Why I Hate Yosemite and What is Killing the Internet

Actually, I don’t really hate Yosemite, nor do I believe that the internet is going to be dying. I’ve been reflecting over the past year on why I have burned out on a lot of things I used to like about being online. I think I have a better understanding now than I did a few years ago. Some of you that I have corresponded with by e-mail already know where this is going.

About a month ago I was at the summer home and my brother wanted to do some hikes in Yosemite. The last time I went inside the park, not just crossing over a mountain side or pass, I was not very happy about how that turned out which I blogged about at the time. Some years have passed since then, but the memories remain, and I did not like how we were treated there. Some of the hikes we did will come out at some point on here, but we did take a day to go into the valley. You get seven days when you acquire a pass at one of the gates so we wanted to take advantage of that on one of those days.

When we first got into the valley it was rather dry, warm, and mostly brown looking. The main waterfalls were practically all, if not completely, dry. We ended up taking a bus tour to Glacier Point. Looking back it might have been a better idea to drive ourselves, but I wanted to give my brother a break and not drive another hour.

Well, right away after we ordered our tickets there was some confusion as to what bus we were supposed to be on. We knew where to go, but the ticket agency and the bus drivers were not in sync on this. They kept telling us different things. As I went into this crowded bus we were forced to sit separately, I started to develop a bad mood, and realized this was probably not a good idea. The bus driver started talking to all of us on the bus, but I quickly realized this crowd was not lively at all. I kind of felt bad for the bus driver because it felt like no one wanted to be in that bus. In any case, off we went.

He told us some history, the origins of Yosemite, and other stories. I followed what he was saying, but I could understand if someone was bored with what was said. I got to see a little, but not as much as I would have liked from that seat in the back. Blah, blah, blah, etc. We finally got to Glacier Point.

We got there early that morning so the sun was not completely overhead. There had been some smoke due to lightning strikes so there was some haze in the air. In fact, there was smoke from a strike near the Mist Trail just outside the lower right side of my picture when we were there. Had we been there a few hours later my pictures would look different. I wasn’t trying to duplicate Ansel Adams here with the black and white look. Although I knew based on his pictures in Yosemite, what I had would look a lot better this way than with color. So, this is why I did a few tweaks in photoshop.

Now I have to admit the internet does not need more pictures like the ones I am posting on here. It is a great view, and I will give you that, but pictures like this have become what I call “token” shots. It is such a tourist spot that millions of people have come by here to take pictures of this. The uniqueness is not there that I like to strive for on this blog.

I can’t tell you how many times in the past year or two I have been standing next to a stranger as they say how they are going to post this on facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. People are flooding the internet with a lot of the same stuff over and over. It started to hit me more and more in the past two years that the online-world has become a little too cookie-cutter for me. The creativity is not out there like it used to be. I’ve just gotten to the point where nothing really surprises me anymore. Everything is a little too predictable with people stating the obvious 50,000 times. Like any genre, be it the movie western or types of music, the more it oversaturates the market it eventually gets to the point where people have to move on to something else.

It was always bothering me why sites like Youtube kept changing (and still do) their features every six months to a year against the wishes of the users. I think part of the problem is the concern the public is going to get bored and look for the next fad. 

All of this is reminder of why I have enjoyed hiking in the quiet areas of the back country. When I was in Yosemite Valley I felt like I was walking through Wal-Mart. Too many people! I feel bad for the people that come from other countries and think this is where they have to go. I don’t think they are getting a true Sierra wilderness experience.

So, when we came out of Yosemite Valley (and Glacier Point) I did not have that feeling of satisfaction I do hiking out somewhere in the Eastern Sierra. On that tour bus you can go up to Glacier Point and walk down back to the valley. We thought about it, but just decided to come back on the bus so we could spend more time in the valley before we left. There was a young lady with friends who said that was boring and that she was going to “hike” back down to the valley. She did not say that to us directly, but if she did I would have ripped her a new one for that. Down-hiking a few thousand feet back to the valley is not what I would call a hike. The real hike would have been coming up from below. Then again, most of the hikes inside of Yosemite I do not really think are that impressive, but I did get one in that I liked. Of course, I love the stuff that just borders Yosemite on the east side which is totally different than what I am referring to.

So, those are my main thoughts on the current state of things. Take it for whatever it is worth.

Let me give an update on a few things:
1)I really meant to have a few more videos up this summer. I started editing before the summer began, but never uploaded any. They are done, and are ready to go. Most are just old footage from the old camcorder; mostly remakes of things I have done before. Be sure to check the Youtube channel in the next few weeks for this since I will not update them on this blog. I will announce them on Twitter though.

2)Vimeo shot themselves in the foot with me. My paid subscription ends tomorrow. I don’t like how they have changed the video viewing to a full screen. The only way I could use it like I used to would be to embed it on here for each video, and I am not doing that. If they make the necessary changes then I will purchase another year from them, but at this point my money goes elsewhere. So, as much as I hate to say this, you are probably better off going to my Youtube channels right now.

3)I have started going to a few new and old movie and hike locations with the new camcorder. At some point I will start mixing in the new camcorder videos, but at the same time still upload some of the older footage at times.

4)Again, don’t expect me to come up with blogs every week like I have done in the past. Blogs will come, but at a slower pace which will keep me refreshed. At some point I will open up the comments on new blogs again, but I am not in a hurry on that. One thing I am not sure everyone realizes is that I get tons of e-mails. Not just from the blog, but the more I blog the more I get. Sometimes I think people see something I did 1-2 years ago on here and e-mail me as if I just put it up last week. It gets worse the older in the archives people go. Other times I feel like I created a second job for myself that I do for free.

That should cover it. I feel much, much better than I did a couple of months ago. Whatever I had took about five to six months of my life from me. This summer was just about getting back into reasonable shape. So, I was not as hardcore in what I did, but it was fun.

When you have time be sure to check these out:

Blue Whale Breaching Competition

The Day of the Fin Whale

The Devil's Doorway (The Iverson Ranch Series)

(GPS: N34 16.525 W118 36.600)

Like I lot of places I have covered on this blog in the past, this is another one that I had hoped to have up a long time ago, but never did. My trips to Iverson Ranch go much further back than this blog, but back in those days I was not as "hardcore" about hunting these places down as I have become over the years. This is one of those spots that I was always trying to get good pictures and footage of, but never did.

How come? The lighting I had was never really that good during the time of the year I would go. I would get there early so there would be too much shade or the sun would not be overhead. One time I shot okay video there, but then a month or two later I got a new camcorder so I would just tell myself I would go back for better footage. Then the next time I would go and the wind would be really bad with garbage cans falling over on the streets. I was tempted to post that footage just to show the crazyness of it. Even with this "latest footage" from a year or two back I just sat on it thinking I might go back to Iverson again. Well, enough is enough, lets just do it now.

So, walking down one of the side streets with all the condos around one can see this big rock ahead. It has been seen in old b-movies, but you have to look for it. I've got a story about the condo on the left, but I'll get to that in a moment. The key here is to walk to the end of the street you see and turn right.This is known as the Devil's Doorway. It is an arch hat still exists today, and both sides have been used in lots of old b-westerns and serials. This next photo is from Buster Keaton's Three Ages silent movie. Here Buster Keaton's character runs over the top of the big rock avoiding the other caveman.Here is how it looks these days. If you look carefully through the archway you will notice a condo on the other side. In the Days of Jesse James, Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes, and others went through the arch to avoid being chased.Gene Autry used it to slip away in Oh! Susanna.Looking directly through it. Lots of other examples could be listed of movies and serials that used it. I show a few others in the video.

Before I post the video links I thought I would tell the story about what happened as I was doing the video of this area the last time I was there. I made the trip, and the first thing I did was walk right to this spot. With no hesitation I started making the video. I knew what needed to be done and what needed to be said as I am usually well prepared when making videos of places I have been to before. Within about 30 seconds of me doing the first take a dog started barking, and the garage door about 15 feet behind me went up! The guy who lived there pulled out with his car, and offered to sell me the rocks if I could find a way to transport them. We both agreed that might be a little tough. He was a friendly guy, but it kind of spooked me. That's one of those things that I have always explained about why I don't enjoy going to Iverson Ranch as much as other places: everything is a little cramped and you quite literally have your back against people's property. I added some of that footage with the dog barking and the garage door going up at the end of the video for fun. You wouldn't know it from watching it as I completely shut up at that time, but that is what happened.

The Devil's Doorway (Youtube Version)

The Water Rises!

In my last blog I mentioned that it is highly unlikely earthlings will ever encounter intelligent life from space due to what is known as the “rare earth” hypothesis. Even if there is life, the problem of traversing the amount of light years to reach any other life permitting planet makes it practically impossible. But, what if we have “alien life” right hear on earth?

I think the closest thing we have to this type of experience is the ocean itself. Many of the creatures that live there are intelligent, but have that mysterious otherworldly appearance to them. That watery environment is one we don’t live in so it is almost like being in space. So, it is like visiting alien beings from another world. Many people have had similar thoughts about this. The most famous example is Douglas Adams The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series where he refers to dolphins really being aliens from another world. My views of astronomy have made me connect with the ocean world in much the same way.

Since I am fortunate to live relatively close to the ocean for most of the year, I have spent a lot more time whale watching and visiting aquariums during the past two years. When I was kid I used to go to the Marineland of the Pacific to see Orky and Corky the killer whales and other dolphins. Corky is still around and lives at Seaworld San Diego. The aquarium aspect isn’t new to me. On the other hand, my only experience whale watching when I was younger was a complete flop where we saw no whales at all. So, it was relatively recently I started doing this again.

A blue whale model from the Aquarium of the Pacific:

The blue whale is the one that we see the most of during the summer months. It is the biggest creature that has ever lived on the planet including the dinosaurs. It is the one I emphasize, but we do get fin whales, minke whales, gray whales, humpback whales, and sperm whales. The last two are more rare around where I live, and I have yet to see them in person. We also gets lots of common dolphin, bottlenose dolphin, pacific-white sided dolphin, risso’s dolphin, and orcas (killer whales). The last three are much more rare to see around here.

Here’s the deal. I originally was not sure I would ever upload any pictures or video about these animals for a bunch of reasons. One, there is already so much out there you can watch on Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, not to mention tons of stuff online already. Two, in the past when I uploaded anything on animals I always did it in a slightly humorous way, and I would always attract people that took it way more serious than I intended. Third, some of the “animal rights” crowd I don’t want anything to do with. Notice I say some and not all because, like within any group, you will find different types of people that are not all the same. But, I have encountered some really nutty people that I consider crackpots that don’t know how to make basic moral/ethical distinctions or basic reasoning itself for that matter. In fact, some I would consider “morally sick” if they really believe what they say they believe. For these reasons I really have hesitated whether I wanted to post anything at all on this.

I did start another blog just for this sort of thing to keep it separate from what I do on here, but I have not followed up on it. I’m still not sure what I will do with that. If I do start doing more of that then I will link it on the side with the rest.

I would highly recommend you check out these three videos which I did last week with the new camcorder:

 

Let me throw in these two that were done in August, 2012:

Blue Whale Breaching Competition

The Day of the Fin Whale

This is the Youtube channel that I will put up various whale watching videos:

The Water Rises (Youtube Channel)

It’s a lot more of a challenge to do these types of videos because of the conditions I encounter with the boat rocking along with the waves, the way the captain moves the boat, the weather conditions, whether the animals cooperate in the right place at the right time, and whether the animals are there at all. I have a lot of junk I will never ever post.

I don’t intend to use this blog for this because I don’t want my ocean adventures to dominate the content I produce for the blog. Maybe once in a great while if I get extraordinary footage, but that is it. I’m fine with keeping this blog the way it is right now.

As an important current event issue relating to all of this…during last year I had this idea that yesterday (July 20th) would be the day I announce “The Water Rises” project. Part of the name of the title is laugh and nod at the recent The Dark Knight Rises movie and the main villain of the story saying “The Fire Rises” at the beginning. “The Fire Rises” was also used as a promotional tool last year. Well, yesterday came and due to the tragedy in Colorado I did not feel it was right putting this up yesterday. I am truly in grief about what happened. Evil exists and there are powerful forces that are way beyond any of us that I am not sure we have the ability to stop with our own abilities. We are shocked with mass killings, but you know it will happen again in the future. All I can say is be aware of your surroundings out there and how you plan to get out of areas in a hurry if something does go down.

Venus Transit (June 5, 2012)

So after the partial eclipse I encountered I was eagerly awaiting June 5, 2012 that would be the final Venus transit of the sun in our lifetime. So, here is how the sun was that day:I took tons of pictures that day and I was constantly heading to the computer to transfer my pictures and see what was being said online. I had a few video feeds open, and there was a satallite taking pictures of the sun that I collected the jpgs from all that evening. I think the whole thing ended just after 9pm pst. Here is Venus making the transit:Through the perspective I have it in these pictures, venus continued going straight up and crossed the sun that way. I think when I ended my telescope viewing the sun was just past half-way of its traversing of the sun. It was a unique event so it was worth checking out.

Now I wish I could show views of galaxies, nebula, stars, etc. on here, but unfortunately I would need to spend a lot money for astrophotography equipment. Not now, but I leave that open for the future. I have other things that are more important to me right now. So, this will probably the last I do of showing pictures of astronomical objects for the time being.

What is interesting to me is looking at all of these pictures that the Hubble Telescope has taken of all these galaxies and places so far away. There are so many light years between us and them that we will never reach them. When I was younger there was talk that since our sun is just a star then all those other stars must have planets. Therefore, there probably is life out there somewhere. However, that has changed in that we have found out that the earth and its conditions for life are much more rare that previously thought. So, we probably are the only intelligent ones around in this huge universe.

So, we will probably never meet "aliens" out there. Disappointing? Maybe. However, maybe there is an alien world out there with intelligent life...but it happens to be on our own planet. ;) I'll explain tomorrow in my next blog.

Partial Eclipse (May 20, 2012)

I thought I would continue my little mini-series here on astronomical objects with a few photos I have taken in the past two months on some of the solar events that took place. I meant to have all this up right after the events happened, but I had so much going on that it was just not possible. Not to mention that on the days both events happened I had some personal issues that made me not enjoy doing this as much as I would have liked, BUT I DID IT ANYWAYS! You can't stop science! :)

On May 20, 2012 we had an annular eclipse where I live. However, I only got to see a partial version of it. Had it happened a week later I might have been able to see it in Reno, NV completely, but that's how things work out.

I am not going to try to fool anyone. I am a total amateur when it comes to telescopes and taking pictures with them. I have an eight-inch Dobsonian reflector telescope. I purchased a specific filter to be able to do this...stating the obvious: never look at the sun through a telescope without the proper protection.

To get better pictures of this event I would have had to thrown more money at some other items, but this was good enough. The astronomical hobby is one where you have to be ready to spend big money the more you want better features. That is something I am trying to avoid doing too much of right now.

What you see in the next picture is the sun with the black sun spots on it. Nothing was happening at this point that afternoon.

Then the moon started to intercep the sun.As more time went on the sun started to look like Pac-man.This was one of the final shots I got. At this point a bunch of the neighbor's trees were going to get in the way and I decided I got what I wanted. I could have taken the scope somewhere else and continued, but this was good enough.Tomorrow I will show what I did regarding the Venus transit of the sun that happened a few weeks after this.

The Return to Mt. Wilson

This blog is a follow up to my series I did about Mt. Wilson Observatory about a year ago. At the end of November I went back to Mt. Wilson Observatory, but this time it was by car making it an easier trip on the legs this time around. It was done on the final weekend of the season where the public can still access it. The purpose of this visit was to take the tour of the place with a docent.

We visited the 150-ft solar telescope by going inside the small room they have there for it. This is where they take readings of the sun through the scope. The machine they have moves it back and forth capturing the whole sun.That circle you see goes back and forth. It gets readings of the solar happenings, like black spots.The tour lasts about two hours and the docent covers everything, but the main event is the trip to see the 100-inch Hooker telescope. This is the bottom of the telescope up close. If you look in from one of those bottom holes you can see that green glass that is the base of the big mirror.These are the controls to the finder scope.Looking at the top from below.It was really fun seeing this stuff from the inside rather than behind the window I had to view it from last time. You have to take the tour to access the inside.

There were a couple of things that came up the docent answered that made more sense to me after this tour. The first thing was that the "Hubble Chair" that is on what is called the "Diving Board" was essentially a "prop" that really was never used to view the telescope. The user of the scope would be on that platform sitting down rather than being in a chair. If you go back to the historical picture I showed in that series of blogs you will see Hubble and James Jeans sitting like they would have rather than using a chair.

The second thing mentioned was someone asked where the eyepiece would have been to allow the viewer to see whatever was being viewed. This was something that puzzled me as well. The docent said that early on that might have been the case when the telescope was first being used, but the whole point of it was to take pictures of the night sky. So, it was a case of lining it up with whatever needed to be viewed and then let the picture be taken of the night sky. Most amateur astronomers use various eye pieces for their telescopes, but this was not the case here.

The Return to Mt. Wilson (Youtube Version)

This blog and the previous blogs on Mt. Wilson Obsevatory can be found by clicking this link.

Finally, to visit the observatory grounds by car you need an Adventurer's Pass to park on the grounds. Also, the Cosmic Cafe is open on weekends during the season the public can access the place. You can buy food here, merchandise, and tour tickets.

High Sierra Fireworks

Nothing too impressive here. I just wanted to do a short test to see how Youtube is working these days and what features have changed. This was near a lake looking at the fireworks done at a local town. After the car drives by you can kind of a hear the night sounds of what lives at the lake as the fireworks are going off.

Spring Thaw (Summer is a Here!)

I am going to mention a few things about how I will be operating this summer on here, but before I do that…

A few weeks ago I was finally on a trip out of town that I have not had since last fall. This was not a fun trip because it was mostly about doing yard work. I did get a few hours of playtime on one morning though.

The full report on what I was doing there will have to wait. It was a hike back to Fantail Lake and the area around there just over Tioga Pass. Most of the time when I visit this lake there are more people around and it is a lot more green.

We did not take the normal trails I would usually take to get back here. We were actually up higher and then descended down to it. After looking at the lake we decided to go up higher still since we had the time and it was still early. I was curious to see if we could find Spuller Lake.

As we scrambled higher and higher I decided we did not need to go any further. I was kind of disappointed I did not find the lake because it looked like we would have to go even higher. So we stopped and rested. Then I looked a little more to the west. Oh, that is where Spuller Lake is. I have not looked at my coordinates online yet, but I think we found an iced over lake that would have to be it.

What you see above is from where we stopped looking back down to Fantail Lake. You can see Mt. Dana as the high point to the right in the background. Down below Mt. Dana is where the east entrance to Yosemite would be. I like the picture because it is a little different than what I normally experience out here in July/August, but not quite as powerfully scenic as I know the area to be.
It was a strange year for snow in that the Tioga Pass did not close until January which is very late. There was snow this year, but not an overwhelming amount. Normally, I would not be back here this early because Tioga Pass usually opens a little later. Even then, I would not come back here due to the amount of snow that takes a month or two to melt away. In any case, it was good for a few hours of fun and the Great Silence was definitely there.

As far as the blog goes, here is how I intend to do things over the summer:

1)I will be posting a few items over the summer. I decided I am going to go ahead and edit some older video footage together from the old camcorder. Any footage from the new camcorder will have to wait until I get a new computer.

2)Even though I have been sick and am starting to feel a lot better than I did two months ago, I think some people were under the impression I would start right back up with weekly blogs, etc. I really don’t intend to do that anymore as I have said more than few times. In the past I thought it was important to keep the blog going with regular articles on things I wanted to post about. I don’t feel that way anymore. I would rather post a few items once in a while and see how it goes. If I feel differently in the future then so be it, but that is the way it will be for the foreseeable future.

3)Same with comments. It’s just not something that I care too much about right now. Let’s just say that I have social media burnout, and I think the internet is really being dumbed down because of the oversaturation of it.

Remember, this is The Great Silence Blog, and not The Great Noise Blog. ;)

Chained! (The Alabama Hills Series)

Hmmm....
This is from the trailer of Django Unchained a movie coming out later this year. Props to Quentin Tarantino for filming here.

Anyone have a clue where this was filmed at?

Hint: yeah, I've covered it before.

Edit (June 20, 2012): Okay, time to show where the above picture was filmed at. It's an easy one. I probably have a picture like the above somewhere on cd/dvd, but can't find it. In fact, I did have video footage from last summer looking in this direction, but decided to cut it out of the video I did. Then I deleted it. Let me give you something that should work, and then maybe I will add something more by the time the movie comes out.
Here is another angle of Gene Autry Rock. There are about four rocks on the left side in the background.

Now compare those rocks to the ones you see on the right in the background of the trailer picture. The big rock that is pointing straight up in the trailer picture is Gene Autry Rock. So, the trailer picture is looking more to the south where you do not get to see Gene Autry Rock in all its glory.

Edit (December 23, 2012): Okay, taken last summer, something like this:

OR...

"Chained!" (Youtube Version)

Gene Autry Rock Blog (and links to videos)

Rising From the Dead!

The way I have felt like it sure does feel like it!

Happy Easter!

Normally, when I get sick it lasts about a few days to a week where I feel bad and then I need another week to fully recover. That's been my experience for most of my life because I have been blessed with pretty good health. As you might guess I keep myself in pretty good shape in order to go on the hikes I enjoy doing. Although in the past few years I have slacked off a little due to not have the same motivation. I hope to get that back starting today.

What happened to me was during the last few days of January I was out of town, and when I came back I started having strange things happen to me. I went out jogging and was really light-headed in such a way that I felt if I was not careful I might fall over. Then over the next few days my digestive system was not right. Long story short, this was something I have never encountered before and would plague me over the next two months. I usually avoid going to the doctor because of the way I usually recover from sickness, but this thing I had kept coming back like it would not go away. So, I went to the doctor. All I got out of it was a bill, a few tests, and told to get some over the counter stuff. I got to the point where I wondered if I would ever get over what I had.

It took me about a month and a half before I finally felt good again. I still had some symptoms, but at least I felt better. Another two weeks and I felt like it was finally coming to and end. I never truly understood what happened to me. One problem I had was the weather was very cool during this time. The days that it did warm up where I am out I felt better and was not coughing as much.

It's times like this that are a reminder that all it takes is one deadly sickness or a doctor telling him or her they have a life threatening disease that one realises they are not the invincible person he or she thinks they are. As far as I am, things are almost back to normal for me. The only difference is I have made some dietary changes which I think will help me getting back to the hiking shape I want to be in.

As far as the blog goes, I meant to have something up in March, but as I have just written about it was the last thing on my mind. As the last blog entry in December noted I am not going to be posting as much from now on, but will have something up once in a while. I am postponing what I said I would do in that last blog for a while. I do intend to have something else up by next month.

One of the issues I have is that with my new camcorder the video files edit and convert at a lot slower pace on my main computer. I can't just do what I have been doing in the past because as it was it converted slow, but this is much worse. So, sometime this year I hope to get a faster computer. This is one of the big issues that I had that led to me wanting to get away from the computer and blogging because I was spending too much time behind a computer screen.

With that said, I do have some projects in the works. Although I have not done too much in the past few months, but as we get to the summer that might change. Good grief! Have you seen the gas prices?! ;)

Earlier today I was back at the Ramona Bowl. Each year on Easter the local Calvary Chapel in Hemet puts on an Easter pageant. They called this one More Than a Man. I had never been to it before so I decided to show up and watch it. A lot of singing was involved. The way they did it the main characters of the story were Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea in that they had the most speaking parts in their coming to terms as to what Jesus was/is.

Jesus and some of his followers:

They use the hillside for the Crucifixion. Most of the people you see are singing. The small group in the background are grieving:

Finally, after what appears to be an earthquake, an angel appears who scares the Roman guards away. The angel tells the women who come to the tomb that Jesus has risen:

So, just thought you all deserved an update on what has been going on. As I once heard said in a Monty Python movie, "I'm not dead yet! I'm getting better!" ;)

So It Ends!

I ended up blogging every day of this month, but the current daily blogging streak went back to mid-November. This blog will end the streak, and I do not intend to do anything like this every again. I did want to end with a bang so the total for the year is 117 blogs. For me that is insane and ends up being almost 33% of the days this year I had a blog entry up. There was a point about the middle of this month I started to get tired of doing this and felt a lot of what I was trying to say was "mental mush", but once I got close to Christmas I was almost over the hump.

Like I usually do at the end of the year, I want to take some time to reflect on some of the high and low points of this blog this past year. Then I will mention a little of where the blog goes from here.

Speaking of which, I started out in the beginning of January of this year announcing that this would be the final year of me blogging as I have been doing. I am going to skip this for now and come back to it at the end of this blog entry. I will say that had been in my mind for how I went about doing every blog this year. That is part of the reason I had 117 blog entries this year is because I wanted to cram as much as possible into this year not knowing what the future would be like.

Of course, the big theme of the year was what I did with my Ramona series and a big reason for the amount of blog entries. I said all I really want to say about that series in the blog entry for yesterday. That started off in January and just ended yesterday.

In February, I did my Return to Lago and added some more blogs about that area. One of the main things my stats have shown over the years is people really care about where High Plains Drifter was filmed at. I can understand that. So, it was important for me to get an updated video and to show what "Lago" looked like on a different type of day with those pictures.

In March, I was finally able to show one that I had waited for years to do. That one had to do with the snowslide that was northwest of Mono Lake near the entrance of Lundy Canyon. That took place on March 7, 1911. I visited the cemetery there and wanted to have it up on the anniversary of March 7, 2011. Goal accomplished!

Also during that month I finally got to post my first time at Rancho Camulos. This was special for the California history involved with that one, but also the oldest film location that I will ever find was filmed there. Interesting enough, I did find another movie made during that same year that has the potential to be an easy location hunt. I like the old silent film location challenges because those are the most difficult to find traces of after all these years. That silent film I am referring to is on the list of things to do, but I do not know when I will get around to that.

In April, I showed my "Mammoth Mountain Hike" which was partly a joke because that was a just a ride to the top using the gondola. The real treat was my Yellow Sky Series that I had waited and waited to post over the years. I was not too thrilled with the morning light conditions I had for the video, but it was one of those I waited so long that I just got tired of waiting anymore. I think I did the best I could do with what I had on that one. If I were to be able to pick just one thing I think you should have seen this year that I did, then that series would be it. I just love that movie, and along with the Boetticher films, I would list it as one of the top films made at the Alabama Hills.

The highlight of May was the Devil's Playground Cave from that Hopalong Cassidy movie. I knew a lot of people would like that one just because of the title. I do have other Hoppy locations and footage I am sitting on right now. I am not sure when or if I will put those up, but since Hoppy did half his movies out in the Alabama Hills there are tons of those one can show.

In June, I spent most of the month showing my hike up to the top of Mt. Wilson and then my time at the observatory. I love astronomy, at least from an amateur perspective, and it was important for me to hit the holy ground of astronomical discovery for the 1st half of the 20th-century. Let me tell you something new. I re-visited the observatory in November! This time I was driven up to the the top. The great thing is we got to go inside some of the places I showed from the outside in the June blogs. So, at some point in the future I hope to show you my "Return to Mt. Wilson" pictures and footage.

July was an okay month, but nothing super special. It was more of a turning point for my Ramona series.

During August I spent some time identifiying some spots in Temecula that most people would walk by and not understand the significance of for the Ramona series and the history of California. Then I covered some things in Long Ranger Canyon like the Gun Smugglers Rock and Hoppy Rocks that I should have had done a long time ago.

During September I spent some time showing how the Palm Springs Tram was used in a Dean Martin film. I then showed my hike to the top of San Jacinto Peak. Another hike that I had wanted to do for years and finally got to do it as a part of my Ramona series.

In the case of October I knew there was no way I was going to outdo my Halloween series from 2010. You can see what I did there if you missed it, but basically I went back and updated some new videos during that month as part of that Halloween 2011 series. I spent most of my time with my Ancient Monsters series that dealt with the new dinosaur exhibit in Los Angeles. I know most people can turn on the tv and see something related to the dinosaurs all the time, but I really liked how I edited those videos with the music. The T-Rex one was the highlight. I had to laugh when I showed that video to some kids, and one of the girls had to walk away from the screen as the big "Thomas" model skull was looking down on her. You had to be there for that because it was projected on a wall.

During November I had my "Murder of Juan Diego" series that was one I really loved and the basis for the whole Ramona series. I love those hikes where you are out in the middle of nowhere and you come across some artifact/sign about the past. The mountain hike was fun. Then, the cemetery was VERY important to me too! Of course, my Reflections at Conness Glacier was the essence of what this blog has been made of. The silent beauty of it all! Many care about that Huell Howser Glacier episode, in some ways my blogs regarding that were a tribute to Huell, but I put my own spin on how I presented it to make it more in line with what I like to do.

The crazyness started in November and I continued it into December every single day. Aurora Ghost Town , then East Pine Street, and R.I.P. Aurora was a major project that I am proud of, but I can understand people not really liking that one. It some ways it is a case of, "nothing to see here!" I just love the history of what was once in that town. That was one that I sat on the footage for quite some time until I could edit it to make it work.

Of course, the big project that offered something I suspect you probably did not have any clue about is the one I just finished up about the movie Nightfall that I called "Out of the Past Too" and "Out of the Past Too Two". There is a tendency to think of my blog primarily dealing with westerns, but that is not really the case. The reason I love westerns is because they were primarily filmed in the rugged outdoors away from civilization. However, if I can find any movie that was filmed outdoors then I am there! So, it is somewhat rare to find a noir-ish movie like this filmed partly outdoors. Not to mention the same director using the same spots in a movie 10 years earlier. There was a time that I really meant to show more noir movies that were filmed in Los Angeles. I started to do it, but because of the dramatic changes in Los Angeles, and the fact that it is so public, it just did not fit with what I had in mind with this blog. I just do not get the same amount of satisfaction walking around the big city for location hunts as I do in nature.

So, those were the highlights of the year. Let me go back to my original post in January and where I go from here. I have been battling the motivation to keep doing this for the past three years. There was a time somewhere between June and July that I really had to ask myself why I keep doing this. I was that burned out.

Of all the years I have been doing this the feedback was a lot more negative too. It was really strange in this regard because not only was it negative, but many times it was irrelevant to anything I have been doing on here or the video sites. In some cases it was people expecting me to do things for them that I have never done during my whole time blogging. Then they would get irritated with me for not giving them exactly what they wanted. Those of you that have contacted me via e-mail in the past know that I have usually written back eventually and given as much information as I could if you had a specific request that I could help with. That changed this year. I got to the point that if something was not relevant or someone just wanting to advertise their site then I just ignored or hit delete. I just did not care anymore. At the same time, not everyone who reads what I have done on here or watches my videos has done this, but more did so this year than in the past.

As of right now, I am taking some time off. At some point I hope to have a short series called "The Nature of Silence" which will cover a hike and help explain some things that if was not obvious about what I have been doing since the beginning it will then. I then hope to have my own version of a FAQ which will be a blog that will go into a little more detail about how the blog will be from now on and why I am will not be doing as much blogging compared to what I have done over the past six years.

I am holding myself to what I mentioned in that first blog this year. There will be future projects, but not to the extent that I put something up once a week. Those days are over. Since I started this blog I have had something up every few weeks or so. In fact, I have never missed posting at least once a month since I started doing this back in 2006. That is going to change now. There will be many months that I do not post anything.

So, at this point, the blog will be in read only mode for the time being as I take an extended vacation. I will make the corrections I promised I would do at the beginning of this month, but I really do need to get away from this blog for a while. Get my life back I guess you could say. However, if you are concerned then have no fear because I just got a new video camera for Christmas that blows away my old one! A big wide angle lens, 1080 60p, and the zoom goes on and on and on and on! :)

With love, sincerity, and thanks from me please be safe, be healthy, and have a Happy New Year!

The Silent One is checking out!

P.S.

Buster Keaton's Bathtub (Youtube Version)

Hell Bent for Leather Rocks (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #40: It's Been Fun!

(GPS: N33 54.470 W118 18.585)

Here we are at the end of the series. Let me talk about todays location and then I will give you a few thoughts on how I thought this all turned out.

I wanted to lighten things up at the end so I went to a place that was another partial inspiration that began that series. I was out walking one day, and I noticed a truck that went by with a Ramona Mexican Food logo. I went home, did a quick google search, and saw that this place originates in the Gardena and Torrance area. Since I lived there when I was a very young kid I asked some family members about this: "Oh, that's been there forever!" Well, that was news to me. So, it was another place that started to make me think more about doing a whole series dedicated to how the Ramona name has influenced California.

I thought it would be a good place to visit and eat to end the series.

It's basically a take out place. I think there are places to sit outside of it. I ended up just eating my food in my truck.
Ramona Epic #40: It's Been Fun! (Youtube Version)

Let me give some closing thoughts on how I think this series turned out. Years ago I had considered doing a Ramona series, but I was never really enthusiastic about the Ramona concept. I did have Delyser's Ramona Memories book in my hand at one point, but decided it was not for me. Then as I started to burn out of the things I was doing on this blog I knew I needed something to do that I did not know that much about. The further I examined Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona I realized it was a lot closer to what I normally do on here than I thought. In many ways the book is a traveling novel.

The thought of committing myself to a year long series was something I felt I needed to do. There were some down sides to it though. First, I knew it would drain me some in trying to keep it going over the year. There would be times where I would put up some things that I was not as eager to talk about than others that I had more enthusiasm to blog about. Second, for many people it is very difficult to follow something like this over a long period. I knew beforehand that putting it up as episodes would be problematic for some due to the patience one has to have to get through some of the parts. I did put this series up in a way that one can read the book and follow what I did on here at the same time since it did go in chronological order with the book. However, one could jump in at any time throughout and just pick up the parts one cares about.

I really was doing this for the long term. Now the project is at the point where it is done so the whole series can been seen as a whole. The only thing I really regret for the series as a whole now that it is done is how I started the opening of the videos. That was important while I was making each video and putting them up during the year. Although, now that it is done, watching all 40 videos with that 10 second introduction to each video is something I wish was not there. I had thought of changing the intro about midway through the series to something else, but just decided to leave it. So, it was a necessary evil that I hope does not drive someone crazy if they watch all the series at one time.

At this point, I consider this project finished. However, I do have extra footage, and there are some places I could go to in the future that might show up on the blog or in video at some point. That will not be anytime soon, but if and when I do that it would be like adding an appendix to the end of a book. For all practical purposes, my "official canon" of blogs is done.

BTW, occasionally I get an e-mail mentioning the city of Ramona in San Diego Co. I guess if there was one place many people thought I was going to visit it was that place. While it is true that the city was named after the main character, it is relatively close to some of the places that Ramona lived in the novel, but I never encountered anything in my research that made me feel I had to go there. Maybe there is something connected to the novel? Will I ever visit there? I do not know. For those who care, there was a town of Alessandro that was located at where March Air Force Base is now. It never really grew into anything, and then the Air Force took that area over. However, if you do research the history of the base you will encounter the Alessandro name at some point.

So, I hope you have gotten something out of my epic journey through the world of Ramona. If you are just seeing this then hopefully you will go back and view the series at some point. If there is something that represents cultural history of California then the book does it.

That is all I have to say about my Ramona series, but I will have some thoughts on some of the individual places I visited for this series as I review the highlights of everything I did for the blog as a whole this year in the next blog.

FIN

Ramona Mexican Food Products

At some point I will eventually come back and add a link to every entry in this particular blog, but for the time being all the videos can be found at this link:

Ramona Epic Playlist (Youtube)

Ramona Epic #39: Applause

The players come out for a round of applause:

Check RamonaEpic channel for video.

As you see in the video, the posse "captured" Farrar. So, the play is not a total downer in that regard. As I mentioned back in the blogs at the end of October and November, both the fictional Jim Farrar and the real historical Sam Temple were never brought to justice like this. Even though a casual viewer of the play might think that this capture represents a step toward justice it really should not be thought of in that way.

Ramona Epic #38: "Let Silence Reign"

Juan Canito gives the final narration as the play ends.

Check RamonaEpic Youtube channel for video.

This blog and the next two are the wrap up blogs of the series.

Out of the Past "Too Two" (The Ending)

This will be the final blog of my Nightfall series. This blog in some ways is a let down because I am not going to get to the exact final location, but I just want to give you an idea of where it took place. I'll try to get some GPS coordinates for this one later today or tomorrow.

After I saw this movie for the first time I kept trying to figure out where the ending took place. The main thing you always start with is where the background is. If you can identify that then you start looking for whatever is in the mid-range, and then what is up close. It depends on what you are given. In this case, I kept looking at the mountains knowing I had seen them again and again, but I could not place them. At first I thought Mammoth was being used, and it is at some points in this movie. In fact, one of the scenes they have the bus drive through is literally right across the street from where the Legend of Deadman plaque is that I covered on here a few years ago. That was not it though. One day I was traveling to Carson City, NV, and as I looked up it was a case of, "Bingo! That's it!"

On HWY 395 there is a monument that is often passed that is called the Fremont Trail 1844. It is difficult to read even when you are there, but you can click the picture to make it bigger. Basically, John Fremont, Kit Carson, and their men came through here with a howitzer during the winter. They were trying to cross the Sierra to get to Fort John Sutter. They had to leave the howitzer in the deep snow, but eventually crossed over to get there.In the video I show a little more of what it looks like around here, but this is across the street from that sign. I zoomed in on a certain mountain to the north side. To get to the final spot of where I ended we need to drive a little further toward this mountain.

This is in the movie as the bus drives by, but at this time I do not know exactly where. I have some ideas. In any case, that is our mountain in the background.Here is going to be the final spot I wanted to show. This is not the final location of the movie, but it is a good reference point to show you what I think went on here. See where that building is on the left side? My location intuition says that the final scenes were done just past that over the hill there. I scouted this area and a road further on down beyond it that leads to a campground. From what I can tell the final scenes of the movie were done on what is either private property or government property that the public is locked out of. In Nightfall, the detective takes Aldo Ray and Anne Bancroft back to the camping spot where the murder took place. Then they head to where Aldo Ray left the money which was only supposed to be a few minutes away from where they camped. In reality, the drive is about 30 minutes away. There in a shack that the money was left, they encounter Brian Keith and Rudy Bond who had also been waiting for the thaw of the winter to come back here. You can see the movie to figure out how they knew the money was here. At this point Rudy Bond is going to kill the three of them. However, in a desperate move, Aldo Ray jumps out of the shack and is able to get a rifle.

If you look closely in the above movie picture you will notice there is a drop off in the middle of the picture that heads down somewhere. That was the other area I mentioned above that I went to. There is a road down below there that heads to a campground. In my picture below you should be able to compare the above movie picture mountains with these.

You will have to watch the movie to find out what happens.

This wraps up my Christmas edition of my blogs for this movie. This is one that I had been working on doing for this blog for the past few years since I did the original Out of the Past Locations. Even when I was doing those I knew I would have to come back, but decided not to mention this particular movie at all as my little secret to be revealed at a later time. Then I had to delay this because the pictures and footage were never to my expectations due to the conditions at the time I was at these places.

For example, the very last time I was at the movie's campground spot I was doing the introduction video. It was during this last October, the non-tourist season, and I was doing a great job narrating what I wanted to say at the beginning. In fact, it was a much longer introduction than what made the final cut. Just as I was about to turn and show where the campground was some overweight lady came out of nowhere right in that spot I was going to turn to! Then she just started to hang out nearby. I did not say anything, but I was so angry! Of all the bad luck! During the tourist season one gets lots of people fishing there even though they usually do not catch anything. I was so convinced no one would be there at the time I went that day in October. That was how typical that area was during the past few years. I would either get there too early in the morning, have bad light, bad weather, or someone would be parked nearby and fishing there. I can't tell you how many times I walked here only to realize I would have to come back. I meant to go back one more time at the end of October or November, but never did.

All the areas you see in the pictures and video I came to more than once. I was not totally satisified with what I got, but it just got to the point that I decided to present this now or never. Otherwise it would be an endless cycle I would never get out of. So, the final product you are seeing is good enough. I don't intend on doing anything further on this one.

So, please see the movie. As I began with, it is not as good as Out of the Past, but it is worth seeing once because of how the director came back to almost the exact same locations for this movie. This is one of the rare movie locations that I know of that no one I have encountered knew about this movie being filmed here. So, I hope you enjoyed something I did during the past few days for the Christmas season as the best I can do for a Christmas gift that is a little out of the ordinary.

Out of the Past "Too Two" (Youtube Version)

Nightfall (The IMDB link to this movie)

Out of the Past "Too Two" (The Church)

Happy Boxing Day! Happy 2nd Day of Chrismas! The family broke tradition yesterday without gift giving by going to church to see the Burchfield Brothers perform, and then had a big feast. I've never heard The Little Drummer Boy done like a western movie soundtrack so that was cool. Today, is gift giving day. I kind of like the idea of Christmas continuing a few days rather than where I am at where the media quickly goes on to something else.

This is phase two of my Nightfall series of blogs about this movie. Much like Out of the Past the same director used flashbacks in this movie as well. He also used some of the same locations. BTW, most of the movie takes place in the city, but the flashbacks and ending take place in the setting of Wyoming. Which in reality is the Eastern Sierra.

Since the last blog Aldo Ray has been living on the run since he hid the money he found and took off. The authorities are now after him in the belief that he killed his friend. After meeting up with Anne Bancroft they flee back to Wyoming. Something Aldo does not realize is that a detective is now following him and is on the same bus as they are on.

Now in the original Out of the Past Locations blogs I did some years ago I was down on the corner in the background looking back this way toward where the school is.In both movies you can see the old school. In Nightfall we get to see it close up as the church Aldo Ray stands by.From my picture above I just turned around to show you this one which is the new school that is here these days. In the Out of the Past video I showed you where the old school is now located on the other side of town as the Mono County Museum. In this video for this series of blogs I inserted a picture of the old school being transferred to its current location when they did that, so you can look for that in the video.The detective reveals himself to Aldo Ray. At first, Aldo gives up, and is relieved that it is over that he has been caught. The detective gets irritated by Aldo mentally giving up, and just tells him he wants to hear his story. He then tells Aldo something about the gun that must have killed the doctor. Aldo realizes the detective is on his side, they decide to go back to the murder site, and then to the where Aldo hid the money. Btw, in the movie you get some nice looks at where Dunderberg Mt. and that range are. I can't remember if you get a good look at Excelsior Mt. (I climbed that one that is why I care about this) since the clouds are really covering that area in the movie. My video for this part does have the clouds almost doing the same thing.So, they would have been just standing over there.I should have the new video up by tomorrow with the final blog of this series. For this portion of the video I decided to use the footage from November that I took. So, it kind of matches the mood you see with the clouds.

Out of the Past "Too Two" (Youtube Version)

Out of the Past "Too" (The Murder)

Merry Christmas! How can I talk about a murder on Christmas Day!?!? Have no fear, things get dark here, but things are not as bad as they seem. You can thank Hollywood for happy endings. :)

In the movie Nightfall, Brian Keith and Rudy Bond take Aldo Ray and the doctor (Frank Albertson) back to where they were camped. As pointed out in the first blog on this, this is the exact same area Robert Mitchum fished in Out of the Past (OOTP), and I covered this before in my Out of the Past Locations blogs. I am going to show you what it looked like on another day I was there so you keep getting different looks of how this is during different times of the year. BTW, that is one thing I love about this movie is they filmed it when the lake was partially iced over.Dismayed as to why these men want to kill them after they tried to help them, Brian Keith and Rudy Bond explain they just stole a lot of money. This is a way to make sure their is no witnesses against them. Also, setting up a murder/suicide situation helps our bad guys in the story as it will place the blame on Aldo Ray. This is close. To get it right I would have to go a little further to the right, but as I remember I did not like the angle I had the times I went there. So, I went with this. Something to note is in this picture, and the ones I did before it in the previous blogs, the tree looks a lot bigger in the movie pictures, but that is because I was further away in my picture.Rudy Bond gives the doctor a count to run for it. He then shoots the doctor in the back. Now, it is Aldo Ray's turn. They give him a gun, and Rudy Bond gives him a shell to put in the rifle. All he has to do is turn around and Rudy would shoot him to make it look like a suicide. There is some thought in this scene that Aldo might challenge Rudy with a gunfight, Aldo is uncertain about this, and as he turns around Rudy fires the shot that looks like it kills Aldo. What happens is that a shot hits a rock and that bounces off of Aldo's skull. He appears dead. Rudy looks over him and then he and Brian leave the scene. The problem is not only is Aldo Ray still alive, but they left the money behind. When Aldo Ray gains consciousness later he finds the money, hides it in the snow away from this area, and then leaves.Here is that spot. The two red trees are the same ones from the previous blog. The red tree on the right is the same one we have been dealing with in this blog. The gray tree on the right is a different type of tree. It is interesting looking at the types of bark in all of these trees here and then seeing how they were back then. Again, usually I don't like using trees in comparing with old movies or pictures due to their unreliability, but these seem to be them after all these years.For me, all my life I have been walking right by these trees as I do my exercise walks around the lakes which usually takes place during the summer. For a while I would think of Robert Mitchum fishing here, but I never thought of this place being associated with such sociopathic evil until after seeing Nightfall. Although, I should mention that sometime over a 100 years ago an actual murder did take place near here. Not here, but I would say within about a five minute walk. It is hard to believe this place would have anything like that, but sometimes remote places can have their dark sides.

This ends this phase of this series, but I will continue this movie's locations starting tomorrow. The video gets you to this point in the blogs.

Out of the Past "Too" (Youtube Version)