I decide to go to Antelope Valley California’s Poppy Reserve. Since Poppy Flower is state flower:
California Poppy Reserve Website
Antelope Poppy Reserve
Mojave Desert Trip April 21-22, 2007
It’s a long time since I been anywhere, since it’s great weather and nice time, I decide, so it’s great time to take a look. I was looking around for few days, which everybody was busy, so I decide to go myself. It’s also perfect because I haven’t try to use the camper shell as camper, and I would like to see is it working as advertised.
Drove 700 miles, brought $4.29 per gallon gas at Fenner (average gas price in LA is 3.29) and 2 bag of beef jerky with 1 case of Starbucks.
April 21th 2007 Friday
I took off from home around 1 because I am just feeling lazy, also there isn’t too much on my agenda this time, it’s mostly checking out the Kelso depot & testing out the camper shell. I already have some detail on Mojave last time, but just in case if there are only pictures without the title, here are the detail locations:
Hole in the wall Camp Ground morning
Hole in the wall trail to the hole in the wall exhibits
A gazebo at Amboy Crater
Pleasant Valley BackCountry Road
On the way to Queen mine
Go home.
It was wonderful, but just simple trip by myself, so here are just pictures.
Links to other useful sites:
Mojave Trip 2006
It is a crazy year. I got my new truck without going anywhere because of my job, and I just waiting to take it out and play with it. So my friend and I decide to go somewhere fun to do some stuff for a couple of days. we planed and planed and planed without getting anywhere fast, so I just decide to go to the place I used to go just for the heck.
Okay, here is the the route that I decided, which is not too bad for a two days of distance. I took 5 North (from Orange County), 57 North, 10 East, 15 North, and then 40 East. Take camp at Granite Mountain off at Kelbaker road. Next day take off camp from Granite Mountain to Kelso Dune, get back at Kelbaker road, 40 East to Essex road to Hole in the Wall and lastly to Mitchell Cavern before going back.
12/18/2005 Sunday 2:00 P.M. Sunny
Pickup my friend at the home, gas up the Chenster Mobile, ready go to party, get on the freeway, and guess what? Sunday light traffic all the way. 5 North has light traffic, so does 57 North, which I pointed to my friend where is the Angel’s stadium, Ducks stadium, CSUF, and Nixon Museum. 10 East is better, a least I can get maximum speed. Hint: never ever speeding while you are traveling long distance, you will feel suck for entire trip.
On 15 North to get to Bakersfield which it has world’s largest thermometer to gas the Chenster Mobile up. Then my friend decide to get some food supply, which we went to a market to get some food, then go 40 East. It is freaking dark out there, so I started to be careful.
Hint to myself: get some spot light for the tundra.
I got off at Kelbaker, get into Mojave preserve, which according to my notes, I suppose to see a power company wood building so I can turn off to campsite, and it’s so dark, that I don’t see the for long time. Mmmm, am I lost?
Hint to myself #2: get better GPS.
After about 6 miles on the Kelbaker, I saw the power company fence, which I presume they upgraded their structure. so I turned off the road, into the off-road mode (4WD – On), and start to drive carefully to the campsite, it’s so dark out there that my headlight doesn’t do anything, so I take out my $24.99 Costco spotlight to shine on everywhere to get location, then I drive a little more to turn left and find one of the campsite.
We unpack the truck, started the camp fire, and ready for the chew. I wasn’t planning for hot meal because I really hate to clean up, but my friend prefer something hot, so we setup the stuff and got something warm. there are a lot of desert wind, and when it stop for few seconds, everything became very quite.
He wa setting up the cooking stuff, while I was chapping some wood, setting up sleeping area, and taking some pictures. If you notice that he was cooking on the top of the tailgate, which it might be dangerous to the truck, but I got the LineX coating, and I want to see if cooking on it will damage the coating. It doesn’t and everything clean up super fast. so next time I do know I do can cook on the tailgate, and won’t be that much hassle to clean up.
The camp fire is on, but it doesn’t feel so warm due to strong wind, but for the camping stuff, I do have nice fire. If you notice there are three chairs, but only have two people present because I got to different chair, so I want to test it out.
After dinner, we both got tired, but we just want to lay back and relax. During that time there is a desert rat running around, so I close everything before I got to sleep. There aren’t too much to see in the sky because of the clouds, but it’s full moon out there, it’s bight enough so I don’t have to use the lamp. I sleep in the the truck bed and my friend decide to sleep in the cab. It very windy throughout the night but I still got great sleep, not my friend, because cab is too short for him.
2/18/2005 Sunday 12:00 P.M. Sunny
It was sunny when I get up. so before my friend wake up, I went to the bathroom, walk around and took some pictures of surrounding area.
That’s the reason people called it granite mountain, and it’s pretty huge. I just love the morning when sun just started shine on everything, because it’ s beautiful when the mountain reflect different color before the sun completely come up.
Nice little red, before a little bright red, and shine bright. Too bad my camera can’t capture the scene because my photo skill sucks. But I hope I can get better in the future.
My friend finally wake up, so he started Breakfast, & I clean up the track bed ready for move out.
Oh, that’s my friend, I, and the truck.
The Undercover Lid sort restrict amount of items that I can put in the truck bed, so I had to put all the food items and water in side the access cab. So I might need additional space to able to utilize the full Truck Bed.
Continue on is the Kelso Dune, it’s just right up on the road, so we go there and testing out the suspension of the truck. The Kelso dune is great, it’s sand, blowing from different locations, and Nature build sand dune.
There are the explanations, which it explain why things formed.
I am too lazy to get on the dune, been there, sitting on the dune, and look at the sunset, plus its cloudy day, so I just look from afar this time.
Desert Animals
Then I hit back to the 40East to get to the Hole in the wall.
Too Bad The shed is closed, it only open on weekend, and We Arrive on Monday
In the parking lot, you can see how far and how many years been through here. Just in case you don’t know, each sedimentary layer are several years in the settlement of soil, and that’s thousands of years.
Here are some signs explain how the area are formed:
We Decide to take a drive and walk on the Hole in the Wall, because while we wait, there are Boy Scott coming and ranger will open up the Mitchell Cavern (INFO) at 1:30 PM.
The Drive to Hole in the Wall:
The Hole in the Wall:
Thare are Holes in the wall… caused by the wind and small particles start to make the holes bigger in the wall during the area under the water, and many years later the holes are showed after water recessed.
Mitchell Cavern:
Arrived 2 hours early because I drove too fast so I park on the parking lot of the Mitchell Cavern to take a break against the advise of my friend.
Mitchall Cavern info: INFO
The tour is great, there are natural formations only few in the world, that took thousands of years to grow. Someone destroyed 3000 years worth of history by breaking off the tube. Going down more, feel more moist, and smells funny. After the cavern, we take 5 hours drive home, and had excellent time.
Please check Mitchell Cavern Info for detail: INFO
If you are interested in Travel or want to know more about Desert or Mojave, please check http://www.desertusa.com .
Dixon Lake
My co-worker and I decide to go somewhere near to camping around the city, since it’s short 2 day trip, we went there, cooked, eat and left, but it’s pretty good to camp with co-workers. Anyway here it the pictures.
SONY HDR-CX7 Open box
Few years ago, I want to get a camcorder for recording some off-road and night time desert driving. I was hopping for some setup that allows me to do it, but before that I got to get a camcorder. So I look at few manufactures to see any that would be good for my usage, also should last for a long time. I search some info here and there and find there are some good some bad about every camcorder.
Options are very important to me, this is my first digital camcorder, and I would need to use it for long time. Since I would like to check out some stuff at night time and once a while I took cool picture at night, so a good night vision or some kind will be good. Of course some kind of anti-shack will be needed since there will be off-road recording.
The main criterias are functionality, media, recording time, and battery life. first of all, there are different manufacture that will do the same as the others on function, so that’s pretty easy to find. Then the media options are Mini DV, HHD, DVD, or 8MM. recording time and battery life are also hard to decide. After hours of search I finally found it Sony HDR-CX7. Here it is Sony’s HDR-CX7 specifics. Following are from Sony Website back in the day, it’s old, but I just want to bring it back up for review.
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For the first time ever, record high definition directly to Memory Stick PRO Duo® media. The compact size of this camcorder combined with its miniscule recording media make the HDR-CX7 high definition Handycam® camcorder a joy to use. Ultra-lightweight and easy to carry, it features a professional-quality Carl Zeiss® Vario-Sonnar® T* lens and Super SteadyShot® optical image stabilization for stunningly sharp high definition video. Plus, its large, 2.7″ wide Clear Photo LCD Plus® display featuring touch panel SwivelScreen® technology makes it simple to view what you’re recording at almost any angle.
With the PLAYSTATION®3 system software update scheduled in summer 2007, playback of contents recorded with the AVCHD Memory Stick Camcorder will be available on PLAYSTATION®3.
3.2 Megapixel (Gross) ClearVid™ CMOS Sensor
1/2.9″ ClearVid CMOS Sensor provides stunning detail and clarity with exceptional video (1080 lines of resolution – HD Mode or 530 lines of horizontal resolution – SD Mode) and still image performance (6.1 Megapixel). Unlike traditional CCD Imagers, CMOS Sensors require less power, providing better battery performance.
Switchable HD/SD Format Recording
The HDR-CX7 is capable of recording and playing back both High Definition (HD) and Standard Definition (SD) video recorded on Memory Stick PRO Duo™ media (sold separately)
x.v.Color™ Technology
x.v.Color technology can capture or display nearly twice as many (1.8x) viewable colors than currently possible. This provides a more accurate and vivid color range, for a more natural, lifelike overall experience.
10X Optical / 20X Digital Zoom
The optical zoom helps to bring the action close up from far away. In addition, the Digital Zoom Interpolation means that extreme digital zooming is clearer, with less distortion than previous types of digital zoom.
Professional Quality Carl Zeiss® Vario-Sonnar® T Lens
Carl Zeiss lenses have an advanced optical multi-layer coating that offers less glare and flare with increased contrast. This results in vivid image brilliance, true-to-life color saturation and perfect renditions of subtle tones. The additional T coating on the lens further reduces unwanted glare and flare.
2.7″ Wide4 (16:9) Hybrid Touch Panel Clear Photo LCD Plus™ Display (211K Pixels)
The 2.7″ Wide (16:9) LCD screen provides exceptional viewing clarity with improved resoltuion. The 211K pixel LCD screen rotates up to 270 degrees for multiple viewing angles providing sharp, detailed images for monitoring or playback, and the widescreen format makes shooting in 16:9 mode and composing shots even easier.
Smooth Slow Record
By increasing the record rate from 60 fields per second (fps) to 240 fps for 3 seconds allowing you to capture 3 seconds of fast motion and play the video back in 12 seconds. This is great for analyzing a golf swing or a viewing a bird in flight. In addition, record an audio track to narrate what is being seen in the video.
Memory Stick PRO Duo™ Media Slot
Capture still images up to 2848×2136 resolution, directly onto Memory Stick PRO Duo™ Media (sold separately) for easy trasfer to PCs for emailing, printing or shairing with other compatible Memory Stick PRO Duo™ devices (sold separately).
Dual Record
While recording video in High Definition you have the ability to capture a 4.6 Megapixel still image directly to Memory Stick PRO Duo™ media.
Super SteadyShot® Optical Image Stabilization System
An advanced form of Sony’s Super NightShot Infrared system from Sony that controls an even higher range of shake and vibration frequencies. This optical stabilization system achieves an even higher level of smoothness without degradation of vide like some digital stabilization systems.
Tele Macro Function
Useful for shooting close up shots, but without having the camcorder casting a shadow on the subject. Images shot in the Tele Macro Mode will have the subject properly focused with the background unfocussed so that the subject stands out.
Active Interface Shoe
Provides a location directly on the camcorder on which to add optional accessories while providing power and two-way communication to those accessories.
Built-in Intelligent Flash
For added clarity and detail when taking pictures in low-light situations, the built-in flash improves pictures and reduces shadows.
Super NightShot® Infrared System
With Sony’s NightShot® infrared system, capture video in total darkeness (0 lux) up to 10 feet away. Super NightShot mode automatically adjusts the shutter speed to increase picture brightness and clarity. Color Slow Shutter mode allows you to record in low light situations with full color detail by slowing down the shutter speed.
Scene Selection Modes
Scene Selection modes make recording easy even when filming in challenging situations. Choose from Beach, Candle, Fireworks, Landscape, Portrait, Sports Lesson, Spotlight, and Sunrise & Sunset.
Picture Effects
Get creative when recording or playing back your videos with Sony’s Picture Effect Modes. Effects available in Camera mode: Monotone, Pastel and Sepia. Effects available in Playback mode: Monotone, Pastel and Sepia.
Fader Effects-2
Enhance your personal videos by adding professional looking fader effects. Choose from Black and White.
InfoLITHIUM® Battery with AccuPower™ Meter System1
Charge the battery at anytime because unlike NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) batteries, Sony’s rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries are not subjected to a life shortening “Memory Effect”. Sony’s exclusive AccuPower™ meter displays the battery time remaining in minutes, in either the viewfinder or on the LCD screen.
Stamina® Battery Power Management System
Using the optional NP-FH100 InfoLITHIUM® Battery, the HDR-CX7 can continuously record up to 5 hours (LCD) on a single full charge, providing extra long battery life.
On Screen Zoom and Record Buttons
For additional control of the camcorder, the HDR-UX7 features Zoom and Record buttons on the frame of the LCD screen. This allows the user more flexibility when holding the camcorder, especially in overhead or low angle shots.
Easy Handycamui button
Using a camcorder can be intimidating for some people, so with a press of the Easy Handycam Button, most of the advanced features of the camcorder are “locked out” leaving only the buttons essential for recording operational.
One Touch Wide Angle Shooting
Easily switch between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios for shooting, with just the touch of a button.
Manual Focus
Allows the user to manually adjust the focus of the camcorder using the touch panel. Manual focusing also allows the user to control the focus in difficult situations where either the environment or the subject does not allow the camcorder’s auto focus to perform optimally, such as when shooting through a window or in a crowded environment.
Multi-Language Menu
Change the menu display from English to English (Simplified), Canadian French, Latin American Spanish or Brazilian Portuguese.
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Well, the most important functions for me are night shot, super steady shoot, and flash media function. Anyway, here are the pictures
