woman, slightly pudgy and easily upset (although understandably). She was on her way to Sacramento. Behind Grumpy was Young Party Girl sitting next to Disgusting Douche Loud Guy. She was from Arkansas and he was from 'Frisco' (the dumbass name for San Francicso). He was flirting with her the entire time, although she was only 23 and he was divorced with a couple of kids. Ewwww gross. They kept talking about parties and stupid stuff, and very annoying loud. Loud Guy also could not just sit idly and look out the window. He needed to talk to somebody constantly. So much so, that he was always on his phone and sometimes it was funny overhearing his stupid conversations (this is how we pieced together his retardedly dumb life story). Finally, Grumpy California Woman yelled at Loud Guy, basically telling his to shut up and go somewhere else if he wanted to be loud (like the tables in the observation car).

Climbing through the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

The second day of the trip, we spent almost every hour of daylight in the observation car, since it was the day the train went through the Rocky Mountains. There we were sitting near Amateur Tour Guide Man, who was also a photographer. He was retired, and boarded the train at the stop before Denver (around 5am) to make sure he got a seat in the observation car when it started climbing up into the mountains. We were sitting in our seats since 5:45am, which might have been a little overkill, but we were awake from the excitement! He was sitting next to Polite Silent Older Couple, who he gave a non-stop narrative of the entire journey (which was honestly interesting) through the mountains until they had enough and decided to leave. He quickly found a new set of ears to keep talking to. Soon after we got out of Denver, the observation car was packed with people! Everyone had their cameras out and were taking pictures as the train took us up the mountainside and through more than 25 tunnels and stunning canyons! There was one older skinny guy who we called The Raptor (after the type of dinosaur, Velociraptor) because he was taking pictures as if he was hunting or something. He had such a strange look in his eyes, wildly flipping his head back and forth, like he was after prey, but the prey was a perfect shot. He stopped at nothing, even almost knocking me over as I threw a banana peel into the garbage bin, because there was something cool out the window he had to take a picture of.

Following a river in eastern Colorado.

The first of many canyons began as we were leaving Winter Park, Colorado, which still had plenty of snow. The train here followed Hwy 40 most of the way, which we recognized from our road trip last summer in the two bajas. But the dramatic part was when the train branched away from the highway and took a route right along a river through the Gore Canyon, which is accessible only by the train track that runs through it, kayak, or by foot. The walls of this canyon rise more than 1,000 feet, and its only as wide as the river. However, after that, the scenery began to tone down a bit, as we were crossing the rest of the Rockies. A few hours later, we were going through Glenwood Canyon. Although its a highlight of a roadtrip on I-70 in a car, on the train it wasn't as exciting as I thought, probably because there was so much better scenery we've already seen that only a train track runs through.

The Colorado River in Utah.

I personally liked the scenery in Utah and Nevada the best. I guess that's because I like the desert. The second evening, we took a seat at one of the tables in the observation car, and we were planning on having some wine, chips, and hummus for dinner while we went over Soldier Pass. We had our bottle of wine out, and the conductor saw it. He said you could only have alcohol purchased from the cafe downstairs and not your own. I didn't know that! They sell Heineken Beer in the cafe by the bottle (for an outrageous price), so bringing your own Heineken would be a stealthy way to BYOB, since they couldn't tell the difference. But they don't sell entire bottles of wine, so we looked obvious. We decided to save it and drink it at our coach seats, where we could be more discreet (or we could've pouring it in a different bottle first, but it was too late).

The red rocks of Utah.

While we were sitting in the observation car, there were two Amish couples that frequented the car as well. They already smelled like B.O. on the first day of the train ride, so you can imagine what they smelled like after 52 hours. But they were very nice, and most of the time they spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, so we couldn't understand them. They perpetually played Yahtzee and checkers on a paper checkers board. And it seemed they were always laughing and having fun.

Cisco, the ghost town on the way to Moab!

The second night on the train seemed more comfortable than the first, because I discovered better sleeping positions. We brought our selk bags to sleep in, and they seem to make you comfortable no matter where you are or what position you're in, so they made sleeping in the reclining seat better. We also brought our own pillows, but the conductor hands out pillows every night if you need them. They don't provide blankets though. At night it was very quiet in the train. All of the bathrooms were downstairs, and they were very similar to an airplane bathroom (there were 6 bathrooms in each car). They even had the extreme suction flush, which reminded me again of the Trans-Siberian train we took in Russia. The bathrooms on that train in Russia were much bigger (although there was only one in each car) and there was no flush. There was just a hole in the bottom of the toilet bowl which dropped everything straight onto the train tracks below! Be careful when you walk along the tracks in Russia, you might step in somebody's shit. The conductor had to lock the bathroom door 10 minutes before a stop in major cities to avoid people shitting near populated areas. I have no idea where everything went after you flushed on the Amtrak train, probably into a tank.

The Humboldt River snakes its way through Nevada.

The train traveled through Nevada on the last night. That kind of sucked because I really like Nevada, and I would've liked to see it in the daytime. I woke up when the moon was setting outside of our window. It was very bright (almost full). As soon as it set, the sun started rising on the opposite side of the train. Once it got bright enough I could see mountains covered in fresh snow, low hanging misty clouds, and wetlands with numerous steaming springs! Many people think the desert is very boring and plain, but the low angle of the sun rising over the mountains and the desert made everything so colorful. There was the pink and orange of the sunrise, the white clouds hanging over the mountains with fresh snow, green patches of sagebrush, a bright blue sky, and purple and brown rocks in the mountains. It was my favorite part of the trip, and after waking Romy up we ran into the observation car as soon as we got out of our sleeping bags. It was still a while before the cafe opened and started serving coffee.

Nevada in the early morning hours with fresh snow.

That morning, the conductor told everyone that we were all stopping and getting off in Reno, which we arrived at about 8:30am. The Zephyr from the previous day had an engine breakdown just west of Reno, and was blocking the only track through the Sierra Nevadas. So it meant that we would have to take a bus from Reno to Emeryville instead of the train. That sucked because there was supposed to be a train historian between Reno and Sacramento that told you about the history of the gold rush in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. So Reno was effectively the end of our trip, since the bus was not very interesting, and we've driven on I-80 through the Sierras that way a millions times already. Its okay though, since we really liked the train trip and we will do it again. It was much better than flying, in my opinion, even though it took 52 hours. It was very comfortable and scenic, and relaxing to veg out for a few days and enjoy yourself and the journey!

The Buick Gets a Vinyl Top

2011-05-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

While we were back home in Berwyn for Bobby and Julie's wedding on the 15th, Romy wanted to get a new vinyl roof put on the gold Buick. A few years ago, he got a completely new paint job, including body repair, and the vinyl roof was one of the last finishing touches to the exterior of the car. It was his grandma's car, and she bought it brand new in 1969 off the showroom floor and paid in cash. Romy took it to Ogden Top & Trim, a shop in Berwyn which specializes in doing custom upholstery and interiors of old cars. It turned out really nice! Not all the trim is on yet, because a few pieces are still missing (we suspect Scott must still have them somewhere, the guy who did the paint job). Here are some before and after pictures:

BEFORE (no vinyl roof):

AFTER (brand new vinyl roof):

Darwin Falls, a Real Oasis

2011-05-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Before we left Death Valley on this trip, we decided to check out Darwin Falls. The first time we attempted this was when Mark and Emma were visiting, and Mark was giving us directions on how to get the the falls. Instead of parking at the small parking lot, which was at the end of a 2 mile gravel road which followed a wash up towards the narrow canyon where the waterfalls are, we kept driving past it along one of the craziest mining road I've ever been on. It was called Zinc Hill Rd. That first attempt to go see the falls took us to China Springs, where Emma found a lush pool with a bunch of koi fish swimming happily in the middle of the desert next to an abandoned miner's house. This time, we read the directions and parked at the parking lot, which is the trail head to the falls.

The surroundings start to get greener as we near the falls.

The trail starts out in the middle of a wash. It was pretty hot already even in the morning, and it seemed a strange place to start a hike into an oasis, since it was bone dry! But less than a quarter mile from where we parked, we started to see some vegetation. First some tall reed grasses, and then leafy bushes, small willows, and finally a forest of cottonwoods. Then we started to hear the quiet trickling of water as it flowed beneath our feet. The farther and farther we went, the greener everything started to become.

A huge red dragonfly buzzed around us as we hiked towards the first waterfall.

As we entered the canyon, we started to see lots of flowers, many birds, and a lot more insects. We saw gigantic red dragonflys, lizards, and frogs. We were the only ones on the trail. The temperature was a lot cooler too, since everything was moist. As we hiked, we noticed some man made pools, which might still be used for a cool bath, but they were really overgrown and gross looking (even for our low standard).

The first of nine waterfalls at Darwin Falls.

The trail involved a lot of water crossing, since almost the entire canyon bottom was filled with flowing or standing water. Mostly, the crossings were made by fallen logs and branches, or small slippery stepping stones. We both had sandals on, so it didn't matter if we stepped through some wet spots. It was nice to have some cool fresh water on my feet anyways.

Hiking up and around the first waterfall.

Finally, after about a mile of total hiking so far, we reached the first waterfall. There are nine waterfalls in total. The first one was kind of hidden behind a lot of vegetation, so to see it entirely, we had to wade through some swampy area to get closer. The waterfall cascaded over a tall solid stone wall, and the only way past it to see the others was to go up and around it. Luckily, we had Mark's old guide book with us, which told us how to get past the first fall. When we read the directions, it was kind of vague. All it said was to look for a footpath up the steep canyon wall to the left of the falls, and proceed along the narrow ledges until you see a safe trail back down. When we looked for a footpath up, as described, there were actually many, so we picked one and followed it.

We found the third and fourth waterfalls!

I guess we picked a good enough trail, because it took us up and over the fall, along the canyon walls on ledges that were sometimes less than a foot wide (not the best place to slip!) From up top, we could see the tree tops which filled the bottom of the canyon with a bright green color, in contrast to the dark towering rock walls. We didn't know how far to keep traversing. We saw a few steep drop points that were 'safe' enough to down-climb back to the bottom of the canyon, so again, we just picked one and went for it. When we got to the bottom, under the thick canopy of trees, we found an overgrown trail, and a bright orange ribbon that somebody tied to a branch. I took that as a sign that we found the trail again!

The fourth waterfall is the highest of the nine falls at 60 feet!

It wasn't very far to the second small waterfall, which was only 2 or 3 feet high. Getting around that was no big deal, and we continued on. Finally we got to the third which was a bit bigger. Behind that one, we could see the bottom of the fourth waterfall, which was roaring! This thing had to be big, but it was hidden from us by steep canyon walls. We were a little confused on how to get to it, and after trying to traverse a few parts of the walls in our clunky sandals, we gave up and looked at the book. It told us that we needed to go find a scree pathway to the right of the two falls. Half-way up the scree, we should see an opening in the canyon wall which would lead us to the top of the third waterfall, and to the base of the fourth.

The bottom of the 4th waterfall.

We followed the scree pathway, as the guide book told us to, and there it was - a narrow opening through the wall which opened up to a grotto-like space where the fourth waterfall dropped 60 feet into a clear and deep pool! The pool water then cascaded past where we were standing, into a second more shallow pool filled with grasses. The water here then poured out into the third waterfall, which we were standing beneath just a few minutes ago. It was a little challenging hopping between the pools to get to the bottom of the fourth and tallest waterfall with our wet sandals. Once we got underneath it, the force of the water was so powerful! We tried putting our hands under it, and it smacked our hands down really hard. Good thing we didn't fall in under the churning water, because some of the moss covered rocks were slippery!

Water cascades from the 4th to the 3rd waterfall.

We decided to stay in the sun-filled grotto between the third and fourth waterfall for a long and relaxing lunch break. It was so amazing to find such an awesome waterfall, and the fact that it was in the middle of a desert made it even more spectacular. We didn't see a single person on our whole hike, which made it even cooler! I have a feeling that 95% of the people hiking the Darwin Falls trail stop at the first waterfall.

Part of the hike back took us along the high canyon walls.

After spending a few hours at Darwin Falls, we made our way back out towards the car, which was baking in the heat! What a different world we just came from.

Exploring a Mountain Made of Borax

2011-04-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

A trip to Death Valley is never without stumbling across references to the Twenty Mule Team and borax mining. This trip (which was sort of a trip where we decided to go explore all the places we missed over the past couple times we've been there) we went to check out what the Twenty Mule Team was all about. There is a short road called Twenty Mule Team Road which is a one-way, single lane road through the northern end of the Black Mountains, and it goes through the Death Valley badlands area. Its an area of quickly eroding, soft mud mountains which were actually once the bottom of a seasonal lake that existed a long, long time ago (before the mountains were uplifted).

Starting our hike at the old junction on Twenty Mule Team Rd.

Borax found in nature is an evaporite, meaning it crystallizes after evaporation of the solute it was dissolved in, in this case, after the seasonal lake dried up (multiple times over and over again in the past). Many deposits were created like this on the muddy bottom of the ancient seasonal lake. In modern day, the ancient lake bottom has been pushed up by tectonic processes and forms the soft muddy mountains, some of which have massive borax deposits mixed in the mud. Its really a neat thing to see, because the borax looks like a bunch of bright white streaks, like powdered sugar or something was sprinkled over and within the mountain.

The famous Monte Blanco, a mountain made of borax! See all the white streaks?

In the late 1800s, the borax mining industry was booming, especially in the Death Valley area, although it was short-lived. I don't think that Monte Blanco was every mined to its full potential because of the difficulty of the site, but nearby deposits in Death Valley were. The Harmony Borax Works is the most famous of the companies that mined borax there. The way they did it was kind of interesting. As we were hiking, we noticed that a lot of the borax was interspersed with the dried mud deposits, so how were they able to get just the borax out and not all of the mud with it? At first we thought that maybe they just found gigantic or massive deposits of pure borax, but that was not the case (although there were probably larger deposits that we never saw deeper in the mountain).

A close-up of borax deposits popping out of the muddy mountains.

What the miners did was first dig out a bunch of the borax and mud mix, and together, they then hauled it to a processing facility near present day Furnace Creek. There they dumped it into huge pools or tanks of water where they let the borax dissolve and the dirt settle to the bottom. They did this many times to purify the water, so that only the salts and borax were dissolved in it, and not the unwanted dirt. Then they used the knowledge that borax crystallizes at a certain temperature, so they put a bunch of rods into the tanks and cooled the water down. When the water hit the correct temperature, the rods would act as surfaces which allowed borax crystal to grow on them, and this is the way they were able to extract pure borax from the water. When the Harmony Borax Works was in full swing, it employed 40 men who produced three tons of borax daily! In the heat of the summer, when the water couldn't be cooled to a low enough temperature, they moved the operation to a cooler location, near Tecopa, CA instead of Furnace Creek.

Hiking up into the mud and borax narrows near Monte Blanco.

I'm still not sure what all borax is good for (but you can read about it online if you're interested). I think its mainly for cleaning and buffering certain solutions. I kind of remember hearing that when borax was in its early days of mining, the miners who wanted to make a profit on it had to invent uses for it and then try to market it, because borax wasn't used much before then. While we were hiking up towards Monte Blanco, we kept getting stuck in all kinds of narrows and dead ends. As we got through the tightest narrows, we kept rubbing against the sides of the canyon walls, which crumbled at the slightest touch. In fact, if there was a section of abundant borax deposits, it was like walking through slightly compacted powdered sugar! It was so soft, literally like powder, and we got a good dusting. Our socks (we wore sandals with socks) were completely soaking it up as we hiked, and we joked that when we rinsed them out that evening, they would be super clean from all the borax. But that didn't actually happen because I don't think borax by itself is really good for laundry, its just a laundry "booster" whatever that means.

We squeezed through these narrows and got covered in mud and borax dust. The mountains just crumbled at the slightest touch.

The way the Twenty Mule Team got famous was due to the crazy trip that the miners devised to haul the final borax product out of Death Valley and to civilization. According to our hiking guide book, the Team never had any mishaps (no broken wagons, no dead mules), even though they were trekking over very rough territory. The team of twenty mules were able to haul 36 1/2 tons of borax and supplies each trip! Here is an excerpt from a great website that gives a much more detailed history of the Twenty Mule Team than I have room for here:

Chosen for their intelligence and ability to lead the others, the first two mules in the train were aptly called the "leaders." The next 10 mules were known as the "swing team," workers that did not need special training beyond responding to commands such as "stop" and "pull." Following the swing team came the "pointers," "sixes" and "eights" — the pairs specially trained to leap over the chain when the mule train turned a corner. These mules were trained to respond to commands by name. Swinging the team around a curve in a mountain pass tested both driver and team: one mistake could spell death for all. As the team started around a sharp curve, the chain tended to be pulled into a straight line between the lead mules and the wagon. To keep the chain going around the curve and not pull the team straight over the edge, some of the mules were ordered to leap the chain and pull at an angle away from the curve. These mules — the pointers, sixes and eights — would step along sideways until the corner had been turned. Swinging a curve successfully was an awesome demonstration of training and teamwork. Finally, the "wheelers" were the last pair in the train. These mules, or sometimes draft horses, were the largest and strongest of the pack animals.

Our camping spot for the evening.

That evening, after hiking all afternoon around Monte Blanco, we drove up into the Greenwater Valley, which is just east of Badwater Basin. There we found a nicely graded gravel and dirt road called the Greenwater Valley road, and camping off of an offshoot road. It was nice and quiet, and we found a spot between the creosote bushes. That night, we camped with the small birds and lizards, and were surrounded by some late-in-the-season wildflowers, especially the apricot globemallows.

Jellies and Seahorses

2011-04-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Ever since we've moved to California, we've wanted to go, but it was one of those things that was always pushed aside whenever we had a free weekend. Finally we decided to go! There were many exhibits, but most seemed to be focused on displaying fish and other animals associated with the ocean, specifically the west coast. But they also had a seahorse and a jelly fish exhibit going on, and those were the most memorable. Here are some pictures:

This is a purple striped jelly.

This is an egg yolk jelly.

This is a Pacific sea nettle jelly.

A bunch of Pacific sea nettles floating around.

These are spotted jellies, also known as lagoon jellies.

This is a Leafy Sea Dragon. It is pretty big, about 1 foot long!

Seahorses have great camouflage. Can you spot the seahorses in this picture? I can see 5 of them.

Crazy Mountain Chickadees

2011-03-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

Even though it was spring break this past week, we decided to extend winter a little bit longer! After getting news of the non-stop snowfall that the Sierras were getting (and are still getting), we decided to go skiing and snowshoeing at Lake Tahoe.

Technically, its the first week of spring, but it still looks like it's winter in Nevada!

On the first day of our trip, we went snowshoeing on the northwest side of the lake, in Nevada. We had a brochure of the Tahoe Rim Trail, a trail which you can hike (during summer) all the way around Lake Tahoe. We looked for a place where it intersected a main road (Hwy 431) and drove there to get on the trail (now under many feet of snow) to go snowshoeing. Usually, big trails like that have parking areas or large pull offs, so it was our best bet to find a parking place off the highway. When we got there, there were already a bunch of cars, so we knew it would be ok to park and leave the car. Once we got our snowshoes on, we headed off into a large meadow.

The trees are frozen, covered by an icy snowy frost.

There were a few fresh snowshoe tracks and cross-country ski tracks. But none of them went directly across the open meadow. I wonder if its because people thought it might be a small snow covered frozen lake (which is what we thought a first), or if they just didn't want to disturb the open flat snow field with fresh tracks. After looking at it a while, we figured it couldn't be a lake, because the surface of the snow was tilted at an angle. I don't know of many lakes which have an angled surface ;-)

A close up of the frozen branches of a tree.

We didn't trek through the open field either. Instead, we headed off into the forest, where we climbed steadily uphill through snow covered pine trees. We heard many birds singing in the forest. When we took a water break, all of a sudden a bunch of small song birds flew around us and landed in the trees we were stopped next to. Some of them were very curious, and started swooping down at us, flying at our heads and straight towards our face! At first we thought that they were angry at us, so we moved on, thinking that we should have our water break next to another tree.

Winter scenery!

So we trekked a bit farther, to another tree. But the birds kept following us. And they kept swooping and flying at our heads! What was going on?! Then Romy decided to start waving his pole at the birds, to see if they would attack the pole instead. They weren't afraid of the pole! Instead, they just flew and sat on it! Then Romy put out his arm to see if they would land and sit on his hand. To our amazement, they flew right into his open hand! They just did it for fun or something, because we didn't have any food or anything a bird would want, except a place to land.

Mountain Chickadees flying at and landing on me.

After the initial excitement of wild animals being all friendly, we decided we should keep moving, since we came here to go snowshoeing, and not bird watching. So we kept going, and soon found another snowshoe-er's tracks, which we followed, since breaking our own trail in the deep fresh snow was getting a little tiring! The trail started to climb pretty steeply, and after a while, we were getting so tired we decided to take a lunch break. We weren't used to all this physical activity at about 8,500 ft in elevation - we just came from sea level in Oakland!

A chickadee on my glove!

As soon as we sat down in the snow, the flock of chickadees were back. They followed us all this way! Now they weren't afraid at all anymore. They were landing on our heads, shoulders, hands, where ever! When we opened up our backpack, and took out our fruit and power bars, they were all over us. It was hard to eat, because as soon as you exposed a portion of your bar, there was a chickadee on your hand pecking at it. Maybe they are so friendly because they know hikers carry food! The weirdest thing was how crazy they were for our dried banana chips. They loved those more than our granola bars. Weird! After we were done eating, they still hung around, swarming us. It was a lot of fun being surrounded by them, singing and flying from one perch to another, but we were getting cold sitting in the snow, so we got up and started trekking further up the mountain.

A movie of chickadees landing on Romy's hands.

As we neared the top, we saw Lake Tahoe come into view below us. The wind started to blow and some of the snow clouds were clearing up over the Lake. We looked around to see if we could get to a higher place for a better view. Then we saw a distant small peak, which had a bunch of icy covered trees. We started heading for it. This time the slope was so steep, we had to put our heel bars up on the snowshoes so we could climb better. Finally we got to the top, and now we could see the whole of Lake Tahoe, around the whole shoreline! We didn't even know that we would be able to get this view when we started the trek!

A movie of chickadees invading our lunch break!

I guess we were really high up and pretty exposed, because the chickadees no longer followed us. All the trees were covered by a coating of frozen icy snowy frost that was wind blown onto all of the branches. It made the trees look really white and frosty. Since we were at the top, we decided to take a break before going back down. The sun started to come out and shine on us, so it wasn't that cold anymore. When we checked what time it was, we didn't realize it took us so long to get up there (since we took so many breaks to play with the birds). We decided it was best to start heading back down, since we still had to drive to our motel, which was in South Lake Tahoe.

A pic of Romy snowshoeing.

On the way down, we found the steepest way and ran down, trying to ski with our snowshoes. It was pretty hard to do, since the snowshoes don't easily slip and slide. It took us almost an hour to get back. When we returned to the lower elevations, we heard the chickadees singing again. We waved good bye to them, and headed towards the car. We'll never forget the crazy chickadees!

Time To Get New Skis!

2011-03-10T14:50:00.000-08:00

This year we made a promise to ourselves that we would try and go downhill skiing more often, since we haven't really went for the past three years! Partly that's because its kind of expensive, compared to cross-country (or back-country which is totally free), but partly its because Romy didn't bring his downhill skis when we moved, so renting them would make it even more expensive to go skiing!

Sitting on the lift up the mountain.

Moreover, given that Romy's old skis were really really old, and he found them in the garbage, bringing them with didn't seem worth it. They were the old straight ski style. So we did some searching on Craigslist and found a used pair of skis and boots that weren't that old for pretty cheap. Actually, they were last year's rentals at some ski resort. The boots fit and the skis were the right size, so we bought them and decided to try them out this week.

Going up the lift to the top of the mountain.

We had a coupon to go to China Peak for half price, which is near Fresno in the Sierra Nevada mountains next to a small lake. It is in the Sierra National Forest but operated with a permit. It was small and cheap, with lots of intermediate and easy runs, so it was the perfect place to try out the skis, not to mention go downhill skiing for the first time in three years!!!!

The top of China Peak!

When we got there, it was so sunny and warm. We didn't even need hats, scarves, gloves, or eye goggles because there was no wind. It was like spring time skiing except it was still winter. For the first time, I was putting on sunscreen to go skiing. This was totally different then skiing in the midwest where it is usually so cold, that your face is totally covered by hat and scarf anyway, so no need for sunscreen. Except we totally forgot sunscreen, so we bought a little bottle from the store at the bottom of the lifts.

View of Huntington Lake from the ski runs.

We really liked China Peak. It was a fun place to go because it was small, and the crowd seemed very local. A lot of college kids from Fresno, and families. There weren't any punk annoying snowboarders who sat in the middle of the run, or dug in deep ruts. Nothing like that.

Sitting on the lift.

We rented a locker for 50 cent, where we stored our lunch and extra cloths. They were right outside, next to a bunch of picnic tables. We ate lunch outside because it was so warm in the sun.

Surprise Valley

2011-02-20T21:39:00.000-08:00

For the three-day weekend, we were planning on going to the Eastern Sierra, but we ended up going to Northeastern Cali instead. We figured that since we had more time off, we might as well try to drive somewhere that would be too far for just a normal weekend. So we decided to visit the Surprise Valley on the Cali-Nevada border just east of Alturas. We've made this trip once before with Julie, a friend of ours, when she was here in Cali working at the Pt. Reyes bird observatory. We really liked the area a lot, so we decided to check it out in the winter.

The Surprise Valley painted with the colors of a winter sunset.

Of course, the reason why we liked it so much is because of the numerous natural hot springs that pop out in the Surprise Valley! There is one in particular that is really hot, and perfect for a winter time visit. It is really close to the highway, but very low down in the valley, so it is not seen from the road. Right next to it is an abandoned cement looking house, with another concrete pool. We preferred the natural bottom pool closer to the highway.

Sign posted near the hot spring pool.

Apparently the spring is on private property, but the owners posted a sign saying that the public can use it at their own risk. It is apparently called Squaw Bath, after Squaw Peak, a mountain in view from the hot springs. When you sit in the springs, they are very shallow. But the water is so hot, it wouldn't be possible to sit in it fully submerged for so long anyways, so its just perfect that its shallow.

Wild mint grows all winter long, surprisingly!

All around the hot spring, and nearby as well, wild mint grows. It was growing almost like a weed when we were here last November, and we kind of expected it to die off in the winter. But to our surprise, the wild mint of Surprise Valley was in full bloom even in the dead of winter, in the middle of February! Its a hardy plant, I guess. I had no idea.

The hot hot hot Squaw Bath.

When we got to the springs in the afternoon, there was already a car there. We had the option of soaking in the cement pool next to the abandoned house, but we decided to wait until the people left instead. After about 20 minutes, they left and we went in. Then we relaxed, with an awesome view of the valley and the surrounding mountains for many hours. When it was nearing sunset, we headed on our way out. The plan was to go camping, since it wasn't going to drop too far below freezing that night.

Our camping set up at Mill Creek Campground.

Last time we were here with Julie, we found a nice national forest campground called Mill Creek just on the other side of the mountains from Eagleville, outside of the town called Likely (yes we made a lot of jokes because of the funny name). We lucked out because there wasn't too much snow, and we were able to drive all the way to the campground. We set up our tents (Nicole and Marcel were with us this time) and then got cozy in our sleeping bags. It was actually pretty warm inside the tent all night (it stayed above freezing because the water bottles didn't freeze) even though it was below freezing outside. The next morning, we packed up and stopped for a cup of coffee at 'The Most Likely Cafe' in Likely. It was like stepping back in time when you stepped inside the cafe. It was a real diner from old times, complete with metallic vinyl booth seats and padded bar stools. There was even an old milk shake machine! And coffee cost $0.75! We will eat there next time we pass through.

Here is a picture of the cafe in Likely where we got coffee, from Flickr.com taken by somebody else who also stopped by. Its taken in summer, of course.

It Snowed in Oakland Today!

2011-02-16T22:25:00.000-08:00

This morning we got a lot of thunderstorms rolling through the Bay Area, and apparently, one of them dumped some snow on the hills! This rarely happens in Oakland, but it happened today. It wasn't cold outside, so I guess the storm dumped a bunch of frozen rain and it came down so fast it didn't get a chance to melt, or something like that. While we were driving to school, the road and surrounding hillsides were coated with a thin layer of white. I'm sure it didn't last very long, because it was already melting when we saw it, but we got some pictures.

The Most Awesome Idea Ever!

2011-02-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I was flipping through Outdoor Magazine and in the back where they list a bunch of advertisements, I saw this:

Advertisement for the Selk'bag.

It caught my attention because of the scenery at first (Patagonian Andes), and then I saw the moon suit that the people were wearing in the picture. I was pretty confused as to what they were wearing because the ad said "bag" but to me it looked more like what people wear when they go climb Mt Everest or something. Whatever it was, it looked warm and comfy!

I ripped the ad out of the magazine and put it in my backpack so I could check out the website they listed later. But that week ended up to be extremely busy in school and I forgot about it, until one week later when I re-discovered the crumbled ad. It made me smile to see the moon suit again, so I checked out the website (www.selkbagusa.com). There I discovered that what the people were wearing is called a Selk'bag, and it is a sleeping bag with arms and legs and a hood! What an awesome idea! I always thought that something like that would be really convenient when camping. I usually wrap myself in blankets or sit around camp in my sleeping bag, but that is not ideal because its hard to move around. The Selk'bag has reinforced pads on the feet so you can walk around in your sleeping bag. It has arms and little slits that can be zippered shut so you can stick your hands out and do stuff.

Nicole is trying on the Selk'bag at the store, Sports Chalet.

Not surprisingly, I decided to buy one! My sister and I went to the nearest store where they were sold (the Sports Chalet in Pleasanton) so I could try it on. They are sized in Medium, Large, and Extra Large. They also have two kids sizes. I just fit in the Medium, but not in the largest kids size. The bag is so awesome! And its super warm lounging around inside. I also sat around in it outside and it kept me toasty. What's so great about it is that its like being covered in a blanket that always moves with you, and keeps you enveloped in warmth and fluffyness! Plus, when you want to get up and do something, its no problem at all! I look like the yellow Michelin Man.

Me trying on the Selk'bag at the store.

The bag was developed in Patagonia in Chile in 2005. I have the 3G (3rd generation), and they are now coming out with a lighter weight 4G version (for warmer conditions). My 3G bag is rated for 35F and weighs 4lbs.

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Update 3/6/2011:
The Selk'bag is perfect for snoozing and taking naps:

Update 2/20/2011:
Romy recently bought a Selk'bag too, and we took them snow camping to Lassen National Park, where we comfortably lounged around in our tent while it was only 20F outside:

Update 2/18/2011:
The Selk-bag is great for partying!

Kayak Roll Clinic Video

2011-01-23T22:43:00.000-08:00

I just stumbled upon this video that was taken while Romy and I were taking a kayak roll clinic at the Strawberry Canyon pool at UC Berkeley last year in May. It is on the Cal Recreation Sports website as a demo video for the kayak roll clinic classes. I am the one in the small red kayak, and I think Romy is in the greenish one with the yellow tail.

National Western Rodeo + Casa Bonita!

2011-01-08T23:06:00.000-08:00

While we were visiting Romy's family in Colorado, we happened to be in the right place at the right time to go see the largest rodeo in the nation! Every year, cowboys and cowgirls convene in Denver for a two-week long rodeo and stock show, and various other competitions. Romy and I have never been to a rodeo before, so this was going to be a new experience for us! I was really excited about going to see a rodeo in real life, after Jerraline told us about it earlier this week.

A high-scoring cowboy riding a bucking bull.

We got tickets online for the opening day rodeo, which was in the convention center in downtown Denver, right off of I-70. The tickets were almost sold out by the night before, when we finally got around to buy them, and they only had the cheap nose bleed tickets left. But we didn't care! I was really crazy excited for some reason! We went to the rodeo with Romy' second cousins, Alyx and Alyssa, who oriented us once we got there. They've been to rodeos before, so they told us all about the rules of competition. When the cowboys ride on the bucking horses or bulls, they get points not only for how long they can stay on the animal, but also for how good they look doing it! I tried taking pictures while we were watching, but video turned out better. Here are my two favorite videos I took.

A cowboy riding a bucking horse which jumped really high into the air while bucking!

After the rodeo, it was about dinner time and a Saturday night, so Romy's second cousins (who we went with to the Rodeo) suggested we go to Casa Bonita to eat. Casa Bonita is the place that was made fun of on South Park because of how epic it is. Its basically a huge Mexican restaurant, but its so, so, so much more! Its a place that's hard to describe, but I will try. To get in, you need to purchase a meal, which they serve cafeteria style. Then, they seat you inside, but this restaurant has no ordinary seating. There are three levels, and multiple themed rooms. We were seated inside the depths of a gold mine, where deitz lanterns hanging over each table provided mood lighting. There is a roaming mariachi band, and tall sculpted cliffs with a two story waterfall. Cliff divers jump from the top of the falls and plunge into a seemly shallow turquoise pool, lit from the depths. There is the scary Black Bart's cave which you can explore, and try not to pee in your pants like all the little kids running wild inside. Or you can watch a choreographed gun fight, or a man in a gorilla suit and pirates. This is all after you eat of course. The food was so-so (we got the cheapest thing on the menu, which was the taco salad), but you can order unlimited sopapillas and honey. Mmmmmmm.

Me and Alyssa getting our taco salads at Casa Bonita!

Going into Casa Bonita was like entering a time warp. We spent 4 full hours inside. We didn't wait very long in line to get our food (~15 minutes), and it didn't take us that long to eat either. We literally spent 3 hours exploring the place, and at the end, we sat down in the 'theater' for a real magic show! The magician was casa bonita quality, but still entertaining! If you're ever in the Denver area, I recommend going to check it out with a bunch of friends. Oh yeah, and pre-game before you go in, because the beer is kind of expensive inside.

The Snow Survey Cabin

2011-01-04T21:45:00.000-08:00

Romy stands in front of the Snow Survey Cabin in the Snowy Range, Wyoming.

The next part of our winter break trip took us from the mountainous western side of Wyoming across its high flat plains in the central part of the state, to the south east where the mountains again returned. As we drove, if this part of the trip had a theme, it would be blowing snow, numbingly cold winds, and snow fences! I remember when I didn't know what snow fences were. Growing up in the midwest, we didn't have real snow fences. But after you go out to the central plains (i.e. Wyoming) you can really appreciate what they do (or at least attempt to do).

The central plains are extremely flat, but they are also at high elevation. The continental divide runs right through the middle of Wyoming, through some of the flattest parts! How can this be the continental divide when its so flat, I thought. Well, then I realized that the central plains of Wyoming are at 7,000 plus feet! Rain that falls on the west side of the divide in Wyoming will go toward the Pacific Ocean, while rain that falls on the east side of the divide will drain to the gulf or the Mississippi. Since the central plains are so high in elevation, they get a lot of snow in the winter and it gets really cold! When we were driving though, the highs were only in the single digits. The lows over night were between -10 and -20F. Add in the crazy winds that blow non-stop across the flats and you have crazy winter weather. Blowing snow, numbingly cold winds, and snow fences!

Inside the Snow Survey Cabin.

As we drove, the endless blindingly white fields kept a steady supply of snow to the wind, which was constantly picking it up and blowing it all over the place, including the road. It was the neatest thing to see! The snow is very light and powdery, and the wind that ran across the road made the coolest swirling patterns. You could see all of the streamlines and it seemed as if the flow was creating laminar patterns. They constantly evolved before your eyes, swirling ribbons of white. The horizon in all directions had a haze of drifting snow. It made for a spectacular sunset. The flatness and wide open sky allowed us to see the sun setting clearly behind us, and as the last light of day passed through the low haze of blowing snow, it turned the entire surface pink, orange and red! It was like all the blowing snowflakes reflected the lights of the sunset at you from all directions! Snow fences are supposed to break up the wind so that the snow it is carrying can fall out and get deposited behind the fence. So many of the fences were already at capacity, so the blowing snow kept blowing. In some places, living snow fences (made of a line of planted trees) were being built as an experiment.

The small but well equipped kitchen inside the Snow Survey Cabin.

We were on our way to the Snowy Range, a mountain range in the south east part of the state. We rented out another cabin in the Medicine Bow National Forest which used to be a snow survey cabin. The reason why snow surveying was so important back then (and still is today) is because the amount of snow that falls in these mountains during winter will determine how much water will be returned to the aquifer, or flow through creeks and rivers in the spring. Its important to farmers and ranchers of the central Wyoming plains.

The outhouse was almost completely buried under snow!

Government workers used to go to the mountains and measure the snow depth and its water content a few times each winter by ski or snowshoe. This was a pretty rough trip, since it meant the workers would need to set up camp. Later on, they used snowmobiles, but some places were still only accessible by ski or snowshoe, so this didn't really give much of an advantage. One day a scientist making regular snow survey trips decided it would make sense to build small snow survey cabins in the mountains so that the workers could have a home base of operations. The cabin plans were standardized, and the government began building them all over the west. When surveying operations began to get more remotely operated, by setting up instrumentation instead, the cabins were no longer needed. Some of them are now rented out by the government, like this one that we were about to stay at.

A beautiful view from the cabin - sunset!

Just like the other cabin (Stump Creek) we stayed at, we had to ski one mile to get to it because the road was not plowed. However, the entire road was groomed for snowmobilers and skiers, so it was pretty straight forward. After we loaded up our pulk with all the stuff we would need, we headed up the road to find the cabin. The day we set out was very windy and snowy. We knew we couldn't see the cabin from the road, so we kind of had to guess how far we had skied. About one mile in, we saw a stop sign on the left side, so we figured that the cabin must be somewhere off in the forest from where the stop sign was, since in the summer you can drive to the cabin. We saw a snowmobiler path that went off into the forest, so we followed it and it ended up leading to the cabin! When we got there, the cabin was buried half way by snow (literally, the windows which were at eye level from inside were almost snowed over on the outside). The roof had a thick covering of snow which could of buried you alive if it decided to fall off while you were standing next to the cabin. The previous visitors made a snow staircase down to the main cabin door. There was also a hatch door a few fee above the main door in case you needed to enter the cabin if it was entirely snowed in!

Wyoming Hwy 130 is groomed in the winter for skiers and snow mobilers.

The inside had two bunk beds, a table, a propane furnace, and a propane stove. We turned up the heat and unpacked. We were staying for 3 nights. After we were all unpacked, my next goal was to find the outhouse. We saw a small skinny and tall shed popping out of the snow about 40 feet from the cabin, but I had doubts if that was the outhouse or not. However, I didn't see any other building, so it must of been the outhouse. First I had to shovel and compact a narrow pathway to it, and to my shock, once I got there, it was indeed the outhouse! It was buried half-way by snow so deep that to get down to the outhouse door would be difficult. Luckily the previous visitors cut out a spiral staircase out of compacted snow that brought you down to the ground level. Once you were down the staircase and at the door of the outhouse, the snow level was about as high as the top of my head (about 5.5 feet)! How interesting!

Breaking trail in the deep snow around the cabin.

I liked staying at this cabin the best. We enjoyed skiing around the forest during the day, exploring the wilderness around the cabin. At night, the forest was so quiet. Sometimes we saw the stars, but other times it was snowing. It snowed a lot while we were there, and we were constantly shoveling to keep the door free of snow and the path to the outhouse cleared. This cabin had a guest book, and we read all of the messages the past visitors wrote. Most people were from Wyoming or Colorado. We were one of the only ones from outside the immediate area to have stayed at the cabin. Most people stay during the summer, as there weren't too many messages from people in the winter. Although it was pretty cold outside (always well below freezing and overnight lows below zero) we were really warm inside. The furnace made a loud popping sound every hour (and more often if you had the temperature set higher). It kept scaring me, especially in the middle of the night. It sounded like somebody hit it with a hammer! Warning to those who might stay there in the future!

The cabin from the side.

Stump Creek & the Lander Cut-off

2010-12-31T21:24:00.000-08:00

I think just about everybody growing up in my generation knows about the Oregon Trail. This might only be true because it seems like every kid growing up in America at that time got to play the Oregon Trail game on the computer while in school. I don't think I ever actually connected the game to the actual reality of the people who traveled westward along the trail until we moved to California and started regularly driving back and forth to visit family and such. We kept seeing all these Oregon and California Trail markers, and it made me start thinking of what it must have been like traveling in a canvas covered wagon with wooden wheels. There was no road - it was only a trail! What's even more awesome is that a lot of today's modern highways are built right on the old trail, so you can literally travel in the same tracks.

Skiing in to the Stump Creek Guard Station along the Stump Creek.

Right now we are spending part of our winter break relaxing at the Stump Creek Guard Station, a cabin owned by the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Idaho. It is built along Stump Creek, which meanders along a shallow valley along which the Lander Cut-off of the Oregon Trail was built through. The nearest town (Auburn WY) was settled by a family who ended up stopping their journey to Oregon short. Because so many people traveled along the main route of the Oregon Trail, there were plenty of men who looked for shortcuts. Often through rougher land than the main trail, the shortcuts still got pretty well used. The shortcut that passes right by the cabin supposedly would have cut off 7 days off the entire journey. That's a lot!

Our home for the next three nights!

We had no idea that the cabin was in such a historical place when we originally rented it out. In fact, we weren't even planning on it until a blizzard and sub-zero temperatures in the Jackson valley made us rethink our plans about camping out at Granite hot springs! We needed a cheap place to stay and this cabin was it, at only $35/night. The only catch was that the road to the cabin was not plowed, so we had to ski in. But that made it all the more awesome!

The outhouse!

The ski pulk came in really handy. When we got to Auburn, we hit the local grocery store and loaded up on food and other supplies. We were able to carry all of the food because of the pulk. It felt so luxurious to know that we were going to have omelets for breakfast, fruit juice, cookies, wine, and other goodies! We could not of carried this all on our backs. It took a while to get it all packed up on the small pulk, but soon we were ready to go. We had a little over a mile of skiing from where we parked the car to the cabin. We checked out the route on Google maps before hand, but of course, everything was covered in a couple feet of snow now, so we hoped it would be pretty obvious and we wouldn't get lost.

The cozy interior of the two-room cabin.

Everything turned out simple and easy getting there. There was even a small brown sign that marked the turn off of Stump Creek Rd to the cabin. When we got to the door of the cabin, that's when the work started. Nobody had been there since it started snowing. At least that's what it seemed like because we had to shovel our way in! Once we got in, we had to figure out how to turn on the heat. There was a propane furnace and a propane stove, but the big tank of propane was behind the cabin under a couple feet of snow. So the next thing we had to do to dig our way to the tank and turn on the gas. Once it was flowing we cranked up the heat, but only after some drama with the pilot light not staying lit!

Willows grow in Stump Creek. You can see the cabin in the background.

It wasn't long until the whole cabin warmed up. We kept it at about 80 degrees for the first few hours. Once we were warm, we kept it at about 65 for the rest of the time. The temperature was dropping outside and a blizzard was supposedly rolling in and out. From where we were, you couldn't see much in the distance because of the snow coming down, and the winds were strong. We decided to just relax in the toasty cabin while the weather went crazy outside. But we did have to venture outside to use the outhouse! But first. . . . yes we had to dig our way to it. Then once we got there the door was jammed shut due to a build up of ice on the ground. We had to get out our avalanche shovels and hammer at it for a while to try and break it up. Just in time cuz I really had to go!

Stump Creek meanders in the valley.

The propane stove inside was awesome! We could cook anything we wanted! As dark fell, we even got to use a propane chandelier of fancy looking coleman-style lights with the socks. But they weren't burning properly, and after a while the carbon monoxide alarm went off, so we shut them down. We were in the dark now! The next day we decided to ski back to the car and drive back into town for some candles so that we could have light for the rest of the nights. Everything looks better in candlelight.

Going for a ski along Stump Creek Rd, possibly the old Oregon Trail.

On the last full day at the cabin, we took a ski trip along Stump Creek Rd, which I think was right where the Lander Cut-off for the Oregon Trail went. The night before it was below zero overnight, so the air was really crisp, and so was the snow. After a little while down the road, we saw horse tracks that broke through the deep snow. We followed the horse tracks down the road and saw people camped out under tarps next to a few horses. The horses were in a wooden fenced enclosure and looked really cold! You could see the breath while they were breathing. There was fire smoke coming out of a little metal chimney pipe that was sticking out of the tarp tent. To me it seemed crazy, camping out for what seemed like no reason, with a few horses. How long were they there for already?

An old barn near the guard station.

We skied along the road, which followed Sump Creek, for about 3 or 4 miles. Then we decided that we should turn back. So off we went back towards the cabin. This time the skiing was easier because we stayed in the same tracks we created on the way out. So we got back sooner than we thought we would. We still saw the people with their horses, keeping warm under the tarps. Since there was still plenty of sunlight left, we started skiing around the cabin. We found an old barn that looked like it was abandoned. It had wolf or coyote prints all around it in the snow. It even had really old farm equipment in it. As we were exploring the area, the sun started to go down. The temperature dropped so fast, it was unbelievable! I started getting really cold all of a sudden. My hands hurt and my face started hurting (that was a first!) and all my muscles started feeling really tight. Good thing we weren't too far from the warm cabin, so I skied back as fast as I could. When we got back, I made some hot cocoa.

A beautiful sunset at the Stump Creek Guard Station!

It was new year's eve, and we planned on staying up til midnight. But it was kind of tough to last until midnight, since the sun went down by 5pm, and we skied all day, so we were tired! But we managed to stay awake, drinking some cheap wine we got at the grocery store, and doing crossword puzzles. Oddly enough, I actually liked doing crossword puzzles! The next morning we packed up our things and headed back out to the car. When we got there, we had to uncover the Daewoo from all of the snow that had fell over the past couple days. We were so busy unpacking that we didn't even notice the people and their pack of horses had been following us! When we turned around, there they were - the people who were camping under the trap tents! Turned out they were only camping or something and now were waiting for a horse trailer to pick them up by the plowed road where we park the car. We left before we saw them load the horses into the trailer that was supposed to come.

Ski & Snow Camping in Craters of the Moon

2010-12-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

On our way to Wyoming, we drove through southern Idaho through the Snake River Plain. There was so much snow! I've always had a dream to ski in Craters of the Moon National Monument, which protects the majority of a young lava field (so young that there aren't many plants growing on it yet). There's just something so ironic about a lava field being covered by snow! In the summer, it is sooooo hot here, but right now, the winds are howling, snow is being blown all over the place, and its in the mid 20s! We had an opportunity to ski in the park since we were going to pass it on our way to Jackson Hole, so we stopped at the visitor center to inquire about skiing. Along with one other car, we were the only ones in the whole park!

Skiing to our camping spot for the night!

The ranger answered all of our questions with no rushing us out of there, since we were the only ones in the visitor center. He told us that we could ski along the only road through the park (about 7 miles round trip), which was groomed once a week. We could also do tele skiing on any of the cinder cones that we wished, but he warned us against going on the young lava field, since it is very uneven and cracked. When we asked about snow camping, he said we could camp at the ice caves, in the parking lot (which was now under a couple feet of snow, so you can't tell its a parking lot). We figured that we weren't going to make it all the way to the Tetons before dark fall, so maybe we should camp at Craters instead. It would give us a chance to test out if the ski pulk we made a few days ago really worked.

Romy pulling the ski pulk along the ski trail in Craters of the Moon.

So there we were, filling out a back-country permit to go snow camping overnight in Craters of the Moon! It was supposed to be in the mid 20s overnight with a chance of snow, so we made sure to bundle up. It took us almost an hour to pack everything we wanted into the pulk and into the backpack before setting off on the ski trail. We made sure to pack everything we needed to keep warm and stay comfortable for the night. That included our 4-season tent, cold weather Army sleeping bags, pillows, warm cloths, and high energy snacks. We didn't bring the stove or anything, since we only had food that didn't need to be heated. We brought enough water with us in the pulk so we wouldn't need to melt and boil snow.

We camped under the protection of a broad tree (it was windy in the afternoon) near the ice caves parking lot.

We have about 2.0 miles to ski to the camping spot near the ice caves. It was relatively flat with some up and down parts. I had the backpack on for the ski to the caves, and Romy had the pulk. It was kind of tricky to keep my balance on the skis with the backpack on at first, and I fell backwards after only a quarter mile! But it was in slow motion, so I didn't hurt myself. Romy was pulling the pulk, which was pretty much weightless unless you were going uphill. But it did add drag, so he wasn't able to glide as efficiently with the pulk on. Also, we noticed that the rigid poles weren't attached to the hip belt tight enough, so the poles would get jerky sometimes as you stride because there was too much play. That is easy to fix though, we just have to tie it on tighter to the waist belt.

Sunset at our campsite near the ice caves.

We passed by some amazing scenery. As we skied, we went past snow covered cider cones and lava fields. Scraggly trees which were bent by the wind stood along the trail. Sometimes, tall jagged spires of hardened lava stuck out of the snow too. We didn't see any animals, but we saw bunny tracks in the snow. The sun popped in and out of the clouds, and as we neared our camping spot, the wind started calming down a bit. The low clouds that obscured our view of the huge mountains to the north cleared and we were left with an amazing view!

Popping out of the tent in the morning like Marty Stouffer in one of his Wild America episodes!!!!

When we reached the ice caves area, there were a few trees that were so broad, a tent could fit under their protective branches. This seemed like the most logical place to put our tent, so we skied up to one of them. We started stomping the snow down with our skis. Then when it was all flattened out, we took the skis off and stepped onto the snow with our boots. My leg sunk 2 feet down into the snow, just past my knee! I guess we didn't stomp the snow down enough, and the snow was really deeper than we thought! So we started stomping on the snow with our boots, and finally got it compacted enough to build the tent on it.

Skiing back to the visitor's center the next morning.

The snow wasn't too compact enough to stake the tent down, but that was okay, since the wind completely stopped by now. So we just set up camp, and as we finished, the sun began to set. It turned the sky all kinds of colors! But it also started to get much colder, so we got in the tent and put all of our cloths on. Then we snapped our sleeping bags together and got in. We were kind of tired, so we decided to go to sleep when it got completely dark. After a few hours, we both woke up, and couldn't sleep. We didn't bring a watch or our cell phones, so we were guessing what time it was. Who knows? Than we fell aslseep again and when we woke up, it was light out!

My turn to pull the ski pulk on the way back.

Our neighbor gave us a banana bread loaf for Christmas, and we took it with us and had half of it for breakfast before we packed everything back up and broke down the tent. It was pretty quick. One benefit of snow camping is that nothing gets wet because if it does, it just freezes right away. The frost is easily shaken off or rubbed off. Nothing gets dirty either because the snow is clean. Once we were ready to go, we started skiing back towards the visitor center. Romy started pulling the pulk back, but then we switched so that I pulled it and he put the backpack on.

A cloud covered butte along the road to Idaho Falls on the Snake River Plain.

It seemed to be a lot colder that morning than the day before. As we skied back, my fingers were so cold that they hurt, even though I was really warm from skiing. Then I realized that the pole strap around my wrists was very tight and my circulation was being cut off! After I loosened the straps, my fingers felt a lot better. Anyways, we finally made it back to the car and visitor center, and packed everything back into the car. Then we stopped back into the visitor center to let the ranger know we made it back from the camping trip. The ranger was so nice, and he made us some hot cocoa in the back office! It was sooooo good! After we finished, off we were, back on the road. It took us the rest of the afternoon to get to Jackson, Wyoming.

Blowing snow over the road to Idaho Falls. It was cold and windy!

Homemade Ski Pulk

2010-12-23T23:24:00.000-08:00

Today Romy and I made our own homemade ski pulk. A ski pulk is a sled that is attached to a skier's waist via a hip belt and rigid poles. Its meant to be used to carry stuff, like camping gear. All your gear goes on the sled, which slides behind you on top of the snow, instead of being carried on your back in a big backpack. Most people who use them make their own because its so easy! All you need is a kid's plastic sled, two rigid poles, and some hardware to attach everything together. I took pictures while I made the pulk today. I got the design ideas from a website put together by Ed Wilderness Systems. He has a free pdf with a bunch of designs on how to make your own.

Threading the rod ends into the pole ends.

I got the kids sled from Any Mountain in Berkeley. They had 3 and 5 foot sleds, so I bought the 5 foot sled for $14.99. It is made from pretty beefy plastic. It needs to be because a lot of holes have to be drilled into the sled, to attach the poles and grommets for rope. Once I got the sled, I drove to OSH (a hardware store) to get the rigid poles and other hardware. The garden section had all kinds of long rigid poles. I at first wanted solid fiberglass poles, which was recommended in Ed's pdf designs, but when I saw them at OSH, they were very heavy. They only had 1 inch diameter pole that was 5 or 7 feet long. 5 feet was too short, and 7 feet was really getting heavy. They also had plastic green poles which I think have a little bit of steel reinforcement. They were really light and not too flexible (you don't want them to snap under the load of the sled when you go downhill), so I got the 7 foot long green plastic poles. I hope they work! We shall see next week!

The rod ends are fully threaded in and ready to be attached to the sled and waist belt.

Then I moved on to the part of the store where they sell hardware. To attach the poles to the sled, I liked Ed's design of using a threaded rod end which has a bearing inside of it so that anything put through it can pivot slightly. The rod ends slips through a locking small hitch pin thingy. According to Ed's design, the hitch pin is then put into aluminum channel stock that is cut into a two inch piece. I looked all over and even asked the store manager at OSH, but they had no channel stock. But Romy came up with an ingenious idea. Caster wheels!!!

The rod ends attach to a lock hitch pin, which is slipped into a caster wheel frame (without the caster wheel).

Basically, you take a caster wheel, and pull the wheel off, and you're left with just the frame which is like a small piece of channel stock, but better, because it already has a mounting system. We had to drill out the holes to be a bit bigger, to fit the thick locking pin. Then, this whole assembly gets bolted to the sled by drilling four holes into the sled near the front on each side.

The whole assembly is bolted onto each side of the sled, towards the front. The poles can pivot a little.

The beauty of this type of system is that the poles can be removed from the sled by just slipping off the locking pin, but the pin is very stable while it is locked in place. The other ends of the poles are tied onto the waist belt. We have a couple hiking backpacks, and one of them has a removable waist belt, so we are using that one for the pulk.

I put some grommets along the edges of the sled so that rope can be strung through to secure the cargo.

Finally, to secure the cargo on the sled, I put some of the left over grommets I had from making my yurt along the sides of the sled. Once they were all punched in, I strung rope through it like a net. All we have to do it wrap our stuff in a tarp, place it in the sled, and tighten the rope. Then it should be all set to go! We'll be using it on our trip next week in Wyoming, where we'll be skiing to a back country cabin we rented from the Medicine Bow National Forest.

Romy demonstrates how the hip belt is worn, where the other end of the rigid poles attach.

----- UPDATE 1/31/2011 -----

We returned from our winter trip with the ski pulk a few weeks ago now. I've gotta say that I was 90% satisfied with how the pulk turned out! The poles were excellent. They did not break or flex, and they were so lightweight. The sled was sturdy and strong, and did not break even in sub-zero temperatures. However, the way we mounted the poles to the hip belt needs to be re-done. What we did was tie the hip belt to the poles by literally tying a knot. This ended up getting lose after a while, and the ski pulk went side to side with each stride. It also jerked on the hip belt when taking longer strides. This is in no way a fault of the design we followed, since the way to attach the hip belt varies depending on what hip belt you use. I will be 100% satisfied once we tie the hip belt to the poles more solidly, so there is no play. Here are some pictures of the pulk in action:

Using the pulk to carry our camping equipment in Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho.

We loaded the pulk a lot on this trip to a remote national forest cabin in Idaho, and it was a very smooth trip!

XC Skiing at Tahoe

2010-12-22T22:30:00.000-08:00

Now that school is over for the year, we are on winter break and decided to get into skiing a lot more than we have in the past. We kicked off the skiing season with a trip to Lake Tahoe to go cross country skiing. My goal is to get in shape, and enter and finish the Mammoth Marathon (42 km) on my skis in April at the end of the season! I'll be working towards that goal all winter long. Along the way, I want to participate in a few other XC races, all listed here.

One of the warming huts at Tahoe XC, where we took a break and had hot cocoa.

Another nice thing about being on winter break is that we don't have to do all our traveling and fun stuff on the weekends only. Going to Tahoe mid-week is incredibly cheap! We got our motel room for only $30/night! And it had a jacuzzi, free breakfast, and it was only 3 blocks away from the casino area near the Cali-Nevada state line. It was clean and quiet, too. The place we went skiing at, Tahoe XC, had a half-off Tuesday special on trail passes, which made it only $12 to ski on Tuesday! And on Wednesday, they have free skate lessons at 10am. Mid-week is awesome! Oh, and there were less people too.

Romy skiing. There is a lot of fresh snow!

We took out our nordic classic skis the first day of skiing at Tahoe XC. The trails snaked their way through a jeffery pine forest which is normally a state park when its not covered in a many feet of snow. The couple of days before we got there, all of the Sierras got a couple feet of fresh snow, and the compacted base beneath our skis was at least 4 feet deep! Some places already had 13 feet, and it's not even Christmas yet! The trails were all groomed, so we looked at the map and decided to take the biggest loop we could. Since it was our first day, we stayed on greens and blues. We also saw on the map 3 warming huts that had a propane stove, water, and a kettle, so you could brew yourself some hot tea or make hot cocoa. We decided to go warming hut hopping!

Taking a break from skiing!

We maybe over did it a little on our first day! We skied a total of 16 km (a little more than 1/3 of a marathon) and I felt my muscles getting sore towards the end while we were still skiing. Stopping to have hot cocoa and tea was nice. Cross country skiing uses your whole body, but mostly your quads and inner thighs on your legs, and triceps and shoulders in your arms. You also use your abs for stabilizing and balancing on your skis. The trails are mostly level, so you use your own power to move forward on the skis. Its like jogging. Skating I think is even harder. There were a lot of skaters on the trails. We want to rent out some skate skis and go for the free lesson on Wednesdays to see what its like. Skaters go a lot faster because the motion is more like roller blading on skis.

Romy next to the big trail map at the end of our day at Tahoe XC.

When we finished the giant loop, we hopping in the car and drove to our motel in South Lake Tahoe. We drove along the Nevada side, because I think its nicer (not as many towns, and better views). When we finally reached our motel, we were pretty hungry, so we walked to the Stateline Brewery in time for their happy hour, where that were serving $3 pints of their homebrew and also had cheap mini pizzas! After dinner I was totally exhausted! We had plans on going back to Tahoe XC for their free skate lesson the next morning, but instead, we decided to sleep in and take it easy and go find some place to test out our back country XC skis instead.

Climbing the hill to try skiing down it with the back country skis.

We drove up to Spooner Summit, which is the top of the mountain pass on Hwy 50 between Stateline and Carson City, NV. There is a plowed parking area for snowmobiles off the side of the highway. In the summer it is one of the trail heads for the Tahoe Rim Trail, a trail that encircles Lake Tahoe. We parked there and got out our back country XC skis, which are a hybrid between downhill skis and cross country skis. They are long and have a fish scale grip bottom like an XC ski, but they are wide (for flotation in deep snow) and have metal edges like a downhill ski. The bindings are a little beefier, and the boots are stiffer and higher, so you can maneuver on downhill turns. We will be using them this winter on our trip to Wyoming to the Tetons, so we needed to try them out (we got them used from craigslist). Plus we've never skied on skis like these before.

Romy skiing down the hill near Spooner Summit in Nevada.

We skied down some snowmobile tracks until we found a nice hill that was clear of trees and had fresh powder. It was tough climbing up the hill in skis (I had to climb with my feet and skis spread apart in a V shape) because sometimes I would start sliding backwards down the hill! Eventually we got the hang of it and got to the top, and skied down a few times. We discovered a few things from doing that. First, Romy's skis need to be waxed because they were building up snow at the base, which really hinders motion. And second, I need to tighten my boots because the long skis were really hard to control on the way down! I think we will have to have more practice using these skis on downhill sections, but along the flat terrain, they worked very well as XC skis. We did much better skiing the downhill parts of the hill that had powder vs compacted snow from snowmobile tracks. I think the skis are designed to handle better in ungroomed snow than on groomed snow.

A video of me falling down after hitting snowmobile ruts in the snow.

Romy also decided to take a video of me while I was falling after I hit snowmobile ruts on the way down, near the end of hill. I look so funny! So after a few times of going up and down the hill, we headed back towards the car. We were pretty pooped out! But now we have a couple days of rest before we get out on our skis again in Wyoming. We are planning to go snow camping in the back country with our skis to visit some hot springs near Jackson Hole. Can't wait!!!

Visiting Alcatraz

2010-12-02T22:52:00.000-08:00

My mom came to visit us for Thanksgiving break, and she stayed for two weeks. The first week we mostly had off from school, and we went to Saline Valley. The second week, we were pretty busy with school since it was the last week, but we squeezed in a trip to Alcatraz, since my mom never went before. We got on the 10am ferry to the island today.

Moss covered roofs near the dock on Alcatraz.

We were in for a treat because it was in the middle of the week, and kind of slow tourist-wise. So that meant that there weren't too many people going to Alcatraz! When the boat landed at the dock on Alcatraz, we were in for another treat. Apparently, one of the last surviving prisoners that was actually imprisoned on Alcatraz was in the gift shop signing copies of his book. We didn't buy his book, but it was kind of interesting hearing him talk to people. And wait, there was even another treat. A ranger-lead tour called "The 6 Hats of Alcatraz" was about to start, just as we got off the boat!

The ranger who lead the 6 Hats tour.

I'll try to recall the most interesting parts of the tour. The ranger had 6 different hats inside a big canvas bag. Starting with the oldest, historically, he put each hat on, one by one, and told a story, pretending to be the historical character based on the hat he was wearing. The first hat was an old military hat, from the 1800s. While he was wearing it, he pretended to be an old military officer that was stationed on Alcatraz Island while it was a fort that protected the golden gate (which is what the opening to the ocean was called, what the famous bridge is now named after). He told us that the island used to be a bird nesting site, and that the steep cliffs were actually blasted that steep on purpose with dynamite. The military wanted to make it very hard for ships to dock on the island, so they made it all cliffs, except for the backside of the island, where they kept the only suitable docking location. They also built the only entrance to the fort by the dock on the backside, and protected it strategically with shooting towers and huge canons.

A row of prison cells.

Then he put on another hat, which was also military related. But this time it was a military prisoner. After the fort was no longer useful, in the early 1900s, the island became a military prison. They kept the prisoners in wooden cells, which were over crowded. They also dug caves into the bedrock and used them as cells. They were often damp and cold. Eventually the prisoners were forced to build a new set of cells, but out of brick and concrete instead of wood. This was after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, where the whole city burned down due to all the buildings being made out of wood. Well, they eventually built the largest steel reinforced concrete building in the country at that time. That building became the new cell house.

Inside a typical prison cell.

Next the ranger put a new hat on, a prisoner hat. The next part of the Alcatraz story is now about mobsters and gangsters. After the original military prisoners built the new cell house on Alcatraz, there weren't enough prisoners to fill it all up, and the military was moving away from the island anyway. But at the time, prohibition began and all the mobster action started. The government needed a place to put all the gangsters they were arresting, so they sent a lot of them to Alcatraz. Al Capone was on Alcatraz for a while, although they didn't tell us which cell he was in. They said he was in many different cells while on the island. Anyway, so the huge new cell house finally was put into use, and it officially became the Alcatraz Penitentiary.

I'm not sure if there was a hat between the prisoner and the hippie. Well anyway, the next hat he put on was a hippie bandana. Eventually, the prison was becoming too expensive to run, because everything had to be shipped back and forth to the island. So they decided to shut down the prison. After it was shut down, nobody wanted it, so the government kind of let it rot for a few years. Somehow, some native Americans stretched the meaning of a treaty and claimed the island as theirs, because it was technically surplus government land, which they were entitled to. The weird thing was that it was a bunch of Indian tribes that were not native to California, supposedly. So they took over the island. This was in the 60s, so a bunch of hippies joined them, although at first, they exclusively only let Indians on the island.

A huge hole scraped into the concrete behind the air vent as part of an escape scheme (it was successful)!

Then the ranger put on his final hat, which was a National Park Service hat. He said that at the tail end of the hippie take-over, there were a few fires on the island, and some of the buildings were burned down. None of the hippie commune hippies on the island took the blame, and to this day, its thought that the fires were actually set by under-cover government agents who set the fires on purpose to make it look like the hippies lives were in danger. In general, it made it look like it was dangerous to be there and gave the government an excuse to kick everybody off the island for safety concerns. It worked, and supposedly, some of the classified government documents that described the plans to burn down some buildings on Alcatraz were recently released. So after the hippies were kicked out, the government eventually set it aside as a National Park. In fact, its been a National Park longer than it was ever a penitentiary!

Solitary confinement cells.

The 6 Hats tour was over an hour long. After the ranger was done story telling, we took the audio tour of the prison. They give you big headphones and you listen to a recorded tour, which includes the real voices of some of the prisoners and guards retelling stories. But its funny, because everyone inside the cell house also has on huge headphones, and can't hear anything else. People bump into each other because they get so engrossed in the story they are listening to, plus they can't hear other people walking around them, so there are often collisions. We spent about 3 hours on the island, and then decided to go back, because we were getting hungry and still had a long way back home.

The Mecca of All Hot Springs: We Finally Make It!

2010-11-30T21:46:00.000-08:00

Entering Saline Valley Rd with the baja. Notice the Road Closed sign.

The third time is the charm, as they say. And it definitely was the charm for us, as we can finally say that we've made it into Saline Valley after three attempts! We must have had an unknown good luck charm riding with us that day, because we actually almost didn't make it. But I'm getting ahead of myself telling the story here, so let me back up.

Saline Valley is now a part of Death Valley National Park and is known for being one of the last unspoiled large Death Valley-like valleys left. Its also known for its natural hot springs, which have been taken care of by volunteers and squatters for many many years. Somebody planted huge palm trees at the springs, so they resemble the classic picture of an oasis in the middle of a dry and parched desert. Birds sing, wild burros roam, and a lush grassy lawn under the shade of tall and full palms invite the curious soakers who make it there. Stories of beautiful tiled hot tubs (complete with a hot shower in one area) in the middle of a rarely visited and hard-to-get-to pristine desert valley drew us in. Since I heard of this fabled place over one year ago, we had to go. I mean, WE HAD TO GO. There was no if, there was only when. Only determined souls go there, we heard, and we had plenty of will, so we knew there would be a way.

Saline valley Rd as it descends into Saline Valley once over Hunter Mt area.

But what you equally hear about, in addition to the hot springs, are the roads which go into the valley. There are four roads, actually, and you can take your pick. First, the most popular is the south pass of Saline Valley Rd, and then there is also the north pass. Finally there is Steel Pass, and Lippencott Rd. (both of which are worse than the first two). We heard that all were extremely bad and in horrible condition. The park service keeps a 'Road Closed' sign at the intersections of Saline Valley Rd with the paved major highway to keep people out. It is not actually closed for most of the year, but the sign is meant to scare people, or at least make then think twice before continuing. The only time the roads actually close is when they are impassible by snow or if a section gets washed out. Even then, you can still attempt to drive on through. Well anyways, we took all of the rumors seriously, so we decided to take the baja because it had a lot of clearance and take some extra gas too.

Ice breaks up into tiny chards as we drove through one of a few cold springs which pooled in the road (yes its that cold).

It took us all day driving just to get to Panamint Springs, the closest place that has gas to the intersection where Saline Valley Rd and Hwy 190 (which goes through the national park) meet. Since it was dark when we got there, we decided to gas up, buy some post cards, and get a camping spot for the night. Could you believe that it only cost $7.50/night to camp!? That's so cheap! I guess it was the off-season price. We had no fire or anything to keep us warm, so after we set up our tent (and after our mom realized that scorpions and snakes weren't going to eat her alive) we sat inside the baja to keep warm while we had dinner and drinks. Then we went to sleep.

Finally in Saline Valley.

I was woken up by the sun the next morning. But it was still very early because it was really cold outside! That didn't matter though because we were really excited to get going on our way down to Saline Valley. We quickly packed up the tents and stuff, and started driving back to the intersection a few miles away. When we got there, we saw the traditional Road Closed sign along with a sign that read 'High Clearance Vehicles Recommended.' Okay, we were prepared for that. What we weren't prepared for was the great condition of the road, exactly opposite of what we thought. We were expecting crazy ruts and large boulders in the road, or washed out sections. We got none of that. It was flat and wide for most of it, except when it dipped into a dry wash near Hunter Mountain. That part was slightly rutted up and rocky, but not bad. We kept commenting how we've been on worse roads in the national park, and they don't have any Road Closed signs. We started to think they must be putting the signs up to keep people at the springs to a minimum.

Well, it took us a bit over an hour of driving until we were deep in the middle of the valley, approaching the salt lake playa and dunes area. Romy had to go pee after all the washboards, so we pulled over. It would have been a routine potty break except that when Romy walked around the back to check the oil and if random parts didn't fall off, we got the shock of our life! A HUGE puddle of oil was under the baja, with a steady trail that lead about 30 ft back on the road and then stopped. The engine was still dripping steadily. Actually, it wasn't dripping, it was pouring! I would estimate we lost almost one quart right there. I feel bad about the spill.

Getting towed in by a Jeep!

Romy decided, after peeking around under the engine, that the rear main seal must have went bad, and that was the source of the oil leak. The good news was that we had two quarts of oil with us, but the bad news was that we didn't have any way to fix the seal, because we didn't have one to replace it. And we were over 50 miles from the nearest paved road, which was still at least 10 or so miles from the nearest town. We weren't sure if we could drive the baja that far without loosing all of the oil in the engine, drip by drip! We only saw one other car since we got into Saline Valley, so we figured our chances of being towed were slim. We started flagging down every car that passed by at that point. About 10 minutes into our wait, the first car came by. We asked them if they had any oil to spare. They didn't. And they said they couldn't tow us. But they gave us some good news. They said that there were hundreds of people (!) at the hot springs and that we were very close to the turn off that went to the springs. If we could get to the turn off, then there would be tons of people driving in or out. So we decided to try and push the baja to the turn off.

Palm Hot Spring (the slightly cooler pool).

We got some good momentum going, but then the road started going uphill. We couldn't keep pushing it, so we decided to get it far off to the side of the road and keep waiting for more people to pass by. As if on cue, we hear the roar of another car coming down the road. This time it was a Jeep, and it was flying down the road so fast, we didn't think it would stop in time! But the Jeep stopped, and we explained our situation. It was a nice couple and they were headed for the springs. They said that they could tow us into the springs where there was a satellite phone for emergencies, and lots of people who might or might not have spare parts and extra oil. Then the couple offered to tow us back out of Saline Valley on Sunday if we couldn't get it going again before that (it was Thursday, Thanksgiving day). We had nothing to lose at that point. We wanted to go to the springs, we were offered a tow in and out, we had enough food and water for ourselves for the next 4 days - what more could we ask for?! So there we were, hooking up our tow strap to the back of the small trailer that they were pulling behind their Jeep.

We got pulled the last five or so miles from Saline Valley Rd, to the turn off, and then down the sandy and bumpy road to the springs. The whole time, I was kind of thinking if what we were doing was really very sensible. The most reasonable thing to have done, probably, was wait for somebody who was willing to tow us out of there so we could fix the baja. It would of been a bummer. But instead we were getting towed deeper into the middle of nowhere, Saline Valley. But what the heck!? We were thwarted by these springs twice before, and the third time's the charm, damn it! We were going to have our charm even if we had to limp our way in (with the help of a Jeeper of all things)! Soon we could see the silhouette of large palm trees in the distance, and all of the worries were pushed aside with excitement of finally getting to the fabled hot springs of Saline Valley!

The hot pool at Palm Hot Spring.

What came next was a bit of a shock (this trip was turning out to have a lot of shocks sprinkled here and there). Now, we knew it was Thanksgiving and all, and we also knew that a lot of people go to Saline Valley to have a communal dinner, but the sheer number of people that started coming into view as we got closer, we were not prepared for! Car after car, trucks, tents, and even a yurt! Vans with solar panels, and crazy hippies and naked people abound! I swear it was straight out of Easy Rider, a hippie commune in the desert. When I thought of a large gathering here for Thanksgiving, I was thinking 50 people max. We saw hundreds! Later that weekend, we heard the headcount for dinner was over 200, which meant that there was at least twice as many people camping because not all went to the communal dinner that night.

Upper Warm Spring, which is fenced to keep the wild burros out.

So here we were for at least the next four days, and I was starting to laugh about what my mom thought of all this. She was shocked too, because she kept making comments about the weirdos and all the naked people. We got out of the baja and thanked the Jeepers for pulling us in. Now we had to find a camp spot. They towed us into one of the last open areas, on top of an old travertine expanse. At that point we unhooked from each other, and started setting up camp. The guy (named Rick) who pulled us in left us with a final comment. He said, "You do know this place is clothing optional, right?" And we said, "Of course." Thats how hot springs usually are. We thought he was referring to the springs, so gave no other thought to the odd, seemingly random comment. And then we looked around. Our nearest camping neighbors were both buck naked, apparently cooking dinner for the communal dinner which they were planning on going naked to. It was almost comedic, because it was only about 60 degrees out. And then my my mom pointed in the direction of the Jeepers who towed us in. "Honey, he's naked!" She laughed. OMG the Jeeper was getting naked too!

Saline Valley dunes stretch for a couple miles on the west side of the valley.

Apparently, we had not heard of the nudists at Saline Valley. After a few minutes, we all got over the novelty, and accepted that some people just like to be naked, even if its only 60 degrees outside. We just tried not to stare. Besides, there were a lot of other weirdos walking around to pay attention to. Like the guy in the Barney costume with duck feet. Or the pirate man, or the guy in the skirt made out of old ties. . . lets just say that if you looked 'normal', you were actually the weird one. We were surrounded by a lot of 'artist' types - people who use their creativity in unusual ways. It was actually kind of refreshing. We hang out with nerds everyday at school. We are nerds.

While I set up the tents with my mom, Romy immediately started working on the baja, trying to take a closer look to see what exactly was wrong. After an hour or so, he discovered that the oil cooler was extremely loose. And that the rear main seal was intact and that the oil was most likely leaking from the large gap that opened up when the oil cooler wiggled its way loose from all of the bumps in the road for the past 60 miles or so. That was such good news to hear! After all, we would be able to fix it by just tightening the oil cooler back up, and refilling the oil. And with that news, we were pretty happy to head to the hot springs to check them out.

The baja parked outside of the Lower Warm Springs area.

There were actually three sets of springs. The main area, where the communal dinner was being served, and where there are many small hot tubs complete with a shower, is called Lower Warm Springs. There is even a lawn that is continuously being replanted and watered by the 'campground host.' I have the feeling he's been a squatter there for a long time, and became the host when the national park took the place over. He lives there year round and takes care of all the tubs and springs. It is completely voluntary and he gets no money (or so we heard and read). About 3/4 mile further to the east is another hot spring called Palm Hot Spring. There are two large jacuzzi style tubs build there, both fed by the same source. One is kept around body temperature while the other is about 105 degrees. Thats where we went our first night at the springs. It was packed with people, but not so bad. Everyone was pretty friendly.

Further up the road, heading toward Steel Pass, there is a third and final set of springs called Upper Warm Spring. It is left in its natural state (meaning no tub or anything), although people dug out two muddy bottom pools to soak in. The springs are surrounding by green bushes, and fenced in completely to keep the wild burros out. The wild burros were once tame and owned by the many miners in the valley until they went bust. The miners released their burros and now they are wild, roaming freely in the valley and occasionally invading the campground looking for food that drunk people or stoned people leave out overnight. We went to check it out the next morning after we arrived (the day after Thanksgiving), but already found a bunch of people in there. In fact, it was hard to not find people everywhere. So we decided to wait a little bit and eat our lunch while the people who were already there were in the pool. We had salami and cheese sandwiches with some dried figs and dates. When we finished lunch, we waited some more. And kept waiting and waiting, but apparently these people were just going to keep sitting in the pool until they turned into prunes. Then, another car rolled in, and we saw people converging on the spring by foot. I was kind of getting pissed off at the people who were hogging the springs, so we decided to just leave and go visit the Saline Dunes instead. On our drive out, we passed about 8 more people, all headed to the spring either by foot or by Jeep. How crazy!

The bath at Lower Warm Springs where you can take a hot or cold shower.

After that point, I was starting to find the whole situation of feeling extremely crowed in the middle of such a huge deserted place a little bit ironic, in a bad way. Of course, we picked one of the most busiest times to come and visit, but its also one of the only times that we have enough time off to make the trip out there worth it. I just did not expect so many people there. Most of the people were very nice and kept to themselves, but others were very annoying. There was definitely a click of people (they called themselves 'camps') that had been coming to the valley every year for many years. I also got the impression that some of them had lived out their better years in the 70s and 80s at the springs, and have regular reunions. These were the people who I didn't like the most, because they had a very strange attitude. They openly commented about themselves and how long they had been coming to the springs, almost with this air about them, like they owned the place or something! One of the alpha females of the group came to the crowded hotter pool at the Palm Hot Spring one night (along with her posse), and saw that it was full. She rudely (but nicely) kicked people out by making all kinds of annoying comments, like, "Isn't it dinner time, guys?", etc, etc, blah blah blah. We had just got there, so there was no way in hell we were moving, but it worked on about 1/3 of the people (maybe because they had experienced her in the past). In some ways I wish we had decided to go to another pool, because being in the pool with those people was weird. They would talk and sing out loud (encouraging others to sing with them), and do a ooohhhmmmmmmm thing. They talked about their weird religion, and how they had to bless things and other strange stuff. Other people at the large pool were talking too (not part of their posse), but as soon as the conversation moved away from the posse, the alpha female said she wanted a moment of silence. WTF? Apparently, it was ok when they talked, but it was too noisy when others not part of their group talked. Somebody shoot me if I ever get that way!

A bay window bus made it all the way from Utah!

Okay, so I am going to complain some more. What gets me pissed off is that you can tell that these people were once young and hippie types. Except now, after hearing the way that they talked about themselves, they all grew up, made money, and lived in large expensive houses, like the alpha female who kept talking about her home on the top of the Santa Cruz mountains with a pool. It seems like the hippies turned into everything they once hated. Now they are just yuppies. Yuppies who come to Saline Valley once a year to reminisce about the old times, and make themselves feel good about themselves. Whatever.

And now that I got all the bad out, I do have one good thing to say. Even though they were all kind of old (in their 50s, 60s, and even one woman in her 70s), they all looked very young! There must be something they were doing that kept them looking so good. Maybe its their way of thinking and their religion (or stress-free life style?). I don't know. Maybe it was because the sun was going down and I didn't get a real good look at them up close. Maybe they were really all wrinkled, but I just couldn't tell. Maybe it was because they were all skinny?

Art display in the middle of the desert.

Anyways, there were also plenty of other types of people there too, like the off-roaders kind. I tend to like those people more. They seemed to be there because of the challenge of getting there, and the springs we like a bonus at the end of the tunnel. The second night we camped, we went for an hour dip into one of the larger pools at the Lower Warm Spring. The crowd there seemed more normal. But we did meet one younger person (younger than us) that apparently grew up at the springs. Then we started hearing a lot of comments about children literally being born at the springs. So that's why I have the feeling that there must have been people squatting at the springs before the park took it over. They must have raised kids there and everything. I guess as long as you have shelter and food, you're all set to go, because there is plenty of water (hot and cold)!

One interesting story we heard while we were in the tub, sharing company with more normal people, was one about a bee farmer. This was apparently a pretty recent story because the man is still alive (or maybe just recently passed away). Well, this bee farmer, decided to he wanted to keep his bees in Saline Valley because there is a salt lake with marshy type plants and other vegetation which the bees can make honey from. However, he didn't know that there were already roads that went into the valley made by miners. So instead, he went over the high mountain pass! I think he literally climbed from Big Pine up and over the 11 or 12,000ft mountain range on the west side of Saline Valley. We heard that he built two cabins along the path that he took over the mountains, and that they were along a canyon that has a spring tucked inside that cascades into a waterfall. One person said they hiked to the second cabin, which is still in good shape and can be used as a overnight thing while hiking on the trail. But you need ropes because some of the trail is steep and dangerous, I guess. The other cabin is rotted away, maybe. Well, given all the hints and details from the people we talked to, I think we know which canyon the trail is at. I want to go hiking up it in the spring, hopefully, and try to find the waterfall and old cabin! So the bee farmer kept his bees in the valley for a while, and once he got old and tired, (and figured out about the roads, I presume) he decided to retire on the west side of the valley in Big Pine. He might still be alive. What a crazy story!

The road we took out of Saline Valley, the north pass.

The last thing I want to write about are the military jets that fly over the valley. The air space over Saline Valley is designated as a low fly zone. So about once a day, the pilots do their low fly by's for training. We heard from other campers that the jets literally fly so low, that you can see the pilot's face from where you are standing. We saw two jets fly by really low our second day and it was actually true! We were able to see their helmets! And they were really loud! It was soooo cool! Better than any air show!

So that's it about Saline Valley. We had a good time and hope to return again, but when there are less people, of course.

Wild Mint All Around

2010-11-14T19:48:00.001-08:00

This past weekend, we went on an epic road trip with our friend Julie, who I met many years ago in Prague. She was one of my class mates when I was getting my TEFL teaching certificate there. After we graduated, she went on to teach in Cesky Budejovice for a wile, and I went on to teach at a small school in Prague for the rest of the summer. Now she's working at a bird observatory on Point Reyes, so close by to where we live, so we got together for a weekend of natural hot spring hopping. We wanted to go to a place we've all never been to before, so it was an adventure for all of us, so we busted out our hot spring guide and decided to go north.

Two stone and concrete hot pools built up on bedrock exposed by the Pitt River.

The only easily accessible hot springs up in the far north of California are in the southern Cascade range, in the Alturas region. We drove many hours, starting our journey Friday night. We left later than expected, but Julie drove late into the night. Finally, we were nearing the first spring on our list: Hunt Hot Springs near Big Bend. But we weren't sure of the camping situation there, so we camped in the national forest near Round Mountain that night.

The next morning, we finished the drive all the way to the springs. On the way, we saw Mt Shasta in the distance! It had its own cloud formation above it, so the peak was obscured. But then the road dipped down between some ridges, so we couldn't see it anymore. Soon we drove through the small town of Big Bend, and over the Pitt River. There were what looked like scattered gypsy camps near the far edge of town, and an uncanny amount of old refridgerators. Next we were on a forest road, looking for a small rough dirt road that we were supposed to take all the way to the springs. After a few minutes we found it, but it was in no condition to drive on! It was all muddy and had deep ruts. Some of them were so deep and large, not even a huge truck would be able to get through. Consequently, we parked the car on the side of the road and started to walk the rest of the way. According to our book (which said the road was do-able by most passenger cars, and was really out dated, obviously), it was only another 2.5 miles to the springs.

Setting up the tent in the national forest.

So there we were, walking through the forest, on a forest 'road' with our bags full of towels, and other supplies. On the way we saw forest cows, who were more afraid of us than we were of it, and they ran away. We also walked past a Native American cemetery, which was marked in the book, so we knew we were on the right track. All the way, we were avoiding stepping in mud and falling on our ass. The road took us through a mixed pine and deciduous forest. All of the leaves were turning bright fall colors.

Suddenly it seemed the road came to an end at the Pitt River. As we got there, we noticed an old man walking with a bucket. He was coming from a field of grass we saw on the other side of a fence marking private property. Then we saw another hobo camp on an elevated part of the river bank nearest to us. We tried avoiding the hobo camp, and walked down to the river where we saw steam coming out of numerous springs. Then we saw two concrete pools immediately to the left. We felt the water temperature in them and they were hot! Jackpot! The old man caught up to us and we asked him about the springs. He recommended the ones farther down the river bank, which we didn't see yet. He told us he came to fix the ones we were standing next to because a land slide broke one of the walls. You could clearly see where the landslide occurred, because the steep hillside had a bare dirt strip. Since he pointed us down the river, we went to check it out.

Having a good time in Hunt Hot Springs.

Just a short way along the river bank were four pools, also made of stone and concrete which held spring water from a few sources. The highest pool was really hot! It spilled over into the second pool which was a perfect temp. That pool spilled into the third, and it was a little cooler. The fourth pool was even cooler, and had its own source. Those cooler pools would be perfect for summer, but it was still chilly out, so we got into the second pool. Just as we were climbing in, another guy (who seemingly came out of the blue) arrived and started taking his clothes off to take a dip with us. So there we were, sharing the small tub (the only one of suitable temperature) with a naked guy.

At first he was kind of quiet. He either didn't speak or he spoke really quietly. We tried to strike up conversation by talking about the springs we were at. We asked him all about what he knew of the area, and eventually, he started opening up. He told us he was a local, who grows 'food' in the area, and takes construction jobs here and there. He was currently working for the new owners of Big Bend Hot Springs Resort, which is a private resort just in town, but currently closed. Then he told us about the school system in Big Bend and how the school has a large swimming pool that is heated by the local hot springs and a school chef who makes $40,000 a year!

The Pitt River flows right next to the pools.

Back on the topic of the springs themselves, the man also told us that the campsite where the hobos were at is usually always filled with 'permanent-camper' types. Being there so long, they don't even have a toilet, so its getting kinda unsanitary. And after all that, he started complaining about how many people are showing up at the springs now, and how its driven the river otters away, which used to swim right by the springs. Well, we felt kinda awkward, not sure if he was openly complaining to us about us, you know what I mean? We were, after all, some of those people who keep showing up. But what the hell? Why not - its not like he owns the springs or something. That kind of brought up a dilemma I've been thinking about lately. About the idea of loving something to death. If you enjoy hot springs, or any other thing in nature, do you tell others about it so they can enjoy it too? Or do you hide it and keep it a secret in an attempt to selfishly preserve it? I don't know. I guess I tend to tell others, but only if they are interested. You won't find me writing a book with precise directions to all the hot springs, but (like I already do) I like blogging about it so others who are already looking for information can learn something if they are interested.

Well anyways, he stayed for a pretty long time, and after he left, we lingered for a while and then decided to leave too because we wanted to try and find the other hot springs that we read had wild mint growing all around like weeds. But they were still pretty far away, near Alturas. When we got back to the car, we scraped off as much mud from our shoes as we could, and continued on our way out of Big Bend, back to the main highway. Along the way we got some really yummy coffee.

Close-up of the wild mint growing all around.

Well, eventually we got to the springs a few hours later. According to our book, they were right off the road, and we should be looking for a pull off and a small dirt area where there was parking. It was getting dark out when we found it, but the road to the small paring area was also pretty muddy, so we pulled off as best as we could on the side of the road. Once we were all ready, we started to scour the valley for steam rising, an indication of the spring location. But we couldn't find any steam. I started getting nervous that we drove all they way there and we wouldn't be able to find the springs. So we started to walk around the area, following all the trails we found. One trail took off into the sage bushes, which gradually turned into lush grass. The ground became soaking wet with flowing water and it felt warm on the bottom of my feet. Now I knew we must be getting close and at least on the right trail. We kept walking until we got to a rocky area, and suddenly, popping out from the ground in all directions was tons and tons of wild mint, carpeting the entire area. Then we saw three shallow pools with a bubbling small waterfall feeding them. We had found the famed Eagleville Hot Springs! But still, the pools weren't steaming, so we hoped that they weren't going to be too cool. I put my hand under the waterfall and contrary to what I expected, it was scalding hot! So was the first pool. We decided to get some snacks and beer and jump in. We were the only ones there.

The hottest pool at Eagleville Hot Springs.

The pools were literally on the side of the road, but not visible. Plus the traffic on that road was very sparse. We were pretty happy to be soaking in the pools after driving for so long. And I really enjoyed the wild mint. I picked a large bunch of sprigs and put them in the car. We made plans to make mojitos later. I think it was one of my favorite hot springs I've went to so far because of the mint. I don't know why, but they mint made me really happy! We munched on it and smelled it and it was so relaxing and refreshing. We were really bummed when we had to leave to find a camping spot for the night.

Buckeye Gets Washed Out!

2010-11-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

The first time we visited Buckeye Hot Springs was during the camp out that Melissa organized with the vwcamperfamily (although only Melissa, Blake and Shelby, and us came - and that's OK!). It was early October, just as the first leaves on the aspen and cottonwood trees were turning yellow, but before the first snow of the season. And I mean literally right before the first snow of the season, because the day after we left the campground, Hwy 120 was closed for the first time that fall, due to snow. The first snow is always exciting and makes me think of skiing!

A dusting of snow on the Sierras near Buckeye.

Buckeye is right next to the Buckeye Creek, which swells when the rains come in the fall. Since the hot spring pools are made from rocks and sand, piled up to catch the hot spring water that flows over a travertine overhang, they wash out when the creek breaks its bank. I guess that's what happened between early October and late October. Because when we visited there again on Halloween weekend, the lower coolest pool had vanished, and the middle pools had become one, with part of a wall demolished. Cold creek water was rushing in, and the pool became shallow due to sediment build up when the creek ran through it, I assume. We clearly had a job on our hands if we wanted to soak here. But all we had was our hands. We didn't bring a shovel or bucket or anything that would've made it easier.

The source of hot spring water at Buckeye - a hot water fall!

Even though it was close to freezing outside, we got to work, taking stones from the creek and piling them on the demolished sections of the pool walls to first hold the hot water in. Then we started digging the pool deeper, scooping sandy sediments from the bottom and using it like mortar to keep the rock wall more solid. Eventually, we finished repairing the middle two pools and they were holding a lot more water than when we first arrived. It was more fun than work! We were the only ones there all morning.

The morning sun and steam at Buckeye.

The last time we were here, Romy talked to one local (kind of) young guy who said that he cross country skis to Buckeye once the snow gets really deep. Its about a 5 mile ski-in. When I heard about that, it got me really excited! I want to do that! Maybe the next time I write about Buckeye, it will be about a ski trip in! I wonder what the spring will be like - will it be washed out again?

Bodie: Boom and Bust

2010-10-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

An abandoned home in Bodie, now a ghost town.

Just a little while after the gold rush in California started, a man named Body discovered gold in a hole he was digging a rabbit out of, in what is now the ghost town of Bodie. Somehow, it exploded into a huge mining town as word spread, and eventually had 10,000 people living there. That's amazing considering where it's located (all secluded in high desert mountains at 8,375 ft). In its day, it had 2,000 buildings, and 65 saloons along a mile long main street! More than 20 million dollars worth of gold was mined out of Bodie. Eventually, it went bust, and by 1915 it was officially a ghost town already. People still lived there for a long time after it was abandoned. I'm sure there were some squatters too. In the 60s it became a state park and the few buildings that were left are now preserved in arrested decay.

A gymnasium and a bar (I think).

When we went to visit, there was already snow on the ground. It was pretty cold and windy, but we put on a bunch of clothes on and hats and went out into the town. Most of the buildings were locked closed, but one of them was open to walk around in. All of the furniture was left like it was when abandoned, and a huge layer of dust had collected on top of everything. I thought the kitchen was most interesting.

Abandoned kitchen, but a beautiful pastel color.

Some of the buildings looked better than average. When we got up close, we realized that was because people (the park rangers) were living inside! I thought that was neat. I wonder if the buildings are haunted. One of the hotels in Bridgeport, the larger town in the valley west of Bodie, has a hotel that was ported piece by piece from Bodie. Its called the Victorian Hotel, and its right on the main street running through town (Hwy 395). Once we met a local guy who told us he knew the maid who worked there. She said that it was totally haunted (although the hotel isn't known/famous for its hauntings, just its history). She said that she would see figures down the hallways and when she was making the beds, she would feel the presence of other beings in the room. One time, she even saw somebody sit down on a bed, except there was nobody there, only an imprint! I am so determined to go stay at the hotel, but nobody wants to go with me, except Nicole. Once she moves here, we will go together.

The general store.

Inside the general store.

Many of the buildings were insulated poorly, with only cardboard or cloth lining the thin wooden planks that made up the walls and ceiling. Maybe that's why people drank a lot there - to stay warm in the winter! I heard that it had almost no police. The few policemen who patrolled the town were extremely corrupt themselves. Many disputes were settled personally, and violently. A lot of people killed others, and it was supposedly one of the most dangerous towns in the wild wild west.

The town of Bodie (what's left of it).

Lanterns all hung up in a row inside the fireman's garage.

I think this park is best seen in winter, when all the crowds leave and the ghost town seems more like a ghost town - deserted, cold, and silent. We drove by it once in the summer a few years ago about 1/2 hour before it was closing for the day and it was just packed with people. That day we decided to come back another time, and I'm glad we came back at the end of October instead, what happened to be the eve of Halloween (while everyone else was having some wild Saturday night halloween parties, I'd image). All the crowds were gone. There were only about 4 other cars in the parking lot.

Self portrait inside one of the houses in Bodie.

One of the rangers' residences.

Half the fun of going to Bodie was the drive to Bodie.

Driving down CA 167, one of the many roads that lead to Bodie.

Mono Hot Springs: The Abandoned Resort

2010-10-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

Far off in the mountains, where only one narrow and winding single lane road cut from the side of a mountain will take you, in the middle of nowhere, is a tiny place called Mono Hot Springs. I don't know why its called Mono, because its not in Mono county and its not really near Mono Lake. It sits in a valley between towering mountain peaks in the Sierra National Forest on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains at about 6,500ft and has jaw dropping views in all directions of granite domes and jagged peaks.

Topping out at Kaiser Pass, on the way to Mono Hot Springs.

To get there, we had to first drive to Fresno (where we were heading to buy a whole trunk-load full of VW parts for cheap). Out of Fresno we took route 168 which heads straight into the mountains. It climbs pretty quickly and about 50 miles later, ends at Huntington Lake. This area is a big recreation place for fishermen, hunters, hikers, but most of all, the 4x4 off roaders. There are Jeep trails all over the place. But we were heading for the hot springs, which were still about 20 miles away from the road's end (and we were driving the Daewoo anyway).

Clouds hang around the mountain peaks in the John Muir Wilderness.

From where the main road ends, you get on Kaiser Pass Road. Now don't let the name fool you. This road, although paved, is not what I would consider a road. It is basically a strip of asphalt about as wide as one and a half cars, that was laid over a trail. When large boulders or cobbles protruded out of the ground, they just paved over it all, and left the tops of the cobbles sticking out of the pavement! It snaked its way around trees, big boulders, and literally had you perched against the mountainside. One wrong turn and it would not be exaggerating to say you would drive off the side of the mountain! It took nearly an hour to arrive at the springs, but the views from this road were awesome!

The 15 miles long one-lane 'paved' Kaiser Pass Rd to Mono Hot Springs.

Mono Hot Springs is a rustic "resort" along the south fork of the San Joaquin River. It has cabins, a cafe, a small general store, and a hot tub complete with massages. But we had no plans to patronize this place (and its outrageous prices) because we were headed to the abandoned resort, which was just across the river. I'm not sure when it was in operation, but in modern times it now lies in ruins. The wooden structures have all been torn down or rotted away, but the concrete, however, remains. So littered around the otherwise pristine forested mountainside that slopes down to the river, are large and small concrete tubs, holding tanks, and plumbing which still channel the natural hot spring water bubbling from the ground.

An abandoned concrete holding tank at the old resort.

Next to the modern resort is a forest service campground also named Mono Hot Springs. From there, we crossed over a log that spanned the river to get to the south side, where the abandoned tubs were. The tub closest to the river (and also the deepest) was already occupied by a family. So we explored the other ones. We found a couple deep ones, but they weren't very hot (a little below body temperature). We also found a small bathtub shaped one (long and skinny) which was a pretty good temperature, about 98 or 100 degrees.

Another bathtub sized concrete tub from the abandoned resort.

We ended up taking that tub because we saw more people headed our way. It seemed like this was suddenly becoming the cool place to hang out! All the tubs were either directly fed by the hot spring, or had PVC or rubber piping feeding in hot water from a source not too far away. I guess the abandoned resort built some of the tubs directly on the sources or something, because we couldn't find plumbing to some of them yet they still had water flowing from the bottom somehow.

Soaking in the bathtub. Romy's foot graces the photo.

Our tub had a lot of algae growing on the walls and corners, but not on the floor where you sit. The water was surprisingly odor free (no sulfur smell at all). Since we visited Iva Bell hot springs a while back, which had small worms swimming in the water, I always check. There were no living organisms that I could see with my naked eye, so I figured it was ok to sit in it, like countless many people before us did. While we were soaking, we watched the hanging remains of rain clouds circle around us and hover over the mountain peaks. It was really quiet outside, and all we heard was the flowing river below, and the birds singing after an afternoon rain shower.

More abandoned plumbing from the old resort.

After a few hours, we decided we needed to head out of there before it got dark. Mainly because we still needed to go over the 9,100 ft Kaiser Pass and we were afraid that some of the rain clouds might dump snow instead if the temperatures got any lower. So we headed out on our way. While we were soaking, the fog started rolling in, which we didn't notice. So we drove along the one lane winding road enshrouded in mist, like driving through creamy milk. As it got darker and darker, it began to get hard to see more than 10 feet in front of you. And then the Daewoo decided to be lame, and our lights went out! Thankfully the flashers and parking lights stayed on, but other than that we were completely in the dark and in the fog. Oh yeah, and on a crazy mountain road too!

The adjacent forest service campground was nice.

Well, it turned out that the fuse blew because the dumb wiring melted, so our lights were really not going to turn back on (like they sometimes do if you hit them). We had our flashlight, which at this point was just as powerful as our parking lights in lighting up the way, so we tried shining it in front of us. The light just scattered everywhere due to the fog, so with just the parking lights on, we went slowly down the mountain (well, first up to get over the pass, then down). Somehow, we made it back down, although very very slowly! After that very intense hour, we found a 4x4 trail and pulled off. Since we had no lights, and it was already dark, we had nowhere to go except to sleep. But it now started pouring rain, and we didn't feel like building the tent and getting soaked while doing it. So we got pretty creative in the Daewoo and unbolted the rear seat backs to make a bed in the back. Our feet went in the trunk, and we padded the gap between the back seats and the front seats with stuff. We were able to fold down the front seats and stretch all the way out long ways! It was the best car sleep I ever got! Daewoot!

A Day at the Beach

2010-09-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today was really hot outside. There aren't too many of those kinds of day in the bay area, especially on the Pacific Ocean, because of the cold water. So what did we do? We decided to ditch the afternoon at Berkeley and go to the beach! Our favorite beach is Stinson Beach because its so big and there is free parking. It also seems likes it the warmest there, probably because its somehow protected from wind. Its right on the San Andreas fault near Point Reyes.

Our spot on the beach, complete with beach umbrella!

This was the first time that we actually brought a beach umbrella to the beach. The sun was really hot, so it was nice to have the umbrella. We found that umbrella on the street. Somebody was throwing it away because the stalk part of it was rusted and makes it hard to adjust the height. But we grabbed it when we saw it about a year ago, and its great! One man's trash is another's treasure.

Romy went swimming in the cold water!

There were a lot of sea gulls out. One of them was very interested in our bag of chips that we took with us. It was unopened, but the gull must of known what was inside. As soon as we stepped away from our towel, the sea gull went straight for the bag of chips. It decided to ram its beak into the bag and poke a hole into it. It did it with such force that it almost ripped the bag open entirely! We got back to the towels just in time to see it all go down, and chased the bird away. It stalked us for 10 minutes after that, waiting to go after the bag of chips again. It was very persistent, but eventually gave up.

We saw a pair of dolphins swimming in the ocean near the shore! The dark spot in the water is a dorsal fin.

As the sun was getting lower on the horizon, I was watching a surfer ride the waves. Then something else in the water caught my eye. I swear I saw two dorsal fins. They were huge! I got all excited because I thought they were orcas! So I yelled at Romy, "Orcas, orcas!" and he looked at me all crazy. Then I grabbed the camera and ran to the water. Once I got a better look, I realized they were actually two dolphins! They were jumping in and out of the water as they swam along the shore, and they were really close to the shore. I tried to take a picture but only got one where a dorsal fin is sticking out of the water. They swam around the surfer, who I don't think noticed them at all. It was really exciting to see dolphins in their natural environment, not at a zoo!

People at Stinson Beach.

Soon the sun was so low in the sky that it was starting to get chilly. So we decided to pack up and head home.

Fall Finnon Fest 2010

2010-09-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

Its already the third year that the Fall Finnon Fest has been going on! And its kind of exciting to know that we've been to every single one, since the beginning when we first moved to California! I don't really have much to say about the camp out, except the usual. It was fun and we can't wait until the next one. Here are some pictures to enjoy:

Brian's bus and his bike that he attached an engine to! Really epic!

Carl's adventure wagon with the hatch popped open. Will he end up selling it or not?

Somebody drove up Saturday evening in this Ghia. Not sure who it was, but I got this close up of the front lights.

Not sure who's bus this is, but I've seen it before. I appreciate the tarp awning!

Peter's red bus and Brett's big blue.

John's Dormmobile. Very unique - it was imported from the U.K., I think.

The hang out spot was by Shelby and Blake's Westy vanagon.

Saving the best for last! Our bus with Romy cooking breakfast and brewing some coffee on Sunday morning.

Kayaking on Mono Lake

2010-09-20T21:27:00.001-07:00

The baja carried our two kayaks over the mountains to Mono Lake.

I don't remember now what first gave me the idea to go kayaking on Mono Lake. But once it got into my head, I was determined to do it. Actually, I think it had something to do with hot springs (like all the crazy adventures, it seems). Somewhere I read that there was a hot spring on the big island (called Pahoa Island) on Mono Lake and the only way to reach it was by boat. The idea of visiting such a remote hot spring, which is three miles from the nearest launching point, made me want to go see it. I guess it was a similar motivation as the one I had to hike to Iva Bell, which was 13 miles from the nearest trail head. I then confirmed that it existed when I found a NOAA report from the 70s of all the hot springs in the US, complete with the GPS coordinates, water temperatures, and common name. From there I learned that the spring was so hot it was just 10 degrees short of boiling, and it was alkali. Not to great for bathing, but I wanted to see it anyways.

Kayaking through/around the South Tufa formation.

Mono Lake is a small inland sea, but it is 3 times saltier than the ocean! Its so salty, that nothing really lives in it except tiny brine shrimp. It is actually one of the oldest lakes in America, so it has been accumulating salt for a long long time! The area is full of recent volcanic activity, the most spectacular being the formation of the islands on the lake. They weren't there 400 years ago! They erupted just 'yesterday' if you think about the area on a geological time scale. The numerous hot springs on the island, which gush forth fresh water, are what create the famous tufa formations that ring the shore. Each tufa was once an active spring and formed from the interaction between calcium that was dissolved in the spring water with carbonates in the lake water. Over time, the calcium carbonate built up into tall towers. These have a sort of eerie beauty to them.

Posing for a picture by the South Tufa formation.

Our trip started on Friday afternoon. We packed up the baja, filling it with dry bags with all of our camping equipment and food inside. Then we loaded the two kayaks onto the roof rack and tied them down. We had a long journey ahead of us, so we double checked that they were secure. There is something funny about the tiny VW Beetle carrying two huge sea kayaks. The kayaks are longer than the baja and overhang the front and rear bumper by almost a foot! We always get a lot of looks and laughs as we drive by.

Two lone Tufa far off shore.

Mono Lake is located on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the high peaks drop sharply in elevation to the valley below. In the summer, strong winds develop in the afternoon that rip over the mountains and crash down into the valley. I think they are temperature/density driven. Winds over Mono Lake can reach hurricane force on a typical summer afternoon. All over the lake, there are signs posted warning of these sudden winds, and many people have died because they drowned or something when the winds picked up on the water. So it is recommended that you kayak only in the morning, and make sure you get to shore by noon or 1pm. In order to have enough time to kayak to the island and make it there before noon on Saturday, we drove over the mountains on Friday night and camped near Navy Beach in the mono craters forested area over night. The next morning we went to the visitor center as soon as they opened (8am) to pick up our camping permits.

Paddling into the protected little cove inside Castle Tufa.

When we told the rangers at the visitor center that we wanted to kayak to the island and stay overnight, they looked at us with a kind of sad face. I was like, wtf? Then the expression on the ranger's face turned into a sort of "You won't like what I'm about to say, but. . . ." and he told us that there were high winds predicted for Sunday all day. He said,

"I don't recommend going out on the water and paddling to the island because on the way back Sunday there are 30 mile an hour winds forecasted for all day."

Damn. I was kind of pissed actually, because we hauled those things all the way here, and now we were thwarted by the wind! The prevailing wind direction was towards the island from Navy Beach, so getting there would be a breeze (haha, pun intended!) but paddling on the way back would be rather difficult and dangerous on Sunday. Finally then we asked him what he recommended that we do. He probably sensed that we were kind of disappointed, so he kept repeating that we could go if we wanted to, but he also kept stressing the dangers of it, and how many people had died on the lake due to the sudden strong winds (about a few people each year). I had no doubt about the danger, so I asked if it was okay to kayak along the south shore instead and camp overnight somewhere. He said that that was an excellent alternative, and then told us about all of the tufa towers and fresh springs along the shore we could check out. He also let us know where we were allowed to camp (anywhere except near the freshwater springs).

Taking a break at Castle Tufa.

So although we weren't headed to the big island, we at least had a safe alternative, so we got back in the baja and took the kayaks to Navy Beach so that we could launch as quickly as possible before the afternoon winds picked up. Since all we had to do was stuff all of our stuff into the boats, we were ready within 1/2 an hour. Our first stop was the South Tufa formation which was very near Navy Beach. Its a really large formation and sees a lot of tourists (from the land). But it looks a lot different from the water!

The Castle Tufa reflects off the glassy water of Mono Lake.

That morning the water was calm, and like glass. It reflected all of the tufa formations like a mirror. The only disturbance was when we paddled by. Near the South Tufa, but farther off shore, were two lone towers standing like pinnacles. We kayaked out to them and checked it out, and then started heading east along the southern shore of the lake. All surrounding the lake was sandy soil with lots of rubber rabbit bush in bright yellow bloom. They are my favorite desert plant because of their bright fall color.

Blooming rubber rabbit bush on the shores on Lake Mono.

Soon we reached the Castle Tufa which was about 2 miles away from where we launched that morning. It stood like a fortress on the shore. But only when we got closer did we realize why it was really called Castle Tufa. As we paddled around it, we realized that there was a small protected cove inside the tufa formation. We carefully paddled inside and discovered multiply flowing fresh water cold springs coming out of some of the tufas! We washed our arms and legs in the fresh water, which by now were caked in salt crust from the splashes of salt water as we kayaked. What a relief! The salt was starting to burn my skin a little and made it feel dried and leathery. It also left a faint smell, very organic, slightly rotten and salty.

Simon Springs on the southern shore of Mono Lake.

After a break, we paddled on, staying close to the shore. The water near the surface was filled with tiny brine shrimp. We took a good look at them and realized they were in almost all colors of the rainbow. Some were pink, creamy colored, and others were bright iridescent turquoise! They swam (but mostly just floated) around with what looked like a million legs to each side and a long skinny tail. I wonder what eats them? It looked like birds picked at the water every once in a while, but not that much.

Exposed land tufa that was once under water when the lake level was higher.

Before we knew it, we reached Simon Springs, where we were supposed to camp for the night (well, not right at the springs because that isn't allowed). We got there earlier than expected, so we decided to go take a look at the marshy land that was surrounded by otherwise dry sandy desert. Reeds and cat-tail like plants grew all around, and there was an explosion of green. The spring area also had a few land tufa. Of course, these were formed when the lake water level was higher, and the tufa were submerged. The lake level has dropped nearly 40 feet since LA started diverting water for the city. Now its gone back up 10 feet since conservation efforts won some important battles for Mono Lake. But the state of California has come to an agreement that LA only needs to manage how much water they take so the lake level returns another 10 feet higher. That leaves the lake 20 feet lower than it would naturally be. The reason for this (we learned from the rangers) is that the state of California wants to leave some of the tufa exposed because it has become a large tourist attraction! Kinda screwed up, in my opinion, but in a weird way it makes sense. I would rather see it go back to how it naturally was, but then again, we were there partly to see the tufa, after all, like most people.

Beached at our camping spot for the night.

It was already noon, but the winds were still calm. We decided to keep paddling farther down the shore to find a good camping spot. But like clockwork, about 20 minutes after we set off the first breezes blew by. Soon the breezes turned into gusts, rippling the surface of the water. The wind was coming from the west, from the mountains, and it pushed us from behind. We stopped paddling because the wind was becoming so strong enough that we literally didn't have to anymore. We saw white caps in the distance off shore between us and the big island, and the waves grew larger and larger where we were too. And then the wind was gusting so strongly, I started to get scared. The wind was catching on our paddles and rocking the kayaks back and forth. Just as the worst of it was beginning, we were blown towards a large sandy beach. We decided that it was a good spot to camp and beached our kayaks then and there. The rangers were not kidding about the winds being strong and sudden. One minute it was calm, and literally the next minute, we were being blown over!

The view at our camp spot with the 'sheltory' tufa; the lake shining in the late afternoon sun.

It really couldn't of been a better spot to camp actually, which was lucky. But the wind was blowing so much that we looked for a place to shelter from it. Again, lucky us, the wind took us to the beach that had a broad tufa formation which, when we sat behind it, blocked about 90% of all the wind! We relaxed there for a while, munching on some trail mix of hazelnuts, brazil nuts, and chocolate chunks. After a nice break, we walked around the shoreline to check out the many exposed land tufa in the area. The wind stayed pretty strong for a couple of hours, but as the sun began to sink lower towards the west, getting closer to setting behind the mountains, the wind calmed down. Finally near sunset, it got calm enough to build our tent (which at first we had to weigh down with the gallons of fresh water we brought with, or it would of blown away).

Romy jumping with a bottle of wine!

Camping with the kayaks was a sort of luxury. We had room to bring a lot of stuff and we weren't limited by weight! So we brought a bottle of wine for the evening. We also brought canned food and fruit (things we would never bring backpacking). And we had a lot of extra warm cloths. Good thing, because it was nice to change out of our salty cloths we paddled in and put on some comfy sweaters and sweatpants at night. During the day it was in the 70s, but after the sun set, it dipped into the 50s. Later in the night it got even colder, but stayed above freezing. The weather report at the ranger station said it was about 37 degrees, which was probably right before dawn. The skies were clear all night, and we had a bright moon that lit up the sky. For most of the night, there was a constant breeze. I hoped that it would stop by sunrise.

When we woke up just after sunrise about 7am, the wind picked up. We knew it was going to be breezy today, but I hoped that it would give us a little break. Not a chance. The wind had changed direction, blowing off shore and slightly in the direction against where we needed to paddle back to Navy Beach, 6 miles away. Well, once we realized this we picked up the pace and got ready to start paddling back as soon as we could before the wind got worse. Soon we were launching the kayaks again onto the choppy lake.

Me at our camp spot with the sheltory tufa behind.

At first, we just started paddling along the shore parallel to it. But that wasn't working very well because the wind was blowing us slowly off shore and into the deeper water. It was doing it gradually enough that you couldn't notice, but once you did it was scary how far we were when we realized it. So we had to change our strategy and always paddle half way towards the shore and half way parallel to it. That way we were partially going towards our destination, and fighting the wind from pushing us into deeper waters. I was paddling with all my strength for the entire way back. I didn't take the camera out because the waves were breaking sometimes over the kayak hull, and salt water was splashing everywhere! Plus, if I stopped paddling for a second, I would start going backwards because of the wind. We took a break in the sheltered cove at Castle Tufa. Our faces were covered in white salty crust, and so were our arms! My hands looked like I had mickey mouse gloves on!

Anyways, we eventually made it back to Navy Beach, where we had the baja parked. What a relief! But I had mixed feelings once we got there. At first I was really happy that we made it without any roll overs or other problems. And then I was like, "Is it over already!?" I wanted to keep exploring the lake, but I guess there's always next time, right?

Back at Navy Beach!

5 Years of Blogging!

2010-09-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Today marks the day, five years ago, that I started blogging on www.jennandromy.com. It seems like such a long time ago! Wow!

Here are links to my favorite post of the year. Its like going back in time!

2005: Ode to Rafail Abramov, our linear algebra professor at UIC.

2006: We're Back From the Rockies!, a post about our trip to pick up our VW Bus after we got married.

2007: Canadian Rockies are HUGE!, a post about part of our cross-country trip in the VW Bus.

2008: We Made it to Berkeley!, a post about moving from Berwyn to Berkeley to start graduate school.

2009: Natural Hot Springs of the Eastern Sierra, a post about our first trip to visit the hot springs in Long Valley, the first of many!

2010: This year isn't over yet! But I still have a favorite post so far, Volcanoes, Aliens, and Hot Springs, a post about out trip to Washington (state) with Sebastian to watch alien ships fly over ECETI Ranch.

Fish Creek Trail to Iva Bell

2010-09-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

This past labor day weekend, we took the opportunity to go check out Iva Bell Hot Springs. The hot springs are very remote, located at about 7,200 ft in the high Sierra Nevada in the John Muir Wilderness. From the nearest trail head, it is a 13.75 mile hike one way! I've heard of people going to the springs when there was still snow in the mountains, but usually it is only accessible in the late spring and summer months. We heard about the hot springs at Iva Bell from an older couple we met while soaking at the Crab Cooker hot spring in the Long Valley one cold November night. They told us that they were hiking along a trail up near Red's Meadow in the 80s when they stumbled upon a set of pools in the wild. Nobody was there except them! When I got home, all I remembered from their conversation was the word Red and the word Bell. I tried looking in my California hot springs book for anything but couldn't find the spring they were talking about. Then I kind of forgot about it for about half a year.

Entering the John Muir Wilderness.

Then I stumbled upon a blog online which was about a couple's PCT/John Muir Trail hiking journal. They mentioned a bathhouse which had showers fed by 100% hot spring water at a place called Red's Meadow campground near Mammoth Lakes, CA. That was a clue! I went on an internet researching frenzy typing in "Red's Meadow hot springs Bell" and finally found the spring that the couple found in the 80s. It is different than the spring that feeds the showers. After identifying the name and location of Iva Bell hot springs, I still couldn't actually find it in any hot spring guide. I guess its a word of mouth type of place. The spring is not marked on all maps either like others are. Well, after finding out everything I could, we were ready to try and find it for real! But we needed a long weekend to do it because we wanted to take two days to reach the springs, hiking between 5-8 miles per day, and two days on the way back. That meant we needed a 4 day weekend to do the ~27 mile hike, so we ditched school on Friday and created our own 4 day weekend out of labor day weekend.

Tired Romy making a pasta dinner near the creek we camped at the first night.

A few days before we left, Nicole called me and said that they were canceling their trip to Canada because of hurricane Earl, which was causing bad weather all along the East coast where they were planning to be vacationing. Instead they found cheap tickets to L.A. and were wondering what we were going to be doing over labor day weekend. I told them our plans to hike to the hot springs, and they wanted to go to, but they wouldn't be able to start the hike until Saturday morning, while we were going to be starting Friday afternoon. In order to make it to the springs with us, I told them they would have to hike the entire 13.75 miles in one day! They were okay with that so we made plans to meet up. We also made a plan B and a plan C. Just in case.

Our camp site on top of glacially polished granite.

Before heading into the John Muir Wilderness, where the springs are located, you need to secure an overnight camping permit from the ranger station. We got one almost last minute, and we were really happy that they had some left, being a holiday weekend and all! I think they only let 25 people stay in the JM Wilderness each night. Also, the bear box idea is going viral, so they also required all overnight hikers to store their food in bear canisters, which they rented out for $5 at the ranger station in Mammoth Lakes.

A pine tree growing out of what looks like solid rock! So crazy!

We started out the hike in Red's Meadow. In the summer, there is a mandatory shuttle which takes you into the Meadow. The same shuttle also goes to Devil's Postpile National Monument (which we didn't have time to see it though). After getting tickets on Friday afternoon, we hoped on the shuttle and asked to be dropped off at the Rainbow Falls trail head (also the Fish Creek trail head). The Fish Creek Trail is the one which goes all the way to Iva Bell hot springs, but the first mile of it also serves as a trail to Rainbow Falls, a nice waterfall near Red's Meadow. Its a very busy part of the trail, but after you get through it, the people disappear and we were basically alone. In fact, as we hiked to our first camp site, we didn't see anybody else the entire time! It was really hot when we started out. The first part of the trail goes through an area burned by a wildfire over 15 years ago. But it is still really bare with no new trees, just short scrubby bushes. The burned trees stood like masts in a sea of bushes and charcoal. We had a couple miles of this until the trail dropped down into the regular vegetation. Then we passed a dense area near a stream, and off in the distance, we heard a thump thump thump! It was a black bear and we scared it and it was running off in a crazy dash, kicking past downed logs and bushes making all sorts of noise! I guess we were not expecting a bear, and we were glad that it was more afraid of us than we were afraid of it!

On our second day of hiking on the Fish Creek Trail, still a bit chilly out in the morning!

The trail then started heading for open and exposed granite, typical of the Sierra Nevada. We were nearing the 5 mile mark since we left the trail head, and since we had a long day already just to get to Red's Meadow from Oakland (we headed out of the house at 5am), we started looking for a good camp site for the evening. We soon found one near a creek which was feeding a waterfall farther down the trail. We spotted a nice flattened piece of glacially polished granite. It was literally like camping on top of a granite counter top, and it was shining in the sun. As the sun set, all of the heat that the rock absorbed during the hot day from the sun was radiating out of it. It was like sitting on top of a heater. We built our tent and relaxed. We were both pretty tired. The rock heated up our sleeping pads and we were so warm all night. The next morning, as we packed up our tent, we felt the rock under where we had the tent and it was still warm! The rock that was exposed to the night air was cold at the surface, but under the tent it was nice and toasty!

Some of the trail was cut right out of the granite!

After breakfast we continued hiking. We had to go almost 9 miles that day to make it to the springs. We hiked through come beautiful country, granite domes, and tall pine forests. Then we descended almost 1,500 feet of switchbacks down into Fish Creek Valley along which ran the Fish Creek, where the trail got its name from. We got to a big wooden bridge called Island Crossing and took a long rest there. It was peaceful. We were just relaxing with the sound of the creek rushing under the bridge. The water was crystal clear. But it was time to move on because we heard the springs calling to us! We only had about 4 miles to go!

Fish Creek at Island Crossing.

Boy did the last 4 miles seem more like 10! We had to ascend almost the entire way up back to about 7,200 feet, which is where we were before we descended all of the switch backs just a little earlier. Somewhere I read that the trail was mostly downhill. How did that person figure? We started the trail about 7,000 ft and we were going to end at about 7,000 ft at the springs so that's impossible. I guess you can't believe everything you read on the internet! But we were so close and we passed a few people hiking out the springs, each telling us that when we get there, we will reach paradise. We couldn't of been more motivated to keep on hiking! We heard from other hikers that the springs are not obvious from the trail at all. Once you get about 4 miles beyond the wooden bridge, there was a sign nailed to a pine tree which read "<--- Fish Valley, Goodale Pass --->". At that point we saw a small creek that we were instructed to cross over on a log. After that, we should see a few foot trails going up a hill. We followed one of the foot trails, which led us to a clearing. Except the clearing was filled with cascading water, flowing over rounded granite boulders nestled in lush grasses and wildflowers. Suddenly it seemed like all of the birds began to sing and we just kept hiking up, and up and up. We passed by a huge house-sized granite boulder, and came upon the first pool!

View of the morning sun coloring the distant ridges from the middle pools at Iva Bell.

The trail criss-crossed through the wet lush grass, and we walked through it to get higher up the mountainside where the other pools were located. Under the lush grasses was cascading spring water. It almost completely saturated the clearing. A small and very steep trail led us higher up the mountainside and soon we found the middle set of pools. They had an awesome view of the entire Fish Creek Valley.

Cascading spring water and lush grasses at Iva Bell.

Being a holiday weekend, there were many other campers around. We counted 20 people including us! But everyone was tucked away in secluded camping spots, so it didn't seem like a metropolis. We were lucky to find the last camping site near the middle pools, so we snagged it and took a break. But it was the middle of the day so it was pretty hot to go into the hot springs yet. So we had a late lunch instead and contemplated whether of not we thought Nicole and Marcel would make it this evening. They started out the trail this morning, after an all night drive from L.A. We crossed our fingers for them! In the mean time, we escaped the heat of the open clearing where the hot spring pools were by hiking back down to the main trail and sat next to the Fish Creek. We sat there for a couple hours actually, just relaxing. We decided that we would wait for Nicole and Marcel until it got near dark out. We talked about a lot of unimportant things to pass the time, and dipped our feet in the creek. Then when the sun dipped behind the trees, we hiked farther down the trail to find an area we at first complained about because of the lack of shade. Now we wanted to catch the last rays of sun to keep up warm while waiting for N&M.

Another turquoise pool at Iva Bell.

To our amazement, at about 6:30pm, we heard a yell from the trail, "Hello!" It was N&M and they were a little earlier than we were expecting them! They made it! We took their backpacks and helped carry them back up the steep trail up to the middle pools where we were camped. They were so exhausted that they didn't even eat much of dinner (broccoli and cheese rice-a-roni). But as soon as it got dark, and the air temp cooled to a pleasant 50 or 60 degrees F, we got in one of the three middle pools. Other people were in the other two pools, but they were in there for a while already and soon left when we got in. So we basically had the entire set of pools to ourselves for the whole night! The water temperature was slightly over 100 degrees. We heard from some campers that had been to the springs long time ago that they used to be hotter, more like 110 degrees F. That's a better temperature for a hot spring in the dead of winter, but 101F was okay for cooler summer mountain nights. However, it was not hot enough to prevent bugs and other small floating things to die. So we were swimming with other life forms that evening too. But it was dark, so. . .

Hot spring water cascades from one pool to another via small dug out channels in the earth.

We saw the sky covered in stars, and the milky way was thick and bright. We even saw 4 shooting stars! What a nice end to a full day of hiking! We had finally made it! It was so peaceful.

Taking one more dip in the morning!

When we got out, we were pretty warm and dried off quickly. Then we stumbled back to our camp site and got into our sleeping bags for the night. Romy and I bivouacked instead of building our tent. N&M slept in their tent. It was a warm night. The next morning, when the sun came out, I woke up Romy and we went back into the hot spring one more time. Then we came back and had coffee and breakfast. Then N&M woke up and we all went back into the hot spring again! For all the people camping nearby, we were still the only ones out that early in the pools. It was nice! Everyone was still sleeping. Once the sun came up over the mountain ridge, we felt its heat and knew it was time to start packing up. We only had a short time at Iva Bell, but it was worth every mile! However, I wish the water was slightly hotter. There are supposedly two more pools even higher up the mountain which are supposed to be nicer, but we never hiked up there. Next time!

N&M hiking past the middle pools out of the Iva Bell area.

Now we found ourselves hiking back, our third day. We wanted to take it easy, so we made sure to take plenty of stops. We hiked about 2 miles and took a long break. Then we hiked another mile and it was getting really hot out already, so we took another break to go swimming in Fish Creek. It was really refreshing! We cooled off, which was good because we had a lot of switchbacks in front of us. Soon we crossed the wooden bridge again and started our ascent. It was a whole bunch of up with a lot of steps! Somewhere half way up, a cowboy on a lone horse was coming down the switchbacks. We moved off the trail into the bush to let him and his horse pass, but he insisted that we pass and he would ride the horse off the trail. Poor horse! It was so scared! First of all, the trail was very thin and narrow, and second, the horse was big! And third, the mountainside was extremely steep. But he pulled the reins and told the horse to basically step off the trail and onto the steep mountainside. The horse was so scared its eyes got super wide open and almost refused to listen to the cowboy. But finally, after a lot of slipping and turning around, it stepped off the trail and let us pass. Then we told the cowboy that that was kind of crazy, and he told us is a hilly billy accent, "Oh, its normal."

On the wooden bridge at Island Crossing.

After what felt like forever of going up, we finally reached the top! We drank almost all of our water though, so taking a break was just for the muscle relief. There was no water for another two miles. We relaxed and cooled down in the shade, and then continued to cold creek, the first place we could fill up on water and eat. But the hike up all of those switch backs exhausted us all and the two miles to cold creek seemed to drag by. When we finally heard the rolling creek, we perked up and hiked a little faster. Finally we made it and collapsed on the pine needle covered ground under the trees. We busted out our lunch, but it was already after 4pm! We had beef jerky and cheese, chocolate, hazelnuts, and a cookie. We also munched on a tomato.

Are we at cold creek yet!?

The good news was that we were now full of food, hydrated, and only a mile or so away from where we wanted to camp for the night. When we got to our camp site (the same place we camped the first night) we collected some fire wood and set up camp. We were still full from our late lunch, so we just relaxed and made a fire. Then later in the evening, we made a small dinner. The fire was hot since the wood around us was very dry. We made the fire in a little depression right on top of the granite, and sat around in our socks on the smooth warm surface. It was like nothing else ever before! What a luxury to not be surrounded by dirt ground but instead clean smooth warm rock.

Romy being silly and rolling around the camp fire in his socks and thermal long johns.

What is going on!? I don't know but this is an epic picture!

The next morning, we had only 5 miles to go back to Red's Meadow where we planned to take a shower in the hot spring fed bathhouse! It was a easy hike until it suddenly started going up hill a lot! Then it was tough, especially the uphill sections at the end! We were so near the resort but the trail kept going up! Ahhhhhhh! We now all hiked 27 miles, and we ended it with a bang I guess. Finally we crested the "summit" and found ourselves at the Red's Meadow Resort. Marcel joked that he expected a large lodge with antler chandeliers and deer heads mounted on the walls. We found some cabins, a small store and cafe made from log cabins, and a campground. But most importantly, we found the bathhouse! There were about 6 showers, which flowed into concrete tubs in private rooms. When you turned the spigot, the hot water ran out and it was steaming hot! We cleaned off all of the dust and grit of the trail for the past four days. How nice! Then once we were all clean, we headed to the nearest bus stop and took the shuttle back to Mammoth.

All clean after a shower in the hot spring fed bathhouse at Red's Meadow!

And that was the end of our 27 mile round trip adventure to check out Iva Bell Hot Springs! It was nice!

Field Trip to Tahoe

2010-08-16T22:02:00.000-07:00

Relaxing after a swim at Velma Lake.

This past weekend I went on a camping trip to Lake Tahoe at Sugar Pine Point State Park with the graduate students in the Earth & Planetary Science Department at Berkeley, my new department. It was a lot of fun and I had a chance to meet a lot of people I will be working with and taking classes with. The first day we spent half of it driving there. Then after setting up our tents and stuff, we went to the beach to take a swim in Lake Tahoe. The weather was beautiful and hot, but the water was kind of chilly. The next day we took a hike in the Eldorado National Forest in the Desolation Wilderness to Velma Lake. There is an upper and lower Velma Lake, and I'm not sure which one we actually hiked to. Once we got there, we took a swim and relaxed. It was a 10 mile round trip hike and a 2,000 ft elevation gain. Then the last full day we spent at Tahoe we took another hike to the peak of Mt Tallac, at 9,700 ft high, which was awesome! It was another 10 miles round trip hike but a 3,300 ft elevation gain. It was pretty steep in some areas but worth the hike to the top for the view alone. Near the top, which was above the tree line, there was a tundra like ecosystem with wildflowers blooming. It was so beautiful!

The shores of Lake Tahoe at Sugar Pine Point.

Each night we left the campfire for a while and took a walk to the beach to see the stars and the milky way. Jupiter was also bright in the sky. The first night we were there, it was just after the peak of the Persieds meteor shower. But even so, we still saw a few shooting stars, and some were huge fireballs with tails that stayed glowing, streaking across the sky along the milky way. It was spectacular to see, especially since the sky was so dense with stars and the moon was rising pretty late. Well, here are some more pictures:

My tent in the forested area of the group campsite at the state park.

Eagle Lake, as seen from the trail to Velma Lake in the Desolation Wilderness.

High Sierra beauty in the Desolation Wilderness.

Gaining elevation on the hike to summit Mt Tallac.

High Sierra tundra and blooming wildflowers near the summit of Mt Tallac.

Trees sculpted by the prevailing winds, nearing the tree-line!

At the summit of Mt Tallac, with Lake Tahoe in the background.

Norway part 2: Fjordin'

2010-08-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

I fell asleep on the ride between Oslo and Dombås, but it was kind of rainy and dull out, and I was tired. However, having to switch trains from the cross country ho-hum type to the Rauma Rail line woke me up. The train was much nicer, with large windows and slightly more comfortable seating. We also only had about 3 minutes to switch trains, so there was a bit of an adrenaline rush. The Rauma line took us through some spectacular scenery! Almost immediately we crossed an awesome river with cliffs on either side. Shortly thereafter we were passing through wonderous valleys and next to the Rauma river. The weather was what I’ve been told is typical to the area – cloudy with a few breakthroughs of sun and some low hung fog in the valleys. The train descends rapidly from something like 600m to sea level in a trip that took only an hour or so and wasn’t going very fast. It crosses at least 30 bridges and goes through two hairpin tunnels. Yes, hairpin tunnels. As in the train does a U-turn in the mountain! The train also passed by the Trollveggen (Troll’s wall), which is the highest cliff face in Europe at something like 1000m. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see it due to the low clouds (but we saw it on the way back)..

A view from the Rauma Railway line.

We reached Åndalsnes and exited the train to the sound of Norwegian death metal! Rauma Rock, an annual festival, happened to be occurring while we were there. Before we went a-Rauma-rockin, we walked the 4km to the campground on the Rauma river. We set up camp, and although we were tired, felt the rumble of hunger. So back to the city we walked, to get some food and go Rauma Rockin! We barely made it in time to get groceries, and with groceries in hand, walked over to the festival. Unfortunately, they wanted 800 kroner (~$115) to get in! Luckily, we didn’t have too much interest in actually seeing the performers, and instead grabbed a beer to listen. At $10/beer, our wallets only allowed us 2 each, and our internal clocks were still partly on California time, so we soon walked back to our camp and crashed.

This was taken right next to the campground at a small beach area, the morning we went to see the Trollstigen.

Waking up the next day to somewhat dreary (but picturesque) surroundings, we got up and made breakfast sandwiches, did some emailing, and prepared for our trip to the Geirangerfjord. The bus left at 8:30, the same time the café at the campground opened which just wouldn’t do. Coffee was needed! So a bit before the hour we hoofed it towards town to the gas station on the outskirts of town, and got some of the best gas station coffee I’ve ever had. I mean, this stuff was excelent! With epic coffee in hand, we waited at the bus station in front of the gas station and flagged down the bus to Geirangerfjord when it came by. The bus driver looked pissed, but I think that was just his normal expression because he turned out to be a jolly fat man. The bus took us back past our campsite, and onwards down the road to the Trollstigen and the fjord. In my mind the fjord was the main attraction, but that idea was quickly discarded as we approached the Trollstigen. The road ascends a ridiculous cliff, with many switchback, and a width I hardly thought wide enough for the huge bus we were in! The jolly fat driver stopped a few time to exlaim ‘fotos!’, where all passengers would stumble out, too intent on looking at the massive cliffs to notice small things like stairs on a bus. Seriously, two people did this.

The official sign in Norway for Troll crossing!

The Trollstigen (Troll's Ladder)

The climb to the top of the Trollstigen was an impressive feat of driving, and the view from the top was amazing. The fog was hung low in the valley, looking more like a painting than reality. But it didn’t end there. The terrain from this point down to the small town of Valldal was equally amazing. I love the high mountain landscapes! There are pictures on flickr, but none turned out too well through the windows of the bus.

Arriving in Valldal, we were surprised to find ourselves boarding a ferry to cross from Valldal to Eidsdal. Then we climbed back up and over a pass, descended another crazy steep and narrow road, and arrived in Geiranger. We had a few minutes, which we used to make sandwiches while we waited for the ferry from Geiranger back to Valldal. Mmm sandwiches. The ferry arrived, and off we went. The Geirangerfjord is one of the ‘to do’ fjords of Norway and it was definitely impressive. The shear scale of it all was just massive.

A view of Geiranger (and an apparently grumpy me) from near the pass we came over.

The ferry took us past a few waterfalls, one of which is known as the 7 sisters and looked spectacular in the pictures we saw of it. But this year has been a bit light on the rainfall and consequentially two of the sisters were on vacation. It was still an awesome site, as well as the waterfall across from the 5 remaining sisters.

The ferry then went out of the Geirangerfjord and turned toward Valldal. We passed farms that were situated on cliffs overlooking the fjord. These farms had all been in use as late as the 1960s, and must have took determined farmers to work them! There were no roads to them, no electricity, and snow melt streams for water. They existed at elevations that were high enough to make the climb up strenous, but low enough that the winters were not too harsh on the inhabitants. One farm was even moved down by 15 meters because they had originally built it too high and the winter was too harsh at that elevation! Imagine moving your house 15 meters (50 ft) lower and all the sudden the winter is much milder!

The 7 (five) Sisters waterfall.

The fjord widened and branched again as we turned towards Valldal and Eidsdal, and we watched the same ferry that had carried our bus over as it cruised away from Valldal with another bus on board. This also signaled the end of our ferry ride, so we disembarked and found that we had 2 hours to wait until we could catch the bus back (we had just seen it crossing on the other ferry going the other way). With time to spare, we bought some beer, made a few sandwiches, and explored Valldal. There was a small church in town that was kind of cool – Andrew was running around trying to find old gravestones, but none were older than 150yrs. We then found a little beach to relax on and wait for the bus. People were swimming and the water was indeed warm, although we had no swim suits, so instead we skipped some stones and ate our sandwiches. Soon the time had passed and we were boarding the bus again, bound for Åndalsnes with the jolly fat driver at the wheel again.

The beach in Valldal where we had some sandwiches.

This time the sun was shining, the sky was a deep blue, and the views were just great! The driver stopped at a roadside stand for strawberries, and although expensive by US standards, they were excellent! The Valldal area is known in Norway as a huge strawberry area, and it did not disappoint. The trip back up to the Trollstigen was awesome; we were able to see much more this time around. Again we stopped for ‘fotos!’ and got some great shots.

Arriving back at the campground we were surprisingly tired, so we showered and I went to sleep. Andrew stayed up and drank beer with himself like a total alco. I awoke the next day refreshed and spent it internetting and relaxing in Åndalsnes as we waited for the train to Trondheim.

Norway part 1: Getting there and Oslo

2010-08-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

Andrew and I left Oakland on Wednesday around 1pm, flying to Ontario first on our way to Norway. The flight was nice and comfortable, and I was surprised with how nice Air Canada was. We arrived in Ontario, hurried over to the other gate, and got on the much longer flight to Frankfurt, Germany, also on Air Canada. I think that airline is my new favorite – the airplane food was actually good and they had a choice of movies to watch. I tried to sleep on the flight, but think I only got about an hour. The plane landed about 20 minutes late, and for all the hurrying we could do, the damn Frankfurt airport is a labyrinth and we missed the flight to Oslo. So we had to re-navigate the labyrinth up to the customer service office to get another flight for 2.5hrs later, go through customs about 3 times, and finally get to the gate of departure, where we both promptly sat down and fell asleep. We almost missed the flight to Oslo because of that, but woke up just as the last people were boarding, and some Norwegian guy was laughing that we looked to comfortable to wake up. The flight to Oslo was uneventful I think – I don’t really know because I continued my nap. Landing in Oslo, we collected our luggage and took the train to the city center, which cost around $15 to go 20 miles – our first introduction to the Kroner vs. the $.
The train station was nice and close to our hostel, so we walked over to the 2 star 'hotel' we were staying at, located rather centrally in Oslo, checked in, dropped our crap, and headed out around 10pm while it was still light, accompanied by some random Japanese dude who was staying in one of the other bunks of the room (he was in Norway for the Orienteering competition in Trondheim). After 24 hours or so of travel, we really didn’t have all that much energy and ended up back at the hotel by midnight, stopping along the way for some beer at a local piano bar of all places. The singer did a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody that was pretty awesome.
The following day (Friday by now), we awoke early to shower, eat, and get ready to see as much of Oslo as we could prior to our train to Åndalsnes leaving at 2ish. It was surprisingly easy to wake up, so we got an early start. We first walked over to the Vigeland Sculpture Park. This park has 200 some bronze and granite statues of people doing odd things. It was quite a sight really, and I didn’t really expect it to be as cool as it turned out to be. After the park, we headed back to the center area of town, intent on seeing the Akershus Fortress. The castle in this fortress was built in the late 13th century, and used until 17th or 18th century, when it was apparently allowed to ‘fall into decay’ as they put it, and not restored until the late 1800s. The restoration seemed to be more for function than historical accuracy, and it turns out that the fortress is actually used by the Norwegian military (as well as the tourist industry). It was also used as a prison for some time, where the prisoners could be rented out as a workforce!
After the fortress, we walked over to the Oslo Cathedral to see the main church of Oslo. I kind of expected a more gothic crazy building, with some viking influence or so (like a longboat for a roof), but was instead we saw a rather bland church, and only from the outside, since they were only open 3:30pm until midnight. So that left us with a bit of time to wander about, and Andrew bought some new shoes to replace the extremely worn out pair he had came with. After that, we collected our bags from the hotel and headed over to the train station, boarded our train, and started progressing up north.

Some pics:

Like I said, weird sculptures.

Naked pissed little kid.

It was a nice park, even for all the odd sculptures

The touristy dock area of Oslo

Visiting Lassen Volcanic National Park

2010-08-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

Lassen Volcanic National Park is in the southern section of the Cascade Mountain range which connects with the northern part of the Sierra Nevadas. It is snow-free only two or three months of the year! We figured that now was the time to go and visit it, since the road is usually closed more than it is open. It was kind of a last minute decision to go, which made it even more fun. We left Friday afternoon from Oakland and headed north along I-5 until we got to Red Bluff, which is just south of Redding. From there we took HWY 36 into the Lassen National Forest to camp for the night. It was pretty dark when we finally got to the forest boundary, so we just turned on our bright lights and turned off on the nearest forest road. The road kept climbing up a mountainside with pretty steep drops or walls to either side. Finally though, it leveled out and we found a spot to camp for the night where somebody already made a huge firepit! I had our fire permit in my purse, so we made a campfire and had some tortilla chips for dinner.

Our campsite in the Lassen National Forest.

The next morning we got up as early as we could (but we didn't get to sleep until about midnight the night before) because we wanted to see a lot of the park - as much as we could that day. But first, we had to stop for some coffee in the town of Mineral, just outside of the park. Then with coffee in hand, we were ready to enter the park, which only cost $10, but our year pass was still valid so we didn't have to pay. The first spot we hit was the geothermal area and Little Hot Springs Valley, which was once the interior of a huge volcano that blew itself up. The magma chamber was still feeding heat to some geothermal features, like boiling mud pots, fumaroles, and hot springs. It looked like a mini Yellowstone. On one of the signs, we saw a picture of Bumpass Hell, another geothermal area which was a 1.5 miles hike away, so we decided to go see that too.

Yellow wildflowers in Little Hot Springs Valley in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Mt Lassen lurks in the background and the eye.

The area got its name, Bumpass Hell, because there was a guide named Mr Bumpass, who used to take people to the area. One time he walked on the geothermal area when he was giving a tour, where the crust was too thin, and his leg broke through and fell into the boiling hot mud just below the surface. It was mud, so it stuck on him, but it was also boiling hot! He was severely burned and lost his leg as a consequence.

A panoramic photo of the Bumpass Hell area.

We saw a bunch of mud pots, fumaroles, and hot springs (again) but they were very colorful here. There was even a roaring fumarole which sounded like a quiet jet engine with a huge amount of steam gushing out of it. The whole area had a boardwalk so that you could walk and see everything elevated off of the thin fragile crust. In some areas, parts of the boardwalk were engulfed by the every changing hot springs. There was a lot of snow still on the trail to Bumpass Hell. We even found an informational sign (about the story of Mr. Bumpass) still almost completely covered by snow.

Pink snow algae is alive and lives on the frozen surface!

Next, we continued the drive through the park on Hwy 89, which took us past the base of Mt Lassen. There was even more snow there and along the side of the road we found snow algae growing on the surface. It is a type of extremeophile which lives quite contently on the snow during summer. It was bright pink! Aside from that, the rest of the road went past a lot of forest scenery and gave access to a lot of trailheads for hikers. Soon we were out of the park, but there were other things we still wanted to see. In the northeast section of the park was the Fantastic Lava Beds and the famous Cinder Cone trail and Painted Dunes. To get there, we had to first drive out of the park, and then drive down a forest road which took us back into the park. It was a bumpy gravel road, but no biggie in the baja.

At the edge of the flow which created the Fantastic Lava Bed, along the trail to the cinder cone.

We found the trail that led to the cinder cone, which started from the Butte Lake campground area. Along the way, we hiked past the edge of the lava flow that created the Fantastic Lava Beds (I'm not making up the name!), which up close looked like a bunch of lava rocks piled on top of each other. The ground we were walking on began to get sandy, but it was black, like sand that was created from broken up lava, which was all around us.

Approaching the cinder cone, which rises 700 ft above the lava beds.

Soon we reached the cinder cone and we started going up. Imagine climbing a huge dune. We were lucky that there was a nice strong cool breeze blowing because otherwise it would've been really hot, with all of the black lava under our feet. The cinder got in our shoes, in between our toes, and in our socks, which was a little annoying, but we were determined to get up. It took us about 1/2 hour to get all the way up because we climbed so slow and took a lot of breaks.

Climbing the cinder cone.

Finally, we got to the top. The cone's color was more reddish on top because of the rust that forms from the iron-rich cinder and lava. And the wind was even stronger! It blew my sun hat off many times. We took a walk around the entire top of the cinder cone and then found one of the only trees up there and sheltered ourselves from the wind for a break. We had a view to the east, over the painted dunes (colored from rust), Butte Lake, and of course, the Fantastic Lava Beds.

Panoramic photo of the top of the cinder cone. You can see Lassen to the right.

We were the only people on the top of the cinder cone, which was amazing for being Saturday afternoon. But that only lasted for about 45 minutes, and soon more people came up the steep trail. So we decided to go down, which was much easier than climbing up! When we got back down to the trail along the lava beds, we smelled a sweet vanilla scent in the air. It was the pine trees! The bark of some pine trees in the Sierras smell like vanilla cream soda. I think that is really cool!

Some pine trees smell like vanilla cream soda when you smell their bark. It was so strong on the trail, it was carried by the breeze, almost like somebody cracked open a soda on the trail!

After hiking 4 miles round trip, we were pooped, so we headed out of the park and into the surrounding national forest to find a camping spot. We weren't very lucky finding a spot where somebody already camped before, so we picked a level area and had to build a new fire ring. After dragging all of the large rocks we could find in the area, we had to start collecting wood, which was no problem since there was downed wood everywhere. And the wood was extremely dry too so starting the fire was as easy as putting my lighter to a twig. No paper or anything needed. One lit twig started the entire pile of wood in the fire ring, which made me think of how easy it would be for somebody to accidentally start a whole forest fire. For example, if you were smoking and dropped your cigarette or something. Some national forests in California suspend campfire permits in the summer, but Lassen did not (yet) so we were allowed to have our fire that night. However, when we drove home the next day, all of the other forests we drove through had big signs reading "burning suspended."

That night we almost had another sasquatch encounter, but it turned out to be nothing. We were sitting around the fire, and it was starting to get dark. The birds were still singing. All of a sudden we heard a loud moan in the forest, but it sounded more like a trumpeting. All of the birds and even the chirping bugs stopped singing. It was dead quiet as everything in the forest paused to listen in confusion over what the heck that was. Even we turned our heads and listened to what might be lurking in the forest behind us. But it was nothing and we never heard anything unusual for the rest of the evening.

Driving off road in the Toiyable National Forest.

The next morning we headed off east to get to Hwy 395. We decided that we had time to take a nice drive along my favorite highway from Susanville, CA, through Reno and Carson City, NV, back into California at Topaz Lake, and then over the Sierras on Hwy 89. Then from Hwy 89 we took the turnoff for Hwy 4, which we've never driven on before. It is one of the first highways to close when winter snow hits, and one of the last highways to open in the late spring (I don't think it opened until June this year). We figured it must be good if the snow plows don't even attempt to plow it. So off we went. But before we got to the highway turnoff, we were distracted by all the dirt roads that went off into the high country at Monitor Pass, which stands at 8,314 ft. Our excuse to go joy riding through the Toiyabe national forest was that we were scouting out yurting spots in the mountains. Its our plan to go relocate ourselves one summer for a couple of weeks and live out of the yurt. We are in the process of looking for solar panels that we could put on the roof so that we could power our laptops and still work on research while in the middle of nowhere in the yurt.

View south, towards Bridgeport. We want to put the yurt here one summer an have this view!

After close to an hour of exploring and stopping to take in the amazing views from the top of the mountains, we decided to finally get on Hwy 4. It followed a river for the beginning of it, and then it started climbing over the Sierras. Then the road turned into a one and a half lane road, with no center stripe! We couldn't believe that it was a real state route and not a paved forest road. There were thousand foot 'death-drops' sometimes to either side of the road, and nobody drove very fast for fear of missing on of the hairpin turns and falling off the Sierra Nevada mountains! We drove over huge granite domes and past small alpine lakes. There were awesome cabins secluded in the forest here and there, and I was sooooo jealous of whoever owned them!

Driving down Hwy 4, which was one lane for most of the drive across the Sierras! It was so cool!

The sun was setting just as we got out of the mountains and into the valley. But I think the valley is boring so it didn't matter that it was dark already. In fact, maybe it was better that we didn't see Stockton while driving through it. We finally got home really late, and as always, I wished I was still in the Sierras! We want to go back again, of course. We always want to go back to the mountains as soon as we've left them!

My New Desk in McCone!

2010-07-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

Today I feel like its official that I transferred to the Earth & Planetary Science Dept from Mechanical Engineering at Berkeley because I moved to my new desk! I was really excited to move because my old desk was in Etcheverry Hall, where there used to be a nuclear reactor in the 60s. My desk was in the center of the building and had no windows, just foot-thick concrete walls and recirculated air. Gross. My new desk is a corner room in McCone Hall and has 4 large windows that you could open to let fresh air in. I have natural light as opposed to flickering fluorescent lighting.

My new desk and personal window! I had to close the shade so that the picture would come out.

I have to gloat about this because I've been sitting in a crappy room over the past year or so. Now I have an awesome view - check out the next pictures which I took out my window and the other nearest windows:

This is the view from my window. You can see Memorial Glade and the big library. I can also see the bay partially off to the right and the northern part of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

This is a view of a redwood tree out the west window closest to me. I like redwoods.

This is the view from the south window to the left of my desk. You can see the clock tower and the Oakland Hills.

I hope that I don't find myself looking out the windows more than doing the work that I have to get done!

Some Videos to Share

2010-07-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

While we were on our trip with Nicole and Marcel, they had a camera that took short video clips. Some of them were pretty good, so I thought I would share them.

Here is a video of Nicole and Marcel driving off road in the Salmon-Challis National Forest in central Idaho. They were following us and we were going to Sheephorn Lookout Tower which a little higher than 8,000 ft. I thought that the forest and mountains in this part of Idaho were absolutely beautiful and I want to go back again!

The next video is of Romy chopping wood at the Peel Tree A-Frame, the cabin we rented from the Salmon-Challis National Forest in Idaho. There were a bunch of cut pieces of wood that needed to be split so that we could make a campfire. Romy was having a bunch of fun doing it.

The final video is the funniest! We were in Idaho (again) but this time near Lava Hot Springs in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. We were looking for a camping spot and along the gravel road, there was a huge pick-up truck that was stuck in the mud. People kept passing him without helping (which we didn't know) but we stopped! He was so desperate that he accepted our offer to try and help tow him out with a VW Beetle! We tried it, if only for shits and giggles. We didn't really think we could tow him out anyways. . .

Our Time Back in Berwyn

2010-07-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from our time back in Berwyn:

A Robin couple made a nest above the outdoor light and had three babies. They barely fit in the nest. Before we left to go back in California, the three baby birds flew out of the nest! I sometimes wonder how birds make such perfect nests. They look comfy.

Romy and his 1970 Buick which was originally bought by his grandma. It still needs a vinyl roof put on, and some of the chrome trim.

My mom hosted a BBQ and invited a bunch of family and friends!

We went blueberry picking at Mike's Blueberry Farm in New Buffalo, Michigan. They sold the u-pick berries for $1.50/lb.

Romy, Marcel and Nicole picking blueberries. It was really hot that day! Romy and I picked 13 pounds and then called it quits to hit the beach again because we were soooooo hot in the sun!

I met my friend Kali for breakfast one morning. We hadn't seen each other since high school when we were both in marching band!

Romy and his parents in the backyard. We had a White Castle picnic with sliders, onion rings, and chocolate milk shakes.

We also visited Jim and Antonia, who are getting married this August! They live in Chicago near the field where the White Sox play.

Our Way Back to Berwyn

2010-07-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

When I finally realized it in my head, that we were now on our way home, a little sadness crept over me. You know how it is, realizing that a great adventure is coming to an end? Well, that thought hung over my head the whole time we drove back home. Luckily, the way we chose to drive home was filled with things to see, as we were trying to maximize our time that we had left. Firstly, we planned on driving north through Yellowstone National Park, then to Cody Wyoming and up over the Bighorn Mountains. Then we planned on seeing Devil's Tower before we left Wyoming. In South Dakota, we wanted to drive through the Black Hills, before we hit the flat-ish plains of Iowa and definitely flat plains of Illinois.

Thermal pools at Yellowstone National Park.

Driving across Yellowstone really made us realize how HUGE the park really is. It took us literally the whole day, with a few stops of course to see the hot thermal pools and geysers. We also stopped for about 2 hours at Old Faithful to see it erupt. Nicole and Marcel went on the boardwalk around the thermal pools and springs, while Romy and I looked for a nice spot to watch Old Faithful erupt. We found the gigantic Old Faithful Inn, a hotel made out of wood which sits right next to the geyser its named after. We saw that there was a viewing platform on the top of the hotel so we tried to get to it. We climbed three stories of stairs until we hit a blockade which locked the rest of the stairs up to the crow's nest viewing platform. Damn! Well, during our search inside the Inn, we found a smaller balcony lower down on the second floor where we decided to sit and watch the eruption away from all the people. It was perfect! And another bonus we found was that the Inn had hostel style bathrooms, with showers! We helped ourselves to a nice hot shower while N&M were still walking around the thermal pools trail/boardwalk. We already saw it the last time we visited Yellowstone, and a hot shower after many days of camping sounded nice (and it had to be a stealth shower so that the hotel staff wouldn't catch us - Shhhhhhh don't tell anyone)!

Old Faithful Geyser at Yellowstone National Park.

The road out of the park towards Cody took us out of the mountainous interior and onto the rolling plains, near Yellowstone Lake. There we saw buffalo everywhere! And with the wild animals, of course, came the back up in traffic, with everybody and their mom stopping their cars in the middle of the road to look at the wildlife. It really seemed like these were the type of people who have never seen a deer before, or something. Once there was a bear on the side of the road off in a wooded area, and so many people just stopped their car to take pictures that it caused a back up for half a mile down the road. People even got out of their cars while leaving the engine idling. So many people were mobbing the poor bear that it promptly left. In fact, most people seemed to 'hog' the opportunity to see the wildlife. Instead of taking a quick look and leaving the animal alone, people swarmed it with their cameras, approaching it and yelling, "Hey look!" to their brothers or sisters. So annoying!!!!!

A resting buffalo in the prairie grass at Yellowstone.

When we finally got out of Yellowstone (which we all decided would be a lot better to visit in September when all the people were gone) we had to start looking for a camping spot since it was getting late. We found a whole string of National Forest campgrounds along the road to Cody, so we just picked one. It was getting pretty cold outside and clouding over. Romy went to go talk to the campground host, and he said that they were predicting snow for any location above 6,000 ft. That meant we might be getting snowed upon in the middle of July! And Yellowstone was going to get snow for sure. I secretly hoped that we would wake up under a couple inches of snow, but it didn't happen. Instead we got a little cold drizzle overnight and then a good rain in the morning. Romy and I packed up our tent before the downpour started, but N&M were a little slower and got their tent soaked!

After the rain hurried us out of the campground, we started the drive to Cody Wyoming where we filled up for gas and coffee. But as N&M pulled up into the gas station, we noticed a bunch of oil under their rear end. Uh oh! Oil was literally squirting out like a fountain out of their oil cooler when the engine was running. Crap! Luckily there was an auto parts store across the street from the gas station, so we filled it up with more oil and drove quickly to the parts store. There we asked if they would happen to know a VW joint nearby, but of course, those don't exist in these parts. The man behind the counter said we just tripled the VW population of Cody by driving through (apparently there was only one other VW in the whole town). But he pointed us to some guy he knew of that might have VW parts lying around, so we took the info and hoped for the best.

A hand painted VW Beetle at Joe's Auto in Cody, Wyoming.

Romy and Marcel dropped me and Nicole in downtown Cody while they took care of the VW. We didn't know it, but this was the first of many breakdowns we would have with N&M's baja on the way home! Nicole and I walked around the downtown area while Romy and Marcel drove around in the working baja to find parts. Their first stop was Joe's Auto in Cody, who referred them to some crazy old man a few miles down the highway. Apparently this man had a shop with a bunch of parts. Romy told me he has suffered a few strokes in his age, and also farted audibly without noticing or caring at all. They were looking for an oil cooler, which they finally found. Then a couple hours after they dropped us off, Romy and Marcel picked us up again. We went back to look at the oil leak, only to discover that it wasn't the oil cooler at all upon closer inspection! It was the oil pressure switch sender which was busted, and that was connected to the oil cooler. So the search for parts that Romy and Marcel went on was kind of pointless, but they did buy some cheap other random parts for the bajas while there. What we ended up doing was switching out their broken oil pressure sender for ours (since we actually had two on ours - weird coincidence). Literally in five minutes the problem was fixed and we were on our way again.

9,000 ft in the sky at the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming.

Since we spent most of the day unexpectedly in Cody, we needed to really get going back on the road. I hoped that we would make it to the Bighorn Mountains while it was still light out because I remembered from our last road trip in the bus that they were really cool. We took a small road (14A) from Cody to the foot of the mountains, and then the road just started climbing up - 10% grades! We were gaining elevation fast and before we knew it we were at over 9,000 ft in just half an hour or so! At the top we stopped for a rest, but quickly continued so that we could see the rest of the mountains along the road before sunset. Romy got really excited and proclaimed that it was his favorite mountains. They were like an island in the Wyoming high desert! We saw elk, moose, aspens, and pines. Forested areas gave way to rolling grasslands and creeks covered by willows. The mountain range, once you got on top of it, was kind of like a big plateau, mostly above 8,000 ft. We drove through for about an hour before we crossed it and descended back down to the grassy plains of eastern Wyoming.

Our sleeping arrangement at a Wyoming rest stop.

We drove deep into the night, but at midnight we were so tired that we decided to stop at the next rest stop which was just outside of Moorcroft. We were so exhausted that we just wanted to go to sleep, but of course, there is no camping at rest stops allowed. And N&Ms bug decided to die and not start again as they pulled off I90. We had to push their bug into the rest stop, about 1/4 of a mile! But we made it, and N&M decided to sleep in the front seats of their baja. Romy and I didn't like the sound or feel of that, so we got out our army camo sleeping bags and slept on the grass under a cottonwood tree. We were pretty hidden I guess because nobody bothered us all night. We woke up to the sun hitting us which started to warm up the bags to an uncomfortable temperature. I guess it was time to hit the road anyways!

N&M's baja broken down in Moorcroft Wyoming.

We drove out to Moorcroft to get coffee and fill up on gas before hitting the road to see Devil's Tower. But again, there was something wrong with N&M's baja! This time a crazy noise was coming out of the engine, like a hammer hitting on metal. Sometimes it was in time with the engine rpm, as if it was a problem in the valve train, but other times it was completely random. We decided to check the valves, but first we had to wait for the engine to cool. The valves were pretty mal-adjusted so Marcel fixed that, but the noise didn't go away. After listening to it for a bit, we decided that it must of been a rock in the fan shroud that was being thrown around. That's what we hoped anyways, and hit the road again. Unfortunately we ate the time that we planned to see Devil's Tower. I guess there's always next time!

The ranger demonstrating the wind coming out of Wind Cave, South Dakota.

Instead of continuing on I-90, we decided to get off and take Route 20 all the way back to Chicago. But to get to Route 20, we had to go through the Black Hills and found ourselves passing through Wind Cave National Park. Since we were there, we thought we might as well try to take a tour of the cave! We arrived a little late, but just in time to make it on the last tour of the day. The cave is known for its boxwork, a type of formation that creates honeycomb-like features on the walls and ceiling of the cave. Supposedly it was formed when the rock of the Black Hills area was uplifted and cracked in the process. The cracks were filled in by a harder mineral mix then the rock itself. When the cave eroded out the rock, it left the crack-filling, which formed into the boxwork. We also saw cave popcorn! When we came out of the cave, the sun was already low in the horizon, so we knew we had to hit the road again soon. We drove south out of the Black Hills and South Dakota, into Nebraska to join Route 20. When it got dark, we found a wayside with a picnic bench, like a mini rest stop but more personal sized since it was route 20 and not I-80. We decided that nobody would bother us if we pitched our tents there, so that's what we did and went to sleep. The only thing that bothered us was when the semi trucks zoomed by in the middle of the night, which didn't happen often, but when it did, they sounded like freight trains!

The next morning, Route 20 took us through the rolling hills of northern Nebraska, which used to be sand dunes, once deposited on the shore of an ancient sea. Romy's dad told us a story about how the area was settled long ago. He said that cattle ranchers had their cows in the central part of the state, which bordered the sand dunes. Once in a while a cow would wander off into the grass covered dunes. They are a bit like an endless wavy sea of grass, so the cows usually got lost. A year later the cow was found, all fat! So the ranchers realized that the grass covered dunes were actually ideal for ranching, and that's pretty much all we saw as we drove through northern Nebraska (cows). I liked the dunes, though. We also stopped for some Oreo Blizzards at a DQ.

Stopping for a DQ treat in Nebraska - Oreo Blizzards!

Soon we were out of Nebraska and into Iowa. About an hour in, N&M pulled over on the side of the road. Now what, we thought? They described a similar problem like when the CV joint popped out, the wheels didn't want to turn anymore. So we looked at the back wheel to see what was going on when a cop pulled up behind us. He was in a uniform that didn't quite fit him, and kept asking us what we planned to do. We asked him if we could tow them with our tow strap like we did in Idaho to the nearest town. The cop told us that the nearest town was less than a mile away, called Early, Iowa. So we hooked up N&M's baja with the strap and pulled them into town, even though it was completely illegal (but the cop told us we could, which was so nice of him). We needed a concrete pad so that we could jack up the car easier. We found one right off the road in the middle of town which I think was an old gas station (the building and pumps were torn out and all that was left was the concrete pad and piping). That would do, so we started to investigate.

Taking the brake drum off in Early, Iowa.

Well, after some inspection, we ruled out that the CV joint popped out again. Instead, we thought that the brake drum splines must have stripped (similar to what had happened with the CV joint, but now it was the brake drum which connected to the axles). Since the brake drum splines were stripped, the wheel was effectively no longer connected to the axles, so the transmission couldn't spin the wheels anymore. So Marcel and Romy pulled the brake drum off and confirmed that the splines were completely stripped! What to do now!? As if on cue, an overly enthusiastic man drove up and asked us what we were doing and if we needed help. We told him the situation, and he let us know that the father in-law of the woman who owned the restaurant which was across the street owned a few VW Beetles. Maybe he could help us find a new brake drum? So Marcel went into the restaurant and talked to the owner, who was also the bartender. She called her father in-law and soon he was on his way (he only lived 5 blocks away). He drove up in a Smart car, and he was about 85 years old and retired. He took a look at what we discovered, and decided he would help us get a new brake drum. He figured he'd pull one off of one of his Beetles that were laying around in his shop.

N&M were sure lucky to be breaking down in towns which all seemed to have some old man with a shop that had VWs in it! 20 minutes later, Marcel, Romy, and the old man returned with a brake drum from his shop, and they started replacing it. While Marcel and Romy worked, the old man told us old man stories. He said he visited Hiroshima 5 years after the atomic bomb was dropped there. He described how the center of the city was still destroyed, and how he went by the marble front stairs of a bank that was in the blast zone. The exposed marble was greatly damaged from the bomb's shockwave, but the freaky thing he described was where people were sitting on the stairs, the marble was completely undamaged because their bodies protected it. He could literally see the imprint of where people were on the stairs because the marble was left undamaged there in an outline of a person. Kind of freaky!

Anyways, after the brake drum was replaced and the wheel put back on, we decided to go have a beer at his daughter in-law's restaurant/bar. She had Sam Adams on tap, so we each had a glass. The old man was with us, joking how he was the supervisor of the whole operation (the brake drum event) and that next time he wanted us to provide him with a better chair to sit on, one with a back rest! Then another guy came into the bar and sat down and ordered a drink. The old man told us it was the mayor of the town, but we thought he was joking with us again. No, actually it was the mayor of the town that sat down for a drink! What a small town. I liked it.

We wanted to stay for more beer, but we had to keep driving. The owner of the restaurant charged us $5 for all four of our beers. We were absolutely in disbelief but she insisted so we just gave her a big tip. The rest of our drive was uneventful. We spent another night in the sleeping bags on the grass, this time at a Pilot truck stop near the Illinois border (maybe the weirdest place I've ever slept, on a lawn in front of a gas station, basically). But it was okay. We managed only because we knew the next day we would be home in Berwyn! Finally!

The Grand Tetons

2010-07-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

Red poppies in Victor, ID.

Close up of the red poppies in Victor, ID.

The last segment of our trip was to visit the Grand Tetons National Park. We wanted to hike the Teton Crest Trail, which runs along the crest of the Teton mountain range. It doesn't go to any of the peaks, but meanders through the mountain range, mostly behind the east faces which make up the famous view of the Tetons. But first we had to get there, from where we last camped near Dillon Montana. It took us the better part of a day just to reach the Wyoming border. Before we did, we took a pit stop in Victor Idaho, where we saw the biggest red poppies I've ever encountered. And there were soooo many growing in various places! After we got out of Victor, we had to drive up the backside of the Teton range, just to the south of the park. Our baja was climbing a lot faster than N&M's, so we parked and waited for them at the top, where we had a nice view of Jackson Hole, the valley along the east side of the Teton range.

Me and Nicole above Jackson Hole, WY.

Looking at the map, we needed a place to camp that was nearby the national park. We needed to get up super early the next morning so that we could reserve our permit to hike up into the Tetons. The visitor center opened at 8am, and we wanted to be there at least half hour or so earlier so that we could wait outside in case other people wanted to reserve permits also. There is a limit on how many people could sleep up in the mountains, and since it was July 4th weekend, we thought it might be a popular thing to do. So we found some national forest land just across the valley from the park, and headed there for the evening to set up camp.

Setting up camp near Grand Tetons National Park.

As we drove across the valley and up into the mountains on the other side, the view of the Tetons was spectacular! The road turned to dirt, and soon we found a campsite. It was on the tip of a long ridge that extended towards the valley. As we were carrying our tents and stuff, we saw a fox run along the ridge! I hoped that it wouldn't steal our shoes in the night (foxes are known to do that kind of stuff). We were just in awe of the great view from the campsite we chose that we relaxed and all we did was watch the sunset. When it got dark, we hit the sleeping bags because we had to wake up so early the next morning!

View of the Tetons from our campsite the next morning at 6am.

We were ready in half an hour after the alarm went off. But we were pretty tired! We made our way into the park and took our place in line at the visitor center doors. We were the first ones there at about 45 minutes before the visitor center opened. So Romy and I got coffee for everyone while N&M waited. When we got back with the coffees, about 15 minutes later, a few more people were waiting. When it was about 5 minutes before opening time, two women, one of them pregnant, came up to the door and also waited. We assumed that they realized that there were about 5 other people waiting in line before them, but apparently they were so oblivious they just walked right in front of us as the ranger opened the door finally at 8am! The whole group of us went to the permit desk, and to our disbelief, the two women who showed up 5 minutes ago just cut in front of everybody in line! Marcel let them know what they had just done and the stupid pregnant bimbo (who knew very well what she and her friend just did) just gave him a "I'm a stupid bimbo" stare. After they were done, we talked to the permit ranger to get our permits for the trail and sometime before the pregnant bimbo left, she apologized to us. Whatever! Is that what she is going to teach her child? How to cut in line and then look like a retard? I hope not!

When we talked to the ranger, she told us that she couldn't give us any permits for most of the Teton Crest Trail because there was still a lot of snow up there. Since we didn't have ice axes or crampons, we couldn't go. But she let us know of other one-night options that we could do instead, so we decided to do a hike up the Cascade Canyon, and then camp up in it's south fork, which is just behind the Grand Teton peaks. Then for the second night, we reserved a back country campsite (one of only two) on the shore of Spaulding Bay. It was the only back country site you could drive to! We were lucky that we got that spot. So off we were, a little disappointed that we couldn't do the whole trail, but still excited to get going. And anyways, since there was still so much snow up there, like the ranger said, we wouldn't see anything anyways. Most of the alpine lakes up there were still frozen and covered in a couple feet of snow, and this was the 4th of July weekend!

Starting our hike into Cascade Canyon

When we got to the trailhead, we parked and packed up the backpacks with only the bare essentials. Since we were only spending one night up there, we didn't need much stuff. We had a bear canister which we packed with instant oatmeal, power bars, beef jerky, cheese, and noodles. We took a water bottle with our water filter, extra warm cloths, tent, thermarests, and sleeping bags. Oh yeah, and the camera! That was about it. We had about 7 miles to hike to our campsite, and a couple thousand feet of elevation gain. We left the trailhead at about 10:30am. After about an hour into the hike, we entered the canyon, with towering mountains to either side, and a creek flowing down between. We hiked along the creek most of the time.

Nicole and I pausing for a picture along the Cascade Canyon trail.

View down the Cascade Canyon

Before we knew it, we reached the point where the canyon split into its north and south fork, about 5 miles or so up the canyon. There we paused for a rest and then headed up the south fork. The trail got really steep for a while as we ascended into the south fork, making a sharp turn, heading up and behind the Teton peaks. Along the next couple miles into the south fork were various campsites that we were allowed to camp in. About half of the were snow free (the ones at lower elevation). We picked the third campsite up the trail. We were so tired by then that we all just plopped down in the ground and sat for a while. We were at nearly 9,000ft and just hiked 7 miles all the way up! We were pooped!

View up the south fork of Cascade Canyon.

Our campsite in the south fork of Cascade Canyon.

After we settled in, we ate a snack before getting our boots back on and taking a hike without our big packs on further up the trail to see this snow that the ranger was talking about. We walked for another 2 miles or so, and then Romy and I decided to stop. Along the way there were actually big patches of snow that we started to see which became more and more frequent. N&M wanted to keep going towards Hurricane Pass, which was supposedly all under a couple feet of snow. They went on while we sat next to a waterfall in the sun. After about 30 minutes, we headed back to camp. They arrived back in camp just a little while after us and told us that the trail was completely covered in deep snow just a little bit farther up from where we stopped. The snow just continued as far as the eye could see they told us! So hiking the Teton Crest Trail would be a little difficult, with no actual trail visible!

View up the north fork of Cascade Canyon as we were hiking out the next morning.

When we got back, we had dinner, but it started to get really cold outside, probably in the mid 40s. We barely could stand washing our pots and pans from dinner in the ice cold stream, but we did it because we didn't want any bears visiting our campsite. A young male mule deer was circling our campsite, munching on the foliage. It munched all evening, and really wasn't very afraid of us.

A mule deer that visited our campsite many times during the evening.

We hit the tents early that night because we wanted to keep warm! We spent the last minutes of daylight reading the park newspaper and brochure which we brought with us. Then when it got dark, we fell asleep. The next morning we woke up almost 12 hours from when we fell asleep (9pm to 9am)! We must of been really tired! We still had plenty of time to pack things up that morning, and the sun was starting to warm everything back up. After coffee and breakfast, we started heading back down the mountain. There were soooo many people hiking that day. We saw somebody every couple minutes for the whole way down! Sometimes it required a lot of skill to go pee so that nobody would see you. That's how many people were on the trail! We finally reached the trailhead in the afternoon. It took us almost the same amount of time to hike down than it did to hike up! I thought that was weird, but I guess we were kind of slow on the way back.

Our campsite at Spaulding Bay.

After so much hiking, we went into town for a beer. We found a small microbrewery called Snake River Brewing and tried a couple of their beers along with some calzones for dinner. Mmmm, the beer was excellent. After the refreshing beverages and huge dinner, we headed back into the park to Spaulding Bay for our second camping permit. We arrived kind of late, but that was ok with us. All night we heard grouses thumping their deep calls. They are birds similar to chickens, but more quail-looking. Their call sounds like somebody is thumping into the ground with a hammer at a fast rate. But we never saw them, just heard them. I think they lived in the forest. We also saw a male elk in the forest on our way to the campsite.

The next morning, we headed out of the park to the north. We were now officially on our way home (booooooooo). But in order to extend the vacation for as long as we could, we decided to drive home through Yellowstone. It wasn't exactly on the way, but it wasn't too far off either. . .

Driving out of the park.

A view of the Teton range and Jackson Lake.

Big Hole and Elkhorn Hot Springs

2010-07-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

The trail to the Nez Perce camp at Big Hole National Battlefield.

We still had to make our way towards Dillon, MT to pick up the carb that we had sent to the KOA Kampground there. On the way we wanted to stop to see Big Hole National Battlefield in Montana. The Big Hole Basin and the surrounding high peaks make you really feel like you’re entering a big hole going down into the basin. Near the northwest end of the valley is the battlefield, so we stopped at the visitor center, where they showed us a movie which took 5 years to research and explained what happened at Big Hole. A few tribes of Nez Perce Native Americans set up camp there for the summer of 1877. They were being chased out of their home in Idaho (I think) by the US army, which at that time was a mix of professional soldiers and volunteers from the countryside. Basically, the army was in charge of enforcing that the Nez Perce were sent to a reservation, however, some refused and were chased by the army. The tribes of the Nez Perce decided to camp in what is now the Big Hole Basin. There they hoped to be joined by the Crow, an ally tribe in Montana. But it didn’t work out because the army and a bunch of volunteers decided to ambush them at their camp instead, and basically kill them since they refused to go to the reservation like the other tribes. What happened at the battlefield in August of 1877 was so sad. The tribes were camped out near a river, which had tall willow bushes growing at its banks. The Indians built 89 tipis at their camp, and the army and a bunch of volunteers snuck up on them one night hiding behind the willow bushes across the small river from their camp. When the sun came up the next morning, one of the Indians went to the river to get water. An anxious volunteer soldier shot at the Indian out of excitement and stupidity, which set off the battle. The army just rampaged the whole camp, killing anything they saw, and set fire to some of the tipis. Mostly it was the women and children who died because they had no means of defense. The warrior Indians fought back and actually drove the soldiers off, wounding many. But it was too late because a lot of the Indians already lay dead in the camp. We took a short hike to the camp, where the bodies of the dead Indians still lay on the grounds. They didn’t even have a chance to bury the dead. Shortly after the battle, the Indians who were still alive fled and headed north into Canada. Some successfully escaped across the border but many didn’t. One of the Indians who was at the battle returned shortly after and was able to record what happened.

The Nez Perce camp near a river. Tipi poles now stand where their actual tipis once were.

When we visited the site of the camp, there were some tipis placed there, with the Indian cheifs’ tipis marked. The locations I assume were estimated by the record of the Indian who returned after the battle, but I’m not sure. It was very sad to walk through the camp. And it was a very awakening visit, because I remember in grade school when the teachers who taught us about early American history talked of the Indian wars like it was okay or something. The events were never put into a negative light, and boys playing cowboys and Indians in the school yard was completely normal and most of the kids were rooting for the cowboy. The national monument was pretty empty with few visitors. I guess not many people care to visit places like these and learn about the past. Our visit made us think of that dark time in American history and how screwed up it was. It also reminded me of the grade school a few blocks away from our house in Berwyn. It used to be called Custer school, after General Custer. However, before we moved out to California, the name was changed to Prairie School (or something like that) because it was no longer politically correct to name a school after a general who really should not be so praised. Kind of like having a school called Hitler school or something I guess.

Driving by a farm with a traditional wood fence in the Big Hole Basin.

Our mood started to lighten a little as we drove on through the Big Hole Basin, and then over the pass at the southeastern end. We were getting closer and closer to Dillon, and the sun was starting to make its way westward. As we entered the Grasshopper Valley, we saw a brown sign that read Elkhorn Hot Springs 14 miles. So we turned at the sign and headed towards the hot springs to check them out. If it was cool, we figured, we would stay and camp near the springs. If they sucked, we would turn around and go back towards Dillon to camp at the KOA which had our carb waiting for us (this time the correct one we hoped). Well, we drove up along the Grasshopper Valley and then up some switchbacks and into a small resort which was looked over by the National Forest. The hot springs were completely natural, but piped into two big swimming pools next to a bathhouse operated by a private resort. The pools looked very low-key, not fancy at all, and only a small group of people were there. We recognized them as one of the only other people we saw earlier that day at the Big Hole Battlefield! The pools were hot, and we needed to bathe after camping for a few days without a shower or anything and it was only $6 per person. So we got our bathing suits on and hopped in.

Me and Nicole swimming in the hot pool at Elkhorn Hot Springs.

To our surprise, alcohol was allowed as long as you drank it in a plastic bottle or plastic cup (no glass allowed), so we got out our box of Vella cabernet sauvignon wine and plastic party cups and brought them to the poolside. Half of the pool was very deep, so deep you could swim normally, but of course, after some wine we decided to stick with the shallow end! The mosquitoes were out in force, so we ended up having to keep our bodies mostly submerged and dunked our heads under the water periodically to drive them off. What a nice treat to be soaking in some hot springs! After we had enough (due to the heat and alcohol) we showered and were on our way to find a campsite. The springs were in the National Forest already so we just found a dirt road a mile or so away from the resort and started driving down it. Eventually we found a section of the road that leveled out (we were deep in the mountains by now) and also had a small clearing. We found that somebody already made a firepit so we collected wood and tried to smoke out the mosquitoes. This was the only place so far where we had to deal with any bugs, and I guess we were pretty spoiled. But after starting the fire and trying to make it really hot, most of the mosquitoes stayed away. As the sun went down and the air cooled off, the rest of the mosquitoes left us alone.

A campfire to drive the mosquitoes away in the Beaverhead National Forest.

Peel Tree A-Frame Cabin in Idaho

2010-06-30T14:49:00.000-07:00

Mt. Borah in the Salmon-Challis National Forest in Idaho.

When we were camping in the Snake River Plain, the high snow covered mountains of Central Idaho to the north stood like a wall of awesomeness which we were dying to explore. A few roads go through the mountain ranges there, mostly following valleys or rivers. After we left Arco, ID, we followed the Big Lost River as it wound its way down the valley along Hwy 93. It is called the Big Lost River because as it exits the mountains, it actually disappears under the lava flows that covered the river’s pathway across the Snake River Plain long ago. Coming out of the mountains to the north, it gets absorbed or tunnels its way under the lava plain and emerges at Twin Falls, ID as a bunch of springs. As we started entering the mountain range, we were climbing higher and higher with huge snow covered mountains to either side of a small valley. Eventually we reached Borah Peak, which is the highest in Idaho at over 12,000ft. It is also close to the epicenter of an earthquake that struck in the 1980s which caused the valley floor to subside about 7-12ft. There was a national forest picnic area next to the fault where you could see the break in the ground and the 7 foot escarpment, which is basically the scar left by the sudden drop of the valley floor. It’s a deep crack, but it is filled by sediment so you can’t actually look down it or anything like that. The area has had no known recorded history of earthquakes, but geologists have seen evidence of past escarpments so they must have happened before. In fact, that fault that we picnicked next to was the reason that Mt Borah exists in the first place. Similar to Nevada, the crust of the Earth is being pulled apart there, so like a bunch of falling dominoes, the fault causes the valley floor to drop relative to the mountains, and the mountains to rise even higher.

Nicole splitting wood for our campfire at the Peel Tree A-Frame.

After having lunch, we continued up the road to the town of Challis, ID. What a nice town! It is in a valley surrounded by huge mountains on three sides. We stopped there for gas and some oil and bolts for the bajas at Napa Auto Parts. But what we were really excited about was that now we were only about 25 miles away from the Peel Tree A-frame cabin we rented from the Salmon-Challis National Forest for the next two nights. Idaho has a bunch of A-frames that are available to rent from the local ranger stations for really cheap. They have no running water or electricity. They are really off grid in the middle of the woods halfway up a mountain side and usually require a high clearance vehicle to get to because of the dirt forest roads that you have to drive down to get to them. Some of them aren’t even accessible by a car; only by foot, horse, snowmobile, or ATV. We were lucky that this one was down a dirt road that was well maintained. We turned off of Hwy 93 onto one of the only bridges that crosses the Salmon River in that area, onto Iron Creek Rd. Then we started climbing crazy switchbacks up into the mountains and into a pine forest. After about 6 miles or so of driving up the back roads, we found the A-frame cabin. We were so excited to be there! For me, there is just something really cool about living in a cabin in the middle of the mountains in a pine forest with nothing but wilderness surrounding you. We quickly settled in and explored the small cabin. There was an upstairs loft which had 4 mattresses on the floor where we were to sleep at night. You had to climb up to the loft on a ladder and enter through a hole in the ceiling. The downstairs room had two more beds and a wood burning stove for heat, and a table. There was also a huge ax for splitting wood outside. The outside of the cabin was all roof. There was also a picnic table outside next to a fire pit. That evening we had a fire outside and ate some cheese and broccoli soup. Then we moved the fire inside into the wood burning stove to heat up the inside of the cabin at night. The loft was all dark upstairs and I was kind of scared to go up there first when we got tired enough to go to sleep. Some people left huge thick candles in the cabin, so we lit them and had light in the loft. Then we blew them out when we went to sleep.

The Peel Tree A-Frame, enjoying a beer.

Two beds inside the A-Frame in the main room.

The two bajas parked outside of the cabin.

The next morning we had plans on exploring the mountains around us via the forest roads. So after having breakfast we hopped into the bajas and hit the dirt roads. We saw on the map one road wound up a mountain and at the top was Sheephorn Fire Lookout Tower. It was an old tower that was used to look out for wild fires but now is rented out to the public to spend a few nights in, like the A-frame cabin. The road was pretty steep and we had to climb in 1st gear but we finally made it up to the tower which was at almost 9,000 ft. But Nicole and Marcel we lagging behind and we lost them from our view. Romy and I climbed the tower (nobody was there) but we still didn’t see N&M. The surrounding mountains were really high still covered in snow. They surrounded us 360 degrees!

Driving along the national forest road to see the fire lookout tower.

Sheephorn Lookout Tower at 8,159 feet.

Nicole and Marcel are splashing around in the mud!

Finally we saw N&M walking up the dirt road to the tower. When they got to the tower they told us that their baja just wouldn’t go into gear anymore. It wouldn’t drive forward! So after taking in the views on the top of the mountain at the look out, we walked down to see what the problem might be. Up high on the side of the mountain, we tried putting their baja into gear, which it was able to do, but it seemed as if the engine was not connected to the transmission anymore. Luckily we were at the highest point of the drive, which meant they could basically roll the whole way down. Well, mostly the whole way down. Unfortunately there were patches of the road that went up! Good thing we had a tow strap. The plan was to get the two bajas back to the cabin, which was by now 10 miles or so away.

Hooking up N&M's baja to our rear bumper with a tow strap to tow them back to the cabin.

We started the slow journey back to the cabin, our fun exploring time cut prematurely short with a breakdown! We figured it was an issue with the pressure plate, related to the clutch. Romy also suspected it might be a broken CV joint but the boot looked just fine. So N&M started rolling down the mountain and when there were stretches of uphill or long patches where the road was pretty level, we connected N&M’s baja to our rear bumper via the tow strap and pulled them along. Our carb was still screwed up so we didn’t have as much power as we normally would have, plus we were at elevation, so we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to tow them, however, Romy switched transmissions to a bus trans just before we left Cali, which has better gearing. It turned out that the way it was geared was also good for towing so we were able to pull them all the way back to the cabin without very much issue.

Romy and Marcel working on dropping the engine in N&M's baja to investigate the cluth and pressure plate.

When we made it back to the cabin, we decided to drop the engine to get a look at the clutch and pressure plate. We figured that was most likely the problem, not the transmission since it was still shifting fine. So after jacking up the baja and letting it sit up high on two fat stumps of a tree (hey you gotta improvise for jack stands somehow) we got the engine off and on the ground. And guess what – the clutch and pressure plate were looking completely normal. Nothing was broken. We were pretty happy with that but it still had us wondering what the heck was wrong!? We had the back tires off for ease when we dropped the engine which made the axles and CV joints in plain view. The next possibility was to check them to see if they were broken somehow. So we spun the wheels and to our shock, the axle spun but the CV joint and boot didn’t on the transmission end! OMG their CV joint or axle busted! I was actually really excited because I didn’t know what a broken CV joint would look like. I think CV joints are the coolest part of a car because of how they can turn and rotate at the same time with such high speeds. If it broke, it must be a huge explosion, but the boot looked clean and normal. So we unbolted the CV joint, and looked inside. To our amazement, it was completely normal and NOT broken. But we noticed that it could turn while it was connected to the axle and that it backed itself out. And that the circlip was missing. Well, we found the circlip sticking to the transmission hidden under a gob of grease, so it must of fallen off and allowed the CV joint to back off the axle. Then the splines of the axle that hold the CV joint in place sheared and it started rotating, which basically disconnected the rotation of the transmission to the wheels. Since the transmission will preferentially spin the wheel with least resistance, it was spinning the one with the sheared splines and the baja would not move forward. Amazingly, the CV joint backed out almost the entire amount it could of, so little of the splines on the axle were damaged. In fact, all we did was take a metal file and filed the splines back. Then it was as ‘simple’ as putting the CV joint back together and hammering it back onto the axle and putting the circlip back on. We sure hoped that the problem was now fixed and that it wouldn’t back out again for some reason. But of course, we still had to put the engine back in . . . which took forever for some reason! Long story short, we were able to put the car back together and the problem was no more!!!

The road back to the highway from where we stayed in the cabin.

So our cabin stay was excellent. Great views, quiet, adventurous, and it had a happy ending. When we drove out of there the next morning, both under our own power, I was really sad to leave. I want to build my own A-frame one day. They have very simple designs (the engineer in me made sure to draw up blueprints of the cabin before we left). Next we were headed into Montana to check out Big Hole National Battlefield.