Sunday, October 3, 2010

Duck and Cover Snag and Fall Color





First weekend in October opens to clouds, rain and cool, balmy air in Bishop. Friday by cellphone I killed my chances of renting a trailer in the Elms Trailer Park (cheapest rent in town) by complaining to an Owens Valley Slumlord that I was worried about an industrial-strength chemical odor lingering in one trailer and a burnt-black stove and crud-black shower stall in another.  She told me I'd probably be happier in a an apartment, wouldn't I?  I think her tone meant that I had failed the tenement-material test and could just sashay my snooty self off to Mammoth Mountain Resort and rent a ski condo if I thought I could afford it so there.

Oh well, I will have to sashay myself out of Horton Creek by November first and possibly into Pleasant Valley, a county campground open all year down by the Owens River, or boost off to Tecopa Hot Springs on the other side of Death Valley for the winter ... meanwhile it is gorgeous out here, clouds dusting snow on Mt. Tom, canyon creeks blazing gold with quaking aspen, and the Round Valley pastures glowing in the early evening light.

A fellow camper at the Wellness Center instructed me on how to insulate a tent for the dry cold of high desert winter:  Set up one big tent, stake, tie, and weight it down to earth. Set up a smaller tent inside of it. Both tents must have somewhat congruent mesh ceilings. Stuff old sleeping bags and comforters into the air space between the tent walls and on the floor of the inner tent. Keep the air-flow area in the mesh "chimney" clear of insulation at the top, then cover the whole thing with a sturdy rain fly. Place a portable propane heater in the tent and fire it up for a few minutes, shut it off, and zip up tight for the night. A sort of Pillow Igloo.

So, blog re-namers, I might be led back to "InnaTenting395" by the end of the season! 

1 comment:

  1. badintentions.blogspot? Sounds like a portable coffin, not that you'd need it very often. Bad odors are bad, you wouldn't have asked if you didn't care...

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