We have three categories: EV to the Backcountry, Other EV News, Other Backcountry, and Green Transition. So you can skip any you're not interested in. Because B- complained.

2025 July 2 : Redwood Materials, run by JB Straubel, Tesla's former CTO, was supposed to be a battery recycling company.  Instead, they have a novel idea that's making money:  Use cheap, castoff USED batteries for energy storage. Just lay them on cinder blocks in the desert, don't even make nice concrete pads. They do the same with solar panels (theirs are cleaned at night by robots). This is kind of brilliant because as I've pointed out elsewhere, cheap low-energy density batteries are appropraite for grid-scale storage. New kinds of chemistry with cheap materials might do this, but so can batteries which have lost 1/2 their capacity and are now useless for EVs. Their new facility is 63MW-hr, so that's a megawatt for more than two days.  They have a 1 MW data center next door as their customer, and it is profitable they say.  -Canary Media

2025 June 27: Much alarm re: sales of public lands in the West in the 'Big, Beautiful, Bill'.  250627 : "Lawmakers in Washington “are getting advice from people who might consider a float or a day trip on the Potomac a pretty wild excursion,” Mr. Newberg said. “For Westerners, public lands are a key part of life.”"

-article about hunters objecting to the sale of public lands in the "big beautiful bill"., https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/climate/public-lands-sell-off-maga.html

2025 May 5: From today's Bloomberg Hyperdrive: China and the US are the global leaders in autonomous-driving tech. But for road freight, driverless trucks have just started operating regularly on US highways for the first time this year. While Inceptio covers 85% of China’s highways, it’s been operating with human drivers present as required by Chinese law.

2025 May 4: I'm trying to propertly re-organize this site to have a real newsletter section, and some few blog entries as are reasonable. Hopefully this works...

There were a few things that struck me recently.  The first is this announcement: "Driverless trucks are officially running their first regular long-haul routes, making roundtrips between Dallas and Houston.” The company is called “Aurora”. -May 1, CNN.com.  There are 3.5M drivers (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.geotab.com/blog/trucking-industry-statistics/) some sites claim upwards of 8M people in trucking industry in US.   Where are those three million drivers going to go, what are they going to do, when they are replaced? 

Walking around my neighborhood today we say a brand new Budget van. We couldn't see exhaust pipes, and it made little noise like an EV, but I thought I heard some tiny bit of engine noise from the front.  Is it an EV? Is it just a hybrid that kind of seems like an EV?  Let us know, our email is at the bottom of the page.

Happy 2025: Electric Backcountry Adventurer New Year Newsletter

The end of 2024 showed big surprises in all aspects of EVs and clean and green: We’re getting there.  But quiely. Headwinds and all.

TIMELY: In case you know someone who might be thinking about #greenyourride (their ride?),  astounding deals on electrics are available now! Dealers are responding to potential end of tax credit with amazing corporate incentives - e.g. 0% for Kia EV6.  For the moment, the $7500 tax credit STILL applies to certain EVs. Tell your friends (even erstwhile ICE friends)! 

EV2Backcountry:                Chuck(walla) it all and head for the desert!; cheaper DCFC; Prologue to…? LOOK OUT - price gouging

Other EV News:                  2024 in review; Getting to EV Tipping points (once again, CA in SECOND place) 

Other Backcountry:             Permit time!

Green Transition News:      2024 in Review - we’re getting there! In many ways. And … cement? Really!

(To view in Browser, or to visit us on the web: https://sites.google.com/view/electricbackcountryadventurer)

EV to the Backcountry: 

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CHECK OUT THE CHUCKWALLA-As I write this, it’s cold and grey in Berkeley.  Maybe time for some desert hiking/climbing in sunny Southern CA?  The newly designated Chuckwalla National Monument, which promises everything from gorgeous canyons to petroglyphs and golden eagles, lies NE and pretty close to the Salton Sea. One could do this as a rest day side trip from Joshua Tree.  There are convenient 250kW superchargers and EvGo chargers all the way.  (Last ones of both are in upland, CA.) Is there climbing out there?  First ascent possibilities?  Write in if you hear anything on that; EBA readers want to know!

EASIER TO GET EVERYWHERE In 2024 alone, the US added nearly 12,500 DCFCs (https://www.fastcompany.com › Impact). The *rate* of these installs will continue to increase for a while, due to the long lead time from when the IRA was passed, until it is implemented (and until it will presumably be wound down by the next congress). 

PROLOGUE...TO NEXT-GEN TRUCKS? Honda has a new SUV out, and it’s big and beefy. I have seen a brand new one, can’t be sure if it is the 2025 or 2024 year model, but it’s the classic SUV look, nothing “crossover” about it, square and high roofline. There is a tiny “e” somewhere on one badge, but other than that, it’s EV identity is actually hidden (I wouldn’t be sure enough to write about this had I not actually wriggled under the car on my back to verify there were #nopipes). Car and driver rates it as “fast-ish” charging, so disappointingly, it’s no revolution in that respect. But it’s great to see Honda at least getting started on this track.  The Hyundai ioniq5 is screaming fast at charging, due to it’s 800V architecture. However, it’s some kind of "not really" SUV,  like the Tesla Y (slower charging than Hyundai’s premium offerings), without the ground clearance traditional 4WD rigs have to help get into places like Bowman, Shuteye, and the like. The 2025 Prologue had “good” (or at least better than Model Y) clearance, but I could not find an actual figure for that on the web. 

UH-OH, CHARGING PRICE GOUGING? The EBA team is a little embarrassed to admit it, but we didn’t drive an EV to Ouray, CO for climbing this year.   However, we checked out the local DCFC near this winter climbing mecca, only to find that they charge - motheR of GOD - 87 cents/kWh!!!   Our expert checked the local utility, to find that they had CHEAP local electricity rates, (I forget exactly, I thin it was under 20 cents/kWh). Here in CA, I pay around 24 cents/kWh at home, and super chargers in the central valley are a painful 45cents/kWh. But 87 cents, where the retail price is like 20?  Seriously?  THESE FOLKS NEED SOME COMPETITION!  (I find Tesla SC rates pretty uniform. Nerdwallet claims Electrify America chargers are uniformly 48 cents/kWh; you can find one in Buck Meadows on the way to Yosemite, for example. So competition would be truly helpful.)

(NOTE: EARLY JANUARY IS A MUCH, MUCH CHEAPER TIME TO VISIT OURAY than later, both for air fare and hotel!!! Oh, and there is finally a “public” shuttle, only $4 from the nearest airport to Ouray, but it only runs on weekdays.)

OTHER EV NEWS

—————————

2024 was only about bad, terrible, and awful news for EVs.  Except that it wasn’t, not in reality. As far as the popular press was concerned, we elected the “drill baby, drill” EV-hating president, EVs froze in the winter when they weren’t going up in flames, and no one will ever buy an EV again. -Except that they are. More than ever, all over the world. 

The real situation is obvious: US total EV sales INCREASED (yes, really) by 7% 2024 vs. 2023, to 1.3 million EVs. That means that, nationwide, EV sales are 10% of all new cars. What really happened is that Tesla numbers didn’t grow like the Tesla cheerleaders wanted, so the press reported that EV demand “fell off a cliff”.  At the same time, the number of actual EV models available increased dramatically, and so Tesla lost customers to these other models. People are still buying Mach-Es, they are trying out the fast-charging Hyundais, the Cadillac Lyriq (not my kind of thing, but hey, as long as it has #nopipes), and others. A funny result of this absurd year is that Cybertrucks have become a MAGA thing, appearing at Mar-a-Lago and on Tucker Carlson. 

(https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/electric-vehicles/chart-ev-sales-grew-slowly-in-2024-but-still-set-new-records

https://heatmap.news/sparks/trump-cybertruck)  A bit ironic that the MAGA faithful might bring down transportation emissions...

Back to 10% of all US cars: Think about that for a moment. Publicly, oil companies  just chortle when EVs or any kind of transition are mentioned.  But think about how that kind of number would sound to a huge institutional investor: Let’s say you’re a soverign wealth fund manager, and the oil company guys give their pitch for $1B in new drilling financing.  THEN someone with good graphics, perhaps like this (COTW-ev-sales_2025-01-17-023825_khil.png), tells them that "fossil is dying", here’s the chart showing EVs growing no matter what, even in Trump’s America, now do you want to put your country’s long-term investment into oil, or say, lithium/battery tech/electric utilities? I would say that 10% really makes it clear this is no joke. It might be a while before we reach 10% of US fleet total (projected around 2030 by NREL; https://www.edmunds.com/electric-car/articles/how-many-electric-cars-in-us.html). At this point, however, would you invest in gas stations? Oil companies? Would anyone? 

SO YOU THINK CA IS THE #1 EV LOVING STATE?  Think again.  In 2024Q3, Colorado had 25% of registrations EV or plug-in EVs.  In CA that number was about 1 % less.  CO has some of the most generous subsidies for EVs, contributing to that number.  One quarter doesn’t mean everything, but it does mean that CO is not far behind CA in EV adoption. CO has something like an “EV cash for clunkers” program, where you can get up to a few thousand dollars if you ditch your old fossil car. 

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/electric-vehicles/which-state-is-rivaling-california-on-ev-leadership-colorado

CA, are you listening? Do you really want to be #2? 

Other Backcountry

-------------------

PERMIT TIME - A special reminder, exclusive to EBA subscribers - don’t forget that permits for most of the Sierras become available 6 months in advance through recreation.gov.  That means that post-mozzie season permits in July and August are coming up fast, so start planning….

The Green Transition

—————————

The Climate Concerned among us have been dreading the Trump Administration v2.0.  However, it’s a good idea to look at the bigger picture of GHG emissions and what that looks like. Total US equivalent emissions have been falling since 2007. There was a substantial dip during the pandemic, and things have been falling slower in the last year, but the direction is unmistakeable. 

Looking at that in more detail, the drop in emissions has been dominated by new solar and wind, which have been incredibly popular because they are cheaper than natural gas plants in most places. Bloomberg Green (250119) broke this all down in a nice chart, and of buildings, industry, power, oil and gas, and transport.  Power (electrical power) has been steeply declining 2005-2020, somewhat more slowly the last couple years. This is the driver of all change so far.  Most of the others are flat, though one can see a tiny decrease in Oil and Gas extraction emissions. Emissions by Transport *clearly* dominates emissions now. This is why climate folks have been emphasizing so much for so long that we have to transition to EVs. So, on the positive side, Green energy PLUS batteries are so cheap now that there is simply no future in any other source of power. On the negative side, there is widespread dread that federal incentives  might be yanked by Trump, drastically slowing the US adoption of EVs. On the other hand, EV sales are still growing, few people would go back, and these things seem to move by tipping points, which we seem to be closing in on.  So, depending on whether you want to see the clouds or the silver lining, the growth in EVs is only good news, and more growth and acceptance could help us turn the corner and accelerate the decrease in transport emissions. Of course, the REAL challenge coming up is the rise of AI and data centers. Unless green energy meets that (potentially huge) growth in demand, we could see a GROWTH in emissions.  So, there is plenty of good news, but, “we live in interesting times.”

OTHER GOOD NEWS, lots of solar has been going in in the EU, surprisingly, not just in the sunniest countries, but in Germany and other places in the North.  So, for the first time, solar across the EU out-generated dirty coal across the entire EU.  While various countries have long touted their green creds, the poorer and more eastern countries have continued to burn coal - but less and less each year (except 2022, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine). Coal energy is now down to nearly 1/4 it’s level in the mid 2000’s, and solar keeps growing.  Advanced economies can clearly ditch coal. Now if we can just get China, where coal is actually still growing  to quit that, we would be good. (Bloomberg Balance of Power 250123). 

CEMENTING THESE GAINS: One last thing: You’re probably read a lot about Greenhouse gas emissions from cement.  I was really not aware, until a Canary Media article, that the actual CO2 from cement, 8% of global emissions (!), comes from the chemical reaction of transforming limestone into cement, NOT from burning fossil fuels. This is a point of hope, that alternative chemistries could solve this emission problem. For most industries, they need to replace their source of high temperature heat from typically gas ovens to something else - a very energy intensive process that means huge ares of solar panels, not a small ask. 

(https://hello.canarymedia.com/e3t/Ctc/GF+113/d2j6-404/VVQTWC6wtpC6VxJ0631jY5f4W6phD5r5r3VJBN5QLhV03hCZPW95jsWP6lZ3p8W8mnGXz7CmSm3W5fx6GC95GB-PVZvvj34BSxlCN8fvxwkq-JqZW8yc6gR9bgv3_W5XbzFF2KHrZKW22DZ3P4VRp9cW9jJtgD52L7CgW7yzlWj3xJJCtW4zTD4P6JTbPTW9kFmN-4MwBCLN37DHthvzLrJW8yCjTC3LyRH8W1pK1rW37YvldW31crzH7KS3NRW5bcLK_2N6H3XW1V2wxk2jj_CKV-bT3C31WB0kW4VdRYV2m77KpVxCmfq34HqJhW5cpsH32n7Q6_W1XSfkC8PPnvyW6Ml6FG8_WCLMW7P_PR45xwtB6W94B8Vw4mpf1MW6Y6sG06_CljRV-kxtB4XVSQnW4D7vHb1zpzNcVNsF1J4Z0LtvW8R6_hK5dbG_Bf7bxgBz04)

Sept +Oct 2024 Newsletter

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Your EBA team has been a little busy off traveling for about a month, and we got a little bit behind on Newsletters.  Therefore, we’ve combined Sept and Oct into one. 

EV to the Backcountry - Squamish, here we come (BC commits to DCFCs)

The Great 2024 EBA Miter Basin Expedition (SF Bay Area to Lone Pine, CA, Cottonwood Pass / Cottonwood Lakes THs.)  Technical issues with … ice cream opening hours. Tricks for low battery drain! DCFC at random rest stop on East Side

Green Transition - GHG emissions are down in CA and China, because of EV adoption.  It’s working!  Home solar wildly popular in…Germany? New Solar, worldwide, is just going crazy, growing 34% this year. . 

Other EV news - Yes, it *is* true, US consumers are being screwed on EVs; twice as many models are available in the UK.  An affordable Lucid? 

Other Backcountry - What’s up with folding pads? Miso Soup? Yes, definitely!

                                                                     ---

EV to the Backcountry

Special for you Canadians out there (and you know who you are!): 

The ACAN or AK-Canada hwy is considered the last DCFC Desert.  ...but the government of BC, Canada has just committed to putting DCFCs all over all their highways: https://www.squamishreporter.com/2024/09/06/bc-will-complete-electric-highway-linking-sea-to-sky-and-beyond-for-ev-travel/   so, maybe a climbing trip to BC is in order soon, eh? 

The Great 2024 EBA Miter Basin Expedition (SF Bay Area to Lone Pine, CA, Cottonwood Pass / Cottonwood Lakes THs.  )

Since it’s Sept. 10, we can use Tioga pass with a charge in Groveland first, then south on 395. On 395,  we were buzzed by an F- 18 about halfway to Lone Pine-it was like 30 feet above our heads - Crazy!

In the town of lone Pine, we ate at a place called Bonanza Mexican restaurant where they were $19 very plain burritos. When the burrito arrived, it had none of the promised guacamole or perhaps so little we could not detect it. We asked for more, and the waitress made sure we understood she was doing us a huge favor by giving us some.  Bonanza is not on the EBA recommended list. 

We had a great time in Miter basin; it wasn’t quite as remote or spectacular as the previous month’s Gardiner basin, BUT the view looking back at the Miter in front of that lake was super-ultra-stunning. 

When we came back, we did a little extra cross-country to cut off some time to the car.  Doing this we found that our GPS was off by more than 100 m!  We’d never seen this before.  Any of you ever experience that???  Because we were far off, we definitely walked all around the very large parking lot, and we were very disappointed to find that we were the one and only EV at the TH.  Where were all our legions of readers, or why didn’t they bring their EVs? 

We now have the EV drain BEAT:  6 days, ZERO battery drain! (well, zero that showed, anyway.  So, less than 1%, rounded.)   Just do this:  

1\ turn off sentry mode

2\lock car

3\TURN OFF ALL CAR APPS WHILE AT THE CAR - so the car knows now one is “listening”. 

This has effectively killed any noticeable drain, not only backcountry trips but 21 day drips leaving car in front of house.  So, it’s pretty well tested, and we are absolutely sure of less than 1/4% drain/day. 

This parking lot was really, really high, and had a truly incredible, amazing road down, down, down to the floor of Owen’s, and we gained > 8% going down!  

On the drive back, we had Technical issues with … ice cream hours. Until some time later in the year, you could not enter Yosemite until 4:00 PM or so. At 4:00, however, you really don’t want to be there, as there is a big line; you want to shoot for more like 4:30 or 4:45.  The serious, life-threatening problem then,  is that the awesomely excellent ice cream place in Groveland, with really creative flavors, closes ridiculously early, like 6 PM, so it’s impossible to make it before closing time.  Big drag!  (Reservations end late Oct. I believe.) (Also on the way back, we stopped again at Groveland charger to note that there is no good charger for trailers - if you tow, try to avoid it, if you can’t, ask people to help and direct you and others. )

US 395 Division Creek Rest area DCFC - Driving North along 395 North of Independence but significantly South of Bishop,  I saw a blue eV charging sign by the side of the highway, with “DCFC” underneath, in front of like, nothing, and I mean NOTHING but tumbleweeds; this is an incredibly desolate spot where you can see about 10 miles in any direction.  So, huh?  Hiding behind tumbleweeds? Some mi or so further, I see a sign for a rest area. It's in the rest area! Only with VERY specific keywords can you find this on google.  From the google comments, apparently this opened just 2024 Sept. 1, and is FREE, 50 kW. I guess that’s the IRA in progress!  There is only one “pump", however, and 50 kW is not exactly blindingly fast. But it can help in a pinch. 

Green Transition

What is 250, 440, and 595?  That’s the number of Gigawatts new solar capacity added in 2022, 2023, and projected for 2024. (A gigaWatt is the size of a power plant for a large US city; solar has a low duty cycle, so divide by 4-ish to convert to fossil capacity.) New Solar, worldwide, is just going crazy, growing 34% this year. Chinese dumped panels are now just $10/kW. In the US, falling interest rates just fuel the (combustion-free) fire, and will help boost adoption all over the world soon as well. Numbers here. 

 Some good news!!! Lots of reports of emissions finally decreasing. CARB reports CA GHG emissions in 2022. were 371 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, 9.3 million tons (2.4%) lower than in 2021. The transportation sector showed the largest decrease in emissions of 5.2 MT (3.6%) compared to 2021.   In 2024,  the first real drop in China GHG emissions occurred in Q 2 2024! 

Another place this is starting to show:  CA gasoline consumption. Gasoline use in 2023 in California dropped about 15 percent from a peak in 2005, with consumption dropping over two billion gallons per year.  (That is down to around 13.4 Billion Gallons, which we should not be so proud about, but still…) 

Per Canary Media more than 500,000 German balconies have solar panels - you just clamp them on the railing of your balcony, and literally plug them into your home socket.  It’s driven by the lack of permitting requirement, and low cost; they’re actually sold at the supermarket. 

Other Backcountry

What is it with Folding Pads? - Everyone on the PCT we saw on the way to Miter, and most people going up to Whitney as well, had accordion-folding foam pads. For 14.5 oz you get a regular length foam pad (e.g. Nemo Switchback) with a pathetic R=2. They squeak, and no one who has slept on them has *ever* claimed they are comfortable - just adequate. 

A thermarest NeoAir Xlite, an inflatable pad which packs down super tiny, has an R value of 4.5 at 13.6 oz. So, I just don’t get it.  

There *are* two points where the inflatable pads fall short, however. These have a coefficient of friction with outdoor equipment that is like lower than skates on ice. I mean, it’s just unbelievable how anything will slip off of it. That makes it tough to get comfortable with a pillow. Second, they are subject to puncture, so you don’t want to use them as a sit pad. I miss this all the time, though I am glad I reduced my weight by getting an inflatable.  

The Very Best Backcountry Hint of 2024 was contributed by a loyal reader, BB. It's light, it's instant, it is nothing less than a revelation.  You're at the days end, you're tired, you've been carrying your heavy pack all day, and it's getting just a little chilly.  TIME FOR MISO.  YES, MISO.  All you have to do is tear open the packet and dump on hot water. O-M-G, the salty savory goodness is what your body wanted, you just didn't know it. I'll never leave the EV with my stove without it.  Try it! 

Other EV News

Yes, it *is* true, US consumers are being screwed on EVs; twice as many models are available in the UK. There are now 95 electric models available, almost twice as many as in the US market and one-third more than a year ago. (Bloomberg Hyperdrive 240927)

Too good to be true? Lucid usually makes $100,000 class EVs.  Could the rumors of a $50k Lucid be true? Pinch me!   https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a62137756/lucid-third-model-suv-teaser/

============= End 2024 Combined Sept + Oct Newsletter ==========

August Newsletter

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EV to the Backcountry - The Great 2024 Gardiner Basin Expedition (Driving SF Bay Area to Independence, CA Kearsarge Pass Trailhead, and back.)

Other EV News -  9000 Fast Chargers!

Other Backcountry - Coolers? Yes, an important part of backcountry life.

Green Transition - The new green champion country is Pakistan. Yes, really! 

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

---EV to the Backcountry---

The Great 2024 Gardiner Basin Expedition (SF Bay Area to Independence, CA Kearsarge Pass Trailhead)

Gardiner Basin is close to some of the most popular places in King’s Canyon, just West of Rae Lakes, but since it’s over a cross-country steep pass, it is rarely visited. It is accessed via the Kearsarge pass/onion valley trailhead, which is above Independence.  From SF, we did the usual summer route, taking 120 and stopping in Groveland to charge, fueling ourselves at the ice cream place in Groveland on the way.  Next stop, BIshop, CA supercharger. There are campgrounds at the TH, but we thought, “why stay in a $35/night campground when just up the road at independence creek, there is a campground for like $15/night?”  In the event, the campground was completely empty, there were nice tables and spotless restrooms, so we did fine. (There was one thing we overlooked though - sleeping in the higher campgrounds does give your body extra time to adapt to atlitude.  Could have been useful.) In the AM we drove up (and up and up, some 5000’) to the backpackers’s parking lot, 

****plenty of bear boxes and Kearsarge/Onion Valley TH parking.

There were THREE EVs in the parking lot (none of them Rivians)!  So, obviously EBA is really starting to catch on-more backcountry users are getting the message that to protect the backcountry they love, they need to make the switch to EV!  Here’s hoping for the day it’s 90% in that parking lot.

 We had a really fantastic trip, seeing absolutely FANTASTIC scenery, rare animals, doing completely improbable passes from the advice of “some guy on the internet”, and cleverly going over Gardiner Pass East instead of doing some tough bushwhacking in the North of the basin. 

***This was one of the best backpacks I have ever done in the Sierras; feel free to email me for details. 

To get back, we simply reversed the charging stops.  We noticed that there was a very fancy “Rivian Adventure Network” building in the center of Groveland, that (along with the bathrooms) is *exclusively* for Rivians.  If Tesla is opening up, why won’t Rivian?  We also noticed that in Lee Vining, a real DCFC desert, there are a bunch of Rivian DCFCs at the Tioga Mobile station at the turnoff to 120.  Again, it’s very sad that this is exclusive to Rivian, I’m sure lots of EV folks could benefit from these chargers. 

CA120 Pro tips: We note that during this summer, you need a reservation with Yosemite NP to drive through CA120. If you wait until 4 PM, they start letting cars through (slowly) but if you are on the East end at 4 PM, you might not make it to the ice cream store in Grovelend before closing.  (We missed that, but we ate lunch in Bishop, and we were so hungry we had another meal at Priest’s Station just outside of Groveland.  

CONCLUSION: another backcountry adventure, EV to the backcontry is just NO PROBLEM. 

---Other EV News---

9000 fast chargers in the US!!! - bloomberg green (july 19) reports that not only are there now 900 fast chargers (not crummy destination chargers!) but "America’s EV charger deserts continued to vanish in the second quarter, as a motley array of networks switched on 704 new, public fast-charging stations, an increase of 9% in three months."  I have personally noticed a lot more of non-Tesla chargers everywhere I go, and indeed, this is the emphasis of the article - on the chart, it looks like some 80%+ of these are non-Tesla chargers.   GREAT NEWS FOR NON-Tesla owners and maybe-soon-to-be-owners! Furthermore, their estimate of the future of EV charging  is thoroughly bullish - they say that EV chargers in the US have enough customers that they are becoming a good business, in particular, meaning that more will be built (not leaving customers with long lines). "“We’re seeing demand for fast charging skyrocket,” said Sara Rafalson, executive vice president at EVgo Inc., which operates almost 1,000 stations in the US. “We’re continuing to build bigger and bigger stations because we need to keep up with that demand.”  “We’re getting past a turning point where fueling stations and convenience stores are really seeing the value proposition,” said Sam Houston, senior vehicles analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. U.S. Bank also sees EV charging as business development: It switched on chargers at 39 branches in California. Meanwhile, Waffle House added charging cords to the parking lots at two of its Florida restaurants."

--- Other Backcountry ---

Coolers? Yes, seriously, an important part of backcountry life, and not talked about enough. 

Quick summary: 

-“Rotomolded” coolers keep cold the longest, but are heavy and expensive but worth it

-Coolers are designed for ice and cans; you have to hack them a bit for your cheese, milk, etc.

-If you really want ice-cold beers in hot summer, you need to put cooler in shade, no way leave it in the car.

THIS IS A SERIOUS TLDR so skip down for other topics. However, there’s just a lot going on, and a lot to say here.

We went on a 4 day backcountry climbing/hiking bonanza early in the summer, all car-camping, during a VERY hot weekend. We needed our cooler to keep drinks cold for four days; 

it really let us down. We got more ice in the middle of the trip, it wasn’t enough, and we dealt with all the water, and worried about spoiled and soggy food.  So, amazon prime or memorial day or something like that big sale, and we grabbed a fancy orca cooler.  Before that a lot of research, which I will share with you. 

COOLER CONSTRUCTION MATTERS - We have a cheapo plastic cooler and it doesn’t insulate that well, and half the time we’re piling stuff on top or re-arranging things so it closes at all. It’s just obvious that even the closure is a big deal. So, we’re all seen the widely advertised YETI coolers; Orca is another very similar brand, both made in USA. The deal is that there is a high density plastic/foam/stuff called “rotomolded”, and that is the best insulated cooler popularly available. This makes the cooler super-heavy, however. A 40 quart Orca is 30 lbs!!! These all have similar excellent seals - inset “O-ring” type seals, and closures that make for a LOT of tension.  So, objectively hugely different from cheapo coolers. Oh yes, one more thing: These coolers are indestructible.  It’s horrible to think about the fossil fuel that went into 30 lbs of plastic, but these things will outlast you. (Cue the youtube video of someone throwing the Orca cooler off their tailgate like 10 times just to make the point.)

One more thing here - I’m going to resist putting “size does matter” in capitals as a heading, but that’s a big deal for choice. After the first time we used our fancy new 26 quart (25 lbs), we were then going on a weeklong backpack, expecting to prepare zero meals in the campsite, just needing to keep cheese overnight. We couldnt bring ourselves to lug the big Orca, and took the cheapo small cooler. We *could* have brought the big one, but …  so we recommend the smallest one you can get along with. We went for an ORCA 26 quart and super-discounted it was like $120+tax; the 40 quart was like $180+tx.

ORCA cooler  DIMS (in)

Exterior L max(min) W H Weight IneriorL W H     

26qt 23.6 (20.1) 17.8 (14.4) 15.9 25 lb 16.44 11.13 14.63

40qt 26.25(23.1) 18.1(14.9) 17.3 30 lb

typical 14.25 9.3 11.8

 Here a “typical” cooler size is what I mean by a roughly $40 plastic cooler from target or wal-mart. NOTE: KJ Chard bottle is 11.5” tall.  In the event, we find that many wine bottles STILL won’t stand upright in the 26 quart. 

PACKING HACKS FOR BACKCOUNTRY USE - Coolers are sold for people to pack them full of beer cans and ice and sit on them.  On hot beach sand, if you believe the pictures.  Backcountry users have different needs.  For feeding ourselves, we need to keep cheese and real meals (for us, ravioli and vegies) cool, and drinks really cold.  Everyone who has used a cooler for anything but beer knows that any food gets disgusting when it sits in ice meltwater, and has learned by experience there is NO WAY to waterproof food (just try it. Nope. No way.). But you *can* keep ice from food…

First Rule of Backcountry Coolers: No ice. Ever.  So, we typically freeze a couple of nalgenes before we leave, and use a combination of these and chemical ice packs. By “no ice ever” I mean no ice outside a container, of course. The chem ice packs are fantastically expensive; savvy shopping makes them somewhat reasonable. Very much to my surprise, they really do remove more heat than ice, but only so much, they’re no miracle.  Nalgenes provide cold drinking water then melted, and can be filled up with store-bought ice if they melt halfway through a trip with a convenience store in range.  

Second Rule of Backcountry Coolers: Ignore cooler instructions.  Coolers, back to the beer on the beach, instruct you to fill cooler with ice, leaving a cavity in the middle for beer.  Backcountry users need beverages at near-ice temps, and food just cool.  So, it’s tricky to get your nalgenes and chemice blocks near the beverages, and your cheese and other food (ravioli) OUT of contact with the ice.  All coolers offer you a “shelf” to put food above the ice, but only as a very overpriced add-on.  I think these are a really good idea, and it’s on my todo list to make one. Until then, I try to arrange beverages next to ice, and food farther away.  The first time anyone reaches into the cooler and removes something, this all goes to heck, so… like I said shelf is on the todo list. 

WHERE THE HECK TO PUT IT? The worst cooler fail was at a 10,000 foot altitude parking lot on a warm day (by Patricia Bowl). Anywhere in the brutal high-altitude sun was just plastic-melting hot after an hour. Nothing to be done.  I have a silver, reflective car cover.  Car was well over 100F inside when we returned despite cover - early.  Park services seem to delight in putting bear boxes in the most direct sun they can find, for similar results.  There is just NOW WAY, absolutely no way any form of cooler could possibly keep beverages at a cool temp when in direct sun.  Furthermore, there is no way, anywhere near a hot asphalt road that would work either - I can picture locking my cooler to my car, putting an umbrella over it even; but even insulated from the road directly, if it were next to a ~120F roadway, the cooler wouldn’t stay cold, blasted by infra-red from the road.  My next experiment is to use a cable lock and lock my cooler to a shady tree that provides shade all day. 

Locks you say?  YES DEFINITELY - Yeti and Orca coolers are rated bear-proof by some certification agency (though not approved by YNP)  ***iff*** you put two locks on them.  So, I bought the locks, I have a car cover lock (long cable) in my car, and… Bob’s your uncle, as they say.  Yes, these seal so well, ants can’t even get in.  A pain, but if it means a cold beer...  

--- Other Green Transition---

The new green champion country is Pakistan. Yes, really. 

Speaking of 2023 green energy installs, and how most is in China, a report continued, “One standout is Pakistan, which leaped to fifth-largest market for new solar investment, up from 14th place during the same period last year. The boom there is mainly driven by rooftop solar, which has become increasingly affordable due to low panel prices and the country’s high buyback rates. (Canary Media, 30 Aug.2024)

In nations all over the world, first and developing alike, there is never enough electricity.  If it’s cheap enough, people will buy. Solar is the cheapest and easiest to install the quickest. For an actual first world national system, solar PLUS battery is pretty much at parity with natural gas now, but has a higher value (faster demand response, useful for many things on electrical grids).  So, THIS IS NOT JUST GOOD NEWS, IT IS UNSTOPPABLE.  The world will just keep on buying chinese super cheap panels wherever they make sense.  If they can shut off coal and natural gas plants as well, then we can BEAT the climate crisis!

---And still more Green Transition:

A really interesting snippet from an article about e-aircraft and batteries: https://www.earth.com/news/electric-aircraft-batteries-pushing-the-boundaries-of-technology/

There was little detail, but apparently with high power draw you increase chances of problems, including corrosion, in batteries.  These folks, in an LBNL and industry partnership, have figured out that adding salts to the electrolyte protects the electrodes. This is just another example of how we are just barely starting to improve batteries, and much more improvements are to come (says me). 

Canary Media says everything is rosy, nearly 86% of all new energy added in 2023 was renewable (https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/chart-85-of-new-electricity-built-in-2023-was-clean-energy?utm_campaign=canary&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz---FDxwoSGmS8f5h_e_YWAH9expBdEn-GewHbsCo-O1DHJsX9sRf-HHIUQ3WX-50l29wJZpBzAki5o5_iQsR-sJcoyxtA&_hsmi=316698978&utm_source=newsletter). The thing is, I was listening to a podcast around the same time (The Energy Gang; a bit long-winded and technical for most people), and the author pointed out how "geographic specific" that is. Translated: It's all in China. EU is way behind, and the US is doing pathetically on this scale, and other countries are hardly participating. That was 507 GW of renewables total.  According to this (https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61242#:~:text=As%20a%20result%20of%20new,476%20billion%20kWh%20in%202025.)  USA added about 36GW solar + 7 GW wind  = 43 GW (Not sure how they factor in capacity factor, or duty cycle, but never mind).  China, in contrast added about 301 GW (https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/energy-transition/020824-infographic-china-solar-capacity-coal-electricity-renewable-energy-hydro-wind#:~:text=China%20added%20a%20record%20301,renewable%20capacity%20additions%20last%20year.)   So, that's 301 China to 43 USA, and 73 GW EU (https://www.solarpowereurope.org/news/2023-a-milestone-year-for-renewable-energy-in-europe-unveiling-ember-s-electricity-review#:~:text=This%20achievement%20marked%20a%20record,in%202022%20(%2B37%25).)  

Also, even the canary article ends with, "Still, clean electricity sources are not on track to reach the goal set out at COP28 to triple renewable capacity globally by 2030. Renewable capacity needs to grow by 16.1 percent every year in order to hit that climate target; last year it rose by 14 percent."  We gotta get those utilities moving! 

July 4 Weekend Adventure and Mega-Newsletter

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---EV to the Backcountry---

I hope everyone had an exciting extended weekend of adventure for July 4. The EBA team west to the Sierra's East Side to look for cooler weather at altitude and had many adventures. After 120 opens it's a breeze to get anywhere, with a supercharger in Groveland (good ice cream, but arrive before 6 PM close time!) and others in Mammoth and Bishop. We tried the climbing area of Clark Canyon, and got the last campside in Big Springs Campground, down just a short bit of dirt road.

The campground is full of very fossil-powered R/Vs and 4X4 people (they sometimes parade around the campsite area in packs of vehicles with loads of blinking LEDs, including the colors of the mexican flag), lots and lots of dust, and surprisingly nice and clean vault toilets.  

The way to climbing is on 2S06  (FS-2S06 as googlemaps labels it.) We were, in fact  chicken to do the rest of the way to the climbing area.  In our friend's diesel 4WD high clearance van we made it no problem, but there were definitely tricky spots because of ruts, and definitely narrow bush passages that would scratch most cars. Still, we felt guilty. We all wished for more efficient, higher clearance, affordable EVs. 

(Caption: Supercharger lot mammoth (old mammoth rd), with Mach-E at charge. A close-up reveals Tesla-branded little chargers on those poles; it's not that they are super-miniaturized tech, they are just low power destination chargers in a supercharger lot.)

The next day we topped up in Mammoth, and in a Tesla Supercharger lot we noticed non-Tesla EVs at some odd-looking chargers: Apparently there are weak little 220V chargers for non-Tesla EVs with CCS connectors (plugshare.com has a 9 kW report; "Mammoth Recreation Center (2)").  That's a pretty shabby way to treat fellow EVs, when the Teslas are getting 250 kW !

Next day was July 4 hike out of Duck Pass Trailhead near Mammoth - it was absolutely PACKED. Every kind of EV here; the Rivan we saw had bike racks, reinforcing our not-very-scientific observation that Rivian owners don't seem to be hardcore climbers / long distance backpackers very often, more front country/ bikers/skiers. 

Now the next day we climbed at Patricia bowl (mostly 5.10's and hard), accessed via Rock Creek Road off of 395, south of Mammoth. For those of you who are not climbers, the scenery from this trailhead is absolutely stunning, and there are numerous hiking possibilities. The alpine scenery is just breathtaking, and it's all right off the road. 

Working our way back up North, we were shocked to find that both google maps and in-vehicle maps reported closure of the US 395 at three places North of Lee Vining. Neither source gave a reason, and I cannot find one with any amount of googling. We think it was fire closures, and backing that up was the incredibly high temp.s of the weekend. Let's not forget the point of all this: If all of us humans don't quit our fossil fuel habit, there will just be more and more of both fires and heat waves and worse. 

The closures forced us to change plans, and head generally in the direction of home up and over Tioga Pass. Miracle of miracles, our friend I- found us a campsite at Saddlebag Lake on one of the busiest holiday weekends of the year! The relevance here is: 

1. EVs have plenty of range, and plenty of charging stations to change plans 

2. EVs can get up the ~ 15 minutes of dirt/gravel road to Saddlebag no problem (#evtothebackcountry !) 

3. Many EVs were present there; a Tesla was parked next to a Bolt bearing the bumper sticker "When in doubt GO HIGHER!". So as I have been saying, #evtothebackcountry is totally a thing! You don't need a planet-killing fossil car to get there.