Lylle Canyon Hike August 10, 2009
Posted by admin in : Environment, Irrelevant, Outdoors/Travel , 1 comment so farWe’re back at sea level — the air is so thick and balmy compared with 10000 ft! Terry and I hiked 10 miles into Lyell Canyon (basically to the end of the meadowy part halfway up the switchbacks to Donohue Pass). So it was basically about 25mile hike in total, including a day hike on day 2.
This was a pretty easy hike — mostly flat (although we gained 1000′ feet from Tuolumne Meadows to the pass area). It was unseasonably cool — we were warned about a snow storm. It definitely was freezing overnight and did snow lightly, but no accumulation in our area. This was a pretty spontaneously planned hike. Terry just happened to be in town and I snagged some days off. Most of his gear is at my house, but he was a little under-equipped for cold weather.
Anyway, we lit out early Wednesday morning, arrived to get our permits at the ranger station around 9, and after gathering some last minute supplies (warm clothes for Terry and some lunch) we were finally on the trail around 1:30. We hiked in about 6 miles to a point beyond Ireland Creek where we had never been before. It’s always fun to explore virgin terrirory. We found a really excellent site — flat, soft earth, plety of trees for our hammocks (Terry’s tent is a hammock dealy. I have a simple hammock for resting during the day but my tent is a single person tent on the ground.) Close to the Lyell Fork for water, a pretty little falls. Previous campers left some little presents for us — a copy of the novel All Tomorrow’s Parties to use as kindling, some sunblock and a handkerchief.
There seemed to be tons of pack trains on this trail — this is a segment of the John Muir Trail and most hikers are going much farther than we did. Lots of groups were hikers plus horses plus mules. We also saw one Llama train! That was cool. Two hikers leading around four or five llamas. They did not carry as much load as the mules did but they were really beautiful and exotic.
On day two, Thursday morning, it was snowing. We had some hot coffee and Ramen noodles for breakfast, then head down the trail for a day hike. We passed more pack trains and chatted with hikers. One British dude we met was 6 days into a 4 week hike of the full JMT — which culminates with a hike up to the summit of Mt. Whitney. He’s out there now, presumably, so do raise a pint for him. He bid us “Cheerio!” which struck us as archaic, although I greeted him with a “Howdy” so…
We hiked up the switchbacks at the end of the meadow — it really isn’t Yosemite unless you do switchbacks, according to Terry anyway. Got more views of the pass and the meadows we had just come from. But it was a little too cold to linger too long. We hiked back down to camp, lit a nice fire and mixed ourselves some High Sierra Margaritas: water + instant lemonade + tequila + snow.
Friday morning we lingered at the site. The sun threatened to emerge but basically it was still cloudy and windy and cool for the hike out. We drove to Oakdale for our traditional Mountain Mike’s post hike pizza and it was a wrap.
In terms of wildlife, we saw: mama deers with their fawns, a garter snake (first non-poisonous snake we’ve seen in Yose), horses, mules, llamas. No bears, so our success rate for this area dropped from %100 to %66.666. But that’s OK, especially since we saw something rarer. It was either an American Marten or a Fisher. We had stopped on our hike out at Rafferty Creek by a bridge. Right as I was ditching my pack, I saw across the stream an animal that scurried across the rock and stoop and looked at me. I said to Terry, “That’s a huge marmot!” Then the creature slinked away and as it did so I noticed it had a more elongated shape than a marmot. It had similar coloring — a brownish coat with a light colored chest. But the behavior was not at all marmot like — a marmot would have come right up to us to steal our food. Also I have never seen a marmot at this elevation (around 8800′) — they usually appear higher than that and in more rocky terrain. This was woodland. The elongated shape and size were the main giveaways. I came home and wikipediaed the thing and basically narrowed it down to Marten ro Fisher. It looked more like a marten but the size was more like the fisher. So cool, I saw my first new mammal, and a hunter as opposed to a scavenger.
That was a real highlight. Also the lack of mosquitoes or bugs due to the cold weather. Virgin territory, new animals, no skeeters, and snow added up to a really pleasant, highly successful hike. Also cool is that this canyon is a fork of the Tuolumne River, so I essentially hiked all the way to the very headwaters of the source of the water that is eventually captured in the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Next month when I do my “Restore Hetch Hetchy” hike, I’ll connect up by hiking from Tuolumne Meadows down to the reservoir. So that means I’ll have walked the length of the watershed.
Overheard on the plaza in Santa Fe April 17, 2009
Posted by admin in : Irrelevant , add a commentDown the old Santa Fe trail sits La Fonda Hotel.
Old lady: “Oh, look, it’s Jane Fonda’s hotel.”
Old man: “Hanoi Jane? I’m not going in there.”
Funny Trader Joe’s video February 11, 2009
Posted by admin in : Irrelevant , add a commenthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdB7GDZY3Pk
so true, too.
My Insane Slumlord Neighbor February 10, 2009
Posted by admin in : Info, Irrelevant, Links , 1 comment so farMy insane slumlord neighbor is scared of me. I’ve never had anyone be afraid of me before. I kinda liked it.
Mmmm… peanut butter January 23, 2009
Posted by admin in : Irrelevant , 2commentsIf you *really* want me to stop eating peanut butter and peanut butter related products, you’ll have to stop saying “peanut butter”. I’ve eaten more peanut butter in the last two weeks than I have in the last two years.
Peanut butter! Peanut butter! Creamy, crunchy, nutty goodness! Pea! Nut! Butt! Er!
Green Dilemma November 23, 2008
Posted by admin in : Economics, End Of The World, Environment, Irrelevant, Lies , 1 comment so farSo let’s say I have about 10 good years left on my Honda Accord, which gets like 32 hwy/23 city. I’d like to trade it in for a Prius. So I drive my gas-guzzling Accord to the Toyota dealership and trade it in for a nice green Prius. The dealer then sells the Accord to Joe the Plumber who continues to drive it for the remaining ten years of its life.
Why is it better for the planet and all that for him to drive it for the next ten years than for me to be driving it?
Time to Settle in November 4, 2008
Posted by admin in : Alcohol, Irrelevant , add a commentwith a nice expensive Bordeaux and some sweet smelling bud and savor the evening.
Reverse Bradley October 28, 2008
Posted by admin in : Irrelevant, Political/Editorial , add a commentOr something.
For every person who claims he’ll vote for Obama then secretly votes for McCain, I’m sure there’s also a person who publicly claims to support McCain who will really vote for Obama. Right? I mean, isn’t this idea of people who make public statements then secretly do the opposite something that happens all the time, in all directions, for all kinds of different reasons? And doesn’t the fact that it does happen in both directions tend to dampen any statistical significance?
You know there are people who don’t want to publicly reveal they have changed their mind about McCain and will vote for Obama.
Fireplace October 27, 2008
Posted by admin in : Irrelevant, Lies , 2commentsSo I bought one of those electric fireplace inserts for my fireplace. I never liked using the Duraflame type logs — there’s a lot of ash, they don’t really burn warm enough, and since they don’t the convection current is not always strong enough to draw the smoke out, so we get backdraft, causing us to open the windows and turn on fans, with the opposite effect of a warm, cozy evening by the fire.
I’d like to get a gas insert, but my cohort doesn’t respond well to gas appliances and is very sensitive to that sort of thing. So I got an electric one, which really has a very compelling illusion, especially once you put it behind a glass fireplace door. I think this might be corny and I may regret it ten years from now. But right now it’s kind of cool.
Then I decided the illusion was not complete without sound effects. So I downloaded some fireplace crackling mp3s and hid my little mp3 player behind the fireplace door, and wala*, a complete illusion. It’s fake, it’s dumb, but it’s also cool and I like it.
* I know how to spell voilà
Overheard at Trader Joe’s October 26, 2008
Posted by admin in : Discourse, Irrelevant, Lies, Narrative, Psycho/Spirit , 6commentsSo I’m in line at checkout. A vaguely foreign looking, fashionably dressed lady is checking out. Clerk is energetic, friendly, dutifully cheerful young man, making chit chat with the customers as he works. He notices her unusual blouse, and says, “I like your blouse.”
She says, “Thank you. It’s my design. I am fashion-designer.” Her accent confirms she’s foreign, but I could not identify it, perhaps Russian, but she’s dark, could be eastern European or Turkish, Iranian or something else. I look more closely at the blouse and it’s got silk-screened images of a photograph of the very woman’s own face, cut and arranged into an abstract geometric design.
Clerk continues admiring the design as he bags, and them says, “Well, it looks like you’re doing what you should be doing.”
To which the woman replies. “I am. Are you?”
The clerk is obviously taken aback, and continues bagging her groceries as he searches for a reply, which he eventually comes up with, a half-hearted, insincere-sounding, “I hope not.”
The woman offers a vague sounding inspirational message about keeping your dreams.
She leaves and the clerk greets me. I want to say, “Jeez, you try to give someone a compliment.” But I don’t say that and just say the minimum, “How are you?” “I’m fine”. “Thank you.” And I leave.
Does her reply sound as unkind to other people as it did to me? Would my offer of solidarity to the clerk have been welcome, or reinforced a message that he should feel bad about what he is doing? What kind of person takes a compliment like that and turns it around to insult the complimenter? Why should a fashion-designer feel like her accomplishments need to be recognized as greater than those of the shop clerk? A fashion-designer can be an awful, unhappy person, and a young grocery store clerk can be a happy, cool, spiritually evolved person. Why the need to define one’s self and others by their occupation? What other accomplishments has the clerk made in his young life that could easily be seem as remarkable that totally transcend his occupation?
I know there is a cultural aspect to this that I have not quite figured out. Maybe the woman is conscious of her class and was somehow offended by the person of lower social status presuming to be so forward and friendly (even though that’s typical of this culture, and especially characteristic of this store). Maybe her desire to encourage the young man was totally sincere if awkward, and only came across as an insult as a translation loss.
I recognized this pattern of conversational exchange. I have been on the wrong end of it before.
I remember once chatting with an old high-school friend who was enjoying some success in a local theatrical pursuit. I said how impressed I was, and how glad I was for her and congratulations and all that. Her response was, “What about you? Are you writing? Have you published? What’s stopping you? I am a success and so can you…” In other words, for her to be successful, it meant I had to be viewed as a failure. Words of encouragement which were rooted in one-upmanship. I had not said anything about feeling like a failure or that I was somehow in need of such encouragement. It was gloating.
I also remember another time when I was friendly with a group of born again Christians in college. They seemed so beautiful, happy. Their apartment was so warm and comfortable. They were smart and like to laugh, and they made me laugh which was why I liked them. I felt like was being all open minded. I was kind of a punk in those days — but even though my taste in music was the Clash I was open-minded enough to express appreciation for my hosts soft, easy, jazzy, Christian instrumental stuff (I think it was called “Fresh Air” but I’m having trouble finding info on it, maybe this). Point being I was trying to be a good guest by complimenting them on the stuff of their lives they were sharing with me. Which they immediately saw as an opportunity for some Christian evangelizing (what did I expect?): “We’re blessed. And so can you, if you accept Jesus… You can have all of this and more…” basically was their message. They immediately assumed that because I was being a cordial guest paying them a compliment, that meant I was somehow expressing regrets for my own sorry life. I was far too well behaved (some punk, I know) to do what I should have done, something like piss on the record collection.
But Jesus Christ, can’t people take a compliment?
This makes me realize a bias I have. To me, evidently, the only proper way to accept a compliment is with humility. To not express humility in the face of a compliment, and worse, to express pride in that which is being complimented on, seems to offend me enough to want to piss on people’s records, or at least blog about it. Maybe this is not the only or even best way to receive a compliment, but it’s where I come from. (Some Christians my hosts were.)
I’ve over-thought it, I know. But I would welcome any other aspects to this dynamic or this anecdote if anyone has anything to share. I’m sure I’m missing something, and I grant that this story reveals as much about my own prejudices and insecurities as it reveals about anyone else.
Anyway, that happened.
BTW, try the lemon crisp cookies from TJ’s!