Monday, November 28, 2022

2022 Thanksgiving Weekend Activities

I have some medium sized projects that I started over the long Thanksgiving day weekend.

Also camped in the desert with a buddy.  Did some shooting and had great fire-roasted tri-tip.

First batch of handloads

Making a battery box

Camping in desert


Sunday, November 20, 2022

Encinitas Police State is Happening Now

What could wrong with the city tracking every car in town.  No worries, Mayor Kranz's understanding is that the information can't be misused.

Tuesday, November 08, 2022

Trans Catalina Trail

One of my bucket list hikes is the Trans Catalina Trail which traverses the entire island.  A couple years ago, Jyoti and I did the northern part so this time we tackled the southern part.  We chose SOBO so we could spend some time in Avalon after the hike.  We used Hiking Guy's guide for much of our planning.

Day 1

We woke up early and drove up to San Pedro to catch the boat.  Due to a rescheduled beer festival, we got on a direct boat to Two Harbors.  After a smooth ride over, we had lunch at Two Harbors general store, then started the climb up the ridge to Little Harbor.  The climb was tough but the views along the ridge were stunning.  There was steep decline into camp.  We setup the tent and explored the harbor a bit.  We then had dinner and started a campfire since we opted for a wood delivery.  We did forget a fire started but bought one from the nice ranger.

 

Camp at Little Harbor

Overlooking Little Harbor

Starting the TCT

On the boat

Day 2

The hike out of little harbor was a long but not to steep climb almost to the other side of the island.  Turning north, we encountered a fox that walked right by us, not caring at all.  We also saw a small herd of bison.  After a dusty road walk, we made a welcome stop at the airport for food, drinks and cookies.  After the break, the trail headed down and out of canyon before getting us to Blackjack Campground.  We were the only ones at Blackjack to start so Jyoti took an outdoor shower while there was still sun.  After an early dinner we went to bed early.

Looking back to the west

Airport in the sky hangar

AVX flight line

Camp at Blackjack

Day 3

We left early on our last day hiking.  In the morning light we saw several deer and a few coveys of quail.  There were a couple of tough canyons to traverse and then a long ridge before we got to the Hermit Gulch overlook.  The trail down into town was very steep   On the way to the hotel, we stopped at the golf course for lunch.

Great views along the trail

Lone bench

Foxy lady crossing

Looking down into Avalon

Last high point
 Avalon

We spent the next day and half in Avalon and had a great time.  We picked food at Vons and had dinner on the roof of our hotel, Seacrest Inn.  We also took a ecotour with the Catalina Island Conservancy.  It was great to see some of the sights like Middle Ranch and learn more about the island.

Downtown Avalon

Rooftop dining at Seacrest Inn

Us in Avalon

Avalon Casino

Cold and rainy on the ecotour

Eagles Rest Lodge has seen better days

Avalon at night

 


Tuesday, November 01, 2022

HALT Specialist Desert Training 2022

We had our fist desert field class for a few years.  Since there were only four of us and we all fit into the 4xe, we decided to head through Arroyo Tapiado and park at Diablo Dropoff.  From there we hiked to our normal parking spot and let the students loose to find Skull Rock.  On the way out, we re-discovered the pass and headed out through the wash.

Looking down Diablo Dropoff

Desert scenery

Skull Rock

Coming down over the pass

Lots of caterpillars

Crossing the desert