Sunday, September 5 2010
Quenching Wanderlust.
The weather forecast suggested that Friday would be a beautiful day, if a bit warm, so we woke up early and headed up to the White Mountains, with a quick stop to get lunch and snacks on our way.
On Sunday morning, we woke up with the sun, and were both pleased to note that temperatures overnight had dipped, but were probably only in the 30s, despite having set up camp at about 6500′ elevation. J had an uncharacteristic burst of morning energy and decided to get up and tromp a bit to a rock she had discovered the day before, to watch the sun rise over the local ridges.
Date: February 15, 2010
Categories: Backpacking, Day Hiking, Field Report, GPS Tracks
We woke up in Desert Hot Springs after a night in a hotel, and finalized our decision to head to the San Jacinto mountains and figure out someplace to camp and hike. We loaded up the car, grabbed breakfast at the Salvadoran place again, picked up a few supplies at the grocery store, and hit the road.
After a long but fairly comfortable night of sleep, we got up fairly early and struck our camp. Fueled by an energy bar, and lured by the thought of a hot breakfast back at the car, we set off. The morning sun felt good, and the skies were much clearer. We retraced our steps relatively uneventfully, and as we were nearing the last stretch of the hike out, J decided we should explore what looked like an old mine up on the hillside. We scrambled up the crumbling remains of an old mining road, and discovered around six old mine shafts in various states from open-but-sketchy, to bricked off, to incomplete. Unarmed with guide books, we speculated about what they might have been mining. Lots of iron-heavy rocks, near some mines, lots of quartz near others. J thought the quartz was a good sign for gold, and it turned out to have been a gold operation that operated from about 1900 to 1938.
Writing this post at the end of day 4… yesterday was our busiest day so far. We woke at Jumbo Rocks campground after a pretty chilly night, probably in the upper or mid 20s. When we got up the first time around 6:15, everything was covered in frost. We stared at the sunrise for a bit and decided to go back to sleep until it warmed up a bit. It was much warmer when we got up the second time, so we set out sleeping bags and tent to dry in the sun while we had a hot breakfast and sorted gear for the day’s adventures.
Date: February 13, 2010
Categories: Backpacking, Day Hiking, Field Report, GPS Tracks
Good morning from sunny and cold Joshua Tree National Park! We finally managed to get our act together yesterday and make it out here after many errands. We grabbed breakfast at a little hole in the wall Salvadoran place in DHS and it was incredibly good. We then hit the Stater Bros. Market in the same plaza to pick up food supplies. J had randomly run across an ad for a private observatory, and emailed for more info. Turned out they had an opening for Friday night, so she booked us for an evening of dinner and star gazing. We are both pretty psyched for it!
I just completed a full rebuild of my mountain bike over the last few days. I hung on lots of new bits like chain, chain rings, cassette, derailleur cables, brake pads, grips, tires, and tubes. Also overhauled the rear shock and replaced all of the seals, hoping it will clear up the rebound damping issue I’ve been having with it. I tore the whole bike down to bare frame and literally gave the frame and wheels a bath, then built it all back up with the new parts, and did a rough drivetrain tune.
Date: September 6, 2009
Categories: Adventure Tech, GPS Tracks, Mountain Biking, Photos, Video
We were up at the 6AM alarm call to strike camp and be on the road by 7 so that we could make it from our camp site to Friday Harbor in time for the 8:45 ferry. It was a foggy and cool morning, but a gorgeous ride as we cruised four miles back in to town.
We got up at a reasonable hour at our campsite and I grabbed a shower. The site continued to impress me as one of the cleanest and best maintained campsites that I’ve encountered. After some breakfast we chatted with our site neighbors, who were hardcore touring folks. We unloaded Chris’s panniers and unhooked my trailer, and set off for a day of unloaded bike touring.
We woke up at our first campsite, which turned out to be very quiet overnight, but the air was extremely damp, so everything got soaked. I got up and had some breakfast, a quick shower (for the low low price of one Looney coin), and made with breaking camp.