Day 7.5 - I make maps.
Was able to talk with Phil last night for quite some time. Since I figured he would not remember the last time we spoke it was good to catch up (traumatic brain injury will indeed do that to you). Continuing on in the process of slowly coming out of my Thesis writing cacoon
Yesterday I raced bikes for the first time in several months. While the race was different, after x number of crashes and x^2 number of flat tires, everyone gets a bit edgy and slows down. I was able to sprint for 13th place, which on a flat sprinty gallup like that, finishing in the gallup is about all that I ask for. Goal achieved for the day, celebrated with two bananas. Then made fajitas. All in all, yesterday was a success.
Off and on for the last few days I've been working on a map while code has been running. Being that I work with stupidly large datasets, this occasionally takes quite a bit of time.
I've been sad about the fact that I can't find any decorative maps of San Rafael Swell. Because it's my favorite place in Utah. It frequently gets put up for nomination to become a national park, but narrowly avoids it. And I think that's awesome. It's still wild, it's still an adventure to get back in the reaches of it and while a national park designation would provide for a lot of protection in the area, it would also bring a lot more traffic and development to the area. National Parks (with some exception) are not wild places anymore. They are like zoos of sorts. Except for scenery rather than animals.
I'm not saying that national parks aren't awesome, most of my time off is spent in national parks.. But there are some wild places out there that really should stay that way. Let people find them, don't announce them to the world.
Anyway, if you want a nice map of an obscure region ya gots to do it yourself. It also gave me a chance to showcase some of the data I've been working on. So I started with the Northern end.
The wedge is possibly the greatest camping spot with a view of all time. It was nice to see they added a fence since the first couple of time I was there. Considering it's about 1000ft down to the other end. Devil's Hole is surreal. Looking into it at any point gives you the feeling of looking into an ancient lost world.
Geologically the Swell is a collapsed syncline. Over the last million years or so, all the material that was the top of the mountain was eroded out. What is left is the river channels and landscape of 60 million years ago.
You look into it and expect to see a dragon, a dinosaur, or some massive thing that will squish you like a bug. It's a different world inside there, so strangely different from everything you know and are familiar seeing that for the first while it's actually disorienting trying to comprehend you haven't time travelled or ended up on some odd planet. What strikes you also is the silence of it. It's difficult to get to, it's inhospitable to life of most sorts, difficult to get to for most humans still, high ridgelines mute the wind. What remains is otherworldly vistas and quiet.
Here's the map I made, it's a massive jpg because I want to turn these into posters, you, readers, should poke around and explore. I'm very proud of the color ramp on the hillshade. I opted for a rugged MDOW style which is typically used for astrogeology purposes.
Yesterday I raced bikes for the first time in several months. While the race was different, after x number of crashes and x^2 number of flat tires, everyone gets a bit edgy and slows down. I was able to sprint for 13th place, which on a flat sprinty gallup like that, finishing in the gallup is about all that I ask for. Goal achieved for the day, celebrated with two bananas. Then made fajitas. All in all, yesterday was a success.
Off and on for the last few days I've been working on a map while code has been running. Being that I work with stupidly large datasets, this occasionally takes quite a bit of time.
I've been sad about the fact that I can't find any decorative maps of San Rafael Swell. Because it's my favorite place in Utah. It frequently gets put up for nomination to become a national park, but narrowly avoids it. And I think that's awesome. It's still wild, it's still an adventure to get back in the reaches of it and while a national park designation would provide for a lot of protection in the area, it would also bring a lot more traffic and development to the area. National Parks (with some exception) are not wild places anymore. They are like zoos of sorts. Except for scenery rather than animals.
I'm not saying that national parks aren't awesome, most of my time off is spent in national parks.. But there are some wild places out there that really should stay that way. Let people find them, don't announce them to the world.
Anyway, if you want a nice map of an obscure region ya gots to do it yourself. It also gave me a chance to showcase some of the data I've been working on. So I started with the Northern end.
The wedge is possibly the greatest camping spot with a view of all time. It was nice to see they added a fence since the first couple of time I was there. Considering it's about 1000ft down to the other end. Devil's Hole is surreal. Looking into it at any point gives you the feeling of looking into an ancient lost world.
Geologically the Swell is a collapsed syncline. Over the last million years or so, all the material that was the top of the mountain was eroded out. What is left is the river channels and landscape of 60 million years ago.
You look into it and expect to see a dragon, a dinosaur, or some massive thing that will squish you like a bug. It's a different world inside there, so strangely different from everything you know and are familiar seeing that for the first while it's actually disorienting trying to comprehend you haven't time travelled or ended up on some odd planet. What strikes you also is the silence of it. It's difficult to get to, it's inhospitable to life of most sorts, difficult to get to for most humans still, high ridgelines mute the wind. What remains is otherworldly vistas and quiet.
Here's the map I made, it's a massive jpg because I want to turn these into posters, you, readers, should poke around and explore. I'm very proud of the color ramp on the hillshade. I opted for a rugged MDOW style which is typically used for astrogeology purposes.