San Diego, day 3

Posted on March 1, 2015 by dhill

Sunday

We had reservations for another Hornblower cruise this morning – whale watching this time. A few weeks ago we saw a news story that said the whale migration was a bit early this year, so, not knowing any better, we were concerned the tour might be a bust. As it turns out, we saw exactly one whale.

While standing in line waiting to board, some guys in yellow jackets showed up. They were volunteers from the natural history museum. They said they have to go out on these tours at least three times a month, but some of the retired guys go much more often. They gave us short lessons on whales – baleen versus teeth, where they’re coming from and where they’re going, how we expect them to behave when we see them.

The volunteers and crew serve as lookouts, but I wonder if that was really necessary. A few miles off the coast we came across another whale tour boat and a sailboat. Word was there was a humpback in the area. Within a few minutes we saw the whale blowing and slapping her tail on the water. We don’t really know if it was a he or a she, but everybody always says “Thar she blows!” so I’ll refer to it as “she”.

She slapped her fluke on the water for quite a while, announcing to the gathering whale watchers that she was ready for her close-up. There are restrictions on how close we’re allowed to get, something like a thousand feet. That is close enough to hear her blow, but not close enough to smell her breath. Our boat stayed on her left, the other whale boat and the sailboat on her right. She’d exhale, slap her fluke a few times, then make a short dive. It was a bit hard to predict where she’d pop up next; she was moving generally westward, but along a meandering path.

After a while, she quit slapping and started breaching. When whales are swimming in pods, the males will breach to demonstrate dominance or to attract a mate. We’re not sure why they engage in such behavior when they’re alone. We all decided she was doing this because she’s a showoff. Which suited us just fine.

She probably breached forty times. Each breach moves not only tons of whale but tons of water as well. She makes a sound a bit like a giant belly-flop, except that she’s on her back or side. This went on for quite a while, breach, breach, breach, dive; repeat a couple minutes later. It was quite a show, so not at all disappointing that we only saw one whale.

It was lunch time when we got back, so we walked over to the Fish Market Restaurant. I had the fish and chips, Alaskan cod, panko style.

Coronado Island skyline

After lunch Genae and I went to the Maritime Museum. I particularly wanted to see the HMS Surprise, having read and enjoyed all of Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey/Maturin books. Of course, this wasn’t really the ship sailed by Captain Aubrey two hundred years ago but a replica built from the plans of the HMS Rose, a sail training tall ship on the East Coast. It was purchased by 20^th Century Fox, then extensively modified to become the Surprise for the move Master and Commander: Far Side of the World.

The Museum also has the Star of India (the oldest active merchant sailing ship in the world), a Soviet Foxtrot class submarine, the USS Dolphin (the US Navy’s last diesel-electric sub), and several others.

“Stop”

We could have easily spent an additional couple hours there as they have a lot to see. We concentrated on the Star of India, the Surprise, the B-39, and the Dolphin. We took a quick look through the exhibits aboard the Berkeley, a ferryboat from San Francisco bay. It’s loaded with large, detailed models of all sorts of ships. Those models are incredible.

I found the Star of India and the Surprise fascinating but I don’t really know anything about sailing vessels. There was a docent on the Surprise talking about the materials used in the rigging, but I really had no clue what he as talking about. On the other hand, I really enjoyed getting to compare the two submarines. The B-29 is a few years newer but the Dolphin is much more modern. Obviously, it’s been upgraded since it was launched in 1968 – the electronics and the microwave oven give it away. It’s a smaller boat, but doesn’t feel nearly as cramped. The Soviet sub looks almost “steam punk” in comparison, and moving through the ship was fun. The watertight doors between compartments are round and wide; going through them is a bit like getting in and out of the Elise. Oh, and we looked through the periscopes on both subs.

When making our way to the Dolphin, we chatted briefly with crew members of the America. The America is an America’s cup boat. I’m not sure if it’s a replica of the original America’s cup winner from 1851 or if it’s a later design. This boat was just tying up at the dock, returned from whale watching. They had heard about our humpback and tried to follow it but arrived too late.

It started raining just as we left and stopped by the time we got to the car. It rained just long enough and just hard enough to soak us thoroughly. We collected the folks and made our way back to their motel where we said our goodbyes.

For dinner we went to Pizza Bella for dinner. Their menu claims they were voted “Best Pizza in the World”. I don’t know who did the voting. It was good pizza, but falls short of Beau Jo’s. As usual, I managed spread molten sauce all over the roof of my mouth, burning it badly. So it goes.

San Diego, day 2

Posted on February 28, 2015 by dhill

Saturday

We didn’t have any specific plans for the day, but we had a list of possibilities. The only constraint was that our activities should have minimal walking, as my mom’s mobility is somewhat restricted.

We stopped by their motel a bit after nine and after discussing the possibilities decided to do a two-hour harbor tour in the morning and visit the Cabrillo National Monument in the afternoon.

Littoral Combat Ship

The weather was on the cool side and overcast. The first part of the tour is a loop of the northern half of the harbor. We passed the boats of the San Diego Maritime Museum (the Star of India, the HMS Surprise, a Soviet submarine), the live bait barges and their attendant sea lions sunning themselves, and the submarine pens below Point Loma. A small flotilla of pleasure craft raced ahead of us, exiting the harbor. We turned around and concentrated on Naval Air Station North Island.

The USS Ronald Reagan, CVN-76, is berthed there undergoing repairs and refitting. It was in the same place last time we visited the area, ten or twelve years ago. (How long has it really been? I was still using a film camera at the time).

The tour boat went back to the dock to disembark the folks who only bought the one hour tour and load up another set of folks for the southern harbor loop. This loop took us under the San Diego

US Naval Ship Bob Hope (T-AKR-300)

Coronado bridge to Naval Base San Diego. I can identify the various classes of naval ships of World War II and describe their purpose and function. But modern naval vessels are a mystery to me, slab-sided, opaque, lacking obvious armament. But we did get to see a couple of helicopter aircraft carriers, a supply ship described as the Costco of the sea, a littoral combat ship (tri-hull, angular, loaded with stealthy attributes) and the Sea Slice, an experimental ship built by Lockheed which seems to be available for purchase.

Sea Slice – experimental littoral ship

Back on shore, we made a quick visit to Tuna Harbor Park. This little park is directly south of the Midway Museum. It attracted my attention because of the giant sculpture of the kiss – that famous photo of the sailor and nurse kissing on V. E. day. It’s called “Unconditional Surrender”. Also in the park is a set of statues – Bob Hope and an audience of fifteen life-sized bronze sculptures. Pretty cool.

After this, we piled back into the car and headed to Coronado Island

The Kiss

for lunch. We made our way to the Brigantine Seafood restaurant, across the street from the Hotel del Coronado. I couldn’t decide which fish to eat and ended up with their Steakhouse Burger – Grass fed California beef, smoked wild boar bacon, tomatoes, chopped lettuce, blue cheese, caramelized onions, white truffle-black pepper aioli. Yes, it’s wrong to have a burger at a good seafood place, but so it goes.

Next we headed to Point Loma and the Cabrillo National Monument. Ideally, we’d be there during low tide and wander through the tidal pools searching for sea urchins and starfish. The tides weren’t right, the parking lot was full, and my mom wouldn’t have been able to make it down to the water anyway.

So we went to the visitors center, enjoyed the view of the harbor and city to the east and the

Bob Hope entertains the troops

ocean to the west. The folks watched a short film about whales while Genae and I went to the lighthouse. There, we found a docent, or perhaps not actually a docent but someone dressed in period garb, knowledgeable in the lighthouse and its times. We had a nice little chat. His character wasn’t the lighthouse operator but a newspaperman.

I asked if he felt isolated there. “Look around you – there are lots of people!” He told us that in 1887, many folks would visit the lighthouse on Saturdays and Sundays, make a day of it. I asked if the water catchment basin provided a sufficient supply and he described the effort required to bring water from the nearest spring. Next I asked if he was a Cleveland man or Harrison man. He enjoyed the question, being in actuality not a newspaperman from 1887 but a former fifth grade history teacher.

We left the lighthouse and wandered along the paths. Past the old WW II gun emplacements, to the ocean overlooks decorated with a whale’s spine and kelp, to a nice view of the new Point Loma lighthouse. On the way back to the visitor center we stopped at a small blockhouse holding exhibits of the shore defenses – a 155mm artillery shell, a cross-section of the howitzer’s barrel showing the rifling, binoculars and telescopes used for spotting.

Old Point Loma Lighthouse

By now we’d managed to wear out my parents. We dropped them off at their motel and returned to ours. We’re in Old Town, so after a short rest we took a walk and looked for an interesting Mexican restaurant. We found ourselves at Café Coyote. I had enchiladas – one beef and one guacamole. I’d never heard of a guacamole enchilada before. Like the dinner in general, it was okay but nothing to write home about. That’s the thing about Mexican restaurants – it’s pretty easy to find average food but above average is fairly rare.

After dinner we walked up and down the streets of Old Town. Lots of Mexican restaurants, a few bars, a number of stores selling trinkets and souvenirs of the area. Kitschy stuff we’d never buy, but didn’t mind browsing.

San Diego, day 1

Posted on February 25, 2015 by dhill

Back in December it was obvious I wouldn’t be flying USAir before my miles would expire at the end of February, so we needed to use them or lose them. We considered all the big west coast cities and picked Seattle until we realized the only flight we had enough points for was an overnighter. So we went with Plan B: San Diego. My parents like to go there so we suggested they meet us there. And we timed the weather perfectly, missing a big winter storm at home.

Friday

Up at 5:30 and out of the house a few minutes before six. Bad traffic on I-270 cost us twenty minutes, but we arrived at the gate only a few minutes behind my target time, no worries. Our first flight was DEN to PHX. There were two youth soccer teams aboard and the flight was noisy. Not because the kids were loud, but because the two chaperones in the row behind us were the loudest people on the plane.

We had a short layover before our flight to LAX. Not long enough to grab a meal, but enough to grab a snack. This was a quick flight, about an hour gate to gate. We were out at the waiting area for the rental car shuttles a few minutes after noon. We watched patiently as Hertz, Avis, Enterprise shuttles went by. Waited more – Alamo, Fox, Budget. I asked one of the drivers what color van Economy Rent-A-Car uses. Never saw one. I got the phone out and searched for Economy. Panicked a bit when the nearest one according to Google was 38 minutes away. Went to the info desk where they gave us a phone number and told us to take the parking shuttle to lot C and call for the shuttle there.

I wasn’t sure why Economy didn’t run shuttles to the airport like all the others. They’re on Century Blvd like most of the others, and they’ll drop us at the terminal when we return, so why not pick up customers there as well?

So we were running a bit later than hoped. The plan was to meet a friend at the In-N-Out in Costa Mesa at something like 1:30. By then we were getting fairly hungry: skipped breakfast, had a snack at about eleven, and it was actually 2:30 for us rather than 1:30 because of the time change.

We had told my folks it would take us a couple hours to get down to San Diego. We didn’t account for lunch, and we certainly didn’t account for southern California traffic. After lunch we followed the smart phone’s navigation instructions which put us on a toll road. Because we didn’t opt for the express pass for the rental car, we decided it best to avoid the toll road. So we turned around intending to take the 405 south but, typical for the area, that was not an option. We ended up making a u-turn in front of the In-N-Out after driving eight or ten miles.

So we finally arrived at the hotel in Old Town a bit after five. We called my folks, found our way to their motel, and from there to the Bali Hai restaurant. This is a Hawaiian themed seafood place on Shelter Island. Our table had a beautiful view of the harbor, the San Diego skyline brightly lit, mirrored in the water. I had the braised swordfish (with grilled orange, forbidden rice, and black pepper sauce). It was delicious. And all the waiters were dressed like me!

The Rental Car

The car this trip is new to me, a Chrysler 200. I found much of its operation alien. No gear selector in the console, must be on the tree. What I thought was a skinny shift lever was instead a fat windshield wiper control. I didn’t so much put it in drive as turn on the wipers and spray the washer fluid. The gear selector is a knob. As is common now, there’s a fob with no key. Keep the fob in your pocket, press the brake, push the button and the car starts. I found it unnatural to pocket the fob. I’ve driven cars for forty years and I’ve always had a key and I’ve never changed gears with a knob.

It spends quite a bit of time shifting. It’s a nine speed automatic. You’re in third by the time you hit 15 or 18, sixth at 40. This is just cruising around; I didn’t put my foot to the floor the entire four days. Quite often the shifts were pretty harsh. The brakes were good, but kind of touchy.

The back seat passengers hit their heads every time they got in the car, even when warned “watch your head!” I’m a bit too tall for the car. With the seat all the way back, the pedals were too close. This made for more fatigue on longer drives. There was no manual in the glove box and never figured out ~~many~~ any of the controls. Managed to mute the radio but never could turn it off. How long before I tell kids to get off my lawn?

It’s a nice car, seemingly well built (this one was brand new), and has nice lines. When I was picking everybody up once, a couple of guys said they thought it was sharp. I’m sure it would be a wonderful car for folks who only cart short people around.

Cars and Hiking

Posted on February 10, 2015 by dhill

Not only was Saturday the first Saturday of the month, it was forecast to be a gorgeous day. I decided it was time for the first hike of the season, so I planned for my umpteenth hike to Emerald Lake. Being the first Saturday, it was also time for Cars & Coffee in Lafayette. As Emerald Lake is a short hike, that left me plenty of time to check out the cars before heading to the Park.

Kent showed up this time in his new BMW i8. It’s a beautiful car and drew quite a crowd.

For some time I’ve considered taking the Chrysler instead of the Lotus. That’s sort of a joke, but only sort of. I still think they’re one of the better looking cars produced in the last few decades. But mine is starting to look rough around the edges. The clear coat is starting to peel off one of the repairs. But not a bad looking car for going on 16 years old.

Just after Kent rolled in with the i8, I saw a 300M show up. His is a 2000 (mine’s a 1999). He’s entered it into a number of shows and won some awards. He takes real pride of ownership, in spite of telling me he’s had all sorts of problems with it. As mine is finally starting to exhibit problems other than cosmetic, we chatted a bit about possible solutions to my undiagnosed problems. I may have to see if he’s willing to give me an assist on my repairs. Anyway, it was good to see the 300M represented.

As for the hike, not much to tell. I’ve done that hike dozens of time. Saturday, the wind was fierce at the lake. I was prepared to shoot a time lapse, but it was just too windy to sit there for any length of time. I made my way back to Nymph Lake for my picnic. The Park was quite crowded. From Nymph to Dream, I take the “winter route” while most take the summer route. There is one place where I can see hikers on that trail from below. There were about thirty people in a line, all within arms length of each other.

In spite of the crowds and the wind, it was good to get back on the trail after a few months off.

Last Week’s HPR Video

Posted on January 24, 2015 by dhill

I’m not the most creative guy when it comes to putting these track videos together. I have three basic types – a lap, a highlights reel, and ‘passing fancy’. This time I opted for the latter – nothing but making passes and getting passed. Every pass from all three sessions.

When I was driving, I never realized I was ever more than fifth car in line. But studying the tape, I see I was 18th in line at one point. That’s a lot of cars on track. I also couldn’t help but notice that every time I make a mistake, it messes me up for three turns. Something to work on.

Obviously, passing cars is more fun than getting passed. I admit to enjoy passing Corvettes and Mustangs, BMWs and Acuras. But for some unknown, irrational reason I really get a kick out of passing Porsches. Boxsters, 911s, 944s, doesn’t matter. I really like passing Porsches.

Eiskhana Images

Posted on January 24, 2015 by dhill

Got the results of the timed laps. Twelve cars were registered in my class (non-Porsche, non-studded, 2wd). One was a no-show, three ran the course once, and eight ran twice. That’s 19 runs. Mine were 11th and 12th fastest, so mediocre would be an improvement. The video is from the untimed course, my only run with any drama.

I only shot about a dozen pictures on Saturday. Only managed on of Doug, but the lighting was bad. So it’s just white Porsches and an FF.

HPR Customer Appreciation Day

Posted on January 20, 2015 by dhill

Sunday was High Plains Raceway’s customer appreciation day for 2014. A free track day and no Broncos on television made it an easy decision. Sign me up!

Normally a track day involves getting up early enough to drive for a bit over an hour and still show up for the drivers meeting at 8am. The free days are a bit more relaxed – the track didn’t even open until 9 with the drivers meeting scheduled for 9:40. I was almost a bit too leisurely and barely made it – I got out of the car in time to hear an announcement that the drivers meeting would start in two minutes.

On the way there, though, I had pretty much decided not to participate. Over the holidays, I picked up a new intake from a fellow LoCo member. Michael and I struggled quite a bit to get it installed. I always say “I’m software, not hardware!” when it comes to things mechanical, so when I say “Michael and I installed it” I really mean Michael did the work and I ~~watched~~ supervised.

It sounds really good. I had little expectations that it would provide any performance improvement, but did I mention it sounds really good? The trip Saturday to the Eiskhana was the shakedown cruise, so to speak. Everything seemed to be working well.

On the way to HPR, however, my check engine light came on. Being not very mechanical, I have no idea why it came on, and I wasn’t inclined to push the car too hard. So I attended the meeting but didn’t register. I figured I’d chat with the guys, watch, and beg a ride or three. After talking to a few of the guys, they assured me there wasn’t any reason for the new intake to throw the CEL. It must be something else.

Jeremy said he had an OBDC reader and could check the code and clear it. So we plugged his device in and he fired up his iPhone app. I forget what the code was, but he said it wasn’t anything serious. So we cleared it. If it came back on, I would stop. That done, I went and registered for the slow group.

Before I signed up, they said they had 113 cars registered. Just prior to the meeting, they said about half hadn’t shown up yet, but I found myself at the end of a still lengthy line. We may not have topped 100 cars, but it was the most cars I’ve seen for a track day yet. We ran two groups – fast and slow, slow group at the top of the hour, fast at 30 after. I sat out the first slow session and watched. For that first hour, there was always at least one string of eight or more cars. Obviously, nobody would be getting much of a chance for an unobstructed lap.

We had a nice turnout of Lotuses. Jeremy and Zach in their Exiges, and Mark and Greg in Elises. Greg was there just to spectate – didn’t even bring a helmet to get a ride. At first, I was the only Lotus in the slow group. Jeremy and Zach dropped down to the slow group after a couple sessions. There were quite a few very fast cars running. And I have to say, it was a bit disheartening watching an old Honda Civic passing the Exiges.

When we were all running in the same group, we decided to try to run together and compare each others lines. I volunteered to lead, expecting to be the slowest of the three. They could watch me for a couple laps, then I’d let them by and see if I could get them on camera. Unfortunately, there were so many cars out this just didn’t work. I’d catch traffic and make a pass, but they couldn’t get around until a few turns later. I’d wait, but by the time they caught up, I’d have caught another slower car. After a couple laps of this, I started pushing through traffic.

Open lapping days are different than club days. On club days, there are only two or three places we’re allowed to pass – the two straights and the short chute between turns 6 and 7. And you need a point-by. On open lapping days, it’s open season. The idea is, the slower car sticks to his line and the faster car figures out where it’s safe to pass. This was the case for the most part, but a few of the really slow guys were always getting off the line. That can make things a bit dicey.

I ran two sessions in the morning, then took an hour off. The food truck wasn’t open, so I ate the fruit I brought and wandered around looking at the cars. Then I ran one session in the afternoon. I didn’t bring any extra fuel, and the pumps at the track weren’t operational. I’ve already run out of gas twice there and didn’t want to do it again, so I only ran three.

The track was dry all morning but by my third session, some of the snow close to the track was melting and water ran across the track in a couple places – a small river that crossed the track just after turn 8 and a puddle on the outside of 10. These made for an entertaining time. I found I couldn’t push very hard in that sector. There’s a slight right turn after the first one, and clearly my tires were still wet as the car would slide a bit. The second wet spot wasn’t as bad, as I could generally avoid most of the water. But to take that turn at speed, I’d hit the puddle and the car would go sideways.

About half way through that session, one of the many race cars was coming up behind me on the pit straight. I was paying more attention to my entry to turn 1 than to my mirror at that point, but I did see a silver flash in my mirrors as he went sideways off the track. He got stuck in the mud – they had to get the tow truck out to get him moving again. He wasn’t the only one who had an off – several cars had mud splattered all over them. I got sideways a few times, but managed to keep it on the track.

It was a very nice day, sunny and warm, in the low 60’s. I met some new friends, got to run a few sessions, and all it cost me was a tank of gas. Tough to beat a day like that.

I’ll post a video soon.

Eiskhana again

Posted on January 17, 2015 by dhill

Last year I said I’d skip Eiskhana for a year. I changed my mind. I figured I didn’t have anything better to do on a Saturday in January than deal with ski traffic to stand around on a frozen lake for five or six hours so I could drive around on ice with bald tires.

I picked up Jerry at the park and ride at I-70 and Morrison road at 6:30. From there to Georgetown Lake in normal traffic it’s about a forty minute drive. It took us an hour and a half. That was about the same as last year, except this time there was actually some snow and ice on the road adding to the degree of difficulty. As we went farther west, the cloud cover increased, and when we arrived the wind was gusting fiercely, throwing a brilliant white cloud of snow off the lake and over the highway.

Unlike last year, we anticipated the traffic and managed to arrive on time. We were followed in by a Ferrari FF. Ferrari of Denver had a trailer there, with two more FF’s and a 458 parked next to it. They also had a Bentley, but I didn’t see that until later.

With the Ferrari trailer in the parking lot, they had to park the registration trailer on the ice. They had a big space heater running and were setting out pastries and doughnuts on tables. I registered, grabbed a tasty treat and we retreated to the car to get out of the wind. They had the drivers meeting at nine. We’d be broken into two groups. One would start with two runs on the timed course and the other would be on a second, untimed course. After the meeting, we all lined up and drove the course slowly. First time they’ve done that.

They put us on the timed course first. I managed both runs without spinning, but I wasn’t particularly fast. The course wasn’t very interesting. The one two years ago was best, but they used the entire area. This way, people got more time on the ice, so I guess it’s a fair trade-off. I ran the untimed course twice. We could do it as often as we liked, but two was enough for me.

Getting off the lake was entertaining. I was a bit concerned when driving on to the lake, which is downhill. There was quite a bit of snow there, deep enough I plowed it with the nose of my car. When driving it out, I couldn’t get enough space to make a run at it. About half way up, I was beached. How hard is it to push a car out of a snowbank when everybody is standing on a frozen lake? It must not have been too bad, it only took three or four guys.

Once off the lake, we parked and then ogled the Ferraris. “Want a ride? You guys are next, back in a few minutes.”

To me, the FF looks a lot like the BMW M Coupe. Sort of like a shoe. A “stupid money” car, made of unobtanium. They weigh about two tons, crank out 650 or so horses, and have steering wheels worthy of an F1 car. The one we were in could be yours, for a bit over 300 large but you can have one made for 230 or so. Evidently, you now get an unlimited mileage seven year service plan in the bargain. A very nice car, certainly. And fast. Even where it was slippery. On dry pavement he had us up to 107 in a heartbeat.

Then we sat and had lunch and watched the cars going sideways and backwards and spinning round. Jerry’s mom made the sandwiches. Made me feel like a little kid for a minute. The weather had cleared up nicely. The sky was a deep cloudless blue unmarred by jetliner vapor trails – the trails disappeared only a short distance behind the planes. The wind had died down and it was quite pleasant sitting on a rock in the sun.

It was a fun time.

I took a few pictures with the long lens, haven’t looked at them yet. I’ll see if any are worth sharing and post them when I get the video done.

Twin Lakes and Sandbeach Lake

Posted on November 6, 2014 by dhill

Sunday, October 26

A couple weeks ago I met Gale on the trail to Lawn Lake and we exchanged emails. This week, she asked if she could tag along, if I was planning on a hike on Sunday. Well, I had no plans when she asked but that was easy to remedy.

A couple years ago I followed Foster’s directions in an attempt to find Twin Lakes in Wild Basin. She says “finding these lakes is a bit of an orienteering challenge”. I fell short of that challenge and figured it was about time I made a second attempt. I studied the map for a while, finally suggesting that Gale accompany me on my second assault. Over three or four days, my plan evolved a few times with my final idea being after we visit Twin Lakes, we cross the ridge, bushwhack up to Sandbeach Lake and hike out on that trail.

We met at the Sandbeach Lake trailhead shortly after eight. I left my car there and she drove us to the Thunder Lake trailhead. We put boots on the trail before eight thirty. It was sunny and mostly clear; the only clouds were hanging over the Divide. It was also windy. I think I used the phrase “a bit breezy.” What I really meant was more like “it was savagely windy.” But the hike would be through forest the whole way; the only time I expected to deal with the wind was when we were hanging out at the lakes.

Rather than follow Foster’s directions this time, my plan was to hike up the Thunder Lake trail until we reached about 9800′ elevation, then contour east along the slope to the lakes. I’m generally low tech when I’m hiking. I don’t carry a GPS unit with me. I do carry a smart phone, though. I use a speedometer app when I’m in the car because the car can’t be trusted to tell me how fast I’m going. This app also shows the elevation, which can be handy in cases like this.

Shortly after regaining the main trail after the campground shortcut, we arrived at a couple of switchbacks. The eastern end of one of these was conveniently close to our target elevation so we headed off trail there. As is usual when off trail, we couldn’t go in a straight line. I kept thinking we were going downhill, but every time I checked our elevation we were still on target. It was in here I saw the only wildlife on the hike: I spooked a very large rabbit who made very good speed in spite of his girth.

We weren’t making great time, what with finding the best route past rock outcrops or through dense pockets of trees. But it didn’t take too long to arrive at the larger of the Twin Lakes. This is the westernmost, larger one. These lakes are snow fed, neither has an inlet or outlet stream. They’re pretty shallow and, again, I’ve been to larger unnamed ponds in the park. But the view to the west from this lake was very nice. As expected, the wind was quite strong here. At times the wind gusts were so strong they kicked spray up ten or fifteen feet above the water.

We found a place more or less out of the wind and I set up the SLR to do the time lapse. We sat and ate part of our lunches and watched the world go by for about a half hour. Upon retrieving the camera I saw that I neglected to use my usual settings. There are a number of things I have to change from my usual shooting – turn off auto-focus, turn off stability, set it on full manual and set the proper exposure, configure the timer. And change it from storing raw images with large, fine JPG to a smaller image. This is the first time I’ve managed to forget this part. So I filled the memory card pretty quickly. Oops. I’ve been meaning to buy a bigger card; perhaps this error will be the impetus for me to get it done.

After getting our gear together, we headed the short distance to the other Twin Lake. It’s just a few yards away, and up a few feet of elevation. We passed through a little aspen grove. This one turned out to be perhaps the most interesting aspen grove I’ve walked through. Some beaver had been busy here, gnawing through dozens of trees. Some had been downed, chewed through completely. Others were still works in progress. The wood chips looked fairly fresh; I doubt this work was abandoned, but what do I know?

I didn’t see anything like a beaver lodge in either lake, and there are no streams here. The beaver must be in one of the lakes, though. These were pretty big trees; there was no other possible body of water this lumber could be taken to, unless that beaver has access to a helicopter or something. Which probably means I wouldn’t recognize a beaver lodge if I was standing on it.

There is almost no view at the smaller of the two lakes, so we didn’t dally there long. From here, we headed almost straight up slope. We only needed to gain about two hundred feet to top the ridge. We passed a couple of cairns and came across what I think is a wildlife trail. After topping the ridge, a small unnamed pond was next, just below us. The pond sits, as is common, surrounded by marshy grass. Being nearly November, it was mostly dried out.

Sandbeach Creek feeds this pond. The map also shows a gully a bit to the west of the creek. We found ourselves ascending this gully rather than the creek. The gully is clearly a flowing stream during spring and summer; now it’s dry but verdant, filled with moss covered rocks, darkly green in the shade of the forest. In places, it looks like there is dried mud covering some of the rocks. It’s not mud, but a dried fibrous sheet a couple millimeters thick.

The gully opened into a clearing where we hopped up a pile of rocks about thirty feet high before returning to another mossy section. Here I decided we needed to head a bit more towards the east. “Just over this next rise we’ll find the lake.” It wasn’t the first time I said it, but I was finally correct. We emerged on the shore of Sandbeach Lake just a few yards to the west of the outlet stream.

It was calm here on the lee shore. It was also mostly devoid of an interesting view, so we circled counter clockwise toward the trail. The wind was quite intense on the east side of the lake. And because this used to be a reservoir like Lawn Lake, there aren’t any trees along the shore to provide shelter. We retreated into the forest, found a nice rock to sit on, and ate more of our lunches. I decided not to set up either camera as I figured neither would be able to sit still in this wind. So it goes. It’s unlikely I have enough footage to bother with a video this time.

There were a few other hikers there. We talked to two guys who spent the night there. They had heard there was an alternate route back to the trailhead. I got my map out and showed them a route I considered for this hike. And, as we no longer needed it, I gave them the map.

The hike out was uneventful. The wind seemed to be dying down a bit, and the skies remained clear overhead. Crossing Hunters Creek, I wondered if there was a bridge there that was washed away last September. There are just sawn logs there now. Perhaps I’m just misremembering. We arrived at my car a few minutes before three, still feeling fresh and in agreement that it was a fun hike. The off trail excursion was pleasant and the beaver activity at the lakes was unusual and quite interesting.

On a final note… I regularly wonder how often my car shows up on Instagram or Facebook. People are always taking pictures when I’m at stop lights or in parking lots. This evening, my son found my car on Facebook. It’s a picture taken today, at the trailhead. Too funny.

Lawn Lake Time Lapse

Posted on October 24, 2014 by dhill

As I suspected, the SLR was moved around by the wind. But it turns out not to be that big of a loss, as I had it facing too far east. Most of the clouds were dissipated before making it much past the left side of the image. In spite of these difficulties, I included a few seconds of that view anyway.

Having put the Lawn Lake time lapse to bed, I must be ready to take another hike.

Nobody is Listening

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