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Notes from the Road - Travels in City and Country About Notes from the Road
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Travels in City and Country
 


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The Mars Research Crew in Owens Valley
Sierra Range | June
"...We passed the Cal-Tech radio observatory, and into Mono County. "We're everywhere," Antonin said. This was the rugged land of the Eastern Sierra's, America's wildest mountain ranges; gnarled pines gripping for life, year-round snowcaps and countless jagged spires..."
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Packing for John Muir's Wilderness
Sierra Range | May
"...The crucial heavy-soled backpacking boots are only crucial when your pack is so weighty. Remove the weight, and you remove the need for boots, a heavy cumberbund, a heavy back support cushion. He said that instead of a heavy water bottle, why not just take a much lighter soda bottle?"
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Living Beneath El Capitan
Sierra Range | June
"...He laughs at this. "Every time I go home to Fresno, the city life drives me nuts. I just hate it, and every time I come back from Oakhurst, you come through the tunnel and you get your first views of El Cap and Half Dome. There are times I come around that bend and there is weather and light I've never seen before. The lighting in the Valley, it's just...different. How green everything is. I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world..."
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Tuolomne Meadows
Sierra Range | June
"...Six months later I found the article in Life Magazine from 1946, and the editor of The Skeptical Inquirer had written me back. "We have every reason to believe this is a true story," he wrote. I had lost my five dollars; but in the end my skepticism was justified, and the process of realization was divine: all chickens primary motor functions operate from the command center of the neck. By some amazing combination of events, this chicken didn't die from the trauma of having his head lobbed off..."
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King's Canyon: Quiet Corner of the Sierra Nevadas
Micro Update | Sierra Range | July
"...When the waitress asks him if he wants fried rice or white rice, he says, "Is the rice cooked?" The waitress, a diminutive and smiley Thai says, "Well, you can choose either white rice or fried."...
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Sequoia National Park
Micro update | Sierra Range | June
"...Sequoia holds the longest stretch of peaks in North America. It also holds the tallest in the Contiguous United States; Mount Whitney. But Mount Whitney is a several day's hike from here. By car, it is only accessible via the 395, which is nowhere near where we are now. We are walking along a trail near the giant General Sherman tree. It is dark, foggy and snowing. "
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text, photographs, illustrations and web design ©2008 Erik Gauger
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