A Humbling Experience
I parked the car at the 10 freeway at Cottonwood Rd, Cabazon. The PCT crosses here, and it’s where I’d left off on the last section. It was about 5pm when I started hiking up towards the Mesa …
Minor Hardship and a New P.R.
I set out Friday to continue on the PCT, starting from Paradise Valley Cafe and aiming to end up at the Interstate 10 freeway. After parking the car near the trail where it intersects the 10 I hailed …
Scissors Crossing to Paradise Valley Cafe
The snow has started to melt in Southern California and PCT season has begun! What better time to continue along the trail than now, along with the rest of the herd of thru-hikers?
The Mojave Road
We were pleasantly surprised with a call from Eric inviting us on an ‘overland’ trip on the famous Mojave Road. The road (originally a trail created by Mohave Native Americans) is now apparently one of the great overland trails …
Yosemite Facelift
The Yosemite Climbing Association puts on a yearly event to clean up the park. We went to help pick up rubbish, and had a great time.
Marion Mountain Camping
We went on a camping trip to Idyllwild with our friends Joel, Amy and Meret. It was a blast!
Jalama Beach and SpaceX launch
We’ve been following SpaceX from home, watching their launches and landing attempts live whenever possible on the computer. They’re normally launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, so when we heard that the launch of the Jason-3, a NASA …
Freezing Thanksgiving in the Desert
We joined a convoy of Vanagons and Westys (80’s VW buses) the day after Thanksgiving and headed out to the desert. It was a really cold night, dropping to 27 degrees F. But, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving …
Airplane Attitude Indicator for the Car
When you’re off-road it’s a good idea not to flip your car over. Apparently it’s a commonly held rule-of-thumb that when the car is more than 30 degrees tilted around the ‘roll’ axis, a rollover is imminent (or has already …
Anza Borrego Abandoned Railway Station
We headed out for another quick camping trip with our off-road buds. Back to the desert, this time to the ruins of an old railway station somewhere near Ocitillo.
Weather Radio for the Car
In the USA, there’s a service provided by NOAA called Weather Radio. It is a continuous, automated voice reading weather conditions and forecasts. It sounds like this: Weather Radio Sample (from Wikipedia). In the event of weather alerts …
Anza-Borrego Desert – Wilson Peak and Yaqui Well
When the Land Cruiser first arrived home it wouldn’t switch in and out of 4WD, and it had failed its smog check due to a high idle and non-spec catalytic converter. We changed the 4WD vacuum solenoid valve …