Offroading Home

S.O.P.A: A really BAAAD Idea

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:54:00 +0000

Today, Jan 18th 2011, you will most likely notice many, many web sites which have 'gone dark' to show solidarity AGAINST the ill concieved proposed legislation that is called S.O.P.A. being considered in the US legislature! By 'dark' I mean that they are doing something to highlight to people just how much COULD be at jeapordy if junk legislation like this foisted on the American People.

More than a few sites have altered their color schemes from usual into a very dark white lettering on black background. The leading creator of web-publishing platforms - WordPress, debated on whether to completely shut down their site for everyone (except for a black front screen relating what was at risk); but, then decided it was unfair to drag everyone into the inconvenience. So, today, when you visited their company's site you did get the black front screen but when you scrolled to the bottom there was a link that you could pass through.

Even the GIANT GOOGLE - altered their Google logo into one completely covered by a black rectangle with just the tiniest of barely perceptible corners of letters showing around the edges such that you could (almost) tell what USED TO BE THERE!

Have you ever stopped to think just how much Google has integrated itself into our lives? How much of your daily life do you now rely on some program that Google owns, or information that Google provides access to? It's mind boggling!

At Offroading Home I have no way to support the effort against this dangerous attack to our freedoms than to tell you about it and show you a TED talk about what Internet Security REALLY means - not just the "scare" tactics used by its proponents (BIG ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY). Make no mistake - this bill is SOLELY ABOUT PEOPLE WHO WANT TO MAKE MORE MONEY! Not your and my security.

In this talk Cybercrime expert Mikko Hypponen shows example of three types of online attack on our privacy and data -- and only two are considered crimes! After he describes what cyber-terrorists are doing right now he describes what even Western goverments like Egypt, Germany and… dare I say, the US, are doing to their own citizenry.

Mr. Hypponen's words strike home to me… and they should to you.

"When we think deeper about things like these the obvious response from people should be: "Well, OK, well that sounds bad; but that doesn't really effect me because I'm a legal citizen. Why should I worry? I have nothing to hide." And this is an argument which doesn't make sense.

Privacy is implied. Privacy is not up for discussion. It is not a question about privacy against security. It's a question about freedom against control.

And while we might trust our governments right now, right here in 2011, ANY right we give away will be given away FOR GOOD! Do we trust... do we blindly trust any FUTURE government we might have 50 years from now?

GEO-tography: Paths and Trails

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:32:00 +0000

While we are spending a boatload of time trying to upgrade the blog to a new format, we could let you see a few more inspirational examples of offroading photography – what we call GEOtography. We call them inspirational because that is what we are attempting to do – become "inspired" with how to make our OWN photographs just a little less blurry, more in frame and possibly something that we can show to people outside our own family (who have to like our pictures).

Today we'll look at paths and trails and ways of getting somewhere in the landscape. Dorothy had her "yellow brick road" to follow, others a "road less traveled" but there probably isn't one of us off-roaders who haven't said "I wonder where that road goes?"

My guess is that I'm not the only one on the trails who, when confronted with a fork in the road, feels compelled to find out where it goes – or, at least set a waypoint so we can see where it is on Google Earth!

Photography of Paths and Trails

When looking at landscape photographs one usually looks at the "wide angle" view as opposed to the focused view of an object. These photographs have melded both aspects: an attention grabbing object in a grand view. Stairwells, pathways, roads, handholds – wet, dark, stone, paved, green, well lit – all good! And, sometimes, it's the barely noticed details which make a photograph draw you in.

Stairway to heaven? Copyright David Oliva

Blaze your own trail Copyright jenny downing

Infrared pathway Copyright Riza Nugraha

Misty Copyright Sudhamshu Hebbar

The Dock walk Copyright ankakay

Green with envy Copyright Mr. Theklan

Natural steps Copyright hapal

Peaking at the pathway Copyright Chris Lim

Cut through the field Copyright hozinja

Stoned Copyright Ibrahim lujaz

Pathway of promise Copyright Ronald Saunders

Swallowed Copyright Arianna Marchesani

Stairway to Bamboo Copyright Chi King

Stranded path Copyright mrehan

All wet Copyright badjonni

Glacier paths Copyright Or Hiltch

Jungle steps Copyright jam343

Earthy Copyright mike138

Thank You - Whoever You Are

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:10:00 +0000

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you - whoever you were who got our Offroading Home funds out of "money jail." You know, that neat little scam that nearly everyone is doing now to fatten their coffers by forcibly "borrowing" money from us through the "rules" they inflict on customers for the "privilege" of merely doing business with them.

For years now, ORH has been linking directly to books and other things which we mention in posts. It makes it easy for readers to see what we are talking about; and Amazon, bless 'em, will give a small "finders fee" to us whenever you click on the link and decide to purchase the book… except, there is a small catch.

Money Jail

Without adding any cost to the reader who makes a purchase, Amazon will give a small portion of the sale to ORH IF you have come to them after clicking on a link from our site! Now 20-50 cents a book isn't much at once, but it does add up over time… and there's the rub. The rule is that they will hold your portion in their "money jail" until it reaches a certain amount - in this case $100. That, as it turns out, is a whole lot of books.

Over the past year and a half the small amounts have been accumulating from sales of the books that I have recommended; but, it wasn't until this month that I was notified that a purchase had put me over the threshold and the funds had been "set free." And, it was a substantial purchase.

Perhaps without even knowing it, a wonderful reader clicked on the ORH Amazon link then browsed around on their site a bit stumbling across a bargain on a new Nikon zoom lens for his camera. His purchase set our funds free and revealed another quirk of the system which I didn't realize – the "finders fee" seems to include not only the original click, but others purchases made at the same time.

So – a great big THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased not only the books we recommend but gift certificates, camera lenses, computer ink cartriges and other things. Now, you can expect to see some more master maps of western offroad trails with the new trail books that we will purchase with the money. In case you were wondering, here are a few of the top purchases made through the links on Offroading Home over the past year:

Ultimate Offroad: Terminus Overtakes Space Shuttle

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:48:00 +0000

Clearly the most iconic image of space for most of us is the "Pale Blue Dot" taken by the Appolo astronauts back sixty's or so. The beautiful blue earth in its entirety poised in its rightful place against the beek black vacuum of space. The photo has been "updated" several times by subsequent spacecraft; but, none hold the relevance to an entire generations' neural pathways as does the original which we saw taken live in the wee hours of the morning.

Many other space related icons clutter the minds now of the "internet generation" not the least of which is the ubiquitous "Google Earth" planet with its day and night terminus marching across the globe. "Terminus," now that's a word that none but scientists knew until Google. The demarcation on a map or globe representing the current position of the sun's shadow – the end of daylight… the beginning of the dark… the night.

One would have to be living under a rock in a jungle not to know that the United State's Space Shuttle Program is comming to an end… NOW! With this last flight of the good ship Atlantis: the mission known as STS 135 [Space Transport System - 135th planned mission].

Nearly all of the readers of this blog are "life-experienced" enough to remember the last time the Democrats got charge of the country during a period of blazing sunlight for the space program – Appolo; it was cancelled! And we remember all to well how long it took for the next great adventure to take hold. We are lucky, really, to have lived through two such times. For us, there may not be three.

For our kids, there will be long term human exploration above low earth orbit (LEO); because, anything short of a complete dismantling of NASA cannot prevent it! American's will only tolerate sending billions of dollars to Russia to purchase passage on their functional but antiquated "space taxi" for so long.

This is NASA we're talking about. They will merely quietly but effectively keep plugging along behind the scenes until a more intelligent government is elected who recognizes the enormous financial and societal benefit the space program yields to the U.S. when enabled to do so.

But, for now, the terminus between the blaze of the shuttle era and the frigid darkness is marching all to relentlessly across our consciousness. For months, reporters like Marsha Dunn and others without any apparent science background, have beat on NASA officials in press conferences with "touchy-feely" questions about: "what are you feeling," "how are employees feeling," "what does it feel like," etc., almost to the point of nausea.

With the on-time launch on July 8th, however, reality is all too in our face. And, frankly, it doesn't matter what answers the reporters get – many of us are pissed. Only an idiot would even think that asking a NASA leader "how you feel" in a public forum would get you a true answer. It would be stupid for them to do it!

If the NASA Channel isn't one which you have set up to watch normally – you definitely should now. If not to see the final docking, the final space walk, the final hatch closure, the final undocking, the final landing… the final press conference – the final EVERYTHING; then, surely to see a terrific and well done documentary which NASA-TV has produced and is narrated by Star Treck's William Shatner. They are airing it multiple times and it's something where you will be the looser if you don't make the effort to view.

To have Mr. Shatner narrate it is both fitting and poingant. The shuttle has "lived" Gene Roddenberry's vision of multi-national, multi-gender, multi-occupational, routine space travel into existence! The U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis was the very vessel which opened the era of space detant by docking to the RUSSIAN Space Station MIR.

We just saw it launched for the thirty-third time to travel to the INTERNATIONAL Space Station. Can you comprehend, even for a little, what that means to us… and the world?

Today it sits peacefully docked at primary mating adaptor two (PMA2) as the thirty-seventh shuttle to visit the station a structure for which it can take sole credit! [Along with the Hubble Space Telescope and countless other projects.] It doesn't intend to undock until all 8200 pounds of its years worth of supplies have been safely stored on the station and its empty holds have been filled with items needing a return flight to earth. A twelve day (thirteen if we're lucky and have enough oxygen) mission in total.

A cadre of experienced astronauts were chosen for this 135th flight of a space shuttle, largely due to the short time-frame for training. And, despite its age, Atlantis is exactly how NASA intended it to be: better than it has ever been!

It seems as though the cosmos is smiling on Atlantis' final flight. It was slotted to end its career as only a "back-up" "launch-on-need" vehicle for a prior flight – but, national outcry miraculously found funding and safety work-arounds that enabled it to fly.

The luck of the draw caused it to be mated to an external tank which was made of stuff similar to a previous tank that had troubles and caused delays; so, this tank preventively underwent similar upgrades.

It also underwent an unusual "tanking test" to make sure the repairs were correct, which "fortuitously" revealed a completely unrelated minute piece of dust in the fueling valve that wouldn't let it work properly; and which, if the tanking-test hadn't been done, would have caused the launch to be scrubbed and delayed.

As a result, the test turned out great and the valve was proactively repaired; but then the weather at the launch pad was forcasted to be 70% likely to prohibit launch for days prior. Reporters badgered NASA to admit that they were likely to scrub or delay for weather. The internet was ripe with rumors and rumors of rumors that it wouldn't go as scheduled.

The largest crowd of "launch-watchers" ever to be assembled was anticipated to be so big that if there really was a weather-scrub NASA employees wouldn't even be able to make it home and back in time for a launch the next day!

Through it all, Bill Gerstenmeyer (headquarters), Mike Moses(program) and Mike Linebaugh (launch) had to respond over and over that "we are continuing to focus on the goal and follow established proceedures" and "we will launch when we can do so safely." It was as if every idiot reporter thought that if they just kept asking the same question over and over the answer would change.

The crowds did come and the weather was just as forecasted: 70% chance of prohibiting launch. However, what nobody except NASA seemed to understand was that – the forecast was 30% in favor of allowing launch!

The fueling and countdown was amazingly flawless – the flight directors rapid-fire "GO/no-go" poll was a resounding "GO" all around – the weather cleared a hole – the beany cap lifted and swung away – the launch director said his standard: "Godspeed Atlantis" …

But, as if to make it absolutely clear from the outset that it was she who was running the show, when control was transfered to Atlantis' onboard computers she stopped the countdown at thirty-one seconds! The sensor which tattled on whether or not the beany-cap arm was locked out of the way was faulty and the ship wanted controllers to scramble one more time to check and make sure…

Cameras were tilted – years of practice and experience allowed the launch team to fly through its proceedures with lightning speed – and countdown resumed with time to spare. "T-minus twelve," water began to flow – "ten," sparks began to fly – "nine, eight, seven, six," engines ignited and the whole stack lurched sideways then back to center – and perfectly timed, "one" the Utah-produced solid rockets exploded alive – "zero," the eight massive bolts holding back the shuttle bursted apart on command and …

All that remained was for the veteran voices of NASA to say:

"Liftoff, the final liftoff of Atlantis. On the shoulders of the space shuttle, America will continue the dream" (George Diller-Kennedy);

and,

"Atlantis spreads its wings one final time for the start of a sentimental journey into history" (Rob Navias-Houstin).

Learn A Little More

Atlantis Last Launch

More Than Tradition

Last Backflip

Does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 01:27:00 +0000

…Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Happy Independence Day offroaders!

Learn A Little More

John Wayne - The Pledge of Allegiance

GEO-tography: Macro

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:53:00 +0000

If it's one thing that senior ATV riders have along offroad trails, it's the proclivity to stop and take a picture of things we see and want to remember or show those back home. I call it: Geo-tography – photography of our "geo." Not that any of us have any grandiose ideas that we're going to become famous photographers or anything; but, just capable enough so that our digital cameras weren't a total waste of money.

The way I figure it, if I just keep looking at good pictures for long enough some of it may rub off on me – even if it has to be sub-consciously. So, when I saw a group of photos using the "Macro Technique" I thought that they might could use a closer look.

Macro photography is all about capturing things up close, usually involving special lenses designed specifically for this task. However, I notice that most new digital cameras come with some sort of "macro" setting, although usually require some actual reading of the instructions in order to find it.

Macro lenses are very good at capturing the smallest of details on tiny objects; which, when you get into it, just may astound you with how much most of us don't even notice.

[As before, these are full photographs so be patient while they load. You can click on the photograph to open the full image.]

GEO-tography: Sunrise

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:55:00 +0000

Sadly, the most beautiful part of the day occurs before many people wake up, but thank goodness there are those early rising photographers or most of us wouldn't even know what it looked like. Those intrepid souls are willing to set the alarm clock a bit early in order to get their traveling over with in order to be in actual position to capture the beauty of a sunrise so others can see.

They may have either ridden their ATV's offroad in the dark or (heaven's forbid) actually slept on the ground in order to have their finger poised over the shutter button as the first ray of light proclaimed the advent of the promised new day.

In this post of Geo-tography, I've collected 32 beautiful examples of photographic work from those hearty souls. Dawn and sunset aren't considered the "magic hours" for nothing. The lighting produced by either can be nothing short of enigmatic – especially off road.

In "olden days" we used to use Ectachrome film to capture daylight scenes and Fujichrome for lush greenery but it was the Kodachrome which was reserved for the magic times when brilliant reds and oranges needed to be represented so carefully. Today's memory chips and "dots per inch" somehow just don't seem to be as fun anymore.

If you are one of those types, and have a photo that you'd like to share, please leave a link in the comments we'd like to see them. And perhaps the rest of us might get some ideas for photos of our own from these… should unforseen circumstances beyond our control ever find us erect and sentient at such times.

Sunrise Photography

b.neeleman

Gary McParland

Michal Malinowski

Barbara Read

Mary Kay

Doug Roane

Doug Roane

ahhoi

Christolakis

Gary McParland

Christolakis

Miriam Amo

b.neeleman

Duncan Kerridge

Will Stoddard

Marek Chalupnik

Ryan Tabata

Julia Shepeleva

Edy Santosa

Edy Santosa

b.neeleman

Morning idyll

Morning idyll

Wim Schuurmans

Janusz Wanczyk

keller

Hans van Wijck

Dedey Sugiarto

Tom Ole Sundberg

Brian MacGillivray

Bobaloo

Franz Schumacher

Offroading Break

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:54:00 +0000

The call of the off-road beckons as a siren from the south, so a short break with our ATVs is in order. Until next week enjoy a couple of posts of GEO-tography.

Jumbo and Lime Wilderness BLM Meetings

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Never willing to leave well enough alone, the BLM wants to do a face-to-face with the offroaders around the Gold Butte area - and any who ever seek to go there. [Previous post with wilderness map: Jumbo Wilderness-Pierson Gap.]

Ostensibly they want to hear your opinion about the two existing wilderness areas already on Gold Butte; however, we know all too well the agenda's and modus operandi of the Las Vegas office. They are actually mandated by law to hold "scoping" meetings, even though absolutely nothing (which can't be rationalized away) needs to be listened to or followed.

What must happen, however, is large numbers of off-road riders show up at: Bunkerville Community Center June 27, 2011 6 PM, Overton Community Center June 28, 2011 6 PM and Mesquite City Hall June 29, 2011 6 PM to demand answers to substantial questions in front of the press. And somebody should make certain that the local press attends.

Yea, I know that the two areas are ALREADY wilderness areas and that nothing short of a massive legislative recall and congressional Un-"wilderness-izing" the area can be done about it; but, these scoping meetings are the place to try and "entice" (or shame) the managing agency (in this case the BLM) into making implementation rules less prejudicial to the senior community and onerous to offroaders.

The backcountry rambler over at the "Save Gold Butte" blog thinks people should talk about "weed treatment for invasive species and developing interpretive information to educate the visiting public about the resources and history in the area." Those topics are, indeed, within the realms of the wilderness guidelines and I'm not saying they shouldn't be addressed. Although, I don't know which "visiting public" he has in mind – there is no visiting public… this is wilderness. Unless you count an infinitesimally small number of hikers.

However, the press will be there and, IMHO, at least someone should voice the intense disdain over the arrogance and incompetence of the implementers (read Harry Reid and his either incompetent or deceptive staff) who exhibited such obvious discrimination against the senior population which for years frequented the area.

What someone needs to demand is an answer why the boundary of the Jumbo Wilderness was drawn a matter of yards too far to the east to allow continued access to Cottonwood Canyon through the Pierson Gap trail! The final tiny section of the trail, runs almost parallel to the border between two very popular and still open riding areas, through rock and has been used for hundreds of years.

By precedent, a right-of-way for the existing historic trail should have been accounted for like has been done in countless other wilderness designations around the country. I'd also like to know what procedural or legislative method there is to re-align the border so as to provide multi-use through that minuscule portion of the existing trail. Or, in the interim, what alternative route can circumnavigate the closed portion.

Doing this in the off riding season, the time when there are least numbers of senior users in town to defend themselves, (which by the way is another question to demand an answer for) – what a deceptive, behind-the-back time to choose for your "scoping meeting" Ms. Marr – for shame!

Offroad: Mesquite - CCC Cabins

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:11:00 +0000

A bit stir-crazy from all the rain and snow, Gordon and I took our rigs up to Toquop Wash for the first time this season. There are many nice things to see up the wash, and several areas which are quite challanging; but, as rides go, much of is a bit nondescript so sort of falls down the priority list a bit.

Beginning up at the water-tank road trailhead, will take you to Toquop by a trip up and over Flat Top Mesa. You'll need to negotiate opening and closing heavy gates on an incline on both sides of the Mesa; so, unless the Mesa is an actual destination, most riders prefer a little easier access to the wash.

There is a sort-of "unpublished" exit off I-15 at the southwest border of Mesquite which locals know as the "gravel piles" trailhead. You can only get to it from the west-bound lane of the freeway, so that's where we headed. [A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: Offroading Home: 11-CCC Cabins.]

One needs to really look carefully for the exit to the right immediately after rounding the bluff leaving Mesquite. You can see the wash and the city's gravel piles just beyond the gate – which you shouldn't forget to close after you.

The first time I took this ride several years ago I was overwhelmed with the botanical nature of the trail. There are examples of nearly every cactus and desert plant we have in this whole area, right along the trailside. It's amazing that they're all here in one place.

Additionally, the wash has sections of serpentiginous, high-banked switchbacks which can be fun, unless you're in a hurry. And even several pure-sand embankments that Gordon can climb in his CanAm.

BUT, most unforgetable (even if you try) are the miles and miles of Yamaha-swallowing washboards which loosen every bolt and most of your fillings. Every time we go over them we cuss that someone hasn't brought a length of chain which riders could drag behind them, first one direction and then the other, in order to knock those suckers down a bit. We swear that we are going to do it – but haven't remembered yet.

After about 13 miles you finally come to the massive powerlines which, under the right conditions, make a humm in your ears. Several yards beyond, a trail takes off to the left (west) which will take you toward the mountains – take it. About now, those mountains look mighty appealing.

The trail now sort of parallels the powerlines and the pipeline for a ways. In fact that's how you can tell that you are still on the right trail. Shortly after climbing up onto the mesa there is an area where they have set up a climate monitoring system that they needed to in order do the environmental studies for the proposed power plant.

Just beyond that, the trail takes a dive over a cliff, down into another ravine and back up the other side. The astute rider will, about now, be wondering "where did the pipeline go? How does it cross this ravine?" It does the same thing that you just did. If you look carefully in the bottom of the wash you can see where it took a dive underground and climbs back up the other side – all out of site. Some feat!

If this is your first time on the trail and you don't have a GPS point, mark the odometer when you get to the top out of this wash. About 2.6 miles further down the trail there will be another trail that forks off to the right along the mountains. If you don't see it, there will another more obvious trail a bit further on, but this one is shorter.

If you look at our GPS track on the map, you can see that we missed it too and took the "scenic" route to end up at the main trail running along the mountains. At the junction, to the left is back down to the freeway, near the truck stop. To the right is up to the gap in the moutains at South Toquop Wash where thar be petroglyphs!

Turning north at the junction, in .8 miles you will pass the side trail which winds west and around up to the peak where the radio towers are. We've been there before so we continued on.

I should tell you that the ride so far had been more nondescript than usual. For some reason (probably all the rain) there were no washboards. Additionally, probably because of the grey winter weather, we weren't even aware of any cacti.

The trip along the foothills however, suddenly became very "descript." Massive amounts of run-off had nearly completely altered the trail. Portions were absent and people had begun circumventing large boulders and holes. Both us and our machines took a beating.

By the time we got up to Pete Spring and the CCC Cabins we were more than ready to disembark and hit the snacks. The cabins are the same as I've remembered them for the past 4 years. Cement slabs, three-man-rock walls quarried from the local geology and absent roofs.

By the time we had finished lunch our backsides (and memories) seem to have forgotten the ordeal thus far so decided to continue on to see the petroglyphs – not to happen. By the time we made it to the guzzler all our bruises were reintroducing themselves. And, by the time we reached Gourd Spring we were ready to re-evaluate our priorities.

In constrast to the last time we saw it (last year) the spring was brim to overflowing with spring runoff. The range cattle were all clustered nearby and warily gave us the "evil eye" as we stopped to cool off.

We were not quite half-way around the full Toquop Loop but were more than half-way past our interest in the terrain so decided we had endured enough fun for one day and set our GPS on "backtrack."

However, we did decide to take the trail less traveled on the way back and it turned out to be the highlite of the trip. The cactii were out and, probably because it was just a little bit higher, the runoff seemed to have left it alone. It was a real trail and not just a collection of Australopithecine geology.

Learn A Little More

Speaking of bones! In the recesses of my tickler file, I found this little ditty.

In his "third career" George Burns experienced a reawakening of his popularity riding the crest of detante with the younger generation following his film with John Denver – Oh, God. He was asked to come on the "talk shows" to explain the phenomenon; then, as we have seen, to do television specials with John Denver. He said that he was suprised to receive requests to even do television specials of his own.

Here is a segment from one such special, done in Nashville, which showed that he still had a lot of career left in him: "Old Bones."

George Burns: Old Bones

GEO-tography: Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 05:08:00 +0000

You know, if I don't soon post these photos that I've been saving about spring – it won't be spring any more. This year, we've got all the plants in but they haven't gotten out of their shock yet from all the snow and cold weather up here at summertime snowbird headquarters. By the time we take off our coats we will have missed spring entirely.

However, there must have been spring somewhere because look at all the examples of spring photography I have found. Our goal here is NOT so much become expert photographers BUT to get some ideas of how to make our own snapshots a bit more… let's say… "showable."

All of these, of course, are examples of what I call Geo-tograpy. They aren't always Geo-coded but are most always of our offroad Geo-graphy. As always, be a bit patient as they load because they are full photos. And if you've got some examples of spring geo-shots you'd like to share, post about them in the comments.

Giovanni Orlando

Philipp Hilpert

nebojsa mladjenovic

Theophilos Papadopoulos

Jeremy Kunz

jpellgen

Tony

Danny

John Bennett

viamoi

Trey Ratcliff

miyukiutada

Michael Chen

Joel Bankhead

Reinhold Stansich

dca

Luz A. Villa

David Tomic

Sabrina Mae

Ian Sane

Ken Douglas

Herr Saush

Alfonso

Frozen Coffee

Steve Wall

Sippanont Samchai

harold.lloyd

Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel

Joel Bankhead

Jim Denham

Paul Walker

Alan

Martin Sojka

Philipp Hilpert

Dan Logan

Pat Gaines

Ian Foss

Brian Hathcock

Marcos Vasconcelos

Obama Utah Land Grab

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 02:05:00 +0000

I have received information from USA-All that Obama is planning a "LAND GRAB" in Utah and the west similar to what Clinton did in his last ditch "scorched earth" method just before exiting the office.

The offroad group wrote: "Utah's Congressmen Bishop and Chaffetz and Senators Hatch and Lee jointly submitted a bill intended to prevent President Obama from creating HUGE national monuments in Utah. Last year Congressman Bishop uncovered internal BLM documents that appeared to show the Obama administration was considering an attempt to create 14 national monuments across the west including in Utah. Utah is still reeling from the politically motivated creation of a 1.9 million acre monument in the Escalante Grand Staircase by President Clinton in 1996."

The public lands group has begun trying to convince the delegation to opt Utah out in a similar fashion to what Wyoming did in the 1950's. I'm not sure what that fully means but if it will prevent Obama from pulling the atrocity that Clinton pulled – Offroading Home is all for it.

Colorado Backroads: Offroad Trails Map Update

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:01:00 +0000

Actually, some time ago I spent what seemed like a year one month completely going through the Colorado Master Map and updating it to include the trails in the book "Colorado Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails" by Charles A. Wells and published by FunTrecks.

The book contains descriptions for trails through colorado's most scenic areas so I was excited to see how they traversed the actual globe. I quickly began experiencing difficulties almost around every corner. Wells sometime used, lets say, "alternate" road and area names – at least different than I could find in any of the databases.

I could see that the book had only sparse GPS coordinates but most of the time with even just a few you can follow Google Earth satellite images along the trails – not to be. Colorado is covered in snow much of the year and a canopy of green the rest of the time so trying to follow trails from the outer atmosphere is maddening.

So, even though it was updated months ago, and I decided to go ahead and publish what I could to the server; I, none-the-less realized people would need some explanation about the different format these trails required and planned a blog post. Which post, I'm sad to say, got delayed… until now.

For several reasons, the blog posting got pushed down in priorities until it was "below the fold" on my screen's todo list and hasn't seen the light of day, until now when I tried to assist a reader with a trail question. For those of you Colorado offroaders, or anyone who is planning a summer ride into one of the best offroad states in the west, you've really got a treat in store.
[A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: www.offroadinghome.com - Colorado Master Map.]

Wells' paperback trail book contains full descriptions and specific riding advice for many, many off road trails all over western Colorado. It is written specifically for SUVs because that's Mssr. Wells' rig of choice.

Fortunately, however, many if not most of these trails run through US Forest Service lands which accommodate ATVs and other offroad vehicles. So they should be usable for 4-wheelers with a little pre-planning to locate a suitable trailhead and exit strategy.

Unfortunately, as I alluded to above, there is some difficulty in correlation with GPS coordinates. While still being a wise purchase to use as a guide, the book does contain several inaccuracies and is nearly devoid of any satellite-verifiable GPS related markings. When you couple these things with the poor trail visibility on Google's satellite images for the area there was some necessity of changing the format a bit.

Fortunately, many of the actual GPS trails have already been placed in the master map from Peter Massey's and other books so you can nearly always find at least a portion already mapped. When Google's images "thaw out," and trails become visible again, perhaps actual digitizing of the trail can be revisited.

Until then, what you will find now are Wells' seven riding areas each listed within the offroad areas we have previously been using, and which are used by other offroad trail books. Wells lists "Basecamps" for each of his areas, which are towns that a rider can use to obtain gas, supplies and even lodging if desired, as you explore the trails of that area. They are all shown with special symbols and coordinates.

Also, I was able to come up with a trailhead for all of his listed trails. If you click on any of them you will see a synopsis of our standard information about the trail, namely: difficulty rating, distance, time, location, map recommendations and sights.

What you don't see, always, is a complete trail "linestring." However, as I said, most of Wells' trails contain at least a segment from another trail which IS shown, and by the time you ride the snow should be gone so descriptions from the book should make sense on the ground. Please remember to record a GPS track and send it in.

Area 1 (Southwest Region)

Description: This area is one full of easily accessible high altitude back roads. The areas economy died in the early 20th century right along with the demise of the mining industry, paving the way for off road (and on-road) tourism.

In addition to general sightseeing from the convenience of air conditioned/heated vehicles on paved highways, a plethora of outdoor mountain activities draw thousands of participants each year to: 4-wheel, camp, hike, backpack, mountain bike, wildflower 'hunt' and fish.

Even though most other high altitude places in Colorado are closed much of the year due to snow, many trails in this area either remain accessible or are cleared of snow in early May. Some trails are 'almost' maintained in this area, others are left untouched to provide, intentionally or not, a much more difficult and 'rustic' experience.

Learning of the area's history will greatly improve your enjoyment of riding the trails in the area - as well as give you many more ideas for things to see. If you only have time to ride in one area of Colorado - this should be it!

Basecamps: Ouray, Silverton, Lake City, Telluride
Trails (difficulty): Owl Creek Pass (E), Yankee Boy Basin (M), Imogene Pass (D), Black Bear Pass (M), Ophir Pass (M), Clear Lake (M), Engineer Pass (M), Cinnamon Pass (M), Poughkeepsie Gulch (D), Picayne & Placer Gulch (M), Corkscrew Gulch (M), California Gulch (M), Eureka Gulch (E), Nellie Creek (M), Stony Pass (M), Maggie Gulch (E), Minnie Gulch (M), and Wager Gulch (M).

Area 2 (South Central Region

Description: Towns such as Aspen and Crested Butte in this area are internationally known for winter activities, but the snows hide much if not most of its beauty.

It is surrounded by FOUR wilderness areas including the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. Unlike in nearly ALL of the rest of the United States these wilderness areas were drawn contiguous with existing vehicular trails (showing that it can be done IF the sponsoring legislators are afraid of local constituencies) which leaves them accessible to the senior population who must use offroad transportation on trails.

Schofield Pass through Crystal River Canyon and Pearl Pass were of such renowned importance that they have been left alone for the multi-use of hikers and riders alike. Riders through this area are strongly urged to make it a point of improving the trail every time they use it by doing such things as carrying out at least one extra piece of trash that some fool has left behind.

Basecamps: Crested Butte, Aspen, Marble
Trails (difficulty): Schofield Pass, Crystal Riv. (D), Lead King Basin (D), Kebler & Ohio Pass (E), Gunsight Pass (M), Slate & Gothic Road (E), Pearl Pass (D), Taylor Pass (D) and Italian Creek Road (D).

Area 3 (South Central Region

Description: Being only two hours from Denver and Colorado Springs, this area is probably the most popular four-wheeling area in all of Colorado. Summer seems to last a little longer in this part of the state; and some back roads are even ridable in the winter because snows often miss the lower elevations entirely.

Similar to the areas of Aspen and Lake City the Buena Vista area owes its extensive trail system to the now largely absent mining industry. Route 162, which is the central corridor, offers fishing along Chalk Creek as well as forest service campgrounds close to the trailheads.

The steaming hot waters of Mt. Princeton Hot Springs draw offroaders into relaxing after-ride activities. The historic Alpine Tunnel is a great site to visit as well as the almost empty towns of St. Elmo and Tincup. The little town of Pitkin allows you to gas up at a vintage general store in the center of town.

Basecamps: Buena Vista, Monarch
Trails: Tincup Pass (M), Mt. Princeton (M), Sevenmile Road (E), Waunita & Black Sage Pass (E), Tomichi Pass (D), Hancock Pass, Alpine Tun. (M), Mt. Antero (D), Cumberland Pass (E), Old Monarch Pass (E), Pomeroy Lake Road (M) and Iron Chest (M).

Area 4 (North Central Region

Description: For the same distance as it takes to go to a ski resort you can be off road on a mountain trail in this area which runs adjacent to I-70 between Vail and Dillon. The 1880's mine trails now reveal their views to a variety of offroad vehicles in all seasons.

The Mosquito Pass trail was devoid of its intended mine trucks shortly after its construction due to the better transportation of the railroad. Hagerman Pass Road follows the same route as the first standard gauge railroad built across the continental divide. West Lake Creek Road trail and Weston Pass trail are favorites for offroaders today just as they were for stage coaches and freight wagons in the 1870's.

Leadville was one of the areas largest and most active mining towns and required a lot of supplies. Some of these mining trails became the functional roads of today, but we should be glad the area is forested so it is managed by the Forest Service (instead of the BLM) which has preserved the offroad experience for riders of today.

Basecamps: Vail, Leadville, Fairplay
Trails: West Lake Creek Road (E), Shrine Pass (E), Holy Cross (D), McCallister Gulch (M), Ptarmigan Pass (M), Wheeler Lake (D), Hagerman Pass (M), Mt. Lincoln (M), Mosquito Pass (M), Mt. Bross (M) and Weston Pass (E).

Area 5 (North Central Region

Description: Beautiful Breckenridge is but one of the several towns which can be used as a 'basecamp' for rides in this area. Five of these trails cross the continental divide between US-285 and I-70 connecting the resorts of Breckenridge, Keystone and Georgetown.

The rest of the trails in the area allow you to look down on the interstate from lofty viewpoints. All of them are rich in mining as well as railroad history and provide riders with all three levels of difficulty depending upon at which altitude they cross the divide.

From Guanella Pass, which can be traveled in a passenger car in good weather, to Red Cone, arguably the most terrifying drive in the state, this area has it all! You will probably need to wait to ride these trails until well into the summer if there has been heavy winter snows.

Basecamps: Breckenridge, Dillon, Como, Idaho Springs
Trails: Boreas Pass (E), Georgia Pass (M), Webster Pass (D), Red Cone (D), Lamartine, Saxton Road (E), Spring Creek (D) and Guanella Pass (E).

Area 6 (Front Range Region)

Description: Two of this area's trails (Mt. Herman Road and Rampart Range Road) actually depart from a metropolis which shows you how accessible they are. The low elevation and resultant lower snow pack also keep them open for most of the year, which has made them a popular tourist destination for many years and caused the development of a plethora of historical information such as on the Pike National Forest map.

One area trail, the Pikes Peak Highway, is often overlooked in offroading maps due to the fact of its extreme popularity and publicity elsewhere. There are trails of all difficulties in this area and despite their proximity to Colorado Springs they are terribly 'remote' in an emergency.

Basecamps: Colorado Springs, Woodland Park, Divide, Cannon City
Trails: La Salle Pass (E), Mt. Herman Road (E), Longwater Gulch (D), Hackett Gulch (D), Rampart Range Road (E), Mt. Baldy (M) and Phantom Canyon, Shelf Rd (E).

Area 7 (South Central Region

Description: Very remote from either Denver or Colorado Springs, it is the uniqueness of this area's trails which continues to draw offroaders. The Sangre De Cristo Mountain Range bisects the area in an 80-mile long sky-piercing dividing line which isolates trails from one another.

Hayden Pass is entirely by itself and the Medano Pass and Blanca Peak trails take two days to ride. Many consider Hayden Pass to be one of Colorado's best kept secrets and it provides just the right amount of challenge. Medano Pass gives access through the back door to the unbelievable Great Sand Dunes National Monument.

And truly the most challenging trail in all of the U.S., let alone this area, is to Blanca Peak; so it understandably draws 'hard-core' riders from all over the world.

Basecamps: Blanca, Westcliffe, Coaldale
Trails: Hayden Pass (M), Medano Pass (M) and Blanca Peak (D).

Offroad: Gold Butte - Devil's Cove, Horse Springs

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:10:00 +0000

The 2011 winter offroad riding season in southeastern Nevada, well at least the Mesquite area, has been an unusually - read frustratingly - wet time especially for all our ATVs held hostage under tarps and in garages. Don't get me wrong, we're happy for the all the citizen locals who are out dancing in the street for the dust-quenching moisture. Just sayin' …

Gordon and I braved the dark clouds in the morning, perhaps believing that: "if you go it will stop" or some such erudite sapience, and saddled up the CanAm and Yamaha to head for "The Butte." After all, one needs to ride it as often as one can before the Reid/Holecheck coalition closes it all off to seniors.

After weeks of longing, we trailered to Whitney Pockets and pointed our rigs south down Old Gold Butte Road toward the lake. We bypassed the nearly obligatory visit to Devil's Throat thinking: "We'll catch that on the way back" without realizing the adventure which was in store for us.
[A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: Offroading Home.]

And when we got to the next "wide-spot-in-the-road," the junction toward Arizona, and the former home of good old Copper City, we kept to the right – for our sights were firmly set on seeing the lake. Devil's Cove here we come! Down the road to Valatier Wash and up the photogenic incline. Past the "Nada" and "S'nada" mines on the left to the turnoff to Cottonwood Wash road.

I've written about it before, once you turn left and round the point of the cliffs at Willow Spring the air becomes noticeably more humid, calm and fresher; and the temperature begins to drop appreciably as you enter an obviously different biome with cedar and some pinion trees.

After a short jaunt east, Cottonwood Wash turns south again and the mountains start springing up on both sides of you. With all the rain, we though we might see mud, but didn't – lots of evidence of flooding in the washes but that sand seems to drain well. Riding after a rain storm is one of the best times to do it, not only for the attenuated desert temperature but – NO DUST! It was great.

You know that you are approaching the wash to Cottonwood Spring when you spot "Lady Bug Rock" on the right, a giant rose quartz boulder that makes you just want to stop and take a picture. It's only about 2 more miles to Cottonwood Spring wash where Harry Reid (Dem NV) grabbed his wilderness area in a deceptive manner which hit the press hard after the deed was done.

The BLM post and cable blockade that you can see spanning across the wash is the eastern most edge of his wilderness, which has a tiny corner of it either deliberately or incompetently drawn across a mere 0.5 mi of a beautiful 10 mile stretch which was the only connection between Gold Butte wash and Cottonwood Wash through Pierson Gap.

The remaining three miles down to Devil's Cove has taken some damage from this years flooding; but, as in the past, you come around a corner and set before you is a grand vista of the lake – the cove in the center, Hell's Kitchen on the right and the cliffs of the Parashant Grand Canyon on the far left.

One would have thought that the level of the lake would have come up at least a few inches from last year with the significant flooding this year. Nope, it was still down below the dead stumps of tamarisk and way, way below all the developed area for camping and craft docking that was made where the lake used to be. California has taken more than a substantial amount of the water out of Lake Mead. I'd be surprised if it ever returned.

The thicket was too thick to hike thorough all the way to the water, so an ATV-side lunch was all we could muster. However, it was peaceful and cool and a good place to eat.

Running back up the wash isn't as grand as coming down but we were soon passing Nada Mine with an hour or so to spare before it got dark. We hadn't been to Horse Spring in a long time so we decided to go see how it had fared in all the rain – and we wanted to see historic Bauer, another old mining camp wich was, at one time, to have rivaled Gold Butte.

The turn off isn't marked and you need to watch carefully for it; but, it jogs a bit northeast before Gold Butte road reaches the Valatier bench. The pond was completely full and the frogs were in their milieu. It still makes my back ache when I think of the massive amount of work it took to stack all those 12" rocks, six feet high clear across the gap and up the hillside!

Our next stop was trying to find Bauer, north up the obvious trail. We never actually saw anything that would tip us off to former habitation; although we did keep looking quite intently until we looked up and saw that we had been following a wash and the trail didn't seem to be in sight. Thank heavens for GPS except that mine was broken and Gordon's had run out of battery.

Once all the power charging cables were affixed to his unit, we could tell that we were in the wash but it was farther to go back than to continue. Eventually, and a bit shaken up from the ride, our GPS showed that we were on the road to Arizona except that there was no road! A little way further along the wash we realized that we had been running down in a gully paralleling the road not 6 feet away.

However, knowing where the road was didn't tell us how to get there and it took almost another mile before we could extracate ourselves from the gully to solid dirt road. By the time we reached Devil's Throat the sky was already darkening so we could only throw it a wave and a promise to pay it homage another day.

Learn A Little More

A few posts back I told you about a series of television specials George Burns and John Denver did following their unlikely pairing in the movie Oh God and amidst the public demand to see more of the duo.

In many ways "Two of a Kind" really was a suitable moniker for the seemingly disparate comedian and musician. They were not only both afterthought movie actors but were both thought of as a highly popular icon of their generation. Separate they were stars, together real gold.

In this part, John sing's a different arrangement of his hit "Dancin' With the Mountains."

George and John: Two of a Kind, part 4

NEW: Bryce Canyon Trail System

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:01:00 +0000

You know, with age, I find it increasingly difficult to do two things at once. I learned a term in my youth, back when things called computers were invented – it's called "time sharing." Afterwards, the womens movement claimed the prior discovery rights to the activity; they said it had been inherent in the gender to "multi-task" since the time of Eve.

I used to be able to do it like a whiz, you know: drive and read a map, listen on the phone and continue reading mail, dictate a letter and drive to work, walk and chew gum… I used to be able to juggle navigating an ATV over a single-track, watching a GPS trac, scanning for photo ops, listening to a CD and pointing out items of interest to companions all at one time. Well, I still can do the "gum" thing but it's difficult to both work on building trail maps and write blogs at the same time.

However, have I got a deal for you today! A rider from southern California named Randy began communicating with me several months ago about some rides he had taken up in Utah, around the Bryce Canyon area. Over the last three or four months, we've been communicating about the area and he has been able to send in three great GPS tracks for those of you who want to ride the area with your offroad machines.

Randy C. has been a computer programmer for 30 years and normally takes his rigs out 25 miles north of Mojave, to the areas of Dove Springs and Jawbone. However, he has ridden most of the Paiute trail system and once took an extended trip into the Moab area for a couple of weeks. He uses a Garmin 76csx loaded with the USA topo.

He recently took an extended trip up to Bryce and submitted his trails when he returned. As I looked at them from the vantage point of Google Earth it seems that there are several interconnecting trails in the area which he rode. So much so, that I suspect there are either maps which I could obtain and digitize or other riders who might be able to submit GPS tracks for them.

For now, I have updated the Utah Master Map with the Bryce Canyon Trail System; but, as it grows it could turn into a system map all by itself like the Paiute and Arapeen. I have also moved the Hatch-Paunsaugunt trail into the system folder which runs into the same area. So, any of you readers who would like to see a free offroad map developed for that area – get out your GPS units! [The free Google Earth master map file of the Bryce Canyon Trail System is available at: Offroading Home: Utah.]

Randy's group made the Bryce Canyon Campground their staging area and he submitted three trails with varying difficulty; but all with high-scale scenic value: Hunt Loop, Tropic Reservoir West and Tropic Resevoir Southwest. But, hey, I'll let him describe them to you in his own words (mostly).

“This last September 9, 10 and 11 (2010) our trip was to Bryce Canyon. We were camping out of Bryce Canyon Pines, an RV site on highway 12, about 4 miles west of the Bryce Canyon tourist entrance. West of Bryce Canyon, and south from our camp, is Tropic Reservoir. There is some riding east, between Tropic Reservoir and the ‘tourist city’ (i.e. Ruby’s, etc.); but, the really good stuff is in several ‘loops’ rising west from Tropic Reservoir (about 6,000 feet) to the cliffs (9,500 feet) which has views looking all the way down, and across highway 89.

“I would recommend, to anyone going here to ride, to do just what we did: group these ‘loops’ into 2 fairly good 4-6 hour rides. One I would call ‘west tropic’ and the other I would call ‘southwest tropic’ mainly for the two areas which they cover. The south one has a section of black diamond, not for the feint of heart. It was incredible. Loved it. A third loop, which runs north of our campground, is called Hunt Loop.

Bryce Canyon - Hunt Loop Trail

Description: Difficulty: 3/10, 4WD required; Scenic: 3/10; 44 mi. 3/4 day. Closed in winter.
Location: Start: Bryce Canyon Pines, an RV site on highway 12 about 4 miles west of the Bryce Canyon tourist entrance; End: Same.
Things to see: Great view of a huge mountain which gets impressively large as you get closer, forest trails, beautiful color, narrow mountain pass (Hunt Loop), access to Bryce stores/general visitor area for food/supplies before returning back.
Source/Maps: Submitted Trail; USGS: Casto Canyon, Flake Mountain West and Bryce Canyon quads.

“Hunt Loop begins south but turns north through Old Bryce Town and past Ruby's Inn to cross UT-12 and circle through the mountains to the north before returning to the staging area.

Tropic Reservoir West Trail

Description: Difficulty: 6/10; Scenic: 6/10; 62 mi. Full day. Closed in winter.
Location: Start: Bryce Canyon Pines, an RV site on highway 12 about 4 miles west of the Bryce Canyon tourist entrance; End: Same.
Things to see: Scenic forest trails, beautiful color, wildlife.
Source/Maps: Submitted Trail; Bryce Canyon, Bryce Point, Wilson Peak and Tropic Reservoir quads.

“The Tropic Reservoir West loop trail first runs up to 9,000 foot Wilson Peak via a ridgeline trail. Then it makes a loop down southward toward Buck Knoll before turning north again to return to the staging area via Tropic Resevoir. [It shares some trail segments with the Hatch-Paunsaugunt and Panguitch Loop trails.]

Tropic Resevoir Southwest

Description: Difficulty: 8/10 (most 6-7 but extreme sections require experienced rider and no mistakes! Radically tight climbing loose switchbacks; Scenic: 8/10; 69 mi. Very full day.
Location: Start: Bryce Canyon Pines, an RV site on highway 12 about 4 miles west of the Bryce Canyon tourist entrance; End: Same.
Things to see: Scenic forest trails in the Paunsaugunt Plateau, beautiful color, views of pink cliffs looking south and east, another viewpoint to the south, and views all the way west to Hatch from the "radical section," forest wildlife.
Source/Maps: Submitted Trail; USGS: Bryce Canyon, Bryce Point, Tropic Reservoir, Podunk Creek and Alton quads.

“The trail runs much more south and makes an extensive, serpentigenous loop around the Paunsaugunt Plateau before returning back along the same trail. This ride was one of my favorites because one section about halfway thru involved a hair-raising series of steep switchbacks that probably went up over 1,000 feet in elevation in less than a mile.

“I say "probably" because I was too busy climbing that mountain for dear life to look down at my gps. I don’t easily recognize this section in my track file, probably because the switchbacks were so tight that they occurred between track ‘snapshots’ (I have since found a setting and turned up the "record-a-waypoint" frequency to ‘most’)

“The ride begins with a flat-out 20 mile flight straight down the ‘main’ trail running directly south from Highway 12 towards tropic. It goes by it closely on the east side of the reservoir (at about the 7 mile point) and then continues south. The loop begins at a point near a sign indicating Podunk ranger station – I never knew there was an actual Podunk - then proceeds counter-clockwise thru the track file eventually winding up back on the ‘main’ trail.

Putting together the beginnings of the Bryce Canyon Trail System Map was very interesting, especially getting to look at all the photos Randy sent. It is plain to see why they call this "Color Country."

Learn A Little More

The spaceship Endeavour has landed for the last time. For months the science-illiterate and ever vexom press has tried to turn every press opportunity into a "touchy feely" referendum on the end of the US space program and Endeavour in particular.

However, every time, NASA managers and astronauts answered the only appropriate way they could by saying, basically: "Let us complete the mission safely and then we'll commisurate with you."

None-the-less, after all mission objectives had been accomplished with honor (save a safe landing) and even before its final landing, STS-134 Commander Mark Kelly paid tribute to space shuttle Endeavour and the spacecraft's contribution to human spaceflight in a recorded message. In fact, all of the crew, Andrew Feustel, Mike Fincke, Roberto Vittori, Greg Chamitoff and Pilot Greg Johnson also shared their thoughts and impressions of Endeavour.

Take the time to watch what the ships last crew had to say.

Salazar Backtracks On His Land Grab - For Now

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 23:19:00 +0000

Offroading Home has just received word Wednesday morning that Secretary Salazar will back off on his "Wild Land" grab … at least for now. The letter we received from USA-ALL is included after the jump.

"This morning Secretary Salazar announced that the BLM will honor the Continuing Resolution's defunding of the Wild Lands policy by not designating any Wild Lands. USA-ALL and our partners have worked aggressively to see this terrible policy done away with.

"Utah's congressional delegation played a big role in pushing back against this offensive policy. Particularly strategic and aggressive efforts were undertaken by Congressman Rob Bishop and Senator Orrin Hatch. We all owe them big thanks!

[Officers of USA-ALL used donation monies to make several trips to Washington D.C. in order to aggressively fight against this Obama/Harry Reid backdoor atrocity that was trying to negate the normal legislative process where their wilderness bills which were failing. Reid, who was nearly ousted by the Tea Party was desparately trying to make good on his committment to the Sierra Club whose "donations" kept his political careet afloat]

"We should caution that we are not completely out of danger. The Wild Lands policy is still in effect. It has not been officially rescinded. We will continue to work towards that end. If we relax now this policy could still rise up and cause significant harm. Now is the time to push harder to achieve our goals of protecting access and seeing this policy reversed.

Good on ya, USA-ALL – and anyone of you who donated the funds to make it happen.

Life's A Musical - Only In New York

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:38:00 +0000

What do YOU know about New York? Have you visited? Have you lived there? I have! What do you think of when a friend tells you that they met someone from New York? A pleasant, happy go lucky individual who will go out of his way to help?

It's true that most consider New Yorkers as a bit stand-offish, and I can tell you that, for the most part, it's earned. After all, you don't hear the challange: "got a problem with that?" said very often anywhere else in the world – unless maybe France. But, there is Central Park, and Macy's and Gimbal's and about the highest concentration of difference-tolerant carbon-based organisms found anywhere in the galaxy!

I mean, there was a reason that the "Men In Black" story could only have its setting in New York – it's the only place in the world where the story would be believable! I mean, alien creatures living completely unnoticed amongst the population? Really… they were aliens not wizards like in England.

So, what would happen in, let's say, Salt Lake or Mesquite, if you were in a food court and literally everyone except you broke into a chorus of Handel's Messiah? Or, broke into an opera about passing them a napkin? … Would YOU simply fake it and join in so you weren't the only one left out?

[The odd thing is to note how long it takes simple bystanders to notice that there might be something different… and, to quickly shrug it off afterwards as something they saw every day… and, to figure out how to make money off it.]

The Grocery Store Musical

Gotta Share

I Love Lunch

Can I Get A Napkin Please

Handel's Messiah - Food Court Edition

Do Re Mi

Ohio State Union Building

Breakout in song - news coverage

If My Friends Could See Me Now

Godspeed Endeavour

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Wed, 18 May 2011 07:01:00 +0000

Finally, after several delays, the spaceship Endeavour left the Cape Canaveral starting blocks for its final voyage to the International Space Station. Its 16 day journey to outfit the Space Station with the long awaited Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer began with a lunge toward the clouds upon the command of the Auto-sequencer which controlled the thousands of "double-checks" and switch-throws necessary during the last nine minutes before the sparks started flying.

The six lucky astronauts' families watched from the roof of the launch control center as the clouds swallowed the ship mere moments after the launch, leaving them stunned silent from the site. Congresswoman Gifford (the commander's wife) made her second trip to the cape from her rehab hospital stay in order to participate in the event and said "Good stuff… good stuff" as her husband flew toward the stars.

Endeavor: A purposeful or industrious undertaking, especially one that requires effort or boldness.”

Really, cut short before it's time, upon returning Endeavour will begin its thourough decommissioning before ending its days as an exhibit at a Southern California amusement facility.

Launch: Endeavor, Launch Director - air to ground one.

Ship: Go ahead.

Launch: Ok, Mark, looks like a great day to launch Endeavour for the final time. So on behalf of the thousands of proud Americans who have been part of her journey… good luck, god speed and we'll see you back here June 1st.

Ship: Thank you sir. On this final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour we want to thank all the tens of thousands of dedicated employees who have put their hands on this incredible ship and dedicated their lives to the space shuttle program. As Americans we endeavor to built a better life than the generation before and we endeavor to be a united nation. In these efforts we are often tested. This mission represents the power of teamwork, committment and exploration. It is in the DNA of our great country to reach for the stars and explore! We must not stop!

To all the millions watching today, including our spouses, children, family and friends… we thank you for your support.

Launch: Outstanding words Mark, thank you sir. And to do that – you are clear to launch Endeavour.

Godspeed Endeavour!

Learn A Little More

Here is the video of Endeavours last launch.

Offroad: Gold Butte - Jumbo Creek Mine

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Sun, 15 May 2011 04:55:00 +0000

It's plain to see why the "old-timers" decided to put in so much effort exploring around the Jumbo Creek Mine area. Quartz has always been known as a harbinger of precious metals because the same geologic forces which produce them produce quartz as well. And there's a lot of it, at least on one outcropping.

We've been there several times but we've never been able to find any thing left of the once "Jumbo Creek Mine" besides the white post in the middle of a quartz tailing's pile so attesting to its name. No mine entrance. No left over mine equipment. Nothing! [A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: Offroading Home.]

In fact, there is no mention of it on either our GPS maps, our topo or other paper maps or even the official USGS "US Features" file which lists every registered landmark and geological feature in the CONUS. To make the enigma a bit more of a mystery, we stumbled across several BLM "mine-type" officials on our way down the Gold Butte Backcountry Byway who had come to The Butte to blow up some dangerous old mine entrances.

We told one of the fellows about where we were going and, after checking his "official maps," he announced that there wasn't supposed to be a mine there. I offered to take him with us because that's where we were heading and he acted like he was struggling trying to figure out how he could break it to his companions that he was staying. Finally, however, he succumbed to the airline ticket which was apparently in his pocket and declined our offer.

This trip we did stop off for a look-see at the Devil's Throat before continuing on to old Gold Butte where we stopped to stretch our legs. We went to visit the old arrastra in the foothills which we have also visited many times. It's the only one I know of but recently it's been intimated that there are two! If any of you know where the other one is – please let us know.

Arrastra's, Patio's and Silver

You probably know that an arrastra is not a new technology, in fact it isn't even a pioneer type mechanical instrument. It's ancient – similar in concept to old olive presses, grain mills and the like. A crude, shallow circular pit is paved with stone (or made out of stone) and a large block of stone, attached by a beam to a central rotating post, is dragged around reducing the ore to a fine mud. In the case of Gold Butte, it was gold, silver and other precious metals.

What you may not know (unless you're a mining type like Gordon) is that even after all the backbreaking work to make mud, it is only the beginning – there's still the "Patio Process" (or in some circles, the Mexican Process) to do before you get to see the pretty stuff.

No kidding, that's what it's called and it's been used since the late 1500's to extract silver from native rock. In Spain, the crisis of the day was the fact that the high-grade silver ore over in the conquered-America's was dwindling! Add to that the fact that a law had been passed making it illegal to enslave the locals, and you've got serious overhead (imported African "workers" were expensive!)

A merchant named Bartolomé de Medina made it his business to study the issue and gave credit to a mysterious encounter with a German man known only as "Maestro Lorenzo" for telling him that silver could be extracted using mercury and salt-water!

He decided that "the America's the place I oughta go..." so "he loaded up the truck and moved to Mexico... hills that is... colonies... silver mines..." Well, once he got settled, he spreading a foot or so of his arrastra-mud all over his patio and sprinkling salt water, magistral (copper sulfate) and mercury over the top of it. After making his horses tromp on it for several weeks, lo and behold he found he could get much higher yields of silver than ever before. All the baking in the sun and complex chemical reactions had converted the silver to native metal, which then formed an amalgam with the mercury and so could be recovered.

Several years of perfecting his recipe made for him his fortune and brought into existence a whole new job classification. It was quite a feat to know just how much of each ingredient to add, how much mixing was needed, and when to halt the process. It took an: Azoguero (quicksilver man).

"Tweaking" the Method

This "patio method" was used extensively in Mexico from its development until the early 1600's when "pan amalgamation" began. If, instead of using one's patio, you heated the slurry in a shallow copper vessel, it took only 10-20 hours to extract the metal instead of weeks! Isn't technology grand? And this was used, until around 1860 when a new tweak to the method was implemented in the mines of Nevada.

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.”
Howard Aiken

Well, they didn't call it Nevada back then, it was called: Washoe. These guys replaced the copper pans with iron tanks and mechanical agitators. To 1,500 pounds of ore sand you add water to make a slurry and drop in 70 pounds of mercury along with three pounds each of salt, and bluestone (copper(II) sulfate). Agitate and heat with steam pipes and voila… you've got silver-mercury amalgam.

That worked for most mines, except up around Austin NV, where their ore had arsenic or antimony sulfides, or galena or sphalerite. But, not to be outdone, it took Carl Stetefeldt until 1869 to discover up in Reno that if you roasted such adulterated ore with salt it converted the silver sulfides to silver chlorides, and then that could be recovered in amalgamation.

The final step in all of these processes is to bake the amalgam in high heat to vaporize the mercury away and leave silver metal behind in the fireplace. It takes about two pounds of lost mercury for every one pound of silver extracted. AND that, my dear chaps, is the rub… Mercury Poisoning!

Quicksilver and Dementia

Mercury is one of those geologic oddities which we used to readily obtain as children in order to coat penny's and make them look like dimes. It is a metal, but liquid at room temperature. It can also be a solid AND even a gas.

After enough workers got sick and even died, it was discovered that mercury is poisonous. It can be absorbed through the skin but even more readily through airborne vapor!

Common symptoms of mercury poisoning include: peripheral neuropathy (numbness, itching, burning or pain), skin discoloration (pink cheeks, fingertips and toes), swelling, and desquamation (shedding) of the skin.

Even more significant, mercury blocks the degradation pathway of catecholamines so the excess epinephrine causes profuse sweating, tachycardia (faster heart beat), increased salivation, and hypertension (high blood pressure). As usual, it affects children more severely than adults and can cause both kidney and psychiatric break-down (emotional lability, memory impairment and insomnia.)

Mines and Rumor's of Gold Butte

With proper recognition and the latest treatment many, but not all, of the symptom's can be reversed (it's pretty hard to restore a damaged kidney or brain cell.) What has all this got to do with our ride today you ask? Well, I'll tell you.

Almost no specific records of specific daily mining activities are still available today for the mines around the lower Gold Butte area. So, for example, we don't know miners habits or proceedures – like did they wear gloves, masks, shower daily, wash their hands, ventilate the amalgum firing stove or use it to cook their meals, or clear off the board before they laid their sandwich down, etc..

It is known, however, that at the mine formerly known as "Treasure Hawk" mercury amalgamation was used. What does still exist, is a bucket-full of stories about the odd activities of "Crazy Eddy" and his shotgun-enforced, isolationary ways.

Ed owned the mine before the latest owner, John Lear, bought it and ran it – until last year when he lost his mineral-lease from the BLM. After we had explored the Jumbo Creek Mine tailing's pile, we took a short jaunt over to where they were "dismantling" the Treasure Hawk. Two college type kids were there camping and bulldozing the site flat.

As luck would have it, we also met with another BLM guy there "checking up on their progress." It was he who told us more of both Ed and John, and the stories which surround them. Now, as I think back on what he told us, It isn't clear to me which of the two went with each of the stories he told. He did say that he saw one of them, many times, up to their elbows in mercury and said it was habitual. Both of the characters were/are quite "colorful."

Back on the Trail

There may be more to the old malady "gold fever" than most of us realize. It seems that a lot of old miners had some pretty odd behavior. And, speaking of behavior, we needed to get a move on because I wanted to show Gordon the back way out which Charlie had taught us. We went to Pierson Gap and turned right at the trail which then went up along the west of Azure Ridge Draw.

This time, however, we turned west on the trail over to Bill's Spring and the remains of what looks like a cowboy motel. A very long cement pad on which is fun to analyze all the stud anchors and imagine what it used to look like. Not very ancient, but historic none-the-less.

Of course, from there it's only a hop-skip-and-a-jump across the road to Willow Spring (today only imaginary) and Garden Spring, still full of desert-cooling, critter-drawing water.

Before returning back to the road and home, we followed a little used trail above the corral and pond into the hills. It wasn't much, but it did give some beautiful views overlooking desert washes before it ended at a turn-about in front of a drop-off.

To see the lower Gold Butte riding area, in a full day full of historic sites, this is a good way to go!

Learn A Little More

Speaking of poisoning (at least in a broad sense) I ran across an odd but poignant public service ad sponsored by "Partnership for a Drug Free America" on You Tube the other day. Unfortunately, it's all too familiar to anyone who has raised or even knows a teenager!

Congratulations It's a Teen

The Wilderness of Gold Butte

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Mon, 09 May 2011 22:51:00 +0000

For some time now I have had the BLMs map of their proposal for turning Gold Butte (and Bunkerville Flats) into a WILDERNESS AREA, glaring at me from the middle of my desk top, not knowing what else to do with it except look at it and shake my head in disgust.

Frankly, as a useable map for making an assessment leading to meaningful comment, it is completely worthless; there, I said it. It is nothing more than an enhanced clone of the map the Las Vegas BLM field office foisted on us when they went through and systematically closed close to fifty or so trail segments a couple of years ago. That map was completely worthless to the public, and so is this.

Absolutely NO geo-location marks! Absolutely no latitude or longitude markings! No road names. For the most part NO readable, meaningful labels! All this leaving even the most basic understanding of where things are, woefully complex and time consuming; beyond what most reasonable people are either able or willing to undertake. Then there's obsessive-compulsive me.

I have spent hundreds of hours geo-coding map overlays into Google Earth, and even more producing trail maps for this particular area. Perhaps my skills at it are a bit above average, if for no other reason than sheer practice. But, I have to say, making sense of this map was about the most difficult project I've done in a long time. It's taken months of starts and resarts to complete.

Even getting the BLMs graphic – which they insist on keeping protected inside the proprietary format (.pdf) established by a for-profit company (Adobe) for the express purpose of making files hard for people like you and I to use – took hours of manipulation.

Then, resizing and overlaying it onto actual real-world geographic coordinates came after that; and, I want to tell you, was no less cumbersome. One could easily get the impression that the BLM might NOT want people to really know what they are doing.

I am pleased to announce, however, that I have completed the project and there is now a Google Earth file of all the areas that Ms. Gayle Marrs-Smith, Susan Holecheck and lobbyist Nancy Hall are trying to turn into ATV-ORV prohibited wilderness areas. [The free Google Earth file of this Wilderness plan is available at: Offroading Home.] If you'd like, download the map and look at it while I explain a bit about it and how to use it.

Official or Un-Official

First – even though you will plainly see the actual BLM released map overlaid on the Google Earth, it must be taken with the same disclaimers that the BLM makes for its map; namely, that it can't be considered accurate - at least for the purpose of telling where "exactly" the boundaries are. Like I said, they have made absolutely NO effort in even mentioning a geographic survey number of any kind.

Second – Because there were no given registration marks, the registration was done by meticulous analysis of landmarks and trial-and-error scaling, rotation and translation until they all matched as close a humanly possible; and,

Third – After that, of necessity, the clickable colored polygons were created by tracing by hand around the boundaries on the overlay.

A Real Eye-Opener!

So, even though you won't settle boundary disputes with this map, it will be a real Eye Opener! You all know that Nevada is one of the most highly-federally owned state in the union. Large numbers of wildnerness areas already exist all over the state, not to mention military bases, refuges, regulated areas and just plain expanses that they have claimed rights to.

But, seeing what the "huggers" want to foist on us actually layed out on a globe, now labeled with places you recognize, will definitely astound, and (should) dismay you. Literally: They want to close off everything from the city border of Bunkerville to Lake Mead and from the Virgin River to the Arizona border! The only reason they stopped where they did was because another federal agency owned it!

National Conservation Area - with "multiple use" and wilderness

This title is so close to being an outright lie that you can feel the bullet's heat as it whizzes through your hair. Make a survey of how many NCA's around the country actually allow any type of offroad vehicle to even enter its borders. SO, what you and I use as a definition of "multiple use" does NOT seem to be what the Harry Reid supporters are using.

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Holecheck uses the "spin-doctoring" rhetoric that she "want's to be able to have a say in how the land is used!" The truth is that she (or us) will have no more say in how the land is used than we do right now (ie public, but largely ignored, comment) and most assuredly even less. And what about the people of Bunkerville? THEY DON'T want it!

The truth is: that any so-called committee appointed (by who?) to discuss what might be allowed in the area bounded by the thick red line will be absolutely required to use the mother-may-I Federal Play-Book for NCA's. Do YOU know what it is? Neither does Holecheck; and despite being asked numerous times, she hasn't made any obvious effort to find out.

Excluded Lands

So, what might they mean by the term "multi-use"? It can be nothing except what is already forced on them because specific tracs already have federal regulation attached to them. The Gold Butte Backcountry Byway (white line) would take another act of congress to overturn it's designation. But, that doesn't mean that the BLM (it's designated manager) must continue to allow ATVs or any other ORV type to use it.

It should be no suprise that about the only "non-red" areas on the map are around the byway! All the green area is severely restricted already by the Lake Mead National Recreation Area; but, ironically, just may turn out to be less restrictive by only making the requirement for "street legality."

The large track's of purple area are already existing (and closed to everyone except hikers) wilderness areas! And the unmarked area down at the southwest tip is so far distant (about a two hour travel time one way just to get there) so as to be virtually unvisited even now.

Wilderness Areas

Don't have any dreams about visiting any of the areas marked in red if you are a senior. They are pretty much designated as the exclusive domain for the Harry Reid campaign donors – the Sierra Club hikers. And notice how there are eleven of them, with different names? Might that be so any one of them doesn't set off red flags as to their excessive size? Or so that if one of them gets shot down, it won't affect the others? Several of them, expand already existing wilderness areas.

Using The Map

You are able to turn on and off almost all of the items on the map as you navigate in and out to look at any one area. I have placed a couple of key landmarks on the map which most everyone should be able to recognize and be able to get their bearings.

As you zoom in closer, even more landmarks will appear. Additionally, you can load any other of our Offroading Home maps onto the same screen and see how it will be affected by this proposal. The actual BLM graphic may be too dark in some areas to see the landmark that you want, so it can be turned off as well leaving only the transparent, hand-colorings that I've made.

There is an additional overlay of the existing Jumbo Wilderness that you can turn on if you desire, as well as the same "Lake Mead NRA" boundary line that we've used in other maps.

There you have it. This should at least help you understand the magnitude of what the Reid/Holecheck/Hall proposals will do to The Butte and Bunkerville Flats if they have their way. Let me know if you spot anything else that could be added to make it more useful.

Learn A Little More

Speaking of celestial navigation – a short time ago I watched a really interesting description of the use of an ASTROLABE. I'd heard about them, of course, and I've even seen one up close; but no one had ever taught me how to use one.

One might assume that as technology advances that we would get smarter, and more connected to the world. Professor Tom Wujec explains what one is, how to use it and what society has lost by embracing the iPhone.

Using an Astrolabe

Offroad: Mesquite - Noodling on North Flats

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:04:00 +0000

Probably one of the easiest ATV, SUV trailheads to get to in Mesquite is up the Mesquite Heights Road, most know it as the "road to the dump." There is quite a large staging area for the trailers of offroad vehicles just to the left before you arrive at the land-fill, a testament to its popularity and frequency of use.

Most of the use is from all forms of carry-alls of motorcycle's. The sandy wash banks and trails make for favored two-wheeled riding and we have never failed to see a group of cyclists whenever we have been there ourselves. This day was no exception, there were five in a "sleeper-van" who were spending the day offroad down from St. George. Actually, they were back at their trailer taking a "break" when we arrived.

It had been one of the ubiquitous rainy days this season and quite chilly; when, the sun coming out of the clouds triggered one of our genetic responses to "swim upstream" and get out in the air. Late in the day, there is really only one place to go offroad from Mesquite and that's North Flats.

What Gordon and I decided to do was try and see if there was a trail of some sort which would let us go a more direct way up to Abe Spring instead of needing to go up the teeth-cracking wash-boards of Toquop Wash. Anyone who has actually ridden on the trail will know exactly what I mean; those who haven't – don't! [A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: Offroading Home.]

We quickly ran up Mesquite Heights, which by-the-way is one of the Mesquite paved roads which have been reluctantly designated for use by ATVs, and found ourselves talking to the afore-mentioned cyclists. From there, it's about a city block to the entrance of the land fill where there is a trail leading to the west circumventing the dump's fence.

If you look at the satellite maps, it seems as though there are tiny slivers of trail markings running toward the mountains from Mesquite; however, what we actually found instead of the "secret passage" was that "there ain't no other way to get there from here cept'n Toquop." You see, the North Flats could also be called the "badlands" as well, because thousands of years worth of storms have created a dendritic drainage pattern which rivals even the best of fractals. And they're deep and steep.

Free ranging animals clearly mark the way to go with their trails – and it isn't THROUGH, it's AROUND! If you pull up our GPS track you can see that almost on the other side of the dump we were faced with the choice of right or left. Right was away from where we wanted to go, left was toward good ole' Toquop.

About two and a half miles from the land-fill the trail pauses before it leaps down the embankment into the wash. It's a nice site and every bit worthy of a photograph, if the lighting is right. The colorful cliff-sides of Flat Top Mesa are to the left and it isn't long until you are recognizing the familiar washboards of Toquop.

We turned north, toward the mountains as usual, and did find a "tributary" which we thought might stand a chance of being washboard-free – it was! However, its little surprise for us was that instead of up and down it began the back-and-forth-and-loopity pattern made by water which doesn't seem to have even a clue where the lake is. On paper, the trail really looks kinda fun; and it is, for about the first 5 miles on your odometer, until you realize that you have actually only progressed 2.3 miles toward your goal.

Long after you have begun asking yourself: "how long can this go on," and just as you are trying to find a place to stop and break out the Dramamine without looking like a sissy to everyone, the wash lurches back and spews you out onto beautiful flat trail – Powerline Road.

We knew where we were and that we could easily get over to the main wash to the west, but we still hadn't given up on finding "the northwest passage"; so, to the right (east) we went, all the time looking for a trail coming up from the south which we might have missed.

No joy! The next we knew we were in the familiar Sandhollow Wash heading south to the police gun range just on the other side of the dump from whence we started this adventure. You may remember me mentioning this wash before. It's the route you can take to get up to 3-corners out of Mesquite.

In all, a great day out of the house – even if we did get a bit nauseous in the middle part – and one we just have to tell Charlie about.

Learn A Little More

With the events of this past few days it makes one nostalgic for simpler times – and simpler presidential entanglements.

The Humor of Ronald Regan

Google Earth: Present and Future Tense

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:55:00 +0000

All indications are that Google Earth is about due for another Richter 7.0 shake-up – at least if you can believe the scuttlebutt at "Where 2.0" last week. I wasn't there myself, but lurkers in the "blogosphere" sure are all a-buzz about it.

"Where" is the massive conference started by Google last year to showcase their product and draw "groupies" from all around the globe who want to learn about and show off and network their projects that they are developing – notably those that use Google Earth and Google Maps. Using their familiar nomenclature, this, the second "version," is 2.0.

Upcoming Update to Google Earth - Log in feature?

Unfortunately, we are all too well experienced with the "hype" and "spin" big companies inflict on us in order to "social engineer" us into doing what they want. It is COMMON for companies, even Google, to claim that a NEW UPGRADE is for our benefit; when, in reality, what they really are doing is getting us to submit to a new software version that then keeps us out of their product unless we submit to even more advertising or LOG IN or tell them some kind of other personal information.

For years - there have been whiners all over the net who have wanted to take all the free work that Google has done, use it for free and make money for themselves by SELLING their maps (never mine they wouldn't work at all without Google). I must admit that many times even I have wished there were a more locked-down way of securing the maps which would prevent plagiarism (like I've even seen done with my maps in Mesquite).

Making money off of others work seems to have become a favorite scheme of lazy-but-greedy, untalented people everywhere. The scuttlebutt from "Googlers" (the eponym Google employees use for themselves) seems to be that they have begun comparing the Google Earth's security models to that of Google Docs; namely: that you can choose to keep data private, make it fully public, or grant access to specific users via their Google Account credentials.

What that means is, if they go through with it, there will be a future so-called "upgrade" for us to load which will change GE and make it PREVENT you from seeing certain content UNLESS you have gotten "permission" from Google servers to do so, by logging in. As long as you keep your old GE version it should work the same (until they turn off complete support for it); so, that should make you just a bit careful of what you choose to download from them in the future. I've long since turned OFF the "automatic update" from Google, having been burned by their all too frequent bugs they carelessly introduce.

If you want to check back here from time to time, I'll post about what any new GE version will actually do to your computer and whether or not you will still be able to obtain "free" maps. Or, those of you who are computer-savy can email me and tell me what you have found.

Japan's Photographs

Japan is rapidly becoming the most completely photographed place in the history of satellites. Hundreds of earthquake maps have sprung up all over the web, if not thousands. And, it is not at all surprising that land photographers would plug themselves in to Google Earth's new "street view" or "360 view" system.

To give you an example, I've extracted just one of the 360-views for you to look at. It was taken recently in Kiri-Kiri, Iwate Prefecture – in the middle of a housing district, not a junk-yard like you might surmise from the photograph.

To use this file you should click on the link and watch as your computer first opens Google Earth, then opens the file and shows you the inside-look at the 360-view. That is, if your computer and Google "talk" nice. If they don't, just download the file onto your computer, then "open" Google earth and "open" the file (from wherever you put it).

To open the 360-view directly, all you need to do is double-click on the icon and your screen will zoom into the inside of a sphere with the 3-D view visible all around you. Use the pan-right and left controls up in the top-right corner of your screen to look all around you.

When you are done looking, you can click on "Exit Photo" (top-right) and you will un-zoom back out to the normal Google Earth view which will enable you to see: 1) where the blazes you are, on the earth; and, 2) all the other possible 360-views that there are in the same locality. You can switch over to any one of them as well, any time you want. [Just make sure that you have the "Photos > Panoramio and 360-cities" turned on, over in the "layers panel" – lower-left of your screen. And while you are there you can also click a check mark in the "3D-buildings" box to see all the trees and buildings that are (used to be) there.]

And, speaking of pretty earth images: They have also given Mount Rushmore a "face-lift" and they look real pretty now! Mount Rushmore, USA .

And speaking of disasters: The University of Michigan (Perry Samson) has published a new map file of "12 tornadoes" which is interesting and poignant - if not very up-to-date.

Environmental Activism

It is clear that the "Earth" product has become a substantial arrow in the quiver of environmentalists everywhere – both for humanitarian and political purposes. You can both take a tour of the processional route for the recent "Royal Wedding," or become more immersed in all the "save the earth" rhetoric and data than you thought you'd ever be over at the newly announced "Earth Knowledge Portal."

The Earth Knowledge Portal is about the most complete collection of earth environmental activism in one place – anywhere! Ostensibly, they "invited" leading organizations with "data" to "reposit" them on Google and at the same time constructed a new "overlay" system to plot them on the Google-globe. A neat idea for scientists; however, you'll need to wade through mountains of "pat-em-on-the-back" pages of how wonderful certain world leaders are to find anything actually "scientific" and even then it's presented in such a heavy-handed, agendized way that it makes you wonder how far it can be trusted. Still…

The Royal Wedding link is, well… a bit of fluff; but, geographically speaking, is an interesting way to learn about world events and geography. You can even show-and-tell your kids/grand kids what you've found to show off. All you have to do is click on any of those above links next to the "Google Earth File Download" icons -

Learn A Little More

Today's video find came from a search of classical music. I was suprised to find a whole series of videos someone had posted from a classically-trained-pianist-turned-comedian: Victor Borge. But, given the times, not suprised that he had done a segment with the characters from one of our favorite set of flannel-people: Jim Henson's Muppets – the adult set, not the toddler set. Enjoy…

Victor Borge - Muppet Show - Beethoven

Offroad: Parashant - Savannic Mine

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:03:00 +0000

Little did we know that this snowbird riding season the Parashant Grand Canyon area would be the most interesting rides we would take… several times. And we would go again in a heartbeat.

We've seen it on our maps, and we've always intended to "run over to Arizona and see the mines"; but, it's a long way over there from Whitney Pockets, our usual staging area of choice. Just to Tassi Springs, which we wrote about last year, and back takes a very full day. The Savannic Mine - and others - are farther than that.

However… there is only one other ride on "The Butte" which rivals it for sheer grandeur! The ride over through Pierson Gap and down into Cottonwood Wash looks over the "Hell's Kitchen" area and is Magnificent. The ride along the shelf road, past Pigeon Canyon, is truly breathtaking, in more ways than one.

Of course there's the "breathtaking" grandeur of a Kodak-worthy photograph which even Photoshop cannot improve; then, there's the strangling-tightness which slowly creeps into your chest and makes your heart race for anyone even the least vertiginously challenged!

After hours of wrangling the rocks and boulders of Cottonwood Wash, and the endless switchbacks of the climb out of the wash, the snake-like, winding shelf road above the Pigeon Canyon Wash, a couple thousand feet below, is a welcome relief. Just don't drive and watch the view at the same time. [A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: Offroading Home.]

General Trail:

This 85 mile (round-trip) ride takes a very full day, so start early and take your cameras as well as extra water and a lunch – perhaps dinner too. In some areas, a 4-wheel drive is really nice to have in order to climb the 2500 feet change in elevation; but, a 2WD ATV made it and the trail width barely tolerates a side-by-side ATV.

The ride difficulty is really only considered moderate but may not be tolerated at all well by the vertiginously-challenged. Unmarked side trails make a good map and GPS mandatory - don't leave home without them!

Things to see:

Red Aztec Formation sandstone of the upper Gold Butte area, historic Copper City junction, Arizona's Cottonwood Wash, high canyon-rim trail over Pigeon Canyon, historic Savannic Mine ruins and shafts, ride through several biomes from desert to Pinon/Cedar.

Location:

South on Gold Butte Road then east into Arizona. The unmaintained county road/trail winds through washes then northward up a high canyon-rim trail to the old mine ruins: Savannic Mine, Arizona, USA [36°16'16.94"N, 113°48'3.83"W]

Trail Description

Begin at any of the parking 'corrals' in the Whitney Junction area. The trail runs south down the New Gold Butte Road, part of the legislatively designated Gold Butte Backcountry Byway. Continue past the turnoff to Devil's Throat and to the next major intersection. This is the former site of Copper City. Unfortunately, it is now just a dusty wide spot in the road and probably only marked with an "Arizona to the left" marker.

Left (southeast) is the way you want to go, along a pretty nondescript, sandy-desert, unmaintained county road for several miles, cross the Arizona border and down into Cottonwood Wash. It's not signed and you will need to watch your GPS track while taking this trail to avoid several "promising," but wrong, side trails.

In fact, unless you are just out to spend your time "exploring," your GPS may be your best friend on this ride; because, there are many crossing trails, none of them marked, and only one real way to get into the mine from the way we are going.

You cross Cottonwood Wash keeping due East on the trail. It will run just north of Whiskey Spring (in case you have a map marked such), although you won't be able to see it.

After awhile the trail begins to run southeast and sometimes truly looks more like a wash than a trail; except, once in awhile, you follow a short segment around some obstacle and notice tire tracks. If you have questions about which way to go, just point your vehicle toward Waypoint "#1", Arizona, USA [36°15'15.28"N, 113°51'17.47"W] – which is the farthest south the trail takes you.

At that point you will be north of "Nevershine" Peak and south (if you could see it from there) of Pigeon Canyon. You will recognize it because the trail turns north and becomes interestingly dramatic from then on.

You ride along a rim trail over something that could truly rival the Grand Canyon with magnificent views down Pigeon Canyon - I guess this is why they call this the Parashant Arm of the Grand Canyon. Lets hope you decided to heed my suggestion and brought your camera! If you didn't, you're gonna wanna come back.

Around a bend you begin climbing a couple of switchbacks, over some more rocks and... voila... Savannic Mine. There are a couple of old mine shafts, a broken winch or two and it's super place for lunch! The ruins at Savannic Mine need careful navigation. Old wooden ladders are rotten and broken winches are rusted solid.

As I slowly grow wise I briskly grow cautious.”
Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain

You will notice that the trail does continue up the cliffs to the east. This, however, is the furthest you can go without a solid 4-wheel drive vehicle and good tires. The incline, navigation over large rocks and uneven camber all turn it into an "expert" trail in difficulty.

However, this is what you came to see and the "views" are all the way you came. Up on top are the various old roads to the Grand Gulch and a couple other old mines. (Gordon has explored them and we have a trail map and report upcoming.)

The return is pretty much back the same way you came; although, believe me, it's a completely different ride. This time the canyon is in front of you and it's hard to keep your eyes off of it.

On this particular trip, in case you are following along on the Google Earth map, once we got near cottonwood wash, we did a pretty hefty detour down toward Tassi Springs then back up; however, you don't need any extra diversions to feel like you've just taken one of the best rides you've ever had on "The Butte."

Learn A Little More

In just a few short days the space ship Endeavor will fly to the International Space Station – for the last time ever! Fifty years of space-flight! Where has the time gone? Yuri, Sputnik, Shepard, Mercury, Apollo… the moon. Now, we're buds with our rivals for space in the greatest human achievement, well… ever: The International Space Station (ISS)! I'm sure that even Kufu, Ramses and his lot are scratching their heads and asking "how did they do that?"

A couple months further on and Atlantis will make the trip for its last time; then, it's all over! If Obama had his way there would be no more NASA. Oh, I know he likes the sound-bites and photo-ops and tries to interject himself into the TV coverage any time he can; but, his actions speak more loudly than his words.

One wonders just how someone arrives at setting giveaways to banks at a higher priority than NASA whose return on investment has been tried and proven over many, many years. (What kind of "return" have we gotten or will ever get from the banks.) But I digress.

Apollo was raised to completion in the dark years of war and student unrest. Of necessity, it had to fight for every column inch in the newspaper where mayhem and anger had permanent residence. And, you may remember what it was like during the months after Apollo landed on the moon. "What will they do next," was on everyone's lips. But, shortly, congress, and the press, and people were once again overpowered by daily agendas.

The likes of Werner Von Braun himself, and many others, carried the banner of exploration. In his public speeches he reminded us that the "dance was not over." There were places left to go and promises to keep. Several times, he capitalized on the old American phrase: Don't hang up your dancin' shoes, by warning us "Don't hang up your dancing slippers."

Through it all, NASA has continued to rewrite the science books and push boundary's and bring disparate peoples and enemies together on comparatively little investment for the massive return they have given.

Tina Swindell, a NASA employee also happens to be a professional singer/songwriter. I've posted one of her songs before. Today, in the headlights of the looming demise of the Space Shuttle program, let's remind ourselves that the music is still playing and we've got dancin' left to do.

Dancin' Shoes - by Tina Swindell

GEO-tography: Forced Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 23:54:00 +0000

In our continual quest to make the photographs we take look more like the places we've actually been, I thought we might take a peek at something called "Forced Perspective."

We all (at least those of us who haven't been living under a basket) have seen the technique at work; but, may not recognize the accurate name. Forced perspective is the technique Peter Jackson (I guess we have to call him "Sir Peter Jackson" now) uses to make his Hobbit's look realistically small next to Gandalf.

Basically, it's using your camera's settings to obtain the great depth of field and focus necessary; then, aligning two subjects precisely - one closer to the camera than the other. (huh?) Look, take one subject and put it closer to the camera. Then, align a second object further away from the camera so that it looks like what you want in the view finder. Then do what you need to bring them BOTH crisply into focus at once.

Objects can appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than they actually are, and you don't need to use Photoshop or Gimp to do it. It just takes a little creativity with the placement of the subjects in the shot and the camera angle.

Still don't get it - well a picture is worth a thousand words. Twenty-eight of them to be exact.

Movie Madness By dolmansaxlil

Nice Pony! By creatocrat

Nothing Like a Roaring Fire By dibytes

Model Town By Matt West

Friend For Support By SuReSh, the Traveler

Suzi holding the Leaning Tower of Pisa By trixnbooze

Brincando com a perpectiva (Playing with perspective) By Alexandre Duarte

Hey, Let Go By Fokket

1960 By tchola

Roadtrip North of Salta: kaartje voor mn neefje By mansszat

Spielen By erkannnix

Hunter and his Woody by ~elementalist

Camel Kisser By sebr

Please don't fall, cloud by =P0RG

Clearing the Waters By With Hope

Being Crushed By dan.oxlade

Fixing the Washington Monument By mjsmith01

Forced Perspective By

Learn A Little More

We are in for a real treat today, that is if you've got just a couple more minutes to spare to see something more. Several weeks ago, I told you about a television special done quite awhile back called "Two of a Kind" staring the duo who struck up a real friendship after appearing in "Oh God" together: George Burns and John Denver.

In fact, their "chemistry" was so good that audiences demanded one or two of their specials every year until death took them. George lived to be 100, John… well, quite a bit less; but, here it is 2011 and they are still entertaining.

I wish that someone had recorded the show in better quality, and I really wish the person who had posted it on the web had been as much a fan of George as he was of John's, but we can be glad we have it at all. I posted part one before, part two was a monologue by George and not posted by the John Denver fan, and – here is:

George Burns and John Denver - Two of a Kind, part three.

Pinyon Nuts

noreply@blogger.com (Dr J) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:00:00 +0000

As kids, much more so than now, we used to enjoy going "pine cone hunting" in the fall. Not every fall; because, as it turns out, the little fellows are a capricious lot – not un-similar to those Joshua Trees. They don't seed (or bloom) every year – and they pretty much keep their intentions and motivations close to the vest.

Once in awhile you might hear an old timer say out loud: "'S lookin' like it'll be a good yar fer pine nuts!" But just let those trees not produce a crop this year, and that same codger is just as likely as not to give you a disgusted look like: "you must be nuts" when you remind him about telling you that later on if it doesn't happen.

Of course, even though most call them "Pine Nuts," it's only the specific Pinyon Pine which produces the nuts we are talking about. As nutrition goes, they are full of it. No wonder they were the dietary staple of the Paiute tribe as well as most other Native American groups throughout the southwest.

Indigenous peoples ate them both raw and roasted, and they often made Pemmican by mixing ground pinyon nuts with animal fat to make a calorie rich, nourishing and easy to carry "trail mix." [See other information and photos at: Offroading Home - Resources.]

My forest ranger grandfather used to be able to tell me the proper name for nearly every species of tree in the Manti-LaSalle forest. Unfortunately it didn't stick, but I do remember that there are about a dozen different species of Pinyon Pine.

However, only four of the species are found in North America, north of the US-Mexico border; and of those, only one, the Single Leaf Pinyon Pine, Pinus monophyllia, is found in pretty much the entire southern Great Basin where it is the predominant small pine tree, often with Utah Juniper and sagebrush. They are "mountain-mates" with White Fir and Limber Pin at upper elevations and Joshua Trees at the lower.

If you are in the Great Basin or Sierra Nevada's, identifying a pinyon pine should be a piece of cake. It will be the only pine tree (you know those green things with needles instead of leaves, even in the winter snow) which has a single needle attached to each brachlet. The other pine species (Ponderosa, Lodge Pole, etc.) have their needle attachments in groups of twos, threes or fives.

Huntin' and Catchin'

The Pinyon was probably the most important tree for Great Basin native groups. The Owens Valley Paiute called the nuts "Tuvap" or "Tuvah" and the ever present pitch "Son-o-pee." [Most city-slickers, who have their hands, face and hair full of it, call it son of something; but it's not "pee."]

Families and even groups of families would gather in good stands of trees in the fall to gather nuts. Good crops occured only irregularly every few years, so they had to move from place to place. Sometimes trees were even pruned and encouraged to produce by beating and thrashing.

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.”
Mark Twain

Some accounts were of 30-40 bushels being gathered by an individual for winter storage. They are rich in carbohydrates with lesser amounts of fat and protein but yield about 2,215 calories per pound. Collecting experiments showed that the "energy return rate" for pinyon nuts ranges from 840 to 1400 calories per hour of collecting and processing. I'm just going to have to trust old Julian Steward who says that "it's relatively high for plant foods" in his book "Ethnography of the Owen's Valley Paiute."

Luckily for us, Harry Reid-Sierra Clubbers haven't yet made it illegal to forage our forests for wild berries and pine nuts – and there isn't even a permit required, as long as they are for personal consumption and NOTsold (even if you don't make a profit.) The way things are going, many of us may yet need to go back to foraging the land in order to survive.

Even though September is the month the books say is the time to "nut" (if the trees decide to do it at all) there may or may not be a crop, they may ripen early or later and/or they may be gone when you get there – depending upon how hungry the squirrels are. If there's a good crop, with abundant cones, October could even be good too.

You want to pick the cones only after they are ripe, but before they fully open and the nuts fall to the ground. Some birds are adapted to hunt down and extract the nuts from even the most recalcitrant cone (Pinon Jay's come to mind); but, once they fall to the ground there are hundreds of "beasties" that make them fair game – it's a wonder that any of them ever survive to germinate!

From experience, you definitely CAN eat nuts which have fallen to the ground; but, the chances of finding one that doesn't have a tiny hole in the shell, and has an actual nut left inside, is almost so slim that it isn't worth the trouble of bending over. Native Americans used to painstakingly create gathering poles with little crook's at the end to help make the job of picking the cones a bit easier.

They are nearly always still full of pitch when you go a-gathering, so the process pretty much ruins any clothes you are wearing, and your hands (as well as anywhere they touch) become "super-glue" magnets by the end of the day.

Greenhorns, novices, kids wet-behind-the-ears and other wannabe authorities will tell you that the best way to clean your hands of the pitch is with "most any brand of mechanic's waterless hand soap." But you know what's the best? Plain ol' margarine! Yep, you heard right – margarine. It doesn't even need to be real butter, just cheap, easy to find, margarine in a tub.

Now, in case this all sounds glamorous and you are wondering why most "civilized" people quit pine hunting long ago, let me jog your memory. September-October in Pinon country is cold. Gathering nuts is done at 5800 to 8500 feet and often in the snow! Pinon pines grow on mountains, not in parks, so getting to them isn't a stroll along a bike path. They love drainage and prefer gravelly soil on an incline – 30 to 45 degrees!

Additionally, cones grow most profusely in the "growth" areas of the tree (think top) which are much more accessible by birds than by your species; and it takes a whole lot of 'em to fill a gunny sack!

Cookin' and Eatin'

If you are lucky enough to get a sack home – the work is just beginning. They will likely still be green, so spreading them out on a tarp and letting them dry out may help. But the last thing you want to do is put them in a plastic bag or container – they will mold up and be ruined faster than you can blink. Believe me, we know.

Then, only someone who is trying to sell you a book or something will advise: "simply shake the seeds out of the cones onto an opened newspaper." If someone tries to sell you that, simply smile and walk away in the knowledge that "this guy has never picked a pine cone." There is nothing "simple" about it. It's mostly the spoiled seeds that simply drop out of the cone, the rest don't come out without some form of a fight!

You'll eventually win, but you will definitely invent some finger-numbing strategies to extract them before it's over. And, remember the margarine? Once the seeds are de-coned they may be stored in a dry, well ventilated environment for up to a year. Remember, don't store in a sealed container.

The battle still isn't over. They've been de-coned, but there's still the shell. If you're eating them directly, it's pretty much like eating a sunflower seed. It may take some practice but your tongue and teeth can become pretty skillful at extracting the nugget; but, most still use a bit of help from a thumb and fore-finger.

Eating them raw can be done, and is a great tasting snack; however, nothing beats the taste of a roasted pine nut. If you are going to roast them, the time to do it is BEFORE you take them out of the shell. To do otherwise can easily turn them to rocks (or dust.) No bueno! You can even roast them while still in the cone.

We've used a baking sheet, in a low 200 degree oven until done, for both cones and nuts; and even the microwave – although, that's really best for just cones, and still be prepared to stand there with your hand on the switch for when they start exploding. It takes a lot of trial and error to get the settings and timings just right, but it can be done.

The best way however, is the original way: dig a hole in the back yard, build a fire, let it die to coals, cover with leaves, then nuts, then leaves, then dirt. Leave them to cook and come back when they're done. Dig them up, shake off the dirt, then de-cone and shell them to eat around a fire after a long day of "pine cone hunting."

To use them for pesto or in other cooking, they still need to be de-shelled. Unfortunately, there really isn't any more simple and accurate way to crack the shell than with your front teeth; which really isn't "good eats" if you are doing it for someone else or for cooking.

I've seen people roll them gently with a rolling pin between two towels - paper or dish. And believe it or not I've even seen someone meticulously set the limit screw on his vise-grips to just barely crack a pine nut shell! Either way, it's pretty much one nut at a time; which, to me, just isn't worth it for baking. Much more simple (and cheaper) to just go to the store and buy a bag of generic pine nuts to use. "Hunted" and "caught" nuts are for mouth-crackin' and eatin'.

For use in pesto's, baking or even roasting for snacks it needs to be done fairly quickly, before they dry out. Once dried, they don't re-constitute well and are ground for flour. Once they are roasted and shelled they can be refrigerated in a sealed container. They are used in baked goods, beverages, cereals, fish dishes, meat dishes, pasta, pilaf and salads — if you have to.

Learn A Little More

All this talk about food has made me thirsty.

I found this little ditty while I was working on the web the other day. It's been around awhile but was new to me and pokes a little fun of those "got milk" commercials in an odd sort of way.

Offroading Home

S.O.P.A: A really BAAAD Idea

GEO-tography: Paths and Trails

Photography of Paths and Trails

Thank You - Whoever You Are

Money Jail

Top ORH Reader Purchases - 2011

Ultimate Offroad: Terminus Overtakes Space Shuttle

Learn A Little More

Atlantis Last Launch

More Than Tradition

Last Backflip

Does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Learn A Little More

GEO-tography: Macro

GEO-tography: Sunrise

Sunrise Photography

Offroading Break

Jumbo and Lime Wilderness BLM Meetings

Offroad: Mesquite - CCC Cabins

Learn A Little More

George Burns: Old Bones

GEO-tography: Spring

Obama Utah Land Grab

Colorado Backroads: Offroad Trails Map Update

Area 1 (Southwest Region)

Area 2 (South Central Region

Area 3 (South Central Region

Area 4 (North Central Region

Area 5 (North Central Region

Area 6 (Front Range Region)

Area 7 (South Central Region

Offroad: Gold Butte - Devil's Cove, Horse Springs

Learn A Little More

George and John: Two of a Kind, part 4

NEW: Bryce Canyon Trail System

Bryce Canyon - Hunt Loop Trail

Tropic Reservoir West Trail

Tropic Resevoir Southwest

Learn A Little More

Salazar Backtracks On His Land Grab - For Now

Life's A Musical - Only In New York

The Grocery Store Musical

Gotta Share

I Love Lunch

Can I Get A Napkin Please

Handel's Messiah - Food Court Edition

Do Re Mi

Ohio State Union Building

Breakout in song - news coverage

If My Friends Could See Me Now

Godspeed Endeavour

Learn A Little More

Offroad: Gold Butte - Jumbo Creek Mine

Arrastra's, Patio's and Silver

"Tweaking" the Method

Quicksilver and Dementia

Mines and Rumor's of Gold Butte

Back on the Trail

Learn A Little More

Congratulations It's a Teen

The Wilderness of Gold Butte

Official or Un-Official

A Real Eye-Opener!

National Conservation Area - with "multiple use" and wilderness

Excluded Lands

Wilderness Areas

Using The Map

Learn A Little More

Using an Astrolabe

Offroad: Mesquite - Noodling on North Flats

Learn A Little More

The Humor of Ronald Regan

Google Earth: Present and Future Tense

Upcoming Update to Google Earth - Log in feature?

Japan's Photographs

Environmental Activism

Learn A Little More

Victor Borge - Muppet Show - Beethoven

Offroad: Parashant - Savannic Mine