Tuesday, June 15, 2004

I just returned from a backpacking trip along section O of the Pacific Crest Trail (near Mt. Shasta), and in particular the spectacular ridgeline north of Burney Falls and east of I-5. A few impressions: * There is a trend amongst PCT hikers to go "ultralight" in every category, including light trail runner-style shoes. I wore some heavy duty Zamberlan boots, which turned out to be worth every ounce when we ran into an unexpected amount and size of snowbanks. Some snowbanks blocking the trail were 10-12 feet high. I was able to cut steps into the snow with the boots, and ultralight shoes were much more likely to slip. The delays in getting through miles of snow meant we didn't get out exactly when we thought. * I'm glad I wasn't shooting cubics. The extra time involved would have resulted in not getting to the destination in the daytime. And I certainly didn't have any room in my pack for a cubic panhead. Keep in mind that I have multiple purposes for the panoramas and low-res panoramas captured in 1, 2 or 3 shots do not cut it for some of the applications. * The clarity of the air in this early part of the season can be incredible. From some ridgetop overlooks you could see 50 miles to the south and southwest. While views of Mt. Shasta were incredible, the snow-capped Trinity Alps glistened to the west, and Mt. Lassen gleamed to the south. My experience going later in summer is the air across California is much more likely to be smoggy, hazy, smoky, and unappealing. When you are on a section of trail with 50 mile views, this can make the difference between a great panorama and an average or poor one. * Because there were not staggering granite massifs towering above us, I took a 24mm lens which turned out to be just right for the balance of near and far features in the scenes, and film-usage. Nornally I take a 18-20mm lens on most High Sierra backpacking trips. * It is much more important to bring good maps and a compass or GPS in this section than along the John Muir Trail. The PCT was riddled with intersections with unmarked logging roads, some of which were not even on the map. There was only one trail destination sign along the way, and it marked a "dead" side-trail. * Be prepared for making detours around blowdowns (fallen trees). We encountered a few monolithic logs which required going around. Also there were many, many signs of bears so it seems prudent to be very careful bear-bagging your food. * Take plenty of water. Even at this early part of the season, there was little to no running water along the trail. Each day I started out with 160 ounces of water and ran out by the end of the day. The snow would not be that useful unless you had the time to melt it down (and it will probably be all gone in a week or two). * If you go early season like this, it's probably best to take an ice-ax to be safest crossing high-angle snow. We didn't take them because we didn't know there was going to be so much snow. * It was quite a novelty to be the first people on a section of the PCT for the season. The trail was overgown with vegetation in places, and in many stretches there were fresh sprouts of ferns and other plants growing in the middle of the trail. I don't think it will look that way come September. * We found some interesting trail junk including a CCC hardhat, section of firehose, and a strip of aluminum trim. * I surprised a rattler which was sunning itself on the trail. It made a lot of noise and slithered off the trail quickly. * The wildflowers were great. We saw showy phlox, scarlet gilia, prettyface, regular purple larkspur, mountain dogwood, lupine, lots of indian paintbrush, woodland star, manzanita, mountain wallflower, false solomon's seal, mountain penstemon, california ground-cone, fringed pinesap (not sure--might be some other parasitic plant that looked like a cross between a ground-cone and snow plant but was yellow), stonecrop, Rosa gymnocarpa, Calyptridium caudicifera, indian warrior, pussy-ears, violets, mule-ears, irises, and columbine. There were others but I didn't have time to look at all of them closely. The dogwoods were most spectacular as there were thousands of blooms. 7:54:39 AM

Apple's iTunes Music Store has come to the UK, Germany, and France. From MacWorld UK 7:29:42 AM

Apple, Microsoft poised for streaming media battle, from MacCentral. 7:27:31 AM

Apple Readies Next-Gen MPEG-4, from internetnews.com. Later in the article, they mention Apple's QuickTime has moved from #3 to #2 in the media player market, with a 36.8 share. Real is down to 24.9%. 7:16:31 AM

© Copyright 2006 erik goetze.