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Our Best Laid Plans
Our original plan for today was to hike 10 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail and camp on Owen’s ridge. We wake up late, not yet packed. Two weeks worth of “administrative overhead” items sit untouched on my desk. It becomes clear that maybe planning hikes for every day of every weekend is not realistic.
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Movie: The In-Laws
We almost quit watching this movie a few times because it gets so stupid, but then it would suddenly get very funny and reel us back in. There’s some really lousy acting, and the film is almost play-like in it’s sparseness of soundtrack and other distractions from the actors, so bad acting hurts. But Alan…
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Movie: Cross of Iron
Another story that, like All Quiet on the Western Front, illustrates that if you are going to be at all critical of World War II, your characters must be Germans. Even if they all speak English and rebel only against the war itself and not against Nazism. This story examines a character who hates the…
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Movie: About Schmidt
This is a satire of American culture. At its best, it exposes some of our cliches, gets some laughs, and hints at where they might have come from. At its worst, it is a collection of cheap shots at poorly acted stereotypical characters.
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Cottonwood-Marble Canyon Loop Day 3
Camp 2 in Dead Horse Canyon to Cottonwood-Marble Canyon Confluence 8.8 mi :: 5 hr Just up the canyon from our campsite, someone has dug a small well. After breakfast I wander up with Jezebel and fill her water bottle. There are some tadpoles swimming in it, but she doesn’t mind. You could certainly filter…
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Cottonwood-Marble Canyon Loop Day 2
Camp 1 in Cottonwood Canyon to Camp 2 in Dead Horse Canyon 9.5 mi :: 7 hr :: 2130 ft Today we will switch canyons, and the navigation is uncertain. We have a sheet with vague directions like “find the unmarked pass” where there must be several unmarked passes. We will also have to find…
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Cottonwood-Marble Canyon Loop Day 1
Cottonwood-Marble Canyon confluence to Camp 1 in Cottonwood Canyon 8.7 mi :: 4 hr :: 1830 ft We get a reasonably early start, which is a good thing, because there’s a little more to getting to Cottonwood Canyon than just driving to Death Valley. A park pass and backcountry permit are required, which we got…
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Ann goes to Darwin Falls
Ann and Jezze do this day hike near Death Valley and take pictures for me. She notes that the falls are the sole water source for Panamint Springs. It consists of a pipe in the mud with a few refridgerator shelves acting as a prefilter. We wonder if the Panamint Springs are the source of…
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Ann goes to Trona Pinnacles
She said, “They kind of go with Trona. They’re neat, but sort of inelegant and dumpy.”
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CDT Itinerary
Trying to guess where and when we will be someplace on a hike this long is surprisingly complicated! We’ve started with a spreadsheet that estimates our progress at an average of 15 miles per day. I went a little nuts with the actual spreadsheet, which now has about a thousand columns with indecipherable formulas. This…