Aaron's Status

7:27 am

Photo bags

Last week I wrote about packing my Shimoda photo bag, then moving everything to the Peak Design Everyday 30L and feeling really good about it. Well, I moved everything back and ultimately took the Shimoda to Death Valley and hot damn was that the correct choice.

Reasons to choose the Shimoda for these kinds of trips:

1. Lots of space. I downplayed how much space I’d need, and I definitely didn’t need it all, but it was good to have that space available.

2. The additional comfort of the thick straps while walking and hiking was pretty crucial.

3. Access to everything through the large zippered door ended up being as convenient as I imagined when I bought it.

I brought both my infrared-converted X-T4 and my X-T5, which share Fuji lenses, and I wound up swapping lenses so often, it was helpful to put the bag on the ground or in the trunk of the rental car and use it as a third hand to do that.

The Shimoda bag also has lots of loops and attachment points on the straps and I ended up using one on the right shoulder strap to clip on my radio, which was so cool and convenient. Radios are cool.

Radios

Because we had a large group (my family of three and my friend’s family of four), and because there’s close to no service of any kind in Death Valley, the best way to keep in touch is by radio. When we all traveled together to Olympic National Park six years ago we brought these cheap little GMRS radios and they really helped (even when there was cell service).

This time, we got these Baofeng 10-watt FRS/GMRS/HAM handhelds (UV-5RM if you want to look them up). For the price, I strongly recommend them! I created a frequency list and suite of settings in the “CHIRP” app on my PC and flashed all of our radios with it (awesome feature by the way), locking every frequency on the “high” power setting.

The range on these things is really impressive. We could definitely get multiple miles of range, even with obstructions, which the previous cheapo radios could never do. Obviously 10 watts of power helps, but also using the “correct” antenna is key (a 6" whip is the right choice for FRS/GMRS in the 400MHz range).

These Baofeng UV-5R radios are pretty widely recommended as “budget” or “starter” HAM radios and they have all of the features you need to operate an amateur radio control point (repeater offsets, PL/CTCSS, etc.) They worked really well for us, even after getting dropped in the sand and banged around a bit. They’re plastic and not water/dust-proof or anything, but they held up well.

It was so key to be able to coordinate while driving in our separate cars to destinations (“hey we’re going to pull over here to photograph this,” “do you guys see these cool Joshua trees?!”) and while hiking at inevitably different speeds (“I’ll wait for you at the next scramble”).

Plus you feel cool as shit using a radio out in the field.

Underslept

We had a layover on the flight home because it was the only reasonable time that wasn’t a redeye and our connection from Salt Lake City was delayed about 30 minutes (the plane coming in from Phoenix was late). That could have been worse, and the flight overall was totally fine (lifted off promptly, arrived at its gate promptly), but that delay pushed us from about midnight to more like 12:30am.

After deplaning, walking to baggage claim, finding our car, etc., we were closer to 1am. Then of course there were miles of single-lane construction zones on the Mass Pike because car infrastructure needs relentless maintenance, which got us back home closer to 2am.

I gotta say, the trip was 100% worth it, and taking a “travel day” is fine, and I won’t complain, but getting home at two and getting up for work at around seven is pretty rough. I was basically a zombie from around noon on.