I.M. Trailer Preview (The Alabama Hills Series)

(GPS: N36 37.830 W118 07.315)

I have mentioned this a few times, but can finally show the pictures of this one. Most of the movies I have done from this area are the old westerns, but this one will be a blockbuster movie in May, 2008. Originally, when I was working on one my Audie Murphy location pictures I decided I had enough for the day and decided to look at some videos on youtube. I saw the Iron Man trailer and then had a since a deja vu since I was not expecting the following picture:
It turns out it is only about one or two minutes walking distance from the Audie Murphy Showdown Rock location. This was very strange because it is on the northern side of the Alabama Hills and very little had been filmed here. Robert Downey Jr. was standing right next to that pebble rock below:
I was wondering if that pebble rock was something the crew put down there. They only finished shooting there the past May. Chris Langley, the Inyo County Film Commissioner, mentioned that the Iron Man crew kept referring to the area north of here as the "bombing area". That would make sense and it appears they may have even filmed some near the mines in that area. Eventually, I will check up on that for another entry. He said he told them that when they asked for permission for explosions they could kill as many humans as they wanted, but not to hurt any plants or animals. LOL!!!

Here is something interesting. It is further north of this location along the road, but they are heading southeast on it. This is right before the first explosion:
This next picture was actually taken from the car through the window. I may actually redo this or do another entry some other time, but they are traveling this way. If you look really closely in the middle left of the picture you will see a sign. Click the picture and get a bigger picture of it if you can not see it. If you compare pictures you will notice they either took the sign down or edited it out. It tells you that you are entering the Alabama Hills.

Eastern Sierra Gold 2007

Actually, because of the drought year, the colors this year were not that great. There was very little red colors where I was at. The areas that had red depended on how close the leaves were to an abundance of water in the past few months. There was an a lot of gold though.
Many leaves were falling down left and right. Check out this stream filled with leaves:

The gold:

I like this shot. This is just outside of Bridgeport, CA. During the summer this is all green with cattle grazing. Sawtooth Ridge, in the background, looks very small compared to the rest of the picture. When you are there the ridge stands out, but in this picture it looks dwarfed by the rest of the landscape. Click the picture to get a better perspective on it:

Sawtooth Ridge as normally seen. Matterhorn Peak (aka the Great Silence), at 12, 279 ft., is at the highpoint at the left of the picture:

Here is a cool looking buck that allowed me to get pretty close to it. During the summer these type of deer have a golden coat. In the fall they coat changes to a darker brown color. They have a much more darker "evil" look to them.

The Gunfighter Waterhole (The Alabama Hills Series)

(GPS: N36 35.465 W118 11.600)

Here is one that I enjoyed getting to. In Dave Holland's On Location in Lone Pine he shows the location in the book, but doesn't tell you where it is at. It was supposed to be an area you were to find yourself.

I knew the general area of where it was, but the problem I saw was I did not know which road I would take to get to it. If I am not comfortable with dirt roads that could get me stuck I do not enter them, but I am willing to walk on them a long ways if I am sure of the area. Chris Langely, the director of the Lone Pine Film Festival gave me directions to it. It turns out that it is on a road that you do need a high clearance or 4x4 vehicle to get to. We went as far as we could, but then I just got out and walked about 1/2 mile to it. If you do intend to go to this area please be sure you have the necessary vehicle or expect to walk a long distance. Note the road that you will take is near Lone Pine Campground off of Whitney Portal Road. The road is an older one and is not maintained.

In this scene Jimmy Ringo (played by Gregory Peck) surprises three men who are after him. One being played by Alan Hale Jr. (aka The Skipper of Gilligan's Island).
At the very beginning of the scene the horses are drinking out of a waterhole:
The foundations to the waterhole are still here:
Here is Jimmy Ringo's perspective on the rock:
This is pretty close to it:
One thing to note is the area has been burned sometime recently. Most of the trees had the charred look to them.

The Gunfighter Waterhole (Youtube Version)

Firefight at the S.C. Corral

Today marks the 126th anniversary of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. This past week in California it felt like the end of the world was near. The Santa Ana condition, the wind, the fires, the ugly brown and red skies, and the general panic of people not knowing if they would come back to their homes just made this last week pretty miserable around here.

If I could stay inside I did. Of all the weather we have through the year the Santa Ana condition is the one I really have a problem with. I always get sick through it and lack the energy to do very much. Fortunately, I guess you could say, I got sick about three weeks ago, but have had a cough every since. It could be a lot worse.

Say what you will about California, but when trouble happens the average citizen will drop everything to help others. Our fire fighters are doing a good job in all of this.

On Monday I came down Cajon Pass and that was my first encounter with the fires. There were embers all along the mountain sides that a few hours earlier must have been torching the area. The smokey sky felt like I had entered the apocalypse. I was just glad I was not heading to Riverside since they were dead stopped on the freeway compared to the snail pace I was on.

Today I was actually glad to see some blue sky. Things seemed to have cooled off so I hope we are on the way out of this situation for this year.

I tried to clean up some things in this blog today. I added a few links and edited a few older entries. I will do more in the next few days.

I will do another entry or two in the next few days. Unfortunately, there will not be any Halloween related hikes or sites this year like I tried to do last year. I usually like to do something like that this time of year, but the whole fire situation ruined that idea. Some of the areas I had in mind for this year are too close to burned areas. One video I recently did I was going to wait until November to put up, but I might as well put it up this weekend. Stay tuned...

edit: as of 10/27 it was actually raining for a few moments during the day. It is cool now so that should make the fire situation turn real quick. Typical California weather. One week scorching and then the next week cold temps.

Care Bears

Recently, I encountered two bears. One really cared, but the other did not. This one was the scared bear: This one was the chillin' bear:

Reflections on Lone Pine Film Fest 2007 (at the Tall T)

I was at the annual festival last weekend in Lone Pine. I had a great time and was exhausted by the time it was over. Too many events and too little time. The first thing I noticed when I got out of my truck at Olancha to get gas was how cold the wind was. I was not looking forward to sleeping that night out in the Alabama Hills. The motels are all booked a year in advance. To sleep outside seemed like a good idea back in April, but then 38 degree weather did not show until last week.

I was constantly going to each event they had and you never can do everything because of schedule conflicts. My few days went like this:

Anchor Ranch tour, watched Loren James stuntman clips, the Bad Day at Black Rock tour, Company of Heroes panel (John Wayne Tribute), and the 3 Godfathers tribute. I then went to sleep at The Tall T location. The following picture is actually next to the Gunga Din bridge in the movie:
In the movie they make it look like the elephant crossing is way off the ground, but it was only a few feet up. There are some remains of the foundations to the bridge there. Here is what I call The Tall T rock formation because it was used almost exclusively in the last half of the movie:

Those pictures were done at around 6:30 am that morning.

I took a shower at a local RV park. Then it was the Top 10 Singing Cowboys with Dave Matuszak, then a panel called Stories from the Movie Business (Louis Gossett jr. was there), I went to another panel after that, then the South bus tour, I caught Harry Carey Jr. for a book signing right as they were taking him away, another panel on movie history, Petrine Mitchum (Robert Mitchum's daughter) signed her book on horses for me, and then watched Tycoon. I could not keep my eyes open so I took off for my favorite location again.

I slept a little better on Saturday night. Got some good morning shots of Whitney and then did the shower again. I met with Chris Langley (who is the director of the festival) to have him sign his new book on Lone Pine. He was helpful in telling me where one of the locations is that I have had a hard time trying to figure out. I then went on the Audie Murphy tour which was fun. I took off for the Eastern Sierra museum in Independence because they have the Gulag exhibit going for a few more weeks. I had a few other reasons to go there. I then ate pizza at my favorite place in Lone Pine and took off home.

Anyways, I had a good time. I have to admit that the theme on Singing Cowboys was probably not one that would bring in lots of people. It did not seem as many people were here this year. Still I learned some about the singing cowboy craze and why people liked it during the depression era. It had its importance for that time period.

Out of the Past Locations Index

(Edit (5/28/10): these two video links replace the old Youtube version I put up a few years ago. I added a few more tidbits down below.)

Out of the Past Locations (Youtube Version)

I covered some of these areas in Bridgeport, CA with pictures before:

Out of the Past (Part 1)

Out of the Past (Part 2)

Out of the Past (Part 3)

Out of the Past at Upper Twin Lake (Correction)

Originally, in those entries I decided not to post a picture of one of the historic houses since it is private property, BUT, you will see it in the new video...it is a historic house and there have been tons of pictures taken of it both old and modern. It is even on the cover of a book, so I just "gave in" on the video. However, if you go there be respectful and don't be an idiot. :) Basically, the movie begins and ends in Bridgeport. It has other locations as listed here.

Interesting enough, I had a sense of deja vu with regarding these locations in the past year. I have found out something new that I am not sure many have realized about the director filming this movie here. I will reveal that sometime in the future.

Out of the Past at Upper Twin Lake (Correction)

(GPS: N38 09.245 W119 21.470)

Originally, back in January, I had an entry regarding this movie where the location was not quite right. I did not have a good recent picture of this area so I had to wait until August to get it. As I noted, sometimes I have read and seen that some people say this scene was located at Lower Twin Lake. That is not the case. It is Upper Twin Lake.
Edit: I added slightly better pictures on 10/24

My next entry will be a recap of this movies Bridgeport, CA locations on video.

The Baldy Hike Video

Another experimental/test video. I want to see how this new blogger version works. This is a quickie of the main points of the Ski Hut trail.

Baden-Powell, Iron, and the Devil's Backbone

There are a few other mountains to look at while on the summit of Baldy. Baden-Powell is just to the west or northwest. I have been to the top of this one a few times. It is a relatively easy switchbacking trail hike. Like Baldy, I use it as an exercise hike. The sky looks a tad dark and that was due to some fire on the other side at the time.
This next one is looking more to the west. This is Iron Mountain. It is way below when one is on the summit of Baldy, but it is supposed to be one of the hardest, if not the hardest, hike in Southern California. Usually, one starts this hike in the East Fork River area and makes the 6,000 ft. climb from there. One can try to go down to it from Baldy, but that is rare. I may try hiking it some day, but I just do not have the desire for it right now.

I came down from the summit using the Devil's Backbone trail. Here is how it is when looking back to where I came from.

I passed the ski lift area to the fire road that took me back to where I parked. All in all, it was a nice loop hike that morning. On the Ski Hut trail there are two points that are very steep: one right before you get to the Ski Hut, and the other is one of the final ridges you go up to get to the summit. These seemed to be much rougher steep points than anything I encountered the weeks before in the Sierra.

The Baldy Exercise

(GPS: N 34 17.345, W 117 38.785)

I was on top of Mt. San Antonio (Mount Baldy) a few weeks ago. I did not do this hike to enjoy the scenery. I did not do this hike to escape the city. I had just returned from doing both of those things in the weeks prior. Enjoying scenery here compared to where I had just been would be a big letdown. It is just not the same. The reason I came here to hike just after coming from the Sierra Nevada was to see how quickly I could do this hike right after all the extra energy I gained from hiking the high country.

I took the Ski Hut trail out of Manker Flat like I normally do for this hike. Usually, I see this hike as a quick training hike or exercise hike. It is the obvious big mountain in Southern California so it is worth the hike. Here are some of the highlights at the summit:

The above is looking back down where I came from. I live about 30 miles down below.
The above is looking more to the east. San Jacinto should be in the furthest in the background. San Gorgonio is to the left.
This one is looking more to the east to the Cajon Pass area. You can see the 15 freeway to Victorville and Las Vegas. I will follow this up with another important mountain or two you can see from the summit.

Audie Murphy's Showdown Rock + Iron Man Preview (The Alabama Hills Series)

(GPS: N36 37.902 W118 07.330)

One of my favorite old western actors is war hero turned actor, Audie Murphy. I have often said elsewhere that Rambo is a myth, but Audie was the real thing. One of the coolest cult westerns out there is No Name on the Bullet where he plays a "good" bad guy. Of course, his autobiographical movie, To Hell and Back, is required watching.

Audie visited Alabama Hills for three separate movies. Hell Bent for Leather, Posse From Hell, and Showdown are the three quality B-westerns he did out there. I have shown one area in the past from Hell Bent for Leather. Unfortunately, like a lot of Audie's movies, these are not on dvd. In the past some of these have played on television. The one I am going to talk about is actually pretty rare and I was fortunate to get a less than steller copy of it. I am grateful to even have that since Showdown is next to impossible to find, but the following picture was taken from a magazine I have:

In this movie, Audie's friend (Charles Drake) has been chained by the bad guys to this rock. The movie is like The Tall T and Rawhide that were filmed out here, in the sense that Audie and his friend are captives of the badmen here. A lot of the movie deals with getting ransom money for the men as both friends are split up. This chained rock becomes an important area in the movie.

Fortunately, finding this rock was not too difficult and may have been a lot harder for me to find without help. The Lone Pine Film Museum has a map you can buy on your way out for a dollar that gives a driving tour of most of the main Audie Murphy sites. Still I was not sure it would be that easy since this location is much further north than the main sites I have gone over in the past. This is actually a good thing about Audie's movies is that he and some of the crew scouted for areas that had not been used before. He even flew overhead in his plane looking for them. A lot of these rocks out in this area were not as distinctive for me, but following the directions and using my location hunting intuition I eventually found the area.
The funny thing is that I shot this at the end of June around 8:00am. In mid-August, I was there around 9:30am in which I hoped to take a picture with my new camera and not have any shadows at all, but it was much worse. Naturally, the month of June up to the 21st has the longest daylight. Next month it will be interesting in that I hope to be here during the middle of the day so that shouldn't be an issue. I'll edit this if I get a better picture.

I have other location sites with Audie Murphy, but I'll save those for another time.

Coincidentally, I was watching random youtube video's this morning. I had already intended to put this entry up today with this site. I saw that the new trailer for Marvel Comic Book character, Iron Man, was up. I clicked it and the next thing I saw was Iraq! Well, not really, but that's where part of the story takes place.

After further examing it I was shocked to see how north they were in Alabama Hills. Here Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is talking to a bunch of soldiers about his weapons. Then I thought this is really a strange coincidence. They are not that far away from Audie Murphy's Showdown rock location. It is just a few minutes walk south of it from what it looks like.
Strange as it is, in my picture above, if you look to the left and the midground of the picture, some of those rocks look very similar to the two right rocks in the trailer picture. The backgrounds are very close. It would make sense for them to film that scene there. It is very close to a very large area anyone can park at to walk to these areas. When I go back next month I will verify this.

In the meantime, check out the trailer. It will be nice to see some of these areas on the bigscreen in May, 2008. FYI, Mt. Langely is just to the right of Downey's head. I was on top of that one a few weeks ago...another entry, some other time.

Iron Man Official Site (Go here for the best trailer quality)
Iron Man Trailer on Youtube

An Example of a Drought Year

Saddlebag Lake

One thing I always wish for is as the winter months go on is a quick winter where the snow melts away quickly going into the summer. Not that I don't like snow, but it makes it easier on the hikes I enjoy doing. At least there is usually less danger going into the back country. It was fun that I got to do Whitney in June instead of July or August, but over all this was a bad year because of the drought. The Sierras suffered for it like a lot of California. One obvious area is Saddlebag Lake off of Tioga Pass near Yosemite. I did a quick and obvious stitch of what Saddlebag Lake looked like in August, 2006:That is the normal look of that beautiful lake. Here is another regular picture of this lake: Now, look at this disaster. You would think that this isn't the same area. This year at the very end of July, 2007: Is this supposed to be some sort of river here? Where is the lake?

Before I cause a panic let's go back to last year:

Compare where the trees are to this.

When I was in the Sierra Nevada this year the first few days I just could not get enough water and other drinks into my system. I felt dehydrated all the time. I was fortunate that some dark clouds came in, cooled the place down, some minor rainfall occurred, and then some breezy wind the rest of the time. I am hopeful that some major snowfall will happen in the next few months to balance things out this year.

High Plains Drifter

(GPS: N 37° 55.630 W 119° 01.370)

(EDIT (2/6/11): this location has been updated. This blog entry is very old so make sure you see the rest of blogs and video I did on it. Please click the tag below or this link to get all three blogs I did on this location. Also, be sure to check out Clint Spooks 'Em too.)

I have posted some unique pictures of Mono Lake in another entry. Unique in the sense they are from a different angle and high point than one normally sees of the lake. Go HERE for those.

Years ago my brother and I went looking for the town of "Lago" where the movie High Plains Drifter was exclusively filmed. Admittedly, since we did this long before I really started looking for old movie locations these pictures are close, but not as close as I could do today. One of these days I might go back and see if I can be a bit more precise on these. In fact, the gps coords above don't get you to the pictures below. They get you to the Navy Beach plaque which leads you to the South Tufa of Mono Lake. You then follow the road and head more to the north or northwest along the lake.

As a side note, Navy Beach was where the U.S. Navy did some top secret experimental work during the cold war era. It closed down in 1962. There is a tour of the wildlife nearby. Okay, to the pictures:

At the beginning of the movie, Clint rides down from the background (that's actually were the gps coords are at). You will notice in the following picture I have about 1/3 of the movie picture. If you compare the left hand side you can match up about 1/3 of it.
Mono Lake has a history of different water levels. I do not think the town where "Lago" appeared in the movie has had any issues of water reaching it. I could be wrong though. You can see the two main islands in this lake. I have not seen Fair Wind to Java with Fred MacMurray, but to this day those islands are referred to as Krakatoa and Java due to that movie being filmed here. In location hunting these days I would take the above picture above to the site and probably head to my left (north) to line up the mountain peaks in the background with the islands, thus, getting a more precise shot. Also, I need to be higher behind me.
Another shot nearby. One thing about Mono Lake is that during the summer it is very hot. The general rule of thumb that I go by is any lake to the east of the 395 is going to be a fire lake. Usually very dry and not very much fun. I was there last year hiking the northern side to some caves. I was glad I did it early in the morning because by the time I finally reached my truck I was dying for water. It is a desert area regardless of the salt water you see. Remember, Clint did turn the town of "Lago" into "Hell" for a reason. ;)
Again, Clint is just arriving in town.
I am not really sure about this, but you can see the piece of land that darts out into the water in the background. It is possible my picture below is a trace of that.
When the outlaws get out of jail they show up from the south to southeastern side of the lake. Close to where you see the first two pictures above. This movie is interesting to me because they filmed almost every scene here, but all the indoor sets appear to have been made and filmed here too.

The Return to Lago (Youtube Version)

The Mt. Whitney Hike: the North and West Sides (Part 6)

Looking more to the northeast one can see some ice which is a lake. Tulainyo Lake has an elevation of 12,802 feet high. Some say it is the highest lake in the lower 48, but after doing a quick Google search I really don't think that is true unless there is a qualification on what a "lake" has to be. It is famous for being the starting point for the "Wedding of the Waters" that took place in the late 30's. Water was transported in a relay to the lowly elevated Badwater in Death Valley.
This next picture is looking north. You can barely see White Mountain in the middle in the distance. Another 14'er is Russell not too far away which is in the middle below.

There are a ton of peaks I could identify in the following pictures, but I'll pass on that. On this day I could see most of the peaks about 60 miles away. That would be in the realm of the town of Bishop. Peaks, like the Palisades, could be seen.

A zoom on the same area:

This is more to the northwest. You can see that the rocks were built as shelter against the wind below. It turns out that the Kern River starts out ahead just below in this valley.

The Kaweah's. A very interesting range.

A zoom of the Kaweah's:

I finished my time at the summit by standing on the highest block with this benchmark. For about a minute I was the tallest person or object in the lower 48.

Often I have read in books, on the net, on the signs at the trailhead that the summit is only half of the hike because you have to travel the same distance on the way down. While this is true for this hike I do not look at it this way. On any peak hike I give it my all and let it all hang out to get to the summit. I don't worry about the trip back. In fact, for this hike I felt like it was a victory celebration going down. I was relieved I actually got to the top so I just enjoyed going down taking pictures and talking to people. I got back down in just over 5 hours, but I stopped a lot for these pictures and to take in the air. After I got past Lone Pine Lake my legs felt like they were pounding the ground like a nail getting hit by a hammer. I got back to my truck, ate in Lone Pine, then took off home.

I don't like giving advice on a hike like this since I can get a way with a lot of stuff that others can't. For example, I have been to high elevations since I was kid so I don't really get the symptoms of altitude sickness someone else might. My training for this was a total joke. I didn't do any peak hikes leading up to this hike, but I do a lot of walking/jogging at sea level. A lot of people do this hike then show up on the Whitney Portal Forum and start talking like experts for everyone and giving advice. I want to avoid that and just say you need to know yourself; meaning, know your strengths and limitations through experience. My main concerns were the following:

1)Having the leg strength up to the summit.

2)If the altitude would be a problem.

3)My legs on the way down which is a different type of pounding than #1.

Liquids are more important than anything else on any hike I do. I only needed to sip 3 Gatorades to get the summit. I used water from the 25th switchback on the way down and a filled up in a small stream within the first mile from the trailhead near the very end of the hike.

The final factor and most important is TIME. No matter how I am doing on a hike, if I know I have plenty of time or the whole day to do it then I feel great. This is the reason I always start hikes before the sun comes up.

Please use this site if you are a newbie and want to try the hike:

Bill's Whitney Day Hike site.