In too deep

This weekend was a real eye opener for me. Coming from the east, it certainly was easy to underestimate the snow of the Sierras. We would get snow in West Virginia, but powder days seldom occur. So when I checked the weather forecast for Lake Tahoe and they were calling for snow, I thought ok, conditions will be prime. The mountains out here are big, don't let them fool you, breaking trail through 3-4 feet of pow is a task.

The plan as it was when I left San Francisco at 5:30am was to park at Squaw Valley resort, then ski just outside the ski area boundary into the Granite Chief Wilderness that is adjacent to it. I got lucky with parking and entered a sort of trail at the far west end of the town. Following a previously broken trail, I forded a creek and found myself a few hundred feet above the town.


The pre-broken snowshoe trail ended nearly as quick as it started and soon I was breaking trail, spirits were high.

I was jammin' to my shuffle, life was good. It is definitely easy to underestimate how much effort it is to break trail, even in about 2 feet of pow. I quickly determined the depth of the pow was too much to warrant a valid attempt on Granite Chief. So I made camp and woke up the next morning to a foot of new snow and the tent walls sagging very low. Here is a photo after I finished clearing it off. It was quite quaint being next to the tree, it was a swell wind break for the stove.


Pretty much the entire day it snowed, sometimes big quarter-sized flakes. Boy did the snow get deep quick! By the time I left, I would wager to say it snowed 2-3 feet. I dug a test hole to the ground in a nearby drift, and started to build a cave, it may not look it, but this hole was 7-8 feet deep!

After resolving that an attempt to go higher would be treacherous, I kept busy clearing off the snow from my shelter and enlarging it from the inside. Then all of a sudden the stove malfunctioned, repeatedly. Even after I had used it with no problems the whole trip. I don't know if it was the altitude (only about 7,000 ft.) or the cold or a broken piece in the pump mechanism itself. I took that sucker completely apart, cleaned it methodically and tried to coax it to life. It just would not maintain a hot flame (stove is a MSR Whisperlite Internationale). Since there was no real feasible way to melt snow for water or boil for tea, it was game over.

I started to leave at about 5:30-6:00. I did not get back to the car until 9:30, it took more than 3 hours to cover about 2 miles and it was a serious task. The combination of fresh, fluffy pow and me with my heavy rucksack on skis did not grant me the proper flotation I needed. Each step brought me forward and down, to practically my thighs and waist. It was an agonizingly slow process, I could only do 10 steps before having to catch my breath. Since the trail I blazed going out was gone, I had to break a new one, through 4+ feet of pow. Breaking trail can be a drag, if someone was there with me it would not have been so bad.

Many lessons were learned this trip. Make sure the stove works properly before leaving home- bring more fuel than you think you'll need, eliminate access weight, i.e. heavy food. If I had a lighter pack (and I thought it was pretty light- sub 30lbs), I think the going would have been much easier. Being solo into the backcountry in winter time is potentially dangerous, I should have stayed a bit closer to the car. Most important lesson: don't underestimate the snow!

However, I did have fun clearing off my car, she is nearly unmistakable. I was secretly hoping the giant block on my roof would last until the Bay Area, but warm central valley rain ruined it (-;

Larger Than Life

A stroll through a redwood forest is a special experience. They have a particular aura about them that is difficult to pin down with words, they teem with great variety and composition. I believe it is important to write about what makes redwood forests so special. Just to give you an idea, one tree easily dwarfs my rucksack at the base of the tree.


For starters, these forests contain more living biomass than any other ecosystem on earth, 10 times a tropical rainforest! Although a tropical rainforest may triumph the redwoods by their complexity. Redwoods are so immense they alter their surroundings, creating niches for a plethora of other organisms. Such as the banana slug, which is an astonishing 6 inches long!


Another element of wildlife worth mentioning is the presence of northern flying squirrels at the redwood forest. Probably similar to their eastern counterparts in the red spruce forests of high-elevation West Virginia, the northern flying squirrel is a quiet gliding mammal that swoops from branches in old growth.

The wood of redwoods is full of tannin, a toxin that makes it resistant to damage from pathogens, as well as rot. That is why redwood is a splendid timber species, aside from the enormous pores of the heartwood that characterize it. Since redwood are so resistant to rot, downed trees often take centuries to decompose, slowly releasing nutriets for the next generation and acting as "nurse logs" or habitat logs for new trees and plants to grow.

The weather was so beautiful in the evening I decided just to sleep outside. Below is quite a nerdy self-portrait of me and my camp site.


Perhaps you are wondering, what is the secret of the redwoods? How can they grow so BIG? One reason is their well-develped system of water works. Redwoods only grow as far inland as the effect of the ocean, so when the cold and moist ocean air meets the hot valleys of CA's central valleys fog occurs. Drought is common here in the summer time and the fog aides redwoods immensely. In fact studies have shown redwoods may even extract water from the fog using their leaves. An old growth redwood forest even generates its own fog by the individual trees transpiring, this fog acts as a sort of blanket to hold in the heat of the day below, many species depend on this effect. Redwood forests are amazing in their ability to moderate climatic extremes.

The redwoods carefully evolved traits are perfectly suited to its range and it thrives and dominates, allowing it to grow very old, perhaps a few thousand years! I thought the biggest and perhaps oldest tree in the park was this one, I am not sure of it's name, but it was truly colossal!


Nearly 14 feet in diameter! Absolutely a "larger than life" specimen!

I am not an expert on redwoods or trees for that matter, so if you're an expert or know more, please post a comment, I am eager to learn more about this fascinating ecosystem!

Bay Area Weather

The best way to describe the weather of the greater San Francisco Bay Area is Mediterranean. Since I have arrived, it has not gotten colder than 50 degrees nor warmer than 70 degrees, but that can vary greatly depending on where you are. You see, the combination of a steady maritime influence and such undulating, mountainous topography creates rather bizarre microclimates. Up in Marin County, north of San Francisco downtown proper, you might find cold and wetness. Down here in Pacifica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifica,_California) it will be super windy and dry. Even crossing into a different valley within Pacifica will yield you slightly different conditions, going up in elevation changes everything too!

The cities characteristic fog is the result of cold ocean water trying to mesh with hot Central Valley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Valley_(California)) air. It is not unusual for the eastern sheltered parts of the city to recieve more sunshine than other parts such as Sunset district, which tends get fogged out. On the same token, further inland into the San Francisco Bay it can get real hot, but atleast it is a dry heat out here.

The climate of San Francisco makes it extraordinarily well-suited for growing landscape trees (and growing nearly anything really!). No tree guide can help you identify all of the citys trees, native species seem to grow where they can and many others dominate the yards of suburban homes. There are hybrids and imports from Asia, Europe, South America and Australia. Favorable landscape species such as sycamore, ash, elm, oak (including evergreen ones) and maples can be found here too. So, anyone working with the trees has a lot to learn, and let me tell you, tree identification in San Francisco is a real challenge!

As I write this a new front has moved in and ruined a solid 10 days of blue bird days, which was honestly the longest period of sunshine I have experienced in the middle of winter in my life. The front will bring frightfully cold temperatures in the 50s and rain, but they need the later very badly here! Wishful thinking near my place:

San Francisco parking

This blog serves to help anyone who desires to drive in downtown San Francisco. I had a nice conversation with an individual yesterday who is a high-ranking parking official for downtown. She had some good tips for parking violations.

Watch out for driveways, if ANY part of your car (including bumpers) hangs out into the curved part of a driveway you are liable to be ticketed and towed, but ONLY at the landowners discretion. However, if the inevitable happens and you do see your car being towed you do have one right. If part of your car is still at the curb, then the tow truck driver HAS to put down your car and you just pay the citation (if a ticket has been written or the parking control officer is present), but when they pull away it is at the tow truck driver's discretion whether to give your car back or not.

Watch out for areas that are parking most of the day, but at certain hours are commuter lanes. If you park in this area and say the commuter lanes go from 1500-1700 and you are parked at 1505, you will get cited and towed. In fact, the parking control officers (as they like to be called) ride around with the tow truck drivers and it is not uncommon to be cited and towed in 2-3 minutes flat. That is unbelievably fast and your car is gone )-; only to be retrieved by paying $285 and up! By the way, parking citations went up recently, I was told that most are $85 a pop!

Also, an officer can write you a ticket and not give it to to you or place it on your car. This happens typically when someone is sitting in their car in an expired metered spot. I am told that officers have been assaulted in the past and prefer not to have to place the citation on your car, so it gets mailed to you instead (not sure how this applies to out-of-state residents such as myself). I had good luck sitting in my car in metered spots, but know that it illegal to do so and it is discretionary to the parking control officer to tell you if they are writing you a ticket while you are in it.

One last comment, when you get a ticket from a police officer (not a parking control officer), double check to see that all the information is filled out. If not, that ticket is DEFINITELY protestable. You can usually identify if a police officer has written your ticket by PD... at the top. What is also worth protesting is when on the ticket the location the officer gave is too vague to identify where your vehicle is, for instance "handicap ramp, Chestnut", well there might 4 handicap ramps on Chestnut Street, which one is it?

Keep in mind the colors of curb markings too; yellow is for business, I think red is for emergency vehicles. Also note the color and messages of the meters themselves. ALWAYS make sure to look within 100 feet of where you are parking or 5 spots in front or behind you for a sign. If the sign is beyond that distance, you're usually in the clear.

Good luck playing the parking game, it is a cutthroat one.

Climbing at the beach

The wonderful thing about a marine climate is its temperance. The ocean is such an effective temperature buffer, moderating the extremes and keeping things pleasant, very suitable for climbing outside, even in January. You have to be careful though, I have found many beaches here in northern California to be short on sand when the tide is in, perhaps that is how most beaches begin before sand is brought in for people to lounge on.

Mickey's Beach is a little known area just south of Stinson Beach in Marin County, just north of San Francisco downtown proper. Famous among the locals as a "nude" beach, it is also known as a climbing/bouldering area to those who use to recreate for that purpose. I arrived in the early afternoon, very bad timing for the tides as they were quite high! Most of the routes have water access only, pretty dissapointing. If you can get over the fact that nude people love to frolick around in this narrow sheltered area, there is good bouldering to be had.

No photos could be taken near the beach area where the climbing is, but here is an overview of the beach (without seeing the actual beach), you can vaguely pick out the popular Stinson Beach just to the north on the other side of the big boulders.


Yet another sunset on the way home:

Bay Area exploration

The range of activities in the San Francisco area rivals only the range of landscapes. Since arriving in the Bay Area last Monday, I have taken the week to explore as much as possible here in the city. One of the first things anyone should do first is see the Golden Gate Bridge, just as it seems in the photo, it truly is bigger than life (and $6/car to cross it!).


Next, I made my way to Fisherman's Wharf.


Word to the wise; do not take your car to downtown San Francisco, you will pay a dollar for 24 minutes (25 cents for 6 minutes) at the parking meter. I looked for what seemed like forever for Boudin (http://www.boudinbakery.com/), the infamous San Francisco sourdough bread maker, but came up short. Lunch was at hand and I was hungry so I opted for In-N-Out Burger and it was supremely delicious, I mean come on, you gotta enjoy that here- we don't have these in the east!

I kept cruisin' and made it the Santa Cruz mountains that run just south of San Francisco. I followed scenic highway 35 and stopped at a nature preserve for a short hike. Not even a half-mile down the trail I ran into some enormous douglas-fir trees. I could not even see their tops and as you can tell from the photo, their girth dwarfs the walking trail beside them.

This wonderful day of exploration ended with a sunset stop at San Gregorio beach, just south of Half Moon Bay. The coastline of northern California is really rugged.

I live here too...