Camping

Big Bend Adventure

Chris Jefferies — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 01:41:00 GMT

On December 27th, around 2pm, Aurora and I left Houston for our annual Big Bend experience. This year promised to be different because our usual camping spot was off limits due to new ownership of the land.

We made it to Marathon at about 10:30 and stopped briefly to see if Jim Flowers (or any of our acquaintances) might be at the Gage bar, but he had moved on and so did we. We got to the Stillwell Store at about midnight. We found Jim setting out a bedroll in the back of his beamer station wagon, and a note to the camp of Brooks and Karen. We went over to the camp and found a warm campfire that Brooks had left for us. It was about 35 degrees and the sky was clearing.

Next morning we met Karen and had coffee and apple bread and decided to venture down to Andy Currie's Open Sky Café property at the end of the road around the closed international bridge at La Linda. First we met with Fred who I had spoken to the previous day. He recommended the sand flats near the spot where the river rafters put in and take out of the Rio Grande. He also mentioned that we might consider the area near the north end of the, now closed, Heath Canyon airplane landing strip. We checked out the sand flats and found very limited conditions for our style of camping so we went to check out the air strip. On the way we ran into Andy at the Open Sky café and he also recommended the landing strip.

The landing strip at Heath Canyon must be a challenge to pilots because it rises perhaps 100 feet over the length of the take off and then finds a 1000' cliff just after the end.

Nevertheless, we didn't think the runway option was very good for us either. There was no vegetation, no trees or anything to cut the wind if a northern came up. So we decided to return to the Stillwell's property.

On the way back to Stillwell's, we decided to check in to the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area. It is state property used for regulated hunting. It was the 28th and the current hunt was a youth hunt ending on the 29th. We checked out the WMA headquarters and found no one there, but as we were leaving, we ran into Tom Van Zandt. He was quite helpful and told us which permits we needed and where we could get them. According to Tom we needed to go to the True Value hardware store in Alpine (about 80 miles one way). As I described that we wanted to camp at Fish Camp 1, 2 and that we wanted to stay over New Year's eve he asked if we were the folks who used to camp at Adam's ranch and shot off fireworks on New Year's eve. I confessed proudly that our reputation preceded us. He said that there was no problem with us camping in the WMA but that due to the surplus rainfall the grass was very high and that the fire danger was high and we should NOT shoot off our fireworks. I said no problem and he said jokingly, “but, if you do, shoot them over Mexico”.

Jim Flowers on the ridge above Fish Camp 1 & 2.

Later in the afternoon as we checked in at Stillwell's I made a huge mistake. I told Nanette about our encounter with Tom and how he had joked about the fireworks. The reason this was a mistake was that Nanette later recounted our impression of Tom back to Tom when he came into the store. She told Tom she thought it was nice that he was going to let us shoot our fireworks over Mexico and he adamantly denied giving us any permission to shoot fireworks.

Jim and I collected some down and dead mesquite wood from a creek bed on the Stillwell's property with permission from WT. Ben arrived in the late afternoon on the 28th and we all spent another on the Stillwell property.

On the 29th, Brooks and Karen headed into the Park for some hikes around the perimeter of the Basin and Santa Elena Canyon. Jim, Aurora and I went to hike into Rio Vista from Beunos Aires and Ben decided to hang in camp and collect wood later that afternoon. As usual we got a late start on our way to Rio Vista and the day caught up with us about half way between Buenos Aires and Rio Vista. We did manage to get to an intact stretch of the old river road with a clear view to our old familiar Apache Peak. Even though we didn't make it, it was fun hiking in the old terrain.

When we got back to the Stillwell camp, we found that Dale, Karen and Canyon and Derek had arrived. Yet another joyful reunion and we celebrated with drinks and good food. We had some venison sausage and Derek added some beef and made a wonderful chili. That night we agreed to try out Fish Camps 1 & 2 again. Late that night Ben left for Terlingua to catch up with Jeff Grey and tour his property in the Solitario region.

Next morning, the 30th, we broke camp while I went to the Stillwell store and proceeded to deal with the bureaucracy of the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area via a FAX machine. The Stillwell's had information and phone numbers that let us get our permits via FAX instead of having to go to the True Value Hardware in Alpine. Finally we got our permits (the wrong kind, as we later found out) and we headed off to the WMA headquarters to the self registration booth. After filling out yet more forms we started down the road to the fish camps.

The road was much improved from the last time we drove about it 10 years ago and Jim even made it with his new BMW station wagon. It took us about an hour to make it and felt like an apprehensive homecoming.

We walked down to the river and were getting our bearings (the terrain has changed a lot in the last 10 years) when we heard a vehicle approaching. It turned out to be 2 rangers from Black Gap (Javier ? and Lynn Shakleford - Lynn is the son of Mackey Shakleford who owns Big Brushy ranch). They had gotten a message from Stillwell's that Lisa was going to have back surgery the next morning. As Derek had not even unpacked he took no time to decide to head back to Houston and within about 5 minutes he was off down the “long“ road. We later heard that he made it back out of Black Gap in about 20 minutes (which had just taken us about an hour to negotiate). Even later, when we got out of the Big Bend area and my cell phone started picking up messages again, I picked up an instant message from Lisa. It read: “Lisa is having surgery Friday 8:00 a.m. Will be home next day Sat per second opinion advise, do not rush home...be“

Brooks and Karen stayed with us through dinner and had their Big Bend carne experience and then headed down the long road to pick up Ben in Marfa and then head on to LA for the Rose Bowl.

The next morning we were preparing the morning coffee when we heard a voice from the ridge... “I'm here“ and we looked up to see Shawn waving in the distance.

The day was spent hanging around camp, gathering wood (easy pickins for a small crew of 7), hiking up to a ridge and generally enjoying the warm sunny day.

That evening we proceeded to have our usual steaks and potatoes feast on our favorite grill and we were just finishing it off when a truck came over the ridge and swooped into the camp. Turns out it was Tom Van Zandt come to check our “stinkin' badges“ or rather our permits and wanted to see all our drivers licenses to make sure we were who we said we were. Before we collected our permits and IDs Jim told Shawn to hide in her tent as she had not arranged for a permit.

I asked him if he really needed to do this and he said he was just doing his job and that he would be checking all the campers that evening. I later checked with some campers at the Stillwell showers who had camped at camp # 22 and they never saw Tom Van Zandt.

After verifying our names on the permit with our IDs, Tom told us that we had recieved the wrong permits (Fishing licenses instead of Mixed Use permits) and that we could stay the evening (how nice of him) but that we would have to go to Alpine to get the correct permits in order to stay another day as we had planned.

Tom told us stories of his exploits with campers; how he often watches them scatter when he arrives. He said he had supplies (food, water, books, radios - you can't outrun Mr Motorola) to outlast campers who were hiding in the bush. He told us that Horse Canyon was a major drug route because there were raods on the Mexico side right up to the border. He said that they had detectors that could sense foot traffic through the area and that someone had been detected just a few days before we arrived.

Tom knew about the Adams ranch deal and about Cemex and the issues surrounding the La Linda bridge.

After about 45 minutes of jawing, he left us to have a quiet New Year's evening.

more to come...

Funnel Cloud in the Sierras

Chris Jefferies — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 18:47:00 GMT

Forming Tornado, Rockwell Pass
Sequoia National Park, July 7, 2004
Possibly Highest Elevation Tornado Ever Observed in U.S.

I would hate to see this developing above me in the Sierras. Read about this rare phenomenon here.

http://tornado.sfsu.edu/RockwellPassTornado/index.html

Sky Camp

Chris Jefferies — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 00:22:00 GMT

The Ring Nebula

The Whirlpool Galaxy

Jimmy Bruno organized a group camp at a state park called Sugarloaf State Park. Aurora had to work on Saturday so I drove up to Sonoma valley by myself. Jimmy calls it Sky Camp because it's right next to the Furgeson Observatory (here are my notes on the wiki). Jimmy reserved it for a private viewing and it was a great time (until the fog rolled in about 11:30pm).

The evening started out by having the kids help with rolling the roof off of the big telescope. Then we gathered outside to watch an Iridium Flare. An Iridium Flare is the reflection of sunlight from a satellite of the Iridium communications project. Read more here. Later in the evening we watch the International Space Station as it moved from west to east and faded into the shade of the Earth's shadow.

Next we went into a meeting room and saw a slideshow about the moon which was presented by an observatory docent who had a refractor telescope and later gave a tour of the moon.

I went to another observatory in the facility and talked with 2 docents (David Cranford and Estelle?) who were using a Celestron 14 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain to take digital images into a computer using a CCD which was hooked up where an eyepiece would normally be. They were very enthusiastic about astronomy and answered all my questions. I would love to have a setup like that. The images above were taken while we were there and David was gracious enough to send them in an email.

Finally the fog rolled in, but the camp tents were really close to our campfire, so we had a low keyed sing along arounfd the fire. In the morning after coffee and breakfast we had a chance to play some mnore and that was fun.

On the way home, I stopped off at a garden museum called the “Corner Stone“.

The Bear - that got the cocktail cherries

Chris Jefferies — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 02:12:00 GMT

Here's a picture, taken by Nancy, of the bear that prowled around our campsite one night.

See Nancy's other photos in the Jumano Gallery at:
http://www.jumano.com/ngallery

Also see my prior post about our trip at:
http://jumano.com/blogs/chris/archive/2004/07/09/1020.aspx

This Weekend

Chris Jefferies — Mon, 19 Jul 2004 01:48:00 GMT

Spent the weekend cleaning up camp gear that we've collected for the past 20 years. Old stoves, wool socks, etc...

I moved the DSL modem and the firewall into the laundry room and ran a new phone line for the DSL connection in there as well. This puts the web server, the firewall, and the DSL modem all on the same 20 amp circuit. It made no sense to have them on different circuits because without all of them running it doesn't do me any good.

Added the Jumano CAM...

Jumano Forums

Chris Jefferies — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:30:00 GMT

I've set up a web forum for discussion threads at: http://www.jumano.com/Forums

Please visit the forums and start up or join a discussion.

Adams Ranch has been SOLD

Chris Jefferies — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 12:49:00 GMT

We knew this day would come...

Adams ranch has been sold to some folks who are from central Texas. We don't know much about them, but Derek called Lee Roberts, the previous ranch manager, and he is no longer employed as the ranch manager. Lee didn't have much to add except that his impression was that they would most likely discontinue allowing us to camp there over the New Years holiday.

So it could be time to move on.

There are alternatives, always:

Take a river trip and camp along the way
Try to get into Black Gap Wildlife Management area. I've heard that they have eased up on the “Hunters only” rule.
Bargain and plead with the new owners
Camp at the Stillwell campgrounds
Give up

I'll be following up with some contacts in the Big Bend over the next few months and I'll see what we can arrange for our New Year's Party.

Lets discuss on the new forums site at:

http://www.jumano.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=11

Backpacking in the Sierras

Chris Jefferies — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 20:22:00 GMT

Last weekend, Aurora and I, accompanied by Dan Fults, Ray Lear and Nancy Coe, hiked our way through a beautiful section of Yosemite National Park. Beyond the basic hiking we had a bear encounter and a cross country route finding experience.

Day One - Travel & Staging

Ray, Aurora and I drove up to Yosemite on Tuesday and met Dan (who flew into Reno and drove a rent car down highway 395) in Tuolumne meadows at the Lambert Dome parking lot. We then drove to the Green Lake trail head and left Dan's car as the shuttle vehicle for our takeout point. On the way back to Tuolumne we left a note at the Mono Inn Restaurant on Mono Lake for a reservation on Sunday at 7pm. There was no way to confirm it, but we left the note anyway. We had dinner at the café at the Mobile Station - Tioga Gas Mart (recommended by Karen Fuller) and it was fantastic.

After dinner we met up with Nancy who had wisely reserved a camp site for us in the Tuolumne Meadows campground.

Day Two - Young Lakes Hike

Got up early and made coffee and started sorting gear. Dan, Ray and I went to get our permits and to rent another bear can so we had 3 total to carry our food. It is now a requirement to carry all food in bear cans in the back country. Bear cans are plastic bear proof containers that weigh about 2 1/2 pounds and measure about 16 inches high and about 10 inches around.

We started hiking around noon and made our way to soda springs, and then to the Young Lakes fork on the way to Glen Aulin. Overall we climbed about 1400 feet in 7 miles. On the way it rained which was part of the afternoon Sierra weather pattern. This pattern builds up a thunderstorm in the late afternoon and by 8pm it clears up for a spectacular sunset. We got to the camp site at about 6:30 and proceeded to set up camp. Of course after we got our tents set up and changed into warm evening clothes, it was time for cocktails and Dan set us up with some tasty Bombay Safire Gin martinis, each with an olive and an onion. We ate humus and pita bread as a cocktail h'orderve.

As we sat there contemplating our place in the world, sipping martinis, we saw a big bear emerge from behind our tent. A big long legged black bear with light brown fur. We chased him off but soon he was back. He continued to probe our campsite for food until about 2am. For dinner we had a chicken and rice gumbo with orange chocolate cookies for desert. After dinner we found that we had more food than the bear cans could hold so we had to hang the remaining food.

The first hanging used the traditional approach where you hang food bags over an extended high branch using a piece of cord. We tied the cord to a nearby tree and backed off to see if the bear was able to get to the bags. It didn't take long for the bear to emerge from the dark and as we watched him, we were amazed that he went straight for the tie-off point. Just like Yogi, he was smarted than the average bear. We threw rocks and yelled and chased him away and then tried another technique.

The second hanging was what is called the counter-balance method. In this method you hang half the contents on one side of the cord pull it it up high. You then tie off the other half on the cord and push it up with a long stick to equalize the balance. We thought this would fool the bear so we called it a night and crawled into our tents. No sooner was I drifting off than I heard bear claws scratching on the tree. By the time I got out of my bag and out of the tent and into my boots and over to the tree the bear had one of the bags in his mouth and was tearing it to shreds. The other bags were hung up by the cord in the tree branch and he was trying to get the bag he had in his mouth loose from the tree. I yelled and threw rocks but I had to get pretty close before he abandoned everything.

We took the contents of the thrashed bag and crammed them into the bear cans and hung the remaining bags, counter-balanced, over a smaller branch that would be harder for him to get to. Then back to bed, resigned that we were going to lose the food in the bags.

Yet again I heard the bear claws on the tree and back out of the bag, the tent, into boots, but this time I caught the bear in the tree. I approached the tree, growling and yelling and throwing rocks and he started to growl and hiss at me. I kept up the pressure and he got more annoyed and hissed louder. Finally I backed off from the tree and he saw his opportunity to escape and dropped onto the ground and disappeared in to the night.

I went back to bed again, but was sure that this would be the ongoing pattern throughout the night, but at daybreak, we saw the bags were still hanging and we had beat the bear. We never saw him again.

Day Three - Layover at Young Lakes

We had an easy day of hiking up to the top of the 3 Young Lakes and had a relaxing day. In the afternoon, the rains came and most folks took naps in the tents while it rained. By 8pm the sun emerged and we had a glorious sunset and sipped on Dan's Manhattans. For dinner we had a Cous Cous and Lentil soup, beef stroganoff and sipped on a Merlot wine (which I had carried into the camp site 2 weeks earlier). For desert we had orange chocolate cookies.

No bear...

Day Four - Cross Country to McCabe Lake

On Friday we hiked on a cross country route from the lower Young Lake almost to lower McCabe Lake. Just north of Young Lake is an east to west draining valley and a little further northwest is a north to south draining valley. As the crow flies, our goal, McCabe Lake, lies about 5 miles away, but our route was designed to avoid steep terrain and minimize altitude loss or gain (both lakes sit at about 9800'). Over the course of the day, we would plot a course from our position to a desired goal. After about 1/2 hour of following our compass bearing we would break out the GPS (Global Positioning System) device and after a few minutes I would call out the coordinates to Dan who would then mark our position on the map. Again we would plot a desired goal and repeat the pattern. Overall our navigation worked perfectly and we found our way as expected. The main problem we found was that the terrain was often quite tough with boulder fields and fallen trees that made the going tough, especially with a full pack. In the future, I've now learned to expect off trail hiking to take about twice as long as trail hiking. The late afternoon weather pattern brought a light rain that chilled the air and seemed to sap some of our lagging energy.

We didn't quite make it to McCabe Lake but found a suitable camp site about a mile south of McCabe and settled in for camp setup and subsequent cocktails; Manhattans (No cherries. That's one of the things the bear got) with tasty Sarenah cheese and crackers h'orderves right on time for a spectacular sunset with Matterhorn Peak in the distance. For dinner we had a chicken and rice stew then called an early night.

Day Five - McCabe Lake to Summit Lake via Virginia Canyon

This day started with mostly downhill travel but ended up with a tough uphill trudge that left us scrambling for a suitable campsite. We started with a hike to beautiful McCabe lake (our original goal from the previous day). The lake shore had a wonderful vista and we could see trout swimming near the shore hitting the surface for mosquitoes. The next section of trail ambled through the forest for about 3 miles and took us to the bottom of Virginia Canyon and our first Teva crossing (we call it that because we take off our boots and wade across in our Teva sandals) to cross Return Creek. After our lunch break we started east up Virginia Canyon. This was the beginning of the uphill trudge but every once in a while we would break out of the forest and see wonderful panoramas in the southwest.

The last mile up to Summit Lake rose about 1000' and was the final trudge. At the top we ran into some other hikers who graciously took our group shot, but then wanted to talk on and on, but we were tired and moved on to find a camp. Luck was with us and we found a great spot on the east end of the lake, tucked behind a stand of junipers.

It was high and cold and we were tired (and I was a bit cranky) so it seemed to take us a while to get camp set up. Soon, enough, though, it was cocktail hour and our spirits started to warm up. Martinis were in order and Dan set us up straight. We each had and olive and an onion in the martini and the extra olives and onions were served up as h'orderves along with a bean dip that Nancy made which we dipped into with pita bread. Dinner was a hot corn chowder with chicken (Nancy's variation on a Jacque recipe). After dinner we had some tea and cookies and settled in to some old story telling and stayed up 'til almost midnight. The stars were spectacular until the moon rose over the eastern ridge.

We had planned to meet up with John, Jacque, and Ellery at East Lake this evening, but we figured that IF we had proceeded on, we wouldn't have gotten to their camp until 9 or 10 o'clock. We would have been far too pooped to even have dinner, let alone cocktails, so the decision to hold at Summit Lake was the best all 'round decision.

Day Six - Summit Lake to Green Lake trail head

The last day on the trail was a glorious blue sky day. The Sierra weather pattern was broken and it was cool and clear. After our usual breakfast of oatmeal or cereal and Peet's coffee, we headed down the trail to find J, J, & E. The trail was mostly downhill and uneventful except for a few Teva stream crossings. Finally about 2:30 in the afternoon we found J, J, & E and had a happy reunion. They packed up while we rested and caught up with our adventures. I cached a bottle of Wine in the area and then we all hike down to Green Lake where J, J, & E were going to spend another night.

We said our goodbyes and left our comrades on a huge granite rock in the split in the trail and headed down the trail to our take-out point. It was indeed mostly downhill, but the last section seemed to take forever and we were again, pooped. The 6-pack, chips and salsa verde in the awaiting car was like a grand feast at the end of the trail.

We packed all our gear into Dan's little rent car and headed back to Tuolumne Meadows with the hope of having dinner at the Mono Inn. Sadly we found that they were closed on the 4th of July so reservations or not, it was a bust. The Tioga Gas Mart was our post hike dinner and I had a burger and a salad. It was fantastic.

See the trip highlights at: http://jumano.com/blogs/chris/gallery/187.aspx

See the Gallery of all my pictures at: http://www.jumano.com/ngallery

Read about our exploratory trip to Young Lakes at: http://jumano.com/blogs/chris/archive/2004/06/21/991.aspx

BLEEX -- the Berkeley Lower Extremities Exoskeleton

Chris Jefferies — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 21:05:00 GMT

Click on this to see what the future of backpacking may look like.

Robotic legs could produce an army of super troopers

(03-10) 13:39 PST BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) --

Move over Bionic Man and make room for BLEEX -- the Berkeley Lower Extremities Exoskeleton, with strap-on robotic legs designed to turn an ordinary human into a super strider.

Ultimately intended to help people like soldiers or firefighters carry heavy loads for long distances, these boots are made for marching.

"The design of this exoskeleton really benefits from human intellect and the strength of the machine," says Homayoon Kazerooni, who directs the Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley.

The exoskeleton consists of a pair of mechanical metal leg braces that include a power unit and a backpack-like frame. The braces are attached to a modified pair of Army boots and are also connected, although less rigidly, to the user's legs.

More than 40 sensors and hydraulic mechanisms function like a human nervous system, constantly calculating how to distribute the weight being borne and create a minimal load for the wearer.

"There is no joystick, no keyboard, no push button to drive the device," says Kazerooni, a professor of mechanical engineering. "The pilot becomes an integral part of the exoskeleton."

In lab experiments, says Kazerooni, testers have walked around in the 100-pound exoskeleton plus a 70-pound backpack and felt as if they were carrying just five pounds.

Eventually, the device could help rescuers haul heavy equipment up high-rise buildings or turn tired troops into striding super soldiers.

What it won't do is turn you into a Borg, the gadget-happy gladiators of "Star Trek" fame.

"The exoskeleton is not going to magically transform people into killing machines," says Kazerooni, known to his students as Professor Kaz. "They're really good, it turns out, at enabling firefighters, soldiers, post-disaster rescue crews to carry heavy loads over great distances for hours."

So, no cyborg cops. But at least you get Terminator togs.

Video of the BLEEX in action, which can be viewed at www.me.berkeley.edu/hel/bleex.htm, shows a steel-spiked symbiosis of man and machine, marching about to the techno-industrial drone of grinding motors. The next step for the BLEEX team is making the power source quieter and stronger and miniaturizing components.

BLEEX is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon research and development arm, and was among the projects being showcased at a DARPA tech symposium this week in Anaheim.

The project is one of scores in the field of robotics, which ranges from industrial machines that assemble cars to orthotics, surgical devices that activate or supplement weakened limbs or functions.

Excitement about robotics was fanned by this week's DARPA-sponsored Mojave Desert race for fully autonomous vehicles, and the field is making strides worldwide.

In Japan, a leader in robot research, Sony Corp. has developed a child-shaped walking robot, known as Qrio, and Honda Motor Co. has also developed a walking, talking humanoid robot. This spring, some Japanese companies plan to start marketing a "robot suit," a motorized, battery-operated device intended to help old and infirm people move around.

The current favorite in the DARPA race came out of Carnegie Mellon University, where professor Matthew Mason is working on intelligent robots including the Mobipulator, which uses its wheels to move things as well as for locomotion.

"There's just too much to do," says Mason. "Every time that there is an advance in computing, there are just so many more things that it becomes possible to do. Robotics is really about interfacing computers to the physical world so that their sensors give them a better concept of what's going on around them -- they can make interesting things happen instead of just sitting there in their little beige boxes."

Kazerooni isn't offering test drives of the exoskeleton. But if he were, Mason would be interested.

"It looks really exciting," says Mason. "I'd like to try it on myself."

End of First Day on the Road

Chris Jefferies — Sat, 20 Dec 2003 02:10:00 GMT

Friday, December 19th, 2003

Now in a Holiday Inn in Blythe, CA. We left the house about 1pm and went to have breakfast at the Inn Kensington. Ran into Lisa VanCleef who is doing garden design work for a woman who lives on our street. I met Lisa back around 1983/84 when I worked at Dolby Labs. What a surprise.

The highway was very crowded and it was tough driving. Aurora did the big stretch from just past Tracy on I-5 to Ontario on I-10. We had dinner at this great restaurant named Rosa's just South of I-10 off of the Vineyard exit.

Once we got back on the freeway we encountered hundreds of SUVs with large packages on top; most of them travelling under the speed limit in the left lane. Aaaaagh...

Got a room, smells like glue, connected to a local dial-up, got my email, and updated my blog. Now I'll watch a few minutes of CNN and drift off to sleep with the freeway buzz about a hundred yards away.

Tomorrow we plan to take in the Quarzite flea market, dinner at the Congress hotel in Tuscson and then El Paso for another rest. On the way we'll see the cotton fields west of Pheonix, the Gila river, big yellow signs advertizing “The Thing”, the 3 crosses over Las Cruces and Texas Canyon with it's huge mounds of abstract boulders.

More fun.