Page 6 of 7 FirstFirst ... 4567 LastLast
Results 51 to 60 of 69

Thread: Single Travel

  1. #51

    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Posts
    332

    Re: Single Travel

    What, nobody carries a "space" survival blanket?

  2. #52

    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    San Joaquin Valley, California
    Posts
    9,597

    Re: Single Travel

    I've been rethinking this. The population in Yosemite Valley swells to the proportions of a medium size city in the Summer. I've found it amazing that there's as little crime as there is, especially with campsites being unwatched during the day when everybody is either hiking the Vernal Falls trail or at the Starbucks in the Lodge, but there is crime, even extremely violent crime---I know as I've assisted in a few cases as a SAR volunteer from a county neighboring YNP.

    But there is far more crime in the more developed areas of the National Forests, at least that I'm aware of, and rarely ever in the back country unless you stumble across a plantation. I fear that in California, with the problems she's having these days, more and more brazen criminals (I'm not talking wood rats, raccoons and mooching bears) are going to find easy marks among vacationers.

    Be careful out there!
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  3. #53
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
    Posts
    18,318

    Re: Single Travel

    Cartel pot operations are actually prolific in the lower brushy areas of Sequoia NP and adjacent Natl Forest land, and have been found even in Yosemite NP. They're rife in the Shasta area. But these are deliberately in places where tourists and hikers rarely go. And the high country is totally unsuitable for that kind of activity climate-wise. Lower down in scruffy towns and forested areas you do need to be more careful, especially in meth production and usage areas. Some of those types had darn few working brain cells to begin with, and far less now, so aren't easy to reason with. I came from those hills back when alcoholism was a bad enough problem. Just be aware of your surroundings. I've done hundreds of solo photo trips and that policy has worked for me.

  4. #54

    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    San Joaquin Valley, California
    Posts
    9,597

    Re: Single Travel

    What's the situation like in the State Parks over on the coast, Drew?
    With their proximity to the big cities I wonder if there's any spill over.
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  5. #55
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
    Posts
    18,318

    Re: Single Travel

    Other than urban trails and parks, crime is rare. A couple of pot operations have been busted in brushy areas, but that's a miniscule number overall. You're more likely to have one next door downtown. It's been four decades sinceZodiac and the Trailside Killer. Lowlifes just don't tend to be hiker types. Our East Bay Regional Parks are overflown by helicopter every afternoon. They used to take a couple loops around me until they figured out I was carrying a wooden tripod and not a rifle. Now they ignore me. But popular parking lots in the GGNRA on both sides of the bridge get a lot of smash n grab car break-ins. I drive a conspicuously rustic truck, so it's never happened to me. I avoid parks near big city gangbangers neighborhoods. All the big cities here have certain really bad areas. But the Fed, State, and many Regional Parks tend to be exceptionally safe and well monitored, I'd say considerably safer than the Sierra foothills. The most dangerous thing seems to be poison oak and tick season.

  6. #56

    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Posts
    653

    Re: Single Travel

    Quote Originally Posted by MrFujicaman View Post
    What, nobody carries a "space" survival blanket?
    Always have a few in the car. Costs almost nothing, can be used for a lot of things.
    Expert in non-working solutions.

  7. #57
    Vaughn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Humboldt County, CA
    Posts
    9,206

    Re: Single Travel

    Quote Originally Posted by Havoc View Post
    Always have a few in the car. Costs almost nothing, can be used for a lot of things.
    Better than sitting on the snow to put on chains...though I carry a piece of old insolite pad with me for that.

    Solo is the way to go...unless one is in a country where one does not speak the language. Then having a son along to translate works pretty good. A beached wreak in Chile, 2019.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Chile_Boat_Pt.jpg  
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  8. #58
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
    Posts
    18,318

    Re: Single Travel

    Stag - I see solo travel the only option when people find me boring!

  9. #59
    Scyg's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
    Location
    Chicago, IL, USA
    Posts
    100

    Re: Single Travel

    I like traveling with others, but not when I want to take pictures. People have no patience for someone tinkering around with their camera. They may pretend to the first few times you stop, but the eye-rolls start soon enough. For photography, solo is the way to go, though to be fair I've never traveled with other photographers.

  10. #60
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
    Posts
    18,318

    Re: Single Travel

    Depends. When traveling with my wife, I try to use something quick to set up like medium format. Sometimes we'll agree to a "Vacation pre-nup", where she'll grant me a few specific LF shots, and in return, I'll endure some window shopping in town. But on the road or with other backpackers, I've learned to team up with people with their own time-consuming photographic interests, regardless of format, whether film or digital. I hate talking shop or tech or gear out on the trail, like we do on these forums, and am a lot more interested in flora and fauna, geology, light and weather, so it actually helps to have companions shooting in a quite different mode from me. I might be waging a jihad on digital here, as Kirk used to phrase it, but out in the open don't give a hoot at all. One or two other people around trekking through the mountains with nobody else in sight for a week, that's what I enjoy. I'm a little more conscious of having someone else along now that I'm over 70 and still wandering off-trail quite a bit. But I did decades of solo travel in rough terrain, and frankly, grew up that way, so it never seemed threatening to me. The freeways are far more dangerous.

Similar Threads

  1. travel
    By madmax12 in forum Darkroom: Film, Processing & Printing
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 6-Apr-2012, 17:42
  2. Air Travel with ULF
    By William Marderness in forum Gear
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 6-Aug-2004, 21:10

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •