Dan's Outside

I go, I see, I do, I walk, I think, I like…

First Car Over Tioga?

Probably not, but it is fun to ask. I updated the Tioga Pass photo in the previous post (see below) to include a shot taken about five minutes before noon. Note the car that has just passed through the entrance station. I’m jealous! :-)

(For me, the opening of Tioga marks the official start of the summer season in the Sierra.)
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May 11, 2007 Posted by | Yosemite | Comments Off on First Car Over Tioga?

Tioga Pass – Ranger Station Flag is Flying :-)

&uotThe Tioga Web Cam shows a clear road and a flag flying over the entrance station – all encouraging signs for today’s scheduled opening to the public.


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May 11, 2007 Posted by | Yosemite | Comments Off on Tioga Pass – Ranger Station Flag is Flying :-)

Tioga Road Opens Friday – It's Official

According to the Yosemite National Park web site Tioga Pass road will open at noon on Friday. As in tomorrow. :-)
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May 10, 2007 Posted by | Yosemite | Comments Off on Tioga Road Opens Friday – It's Official

Tioga Pass Opens Friday?

&Yosemite Blog:

Tioga Set to Open Friday.

Sources are saying Tioga is ready to open this Friday (May 11) at noon, weather permitting.

No services or campgrounds will be available for a while yet.;/p>

Hikers and back country users take note: most of the trails are still covered with snow and streams are high with runoff. Over the last few years several hikers have perished during the early season fording creeks and streams.

Remember, never travel alone in the back country and leave an itinerary with someone who can send help for you if you don’t show up on time.

[Yosemite Blog]

A few comments… I’m not certain, but I think that the road has tended to open on a Thursday in past years – perhaps so that some traffic can flow over before the inevitable first-day rush? I still won’t be surprised if it is possible to get across Tioga Pass today. (But I’ve been publicly wrong before… :-) Speaking of which, I still think I might have been right about the possibility of an opening last week – except for a bit of surprise weather at the last minute.
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May 10, 2007 Posted by | Yosemite | Comments Off on Tioga Pass Opens Friday?

A Lesson on How to Read Testimonials

A recent incident where a man enrolled in a survival school program died of dehydration while the guides didn’t offer him water causes me to read the school’s testimonials in a whole new light. From their web site:

  • …the place to go to gain primitive survival skills.” – The Ultimate Adventure Sourcebook
  • “…the BOSS program is in a league of its own…” – Shape Magazine
  • “After roughing it with the BOSS, you’ll be ready for just about anything….” – Men’s Fitness Magazine

… like meeting your Maker?

Another web site memorializes the victim.
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May 8, 2007 Posted by | Commentary | Comments Off on A Lesson on How to Read Testimonials

Where did the Dweebs go?

I’ve been a follower of the Mammoth Dweeb Report web site for its up-to-date and sometimes eclectic weather and climate reporting. However, the site seems to have gone AWOL and I only get an error message.

Does anyone know what happened?
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May 7, 2007 Posted by | Commentary | Comments Off on Where did the Dweebs go?

A Couple Tom Stienstra Articles

A couple of Sierra Nevada stories in SFGate:

NOTEBOOK / The mountain highways are opening up all over Northern California. Highway 108 at Sonora Pass became the first trans-Sierra highway to open this year, when it was cleared last weekend for the opening of trout season. The highway was closed this past week for maintenance but will open for good on Wednesday, according to… [SFGate: Tom Stienstra]

and…

Staring down bighorns in Inyo. From a towering rock monolith 150 feet above us, four Sierra bighorn sheep stared down. We homed in with binoculars and a spotting scope. At the lip of the monolith, a big female perched like a hood ornament. When I zoomed in closer, its gaze seemed…
[SFGate: Tom Stienstra]

My favorite personal bighorn story comes from many years ago – probably 20 or so. I was on a two-week solo pack trip in the southern Sierra. I had come over Elizabeth Pass and down to Bubbs Creek, which I followed upstream before taking the Muir Trail over Glen Pass and down to Rae Lakes. The morning after arriving there I thought I’d investigate the ridge to the west so I headed up there by myself. I was climbing along in my own little world when suddenly I heard a tremendous noise of rockfall nearby. I looked up and saw a group of bighorns right in front of me. I dropped my pack in the hope of taking out my camera but they took off, and by the time I got the camera out they were way down the ridge and gone.
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May 6, 2007 Posted by | Sierra Nevada | Comments Off on A Couple Tom Stienstra Articles

Hikes: Sunol Regional Wilderness

Tom Mangan (of Two-Heel Drive) has another trail article in the Murky News this week. (And do you have to be named Tom to have an outdoor column in a Bay Area paper? :-)

Hikes: Sunol Regional Wilderness – It has hiking. It has camping. It has cows. Sunol Regional Wilderness even has a stony canyon called Little Yosemite, which is a little like Yosemite in the way a flower made of frosting is like a whole wedding cake.

Speaking of flowers, Sunol has bunches of wild ones sprouting this time of year. The poppies, lupines and shooting stars draw the biggest crowds to Sunol every spring. If you adore lovely things planted by the Unseen Hand of Nature, then this is the place to be.

I don’t go to Sunol for the flowers. I go for the hills, the rocks and the vistas, which are among the best in the Bay Area. Every visit brings pointed reminders that the hills are frequently high and the trails are frequently steep. The park headquarters is on a valley floor, and almost everything worth seeing is up in the hills.

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May 5, 2007 Posted by | Trails | Comments Off on Hikes: Sunol Regional Wilderness

More Right Than I Thought?

During the past week or so I have posted a few times about the prospective opening of Tioga Pass Road through Tuolumne Meadows between the Central Valley and Owens Valley. First I predicted that the road might open this past Thursday – based on historic opening dates and information could read about current road-clearing progress. Then when the road did not open this past week, I posted a mea culpa regarding my incorrect guess. (To be fair, I did not state with certainty that it would open on Thursday – I carefully hedge a lot… ;-)

Today I saw the following from Yosemite Blog, suggesting that my earlier prediction may not have been that far off the mark but for a bit of last minute weather in the high country.

Tioga Pass Still Closed.

I just checked and due to recent storm activity Tioga Pass is still closed though it was slated to open yesterday or today if conditions should allow.

It’s a beautiful day today so hopefully it’ll melt away some of the snow and ice so they can get the pass open. Stay tuned. I’ll let you know if anything should change.

[Yosemite Blog]

Stay tuned…
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May 5, 2007 Posted by | Sierra Nevada | Comments Off on More Right Than I Thought?

First Light, Valley Grove

Yosemite Valley Grove at First Light

Yosemite Valley Grove at First Light. Yosemite National Park, California. April 21, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell. (Sales)

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May 4, 2007 Posted by | Yosemite | Comments Off on First Light, Valley Grove

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