April of 2008, my Nikon D80 was in the shop and I had no backup point-and-shoot camera at the time. A few friends up the coast I met on Xanga invited me up and all I had on hand was my disposable camera.

It was a bit daunting to know I only had 27 shots to string out over three days, but it was a worthwhile exercise in making them count.

*****

As mentioned in my last post, I spent most of my weekend with a high speed low drag Rite-Aid disposable camera I got at a Christmas gift exchange party.

I camped at my usual spot in the Carrizo Plain, washed up and had breakfast at the Atascadero Jack in the Box (very clean restroom!) then proceeded toward the coast, but not before running into some kind of balloon festival.

The lens vignetted like crazy (see the tree go to black in the corner) but actually helps control the highlights in the sky.  A blessing in disguise, I guess.

Being April, the side of the road was lined with a few flowers.

Looking south on Hwy 41, toward Morro Bay.

Cliche of the Day.  Too bad it was mid-morning and the sun was still on the wrong side.

More Big Sur.

Barb & Sarah at their church in Aptos.

This is how I feel without a my D80 + SB800 on remote at 1/4000.

Subaru ran one of my photos in their testimonial campaign that I took back in September of 2009. The caption reads, “When it was time to drive home to Los Angeles from Albuquerque, we decided to take a scenic detour through a 12,000 ft mountain pass in Colorado. As Pirsig said, ‘Sometimes it’s better to travel than to arrive.’” –Jeff M., Los Angeles, CA.

This one appeared in Backpacker Magazine but my Bolivian friend (ok, she lives in Oregon now, not Bolivia anymore) tells me she spotted it in the back of Eating Well.

And in other news, Ellen hits 100,000 miles. Another 100,000 (200,000?) to go.

Their work is called Dead Six and it’s a collaborative first person military thriller with each of them (a professional thief and a private military contractor) trying to stay one step ahead of the other guy. Now it sounds cheesy since this formula has been done before a million times, but I’ve read the drafts two or three times and I couldn’t put it down.

You know how sometimes you support your friends’ work even though it sucks but they’re your friends, well, Dead Six actually kicks a lot of ass. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

You can get the eARC (electronic advanced reader copy) here: http://www.webscription.net/p-1484-dead-six-arc.aspx. $15 is a LOT for an e-book, but it will be out officially on Amazon or wherever you normally buy your books on September 27, 2011.

To quote Gun Nuts media’s review, “Unless you’re a dirty communist that hates awesomeness and doesn’t like bitchin’ fictional gunfights, you should get this book.”

Make preparedness a habit. As Aristotle said, “we are what we continually do.”

Link to the article is here: http://www.itstactical.com/gearcom/edc/adapting-the-ten-essentials-to-the-urban-environment/

It’s a gentle six miles on the trail to Kearsarge Pass,

Passing by a half dozen or so lakes that are fit to camp by.

…and some not. That water looks pretty cold.

The trail starts at 9,000-ish feet and gradually climbs

and climbs and climbs to about 12,000 feet where the trees thin out. Along with the air.

There are still patches of wildflowers by the trail…

Then off the main way and up the crumbly “trail” to the top, another 1,300 or so feet in elevation gain over perhaps a mile.

A few patches of wildflowers at 12,500-ish feet. It’s amazing where life finds its way.

A view across into the mountains of Kings Canyon National Park.

…Almost there! There is a class 3 move to top off on the summit block.

From the top you can see quite a ways away. Here I’m looking southwest into Kings Canyon National Park’s Bullfrog Lake and valleys and mountains that go along with that area.

One 13er down. Lots more to go! 4,000 vertical feet. What a day.

When folks think of what to do in Korea, rock climbing isn’t really the first thing that comes to mind,

but I would argue it is the best way to see Korea.

The palaces and markets are cool and all,

but if you live in a big city, wandering around another big city gets old fast.

Bukhansan National Park is at the edge of the big city, accessible by public transport, with lots of English signage.

So if you were to go there to hike, especially on a weekend, the trail would be buku crowded.

Not so if you climb.

We did a ridge climb with lots of being roped up but scrambling and not always doing technical climbing,

there were enough tricky spots to keep it challenging…of course it helped I’m not the best climber in the world.

The best part? Clear skies, a rare event that lets one see beyond the Han river.

And there was no one else on the route to have to share with.

Korea, just the way I like it.

Summer is almost here which means snow is melting off in the Eastern Sierras.

Still lots of snow to be had, at least it didn’t stick on the ground very much. It got pretty cold throughout the entire trip.

My friends Matt and Duke caught a few fish (I didn’t catch anything myself)

Two out of the four trout we (read: they) caught.

Cleaning the bad boy before stuffing its carcass with lemon, seasonings and fajita mix. Made for a tasty dinner.

The sun finally came out on the way down the hill. Parker’s been on my list for a while and an easy and short hike in, a great way to introduce noobs to backpacking. I’m looking forward to this summer as more of the Sierras becomes accessible.

I went with an organization called Hope Force International, a Christian-based organization that specializes in disaster response. Members of my team pictured above clear debris from the yard of homes. The excellent blue tarping jobs on the roof by previous teams are visible in the background.

Wreckage in the wake of the tornado. In order to find what the locals needs were, Hopeforce interfaced with a church in Harvest, AL. There, we found someone who offered their guest home (more on that next week), procured supplies and it became a hub for local activity as far as seeing what folks needs were. There, we were able to go to specific sites and work with people. Things like this bring out the best in people and worst in people, so police were out in numbers keeping looters out of peoples’ homes and making sure folks who claimed to be do-gooders were indeed legit and not scam artists.

The homeowners of what used to be a house in Toney, Alabama inspecting the rubble. The gent with the wheelbarrow is a Hopeforce volunteer clearing out debris.

A Hopeforce volunteer sorting through debris. She found the homeowner’s passport, military discharge papers and other important documents. Like a needle in a haystack made of drywall, insulation and bits of glass.

A photo of our team with the family in front of what used to be their home in Toney, Alabama kindly taken by one of the parks and recreation services folks who drove by on a hot food, ice and cold drink drop. Others conducting food drops included but were not limited to the Salvation Army, local churches and local families.

Other volunteers not a part of our team that we ran into included those from the Toyota plant nearby that spared ten guys off the assembly line and sent them up to help with cleanup. I also met some volunteer firemen from Florida, who said during their hurricanes, a lot of people came down from Missouri to lend them a hand, and the firemen in return wanted to come up to Alabama to give back to someone else in need. Some other Hopeforce teams were loading gear at the mothership in Franklin, TN and two engineering students up in the area to do some rock climbing pulled over and asked what they were up to. The Hopeforce volunteers informed them we were doing cleanup in Toney, and the pair of college kids met up with us the next day. It was nice seeing folks come together.

Gotta love a twisted sense of humor in the face of adversity. The folks in Alabama showed incredible resilience despite the circumstances.

If you think this is funny, you might be a computer nerd.

My epic watch tan after several days of work clearing debris in Alabama after the tornadoes.

I found a little piece of debris that looks like a face. ONCE YOU SEE IT, YOU CAN’T UN-SEE IT.

A dollhouse in one of the destroyed homes.

The homes in the tornado’s path looked more or less like this dollhouse.

Um, did I do that??

Not a whole lot of pictures here as I was getting hands-on, so I shot what I could during water breaks. We paced ourselves as it was incredibly hot. The folks on my team all left the end of that week as some had been there for weeks prior and desperately needed a few days off, but most of us could only commit to so much time off work. I’m back at home in a warm, dry bed with windows that are all in one piece and a roof over my head and walls unimpaled by 2x4s. My floor is covered as usual with outdoor and photo gear but no insulation or drywall. It was unfortunate the media pulled out pretty quickly after the tornados and the folks are left feeling like they have already been forgotten.

The place is still a mess and it’s going to take a while to clean up. At the time of this writing, Joplin, Missouri just got hit pretty hard, and there was some bad flooding in the Memphis, Tennessee area and from what I understand, our volunteer base is being spread out to cover them all. At this point I suppose I should link you over to Hopeforce or their Facebook page, the organization I am a reservist with. You can donate to them there, but I have personally never donated a cent, finding it more gratifying to be signed on as a reservist and getting hands on. It’s more fun that way. Either way, most people I’ve met have wanted to do something in order to help. How you do is up to you. You might not make it out to Alabama, but I don’t think natural disasters are going away any time soon.

Is a few more pictures of cats. With Uzis.