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Pretty much any wilderness fatality is a result of a series of smaller errors, the elimination of one of the errors often breaks the chain and prevents the fatality. So in light of that let me present you with a cycling disaster that may or may not have happened. Me, Mrs. rear end Trophy and one of the little rear end Trophy kids were driving from Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley to Lone Pine. We had about 15 miles to go to get to Lone Pine, the sun was about to set behind the Sierra Mountains, the temperature is in the mid 50's and falling, and we were driving into a fairly stiff head/crosswind that is pushing our Subaru Outback all over the road. This is where the road goes by a dry lake bed that is used for salt evaporation. So there is a lot of blowing sand and salt coming across the road. Driving along in the fading light I notice a blinking light on the side of the road. We zip past and I see 2 cyclists. I make a U-turn, and then a second U-turn and pull along side. They are going no more than 5 miles an hour, they have wrapped their faces in t-shirts, they only light they have is a single tail light, no water bottles, no jackets, etc. They pull over and stop. I roll down a window and a ton of blowing sand comes into the car. I ask them if they want a ride back into town. Keep in mind I have 2 extra seat and a bike rack on the back of my car. It is a father and son pair, and the kid looks to be around 12 years old. The guy declines the ride. I tell him at his current speed he won't make it to Lone Pine for another 3 hours, there is blowing sand, a 35mph head/crosswind, you have a single light, no water and it will be pitch dark in about 30 minutes. He tells me he will just call his wife to come get them if they get in trouble. "Dude, you are already in trouble. You just don't see it yet." I tell him. He declines again. I can't force them into the car. The look on his son's face still haunts me to this day. Like he can't believe his idiot father just turned down salvation. We drove off and called the non-emergency Sheriff number and reported 2 cyclists in distress, gave location and direction. They said they would send someone out right away. Hopefully they survived and the kid got a new dad.
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Nov 2, 2022 22:19
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| # ? May 20, 2024 12:10 |
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"Nah, I'll just scare my wife shitless when my ego finally caves" When I was about that kid's age my dad dragged me out on a backpacking trip he wasn't prepared for. We got lost with no cell service. My mom was worried sick and broke the car on forest service roads trying to find us.
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Nov 2, 2022 22:45
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Cat rear end Trophy posted:Me, Mrs. rear end Trophy and one of the little rear end Trophy kids were driving from Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley to Lone Pine. You did a good thing and I applaud you for it. But I have to ask you something a bit irrelevant. Did you eat at any restaurants in Lone Pine? Like, the merry-go-round?
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Nov 3, 2022 03:59
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sb hermit posted:You did a good thing and I applaud you for it. But I have to ask you something a bit irrelevant. I actually just ate food from there last week! It was Okay.
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Nov 3, 2022 04:05
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Acebuckeye13 posted:I actually just ate food from there last week! It was Okay.  I had good chinese food there once, like seven years ago, but every subsequent trip has only been ok. Nice to hear that it's still around but it feels disappointing that it hasn't gotten any better.
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Nov 3, 2022 11:09
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Speaking of Lone Pine, I should probably post pictures from the hike I just did there! You'll never guess which one... Background: this past summer I worked a season at SEKI, and when Mount Whitney permits went up back in May I decided to pick up a day pass on a lark - figuring that, hey, it could be fun to do just a few miles of the trail, say I did it, be a good capper on the season. So the appointed day rolls around, and I set the goal for myself that at maximum I'm going to try for the trail crest, the summit of Whitney itself just being a bit farther than I'm comfortable with. But hey, who knows, maybe I'll just go a few miles and call it quits.    I start hiking at 7 am, just before dawn. First 45 minutes or so I don't see anyone, it's just me, the trail, and the crisp early morning air. I brought a jacket and a vest, but I warm up pretty quickly and pack them up. When I do meet some folks and pass by a group of ascending backpackers from LA, they're utterly baffled by this idiot hiking around at 40° in a t-shirt and shorts     I keep ascending... and ascending... Dawn breaks in the valley, but it's still dark and cool on the trail, and will be for some time. Eventually I arrive in the WHITNEY ZONE, and pass through Outpost Camp (3.8 miles from the trailhead). It is a little chilly up there!    I start running into more and more hikers at this point, mostly folks who are getting an early start going down. The sun finally crests the ridges above, and it is really just incredibly pretty. Eventually, I make it up past the treeline to Trail Camp at 6.3 miles.       From Trail Camp, it's another 2 miles and change up 99 switchbacks to get to the crest. The trail also started getting slightly more treacherous, with ice and snow packed in on the shadier portions of the trail. At this point I was determined to make it to the crest, but it was certainly tough going at points. It was, as you can imagine, cold as hell that high up, even in the middle of the day. To keep track of my progress I counted the switchbacks, and I can confirm there are a loving lot of them.   Eventually, after much huffing and puffing, I eventually came to the crest: 9 miles and 5,200 vertical feet from the trailhead. It's a hell of a view.    Though I was less than 2 miles and 1,000 vertical feet from the summit of Whitney, I knew I was already pretty wrecked and running low on time. So, I turned back and began my descent. It was very, very, very long. But I made good time, and got back to my car right after sunset at 6:30 pm. On the whole, an awesome hike, and one I'd definitely recommend. Finishing off the hike and getting to the top of Whitney is something I'd like to do at some point, but for now I feel pretty accomplished getting to where I did.
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Nov 3, 2022 13:53
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As a non-American/Canadian, that can just walk up any darn mountain he so pleases, how much do these trail passes usually cost?
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Nov 3, 2022 15:12
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It’s a nominal fee; for Whitney it’s $15, and I’ve seen a range of 5-20 depending on the trail and it’s popularity. It’s not meant to be a money maker although the money does help offset the costs of maintaining the trail. These are some of the most popular hikes in the US and they’re getting hugged to death, so they are trying to find a balance of cost that limits the numbers of people doing it while not making it impossible to people due to the outlay. Whether they are successful at that or not is I think an open question, but it’s becoming a more prevalent system each year.
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Nov 3, 2022 15:43
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Helios Grime posted:As a non-American/Canadian, that can just walk up any darn mountain he so pleases, how much do these trail passes usually cost? Freaquency posted:It’s a nominal fee; for Whitney it’s $15, and I’ve seen a range of 5-20 depending on the trail and it’s popularity. It’s not meant to be a money maker although the money does help offset the costs of maintaining the trail. These are some of the most popular hikes in the US and they’re getting hugged to death, so they are trying to find a balance of cost that limits the numbers of people doing it while not making it impossible to people due to the outlay. Whether they are successful at that or not is I think an open question, but it’s becoming a more prevalent system each year. yeah, the hard part is actually getting your hands on a pass, rather than paying for it one trick specific to whitney is that instead of getting a pass for whitney itself, you can get one for the Pacific Crest Trail which runs through the area (although those permits should be saved for actual pct hikers). There are also day passes you can get if you're lucky. It can be hard to get a whitney pass!
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Nov 3, 2022 16:04
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Acebuckeye13 posted:Speaking of Lone Pine, I should probably post pictures from the hike I just did there! You'll never guess which one... Nice! Whitney is such a beautiful hike and I hope you can reach the summit at some point. Funny enough, I left my pack at the trail crest to hike to the summit (based on advice from friends I was hiking with) and marmots apparently got in my bag and ate all my snacks. I should have brought my bag with me. Also, the hike to the summit was when altitude sickness really hit some of my northern california buddies. I had the benefit of doing high altitude summits at Mount San Antonio (aka Mount Baldy) so I wasn't affected. But the highest hikes my friends did was half dome, so these marathon-running paragons of health were lagging behind a couch potato (me). Good job getting back to your car before it got too dark. We were hit by adverse weather which came much more quickly than we had anticipated (we didn't know how unpredictable weather can be in the mountains). We had relied too much on gps to find the exit to Trail Camp and the altitude sickness certainly didn't help!
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Nov 3, 2022 16:14
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sb hermit posted:Funny enough, I left my pack at the trail crest to hike to the summit (based on advice from friends I was hiking with) and marmots apparently got in my bag and ate all my snacks. I should have brought my bag with me. lol this happened to a good friend of mine, at the same spot. She says she could see it happening from hundreds of feet up and was powerless to do anything until she got down. Her backpack still has holes in it.
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Nov 3, 2022 17:25
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The rodents out west are unlike anything I've seen elsewhere.
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Nov 3, 2022 18:52
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Helios Grime posted:As a non-American/Canadian, that can just walk up any darn mountain he so pleases, how much do these trail passes usually cost? You don't need a permit for day-hikes except Whitney, which gets hammered because it's the tallest mountain in the 48 states (though not by much). The Desolation Wilderness near lake Tahoe does require permits even for day use (again due to very high popularity), but they are free. Permits for overnight stays in the Sierra Nevada are required, but it's just $5/person regardless of how long you stay. There are a maximum number of permits that can be given out per trailhead per day...but once you enter, from whatever location, you can pretty much go wherever you want for however long you want (the Whitney area, again, being an exception). Which is nice, because there's like 10,000 square km of contiguous wilderness to fool around in and almost no people in most of it.
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Nov 4, 2022 00:46
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alnilam posted:lol this happened to a good friend of mine, at the same spot. She says she could see it happening from hundreds of feet up and was powerless to do anything until she got down. Her backpack still has holes in it. Funny thing is, life would have been a heck of a lot easier if I carried it because all I brought with me to the summit was a nalgene and two trekking poles. If I was able to put my nalgene away, I would have had a much easier time scrambling. It was only a day pack. I brought the pack to REI and I think they just replaced it. EDIT: This was like in 2015. We ordered the spicy shrimp at merry-go-round the day before and the chef came out to talk to us because it's a dish that nobody orders.
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Nov 4, 2022 05:22
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sb hermit posted:You did a good thing and I applaud you for it. But I have to ask you something a bit irrelevant. We were staying at a cabin on Horseshoe Meadows Road, (Delacour Ranch)so we did not eat in town, with the exception of Pizza Factory. It was the type of pizza you would have expected to eat in the late 80's. Very breadlike crust and too much bland sauce. All this talk of Merry-go-round has me intrigued. I'll give it a whirl next time we are up there.
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Nov 4, 2022 05:49
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Cat rear end Trophy posted:We were staying at a cabin on Horseshoe Meadows Road, (Delacour Ranch)so we did not eat in town, with the exception of Pizza Factory. It was the type of pizza you would have expected to eat in the late 80's. Very breadlike crust and too much bland sauce. it may have changed ownership since I had it in 2015. Just keep in mind that it might be middling. Case in point: Acebuckeye13 posted:I actually just ate food from there last week! It was Okay. they have both italian and chinese cuisine. I believe it was a husband and wife operation, with the wife being from China (Shanghai?) so she handled those dishes, and the husband cooking italian food. I don't think she was from Taiwan and I apologize if that was the case
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Nov 4, 2022 05:57
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Cat rear end Trophy posted:Pretty much any wilderness fatality is a result of a series of smaller errors, the elimination of one of the errors often breaks the chain and prevents the fatality. Backpacker Magazine produces a podcast called Out Alive, not that many episodes and definitely worth the listen to anyone who often visits the outdoors. One particular episode I recall is some guy after about a week lost in some forest in the PNW manages to find a trail and stumble across a few hikers, they naturally ask if he is alright and if he needs help. Even starving and severly dehydrated he somehow still refuses the amount assistance they want to give him, which was to call rescue and carry him back to the trail head. In fact I think most of the episodes have a similar theme were folks just do not realise how deep into it they are and luckily someone stumbles upon them. Makes me wonder how many of these podcasts episodes are never going to be made...
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Nov 4, 2022 09:06
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Speaking of backpacker magazine, the whole Outdoor+ subscription is on sale right now for $2.50/month. I don't know if it's worth it, but I've gotten paywalled enough times trying to read their articles that I thought I'd try it out. It comes with the Gaia gps app which seems nice.
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Nov 4, 2022 12:52
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Dick Ripple posted:Backpacker Magazine produces a podcast called Out Alive, not that many episodes and definitely worth the listen to anyone who often visits the outdoors. One particular episode I recall is some guy after about a week lost in some forest in the PNW manages to find a trail and stumble across a few hikers, they naturally ask if he is alright and if he needs help. Even starving and severly dehydrated he somehow still refuses the amount assistance they want to give him, which was to call rescue and carry him back to the trail head. This does not surprise me. I am 53 and come from a road bike racing background, starting when I was 16. Up until my late 40's I was still doing quite a bit of old people events. Only in the past few years did I take up backpacking. I see a lot of the same behavior in both cycling and backpacking when it comes to injury and danger. Sometimes we just need someone to say NO on our behalf. This no doubt this applies to other sports and activities. Cases in point, I tried to do a 2 night backpack tip when it was wayyyyyy to hot out. Mrs. rear end Trophy pulled the plug when we woke up after night 1. 4 months later, I still hate admitting she was right. This one is a bit more dangerous. 2 months ago I did a road bike ride in a heat wave. I pulled into a coffee shop with what I though was an overheating problem. Took me forever to cool down and feel reasonable. I should have called for a ride, but I ended up limping home. Turned out to be atrial fibrillation. I don't even want to think about how close I came to a more serious dysrhythmia. Getting an ablation next week.
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Nov 4, 2022 16:59
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Some of our state parks are getting these all-terrain wheelchairs that visitors can check out to explore the park away from ADA-accessible trails. They look badass. Cool idea.
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Nov 4, 2022 18:22
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Those are cool as hell!
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Nov 4, 2022 21:31
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Some of our state parks are getting these all-terrain wheelchairs that visitors can check out to explore the park away from ADA-accessible trails. They look badass. Cool idea. There’s a park near me that has them and I can confirm that they’re badass. I don’t think I’ve seen someone using it that didn’t have a big grin on their face.
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Nov 5, 2022 00:12
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So it looks like Apple purchased the Dark Sky app, integrated it into the Apple weather app while dropping all of the features that make the app useful for outdoors people like hour-by-hour forecasts and customizable push notifications for wind/rain etc.. and now Apple is shutting Dark Sky down effective January 1st I am frankly pissed. Nothing has come close to Dark Sky in my experience, so Im interested in hearing about any comparable apps others might be using to stay on top of the weather
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Nov 6, 2022 13:57
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I've been so pissed about Dark Sky for the past two years as they've slowly dismantled it. I haven't found a good alternative.
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Nov 6, 2022 14:03
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The darksky api lives on as weatherkit, but I don't know of any apps that are duplicating the interface (or if they will). I use windy these days. It's got zillions of layers to look at.
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Nov 6, 2022 14:08
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The thing I like(d) best about Dark Sky for hiking is the ability to put in GPS coordinates instead of choosing the closest town. I have yet to find another weather source that'll do that, with or without an app. I don't mind checking in my computer's browser even.
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Nov 6, 2022 14:47
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My gps is switching to aerisweather, haven't looked it up yet though
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Nov 6, 2022 14:55
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Actually the Apple weather widget does do hour by hour forecast if you click on the day. I was big DarkSky fan too, but I went to Carrot which also lets you pick the DarkSky api. I think Carrot is even better than the DarkSky app was. but I do pay $5 a year for it.
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Nov 6, 2022 15:56
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I have Carrot but it doesn't do radar (that I've seen), which seems like a big omission. E: oh, apparently lots of the important features are only on iOS. Fitzy Fitz fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Nov 6, 2022 |
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Nov 6, 2022 16:10
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Windy is excellent
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Nov 6, 2022 16:31
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Windy.com or windy.app?
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Nov 6, 2022 17:08
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They're the same thing! Best of both worlds.
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Nov 6, 2022 17:33
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windy.social
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Nov 6, 2022 17:40
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withak posted:windy.social Safari cannot open the page because the server can not be found.
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Nov 6, 2022 17:51
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You probably aren't a member.
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Nov 6, 2022 18:44
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Never liked dark sky as it seems like it was geared more toward…just rain mostly. It also didn’t really give me a mental model of how the day was going to go via a graph that visualizes high/low temps, wind, precipitation, etc. all together. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. Weather Underground generally fits the bill — the daily graph helps me think about how the day is going to go. But it often has difficulty finding the specific area I’m trying to get to it it’s not near a well known area. The ads can also be annoying, I’ve used it long enough to get used to it. You can also subscribe to get rid of ads. Anyway, the new amalgamation of Apple weather with the hour-by-hour data from Dark Sky does look pretty nifty and may wind up replacing Weather Underground for me. If you don’t mind paying, you should also check out OpenSnow and OpenSummit, though I find their constantly diminishing freemium model both distasteful and too expensive for what you get.
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Nov 6, 2022 21:29
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I have an upcoming solo backpacking trip and I am really nervous about it. The weather is going to be colder than I expected (high 30s/low 40s at night) and the only other time I tried solo backpacking, I turned back without even spending the night the first day, after hiking too many miles and hurting my leg. I really am not a sound sleeper even in optimal conditions at home. As the trip gets closer, I feel like maybe I like the idea of backpacking a lot more than I will actually doing it. It's going to get dark at 5:30 and then I will just be sitting in a tent for hours trying to stay warm until I get tired enough to fall asleep. Maybe I am just a perfect weather and car camper, and an avid day hiker. I guess that wouldn't be so bad.
blue squares fucked around with this message at 11:51 on Nov 15, 2022 |
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Nov 15, 2022 11:47
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Watching youtubes of hiking or bushcrafting usually get me motivated and wanting to get out and do it. I like this guy in particular, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfMgKSxyQ9KnbjY6L6JKKiQ. Those temps are not so extreme, and if you have done any basic research on what to take with you the cold should not be nothing more than an annoyance (unless it rains). In regards to falling and staying asleep, getting up rather early and hiking all day tends to help. If you can make a fire and some food and/or a hot drink before bed that tends to get the spirits up, or just bring a good book and a headlamp.
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Nov 15, 2022 12:14
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Yeah, a book and a few downloaded podcasts does the job for me around camp. If you’re in an area that allows fires you also get to just stare into the flames for a hour or two. I think as a whole we’re so used to filling every waking moment of our days with Content that it can be daunting to stare down 5 hours of “nothing” but it’s 100% the reason I go backpacking. Those temps are also in the Goldilocks range for camp temps imo. Just make sure your gear is rated for the temps and you may just have the best sleep of your life.
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Nov 15, 2022 13:22
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It's not the best for continual use, but a lot of the time if I know I'm going to have trouble sleeping on a given night when backpacking, I'll pop a benadryl after I settle in and have dinner and have a cozy chemical induced sleep that night.
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Nov 15, 2022 14:44
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