San Joaquin Valley

On my drive Sacramento to Sequoia and back, (those green squares on the map are groves) I  noticed miles of groves growing everything from: oranges, almonds, plums, peaches and grapes. What Kansas is to wheat and Indiana is to corn and soybeans, the San Joaquin valley is to everything else you eat. My third hotel was in the town of Dinuba CA. The GPS would tell me I was only two miles away, but all I could see in the distance were trees, vines and green. Sure enough there was a fair size small town in the middle of all this growth. (click pic for video)

Yosemite Vernal & Nevada Falls

Saturday was my last day in Yosemite. My plan was to hike Vernal Falls then to the top of Nevada Falls. Yep, that was the plan. The hike was no where near as tough as Upper Yosemite Falls. Though still 3.4 miles one way (compared to 3.6 for UYF) it was not nearly as steep and hardly any switchbacks. It was a pleasant, mild, clear day for a walk. As I got to the base of Vernal Falls the spray from the falls covered everything. Climbing up to the middle of the falls the over rough hewn steps the chill of the water, runoff of melting snow, being driven against my face was numbing. (video) When I got to the top of Vernal and back into the sun I had to dry off my soaked hoody. There was an incredible rainbow in the mist and as the water droplets moved through it, the rainbow looked like flames being stoked in a fire. From Vernal I made my way up to Nevada Falls and I got to within half mile of the top and I turned around. I doesn’t sound far, but I had already been on the trail two and a half hours, it would have been 45 minutes to the top, 45 at the top and 30 down to where I turned around and I wanted to see some other things before I made the three hour trip to my next hotel. On my way down the day had turned from sunny to snowy, You couldn’t tell the mist from the flakes. The trail had become considerable more crowed and less enjoyable. It was still a great walk with two spectacular falls, plus Illilouette Falls in the distance coming off the side of the cliff face.  (Here I attempted to track with my iPhone again)

(click photo for slideshow)

Back in the Yosemite Village the weather had changed. One side of the valley was sunny and the other was dark and in a snow storm. The one landmark I had ignored for the past three days was El Capitan. An incredibly magnificent megalith. I walked up the base just to stare 3600 feet straight up at it’s shear north face. A marvel to look at and I can’t comprehend the the climbers that spend days ascending to the summit. I made one last attempt at getting a valley shot from tunnel view, but that snow had engulfed the most of the park.

Yosemite, what a beautiful place. It had a little of Kings Canyon and Sequoia inside it’s borders. I will try to get back here real soon.

Sunday it’s Sacramento for some museums and the Pacific Rim street festival. I will post that, probably my last for this trip, in a few days.

Yosemite Half Dome

No, I didn’t climb it! The cables to the top are not up yet. And honestly if they had I doubt I’ve would have been able to do that one. Again, I got an early start and took an easy stroll today around most of Mirror Lake in front of Half Dome. Half Dome looks like it is peeking (or would it be peaking? How cleaver of me) it’s head over the two mountains in front. I tried to catch some photos (without much luck) of tree swallows skimming bugs off the surface of the lake.

Then I went to Lower Yosemite Falls. There’s a bronze model of Yosemite trail. The climb looks a lot shorter on the relief sculpture.  On the walk up it’s a very beautiful view of upper and lower falls. It was loud with the roar of the falls and wet from the spray. I got wet again when I tried to get some shots of Bridal Veil Falls. (video) The bride was crying. Nothing but a torrent of water, blowing against me from the wind generated by the fall. I had garbage bags in the car, not for me, but for the cameras. Of course, I forgot them.  

Leaving the park I noticed some people looking up at El Capitan. There were watching rock climber on their accent to the top. And yes, I would like to do that, but not at that height. Maybe something like Red River Gorge.

I tried again to get a shot of the valley from the tunnel view, but I’m not having much luck with the sun.

Upper Yosemite Falls

What’s the saying? The greatest of journeys begins with the first step.  My first step was getting out of bed. Up at six am to beat the crowds and because I wanted to hike to Upper Yosemite Falls. The trail starts off with switchbacks (180 degree turns) that snake all the way to the top. I was huffing from the gitgo. I was on the trail at 8am and there were already people coming down. I kidded one couple about running down part of the trail. They said there were trying to make three falls in one day. I asked another couple where they were from. When they said Denver I commented ‘you must be use to this.’ The girls said they were use to the altitude, but not the climbing. Well that’s my problem, I live at 700 feet and I’m climbing a 7000 footer. On one section of trail the mist from the falls covers everything. It’s dripping wet with puddles all over. It was interesting to hear the falls close-up; the roar, mist hitting the leaves, the deep drumming as the water hits bottom from 1500 feet. There were points where I was so winded I ignored the scenery and just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. It took me three hours to reach the top, but what a spectacular sight with the green water vanishing over the cliff. Then as I peered over the edge half the water turned to mist and the rest collided with the valley floor. Since I was already up there I decided to trek over to Yosemite Point one mile and 45 minutes away. An incredible view. I thought it would be easier to hike down, but the trial is so steep it was a little precarious. At the end I had spent 8.5 hours on the trail, covered 10 miles total with a 2700 change in elevation. That, I think, is a good day. Except, I think I’m going to lose two toenails, Maybe I should save them as kind of a medal. (click photo for slideshow)

I also ran across two more snakes. This time without the dancing. The same black and brown snake, I found out it is a California striped racer, as from Kings Canyon and a Kingsnake (red-touches-black-venom-lack) at the end of the climb.

Most of the pictures in slideshow are from my iphone. I was test driving an app call GPS Motion X. I was able to download the tracks to Google maps, but not the pix. You can see where the iPhone lost GPS signal. Here’s an iPhone video.

Do You Know the Way to Yosemite?

Today was pretty much a bust. I got a late start outta Dinuba and thought I was making up some good time. But after I got into Yosemite Park they had construction off and on all the way to the valley floor, around the visitor center and parking areas. Two hours to the park entrance and 90 minutes to the visitors center. At lease I know where the stimulus money is going.  And yesterday day I had Kings Canyon almost all to myself. Not the case today. At the valley view overlook there may have been 20 people. As I was taking some shots, I heard airbrakes behind me and out poured 80+ from two busses. I’ve three more days in the park though and I plan to get out real early tomorrow morning. I finished the day off with some really good BBQ at Todd's Cookhouse Bar-B-Que and a really good brew, Firestone Double Barrel Ale. (click photo for slideshow)

Kings Canyon Day 2

Much nicer day Tuesday in Kings Canyon, bright, sunny and warm. Realized that the part I was in yesterday is a part of Sequoia. Kings Canyon is at the very end of of the road. Kings Canyon is an even deeper valley than the front of the park. The cliffs rise sharply in a very narrow valley that millennia ago was a glacier. There are miles of rapids and some some falls, Grizzly and Roaring River, on the drive in, but I decided to take a deeper look into the valley. So I took a nine mile hike to Mist Falls. It really made to rest of the park look a little tame. Off the main trail I moved into a side gorge. I saw a couple looking at two bears about 50 yard off. They were just wrestling at first then it got a little rougher. Kinda like my brother Donald and I when we were young. It always started out with laughs, then….  Two miles, or so, in the rapids became cascading falls for the rest of the hike. It was an elevations gain of 900 feet over uneven ground for the trek. I was tired and my feet were sore, but Mist Falls was well worth the time.  It cascades down the falls which then drops about 100 feet to even more cascades. And it was, to use one word, misty. On my way back I was on the trail, that was cut through a boulder field. When just as I getting to step a three foot long black snake crawled across my path. SCARED THE CRAP out of me. Now I’m not afraid of snakes, unless then suddenly snake across my hike. I did an impression of a football player running through tires while trying to play Dance, Dance Revolution. 30 minutes later I came upon another bear about 30 yards away. I stopped. Then I went to change camera lens to get a close up when the bear turned and looked right at me. We were both motionless for at least 10 seconds. Then he turned away, walked, then started running away from me. I am just that intimidating. The whole hike took four hours total, but it was incredibly enjoyable. I am just surprised and glad that today that I’m not sore and my feet don’t hurt. (click photo for slideshow)

Sunny & 60

Beautiful day in Southern CA.

Kings Canyon

Misty dreary mornings, most people would complain that it’s not a good day to take picture. But a photographer would say, drizzle adds an atmospheric element that creates a dynamic mood. Well, that’s the BS we tell our friends that think your nuts for going out in the rain. The mist in Kings Canyon on my first day would have been more upsetting if it wasn’t for that I was going to be there an additional day. Besides it gives it a Lost World kinda feel. (click photo for slideshow)

Gateway

Went to eat Sunday at Gateway Lodge, mostly because it was located next to some river rapids. They were full so they asked if I would mind sitting with some other people.

“Nope.”

Four people (one guy and three ladies) from all over CA were there to see a friend play. Teresa Russell was her name and man could she play. She had prerecorded backup instrumentals, but with a push a foot pedal she would sing background lyrics that would loop. Live she would play and sing. Teresa was quite the picker.

Hotel Three Rivers

It’s a tricky thing, hotel ratings. You check Expedia, Hotel.com ratings and their users, but they don’t tell the whole story. Sierra Lodge is a unique, quirky. For my room you park under the room and walk up a spiral staircase. None too easy with luggage. There’s a sliding glass door (with opaque glaze) to get into the room and the decor is a faux cowboy cabin circa 1970. Complete with grizzle bear bedspread and pillow case. The staff was incredibly friendly and chipper. The view from the patio was nice, though my room was less than 20 away from the highway. The road noise after dark was not bad, but the earplugs didn’t hurt either. Always be careful of ‘free wireless’. It’s freely roaming somewhere just not in my room. It is very iffy. I am not disappointed I stayed here at all. (click photo for slideshow).

Yosemite Flight

Continental flies out of an incredibly small terminal at CVG. It was delayed 30 minutes, but I didn’t miss my connector in Houston. Almost didn’t get out of Houston though. A nasty thunderstorm was bearing down and we took off just as heavy rain started to come down. When our flight turn onto the main runway I could see planes lined up on the taxi way and lighting bolts were striking behind them. We had to go south to avoid the storm and that put us 50 minutes behind. Pilot told us that they close the airport for 90 minutes after we left. Serendipity, I got to see some really beautiful sunset cloud from above. I love the window seat there are some incredible sites.

Sequoia

I have read magazines and seen the TV shows, but none of it compares to seeing it in person. The Sequoias are huge and majestic. They make the biggest trees back home or even the pines I saw out west look miniscule. One of the plaques stated that looking up at a sequoia is like a mouse looking up at me. I do know how the Lilliputs felt around Gulliver. Some interesting facts: their roots only go down six feet, but out about a 100 feet. The bark is about two feet thick and a 300 foot tree grows from a seed less than the size of an oat flake. After the 2nd & 3rd day though… nope still the same feeling. I had a chance to walk along through some groves, then lay on my back and look at trees that go on forever. (click photo for slideshow).

Kings Canyon CA. A misty day, but still some great sites. Coming back
tomorrow.

The Internet at the hotel has been iffy the past two days. So here's a
post before I head off to Kings Canyon today.

On the ground in Sacramento 50 minutes late, but we out out of Houston
in time. Pilot said the airport closed just after we left due to
thunderstorms. It was some nasty lighting at take off.

at the gate. Looks like I'm gonna make my SAC flight.

CVG to Houston?

Yep. Of course. Delayed 30 minutes. Maybe, just maybe. I'll make the connector in Houston.

Vegas & Death Valley

(Click photos to enlarge. Click on video to play in the blog or double click to play in youtube)

(Additional Photos Click Here)

Not a fan of Vegas. I don’t gamble, much. I don’t drink, much. And it’s tough just to get around. After 3 1/2 days I am ready to get outta town.

It was an easy flight, an 8:30am flight, with a four hour layover in Salt Lake. Probably the luckiest thing happened in SLC. I got a standby seat on an earlier flight. Instead of four hours it was only 50 minutes in SLC. Another reason to carry-on your luggage.

The room at Hooters Hotel and Casino was only $35 a night and that's about what it was worth. The bed was comfortable, but, like it's motto, the decor was delightfully tacky, yet unrefined. The whole hotel had a rundown feel and look to it. On check-out I got a surprise. There was a $7.50 per night resort fee for use of the facilities. Who knew it cost money to steep in a hot-tub with white trash. At check-out I muttered “Just another reason not to come to Vegas.” and the older woman behind the counter said, “You got that right.” You can live here and not be a fan of Vegas.

The NAB was fun. It's kind of a Star Trek convention for people that are into professional video equipment. The big buzz was on 3D (yes, with the funny glasses), mobile DTV, and HDDSLRs. The last one was very interesting, shooting incredible video on large format still cameras. I have a Canon 40D and when I bought it, six months later the 5D and 7D came out with video capabilities. Of course! Video cameras now are incredibly small. I was enthralled with the Sony MC 50. It's 6”x3”x2.5”, has audio in/out, manual iris & focus, shoots 8hrs of HD all for about $1500. Wow! 20 years ago I made a trip to Pasco WA to shot a documentary on the Miss Madison hydro. Me and 200 plus pounds of video equipment. Luggage not included. Now, I could take just that camera in my backpack.

I ran into some people I know; Jeff Miller, Ginny and Greg Buzzell and Tom Navarro. That's how small the biz is. Go to Vegas and find people ya know.

Outside of the convention was so, so. The TBNK guys and myself got together to eat at Toby Keith's; don't like him, his music and his food didn't fare much better. Shapely, cowgirl waitress' in tight jean shorts was the only up side. Gordon Bieresh was more like it. I really enjoyed this place in Phoenix, always good food and great beer. Then we ate at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in NY NY. The people watching was great. There was a lined that formed to see one of Cirque du Soleil 320 plus shows in Vegas. I could have sworn one girl was in line twice with a different man. My worst eating ordeal was a 45 minutes bus trip to go six blocks to Wynn, (I said it was tough to get around) the restaurant I wanted to eat at had a 90 minute wait. I made the long trip next door to the Venetian to a place near the canal. It was two hour venture just to end up with $20 nine inch pizza. Beer included. On the gambling part, (first off, I don’t care what ya play. To win money, there’s nothing more fun than yelling at a horse to cross the finish line.) Jason showed me a simple bet in craps. I started with $20 and left with $47. Which IS better than I ever did at the track.

Thursday I took the suggestion from a photo website I belong too, Ohio Valley Camera Club. One of the members suggested Red Rock Canyon, just southwest of LV. What a beautiful drive. High, jagged peaks sounding a valley floor. The premier geological formation is, because of fault activity, the the oldest rocks are higher than the youngest. The park road is one way with plenty of places to park and hike. Interesting scenery and interpretative center (also known as a museum). For the month leading up to the trip I was having trouble with my gout. I finally went to the doctor and got some steroids to take down the swelling. Well, three days of walking on the strip and NAB did not help. I was popping ibuprofen like they were Chicklets. Not being smart enough to bring my hiking shoes, but instead my tennis shoes, is not the best way to climb over rocks and uneven trails. It's a great park for climbers and there were a few out getting thrills from their skills.

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I went to Mt Charleston, on my drive to Death Valley, and ate at the lodge. Lunch at 7700 feet. It was still early enough to have snow on the ground, but sunny enough to be warm enough to eat outside. Chili in a bread bowl. Tasty.

Spent the night in Shoshone, CA (pop 50) at the Shoshone Inn. An old motor inn that look from the 50s and hadn't been upgraded since. I mean, they still use keys! The room was Spartan and the bathroom was small. The A/C was open-the-bathroom-window-a-little-and-turn-on-the-inlet fan. There was free internet, unlike Hooters, and the pool was quite interesting. It was three tenths of a mile down the road and it too had seen better days. The unique thing is it was fed from an underground spring of the nearby hills. 90 degrees of pure relaxing and I had it all to myself for about 20 minutes. A burger and a beer at the Crowbar Cafe & Saloon and then early to bed.

Friday early, I was off to Death Valley National Park. In the morning, before sunrise, the temperature was cool. I hoped to get a sunrise picture, but it was still cloudy. I had the road to myself and rarely passed a car. The winter and spring had brought a fare amount of rain to the valley and the wildflowers were in bloom. It was an interesting sight to see an expanse of beautiful yellow desert sunflowers coming up out of what looked like barren, rocky soil. One interesting flora was parasitic plant called Dodder, also known as Witches Hair. The orange color glowed in the morning sun. The scene changed when I reached Badwater Basin, a dry lake bed and the lowest point in North America. I walked out to the center of the lake. The salt is about a half inch thick and it gives the appearance an even the sound of walking across granular snow. I took my foot and scrapped back the salt. Underneath was a thin layer of water as if it were ice. Standing in the middle of the lake I had the feeling that ice could give way and I would fall in. The salt forms various, geometric shapes. Closer look at the deposits showed hair-like formations. A few miles down the road was Devil's Golf Course. A field of small, boulder formations with sharp, jagged, saw-tooth salt deposits on top. I only walked about 10 yards in to the course, but thought it was a little too precarious and my balance not steady enough to go farther. I imagined that if I fell, the rocks would rip into my flesh like something in a Stephen King novel. After the sun came up the temperature started to rise and by the afternoon it was 95 in the shade. There were plenty of places to explore; the Artist Drive & Palette, Mosaic Canyon, Mesquite Sand Dunes, Zabriskie Point . I managed to hike in many of these spots, even with bad feet. I'm such a whiner. If you can make it to Death Valley for the spring flower bloom, it's worth it.

It was about a 2.5 hour drive to Vegas and I was about 30 miles from the airport, but still had five hours before my flight. So I turned around and drove about 40 minutes back over the mountains to find a place to watch the stars come out and the moon chase Venus across the sky.

I got a little concerned at the airport, the two gates on both sides of my flight were getting rowdy. One overbooked and was asking for 30(!) volunteers to take a $300 voucher and an extra nights stay. How do you over book a flight by 30! How do you make money giveing away $9000 in vouchers plus rooms? That didn't happen to me, but on the 12:30 (Saturday) AM flight and I was hoping to get some sleep, but there were 3 screaming babies, all within 6 seats from me. Even earplugs don't help stop that. The looks on people's faces, as they made their way to back of the plane, only to realize they to were not getting any sleep was at least humorous. I land at 7:30 (3hr time difference), I get home about 8:15 and go straight to bed. At 9:30 mom calls to check I landed safely. My fault, I told her I would call when I landed, but didn't. I get back to sleep, and at 10:30 all the neighborhood dogs start barking. (reminder, call animal control Monday).

GOLD!! Gold I tell ya!

My friend Chele and I spent Thursday at the Cincinnati Museum Center to check the  exhibit “GOLD!” and the OMNIMAX  film “Under the SEA”. The Gold exhibit was huge. Plenty of samples of gold in it’s natural state including a formation called crystallized gold. Which I had never heard of. Different examples of coinage from ancient civilizations, beautiful artifacts from India, Asia, & Central and South America (that survived Spanish melting). There were some large gold bars recovered from American shipwrecks from the mid 1800s. The coins looked as if they were minted yesterday. Some of the displays were of gold plated items, so they had Emmys, Oscars, KY Derby trophies. One of the neatest awards were Olympic gold medals won by local athletes at the ‘72, ‘88, and ‘08 games. Some interesting info from the show; 78% of gold is used for jewelry, 12% for electronics, medical and dental, and only 10% is used for financial transactions. It takes 30 tons of oar to get 1oz of gold. Gold is so malleable you can get 7000 sheets the thickness of a dime.  They didn’t allow pictures, but I managed to sneak the 1st shot and lifted the 2nd from the website. 

The movie was beautiful showing creatures mostly from the Great Barrier Reef. Sea lions, sea snakes, sea dragons, whales and cuttlefish. Big screen and beautiful movie.

My March Madness

I had quite a few freelance jobs this last week. It started on Tuesday with a trip to Atherton HS in Louisville. Wazoosports had to do 6th region girls basketball. And I do mean had to. The powers that be told them, if they wanted to do the boys finals they had to televise some girls games. The Atherton games were the only ones that fit into wazoo’s schedule. An older gentleman ask me why we weren’t at Bellermine Univ. That’s where the good games are. I shrugged my shoulders and he said, “These are going to be the worst games in either region, boys or girls.” He was right. PRP 25, Central 56. Fairdale 40, Butler 58.

Thursday I went back up north to Miami U to work with Classic Teleproductions. A much tougher setup this time ‘round. I turned down the handheld camera and picked the crows nest. I didn’t realize that we were using cameras with real lenses.  Instead of one trip, with a small camera, up the stairs it was three, with two forty lbs cases and a large tripod. I just kept telling myself I was getting paid to exercise. I’m old enough to be smarter than this. I  couldn’t see the viewfinder so I used duct tape to mount it on the back of the camera. Classy.

 

Saturday was a long one. 6AM on the road to Richmond for the 11th region boys semi finals (12PM & 2PM) and girl’s finals (8PM). I got to direct these games, but I don’t remember much from them. They run together after awhile. There was a three hour gap between games because Wazoo was also doing the OVC women’s finals in in Nashville. That means I got home at 12:30 AM.

Monday it was off to run camera again, at Bellermine for the 6th & 7th region boys finals. The place was packed. For the second game all of the Male HS students couldn’t even get into the game. I took a break at halftime and there were about 100 students outside still waiting to get in. The game was delayed for about 20 minutes. Just before tipoff, for the first game, a popcorn machine caught fire in the lobby. They had to use a fire extinguisher to put out the flames. The fire alarm went off and the fire department showed up. There was no need to evacuate the crowd, but some of the smoke rolled into the gym and gave it eerie, humid look. Appropriate, ‘cause it was very hot. Better games though, Butler Iroquois in OT and Ballard came from behind to beat male 60-56.