Dan's Outside

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

2008: When Will Tioga Pass Open?

For those of us who travel to the Yosemite high country and cross between the “west side” and the “east side” guessing when Tioga Pass will open is an annual sport. It seems that the fun has started, as I’ve seen the subject mentioned online several times during the past week or so. If you want to play, there are a few resources you might want to check out:

  • The Tioga Pass Road Opening and Closing Dates are available from several online sources. The short summary is that the average opening date is near the very end of May – think of it as “by the first of June” – but that it has been as early as April and as late as early July. (Closing date info is also available at this link.)
  • Online discussions include lots of interesting speculation and sometimes information that isn’t available from the official sources – perhaps someone knows a person working on the plowing crew or happened to pick something up in a conversation with a park employee.
  • The Park Service update page is perhaps the most useful, though it is not always updated very frequently and you sometimes have to read between the lines to figure out what is really happening. For example, you might mistake early progress for an indication of an early opening – but sometimes issues remain in one or a few locations that prevent the park service from opening the whole road. But if you’ve watched this stuff for awhile and you’ve learned to parse “ParkSpeak” (that unique language occasionally used by Park Service employees when English would normally suffice) you can often figure out in advance the approximate or even exact opening date as the time approaches.

If I had to guess, I think that this year’s opening date will not depart too far from the average.

April 26, 2008 Posted by | Commentary | Comments Off on 2008: When Will Tioga Pass Open?

From the "This I Gotta' See!" Department

An AP article in SF Gate describes plans to build a couple bridges past the large landslide that covers the main road into Yosemite Valley via the Merced River. The last line of the article states:

Officials say they could close the Merced River for brief periods during construction.

I’m guessing that while they will likely have to close the temporary road from time to time that “closing the… river” might prove a bit beyond their abilities.

April 24, 2008 Posted by | Commentary | Comments Off on From the "This I Gotta' See!" Department

Cold at Castle Rock

Yesterday morning I went up to Castle Rock State Park with a plan to do one of my usual loops out and around Goat Rock, this time with the goal of photographing some spring wildflowers. Although April is typically the start of the warm season in the SF Bay Area, it was “anything but” yesterday – at 10:00 a.m. it was only 37 degrees on the ridge and mostly socked in by fog-like clouds.

I hadn’t expected quite this weather since it was sunny when I left home, but I put on every stitch of clothing I had and headed on down the trail, passing a good number of cold-looking backpackers who had spent a frigid night at the nearby trail camp.

After last week’s rather successful wildflower hikes at Almaden Quicksilver and Calero Parks I was a bit surprised by the small number of flowers at Castle Rock. Perhaps I missed the peak, perhaps it just isn’t going to be a great year for flowers up there, or maybe they just weren’t open since it was so cold.


Plants and Rock, Goat Rock. Castle Rock State Park, California. April 19, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

April 20, 2008 Posted by | Commentary, Places | Comments Off on Cold at Castle Rock

Wildflower Hike at Almaden Quicksilver

Knowing that the central California wildflower season is just about at its peak, I went out for a short hike this morning at Almaden Quicksilver County park and photographed wildflowers along a few of my old favorite trails.

Quicksilver Wildflowers Purple Wildflowers Three Purple Wildflowers
Three Purple Wildflowers. Almaden Quicksilver Park, California. April 12, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

April 12, 2008 Posted by | Commentary, Trails, Trips | Comments Off on Wildflower Hike at Almaden Quicksilver

If It Is Getting Warmer, How Come It Seems Colder?

The global warming skeptics will grab at almost any straw rather than see the what consensus now regards as the obvious. This includes misinterpreting some “cold” weather as “proof” that the planet couldn’t possibly be warming and that “all those silly scientists must be wrong.” Or maybe it is a global scientific conspiracy. (To what end is difficult to imagine… :-)

Here is an interesting discussion that sheds some light on what is likely going on.

If global warming is occurring, why was the winter of 2007-2008 so cold and snowy?. The planet was much snowier and warmer than usual during the winter of 2007-2008, according to statistics released today by the National Climatic Data Center. Snow cover extent over the Northern Hemisphere during the period December 2007 – February 2008 was the fourth greatest on record, and was the greatest on record for January. Satellite-derived snow cover records extend back to 1967. Some regions of the Middle East, such as Baghdad, Iraq saw their first snow in …
Read More [Dr. Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog]

A short story includes the following: Even in times of climate change there will be periods that are above “normal” (new normal or old normal) in terms of temperature, precipitation, and so forth. The weather never has been the same from year to year and global warming won’t change that. Counterintuitively warmer weather can lead to more snow in some places.

Read the link to find out more.

March 14, 2008 Posted by | Commentary, Environment | Comments Off on If It Is Getting Warmer, How Come It Seems Colder?

Please Make It Stop!

SFGate: Bush intervention led EPA to scale back ozone limits:

The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on smog-forming ozone after an unusual, last-minute intervention by President Bush, according to documents released by the EPA.

EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under federal law. While their proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA’s scientific advisers had proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials Tuesday and ordered the agency to raise the limit, according to the documents.

“It is unprecedented and an unlawful act of political interference for the president personally to override a decision that the Clean Air Act leaves exclusively to EPA’s expert scientific judgment,” said John Walke, clean air director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

March 14, 2008 Posted by | Commentary, Environment | 1 Comment

Another EPA 'Decision' Affected by Timidity or Meddling?

The same process that derailed the California greenhouse gas automotive regulations seems to be at work here.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a modest tightening of the smog standard on Wednesday evening, overruling the unanimous advice of its scientific advisory council for a more protective standard.

The standard, stated in terms of average concentrations of ozone at ground level over an eight-hour period, is now 84 parts per billion. Mr. Johnson’s decision, if it survives court review, would lower that to 75, although implementation could be decades away. Late last year a scientific advisory panel recommended 60 to 70 parts per billion.

(From a New York Times article.)

March 13, 2008 Posted by | Commentary, Environment | Comments Off on Another EPA 'Decision' Affected by Timidity or Meddling?

Spring in Central California


Calero Trail, Spring. Calero Hills, California. March 8, 2008. Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

NOW is the time to head for the central California hills – the new grass is coming up, the trees are budding, and wildflowers are beginning to emerge. After last year’s drought, this season’s normal or near-normal rainfall has produced a spring show that you don’t want to miss!

March 8, 2008 Posted by | Commentary, Photography: Calero | 1 Comment

Mel Cotton

Tom Mangan of Two-Heel Drive notes that Mel Cotton passed away recently. (“RIP, Mel Cotton“)

That won’t mean much to people from outside the Santa Clara Valley, or even to folks from the Valley who have come to think of REI as the One and Only Outdoor Store in the area. But the Mel Cotton’s store on San Carlos was one of the first (and perhaps the longest surviving?) outdoor stores in the San Jose area, having opened in the late 1950s or so.

I was brought up not too far from that store, and despite having shopped at the whole lineage of South Bay outdoor shops (Freemans, Western Mountaineering, Mountain Equipage, and more) Mel’s was the first place where I learned to lust after outdoor gear and dream of becoming a hiker, backpacker, skier and more. (No, Mel’s hunting section never did tempt me… :-)

The store lives on and retains a certain appealing funkiness lacking at the more modern and corporate outdoor stores.

February 19, 2008 Posted by | Commentary | Comments Off on Mel Cotton

California's Seasonal Transformation

In a decent rain year – unlike last year! – the seasons overlap in California. On a day like today it is a little bit of winter, spring, summer, and fall all rolled together.

I did a short midday hike at Calero Park this afternoon, climbing up onto a ridge that I frequently visit. For the first time in nearly two years, I had to avoid the muddy spots on the trail and step across small, seasonal trickles. New grasses and other plants are coming up, turning the hills green, and some trees are starting to bud. The temperature was around 70 degrees.

February 10, 2008 Posted by | Commentary | 2 Comments

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