Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board How'd you pick you handle?

I got lost somewhere, so to speak.

"katahdin music company" got us onto Maine, which brought up the question of which points in the US see the first rays of sunrise and the last rays of sunset each day. We then threw out Alaska and Hawaii to deal with the 48 contiguous states.

Fine. How did Florida get into this? It is the southnernmost of the Lower 48. Mut Minnsota has the northernmost point. It must figure into this somehow!

P.S. If Bob R. and Hiker Laura ever lead a Whitney trip and BEACHAV8R makes a video, will it be called "The Rockwell and Bullwinkle Show"? Inquiring minds want to know.

I believe that if you figure out the points furthest east/west that can be viewed from the eastern/western continental U.S., then that would also be the answer to the earliest/latest light at the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox, because at that point, the terminator (line between daylight and darkness) essentially runs straight north south.

Further calculation is needed for other times, at the winter solstice and summer solstice, the terminator is at points around 23.5 degrees off axis (i.e., essentially off by the entire tilt of the earth).

If you want to see the terminator at any specified date and time (universal time, so for the west coast of the U.S., add 8 hours, or 7 if in daylight savings time, to the time you want) for any date from the year 1700 to the year 2030, go to this page and fill in the date and time: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/earthview.html

For the winter solstice on the west coast, pick around December 21 for any year (you can get pickier than that, but this is rough anyway), and put in somewhere around 0 hours and 55 minutes, fiddle a little bit to either side of that, and try to eyeball roughly where last daylight would be on the west coast of the continental U.S. I'm guessing it might be somewhere south of King Peak, but I'm not sure where. There are lower peaks near the coast further south, but do they have later daylight at winter solstice than King Peak? I don't know. Certainly, it can't be Mount Olympus, however, that has the latest sunlight at the winter solstice.

For sunrise at the winter solstice, look at December 21 around 12:05 UT, and it seems like it is possible that Florida gets earlier light than Maine, but again, it is difficult to tell, and that whole altitude thing messes us up, too.

For the summer solstice, we don't really need to see the map from around June 21 to know that it is Maine and Washington that get first/last light, but you can fiddle around with it anyway. Whether the 23.5 degree tilt in the terminator is enough to change the answer as to where in Maine or Washington first/last light is, I do not know. I doubt it would be in Washington just because anything far enough north would also be a lot further east.

You would think that somebody has figured this out and some definitive answers would be available on the Internet, perhaps first and last light in the continental U.S. for every day of the year, but that has been done, I haven't found it (although I haven't looked really hard).

I think it is easiest if we just assume that the question is being asked as of either equinox, and life is much simpler (although obviously, still not as simple as "what point of land is furthest east or west").

BTW, I picked my handle in roughly the same manner as Bob R did, and as Bob K. did. We are the imaginitive people on the board.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Earth
December 21, 2007 5:20 PM Pacific Standard Time


September 21, 2007 7:40 PM Pacific Daylight Time


Maybe "Earth" would be a good handle.

Interesting topic (within a topic).. I too was thinking that perhaps the points change as the seasons change since the "altitude" (declination?) of the sun changes through the seasons..

Chris

Oh..and BeachAV8R...got that from a combination of where I used to spend most of my time (at the beach windsurfing) and AV8R..obviously what I do for a living..

The best nicknames are the ones given to you.

Mine was given to me by my Boy Scout troop, back in D.C., about 30 years ago. I slowed the pack down while we were out on hikes - I preferrred to be more "observant" and see the world - they wanted to "get there". I guess I like the journey over the destination. So, 30 years later, I wear the name.

I call Kings Mountain the "Last Light Peak", as I've been there at sunset and camped out within sight of the peak. Verified. There's nothing within sight illuminated when it is. The whole Kings Range / Lost Coast area rivals much of the Sierra as far as vertical terrain goes - recommend hiking the Buck Creek trail for anyone interested in a punishing climb.

I've not been to Olympus, so I'll call that a very close second.

oh, do the "Bob"s of the board have anything to do with the "Bob"s of Saline warm spring?

...curious...

Nice guess. However, we are required to wear uniforms, though seemingly more casual than our counterparts who wear only black..... because we are the Men In Bob , agents K, R, and T who regulate extraterrestrials in the Sierras. (Such as yourself.)

Yes, you have been tracked ever since you landed. Nice try with the Boy Scout story.

Don't forget, your signal has been acquired and YOU are being tracked. Have a nice day.

Since this whole thread has mostly been about things other than Whitney or the Whitney area, I'll follow up on your discussion of the King Range / Lost Coast area for hiking.

Speedbump, I agree with your recommendation of Buck Creek Trail as a punishing climb, and for those who like punishing day hikes (anyone who does Whitney as a day hike will qualify), if you've got a couple of cars and at least a couple of people, I recommend a shuttle hike, leaving a car at the bottom of the Lightning Trail (the shortest route up to King Peak), then driving to Shelter Cove and starting the hike from there, going along the coast to the Buck Creek Trail, up the Buck Creek Trail and other trails to King Peak, and down the Lightning Trail. I believe it is somewhere around 17 miles, but it isn't an easy 17 miles (but at least it is sea level to 4,000 feet, much more oxygen available than going up Whitney). Even the first 5+ miles that is "flat" is along the beach, which has its own tormenting quality.

You can go the other direction, but I'd rather go punishing uphill than punishing downhill. There are also a variety of routes you can take, but I think this is the shortest possible route to do King Peak and some of the Lost Coast Trail. If you only want the pleasure of the Buck Creek Trail while avoiding the added burden of tackling King Peak on one nasty hike, I think that is only about 10 miles as a shuttle hike. There are also longer options to take in both King Peak and the Lost Coast Trail on a shuttle hike -- the Saddle Mountain Trailhead can also be used as one end point -- and if you don't want to or can't do a shuttle, you can also take loops from the Lightning Trailhead or the Saddle Mountain Trailhead. For those who can really chew up the miles, at least some of those longer options could be done in a day, but it is more than I would want in a day.

In this case, I should be using Addict , since it's the only name I've been given/called that falls under the Acceptable Use Policy of the board.

Oh, man! If Sierra Snail starts reading things called "Acceptable Use Polcy" then we'll all probably have to do it.

The "Bob"s of Saline Valley are, as Joe Bob Briggs is so fond of saying, "nekkid". No uniforms of any kind.

This "uniform" of which you speak... might it include sturdy shoes, a wide-brim hat, a pack (sometimes large, sometimes small), a lotion to protect one's self from radiation eminating from the orb in the sky, and possibly a small container of vitamin "I"? Amongst other things? "The last suit you'll ever wear"?

Never seen 'em. Must be stealthy, or stay in unpopulated areas.

I cannot be tracked. The chip in my brain was removed years ago, and I keep my noggin covered with aluminium foil.

(The Buck creek trail mentioned above is only about 3 miles long - but tops out at about 3200'. Can't believe it was once a jeep trail during WWII.)

Sorry, but it didn't work and your marmot disguise isn't fooling us either. BTW the little aluminum foil marmot hat is pretty cute.

Enjoy the planet, obey the rules and .... have a nice day.

M. I. Bob

P.S. We also know the true origin of your handle "SpeedBump." For a short time, just after you landed on Earth, you tried to avoid surveillance by pretending to be road kill. With all those cars rolling over you, I'll have to admit that you are a resilient species.

Can be Punjabi and you are right, there can be more than one correct answer. The language I had in mind was Sanskrit.

Getting back to the original question, I actually stole mine from a license plate I saw when I was in High School. It read: 2DFORUM. Since we were near Inglewood, and there were tons of Lakers stickers on the car, I got the impression that he was a Laker fan. So, I wanted to get a license plate with something like that when I got a car. I loved hiking and riding off-road motorcycles and they both involved trails, so I decided to go with that. As the internet evoloved, I began to use tothetrail as a username and it stuck. I never did get the plate.

Sorry, but it didn't work and your marmot disguise isn't fooling us either. BTW the little aluminum foil marmot hat is pretty cute.


Enjoy the planet, obey the rules and .... have a nice day.


M. I. Bob


=============================================================

Darnit! I've been found out.


I admit to being one of the Wee Bears that make mischief with the unattended packs on trail crest. There's amlost always a treat waiting for me after I've chewed through a bit of nylon.


Thank you all for keeping me well fed.

Speedbump, Thanks for the great picture of the marmot about to rob the "convenience store." It looks like it just spotted the surveillance camera.

Bob-

This was in August of '05... walking up from guitar lake, I'm greeted by about 50 backpacks of all kinds - several with enormous holes in them, where the Wee Bears had chewed through to get to the goodies inside. The Marmot pictured had the front 1/3 of his body inside the pack you see next to him. I clapped my hands loudly, and he exited the pack with the ziplock baggie full of dried fruit.

He just kinda stood there, doing the best Al Pacino impression a marmot can muster - "YOU lookin' at ME??!"

He then grabbed the bag and scampered off to where Marmots go to eat.

Folks, if you leave your back at Trail Crest, leave your food outside your pack in some kind of critter-resistant container. They *might* get your food/snacks but they prolly won't destroy your gear.

Marmots, Squirrels, etc. are as destructive as bears are, and are to be feared more as there are greater numbers of them. I don't call 'em "wee bears" for nuthin.

In high school I would usually celebrate a touchdown or any kind of win with a yell that sounds exactly like a chimp going psycho. So my buddies called me mono. Mono is monkey in Spanish.

BTW, after my performance over Shepherd Pass this past weekend, the name is now mine permanently.

re: first light on the US mainland - that claim is usually made by Cadillac Mtn, near Bar Harbor, ME on Mt Desert Island. According to the US Naval Observatory, two spots are tied - Cadillac and Porcupine Mtn. Katahdin is a bit too far inland to make up for the geography of these two coastal points.