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Tom, you give me too much credit photography-wise. I had to look up &quotshutter bounce&quot to find out what it means. Thanks for the advice, I like the size of this camera too! It was recommended to me by a coworker who has used it to photograph whales and penguins from a unmanned aerial system (a glorified toy hexacopter). The NEX6 was light enough to get the job done: Unmanned Aerial System Page

I would guess that these systems could be used to conduct bighorn surveys in remote areas, to replace the light aircraft filled with biologists. I've heard the bighorn aerial survey census is defunct because of safety reasons. See, I'm bringing this thread back to an Anza Borrego theme...

tommy750 wrote:

Nice trip and pics, Jim. With your night shots and the Sony, at least you don't have to worry about the mirror up vibration problem! Have you tried covering the lens with your hat etc right when you push the shutter to avoid shutter bounce? Liking the size of your camera as well. Full size DSLRs are like carrying a lead brick around with you. Thanks. Tom

edited by ziphius on 3/1/2014

tommy750 wrote:

Have you tried covering the lens with your hat etc

I tried that once, to try and get star trails with a fireball point....only problem was I started drinking and talking with the other guys and totally forgot to remove the hat so in the morning I had a 16 hour exposure of my hat

Nice! I saw Leo's card in another register a few years ago:

I spoke with the engineer who designed the solar farm in Ramona where I live (off dye road)and he said the Desert is not the best place to put solar because the electronics in the panels get extremely hot during the summer and start to limit production. He also said the solar companies are paying $600 per acre per month to lease the land, which includes all set up and tear down for free. The farm in ramona is 43 acres so I am pretty sure the farmer is getting 25k per month! Not a bad way to make a living. I am not sure about BLM land though. If that is the case a 4,000 acre solar farm near soda mtn would give the gov't $2.4 mil per month! No wonder our backcountry lands are being sold out under our feet.

Here is the link to the ramona farm
http://m.utsandiego.com/news/2013/feb/06/ramona-solar-farm-county-supervisors/[/quote]

Was out with Jeff Sahagun, the BLM El Centro archaeologist a while back and I asked him why not put solar on all the marginal Imperial Valley farmland instead of scraping pristine BLM desert. He replied that BLM desert is essentially free for these large corporations but they'd have to pay a few bucks monthly to rent farmland, so that was a nonstarter. Guess BLM (AKA we taxpayers) is getting jack for these destructive solar arrays that should be on our roofs and not in our deserts.Tom

tommy750 wrote:

That canyon Gary is climbing out of doesn't quite look like an "easy" hike! Tom

Well, he did carry all my water, I just carried my camera in my hand, no backpack or anything....was kinda nice, all my hikes should be like that....

Smart man giving the kids radios to carry along...
I think Tom and I did a very similar route back in December, the tanks were full at 12,000 gallons each (if I remember correctly)

I didn't realize Davies Valley was closed to vehicles now. I've camped in Boundary Canyon years ago.

-Florian (who is reading through old posts)

I drove EC085 for the first time today. Drove south to north. Lots of silt and not a very interesting road. But the Fish Creek mtns are enticing. Didn't do much hiking but did visit the WHIT benchmark and signed below Tom .. http://instagram.com/p/mls77rvarT
The register needs a new logbook.

-Florian

tommy750 wrote:

Nolan: Yeah, definitely heating up out here; will you be sporting an A/C unit on your new camper?

Tom

Yes, I am actually driving up to Portland next week to pick up the camper (avoiding sales tax and delivery fees) I am going to take several weeks to work and explore the northwest. In addition to the ac unit I also ordered thermal pane windows which should help with insulation.
edited by anutami on 5/5/2014

I like the Sombrero Sunrise photo...so much for the security bars on the red building...

Looks like fun, I like how you managed to get a picture of the boundary marker on the Mexican side without crossing into Mexico...

Enjoyed the photos Tom. I didn't realize the border 'fence' looked like that out there. Somebody obviously crossed the border though...

Neat photos. Thanks for sharing.

-Florian

Nice snake, really sharp pics. Which camera? That's a massive amount of honeycombs.

tommy750 wrote:

Nice. How did your 4X6" film pics turn out?

Here you go...over exposed, the shutter needs adjustment. You can see De Anza resort, Gray Mtn & Table Mountain way off in the background. The one thing with these big negatives is you can zoom 100% in and still see lots of detail.

So the BP didn't hassle you for crossing over the border to take pics?

Bob

tommy750 wrote:

How do you roll the windows up on that thing? 100 degrees and billowing silt, nice Tom

Tom, you are the only silt cryer I have met...most of us just brush it off...

My entire setup for the trip


.

Jim (ziphius) wrote:

Animals look a lot better this year, heh?

Yeah, the spring seems to be holding it's own, it was quite full the whole time and never seemed to diminish in quantity.

Where did you guys end up camping?
I thought the scooter pic was funny. At first I thought you guys rode scooters out there.

I dunno Tommy, your photos are always razor sharp - are you using some secret filters?

The trestle, Nagaoka 4x5 field camera, Nikkor 135mm lens, f/64, 1/4 second exposure, ISO 100 Arista EDU film

Still researching the ....something...Headache Bromo Seltzer rock in Jacumba...anybody got the story on it? Is historic as they saved it from destruction from multiple projects I am sure

rockhopper wrote:

Great report and photos! In the news a while back the was a group of investors planning to open the rail line down to Mexico. Any new info? That train ride would be one of the top train rides in the world and would bring in tourists from all over. Oh, Oh! Maybe better if left as is. After all is was/is the impossible railroad!

The investors, or I should say the group with operating rights, is known as the Pacific Imperial Railroad (PIR). In a nutshell, because the whole story would make War and Peace look like a short story, the PIR is still &quotfunctioning&quot to what degree no one really knows. They made their $500K payment to MTS in July and supposedly have the next $500K installment in hand.

There are questions whether their lease agreement with MTS is legal. Two congressmen, D. Hunter and J Denham (Merced), have asked for MTS to provide them with documents regarding the lease.

Whether they actually get the railroad up and running again is still up in the air, although most people with railroad knowledge doubt that the PIR has the ability to get it up and running.

As for opening up the gorge as a tourist railroad, that won't happen either. The insurance would be astronomical, the maintenance costs and the up front costs to get the line in operating condition would make the whole project a non starter. That is unless you've got pockets as deep as Warren Buffet and have nothing else better to spend your money on.

btw Awesome map Tommy 750c.

BorregoWrangler,

Looks like a good time.

Is the road up to Carrizo Mountain something I could get my rig up to?

Thanks for the heads up. Is it street legal vehicles only up there or could I drive a yamaha rhino up there to scout it out?

Are there any rocks left out there or have they finally all been taken?

hikerdmb wrote:

Here is looking down on the campsite from the Shake BM.

Great thing about that photo is you can also see the Quake peak....Shake & Quake in Earthquake Valley
edited by dsefcik on 9/15/2014

Yes, Thomas mountain and valley are great areas to "hang out" and explore. Miles and miles of fire roads running from the south end all the way to Hemet lake. My Dad bought property up near the area back in the 60's. You could spent weeks roaming around up there. I always liked to go after a light snow fall ( man am I dreaming) for a water source. The road would dry out quickly but still find snow in the shade. There are remnants of buildings and home steads and mines all around Thomas peak. Many have been overgrown by brush.
One time in my previous non-politically correct life back in the 80's I was traversing the n-s ridge road on my motorbike when I found a fire brake running due west down from the top of the mountain down to Bautista canyon. Bulldozed probably from the 1950's. You know the ones that go straight up /down. Only a deer trail remained. Let's just say I dumped my CR480 cycle more than a few times to avoid going over the handle bars. Going back up was an other story. It was a 2000 ft hill climb. Like an endless Matterhorn hill climb from "On any Sunday" but hitting / busting thru scrub oak and Manzanita all the way up. It was one #^>^%&!!!! Well at least I widend the trail for the deer for a year or two.

I should have looked more closely, looks like Granite off to the left in the distance....thanks Tom for keeping me in line....

Digging thru my mazillion photos I found one from Shake looking towards Quake...Tom, can you please put it thru your verification test? David, sorry to go off topic from your post..








dsefcik wrote:

Yeah...you got me...I was not looking closely enough....nice catch..

tommy750 wrote:

dsefcik wrote:

hikerdmb wrote:

Here is looking down on the campsite from the Shake BM.

Great thing about that photo is you can also see the Quake peak....Shake & Quake in Earthquake Valley
edited by dsefcik on 9/15/2014

BM Quake is on the ridge between Blair and Little Blair so it wouldn't be in this pic looking north into Earthquake Valley. This was a test right, Daren?

nice pics, your fish eye lens is sweet.

Yes, I was actually wondering how you were getting those shots.

Here is a very skewed 4 photo stitched panorama of the Mojave Twins, both of these are from my Pentax 6x7 film camera

"...just weighed one of my old 4oz bottles of denatured alcohol full and it weighed...4oz"..

Nice, sorry I could not join you today, looked like fun. Too bad about the snake and tire tracks, that was the first thing that caught my eye.

I want giant water bladders delivered to me in the backcountry! The skull... maybe a possum? Looks pretty flat on the top, teeth are widely-spaced.

Here is the metamorphic rock water bed back in April 2010





quote]
I like it! Do you have any pics of the swimming pool with the shallow end rock dam? Think I'll stay with my tent and dump the bivy especially after your snake pic. Felt like a straight jacket anyway.

2. Was there any remnant of the 4x4 rock built road going up the 30 ft water fall drop off? Others may chime in on the history of this. A 4x4 club back in the day (1950's- 1960's) ?? built a road up Rock house canyon. I don't know if they ever made it to the valley floor. But parts of the 4x4 ( rock and boulder) road built by these guys still was intact about 20 years ago.

tommy750 wrote:

Great trip. Have done parts of that trip but would like to try Pepperwood sometime. Did you get see anything that looked like a trail heading up Canebrake toward Thing Valley? It's listed on old topo maps but can't really see anything on GE. Tom

Sounds like a trip to me Tom! When you wanna go..??

I have Titanium Loppers...only 1lb!

Way to go on sleuthing out the sleeping square from GE. That groove / mortero combo is a new one to my eyes. Always something new to find out there. Love the photos, particularly your B&Ws. Funny that you found nail polish containers out there....there is a lot of internet chatter about sniffing polish (and remover) to get high. Maybe they weren't doing their nails after all.... and if you want to get high, word on the street is that Bacardi or Grey Goose is the way to go.

Absolutely love it Tom, I really like the B/W photos, I need to learn how you make those. I have not been out to Carrizo Marsh yet, would like to go someday. Too bad we missed each other this weekend, you would have enjoyed going with us.

I brought all the camera crap to record them, fast wide lens, tripod, cable release, etc...but the cheap bottle of booze I brought knocked me out until the early morning sun came poking it's head of the mountain ranges...