Obsession
Posted on | February 8, 2010 | No Comments
My planning guides and books and maps are not here yet. I have no work to do right now to get ready for the trail. Except to hike. And I’m doing that. I was talking with Jeff this afternoon about the PCT hike, and had to cut it short in order to get on the trail before the rain hit. Again. Didn’t make it. But. I did have a $4.99 Walgreens umbrella. Ha. Take that rain shower.
Anyway. All I have are a bunch of DVDs about the Pacific Crest Trail. And soon I will have watched them all. And will have to start over.
It keeps getting hammered into me that we live in an unstable environment. The fires in southern California made national news. And there is a big section of the trail that is closed, and is likely to be closed for several years. The re-route has not been determined by the Forest Service, because it is still raining. And the land has not settled. I think the land on the East Coast, specifically the Appalachian Trail does not change as much as the PCT does. Anyway.
I’m hiking two hours a day now. And I’ll take it to three hours next week. It feels good. Very good.
I am having difficulty sleeping. I am imagining each of the miles of the first day’s hike.
Walk well. God is love.
Another request
Posted on | February 7, 2010 | No Comments
The Manipulative story reminds me of another. One from my 2004 PCT hike. I had gotten back to the trail leaving Mojave, California and hiked the stretch between Tehachapi Willow Springs Road and Highway 58. On the map it looked as if it would be a short hop, skip, and jump, and then I would cross 58 and get some real hiking done.
Not the case. I had a difficult time with the hike and got to the highway at dusk. I found a flat spot in a gully about 50 feet below an off ramp from the highway. Another hiker showed up and joined me. I was surprised at the number of people who pulled onto the off ramp to pee. After being awakened by the traffic four or five times, I shouted up to one fellow: “You have any ice cream?” My hiking companion was rolling with laughter. I scared the guy above us. But he was a good guy. No ice cream, but he threw down two cold Sprites.
Walk well. God is love.
Manipulative
Posted on | February 7, 2010 | No Comments
Last night I called upstairs to ask Elaine if she had any cake. She started laughing. And said she would make some today. It worked. And this morning, I called to see if I could pick some oranges for her, and when she said, “Yes”, I ask if she might want lemons, too. You see she makes this amazing lemon pound cake.
She just brought some down. Two small slices. Knowing I am losing weight for the trail.
Pre-trail magic!
Walk well. God is love.
Timing
Posted on | February 6, 2010 | No Comments
Lots of rain this morning. And I wanted to go for a hike. The Ridge Trail is not too inviting because of the slippery trails going up. So. As soon as it looked as if the weather were clearing early this afternoon, I got out of the house quickly — to beat the crowds. I hiked for about two hours, got quite muddy, and made it to the car before the trails got too crowded.
No gardening. The soil is too wet. And now is the time to start putting some seeds into the ground.
Looks like sunshine tomorrow.
Walk well. God is love.
Permission to suck
Posted on | February 6, 2010 | No Comments
Gottago referenced the Permission to Suck site on Facebook. I was intrigued by the title and have been informed by the content. The video about the Apple tablet is from that site as well.
. . . and an error isn’t failure unless you give up the flight. Authentic creatives have a passion for doing; they can’t not-do, and the results are secondary to the act . . .
Bruce DeBoer in an article on the Permission to Suck site
The phrase: “they can’t not-do” is especially powerful for me. I find great inspiration from seeing older people who are struck anew by a creative urge. Gottago has it in her photography. There are more and more of us who are more than 60 years old. And we are finding great joy in the advanced years.
Walk well. God is love.
Even more robins
Posted on | February 6, 2010 | No Comments
Same spot. Rainy day. Maybe 50 robins flying around doing robin things. I had not seen this the prior three springs on Coolidge Avenue.
Walk well. God is love.
Steve Jobs changes the world. Again.
Posted on | February 5, 2010 | No Comments
Apple Tablet Saves the World from Ben Kunz on Vimeo.
Walk well. God is love.
Just another day
Posted on | February 4, 2010 | No Comments
These days it’s important to get the hike in as soon as weather permits. And I was in Joaquin Miller Park early. A good hike. A fine one. And about an hour and a half into the hike, I met up with two women who hiked strongly. It was a joy to talk with them. They are hikers and gardeners. We talked about trails, tomatoes, and orange trees.
And when I got home, I obsessed on the Pacific Crest Trail. I can see that happening again. And as the day wore on, I thought about dinner. Though the cupboard was mostly bare, I did not want to go to the grocery store. And then I remembered: I had put cannellini in a bowl to soak last night. Ha! I went to the orange tree and picked dessert. And to the kale patch and got a big bunch. A big bunch. A fine dinner. As fine as can be. Almost as good as a hamburger.
I think that a good hamburger is as fine a food as ever was. But you must understand that a lot of people who emigrate to the U.S. arrive thinking that hamburgers are the devil’s food. I have known several whose mothers told them to promise to never eat a hamburger. A friend, Cicero (Brazilians often have names of famous people. I have known a Washington and a Jefferson, too.) and I worked together at his printing plant in San Francisco. Often his wife would make Brazilian food. Always including rice and beans. Cooked for hours. Meat the same way. With lots of salt. Anyway, one day I tried to convince Cicero to go with me to get a hamburger. I told him I would buy. And that if he did not like it, he did not have to eat it. He ate two.
All that to let you know how good the beans were tonight.
Walk well. God is love.
Hiking a long trail
Posted on | February 2, 2010 | No Comments
There are gains and losses. Or as the Greeks used to say, “Nothing comes unmixed.” Of course the Greeks said something else, but I don’t speak Greek, much less know how to type it. Anyway.
There are times, many of them, when I just want to go where I want to go. Somewhere I know. Or somewhere I have heard about and go with expectations. But other times, especially when hiking a long trail, I go where the trail leads. And when it’s a long trail, that can take some time. And take me to places I might otherwise not want to go. But then. There are the surprises. Places that offer a very big reward. Unexpected. But given to the one who hikes the long trail.
That happened today. And there was a price.
We have had a lot of rain. The ground has been soaked for weeks. And though it had not rained in the Martinez area for several days, the ground is still waterlogged. And when Jean Rusmore writes in Bay Area Ridge Trail that a climb is “unrelenting”, one should expect a steep, strenuous climb. Please know that waterlogged clay can make a steep, strenuous, unrelenting climb seem unending.
But that is the way it is on the Ridge Trail. At least in the East Bay, the ridges are on a series of long hills or low mountains, with steep approaches. Almost all of them. But once on the ridges, the views and the plop, plop, plop are almost always sublime.
I was the only one on the trail. The approaches were that difficult. The only one on the first sunny day in some time. What joy. Sunshine, views, rolling hills, the Bay, Carquinez Strait.
I went by John Muir’s home. Big. And I saw a tree that John Muir saw. When he walked with his daughters and named nearby hills Mount Wanda and Mount Helen for them.
John Muir saw this oak tree.
And then I cheated. I walked on sidewalks to get back to the car. I did not want to walk down those slick trails. I met another older fellow. A local hiker, who told me he had not been on the ridge since the rains started. I felt special. About 8 1/2 miles, with about 1,600 feet of elevation gain. I was muddy dirty when it was over and very happy.
Walk well. God is love.
Robins
Posted on | February 2, 2010 | 2 Comments
There are many robins, maybe 20, playing outside my window.
Walk well. God is love.