The Moro Rock Trail

One of the shortest trails in Sequoia National Park, at only one-quarter of a mile in length, the Moro Rock Trail is also one of the steepest, climbing 300 feet in elevation. The path twists and turns around, over, and through the rock as it rises to the top. The views are stupendous!

A sign at the bottom of the trail warns that even though it is short, the trail is strenuous. Some of the steps have been, quite literally, carved from the rock.

Approaching the top of Moro Rock. It is a pretty safe trail with railings in place, where needed, for safety's sake. It's not scary, unless you decide to look over the edge!

Plants seemed to be growing in nearly every crevice.

It really wasn't dangerous, but glancing over the side and straight down did cause a bit of dizziness.

Looking south, toward the entrance to Sequoia National Park.

At the top of Moro Rock.

Spectacular views in every direction.

Just a few of the steps that have been carved from the rock.

Polartec NeoShell update

Sunset from the Midi



















I started this review with three videos. I think it is important enough to get a look at the technology that even the Polartec videos are worth a second look.



Don Bowie's comments mirror my own experience with the Westcomb Apoc and NeoShell..





























It has taken me a while to get enough experience with the NeoShell to think I could write a worth while review. I was leery because I had hunted down this jacket and begged for it from Polartec. Actually it was a tour through Wetscomb's gear at the OR show in Jan. that turned me on to NeoShell. Gabriel Cote had nothing but good things ot say about NeoShell and was excited to be using it in his cutting edge garments. I had used the original prototype Goretex garments back in 1976 from Sierra Designs and Lowe so I really did wonder just how much of a "missing link" the new NeoShell would be. 35 years of technology should be an improvement right?

I am pretty easy to please when it comes to shell garments these days. I have almost totally given up on Goretex because in typical use I wanted something more breathable than hard shells offered. Easy to please because I so seldom use a hard shell now..

When the wind is blowing and it is -20C and the sun is out a layer of down and a good wind shell pretty much does the trick. The shell is not required to do much. A lot of my skiing and climbing in the Alps were in those kind of conditions, cold and windy.

So I knew NeoShell was wind proof. Most shell materials are to one level or another. But how many stretch? NoeShell does. One of the things I really look for on any review is how much I notice what I am trying to review. Good boots? If I never notice the boot I am wearingthey are likelyGREAT boots! Ice tools or other climbing gear? If they do what is required and I never notice a lack of performance it is likely an exceptional bit of kit. If they allow me to do some thing new...then I know I have a winner.

A hard shell that stretches!Mind you NeoShell doesn't stretch a lot but it does enough so that the garment never binds while wearingit.But I also noticed I never had a moisture build up. Not when skiing/climbing and working hard. Even in conditions I thought I might or would normally. I also noticed NeoShell had to be the warmest single layer water proof shell I had ever used. But just fleeting thoughts as I wasn't making side by side comparisons to any GTX products. Just my observationsat that moment.

I had to wait till I got home to the Cascades to check out the rest of the story. Rain...inches of rain have been typical this spring. So now I know the NeoShell is water proof and it still stretches. It obvious breaths well but just how well was the question. My Goretex stuff breathes too.

The most impressive test forme sounds like the most simple. Right at freezing all day between 4000' and7000' and not a cloud in the sky. You could almost wear a sweater to ski in but you would be chilled on the ski lift or on the ridge tops if you weren't working hard.A sweater and a wind proof vest were almost ideal.

Same place typically a Gortex shell would have been too warm for me and worse yet sweaty and wet.

Just for fun I stripped to a tech short sleeved T shirt and added the Neo Shell over it. I figured we would soon see just how warm, wind proof and breathable NeoShell really was.

To my surprise I stayed warmer ( remember I originally thought NeoShell was exceptionally warm) all the way up and all the way down in the Apoca NeoShell than in my sweater and vest combo. And even more impressive I stayed dry..actually drier than the sweater/vest combo with no noticeable moisture build up on my back duringthe long runs down the hill.

Obviously no great insights here. But may be that is the point. NeoShell offers a water proofhard shell that breathes extremely well, and stretches. What is not to like? The Apoc has become my only shell jacket. It is that good. When I do notice something while using the Apoc it I'll get back to you.

I have not used all the current water proof and breathable materials available.But I have used a few of them. The new generation of stretchable, waterproof and breathable garments might well bethe"missing link". The Apoc with NeoShell is the most versatileoutdoor garmentI currently own or have used. Thatsurprised me.

My priority now is to see how a pair of NeoShell pants work out. Pants generally need to stretch a good bit more than a jacket. Maybe I won't notice it.

Creepin'

Creepin', originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Saturday night I was hiking up Poly Mountain and a large, slow-moving creature next to the trail caught my eye. Upon looking closer I saw that it was a tarantula.

This is the time of the year when the tarantulas are out and about in the hills. Some places, like Mt. Diablo in the Bay Area, are famous for the large numbers of the arachnids that creep through the dry grasses in search of mates...and prey.

Greetings From... North Carolina

In an attempt to evade the wind and rain, I left the Richmond area the morning of Friday the 13th, heading west and south, stopping for the night in the small town of Stuart, Virginia. It had rained off and on during most of the drive. Sometime during the night, the rain finally stopped.

The next morning I awoke to sunshine and blue skies and drove the few miles west to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The good thing about driving the Parkway this time of year is that there are very few other people doing the same. The bad thing about driving the Parkway this time of year is that all the campgrounds are closed as are the visitor centers and picnic areas.


Near Cumberland Knob, North Carolina
From the Blue Ridge Parkway - November 14, ..

Relocating

Why are you waking me up...



...when it's so clearly time for sleeping?



Oh, ok.

-----

A green tree frog (Hyla cinerea) was napping in the crevice of a post that needed to be moved. He got moved too, but wasn't too happy about it.

It reminded me of the Green chair frog from a few years back.

-----

Submitted to the Friday Ark.

You Ride a Bike, Don't You?

I was headed toward the subway platform, lost in thought, when a construction worker shouted this to me as he walked past - rhetorically and with a good-natured smile, almost as if in greeting."You ride a bike, don't you!"



For a moment I wondered how he knew. I do not carry a bicycle helmet around. Neither do I have a U-Lock sticking out of my back pocket. Nor do I wear t-shirts with pictures of bicycles or bicycle slogans on them. And then I remembered: I was "wearing" a wheelset. A full wheelset, with tires attached. I was bringing the wheels to Framingham - an hour long trip on subway and commuter rail - and rigged up a system inspired by carrying my skates around.





Having tied the wheels together with a rope, I then slung them over my left shoulder as if the wheels were a handbag and the rope was a shoulder strap. It was surprisingly comfortable and I could hardly feel the weight, which is why I forgot about the wheels when the stranger addressed me.



Something similar happened yesterday, when I wrangled a floor pump into my handbag and walked to my art studio with 1/3 of the large, orange pump sticking out. When I stopped for a coffee on the way, the person behind me in line startled me by saying "That's quite a pump you got there!" Once I realised what he meant, I considered explaining that my hand-held pump does not fit Shrader valves. But thankfully it was my turn to order coffee just then and the person was spared that narrative.



What is the most unusual thing you've carried off the bike that distinguished you as a cyclist?

Red Phoenix Emporium

Climbers, you know I'm a style watcher. And you've seen a couple of my photos from various fashion launches.

This year I have been honored to become more involved in Red Phoenix Emporium.

RPE is a family business and I can't tell you how proud I am of their progress so far.



Getting to the point of shooting for the new collection has taken a whole year and I can't help but share of a few scenes from the day with you.

Here's a peek at Red Phoenix Emporium Autumn/Winter Collection

The collection is on the website. It's the "All that Glitters" collection.



Kristen is on fire modelling our newpure silk dress, a photographic print of a Thai sunset, repeated and reflected. The necklace hangs three slabs of Agate from a string of Tibetan Mountain Coral







Jo wears silk with a photographic print of ruined monasteries on frozen ground, takenon our recent trip across the Tibetan Plateau.






You already know these abs. They belong to Nate

He sports the new dude wear from Red Phoenix,An addition to the usual RPE, this is my influence.

The "Double Dragon" pants in Chinese brocade featuring the double dragon motif. Necklace: "They Only Come Out at Night" Lava stone, obsidian skulls, dyed turquoise skulls and a suspended central Pyrite skull and black onyx crucifix. Lusciously dark.















Heloise is a stunner in the silk Chili dress, a photographic print of dried chillies from a roadside eatery on the first bend of the Yangtze, of all places.









This collection includes the sequined shift dress, here in black. Also comes in bronze and silver.














Double Dragon again.









We are delighted to haveWinona the intern on board!!!






Thanks Nate, for standing in the middle of the city in pyjamas.

You pulled it off well.












Here's the stylist team,Lotus and Willow on the shoot, working under a heavy burden of gems.










No one got arrested, mercifully.



Wear RPE and stay out of fashion prison.



jj

Aftermarket Dynamo Lights: a Clean Look

When setting up dynamo lighting on a bicycle with no provisions for it (i.e. no internal routing or special braze-ons), there is always the question of how to route the wiring so that it looks "clean." After all, no one likes to see black wires coiled around a frame's fork and tubes. When setting up the lights on my Rivendell some time ago, the Co-Habitant and I developed a nice method that is practically invisible, and I've been meaning to share it. So when we recently did the same to my Bella Ciao, I made sure to document it.

This method assumes that your bicycle is equipped with fenders, and that you are installing both a headlight and tail light. I will also assume that you already know how to connect the lights themselves; this is not meant to be an electrical tutorial.

The key to our method is using as little wiring as necessary - running it in a straight line parallel to existing stays and tubes, as opposed to coiling it, and securing it with colour-matched zipties. It's a simple idea, but colour-matched zipties really do blend in with the bicycle when all is said and done. You may be surprised to learn that they are available in all sorts of colours - from bright rainbow hues, to neutrals such as clear, white, cream, taupe and gray. We use small gray zipties to route the wire from the tail light along the non-drivetrain side fender chainstay.

In natural light, the result looks like this.

We then proceed along the non-drivetrain side chainstay, using a larger colour-matched ziptie. This frame is a sort of pale military green, and this beige ziptie blends in nicely.

Continuing the same underneath the bottom bracket.

In natural light, the wiring really does "disappear" when routed in this manner, staying close to the chainstay.

If your frame already has shifter cable braze-ons on the downtube as this one does, then you can simply attach the wiring to the shifter cable itself (small black zipties this time). Otherwise, use two large colour-matched zipties for the dwntube, like we did here.

For the headlight, you will need to leave enough wire so that your ability to turn the handlebars is not constricted. We prefer to achieve this by creating a coil here. To do this, simply wrap the wire tightly around a pen or a stick.



And voila, there is your coil. Notice the additional ziptie along the shifter cable, just to keep everything neatly in place.



Finally, use the same colour-matched zipties along the fork as you did along the chainstays, routing the wire to the hub as tautly as possible.



Even frames with internal routing often lack provisions for the fork, and here I find it especially important to find zipties in a colour that blends in with the paint - otherwise it can look as if the fork is cut into pieces, its elegant curvature disturbed. I am using my camera flash to show the process, but in daylight this really looks quite unobtrusive.



In natural light up close.



And from further away.



Having used this method on three bicycles now, I am pleased with it and don't particularly covet frames with provisions for internal routing. Nothing has ever come loose, and visually I am pretty happy with it. You are welcome to use our method, or to share your own.

A Season of Evenings

Walking through town just as the light began to fade, I had one of those odd moments when everything falls into a rhythm. A woman in very high heels had just unlocked her bicycle from a pole and began rolling it down the sidewalk toward me, her shoes clicking on the bricks and the hem of her coat fluttering in the breeze. At the same time a second-story window opened and there was the late Jim Morrison's drunken baritone singing "come on now touch me baby." The sound warped a little, carried sideways by the breeze. Just then someone down the street slammed their car door and the alarm went off, a persistent beeping without that edge of harshness it would have had, had it been closer. As I stood still for some seconds, letting the woman in the heels and coat maneuver her bike around me, all of these events became harmonised. Click-click, beep-beep, what was that promise that you made? Click-click, beep-beep, why won't you tell me what she said? The woman looked up toward the open window as she passed me, and suddenly I was flooded with a sense of deja-vu.




In the Russian language there is a word - a verb - to describe the onset of evening: "vechereyet" (вечереет). It's an archaic word, but still used on occasion. The closest English translation would be something like "evening is coming," but the mood is not the same. And it's the mood of that word that's important. You hear it, and you feel an "eveningness" gently setting in. It's an anticipatory state, fostering expectations of moonlight, cricket sounds, a chill in the air, perhaps peals of laugher in the dark. I remembered this word on my way home today. The sun had nearly set and when I looked at the time I saw it was 5:35pm. "This is the last week of October," I thought. A season of early evenings awaits.

A Night in the City

A Night in the City, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

A few friends and I drove up from San Luis Obispo to San Francisco for Friday night and Saturday. Most definitely an awesome trip. This is the view last night from Conzelman Road in the Marin Headlands - those lights on the otherwise dark hillside are car headlights.

Another Cactus

I have another cactus blooming in one of my flower pots. I think it is a different kind of claret cup cactus than the red ones I posted photos of before.

Pants? A quick drive by......

Jens in the stellar mixed chimney of Blue Moon, Mtn. Snoqualmie




It was pointed out to me this morning that I don't do much on pants here on the blog but a lot of writing on thetop layers. Fair enough.









More importantly I don't put a lot of thought into pant these days. And I should. I really should.



Everyone seems to worry about the heat loss from your neck and head. Few worry about the heat loss from your legs. Myself included. Much warmth to be had by a thoughtful pant choice. Obviously this subject needs some details filled in and the thought process behind them laid out. For now it is just a drive by of the pants I do like and use. More later.



I own one pair of Gortex hard shell bibs these days. Haven't used them in years. Still own them mind you, just haven't used them. And they are really nice Arcteryx Goretex bibs.



The basic rack climbing and skiing? It is all soft shell but one.



Arcteryx Gamma LT, AR, SV, MX

Gamma LT is my most used pant, by a fair margin, winter and summer, climbing and skiing. The LT is the only one of the bunch I have actually worn out and then replaced.



NWAlpine Salopettes

My idea to get Bill making these. Used something similar back to the '70s.

I have them in the standard fabric NWA offers which is somewhere between the LT and the AR material but not as good as either. Two more pair in different weights of insulated Neoshell.

Great bib pattern, stock fabrics and workmanship could be better. Price point helps you ignore the flaws.

Worn out one pair of the original bibs.

Don't own the pant





Patagonia

Great fabrics. Weird and over complicated design work.

North Wall pants......Polartec Power Stretch Pro? Best material made for cold weather pants to date imo. Still not thrilled with the design work.

Mixed Guide Pant. Love the fit. Close as I come to a hard shell that I actually use. Wish they were more soft shell and less hard shell. Others who know a lot more than me really like the combo of hard shell soft shell. Vents that work.

Alpine Guide Pant...nice pant, nice fabric.

Weird as it might sound I bought all the Patagonia pants because they fit me in the waist extremely well. Cuffs on all of them are FUBAR though. in comparison to the other pants I use more. Annoying that.









Dynafit

Easy to poke fun at lycra.I really like the lycra based Dynafit Movement pant. Even the white ones. Lycra has its place in the mtns. I own two pair of theseand would use them everywhere they were warm enough or I could more fast enough. If only they were easier to replace. Thoughtful combination of pockets and lycra with wind blocks and a built in gaiter that really works. Now I generally save them for fast ski days or sunshine. Wish I didn't have to save them. For the right weather and given the right fitness level by far my most favorite pant in the mountains.



Take a look through the photos here on the blog. Most of these pants are well represented.

Base layers to go under them? That is another story waiting to be told.

Colors of Summer

Bellflower (Campanula americana)


Yellow Fringed Orchid (Platanthera ciliaris)


Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum)


Spider Lily (Hymenocallis occidentalis)


One of those yellow flowers (dontknowenuf stuffidus)