Dan's Outside - Latest Comments

Re: Clint Eastwood Talks to the Trees

bobhubbard — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:11:39 -0000

Hmmmmm...

A new face on Dirty Harry...

Re: Bad News for Climate Change Deniers

Cynthia — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:55:32 -0000

I think it is something of a religion for the climate change deniers. They hate Al Gore and anything and everything he stands for regardless of whether he is right about it or not. The science doesn't belong to Al Gore. He didn't do the research. Scientists did the research and found the problem. Al Gore just accepted their findings. And I accept their findings. I think it has long been established scientific fact that CO2 is a greenhouse gas and we have been pumping a lot of it into the atmosphere for a long time. And the record is there that shows the earth is warming and that the warming coincides with the increase on atmospheric CO2. But it seems to me that if the deniers are going to prove their point, then they are going to have to identify exactly what mechanism is causing the earth to warm, rather than claim our CO2 pollution can't possibly be doing it while they make fun of Al Gore. But when I ask some of these people what that mechanism is, all I get is silence. It's sad and we are all going to suffer for it.

Re: Yosemite’s Delaware North Company – Could Service Be Any Worse?

GDM — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:58:27 -0000

Sandra, I appreciate your comment and your concern, and again want to both apologize for my error and my earlier post. The post has been replaced - as you probably saw - by my explanation and apology and clear note that I have had NO negative experiences to report with DNC. Any links that go to my original post now go to that message.

I appreciate the helpful and concerned contact from you and from "A," who contacted me by telephone in the evening to follow up on my mistake.

By the way, I visit frequently, a total of several weeks each year - and have been doing so for years.

Dan

Re: Yosemite’s Delaware North Company – Could Service Be Any Worse?

Sandra Levesque — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:27:15 -0000

Dan,
I am Director of Reservations for Delaware North Parks & Resorts. I have been away from my office since Wednesday, and was not aware of your situation. It was gratifying to learn from your post that Delaware North Companies' focus on the customer experience worked to resolve the issue for you. I appreciate that you plan to remove the negative comments. I do hope that you get to visit Yosemite again soon, and enjoy it as much as you have on your past visits.
Sincerely, Sandra Levesque

Re: Mea Culpa

Sherwood — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:23:38 -0000

It is probably good to occasionally be completely and publicly wrong when you think you are completely right.

If you'd like some of mine, I'd be happy to give them to you.

Re: A new stove: Trangia mini

Mark — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:48:44 -0000

I'm a fan of the trangia stove as well, I use mine mainly with cycle touring. It has few benefits as with flying to your destination you can have problems with petrol camping stoves on flights, but a throughly washed out trangia burner there has been no trouble yet with me. Like you said, the fuel is readily available in most places, one thing to be aware of is that different countries have different names for the fuels, in the UK, it tends to be cheaper to purchase methylated spirits from a pharmacy than a camping store, in US, I have heard people using heet de-icer. This link lists some of the international trangia fuel names and possible locations to purchase from. trangia fuel

Re: Access to Mt. Whitney – a List of Passes

GDM — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:40:18 -0000

Hi:

I've come in from the Kern a couple of times - actually, I could argue that I've come in that way three times - but I don't know the Johnsondale bridge route. I've come in twice via the High Sierra trail at the end of trans-sierra trips from the west side at Crescent Meadow, and this route drops to the Kern near Big Arroyo, follows it upstream to Junction Meadow, and then climbs up to the JMT.

I came in one other time via Kearsarge and Forester Passes through the upper Kern. This basically follows the JMT from the north, then tracks through the Big Horn plateau.

A couple years ago we sort of traveled "around" Whitney but did not climb the peak. We came in via New Army Pass, then went up Miter Basin and over Crab Tree Pass, dropping to Crab Tree Lakes. We arrived at Crab Tree meadow but didn't turn right and climb the peak - instead we headed north to Tyndall Creek and exited over Shepard Pass.

I'm guessing that your route must come in somehow from the southwest - perhaps coming up past the Mt. Guyot area? I'd be interested in hearing more about that route.

Dan

Re: Access to Mt. Whitney – a List of Passes

carlos — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:20:56 -0000

It's pretty obvious you have Whitney pretty conquered but have you ever done Whitney via the Kern(at about the Johnsondale bridge)? I'm thinking of doing it in late spring 2010. I'd love to do it this way!

Re: A new stove: Trangia mini

GDM — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:51:42 -0000

Axel. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience with the stove. I've heard more or less that suggestion - keep the filled stove in a warm place - from a few other folks, too - including but not limited to this thread. Sounds like a great idea and I'm going to give it a try soon!

Dan

Re: A new stove: Trangia mini

Axel — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:07:56 -0000

I returned from the Sierra just before the storm rolled in. (the dweebs were on vacation!) It was so cold that I slept with the burner in my sleeping bag so that the fuel would be warm in the morning. It started easily with sparks from the starter. This trip I took a stripped down version of the 25 series, Just the windscreen and a Trangia tea kettle. I made some cozies for my Squishy bowl and "freezer bagged" it ( I refuse to lose all civility and eat out of a bag! ). Three solid days out and used 8 oz of fuel.

Re: Left is Right. Up is Down. In is Out. And Schwarzenegger to be honored for protecting state parks!

Cynthia — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:14:18 -0000

Oh my god, you're kidding right? Arnold is going to be honored for protecting our state parks? What a joke! I'd laugh if only it were funny. From what I am hearing, it's more like he has a real vendetta against the parks. His threat to close the parks may have had far less to do with California's budget problems than something else. It's all very suspicious to me considering how he made his money (real estate, see http://www.aboutaustria.org.... And then just this past week he vetoed a couple of bills designed to protect the parks from the greedy eyes of developers, hmmm:

http://www.calparks.org/tak...

I'm sorry but I just don't trust his motives. I'd sure like to see some good investigative journalism about it all to either prove it or lay it to rest but otherwise, yeah, he's a green governor alright. Just a different kind of green.

Re: What I’ve been doing – August 2009

Memory Foam — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:30:00 -0000

Those are two of my favorite spots also ... Roosevelt Lake and Sabrina Basin. Roosevelt Lake is a great base camp for dayhikes. I remember going up to the pass on the north side of the lake, where you can see down to Upper McCabe Lake, or scramble up North Peak to your right. At Sabrina I plan to go back and see Echo Lake, behind Moonlight Lake.

Re: “Perfect Time to Beat the Crowd”

PG — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:47:22 -0000

Ahh, so true. Fall in the Sierra is my favorite time. You can certainly tell the difference in crowds just by looking at the permit situation on the US Forest Service site. I'll be taking my wife on her first backpoacking trip in a week to the Cottonwood Lakes area and I hope there are some colors for us to enjoy!

Re: A new stove: Trangia mini

GDM — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:13:40 -0000

Alex, great idea - thanks for sharing that. I'll be in a cold place during the next couple days and I may must give it a try.

The original design is some simple and basic that, as you point out, there is little that could be done to improve the burner. The simplicity and lack of moving parts are a good part of what I find attractive about it. While there are lighter options, this isn't all that heavy and the slightly more solid construction seems worth the very small weight penalty.

I think of the "windscreen" more as a "pot holder" - as you point out it doesn't really do much to stop wind. Fortunately the stove is virtually impossible to blow out once it gets started, so the main issue would be loss of heat. I found myself looking for small protected spots to place the stove and/or using a few rocks or some of my gear to make a better windbreak in windy conditions.

Dan

Re: A new stove: Trangia mini

Axel — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:16:41 -0000

On cold mornings, fill the burner with fuel, screw on the lid, and put in your pocket. This will warm up the stove and fuel for an easier ignition. Trangia is so well engineered, its really hard to improve upon the original design. My only gripe about the Mini is the lack of a better windscreen which can really make a difference in fuel consumption. I also have the 27 which has a much better windscreen and is much more stable. They are so fun to use, I gladly pay the weight penalty.

Re: Site feature update – and a request for a bit of help?

pattyoboe — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:50:03 -0000

I am commenting as a guest because I am too lazy to figure out where/how I log in. But this is your wife ... remember me? ;-)

I like the look of the blog ... very soothing ... in fact, I'm going to take a nap now, I've been so soothed. (But it makes me not like my new BlogLook™ now. Ack!)

Re: Site feature update – and a request for a bit of help?

GDM — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:43:23 -0000

Thanks to both of you - and I never mind fawning comments... ;-)

Dan

Re: Site feature update – and a request for a bit of help?

Phil Colla — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:38:02 -0000

Your photos are great, love seeing them. (How's that for a fawning test comment?)

Re: Site feature update – and a request for a bit of help?

Inge Fernau — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:25:07 -0000

O.K. I have been following your main blog for some time now. I also read your updates here. Inge Fernau

Re: “Perfect Time to Beat the Crowd”

GDM — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:49:46 -0000

This is a test comment using the disqus system which I'm trying out on this blog.