Currency Wars

2012-01-05T17:55:00.000-08:00

I just finished the new book "Currency Wars - The Making of the Next Global Crisis" by James Rickards. It was very interesting. He describes several past currency wars and lays out his argument that we are currently in one. Rickards describes the causes, symptoms, and effects of these wars, and ends with a list of possible outcomes for the current one. He's gotten a lot of attention from this book, and it's easy to find audio and video interviews of him online.

The most popular measure of growth is increases of GDP. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) = C + I + G + (X - M). Distressed economies have stagnant or declining consumption (C). Investment (I) is tied closely to consumption. Government spending (G) can be boosted independently, per Keynesian economic theory, however governments need more taxes or borrowing to fund that spending. Voters don't like either of those options. "In an economy where individuals and businesses will not expand and where government spending is constrained, the only remaining way to grow the economy is to increase net exports (X - M) and the fastest, easiest way to do that is to cheapen one's currency."

This is exactly what the Fed and US Treasury Secretary are currently doing. Unfortunately, so are the economic leaders of other countries, for exactly the same reasons. This is a currency war.

Rickards predicts these possible outcomes of the current currency war:

1) Multiple Reserve Currencies The dollar would no longer be the single reserve currency around the world. Nations would keep reserves in dollars, euros and yuan to mitigate sensitivies to volatility in any one currency.

2) Special Drawing Rights (SDR) SDRs are a form of "money" created by the IMF that already exists, but is shrouded in mystery. It is backed by a basket of other currencies. SDRs might become the dominant currency for all international trade, leaving extant currencies for domestic transactions in each country.

3) Return to a Gold Standard Resumption of a gold standard at any TBD fractional backing, would result in the price of gold rising to about $7,500 per ounce. Gold asset sales would be taxed at up to 90% in a windfall profits tax scheme.

4) Chaos A chaotic, catastrophic collapse of investor confidence triggering emergency measures by many countries, including use in the US of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA). In the end, a very long period of economic gloom would result.

Rickards thinks the last option is the most likely.

In his conclusion, he says:

"As applied to capital and currency markets, the correct approach is to break up big banks and limit their activities to deposit taking, consumer and commercial loans, trade finance, payments, letters of credit and a few other useful services. Proprietary trading, underwriting and dealing should be banned from banking and confined to brokers and hedge funds." ... "Derivatives should be banned except for standardized exchange-traded futures with daily margin and well-capitalized clearinghouses."

I don't think that will happen. And that's unfortunate. I liked the book and I recommend it to anybody interested in the topic.

Graham Pass and More

2012-01-02T14:32:00.001-08:00

I recently drove the 4wd road over Graham Pass in the Little Chuckwalla Mountains. The trail connects I-10 and the Bradshaw Trail, which I've driven before. It was a nice day, with temps in the high 60s and a light breeze. I wanted to get away from the city, drive some trails, and do a little light hiking.

I turned east on the Bradshaw Trail and continued on to Blythe. Here's a typical fire ring beside the road.

Then I came upon this sight. Somebody had dumped an old boat skeleton beside the trail. I don't remember seeing that the last time I was here.

From Blythe, I headed north to explore some service roads for power lines and natural gas pipelines.

I was surprised to discover that all the ones I chose happen to be signed as BLM routes. That's common in the area for power line service roads, but not for gas pipeline roads. The gas pipeline road was more rugged (normal) requiring me to slow to nothing every 100 yards for small washes across the road. (a Ford Raptor could have driven it at 80 mph)

I ended up at I-40 in the middle of nowhere, where I came upon a large graded area. Consulting Google maps later, this is apparently the "Camino Airstrip." Definitely no services here. Here's a google map centered on that spot.

The Post Office

2012-01-01T05:16:00.000-08:00

Today I'm going to rant a bit.

I think post offices are like airports. People instantly get dumber just by entering them.

I went to the post office the other day to mail a small package. While standing in line, I made several observations. In the end, I realized that none of my observations were new. I've made them all before. Each time I visit the post office. That makes me wonder if others see the same things. I wonder if I'm just hypersensitive. The way we get when something annoys us, then we start to see it everwhere, even when it's barely there.

The customers appear to fall into a few categories: the one's who've never been to a post office before, the old people who are so lonely they appear to be lingering so they can have conversation with a live person for that day, the immigrants who barely understand english, the indecisive ones who are usually in front of us at McDonalds or Starbucks, and the few who know what we want and want to get it done quickly and leave.

Mind you, all of the above are negatively influenced by factors such as: the non-existent incentives in the postal workers for productivity or customer satisfaction, and the large fraction of postal workers who have limited English skills.

One young gen-Yer male was perplexed that the post office didn't offer the ability to track the exact location of his parcel at all times. Apparently he thinks the post office is competing with FedEx or UPS.

Another young man lacked the English skills to effectively express his interests, resulting in an odd scene playing out as he and the postal worker batted back and forth different words until they indicated that each was satisfied that understanding had been achieved.

Most customers were there for the same thing: to mail something and buy some stamps. The postal workers perform their lines from the script with listless boredom: do you want to mail it first class, do you want tracking, do you want delivery confirmation, would you like to buy some stamps, etc. The customers predictably respond with confusion and indecision. This boggles my mind. I'd like to pull them aside and say: You've been in line as long as the rest of us. You've been listening to this script for at least 10 minutes. You've probably been to a post office before. Why aren't you prepared for these questions? This is easier than driving a car, and yet somehow you drove yourself here!

They've been closing post offices in my area for the past many years. The one I visited is small and doesn't have any self service kiosks. That would have made my visit much easier.

Habit Burger

2011-12-18T07:30:00.001-08:00

This week I tried Habit Burger. They just opened one in my area. I wasn't impressed. The service was friendly and fast, and the place was clean. However the food wasn't memorable. I got the original Charburger and it tasted a lot like most burgers at Burger King. The fries were good, but not as good as Five Guys or In-N-Out.

I don't think I'll make a habit of this place.

Brandwashed

2011-12-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

I just finished the audiobook "Brandwashed" by Martin Lindstrom and it was very interesting. The author is an expert in the field of marketing and how to get people to buy your product. In the book he describes and explains the very many methods employed by companies across the world to get their hands on your disposable income. Here's his web site for the book. The amazon page includes favorable reviews (as if they'd post anything but) from famous people, including Dr. Oz and Steven Levitt. Here is a list I copied from that page about the book's contents:

• New findings that reveal how advertisers and marketers intentionally target children at an alarmingly young age – starting when they are still in the womb!
• Shocking results of an fMRI study which uncovered what heterosexual men really think about when they see sexually provocative advertising (hint: it isn’t their girlfriends).
• How marketers and retailers stoke the flames of public panic and capitalize on paranoia over global contagions, extreme weather events, and food contamination scares.
• The first ever neuroscientific evidence proving how addicted we all are to our iPhones and our Blackberry’s (and the shocking reality of cell phone addiction - it can be harder to shake than addictions to drugs and alcohol).
• How companies of all stripes are secretly mining our digital footprints to uncover some of the most intimate details of our private lives, then using that information to target us with ads and offers ‘perfectly tailored’ to our psychological profiles.
• How certain companies, like the maker of one popular lip balm, purposely adjust their formulas in order to make their products chemically addictive.
• What a 3-month long guerilla marketing experiment, conducted specifically for this book, tells us about the most powerful hidden persuader of them all.

The book covers all sorts of aspects, from careful placement of merchandise inside a store, to manipulation of muzak content, to social media avenues like Facebook and Twitter, and more, all carefully designed to get us to buy more, and to buy specific merchandise.

The author carried his research into marketing efficacy to an interesting extreme. After seeing the movie The Joneses, he decided to do exactly that: hire an affluent family in a suburban neighborhood to secretly pitch products and brands to their friends and neighbors. Amazing! He called it The Morgensons. Here's a nice video overview of that experient.

While his results from that experiment were no surprise to me, it was very interesting to hear about how it unfolded. I don't doubt his prediction that the future will see many companies doing exactly this for what they call "guerilla marketing."

Big Daddy's

2011-12-11T08:24:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I tried the new burger joint in town, Big Daddy's Fire Grill. This one is located in Pasadena at the corner of Foothill and Craig, right next door to an In-N-Out.

I had the Hawaii Five-O Burger. It was very good. The meat had flavor and tasted like other angus burgers I've had in the past. It could have used some teriyaki sauce (or something) though, and so was a little dry by itself. I got the "combo" which adds fries and a drink, and it cost me $10.

This meal cost me the same as I spent last week at Five Guys in Valencia. However the big Daddy's burger was much larger and had more flavor. Also, Big Daddy's fries was much larger than Five Guys. There were so many fries, I could not eat them all. I liked the cajun fries at Five Guys better. Heck, I like the fries at In-N-Out better than Big Daddy's. All said, I'll probably eat there again.

One more thing. I'm not sure what to think about the tag line on Big Daddy's web site, even ignoring the typo. I've included a screen cap below in case they change it.

Palen Pass Continued

2011-12-01T02:24:00.000-08:00

Just on the west side of the pass sits the most difficult challenge. A small hill leaving the wash. It might be rated 3 or 4 (depending on conditions) and it was easy and fun to climb up. These two videos posted on youtube make it look harder than it is (video 1, video 2). I mounted my gopro to the left passenger door and the resulting video sucks, so I won't post it here.

Here are some shots of the rock shelters at the top of the pass.

East of Palen Pass, the trail heads down the Arlington Mine Road which is in a very wide wash. Luckily, it's a somewhat graded surface and very easy to follow.

There were some sandy sections in the wash itself and that was fun as the trail twisted around the brush in up to 4 inches of sand with a gentle downslope. I almost coasted through that at 25 mph.

Approaching Blythe from the north, I came across citrus groves, then cotton fields.

I had planned to also drive the Old Palo Verde Road, Milpitas Wash Road, and Graham Pass Trail, but decided to head home. That turned out to be a bad decision. A big car crash on westbound I-10 just east of Red Cloud exit held up traffic for a long time. The news reports said that traffic was stopped for 4 hours. I was near the front of the held traffic and was stopped for about 45 minutes. People were walking around outside their cars, walking their dogs, kids were peeing along the the side of the road. At least it wasn't real hot or real cold. I could see the flight-for-life helicopter land and then take off.

As far as I know, nobody died. But it was quite a bad crash scene.

Shatner Rules

2011-11-30T05:05:00.001-08:00

I listened to the audiobook of Shatner Rules, by William Shatner. I bought it without any idea if I'd like it. I've never read anything by him before. I was pleasantly surprised and I enjoyed it a lot. Shatner reads the audiobook and that helps.

While only partly biographical, and a bit self-promotional (in a humorous way), it's mostly full of funny stories and other humorous remarks. I learned a few useless things, like the phrase "Beam me up Scotty." was never used in the original Star Trek series. And if you yell that toward him in public, he's likely to flip you off.

Palen Pass Trail

2011-11-29T16:41:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I drove the Palen Pass Trail in the Mojave Desert. It appears in Massey's book of southern California trails. It was fun to get out and about. The weather was nice with temps in the mid 70s and a little breeze. I basically took the long way to Blythe.

First, I stopped off at the aqueduct to snap some photos.

Then I walked around a bit at the old site of the Coxcomb Camp, part of the Desert Training Center. This is one of the camps where George Patton trained his troops for the Africa campaign in WWII. Here's a google map centered on the site. I didn't find any unexploded ordinance, but did find the remnants of walkways that ran between the tents. This site has photos of the camp during that time period.

The road headed east up the bajada toward Palen Pass was sandy in places (up to 4 inches deep) but that's no problem. The challenge is the many washouts and dips that require slowing a lot and having high clearance.

I saw this rock arrow beside the trail. It points east, which matches the "E" in rocks at the tip of the arrow. I have no idea what this is about.

More on Palen Pass in an upcoming post.

Boomerang

2011-11-10T04:18:00.000-08:00

I listened to the audiobook version of Michael Lewis' latest book, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World. I enjoyed it a lot. In fact, it was so interesting, I've already listened to it twice.

Told in the first-person, it's an account of his travels to Europe visiting several countries that have experienced trauma from the financial crisis that began in 2008 here in the US. Lewis has sufficient name cache that he scored interviews with important government officials in several countries.

I learned a lot from the book. I learned about some of the different ways the various countries got themselves into trouble. I learned about who the citizens of those countries are blaming for their lot. And I learned a few German swear words. There's a few of them in there. It's not rigorous or complete or comprehensive. In Lewis' style, he drills down into a few interesting alleys in each country. I liked that.

If you enjoyed Lewis' book, "The Big Short," then you'll enjoy this book.

For a more detailed review, here's the Washington Post writeup on it.

Peaceful Desert

2011-11-08T06:21:00.001-08:00

I went for a drive this weekend in the Mojave National Preserve. There were still small puddles of water from the rainfall the previous day. Snow dusted the tops of Clark Mountain and the Providence Mountains. The temps were a bit chilly (around 40F) but it was very pleasant.

I wanted to get away from the city and start listening to the Steve Jobs biography audiobook. That book is 24.5 hours long, so my drive only made a small dent into it. The next shot includes the top of Kelso Peak in the distant background. I hiked that years ago. It's a nice hike. Much easier than Cowhole Mountain or Old Dad Mountain.

I drove over to see if one of the trails in my map was open. It was not. It looked as if the government had blocked access a long time ago.

I stopped off at Kelso Dunes. It was too crowded for my taste. The parking lot was full. I took a few photos of the dunes and the people up on the ridge and summit.

Then I explored some trails east of the Granite Mountains. That was fun. I got out to scramble over some huge granite boulders and get some fresh air.

Willpower

2011-10-19T08:24:00.001-07:00

In light of my weakness for marchmallows (I've now consumed 2 bags), I read the new book Willpower - Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney. While I enjoyed the book, I don't recommend it. Reason is: most of the message I was looking for was contained in a very small portion of the book. However, I read a lot and I'm sure that many people will enjoy more of the book than I did.

I'm sitting upright as I type this blog entry. More on that later. The book describes research conducted by Baumeister wherein they deduced that willpower / self-control is like a muscle, inasmuch as it can be fatigued from over use. We can exercise our self-control and increase its strength. One such exercise they found to be effective, was practicing the habit of sitting up straight. They also showed that the depleted ego can be energized with a sugary treat. Diet sweeteners did not work.

He devotes chapters to several celebrities who struggle with self-control, including Oprah Winfrey, David Plaine, Drew Carey, and Eliot Spitzer. I mostly enjoyed the first few chapters, before he got into the celebrity case studies.

Marshmallows

2011-10-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

I bought a bag of marshmallows, so I could perform the famous marshmallow experiment on my friends' kids. Then I ate them all. So I had to buy another bag.

Seems I failed my own experiment.

Car Guys vs Bean Counters

2011-10-01T06:35:00.001-07:00

I just finished the audiobook version of Bob Lutz's new book, "Car Guys vs Bean Counters - the Battle for the Soul of American Business." I liked it. I learned a lot about the automotive industry. I see a lot of similarities with other industries.

Early in the book Lutz described the systemic problems at GM in words that resonated with me, since I've seen the same thing in other companies. He said they were fostering a culture of corporate infallibility and self-worship. And that their goal in product design and development was "perfecting mediocrity."

Their focus had been on making profit numbers, and not on producing quality vehicles. By intentionally not designing high quality (and slightly more expensive) cars, the bean counters were treating the customers as hapless victims, in order to ensure profits down stream (replacement parts). They were driven to reduce costs, skimp on service, and ruthlessly pursue quarterly profits.

The book also includes an interesting history of how the Chevy Volt came about.

I don't agree with everything Bob says. And you probably won't either. But it's still an interesting book. I think this is a great read for any senior manager in any industry.

Here is the CNN/Money review and the BusinessWeek review.

Elbow Canyon - A Great 4wd Trail

2011-09-28T07:39:00.001-07:00

This is a great 4wd trail! I really enjoyed driving this little road in the northwest corner of Arizona. And I would have enjoyed it even more if I'd gone the other direction. I drove it westward = downhill. I find it less stressful to drive challenging boulder sections uphill. I'd rather put the truck in low range and just crawl up and over the rocks. Instead, I was riding the brakes almost constantly to control speed as I descended down over the boulders.

I'd say the difficulty is 4 and 5 on the Mitchell scale. The middle 5 miles is like the "rock garden" of Mengel Pass in Death Valley, or like the hard parts of Shuteye Peak in the southern Sierra mountains. However, 5 miles of hard stuff is more challenging than the short stretches of Mengel Pass or Shuteye Peak.

It grabs your attention and keeps it, for a long time. It was slow going, with typical speeds slower than walking speed. I was so focused on the road, I forgot to get out and take photos.

Here's a map of the road. If you're interested, it's an easy side trip (or loop) out of Mesquite, NV. Warning: Do NOT drive this in a standard street car. You will need high clearance, and possibly 4wd if you go uphill = eastward. The red section is Elbow Canyon (the most difficult of the roads hilited). The orange section is only moderately difficult due to an unending stream of embedded rocks in the road. The purple sections are easy.

I was returning from Utah, and I left I-15 just south of the AZ border. I've driven through the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument several times, but I wanted to take a new route. The main roads in Parashant NM are graded and I wanted something more challenging and interesting. I was very happy to find both. The road got more difficult as soon as I turned west. Crossing a high plateau at around 7,000 feet elevation, the road had plenty of embedded rocks (the orange section). Enough to keep your speed down.

It's possible to make a loop of Elbow Canyon by starting or ending with the green section. I've driven most of that previously and it was easy.

When I finally got to the bottom warning sign, I could then relax (and pee).

Courtney Purcell's Book of Zion Hikes

2011-09-27T05:15:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned it in a few recent posts. While visiting Zion NP, I stopped off at the Zion Adventure Company store located just outside the park and bought a copy of Courtney Purcell's book "Zion National Park: Summit Routes."

He's amassed quite an assortment of hikes throughout the park. I'm mostly interested in the ones on the east side, but now I might try a few others.

Bighorn Sheep

2011-09-26T05:07:00.000-07:00

I normally don't take many photos of the bighorn sheep at Zion, unless it's a big one. I took these because they caused a traffic jam of tourists stopping to take photos. Their group had become split by the highway.

I felt sorry for the sheep. They wanted to cross the highway and rejoin their group but they were afraid of the people stopped there taking photos. The bull of the group was calling to them from the top of a hill on the other side of the road.

Nippletop Peak

2011-09-25T08:22:00.001-07:00

During my last trip to Zion NP, I tried hiking Nippletop Peak (Peak 6715) on the east side of the park. Here's a google map centered on that peak. I did not make it to the summit, and I'd really like some tips because I could not find a straight-forward route over the cliff below the summit (at 6,500 ft). Here's a photo taken from Progeny Peak showing Nippletop.

Here's a map showing my route.

This was a fun hike. The route I took was surprisingly easy. All class 2 with a short section of class 3. Here's the view from highway 9.

The initial slickrock canyon/gully looks really steep from the road, and as you approach it. But it was pretty easy to walk up.

I was reminded of the steepness each time I turned around and looked down toward the road. From that view, it looks really steep.

I was armed with the information from this post about Nippletop. It had a handy photo of the "crux" to gain the north ridge from the top of the gully. That was very helpful for finding it, as was Courtney's description in his book. I was a little above that spot, when I saw a small herd of big horn sheep taking that exact route. I barely got my camera out in time to snap 1 photo showing the tail of one going up the crux.

Here's my photo of the crux after I arrived. I was very unsure about the poor handholds, so I decided to take my alternate route.

I continued south along the east side of the hill to the large bowl on the right. My original plan was to go up via the crux route, then descend down the bowl. Continuing south toward the bowl looks like this.

The bowl is very easy. Basically, you just head deep into it, then turn right uphill (north) near the back. I followed some obvious inclines that had plenty of trees. Near the top it got steep and I was using my hands for balance. This turned out to be a nice route.

Reaching the ridge, here's a shot facing south toward Nippletop. Then some as I walked toward it.

I took these next shots where I got stuck right below the top edge of the cliff. It's quite steep there with lots of soft sand.

From back on the ridge, I took these shots using the zoom lens. I did this so I could examine them later and find a better route. I marked where I was (you can see how they correspond to the photos above).

Here's a shot of Nippletop that I took from the north ridge of Lost Peak. My GPS said I only made it to 6,500 feet.

Please leave me a comment if you know where I messed up. I wouldn't mind trying it again since it's so easy to get up there.

Safety Warning: Consider wearing leather work gloves when hiking down the steep slickrock (like in that gully). If you slip, the natural reaction is to brace your fall with your palm. That will result in a bad abrasion and losing much flesh from your hand. I am very comfortable and careful on the slickrock, and yet I slipped once coming down.

Collaboration

2011-09-23T09:39:00.001-07:00

I enjoyed reading "Collaboration - How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results" by Morten Hansen. Unlike many management books, this one isn't another tomb of nice ideas and suggestions. It presents some field-tested approaches and defines what the author names disciplined collaboration, offering actionable direction and advice.

Hansen identifies 4 barriers to collaboration, and offers ways of spotting them in your organization: the not-invented-here barrier, the hoarding barrier, the search barrier, and the transfer barrier. Then he outlines 3 broad levers for attacking these barriers: unify people, cultivate T-shaped management, and build nimble networks.

Because I'm lazy, I won't try to explain the work in more detail. There are already several well written reviews on Amazon.

I will say that I liked a couple points quite a lot. I've personally seen manifestions of the not-invented-here and hoarding barriers. I also think that his T-shaped management approach would go a long way in improving collaboration. He suggests holding people accountable for how well they collaborate using measurable metrics included in their performance reviews and compensation.

I recommend this book.

Hiking Videos

2011-09-22T06:15:00.000-07:00

I've been experimenting with different methods of recording videos of my hikes. I've learned a lot.

Mounting my GoPro to my backpack shoulder strap didn't work out so well. Lesson: the old standard GoPro has a very wide FOV lens and the result makes any flat surface look rounded. It was annoying to watch, plus the camera wasn't always pointing where I thought it was.

I also mounted my Kodak Zi8 to the backpack shoulder strap. Lesson: the video was good, but the audio was messed up by rubbing against the mount I'd fashioned.

The GoPro chest harness mount worked well, with reservations. Lesson: the video is terrific (using the new HD model). The shots were jerky when hiking on hard surfaces like Zion NP sandstone, but smooth when hiking on soft sand in the desert. The audio is very quiet, due to the GoPro plastic case. I didn't try the 2nd case with the air holes for improved audio.

I've tried taking a series of photos every minute or so, then assembling those into a video. Lesson: very very annoying to watch. The scene changes too much between the photos, so the video is very jerky. It might work better if the photos were every 30 seconds or less.

I've also recorded video and then sped it up afterward. Lesson: annoying to watch. The viewer doesn't get the sense of a hike. More annoying than enjoyable.

One of the biggest challenges has been keeping the camera steady.

During my Lost Peak hike, I tried something different. My goals were to keep the camera steady and not speed up the video. I realized that it's not necessary to record the entire hike. I used my Lumix ZS7 point-and-shoot camera. I keep it in my cargo pocket while hiking in the backcountry so I can get to it fast when I encounter wildlife.

I recorded many very short clips at sorta regular intervals. Holding the camera in my hand while walking and trying to keep it stable. Then later I strung them together in iMovie.

I'm going to use this method until I think of something better.

Management Books

2011-09-21T05:37:00.000-07:00

Here are two books on management that I recently read, but did not find very useful.

"What to Ask the Person in the Mirror - Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential" by Robert Kaplan.

A primary theme of this book addresses the stark reality that many leaders and executives spend far too much of their time on matters that should be delegated or postponed. The author's time management approach helps align leaders' activity with their priorities. This involves the standard method of keeping a log of your activity and later comparing that to your previously identified priorities.

Kaplan further discusses the need to effectively communicate the team's priorities both up and down the chain. This communication must happen all the time. It must become almost habit.

He also makes the point that effective leaders coach their people and actively seek coaching themselves. Routine review and improvement in management practices and behavior can improve the performance of the entire organization.

I wasn't impressed with this book. I've seen too much of the content in other books. If you're well read, then this book will not add much.

"Read This Before Your Next Meeting" by Al Pittampalli.

Meetings are everywhere. Some days are filled with nothing but meetings. They are scheduled, attended, endured, hated, and then scheduled again. Most people are bad at holding meetings. Most people are bad at attending meetings. Most people agree with everything I just wrote. And yet, nothing changes.

A culture of meetings is very hard to change. Meetings have become ritualized in many companies. They are simply part of the work. Sometimes they are held to corner people into getting something accomplished. These are called "working meetings."

Suggesting that we change how or when we hold meetings can face stiff resistance. Almost as if you're asking people to change what neighborhood they live in. The existing dogma offers a comforting predictability.

This book offers some drastic views about how to change your meeting culture. I think its advice will achieve limited gains unless an entire organization (or sub-unit) envokes the same changes. The author proposes that meetings only be held when they meet these 7 rules:

Meet only to support a decision that has already been made.
Move fast and end on schedule.
Limit the number of attendees.
Reject the unprepared.
Produce committed action plans.
Refuse to be informational. Reading memos is mandatory.
Work with brainstorms, not against them.

It's a very short book and is worthwhile for those serious about changing their meeting practices. Some of its advice is not new, and can be found in other sources such as GTD practices.

I have attended effective meetings that adopted a few of the 7 items above, so I think improvements don't require all elements.

Lost Peak

2011-09-20T15:57:00.001-07:00

I hiked Lost Peak (Peak 6460) on the east side of Zion NP. Once again, I failed to reach the summit. I think I'm missing some detail about the route. I got further up this time, but stopped at a 12 foot wall. The only way I could see around it required stepping around the wall to the right onto a very steep slab. That path would be rated class 4, since if you slipped and fell, you'd die. The puzzle is ... I've seen reports by others that the north ridge route is no more than class 2. And so, I think I'm missing something here. Even Courtney Purcell reports it as class 2 in his book: "Zion National Park: Summit Routes."

This photo shows the east side of Lost Peak (taken from Nippletop). The blue line shows my route.

This photo shows the section on the north ridge where I got stuck. Please post a comment if you know where I went wrong.

Then I walked around the west side of the hill to the south side. I wanted to try the steep slickrock slope up the SE ridge. I almost attempted the SW face. It looked doable as I walked below it.

Instead, I continued to what I thought was the base of the SE ridge. I later concluded that it wasn't. I left my backpack at the base and started up the ridge. It got very steep very fast. I knew from examining the topo maps and GE that the steepest section is the bottom 80 feet or so.

I hike alone a lot, so I tend to be a bit cautious. Having said that, I still get caught going up things I can't get down safely. About half way up the steep section, I decided to see if I can safely downclimb. If I can, then It'd be easy and quick to return and continue up the hill. Well, I was glad to be wearing heavy-duty work gloves because I had to crab-walk down the hill. LOL Once down, I tried another route. The same thing happened. This photo looks up the ridge I was trying.

If I were with others, I'd probably be easily pressured to go on up the hill. But I was getting tired after having already hiked the north ridge and then around the west side. So I gave up. This photo shows the steepness of the sandstone.

About 5 minutes later, from the saddle to the east of Lost Peak, I saw what looked like a better ridge. I don't think it was the one I just abandoned. That's probably the correct ridge. It's more on the SE and less on the S side. Oh well.

Even though I failed to summit, I had a great time. Hiking around the backcountry of Zion is fun. It wasn't very hot. It might have been in the low 80s. The sky was clear with almost no breeze. A great morning to be walking around in the wilderness. Here's a google map centered on Lost Peak.

Here's a gratuitous photo of the moon before it hid behind The Watchman. I took this from my hotel room balcony at the Cliffrose Lodge. That's my current favorite hotel in Springdale, Utah.

Secrets of the FBI

2011-09-11T13:33:00.001-07:00

I listened to the new audiobook from Ronald Kessler: "The Secrets of the FBI." I've read many of his books over the years, and they've all been interesting. This one was no different.

While the book includes plenty of material about the history of the FBI, back to the Hoover years, most of it covers the changes that have happened since 9/11. It also includes many war stories about the TacOps teams who perform legal break-ins for both criminal and intelligence cases.

After describing the history and controversies surrounding the past FBI directors, Kessler points out that Robert Mueller is the best FBI Director since Hoover. He's the only one who has lasted through his 10 year appointment. Then this year, President Obama asked him to stay on for another 2 years.

I enjoyed the book. I'm pleased to learn that the FBI has definitely grown and improved itself since 9/11.

Mazourka Canyon

2011-09-04T06:40:00.000-07:00

After Papoose Flat, I continued south to Badger Flat and then down Mazourka Canyon to rejoin 395 at Independence. I wanted to continue on some utility roads south to Lone Pine, but a barbed wire fence across the road left me wondering if that route was open.

The road to Badger Flat was the most difficult I encountered on this trip. Several spots were harder than Laurel Canyon Road. I actually had to get out and recon two sections before driving them. I was still able to drive it all without engaging low range. Although, one spot would have been much easier if I had used low range. I almost got hung up on the tree root in the next photo.

The next photo was supposed to show the pointy jagged rocks sticking out of the road surface. But the camera auto-focused on the dirty windshield.

Here's some more pointy rocks to drive over.

More views of the Sierra mountains from the top of the Inyos.

This shot looks north, back down on Papoose Flat.

Mazourka Canyon is a boring downhill run down a windy graded dirt road. I just put the truck in 2nd gear and coasted, to save my brakes. I decided to not explore the spurs, such as Mazourka Peak. Maybe another day.

Papoose Flat

2011-09-03T04:47:00.000-07:00

On my return toward LA, I decided to take a couple scenic 4wd trails. The first was Papoose Flat. I've only driven it once before. In my old Acura MDX. It was the hardest road I ever drove in that Acura. That was the first time I ever stopped to inventory how much food I had in the car, in case I had mechanical problems or got stuck.

This is a great trail. This time, I didn't go to "The Narrows" section to the east of the flat. I encountered 5 other trucks up there, so it wasn't very crowded. The SoCal Land Rover Club recently trekked up there for a camping adventure. I saw their photos and decided I needed to return.

In case you're not familiar with the location, here's a google map centered on Papoose Flat. It's around 9,000 feet elevation southeast of Big Pine and offers a stunning view of the Sierra mountains across the valley. The trail appears in all of my 4wd trail books. Mitchell rates it a class 3. I agree, but that only applies to a very short section.

At one point I was blocked by a truck with 3 older geologists. They'd done field work up there some 25 years ago and were visiting the site. They didn't expect to encounter anyone else. One kind gentleman was describing the formations that were embedded in the trail. I told them I just call those the tie-rod-bending formations. They all laughed.

Taking the direct route from Death Valley Road, this is the most difficult section. It's short.

Here's a shot looking north over the valley I crossed. That's Death Valley Road in the distance.

Here's my first glimpse of Papoose flat.

It was a fun drive. The sky was clear. It wasn't hot. With the windows down I could hear the birds. Much nicer than taking 395 south.

Laurel Mountain

2011-09-02T06:01:00.001-07:00

I almost hiked Laurel Mountain. I didn't reach the summit mostly because my new hiking boots were hurting my ankle. I've only worn them a few times and they've all been painful. I didn't remember this because I haven't been hiking in a while.

I was doing fine on the trail section up to the saddle between Laurel and Bloody. But after I started up the steep talus slope, the pain began. So I decided I'd rather do something less painful. I can always return with better boots.

I made it to 11,050 feet. High enough to remember the joys of high altitude hiking. Here are a few photos. It was a great morning for hiking (except for the howling wind).

Laurel Lakes Road

2011-09-01T05:18:00.000-07:00

This is a fun road. It's not too hard, but it certainly makes you pay attention. I remember it being harder than it was this time. Maybe the conditions are better now. If you don't know where it is, here's a google map centered on the bottom of it. The first shot looks up from the bottom.

This shot looks back down at the bottom from the first switchback.

I didn't encounter very many other trucks. That was lucky since it's hard to pull over for long stretches of the road. A few trucks were coming up into the rough uphill section when I was going down. I found a place to pull over, leaving them what I thought was an easy route around me. But the other drivers were very hesitant. I think the hill might have been a bit more challenging for them.

I used this opportunity to test my new dashcam. I couldn't use my GoPro camera because the plastic mount was broken. I've ordered a replacement from Amazon. The dashcam is pretty decent. Although the colors are all brown/golden tinted. Probably a result of the very low sun angle and the vegetation and the detector response characteristics. My photos show the actual green of the landscape. meh What bugs me, is that the video fails to convey the scale of the boulders. You can get some sense by observing how far I steer the truck around some of the big rocks. But sometimes that's just so the rear tires end up going where I want them to go.

I only posted video of a small part of the road, to show some of the bouldery section. I slapped it together in iMovie. I also sped up most of it (no, I did not drive that fast through there). Sorry for the bug on the windshield. I should have cleaned the glass before starting.

ps: thanks Joe, for helping me with using youtube. i'm such a noob.

Copper Mountain

2011-08-31T06:04:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to driving the Copper Mountain trail. It appears in 3 of my trail books: "Guide to Northern California Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails" by Wells, "High Sierra SUV Trails, Volume 1, The East Side" by Mithcell, and "Sierra Nevada Byways" by Huegel. As you can see in the photos, the trail is pretty easy, mostly class 2 with small spots of class 3. The views are terrific.

Before I drove it, I read the descriptions in each book and decided to use the Wells book while driving it. There was no chance of getting lost since the roads also showed up in my Garmin Nuvi navigation toy. I encountered one other SUV out there (a young couple in an FJ Cruiser) and they were using Mitchell's book.

This trail ascends to the top of Copper Mountain which sits to the west of Mono Lake and just north of Lundy Canyon, offering great views of both.

Here's a google map centered on Copper Mountain.

Camping at Mammoth

2011-08-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

I went camping last week up near Mammoth. Actually right on the edge of Mammoth Lakes town at a USFS campground named New Shady Rest Campground. It was pretty nice. The low temps (around 80F) at 7,800 feet elevation were a welcome relief from the 100+ temps down in Pasadena.

This campgorund had an array of conveniences that I am not accustomed to. OK, not the campground exactly. Being on the edge of town, you can walk to shops. It's located across the street from a McDonalds! I bought a sandwich at Subway for a mid day snack while off-road driving one day. It rained lightly one afternoon, and that was refreshing.

The campground itself is pretty nice also. Mildly hilly and the sites aren't too close together. By comparison, the South Campground at Zion NP is flat and most of the sites are right next to one another.

The squirrels and ground squirrels are very habituated to people and they walk right up to you (and onto you) to beg for food. There were no signs of bears when I was there, but the campground host told me that they are often visited by the same bear, mostly checking out the dumpsters.

One afternoon I explored the dirt roads in the forest on the east side of highway 395 (the circled areas on the map). They ranged in difficulty from class 1 to class 3 (Mitchell scale).

The northwestern area indicated has many USFS roads of differing quality. The larger ones were being used by mountain bikers. I encountered many bikers out there, so I had to drive slowly and approach blind corners with caution. I also came upon a gun firing range with many people shooting at the time. That explains the loud sounds I'd heard when I was about a mile away.

I stopped off to gander at the hot springs site. I didn't stay long and didn't walk down to get near the water. They've got signs posted everywhere warning about the hazards and the prohibition on entering the water.

If you're interested in camping in the area, then the USFS has a very helpful guide: 2011-2012 Inyo Forest Visitor Guide (6MB PDF file). I found the link to this on this USFS site for the Inyo National Forest.

Navy SEALs

2011-08-29T16:33:00.001-07:00

I've just finished my third book about US Navy SEALs. I became interested after the news about the SEAL Team 6 soldiers that executed the attack on Osama Bin Laden's compound. I didn't know much at all about SEALs, so I read a few books.

First I read "SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper" by Howard Wasdin. I blogged about that here. Then I read "The Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL" by Eric Greitens. That one was also interesting, and had much less (almost nothing) about the author's childhood and upbringing. It left me with an uneasy sense that he was a snooty privileged sort. Although, it had an astute message, that humanitarian aid can only go so far. Sometimes, forceful intervention is necessary to truly help the populace of war-torn areas.

Lastly, I just finished "The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228" by Dick Couch. That book follows the soldiers in BUD/S class 228 as they succeed and fail during that grueling training regimen. While it included more details than the other books about BUD/S training, it had nothing about their deployments or operations in the field (like the first book did).

For convenience, here's the informative Wikipedia page about the SEALs.

I think that concludes my fascination with SEALs. At the very least, I'm better informed than before.

Kiavah Wilderness and More

2011-08-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

I escaped the confines of my home to spend the day in the hills on the very southern end of the Sierra mountains. I like driving around the 4wd trails just to see what's out there. I try to aim for places with some history that I've read about before-hand.

I turned into Jawbone Canyon OHV Area and headed for Butterbredt Canyon Road. The shot above looks east down Jawbone Canyon. Butterbredt was a pleasant meandering road down a sandy wash. The brush on the sides didn't encroach very far and never scratched my truck. I was surprised to encounter two signs that read "NO OUTLET" at a trail intersection a few miles east of Kelso Valley Road, but was very happy to find they were wrong and I was able to exit onto the road.

Next I drove north to take the Bird Spring Pass trail. The sign in the photo explains the historical significance of this route.

I wanted to visit Wyley's Knob at the top of the pass, where an old microwave relay station sits.

There was a great view to the east.

The PCT crosses the road up there. Friendly people leave jugs of water for the PCT hikers. Some of the bottles appear to have brown water in them, but plenty appeared clear.

I was surprised to see that all the roads I drove were shown on my Garmin Nuvi GPS navigator. Several do not appear in my printed maps, so it was nice to see them on the Garmin. I also used an old map from the Jawbone Canyon OHV visitor center. Years ago, they would give me old ones free. I don't know if they still do that. They're excellent maps, and I plan to buy a new one next time I'm there when the visitor center is open. On this trip, the store was closed when I stopped. But I did get to see "Mr. Bob" the very old desert tortoise. He was sitting half-way out of his burrow.

I turned north on SC82 (not on my printed maps) and headed for Horse Canyon. I encountered 2 different sites where commercial bee hives had been parked.

Here's the sign marking the boundary of the Kiavah Wilderness Area, then one for the Sequoia National Forest.

It was nice up on the ridge with temps around 80F. Not too bad, given that it was 100F down along Highway 14.

I had planned to drive the 4wd trail north to McIvers Spring and check out a cabin there available for campers to use. The road turned to class 3 right where the book said it would.

But within a mile it deteriorated to class 4 with a few small sections of class 5. This was the result of runnoff down the middle of the trail. I can handle this challenge, but I prefer to only tackle class 5 with extra trucks, in case I need to be pulled off a boulder. And with a spotter. So, I turned back.

Here's a photo looking east down Horse Canyon. There's some vestigial asphalt in places. I was able to spare my brakes by putting the truck into 1st gear, then 2nd as it got less steep.

The remains of an old stone cabin sit at the base of Sage Canyon. My trail books offered no info on this site.

Another mystery was at the base of Cow Heaven Canyon. A memorial cross for Lonnie Johnson. With subsequent googling, I could find nothing about this person. Based on the number of kind inscriptions on the cross, he was well liked.

I stopped off at the Indian Wells Brewery to see if they'd resumed brewing the strong version of Lobotomy Bock. No, they haven't.

All in all, it was a fun day. Relaxing.

Note: Most of the trails and canyons I explored are presented in Mitchells' books "High Sierra SUV Trails, Vol IV, The Southern End," and "Southern California SUV Trails, Vol I, The Western Mojave Desert." I was also using the Jawbone Canyon map (excellent). They offer a simple version free on their website. Here's the page, and here's the PDF map (1.5 MB).

Stir Crazy

2011-08-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

It's been two months since my surgery, and I'm going stir crazy. I'm ready to resume hiking, even though I'm not fully healed. While I can do loads of lunges and plenty of pushups, my abs haven't recovered their strength. I used to do 200 crunches each morning, and now I can barely do 10.

I'm planning a couple trips, just to focus on some targets. I'd like to head to the Mammoth area for 3 days or so for some hiking and 4wd touring. My plan currently includes: Laurel Canyon (a fun and scenic 4wd road), hiking Laurel Mountain and maybe Bloody Mountain, Copper Mountain 4wd trails, hiking in Lundy Canyon, and San Joaquin Ridge (scenic 4wd road) with a hike over Deadman Pass. At the same time, I'm planning a trip to southern Utah (Zion and thereabouts) for after Labor Day. I'm open to any suggestions for activities on those trips. My best adventures have been to places suggested by others.

Tomorrow, I'll go exploring some canyons in the Kiavah Wilderness Area, east of Lake Isabella.

Land Rover Hood Sensor - Take 3

2011-08-01T05:03:00.000-07:00

The replacement alarm hood sensor arrived and I installed it. I posted a little more about it on the other blog here.

My Other Blog

2011-07-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

I've started a second blog. myrover1111.blogspot.com

I wanted to start a simple list of the various things that go wrong with my Land Rover. It bothered me that I couldn't find such a list online. Don't get me wrong, the LR forums are great. They're also full of "experts" that can be quite argumentative at times. And even the forums don't contain comprehensive lists of the maintenance issues that come up. My new site isn't an attempt to do that either. It's just a start. A baby step.

Land Rover Hood Sensor - Take 2

2011-07-24T08:12:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I figured out how to remove the alarm hood sensor. It came right out. Then I used a DMM continuity tester to see if the integral micro-switch was working. Touching the DMM leads to the contacts in the connector, I worked the switch about a dozen times by pressing on the curved metal thingy (see photo). It worked fine. So I pulled on that curved metal spring to expand it a bit, thinking that maybe it's become compressed over time from normal use. Then I reinstalled it and connected it up (removing my short circuit I'd installed a few weeks before).

Well, that lasted about a week. I returned to my car in a parking lot and unlocked it to see the lights flashing fast for 8 seconds (the manual says this happens when the alarm has been tripped). After less than a mile of driving, the "BONNET OPEN" message appeared. That went away soon enough.

It appears that the micro-switch inside the sensor might actually be faulty, resulting in intermittent failures. I've ordered a replacement sensor from an online shop. In the mean time, I've replaced my short circuit kludge.

Carte Blanche

2011-07-08T04:30:00.000-07:00

I listened to the audiobook version of "Carte Blanche" by Jeffery Deaver. It's a newly released James Bond novel. This is the first James Bond book I've ever read and I wasn't disappointed. Sort of like the Robert Ludlum techno thriller "The Lazarus Vendetta" with lots of techie gadgets, a high-tech plotline, but also with the standard Bond fights and shootouts. It's all present-day settings and Bond is relatively new to the 00 ranks in this story line. I enjoyed how the characters ended up being more than initial appearances, and how the plot twisted several times. I also liked how the author would go through a scene of action from one person's point-of-view, then in the next chapter give you another person's POV and fill in many of the missing parts and nuances. I recommend the book if you like the genre.

Land Rover Hood Sensor

2011-06-29T07:07:00.001-07:00

My Land Rover recently began experiencing a new problem. Luckily, some googling found it to be a known issue and I found many tips for solving it. The symptoms I had were: the alarm would sound randomly (when it was set). Also, sometimes the dash text display would indicate that the hood was open "BONNET OPEN".

Apparently this is because the hood sensor goes bad. It's connected to the passenger side hood latch at the front of the truck. I can buy a replacement sensor for about $12, and pay another $10 for shipping. I found forum posts indicating that it takes about 30 seconds to swap it out. Unfortunately, I'm not the most mechanically inclined, and I cannot figure out how to remove the sensor. Maybe I need to remove the latch. For that, I'd need to buy a new tool, since none of mine fit those holes in the mounting bolts.

Instead, I decided to do what other forum posters had done, short the circuit at the connector. Below is a photo of that connector. I merely connected the two contacts with a wire, then taped it up with electrical tape. I figure I can easily undo that and install a replacement sensor, once I figure out how to do that.

I also might take it to the dealer and have them fix it. But since I'm on my extended warranty, I prefer to collect a few items so that it exceeds the $100 deductible I'd have to pay.

Here are some links, but they're likely to dry up given the obscure topic.

LR Forum Threads: Thread1, Thread2, Thread3.

The part number is LR002794. This part appears to be superceded by a new part number: YUE500150.

Here's that part for sale on an online parts outlet: hood sensor part.

Dead or Alive

2011-06-26T06:45:00.000-07:00

Tom Clancy's book, Dead or Alive, was interesting. I listened to the 20 hour audiobook. It's got plenty of action and not too much boring backstory, largely because most of the characters have been in earlier books. It still has a fair amount of useless filler details that don't add to the story. All in all, this was a nice distraction from the pain as I recovered from some surgery.

More Pics Near Peak 6460

2011-06-18T09:36:00.001-07:00

Here are a few photos I took last year on my hike to the broad sandstone area northeast of peak 6460. Here's a google map centered on the area. This shot looks south into the canyon.

The next two shots look along the big slickrock area, first looking toward Peak 6460, then looking back.

Here's a view looking south toward Parunuweep Canyon from the saddle to the east of Peak 6460.

And here's a closeup of the rattlesnake I almost stepped on. After returning home, I looked it up and it looks like a Hopi Rattlesnake. I've since bought a handy rattlesnake guide to help me identify them on my trips.

Arizona Strip & Grand Canyon Parashant NM

2011-06-14T17:26:00.001-07:00

The Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument has some scenic landscapes. I returned to California by taking some of the remote back roads through the monument. I did this last year also.

I only encountered one other vehicle, and that guy stopped to ask me for directions! Even more odd ... I could give him directions (there aren't that many roads in GC Parashant NM). Here's a map showing the route that I took.

I saw interesting rock formations rising up from the scrub.

The roads were in good condition, so any car with 7 inches of clearance could have handled it.

On my next visit, I plan to drive some of the more rugged roads, such as Hobble Canyon, Jump Canyon, Hidden Canyon. That will be an adventure since I can't find anything about them through google. Here's a photo of the Grand Wash, with the Grand Wash Cliffs off in the distance.

For amateur geologists, the USGS has posted a detailed geologic map of the area on this site. (the 32.9MB gwmap.pdf link at the bottom of that page)

Zion - Peak 6460 (Lost Peak)

2011-06-13T04:59:00.001-07:00

I decided to try and hike to the top of peak 6460 on the east side of Zion NP. Last year I hiked to the saddle east of that peak. It's really a nice hike. Here's a google map centered on it.

I was surprised this year to see many footprints. There was practically a foot trail from the highway to the sandstone area northeast of the peak. Here's a view from the turnout where I parked.

And then again from the bottom of the wash. The hill on the left is easier to hike than it looks.

Last year I almost stepped on a rattlesnake along the way. But I didn't see any this time. After some trees, you get to the the back of the canyon.

Then turn right up the sandstone. You can see the summit behind the trees in the distance.

I turned around just below the summit, after reaching a chest-high shelf.

I could have clambered over the rock, but as I stood there looking at the hill ahead, it appeared that there'd be a couple more such obstacles. So I wimped out and turned back. Subsequent googling discovered a site documenting a 13yo boy's hike up that hill. So ... I now have a new nemesis hill. I'll get to the summit on my next trip out there in a few months.

Up there on the hill, I sat to admire the view and watched a peregrine falcon fly past below me. I've seen them in that area before, but they've always been above me.

It appears that this hill is named Lost Peak. I found another site that confirms something I was going to test - the southern slope is hikeable. My plan is to hike up the north ridge and down the south ridge.

For some pleasant hikes on the east side, I recommend this hike and Progeny Peak, for a nice half day of fun.

Seal Team Six

2011-06-12T06:37:00.001-07:00

I listened to the audiobook version of Seal Team Six - Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper by Howard Wasdin. I got this after hearing about that Seal team's involvement in the Osama Bin Laden raid. It was a very interesting book. While I didn't enjoy the parts about his very unpleasant childhood, most of it is about the rigorous training he endured, and the ongoing training he enjoyed as a Seal Team operator. Amazing. It was consistent with the small glimpses I've had through movies and television (e.g., the Military Channel). If you're interested in knowing more about Seal training, then I recommend the book.

Hiking Shoes

2011-06-11T05:19:00.000-07:00

Hiking on the steep hills is much easier with good shoes. I've been wearing Montrail for years. They've been great on the steep sandstone at Zion NP and the steep granite at Yosemite NP. I'm currently wearing the Montrail AT Plus GTX. Like I learned with skiing, investing in good footwear makes the experience safer and much more enjoyable.

Zion - Progeny Peak

2011-06-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

Once again, I hiked Progeny Peak. I like this little hill. This time I tried a new route, and ended up following many cairns. It turned out to be the easiest route on the hill. There are short sections of class 3, but otherwise it's class 2, and I avoided all the rocks that slide when you step on them. Now I feel comfortable taking less experienced hikers on this hike.

The weather was great, with morning temperatures in the 70s and calm winds. It took me a while to go up because I was exploring new areas as I went. Descending took about 30 minutes. Here's a google map centered on Progeny. The map below shows the route I took this time (without exploration side trips).

The next map shows all the various places I've hiked and explored around this hill. All of those lines are approximate, since it's hard to precisely place my routes and landmarks against the google satellite imagery.

On one of my exploration side trips, I discovered that the northwest gully is an easy hike, especially on the west side of the gully.

From the road, you can't see the summit. You can't see much at all. Once you get 20 yards from the road, you can see the arch and the available routes.

A little further up the drainage wash you can make out more detail.

Sometimes I pause to realize that I probably could have found an easier route up a small section. Here's an example. I turned around to notice that I'd just walked up a rather steep section.

As you're walking up the wash, aim for this handy ramp-like feature.

Further up, follow the long section of cleaved rock.

Here's a shot looking back down that cleaved rock formation.

Hearing other hikers' voices, I found them far below me headed for Spry Canyon.

The gully on the northwest side of Progeny is indeed hikable. I don't know why I didn't notice this when I was below it on previous hikes.

Somebody created this novel cairn. It points the way down, directing hikers to go west from the dual-humped cleaved rock toward the long cleaved rocks I followed uphill.

The next shot looks down the traverse toward the double cleaved rock.

After that climbing traverse, I walked along this flat shelf traverse.

Then I came across another cairn. The tree in the distance was an ideal resting point because of the shade.

This is what the summit knob looks like from the shade of that tree.

I decided to leave my backpack at that tree and walk the short distance up to the summit.

I took a traverse route around the northwest side of the summit knob. Here's a shot looking back at the tree where my pack lies.

The route is easy to hike. Not too steep with plenty of footholds to pause if desired.

The summit.

Hikers have built an elaborate summit cairn. I sure wish they'd build a bench to sit on.

Here's a shot of the summit from the canyon to the south.

The next photo is taken from the summit looking south and shows where I was standing when I took the above photo.

The route shown here is the easiest route I've found on Progeny. As you can see from my route map, I've hiked all over this hill. Even along this route, I could have gone more directly up the hill - and I have done that in the past. My goal on this day was to explore the NW gully and to see just how easy a route I could find. It was a fun couple hours.

If you're interested, my other posts about Progeny Peak are here, here, and here.

The Wave Permit Lottery

2011-06-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

I stopped off at the Paria Contact Station for the walk-in permit lottery to hike The Wave. Here's a google map centered on it. Here's a few photos of the station.

There were only 24 groups on that day. The previous day had 49. They post the count on the window.

Here's a video showing one number being pulled from the lot.

I did not win a permit. It was worth the short drive from Zion NP. Plus, I got to drive another 4wd route on my return. This time I drove a few miles down House Rock Road and then turned west on Five Mile Mountain Road. It was very scenic.

This road is maintained and I never had to raise the suspension. On a previous trip I took the road to the south (Route 721). That was very rugged in places.

I also stopped off to inspect a purported BLM primitive camping area along the Kitchen Corral Wash. Here's a google map centered on it. Not very appealing, except it did offer shelter from the wind on 3 sides.

I found a much nicer place for backcountry camping on BLM lands, closer to Zion NP. Here's a google map centered on it. It's easy to get to, and it's at over 5,000 feet elevation so the temperatures would be cooler in the summer months.

Camping In My New Coleman Instant Tent

2011-06-08T16:35:00.001-07:00

I camped at the Zion NP South Campground last week using my new Coleman Instant Tent 6. It worked out well. Here are a few photos of the new tent in action. One neighboring camper was impressed with how easily it went up and came down, and that you can stand up in it.

As you can see, I use old car battery boxes to haul things because they're good heavy duty boxes. My new Energizer jump starter is seen in the next photo.

I use it to power the pump to inflate the air mattress. I also use it to charge my iphone, ipad and other toys. I failed to mention in my previous post that I also used it when changing the truck battery. That avoided all the hassles associated with the truck losing power (dropped radio code, unsyncs with RF key fob, doors lock, disables engine, etc.).

Warning: The South Campground was VERY full because they've reserved several (maybe a dozen) sites for campers with reservations for Watchman Campground - which is undergoing some construction. You have to arrive at South Campground VERY EARLY to get a site. Specifically: between 8am and 9am. It was common for people to be driving through the campground early looking for sites what would be exited that day (indicated on the paper slip posted to the camp site post) and then ask the campers there when they'd be leaving. Then the new campers go and pay for the site and put up their own slip. They can then leave and return later when the current campers have left.

New Odyssey Battery

2011-05-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

While diagnosing the faults my Land Rover was reporting, two dealerships told me that my OEM battery was weak and should be replaced. The truck is now 3 years old and it seemed a good time to upgrade to a high performance battery. Years ago I bought an Optima Red Top for my previous vehicle, but I was surprised to find a lot of negative reviews about them. Apparently the quality of Optima batteries has dropped. The online forums show many owners reporting them failing after just a few years. I saw several posts by Land Rover owners who have been installing Odyssey batteries and are very happy with them.

I bought the Odyssey 34R-PC1500 (aka PC1500RT). This is bigger than the BCI group 94R OEM battery. I could have bought the PC1220, which is 94R, but chose to get the bigger 1500. I bought it online from West Coast Batteries (the links above) and it was delivered in just a couple days.

Since the battery has a slightly different profile, I had to make a new hold-down bracket. Skipping the methods that failed, I'll just describe the final solution. I bought a piece of aluminum (3ft x 1 inch x 1/8 inch) from OSH and headed to a friend's house where he has lots of tools. We cut it to size, bent it, and drilled holes, so I could use the OEM bolts (which seem to be metric M6 size). The photos show the final installation. Since the Odyssey is taller than the OEM battery, it barely fits under the plastic cover (not shown in the photos). The end of the bolt on the positive terminal touches the inside of the plastic cover.

Now I'm ready to go adventuring off road again. Good thing, since I'm headed to southern Utah and northern Arizona in a few days.

Land Rover Woes

2011-05-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

I've had a spate of problems with the rover lately. Luckily, it's not been too bad. I would get the famous "three amigos" of Land Rover faults: ABS, HDC, and suspension. I did lots of googling to learn about these. Many suspect it's caused by a weak battery, and some dealerships also suggested this to some owners. The theory goes: the ABS system sensors require a minimum of 11.7 volts and when the battery gets weak, they don't get that minimum voltage and so it triggers an ABS fault. The HDC then sends a fault because (obviously) it requires the ABS to work. And the suspension is like the drunken college kid who's heard there's kegger: it joins in immediately. Many have replaced their batteries, but some people have reported their faults continuing.

I was getting these faults while driving on suburban streets, almost always after I came to a stop at a red light. I discovered that I could easily clear the faults by turning off the car, and restarting. At that point, it wasn't too big of a concern.

Then while off roading in the Mojave desert, I experienced a new set of faults. These began with a transmission fault. That was then followed by the suspension fault, and sometimes the ABS/HDC combo. I could still clear it easily, but it began to bother me. So I took it to the dealer.

They discovered a stored code: P186D. This is indicated when either (a) a motor in an actuator inside the rear differential is faulty, or (b) the sensors for that actuator are sending bad signals to the computer.

The repairs would be expensive (>$1,000), but I luckily bought an extended warranty when I bought the truck. I strongly encourage all Land Rover buyers to get an extended warranty. I ended up paying $100, which is my deductilble. The dealer replaced some part in the rear diff, and also replaced the front control arm bushings.

Since then I have had no more faults. Yay.

The dealer also reported that my battery was weak. It failed their battery test. So, I just replaced the battery (see future post for details).

Little Bets

2011-05-08T15:11:00.001-07:00

I finished the new book "Little Bets - How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries," by Peter Sims. I enjoyed it. I also think I can use some of its material in several parts of my life.

Little bets is about achieving complex or difficult goals by intentionally taking a path of small steps, trying, reviewing, changing, trying again, and iterating. One phrase that I liked was "experimental innovators."

Fundamental elements of little bets include: experiment, play, immerse, define, reorient, and iterate. It is not simply trying lots of things and seeing what works. Successful practitioners are rigorous, analytical, strategic, and pragmatic. Sims illustrates this by examining the experiences and methods of Chris Rock, Jeff Bezos, Frank Gehry, Pixar filmmakers, Steve Jobs, Bill Hewlett & Dave Packard, and US Army officers, among others. The US Army counterinsurgency approach is called "developing the situation through action." The Pixar guys summarize their creative process as "going from suck to nonsuck."

This is counter to the commonplace mindset Sims calls the "HiPPO phenomenon", wherein the highest paid person's opinion (HiPPO) dominates how people make decisions.

Sims summarizes: "...the fundamental advantages of the little bets approach; it allow us to discover new ideas, strategies, or plans through an emergent process, rather than trying to fully formulate them before we begin, and it facilitates adapting our approach as we go rather than continuing on a course that may lead to failure."

The core ideas of Little Bets are not new. They've been employed by many people for many years, and this is illustrated by the examples the author describes. Heck, the Stanford d.school classes are famous for employing these methods, stirring the energies of all who take them.

The second chapter is an overview of the amazing research by Carol Dweck and the growth mind-set. I call attention to it here in order to encourage everyone to read about Dweck's research, since we can leverage what she learned and positively influence our lives and our childrens' lives.

The chapter titles help to illustrate the author's framework:

1. Big Bests Versus Little Bets
2. The Growth Mind-set
3. Failing Quickly to Learn Fast
4. The Genius of Play
5. Problems Are the New Solutions
6. Questions Are the New Answers
7. Learning a Little From a Lot
8. Learning a Lot From a Little
9. Small Wins

There's a section at the end of the book titled "Further Readings and Resources" that is a nice outline of related books that many will find useful. You might browse through that section if you come across this book at a bookstore.

Here is the author's web site for the book. Here's the Amazon page.

Mt. Jenkins Hike

2011-04-25T17:42:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I hiked Mt. Jenkins with Luke. It was a nice hike. Even though it's not too hard, I was very sore for the next few days. Must be getting old.

Mt. Jenkins is a 7921 foot peak in the southern Sierra mountains roughly west of Inyokern, CA. We started from the 4wd road trail head in Indian Wells Canyon. Here's a map centered on the parking area. This map is centered on the peak. The weather started off overcast and windy. I wore plenty of layers and needed them at the beginning. Here's my obligatory rover shot, lookup up toward the peak.

By the time we reached the summit, the sun was out. On the way down, we passed several PCT hikers that were bagging the peak. The PCT goes around the mountain about half way up. We also saw several people performing trail maintenance on the PCT there.

The lower half of the mountain had been burned in a recent wildfire. The lack of vegetation left the ground loose and made for slow hiking.

Here are a few more shots from the summit.

This rabbit froze as we approached on our descent.

There were plenty of wild flowers in bloom on the bottom of the hill.

Another Post-Recession Book

2011-04-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a few books aimed at steering people out of the recession toward a profitable future. Here's the first one I finished. "The Ultimate Money Guide for Bubbles, Busts, Recession, and Depression," by Martin Weiss. It's fairly interesting, athough it is heavy on personal stories about his father's experience during and after the great depression. Also, the book is almost a running advertisement for Weiss' companies (weissinc.com). That's annoying, and leaves me wondering about possible bias in the book's content.

I did find a few useful bits of information in there. Unfortunately, they were so few that I could have simply read them while visiting Borders bookstore (aka, the library) and saved the cost of the book. He has a nice explanation of how to use leveraged inverse ETFs to hedge against your long positions. There's also plenty of advice for buyers of dividend stocks, bonds, life insurance, annuities, and more.

My New Tent

2011-04-10T18:15:00.001-07:00

I bought the new Coleman Instant Tent 6. When I go car camping, I prefer to use a large tent. I like the room to move around, to stand up, and to sit on a chair. During one camping trip to Zion National Park, I sat in my tent during a rain storm reading a magazine while the campers at the adjacent site were huddled in their car. My old tent is a Columbia Bugaboo. Here's my blog entry about that one from almost 5 years ago, including photos. The new one is roughly the same size: about 9 x 10 feet. Problem is, the old one is a pain to setup. In the slightest breeze it's a challenge to raise the tent after I'd threaded the poles through the tent fabric sleeves.

This new design is really clever. The poles stay attached to the tent. It really does setup in less than a minute. The price for this convenience is a slightly larger stowed volume. But I've got plenty of room in the rover. I've set it up a few times but haven't yet camped in it. I'm eager to see how it fares in the rain because Coleman says it doesn't need a rainfly (and one isn't offered). I guess I'll find out some day. Here's the new one setup in my back yard.

Coleman has some videos posted showing how easy it is setup, however, their bandwidth (or something) is limited and they play craptacular. I found the same videos on youtube by searching for the tent name, and those videos played much better.

I expect to see other tent manufacturers offer similar designs soon, because ... convenience sells.

Cave Mountain Routes

2011-04-06T04:39:00.001-07:00

For grins, I drew the various routes I've hiked on Cave Mountain over the years. Many hikes ended in painful leg or foot cramps. It was my nemesis hill until I finally reached the summit back in December 2008.

Here is my favorite photo I've taken from the summit. It looks down on the traffic on I-15. I wonder if any of the people in those cars ever see the hikers on the mountain.

Hiking Cave Mountain

2011-04-05T07:08:00.001-07:00

Once again, I hiked Cave Mountain. This pyramid-shaped peak sits beside I-15 about 20 miles south of Baker, CA and is seen by anyone driving between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The image below is from wikipedia and shows the peak from I-15 as you drive south from Baker.

Here's a topo map with my route shown in green. A few years ago I hiked the blue route with Luke. The green route is MUCH easier. Some day I'll post a map showing all the different routes I've hiked. Many years ago, I hiked the upper section of the green route in 105F heat and turned back before reaching the summit when I ran out of water.

The 4wd trail is in great condition. In all the years I've been hiking around there, that trail has always been filled with deep sand - too deep for me. The wet winter weather must have helped compact it some (I'm guessing here). The weather was nice, with warm temps (80-80F) and calm winds at the bottom, and about 75F with mild winds on the summit. Wildlife viewing was limited to horned lizards and a pair of turkey vultures.

The photo above is taken from where I parked. You can actually see the edge of the flat summit from there. It took me 1 hour 40 minutes to reach the summit and 1 hour 10 min to descend. The photo below is taken from the 4WD trail beyond where it's safe to turn around (without risking rolling the truck due to the soft sand and the incline there). This is looking back down hill toward where I started.

The next shot is also taken looking down hill, but after leaving the 4WD trail and across the open sand. There's constant risk of each step dropping 1 to 8 inches into the sand because the desert animals make burrows in the soft sand and it gives way under your weight. If you're not careful, you can twist an ankle and ruin your day.

The next shot looks uphill after I reached the ridge line.

Here's looking down hill from about half way up the ridge line.

At the top of the ridge line there's a somewhat flat section. Here's the view looking down hill, then looking up hill.

I marked my route in the photo above. The goal is simply to traverse and reach the distant ridge that heads to the summit. Once I got to that ridge, I could look over and see I-15. Those two big cube shaped boulders are enormous. They're about 20 feet on a side.

And here's a shot looking back along the traverse I just made.

Looking southwest, the next shot shows the ridge line that I've hiked several times. It's the blue route in the topo map above.

Now comes the fun part. The pile of boulders below the summit looks daunting from far away, but when you get there, it's easy to see many staircase-like routes up.

Here are a couple shots from the summit.

In that first shot, sections of the desert floor are yellow from the flowers. I stopped to take a photo of them on my drive out.

I enjoyed this hike. It was a good day: not too long, not too hard, not too painful, no cramps, and no rattlesnakes.

Kayland Zephyr Hiking Boots

2011-04-04T18:47:00.001-07:00

I finally got around to trying my new hiking boots. I bought the Kayland Zephyr boots several months ago because of their great rating by Backpacker magazine in 2009. I would be more hesitant if I were shopping today, as I've come across several reviews and posts by people who've experienced sole delamination with them. I hope mine can avoid that because they worked well for me.

I hiked Cave Mountain with them. That's a rugged off-trail hike in the Mojave desert on a peak covered in lava-like boulders. You can see the photos in my upcoming post about that hike. When I hike there with trail shoes and light boots, the soles always flex over the boulders and I end up with a cramp in the arch of my foot. Very painful. The Kayland's soles are much stiffer, and I had no cramps.

They did feel a bit tight around the ankle, but I am attributing that to their newness (ok, I didn't really break them in). My foot and ankles showed no signs of excess rubbing or anything else. I suppose the fit will improve with more use.

Fat, Forty, and Fired

2011-03-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

I just finished the book Fat, Forty, and Fired by Nigel Marsh, who was the CEO of an advertising firm in Sydney, Australia. He took a year off upon being made redundant when his firm was closed down by its European parent company. The book is humorous and filled with observations about everyday life, especially his interactions with his young children.

Marsh decided that at some point during his career his life had become out of balance. His "nice factor" was diminishing. "All my glories were former glories." "Work had become a far too dominant factor in my life and I was becoming that person I always swore I would never be ... work was out of sync with my personal values and motivations. So not only was I spending too little time with my family, but the rare time I was with them was being ruined by my grumpy, conflicted, and jaded demeanor." Sounds kinda familiar.

The book is a chronological story of his year off. How he re-integrated himself into his family. It's full of charming, sweet, and even sad stories. But to be fair, no more so than any other person's life. Marsh is a pretty good storyteller who is unabashedly in love with living in Sydney.

I recommend the book. I bought this one used via Amazon. That's the first used book I've bought since college.

Camera Disappointment

2011-03-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

I'm disappointed with my new camera. I bought a Canon A495 to replace an A490 that had a focus problem. Unfortunately ... the A495 has exactly the same issue. Both cameras show a noticeable blurring of objects on the left side of the images. This happens in either auto or landscape mode. Since I take a lot of photos in landscape mode, this has become annoying.

The shots I post on this blog don't show the problems well because these images have been shrunk and compressed prior to uploading to blogger. The original images show the left side (and mostly the lower left corner) of the scene to be out of focus. It's also noticeable when the images appear on my computer desktop/wallpaper.

I've done a lot of testing on different scenes - especially to ensure objects on the left and right are equally distant from the camera. Now I'm done with testing.

I want to buy a new point-and-shoot. I've decided to step up in price - with the assumption that this comes with a step up in quality. I'm looking for something that's less than $300. Currently, I'm considering the Sony DSC-WX5. It's got some features I'd never use, and it lacks control of jpeg compression settings. I welcome any suggestions for a new camera.

I keep the point-and-shoot on the center console of my car so I can grab it fast and shoot things I see while driving off-road. I also carry it in my pocket while hiking (with a bigger camera in my pack).

For the record, I usually take several cameras with me on my outdoor adventures: Canon S3 IS, Canon A495, Kodak Zi8, GoPro Motorsports Hero, GoPro HD Motorsports Hero, Bushnell Trophy Cam.

Economics

2011-03-09T16:07:00.001-08:00

Continuing my economics education, I've read a couple new books. They were both interesting and loaded with references, as you'd expect from authors of their standing.

"23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism" by Ha-Joon Chang, Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge. For each of the 23 items, Chang first describes "What they tell you" followed by a longer section titled "What they don't tell you." I had some difficulty with this book because it is heavy with discussion of past (and present) economic theories. On the other hand, it's got plenty of real-life examples and illustrations from recent history. Below are Chang's list of 23 things. My favorite "things" were numbers 1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 15, 17, and 22.

There is no such thing as a free market.
Companies should not be run in the interest of their owners.
Most people in rich countries are paid more than they should be.
The washing machine has changed the world more than the internet has.
Assume the worst about people and you get the worst.
Greater macroeconomic stability has not made the world economy more stable.
Free-market policies rarely make poor countries rich.
Capital has a nationality.
We do not live in a post-industrial age.
The US does not have the highest living standard in the world.
Africa is not destined for underdevelopment.
Governments can pick winners.
Making rich people richer doesn't make the rest of us richer.
US managers are over-priced.
People in poor countries are more entrepreneurial than people in rich countries.
We are not smart enough to leave things to the market.
More education in itself is not going to make a country richer.
What is good for General Motors is not necessarily good for the United States.
Despite the fall of communism, we are still living in planned economies.
Equality of opportunity may not be fair.
Big government makes people more open to change.
Financial markets need to become less, not more, efficient.
Good economic policy does not require good economists.

I'm now finishing "Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us" by John Quiggin, Professor of Economics at the University of Queensland. I liked this one a little more, but that's mostly because its written in a more consumable style (less dry and didactic than 23 Things).

Below is a rundown of the zombie ideas that Quiggin covers. For each one, he describes the idea and its original birth, its life, its death, its reanimation, and lastly "After the Zombies" where he looks at alternatives.

The Great Moderation
The Efficient Markets Hypothesis
Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium
Trickle-Down Economics
Privatization

Pleasant Drive

2011-03-08T18:08:00.001-08:00

I took a pleasant drive last week out in the desert. It was nice to get away from the city. Oddly enough, the most expensive gas was in Pasadena where it was over $4 for regular. It was cheaper in Baker, where it's normally very expensive.

I drove some seldom used roads and two-tracks south of Halloran Summit and down past the old Mojave phone booth location. The sandy sections were surprisingly deep and really get your attention. Although the east-west powerline road that crosses the Mojave road had been recently graded.

I stopped to take this photo of Old Dad Mountain. There are two routes I still want to try hiking on that hill. Maybe next month. The weather should be perfect then.

Rattlesnakes

2011-03-06T15:50:00.000-08:00

I got myself a book all about rattlesnakes. "Rattlesnakes of the United States and Canada" is a new book and has loads of color photos and descriptions of many different snakes. Mind you, I don't run into them very often. I'd just like to be a bit more informed, since the down side of being bit is often very devastating. If you don't believe me, just google rattlesnake bite and click images and you'll quickly see what I mean.

The snake I encountered last spring and posted here, was a horned sidewinder and only rates 3 skulls & crossbones.

On previous trips, I've run over several Mojave green rattlesnakes as they were sunning themselves laying across the dirt roads in the morning. Since that snake is MUCH more dangerous, I don't feel too bad about that. Those get 5 skulls & crossbones!

Crossing NW Arizona

2011-02-27T08:46:00.000-08:00

Returning from the Zion NP this past fall, I decided to take the long and scenic route. I drove south across the northwestern corner of Arizona, cutting across the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument. I'm glad I did, and I might do it again.

Half the route I drove was extremely remote unmaintained rugged roads, and the rest was on remote graded roads. It was very scenic. Here's a map of my route.

From the town of Hurricane, UT, I drove south on a dirt road along the base of the Hurricane Cliffs. While crossing a deep wash, I stopped to take this photo.

When planning my route with Google Earth, I saw a neat looking striped formation along the way.

I guessed it was a gentle sandstone slope, so I stopped and hiked over to explore it. I was very wrong. Standing there, it's actually hard to see the large-scale stripes. It helped to squint my eyes making the plants kinda disappear as it all goes blurry. Here's a shot of what it looked like from the ground. It's not at all the smooth sandstone I thought it would be.

South of that was the most difficult section on this route. A very very rugged stretch filled with lava rocks and boulders that looked as if a car hadn't gone that way in years.

At this point, I was no longer on the road indicated in my garmin nuvi GPS map - which showed the road to be off to the left. I actually got out 3 times to hike over to where the GPS said the road should be. I was really hoping to find a better road, since the one I was on was so bad.

But I never found any other road. I used my binoculars from a nearby hill and saw that the road improves less than a mile ahead, so I continued on very slowly until clear of that mess.

I had to get out twice to move very big boulders out of the way. This section of my route is along the historic Temple Trail.

Once free of the boulders, the roads were just as unused. But at least they had signposts.

Here's a shot of the grassy plains I crossed as I headed south. Five miles further I encountered another truck - from the AZ Game and Fish Department.

After turning westward, the road is graded and starts gaining elevation.

Then there are more pine trees and the dirt becomes a neat orange/ochre color. The colors didn't turn out well in my photos, but the contrast between the dirt and blue sky was amazing.

This is one of my favorite photos from this drive. A scenic secluded valley. Looks like a nice place to fly an ultralight or paraglider.

There are no visitor services in this national monument. The NPS web site warns: "We recommend that you use well-equipped, high clearance, four-wheel drive vehicles with two, full-sized spare tires to travel the Monument routes."

I've driven other park service roads with the same warning. My practice is simply to be prepared for the worst. Be prepared to camp several nights if needed - for example if a rainstorm has made the clay roads slick as ice. And I also bring enough fuel that I can turn around and retrace my route if needed.

The Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument is relatively new. It was established in 2000. Here's the BLM page for the GC Parashant NM. And here's the wikipedia page. Note: the first photo in this post is the hills south of Mesquite, NV (here) at the end of this trip.

Reminder: Click on images to see them larger. All images have been shrunk and compressed to save space.

Why We Get Fat

2011-02-09T17:57:00.000-08:00

I was recommended this book, and I enjoyed it. If you're trying to lose weight, then I recommend it. I already knew a lot of what's in the book, but that's because I'm odd and read a lot on the subject.

This is not a "diet book" in that it does not outline a dietary regimen. It does offer a lot of information about low carb diets and the science behind them. I was particularly pleased with the book's coverage of the history of low carb dieting. I had never heard of William Banting and the others mentioned.

All in all, I learned a few things and enjoyed the book. I'll probably read it again to help reinforce some of the material in my mushy brain.

Here are some links: Amazon's page, NY Times Review, random blog about it.

Lobotomy Bock Full Strength

2011-01-29T08:41:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I stopped off at the Indian Wells Brewery and was pleased to discover that they sell the full strength Lobotomy Bock. I bought myself 2 cases. Here's the rub: the cases are not packed with all the same strength. Each case, and also each 6-pack, was packed with a mixture of the full strength and the weak versions. The young man there helped me to repack a couple cases with all full strength bottles.

Here's how you spot the difference. The full strength bottles have the old labels that clearly say "10.8%". I circled it in blue on the photo. The weaker version has no marking in that location on the label. Rick (founder of Indian Wells Brewery) kindly informed me that the weaker brew has an alcohol content of 7.2%.

Aqueduct Road

2011-01-29T08:37:00.000-08:00

I needed to get some fresh air so I went for a drive yesterday. I decided to drive the service road for the second Los Angeles Aqueduct. I drove the section from Jawbone Canyon OHV area north to Indian Wells. Here are some quick facts about the 2nd aqueduct. It was completed in 1970 after 5 years of construction. The cost was $89 million. It's comprised of 64 miles of concrete conduit, 69 miles of steel pipeline and 4 miles of "other facilities" for a total of 137 miles. The service road was well maintained and is far enough from the highway to make it a very peaceful and scenic drive.

The photo below shows Five Fingers, a popular rock climbing area. I've driven that road going up the hill, and it's quite steep and sandy in places. A little unnerving on the descent.

At Indian Wells, I picked up some of my favorite beer. Then I returned south by driving the service road for the HVDC Pacific DC Intertie. This road was a little rugged. I never had to raise the suspension, but I did have to go 5 mph in several places and even slower over some rocky sections.

Volatility is Your New Best Friend

2011-01-18T05:10:00.000-08:00

I just finished "The Little Book of Sideways Markets - How to Make Money in Markets That Go Nowhere," by Vitaliy Katsenelson. I liked this book. It was interesting, especially the historical overview of bull, bear, and sideways markets - both secular and cyclical. The book presents some value investing frameworks for selecting stocks during sideways markets and for holding them over much shorter time frames than traditional value investors would. It also contains a fair amount of the common guidance material in all books about investing. The part about P/E compression during sideways markets was new to me and interesting. This can even influence where to place long term positions during those periods.

Zion NP East Side and Progeny Peak

2011-01-17T10:20:00.000-08:00

I still haven't posted a blog entry about my last hike up Progeny Peak, but I'll get to that some day. For now, I'd like to share some photos. Some are taken from the summit of Progeny Peak facing south, and some are from the rocks on the south side of Highway 9 facing Progeny Peak. The 1st photo below is taken from the summit of Progeny Peak looking south. I've labeled the places where I took the next photos.

I really enjoy hiking around the east side of the park. Often it starts out innocent enough. I see something from the road and wonder if I can hike there. Then I do that. Later at home, I examine the photos I took along the way, or from that location, and I see new and interesting places to explore. So then my next visit includes hikes to those new places. This has gone on for years and it never gets old. The photo below is taken from the placed marked (A) in the top photo, looking north toward Progeny Peak.

The photo below is taken from the place marked (B) in the top photo, again looking toward Progeny Peak. I've hiked up/down that very steep sandstone face several times. It is dangerous and I'd rate it as class 4. I wear leather gloves, just in case I slip and need to arrest myself without losing all the flesh from my hands. I also wear extremely grippy shoes.

The photo below is taken from the place marked (C) in the top photo. Once up the steep hill, I've found a relatively easy route to reach the north rim of Parunuweap Canyon.

The next photo is taken from Progeny summit looking a bit to the southwest. On one trip I hiked out across that rock to a place right above the tunnel entrance and ranger post.

The next shot shows Progeny Peak from that vantage point (labeled as D in the shot above). It's hard to make out Progeny's summit, so I circled it.

And the next one is looking down at the ranger from that location.

Two More Books

2011-01-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

I finished two more books. First, The Prince by Machiavelli. I listened to the free audiobook version of W.K. Marriott's translation that is available from librivox.org. The book was more interesting than I expected. What I didn't like was the change in readers. People volunteer to read books for librivox and the chapters of this one were read by several different people. Chip, from Tampa Florida, was the best reader. Others were kind of annoying. One guy inserts long pauses for dramatic effect. ugh After I had finished, I noticed that librivox has another version read by a single person. Now I'd like to find a modern book that relates The Prince to modern business practices. I've found a couple on Amazon and I might order one.

I also listened to "The Rational Optimist" by Matt Ridley. I did not enjoy this book. I can't quite put my finger on why. For me, it was boring and I didn't learn anything of interest to me. I suspect that my expectations where inconsistent with the author's intent. Translation: I should have read the descriptions more carefully and thereby avoided the book. My bad.

Improving Your Management Skills

2011-01-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

Bob Sutton has a new blog entry that reproduces a list of the most popular management blog posts at Harvard Business Review. Bob is happy that his post is rated number one. I liked his, as well as a few others. If you manage anyone, then you'll likely find some good advice in there.

Another recent HBR blog post I liked wasn't in the list. It's titled "Are You a Good Boss - Or a Great One?" I think its message is also applicable if you replace "manager" with many other domains, such as "engineer" or "student" or "athlete" or (you get the idea). I think it's common for all of us to stop working on our skills, and even to observe that as long as we're not failing then we must be doing ok.

Books

2010-12-27T08:36:00.001-08:00

We've had a lot of rain lately, and so I've read a few books. None of them were remarkable, so I'll just list them here.

Trading For a Living by Alexander Elder is an old book offering guidance to the part-time stock trader. Unfortunately, its age renders it almost useless in the context of today's market. OK, to be fair, there are some worthwhile lessons in the book, but none that aren't in almost all modern books on trading.

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt is assigned reading in many college freshman economics courses. It is one of the seminal works in the Austrian School of Economics. This book was interesting, however I don't agree with all of the messages it offers. While it contains many layman-targeted anecdotes to describe economic theories, they suffer from gross oversimplifications to the point that makes them inconsistent with reality.

The Shibumi Strategy, by Matthew May is an interesting and short book employing a fable to convey many ideas and precepts from Zen Buddhism and Japanese philosophy and apply them to contemporary life. I learned of this new book from Bob Sutton's blog and he highly recommended it. I enjoyed this book. The stubborn rationalist in me is now wondering how and where I might attempt to apply any of its lessons. Here's the author's page for the book.

Next up: The Prince. I've never read Machiavelli's famous book. I have it, but each time I pick it up I get turned off by the ancient grammar and language. So I'll do what I did for Paradise Lost (which posed similar challenges to me). I've downloaded an audiobook version and I'll listen to it.

Lobotomy Bock

2010-12-19T07:46:00.000-08:00

Lobotomy Bock is my favorite beer and I've just learned that it's recently been emasculated! It's brewed by Indian Wells Brewery, a small shop located here near Inyokern. I stop there often to buy some, since the prices are way lower there than at any store. Plus it's on my way home from many of the places I go off-road adventuring.

Yesterday I bought a 6-pack of LB at Whole Foods. It didn't taste right. Something was missing. It tasted very weak. I searched the packaging and labeling and could not find the usual 10.8% alcohol content warning. I googled to no avail. So then I emailed the brewer - and surprisingly I got a reply within a few hours.

Rick Lovett (President & Founder of Indian Wells Brewing Co.) politely answered me by saying that they have, indeed, lowered the alcohol content in Lobotomy Bock. He said they "lowered it due to a lawsuit."

I'm saddened and disappointed. The stuff I bought tastes like 3.2 beer I drank as a kid in Colorado, and which I recenty had in Utah. I don't see how they can honestly still call it a dopplebock. The next time I'm up north, I'll check to see if they still sell the full-strength brew at the brewery. If so, it will remain my favorite beer.

UPDATE: see my post on Jan 29 about finding the full strength version at the brewery.

The Little Book of Economics

2010-12-13T07:41:00.000-08:00

I just finished "The Little Book of Economics" by Grep Ip. Here's the description from Amazon:

Written for the inquisitive layman who doesn’t want to plow through academic jargon and Greek letters or pore over charts and tables, The Little Book of Economics offers indispensible insight into how the American economy works – or, doesn’t. With engaging and accessible prose, the book:
Provides a comprehensive understanding of each aspect of our economy from inflation and unemployment to international trade and finance
Serves as an insider’s guide to the people and institutions that control America’s economy such as the Federal Reserve and the federal budget
Explains the roots of America’s current economic crisis and the risks the country faces in its aftermath, such as stratospheric government debt, while offering advice on overcoming these threats
Walks readers through the basic concepts and terminology they need to understand economic news
Punctures myths and political spin from both the left and the right with candid and often surprising insight

While the book is interesting and easy to understand, it glosses over (ignores) a lot of details. The book focuses a lot on the economics management instruments and entities in the US. It might be informative for the average person, I don't recommend this book for anybody who knows a lot about economics.

The author's web site includes blog entries about the economy and current events. Economic dilettantes may find that interesting.

Desert Drive

2010-12-12T14:59:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I went for a nice scenic drive. I drove BLM and SCE roads across the Mojave desert to see some peaceful landscapes. For the record, these roads all require 4WD and high clearance.

Trilobite Wilderness Area

Just south of I-15, I left Kelbaker Road to drive a BLM route that travels between the Trilobite Wilderness Area and the Clipper Mountains Wilderness Area. Here's a google map centered on the road. Here's a map where I highlited the road in red.

I only saw a couple golden eagles and one hunter in a camo suit that made him look like one of those USMC snipers you see in shows on the Military channel. Sadly, I did not see any wild herds of trilobites grazing on the scrub.

The road is also a natural gas pipeline service road. Some sections are fun and hilly, as you can see below.

Other sections are sandy.

I came across this memorial.

Skeleton Pass

I just have to drive to a place named "Skeleton Pass." I was expecting a very remote and primitive road, and that's what I found. I did not find any skeletons. Here's a google map centered on the pass. I started at the old Danby town site off Route 66 and returned north on Cadiz Road. Last year I was here visiting the Cadiz Dunes. I forgot to slow down for a big old washout and really bumped the car around. The stupid thing is: this is the exact same spot where I did the exact same thing a year ago.

Powerline Road from Pisgah to Johnson Valley

This road skirts the northwest border of 29 Palms USMC base.
This was a really fun road. There were two sections over small mountains with lots of twisty turns. I would never want to drive that in rain or fog, as I'd certainly go over the ledge road, roll the truck and die. But in sunny dry conditions, it's a lot of fun. Here's a map with the route highlited.

The northern end passes along the edge of an enormous lava field and Pisgah Crater. Several years ago I hiked out onto that lava field to find a crashed military jet.

The next shot hints at the twisty road. I couldn't get the twists into any shot. OK, I probably could if I stopped more, but it was too fun to drive and I didn't want to stop.

The sun was reflecting off the powerlines and it looked a little like Christmas tree decorations.

As expected, the landscape views were great.

One Good Trade

2010-11-14T05:49:00.000-08:00

I really really liked the new book, "One Good Trade," by Mike Bellafiore of SMB Capital. If you are a relatively active trader then you will probably like the book too. If you prefer investing, and not trading, then you may not enjoy it.

SMB Capital is a small proprietary (prop) trading firm in NYC. In his book, Bellafiore (Bella) tells many stories... About how he and his long time friend Steve Spencer founded SMB Capital. About the myriad of characters they've worked with and who've worked for them. About the life of a prop trader. It's interesting how he employs the simile of elite athletes in his trading business, and I think it fits pretty well.

It was fascinating. I even learned some good lessons that I can apply to my own trading. If I were younger, I would like nothing more than to be a prop trader at a firm like SMB.

Here's the SMB Capital trading blog.

Here's the SMB Capital twitter feed.

Zion NP Gets a New Subway?

2010-11-13T14:50:00.000-08:00

I stopped off at Zion NP to do some hiking for half a day, but was disappointed to find that the road construction equipment was filling all the turnouts on the east side of the tunnel - including a pair of portable traffic signals (kinda neat actually). This prevented me from parking for a hike. Instead I drove some nearby 4wd trails: Smithsonian Butte and Grafton Mesa. I met up with Gene and his friend for pizza at Zion Pizza & Noodle. They'd just had a string of unfortunate events while mountain biking in the area.

While there, I noticed a great thing. A Subway sandwich shop franchise has opened just outside the park. I've always thought that such a shop would do a lot of business, since the food is simple, tasty, predictable, and packs well for taking on a hike.

Unfortunately, that Subway has sparked a lot of controversy. It's not open because the town won't let it open. They have a town policy of blocking franchise restaurants. Some say it's to preserve the charm of the town. Some say it's to protect the businesses of the friends and family of the town council - who operate the existing little diners. There's a lot of people saying a lot of things, because the franchisees have sued the town and that has made news all over the land. Small towns across the country with similar policies are watching intently how this plays out.

I personally want a Subway shop there, and here's why. I've dined at a lot of places in Springdale over the years and they are all very overpriced. There are very few options for anyone on a tight budget, or for anyone looking for simple fare. Too many of the eateries there are full of menu options laden with too many adjectives. I'm sure they think it makes their food sound special, or worth the high prices. But sometimes I just want a simple sandwich or burger. *gets off his soap box*

Good Boss, Bad Boss

2010-11-08T09:25:00.001-08:00

I just finished Bob Sutton's latest book, "Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn From the Worst." I liked this book and it included a few things I hope to remember. Sutton's books are entertaining and fun to read. I also enjoyed his earlier "The No Asshole Rule."

Here's Sutton's page at Stanford. If you lack spare time, then here's a related post of his on the Harvard Business Review site.

White Rim Trail

2010-11-07T07:40:00.001-08:00

This was the main reason for my Moab trip. I've been wanting to drive this trail for years. Unfortunately, I couldn't drive the entire trail due to a huge washout that happened a few weeks before my trip. The NPS web site shows photos of house-sized boulders that crashed down upon the switchbacks at Mineral Bottom.

I left Moab before sunrise and that gave me some nice long shadows by the time I reached some scenic parts. Below is the Colorado River.

This is an easy shelf section. It'd be scary if the road was wet and slippery.

The trail alternates between mild dirt road with embedded rocks and very rugged road almost entirely of embedded rocks. The later sections were rough enough that I had to drive very slowly (slower than walking speed). Here's an example...

I'm sure a lifted Jeep could drive faster on those sections. My Land Rover's suspension isn't as pleasant over very rugged terrain, so I have to go slow. Specifically: the suspension is soft, so therefore it bounces a lot when driving over boulders, and so I hit and scrape more boulders that way. On the flip-side, highway driving is very smooth.

This is trail #46 in Wells' book (rated moderate) and trail #2 in Massey's book (rated 4). I actually got bored on this trail. While knowing that each mile offered great views, they were all almost the same view. So I wasn't sad to turn around and head back.

Musselman Arch

2010-11-06T15:26:00.001-07:00

This is Musselman Arch. Here's a google map centered on it. I walked across it.

It's wide enough to not be scary. Of course, I did stand by the edge and point the camera down a few times. There's a jumble of boulders below it.

Long Canyon Trail

2010-11-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed the Long Canyon Trail. I drove it eastward. I met a Jeep driver at Gemini Bridges who said he drove Long Canyon going west because he thought it would be more "interesting." I agree, and next time I visit I want to drive it westward. Going east, the trail begins as a graded dirt road. Then it starts heading down canyon and soon becomes narrow and slightly steep with soft sand while the canyon walls tower on each side.

This is trail #18 in Wells' book (rated easy) and trail #6 in Massey's book (rated 3). The most famous part is the huge rock formation that the trail dirves right underneath. The road there is steep and very uneven. That's the only section where I had to raise my rover's suspension. I'd read someplace that the big rock fell from above around 1996-1997, but now I can't find that source.

After the fallen rock, the trail continues to wind down the canyon.

About half way down the canyon you are treated to a great view to the east. I got out several times to take photos.

Although it's short, this is a great trail. This BLM web page describes the Shafer Trail and Long Canyon Trail as a nice loop. That's not a bad idea for an easy half day trip out of Moab.

Schafer Switchbacks

2010-10-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

These were a lot of fun.

If you are afraid of heights, then I strongly recommend that you not look out your car window.

They were performing some road maintenance near the bottom so I had to wait a few minutes for the tractor to get clear. The weather was great and I visited with the man holding me there. There were a few wide sections up on the switchbacks where you can pull over and take photos. This is trail #45 (rated easy) in Wells' book and trail #1 in Massey's book (rated 3).

At Home

2010-10-31T06:14:00.001-07:00

I just finished listening to the audiobook version of Bill Bryson's latest book, At Home - A Short History of Private Life. Bryson walks us through the various rooms in his home in England, which was a Victorian-era rectory. He uses this amble as the scaffolding for describing all matter of history. I didn't enjoy this as much as previous books by Bryson. My favorites of his so far have been: "In a Sunburned Country," "A Short History of Nearly Everything," and "A Walk in the Woods." I've listened to those several times.

If you are a history buff, then you'll enjoy At Home. As with his others, Bryson reads for the audiobook version. It's always nice to hear the author read the text. It lends confidence that you are hearing the intended emphasis on words and phrases. Like his earlier book about "nearly everything", Bryson rambles quite a bit in this one. That bothers some people, but not so much for me.

Bartlett Overlook Trail

2010-10-30T14:19:00.000-07:00

The Bartlett Overlook Trail is #7 in Wells' book (rated "difficult") and trail #13 in Massey's book (rated 4). It was very remote and would have been less enjoyable on a hot or windy day.

There's only one tough spot where you have to get up a large step of rocks. There's no alternate route, and it's clear that people have tried to find one. I placed a map and DVD case in the next photos to show scale. I moved a few boulders and then just drove right up and over on the right side.

I was most worried about lack of traction due to my tire tread being filled with red mud. It worked out fine though. For grins, I setup a video camera beside the step to record it and see how much my tires slipped. This way I can correlate the feeling and sound I experience while driving with the actual amount the tires slipped. Here's a screencap of that video (the video itself is boring).

The views along this trail were stunning. No singular rock formation or object to focus on. Instead, you're treated to beautiful vistas with all nature of interesting formations for the eye to focus on.

Since it rained the previous night, there were a few puddles to drive through - properly coating the rover in red mud. Lots of fun!

Lions Back

2010-10-19T06:57:00.001-07:00

Here's a photo I took of Lions Back. It hasn't been open for years. From this angle, it doesn't look very impressive. I've seen enough videos on youtube of people driving it to know that it's very scary. I'm sure my truck could handle it. But I doubt the driver could.

Moab Hotel

2010-10-18T05:31:00.001-07:00

I stayed a few nights at the Best Western Canyonlands hotel in Moab. It turned out to be an excellent choice. It's in the center of town and I could walk to a lot of places. After off-roading all day, I don't look forward to getting back in the car to drive just to eat dinner. This hotel has renovated the interior in recent years and it's much nicer inside than the exterior would suggest.

A visitor from NY had some nice car decorations. Probably from their kids. The rain that night washed it away.

Gemini Bridges Trail

2010-10-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

The Gemini Bridges 4wd Trail is pretty easy and it's a nice introduction to driving on slick rock for anyone who's never done that. Here's the BLM site for this route. This is trail #16 in Wells' book (Guide to Moab Ut Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails) and trail #51 in Massey's book (Backcountry Adventures Utah). Wells rates it "easy" (I agree) and Massey rates it 5 (it's far easier than that).

When I left the highway north of Moab, it was raining lightly, but it didn't last long. It turned out to be a great day. The short rain fall kept down the dust for the rest of the day.

Here's a spot where the slickrock has been ground down to make it easier.

Here are a few of the photos I took around the arch formation.

An 18yo boy scout from Wisconsin died this summer after falling from this arch.

Sunset Grill

2010-10-10T16:21:00.000-07:00

I dined once at the Sunset Grill during my stay in Moab. I'd been wanting to do that since reading about it in the book Uranium. The Sunset Grill restaurant is formerly the mansion of the famous Uranium millionaire Charlie Steen. He was such a colorful character, I thought I'd make the tiny pilgrimage to this small shrine to his success.

Diners are treated to a terrific view across the valley and the town of Moab. I had secured reservations using their online form, but that wasn't necessary. That Tuesday night, there was no crowd. Here's a photo I took while driving on the highway below the restaurant.

I highly recommend the Sunset Grill. I had the filet and it was very tender and tasty. Their menu is online and it's not too pricey.

Packing for Mars

2010-10-04T04:46:00.000-07:00

Mary Roach's new book, "Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void", is pretty interesting and I recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about some of the prep work that goes into space missions.

I got it entirely because I enjoyed her previous book, "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers."

Here's the author's site for the book. Rather than write my own description of the book, I'll just point you to the NY Times review. Newsweek liked it also. That should about cover it.

Moab Camping

2010-10-03T05:20:00.001-07:00

I found a great campground very close to Moab. The Oak Grove Campground is located about 7 miles up highway 128 just north of town. It's run by the BLM and costs a mere $12 a night. The camp sites on the left side are sheltered by a group of oak trees providing nice shade from the hot sun. The campground is beside the Colorado River with colorful red rock cliffs towering above.

The BLM operates several campgrounds along highway 128, so I had many choices. I liked this one because of the shade and privacy. I also liked the sites at Goose Island Campground, but it was more crowded.

Arches NP

2010-10-02T06:58:00.001-07:00

I spent a week in Moab, Utah this summer and it's time to start posting some photos. I'll start off with Arches National Park. I stopped off there to get a new annual pass.

This park presents new hazards. The one road through it has plenty of visitors gawking at the beautiful scenery. Unfortunately that means they're not watching the road. Several cars in front of me, as well as several coming head-on, crossed the center line endangering me, themselves and many others.

Here's my obligatory shot of Delicate Arch. This first one uses my camera's 12x zoom and image stabilization. I framed the second one to give the impression that I could simply walk over to the arch (impossible from where I was standing).

Here's a nice shot taken while driving east on I-70 as it descends toward Green River. That is one of my favorite stretches of highway.

The Poisoner's Handbook

2010-09-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

I recently finished The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The content is really interesting, but the writing and narration are sub-par. The book tells of the evolution of forensic science in murder investigations in NY city during the early 1900s under the leadership of the NYC's first trained medical examiner, Dr. Charles Norris. Real life stories are presented of murders committed using carbon monoxide, arsenic, radium, nicotine, chloroform, mercury, cyanide, aconite, silver, and thallium.

I learned quite a few things from this book. For example, I learned that chloroform can be fatal and was once a popular tool for murder as well as being given out by doctors as a sleeping aid.

At times there was too much details about window dressing items, as if the writer was trying too hard to paint a detailed portrait with an aim for empathy, or something. Also, I was annoyed with the female narrator's attempts to speak in a lower pitched voice when reading dialogue from a male character.

If you're interested, you might read this review with excerpt at NPR.

All in all, I won't listen to this audiobook again and I plan to give it to Goodwill.

A Few More Photos

2010-08-02T05:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more photos from this trip. The first one shows the view from a LA DWP road northwest of the June Lake Loop. I actually encountered 3 LA DWP trucks on that road. That's rare. They must be doing some maintenance up there.

This one shows Mono Lake in the distance. There was a 1,000 acre wildfire south of the lake that closed off several areas I was planning to explore.

Here's a few shots of some place called the "Devil's Punchbowl" that sits east of 395. Not very spectacular, but odd enough to walk around and explore.

The outhouse atop Bald Mountain is cabled down. Made me wonder just how strong the wind can get up there.

Playa Puzzle

2010-08-01T07:47:00.001-07:00

While planning a short trip off-roading in the Mammoth area, I spotted a large playa east of 395 in the woods. In Google maps satellite imagery, it looks bright and I was hoping to wander around looking for meteorites.

To my surprise, the playa doesn't appear bright at all when I'm walking around on it. It's more of a sandy beige color with a lot of yellow flowers growing on it. The surface material is actually pumice. It's interesting to walk on and sometimes my feet sank an inch or more in the pumice pebbles.

From the northern end of the playa, the first photo looks toward Bald Mountain. I decided to drive the road up to the top of that hill. There was a USFS lookout building there. Here are a few shots I took from there.

This next shot looks west toward Mammoth ski area.

The next shots look back down on that playa. As from the satellite imagery, it looks very bright. hmmmmm I'm no expert in how light reflects off all the stuff on the surface down there, but I'm guessing that the bright reflections off the pumice must be overwhelming any other reflections off the flowers and stuff.

Then I approached the playa from the east side, and again, it was not bright and consistent with what I just saw from atop Bald Mountain.

This is in contrast to my experiences in the Mojave Desert, where the bright playas seen in satellite imagery are equally bright when you're walking on them. But they're mostly sand or dried/parched earth and not pumice.

San Joaquin Ridge Trail

2010-07-31T12:09:00.001-07:00

A few days ago I drove the San Joaquin Ridge 4WD trail. It's a terrific trail. Not too hard, not too easy. And the views are spectacular! The only negative is the length. It's only 2.5 miles long. This is now one of my favorite trails.

The trail is easier than Mengel Pass and Shuteye Peak but the views are equally stunning. I'd rate the difficulty at 2 for most of it, with sections of 3. I hit bottom once and so had to raise my suspension. The rover was gasping for air while climbing up the last steep hill, where the elevation is over 10,000 feet. I almost had to put it in low range. Here are a few pics of the trail, starting with the beginning below tree-line.

There's a tiny place at the end to make a 12-point turn-around.

The road is shared with hikers and mountain bikes. I encountered 2 groups of hikers and they kindly got off the road so I could pass (cars are not supposed to drive off the trail).

I stopped several times to take photos of the Minarets to the west and Mammoth Mountain to the south. The ground was even covered with brightly colored flowers.

From the end you're treated to an amazing 360 degree view. I found myself staring westward at the Ritter Range and the Minarets. The Long Valley Caldera is seen to the east.

To the north is Deadman Pass. Somewhere down there is the famous Lost Cement Mine, who's tale is too colorful and enticing to do it justice here. Some think it's cursed, since most who've found it, died shortly afterward. If you're interested, google it or read this short PDF.

If you're in the Mammoth area and have at least 8.5 inches of ground clearance, then I strongly recommend this trail. You won't regret the diversion from your planned activities. If you go, bring some snacks and plan on sitting for a bit and enjoying the view.

This trail is included in "Sierra Nevada Byways" by Tony Huegel (#28: San Joaquin Ridge) and in "Guide to Northern California Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails" by Charles Wells (#36: Deadman Pass).

I found a couple sites that mention the trail also: here, and here.

Finding the start of the trail was a little puzzling. The sources I had were not clear. I ended up parking for a couple minutes in a dirt turnout area (where mountain bikers leave their cars) and inspecting 3 possible branches from there. That turnout/parking area is just to the right after you turn right prior to encountering the entrance booth for the road to the Devil's Postpile area (1 mile west of the ski area on 203). (Translation: drive to the turn off 203 signed for "Minaret Vista" - immediately after you turn off 203, turn into the dirt turnout area on the right side of that road to the vista) I didn't have to park actually. Only 1 of the branches was not blocked to cars. Although the only sign it had was indicating mountain bikes, the tire tracks made it clear that cars could take it.

Science Blogs

2010-07-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

I'm kinda a science-junkie, so I scan several science-related sites and blogs every week. I've come across a few that I like and I thought I'd share them here. These are probably enjoyable by a wider audience than some of the more hardcore ones I've got bookmarked.

80Beats

80beats is a science blog by Discover Magazine. I like its posts because they usually have snipets from source material/sites along with links right to those sources. Let's see the WSJ or LA Times do that.

Observations

Observations is a science/nature blog by Scientific American. They cover a wide variety of subjects, and hide any of their own bias pretty well.

Both of these blogs are also relatively kind about not including too much annoying animated ads. Although I've started using ClickToFlash to block flash content in Safari. I recommend that also. It's basically a Safari version of FlashBlock for Firefox.

Jerry Weintraub

2010-07-14T14:38:00.001-07:00

I recently listened to the audiobook version of Jerry Weintraub's autobiographical "When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories From a Persuasive Man." It's read by the author so that makes it more entertaining. I'd heard about the book when Weintraub appeared as a guest on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me radio show.

The book is full of stories from his time managing or promoting many very famous celebrities, including: Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, John Denver, Armand Hammer, Bobby Fischer, Led Zeppelin, Moody Blues, Neil Diamond, The Carpenters, and more.

Weintraub went on to produce TV and movies, including the Ocean's 11 franchise (he even appears in those movies) and the Karate Kid franchise. He has been close friends with several US Presidents, including George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter.

I thought the book was very interesting and entertaining. I probably won't listen to it again and I plan to give it to a friend. On the negative side, I think it showcases the unbridled arrogance in Weintraub's personality. ABC has an excerpt posted here.

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body

2010-07-08T17:34:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I'm a total sucker for things I see advertised. After seeing Dr. Daniel Amen on PBS recently, I went out and read his new book: Change Your Brain, Change Your Body. It was actually interesting. It's chock full of all sorts of advice about diet and supplements that can either explain your sorry state, or improve your life. For me, it might be a bit of both. Maybe it's all hogwash, and maybe it's not. I'm willing to try some new supplements and judge for myself if it helps. Even if I fall prey to the placebo effect, that's still fine with me.

Here's Dr. Amen's website for the book. It's got tips and such for diet, exercise, and more. There's also an online questionaire for determining your "brain type" and see how you might self-medicate with over-the-counter goodies. It looks like he's really milking his recent notoriety and is selling his own brand of supplements.

Backyard Critters

2010-06-24T14:11:00.001-07:00

Nice weather has brought a variety of critters to my backyard each night. I've seen multiple cats, a raccoon, a opossum, many squirrels, and a rat. The raccoon has decided to poo in the middle of the yard each night. I've been capturing photos and videos using my Bushnell Trail camera. Pretty neat.

I haven't seen any skunks in many months, but sometimes I can smell their lingering aroma in the morning.

These are screencaps of video the camera recorded. At night, the scene appears black & white. During daylight, it's in color.

The raccoon is obviously eating the figs from one of the fig trees. I'm not sure what the opossum is eating, or what the cats are chasing. One cat appears to be sitting and watching something, which is probably a rat.

When the animal gets real close to the camera, they get washed out by the IR LEDs. One cat video shows a white blob with whiskers when it came to sniff the camera.

I'm getting tired of cleaning up after the raccoon, so tonight I'll setup the motion activated water sprinkler (Contech Scarecrow) and see if I can dissuade the guy from hanging around.

War

2010-06-20T05:37:00.001-07:00

I read the book "War" by Sebastian Junger. He's a war journalist and author of the bestselling book "The Perfect Storm." I liked this book, and strongly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about what our troops experience in Afganistan. It's a blunt description of life for the US Army soldiers fighting in the Korangal valley of Afganistan. Junger was embedded with one platoon off-and-on for about a year.

Junger was accompanied on his trips to Afganistan by filmmaker Tim Hetherington. Together, they used their footage to produce a movie about this platoon. The film is titled Restrepo and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Here's a link to the trailer for Restrepo on Apple's trailer site.

Restrepo was one of the forward outposts in the valley. They experienced "contact" (were shot at) almost every day. It was an extremely dangerous place. Here's a slideshow from Time magazine about the Korangal valley - nicknamed the Valley of Death.

Junger was there on assignment for Vanity Fair magazine, and they posted some of his articles here and here. Those articles have more photos with links to video and slideshows.

Earlier this year, the US retreated from the valley (Washington Post). Probably a good idea.

Colosseum Mine

2010-06-19T15:24:00.001-07:00

I visited the Colosseum Mine west of I-15 near the CA-NV border recently. My last visit was about 6 years ago and it's an interesting place. Last year the road to the mine was closed for repairs by the park service. I used their online contact form to ask if it was open and was surprised to get a quick response. The image above is from Google Maps. The next two shots show the road, first looking up toward Clark Mountain, then looking back down toward Primm.

Colosseum Mine road is in good condition and was an easy drive. Easier than my last visit. To balance it out: the spur up to the mine pit was more rugged than my last trip. I don't think my old Acura MDX could have made that without scraping bottom on a lot of rocks.

Colosseum Mine was an active gold mine from 1988 to 1993. As of July 12, 1990, the mine had produced over 170,000 troy ounces of gold. This data comes from an EPA Site Visit Report: Colosseum Mine, which is chapter 3 of "Technical Resource Document - Extraction and Beneficiation of Ores and Minerals" Vol 2 Gold, August 1994, US EPA, Document Nnmbers: EPA 530-R-94-013, NTIS PB94-170-305. They visited the mine site on May 7, 1992.

I'm no geologist and don't understand how cyanide leach mining works, so I don't know why the water is green.