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I'm just going to drop in and advocate approaching backpacking with the ultralight philosophy. The key principle behind ultralight is to bring only what you need for any given trip and, ideally, nothing more.

Now I'm not saying don't pack things that will add value to your trip, but one of the biggest pitfalls to backpacking is packing in your fears. When people first start, they often bring excessive amounts of clothing, safety gear to outfit an expedition company, more entertainment than one might realistically want or use, or an entire kitchen - sink included. However, most people will discover that if they can lighten the load on their shoulders, they will end up enjoying trips much more. It's best to consider what you need (or even what can be shared in this instance!) - e.g. sharing shelters, cook systems, entertainment, food. Clothing-wise as long as you have an insulating layer (fleece or down jacket) and a rain jacket, and you're more than likely good to go.

So with all that in mind, let's talk about gear more specifically. If you're just getting started, it's best to borrow gear if possible. Sans that option, trying cheap gear is totally reasonable. However as with any hobby, there can be massive differences your random Amazon gear and even the bottom-of-the-barrel hobbyist gear. If you expect you'll want to pursue backpacking more in the future, consider looking into the ultralight and ultracheap gear list recommendations as well as the alternative options.

Since we're looking at coastal trips in California, you can safely estimate lows to be no lower than 40° unless you're truly up in the mountains. Sleeping pad-wise I'd recommend either an inflatable like the Klymit Static V or a CCF pad like the Z-Lite Sol or RidgeRest. I hesitate to recommend an ultralight quilt for a first-timer due to cost, but for reference a 30° HammockGear Econ Burrow weighs 18.62 oz, whereas the one OP linked weighs ~4 lbs.

There's a lot more to be said than what I've mentioned, so I invite y'all to check out /r/ultralight for more discussions on ultralight philosophies and gear. The wiki is a tremendously helpful resource as well. If any of you want a pack shakedown to have someone look over your gear list, feel free to reply or DM me, and I'll try to get back to you when I can. I'll most likely either be out in Texas or climbing Shasta for the weekend this trip will be planned, but have fun out there!

Also paging /r/ulnorcal - /u/Sharp_LR35902 /u/id3550

Done and done

Hey, so, the title says it all mostly...

I collect and play a variety of instruments (mostly string), and have a perfectly good cello taking up space that I’d like to donate to a good home/school. I’ve asked a couple of my teacher friends, and none of them have gotten back to me.

Anyway... It’s in good shape—as far as I know—but probably needs some strings and/or a tune-up. Comes with a bow of course, and a lightweight canvas carrying bag.

I’m in East Sac, and can meet up anywhere around here today.

The Sacramento Reddit community has helped me out before; this is my way of giving back. Students or teachers only, please. If that’s too much to ask, just promise me you’ll play it.

Cheers

Done aaaand done Thanks to u/dlmusgrove for giving her a new home.

If anyone else who was interested is truly inclined/sparked now to hop on the cello train, there are a handful of affordable options on Amazon Prime that could have you experimenting by this weekend.
Keep playing, whatever it is you play 🎶🤘🏼

The general rule of thumb is to call 1/3rd of your bodyweight a hard maximum for pack weight. At that point, the extra weight gets pretty hard on your joints (not to say I haven't seen some beastly men carrying 70+lb packs, but no one considers that situation ideal).

33lbs is on the light side. That's not a bad thing! As long as you've got your essentials, you should be all set. I'm assuming you have a stove and fuel -- there are no campfires permitted in Desolation, and frankly cooking on a fire is a huge pain in the ass. Your stove is also your emergency water supply is something happens to your filter (unlikely, but hey).

If you're on a solo trek, I suggest a novel and/or journal for the evenings. They can get lonely. If you're a curious human being, the John Muir Laws field guide to the Sierra is literally the greatest field guide I've ever encountered. I carry mine every trip into the mountains, and a pen. I write down where and when I get a positive ID on a new species of flower, bird, mammal, etc. It's a bit on the heavy side (maybe a pound?) making it a luxury for sure. Definitely not an essential for your first trip, but if you start getting curious, that's the best field guide ever.

It sounds like you're gonna do great! Have fun and be safe! If you happen to remember, report back when you get home safe! I'm going to spend the weekend wondering if I've killed a Redditor...

The information online is a little limited, so though you're a beginner, it might be worth the money for a guidebook. http://www.amazon.com/Snowshoe-Routes-Northern-California-Soares/dp/089886853X

Most of the hikes shown here are from that book: http://www.trails.com/activity.aspx?area=11548#trailid=SGS020-037&lat=39.31753&lon=-120.31879000000004&zoom=10&m=roadmap&a=SS But there isn't much in the way of detail without paying for the trails.com membership.

Another bit of advice. The snow that fell in December was from pretty warm storms so while there's a decent snowpack, it's a generally high elevations. Whatever guidebook or website you're looking at, you might want to cross-reference the elevations with a website like this one: http://www.wunderground.com/StateSnowDepth.asp?state=CA Which can give you a general idea of the snow level at various elevations. E.g., a lot of the hikes start between 6-7000 feet. Snow will be pretty light at that level, so if you can find something that starts closer to 8,000, you'll be much happier. Last time I snowshoed near Tahoe, we ended up taking off our snowshoes a couple times. Not the end of the world, but ideal, for sure.

This is what I have:

https://www.amazon.com/THINKWARE-Bundle-Hardwiring-MicroSD-Included/dp/B07FK9Y4GW/ref=pd_sbs_107_t_0/137-0543210-9964166?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07FK9Y4GW&pd_rd_r=6713e97c-313a-4e03-a394-54f845d10a99&pd_rd_w=4VaPn&pd_rd_wg=ODZjg&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=V3787HFEN0P0PBFGW4VB&psc=1&refRID=V3787HFEN0P0PBFGW4VB

Definitely on the pricier side, but I absolutely love that it records while your car is parked. It has WiFi and the quality for both night time and day time are amazing!
My boyfriend has the same brand. Someone backed up into his car and drove away. He was able to look back at the recordings to get their license plate and sent to police to track them down.

> Sacramentans don't have a huge history of dealing with limited parking

In general, parking, especially free parking, in cities is seen as a something that is extremely harmful to the City success. So a lot of us can get pretty defensive about it because of the way that too much parking hurt Sacramento's development. UCLA Professor Donald Shoup has a good book on the idea.

Along with improving non-auto infrastructure, we will have to adapt to non-auto modes. It will take time, but will make Sacramento a much more prosperous City, and a better place to live.

Yes the same focal length but more aperture would make it “faster”

The focal ratio is focal length divided by aperture and it’s basically the “speed” of the lens, the lower the number the faster it is and the quicker it gathers light.

My lens is something like f5.6 at 300mm which for the purpose of what I was using it for is pretty slow if you can only expose for 13 seconds.

Most people will shoot at a shorter focal length and then crop the photo down in processing because you can get short, fast lenses at an “affordable” price

If you try to go with a long focal length at f2.8, you get something like this which is just pure insanity.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L is III USM Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFVF7M4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_rODZDb72250BY

If you’re primarily goal is astrophotography, I’d look at the William optics zenithstar 61, way cheaper than many camera lenses but you still have to have a good star tracker and try to get 30+ second exposures.

The one thing about this hobby is that what you save in one area, you will have to spend in another to accomplish the same goal; this I can guarantee!

I've got this in a frame sitting under my bed. Bought it when I moved into my apt but I redecorated a while ago and don't really need it anymore. https://www.amazon.com/Amigos-Art-Patrick-Kessler-24x32-Inch/dp/B075SRX9F6

And it's not really quirky or weird, but if you like Van Gogh, I've got a nice Starry Night canvas that's just collecting dust in my living room, if you're interested. I'm in midtown as well!

I have a friend who, in one hearing, went from having a restraining order (w/supervised visitation) against her ex, to losing primary custody and no RO.

If you are able to pursue this more, here's few resources FYI:

https://www.amazon.com/Women-CourtWatch-Reforming-Corrupt-Family/dp/0292709587

This book recounts the inspiring and courageous story of women activists who came together to oppose Houston's family court judges and whose political action committee, CourtWatch, played a crucial role in defeating five of the judges in the 1994 judicial election. Carole Bell Ford draws on extensive interviews with Florence Kusnetz, the attorney who led the reform effort, and other CourtWatch veterans, as well as news accounts, to provide a full history of the formation, struggles, and successes of a women's grassroots organization that overcame powerful political interests to improve Houston's family courts. More than just a local story, however, this history of CourtWatch provides a model that can be used by activists in other communities in which legal and social institutions have gone astray. (Florence passed last year)

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR1fZ_IiAeIVmzSLh5MbJow/about

As a college student and father, I couldn't afford an attorney and had to learn how to navigate the sometimes perilous and oft stressful court system. I ultimately was awarded primary physical custody of our son, and throughout the process, I won four appeals to the Supreme Court of Nevada, and was published on an original writ petition. I graduated and become a software engineer, and later the court terminated my ex's parental rights. My choice of the name "The Proper Person" is a reflection of the designation before a court that a person representing themselves is appearing "in proper person".
I maintain a website that tracks statistical data on Nevada judges

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http://www.custodycalculations.com/coach.html

"..I have 32 years experience dealing with Family Law. 24 years as a law enforcement officer, the last 8 years as a Child Custody and Divorce Coach...... While still a law enforcement officer I spent ten years researching Family Law. In the process I identified that Family Law may be responsible for 25% of the crime in the United States; homicides, suicides, child abuse, abductions, domestic violence, violation of restraining orders, violation of court orders, stalking and more."

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http://onemomsbattle.com/

Tina Swithin is the founder of One Mom’s Battle. Tina Swithin survived a Category Five Divorce Hurricane and took shelter by writing her first book titled, “Divorcing a Narcissist: One Mom’s Battle.”  Tina finished her second book, “Divorcing a Narcissist: Advice for the Battlefield” in 2013 which provides guidance and advice for those in the trenches of a high-conflict divorce. In 2015, Tina shared her advice for for rebuilding after narcissistic abuse in her third book, “Rebuilding After the Storm,” and most recently, her favorite book to date, “The Narc Decoder: Understanding the Language of the Narcissist.”

This book is pretty good. I have found some pretty obscure trails I would have never found otherwise.

https://www.amazon.com/Hikes-Within-Miles-Sacramento-Including/dp/0897326040

The initial cost of building a garage may be cheaper, but the maintenance and opportunity cost is ungodly expensive for a parking garage. There're some really strong opinions on how bad parking is (see: High cost of free parking), but building structures that are generally really ugly, don't include any eye candy, and are single use is totally a waste of really really expensive real estate. Leave the parking garages in the suburbs and make parking so expensive that people actually take the train to the stadium.

In some places, they've decided to convert previous parking garages into usable spaces. Boston has one called the Garage and it's super cool.

"The Federal Housing Administration, or FHA, requires a credit score of at least 500 to buy a home with an FHA loan. A minimum of 580 is needed to make the minimum down payment of 3.5%. However, many lenders require a score of 620 to 640 to qualify"

So that means they still need established credit AND a down payment. In other words credit and at least a little wealth. As for adult schools, there are highly educated people working shitty low paying jobs because that's whats out there. This seems a lot like you want it to be a certain way, the by the boot straps, get educated, buy a house, etc. mantra, that's just not how it actually works. It is possible to be educated and hard working and to be stuck in poverty.

You're reducing a huge and complex issue into the Republican "Pull yourself up by your boot straps", they are just lazy explanation. Thing is, when you look at data and have also lived this shit first hand, you realize it is not so simple. You realize that there are plenty of educated hard working people that will never escape poverty, not because they don't try but because of how our society is structured and the various intersections of identities and social constructs. When exactly does a single parent raising 2 kids have time between their children's needs and their 2 jobs to go to school? These are the sorts of things people don't think about. What the reality is, not what they want it to be.

Americans want to believe that hard work will get you ahead in life, but we live in a oligarchy and it's about networking more so than skill sets and hard work. Hell corporate structure itself limits opportunity for promotion with its top down approach. 80 employees and 1 management spot, not a lot of opportunity. There's a multitude of influences playing out, and those influences affect one's ability to climb out of poverty. Also, those Adult School have been traditionally made for White people, most education opportunity throughout US History has been made to specifically assist Whites, not poor PoC.

The Meritocracy Myth - https://www.amazon.com/Meritocracy-Myth-Stephen-J-McNamee/dp/1442219823/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=0X1W94PHVX1MTDTXX4SF

Oligarchy Study - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B

Capital in the 21st Century - https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Twenty-First-Century-Thomas-Piketty/dp/1491591617

If you're getting into hiking the local area I highly suggest this book: 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Sacramento: Including Auburn, Folsom, and Davis https://www.amazon.com/dp/0897326040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_1nFyzbKX591VC


It'll give you a good grasp of the hiking areas around here :)

I recommend this though

https://www.amazon.com/advion-Plungers-Cockroach-Insecticide-Australian/dp/B00730QW70

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tbh my apartment complex had a roach issue so i used some of this stuff on the outside AND inside of the building and it helped a lot. Haven't seen any since I applied it in like June

Keep this in mind. If somebody wants to get in, they'll get in. Any camera system you get will show the crime after the fact. Any possibility of capturing after the fact requires a lot of luck.

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Ring requires hard wire for most homes. The power outlet kit works in some cases, just depends on how your apartment door and frame is set up. Keep in mind, people have been stealing Ring devices.

For inside your place, you don't need something expensive. This is a Wi-Fi camera with cloud backup and alerts.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CW4AR9K/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_d2CXCbT3MN0BT

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That being said, one of the best things is to deter the crime.

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During the night: Get some Wi-Fi electrical plugs (or timed plugs) and have your lights go on at night. Use LED lights because they are super cheap in the long run. Example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079Q5W22B/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_J0CXCbN51Q9GF

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During the day: Have a super cheap compact FM radio that turns on when plugged in. Place it near the door just loud enough that somebody could hear it if they stood next to your door. This can give the illusion that somebody is home. Use Wi-Fi or timer electrical plugs.

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If you have a patio slider, get an Anti-Lift lock bar, runs about $20 online.

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You can get an electronic alarmed door stop to use while you are home. Again, without a strong door frame, doors can get kicked in pretty easily. It's not really about the lock itself, it's the door frame.

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For valuables. Have an inconspicuous box or container to temporarily hide the goods.

For example: A jewelry box in zip lock bag in a cat litter box or empty bag of food product.

If you have checks, hide them too. Not in a mattress, drawer or closet shelf.

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Finally, get Apartment Renter's insurance. Usually $10k will do well to cover lost electronics.

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[edit: spelling]

There are a few cool street names in Sacramento County. https://www.amazon.com/Sacramento-Street-Whys-Guide-Names/dp/0979123313 is worth the $20 just to know how to pronounce "Goethe" or to realize there is a Goingyour Way in Sac county.