Sharon Perry and I did our second Yosemite sequoia groves expedition
August 8-10. We camped at Crane Flat, our first time there. Our
campsite had no table and worse, no level ground. Beggars can't be
choosers, I guess.
The first night I lugged my heavy rig down to the Mile 2 marker at
Tuolumne Grove. That's the last sequoia on the road, where there's a
line of boulders marking the side of the road.
I bivouacked (with research permit) right under the sequoia. I ran my
80' snake down the slope and set up my 4-channel AT3020 array facing
the canyon. It was my first time out with my new Pro Digital battery
pack (6 pounds) and I was pleased that it ran my 744 recorder on
standby all night. I used the 10-second record buffer to catch sounds
that woke me up. My cable for powering the MP-2 preamp was wired
wrong, so I had to switch that off and on when I was recording to save
its batteries.
There were fewer high-altitude jets than in the daytime, but they
still were occasional all night. In the headphones I could hear louder
vehicles on the highway now and then. The most prominent sounds were
squirrels and falling things--sometimes a clatter and a resounding
thump. Large pine cones? One falling object whistled as it fell. A big
piece of bark? Some chuffing sounds might have been deer.
I recorded an hour and a quarter at dawn. Few birds this time of year.
After brunch and a nap in camp I explored the Clark View trail. It's
flat and easy, and there is a view payoff at the end. Ripe red berries
and bear scat. I recorded a creaking tree and wind in pines with my
Nagra ARES-M.
I was able to beg an outlet on the generator they have for the cash
register at the camp entrance kiosk to recharge my brick. When I
picked it up six hours later it still wasn't full, but I had to go
with what I could get.
In the late afternoon I hiked down to the Merced Grove. After scouting
around I decided to set up the array behind the shuttered log cabin
facing up the little side canyon there, and sleep on the stone front
porch.
I recorded for a while in the dusk. A flock of quail came through with
delightful burbling sounds. There was an impressive background drone
of mosquitoes around the greenery where the mics were, but they
weren't bad where I was. Bats went to work. I could hear their wings
and their echolocation pulses. At first I thought the pulses were
something wrong with the mics. I suspect that what was audible was
actually aliasing distortion from out-of-band signals. Next time I
have bats I'll try recording at 96K.
There was a chink under the eaves where I was lying, and bats flew in
and out a few feet over my head. As at the Tuolumne Grove, falling
things were the dominant sounds in the night.
I started my dawn recording one hour before sunrise. There were few
birds but interesting sounds. From Merced Grove I could also hear
louder sounds from the highway. I think there was a gathering of
motorcycle clubs passing through. With my naked ears I could just
barely hear the loudest traffic.
The 744 started giving me low battery warnings around sunrise. I
watched the display to see it switch over to the internal battery.
Imagine my chagrin when it failed to do that and just shut down. It
was the first time I've had a technical problem with the 744. It
reported file system errors. I ran the repair utility but it wasn't
able to fix the file. I sent the machine back to Sound Devices to see
what they could do. They explained that the voltage of lead-acid
batteries rises after the load is taken off, and this confuses their
switchover circuit. Perhaps when I'm also powering the MP-2 preamp
from the battery that load will stabilze it. To be continued.
-Dan Dugan
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