Approach from Emmett

It never ceases to amaze me the memories I hold onto from childhood. Growing up in Boise, I have seen a lot change in the last 35 years. Urban sprawl has swallowed up so much scenery here in the valley. The Boise Foothills have homes making their way further up and up. Shaffer Butte now has radio antennas visible from Boise with the naked eye.

Long road ahead

One thing hasn’t changed in the landscape, and that’s the view of Squaw Butte from my SW Boise home. Squaw Butte is an 8 mile long ridgeline in the Boise Mountains. What has always intrigued me is its appearance of being an island mountain. It in fact is not, but being able to see the North / South ridge from Boise with its 2500 foot prominance makes it look that way.

View from the top

I chose to carry out this hike after the weather had cooled. November was a great time for this desert mountain hike. The approach I took was from the South, connecting to Butte Road near the base. This provided access entirely along a dirt road. This is open rangeland, so there were plenty of cows watching me as I made my way up. The hike is pretty easy until you make it to the final gulch and the grade jumps to 15-20 percent. Eventually, you make your last turn and reach the top.

Fire Lookout

It was a great view and the snow was quite pretty.

It took a bit longer than I expected to make it up, so I got back to the car just before dark. In all, this hike was around 14 miles out and back. Elevation gain was over 3000 feet. Bring plenty of water, and a good lunch for this hike. You will need a lot of energy and time for this one. Watch for cows (and other critters).

Local wildlife

There were a couple of ATV’s passing by me on the way to the top. I suspect that depending on the time of year, these may turn into snowmobiles. This will even make a pretty decent snowshoe adventure.

Bigger than it looks

I enjoy getting away from home and visiting places I’ve never had the chance to experience before. With the best weather we’ve had all year, it was time to get out for the first campout of 2010. I live in Boise, Idaho where camping is as close as 20 miles away. As with most places in Idaho, you can be in the middle of nowhere in about an hour. I was ready to camp somewhere close, yet unlike anywhere I had been before. My next choice was Leslie Gulch, near Adrian, OR.

Alien Landscape

As with much of the desert here in the Northwest, there are plenty of canyons with volcanic formations.  Leslie Gulch is especially filled with these  volcanic rock formations, and is in fact very beautiful.  The best time to visit would have to be right now, in the Spring, so you can enjoy wild flowers, mild temperatures and generally very few people.  There are several official hiking paths in the park, however you can park in any of several turnoffs and take off to create your own hike.

Wildflowers in bloom

I chose two official trails (and several unofficial ones) during my stay.  The first was at the Leslie Gulch campground.  If you head South, you can hike for several miles in a dry streambed.  I took the opportunity to blaze a trail up one of the hills and walk along the ridge overlooking some grand formations and the campground far below.

Honeycomb Canyon

Located within the park at Leslie Gulch, Juniper Gulch treats you to unique, scenic geological honeycomb structures along most of this hike. I took a short loop which was about 3 miles. My next visit to the area will have me summiting “Yellow Jacket Peak” Maps of my journey will be made available in the Maps section soon.

It should be said as you plan your trip, watch out for snakes, and observe good judgement when it comes to visits in early Spring.  A sign warns you as you enter the park that there are chances of flash floods.  There is so much rock here that even a short downpour can lead to your scrambling to higher ground.  The campgrounds have vault toilets and covered picnic tables, but you are responsible for bringing drinking water.  Keeping this area beautiful is up to all of us.  I am pleased to report that there was virtually no litter on or off trail during my stay.

I took quite a few pictures and movies along the way.  Below you will find links to the finished video shorts, on YouTube.com

• The camera is expensive – just the body!
• The lenses are expensive
• The kit is pretty heavy
• Not really appropriate for a hike, unless you consider the added calories burned carrying the extra weight!
• Due to a mechanical nature, battery life is not impressive

So I decided I needed a point and shoot with a nice big zoom, and manual settings for everything.  Being a videographer as well, I wanted a unit which could film in 1080 HD.  Enter the new Nikon P100.  I can say right off the bat that I love this camera.  It certainly has all features I have been looking for (manual, lightweight, portable, big zoom, HD) but also has a load of automatic settings.  Not being any kind of photography genius, my summary revolves around the ease of use of this camera.  Detailed specs can be found at the Nikon site.

If you visited the link, you will note that it has Hybrid VR (vibration reduction) technology which will make photos easier to shoot while hand holding the camera.  I have found that I like this to a point, but it seems to affect the photo quality when I zoom in on the captured picture.  I have decided that for the way I shoot, it will be tripod mounted.  One really interesting feature to me is the way you can shoot video using a dedicated button.  The skinny on how that works for me – I frame my initial shot using auto or manual controls (focus, zoom).  When I am ready, I hit the video record button and the camera freezes these settings and you are recording in beautiful high-definition.  Understand, however, you can set the camera to auto focus, and you can zoom in and out while recording, but the results are hard to watch, and you can hear the focusing motor through the built in stereo microphones.

The color reproduction is fantastic and the movie mode is fluid high-end looking.  The on-screen menu system is very straight-forward, and easy to memorize.  Pop into automatic mode, and this is as easy as any pocket point and shoot.  Put the camera in SP or AP and now you can completely control your shot.

I have included a few samples so you can see what I have been able to capture with this camera in the last week playing with this camera.  As a true amateur photographer, my results can be seen as typical for other first time buyers for higher end automatic cameras.

YouTube movie I made on Easter…

EDIT:  After one week, I returned this camera.  While it had fantastic image and video quality, it suffered from what appears to be a common problem of random freezing of the focus and zoom mechanicals.  The solution is wait until the camera times out and powers off.  Powering it back on restores the function.  Unfortunately, trust in my tool is pretty important when shooting.  A firmware update MAY possibly fix this, but I went on instead to purchase the Canon SX20 IS.  I will provide an opinion after I’ve had it for a month or more.

Acer R1600

I haven’t really done much in the way of tech posts lately, so today I discuss my newest addition to the HTPC front.  I have been watching for some time with interest the Nvidia ION platform.  It is essentially the graphics and processor on one board which promises a super-compact package which performs media operations extremely well.  One of the applications so far is inclusion in the tiny Acer Aspire Nettop which is to date, one of the smallest full function desktop computers.  I picked up the AR1600-U910H from Best Buy for the bargain price of just $199.99.  I purchased this with hope I could finally have a Windows Media Center which had the advantage of the Apple TV’s tiny footprint.  I am pleased to report I have achieved this very goal.

Cracking open the case

The Acer R1600 comes in the box with a USB keyboard and mouse, and a power brick you would typically expect for a laptop.  The specs are very minimal, using the Intel Atom 1.6 ghz processor, Nvidia Ion video with HDMI Video / Audio out, VGA out, 1 gig 800 mhz, DDR2 DIMM, 160 Gig Hard drive.  The packaged operating system is Windows XP, SP3 home.  The software load includes all the normal junkware which I spent 3 hours removing in order to do a quick image backup.  Once the backup was complete, it was time to get Windows 7 on this thing and start enjoying a Media Center PC.

Simple Layout

The first task was opening this unit up to put more RAM in.  After a couple of days trying to find instructions on how to do this, I came up empty handed.  I took my chances and removed the one small screw in the cavity where the stand goes.  There is a white plastic band around the perimeter of the computer with a visible seam.  As with most of these CE devices, it’s held together by a series of plastic clips (as seen in the photos).  I carefully pried the case open, unsnapping the clips until the top cover came off.  Inside, I was pleased to see a very simple main board with the hard drive, RAM expansion slots and mini PCIE slot in plain view.  I pulled the 1GB DIMM and swapped in two matched 1GB DIMMS in it’s place from my old laptop.  I had a wireless G mini PCI-E from my retired laptop, so placed that in the empty slot.  After a few photos, replaced the top cover, replaced the screw and powered up to load Windows 7.

Size compared to Apple TV

The Windows 7 install went very easily (using external DVD drive, none included with this budget PC).  Once Windows 7 came up for the first time after the install, I installed the Windows 7 drivers for chipset and video found on the Acer support site.  This system is super snappy at this point.  Another thing to note, it’s practically silent.  No noise from the WD hard drive and the fan is running slowly and quietly.  I continue my install by plugging in my Hauppauge 980 USB HDTV tuner and installing its driver.  Without walking you through all the painful details on configuring the power management, scanning for channels, and all the other items, I finished the configuration.  Now for my thoughts / impressions of this platform for a Media Center PC.

New HTPC in action

WOW!  This thing is NICE!  With the built in HDMI, connection to the TV was flawless.  The new Acer with Windows 7 detected my 32″ LG Tv at its native resolution and looks beautiful.  Turning on the Media Center software and tuning to an HDTV program rewarded me with smooth animation and flawless (no jitters, stutter) video.  I have never had such an easy time getting such a knockout video stream with an HTPC.  I think I can probably thank the ION platform for this, as it uses the Video Processor to offload all decompression tasks from the CPU for video playback.  12 mbps HD video at 720p and 1080p is perfect.  This looks as good as any consumer set top box I have ever used.  Netflix even worked flawlessly.

In conclusion, with all the features available in Windows 7 for the TV DVR functionality, my AppleTV 3.0 is now my device to watch Internet podcast video.  The Acer unit drives my TV for day-to-day programming.  Apple should consider allowing a TV tuner in the Apple TV, because with this new addition to the Windows market, Acer with Windows 7 is the perfect package.  Size, function and price are just right.  Sure, there are extra costs such as the purchase of Windows 7, USB tuner, memory, etc.  I had the hardware components I was able to put to use from components I had sitting around.  Still, this is a bargain price for what you receive in the way of the Media Center experience.

TJD

Near Toxaway Trailhead

Idaho is such a great state to live in for so many reasons, mostly for the outdoor enthusiast.   As a life-long resident of this beautiful state, I am continually humbled by the immeasurable beauty of the landscape.  On a recent camping trip I had the opportunity to lead a small group on a couple of very short but beautiful hikes in the Sawtooth Wilderness, which is part of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in south-central Idaho.

The Sawtooth Mountains (referred to as ‘The Sawtooths’) are a collection of mountains which are home to at least 39 high mountain lakes.  The most well known of these are Stanley, Sawtooth and Redfish Lakes.

Along Parks Peak

The 12.5 mile hike began only 8 short miles from our group campsite, at Pettit Lake.  At 7000 feet with crystal clear water and stunning views of beautiful McDonald Peak we headed West along Pettit Lake quickly making it to our first of several creek crossings.  I found it was much easier (and safer, wearing trail runners) to simply wade across these streams rather than hop on slippery rocks.  The trees eventually give way to a dense rock field about 1.7 miles into this hike.  Full exposure to the sun and incredible vistas dominated the hike to Alice.  The trail conditions were fantastic considering the number of people making this hike even on the day that we visited.

Distant White Clouds

Around the 4 mile mark, we got to a final switchback with a great view of the White Cloud Mountains to the North-East, and proud, El Capitan (9,901 ft) to the South.  Once to this point, it was a very short hike to Alice Lake, which sits at approximately 8590 feet above sea level.  When we “turned the corner” and got our first glimpse of Alice Lake, I was struck by it’s crystal clear, bluish green color and the majestic backdrop of jagged, glacier carved mountains surrounding the lake.

El Capitan near Alice

Alice Lake marked the turn around spot for this moderate day hike.  We made our way back along the same path we had taken to Alice, and was a much faster trip due to it’s gentle 9% grade from the 8600 foot high-point.  Before escaping to the vehicle for the short drive back to camp, I took time to take in the beauty of Pettit Lake one last time.  This hike was just the beginning of several more years journeys back to this beauty of a mountain range.

Pettit Lake, goodbye for now

TJD

I hope you find them useful.  Check back from time to time, as I am still building the library.

-TJD

When you load the application you are presented with a satellite view of the United states. The user then uses the standard swipes and pinches to navigate the map and zoom in on an area of interest. As you zoom in, a yellow grid appears which has the names of the quadrangles which cover the area you want to dowload. With a simple half second press on the screen, you have an opportunity to rapidly download the map. If you have previously downloaded the map, the grid will have been filled in with a green fill. Pressing on the green area will automatically load that particular map. If you have previously downloaded the map and you are at the trailhead, pressing the find location button will automatically open the map which covers your current position.

In addition to the standard navigation you can expect from any of these maps, the feature I really enjoy are the shadows. Along with the map, bump maps are downloaded which overlay the quad which give it some depth. You can even configure the sun’s position so perhaps you can plan your hike to keep you shaded as much as possible.

As for the glaring omission in this app, it would be the inability to import or place waypoints. The developer is working on this functionality. I look forward to that feature! I would consider this app a good buy for the outdoors oriented people out there. It is not a street navigation app, so it’s purpose is somewhat limited.

Tjd

– Post From My iPhone

For fun, I downloaded the quads for all my major hikes coming up and loaded on the iPhone to have a look. Trinity mountain is what you can see in the above sample. It allowed me to import ( or easily create my own) waypoints from my desktop route planning software. They landed in the correct positions, thankfully. I also downloaded the quad for my part of town and drove to the store. I turned on the internal GPS tracking. It followed the road as printed on the quad perfectly! Naturally, you can zoom in or out to get the view you want to see.

With all the quads I wanted to have downloaded on the device, I can hit the locate button. The program then automatically reorders the quads on my device by their distance from my current location. This makes it really easy to find the right quad when you arrive at the trail and are ready to navigate.

Topos2go is a wonderfully simple app which performs a task only available on the most high end of dedicated GPS receivers at a very minimal investment under $4. The iPhone still doesn’t replace my need for a dedicated navigational device, but it’s a welcomed addition to my pack each time I head out on a hike.

TJD
– Post From My iPhone

Table Rock is a landmark for Boise. With the big “B” on the side and the cross at the top, it’s seen from across the entire valley. At just over 900 elevation gain, it’s a moderate hike but depending on the route taken, an easy one for just about any level of hiker.

Due to the early rise in temperatures here in Boise, I prefer to do the entire loop early in the day, early in the season. This trail system is very popular due to it’s proximity of a couple minutes from downtown Boise, as well as access to the historic“old penn”.

I prefer to take the scenic route, rather than heading straight away for the steep climb to the top. Rock Gardens has single track for mountain bikes, and takes you out to a ridge where you can overlook the Warm Springs Golf Course and the highway up to Lucky Peak.

As you progress along the trail, I encourage you to take the Table Rock Quarry Trail #17. Here you will see an active sandstone quarry working it’s way along the back side of the mountain.
Stay on this path and you eventually meet back up with the trail to the top of Table Rock where you are treated to grand views of the Treasure valley. You should also explore the “caves” below the top and take some pictures.

Now – for the video:

– Post From My iPhone

You will set off for the Sumit traveling North-East. Travel is via a forest service road which is in pretty rough shape. While on this hike was passed (very slowly) by a couple 4×4 trucks and at least 10 ATVs which had no trouble with this road. There is very little water available on this hike due to the creek being far below the road. There are a couple stream crossings, though they are supposed to be going under the road.

The most memorable part of the actual hike was the typical 15%-20% grade you fight the entire way up. The climb (according to the new Garmin) is just shy of 3,000 feet gain over only 4 miles to the top. No wonder I am so tired!

Eventually I reached the top. There is a lookout tower on this peak, covered in solar panels. It appears to be unstaffed, with only video cameras mounted around the roofline. The view did not disappoint, though the haze and cloudcover did affect my ability to take great photos.

After a quick 10 minute rest to take photos and enjoy the wildflowers, I took off back to the trailhead. I advise taking it slow though, plenty of opportunity to trip on the many rocks sticking up through the road surface.

From the parking lot, you can head the other direction to Sunset Mountain lookout. There is even more gain on that one, due to the up and down over the terrain, so that is best to wait for a second trip. I expect to have fun with that one in another week or two. I need to take the motorcycle on that one though. Such nice twisties on that road!

Tjd

Okay, I admit that my blog updates have been pretty few and far between as of late. I have been neglecting my WordPress blog in favor of updating Facebook. I want to mend my ways.

I am now using the WordPress app on my iPhone along with some great new photo programs on my iPhone and feel I can now post meaningful content on the run.

This photo is a sample panorama I created using Autostitch. It really is amazing that you can actually stitch photos together on your phone, no need to upload them to the computer for post processing work. In addition to the Panorama software, I am using another helpful tool called Photogene on the iPhone. Photogene allows me to crop my video, adjust levels and add cool frame affects. I finally have a complete photo suite, gps tracker, blogger on the iPhone I take everywhere. What a great platform! I send my Apple-love to all my readers!

Tjd

Tjd

– Post From My iPhone

Before leaving for the hike Frog (our trip organizer) had scouted out conditions and let us in on the fact that a week earlier there was an infestation of Mormon Crickets. This presents a problem to enjoyable hiking in that the keep moving and can cover the path in front of you. It’s not the most beautiful sound, crunching under your feet. Thankfully, none came out to play while we were there. The hike started out ahead of the old campground along Mann’s Creek. The forest service road is the direct route and was a bit on the moist side thanks to the week of rain. As we followed the road there were plenty of wildflowers to photograph and enjoy.

Once we passed the halfway point, the road became much more steep and we had a great view of Hitt Mountain. Hitt Mountain was previously a ski area, but there were no signs it was still open. Finally we came around that last corner and the lookout tower at Sturgill Peak came into view. We gathered that last burst of energy to summit that challenging last 400 feet to the top. Once there, the view was worth the effort.

Sturgill Peak watch tower sits at an altitude of 7589 feet above sea level. We had hiked 7 miles and a total gain of 3000 feet, so we took this chance to rest and have some lunch. Well, I didn’t eat, I had photos to take! The temperature was a comfortable 55 at the top, and a bit windy. There are plenty of radio towers as well, though clearly none were intended to give a good cell signal. Oh well, it’s nice to unplug from time to time (so I hear).

After about 30 minutes we set off to get back to the base. The descent took just shy of two hours. The sun had come out and the heating had begun. When we reached the truck and started for home, guess what we saw? Mormon Crickets in the streets. So glad they were napping earler! I will be back, next time with more friends and a tent.

Now a Video of the adventure

Tjd
– Post From My iPhone

Trailhead to Dry Creek

I love hiking. It’s a wonderful way to see things you may pass by every day without a second look. Most of my hikes are within an hours drive of Boise, and this is no exception.

Dry Creek hiking begins a few miles up Bogus Basin Road, at a turnout prior to the switchbacks in the road. There is limited room to park, which explains why this hike was not particularly crowded.

You will hike up for a short bit on the single track until you are pretty high above the creek below. About a mile into the hike, the path leads you down to the creek where you can now enjoy year round running water, and you come to one of your first of many creek crossings.

Creekside - "Dry" Creek

You follow the path up, staying with the creek through several more creek crossings, until the half-way mark when you again separate from Dry Creek. Soon, I was starting to see more pine and less sagebrush, and the hike began to take on more of the forest hike I love. At this point, roughly 6 miles up, I was in the forest complete with birds singing and smell of Pine.

With the last couple of miles comes the climb to the summit and the more challenging part of the hike. Eventually, I made it up out of the trees and was treated to a beautiful view of the valley. Rain clouds were approaching from the West, and from the North, so I decided to turn around and back-track to where I parked.

Treasure Valley View

The trek down was pretty quick, downhill the entire way. Only people I ran into were on horseback and a couple of mountain bikers. Trekking poles can be pretty useful on the way down to keep you balance, I highly recommend them. I have to admit, the trip down felt like it took twice as long as the trip up, but it could be because I was pretty excited to get home and crack open a cool one. It is a beautiful day-hike, and worth your time again and again. It’s among my favorite nearby hikes, and will quickly become one of yours as well. Please enjoy the album, and I will be uploading the movie of this hike as soon as I get it edited. I will also include my trail from the EveryTrail site, where I track all my favorite hikes for you.

Dry Creek – Out and Back Full at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Travel Community

TJD

View from the visitor center

This weekend I decided to go and check out Celebration Park.  It’s located along the Snake River, just South of Melba, Idaho.  Celebration Park offers camping, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and tours of the Petroglyphs to name a few things.

Basalt Field

My choice to start off the day was to hike east toward Swan Falls, along the river.  It was a warm day and I quickly discovered I had forgotten my sun screen!  Well, I did get burned, but the scenery and hike was incredible.  I took the river canyon trail first.  I wandered around quite awhile in the basalt fields, amazed at the size of these boulders which were washed in during the Lake Bonneville Flood at least 15,000 years ago.

Halverson Lakes

About mid-way through I headed North toward Halverson Lakes.  It is truly a desert oasis which suddenly comes into view.  During my visit there were birds, rabbits, lizards and plenty of bugs flying about.  It was a wonderful place to take a break and enjoy the scenery.  I started back along my way, this time following the Halverson Lakes Loop trail.  This took me eventually back to the river, where I followed it back to camp.  At the end of that hike, I was at about 8.5 miles.

Foot Bridge across Snake River

After a rest and some late lunch, I headed in the other direction

from camp to hike up and out of the canyon via the old train trestle bridge.  This hike goes along a path through  Guffey Butte.  The view is spectacular.  You can see for miles in each direction.  By the time I reached my vantage point, the sun was moving behind the mountains, so I decided to head back and visit the Petroglyphs at Celebration Park.

One boulder with Petroglyphs

The Rock Art in Celebration Park are Petroglyphs which were carved into the rock following the Bonneville Flood some 15,000 years ago.  It is thought that some of the Petroglyphs at Celebration park are as old as 10,000 years.  This rock art was created by Paleo-Indians, which makes this site sacred to the Native Americans.

The Egg - Interesting cracks in basalt

I very much enjoyed looking at these historic drawings, and wandering around seeking out others.  There are literally thousands of these basalt boulders to look at, so you can spend quite a while there.  After many photos and video captures, I headed back to camp to watch the sunset and hit the sack.  This was a wonderful place to visit!

Below, enjoy the movie I made of my travels.

Posted in Hiking / Backpacking, Includes Video, Outdoors Tagged: Camping, Desert, Hiking, Lake, Mountain Bike, Snake River ]]> http://tjdmobile.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/hiking-at-celebration-park-melba-id/feed/ 1 tjdmobile DSC00152 Basalt Field Halverson Lakes Bridge1 Petroglyph 1 The Egg