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Mary and I spent an awesome Fourth of July weekend camping and hiking at the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite. I love this place; especially at this time of year. Green meadows, babbling brooks, snow streaked mountains, waterfalls, and the occasional remnant snow patch. Also, it was not nearly as crowded as Yosemite Valley was, I’m sure. The valley in the summer, especially on a holiday weekend, is a traffic jam. Here, people are much more manageable; and once we got a mile into the wilderness, there’s hardly anybody at all. The meadows were teaming with wildlife, especially deer and marmots. Lots of marmots.

We spent Friday night at the Tuolumne Meadows Campground. It was full when we got there, but fortunately they have a backpackers section where you can spend the night before/night after you hit the trail. Saturday morning we took off south down Rafferty Creek trail, heading for the Vogalsang lake area. We ended up camping next to Fletcher Lake at 10,160ft, in a little grove of trees next to an open meadow, next to a cliff overlooking the valley we had just climbed up. There is something very relaxing about setting up a tent by yourself in a perfect alpine meadow and cooking a mountain house for dinner.

As long as I’m in California I think a trip to Tuolumne after the snow melts and Tioga Pass opens is going to be an annual tradition.

More photos are on flickr. You can check-out/download the GPS track on trimbleoutdoors.com.

As planned after the first trip a couple weeks prior, I went back down to Leo Carrillo beach on the night of the last full moon. I was able to convince Mary to come as well, so we took off after work and got there just before sunset. The sun went down, the moon came up, and we climbed out onto a rocky outcropping. It was clear from the start that we should be concerned about the incoming waves. Mary certainly told me as much. But…the rock was dry. At first, I was all worried, and would be ready to run or cover the camera every time a wave came in. But they kept coming, and nothing ever made it up onto the rock for at least 20 minutes. I got comfortable; unconcerned. Then the big one came, doused both of us, doused the camera on the tripod, and practically filled the camera bag containing lenses and other assorted gear with salt water. We dried the gear off as best we could right there on the rock, in the dark. Then we went back to the car to continue with paper towels. Then we finally got home and I cleaned everything as best I could with Kim wipes, cotton swaps, and IPA. It’s been over a week now, and so far no signs of problems. It’s not as much of an adventure if you come home dry, I suppose.

It was not a complete failure, though most shots did not come out as great as I’d hoped.

Moonrise:

Mary, shortly before the ocean sent us scurrying away:

I’ve been on a bit of a Swedish mystery kick recently. Just finished “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”, after waiting months for its (English) release since finishing the second book. I got completely sucked into all three of these books. They’re very good! There’s also a movie just released in the US of the first.

While I was waiting for the final in the Stieg Larsson series, I figured I would try some other Swedish fiction – since I’m in kind of a “Scandinavia (and Greenland!) is cool phase – and read a couple of the Inspector Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell. I had previously read Depths by the same author quite by coincidence, but I didn’t find it at all interesting and never finished it. However, The Wallander books seemed highly recommended on the interwebs, so I thought I’d give them a chance. I’ve read the first two, and they’re OK; certainly interesting enough to finish (and maybe even buy the next in the series). But not great. They don’t keep me up nights, by any means.

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A few weeks ago, I and nine other adventurous souls headed back to Death Valley for the weekend. Our primary objective for the trip was to make it out to the Racetrack Playa. The playa is a large, flat surface of hardened mud, cracked into a rather appealing texture. During the winter, it often gets flooded and stays wet and muddy, but in the spring it quickly dries.

Prior to leaving, and right up to the moment at Scotty’s Castle where we decided to go for it, we questioned whether driving all the way out there in our not-so-rugged, low-clearance vehicles was a wise idea. Although I don’t usually picture myself as the conservative one, I in particular was very hesitant to drive the Prius out there, fearing vehicle damage, major hassles, or expensive towing fees when something broke. The big concern, from everything I’ve read, is that the rocks on the 27 mile long unmaintained road puncture tires; often more than one. The lady working at Scotty’s Castle, when asked, said “No way, don’t go. About once a week someone gets stranded out there and it can be $1500 to get towed out.” And I didn’t even have a full-size spare. If I had been alone, I would almost certainly not have gone; but since we had three vehicles, I figured our chances of being stranded were low, and..what the hell. So we drove nice and slow for two hours or so until we made it! Along the way we passed teakettle junction: A fork in the road where people decorate the sign with old teakettles.

Here is the view approaching the Playa from the north:

One of the cool features of the playa is the rocks that slide across it, leaving tracks in the mud that zig zag in all sorts of directions, and last for years. I’ve not heard a conclusive explanation for how they move, and as far as I know no-one has seen or recorded them moving, but I think it is some combination of wind and water pushing them across a slick, muddy surface. After it rains, a lot of water from the surrounding mountains runs down onto the playa, and I believe the winds through there can get very fast. When were first arrived, we parked up by the grandstand and ran out onto the playa. I had read that the best sliding rocks were at the southern end, so I set off walking that direction. I quickly learned that the playa is a LOT bigger than it looks. I kept walking, running, walking. When I looked back, the grandstand had gotten a lot further, but the south end did not look any closer. In the end, we gave up walking and returned to the grandstand for a bit. We then drove down to the south end, but by the time we found the good rock tracks, it was already getting very dark.

In the end, we made it in and out with no problems. I’m not quite as confident about it as Kendall is, but it was a calculated risk. I’m sure many people do have problems, and the fact that our three cars were fine does not say much about the actual odds of getting stuck with two flats. Definitely, if you are going, bring supplies (food, water, sleeping bag) to spend a couple of days/nights comfortably. I’m not sure I would do it in the middle of summer when it is deadly hot. And finally, be prepared to accept that there is some risk of a major hassle and financial costs if you are unlucky. I don’t know about other seasons, but when were out there in April, we saw at least 8 other vehicles along the way. Also, I regret that we tried to drive in and out on the same day. I would much preferred to have camped out there for the night. There is a primitive campground a couple miles south of the Playa.

This past weekend we took a drive out to the Antelope Valley to see the Poppies at the Poppy Reserve. Afterwards, we drove a bit further and spent the night at Red Rock Canyon State Park.  We didn’t get there until after dark, then we made some dinner, and I spent the rest of the night taking pictures. I started out with the Joshua Trees in the center of the campground. I think Joshua Trees are freakin’ awesome, so they are the first to get uploaded and this is dedicated to them.

I had a lot of fun, with my speedlight secured on my hip, taking a shot, reviewing, trying again. You couldn’t see much of anything in the viewfinder because it was so dark, so I had to guess and check. Most shots were several minute exposures, during which time I would experiment with manually shooting the flash off from different places. This one is a fairly short exposure (hence the black background) with a combination of two flash firings: one from above the camera, and one well off to the right.

This is from the morning after. I got up before sunrise, hoping to go hike through one of the canyons in the morning light. But the promising glow on the horizon quickly turned to an ugly gray. I had a nice morning walk though, any way.

Of course, we also saw some pretty awesome poppy fields on Saturday. Those will have to wait for another night!

This weekend Mary and I packed up the car before dawn and headed north for Sonora, CA.  We got lunch in Sonora, then saw “Christmas, My Way” — a Frank Sinatra Christmas tribute show — at the Fallon House Theatre in Columbia State Park. Afterwards, we headed off to Yosemite valley to spend the night camping in the snow.  I’ve been to Yosemite twice now. The first time, we camped in Toulumne Meadows, and that area was awesome. But, when we went into the Valley it pretty much sucked. The roads were a traffic jam, and there were people EVERYWHERE. This weekend was so much calmer, and the snow was nice. When we first left camp around sunrise, the valley was nearly deserted. People started emerging from the lodges a bit later, but it was still a pretty quiet place.

Inscriptions on the wall at the Hong Kong Garden Restaurant in Sonora, CA. We figured these to be cattle brands for local ranchers(either past or present). We're not really sure though. FYI, if you are in Sonora and thinking of eating at this restaurant, I definitely do not recommend it, despite the interesting decor.

Just some blocked off stairs on the end of a bridge that caught my eye

Yosemite Creek

More is in this set on Flickr (or view slideshow).

Not a lot of activity here recently. This can be blamed primarily on my lack of free time, which can be blamed, primarily, on the large amount of time I’ve spent at work recently. But, I have managed this weekend to enjoy some relaxing computer time at Panera, and as usual, that means posting here. So, for today’s Panera observation, I have this warning, from a mother to her son:

“You’d better stop that, or I’ll put a chili in your mouth!”

Ouch. I’d stop if I were him.

I filed my taxes today, and it was a distinctly different experience than any other year I’ve filed. Due to the fact that the vast majority of my previous income was “self-employed”, no taxes were withheld throughout the year, and I had to pay the extra 7.5% self-employment (social security) tax in addition to the usual. This meant that every year around tax time I owed a lot of money. This year however, I’m getting a rather large refund! Tack on my $600 stimulus check, and it almost feels like I’m getting a gift from Uncle Sam. Of course, that’s not really the case. I was really giving out an interest free loan…but that doesn’t change the way I FEEL about it!

It got me thinking, so I decided to do a bit of research and came across the “History of the US Tax System”, published by the US Treasury. Tax withholding at the source (the employer) was first enacted during the Civil War, along with a two-tiered income tax and standard deductions, and various other taxes to support the growing war costs. It was soon repealed though, in 1872.

Tax withholding returned during World War II, along with huge increases in taxation levels: federal receipts increased from $8.7B (7.6% of GDP) in 1941 to $45.2B (20.4% of GDP) in 1945. From the US Treasury’s summary:

Another important feature of the income tax that changed was the return to income tax withholding as had been done during the Civil War. This greatly eased the collection of the tax for both the taxpayer and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. However, it also greatly reduced the taxpayer’s awareness of the amount of tax being collected, i.e. it reduced the transparency of the tax, which made it easier to raise taxes in the future.

That seems to hit it right on. Collecting is easy, and I’m feeling right now like I got a tax time bonus! It is worth noting that tax levels (as a percent of GDP) never returned to Pre World War II levels. They dipped briefly to 14.4%, but soon were back up to the postwar (1945 to present) average of 17.9%. This graph from heritage.org shows 1945 to present tax rates.

It is just another example of how the right presentation can effect people’s perceptions. We really don’t always consider things rationally. But, whatever.  When do I get my check???

So I’m here killing time at Panera again; this time waiting for Mom and Dustin’s  delayed flight to get into LAX. Today’s observation involves computer lust. The guy across the room from me is setup with this laptop, which really isn’t a LAPtop at all! But if you are looking for portable screen real estate….wow. At first, I thought he had brought a stand-alone monitor to Panera with him! My laptop feels so small now. Of course, I’m going to walk out of here comfortably with mine in my backpack. I don’t think I’d want to carry his very far!

Engadget review:  http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/01/dell-xps-m2010-reviewed/

I had my first Disney theme park experience recently. Mary finally took me after talking about it forever! All in all, I’d have to say I was pretty impressed. Nothing like the roller coasters of Busch Gardens or Kings Dominions, that’s for sure. In fact, there were only really two rides that qualify as roller-coasters as far as I’m concerned. But they definitely go all out on the immersion factor. Whether it is the stars flying by in the dark and the music of Space Mountain, holographic ghosts on haunted house, or images projected on sheets of dry ice smoke, I spent a lot of time going, “Wow that’s cool! How’d they do that?”.

They also really know how to run a theme park. Compared to others I’ve been to, it is way cleaner, people are nicer, and they amazingly efficient at moving a line through a ride. I mean, they run double loading stations, have non stop loading on conveyor belts, and have a “Fastpass” system, so you can get a certain number of bypass the line passes per hour, and can then come back at a future time (marked on the pass, depending on demand) and bypass most of the line. Also cool: Interactive rides. On Astroblaster, you get to go through the ride shooting targets with a laser, competing for a high score. Nothing like competition to make the ride more fun . The California Tower Hotel (Tower of Terror) was also pretty cool. I can almost see why people would want to travel across the world to visit the place. For a young disney fan at the right age, I think it would seem downright magical. Pictures can be found here. Also, this girl was going crazy on a rope on the Lion King float in the parade!