Yellowstone

Jyoti and I took a long-awaited trip to Yellowstone.

Day 1

• Flew into Bozeman (very nice airport)
• Stopped at Mountain Grizzly Center
• Entered park via north entrance
• Checked out visitor center at Mammoth
• Drove around upper loop
• Dinner at hotel dining room

Cozy mountain cabin or Bozeman airport?

Bella at the Mountain Grizzly Encounter

Entering Yellowstone

Cloud skies over Mammoth Hot Springs

Exploring the geothermal activity

Our cabin

Day 2

• Bunson Peak hike - awesome; saw mountain goats, pika, grouse
• Hiked lower falls
• Dinner in Gardiner; got groceries (highly recommended)
• Walked around old Fort Yellowstone
• Lots of elk wandering around town eating the grass

Bunsen Peak comms hut

View from Bunsen Peak

Waterfall at Golden Gate

Creek next to Mammoth springs

Roosevelt Arch

Day 3

• Drove to Lamar Valley; saw lots of bison and pronghorn antelope
• Hiked Trout Lake
• Drove south to Canyon area
• Drove south rim of Yellowstone Canyon
• Dinner at Canyon Village (not recommended)

Roosevelt Lodge

Lamar Valley

Hiking Trout Lake

Lamar River

View from Brinks of the Upper Falls

Upper Yellowstone Falls

View from Artists Point

Day 4

• Hiked Mount Washburn - very windy and cold but awesome hike
• Drove north rim of Yellowstone Canyon
• Drove to Norris to check out the geothermal feature; it was quite smelly and we felt a bit sick
• All day was windy
• Grill was closed so we got stuff from grocery store for dinner

View from Mt. Washburn observation deck

Hazy view from Mt. Washburn

Bear track in the mud

View from Brinks of the Lower Falls

View of Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Norris Visitor Center

Norris Geyser Basin

Day 5

• Drove south rim of Yellowstone Canyon
• Checked out Lake area; super nice Lake Yellowstone Hotel
• Drove to Old Faithful area
• Hiked lower basin
• Watched Old Faithful from hotel terrace
• Another cheese and crackers dinner

Kirkland Cascades

Old Faithful Inn

Mud Volcano (very smelly)

Marmot on the rocks

Hiking Storm Point

Hiking towards Pelican Valley

On the terrace at Old Faithful Inn waiting for the geyser

Day 6

• Checked out middle and upper geyser basins
• Very crowded
• Nice (but not great) dinner at hotel dining room

Geyser basin

Steamy spring

Lots of colors in the springs

Bison by the road

Day 7

• Drove to Grand Teton National Park and did loop drive
• Had fun at historical display at Mormon's Row
• Great dinner at Lake Jackson Lodge Mural Room

View of the Tetons

Mormon Row barn

Mormon row

Lake Jackson Lodge lobby

Day 8

• Woke up early to check out the morning views
• Took Jenny Lake ferry to Cascade Canyon
• Hiked up canyon; started raining at the end; hiked back in 2 hours of rain; saw moose and pikas
• Had lunch at lodge and changed into dry clothes
• Drove long drive through thunderstorms to Bozeman
• Stayed at Fox Hollow Inn

Morning view of Lake Jackson

Hidden Falls

View from Inspiration Point

Hiking Cascade Canyon

Antelopes on the range

It was a great trip!  Next time, we want to spend more time in the Tower area and Lamar Valley to see bears and wolves.  Also, need another few days in Grand Teton.

Dystopian Fiction

A bunch of dystopian/prepper/zombie/apocalyptic fiction series I have been reading over the past few years:

• Going Home (aka Survivalist) by Angery American - first few books were great but then it got a bit repetitive
• Charlie's Requiem by Walt Browning and Angery American - gritty parallel series to Going Home
• 299 Days by Glen Tate - my favorite series and the most realistic since some of it has already started
• Extinction Survival by Walt Browning - fun zombie series based in the San Diego area
• Survivalist Series by Arthur Bradley - another zombie series that started great but ended up being repetitive
• Off Gride Survivor by Connor McCoy - a decent EMP series
• Patriot Dawn by Max Velocity - great two book tactically-focused series
• 2050 by Phil M. Williams - fun, futuristic series on the conflict between authoritarianism and liberty
• Apocalypse Revealed by Michael Zargona - good collapse story

Mount Laguna Offroading

I headed out to explore some trails in the Mount Laguna area.  Early morning, I drove out I8 to the Buckhead Springs rest stop.  From there, I headed on an out-and-back on Sheepshead Canyon Rd.  It was pretty rough in spots but had some great views to the south.  There were a couple folks camped at some nice spots.

Next, I took Old 80 to La Posta Rd and headed north.  This road was gravel and easy the first few miles as it passed National Forest and tribal lands.  The road was gated a few miles short of Sunrise Hwy and I took Fred Canyon Rd to the southeast.  This road has great views and camping spots as it descended to Kitchen Creek Rd.

From there, it was back along Old 80 to Pine Valley where I gassed up.  Then I took Pine Creek Rd north.  There was a side trip up Miners Road which was pretty rocky in spots but very nice as the creek was flowing.  Back on Pine Creek, it was easy going on the broken asphalt.  I stopped for lunch and coffee refill at a great viewpoint that overlooked Deer Park and east to Cuyamaca Rancho SP.  The remained drive up was uneventful.  Once at Sunrise Hwy, I took it south through the village and back home.

Reason #500 to Leave California

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-02/san-diego-police-pitching-plan-to-use-streetlight-cameras-and-license-plate-readers

Big Bear Jeep Trip

On a hot weekend, Jyoti and I head up to Big Bear for some jeep trails.  We started the long slog up to Morongo Valley and made a short stop in Pioneer Town.  We then headed up Burns Canyon which winded its way up from the desert up to the pines of Big Bear.  The views and terrain were awesome.  We made several stops at various mines or other points of interest.  Luckily, I think the heat kept folks away as we saw very little traffic.  Once up at Big Bear, we stopped at the Discovery Center to cool off a bit and pick up a brochure for our next trail, the Gold Fever Trail.  We had a great time following the trail to historic points from the gold rush period.  Along the way, we found a nice campsite so set up our tent to hold it while we finished the trail.  After the Gold Fever Trail, we went into town for a nice lunch at the 5-paw rated Nottingham's restaurant.  We finished up in town by walking the village which was pretty crowded.  Heading back up to camp, we stopped at Holcomb Valley Ranch which took over the old Boy Scout camp.  It was a nice camp and a good option if you have a large group.  Back in camp, we finished setting up and had a nice somewhat cool night.

Next morning, we woke up early, packed up and headed down Van Dusen Canyon.  The canyon was very pleasant the trail very easy.  After a stop at Moonridge Coffee, we took the short but nice Sand Canyon Road to meet up with Wildhorse Meadow.  This trail headed south and we eventually got back on pavement and headed home.

It was a great trip with awesome off road trails and good camping.  It was also Lily's first time camping and she did great, but I don't think she likes the car ride very much.

Lily in the tent

Looking north from Wildhorse Meadow trail

Exploring Pioneertown

Entering a mine

Our campsite

Anti Field Day 2023

As part of The Tech Prepper Anti Field Day 2023, I packed up my gear for a simulated backcountry trek and headed to neighborhood park.  Since this was the first time I had this loadout, I didn't want to get too far from home in case I needed support.  My manpack was a surplus 3 day assault pack.  I had my Yaesu FT-817 in the outer pouch.  It fit nicely with a Panasonic Toughpad, Digirig, a bunch of cables and a 6Ah battery.  My antenna was a newly crafted WARC band linked dipole (12, 17 and 30 meters).    To raise the antenna, I had a carbon fiber fishing pole with the appropriate guy lines.

The comms plan was for JS8Call on 30m.  VOACAP predication was for good propagation for most of the other group in the evening.  I started operating a bit earlier but was able to contact 6 of the group.  I seemed to have a skip zone for a few hundred miles since I couldn't get the NV and AZ stations but was able to reach all the way to ME.

It was a very successful field day.  My gear performed well and I feel confident having to take it into the backcountry.

Testing in the shack

Linked dipole deployed

Field station

Weekend Activities

• Great hike at Carmel Mountain Preserve
• Met Jaya's boyfriend for the first time
• Gun Show in San Diego!