2008-09-11-1732 yay--a full-on connection. Different from last twitter post, I headed south through Giant Forest. _There_ I found my extensive grove of giant sequoia. But unlike the coast redwoods, it is a mixed forest--the coast redwoods can reproduce without seeds (asexually?), these cannot.
I'm headed south on the High Sierra trail now, and will take this to the Kern River & Golden Trout wilderness and probably head right back out (to Kernville) where I started if my food lasts long enough. I could be out in as little as one week, but I hope to be here at least two more. As Jardine notes, quality of food is key to wanting to stay out here. In the past half hour I've been thinking about other forests or ecosystems where I might have an easier time. But I did just chow down on some elderberries. . . eventually I may type in the list from today's resupply. Plenty of fat, carb, protein, but not a lot of fruit or anything that excites me a lot. The only mistake perhaps: the flour tortillas which I've eaten already. I also contemplated the bears--they're big, they get enough to eat out here. . . anyways. If I could get more lentils to soak, decent rice maybe--but I haven't wanted to hitch anywhere. Also, things are starting to shut/gear down for the winter.
Thanks Mike and Phillip from Ohio for sharing your site with me!
That's about it for now. I've been having fun with the camera--some photos of the Sherman Tree and the architecture around it, among other pics. Will comment on the photo when it is up, I hope--as a temple to a tree--it works. The design of viewers' approaches to the tree is apparent & well done.
Things have been a bit blah-er out here recently, but also times of a deepish love for the experience. Never sure what's next. Tropical fruit-bearing climates? Work on a ship or oil rig? More or less the same-old: how to make this more collaborative? to avoid ruts? and a half-wondering why I'm not doing anything particularly eco, beyond exploring a possible sort of path of less consumption.
No incoming emails, and not sure I want to fire up opera mini to see if there may be any input from the cyber world waiting for me.
Yesterday, was a storm with so much hail it looked like it had snowed--fortunately I was only ever on the edge of it and needed only warmer clothes, not raingear, walking through the snowy aftermath.
Time to head on, I suppose. Read some scifi yesterday and day before--_Ubik_ and _Spook Country_, but was sort of avoiding more meaningful stuff like Proust and Italo Calvino. This may have contributed to the blahness. And I haven't had enough batteries to listen to some audiobooks--
I did have a nice unfreezing lake to swim in yesterday!
Peace,
Thursday, September 11, 2008
inertia, ambiguity . . . dream
2008-09-09-0713 I'm writing--don't feel like walking right away, walked till 830 or 930 last night in the halfmoonlight along a narrow, unstriped, paved, dead-end road, deserted but for a few cows.
What the story of the cows is I'm curious--I can't imagine how they're all rounded up, and maybe they are free cows. There seems to be an odd one or small group nearly every where making trails, leaving cowpies.
The two bushwhacks yesterday went ok, and there are no more coming up that I can see--a relief. I fear encountering impenetrable brush and cliffs. Haven't seen any poison oak for two days now (>5000'). I felt not-at-ease yesterday evening until I made it from the closed-to-public-travel OHV road to Landslide Grove up to this paved road here upon which a car may travel at least once or so per day (zero so far).
--
Ambiguity: been thinking more about ambiguity avoidance as a reason why I/we do or keep doing many things.
A basic ambiguity many of us deal with is: what should I do with my attention? An existential issue.
My itching poison oak/urishol(?) rash--sometimes my attention has been focused on itching. Interesting it is how attention can move from one patch to another, only one patch asking for attention at a time. But at some point I consider that I'm scratching a patch because it feels good, sort of, and because I don't have anything more compelling to do at the moment.
I see a similar action in eating, reading, walking, and what else?-- I continue doing these things because a compelling reason to stop has not occurred to me yet, and were I to stop, I'd have to wonder what to do next.
There is also the idea of letting something run its course. I don't want to walk just yet, but after feeling some completion writing here, I probably will. If I had nothing to write, I bet I'd read a while, then walk. Or sew a while.
Last night I played a bit with staying in ambiguity as a sort of meditation or stilling technique. Instead of using a positive instruction such as, "focus on breathing as felt near the belly" or "cycle attention through body parts, never lingering", I would note any seeking of attention/mind for something to do, and rather than allowing the action (scratching, eating peanut butter), would attempt to hold attention in an unfocused, un-acted-upon state until I tired of that or until something too compelling came along (I need to piss).
So, does this leave me with any great breakthroughs in self-management for more fulfilling living?
By now I have eaten all my 16.3 oz of peanut butter, and were it in the small ~3oz packets I got at Muir Trail Ranch, I probably would still have three packets left.
I may not have scratched as much--not by attempting to resist the temptation, but by noting that the mind is just trying to avoid the ambiguity of having nothing to do--laying in the dark, not too sleepy, not wanting to read--and deciding to attempt to prolong the situation of attention having no focus.
Possibly I can develop the practice of checking in while eating, reading, scratching, walking, writing, talking: am I avoiding ambiguity, or does my continuing this action serve in some way?
Who knows.
--
Last, I had a wonderful dream. The location was San Diego, but no SD I know--it would perhaps be on a back street of one of the more dense, walkable areas.
I came across a massive exercise or performance of "streets renaissance"/bike happening type activity, though bikes were but a minor part. A marching band or multiple armies of bands were all converging toward one highschool-type building. I was near only one group of dancers/musicians/costumed performers, but had the impression of far more. This was daytime. A huge part of the converging effect was due to wires, really only one set, perhaps, of seven or so parallel wires strung overhead from somewhere angling downhill toward the campus--and down these wires rolled people whose heads and outstretched arms wore airplane costumes.
It seemed to be a rehearsal, and during a pause I was able to praise or ask a question of a nearby director, a beaming young woman. She was joyful with my amazement and eventually I found my way into the campus of what I found to be a performing arts school. I had my little camera and took some pictures of the fantastic scenes.
One was of a musical performance/ rehearsal, a roman toga type guy singing (well, with great presence) in reaction to something (others of similar costume were nearby) in a hallway I happened to walk along.
One was of a cafe, victorian style, with costumed customers, next to a merry-go-round, with costumed riders.
Another happening later: as I walked away I approached a street crossing where at least two students were playing drunk bums in makeup and costume, crossing, or not really crossing the street.
What kind of school was this? Seems more like a collaborative workshop for practice of massive public performance art.
Well, what a vision, and another dream to wonder at where the sleep-mind comes up with these sets and scenarios resembling nothing, perhaps only new combinations of elements?, known in my life.
0854
Peace,
What the story of the cows is I'm curious--I can't imagine how they're all rounded up, and maybe they are free cows. There seems to be an odd one or small group nearly every where making trails, leaving cowpies.
The two bushwhacks yesterday went ok, and there are no more coming up that I can see--a relief. I fear encountering impenetrable brush and cliffs. Haven't seen any poison oak for two days now (>5000'). I felt not-at-ease yesterday evening until I made it from the closed-to-public-travel OHV road to Landslide Grove up to this paved road here upon which a car may travel at least once or so per day (zero so far).
--
Ambiguity: been thinking more about ambiguity avoidance as a reason why I/we do or keep doing many things.
A basic ambiguity many of us deal with is: what should I do with my attention? An existential issue.
My itching poison oak/urishol(?) rash--sometimes my attention has been focused on itching. Interesting it is how attention can move from one patch to another, only one patch asking for attention at a time. But at some point I consider that I'm scratching a patch because it feels good, sort of, and because I don't have anything more compelling to do at the moment.
I see a similar action in eating, reading, walking, and what else?-- I continue doing these things because a compelling reason to stop has not occurred to me yet, and were I to stop, I'd have to wonder what to do next.
There is also the idea of letting something run its course. I don't want to walk just yet, but after feeling some completion writing here, I probably will. If I had nothing to write, I bet I'd read a while, then walk. Or sew a while.
Last night I played a bit with staying in ambiguity as a sort of meditation or stilling technique. Instead of using a positive instruction such as, "focus on breathing as felt near the belly" or "cycle attention through body parts, never lingering", I would note any seeking of attention/mind for something to do, and rather than allowing the action (scratching, eating peanut butter), would attempt to hold attention in an unfocused, un-acted-upon state until I tired of that or until something too compelling came along (I need to piss).
So, does this leave me with any great breakthroughs in self-management for more fulfilling living?
By now I have eaten all my 16.3 oz of peanut butter, and were it in the small ~3oz packets I got at Muir Trail Ranch, I probably would still have three packets left.
I may not have scratched as much--not by attempting to resist the temptation, but by noting that the mind is just trying to avoid the ambiguity of having nothing to do--laying in the dark, not too sleepy, not wanting to read--and deciding to attempt to prolong the situation of attention having no focus.
Possibly I can develop the practice of checking in while eating, reading, scratching, walking, writing, talking: am I avoiding ambiguity, or does my continuing this action serve in some way?
Who knows.
--
Last, I had a wonderful dream. The location was San Diego, but no SD I know--it would perhaps be on a back street of one of the more dense, walkable areas.
I came across a massive exercise or performance of "streets renaissance"/bike happening type activity, though bikes were but a minor part. A marching band or multiple armies of bands were all converging toward one highschool-type building. I was near only one group of dancers/musicians/costumed performers, but had the impression of far more. This was daytime. A huge part of the converging effect was due to wires, really only one set, perhaps, of seven or so parallel wires strung overhead from somewhere angling downhill toward the campus--and down these wires rolled people whose heads and outstretched arms wore airplane costumes.
It seemed to be a rehearsal, and during a pause I was able to praise or ask a question of a nearby director, a beaming young woman. She was joyful with my amazement and eventually I found my way into the campus of what I found to be a performing arts school. I had my little camera and took some pictures of the fantastic scenes.
One was of a musical performance/ rehearsal, a roman toga type guy singing (well, with great presence) in reaction to something (others of similar costume were nearby) in a hallway I happened to walk along.
One was of a cafe, victorian style, with costumed customers, next to a merry-go-round, with costumed riders.
Another happening later: as I walked away I approached a street crossing where at least two students were playing drunk bums in makeup and costume, crossing, or not really crossing the street.
What kind of school was this? Seems more like a collaborative workshop for practice of massive public performance art.
Well, what a vision, and another dream to wonder at where the sleep-mind comes up with these sets and scenarios resembling nothing, perhaps only new combinations of elements?, known in my life.
0854
Peace,
moon about half full [acorns]
[addenda, 2008-09-08-0728: all sorts of berries are now ripe, and bear shit,smelling sweet, filled with them. I also picked up and peeled some white oak acorns I hope I'll have the industry to process.
I'm walking along a paved road as I type--loving this road: no brush to scrape against, as long as no cars, as now.
Data entry from resupply at Grant Grove Market:
guiding principles: some heavy fresh stuff to be eaten sooner. Diverse but not likely to be binged on options for carbs, fat, protein at each eating time. Price.
2 apples @ .79 ea
2 armour potted meat @ .70 ea
1 armour vienna sausage @ 1.09
2 barbie poptarts pkg of 12 @ $1.99 ea (on sale and Yogi?, I think, mentioned poptarts)
1 big can fruit (to be eaten there, on sale) @ .89
3 ~13oz instant potatoes @2.29 ea
1 bisquick 10oz? @ 2.39
1 sm pkg sunflower seeds, roasted, salted @1.29
6 eggs @1.29
1 its it vanilla ice cream @.99 (eaten there)
10oz cheddar @$6
2 potatoes @ 1.19 ea (charged for 1)
1 skippy extra chunky peanut butter @2.89
2 7oz mahtma spanish rice @1.09 ea
3 7oz starkist chunk light tuna pouch @2.89 ea
2 frozen chicken burrito @ .49 ea (eaten there)
3 large yellow onion @ .69 ea
total 46.51
--
so far the only mistake may be the poptarts as by this AM I've eaten them all--we'll see. Peace.
]
2008-09-07-2037 a good and hard day. I wasn't far from Lake Sequoia, actually, maybe only a mile. I was tired, dirty, hungry, thirsty. The lake is a YMCA camp, but it is possible to walk in, as long as you don't go where campers are. But there are signs. . . I was sort of walking on eggshells/crackly leaves. Found a spring eventually. Further on found a hillside in the sun, set out solar charger, went down to creek to rinse off finally--clothes, poison oak rash in the very cold water. Cooked breakfast: freeze-dried lasagna, seaweed, dried pepper, tesco yorkshire pudding/pancake dough congealed a bit. Felt a bit better, but flies were annoying, and food uncertainty nagging, and decided to move on.
That led to a bit of bushwhacking which I had had enough of and was very tired of. . . my energy wasn't the best. After a while (I had walked through a shrub which left me studded with sticky seeds--a variant on the velcro ones I had earlier been accreting and at least as painful to remove without scissors from leghair, and worse, they then stick to fingers. I do need to make those nylon shell pants--) I sat and cooked the last of my food: two more freeze-drieds (chili, spaghetti) + seaweed + pepper and read a bit of _Mason & Dixon_. Shortly after continuing on from this break I found, thank goodness, a maintained, used, and unovergrown foot trail which went up to overlook Lake Sequoia, and then went down to the east, the way I wanted to go.
Then I saw my first giant sequoias! I have yet to see them in such densities as the coast redwoods grow--maybe these sequoias need the mixed forest.
I was tired, the route seemed to take much longer than I'd expect from the map, and the roads were all over the place, and I wasn't sure which way to go. After a bit of wavering, I continued east-ish. Finally, my first parked vehicle sighting, then people--I arrived in Grant Grove.
A friendly ranger there by the Grant tree helped me plan out my potential route. There are small stores here, Cedar Grove (to the east, near the end of 180), and Lodgepole (south). Eventually I began to walk again, intending to find the store, hoping it might be good, and open. Again a maze of roads and trails (assumption is every one is going back and knows from where they started--this wouldn't be so hard, but there were no other walkers). I made it. The store was open, good enough, and I resupplied, so far it seems, more or less gracefully. I may give details later, but don't feel like doing the data entry now, just this: - ~$46. And I got through to my mom (has been an ongoing project)--she was able to call in to the payphones on the porch where I was eating and depackaging food.
I am partway up to Panoramic Point and Park Ridge. If the ridge is not too cliff-like, I should be able to get down to an OHV road, and then all is good, assuming the roads & trails on the map between there and Lodgepole exist and are in good shape. Else, I'll need to backtrack and try another possibility further north. A map with topo lines could be handy. I could also hitch various places, or walk along the highway, but would rather not.
Well I'm in no rush, know where to get food, and Lodgepole looks fairly close, and I may have a comfortable week's worth of food, and I seem to be high and south enough now that bugs, temp, and forest fire smoke are not making me want to move on. . . no rush. That fire is around the middle fork of the Kings River, and they've been letting it burn since July apparently, in Kings Cyn NP, but in the national forest part they try to put it out.
I never made it into the visitor's center. Maybe if I have to backtrack I'll stop in then. Tomorrow I might not move much, and do more reading and sewing/mending.
They have mirrors around here, and I have got to looking rather wild.
after Lodgepole, then perhaps to Mineral King, then through Golden Trout, south to Manter Mdw, and out the way I came in p'haps.
2204
Peace,
I'm walking along a paved road as I type--loving this road: no brush to scrape against, as long as no cars, as now.
Data entry from resupply at Grant Grove Market:
guiding principles: some heavy fresh stuff to be eaten sooner. Diverse but not likely to be binged on options for carbs, fat, protein at each eating time. Price.
2 apples @ .79 ea
2 armour potted meat @ .70 ea
1 armour vienna sausage @ 1.09
2 barbie poptarts pkg of 12 @ $1.99 ea (on sale and Yogi?, I think, mentioned poptarts)
1 big can fruit (to be eaten there, on sale) @ .89
3 ~13oz instant potatoes @2.29 ea
1 bisquick 10oz? @ 2.39
1 sm pkg sunflower seeds, roasted, salted @1.29
6 eggs @1.29
1 its it vanilla ice cream @.99 (eaten there)
10oz cheddar @$6
2 potatoes @ 1.19 ea (charged for 1)
1 skippy extra chunky peanut butter @2.89
2 7oz mahtma spanish rice @1.09 ea
3 7oz starkist chunk light tuna pouch @2.89 ea
2 frozen chicken burrito @ .49 ea (eaten there)
3 large yellow onion @ .69 ea
total 46.51
--
so far the only mistake may be the poptarts as by this AM I've eaten them all--we'll see. Peace.
]
2008-09-07-2037 a good and hard day. I wasn't far from Lake Sequoia, actually, maybe only a mile. I was tired, dirty, hungry, thirsty. The lake is a YMCA camp, but it is possible to walk in, as long as you don't go where campers are. But there are signs. . . I was sort of walking on eggshells/crackly leaves. Found a spring eventually. Further on found a hillside in the sun, set out solar charger, went down to creek to rinse off finally--clothes, poison oak rash in the very cold water. Cooked breakfast: freeze-dried lasagna, seaweed, dried pepper, tesco yorkshire pudding/pancake dough congealed a bit. Felt a bit better, but flies were annoying, and food uncertainty nagging, and decided to move on.
That led to a bit of bushwhacking which I had had enough of and was very tired of. . . my energy wasn't the best. After a while (I had walked through a shrub which left me studded with sticky seeds--a variant on the velcro ones I had earlier been accreting and at least as painful to remove without scissors from leghair, and worse, they then stick to fingers. I do need to make those nylon shell pants--) I sat and cooked the last of my food: two more freeze-drieds (chili, spaghetti) + seaweed + pepper and read a bit of _Mason & Dixon_. Shortly after continuing on from this break I found, thank goodness, a maintained, used, and unovergrown foot trail which went up to overlook Lake Sequoia, and then went down to the east, the way I wanted to go.
Then I saw my first giant sequoias! I have yet to see them in such densities as the coast redwoods grow--maybe these sequoias need the mixed forest.
I was tired, the route seemed to take much longer than I'd expect from the map, and the roads were all over the place, and I wasn't sure which way to go. After a bit of wavering, I continued east-ish. Finally, my first parked vehicle sighting, then people--I arrived in Grant Grove.
A friendly ranger there by the Grant tree helped me plan out my potential route. There are small stores here, Cedar Grove (to the east, near the end of 180), and Lodgepole (south). Eventually I began to walk again, intending to find the store, hoping it might be good, and open. Again a maze of roads and trails (assumption is every one is going back and knows from where they started--this wouldn't be so hard, but there were no other walkers). I made it. The store was open, good enough, and I resupplied, so far it seems, more or less gracefully. I may give details later, but don't feel like doing the data entry now, just this: - ~$46. And I got through to my mom (has been an ongoing project)--she was able to call in to the payphones on the porch where I was eating and depackaging food.
I am partway up to Panoramic Point and Park Ridge. If the ridge is not too cliff-like, I should be able to get down to an OHV road, and then all is good, assuming the roads & trails on the map between there and Lodgepole exist and are in good shape. Else, I'll need to backtrack and try another possibility further north. A map with topo lines could be handy. I could also hitch various places, or walk along the highway, but would rather not.
Well I'm in no rush, know where to get food, and Lodgepole looks fairly close, and I may have a comfortable week's worth of food, and I seem to be high and south enough now that bugs, temp, and forest fire smoke are not making me want to move on. . . no rush. That fire is around the middle fork of the Kings River, and they've been letting it burn since July apparently, in Kings Cyn NP, but in the national forest part they try to put it out.
I never made it into the visitor's center. Maybe if I have to backtrack I'll stop in then. Tomorrow I might not move much, and do more reading and sewing/mending.
They have mirrors around here, and I have got to looking rather wild.
after Lodgepole, then perhaps to Mineral King, then through Golden Trout, south to Manter Mdw, and out the way I came in p'haps.
2204
Peace,
Saturday, September 6, 2008
hello world
Now, back in receptionland, being gone at least a week, I feel compelled to say something, though I was enjoying simple engagement in the journey/a sort of peace, which writing may interfere with. But I am compelled.
For a while I just ate, generally too much, of the free hiker food you don't need to cook (the free food at Muir Trail Ranch was as unbelievable as before--buckets full of Pro, Cliff, & Peaceworks bars, Gu, etc), and re(a)d, mostly Pynchon. More recently I got into roaded areas, primarily because of a fire, and roads motivate me to walk more to get to roadless areas.
Most recently I've had a few days of insane bushwhacking: dropping down into the Kings River Gorge/canyon following bear trails two days ago, and yesterday and first half of today attempting to find and follow trails (on the map but may not have been maintained in decades) before giving up and taking the OHV (off highway vehicle) routes. I've found the heat and the poison oak at these lower elevations by the way.
Last night I was on a mountaintop penned in by chaparral and scrub oak--where I stopped I could not stand up--after following old foot trail to cow trail to bear "trail", getting progressively more shredded in the process. Madness. --perhaps related to my not wanting to stop various things I get started on, whether reading, computer fiddling, eating, and what else? (typing these!) or not wanting to have to turn around and go back considering how shredding and trailless the trip up had been.
Thank goodness for the greater cycles within which my foolishness and lack of will to practice self-control occur: the sun sets, the book ends, the no-cook food runs out, the batteries get low.
What has been for the worse, though: the smoke from the fires. We seem to get a valley breeze in the evenings (cold air sinking?), so mornings by around 2am for the past three mornings the air has been fairly thick with smoke (how close are the fires??). I considered the possibility of becoming charred remains up there on that hill, especially as I cooked my dinner and was reminded how the manzanita--which I had only to reach above or around me to gather--burns like a blowtorch. I did have about four liters of water with me, perhaps lessening the foolishness score. But I more or less had to crawl through poison oak (it's fall, mostly leafless and dried out, and I'd survived the previous day's encounters--but had a river to soak in), and I am wearing shorts, and I had ripped the silicone nylon enclosure I made for the top of my pack, meaning it and what it contained would get caught on more and more of the brush I crawled through, with the catching & ripping getting progressively worse (++foolishness).
I woke early--in the smell of woodsmoke in the brush-enclosed darkness, with no easy, clear path of departure--, I packed by 5am, tried to move a bit with my LED light, then sat and waited (mental stuff, rested, +read a little) for haze-dimmed daylight. Made it back to the cow trails by 0630 or 0700? Back to the marked trail by 1100. On the map this trail continues, but I found no continuation on the ground, though there were similar ancient blazes (continuation not found) on oaks near the highest reach of the cow trails! And back to the road by 1200.
Now I've gotten in trouble the other way: I asked for and accepted a ride that got me most of the way up the OHV road--avoiding much of a long, hot climb. Later without being 100% sure where I was, I accepted (though I did not have a thumb out, and I did hesitate) a short ride that put me partway along hwy 180--but I wanted to be on the forest service road to the north (I had considered it and walked by, confused by labeling saying it went to Millville, which is not on my map)--that road would be much more peaceful, there's probably a spring along it, and it gets to the east in a nice spot. Well I decided not to turn around, and eventually found an FS (forest service) road to get a bit of a ways off the hwy. But I still have maybe 6 mi of hwy walking for tomorrow am, and only a quarter of a liter of H20 left after cooking a good dinner. And I'm a bit itchy, rather dirty, and the fat ants are running over each other to be my dessert--but the swarms of eye flies went to bed with the sun, and perhaps I'm far enough south to now avoid the morning fire smog.
--
Reading Pynchon--alot could be said. About the bears and the cows and the ants and the people, how they seem to wander every where--alot could be said? About feeling alive and fully engaged following those animal trails--the mystery, amazement where they lead, down and up cliffs, to water, on belly, on crablegs, scraping, shredding through brush, feeling the scrape on skin, continuing anyway, or because?--ditto.
Well, that may be all then. I've enjoyed a few emails that made it through--one from Starhawk about the RNC, one from Jim Bell . . . and the ProEVO people apparently sent out another shipment of books ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pro-evo ?)
It would be good if I could post a proposed route before I head to possible no reception for the next two weeks. But the only solid plan is to resupply somehow (about a day's food remains), to look at big sequoias, to continue south, to not bushwhack any more--or at least no more following bear scufflings . . . no more poison oak.
Not sure whether I'll stop by Quail Springs and Los Padres NF, not sure how soon I'll be back in SD (very end of Sept? Week before end?). Seems I want to not get stuck there--it would be so easy and perhaps not unpleasant to get rutted there for a month again (and work on various things related to Mexico travel). But since I started this trip I've never spent two nights in the same spot. . . perhaps keep that up? I wish to avoid my grandma (Ann)'s fearfulness. Unlike Sherwood Anderson's characters--well, never mind attempting to express that.
No grand plans. I may now be embedded out here--reading & listening to books and wandering around really may be enough, and richer than most things I can imagine. Challenges come up--finding trails, resupplying gracefully, reading--. I avoid the ugliness of the car-city and car-presence, the rutness of house living. I could see myself hopping a freight train and riding along to somewhere.
Comfort will be an issue. Too much heat, poison oak, biting, stinging ants, flying bugs, bad air from burning forests--
The only thing I think could be good to learn from that I may not get out here is doing involved things with others--you know, the ideal of great collaborators: dance companies, artist groups, teams, business, activists, tribes, whatever. At least I'll read about collaboration, real and imaginary.
Two things I noted on my pad a while ago as contemplation possibilities: (1) life as ambiguity reduction; (2) life/PCT as novel: what will make you want to finish/keep reading/see it through?
2008-09-06-1129, Sequoia NP
Peace,
For a while I just ate, generally too much, of the free hiker food you don't need to cook (the free food at Muir Trail Ranch was as unbelievable as before--buckets full of Pro, Cliff, & Peaceworks bars, Gu, etc), and re(a)d, mostly Pynchon. More recently I got into roaded areas, primarily because of a fire, and roads motivate me to walk more to get to roadless areas.
Most recently I've had a few days of insane bushwhacking: dropping down into the Kings River Gorge/canyon following bear trails two days ago, and yesterday and first half of today attempting to find and follow trails (on the map but may not have been maintained in decades) before giving up and taking the OHV (off highway vehicle) routes. I've found the heat and the poison oak at these lower elevations by the way.
Last night I was on a mountaintop penned in by chaparral and scrub oak--where I stopped I could not stand up--after following old foot trail to cow trail to bear "trail", getting progressively more shredded in the process. Madness. --perhaps related to my not wanting to stop various things I get started on, whether reading, computer fiddling, eating, and what else? (typing these!) or not wanting to have to turn around and go back considering how shredding and trailless the trip up had been.
Thank goodness for the greater cycles within which my foolishness and lack of will to practice self-control occur: the sun sets, the book ends, the no-cook food runs out, the batteries get low.
What has been for the worse, though: the smoke from the fires. We seem to get a valley breeze in the evenings (cold air sinking?), so mornings by around 2am for the past three mornings the air has been fairly thick with smoke (how close are the fires??). I considered the possibility of becoming charred remains up there on that hill, especially as I cooked my dinner and was reminded how the manzanita--which I had only to reach above or around me to gather--burns like a blowtorch. I did have about four liters of water with me, perhaps lessening the foolishness score. But I more or less had to crawl through poison oak (it's fall, mostly leafless and dried out, and I'd survived the previous day's encounters--but had a river to soak in), and I am wearing shorts, and I had ripped the silicone nylon enclosure I made for the top of my pack, meaning it and what it contained would get caught on more and more of the brush I crawled through, with the catching & ripping getting progressively worse (++foolishness).
I woke early--in the smell of woodsmoke in the brush-enclosed darkness, with no easy, clear path of departure--, I packed by 5am, tried to move a bit with my LED light, then sat and waited (mental stuff, rested, +read a little) for haze-dimmed daylight. Made it back to the cow trails by 0630 or 0700? Back to the marked trail by 1100. On the map this trail continues, but I found no continuation on the ground, though there were similar ancient blazes (continuation not found) on oaks near the highest reach of the cow trails! And back to the road by 1200.
Now I've gotten in trouble the other way: I asked for and accepted a ride that got me most of the way up the OHV road--avoiding much of a long, hot climb. Later without being 100% sure where I was, I accepted (though I did not have a thumb out, and I did hesitate) a short ride that put me partway along hwy 180--but I wanted to be on the forest service road to the north (I had considered it and walked by, confused by labeling saying it went to Millville, which is not on my map)--that road would be much more peaceful, there's probably a spring along it, and it gets to the east in a nice spot. Well I decided not to turn around, and eventually found an FS (forest service) road to get a bit of a ways off the hwy. But I still have maybe 6 mi of hwy walking for tomorrow am, and only a quarter of a liter of H20 left after cooking a good dinner. And I'm a bit itchy, rather dirty, and the fat ants are running over each other to be my dessert--but the swarms of eye flies went to bed with the sun, and perhaps I'm far enough south to now avoid the morning fire smog.
--
Reading Pynchon--alot could be said. About the bears and the cows and the ants and the people, how they seem to wander every where--alot could be said? About feeling alive and fully engaged following those animal trails--the mystery, amazement where they lead, down and up cliffs, to water, on belly, on crablegs, scraping, shredding through brush, feeling the scrape on skin, continuing anyway, or because?--ditto.
Well, that may be all then. I've enjoyed a few emails that made it through--one from Starhawk about the RNC, one from Jim Bell . . . and the ProEVO people apparently sent out another shipment of books ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pro-evo ?)
It would be good if I could post a proposed route before I head to possible no reception for the next two weeks. But the only solid plan is to resupply somehow (about a day's food remains), to look at big sequoias, to continue south, to not bushwhack any more--or at least no more following bear scufflings . . . no more poison oak.
Not sure whether I'll stop by Quail Springs and Los Padres NF, not sure how soon I'll be back in SD (very end of Sept? Week before end?). Seems I want to not get stuck there--it would be so easy and perhaps not unpleasant to get rutted there for a month again (and work on various things related to Mexico travel). But since I started this trip I've never spent two nights in the same spot. . . perhaps keep that up? I wish to avoid my grandma (Ann)'s fearfulness. Unlike Sherwood Anderson's characters--well, never mind attempting to express that.
No grand plans. I may now be embedded out here--reading & listening to books and wandering around really may be enough, and richer than most things I can imagine. Challenges come up--finding trails, resupplying gracefully, reading--. I avoid the ugliness of the car-city and car-presence, the rutness of house living. I could see myself hopping a freight train and riding along to somewhere.
Comfort will be an issue. Too much heat, poison oak, biting, stinging ants, flying bugs, bad air from burning forests--
The only thing I think could be good to learn from that I may not get out here is doing involved things with others--you know, the ideal of great collaborators: dance companies, artist groups, teams, business, activists, tribes, whatever. At least I'll read about collaboration, real and imaginary.
Two things I noted on my pad a while ago as contemplation possibilities: (1) life as ambiguity reduction; (2) life/PCT as novel: what will make you want to finish/keep reading/see it through?
2008-09-06-1129, Sequoia NP
Peace,
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