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two pages print from PDF sewing pattern

Face Mask Sewing Instructions

The following are instructions for the face mask sewing pattern available as a PDF download in the Little Package shop. I drafted this pattern off the Olsen mask design, honing it over a period of several months for easy fit, good looks, and comfort. What I like about it is it allows you to open your mouth without the mask slipping down off your nose. As a former nurse, it’s important to me that people including and around me and my loved ones have functional masks, and so I make them. And you can too!

Mount Whitney with SQF wildfire smoke, september 2020

The Curse is Lifted

In 2013 I started an annual tradition of sleeping on top of the tallest mountain. I don’t know why, but year after year I went up. Pressure built to go up again the next year, and so on. These extended 14er summits were not easy for the obvious reasons, but almost every time it ended up being harder than hard because of surprises at the top. 2013: I had no idea what I was doing. It was very hard to get up that strange hill, especially since the notorious PCT clown Guino had dosed me with 200mg caffeine that morning (I’m caffeine-free). But it turned out to be bizarre and romantic, with a sunset and a sunrise akin to something… continue reading

tiny covid masks for a two year-old

Sewing Face Masks

I’ve been meaning to share the face mask pattern that I adapted from the Unity Point Olson Mask, but it’s not ready yet because it keeps shape-shifting. I keep making small adjustments to it, which probably don’t matter at this point because every face is so different. Anyway, soon I will have it tacked down in PDF format and will share here. [Here it is.] [And here are the face mask sewing instructions.] So far I’ve made >200 masks. I’ve made masks for climbing guides: I’ve made masks for tiny people: I’ve made masks for small people: I’ve made masks for adults: I’ve been handing out free two-layer cotton masks around Bishop, and giving them to friends. Folks who have… continue reading

Escape to Yosemite

Yosemite now has a permit system which limits traffic somewhat*. We heard maybe we could get more of the Park to ourselves, and headed out on our first venture to a public place since February. We enjoyed a few slightly-more-serene days in the park. For me it still felt like a zoo, but maybe that’s because I’ve been living with 1-2 people surrounded by millions of acres of untouched forest for five months. We went for a hike, and the next day for a climb, and for about 48 hours almost forgot that it’s been a difficult year. I hadn’t seen Tuolumne from up high since 2013 (and I didn’t see much then because I was running from a lightning… continue reading

A very round juniper on top of a 8000-ft mountain

A Juniper

Funny that the Bureau of Land Management feels like Piñon Juniper forests have taken over most the West, so they want to burn and poison plants and soil (and the living beings on them) over 223 million acres in the Great Basin over six western states to build fire breaks which are not scientifically proven to work. There’s an ulterior motive. Aside from “kowtowing” to cattle ranchers and stealthily turning ancient sagebrush seas into seas of cheat grass and other prickly invasives, the administrators of our public land feel like there are too many PJ forests. In fact the forests are smaller than they were 200 years ago before miners started cutting them down for cabins and railroad ties. But… continue reading

colorful sunset

Flu and the Trail

We’re now at least a couple months into the surreal shitshow called “COVID-19” (a coronavirus). I’ve spent the past week and a half-sequestered very remotely, not just because of the misanthropy I’ve felt more and more while scanning the news and social media, but to enjoy the wild, help build an off-grid house, and perhaps survive (and help others survive) the pandemic I’ve been warning friends about since I was a nurse in Portland in the oughties. This type of thing was bound to happen, and it’s too bad more people aren’t more prepared. (That said, not many of us have the resources to be prepared.) While cutting wood, plastering, and painting over the past week, various unrelated COVID-19 impacts… continue reading

woman hiking in Utah

Where trails come from, where they go…

I subscribe to Wired Magazine in digital form, where I learn all sorts of neat things each day. This morning I spent over an hour watching a video produced by Wired, where an astrophysicist explains gravity to five people, ranging from beginner to expert. What a brilliant way of teaching/learning a topic, by helping someone realize how much they don’t know, and expanding on a concept bit-by-bit over an hour. (I was about at the grade-schooler’s level of understanding, haha. How far can you follow the concept? By expert level, my mind was blown.) This afternoon, an opinion piece popped into the Wired newsletter. It’s right up my alley. If you’ve been reading my blog lately, you probably know I’ve… continue reading

Death Valley rock formations

Rock or Wood?

I just spent a couple of gloriously mild days in Life Valley, canyoneering and hiking, conversing with and admiring a lot of rock. The Valley also had quite a bit of water in it due to some recent storms, but this time of year the plants and animals have retreated and it’s time for the rock to shine. And there’s a lot of rock. The Valley’s valleys, as they show (or don’t show) themselves from the car, are enshrouded, modest, and less-than-tantalizing by reputation. If one is brave and stupid enough to venture too far from the road on foot and with rope, they open in dizzying, hypnotic displays of color and texture, enfolding you. It’s not so much that… continue reading

Figure it Out

The other day I noticed someone crowd-funded a movie about the Hayduke Trail. (Reading what I just wrote made me puke in my mouth.) Actually, it’s worse. let me rephrase that: someone crowd-funded a movie about his hike of the Hayduke Trail. I suffered through the movie, then I wrote my thoughts in a 1-star review:

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