Leaving Midpines

Biggreentruck made a major breakthrough with the improvised filtering system last week. The sturdy jugs have wire handles added to hang them outside the truck to filter into clean cubies or even inside the truck to filter straight into the tank. Now that the hand pump doesn't leak anymore, I can just pump the filters full of dirty fuel. Rather like reinventing the wheel, the process is slowly becoming more refined and less messy.

The blue filter on the left in the photo is made of blue jeans rescued from a thrift store. They're supposed to filter to about 15 microns (the white one on the right is supposedly a 5 micron filter). It's a cheap alternative but is somehow slower than the finer filter.

As of today, I am back into the Naturalists at Large world. Biggreentruck and its full tank of Mariposa pizza and Chinese food oil bade farewell to Midpines yesterday. After camping on the beach and waking up to a cloudy morning-something that hasn't been scene in months in the mountains- we landed back at the NAL office. This fall promises to be exciting and busy with trips in Pinnacles, the southern Sierra, Joshua Tree, the Colorado River and (stay out of) Malibu (Lebowski).

Here's a link to a great commentary from the BBC about ethanol: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5369284.stm

Biofuels in the Media

The BBC comes through again with "Biofuels Look to the Next Generation": http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5353118.stm.

Stocking Up

I've been lucky to have not driven very much this summer and wasn't very anxious about collecting oil. Now that it's almost time to go back to the NAL scene, biggreentruck's veggie tank needs a fill-up.

Midpines lacks restaurants altogether so the nearest source of oil would be Mariposa, about 7 miles away. There are a handful of other folks driving on SVO in the area. And, the number of vehicles running on veggie oil reaches the double digits if you include the crowd down in North Fork (an hour or so away).

Happily, the oil supply in Mariposa itself is not tapped out. The Chinese restaurant and the neighboring pizza place both were more than willing to supply biggreentruck. The first visit yielded 30 gallons. Since the oil was already in cubies, collection took about 10 minutes. The cold front that came through the other day has slowed down the rustic (but improving) filtering process. But, there is really no room for complaints when you're faced with that much free, recycled, 'patriotic' fuel.

Full Moon over the LeConte Divide

A couple of days ago, I returned from a delightful backpacking course in the Courtright area in the central Sierra. It was a pleasantly mellow 7 days on either side of the last full moon before equinox. All of our students watched in amazement mid-course as the moon rose over the LeConte Divide. The alpenglow was stunning. We were all equally awestruck a few days later watching the sunrise from atop one of Courtright's many granite domes.

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of
life. - John Muir

We were an unlikely group expressing to the fullest extent possible the Outward Bound core value of diversity and inclusion. Thanks to Ray for the photo from "Anniversary Pass" 10,200'. It was a course designed for folks 'over 30' with light packs and low mileage and it had all the elements of a grand adventure: a slightly worrisome but distant forest fire, a few building thunderheads, exciting off trail travel, beautiful terrain and beautiful people.

Fall is starting to make itself visible in the Sierra. Water at mid and low elevations is harder to find (this is a photo of upper-upper Yosemite Falls about a week ago), the air in the high country has a definite chill and the light .....well, this is the 'range of light' after all.... the light has that distinct autumnal quality.

Rumors abound that the weather is going to change soon. Is it just wishful thinking?