Snow Day

Today there was enough snow at low levels today to close the highway so I was unable to go to work.  However, the weather did provide some nice photography subjects.  There a few more pictures posted here.

Special Delivery

In December of 2008, Space Shuttle Endeavor landed at Edwards Air Force Base. Watching a hypersonic glider drop down from 50,000ft to a landing is unforgettable.  After a week of preparation, the shuttle carrier, a modified 747 makes a special delivery back to NASA Kennedy Space Center. As I write this, space shuttle managers are deciding if Endeavor will land tonight in Florida, California, or remain in orbit another day.  For more pictures of this amazing machine, click on the picture.

Frosty Day in Tehachapi

Sierra Nevada Mountains to the North

The first snow of the year hit Tehachapi last night! Wind, rain, and ice. I enjoy weather like this. It keeps life interesting and makes for some nice pictures taking opportunities. Go to the gallery here.

High Sierra Trail - The Adventure Begins

Needham Mountain in the Great Western Divide

In the next few posts I will share what is now one of my favorite backpacking trips, The High Sierra Trail. Most people are aware of the Pacific Crest Trail and the John Muir Trail (which cross the Sierra Nevada), but the High Sierra Trail is less widely known, but nevertheless awesome!

Friends Sym and Chris have been planning this trip for some time, and invited me to join them for the 7-8 day epic across the Sierra Nevada. We began our trek from the East side of the range in Inyo National Forest at Kennedy Meadows, with our destination being Wolverton, in Sequoia National Park, 75 miles away, on the west side of the range.

Mount Whitney in Early Winter

Picture from a wonderful day trip from Whitney Portal. Although the trail is passable from Whitney Portal to Outpost Camp, there is plenty of snow around. Trail access was good, no snowshoes needed. I'm sure after a few more snowfalls it will be a much different story. Unfortunately, Mount Whitney is not visible in this picture. Click here for more images.

Off The Grid

Can you imagine living off the grid... None of the following services: electricity, running water, telephone, television, or internet. Transportation is by foot or pack animal. I don't know what percentage of the world lives like this. Much of Nepal is off the grid. That is changing gradually thanks to assistance from various western nations. I wonder if we would be better off without all our technology? Simple pleasures and more time for things that matter? Interesting to think about.... I wouldn't need to spend time in a gym if I had fields to plow. (Photo taken a few miles from Phakding, Nepal, where there is probably electricity).

Owen's Valley Winter Trip

Bryan and I headed off the other weekend to try some winter camping. However, the snow was very dry and deep. Even with snow shoes travel times were about 4x over what it would take in the summer. After a night at snow camp, we opted to do some rock climbing in the Alabama Hills outside of Lone Pine. For more pictures, go to my flickr page here. Note: I've have been trying out the Adobe Lightroom product on a 30 day demo. So far I am very impressed. Now that I am using a DSL and shooting more RAW images, iPhoto feels limiting. I still have over 1500+ raw images from Nepal to wade through.

Nepal Post 1

I've just returned a few weeks ago from a month long expedition in Nepal. This is the first post of several about my trip there and mainly to share some photographs. This is a picture of some of the first high mountains (6000m+) that we encountered. For more photos and details click here for the flicker site. Keep checking back for updates as I get more photos posted.

Sierra Surise

The morning glow of the sun cast on the Eastern Sierra Mountains near Kersage Pass in the Onion Valley. What a way to start the day.

Snow Day.

Some fresh snow last night made the morning commute off the mountain impossible (except by snowmobile). In my area in only snows this hard a handful of times each winter - but enough today to close the roads for a most of the morning today. I made the most of it and after a day at the 'home office' cut some fresh powder with my snowshoes. For more pictures click here.

Busy as a Bee

Last summer there seemed to be a swarm of bumble bees doing what they do. I took this on a backpacking trip in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in North Carolina.

Dark Night at Joshua Tree

Here is a ~20 minute night time exposure of the heavens. Looks like I managed to find the North Star (the only star not moving).

Joshua Tree National Park

Winter at Joshua Tree. Beautiful, stark, and cold (down to 20 F at night). For more images, click on the title.

Exceptional Dude

My very good friend Mr. Aaron Dude was married in Tampa last weekend. It was such a blessing to be part of this celebration of Aaron and Sherry joining their lives together. For more pictures (by a professional) click here to go to Mr. Billy's blog.

River Through Middle Earth

This is Middle Prong River located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Being very lush and green, it reminds me of Middle Earth and I half expected to see Gollum jump out from behind a rock.

Saddleback Caterpillar

I found this critter crawing around a building here in Oak Ridge. It turns out to be a saddleback caterpillar, which can leave a nasty sting. From the USGS site:

Another unique slug caterpillar. Charcoal black or brown, with unmistakable lime green abdominal saddle. Saddle with central brown patch ringed with white. Dorsum of first and eighth abdominal segments with fingerlike lobes bearing numerous stinging spines. Sting intense and of considerable duration. Food: broadly polyphagous on trees, shrubs, grasses such as corn, and other garden plants.

Hail

Some major hail fell from the sky last Sunday during a severe storm. I've never hail this big. Hail is formed when liquid water gets caught up in big updrafts and freezes. Sometimes this happens several times as you can see from the rings above when I cut some of the hail stones in half.

Ice Sculptures

These interesting ice blobs remind me of stalagtites growing down from a icy roof - exept they get bigger. I noticed them recently while hiking up in the Smoky Mountains. The little blobs are only a couple of inches high and are actually in a moving stream.

Windy Day in Godzone

click on picture to play movie!

(click here if you need the quicktime plug-in)

Over Christmas I had a great holiday in my home country of New Zealand. This is a view from my parent's house in Moeraki. They get some winds there you would not belive. This time laspe movie will give you an idea of how windy it gets. The 5 second movie was made from a camera taking a picture every minute for one hour.

Seeing Spots

This little critter was not moving so fast this morning after a cold night. What amazing colors and details in this fragile package. He didn't seem very lively, but that helped me with get his picture.