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Yosemite Series: Day Eight

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Day 8: Geo-Mythology, Ranger Karen, and Lisa-Chu-rri Sauce

I am up before my 5:45am alarm again. Today’s breakfast menu is hash browns, scrambled eggs, sausage patties, and the leftover black bean and corn salad from last night’s dinner. I find out Mary Lou has never made hash browns from boxed or frozen potatoes…only by grating fresh ones.

“Trust me, it’ll work,” I say. We have picked up a carton of dehydrated shredded potatoes from Yosemite Lodge, and I am ready to go at them, testing my hash brown flipping skills on a larger scale than I’ve ever done before. The skillets we have are the size of backyard garbage can lids. The spatula is the size of a Kindle reader. Mary Lou is a skeptic all the way until the moment she tastes the cooked hash browns. Continue reading →

Yosemite Series: Day Seven

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Day 7: Cooking, Biking, and Sketching

My alarm is set for 5:40am. My first job in the morning is to put two pots of coffee on the stove. We promise our volunteers coffee by 6:15, and breakfast by 7. My eyes open at 5:25. The sun is already up but hasn’t started to warm the floor of the valley yet. From my tent, it is about a thousand feet to the vault toilet, and then another thousand feet back to the bear locker where my toothbrush and toothpaste are stored. Then about twenty feet to the hand washing station set up near the kitchen.

The menu for today’s breakfast is bacon and French toast. Mary Lou takes charge of the bacon. I am in charge of the French toast. I crack ten eggs into a stainless steel bowl the size of a restaurant wok. Our supplies are stored inside a trailer which is dark at this time of day. We are still not totally familiar with the contents of the five different coolers with perishable items, so I am often opening and closing all five before I locate the one ingredient I need. Continue reading →

Yosemite Series: Day Six

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Day 6: Do It For The Cheeseburgers!

“Do it for the cheeseburgers!” is our mantra for the last day’s hike from Indian Ridge to our car on Tioga Road. We have adapted it from our biking mantra for the 40-mile round trip ride from our home in Half Moon Bay to Duarte’s in Pescadero, where we “Do it for the pie!”. Olallieberry pie, to be exact. A la mode. After the artichoke-green chili soup and warm sourdough bread with butter.

Having a goal in mind helps on the steep uphill climbs. When the idea of “conquering” a hill is just not enough to get the legs going, doing it for the pie sometimes will.

In this case, it is the thought of a cheeseburger from the Tuolumne Meadows grill, another twenty miles or so down Tioga Road from where our car is parked.

But first, there is the climb. Continue reading →

Yosemite Series: Day Five

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Day 5: Dream Campsite on Indian Ridge

Our packs are getting lighter, I think. The ratio of food to garbage in our bear canisters has finally reached the tipping point of more garbage than food. These are the signs that we are nearing the end of our trip.

Our final night is spent on Indian Ridge, overlooking North Dome, with views stretching from Clouds Rest to Half Dome and all the way down the Valley to Eagle Rock and Three Brothers.

We score the campsite I had spotted on our first night, when we headed down to the creek for water. It is the most luxurious space of all the sites so far. Perched at the apex of the ridge, there are two Ponderosa pines positioned perfectly for sitting and enjoying the outstretched views of Half Dome and Clouds Rest. Two clusters of low madrone bushes provide some privacy from both the trail to North Dome and the rest of the ridge descending down toward the Valley. Three separate living spaces are defined by the borders of the madrones, the rocks, and the trees.

The wildlife show here consists of alpine chipmunks, which crisscross the trail and hop from one rock to the next, then disappear in the madrone bushes. Continue reading →

Yosemite Series: Day Four

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Day 4: Sherpa Steps to El Capitan

The nosebleeds started three years ago, on our backpacking trip from Tenaya Lake to Clouds Rest to Little Yosemite Valley. That was another case of trying to go light by carrying less water, and sleeping at a high altitude. Ever since then, Randy has brought a kit of supplies with him to deal with sudden nosebleeds in the wilderness. I pass the time by theorizing about the causes and possible remedies – not of the symptom of having nosebleeds, but of the determining factors.

I contemplate the mystery of how the blood vessel constricting effects of the pseudoephedrine in Claritin-D could paradoxically promote bleeding. I wonder if the drying effect of the antihistamine in Claritin is too much in the already dry alpine air. I blame coffee, wine, and not enough electrolytes. I wonder if he should have done a sinus rinse using water taken from the creek. I even imagine how it would be possible, on future trips, to bring distilled water to do sinus rinses in the backcountry.

These are the things that go through my head as his nose is bleeding in the middle of the night. I also note, with some mixture of horror and pride at the accuracy of my self-assessment, that this is the kind of parent I would be, if I were to become one — an analyzer, a fixer of things. I am not a natural when it comes to providing pure comfort and soothing presence. My mind is usually too busy understanding “why”. Any abilities I now have in the area of healing and calming presence I have acquired from many days, weeks, and months of attending workshops and retreats and practice. Continue reading →

Yosemite Series: Day Three

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Day 3: Arriving at Yosemite Creek

Before there is “arriving”, there is “getting there”. On North Dome, I am feeling unmotivated to get out the skillet and and do dishes in the morning. So we go with a very light breakfast. Perhaps too light. It is a granola with milk and blueberries dehydrated meal from Backpackers’ Pantry. Delicious and satisfying, but probably low on protein.

We leave North Dome at around 8am. I already know where the first creek is, so the day’s agenda is a matter of passing that creek, then Lehamite Creek, then cresting the ridge at Yosemite Point, and making the descent to Yosemite Creek, followed by a short ascent to our hidden campsite just above Yosemite Falls. Continue reading →

Whales whales whales

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It’s been hard to ride my bike continuously along the coastal trail these past few days. Every few feet I am stopped in my tracks by a breaching whale or pair or three! I have begun to observe how the birds show us where the next whale will breach. And I love seeing pairs breach in unison!

Plus, have you ever heard a whale honk?

Whales remembered from Quarry Park view point

Message at Martin’s Beach

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Fourth of July was a full day for me, starting with milking the goats at Vida Verde Education. On my way back, since I was with my partner who had never been to Martin’s Beach, we decided to stop and check it out. We were the first ones to walk the beach that morning.

But we were not the first to see the message placed on the bluff top like the “Hollywood” sign. I wonder who the lucky couple was.

IMG_1194 2
On site – before adding in the color of sky.

 

At home, after adding sky.
At home, after adding sky.

Martins Beach July 4-1-2 Martins Beach July 4-1

Gift from the sea…

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Today I cracked open a new Moleskine notebook – the small watercolor album. I’ve never used it before, but there is liberation in a small blank page.

I sat with a piece of seaweed in front of me on the beach, and was able to take the time to let each layer of paint dry, adding more layers until I found the olive green-brown that satisfied me.

Seaweed 6.3.16

Today my gift from the sea was the chance to pay attention to the way colors mix on a page. And to sit for long enough to feel the quality of the ocean’s embrace. I was inspired to jot these words down too:

Ocean’s Embrace

She approaches with a low rumble

as if a stampede of galloping hooves roll in

from the horizon.

She rolls and curls

and like many gentle fingers

she envelopes with a

soft touch

Soft yet definite

holding the power

to move boulders

grain by grain

crumbling walls

dissolving manmade

structures overnight

reminding us

of our brief time here.

Today – Friday, June 3, 2016

Check out more of my journey in sketches on Miramar Beach in this gallery.