What I'm Doing Today

So no big post about yesterday's outting, or my mental breakdown about upcoming tests/papers because I just have so much work to do.

THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING ALL DAY, in preparation for Tuesday's geology midterm:


Note the lovely bars and metal grate covering my bedroom window. And the lovely view of the wall of the building right outside. How jealous are you right now?

THIS is what I WILL be doing all of TOMORROW:


More geology!!

AND MONDAY, starting at 8am, when I go to meet with my TA for a private review/tutoring session:



You get the idea.

Also, what is the worst view YOU have ever had out of a window some where you've lived?

But I Survived It (Or, Geology Campout: Day II)

So when we left off, the buses were pulling out of the campsite (*) and headed towards QUAIL LAKE (6) on the map below. 

QUAIL LAKE (6) is a "sag pond," or a body of water created by two plates shifting apart, essentially creating a hole that dropped into the water table and filled up, creating a stable lake water formation. In this case, Quail Lake is located on San Andreas, and was created by a shift between the North American plate (which covers this continent and ends in the mid-Atlantic) and the Pacific plate (which extends from the edge of the west coast to the Japanese trench).

It was really breezy there, and with the wind blowing off the water like that so early in the morning, I was glad I had layered two crewnecks! Here's Quail Lake:

Next, we stopped at the SOFT ROCKS (7). I don't have a picture of the Soft Rocks, but they were pretty cool. Due to the intense pressure of the fault, the granite had shattered internally, so even though it looked fairly solid from the outside, even someone of my strength could break it apart with a hammer, or even break off chunks by hand in some places.

We stayed for about twenty minutes, as we watched Dr. A clamber up and down the slanted rock face and holler about "the PRESSURE!" and took turns breaking apart the granite.

Then we got back on the buses and headed for ELIZABETH LAKE (8), another sag pond that looked basically the same. There, Dr. A assembled us directly over the active fault (contrary to popular belief, a fault is not generally a visible crack in the ground, but sometimes you can see a difference in the striation of the rock) and told us that the fault experiences these cataclysmic, over-Richter-8 earthquakes that create huge, visible land shifts that have allowed for a combined change of several miles through spurts of 9 earthquakes over the last 1500 years. 

While we stood at the shore, Dr. A informed us that those big quakes occur every sixty to 225 years, averaging about 120 years, with the last one being in 1857. "WE'RE DUE!!" He crowed. The guy gets seriously excited at the prospect of imminent natural disaster.

Once he got over his excitement, we all got back on the buses and took off for Palmdale. We were pretty psyched to get the SAN ANDREAS OVERLOOK (9) out of the way since (a) we would all go to In-n-Out for lunch and (b) the end of the trip was in sight!

So we got to Palmdale, and the buses pulled off to the side of the road. Dr. A instructed us to get out, and then led us through the brush on the side of the road - in this vast, empty expanse of worthless land, littered with broken down sofas, shattered beer bottles, and other remnants of parties past - to a spot on a hill, then pointed out a slight, though, visible, rise in the land that crossed beneath Lake Palmdale, the freeway, and the rest of the city. The San Andreas Fault, yet again. Here's that lake:

After advising us not to purchase a home situated directly over a fault, Dr. A pointed out some pretty cool looking rocks:

See those squigglies in the rock? Well, they're technically "folds," and that's what big earthquakes can do to solid mineral. Cool, huh?

We checked it out, then went to In-n-Out!

Mmmmm. If you find something in this world better than a double-double with cheese, order of fries, and a chocolate shake so thick you need a spoon to eat it, please let me know. So far, this is sort of the highest form of perfection that exists in my life.

Thus satisfied, I stopped counting down the seconds until our return to USC as we drove towards VASQUEZ ROCKS (10!).

Now, I know I haven't come off as real big on geology/camping/etc, but this rock formation IS pretty cool. It's very "The Lion King," which happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time. Think Pride Rock, where Simba lived. Here's a bunch of people from my class on top of a Vasquez "hog's back":

Actually, if you're a Trekkie, you've probably already seen Vasquez. It's the site of the Worst Fight Scene of All Time:

You know, if you YouTube "Worst Fight Scene Ever," this scene legitimately pops up? HERE'S the link, if you want to laugh/jog your memory.

Anyway, eventually we did get back to USC. And I showered. And did some (okay, a LOT) of laundry. And now I'm actually kind of proud I survived a weekend in the wilderness with my geology class, being the non-hiker, non-camper that I am....

Not that I have any intentions to repeat the experience...

...Hardly a Camper (or, Geology Campout, the Overnight Edition)

So the buses dropped us off at Los Alamos Campground, near Pyramid Lake, at around 6pm. Then they drove back to LA, leaving most of us wishing we were going with them - it had already gotten pretty cold, and the prospect of staying the night out there was not looking good to anyone (except maybe Dr. A, who was way too excited to sleep on the ground). 

Dr. A rented two adjacent campsites - one for himself and the TAs, and another larger one next to it for the students. This photo was taken at the campground. Our lot was nearby where this picture was taken, but it was tucked farther back into the canyon wall (which was good, since it acted as a windbreak) and much less green.

 One girl in my group, Rebecca, brought a 6-person tent from home. Rebecca, Sophia, and I got our tent up surprisingly quickly while the other three girls got diner going. Sophia and I had definitely never done anything remotely similar before, and we were pretty proud of ourselves for setting up the shelter. It was a big tent!! Exactly this design, but in blue and gray.

Tents went up pretty quickly all around, with people hurrying to finish before dark. Soon, the whole area filled with dozens of tents of all shapes and colors, and with almost two hundred people milling about in between, we looked like a weird sort of modern shanty village. It was very surreal. I'll post a picture if someone posts one of Facebook - I wish I'd had my camera, but it's still in Seattle somewhere.

A big bummer - aside from the plummeting temperature, which prompted all of us Southern-California students into our warm clothes faster than you could imagine - was the burn ban, which prevented us from having a campfire. The eating s'mores had been almost as big a draw for me as the grade thing, so I was really bummed. Dr. A was even more upset, but he cooked his steaks just fine over a propane stove.

A girl in my tent group also brought a propane stove. We had all previously assigned different members of the group food items to bring, but of course we all brought extra, so we ended up having way too much food. We feasted on cheeseburgers with all the fixings and condiments, homemade veggie wontons, and bow tie pesto and had plenty to share (other groups were eating PB&J!). 

Although most of the groups didn't bother with bringing supplies for a hot meal, they all seemed to have plenty of alcohol (the one thing my group DIDN'T bring) so the party started pretty quickly. Dr. A even came and joined, after clearly having some wine at his own campsite.

Two of the girls in my tent group stayed out pretty late, but the rest of us - exhausted form the day and anticipating an early morning - went to bed early. We could hear Dr. A's voice ("WHOOP! WHOOP!!") late, late into the evening, pointing out planets and constellations (the stars were INCREDIBLE!) and joking around with his students, who thought a teacher joining them to party was just hilarious, great fun.

Actually, that night explained a lot. I wondered why we took a seemingly pointless hike that ate up several hours, when we otherwise could've hit all the stops in one day. I realized at the overnight that Dr. A intentionally did that just to have the overnight, so he could be a crazy, partying, pseudo-celebrity (EVERYBODY loves him, he's kind of a USC legend) with nearly two hundred college students. Sort of like borrowing his own youth back, I guess.

Anyway, the tent worked out great. Plenty of room for all six of us, and it was kind of cool sleeping in a shelter I helped build (though I don't want to do it again). It got really cold - around 40F - and I was super grateful to Christine, who lent me the most incredible sleeping bag ever created. I could dedicate the whole post to this sleeping bag - warm, but somehow well ventilated, cozy, cushy, light, easily packed, soft (there's a "comfort shell" on the inside so you don't feel like you're sleeping in a parachute), and you can remove the comfort shell and/or the hood to adjust the temperature rating if you're like my Dad and hate to be hot - but instead of going on FOREVER, I'll just post a picture:

Incredibly, this sleeping bag made me forget I was sleeping on the floor of a tent. When everyone was talking about how cold they were, and how they had to sleep in all these layers and parkas, I had been toasty warm all night, and slept surprisingly deeply in only leggings and a crew neck sweatshirt. So than you, Christine, for the use of your fantastic sleeping bag!

The next day, despite his previous revelry, Dr. A was back to his responsible - though wacky - self, waking the camp up with his "WHOOP! WHOOP!!" at 8am. My group (or at least those of us who didn't get crazy the night before) had gotten a head start getting cleaned up.

I became the most popular girl in camp when the other girls realized I had a whole roll of toilet paper (the gross "bathroom" was out). What can I say? I am my mother's daughter, and I think of these things. Anyway, that toilet paper was gone in about five seconds when word got around.

Shockingly, camp was packed and the buses were moving by 9:30am. I had totally expected to be waiting around forever for people to get up and going, but we were off to the remaining stops early!

But the trip wasn't over yet...

STAY TUNED FOR: Geology Campout, Day II

Not a Hiker (or, Day I of the Geology Trip)

So I'm back from my first (and probably last) camping trip. Since it was such an epic and unusual experience for me - not to mention a source of amusement for all you who know my family just doesn't camp -  I've decided to chronicle my journey in detail.

I've discussed the camping trip a couple of times recently - like HERE, for instance - but if you missed it, you should know that I'm really only doing this because it's worth about 10% of my semester grade for Crises of the Planet (Geo 108) which fulfills my lab science credit. Only 170 of us, or about half the class, came on the trip.

Professor Lawford Anderson teaches this class. He's an endearingly insane, impossibly loud, and ridiculously hilarious individual. He also tends to speak in the third person when he gets excited, which made for an interesting weekend. He's just a character.

The picture really does not do his personality justice. You have to meet the guy to get it.

Anyway, the night before the trip, he emailed us this map of the stops. Before this, none of us had any idea where we were going.

9 am Saturday morning we all piled on some charter buses and we were off...

Our first stop was HENNINGER FLATS (1), in Eaton Canyon above Altadena. We explored the bottom of the canyon first. Dr. A pointed out some rocks over two billion years old, and then informed us this is where we would be taking our "little jaunt up the hill" (let's just be clear, we're at the base of MT. Wilson). 

Of course, because of Dr. A's whole third-person-thing, it was more like "Come with Dr. A!! He'll show you the way up this LIVING, BREATHING, EARTH!! Just a little jaunt up the hill! WHOOP, WHOOP!" (You know those people who ALWAYS sound like they're yelling? Dr. A's one of them.)

Here is a terrain photo of the "little jaunt up the hill." We trekked all the way up the Old Wilson Trail (dotted line) from where it connects to the curve of Pinecrest Drive.

It was a hot, dusty, miserable march along 2.7 miles of a steep, shade-less trail. A ridiculously steep climb. Dr. A, in his short sleeve button down and jeans, just started forward at this brisk pace and didn't look back. He is marathoner, though, and no one should ever follow a marathoner anywhere remotely outdoorsy, because it only ends badly for us regular people.

It took me about an hour and forty minutes to make it to Henninger Flats, with the huge second wave of students. We arrived about a half an hour behind Dr. A and the first few students (who really shouldn't count, being athletes/marathoners/triathaloners themselves). Several dozen never made it all, and just dropped down on the hot, dusty, steep trail along the way. 

The photo makes the trail look wimpy, compared to reality. Refer back to the GoogleTerrain image to remind yourself of the ridiculousness of it. I honestly can't believe I made it, let alone in the time that I did. Check it out though -- no shade, and totally dusty. And of course, steep.

The Flats was kind of a bummer though. It wasn't of any geographical interest; Dr. A just thought it would be "fun" to hike up and eat lunch there. The worst thing was the view. Dr. A had really hyped it up, but it was disappointing and actually kind of gross due to the heavy smog cover of the day. 

I pulled this off the internet. Our view that day was about four times hazier, no joke. Not a rewarding sight after that hike. Oh, hey, did I mention how STEEP that trail was? :)

The next stops were relatively quick, after the 4-5 hours we spent at Eaton Canyon.

We checked out RUBIO CANYON (2), right nearby, and Dr. A gave us some background on it. Apparently there were some gorgeous water falls at the top of the canyon, as well as a resort, but all that got filled in by a crazy landslide in the 1920s. The whole area is prone to landslides like that. Those slides create "scree chutes" in the canyon. Here's one in Rubio Canyon:

Next we checked out the TILTED ROCKS (3) along the Templin Highway. Along one side of the road are ridges, and the other looks out into the scenic canyon. When the buses pulled up, there was a white Escalade parked at the look out, and the people inside were clearly enjoying much more than the view. Dr. A was sure to point that out (laughing, and at the top of his lungs) before he started explaining the significance of the silt.

Apparently, the different layers and composition of the sandstone and shale indicate that the whole area used to be in the shallows of the Pacific Ocean about 30,000 years ago. It just goes to show you that even those ordinary rock formations along the road have something remarkable to say about what happened to this planet.

The fourth stop was at some FAULTED SEDIMENTARY ROCKS (4) nearby, and those told a very similar story.

We had to cut the fifth stop, the RIDGE BASIN (5), because an stop at Ralph's (between 3 and 4) that was supposed to be 20 minutes went way too long (don't even get me started) and we needed to get to the campsite before dark to set up the tents.

But the weekend was hardly over...

NEXT POST: The Overnight