Little Package Blog

Latergram
2016.10.04
Latergram, My VW Westfalia
Hiding out on the Owens River, getting ready for a much-needed and super rare NAP. Chief Pete doesn’t know it yet but we’re about to do some off-roading (it went fairly well). I’m breaking in the engine carefully, and still have some minor issues to sort out, like how the **ck I’m supposed to fit the Gowesty exhaust into the van without body rattles or exhaust leaks. Those engineers are having a laugh… otherwise the new engine purrs and as soon as he has his checkup later this week he should be really humming! Hot damn!

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Abram’s Descent
2016.09.27
Bikes, Latergram
Abram (abramwashere.com) descends White Mountain a little more carefully with a borrowed bike and helmet. I invited him the day before and he pulled gear together despite being couch-surfing in a new town; I was able to borrow a 4×4 truck – pretty incredible luck of ours. You can see the summit hut up high in both clips. But look at that scenery 10,000 feet below! My 26″ hardtail did just fine from the top; all those years of hard riding came back to me just like… riding a bicycle. SO. MUCH. FUN. 😀 Big thank you Julie F ❤️

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Biking down a 14er
Bikes, Latergram
There’s a road all the way to the summit of White Mountain (14,246ft), which makes it by far the easiest 14er summit in California (or perhaps anywhere in the USA). From what I understand, once a year the final 7 miles of chunky road even opens for the general public to drive past the gate! How easy, but how darn cool. The White range affords spectacular views of the High Sierra range, the Inyos, and Death Valley on a clear day, and White Mountain itself is beautiful as a lava cake with caramel sauce. (But it’s not white, nor is it edible.) Maybe because it’s so accessible, its summit log has been a bit abused, with people scribbling their names on any piece of anything they can […]

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Sierra Views
2016.09.26
Hiking, Latergram
More Sierra trail for you (far left), this time the incredible Lamarck Pass trail. Wow. If you’re ever in the Bishop, California area and want a beautiful challenge with lots of endangered whitebark pine and a spectrum of rock color, head up Lamarck. See off there in the distance top right, that mountain? That’s the beast I’m going to tame on my mountain bike tomorrow to celebrate my actual birthday – 14,246 feet with THE Abram (abramwashere.com) who makes most die-hard hikers look like weenies. All that other stuff I did the past week? That was just getting ready. 😈

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Bubbling Springs
2016.09.24
Latergram, Pacific Crest Trail
Hot spring four of four in four days while rambling the High Sierra. I think I covered about 80 miles in all – I changed my route mid-way through so I’m not sure. Blaney Hot Springs isn’t so hot but it occasionally percolates up from the pits of hell and the bottom can get very hot when it does vent. Not many springs I’ve been in actually bubble up like this. The evening before I took this shot, I had dinner in the pool with two optimistic JMT hikers, one of whom goes by the IG handle @endlessbummer – which I just love. I also love they detoured off the JMT for a hot spring – that shows class. 😉

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Paint Your Wagon
2016.09.22
Latergram, Pacific Crest Trail
This guy. Hiker “Paint Your Wagon.” If you’ve been on the Pacific Crest Trail the past four years you’ve probably met him. I met him when we both worked Ziggy and the Bear’s in 2014. He’s always upbeat, a hard worker, and has a really hard time finding hiking shoes for his size 17 feet. He happened to be at VVR with his engine running when I got off a private Edison Lake boat shuttle (which I yogied a ride with on principle that I’m a web developer for the tour company that commissioned it) and I had a ride straight to Mono Hot Springs with a blistered hiker quitting said tour group. This magic is part of how I managed 4 hot springs in 4 days […]

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Secret Soak
Hiking, Latergram
Bad news – they really did weld the spring tub shut at Reds Meadow. It’s got this metal plate and there’s no way to get in. Damn! I hope they had a really good reason. I have decided to sit in the gnarly slimy rotting floaty stuff part of the spring because. It’s hot. This kicks off my birthday week Sierra hot spring 90-miler. I will be walking through a storm that’s coming in, so it should get interesting. I dream of being in a hot spring when it’s raining or even snowing on me. At least it’s mostly ON trail this time. 😉 While I’m waiting for van parts in the mail, this is how I do. I’m in my happy place.

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Learn to Sew a Cycling Cap
2016.09.17
Sewing
Note: the class described below is no longer happening, but you can still learn how to make a cycling cap following the instructions in my carefully-crafted downloadable cycling cap sewing patterns. The included instructions include illustrations and are so detailed that in over 12 years selling them, I’ve only ever had two people contact me with questions! If you’ve wanted to set aside the time to finally make yourself a cycling cap, why not book a class? Meet some new people, get help to get over any tricky bits, and check that project off your list? Ellie at Klum House, a professional seamstress and sewing instructor, is teaching a cap sewing class in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, November 5 from 1 to 5pm. She will be teaching […]

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Latergram
2016.09.14
Latergram, My VW Westfalia
Was having a hard time reaching and was tired of my ass hanging out over the bumper, then it dawned on me, I could crawl inside the engine bay. Just about ready to lift in the rebuilt engine. I’m finishing putting in new fuel lines. The past couple of days I’ve felt a strange heartache similar to what I felt when I got a couple root canals. That tooth was mine! I miss it! But rationally I knew it had to go. Same with my old engine, Chief Pete’s original heart. 246,000 miles and it still wanted to go! It’s gone for a rebuild and to a new home and I have someone else’s engine sitting here. That *was his heart,* but it had to be retired. […]

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Montaña de Oro
2016.09.12
Latergram, My VW Westfalia
Keith surveys the surf at the bluffs of Montaña de Oro State Park from his bicycle. Keith is the Syncro (4WD Westfalia) owner who camped next to me last night. What a “wild” night it grew to be! I bailed on sleeping on the ground because of a huge pack of marauding raccoons. I lost count at around ten. At one point woke up with a cougar routing out rodents 50ft from the truck, where I was camped up on the bed. I shined my headlamp at him and he slinked away silently. Thanks to my friends telling me horror stories involving rabid raccoons (lately) in the Eastern Sierra, I feared for my toes hanging out the tailgate and my face and fingers too. I was so […]

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