Nathan Gilbert

White Rim Trail

2026-09-01T00:00:00Z

White Rim Trail May 2026

The newly established Canyonlands National Park. Most of the major points of interest in this park are presently accessible, over passable dirt roads, by car...Nevertheless the Park Service had drawn up the usual Master Plan calling for modern paved highways to most of the places named and some not named.

~Ed Abbey, Desert Solitaire

Preamble

This trip admittedly started out on the wrong foot, multiple feet really, but we stuck the landing and the judges gave us a respectful score anyways. We didn't get a gold medal, or even bronze, but it was more than a "hey, you showed up", trophy and closer to a "we actually competed". The goal was to complete the White Rim Trail in the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park in 2 days/2 nights time. The trail is about 100 miles long and back-country driving the whole way.

The first stumble out of the gate was missing the permitting deadline for the time we wanted to go, which was April. I woke up on the day the permits were to be released, logged on to recreation.gov at 8am MT only to find there were zero campgrounds open. I'm not sure how this is possible, but it's a troubling experience I've had with recreation.gov and had others tell me they've experienced the same phenomenon. Some mixture of campsite "hoarding", or usage of the "rolling window" hack, plus bots, and very low "no-show" fees appears to be the imperfect storm creating this frustration.

My friend, Dustin, the creator behind Explore Southwest, came to the rescue and was able to grab a permit for us and camping spots at the Airport and Murphy's campgrounds but for May. These are two prime locations that set a traveler up well for efficient use of time and miles. If you're going the traditional clockwise path through the trail, you'll reach the Airport campgrounds in the evening if you start around noon and take a leisurely pace. We figured it would be much hotter than doing the trail in April and more of a gamble, but it was the only time Dustin was able to secure. Our plan also included bookend nights in Moab, the quintessential desert recreation hub of Utah.

While possible, you shouldn't try to complete the whole trail in a single day. There's too much to see and ponder along the way. There's no promise of water outside of a few areas where you're close to the river. There are pit toilets at the campgrounds which are fairly spread out throughout the trail. Once you're past the Potash road, you'll definitely want a high clearance 4WD vehicle with a 4-Low capable transfer case.

The "there" of "there and back again"

We (Dustin, Alex, Sonya and I) started from the Shafer Switchbacks trailhead around 2pm and planned to end at Mineral Bottom. I should also mention I was in a physical state somewhere between "hung over" and "Salmonella sick" on the day we arrived in Moab and the first day of the White Rim trek. I'm not sure which, but there had been a lot of beers and questionable food consumed in the 36 hours prior to our departure for Moab as I was scrambling to fix a brake issue with my XJ. The fact that the TJ appears in these photos should tell you how all that work played out.

Shafer

Admittedly, the Shafer switchbacks look really worrisome from the canyon rim. Once you're on them though they are pretty easy. Yes, one wrong turn, or one mix-up of the gas and brake pedal and you're quickly approaching terminal velocity towards the canyon floor, but don't think about that on the trail, just focus on the road ahead. Breathe, catch a great view, don't pay any attention to the circling carrion birds overhead. You could use 4-Low here, but you really don't have to, in fact, if you do, you'll likely get bored by how long it takes to traverse the straight parts between the curves.

Musselman Arch

Wrong muscle. A pun? Full image below in the gallery.

This arch doesn't look like your "typical" redrock Utah arch. It’s essentially a long, nearly flat slab of White Rim Sandstone spanning a deep cut in the rim, so from an angle it looks like a natural bridge or a piece of roadway hanging over the canyon than a big curved arch. It's literally part of the White Rim trail itself, at least made of the same thing. The resistant White Rim Sandstone forms the broad bench that the White Rim Road follows. That rock was deposited during the Permian period, roughly 275–290 million years ago, largely from wind-blown sand near the edge of an ancient dune field. Scientists have hooked up the arch to microphones to listen for harmonics that indicate erosion or even seismic activity. On an album of earth music, what instrument would this be listed as? "Yeah, I play the arch on that record, practiced for days..." The color of the trail wasn't always white, that coloration is relatively recent it seems.

In days of yore, before Instagram or even deviantart, White Rim travelers would often get a photo walking over the arch. That is discouraged these days since in modern times we've determined that the arch is actually really thin and a long ways down. Someone with a sense of humor has thrown a barbell plate down at the foot of the arch. Leave no trace and never skip leg day, ofc.

The name of the arch comes from an old rancher and tour-guide from the Moab area. You can find several references to him in these old desert magazines.

Airport Tower

We made it to the Airport C & D campgrounds by early evening with plenty of sun to set up camp and made dinner. Airport Tower is interesting because the whole “airport” theme is a visual joke taken from the landscape. There was never an airport there. The NPS says the broad bench around the campsites is so wide, flat, and open that it looks like a place where an airplane could land, and the nearby butte looks remarkably like an airport control tower, hence the names. The campsites are on the open, exposed desert bench rather than a sheltered canyon-bottom camp or mesa-top fortress. This is quite a bit different from the landscape you've traversed so far or will for the remainder of the journey.

Airport Tower is part of a whole cluster of striking formations. Nearby this area are Monster Tower, Washer Woman, and Tiki Tower,^[1] so as you travel around Buck Canyon the skyline becomes one of the more recognizable sections of the White Rim. Mesa Arch, far above on Island in the Sky, actually looks out toward this same collection of towers; if you've seen the classic sunrise view through Mesa Arch, these are some of the formations in the landscape beyond it on the canyon floor.

The next morning, I was feeling great, thankfully despite a rough 48 hours. The driving this day would be pretty easy until we made it to the next campsite on top of Murphy's mesa.

Murphy's Hogback

The hogback is a long, narrow, elevated tongue of Moenkopi-age rock rising a few hundred feet above the surrounding White Rim platform. The road has to climb up and over it rather than staying on the comparatively level White Rim Sandstone, which is why you suddenly get that steep ascent, a high flat ridge, and then the dramatic descent on the other side. You definitely should use 4-Low going up and down. You need to take your time as there are blind curves both on the ascent and descent where someone traveling in the opposite way from you could meet you at a place that is very difficult to turn around or back up. I found going down a little more stressful than the drive up, but luckily Dustin pulled first duty up and ensured no opposite way traffic were coming before the blind turns. Going down, there are several sharp turns that are hard to make in 4-Low, but the low gearing definitely controls your descent in this steep terrain. Right after the Hogback I remember there being some relatively smooth driving for the next few miles, I think we might have reached 15 mph during this section which felt quite speedy.

The name comes from the Murphy brothers (Tom, Otho, and Felix) who constructed the Murphy Trail in 1914 so they could move livestock between the Island in the Sky country and grazing land south of the hogback. Imagine trying to herd cattle down that route? Parts of that historic trail still form today's Murphy Loop hiking trail. The campsites are special largely because the NPS put them on top of the hogback rather than down on the White Rim bench. Murphy has only three sites, A–C. Whichever you stay at, you're out of earshot of the others. C is nearest the pit toilet for good or ill. At roughly mile 45 clockwise, Murphy also falls close to the natural midpoint of the route.

Definitely try to snag one of these campsites. They offer sweeping 360-degree desert vistas with dramatic drop-offs all around. On a clear night, the amount of stars you can see make you feel really insignificant but lucky.

Black Crack

Sclerocactus parviflorus or Sclerocactus whipplei var. roseus, called a Whipple's Fishhook cactus. Named after Amiel Weeks Whipple, who discovered this species. He was a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, who took two scientific expeditions to the Southwest, from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Los Angeles, California. His treks basically surveyed what eventually became Route 66.

The Black Crack of the White Rim is an interesting geological feature near the end of our journey. It's an enormous dark fissure in the White Rim sandstone. It's visible from satellite images via the vegetation growing in a straight line in its shallower parts. At its deepest, you'd fall at least 65 feet if you misjudged your jump over the 3 foot wide crack. In those high areas, the crack is mostly shadow, you can't even tell it goes that far down. There are some areas where the gaps underneath the crack allow you to lay on your stomach and see the canyon floor many feet below. It's a disorienting experience to be honest. In other areas, near the "wings" of the crack, it can be as shallow as a few feet deep.

The biggest geological fact here is that Black Crack is a joint, not a fault. There is no evidence that one side moved relative to the other; the sandstone simply fractured. This could also help explain the vegetation we noticed. A joint creates a protected slot where soil, windblown debris and moisture can accumulate, so plants can trace a fracture that is otherwise surprisingly hard to see from above.

Hardscrabble Hill

"I walked up Hardscrabble Hill" was a funny idea we all had for a shirt/sticker for a Moab retailer. It gives a knowing wink to those who've been there and didn't really want to experience the drive up after looking it over.

What makes Hardscrabble feel worse than Murphy is the combination of difficulties rather than one spectacular obstacle. Murphy is very steep and exposed, but relatively concentrated. Hardscrabble is a longer, more complicated climb with steep grades, loose rock and sand, rocky shelves, tight switchbacks, blind turns and considerable exposure. It feels steeper or more demanding than Murphy, sometimes requiring multi-point turns at the tighter switchbacks.

At Murphy the challenge is very obvious, you see the big climb and then just do it. At Hardscrabble, you keep thinking you're nearly through it and then get another steep turn, another rock shelf, another narrow bit. After Dustin took his truck up, I waited till I couldn't see him anymore and then several more minutes before trying to raise him on our radios to see if the coast was clear for us to come up. Alex answered that they weren't even halfway up yet which really surprised me.

On this part of the trail, you have to manage line choice, traction, momentum and vehicle placement for longer. The surface of Hardscrabble is loose rock, sand and softer fine-grained material, so storms can rearrange it substantially. Once you're past this climb, you've cleared the last real 4WD test of the route. You'll run into some shelf roads and switchbacks that might make your seat sweaty, but nothing technically as challenging as this hill.

By this point in a clockwise trip, the White Rim Road has dropped from its sandstone bench and is traveling remarkably close to the Green River, through Potato Bottom. Hardscrabble forces the road up and over higher terrain before it can return to the river near Hardscrabble Bottom/Labyrinth. It's almost a mountain pass in miniature: river bottom, a steep ~400-foot climb, a high point, a steep descent, and then river bottom again.

The views from the top of Hardscrabble of the Green are amazing and fulfilling whether you walked up or drove. This is almost a dividing line between two kinds of White Rim terrain: the high desert road we've been traveling and the low, river-dominated country around Labyrinth, Upheaval Bottom and Mineral Bottom we are just getting into.

There's something else cool immediately at the top: Fort Bottom. This is the long, narrow mesa projecting into an enormous bend of the Green River. A roughly 3.4-mile round-trip trail leaves the White Rim near the top of Hardscrabble and crosses the mesa to an Ancestral Puebloan stone tower overlooking the river. People have been standing here looking over the Green River for a very long time.

Mineral Bottom

Mineral Bottom is a pretty neat place to end the White Rim because it is more than just the point where the road climbs back to the mesa. It is a junction between Canyonlands' road, river, and mining history.

Traveling clockwise, the dramatic feature was obviously the Mineral Bottom switchbacks. After following the Green River through the Labyrinth Canyon country, the road suddenly climbs the canyon wall in a stack of tight, exposed switchbacks. NPS treats Mineral Bottom as one of the White Rim's major steep/exposed sections, along with Shafer, Murphy Hogback, and Hardscrabble. In a sense, it's the bookend to Shafer, as we began the trip by dropping dramatically off the Island in the Sky country and finished it with another huge switchback climb back out.

There's a great bit of very recent geological history there, too. On August 19, 2010, a severe storm sent flash floods and rockfalls through the area and obliterated substantial portions of the switchback road. Photos from the event are remarkable and show the road simply disappears where the canyon wall collapsed. The damage made a complete White Rim loop impossible for more than seven months. The rebuilt switchbacks reopened in March 2011. This episode illustrates something easy to forget while driving these roads. Canyonlands looks ancient (and it is) and static, but the landscape is still actively dismantling itself. A road carved into a steep wall of sedimentary rock can be erased in a single storm.

The bottom itself is also an important Green River access point. Mineral Bottom lies just outside Canyonlands National Park on BLM land and is the normal takeout for people floating Labyrinth Canyon from Green River or Ruby Ranch. It's also a launch point for boaters continuing downstream through Stillwater Canyon and into Canyonlands. So where our 4x4 trip was ending, another classic Canyonlands journey of traveling by raft was beginning for some. We saw a lot of people in the bottoms just partying or getting ready to load up their raft and cast off.

There's even still a backcountry airstrip at Mineral Bottom (maybe it should be named Airport, instead)? It dates to the Cold War, uranium mining era and was used to support mining operations; many of southeastern Utah's primitive airstrips have similar uranium-boom origins. So here within a very small area we have a 4WD road, the Green River boat ramp, a primitive airstrip, several abandoned mine workings, and the remnants of Cold War atomic history.

The "back again"

Once you climb out of Mineral Bottom on the switchbacks, you're on Mineral Bottom Road. From the top of the switchbacks to UT-313, it's about 13 miles of graded dirt road. BLM gives the full distance from UT-313 down to Mineral Bottom as roughly 15–16 miles, with the steep switchbacks making up the last couple of miles.

That stretch is very different from the White Rim itself as it's generally wide, fast, well-graded dirt across the open mesa, and in dry conditions it's usually straightforward. You'll feel really weird driving so fast after days of sub-10-mph driving. Once you're out of the Mineral Bottom switchbacks there are some pit toilets with a large parking area where you can have a pit stop to regroup. I'm very glad we had friends to travel with on this journey, that made it more robust and fun. We didn't seem any other vehicles during this trip, maybe 1 Grand Cherokee we passed going counter-clockwise before Murphy's.

The rest of the drive, while is decently long, it is on a well-maintained gravel road till you hit the main road in the park, which is paved. As to the White Rim Trail, I'm glad they never got around to paving it.

We went into Arches on the first evening we were in Moab, stopped by Double Arch. The sky was amazing.

View out from the arch hole.

View from the arch back towards the trail.

The line doesn't stop.

View from the top of the Island in the Sky rim right before heading towards the Shafer Switchbacks and down into the trail, which you can see far off in the distance below.

Shafer Switchbacks below

A delicate balance

The Colorado River

Someone from a different party tried to buy my half-doors right here. I declined to the sell them.

The flat deck of Musselman Arch. I wouldn't walk on it.

Someone thought this was really funny. Underneath Musselman Arch.

The road is marked by rocks in some places.

Not the best packing job, but for a Jeep Wrangler we made the most of the space we had.

Our campsite at Airport D

More of the airport campsite.

It's really flat here, but getting our tent stakes in the ground was challenging.

Airport Tower in the cloudy evening.

Airport Tower the next morning under clear skies.

Monster Tower with Washer Woman Arch. Somehow missed Tiki Tower around here.

These cacti have a great view.

Monument Basin area.

Keyhole Arch, a party favorite.

Prickly Pear still in bloom! Probably _Opuntia polyacantha_

More Monument Basin spires and towers.

Natural Habitat

Looking back down the ascent up Murphy's Hogback, this is the blind curve at the top.

Afternoon with the Junipers up on top of Murphy's

Panorama on top of Murphy's

The road down Murphy's we'll take the next morning.

Morning up on Murphy's, the road out to the left.

The Green River

Big Horseshoe bend (but not _that_ one) of the Green River.

The "I drove up Hardscrabble Hill" shot

More views from the top of Hardscrabble Hill.

Out of the park, but not out of the canyon. Still have a many switchbacks to climb.

It was very satisfying to wash all that red dirt off the TJ later at home in Salt Lake.

Addendum

The weather was great in May which we were surprised by. You can see several holes with a decent amount of water in them in my photos. It rained in Moab/Canyonlands the day before our trip began. The first day was cloudy but the second and third were beautiful bluebird days with little cloud cover and nice spring temperatures. We really couldn't have asked for a better weather experience of the drive. If we had gone in April like originally planned it might have been too cold.

Decent books for some additional info for points of interest on this trip.

Williams, David B., and Damian Fagan. A Naturalist’s Guide to the White Rim Trail. Wingate Ink, 2007 reprint. 62 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0964417311; ISBN-10: 0964417316. The original version dates to 1994; Williams’ own site says it was updated in 2007. It is a mile-by-mile natural-history guide covering geology, ecology, plants, animals, and human history along the White Rim trail.
Williams, David B., and Damian Fagan. Island in the Sky Road Guide: Canyonlands National Park. 2017. The current CNHA edition is a 28-page, 6 × 9-inch softcover with mile-by-mile descriptions, sidebars, photographs, and a park map, covering scenery, geology, history, wildlife, and points of interest on the Island in the Sky scenic drive.

Whipple's Fishhook are listed as uncommon in Canyonlands. They are somewhat related to the much rarer (and not appearing in this trip report, or even in this part of Utah) Uinta Basin hookless cactus. Someday, I'll find one of those.

Notes

I can't find who named it that, or why. Its first named appearance shows up in climbing logs from the early 1990s. ↩︎

The Ruby Mountains of Nevada

2026-08-16T00:00:00Z

The Ruby Mountains in June, 2026

Just south of Elko, Nevada is a vast island of trees, streams, birds and bugs inside a wide sagebrush sea known as the Ruby Mountains. Most of Nevada's forest-lands are collected in the Humboldt–Toiyabe conglomerate. The Humboldt part of the name comes from a 19th Century German naturalist (what do I need in my LinkedIn profile to get this job title?), Alexander von Humboldt. He was born important because of the "von" in his name. This guy traveled throughout Spanish South and Latin America, eventually staying in "Nueva España" (Mexico) for several years, mainly around Mexico City. On the way back to Europe he basically texts President Tom Jefferson to see if can drop in on him at Washington to talk fossils.

See, TJ was spending a decent amount of time rage-posting (rage-ledgering?) against a theory known at the time as "American Degeneracy", which said that the "colder/wetter" temperatures of the Western Hemisphere caused flora and fauna to become small. Humboldt backed Jefferson in this debate and bolstered their position with fossilized teeth of mammoth he found while at the equator. TJ didn't listen to Alex about slavery, though, which makes me think of other theories of American Degeneracy...that are true, then and now.

Clearly, these adherents to the "Cloudy-day shrinkage theory" of biological development had not spent much time in the Great Basin of the United States, circa 2026, amidst a record-breaking El Niño season. Jack rabbits should be 12 feet tall here. Coming from the East, as you traverse through northern Nevada towards Elko on Highway 80, each basin and range takes you a little higher, a little bit further from the desolate salt flats and up into something that approximates a montane landscape with the corresponding drop in mercury. Toyiabe is the Shoshone (Newe) word for "mountain".

The drive up Lamoille Canyon road is easy. It's paved and not an an extreme grade. It's an out-and-back road that has a terminus at the Ruby Crest National Recreational Trail's head. This canyon is referred to by some (the Nevada tourism department) as the "Yosemite of Nevada". It is a spectacular drive. Lamoille evidently comes from an early settlers fondness of a French typographical error about the area that came to known as Vermont. History just seems arbitrary at some point.

Thomas Canyon Campground. The trail leaves from the bottom of the loop.

We camped at Thomas Canyon Campground, at a site somewhere in the 20s or 30s. That just meant it was hugging the canyon, close to the trail. The lower numbered sites are closer to the road and a little more in the sun. Our campground sits at around 7550ft in elevation and had good separation between each individual site. The sun was intense in the middle of the day, but since the canyon was fairly narrow, you start getting decent shade around 4-5pm.

For June, it seemed like a lot of Northern Nevadans were ready to hit the mountains and have a little early summer hoe-down. That was fine for us; the plentiful aspen and roaring creek kept their sounds at bay. The Creek, as mentioned, was flowing strong in this month. That waterway being the Lamoille Creek. The Thomas Canyon creek also had strong flow, with several waterfalls easily visible from the aforementioned trail that starts right in this campground.

There are several small trails and stops along the road as you head towards the top. The interpretive trails are fun and informative. Otherwise, mainly the other trail-heads are for overnight backpacking trips which we were not doing on this trip.

The Rubies are known as habitat for Big Horn sheep (which we didn't find) and many species of bird, including the Himalayan Snowcock which is not native to the mountains, and interestingly, that website linked from the Nevada DOW differs in the story of how they were introduced from other places I've seen. We did glimpse many types of hawk, eagle and corvid in the canyon, thankfully. Several small ground mammals and fish as well.

I plan on coming back to the Ruby's at some point, I enjoyed the several days we spent there during this trip. Whenever leaving the Rubies from the North, always stop at Cowboy Joes for the caffeine.

My trusty steed; the 1998 Jeep XJ. I should have fixed my exhaust tip before this trip though...I lost some boots as a result.

It packs a lot.

A Ruby Mountain

The view from our campsite

The Lamoille Creek

The Lamoille Creek up from our campsite.

Look how green that mountain is. Hard to believe you're in Nevada.

Our setup for dinner.

Thomas Canyon Creek

A small waterfall in Thomas Canyon, there are several bigger than this near the trail.

Love a shadow shot

There's more waterfalls up the trail, here's another one.

Thomas Canyon wall

Mount Fitzgerald, 11,220 ft. Only the 39th highest mountain in the state tho.

Fitz was getting closer, still had decent snow.

Flowers were out in June.

A shot of Fitzgerald's long tail. We turned around here on the trail.

Literally just turned around and snapped this shot.

This is further up the Lamoille Canyon road from our campground. Not quite at the top yet.

The Ruby Crest Trailhead parking lot.

Backpackers' starting their trip.

The avalanche chute.

This area was really interesting, there was a small pond that was elevated maybe 3 feet above the surrounding ground which was an odd perspective. The photo doesn't really capture it. The pond isn't even in it, but it's directly to the right of this photo.

Many trout in these waters.

(Conan) Trout, man. The Kyuss song, the Rambo character, and what I said here under my breath.

All the water in Nevada seems to be in the Rubies. This is a different pond than what I mentioned before.

Butterflies and moths were abundant in the Rubies; thankfully mosquitoes were absent at this time.

Bears Ears National Monument

2026-08-09T00:00:00Z

Bears Ears, May 2017

This National Monument is back in the news; yet again reduced in size. There are lots of people better able to articulate why this is bad and not good than me. I've only been to the monument a single time so far. It's a beautiful place with deep meaning for many people.

The monument was originally proclaimed on December 28, 2016, so our visit was around 5 months after its creation. From what I remember there wasn't really a visitor center or even a permanent sign at the entrance, but more of a cardboard "hey there's a monument here!" type of thing.

We spent several days in the region, visiting Natural Bridges National Monument as well as driving down the Moki Dugway switchbacks to the Valley of the Gods. The switchbacks offer amazing views over the landscape and are fun to drive down. Like many of these switchback roads, they look more intimidating in photos than they look when you're actually driving down (or up) them. That said, be careful, a little mistake goes a long ways here. We stopped quickly at Goosenecks State Park which has an amazing overlook of the San Juan river winding through desert canyons.

Mule Canyon Kiva is another easy stop in this area. You can spend a day or several days in (the once and future) Bears Ears. There's lot of exposed hiking in Bears Ears with little cover from the sun, so plan for that, but you get to see a lot of natural and historical beauty throughout the monument. Driving by the "Ears" is a great memory of this visit. Natural Bridges has one great hike that takes most of the day, you get to see many different arches. The hike is an out-and-back style, we luckily got a ride back to the trailhead from an Australian man which saved us a lot of time (and effort, of which we'd already extended much of that day on the hike.)

The morning sun makes the red rocks pop.

Sunrise on the morning we went to Bears Ears.

Always get a picture of the sign. There wasn't even one for Bears Ears at this time.

House on Fire in good light

Love a Pinyon/Juniper forest.

It's challenging to find Utah Junipers for sale in any nursery here if you can believe it.

House on Fire on the return in the shade.

Mule Canyon Kiva

The Moki Dugway sign, under its usual coat of stickers.

Approaching Moki Dugway.

The top of Moki Dugway switchbacks.

You don't like the desert if these types of viewpoints don't give you goosebumps.

To the Valley of the Gods.

The San Juan river.

Goosenecks State Park

The Bears Ears

Another shot of the Bears Ears.

Mock Where It’s Imported, Not Defined

2025-10-06T00:00:00Z

Mocking Where It’s Imported (Not Defined)

If you’ve ever written tests in Python using pytest and unittest.mock, you’ve probably seen this confusing bit of advice:

“You have to mock where the function is imported, not where it’s defined.”

At first glance, this seems counterintuitive — why should you patch the same function name in multiple places when it’s clearly defined in one module? The answer has everything to do with how Python imports work.

The Import Mechanism

When you write this:

# foo.py
def get_data():
    return "real data"

# And in another module there is this
# bar.py
from foo import get_data

def process():
    return f"processed {get_data()}"

Python copies a reference to foo.get_data into the namespace of bar.

So bar.get_data is not dynamically looked up each time — it’s bound once when bar is imported.

That means if you want to replace get_data() in your tests, mocking foo.get_data won’t help, because bar already has its own local reference to the original function.

The Wrong Way

This is a common mistake:

# test_bar.py
from unittest.mock import patch
import bar

@patch("foo.get_data", return_value="fake data")
def test_process(mock_get):
    result = bar.process()
    assert result == "processed fake data"

This test fails, because bar still calls the real get_data() as it imported from foo before you patched it. Your patch changed foo.get_data, not bar.get_data.

The Right Way

Instead, you need to patch the reference that bar uses:

@patch("bar.get_data", return_value="fake data")
def test_process(mock_get):
    result = bar.process()
    assert result == "processed fake data"

Now it works! The unittest.mock.patch swapped out the object that bar actually calls.

In a pytest fixture

import pytest
from unittest.mock import patch

@pytest.fixture
def mock_get_data():
    with patch("bar.get_data", return_value="mocked") as mock:
        yield mock

def test_process(mock_get_data):
    from bar import process
    assert process() == "processed mocked"

Why This Happens

import statements in Python work by copying a reference from the source module into the importing module’s namespace. Once that reference is bound, the importer doesn’t look it up again. This is different from JavaScript’s live bindings, where imports always reflect the current value of the export. So when you patch something, you’re not changing a global function everywhere — you’re just swapping out one module’s reference to it.

Mocking in Python is about replacing references, not rewriting definitions. Always patch in the namespace where the code under test looks up the function, not where it was first written. That mental model will save you from countless hours of “why isn’t my mock working?” frustration — and make your tests more predictable.

Quick Rules of Thumb

Patch where the function is looked up. Think in terms of “who is calling it,” not “where it lives.”
Use fully qualified paths. Always patch using the dotted path as it’s imported in the module under test (e.g., bar.get_data).
Patch as close to the call site as possible. If bar.process calls it, patch bar.get_data. If baz imports bar and calls bar.process(), patch in baz if that’s where the call happens.

Pickleball Struggle Session

2025-09-06T00:00:00Z

It is with a spirit of humility and discipline that I, the undersigned, issue this public recantation. For too long I have held erroneous views regarding the practice of pickleball. I publicly denounced it as a distraction, an opiate for retirees, and ultimately, a diversion from the true struggle. I scoffed at the plastic ball, the so-called "kitchen," and the truncated court as symbols of decadence and decline. In doing so, I not only slandered the activity itself but also revealed the limitations of my physical and ideological development.

Through the process of criticism and self-criticism, and guided by the patient intervention of my comrades, I have come to see that pickleball is not the enemy. Rather, it is a collective, participatory endeavor that fosters solidarity, inter-generational exchange, and joyful movement. To dismiss it as frivolous was to lapse into elitism and cultural dogmatism, alienating myself from the very masses I claim to serve.

Signed: Nathan Gilbert

Jeep Misc

2025-02-01T00:00:00Z

Random Jeep Stuff

XJ Trailer Hitch Installation Instructions

I replaced my old rusty original trailer hitch and was surprised you can still purchase a Mopar factory trailer hitch for a 97-01 XJ. Instructions are here.

XJ Rear Splash Guard Installation Instructions

I found a NOS set of mudflaps for my 97-01 XJ. The installation instructions were even in the box, figured I post them in case anyone else needs them: Here they are.

TJ Fog Light Stone Guard Installation Instructions

I found a NOS set of fog-light stone guards for my 1998 TJ Wrangler. The installation instructions were even in the box, too. These are also valid instructions for Mopar 82202585 and Mopar 82204503.

Mopar Luggage Carrier Kit Installation Instructions

I found a NOS Mopar Luggage Carrier Kit for my 1998 XJ Cherokee. The installation instructions were even in the box, too. These are also valid instructions for Mopar 82207198 and Mopar 82208301.

Mopar Canoe Carrier Kit Installation Instructions

These are the instructions for a Mopar 822004700 Canoe Carrier Kit.

Mopar TJ Bike Carrier Instructions

Instructions for a Mopar Bike rack for a Jeep TJ. It fits on the spare tire. Mopar 82207520.

Lint for Complexity

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Understanding & Linting for Cyclomatic Complexity

Background

There are many ways to measure the complexity of a piece of software: number of lines, Big O, and so on. Cyclomatic Complexity attempts to do this by enumerating all linearly independent paths through a segment of code. Linearly independent means that each path has at least one edge that is not in another path (if viewing the code as a graph).

McCabe defined CC using graph theory as:

M = E - N + 2P

Where:

E = edges in the graph
N = nodes in the graph
P = number of connected components (think modules) of a program

If a program had no control flow statements (if, switch, goto, etc.), then the CC would be 1. If a program has 1 if statement, then its CC is 2.

A program that has 50 lines consisting of 25 consecutive "if/then" constructs will have over 33 million (2^{25}) distinct paths through the program. There's no way all those paths are getting tested!

Let's analyze the following snippet of Python code:

def cc_example(b, c):
  a = 0
  if b > c:
    a = b
  else:
    a = c
  print(a, b, c)

What is the cyclomatic complexity of this method?

We can draw the graph of this method:

The graph has seven nodes and seven edges, so its cyclomatic complexity is:

7 - 7 + 2 = 2

Suggested Levels of CC

There doesn't seem to be an agreed-upon threshold for what amount of CC is too much, though generally the higher your code's CC, the harder it is to maintain. This naturally grows with the number of lines in your software.

According to a random StackExchange post, the following is a rubric for CC scores and their meaning:

< 10: Easy to maintain
11-20: Harder to maintain
21+: Candidates for refactoring/redesign

Other websites have slightly different tolerances, but I like the StackExchange metric for methods.

Pros of Using CC in Your Project

Helps write code that is easier to read & reason about
Easier to write unit tests (fewer paths that need to be explored)
Easy to calculate with plugins to popular linters

ESLint Settings for Cyclomatic Complexity

If you're using JavaScript or TypeScript in your project, you've already got a Cyclomatic Complexity checker at hand. You just need to configure it to run when you're linting.

The following additions to your .eslintrc file will activate the complexity rules and several other related checks. The complexity rule below measures Cyclomatic Complexity specifically. Here, it is set to raise a linting error if the complexity of a method is above 5.

Many of the other rules measure things like clause depth and the number of lines in a method.

{
  "rules": {
    "complexity": ["error", 5],
    "array-callback-return": "error",
    "max-statements": ["error", 20],
    "max-statements-per-line": ["error", { "max": 1 }],
    "max-nested-callbacks": ["error", 3],
    "max-depth": ["error", { "max": 3 }],
    "max-lines": ["error", 200],
    "no-return-assign": "error",
    "no-param-reassign": "error"
  }
}

Some tricks I use to make devlife easier

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Subjective Dev Life Hacks

Aliases

Aliases are available in most modern shells. They save time by reducing the amount of characters needed to invoke common commands.

alias ga='git add . and git add -u .'
alias gb='git branch'
alias gs='git status'
alias gt='cd (git rev-parse --show-cdup)'
alias gbd='git branch --delete'
alias gca='git commit --amend'
alias glg="git log --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit"
alias gpr='git pull --rebase'
alias nus='nvm use stable'
alias gcam='git commit -a -m'
alias gcan='git commit --amend --no-edit'
alias gcma='git checkout main'

Git Decorations in Your Shell

You spend a lot of time in your shell, make it nice to look at and work for you.

Command History and Searching

Bash
- 6 Methods of Executing Historical Commands in Bash
Zsh
- Zsh Completions
- fzf for Zsh
Fish
- History is built-in!
- fzf for Fish

Directory Jumping

Life's too short to type long directory names.

Bash
- Z for Bash
Zsh
- Zsh-z
Fish
- z for Fish

IDE Plugins

You probably spend even more time in your IDE, so spruce it up a bit.

Shortcuts: The Guide to VSCode Shortcuts
ESLint: VSCode ESLint
Code Spell Checker: Spell Checker Plugin
Rainbow Brackets: Rainbow Brackets Plugin
Jest: Jest Plugin
Prettier: Prettier VSCode Plugin, run it on save!
Vim: 😁 😈

Some handy git commands

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Helpful Git Commands to Slice & Dice Commits

This Conway's Game of Life repo is the basis for the examples here, specifically, the activate-demo and main branches.

git cherry-pick

Say you have a bunch of commits in a branch that you want to break up into multiple commits (for smaller Pull or Merge Requests). If you have confidence that your commits are atomic, use git cherry-pick to copy them to a new branch. Use git log to find the commit you want to copy in your current working branch, grab its SHA. Checkout the main branch and create a new branch off of it. Then change to the new branch and cherry-pick using:

git cherry-pick <SHA-of-COMMIT>

This is useful when you want to grab a single commit from one branch and place it in another one.

git rebase -i

But what if you have multiple commits you want to rearrange or move?

Rebase them. This is a very powerful tool. You can rewrite large chunks of history in one go with this command. You can reorder commits. You can delete commits.

When using this command, you specify the number of previous commits you'd like to rebase with:

git rebase -i HEAD~5

This would target the previous 5 commits. The image below demonstrates the look of the rebase menu with 5 commits. One thing to note is that the commits are listed oldest first.

Rebase commands:

p, pick : Actually use the commit in the result.
r, reword : Edit the commit message and use it.
e, edit : Amend this commit and use it.
s, squash : Use it but meld into the previous commit.
f, fixup : Like "squash," but discard this commit's log message.
x, exec : Run command (the rest of the line) using the shell.
b, break: Stop here (continues rebase with git rebase --continue).
d, drop : Remove the commit.
l, label : Label the current HEAD with a name.
t, reset : Reset HEAD to a label.
m, merge: Create a merge commit.

As you can see, there is a lot you can do with this command. The most useful features for me are typically squashing or rewording multiple commit messages in one step.

Interactive Rebase is useful for editing multiple commits in a branch at the same time.

git reflog

This command is useful if you make mistakes using the previous commands. The reflog contains all the changes made to the tips of branches.

It's useful to find a safe place to reset your current working branch in case you've made a mistake using cherry-pick or rebase. For instance, you can see the current HEAD (the tips of the branches) on both your remote and local branches. If you haven't pushed your incorrect local changes to a remote branch yet, you can recover the old HEAD from the remote branch locally—thus reverting your mistake.

Using reflog gives you a map back to safety if you've made mistakes in your branch.

Jeep XJ Axle Information

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Jeep XJ Axle Info

Dana 44 Axles for MJs and XJs

The Trak-Lok options mean it is a Limited-Slip differential.

Serial #	Host Model	Year	Gear Ratio	Options
605287-1	MJ	86	3.54:1
605287-2	MJ	86	4.09:1
605287-3	MJ	86	3.54:1	Trak-Loc
605287-4	MJ	86	4.09:1	Trak-Loc
605342-1	XJ	87.5	3.07:1
605342-2	XJ	87.5	3.07:1	Trac-Lok
605342-3	XJ	87.5	3.54:1
605342-4	XJ	87.5	3.54:1	Trac-Lok
605342-5	XJ	87.5	3.55:1
605342-6	XJ	87.5	3.55:1	Trac-Lok
605325-1	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1
605325-2	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	4.09:1
605325-3	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.07:1
605325-4	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.07:1	Trac-Lok
605325-5	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1	Trac-Lok
605325-6	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1
605325-7	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1	Trac-Lok
605325-8	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.07:1	Trac-Lok
605325-9	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1	Trac-Lok
605325-10	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1
605325-11	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	4.09:1
605325-12	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.07:1
605325-13	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.07:1	Trac-Lok
605325-14	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1	Trac-Lok
605325-15	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	4.09:1	Trac-Lok

I own a 605325-9 taken from a 1990 MJ. I had a shop convert it to fit an XJ (leafs over the axle, relocated shock mounts) and installed it on my 1998 XJ.

For cases where logic must do.

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Logical Fallacies

Just some examples I wanted to keep around for posterity. I originally saw this posted on Usenet many years ago.

Fallacies that result from errors in induction

Overstatement: An unqualified generalization.
Examples:
"My English teacher never gives A's."
"Almonds are good for the heart; everyone should eat 2 handfuls of almonds every day."
Hasty Generalization: Stating a conclusion based on too little evidence or ignoring some evidence. Examples:
"Running must be bad for your heart. Look what happened to Florence Joiner."
"My little Yamaha motorcycle never gave me problems. Yamaha motorcycles are the best."
Stereotyping: Giving the same characteristics to everyone in a group.
Examples:
"Used-car salesmen can't be trusted."
"Utah State graduates are all nerdy."
"Southern Utahns are all right-wing conservative fanatics who refuse to pay taxes and want to destroy the environment."
Forced hypothesis: Reaching a conclusion that is not supported by the evidence or is unnecessarily complicated. Example:
"Jerry and Kim live next door to each other, so they must be really good friends."
Non sequitur: Conclusions not logically derived from preceding reasoning.
Example:
"Al Gore is a wonderful father, so he would have made a great president."
Slippery slope: Asserting that X should not happen because it will inevitably lead to Y and Z, which are terrible. Examples:
"Utah should not legalize parimutuel betting on horse races because that will only lead to gambling on other sporting events and finally to casino gambling." "We should never allow families to have doctors disconnect the respirators and feeding tubes of brain-dead patients. If we do, pretty soon we will be asking doctors to kill people with Alzheimer's disease."
False dilemma: Asserting only two options exist when more are available.
Example:
"You either support the war in Iraq or you are a traitor to your country and an enemy to freedom."
False analogy: Comparing two things with differences too great to justify the comparison.
Example:
"There are 10,000 deaths from alcohol poisoning to 1 from mad-dog bites in this country. In spite of this, we license liquor but shoot the dogs."
Post hoc: From the Latin "after this, therefore because of it," assigning a cause-effect relationship where none exists. Example:
"A black cat ran across my path on the way to work this morning, and sure enough, I got a flat tire on the way home."

Fallacies that result from ignoring the issue

Begging the question: Assuming part or all of your argument is true without support.
Examples:
"The federal government should not subsidize development of alternative-fuel automobiles because gasoline is the cheapest and cleanest fuel." "We should give every American the right to have assault weapons in their home because we know that a nation where citizens have assault weapons will be safer." "We know that our police are never involved in bribery, dishonesty, or abuse of the law because the police report said so."
Red herring: Introducing an irrelevant side issue to divert attention.
Example:
"Mary Gordon shouldn't be elected to the school board because she doesn't have any children in public schools."
Straw man: Misrepresenting an opponent's view and attacking the misrepresentation instead.
Example:
"Environmentalists are trying to save the spotted owl because they want to run American loggers out of business."
Ad hominem: Attacking the person making the argument rather than the argument itself.
Example:
"You're too young to understand the importance of this issue."
Argument ad Misericordiam ("Argument to Pity"): Using emotional appeal instead of logic.
Examples:
"I know my paper is late, but I had the worst pimple on my nose for a week. Please don't mark it late." "Janice, you have to marry me! If you don't, I will be the most miserable person alive."
Common practice: Arguing that something is acceptable because "everyone is doing it."
Examples:
"Don't worry about using your older brother's research paper; half the kids in the class are doing it." "Dad, I can't live without a cell phone and a laptop. All the kids have them now."
Argument ad populum: Appealing to the beliefs of the masses.
Example:
"Republican candidates are the choice of red-blooded Americans who believe in traditional American values."
Argumentum ad Baculum ("Appeal to Force"): Using threats or force to persuade.
Example:
"If you don't support this policy, you're unpatriotic and will face backlash."

Machine Learning Labs

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Machine Learning Labs

I've been working on some labs for the AI/ML Guild at Workfront. Here they are:

Lab 1 - General beginner steps getting started with an ML project.
Lab 2 - Perceptrons and linear binary
classification. Multi-Layer Perceptrons and Neural Nets.
Lab 3 - Decision Trees are fun.

Naming Things is Hard

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Naming things is hard

It's hard to be descriptive about the code you're writing. Maybe it's because you're still figuring out what the purpose of the code you're writing is or you are not a domain-expert on the problem at hand.

Most of these examples are taken from Clean Code by Robert Martin.

Be Practical

Use names that convey intention, e.g., int elapsedTimeInDays;
Use words that you can say, programming is communicating!
Use searchable terms
- Hard to find a variable named a in a codebase.
Names can be vectors for feature-creep
- Too general of a class name, and suddenly you have a catch-all, deeply coupled class instead of targeted functionality

Be Clear

Avoid misnomers (duh)
- Don't name something diamondList when the collection is a map.
Make things different enough to understand
- Don't name things just to satisfy a compiler
- zork vs theZork isn't that meaningful
- Codebase dependent
Don't create a code to write your code
- Use language from the domain of the program
- In typed languages, it's not great to include the data type in the name. e.g., phoneString; what if the datatype changes?
- It's still good practice to use naming conventions for interfaces or implementations.
- Bob doesn't like member declarations; I don't mind them. Using underscores for private variables or unused variables is fine too.
One word per concept
- Generally, classes are nouns, functions are verbs.
Add Context, at the right level, but not too much
- Very dependent on the codebase.
- Examples from the book: firstName, lastName, but for what purpose?
- Too much context: prefixing every class in the codebase.

Jokes aside

This is the hardest for me at times.

In (or Out) Jokes
- Not professional, confusing
- Say what you mean, mean what you say
No Puns (same word for different purposes)

OpenBSD Setup

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

OpenBSD

I recently bought an old Acer laptop and revived it using OpenBSD. It's a fun operating system to use on any hardware. OpenBSD is touted as the most secure OS in the world.

Some good setup links:

XDM Setup

The login screen is managed by XDM. This is the config I used to get a nice blue background with the puffer fish logo.

`/etc/X11/Xenodm/Xsetup_0`

#!/bin/sh
xrandr --output default --dpi 96

# requires pkg_add terminus-font
xset fp+ /usr/local/share/fonts/terminus

prefix="/usr/X11R6"
exec_prefix="${prefix}"

BG_COLOR="#203051"
${exec_prefix}/bin/xsetroot -solid $BG_COLOR

# Disable xconsole
# ${exec_prefix}/bin/xconsole -geometry 480x130-0-0 -daemon -notify -verbose -fn fixed -exitOnFail

# Show the Sleep / Restart / Shutdown bar
# In case of sleep, pop xmessage again after waking up
(
while true; do
  xmessage -geometry +825-32 \
    -buttons "[ Sleep ]":20,"[ Restart ]":21,"[ Shutdown ]":22 ""
  ACTION=$?
  echo "Xmessage said: $ACTION"
  if   [ $ACTION -eq 20 ]; then /usr/sbin/zzz;
  elif [ $ACTION -eq 21 ]; then
    xsetroot -cursor_name watch
    /sbin/shutdown -r now
  elif [ $ACTION -eq 22 ]; then
    xsetroot -cursor_name watch
    /sbin/shutdown -p now
  else echo "Something bad happened to Xmessage.";
  fi
  # Stop looping if xclock died (hopefully killed by GiveConsole)
  if [ -z "$(pgrep -U root xclock)" ]; then break; fi
done
) &

OS_NAME=$(uname -n)
OS_INFO=$(uname -smr)
xclock -digital -geometry -0+0 -strftime "$OS_NAME ($OS_INFO) | %a. %d %b. %Y  %H:%M " &

Setting up a Raspberry Pi as a server

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Raspian Raspberry Pi Setup

Load the SDHC card into your machine and install the Raspbian image.
Create a file called ssh in /Volumes/boot of that installation.
Disable WiFi and Bluetooth by adding the following two lines to /boot/config.txt:
- dtoverlay=disable-wifi
- dtoverlay=disable-bt
Insert the SDHC card and power on the Pi.
Log in using the default user/password via SSH.
Change the Pi user password:
```
passwd
```
Change the Pi user's locale and time zone -> use raspi-config.
Update packages: sudo apt update
Install the latest Fish shell and fzf.
To change the user shell, edit /etc/passwd or use: chsh -s /usr/bin/fish nathan

Setting up BOINC Client

Ensure there is a /var/lib/cc_configs.xml file. Make sure it contains the following:

<options>
   <allow_remote_gui_rpc>1</allow_remote_gui_rpc>
</options>

Verify that the remote_hosts.cfg file has the hosts you want inside it. Networking Troubleshooting

If you are running a headless Pi but want to use XRDP, you may encounter both dhcpcd and wicd running. You may need to disable wicd: systemctl disable wicd

Vim config

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Vim Settings I Use

set tabstop=8
set softtabstop=4               " makes space feel like tabs
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
set textwidth=80                " each line can only be 79 chars (+newline) long
set formatoptions=cqt           " automatically wrap long lines
set number                      " line numbers
set cursorline                  " highlight the current line
set t_Co=256                    " set terminal to 256 colors
set history=100                 " keep 100 lines of command line history
set ruler                       " show the cursor position all the time
set showcmd                     " display incomplete commands
set incsearch                   " do incremental searching
set autoread                    " automatically read a file changed externally
set hlsearch                    " highlights all search matches
set backspace=indent,eol,start  " allow backspacing in insert mode
set noerrorbells                " Attempts to turn off errorbells.
set vb                          " turn on visual bell
set showmatch                   " match parenthesis
set encoding=UTF-8              " helps devicons
set backup                      " save backup files
set backupdir=~/.vim/backup//   " where to put backup files
set directory=~/.vim/swap//     " where to save swap files
set undodir=~/.vim/undo//       " where to undo files

Wiio's Laws

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Wiio's Laws

So many problems seem to come down to poor communication. I often think about these laws when information is being shared.

Communication usually fails, except by accident.
- If communication can fail, it will.
- If communication cannot fail, it still most usually fails.
- If communication seems to succeed in the intended way, there's a misunderstanding.
- If you are content with your message, communication certainly fails.
If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage.
There is always someone who knows better than you what you meant with your message.
The more we communicate, the worse communication succeeds.
- The more we communicate, the faster misunderstandings propagate.
In mass communication, the important thing is not how things are but how they seem to be.
The importance of a news item is inversely proportional to the square of the distance.
The more important the situation is, the more probable you had forgotten an essential thing that you remembered a moment ago.

Wikipedia