Instead of writing I’ll just let the desert speak for itself…
Category Archives: General Talk
Update on Off-Trail Hiking in Anza Borrego State Park
Back in June I wrote a post, Please Help Save Off-Trail Hiking in Anza Borrego.
In October I posted an update, “We the People…” made a difference at Anza Borrego, where I stated,
The State indicated that the management of Anza Borrego State Park will continue to administer the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Cultural Preserve Management Plan of 2012, which is a huge victory.
The biggest challenge for “We the People” is the State is not transparent and it is often difficult to find out about the stuff they pull such as the proposed ban of off-trail hiking in Anza Borrego.
I am always dubious of statements made by politicians and government hacks, and have been looking for news to confirm my last post. What these politicians and hacks say they will do often does not happen. Today I received good news via an email from the California Department of Parks and Recreation:
Continue reading Update on Off-Trail Hiking in Anza Borrego State Park
Christmas Gift Ideas For Your Favorite Backpacker
It’s that time of year when bloggers are posting articles about gift ideas for the special backpacker in your life — you know, backpacking gear. This is a dumb idea and you should ignore these suggestions. The same goes if that special person in your life is a camper.
Continue reading Christmas Gift Ideas For Your Favorite Backpacker
Backyard Wildlife and an Epic Bird Invasion
I am going to share an incredible story with you. Any story should start at the beginning, so let’s start there.
It is probably a good guess that most people who live in urban and suburban areas don’t pay much attention to wildlife in their neighborhoods, which are mostly birds. After living in my house for a few years, I was one of those people. But it wasn’t always that way. When I first bought my house in 1979 there were few neighboring houses. Our tract has nearly 2,000 lots, the smallest being around 10,000 square feet. In 1979 more than 80% of the lots were vacant. A few minutes’ walk from the house is open desert; thousands of vacant acres. During those first few years there was plenty of wildlife to observe – birds (especially road runners and mourning doves), jack rabbits, a plethora of lizards, a variety of snakes to include rattlesnakes, and of course coyotes to control wildlife population. Then the building boom during the 80’s, 90’s and thru the present left less than 5% of vacant lots. House and fences replaced most of the wildlife. There wasn’t as much to watch and I was busy with work, backpacking, and camping. Now that I am retired, there is more time to watch what wildlife remains.
Continue reading Backyard Wildlife and an Epic Bird Invasion
Money, Andrew Skurka, and Me
My Website Now Has Ads
Just got back from an extended camping trip in the desert in Nevada and my website had a bunch of “ping-backs” from this post by Andrew Skurka.
A ping-back is when another website refers a reader via a link. Andrew was very complementary about this website and Dave Chenault’s Bedrock and Paradox as blogs with some quality content, although not a lot of content, and both sites are not monetized; that is they do not generate income.
I want to clarify this and state again as I did on October 16th, that popupbackpacker.com now incorporates affiliate marketing, which generates a small amount of income for me.
popupbackpacker.com now has ads :(
Yeah, I know…
Here’s the deal. I built this site over 4 years ago mainly to let my kids and a few friends know what I was up to. This eliminated the need for phone calls, emails, and texts. Over time the site grew. Part is my fault because on the two Internet forums I visit I would sometimes just link to a post here instead of typing in a lengthy response. However, 80% of the traffic comes from search engines like Google. To date there have been over 1.5 million page views.
Now I am retired and on a fixed income. I have enough to live well enough, but this site costs money to maintain. Yearly fees for a domain, service hosting fees, and some licenses to make the software work properly especially on mobile devices. I am hoping I can generate around $20 per month to cover the operation of the site.
But I want to be completely honest about the ads and tell you how they work.
VIAIR 88P Portable Air Compressor
It’s surprising that most people don’t carry a portable air compressor in their vehicle. Especially these days when gas stations no longer have free air and the pay for air stations that replaced it usually don’t work. I always carry a portable air compressor due to Murphy’s Law: when some can go wrong, it will. Especially when you are towing a trailer miles and miles away from cell phone coverage.
In the past the air compressors that lie in wait in the back of the SUV have been inexpensive mostly plastic affairs. They work for a year or two then die. When our 2006 Niagara tent trailer was vandalized and totaled by our insurance company, I had placed the air compressor in the trailer during the tire debacle. It was stolen too.
When we bought our new Milan in 2013, I decided to get the highest quality air compressor for the most reasonable price, which means Amazon is my best friend. When towing the trailer there would now be 8 tires to maintain. The VIAIR 88P had nearly 1,000 reviews on Amazon with a score of 4.6 out 5. It has been used for three years and this June I really put it through a hard test. It passed with flying colors.
Camping in 114F Temps and No Air Conditioner (sort of)
I have camped in the desert during summer without air conditioning many times. In our local deserts, temperatures do occasionally hit 120F and once in a while even higher. See this post where I re-packed our wheel bearings in 123F temperature. The rare occasions we patronize a campground with electrical hook-ups is usually when we take our inflatable boat to the lower Colorado River in the middle of summer.
Old Age is Creeping In.
Staying cool in the hot desert during the day is simple: just stay in the shade. But as I get older, it is getting more difficult for me to sleep when the nighttime temperatures are 90F or higher. This June we spent a couple of weeks at Lake Mead and most days were above 110F and a couple hit 114F. Anticipating this, and not willing to stay in a parking lot campground with hook-ups away from the lake and in civilization, I came up with an idea – a portable evaporative cooler (aka swamp cooler).
Now, I could buy a generator, which is expensive and more importantly noisy. So that was out based on principle and philosophy. Being familiar with evaporative coolers, I first needed to do some simple math.
Continue reading Camping in 114F Temps and No Air Conditioner (sort of)
“We the People…” made a difference at Anza Borrego
Back in June I asked folks in this post to Please Help Save Off-Trail Hiking in Anza Borrego. It just dawned on my that an update to the situation was never communicated here.
Continue reading “We the People…” made a difference at Anza Borrego
Energy Upgrade Stats: Month 12 (1 year of tracking)
In January I wrote that home solar might be lipstick on a pig, and it makes more sense to make a home energy efficient before even considering solar. I also promised to post monthly updates on our utility bills.
Well, we now have 12 complete months of energy usage under our belts after making our energy upgrade improvements. We’ll take a look at:
- Our original goals for improvement
- The results vs. the goals
- Some potential future savings
- A great tool for measuring kWh usage of a single device
Continue reading Energy Upgrade Stats: Month 12 (1 year of tracking)