January

I took a couple weeks off around the holidays. This marks a year of work -- I'm still having fun, a fact I attribute to a generous and understanding wife and family. And a well-thought-out design and set of plans. The only times that I haven't enjoyed myself so far are when I find myself stressed about the 'schedule'. My New Years resolution is to continue making goals, but not worry when I fall behind. When I started, people would ask, "how long?" and I would say, "a couple years." I'm still responding, "a couple years." Life happens, and I don't want to miss it. 

I did a wet lay-up for the wingnet rail -- peel ply, cloth, peel ply. With a little help I moved the whole lot onto the form, then used my usual plastic and squeegee to compact the layers and remove bubbles. Worked great.

I mapped out what size I wanted the cut-outs to be. The important areas seemed to be the rigging and hatch. One thing to remember is that the deck/float is tilted, so the clearance for the rigging is better than it would first appear. Like severals others, I chose the Tempress 1317 Marine Hatch. It fits the space, has two cams, and a gasket around the edge. It actually looked better (stronger) than I thought it might. Hopefully it will hold up to the UV and not leak too much. It's much lighter (including on the pocket book) than the aluminum/glass options that I saw, and I didn't really want to make my own.

Using double stick tape to hold sandpaper around the circular template makes a great sander.

(There was a reason that I stopped and made the wingnet rails before glassing the deck. This is not in the plans and I won't know if the effort is worth it, or what trouble I've caused myself until later. I evaluated where the feet of the wingnet rail would fall -- they happened to be over stiffeners and doubled glass, or bulkheads -- so I decided to rebate the deck and potentially make the fairing easier. This isn't something that I'm advocating, I'm only admitting to it since it's visible in some of the pictures.)

My plan had been to vacuum bag the deck. It would be a change of pace and seemed easy enough. I placed PP around all the edges to make the seal good and the tape easy to remove. I cut all the supplies, mixed some resin and had at it. Luckily I started at the stern, where I saw the air vent hole which I had forgotten about (remember Jay's experience with the bloated float and Tor's with the collapsing float . . .). I did a quick switch-a-roo and started using the cut bag material to do my usual PMVB. My first thought was that this was going to be the 'premium' material, but remember how my stretchy VB material affected my vacuum infusion results? Well, the force of the squeegeeing action stretched the material (which was not evident at the time). Then, since the edges are not controlled, it gradually pulled back, making enormous wrinkles! But what seemed like a nightmare turned out like any other wrinkles I've had which are caused by the plastic -- a collection of resin above the PP which just pulls off.

The lesson is that thin or stretchy plastic, which at first might seem good because it can conform to curves, actually is not what you want if you are going to work the surface with a squeegee. Thicker plastic cut into appropriate sized, overlapping strips is best.

I insulated the carbon of the chain plate cut-out at the same time.

I feathered the glass over the radiused deck edge with the long board. Watching how fibers with different orientations show up during sanding helps in deciding how much has been removed.

A great moment -- removing the PP from the side of the hull. It's hard to capture the shape in a picture, but I'll tell you it looks nice.

My second float is stored outside with the interior finished but the deck/bow not yet attached. I plan to fair and seal this one, then switch them out.

I'll admit to having a sense of dread about the fairing. It seemed that everyone talked about how it was a nuisance, a lot of work, etc . . . but I hadn't picked up enough facts or tips to feel like I could just jump in.

First, most people end up trying a couple methods, then settling on something that matches their personality and material. Some, the 'sanders', tend to put on most or all of the material first and then sand. Others, the 'fillers', will sand then fill, sand then fill . . . I thought of myself as a little more of a sander than a filler.

The general advice is to put on some limited material which is faired -- and acts as a guide when applying the bulk of material. This is to limit effort and waste (QuikFair - QF - and I'm sure all premixed materials tend to be very expensive).

Then of course, you have specific limitations from your fairing material. QF has a limited work window -- 10 minutes -- being hand-sandable at 3 hours @ 70º F. It has to be sanded between applications for adhesion purposes. When I first contacted System Three they said, "there is no window of time which allows a second coat, and it MUST BE SANDED" (capitals are theirs).

Ian's building manual describes one way to produce guides. Put on the first layer with a notched trowel, sand the tops to achieve a fair surface, then fill the grooves before the final sanding. While this might work if done within a cure window for some systems, QF did not seem to be one of them. Since this technique was mentioned in the System Three Epoxy Book also, I contacted S3 about my concerns of the interior grooves not being sanded before the second application. Their response:

"You raise an excellent point. But there is a way around it. Before sanding, scrub the QuikFair with vinegar then rinse with water. Allow drying. This will make the unsanded QuikFair surface bondable with additional QuikFair. Vacuum the dust before applying more QuikFair."

Two things made me stay away from this. One was this comment by Oliver Blanc (a Scarab 22 builder, made on a nonF-boat site), "Be careful with that method. The second application of bog does not bond well inside the grooves of the first application. I have seen old cedar strip F-9 floats done that way that had to be redone after a few years." And second, I have a house that has peeling paint no matter what you do . . .

So I decided that if I used guides, I would do a candy bag method similar to Henny and others.

I reread several blogs and decided to contact Menno for some specific advice since he had just finished final fairing. Here's his email reply:

Andrew,

As you can probably see reading my blog I'm not an expert building with fiberglass, so I can't guarantee I did it the right way. Anyway, here are some thoughts I have on the fairing.

I stopped using the candy-bag method because it was extra work and I didn't really notice the benefit of it. Also the guide lines tend to cause a lot of voids and cracks in the putty along the lines because when 'filling up' air tends to get trapped alongside the lines. Hope it is clear to you what I'm trying to explain. It's not fun backfilling all the small voids after sanding. I guess using the 'notched spreader' method will also give some problems with voids.

If you want to try the candy-bag method, make sure to put the lines not too far apart(when I would do it again I would go for about 10 cm apart maximum) and make sure they run all the way from the top to the bottom; lines with a gap will cause the trowel to 'hang' and give nasty depressions which you'll have to back-fill later on.

Just putting on a fairly thick layer of compound (using a big sturdy trowel, dry-wall style; you'll get better at it after some practice) and then sanding back as far as possible with the longboard (until you're almost at the glass) worked fine for me. It's probably a bit more wasteful then the candy-bag method. I wouldn't worry about the possible extra sanding that's involved. The first rought passes don't take up that much time. With a longboard and grit 40 you'll remove the bulk of the compound in (relatively) no time anyway. I found the last part of the sanding most time consuming.

With both methods (with or without candy-bag) I felt I was using quite a lot of compound per square meter, but a lot is sanded off eventually. On the cutout sections of the hull (windows) it's clear to see there's only a minimum of faring compound left.

An idea I read about but didn't use - maybe I should have - is to put some dark color on the glass before putting on the fairing compound. That way it's better to see when you are almost through the compound and sanding glass. When sanding with the rough grit sometimes you're there before you know it, and it doesn't take much to sand through the glass.

Sanding. Of course you'll have to use a longboard. The float sides have little curve, in fact they are almost straight for long stretches. You can use a big longboard for those. I did, but I'm not sure it's necesarry. On the main hull I mainly used a smallish longboard (about 50 cm long and about 6 cm wide) because the bigger boards would just not fit in all the curved sections. Final paint is not on yet, but I'm quite sure it's all fair. Because of the vertical planking the hulls should be fairly fair anyway, and with the 'fairing' you can only get rid of the last small imperfections.

I did all the sanding diagonally. Start at one end with the longboard just pointing straight ahead, make a diagonal sanding movement (keeping the longboard pointing forward), put the longboard about 2 cm further forward, repeat till you're at the end, then do the same thing with diagonal strokes in the opposite directions (thus sanding an 'x' pattern), and then again the other way around, etc., etc.

I hope this is of any help. If it is let me know, maybe I can put this text on my blog or the builders group....

Good luck building

Regards

Menno

(As you can see, since it was a great help, I took the last line as his permission to publish this.)

So I decided to try a small area. I knew that the area where the foam bow and hull attach was slightly low, and this seemed like a place to start.

I hadn't gotten far before I had my first feelings of foreboding . . . how thick was was this material going on? Even with a wide trowel it had grooves and transitions. And although I didn't notice them at first, bubbles. Needless to say I was glad that I was only trying a small spot. Then I sanded . . . and sanded. I started with 36 on a flexible 3M Hookit board. An early mistake was changing to 60 too soon. And bubbles! I extrapolated this experience to the whole boat, and was quickly depressed.

I was telling someone at work the next day about my experience [I say 'telling' because I know I wasn't complaining ;-) ] and the response was, "You knew when you started the project that you were going to have to do this, and it's just part of the process, right?" 


"Yeah."

"Then it sounds like you need to suck-it-up-and-drive-on!"

I'm not sure where that comes from, but I've felt better ever since she gave me that advice.

Here's the section. I was pretty happy with the shape, but didn't know how much further I was going to have to sand -- and bubbles! I decided to try something different and come back to it.

I might be a 'sander', but I needed guides. I heeded Menno's advice about straight, close, and continuous, using a Zip-Lock bag to place beads of QF.

And then I sanded with the long board. I knew about a couple problems near the keel where it was a little concave, and nothing shows that like sanded candy stripes. And there were other areas, nothing drastic, but the matte surface left by the PP hides the imperfections that need to be taken care of.

Then I filled between them with a narrow trowel. The process seems to have two parts: getting it on and giving it a finished surface. Applying it at 45º to the beads minimizes the air trapping along the edge. Working the material helps remove any bubbles (all the product instructions say, "mix so that no bubbles form," -- good luck -- when the clock starts ticking and you have ten minutes to get it in the bag and on the surface . . .). A final pass with minimal material on the trowel gives a nice finished surface.

Other blogs well describe how the material will be low between the guides. This has several causes:

1) Flexing of the trowel (and the angle of attack).

2) The curved hull areas are convex, so by definition the area between the stripes will tend to be too low if you put a straight line between them.

3) And the viscosity of the material affects how it stays behind or gets carried along. If you're moving too much material, it will begin to 'roll' under the trowel, and the mass of material effectively leaves the surface depressed.

Some material left behind on the trailing side of the trowel is OK, but don't accept low spots -- like tipping paint, if the material is still workable, keep at it. You want it to be right. Obviously it took many batches because of the short work time.

Here you can see large areas where the guides were sanded too low and I couldn't reliably leave material behind. It was tempting to let the trowel 'float', leaving more material behind, but unsystematic high spots don't help.

After fairing, it seemed so close. But I had many low spots and the bubbles near the bow to fill (I had sanded that down till I could see glass in areas, then opened and enlarged the bubbles with a small burr on a Dremel). I decided the best way to solve all these problems was to prep the low spots, then skim coat the whole side.

I learned several lessons here. This material likes to be worked! A soft touch doesn't give the best result. This is when I remembered, "thixotropic: the property of becoming less viscous when subjected to applied stress, shown for example by some gels that become temporarily fluid when shaken or stirred." Previously, I had really only thought of this in the 'can be applied, but doesn't sag' version. Now it was, 'push harder so it flows better'.

I found that putting parallel beads of QF controlled for an even volume. Adding a 45º crisscross motion to the trowel, vs. just deck to keel, also increased the uniformity of the skim coat. I finished with a continuous, firm-pressured swipe from deck to keel.

Sanding: 36 grit, board parallel to the deck edge, with 45º motion. Start at one end, advancing ~1/2 inch with each 45° swipe until you get to the other end, then return the other direction with the alternate 45º.

It's taking shape. It goes slowly at first (a low actual surface area of board touching because of high spots?), then the material starts to disappear faster. It still takes hours. If I felt discouraged or felt like stopping, I found that changing to a new piece of sanding paper would improve the speed and my outlook.

I decided that, in order to get a uniform finish, I needed to take care of any low spots early. You can see some below.

It's easy to get focused on the low spots when sanding. But remember, you can't sand a low spot -- you can only sand the high spots. Truly low spots have to be filled. Since the last step is sanding, not filling, I think stopping to fill early is likely better than hoping the low spots will disappear before you've reached glass. You have to stop when you see glass, though if low spots remain it can be so tempting to try just a little more.

I probably filled some that were going to disappear before I stopped sanding, but I was becoming determined that this was it, no more rounds of QF!

Tired sander, but happy to have sucked-it-up-and-sanded-on. (And yes, it seems I tried a couple of different methods too.)

Several interesting observations from my patch-work of filling.

1) By the time I had spot-sanded the 'low' spots for adhesion purposes, they were now low for sure.

2) When sanding at this stage, more than just the high spots (which are now the slightly proud filled areas) get removed. The grit also moves across the previously faired material, making it go down also. The high spots are removed, but not at the same rate as during the initial sanding. Said another way -- after filling, the new faired shape/depth will be lower than where you stopped before filling. So, fill early.

December

I built several radius sanders, and finally settled on one that approached a 2-inch radius, was stiff enough, and had an ergonomic handle. I cut a partially-used hook and loop 36-grit sandpaper to size and held it in place by a strip of double-sided carpet tape. This makes it easy to change paper when necessary.

This model was then further modified so that it was not a full quarter round. Like I mentioned before (when placing the foam filler for the deck flange), the deck/hull angle is greater than 90º in areas and you can see how easy it was to make accidental grooves in the hull side. The modified version worked great, but I needed to be ever watchful -- things happen fast.

This shows the finished radius. The 'center' foam stripe is the foam filler for the deck flange with the QF attaching it to the hull below. The QF above is why I used two types of epoxy to join the deck – if this layer had been hard to sand, you can see what a nuisance it would have been. When using the radius sander, I did not notice the QF. But when doing the finishing touches with the long board, it's just like the keel – any QF that runs parallel to the long board can stay proud/high as the board rotates quickly over the slightly harder QF.

Once happy with the shape, I placed the extra schedules of glass on the bow cap. I put a rebate in the foam to hopefully make it easier to fair the final layer of glass. I've seen the glass placed different ways. I placed the glass folded across bow, tucked the keel, and didn't bother with going onto the deck except to overlap the join. This minimized cutting, shaping, and overlaps.

I used the PMVB, which worked perfect for the leading edge and sides. It becomes more tricky with complex curves and angles. I used multiple pieces of packing tape to help hold the complicated edges, but I must admit that I got a couple small waves or wrinkles from the tension or pull that I applied to these. This aspect needs further evaluation.

My glass comes in 50-inch widths. In preparing to glass the sides I cut off a strip that was wide enough to make the wingnet rails. Doing this to both sides produced enough for one rail, and I plan to cut one 50-inch width in half to produce enough for two decks. This really leaves very little wastage except shaping the sides along towards the transom.

Repeating my usual technique: wet foam, wet glass, *trim edge*, wet peel ply, (trim slightly larger), place plastic (trim slightly larger), wet plastic . . squeegee out excess.

I emphasized trimming after wetting. It is much easier to trim odd angles (anything other than 90º) to shape after wetting -- the viscosity of the resin tends to hold things together. The downside is that it does make it harder to save glass remnants to use later. Also, when stitched fabrics are cut at oblique angles, you invariably have some long strands that are not held in place. With PMVB the forceful squeegee action is often perpendicular to these strands and can force them out from the edge. Given that the edge will be feathered/faired, I don't think we were counting on these strands for any strength, but they can be an occasional nuisance.

You can see how the glass has to wrap around and under the keel. I found it easiest to wet the glass while holding it out from the boat, cut to shape, squeegee in place. Gravity slowly removes resin from the glass while on the verticle/upside down edge. And glass doesn't like to hang upside either. PMVB helps in both cases -- just make sure there's enough resin before placing the plastic.

I like the shape! You can see cured resin beaded on the plastic.

For working with edges that are on foam (verses overlapping another laminate layer), I used a painter's tool for dispensing tape and plastic at the same time. All the layers of glass, PP, and plastic went over this. It was easy to trim this with a sharp knife while green. It leaves an edge that's easy to feather on the radius, and all the other foam is clean.

I've so far been hesitant to do this over a cured laminate layer for fear of cutting the layer below. I still place the tape and plastic, but I only let the PP overlap the tape so no cutting is involved. The PP leaves a clean surface for secondary bonding and any sanding is just to feather the laminate edge.

Here you can see the feathered edge on the underside of the keel. My overlap may be excessive here, but at the time I was thinking cruiser strength, not racer weight.

Here's the backside of the bow after clean up. The two broad stripes of QF are fairing the rebate areas. Glassing the second side went the same way.

Before glassing the deck I decided to make the two wingnet rails. Angles and measurements are from full-size patterns. I used a couple pieces of MDF molding run through the table saw. One trick for gluing these together is to lay them out flat with the open angle next to table and tape them together. This tape acts like a hinge, holding the edge during gluing.

I used hot glue, thinking I didn't want to wait the 24 hours for my other glue to set, but I wouldn't do this again (at least at the temperatures of my garage). The glue would stiffen up before I could place it along the entire edge and close the joint (this even with a 'special' wood-working, extended open version). This made it hard to keep the same angles I cut. I purchased some 5 minute epoxy for the next time I have a project like this.

I routed the 90º edge, longboarded the other, and filled the last with QF.

You can see the float suspended above the work table as I get ready to do the lay-up.

November

Since I only have space to work on one float at a time, I switch them out as I'm moving along. This may make the pictures seem like they jump slightly -- I'm trying to not report on progress twice unless I've learned/tried something different.

On this side, I filled screw holes and gaps before trying any attempt at fairing the foam. I think last time I was so excited to see the shape develop that I filled after, and of course will have to sand/fair twice.

I use a syringe with narrow attachment to get the QuickFair into the screw holes. They are deep and narrow so filling them from the 'inside out' is important. Remember that vinegar (any dilute acid) easily cleans tools, skin, and spills of uncured epoxy (which is a base). So, if you have a limited supply of that special tool (ie., the narrow tip attachment) you can reuse it as long as the acid is rinsed off before its next use.

Here I'm pre-wetting the tape for the inside keel join, including an extra layer along each side at the transom. Prepping this area as much as possible before the join obviously makes life easier. PMVB as usual.

My plan is to post-cure the SilverTip laminating epoxy that I am using. When initially researching this, I wanted an epoxy designed especially for a fiberglass composite construction – the skins are the strength, not just protection, as it would be for a wood boat. SystemThree has several options, its PhaseTwo (special order, expensive . . .) and SilverTip. They state, "SilverTip 'Slow' laminating resin excels in application for composite-cored boats, exhibiting excellent mechanical properties, following a moderate post-cure." Moderate means 140ºF for two hours.

Since the foam is a great insulator and the hulls will have limited air flow after being closed up, I decided to cure the interior of the hull before closing it up. A little jury rigging and . . .

It's relatively easy to shape the keel using the guides for frames 2, 7, and 11.

I liked Tor's technique of having the deck flat and pulling the hull against it. My deck was in three parts which I fitted and glued while on top of the hull. It was then moved to the strong back and taped together.

My plan was to put the joining bog mixture on the hull flange and then flip it onto the deck, align the beam mount pins with their respective holes, then clamp with ratcheting tie-downs. After a dry run it seemed possible.

No pictures because we were a bit rushed. I wanted to use a 'strong' material at the flange, but a 'sandable' material at the foam-foam join. As usual, the 10 minute work time with QF was the rate limiting/stressful step.

Of course the question of 'how much' seemed difficult to know. You don't want too little as the deck flange is only two layers of glass, so it's a bit flexible at its outer edge, and not always exactly flat (ie., a slight gap at the inner edge if you put a straight edge across). Given that you can't clean up the inside squeeze-out, you don't want too much. Just the best you can, I guess.

A rush to apply, a two person flip (now at the weight limit of what my wife wants to do), a slight jiggle to align the pin and holes . . .

In the end we had squeeze-out along most of the outer edge. I won't know what the inside looks like until I cut the access hatches. Some areas where I had left the hull planking slightly short (from early planking when I was learning) had a larger area and consequently a void. I think this will disappear when I sand the radius to the deck edge. Next time I think mixing my own bog and having a longer work time would decrease the stress.

I found that it was important to have a slippery material between the tie downs and the foam as this ensured that the force was equalized on both sides, verses tight on the ratchet side and weak on the other.

To make the foam bow caps I first made a blank from scraps four layers thick, then estimated additional pieces for the outsides.

I used a large garbage bag as a 'vacuum clamp'. I think I first saw Meno do this. Two zip-ties with a twist to the bag in-between was adequate since a small leak was inconsequential.

I extended the centerline forward with a straight edge and then a plum line to make sure it wasn't cock-eyed. A little of the QF and . . .

The builder happily shaping.

I used a power planer and longboard to contour the bow. Now we're starting to look like a boat!

I had rough-faired the hull before the deck join. Two passes with the router started the shape of the deck radius. First I used a flush cut bit to remove the edge, then a 45º bit with guide to remove material to make hand sanding easier.

October

I didn't seem to get any action shots this time -- it's hard enough to get yourself in the upside down hull, let alone with a camera. I was able to accomplish all the 'inside' tasks: making fore and aft beam mounting flanges, the deck mounting flange on the center BH and transom, the compression strut between bow stiffeners, the tapping plate for the deck eye, and a sealing coat of resin along keel.

I mounted the T6061 aluminum plate under flanges (best done upside down). A trick I used in hard-to-reach areas of bow and transom: take a cloth towel in a plastic bag and shove, wedge, or brace into the small place. It works wonders to hold tape (plus or minus peel ply) in place and removes easily when the resin is cured.

Strut at stringers.

Forward and aft beam mounting flanges. I would pre-wet the glass on a sheet of plastic, then place each layer individually. For the double bias I cut the plastic around the glass then applied both, removing the plastic before the next layer. This plastic backing kept the pieces full-size as they were applied. In the smaller confines of the aft/transom area where I could sometimes only get one arm and shoulder in at a time, this helped with even the bi-directional. I finished these with the usual poor man's vacuum bag.

I wanted to shape the keel before putting on the deck in case I sanded too close to the interior laminate. I rough cut the keel foam with a Japanese pull saw, then attacked with the long board and 36 grit.

Templates at several form stations help guide the final shape. Just starting here with the keel still square.

I will make a qualification on my previous statement of the sand-ability of QuickFair. It's not exactly like foam. For the screw holes and vertical plank joins, it's as if the QF isn't there. The longboard is going perpendicular to the join at all times. Also, the join between the halves was easy. But the join where the planks butt against the keel foam required some extra attention. They're parallel to the action of the longboard and it's difficult to control the rocking motion as the board goes over the slightly harder QF. This can leave a slight hump or angle instead of the smooth curve that would naturally develop if it was exactly the same as the foam. I broke the rules and with light pressure went perpendicular to this seam just before my last pass of the board -- it disappeared.

This was my first experience with the longboard. An amazing tool. I have the 3M Hookit -- flexible. I caused myself a little grief right off the bat by turning the board perpendicular to the keel and sanding the keel to match the hull side near the bow. Of course, the side was a little low, but I didn't want the keel low there -- I just hadn't started thinking (I wanted them to match, right?). Lesson learned. You can only sand high spots, and if you use the tool wrong, you get the wrong result.

Here you can see how thin I needed to sand the foam to achieve the desired shape (that's the shadow of my hand). The plans call for some extra reinforcement if you sand to (or through) the laminate in the keel area. I decided to place an extra piece of tape on each side near the transom. You can see how using the 3/4 inch foam at the keel gives a larger flat surface, so the tape does not go up on the hull sides near the transom. I will place this extra lamination on the second float at the same time as taping the keel.

The final shape at the transom. The deck will be next, then final shaping before glassing.

I took a trip down to California to see my daughter at college. I drove straight down, toured the campus, camped at the beach with her for several days, and visited with my brother and sister-in-law.

I'll share a couple pictures to entice people to visit the West Coast. These pictures are all California -- the rest of the time I was making miles (3000 in 11 days).

Big Sur, a wild part of the southern coast, visited on the way down.

After leaving Santa Barbara, I went to Yosemite -- a National Park and World Heritage Site. I'd never been to Yosemite. Having the Eurovan makes me realize I've done a lot of international travel, but seen only a fraction of my own country.

Taft Point (behind me is the view point) with a 3000 foot drop to the valley floor where I camped. El Capitan is in the distance across the valley. Mid 70's and sunshine every day.

Half Dome as seen from Glacier Point. The pass to the eastern side is in the distance. So much granite!

El Capitan, Half Dome in distance, at sunset from Tunnel View.

El Capitan, at sunrise from Valley View with Merced River. One of the classic sights of Yosemite is all the waterfalls coming over the high cliffs, but there is very little water after the end of summer. I plan to return in the spring.

Cathedral Rocks by (full) moonlight, from the valley floor.

Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoia (largest living organism by mass, found only on west side of Sierras. The tallest is a relative, the Coast Redwood, also found in California).

I drove east across the Sierra Nevada on Tioga Pass. Here's lunch at 9950 feet. This road closed because of snow two weeks later.

Searching for Fall colors. The classic in eastern Sierra are Aspen. I was a little early, but they were still pretty. Lee Vining Valley.

Mono Lake with tufa looking at the Eastern Sierra at sunrise. The ecology of the Great Basin is amazing (200,000 square miles with no outlet to the Pacific). I stopped to hike in several more valleys, then headed north.