Whitney Portal Hike - Saturday 9/20/2008 (Part 2)

We ventured up to Whitney Portal, the place where fearless mortals begin their climb to the top of the tallest mountain in the contiguous U.S., Mount Whitney. So cool that WPA workers built this trail for us in the 1930s. What a great thing the WPA was.


Hydra enters the breach. The big rocks make me feel like a little kid!


Hydra overcomes his usual shyness and busts loose with some melodrama.


Falls at Whitney Portal.



Here we go, about to drop about 5000 feet in 13 miles. This is the road that is going to put the Tahoe in the hospital.


A view of the Alabama Hills from Whitney Portal Road.

Return to Manzanar - Saturday 9/20/2008 (Part 1)

We visit the Manzanar National Historic Site every time we're in the Owens Valley, which is once or twice a year for the past eight years or more. They've been slowing adding information and restorations, including a really wonderful interpretive center.

If you're traveling through you really must stop and explore.

This is the entrance to the graveyard. People have hung origami figures all around it.


The central monument in the graveyard.


People put mementos on the monument. This apple came from one of the trees in the orchard here. Manzanar means orchard in Spanish. There was a very small town here by that name around the turn of the 19th Century.


One of the baby graves.


The ranger at the interpretive center told us that they'd made progress in excavating Peace Park, one of several gardens built by the Japanese-American internees during their time at Manzanar. We'd seen the standing stones before, but the painted writing had worn away.

This is amazing! This was taken from the newly excavated basin of one of the intricately constructed ponds. Dirt used to come almost all the way up to the rocks and covered many of them. The site's much bigger than we realized from what used to protrude.

The ranger told us they'd removed as much as four feet of sand!


Elk tracks near Peace Park. They have the run of the place and it seemd like they might actually have been frolicking here earlier in the day!

Cultural Lone Pine - Friday 9/19/2008

Hydra went out to the Alabama Hills--where lots and lots of movies were filmed, including Iron Man--to scan the dirt with his metal detector while I hung out at the coffee house in town and started reading Braveheart's fab new novel.

After a few hours, I wandered over to the Southern Inyo Museum and struck up a conversation with the volunteer there.



Most of the stuff in the museum started out in the now defunct Darwin Museum. But Darwin's pretty isolated and dwindling.

Lots of locals have donated personal histories and collections, like the one that includes some pretty cool skeletons and bugs. From talking to the volunteer, it seems like lots of people stop in and tell him bits and pieces of history. I hope he writes them down.


These are books that contain images of livestock brands that were in use in California. I was surprised at the number of them in the book from 1926, which is on top. There are 2 or three columns on each page.

Oh, the book underneath it? California Brands in 1980!



In the evening, we went to the film museum for a screening of Mule Train (1950) starring Gene Autry. The big Lone Pine film festival is held the second week of October every year, so they are gearing up and there are some interesting new exhibits. We didn't get there early enough to see much, so we missed the Iron Man exhibit


I'd like to see this movie here sometime. I've seen it several times, of course. Gene Autry is really no Gary Cooper!

Upward and Onward! - 9/18/2008

My tribute to John Ford.

The view from our camper around six a.m. Wow, are we glad we took off last night. There's no water or electricity at the campsites, but the refrigerator actually can run on gas so our yogurt was fine.


Gorgeous morning and we're here for it! See the moon over the rock?

Don't worry, no encounters of the third kind were in the offing.



We decided to take a different approach to this cliff than we did last year at this time. There's a photo on this post that shows Hyrda at the top of this cliff.



Yeah, okay, I'll admit it. There was a point shortly after Hydra scaled this rock and jumped over a two-foot gap between boulders when I froze up for a little bit. I had gotten us into this, but I couldn't quite hoist myself up to the next level (which would still require me to leap a veritable gorge of some 24 inches.)

My legs are not as long as Hydra's. I couldn't quite get a knee under myself to move up his route. And there was a nasty space between the rocks on my optional path that really looked like a great place to break an ankle.

Mind you, I had a hiking stick in one hand and a water bottle and a camera hanging from a strap slung over my shoulder as I was attempting this. Hydra came my way and took the stick and the strap and sort of talked me through it. "You can do it!"

Yes. I can.

We really pushed our boundaries on this hike, both of us. Big rock climbing, thinking our way through the tumble of boulders, pushing past fear.

Heh... Hydra was a little shocked when he saw the photo above... "That's not me!?"



We took a nice calm dry creek bed back toward the campsite. I think we deserved it!



This was the view from our campsite at Boulder Creek. We had a nice day of walking around nearby Lone Pine, CA, reading and relaxing. Bought some groceries at Joseph's Market (established 1895!)

Red Rock at Night, Camper's Delight - Wednesday 9/17/2008

After work on Wednesday, we tossed what we needed for the night and the next morning, and the birds, and clothes in to the Tahoe and hooked up the trailer and took off.

It's only about an hour and fifteen minutes to Red Rock Canyon, and that gets us 1/3 of the way to our destination for the weekend : Lone Pine, CA in the Owens Valley.

We arrived at the campground just before dark. There's no water or electric, so we didn't even unhook the camper. We had propane, so I heated up some hot dogs.

If you'd told me when I was in high school that I'd be living in California and I'd have a parrot for a pet, I might have asked for my fortune-telling money back.

But if you'd told me that I would lie on my back one evening and watch a million stars ease into view while my darling played guitar to the rocks, I would probably have bought that.

Ghost Trees - Tuesday 9/16/2008

Can you see them?

Taken from the sidewalk in front of Braveheart's house, 5:30 a.m.

Faygo - Sunday 9/14/2008

What? Doesn't everyone take her groceries out to the yard for a photo shoot?

OneL has never heard of Faygo. Never heard of Faygo!??

I guess it was a regional thing. It was and is bottled in Detroit. Maybe that's why I haven't seen it in years. It's being sold at BevMo stores in California as a novelty.

Faygo Redpop, the orignial Redpop. Once my beverage of choice. I remember sitting on the basement stairs with Anabahabek talking about the elections. We both decided on Hubert Humphrey, so I guess you could say I've been a Democrat since I was seven years old.

Faygo Cream Soda. A little rarer than some flavors. I remember it being a special thing to walk to a little neighborhood store from my Grandma B's house in Huntington, Indiana to buy a pop. I vividly recall tilting my head back and swigging as I barefooted it back to her house on the hot sidewalk.

Faygo Rock & Rye. It says "Cream Cola" on the bottle. I don't remember having this, but then I've never been a huge cola fan. Cream cola? I'll let you know.

Faygo Orange. Was it Faygo Orange or Nehi Orange I fed to a pony in Kentucky when we were on vacation? You got to ride the pony and you could buy it a drink after. Quaint.

Anabahabek and I bucked the cola-as-a-mature-drink trend and sipped orange soda all through high school. Rebel, rebel... Sing it girls!

Faygo Grape. I remember reaching down into the icy water of the old fashioned cooler at the back of Goss's Grocery at Big Lake to fetch a cold one. Everything tasted better after a swim in the lake.

Hiking and Eggplant - Sunday 9/14/2008

Yeah, I admit it. I couldn't think of a snappy title to combine the concepts of hiking and eggplant Parmesan.

I feel like such a failure.

Our boots post-hike. Another nearly two hour trek around the peaks. We went from our back yard to Sundry's mountain all the way back to Hydra's mountain. A first!





Loverly eggplants from Sanchez Produce.



Mom sent me a recipe for eggplant parmesan that she found online. I couldn't say when the last time was that I used a whole quarter cup in a recipe that didn't result in a cake.



The finished product. Fans include mom, me, Hydra ("You can make this again!") and my writing group.

Just a Couple More - Saturday 9/13/2008

This is it for today, I promise! I just loved these flowers, which came up of their own accord next to the Sanchez Produce Stand on Sierra Highway.

I had a great chat with the daughter of the family who runs it.



Hydra pulled over so I could take this shot of the nearly full moon rising over the Sierra Pelona range. This is right across Acton Valley from where we live. We were on our way to a hoot! Singing!

Sierra Highway Revisited Part 2 - Halfway House Cafe - Saturday 9/13/2008

The Halfway House Cafe from the front porch. This place shows up in movies and TV all the time. It was the setting for the 2007 feature film, Waitress.

The first time I ever saw this place was (probably) on an old episode of Starsky and Hutch, which I had a weird fixation on in my youth.



Pricey prices, but the chicken noodle soup was homemade and delicious.



Okay, I know it's weird to take photos of toilets.

But then again, it's pretty weird to find yourself in a modern two holer!


One of the front windows.


Hydra's been pointing this curiosity out to me for a few months. It's between the shrine and the Halfway House. Possibly an old mine shaft that was closed up with stone? It's on the left side if you're heading south.

Sierra Highway Revisited Part 1: Roadside Shrine - Saturday 9/13/2008

I headed down Sierra Highway Saturday morning to interview the good folks at my favorite produce stand for an article I want to pitch. Stopped at what I thought was a roadside memorial back in January (click for a comparison shot.) As it turns out, someone saw an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the blackened tree.



One of Hydra's coworkers told us that it had since been painted, so there could be no doubt about the miracle.




People carve their names here, and ask the Virgin to watch over their families, from what I can gather.




In spite of being right off the two-lane highway, it is a contemplative place.

lllicit Hiking - Friday 9/12/2008

This is the road cut we hiked to last weekend from over the hills to the right side of the freeway from here. (This was taken from northbound Sierra Highway.) You can really see how this little mountain was carved up to allow passage of the freeway.

If you click to enlarge you'll see a big pipe on the middle tier. The pipe's about 3 feet in diameter. I want to go back to get photos of the erosion around the concrete the pipe was set in.

We walked out from the left side of that tier but there was a landslide of sharp iron rich rock, so we went back and crossed over the pipe. It was pretty amazing being up there above the traffic.

Getting back through the barbed wire fence wasn't as easy as getting through where we first crossed. I lay on my back and scootched under and got a shirt full of stickers.

Fair enough.

p.s. I wasn't on any Metrolink train on Friday afternoon when the horrible crash happened. I was working from home again. Even if I had been, I don't take that line.

Metrolink ridership has been up in the past months because of gas prices. It's really awful that this happened on a Friday of all days. From personal experience, Fridays always seemed busier than other days. People avoiding weekend traffic, people going to visit in outlying areas.

This Means You - Thursday 9/11/2008

I am working at home today. Which gives Dodger a chance to work on his own projects, like remodeling the interior of this wine box.

He was actually taking a break from his work when I found the house quiet...too quiet. I looked around the kitchen for him. Nowhere to be seen.

So I lifted the box lid to see if he was inside. Oops! Imagine a porcupine with the head of a bear and the eyes of an eagle who's just been awakened from a nap. That's my boy.

My trespass couldn't go unremarked!



Step away from the box! This means you!


Cool Thing: Check out political ads of yesteryear from The Museum of the Moving Image's The Living Room Candidate collection. I think the featured ads change from day to day, so I'm going to embed a couple of my favorites.





Wow, I think this is the one Bill Murray's character emulates in Scrooged! Apparently, it was only shown once as a paid ad, and then the news shows picked it up as a story. Yipes.



I'm not sure upon which planet this ad was originally shown. A fascinating species...

Mango Tangle - Wednesday 9/10/2008

A perfectly ripe mango is one of the great pleasures in life. Sweet, tart, and exotic to those of us raised on apples and peaches.

When I peel fruit, I always try to cut the peel off in one continuous strip. It's something I learned in my Grandma W's kitchen. Probably a way to challenge herself as she worked her way through and endless series of breakfasts, dinners and suppers. (Yeah, that's how we called them in Indiana.)

I'm pretty good at it. I love the spirals that naturally result from this technique. My mind slides down them, back to Grandma's kitchen. When I was very little, there was a hand pump in the sink. There were blue gas flames in a little grate near the linoleumed floor. There was a Formica table with a cracker jar in the middle of it.

I doubt that my Grandma W, who died in 1979, ever tasted a mango. I think she would have liked it.

Take a Hint! - Tuesday 9/9/2008

I was minding my own business, reading the copy of The Orchid Thief that Tomasina gave me (and loving it) when whoosh! This bookmark inserted itself between the pages.

Dodger fixed me with a knowing gaze from his perch atop my bent knee. He'd been grooming himself and it was time for this feather to depart his wing, making room for a new one.

"It's also time to close the book and pet the parrot," he seemed to say.

And so I did.

New Kid In Town - Monday 9/8/2008

The little guy on the left is the offspring of Hoover and his darling female companion, Eureka. I couldn't get a shot of the three of them together because Eureka kept darting back under the deck.

Yeah, you guessed it.

We're calling the little one Dyson.

Oh, and check out the newest addition to my blogroll : The Awesome News Source. Good news every day!

Once More Into the Breach - Sunday 9/7/2008

Okay, not really into the breach. Up the mountain. This is Sundry's Mountain, so-called by locales.

Okay, really just by Sundry and Hydra. And a few of our more attentive friends.



My foot amongst the rocks on the interesting hilltop. There are little egg-like bits of quartz up here amongst high-iron content volcanic looking rock.

I know just enough about geology to wish that I really understood this stuff.

Usually my left foot is in the photos alone. Clearly my right foot has had enough of this folderol.



As soon as I stop being tired all the time (except during and directly after exercising) I'm going to ask an acquaintance who's in the know to do a geologic diagnosis of our area via photos.

I think this is maybe a volcanic plug at the top of one of our hills.