Sequoias

(All photos for this entry are posted here)

Sept 5, 2005 – From Reno we hit Sacramento, then Anna and I booked it down the 99 to get to Kings Highway and Sequoia National Park. We stopped along the way in Stockton for some caffeine and popped into Fresno to check out the underground gardens, but they weren’t open. Growth in both cities has been huge. It seems like they are really trying to get the downtown going in Stockton with some new development along the river. Stockton is a relatively old city in California time scale as it was an excellent shipping port on the delta, and supported the gold rush. This age means that it has some great old buildings downtown. I hope they can manage to keep them as they grow.

Fueled up, we managed to hit the Kings Highway in the early afternoon. We took the General’s Highway (198) and looped through the parks. It was a bit sad that we didn’t have the time to get out and do a bunch of hiking, but the drive was amazing. Windows down, the car was filled with redwood & pine and the dry scent of fall. Even when you ignored the giants, the granite rocks strewn through the trees made for a dramatic scene.

We did the typical tourist things – drove through the tunnel log, climbed Moro Rock (fantastic trail and view), and checked out the biggest of them all, General Sherman. We also managed to get a little bit off the beaten path and explore a small river along the road. It was fairly low, but the water had smoothed the rock faces along the bank and carved some great little pools.

I really enjoyed the parks. They have a distinctly nostalgic, golden-age feel about them. They offer unprecedented road access to an amazing landscape, and cement trails with handrails up to amazing viewpoints. These things would never be done in this day and age, as damage to nature would be the primary concern. In fact, they are ripping out much of the old parking lots and roads that are too close to the giants. It is a common conflict for parks these days, balancing access with preservation. For the sequoias, they seem to be on their way to getting the best of both worlds.

Enviro & Government

– This really sucks – Million Solar Roofs Bill Dies in California Assembly – This bill had bi-partisan support until Assembly Democrats added union-sponsored amendments, including a provision that requires the payment of “prevailing wage” — in effect, union scale — on commercial and industrial solar installations. In essence, the democrats poison-pilled the bill to prevent Schwarzenegger from being successful on a popular environmental issue. I can not express how disappointing this is, and how lame the democrats look because of it. Prevailing wage is fine and dandy, but it should not be tackled in an environmental bill. More info here (note National Council for Solar Growth has moved to https://evergreensolar.com).

– For energy-hungry Asian governments, renewable energy such as solar, wind and geothermal power is gaining ever greater credence as a way to curb the region’s appetite for oil and cut runaway import bills.

– With gasoline prices topping $3 a gallon and consumers searching for relief, what’s the smartest thing the government could do? Make sure the prices stay at least that high, say some economists. High prices could boost conservation and diminish the country’s oil thirst. Why now? The economy still is expanding, and consumers already have confronted the shock of $3-a-gallon gasoline. Unfortunately, high gas prices hit the poor the hardest. But I still think we need to tackle our addiction head-on, and give alternatives a fighting chance in the market. We need better public transit, to eat local, and to be more efficient in our use of oil.

– The always provocative Kunstler ties in his (often worst case) theories on sprawl and US energy use with the rebuilding of New Orleans.

“…The dirty secret of the American economy for at least a decade now is that it has come to be based on the creation of suburban sprawl and the activities associated with it — the building of cul-de-sac McMansions, highway retail pods, car sales, real estate sales, the creation of false liquidity in the form of easy mortgages and the deployment of that debt into tradable instruments. The sprawl-building industry comprises over 40 percent of what we do in this country. If you subtract it from the U.S. economy, there isn’t much left besides hair cutting and open heart surgery… Of course, any rebuilding would depend on a major engineering effort to raise the ground level in these neighborhoods. That, in turn, depends on whether whole neighborhoods are deemed to be “scrape offs,” since such a project could not be done in piecemeal fashion. Finally, we would be faced with the economic paradox that new construction tends not to fall into the “affordable housing” category, and those displaced might not be able to acquire new houses to replace the ones they lost in the places where they stood. It’s too early to tell what will become of New Orleans’ downtown core of skyscrapers and megastructures…”

Burning Man 2005

(All photos and movies for this entry are posted here)

As I’m sure you have gathered, Anna and I are back in town. But are still somewhat recovering from our trip up to Burning Man, the Bristlecone Forrest, and the Sequoias. This year’s Burning Man was our fourth, and felt a bit strange for me. We weren’t introducing anyone new to the event, and it was a bit of a forced march up here, 14 hours of travel doesn’t do much for your attitude.

We drove up all of Thursday, stayed in Reno that night, then left the next morning for Burning Man. That only gave use slightly more than 2 days there. Hardly enough time to get into the swing of things, and drifting into tourist territory. Participation is a key aspect of Burning Man, and tourist is a dirty word. People arriving on Friday are right at the bottom of the playa caste system. We were only slightly better than someone who showed up Saturday in a Hummer yelling “Show me your tits!” I kid. Sort of.

We waited in the sun for almost an hour before people showed up at will-call windows to help with tickets. I’m sure it was just poor planning, but in my post-travel grump it felt more like hate for ‘the tourist’. These people were volunteers, and they work hard. But it was a bit frustrating to hear them talking and laughing behind the building while you and thirty other people sit there… waiting.

Eventually we rolled into town and looked up Dave and Devin’s camp in the info system. Armed with a location and a description of an ‘Enterprick’ van, we found them without troubles. After quickly setting up camp, it was off to The Deep End to go dancing. There really isn’t many things like dancing in the dust as the sun goes down. It was a long night of great sights and sounds as we found Rave Raffe, played in the man’s funhouse, and watched the phoenix.

The next day we rode into center camp, then continued our tour of the playa. We stumbled on more and more wonderful things. I rode my bike until my ass was sore. There were definitely some highlights. The tea house was wonderful. Very tranquil, inviting, and it even had great chai. The temples were small, but still great. Clockworks, a massive wooden clock, was amazing. And random encounters are what makes Burning Man great.

After a meeting some great people, and having a bit of a feast, it was time to head out for the burn. We had a decent seat and settled in to watch the fire spinners. Parts of the crowd sang happy birthday (this year is the 20th), then the man started to burn. Soon there was a massive display of fireworks, and twisters spinning off from the fire’s wind, generated by its massive oxygen consumption. This years man had a robust platform, and burned for a very long time. Eventually the man fell, and the crowd surged forward.

We wandered back into the parking lot of art cars and throngs of people to soak it all in. Soon the flames started from various pieces strewn about the playa, and we reacted like the magpies that we are by seeking them out. After having a good time wandering around, we eventually made it back to camp to refill water several hours later.

I grabbed a tripod that Jimmy had lent me and took off on my own to try it out. After a bit of playing around with shutter times I managed to get some decent night shots and went to bed around 3.

Sunday I awoke to a visitor on the tent and had some lebne and bread for breakfast. Mmmm. After a little bit of visiting we wandered over to center camp and did a brief tour of the playa. Unfortunately the burn barrels and pits were in full use. I had a really hard time with them this year, even with a N100 mask on. Maybe some retard decided to burn some carpet, or a couch. In any case, I was too physically uncomfortable to enjoy myself. We packed up, did some playa cleanup, and left shortly after Devin and Dave.

Exodus was disappointing. People succumbed to impatience and broke out of line, racing down the playa to the exit. Anything over 10mph kicks up dust clouds that cover the rest of the people still at burning man. When we got to the highway it wasn’t much better. This year seemed like the worst yet for garbage. People hadn’t strapped it down well enough and one could see bags on the side of the road. I don’t want to give the wrong impression, I’m not talking about massive piles of garbage bags on the side of the road. But for an event whose participants pride themselves as ‘leave no trace’, we sure did a shitty job on the highway. Despite leaving on some negatives, we had a wonderful time in Reno. Dinner and a movie, and dinner (Italian at Lucianos) was particularly nice.

I had a good time at Burning Man this year, despite my sometimes bad attitude. Most of that could be explained by the hectic schedule and physical discomfort. We saw and did some amazing things, and I had fun this year. But I was also a bit numb. I feel very slightly jaded, and I really don’t want to. This is the only place in the world I will see a cheshire cat car, this much fire, this many different parties, or meet such interesting people. The fact that I have to stop and recognize what an amazing place this is means I need to let go of my expectations, and change my headspace. The best way I know of to do that is to take a year off.

Yes, I know I said that last year. Time will tell, I suppose.

Nifty Inventions

This seems well done: The LifeStraw can give a person clean water for a year and uses no energy except suction from the user. It filters up to 15 microns and also treats water with iodine impregnated beads. At a cost of $2 a pop, it seems like this would be great for most 3rd world, or disaster operations. I was wondering if it would be used for camping, but the straw wont do well with giardia (aka beaver fever) as giardia is only 5 microns wide and resistant to iodine.

I own a Cressi Big Eyes mask, supposedly with 30% more viewing angle than most. I really like it. But it looks like someone else has come up with something better: Hydrooptix’s curved lenses offer panoramic vision. The style of the mask is a tad B-movie science fiction, and their claims seem a bit of a stretch – “See 5X More!“. But it seems like they could be a really cool – while wearing the mask you don’t see any of the frame. At $200 it is also 4x as expensive as my old mask. Ouch. Think I’ll wait for a sale. A big one.

Might not work well with ultra light backpacking, but this looks pretty cool: Suspended-load backpack generates its own electricity from the motion of the person carrying it

How retro cool: Sky Sails is a system that puts giant sail kites on freight ships to use high-altitude winds to help pull them across the ocean.

Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forrest

(All photos for this entry are posted here)

On our drive up highway 395 to Burning Man we decided to stop off at the Ancient Bristlecone Forrest. We had wanted to visit the Inyo park last year, but ran out of time as we did side trips for the Tufa of Mono Lake and the ghost town of Bodie.

The Bristlecone Forrest is a 45 minute drive from Big Pine, or an hour from Bishop. The road isn’t far, but it gains a lot of altitude and can be twisty. We were on a schedule, so we had to be content with visiting the lower part of the forest – Schulman Grove at 10,100 feet. There is another grove another 1,100 feet higher (Patriarch Grove) but it was going to be another hour to get there as the road isn’t great. Once at the Schulman Grove, we spent a couple hours walking the trail to the Mexican mine, then the discovery trail loop.

It was definitely worth the side trip. The location is very dramatic, jagged rocks and dramatic trees. There were a few wild flowers hanging on from long dried rains, but the majority of the growth here is lichen and the bristlecones. Despite this there still seems to be a decent number of animals. A hawk circled, while a ground squirrel yelled at us for walking by it’s home in the rocks. A light blue bird flew by, it’s wings producing a loud thump-thump-thump as it flew, reminding me of the chopped air sound of a distant alpine helicopter.

Then of course, there is the pines. They are really quite amazing. Warped and disfigured, the wood is almost as hard as iron. Full of resin, it survives for hundreds of years after death. In fact, they have found bits of wood dating back almost 10,000 years – the end of our last ice age. Most of the trees look dead, but little bits of green prove otherwise. The tree has an amazing ability to let parts of itself die off, but still remain completely healthy. It only requires a narrow strip of life to survive.

As interesting as these trees are visually, they are primarily amazing because of their age. I saw “Pine Alpha” at some point on the discovery trail (they won’t point out trees for fear of vandalism), which is over 4,000 years old. That still hasn’t sunk in. It is staggering to think it was alive at the time of the pyramids in Egypt. It is hard to wrap your head around that.

If happen to be heading up highway 395, and have a couple hours to spare, I highly recommend a visit to the forest. Bring water, food, and sunscreen and enjoy the spectacular view.

Other links:
– Leonard Miller’s Bristlecone site

– If you want to be a bit shocked and depressed, read the story of The Martyred One – In 1964 a doctorate student was granted permission by the U.S. Forest Service to saw down the oldest living thing on this planet because their coring tool broke. Unbelievable.

– NOVA had a show on the Methuselah Tree.