sonora pass stars (preliminary)
Originally uploaded by midendian.

• I worked until the early afternoon, came home and packed, and took a nap. Not a very good nap.
• Tried to wait until as late as I could stand it, then walked out my door, around ten.
• There was a millipede on the bus. He got off at 5th Street. I assume he has a nice but modest home in the Castro, or maybe the Lower Haight, and was heading to the Tenderloin for a late dinner of fried chicken, or perhaps a curry.
• I can never remember which Bay Bridge on-ramps are open at what times these days. I went for the Essex ramp, and ended up back at the 5th St ramp, which lately has been closed at night. Go figure.
• About four hours to get into the upper foothills of Sonora Pass. The last radio station I can hear is discussing the possibility of the Ark of the Covenant being hidden in Arkansas. You know, under Mount Nebo.
  • The combination of high altitude and the low interference of the night air brings out the best in AM radio. In most places in California at night, you can pick up KSL in Salt Lake, KOMO in Seattle, and a multitude of LA/SD stations. This one was coming from Colorado Springs.
  • I am surprised the literal-interpretation-of-the-Bible-but-in-Middle-America line of thought isn't more common. He had a whole list of locations in Missouri and Arkansas that supposedly fit descriptions of locations in the Bible, even going so far as to propose that the Garden of Eden was not on the Tigris and Euphrates but on the Missouri and the Mississippi. You'd think Indiana Jones would've figured this out.

• It doesn't seem to have a name, but my favourite part of CA-108 is a huge valley right before you head up the main part of the pass. The road passes right by a little mini-glacier, and a large stream, and a meadow covered in erratics. I'd never been through at night. There was a gibbous moon and a sea of stars and it was cold, cold, cold. I took pictures and a nap.
  • (The picture is from this meadow, looking west.)
  • My first trip over Sonora Pass four or five years ago was at sunrise. I drove to Tahoe late one night, because I had nothing else to do. I turned south at Reno -- this was the first time I'd been in Nevada -- and made it to the Caltrans maintenance yard at the junction with CA-108 and US-395. I stopped, laid down under the stars, and took a nap, until sunrise, when I drove west across the mountain.
  • Sonora is perhaps my favourite of the Sierran passes. Most passes exist exactly because they're low points in the crest, which leaves you feeling somewhat disappointed when you cross them -- they don't feel high enough. Sonora doesn't disappoint. At the top, you feel like you're at the top, and it is fucking spectacular.
• As I started the car again, Orion was rising, as was Venus, as was the Sun. I passed through the USMCMWTC shortly thereafter, and soon was coming into Bridgeport. I watched the first half of official sunrise from Twin Lakes Rd, looking toward Sawtooth Ridge. (Staring at that photo is largely what prompted this trip.)
• For the second half and the post-game show, I went down to Mono Lake. The water level is extremely high these days -- it has literally absorbed the boardwalk, and seems rather less saline than usual. I took a nap under a tree at the shore.
  • As I understand it, mosquitos don't need still water except for reproduction, and yet they generally don't go far from it. Are they afraid of getting lost? They were swarming all over me in the marsh, but a few hundred feet away there weren't any in sight.
• Mid-morning, I drove back up to Twin Lakes, west of Bridgeport, and at the base of Sawtooth Ridge. Despite being exhausted from driving all night and having had only a couple hours sleep since the previous morning, it seemed like a good idea to get as far as I could towards Matterhorn.
  • I've long wanted to do this hike, ever since I read Dharma Bums. I had no real chance of making it even most of the way up, either realistically or in my mind, so I wasn't disappointed when I didn't.
  • The first hour of the hike is at a steep incline, and generally boring forest.
  • I hiked for a few hours after that. They were much better.
  • It was all sorts of awesome.
  • I met a group of people from Truckee, and we sat and talked a while. The only thing we really had in common was the love of where we were.
  • They were the only people I saw on the trail all day.
  • There isn't a lot of information about the trail, and once I'd walked on it a while, I knew why. It's not really an official trail. I turned around at the Welcome to the Hoover Wilderness sign, whereat the trail splits into two, and about ten feet down each, the trails disappear entirely. Wilderness indeed.
• I got a room at the Walker River Lodge in Bridgeport, and tried to take a nap. Was only able to sleep an hour or so.
  • At this point it occurred to me that I'd induced myself into polyphasic sleep. Sleeping for 30-60 minutes several times a day. I was totally exhausted, but at the same time had incredible energy, both mentally and physically. I can't imagine it lasting past the in situ excitement, but it was very interesting how much I could do on so little sleep.
• I tried to go out to the Bodie townsite nearby, but it was closed by the time I got out there. It looked boring anyway. I've seen much better ghost/mining towns.
• The emissions warning light in my car came on. It's done this before at high altitude.
  • It turns on when the engine is confused about the exhaust composition, which will certainly change when the air is thin. From reading the manuals, I learned that basically it keeps a running average of oxygen content (or some function of that), and turns on the light when things go significantly beyond the average of the last hundred or so miles. So the light turns on when you ascend faster than the coefficient in the average function allows. If you drive around enough, it goes back out again.
  • The first time this happened (on a trip across Tioga Pass), I thought it was the more traditional, simple reason of gas line pressure. But apparently modern cars don't have that problem, and so manually releasing the pressure in the gas tank does nothing.
• I spent the evening enjoying being disconnected from civilization. I didn't have mobile coverage, let alone fancy-ass things like teh internets.
• Slept about five hours. My car was covered in ice in the predawn; it had been 75degF the afternoon before, and now it was below freezing. High desert, and no concrete sync to moderate things.
• I paid 4$/gal for low-grade gasoline. Did I mention it was also cold.
• Leisurely drive back across Sonora Pass at sunrise.
• Back in San Francisco by lunch, and a late night at work. Bed at 2am.

And now to spend weeks going through the 400+ frames I shot over that 36 hour period.