No social gatherings amid the pandemic of course, so a rather limited Halloween this year – just in costume to go pick up some take-out food, play a board game, watch a movie:
Author: Chris
Great Horned Owl Fight
I heard a crash and thud this evening like falling furniture but saw the cats weren’t the cause. After a minute or so there was another thump and thud and the sound of an owl hooting. So I grabbed my camera and went upstairs to the patio outside the bedroom, expecting maybe to see an owl going at the plastic owl on the patio. (The fake owl is there to keep away small birds that would otherwise fall prey to Pan as he lies in wait every morning.)
However, what I found was two great horned owls in a vicious brawl on the patio floor. Pan and I watched from behind the door as they kept at it for some ten minutes or so, despite me turning on the porch light, making noise and cracking open the door to get a better look. After nearly ten minutes of this, and not wanting to see how far this would eventually go, I pounded on the glass to drive them off. Now I’m imagining that one of these owls was a newcomer trying to encroach on my neighborhood owl’s plastic “mate” on my porch.
It’s not unusual for us to see or hear owls around the house here in Santa Cruz, including perched on my bedroom roof but I’ve never captured decent video or photos of them. (Unfortunately, I didn’t notice my auto-focus was disabled on my camera until five minutes into filming this brawl.)
Before posting, I looked online to see if this vicious-looking fight is something great horned owls commonly do. I found that they are territorial but confrontations are usually in the form of sounding vocalizations and spreading wings before escalating further. However, it sounds like they are known to sometimes go so far as to kill each other in territorial conflicts. Would love to read comments on this encounter from any well-informed folk.
Transit Van Conversion Complete
It’s not only more-or-less complete, but it’s in the driveway! I’m tweaking things and making some additions but after about 15 months from initial contact to finish we finally got to pick it up from Van Haus Conversions in Vancouver, WA in mid-September, amidst the smoke and fires across the western states.
This previously empty Ford Transit cargo van is now officially a nimble little 4×4 adventure campervan, (or disaster bug-out van, or zombie apocalypse survival unit) or… The New Traveling Cat Adventure Vehicle. It’s quite the change from the original Traveling Cat Adventure Vehicle which was a 25-ft Sprinter-based Class B RV from Leisure Travel Vans. We had a good time with the LTV Unity, but our two biggest wishes were to 1) have internal storage for our mountain bikes and 2) downsize to a smaller, more off-road-capable camper van, which would also allow us to park more easily in busy metro areas. We did take the Unity out on dirt roads a lot but we were often of course constrained on just how rugged the road could actually get with a vehicle of that size and length. Anyway, here it is – wishes made true — and it looks great:
The new campervan is built on a 2019 Ford Transit cargo van (Long Body, High Roof, 148″ wheelbase, non-extended, 19.5 feet long).
QuadVan in Portland, Oregon did the conversion to support 4×4 as well as upgrade the suspension, add a locking differential and protective skid plates, raise the low-hanging rear shock mounts and the overall body and add all terrain tires.
Van Haus Conversions did the build out to a campervan. (Here’s some pictures of the work in progress.) The design features a queen-sized raised-platform bed that creates a large “garage” space for bikes and gear underneath. The living area centers around the galley with a sink, refrigerator, double burner induction cooktop and a fold-out swiveling table between the two front swiveling seats and a small bench seat that hides a dry composting toilet.
I’ve set up a separate page (Transit Van Conversion – Tips and Details) where I’m documenting various build details and decisions, where to buy stuff and all the additional customizations I make along the way, like I did for our LTV Unity.
Click through for a full gallery of the completed build – I’ll continue to update the gallery as I make changes to the van:
Mmmm… Acorns
They’re so desperate for acorns, it doesn’t even matter if I’m in the open garage using noisy power tools:
Fire and Smoke and Evacuations
Leaving heavy smoke in Tahoe on Wednesday 8/19
We headed back home on Wednesday, leaving the heavy smoke in Tahoe from the Loyalton Fire, through the smoke filling the Central Valley to reach the heavy smoke in the Santa Cruz Mountains from the CZU Lightning Complex fires.
Looking south and west from the house (Wednesday evening, 8/19)
Ash and charred leaves deposited around the house (8/19)
As we came through Vacaville and Fairfield on I-80, we slipped through just before the LNU Lightning Complex fire jumped I-80 and even saw flames from the interstate:
LNU Lightning Complex Fire about to cross I-80 near Fairfield on 8/19
On Wednesday and Thursday we prepped for evacuation, loading up the cars with necessities and some irreplaceables, prepping the house as per wildfire pre-evacuation recommendations (moving furniture away from windows, etc). Sure enough, the mandatory evacuation zones were expanded Thursday evening to include everything west of highway 17 (including downtown Scotts Valley). We’re a little south of Scotts Valley and just east of highway 17, but we decided to go ahead and evacuate Thursday night – heading back to Tahoe.
The evacuation areas are expected to remain in effect for a few weeks. Darlene will be renting a place near Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto as she’ll be returning to work next week.
So far, it looks like they’ve been able to mostly hold the fire west of highway 9 and north of Santa Cruz and Davenport. Unfortunately, we’ve got the potential for more fire starts due to more dry thunderstorms expected around the Bay Area from Sunday (8/22) through Tuesday morning (8/24).
Here’s a combined, interactive map showing both the perimeter of the ZCU Lightning Complex fire and the evacuation area. 63,000 acres burned, 77,000 people evacuated – snapshot as of Saturday, 8/22:
Here’s a really nice mapping tool (CalTopo) that can overlay various satellite data (like VIIRS) on a map source of your choice and plot additional weather data like wind patterns. You can even zoom in to see individual temperature sample numbers showing where the fire is hotter and cooler or no longer present:
For more info on the Santa Cruz Mountains fires, here’s some resources:
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Update (Thursday, 8/27): 81,000 acres affected as of this morning but they’re continuing to get good control of the fires across the Santa Cruz Mountains. As the mandatory evac area was never extended to where we are (just east of highway 17), Darlene headed back on Monday evening since she had to go into work at the hospital on Tuesday and I headed back with the cats on Wednesday evening as things seemed to be continuing to go well. As of 3 pm Thursday, they’ve lifted the evacuation order on Scotts Valley and surrounding areas.
Update (late September): As the number and size of the wildfires continue to grow across the western states, we get a taste of our potential future norm, including days that look like night and seemingly right out of “Blade Runner 2049”:
And when we ventured up through Oregon to pick up the Transit campervan in mid-September, we encountered some of the worst air yet: PM2.5 counts of well over 500 outside the rental car.
We brought along our not-so-portable home air filter to use in the car, which was quite helpful on the long drive up and overnight car camping in this nasty environment. I’ve since bought a more compact unit for the campervan given the very likely future event of being caught out in future multiple-states-wide wildfire smoke.
Just A Smidge of the Pacific Crest Trail
Darlene and I enjoyed a little three-day backpacking excursion along a tiny bit of the Pacific Crest Trail last week. We started at the Donner Pass trailhead and headed south for 10 miles towards Granite Chief (near Squaw Valley). Most of this section is walking a ridge line with wide open views in every direction. It was pretty windy the whole day but that seemed to keep away any threat of afternoon thunderstorms – which would be a bigger concern along this long, very exposed crest.
It’s actually a nice, gentle climb most of the way, climbing up from Donner Pass through the Sugarbowl ski area, past Anderson Peak and Tinker Knob before dropping down to the first potential opportunities for water between Tinker Knob and Granite Chief after about 9 miles. As it turns out, both Darlene and I had issues along the way that led to us moving super slow (me favoring a twinging knee and her with leg and hip troubles). As for water, the most reliable looking source turned out to be dry. With a bit of scouting, I found a tiny little spring hidden in the creek bed not too far from the trail crossing and so we camped nearby. (For any one looking for info on “California Section K” of the PCT, it was the stream coming off teeny Mountain Meadow Lake near the PCT intersection with Painted Rock Trail. The creek just south of Tinker Knob was still flowing though.)
Feeling much more sore and stiff than usual, neither of us felt up for doing much of a day hike or any peak climbing the next day so we just spent it hanging out and recuperating. Our return hike on the third day to Donner Pass went easily though (aside from a minor slip and fall and bloodied knee) and we enjoyed a gorgeous day with little wind on the ridge.
Click through for the full gallery:
Big Bear Visit
We had a big bear visit the Tahoe house a few days ago – for size comparison, that bear box holds two full size trash cans and then some:
Update: And another couple of visitors in September:
Some More Tahoe Trail Riding
While up at the Tahoe house over the past two weeks, we got in some nice rides – and avoided any crowds. We hit up the usual Sawtooth Ridge loop (just south of Truckee), found some fun trails accessible from the house (KB Trail and Rise and Shine, etc. just above Kings Beach) and we finally, finally, made it all the way out and back from Stampede Reservoir (some 24 miles) on the Emigrant Trail starting from the amusingly named Donner Party Picnic Area (seriously?). I was totally spent, sore and dehydrated, but no need for cannibalism. Darlene on the other hand was all smiles – as she was riding her new pedal assist e-mtn bike!
Click through for the full gallery:
