Days 141- 143
Friday July 18th- Sunday July 20th
Hiked up into Ojai to catch up on a ton of filming. I managed to take a few stills, though for the most part the camera stayed in my bag and after a few days I totally forgot about it. It has been quite buggy in the high desert these last few weeks so I brought along the tent just to be safe. Honestly after just over five months of this little experiment this is only the 2nd time I have had to use a tent. (The first time was a few weeks ago up at Pine Mtn.) C'et le vie, c'est California. The weather is almost always manageable, even the coldest of nights never get below the 20's. So far I have only been caught out in the rain once and with any luck don't have to worry about any more rain until November-ish. There hasn't been any real need to set up a tent. Logistically sleeping on the ground as opposed to tenting it is wiser as well.
Most of the time I am camping out illegally. I try to pull into a spot around 11 or 12 at night and am out in the morning between 6 and 7am. I am usually only at any particular spot for a few hours, 6 or 7 at the most to reduce the chances of getting busted or harassed. Spending ten or fifteen minutes setting up a tent at night in the dark and then breaking it down in the morning is just a hassle. Secondly a tent is much more conspicuous. When someone sees a tent off the side of the road it is quite obvious what is going on. And when what is going on is slightly illegal, it is best to avoid attracting attention. When I am out hiking I like to travel light, the 5 pounds a tent takes up can be better used with water, camera gear and food (and by food I mean beer). So for the most part I have just been sleeping under the stars and foregoing the hassle of lugging a tent around everywhere.
I changed this up this weekend. I decided to set up a little base camp in the Sespe, something to come back to each night. A place to call home for a few nights. With the warm weather sweeping through the summer the creepy crawling bugskis are out and about. The black flies and horse flies are out in droves, forming annoying black clouds shimmering about head high over the trail. Relaxing while being eaten alive in a pristine setting is an impossibility. So out came the tent and chillaxing commenced. All in all not a bad spot even with the threat of mountains of water pouring down on my head in the middle of the night!
Hiked up into Ojai to catch up on a ton of filming. I managed to take a few stills, though for the most part the camera stayed in my bag and after a few days I totally forgot about it. It has been quite buggy in the high desert these last few weeks so I brought along the tent just to be safe. Honestly after just over five months of this little experiment this is only the 2nd time I have had to use a tent. (The first time was a few weeks ago up at Pine Mtn.) C'et le vie, c'est California. The weather is almost always manageable, even the coldest of nights never get below the 20's. So far I have only been caught out in the rain once and with any luck don't have to worry about any more rain until November-ish. There hasn't been any real need to set up a tent. Logistically sleeping on the ground as opposed to tenting it is wiser as well.
Most of the time I am camping out illegally. I try to pull into a spot around 11 or 12 at night and am out in the morning between 6 and 7am. I am usually only at any particular spot for a few hours, 6 or 7 at the most to reduce the chances of getting busted or harassed. Spending ten or fifteen minutes setting up a tent at night in the dark and then breaking it down in the morning is just a hassle. Secondly a tent is much more conspicuous. When someone sees a tent off the side of the road it is quite obvious what is going on. And when what is going on is slightly illegal, it is best to avoid attracting attention. When I am out hiking I like to travel light, the 5 pounds a tent takes up can be better used with water, camera gear and food (and by food I mean beer). So for the most part I have just been sleeping under the stars and foregoing the hassle of lugging a tent around everywhere.
I changed this up this weekend. I decided to set up a little base camp in the Sespe, something to come back to each night. A place to call home for a few nights. With the warm weather sweeping through the summer the creepy crawling bugskis are out and about. The black flies and horse flies are out in droves, forming annoying black clouds shimmering about head high over the trail. Relaxing while being eaten alive in a pristine setting is an impossibility. So out came the tent and chillaxing commenced. All in all not a bad spot even with the threat of mountains of water pouring down on my head in the middle of the night!
Waking up still in one piece on the sand bar, thankfully no flash floods during the night.Thunderstorms had been predicted for the higher elevations and flash floods for lower elevations. I was a little suspect of setting up everything on this sandbar, but come on you can't beat it in terms of scenic properties. So I tossed caution into the wind and went with it. Fortunately we were fine for the duration. (One of two frames I shot over the weekend.)
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