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Danger Close
Bow hunting season started yesterday in the Forest, so now on my patrols I have to watch out for wackos with bows who’ve (un)knowingly wandered into the Park. Hunting season also means an influx of bears and deer – they know the boundaries and that they’re save from hunters inside the Park.
I think the squirrels are also aware. On my hike today I was bombarded by falling Sequoia cones, cut down by the squirrels above. They seem to be targeting habitual bipeds of all sorts – taking no chances.
Navigation
One should always carry the knowledge and skill to navigate in your place. Always in my pack is a Silva Ranger CL compass – a light, compact compass, for which I can use to navigate either with the terrain or with a map. The compass is stored in a TAD Gear BC-8 pouch, which I picked up on my pilgrimage to TAD while passing through San Francisco earlier this summer. The pouch can be attached to my belt, pack, or any other piece of webbing, assuring the compass always has a place on my person, without taking up precious pocket space.
In the field, I also carry a Garmin Etrex Vista Cx GPS device. The GPS is unessential and shouldn’t be relied upon for primary navigation. Its error is larger than that of a compass; it depends upon a clear line of sight to the sky, making it more of a hassle than a help to use in forested areas; and, of course, it depends upon batteries. I’ve had one occasion this summer where the GPS insisted that North was South and South was North, implying either a sporadic pole shift or shaky satellite reception. My primary use of the GPS is the trip computer – the odometor, my moving time, my stopping time, my average speed, and elevation shift. I’ll also use it for a quick reading of my coordinates to get a rough idea where I am, and occasionally the Tracks program, which can be used to retrace my steps.
Always carry a map. USGS 7.5” topo maps are the best. On my backcountry trips here in the Park, I carry a minimum of 3 maps: a Tom Harrison Map of the entire Park, a Tom Harrison Map more specific to my location in the Park, and the USGS maps for each quadrangle I plan to walk through. The map I primary reference is the second Tom Harrison, which is clear and easy to read and has mileage printed directly on the trails. The USGS maps I carry for cross-country travel or in case I get lost. The large Tom Harrison map is carried more for a sense of place and planning other trips.
Learn to read a map. I’ve never had a class in the subject, nor read a book, but I’m confident in my ability to utilize a map. The best way to learn is practice. Here’s what to do: buy the USGS 7.5” quadrangle for the area you live in. If you live in an urban area, try to buy a quadrangle for a nearby park or forested area – someplace that isn’t flattened and paved. (But buy the maps for the urban areas too! I have the 7” quadrangles for the city I live in, covering my home and commute, taped on my wall, for exploration and post-Apocalypse survival.) Now take your new map and wander into the woods. Figure out where you are. Find a feature on the map, such as a hill or a ridge, and then find it in your place. How steep are the contours in real life? Here’s a hint: contours “V” upstream.
Even if you’re unable to triangulate your position or perform other minute calculations, you should have the confidence to read a map and have a rough idea of what that means in real life. A few weeks ago, a visitor came in to the Visitor Center in the Park while I was working. He was interested in a backcountry permit. After glancing at the map, he asked how much water he should bring. I hate giving someone like that a permit. If you’re unable to read the steepness of the trail and the locations of water sources, you have no business in the backcountry. And everybody should have business in the backcountry. So learn to read.
Pictures of my gear may be found here.
Mt. Silliman
Since my first visit to Ranger Lake, I’ve had an inkling to climb the trail-less Mt. Silliman. It sits at 11,188 feet – just a little below Alta. On this last 3 day trip in the backcounty, I took a day to attempt it. From my camp at Ranger Lake, there’s a trail that took me about 2 miles and 1,000 feet to the top of Silliman Pass. From there, I cut south to go cross-country 2 miles and 1,000 feet to the summit.
About half the trek is a scramble up and down granite boulders. I had a couple questionable moments, where I wasn’t sure if I could get back, or even forward, and had to elect for a risky slide on my backside. The other half opens up into wider, flatter stretches of sand. There I saw Mountain Lion tracks and, for the first time, the tracks of the ever-elusive Bighorn Sheep.
After about 1.5 miles cross-country, I decided to turn around, having made it almost to the base of the summit. I hadn’t started till late in the day so I was losing the sun, and the terrain ahead looked like it was to get a bit technical for my non-existent rock climbing skills. (My hands were already scraped up and blistered from the scrambling and the previous day’s adventures.)
The views from the crest rivaled that of Alta; I was able to hang my feet over the jagged, immense cliff on the eastern side while stopping for a snack. The attempt was not wasted. Some day I’ll make my way back.
Drug Ops
Today marks the end of the special operations that have been occurring all week near our district headquarters. We’ve had most of the Park’s law enforcement down there raiding marijuana gardens and monitoring the grower’s communications. It made for interesting chatter on the radio, though somewhat annoying when one needs to call out and the command channel is flooded with their traffic. The rest of us had to resort to the tactical channels, which, for whatever reason, Dispatch only infrequently monitors.
On Tuesday we had a Blackhawk come in to supplement the H1 Huey that was searching for suspect trails in the area (and, the unconfirmed report is, was shot at on Monday). Listening in, there was a lot of confusion over relaying locations between ground teams and the helicopters. For some reason indiscernible to me, they only resorted to gps coordinates after unsuccessfully attempting to describe locations with landmarks and rough distances. There was a lot of confusion over communications, in general. Quite often the field teams would have trouble reaching ICP, and vice versa. Apparently nobody sat down before the ops and marked the ideal locations to place the portable repeaters.
All in all, it was entertaining and enlightening listening, though it’s a comfort to have everyone back, no longer relying on only two Medics for the entire park.
Bear Tracking
Last night, I went out with the Bear Technicians in Cedar Grove, down in the bottom of King’s Canyon. They have two bears down there who have been running amok and finding their way into houses, the generally accepted retaliation against which is hazing, for which we have plenty of fun toys: water guns, sling shots, pepper spray, paintball guns loaded with pepper balls, shotguns with rubber slugs, and the neighborhood dogs. (Hazing the humans who left food out and their windows unlocked is not yet standard practice.) So, last night, we were tasked with tracking the two bears and making their lives slightly less pleasant than usual.
One we tracked for a few hours, but he ran away when approached with the shotgun. The other managed to ditch her radio collar and evade us.
I imagine we scared off a few tourists: cruising around with the driver pointing a spotlight out the window, the front passenger scanning with the nightvision goggles, and me in the back, holding an antenna out the window, working the telemetry, with the paintball gun sitting next to me.
We were unsuccessful in trapping or hazing (much) either of the two bears by 10:30P, so resorted to driving through the campgrounds looking for food violations, which amounts to spying on people with nightvision, followed by a raid of their camp.
I left to start my drive back up to the top of the canyon a little before midnight.
On the Road to Kandahar
Jason Burke’s On the Road to Kandahar despite its title does not deal exclusively with Afghanistan and the former power-seat of the Taliban. It is the author’s account of his experience reporting, for the last decade or so, from the Islamic world. Focusing on the rise and nature of militant Islam, Burke puts forth his theory on the dispersed and autonomous nature of the groups, analyzing the cause of their rise and their increasingly lacking support from local communities. Though I’ve yet to read his first book, Al-Qaeda, this one seems to be in large part a rehashing of the same, but updated, broader in scope, and, after the attacks on the author’s home city of London, more personal. I quite enjoyed it. A recommended read for those interested in the region.
Fresno Tree Removal
On my way out of the autonomous republic of Fresno today, I passed a Fresno Tree Removal Service truck with wood-chipper in tow, which struck of chord of humour with me.
We couldn’t have trees in Fresno! That would mean shade and clean air and everything else that Fresno so valiantly stands against.