AstroCamping Travelogue Western Sierra Aug 2008
Introduction
My son and I recently completed a week of enjoyable
astrocamping in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Planning
I had done some pre-trip research, asking both the Sierra
and Sequoia National
Forest rangers about good astrocamping locations.
The websites below were useful in scouring for likely
candidates:
California
Forest Fire Lookouts -
http://www.peakbagging.com/Peak%20Lists/CA_Lookout1.htmlThe
sites linked from the SJAA weather page -
http://www.sjaa.net/weather/Benchmark
California Road and
Recreation Atlas - www.benchmarkmaps.comDelorme
Northern, Southern and Central Atlases and Gazetteers -
www.delorme.com
.
Ultimately, the "boots on the ground"
recommendations of the rangers were the most valuable.
I decided to navigate a section of the western Sierra
Nevada from north to south, starting near Yosemite
National Park, and ending at The
Needles in the Sequoia National
Forest.
Packing
I threw all our usual gear in the back of the RAV4, but in
my haste forgot my orange programmable Photon-III microlight. Frak!
First Night Stopover
We began with an overnight at the Madera Valley Inn
(www.maderavalleyinn.com), a
journeyman establishment near the mountains, which allows us an extra day in
the beautiful high country.
Pablo's Plateau
Our first night of astrocamping was a great location in the Sierra
National Forest at approximately
7500'. The site, named for the diligence of its discoverer, is off Beasore
Road near Bass
Lake. It is also hidden deep down
logging roads, leading my 17-year-old son to remark, "How the heck did he
find this spot anyway?!”
Because it was logged recently, the landscape is open for
astronomical viewing, and provides enough cover under which to pitch a
tent for
morning shade. It does not have that spectacular Lord of the Rings feel
provided by old-growth sections of Yosemite
and Sequoia National
Parks.
That night, as I was tired, I spent most of the night
viewing face-on galaxies with my customized Orion Premium Deep Space
Explorer
12.5" (Swayze mirror). I have found that face-on galaxies are more elusive
when dimmed by light pollution.
The air was perfectly dry, the night incredibly dark.
I saw more meteors that night than I ever have before, both due
to the proximity of the Perseids and the fine location, which had no visible
light domes. In fact, I saw a meteor
every time I glanced up from the scope!
But perfect
astronomy nights, where all factors
are in accordance are elusive. So I had a couple of large mosquitoes
pester me,
but it was a small price to pay for such an excellent night!
Almost Stuck
As I had previously received favorable recommendations for
both Green Mountain
(8,602') and Cattle Mountain
(7946'), we headed to them the following morning. Both mountains require
travel
first on improved dirt roads, then on 4WD roads.
I had not noticed the tiny blue lines crossing the road on
the Benchmark Atlas, which denote creek crossings.
Upon reaching the first crossing, I said "No problem!” since
I had crossed many creeks on my recently-deceased Toyota
4Runner. The creek's water was no more than a foot deep, and my RAV4 has
4WD.
But my RAV4 does not have good mud and snow tires.
Several feet into the creek, we began losing traction as
large cobbles dislodged, then smacked into the bottom of the SUV with loud
bangs. We were digging ourselves in deeper!
After discussing the humiliation we'd certainly feel if we
had to be towed from the creek, and the consequential loss of time, we
reluctantly backed out of the creek bed, and kissed off Green and Cattle
Mountains for this trip.
White Bark Vista (33 miles by Jeep Trail)
After our near-inundation caused a day’s schedule advance,
we headed south, dropping then regaining 7000' vertical feet of altitude.
We attempted to climb Musick
Mountain (6807'), only to be
stopped by a locked gate. We eventually found superb astrocamping at
9237' near
the White Bark Vista trailhead by Huntington
Lake.
We hiked up to one of the summits of 10,648' Mt Givens,
climbing the beginning of the Dusy Ershim OHV "road" to Courtright
Reservoir, which is 33 miles distant.
I did not attempt to drive the famous 33 mile-long trail,
which is one of the toughest in the Sierra, with my small RAV4. But my
son and
I did enjoy the solitude and grandeur of the view from the summit of Mt.
Givens.
Back at our campsite that night, we chatted about life (and
girls) while our scopes cooled. The viewing was superb when the monsoonal
clouds parted, despite the Fresno
lights twinkling in the distance. I was happy that the observing was
great in
any direction but southwest, which directly faced the city lights.
The next morning when two National Forest field biologists
appeared, we discussed their fisher hair and footprint trapping program.
My son
and I then continued south to the Sequoia / King’s Canyon area.
"Ursa Minor"
We left the solitude of solo mountain astrocamping joining
the crowds of sightseeing tourists in Sequoia
National Park.
The largest trees on this planet were awesome.
Later that afternoon my son and I left the European tourists
behind to climb the Trail of the Sequoias.
Just as the image of pink, yellow, and black polyester
short-shorts had faded from memory, I heard my son say: "Bear".
"What"?
"Bear."
"What"?
"There's a bear right over there!” he whispered
urgently.
Perhaps 200 feet ahead on the trail was a tawny brown bear,
tearing into a tree stump for insects.
He was close enough to have heard us, and we were upwind of
him, so he smelled us as well, so we stood quietly watching him for awhile.
We had food in our packs, and I was sipping an open energy
drink (darn caffeine addiction!). I suddenly felt very Cro-Magnon when
we both
picked up large tree branches to wield above our heads, in case Mr. Bear
decided to check us out closely.
After several minutes the bear ambled off to go about his
business, as bears naturally should.
Big Meadows
We pitched our tents that night in dispersed camping by Big Meadows,
in the Sequoia National
Forest, just outside the national park
boundaries. I'd be lying if I said that thoughts of the day's encounter with
the bear didn't play upon my mind as I observed alone.
As it turns out those two nights at around 7650' altitude
were among the finest astronomy nights I've experienced.
There was some moisture in the air due to the closeness of
Big Meadow, so I followed my 'dew protocol' of keeping the optical finder
capped when not in use, ensuring its utility throughout the night. My
instruments were my 12.5" Dobsonian and my amazed eyes. The transparency
was excellent, as was the seeing, which provided superb views of a Jovian
shadow and moon egress at 254x.
I observed mostly face-on spirals again that first night,
while my son slept peacefully in his tent, and a great horned owl hooted
in the
distance.
I got a good night's sleep, and then we hiked the next day.
For our second night at Big Meadows, since I had gotten
plenty of sleep, I was well-supplied with the mental energy required for
star
hopping. Although I have no encoders on my telescope, I've found that I can
observe a good number of objects with slow and steady diligence.
I observed 4 of the companions of NGC 7331 for the first
time: NGC's 7335, 7337, 7340, and 7775.
The Veil Loop was superb unfiltered at 109x.
NGC 7538 was a bright comet-like nebula around 2 stars.
V Aql was a bright, lovely red-orange, and 15 Aql was a
beautiful yellow pair.
M33 was a very difficult naked eye object for my astigmatic
eyes, but I eventually spotted it.
Tree frogs chirped in the nearby meadow, punctuated once by
the howl of a coyote pack.
Other objects I had never seen before, but saw that night,
include:
NGC
7380 - cluster with nebulosity NGC
925 - beautiful edge-on galaxy NGC
1491 - dim oval nebula under dim star. NGC
6605 - diffuse like a small shuttlecock, on 2 stars IC 342
- Star-hopping to an IC galaxy (albeit a bright one at magnitude
9.2) in
Camelopardalis was easy from this dark site. How pleasant to have
superb skies
to my north!
I perturbed a large bat when I moved or used my red
flashlight. He would start chirping, as if to admonish me to go to bed!
Luckily
there were no ursine or feline visitors…
I saved the best object of the night, and of this trip, for
last. At the zenith, the galaxy M31 looked like bright white paint
crossed with
two ink black dust lanes. I thought I saw hints of a third dust lane, but it
was not clearly delineated, but looked like diffuse dusty threads. I
saw the most detail ever in M31's smaller
companion M32 which I initially mistook for M110!
Packing up that night at 4:30am,
I did not want to return to the boredom of everyday life. I recall thinking,
"I could do this every night...” I also had that elusive feeling, which
I've only experienced a few times, embodied by the word freedom.
---
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Received on Wed Aug 20 11:19:44 2008
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