Spring Blooms

Spring around Innovation Place.

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The Twilight of Protest

The Archdruid Report: The Twilight of Protest: It’s probably a safe bet that the more mainstream groups will increasingly side with the established order of things—I’ve long suspected that before all this is over with, the Sierra Club will come out in favor of strip mining the national park system so long as it’s done in, ahem, an environmentally sensitive way.

Road Trip Tools

I love exotic places like Africa and South America and Asia, but I also love North America. Our continent contains an amazingly diverse collections of landscapes. Here are some of the tools (books and apps) that I've used to explore it. (All of them happen to be from National Geographic, but that's just coincidental.)

A decent road atlas plus it covers some of the National Parks and some outdoor activities. Even if you have a car GPS, an old fashioned paper atlas still comes in handy sometimes.

These books are great to get an idea of what each park is like, and some of the highlights. They don't have room to give every detail but they're a good starting point.

There's also a National Parks iPhone app.

Note: The app itself is free but they charge for each park guide.

Spring Snow

A sudden change of weather in Bozeman.

Craters of the Moon

One last set of photos from a brief unplanned stop at Craters of the Moon National Monument.

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Driving Home

Driving across Nevada.


A lone pronghorn antelope - the only sign of animal life.


Elevation 486 Restaurant in Twin Falls, Idaho.


Overlooking the Snake River canyon.

Oh Yosemite

Yosemite is a special place in the climbing world. We'd never been there but we'd seen countless pictures and read so much about it. The scenery is every bit as spectacular as everyone says. The huge expanse of rock and soaring walls are amazing. But ...

Yosemite may have avoided the watery death by flooding of Hetch Hetchey but it has been inundated by its own flood of tourists. The floor of the valley is woven with roads, paved trails, parking lots, "villages", lodges, campgrounds, and shuttle buses. Even at the beginning of May, on a week day, people are everywhere. The scenery is still there, but for me at least, it lost much of its appeal.

I don't know what the solution is. People want to see Yosemite and they should, but how do you do that without spoiling it? And we couldn't really talk, we were using the roads and paths and other facilities. One answer, for us, would have been to head out into the backcountry and get away from all the development. But we didn't have a lot of time, and there was still too much snow in the high country. (The Tioga road across the park was still closed for the winter.)

We went to a great presentation in the Visitor Center theatre by Lee Stetson portraying John Muir, as he did in the (recommended) PBS series The National Parks. I wonder what Muir would have thought of the current state of his beloved Yosemite?

We woke up our first morning in Yosemite to hundreds (literally) of school kids streaming by. I just wanted to leave - it was too much for me. We drove up to Glacier Point for the incredible view and then headed out of the park. It's worth seeing, but I doubt we'll be back.

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See if you can spot the climbers on El Capitan. They are in a very different world from the valley bottom.

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

We stopped in a few spots in Sequoia National Park - Moro Rock, Crescent Meadow, Sherman Grove (Sherman is the largest tree in the world - by volume, not height), and Tokopah Falls. I've always loved big trees so it was a special experience to see these ones.

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The next day we hiked in Redwood Canyon in Kings Canyon National Park. This is the largest redwood grove left - with thousands of giant trees. There were originally larger groves, but they were logged :-(

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It's hard to take photos of these trees that show the true scale. Humans in the picture seem to work best.

Sierra Nevadas

From Las Vegas we drove across Death Valley to Lone Pine on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. One of the staff at the Las Vegas REI had recommended backpacking trails in the Cottonwood Lakes area. However, when we got to the visitor center we found out that the road into that area had not opened for the summer yet. And on top of that, most of the trails were still covered in snow (they're over 10,000 feet). So we camped for a night at a campground halfway up the Onion Lake road and in the morning we did a day hike into the Golden Trout lakes. The highest lake is about 11,000 feet and as predicted, there was still a lot of snow up there.

Once we got down, we drove around the south end of the Sierras, a beautiful drive through a variety of scenery. The green meadows and hillsides scattered with oak trees are lovely. We stopped overnight at a KOA at Isabella Lake and the next day continued up the west side of the Sierras to Sequoia National Park where we stayed at Buckeye campground and ate in Three Rivers at the Gateway Inn on a wonderful terrace overlooking the river. See if you can spot the rainbow trout in the first photo.

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Death Valley

We drove from Las Vegas across Death Valley to get to the eastern Sierras. It was interesting scenery and not as hot as some of the days we had in Vegas!

A Lizard with an Attitude

Love the blue belly :-)

Flowers in the Desert

I decided to leave my camera behind since we were doing a long trad route and I seldom take any photos while we're climbing. Of course, then I kept seeing things I wanted to take photos of on the hike in and out. Shelley let me use her camera and was patient while I took endless pictures of cactus and flowers. I like the desert. It's a bit like the prairies, bleak at first glance, but with surprising life when you look closer. The flowers on the cactus are always a delicious contrast - such pretty flowers on such a prickly plant! Shelley's camera, a Panasonic DMC-TS2, does a darn good job, although its main features are that it's shock proof and water proof - good for climbing and paddling.

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Valley of Fire

On our rest day from climbing we drove out to Valley of Fire State Park. It's worth a visit if you're in the area - great scenery.

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Red Rocks 3

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Rise and Shine

Here's yesterday's schedule to avoid the heat. Up at 4:30am, to get to the coffee shop when they open at 5am, to get to the park when they open the gates at 6am. Climbing by 7am, eight bolted sport routes (both of us leading each) finished by 10:30. Back drinking coffee in town by 11am. Getting up that early - painful, missing the heat - priceless.

Sometimes I wonder where Shelley gets her energy. She doesn't even drink coffee! We made another early start this morning, and got in a good morning on some (for us) harder climbs. And we'd just lost our shade. So I started packing up. Shelley came down off her last climb (which she had insisted on leading, even though I'd only top-roped it) and asked why I'd changed into my hiking shoes. I said I was done for the day. "Oh" :-( was all she said. We find some shade to have a snack before heading down. "Which big route should we climb tomorrow?" she asks cheerily. I inform her that I'm not climbing 5 days in a row. "Oh" :-( I tell her she has to make allowances for my lack of endurance.

Another Side of Vegas

We took a rest day from climbing today. For us, not being interested in casinos or shopping, there's not a lot to do in Vegas. A little searching on the internet turned up the Springs Preserve. We spent a good part of the day there, and might have spent longer in the gardens and trails if the temperature wasn't pushing 40c. Definitely recommended. They even had solar panels over the parking lot.

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See Shelley's blog also: Spirit and Adventure: Springs Preserve

Red Rocks 2

Some more photos from Red Rocks, some from a multi-pitch route called Tunnel Vision. The tortoises are the ones at the visitor center. One of them was attacking another (in slow motion of course). Possibly a territorial dispute? Getting sore from all the climbing, but having fun. Originally, Shelley was going to let us take the weekend off, but I should have known that was too good to be true - more climbing tomorrow. We can rest when we get home :-)

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First Day at Red Rocks

We had our morning coffee at our usual stop just off Charleston, the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. It's not anything special, but the location is right, and it's a decent enough coffee place (and they have tea for Shelley).

We went to buy our annual pass for Red Rocks and found that the USA national parks pass we had just purchased at Yellowstone also covers Red Rocks. If you're touring around visiting national parks, the $80 pass is well worth it.

We stopped at the visitors center and were delighted to find the desert tortoises were out and about. Every other time we've been here it's been winter and they've been sleeping. It was even feeding day. Of course, I hadn't brought my camera, so no photos. The tortoises are in a couple of (low) walled areas adjacent to the visitors center.

We had a good day at a couple of the bolted sport climbing areas at the first pullout. We were just warming up, but considering it was our first time outside this year, we felt pretty good. We were certainly climbing quicker than the other groups around us. We did 5 routes at one wall in the same time that other people did two or three. We were also the only couple where both of us led every route. Good to know we're not totally washed up yet :-)

We plan to follow our usual routine and alternate sport climbing and multi-pitch trad routes. So the plan for tomorrow is to do Tunnel Vision - a fun route we've done before that isn't too long or hard. Given the temperatures today (up to about +30c) we're figuring on an early start.

Of course, it won't be a surprise to people who know me that the one thing I took photos of was a lizard. The wrinkled skin makes me think she lost a little weight over the winter. I also saw a small snake - the first one I've seen here. I only got a quick look as it slithered into the undergrowth. It was about 15" long and about as thick as a pencil. No idea what kind it was. Not sure what kind of lizard it is either.

Avoiding Salt Lake City

It was with great joy that I turned the car away from the interstate and back into the mountains. Shelley would have been ok with just getting on the freeway and getting to where we were going. She doesn't have quite the same revulsion for the hellishness of the interstates.

Of course, around a big city like Salt Lake, the roads tend to be like spokes on a wheel, leading to the center. Going anywhere else is cutting across the grain. On top of that, the mountains themselves restrict where the roads can go. So it was a convoluted route that I plotted to go around the worst of it.

Unfortunately, one of the key legs of my route was closed, probably still too much snow from the winter. So we were forced towards "civilization". Shelley did a good job of navigating us through Provo and keeping me off the I15. (Shelley: Yes, but he still complained about having to drive thru a city for 10 minutes!) (Andrew: it was at least 15)

We had supper at Mom's Cafe in Salinas (open since 1926), camped at the Butch Cassidy Campground, and had breakfast at the Little Wonder Cafe in Richfield. Rustic, but better than Motel 6 and Denny's. (IMHO)

I have another roundabout route planned for today :-)

Yellowstone

We had planned to drive through Yellowstone and Teton parks, but we didn't think to check if the roads were open yet. They aren't, so we could only go as far as Mammoth Springs. But we went for a good hike, which was a welcome change from sitting in the car. We drove through a serious blizzard between Bozeman and West Yellowstone, but it improved after that. We're now in Rexburg, which being within 50 km of an interstate, is a desolate wasteland of fast food joints, chain hotels, and strip malls. Please let me go back to the mountains!

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Road Trip

Much as I love the prairies, my heart still thrills to see snowy peaks rising in the distance.

Had a good drive so far. Huge flocks of snow geese rising in swirls of birds. Ducks in every patch of water. Hawks on fence posts and telephone poles. A coyote dashing across the road in a hurry to get somewhere. Beautiful prong horn antelope. Lots of deer, thankfully mostly in the fields and not on the roads! Colorful ring necked pheasants in the ditches.

We took Highway 4 down from Rosetown, stopped at Urban Ground Coffee House in Swift Current. Stopped to check out the museum in Val Marie, but it was closed. Nice to see a big array of solar panels at the border crossing. Had supper at the Main Street Bistro in Lewistown. As the sun went down, the clouds were swirling around the mountains and the light was breaking through spotlighting the scenery.

Posted from Coffee Crossing in Livingston.

Easter Bunnies

Spotted these cuties near Innovation Place while I was walking to work Easter Monday. Only had the G12 with me, which doesn't have much of a zoom, so these are cropped considerably.

Energy Update

I recently added another piece to our home energy puzzle - a drain water heat recovery unit (from Water Cycles). It's the copper spiral in the picture. It was installed by Rock Paper Sun the folks that installed our solar panels.

It's a simple, passive device - no electronics, no pumps - just some simple copper tubing. It installs around the main drain. When you take a shower or run hot water for other things, the cold water going into your hot water tank (or into a tankless heater) runs through the spiral and gets warmed by the outgoing waste water.

One of the things that prompted me to get this installed was the frustration of watching the solar thermal panels warm up our hot water tank, and then losing all that heat down the drain after a couple of showers. This way at least some of the heat is recycled.

As spring progresses, we're getting more and more energy from our solar panels.

March was the first month when we generated more electricity than we used. It didn't hurt that we were on holidays for part of the month so our usage was less. And the weather has been mild so the furnace is running less. That doesn't mean we didn't use any electricity from the grid - it just means we put back more than we took. Our best day was today - March 31. We reached 4 kW maximum output - 80% of the rated maximum of 5 kW with a total of 22 kWh for the day. The top of our solar hot water tank is at 55c so our tankless water heater (set at 50c) isn't firing up at all. Nice!

Related posts:
EcoFriendly Sask - Solar Energy for Your Home
Where Does the Energy Go?
Solar Powered

New Photos Hung

Shelley and I hung the newly printed and mounted photos at my office today. (Thanks Shelley!)  I mostly went by the votes I got, although I included a climbing one even though it didn't get any votes :-) A big thanks to everyone who took the time to look at them and vote. Sorry if I didn't end up choosing your favorite!

I got them printed (16 x 24) and mounted ("float mounts") through Don's Photos. I was a little nervous about how they'd turn out but I'm quite happy with them. The underwater one of the turtle is a little too dark and a little too blue, but it's still reasonable.

Here are the ones I picked:











You can find them all in the 2011 Favorites set on Flickr.

Ocean Discovery Centre

Here are a couple of photos I took at the Ocean Discovery Centre in Sidney on Vancouver Island (near the Victoria airport and Swartz bay ferries). It's a smallish aquarium but it's worth stopping in if you're in the area and you like that kind of thing. Seeing the local underwater life made us wish we were scuba diving this trip.

Moss

From Ruckle Park on Salt Spring Island

Point No Point

Clare took us out to Point No Point, a place we first visited over 40 years ago as kids. It rained and snowed all the way there, and all the way back, but miraculously was dry and even some sun while we explored the beach. I had a great time climbing all over the rocks and taking photographs.



I just found out the Flickr slideshows don't work on the iPad (Flash) (thanks Penny). Try this link to the set Point No Point.

I used the new version (4) of Lightroom to process these. It seems like a definite improvement over LR3, which is a bit surprising, since you'd think this was a fairly mature product. Nice work Adobe! (They've lowered the price to $150 so it's a better deal than ever.)

Victoria Birds

If you're on an iPad or other device where the slideshow below doesn't work, try this link to the Victoria Birds set.



I've switched from posting photos to Google Picasa to using Flickr instead. This is because Google, in their single minded fanatic efforts to promote Google+ has hijacked Picasa and redirected it to Google+. It's their service, and it's free, so that's their choice. But it's my choice to jump ship.

I'm still experimenting with the best way to use Flickr, bear with me.

Spring on the West Coast?

We were expecting spring time out here, not blizzards!

Snapshots from Vancouver

I haven't been taking a lot of photographs, but here are a handful. (The sea otter and frogs are from the aquarium.)

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Coffee in Vancouver

Started at Pedro's - nothing special coffee wise, but handy to Granville Island and you can watch the ducks and geese (and turtles when it gets warmer).

Hit a Starbucks for breakfast because Pedro's wasn't open yet. Starbucks is an ok fallback but not my first choice.

The best coffee I've had for a long time was at Milano Coffee Roasters, which we ended up at because it's only a few blocks from the Mountain Equipment Coop. (Where I didn't even buy anything!)

Had a good sandwich and coffee at the Terra Breads Cafe in the Village at False Creek.

This morning we found Innocent Coffee. It's a cute little place, not far from Granville Island. For some reason it reminds me of something out of a William Gibson novel. (That's a good thing, by the way.)

And no, we haven't spent our whole time having coffee (although it is one way to escape the rain!) We had a good visit to the aquarium and a good workout at the Cliffhanger climbing gym.

Golden Morning

Photographic Process

"My photographic process is pretty simple: I tuck away my ego, my senses alive and electrified, acutely aware that Mother Nature is in charge of these challenging and primeval waters. Then I react, photographing instinctually the magnificence going on all around."

Echoes of a Primordial Kansas | Orion Magazine

PS. Thanks to Candace Savage for recommending Orion - it's a great read. (and available digitally)