GIANT VOLCANIC CHIPMUNKS

A fun couple of days all in! (28-29th July 2011)

So for night time I decided to indulge in a guilty pleasure, and just drive off into the quiet forests of Oregon, and just, well, sleep!  Well mostly sleep.  I did leave a timelapse going of the milky way from the forests of Oregon…. Pretty!

The next morning I was up early, and spent it bumming around crater lake.  When I first got the lake, it was mirror still!  It’s rarely that still at crater lake (normally wind disturbs the surface, as it had does by the end of this timelapse), so I set up the camera… more pretty!

While that was going down, I got accosted by one of the GIANT VOLCANIC CHIPMUNKS that roam the area!

And boy did that 4.5mm sigma 180 degree fisheye lens earn its keep at crater lake.  Y’see Crater Lake is just so big by the time you can see it, basically only a 180 degree lens will get it all in!

A keep back sign? Now that's just being a 'cliff tease'. Seriously though, these signs litter Crater Lake, which to be fair has a lot of cliffs, but does it really need all the idiot warning for people too stupid to spot poor footing and a terminal drop off?

and these ‘keep back signs’ litter the area in a way that smells of ‘frivolous lawsuit evasion’, or maybe it’s just to keep the number of Darwin Award winners from Crater Lake down.

Spent that evening on top of Mount Scott, well actually a rocky outcrop you have to climb up on near the top of Mnt Scott.  But the views were amazing. Just sat there and watched the sun go down over the lake!

Thunderf00t on mnt Scott looking down on crater lake. And yes, its about a 50ft drop off that rock! Mnt Scott is the highest point in Crater Lake NP. The actual summit has a fire lookout built on it and smells of urine. However for those willing to do a little hand n foot scrambling, there are a couple of satellite summits that have amazing views.

Spent the early evening helping doing some astronomy outreach (of a sort).  Skies were dark, but a little murky.  Had the scope catching photons from the M101 supernova till about 2am before packing up.  However Jupiter rising over the lake gave some captivating specular reflections!  Left the timelpase running till about 4am, would have been longer, but I feel asleep before changing the battery.  Damn my intolerance to sleep deprivation!

Next morning, a very tired Thunderf00t decided the air was still enough to take to the skies, using the helmet of doom!  Here I was alternating between first person flying, and flying by direct sight.  It’s really ballsy stuff in that by the plane has to be quite close (relativley) to fly by direct sight, and if you go further, you are 100% reliant on the video and RC gear working.  There is also the problem that by the time the plane is so far away, that you cannot see it, the plane also cannot see you!  So bascially you have to navigate by big cliffs and the sun to find your way home.  The bottom line is, while the plane was almost beyond the point where you could see it to fly it, it still didn’t make it over the lake.

After that little adrenaline rush I was ready for some excitement, which came in the form of swimming in an ice-cold lake formed by a collapsed volcano!

and yeah that water looks perty and blue, its just as amazingly blue when you get your head under it!  Regrettably, by the time I’d worked that out, I’d left the contraption for getting the camera underwater (a sort of ziplock bag) back in the car, 1000 ft above me on the crater rim 😦

Thursday 21 (Gardening with Genie)

Thursday 21st July.  Woke up to see a truck dragging a large trailer barely making the turn into the siding I was in. -TIME TO MOVE ON!  Headed up towards the San Francisco.  By that evening there was a kinda surreal moment where I was drinking Dawkins wine (given to me by RDF @ TAM), with Ray Comforts watch, while having dinner with the Dr Eugenie Scott.

Hate to be curt about it, but I’ve got to make this entry quick, as Im currently back in LA, and have to get out of the city, and up the back of the Sierra Nevada by dark to do some astro!

 

Friday 22nd, Went to see NCSE at work.  A truly impressive organisation. I have to admit, all I knew about them is they were involved with the drubbing at Dover, but having seen them in operation I can only describe the center and fearsomely fit for purpose.   This is an organization that would be sorely missed if they were to vanish tomorrow.  The group keeps strong tabs on folks trying to get creationism into schools, and has an impressive library of the history of such things.  They also are in tune with the new media, and do an excellent job of taking advantage of all the social media opportunities out there.

 

Saturday 23rd.  Spent a pleasant morning Gardening with Genie, of a fashion.  Turns out that I’m know almost nothing about plant care, but was quite useful for a little help with the plumbing of the irrigation system.  If healthy living is a factor, Genie will outlast us all!  That evening we went to a local meeting of the Skeptic group.  A fun and vibrant group, in the Berkeley area of SF.

 

Sunday 24th.  Improvised some deer deterrent systems with Gene!  Yes apparently SF has a deer problem, especially if your greens are lush!

Later in the day, after many an interesting conversation I took my leave of Dr Scott, and headed on back to LA.  Got to pick up a video camera, then figure after that I’ll head up the back of the Sierra Nevada to where the forecast says there will be some wonderfully dark and still skies.  The dive down I5 is an incredibly empty land (30 miles between gas stations etc).  Lots of sun-scorched yellow hills.  There were bad road works and I was significantly delayed getting back to LA.  In the end found a quiet siding near Lebec, although still within earshot of the freeway.  Really erie with the grey lights of the vehicles moving up and down the busy freeway, with the dark sky above.