Black Mountain

This morning, I woke up very early (before the sun came up!) to meet up with a group to hike Black Mountain.

Outside the front door

With Pam and Kevin! :)

Lookout tower at the top of Black Mountain, used for spotting smoke and fire in the surrounding wilderness.

This little guy comes up to the lookout tower with his owner, a U.S. Forest Service Volunteer Fire Lookout, when he's voluteering!

With Chris! :)

This is an Osborne, used by fire lookouts to determine the directional bearing of smoke in order to alert fire crews to wildfires. This technology has been in use since 1915 and is composed of a topographic map of the area surrounding the lookout tower, with the lookout tower at the center of the map. The fire lookout moves the sights until he/she can look through the nearer sight and view the crosshairs in the further sight aligned with the smoke or fire. The location is noted and fire crews are alerted. The Osborne is also used to observe approximate locations of lightning strikes, which are then passed over by air crews who check for smoke or fire emanating from the lightning strike. 

These are some dates and notations written on the Osborne at Black Mountain.

Weird.

Many of the folks in our group. And Chris's backpack.

Heading down

In the end, we had hiked a little over 8 miles and gained around 2,800ft of elevation

After the hike, Chris and I drove through an area that had been hit pretty hard by wildfires only a few weeks earlier.

Remnants of trees and limbs cut down by fire crews attempting to control the blaze that came through here.

You can see the green area down there, beyond all the burned up stuff, that escaped the fire.

We drove to Morongo Casino and ate at the buffet there. I wanted to play roulette but they only had video roulette and I was like, "Hell no," so we went to Chris's house…

…and I learned to play chess. (I am so bad at chess.)

Evolution of a Sunset

Rain…bow, Part Deux

More rain… 

…and then another rainbow!

Rain…bow

What is so cool about this photo is that there's that rainbow to the left, and blue sky to the right, and just to the left of the blue sky, is rain, which you can see falling. What looks like a blurry area between the cloud and the ground is actually rain.

Groundbreaking Advances in Android Application Technology

Really?

Cowboys and Constellations

Today, Chris came out to the desert and we decided to check out Pioneertown! Pioneertown was founded in the 1940s as a motion picture set and town in which people could live at the same time. What appeared on the exterior as a 19th century Old West town really housed bowling alleys, living quarters for actors, and ice cream parlors. Over fifty films and several television shows were filmed in Pioneertown in the 1940s and 50s, and although the town is no longer used as a movie set, people continue to reside there today.

When we arrived, we went to get lunch at Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace, a longtime club and landmark built within one of the original Pioneertown sets. Musicians such as Robert Plant have graced the stage at Pappy & Harriet's, and Eric Burdon is one of its regular patrons.

These glass bottles are embedded in the brickwork of an exterior wall of the building. That's the sun shining in!

Bluegrass band. And cute little girls dancing.

An old soundstage from the movie days.

Morbid much?

My new friend! I know you're (probably?) grossed out, but you shouldn't be. Also, I know Chandler will (probably?) never read this, but…I'm sorry, Chandler…the pig reminded me of you…and how much I miss you!

  

Down at the O.K. Corral

This is an acting troupe called "The Pioneertown Posse"-- they put on Old West skits on weekends on Mane Street (yes, Mane Street) in Pioneertown.

I think the desert has the most beautiful sunsets.

Outside Pappy & Harriet's

Next on our agenda was a star party! We went to the home of ambient and electronic musician Clive Wright just outside Joshua Tree National Park, where there were telescopes set up for stargazing, as well as a projector. Unfortunately, it was a pretty overcast night, so the stargazing aspect of this party was a little lacking. Fortunately, there was also the live music of Paul Bonser/Primer and Clive Wright, which was really cool.