Last night I camped in a little community park just outside of Omak. Just me and a couple of homeless people. A 50+ year old guy who says he is an ex-marine and just waiting for some sort of vet-related payoff so he can get a place to rent. Seems a bit doubtful to me but he was a nice enough guy and had an adorable little dog. And a 72-year old woman living out of her truck and working at the local food bank. Both of them have been there for a month or more, although the signs says there's a 72-hour limit for campers. Hope they find better digs before winter.
I stopped for a couple of hours of hiking in North Cascades National Park yesterday, the Thunder Dome trail. Glad for the exercise but I did not see Mel Gibson or Tina Turner, and it just wasn't very scenic except for a great view of Diablo lake at the very end. There's a much better view about 10 minutes on up the road.
Maybe it was Thunder Knob. But I like the dome thing better.
Just finished breakfast in Tonasket WA, heading on towards Republic and Colville, then probably up into Canada. In 2010 I rode this route. Hard to believe. Mountain passes: Rainy, Washington, Loup Loup, Wauconda, Sherman.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Posted with Blogsy
Monday, September 3, 2012
T minus 24 hours and counting....
Today I'm loading my car full of camping, hiking, biking and kayaking gear for my trip back to Michigan, where I will spend the better part of 2 months with my dear old dad.. Leaving tomorrow, I am planning a leisurely 2 week trip there, driving just north of the Canadian border most of the way. I am still undecided on the route when I get close. I would love to take the ferry across Lake Michigan. But I would also love to drive around the north side of Lake Superior. And the south side. And along the north shore of Lake Michigan. Stay tuned...
Meanwhile, I've got a house and cat sitter lined up. I've cleaned the house, the garage, the car, the refrigerator, made my list and checked it twice, did extra cuddling with the cat, forwarded my mail, put my paper on hold, returned library books, made space for housesitter in the closet and dresser....did I miss anything? I hope not.
Oh, and in case any of my Euchre group is reading this, I've stealthily foisted a somewhat refurbished Euchie off onto Mira's front porch.
It's been a busy (and pricey) summer.... Got my gutters cleaned and repaired and screening added to the top of them. Got thermal shades installed for the winter. Got the rats cleaned out of my crawlspace.Got the 8-foot-tall blackberries cut down on my hillside in preparation for landscaping in the spring. Got the landscaping plan from the geotechnical engineer. And just a few days ago I found out there was a crack in the firebox of my propane fireplace, my main source of heat. Not wanting to either freeze or asphyxiate my house sitter, I have bought a new fireplace but it won't be installed until late September, so I'll come home to a new one.
I am so looking forward to this trip. But at the same time I am already looking forward to being back here in November and settling in cozily for the winter.
Meanwhile, I've got a house and cat sitter lined up. I've cleaned the house, the garage, the car, the refrigerator, made my list and checked it twice, did extra cuddling with the cat, forwarded my mail, put my paper on hold, returned library books, made space for housesitter in the closet and dresser....did I miss anything? I hope not.
Oh, and in case any of my Euchre group is reading this, I've stealthily foisted a somewhat refurbished Euchie off onto Mira's front porch.
It's been a busy (and pricey) summer.... Got my gutters cleaned and repaired and screening added to the top of them. Got thermal shades installed for the winter. Got the rats cleaned out of my crawlspace.Got the 8-foot-tall blackberries cut down on my hillside in preparation for landscaping in the spring. Got the landscaping plan from the geotechnical engineer. And just a few days ago I found out there was a crack in the firebox of my propane fireplace, my main source of heat. Not wanting to either freeze or asphyxiate my house sitter, I have bought a new fireplace but it won't be installed until late September, so I'll come home to a new one.
I am so looking forward to this trip. But at the same time I am already looking forward to being back here in November and settling in cozily for the winter.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Socks, boots, and a sweater
Back to socks, boots, and a sweater, and it rained during the night: I'm almost home! Just having my morning coffee in Roseburg, OR, before starting one more long day's drive.
I about panicked yesterday in Medford, when my map app said the nearest Starbucks was a 7 hoour drive away. But the kindly gas station attendent (I'm in Oregon, where they still pump your gas for you) directed me to one just across the street in the mall. And this morning it's found me three in Roseburg, so who knows why it couldn't find them yesterday.
The drive through the Siskiyous was lovely, one area of rain and fog but no snow, and it's such a beautiful drive. So nice to be back among green, forested hills again.
I'm impressed that I've used less than half of my allotted 1GB of network traffic ($20 for up to 1GB in 30 days) on this trip, and I've used it nearly every day. Also bought an ipad car charger at Radio Shack that works.
Ok, Homeward!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Out of the desert
Well, I wrote a nice offline blog entry yesterday, but it has disappeared. Don't quite understand this. But will try to reproduce.
I'm now in Davis, CA, having spent the night with a friend. Will stay here again tonight and then put pedal to the metal for home tomorrow.
The past two days have been long slogs of driving. First a whole day again throught the Mojave. Then out of the desert and into the vast central California orchard and vineyard area. I have to say that route 99 from Bakersfield to Sacramento is perhaps the ugliest drive I've ever taken.... imagine 300 miles of Aurora avenue, improved only by the fact that it's freeway so you can get through it a bit faster. Lots of traffic, about half of it trucks. Not a drive I would willingly do again.
Highlights of the drive:
1. A vast windfarm in Tehachapi pass, just outside of the town of Mojave. Thousands and thousands of wind turbins... Google says 5000 but it looked like more to me. I have mixed feelings about this: power for close to half a million homes, but it totally changes the landscape... It's the dominate feature for miles and miles.
2. Some nutcake paid for a 50-foot professionally made banner: "HIGH SPEED RAIL ADVOCATES: EAT S**T AND DIE!" There is a project underway for high speed rail from Sacramento through SF, Fresno, LA, all the way to San Diego. Sounds great to me...
3. At an offramp in Modesto, there was a guy with a "will work for food, anything helps" sign. But he didn't really look like the typical homeless guy. Then I noticed at the bottom of the sign it said "walking from Mexico to Canada". Only got a chance to exchange a few words with him, but he said he'd started a month ago. Who knows if it's true, but I gave him a buck.
4. Trees again, at last.
My latest favorite thing about my ipad: I found out I can just type "starbucks" into the map and it immediately shows me where to get my morning latte!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Death Valley to Las Vegas
Friday night in Las Vegas... wow. President's day weekend, too. I spent a couple of hours last night walking around the strip, gawking. Turned $5 into $40 at the slot machines but then of course gave it all back plus another $30. Saw Darth Vader, Captain Jack, a guy inexplicably on stilts (or else he really was 8 feet tall?), many young women in impossibly short, tight dresses. And lots and lots of people of every age, size, shape, and description. Parents with young children. An older woman in a long wool coat and babushka scarf. Fat tourists in t-shirts. (my peeps!) A cadre of young men in dark suits and dark glasses. 10:30pm at Wallgreens, there were 8 cashiers and line of people still.... probably everyone needs aspirin, like me. I am taking a nice slow Saturday morning here in my room, saving energy to go back out tonight and gawk some more before taking off northward tomorrow morning.
Lowest point was actually -280 feet, but no sign there.
Yesterday started with an 18 mile, 3200 foot climb, by bike, up out of Death Valley. Followed by an excellent 12 mile downhill to meet the WomanTours van for a picnic lunch in Amargosa: This place could well have been where Baghdad Cafe was filmed. Then 3 hours in the van back to Las Vegas, dropping people at the airport and various hotels.
Death Valley averages only about 2 inches of rain per year, so I guess I should feel lucky to have seen it. Weather was cloudy and threatening rain for our first 3 days there; I can't say I ever really got wet, but I rode in long pants and long sleeves. On our 4th day, though, the sun came out in full force and it was just lovely, 70, clear blue sky, and a 20mph tailwind... well, it was a tailwind for the first half of the day anyway. The highlight of the trip for me was riding a 12 mile loop called Artist's Drive. Incredible colors... a fairlyland of mint green, pink, forest green, peach, gold, rust. 15% grades and a 20mph headwind just made it more memorable.
Just one of the marvelous geological formations in Death Valley
Dunes in Death Valley
I do think I'd like to go back to Death Valley, but more to hike than bike. There are so many little side canyons to explore, dunes, plantlife, incredibly varied geological formations... one mountain will be peach colored, the one right next to it jet black, the next one horizontal stripes of rust, pink, and brown, and the next one with the same stripes but running diagonally. Plains of sand, plains of gravel, plains of big black rocks. Sand dunes, marble slot canyons. And all of this surrounded by 10,000 foot snowcovered peaks.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Picacho Peak, Canoeing, and Death Valley at last
Here I am in Death Valley, at Stovepipe Wells Village. We were shuttled from Las Vegas to Rhyolite this morning. After lunch we got on our bikes at last, for a fairly easy 32 mile ride to here. Up less than a thousand feet to get over a 4200 foot pass, where it was SNOWING -- not what I expected here!---- and then down down down, back down to sea level and below. 13 miles of coasting downhill at a good 30+ mph, which would have been a bit more comfortable without the sleet, but that was gone by the time we got down a few thousand feet.
Yesterday... hard to believe it was only yesterday: 6 hours of driving through the Mohave desert from Yuma to Las Vegas, me and hundreds of RV's. Tiring and really not all that scenic, vast ugly RV encampments of snowbirds interspersed with vast areas of nothing. Possibly I am just getting tired of desert. I do admit to a mild craving for some lush, moist, greenery, and ocean. And just as I was entering LV, the batteries ran out on Ipad and my trusty GPS app would not guide me to the hotel. I managed to remember the street name and got there without much ado. Note to self: Need a new car charger for Ipad.
Here are some pictures from my week of hiking and canoeing with the Sierra Club. I think I will let them speak for themselves:
The view from one our campsites
Colorado River colors
An old miners cabin
Floating down the river
Many winding narrow channels through the reeds along the river.
Euchie enjoying camping at Picacho State Recreation Area
There were whole mountains and canyons of this malachite colored rock around Picacho Peak.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
In the desert
If I climb to the top of the rocky hill behind the composting toilet, I can get 3 bars of cell phone service, so I I may do a blog post before the week us up after all.
Right now I am sitting at a desert campground in the Picacho wilderness area, after having just completed a day of hiking with the Sierra club. There are 12 of us in all, a great group. Today we hiked beautiful slot canyons through this rocky area. Sunshine and 72, not a cloud in sight. Saw some wild burros, lots of ocotillo but only one bloom, some desert lavender just starting to bloom, a defunct desert turtle shell, and lots of wonderful scenery. It's a 25 mile drive over 25 mph gravel roads to get here, passing through pinnacle of red, green, and gray. No trees to speak of, except possibly right down by the river....the Colorado runs right along the edge of the campground.
This is an amazing campground for being so far out in the wilderness. Running water and free hot showers. There's hardly anyone here... there are at least 50 campsites and maybe 8 are occupied, this during what is surely high season here.
It's chilly at night, at least down into the 40's. We've got almost a full moon which is a mixed blessing.... you don't need a flashlight, but the stars aren't as numerous as they would otherwise be.
Pictures later.....
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