Today I started off with finding the wireless hotspot, and bought some time with AT&T.  Its a year worth, but compared to single purchases I should be able to quickly recover the cost.  And I uploaded photos and blog.

There are a number of animals up here.  At the start of the day visited some pomeranian puppies (sorry, no snaps of them).  They are excessively cute – the puppies were 12 weeks old and interested in everything.  This afternoon met a cat.  Unlike the puppies, the cat was not as interested in meeting everyone and once she got in her camper, she growled at me and even hissed once.  At the end, she consented to be photographed while I stayed out of her domain.  Beautiful girl though.

I again worked with the falls today.  Started off by finishing the roll of velvia 100 I had loaded and then shot a roll of Tri-X.  I’ve got to remember to get the vari-nd next time (read Burney Falls 7/7/07).  Its an issue of getting the exposure slow enough to show the water, or I think so.  It has been a long time since I’ve shot black and white and don’t quite remember how to “see” it as well.  Started out shooting one way, then went to another style and then finished up with a 0.7 stop bracket on either side… something should work.

One of the challenges of Burney falls, aside from the light, is the spray.  The spray and mist billows up and in the sunlight becomes white particles in the air, reducing contrast in the scene.  The other thing is that the air the water is in is colder than the rest of the air.  The mixing of the cold and not so cold air then causes some blurring as the light is bent along different paths.  Astronomers call this seeing and use adaptive optics and lasers making artificial “stars” in the sky that they can focus on.  Photographers call it annoying and just have to wait it out.

I’ve decided to take a grand tour of the northwest parks.  I’m here at Burney, and then Ill head for Silver Falls State Park in Oregon next (just a bit east of Salem).  My GPS puts it at about 400 miles or so (it is refusing to drive on Highway 214 in Oregon where the park is located.  That should be a bit of a drive… about 6 hours if I can hold 70 mph.  That means I want to get up and break camp early and head on out.  It is one thing to go to a camp I know – I know where Burney is, where the campgrounds are and such.  I don’t know exactly where Silver Falls is, and I don’t want to try to find it in the dark.  If I do hit dark before I find it, I’ll head back to Salem and stay in a hotel one night and then strike out when I can see it better.

So, after Silver Falls, its up to Olympic National Park (hope to stay on the coast) and then over to Glacier National Park (another long day driving and another if I don’t know, stay a night where I don’t set up a tent and get there with lots of daylight).  Then down to Yellowstone, and then back to San Francisco.  That last leg looks to be 900 miles and will likely be broken up into two 400 mile days instead.  Well, 400 is an approximation, it will be “next hotel at 8 pm” and then “home”.

• N 41.01637
• W 121.64933
• Elevation 2955 feet
• Max Elevation 2955 feet
• Trip Odometer: 0 miles
• Odometer: 322 miles