Back to Spicer!

This time with Scott's parents. Our favorite campsite was free again, even on Labor Day weekend! Nice weather as usual, and we saw a mama bear with her two cubs up a tree - very cute.

See how much the water level has dropped over the past few weeks?

Sierra Backpacking

Last week we did a point-to-point backpacking trip with 5 other guys through King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks for 6 or 7 days, mostly along the John Muir Trail. We entered from the east side at Kearsarge Pass (11,760') and headed south about 50 or 60 miles, exiting to the east at New Army Pass (about 12,300'). We had 2 "rest" days that involved side trips. The surroundings and scenery were awesome and of course the weather was great - gotta love California for that. No one got injured or altitude sickness and the black bear that wandered through our camp the first morning at about 5:30 seemed satisfied just to walk right through without stopping for a snack :) . Nate and Scott conquered Mt. Langley - a fourteener and most of Mt. Tyndall. The highest point for the rest of us was Forester Pass at 13,200'. Nate's dad Jerry caught 4 huge Golden Trout which made a tasty dinner one night. This was my longest backpacking trip with my heaviest ever pack (starting around 40 lbs.) and everything went great, for me and the whole group. It was an amazing trip! I'll try to make a link later to more photos, but here are just a few for now...

This is exactly what we ate for 6 days; subtract the graham crackers and half of the Crown (no space) but add some fried golden trout and cheese quesadillas, courtesy of the Bowens.

Kim and Tracy and half of Jerry at our first pass - Kearsarge, entrance to King's Canyon.

Me, Nate, and Scott at the top of Forester Pass, highest pass on the whole Pacific Crest Trail. That was the toughest day; packs still heavy and a steep, high-elevation climb followed by a REAL long descent.

On a side trip we found a little shangri-la. Kim and Nate are already plotting how to get back here . It's off the trail and no one was around but some fishies. I'm not telling where it is.

Crabtree Meadow: site of crazy early morning eastern European calisthenics and illegal trash-burning (booo!) with Mt. Whitney lit up in the background. Also home to many Marmots and their poo. Great nighttime star gazing here at this busy trail crossroads. Most people come through here with the goal of climbing Whitney. We were too cool for that this time.

Kim getting artistic with the photos at Crabtree Lakes. This is the lake that gave up its tasty trout for us. Thanks Jerry!! Look at that clear blue water!

Mmmmm...


Mt. Langley... looks like someone got here first, darned USGS!

A Motley Crew: Nate "Trash Pony," Bob the Bullet, Big Fish Jerry, Kim "Spoon Man," Tom "Booze Pony," Tracy "Fish Face," Scott "Gitch Pony," about to head back down from New Army Pass.

7 days without shampoo gives the hair natural body and shine :D

We DID it!

Adventures in Canning

This weekend I went to the farmer's market with Steph and found that the berries were the fruits du jour. I was hoping for peaches but most of them weren't ripe and I wanted to do my canning that day. I made four pints of blackberry-raspberry jam and four pints of strawberry jam. No seal failures! It turned out to be pretty easy, except you can see from the picture that the strawberry ones have some bubbles and I wasn't too even with the headspace. I had some extra strawberries, and then we got more in our CSA box on Tuesday, so today I made four more pints of strawberry jam. It's really easy, but how much jam can you eat in a year? I'll give some away, but I'll have to make sure I get my jars back. When the tomatoes start rolling in I think I'll try salsa. mmmm.

First Trip: Spicer Meadow Reservoir

Two posts today since I didn't get around to posting last weekend about the launch. Read below.
This weekend Tracy and I took the canoe up to Spicer Meadow Reservoir. Its a 6 mile long reservoir at 6500 ft off hwy 4, partly in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness. I think it is the closest thing California has to a long distance lake trip. The scenery was beautiful and motor boats are limited to trolling motors in the lower half of the lake. We paddled out to the end in about an hour and a half of leisurely paddling and set up camp on a granite hilltop rising out of the water. You get some unique rock formations by the water's edge that you don't normally see in a natural lake. There were a few hazards for the as yet unblemished underside of Thistle, namely numerous submerged and partly submerged pine trees from before the reservoir was flooded. Some of the tops were sitting just a few inches below the surface. Thanks to Tracy's superior navigating skills we got through unscathed. The water was clear down to 20-30 ft and a perfect swimming temperature. Fish were jumping all over the place. Have to bring a rod next time.

Launching

She floats!

Last weekend lots of friends came down to Shoreline Lake in Mountain View with us to launch Thistle for the first time. After putting up with the jokes about what IKEA kit I used, the champagne flowed and she took to the water like, well like a canoe. I don't think I've ever seen it rain here in July, but it was threatening last weekend. In the end there were only a few drops and a few of got to test out the boat. Dan and Jen and little Henrik were there. Pete and Ayse and little Selim were there. Adam and Emily made it down. Catelyn and Andy and little Everett were there and Tracy and me. Nate and Steph and Jude didn't make it for the launch, but came over later to drink some beers.

Thistle

June 28, 2009. She's done. Its 95 degrees F today. A hot day for working, but worth it as I finished Thistle today. All that was left to do was install the seats and thwart and take some photos. Now I'm sitting on the back patio with a beer. ahhh. Its a bit unbelievable to me that I am done building. It was hard to imagine ever finishing at times. Now I'm just looking forward to getting up on a mountain lake. Lots of people helped me out along the way. Thanks to John Mould for lending me so many tools - sometimes for months at a time. Thanks to Andy Orsini without whose help I never would have been able to machine the red cedar strips from full boards or cut the gunwales. Thanks to our great (former) neighbours, Ben and Nicole, who never complained once about me taking over our shared garage. I really wanted to finish before they left, but I missed by a week. At least they only moved a few doors down! Thanks to my parents for getting me started with gift certificates to Home Depot. And most importantly thanks to Tracy for letting me disappear for hours into the garage for a year and half and also for helping me with the worst tasks (epoxying).
So after taking a lot of photos we conducted the inaugural weigh-in. And she weighs .... 55 lbs! A little heavier than my initial goal of 50 lbs, but really not too bad. I think I can portage her for a kilometre perhaps. I was afraid she'd be over 60 lbs near the end.
It will be a couple weeks before we get her in the water as we're heading home to Ontario for the long weekend coming up. I think the launch party will be the weekend after.
So, thats it. Welcome to Doneville, population me.

Penultimate Update

Varnishing is the least enjoyable process in the canoe build, but produces the most satisfaction. It is a constant battle against the forces of dust, fumes and drips. Dust is everywhere and I became obsessive about removing every last speck. That is a difficult thing to do when working in the garage of an old house, especially while Ben and Nicole (the other half of our duplex) are moving out. I swept and vacuumed repeatedly, including the walls and ceilings and the driveway outside. After sanding coats I would vacuum the hull and wash it with a wet towel and wipe it down with a dry one. Then before a new coat I would wipe it down again and then go over it a couple times with a tack cloth to remove the final specks. While applying a coat I would lower the garage door to about a foot from the ground and stuff plastic sheeting in the cracks between the panels to prevent dust from entering. Even doing this I had to wait until 8pm at night when the wind died down to keep dust from blowing in. Mostly closing the garage door brings up the next evil: fumes. An hour of leaning over the freshly spread varnish for an hour in the closed space could make me loopy in a hurry. I pilfered a desktop fan from work to exhaust air under the garage door for the first coat. Air could flow in over the top. This helped, but I grabbed a second fan from work for the final five coats and the two fans on high prevented me from getting high instead. The last scourge of canoe varnishing is drips or runs in the varnish. I found that the varnish would spread on nicely and evenly with no sign of drips until the coat began to skin over on the surface. Somehow at this stage it could still flow underneath and I'd get these wide sagging drips around the turn of the bilge. By the time these were apparent though, it was too late to do anything about it since the varnish was already half dried. The only way to prevent it was to ensure a thin coat to begin with. The badger hair brush was definitely the nicest brush I have used (it doesn't shed at all), but in the end I found it was easier to get a thin, even coat with the 99 cent foam brushes (and I didn't have to clean them!). Warmer temperatures also seemed to help because the coat would set quicker.
Well last night I finished the last of 3 interior coats and 3 exterior coats and I'm glad its over. The results will speak for themselves. Tomorrow I plan to wrap this project up - installing the seats and thwart and taking the victorious final photos! My Mom brought us a bottle of fine Champagne a couple weeks ago and I can't wait to pop the cork.