EV Trip Reports
As the title suggests, this section is devoted to our experience driving an electric vehicle (EV). In late 2014, we leased a Nissan Leaf, a mass-market EV with an official range of 84 miles. In late 2016 we bought a 2017 Chevy Volt. When the lease expired on the Nissan Leaf in the fall of 2017 we leased a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV. We sold the Volt in the spring of 2018 when we downsized to one vehicle. We now drive electric only. In the fall of 2020 we returned the Bolt to GM at the end of the lease and bought a 2020 Bolt.
Covid-Escape: The Great Greenhorn Fritillary Hunt
By
Paul Gipe
This Covid-Escape wasn’t as adventurous as most. It required an hour’s drive east from Bakersfield into the Greenhorn Mountains where we met our friends, experienced amateur botanists, at the Shirley Meadows ski slope. From there, we threaded our way down a graded Forest Service road in search of the rare Greenhorn Fritillary (Fritillaria brandegeei).
Covid-Escape: Chimney Peak Road into the Wilderness
By
Paul Gipe
Since air travel was prohibited during the pandemic, we took the opportunity to explore our region of central California by car. We dubbed these our pandemic peregrinations and used our Chevy Bolt EV to take more than 50 day trips from Bakersfield during the past year of the pandemic.
Covid-Escape: Great Western Divide Highway
By
Paul Gipe
The Great Western Divide Highway takes you through the heart of Sequoia National Forest and Sequoia National Monument where the big trees are located.
Covid-Escape: The Ridge Route
By
Paul Gipe
This trip was an adventure that I’d thought about since I moved to California four decades ago. It’s legendary. Mythic even. And I never thought you could still do it until we visited the Ridge Route Museum in Frazier Park pre-pandemic. There the curator mentioned that there’s a movement to preserve the road that still exists and “some” still drive it she said. The implication in her voice was that we couldn’t.
Pandemic Peregrinations or How We Escaped Lockdown
By
Nancy Nies & Paul Gipe
Presentation to the Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club by Zoom on 6 March 2021. A visual summary of our nearly 50 weekly escapes from Covid-19 lockdown.
Pandemic Peregrinations in an EV
By
Paul Gipe
Since the advent of the first Covid-19 lockdown in California in mid-March 2020, Nancy and I have taken weekly day-trips to explore our region. Fully cognizant of the need to socially distance ourselves from others during the pandemic, we’ve walked, hiked, climbed and driven through remote areas within 100 miles of Bakersfield, California. In most cases we never met another person.
