Blood Red Moon June 14, 2008
Posted by Phineas in : Environment, Irrelevant, Outdoors/Travel , 3 commentsWow it’s a blood red moon out there tonight, about three quarters full. I’ve never seen a red moon so high in the sky before. Usually I see those as the moon rises right at sunset, catching the sun’s setting rays. I guess it’s a similar effect, but right now the moon is high in the southwest sky, and it’s 2 a.m.
Makes me want to kill a goat.
Ouch April 28, 2008
Posted by Phineas in : Irrelevant, Outdoors/Travel , add a commentThat 6 mile hike, 2000 elevation gain along steep gravelly trails around Mt Diablo (Eagle Peak) that I took yesterday today has me questioning the wisdom of my new standup desk configuration.
Wish I Was There January 6, 2008
Posted by Phineas in : Outdoors/Travel, Wild Animals , 1 comment so far
http://flickr.com/photos/ambitious_wench/show/
Fausse 2007 November 12, 2007
Posted by Phineas in : Alcohol, Environment, Irrelevant, Music, Outdoors/Travel, Photos, Wild Animals , 1 comment so far 
Lake Fausse 2007 Wrap up:
Gators? Check.
Pelicans/herons/loons, etc? Check.
Varmits? Check.
Paddlefish? Check.
Turtles? Check.
Lizards? Check.
Owls? Check.
Midnight kayaking into the infinity? Check.
Blazing constellations? Check.
Orion pursuing the Pleiades? Check.
Shooting stars? Check.
Copious quantities of expensive beer? Check.
Rock and Roll? Check.
All parties present and accounted for? This was our main failing this year, as the Arcturus was with us only in song.
Saints victorious over the winless Rams? Not so much.
Musicological/sociological experiment? Isolate four drunk middle-aged men away from their googles, wikis and twitters but with the entire Pink Floyd music collection on MP3 (no credits) and pose the question: Who sang what? David Gilmour or Roger Waters? Song by song/line by line. (Why is this hard? Listen to “Mother” from the Wall album. Consider: Waters sometimes sounds like Gilmour, but other times sounds like no one else.)
Photos? Check.
Videos? Check.
Bagged Glacier Point October 22, 2007
Posted by Phineas in : Environment, Irrelevant, Lies, Outdoors/Travel, Photos, Psycho/Spirit, Wild Animals , add a commentThis weekend I bagged Glacier Point. By “bagged” of course I mean I rode the bus up to the top and hiked down the four mile trail.
[ Earlier this summer, Terry and I bagged Mt. Hoffman. We were on a seven day high country loop and we stayed at the May lake High Sierra Camp on day 4. The evening after dinner, many of the campers were hanging out on a ridge watching the sunset, sipping hot cocoa. I was completely fatigued, and although hiking to the summit of Mt. Hoffman was on the itinerary for the next morning, I was secretly thinking I might not make it. Terry later revealed that he was also feeling a little intimidated by that peak, given how exhausted he was feeling. This guy was standing nearby with his party, a little older than us I think. He was staring longingly at the summit and said, "There's another peak I'd like to bag." After a short pause, his wife lets him off the hook saying, "Yeah, but maybe on another trip." "Yeah," the dude says. I wonder how many other peaks he'd like to "bag", but doesn't. Why would he say it, but not do it? It's like a 2-3 hour hike up from May Lake, and we're all staying the night there. If you're ever going to "bag" it, now would be the right time. By claiming to want to but being let off the hook like that, it's almost like he gets credit without actually earning it. Kind of annoyed me. So Terry and I the next morning felt a lot better and decided not to be that guy, and went ahead and did the hike. Mt. Hoffman is in the bag.]
October is a wonderful month to go to Yosemite. There are lots of fall colors going on — yellow maples and red dogwoods. Even the evergreens were browning (I guess from the drought). The temps were cool and comfortable. There are no crowds. I’ve hiked hundreds of miles of trails in Yosemite, although my least favorites are the valley ones. I’m not a big fan of staircase switchbacks, whether up or down. But I only had a few free hours (we took some out of town guests up for a quick visit and they weren’t hikers). I had never done this trail so it seemed like a good candidate for a quickee.
Glacier Point is such an awesome view. I love being high up like that. The Valley is cool, but I prefer looking down on it than up from it. And I loved seeing all the peaks I really did “bag” (hopefully this term will become meaningless soon): Half Dome, Cloud’s Rest, Sunrise Mountain, Mt. Hoffman. I did not bag Echo Peaks, but I sort of humped it once. I took some sunset shots the evening prior and now got some morning video before slogging down the trail.
No bears, although a big grey squirrel scared me.
After the week I had workwise, Yosemite is such fantastic therapy.
Why We Go To Lake Fausse, and What We Do There October 19, 2007
Posted by Phineas in : Irrelevant, Lies, Outdoors/Travel, Psycho/Spirit, Wild Animals , 1 comment so farNot Katmai, but… August 17, 2007
Posted by Phineas in : Bears, Environment, Irrelevant, Outdoors/Travel , 1 comment so far
We took a little boat from Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, to here in Knight Inlet on the mainland to watch grizzlies feeding on the salmon running upriver. It was early in the salmon season, so the bears were not yet as bulked up as they would later get. We saw tons of eagles and other birds just waiting for the bears to drop scraps of fish. We saw four bears in all.
Highlight of my day/week/month/year.
More videos to come.
Personal Dirigibles July 17, 2007
Posted by Phineas in : Economics, Irrelevant, Outdoors/Travel , add a commentMillion-dollar prize offered for soldier ‘power pack’
I need to draft my personal dirigible schematic, but it’s a no-brainer. Tie off the packs to the mini-zeppelin hovering overhead. The Zep will have a little propeller for propulsion so the soldier will hardly notice it’s there.
It can’t fail!
Here’s What We Missed
Posted by Phineas in : Environment, Irrelevant, Outdoors/Travel , add a commentWhile Terry and I had Sunrise Mountain and Mt. Hoffman all to ourselves, here’s what we missed down on lowly little Half Dome:
More Yosemite Pix July 7, 2007
Posted by Phineas in : Outdoors/Travel , add a commentBack from the Sierras. 7 days of backpacking, with some High Sierra Camps mixed in. Park was bone dry. We did not go into the valley, but we looked down upon it like Gods from Mt. Sunrise and Mt. Hoffman. Fantastic trip.
