nomadicbynature’s Neighborhood

I know this is not exactly outdoor related but please allow me this digression.  I am not really sure why I decided to cook a Thanksgiving meal for Noosha and I on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I think I just wanted to give it a try, but without all the pressure. 

The plan is to cook a turkey, my mother's sweet potato souffle (with real sweet potatoes not canned), stuffing (from scratch), some other dish(es) based on produce I can get at the farmers market tomorrow, and maybe a dessert.  I picked up most of the ingredients today after my bike ride; most importantly the 13.5 pound organic free range turkey from Trader Joe's. 

So far tonight I cooked the par baked bread from Whole Foods and cut it along with the La Brea Bakery French bread into 1" x 1" cubes.  They are chilling in a bowl until tomorrow.  I will be making a Sausage and Apple with Cranberrie Stuffing recipe.  I'm sure to make some changes but will mostly stick with that.

Now to the turkey and when things get interesting.  I decided to use Nigella's Spiced and Super Juicy Roasted Turkey recipe.  The recipe calls for at least an overnight brineing.  I looked all over the house for something large enough to soak the bird in but could not find a pot or bucket large enough.  I opened the fridge and saw the large drawer at the bottom - it looked perfect.  I emptied the drawer and put the plastic covered bird inside.  Perfect!  After a quick wash of the bird and drawer I was set to start. 

All the ingredients were added (with some rather interesting substitutions like Hawaiian black rock salt) and the bird dropped in.  The drawer was just large enough to hold everything. Now we wait until 2ish tomorrow to start cooking the turkey.

The map (PDF) provided by the Angeles National Forest is not very helpful when trying to determine if a trail is within the closure area or not.  I created a few Google "mash ups" in an effort to help folks out there who want to do the right (and legal) thing by not traveling into the closure area.  In time I will try to add some landmarks to help people find things a little easier.  And if I continue to feel ambitious I will try to create a mash up with a topo map, until then I hope these services help.

The boundary data used was created by Terry Tanner and published with his permission.  The closure boundary file is not the official file use in the Forest Service's map.  The boundary file was however created using the legal description of the closure area (PDF file).  Please keep in mind there may be minor errors with the boundary file being published.  The maps and associated data are provided without warranty of any kind.  Any resale of this information is prohibited. Copyright 2009, Terry Tanner.

Download the KML file from my KML Warehouse:
http://sites.google.com/site/mtbmaven/home/kml-warehouse/StationFireClosureBoundary.kml

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

 

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy

My buddy Krisztian (Bergsteiger) and I have been driving 395 together for years; heading to Mammoth, climbing peaks, etc. In recent years we have been eyeing the road to Horseshoe Meadows and Whitney Portal for a bike ride. We have both driven these roads several times on trips to climb Mt Langley, Mt. Whitney, and just a month ago to climb Mt Russell. This time we wanted to bike the to hellaciously long and steep roads.

First the stats:
Horseshoe Meadows: 20 miles - 6,200 feet of gain
Mt Whitney Portal: 11 miles - 4,300 feet of gain

We planned to camp out the night before at Tuttle Creek BLM Campground. (This is a great little campground just outside Lone Pine off Horseshoe Meadows Rd with a creek 10 feet outside camp.) Nick (Good ol' Slappy) joined us for this adventure. On the drive up Krisztian got a PM from Sol (SDstumpy). We re-PMed him and invited him on the trip - time 10:30 PM. Sol packed up his stuff and took off to Lone Pine. He arrived at 3:30 AM.

The Marmot Hotel

The Mohican Villa


The cowboy

We started at the intersection of Whitney Portal Rd and Horseshoes Meadows Rd. at about 8:00 AM. The beginning of the ride is a mellow grade for about 4 miles then starts to tilt upward like an exponential growth curve. The first switchback is 3 miles long!

Let's git er done!
There is no getting around the fact that this is a long steep climb with only short sections of rest (read 6% grades); the rest of the time the grades are between 8%-12%.

Punishing. That is the road lower down in the background.

First switchback

Nick and Sol making their way up. I am still lagging behind.

We stashed a gallon of water at Morton's Rock the night before. When looking up at Horseshoe Meadows Rd from the 395 Morton's Rock is right were the road disappears. Unfortunately the road does not stop here. It is another 3 miles until the end of the road. Luckily there is a 1 mile downhill.

Krisztian posing at Morton's Rock with Owens Valley some 9,500 feet below!

Horseshoe Meadows is the end of the road at 9,900 feet. The weather was perfect with a nice little chill in the air. Remnants of snow could be seen on the peaks from last weeks early season storm. The parking lots were nearly empty. I think we saw less than 10 cars the whole climb.

A much deserved break

1 down 1 to go

The descent started out very cold but the one mile up hill warmed us up before the forever long downhill back to the vehicles. Speeds were fast. It was hard to keep things in the 30s. Nearly 50 minutes after we left Horseshoe Meadows we finally reached the vehicles. We stocked up on water and food before the climb up to Whitney Portal.

At this point I felt pretty good. The climb to Horseshoes Meadows was difficult but not deadly. I was in for a rude awakening on the Portal climb.

The climb started out with a moderate 5% grade, which was surprisingly difficult. After a bit of this the legs started to weaken as the road went on forever. Looming were the two big switchbacks up to the Portal.

Before we even reached the first switchback Nick, Sol, and I were paperboying it back and forth across the road. I got into a rhythm of 50 pedal strokes then 6 switchbacks. This got me to the base of the first switchback.

There were more vehicles on this road but still not that many. Everyone gave us plenty of room, passing in the other lane. Most waved.

The two switchbacks were terribly punishing for me. My knees were killing me. I zig zagged, I stood, I found shade when I could, all in an effort to keep moving. The grade eased up quite a bit after the end of the second switchback until just past Whitney Portal Campground. One more steep switchback and then it was the home stretch. As soon as I reached the overflow parking lot I knew I was there. I was the last one to roll into the Portal.

Victorious!

We got cheeseburgers, fries, and Sierra Nevada beer from the Portal Store! Really good burgers and fries.

We eat our food in the sun by the little fishing pond.

The descent was even faster than Horseshoe Meadows. After the last switchback the road is almost straight for miles with grades between 8% - 5%. I reached my highest speed to date of 52.5 MPH, Nick reached 55 something. At that speed I started to notice some serious speed wobbles starting so I backed off. It took a surprisingly long time to get back down to the low 40s. Supper fun fast descent!

This was a really difficult ride for me. The mileage is not super long at 60ish but with over 10,000 feet of gain it is potent. This has been a dream of mine for about 4 years. I'm glad I finally did it!

Enjoy the ride belo Route information here:
http://www.geoladders.com/show_route.php?route=29240

Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.

We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you for being so patient.

~daisy

Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.

This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!

Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.

Can't wait to read your posts!

~ daisy