I have a fear of heights. It's an irrational fear I know, yet it still bothers me when I'm really high in something and there's nothing to hold on to or something like that.
On our first anniversary, my wife and I took a trip to Seattle, Washington. One of the things that we visited was the Space Needle. We bought our tickets and waited for the elevator to take us to the top. Ironically, something like this usually doesn't faze me. But when I saw the glass elevator, I panicked a little.
Going up was fine because I was rather rude and pushed my way to the front of the line and jumped in all the way to the back of the elevator. At the top, I was fine, mainly because there were so many anti-suicide devices that I knew I wasn't going to fall. Perhaps that's the fear. It's not so much the height, but the fear of falling.
Now, going down was a different story. I had been so comfortable up there enjoying the views, that I forgot all about the elevator. I ended up being the last one on and so I was pressed up against the glass as we descended. I hyperventilated and had to turn around and stare at the floor to keep from going full panic attack mode.
For the most part, I've overcome this fear. At least I know it's irrational. I'll readily get into planes now. Before, there needed to be a really valid reason for me to fly before I'd even consider getting into a plane. I know people will laugh at this considering it as rather silly, but how many of those same people will shudder when looking at either one of the photos I've used for this post?
Fears are irrational. I think Franklin Delano Roosevelt said it best when he stated in his first inaugural speech, "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."
For other stories about Fears, click here.
Yesterday, a couple of friends of mine and I decided to take a hike along the Pacific Crest Trail west of Wrightwood, CA. Those of you who know me well, know that this wasn't just a planned hike, but also a geocaching excursion. We do this all the time.
We started our hike, heading up to the first geocache. There were some high clouds in the sky, but they weren't really blocking the sun much so it was a warm day, perfect hiking/geocaching weather.
The first cache took the most time, mostly because we didn't find it right away and so resorted to the hint which threw us off of our game. At one point, I spotted a rattlesnake in a rock crevasse near the cache. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at, at the time, but once it moved and rattled, I made a hasty retreat. Eventually we spotted the cache and moved on down the trail. I took the first shot from that cache spot.
As the day went on, we found a variety of caches, stopped for a quick bite to eat and to allow one of my friend's dog to rest her feet in the shade. The sun had heated up the trail and it was rather hot for her out there. At the next to last cache, we ended up soaking her feet quite extensively, then started back down the road that paralleled the Pacific Crest Trail. By taking the road back, we shaved about a mile and a half off of our return hike, still getting a nice 5.34 mile hike in.
There was a cache alongside the road and by this time, we could tell it would be better to rest the dog here. Her owner stayed with her while my other friend and I hiked the rest of the way along the road to retrieve the car. By the time we got back to the pullout, our friend had found the last cache.
In reality, this wasn't planned to be our last cache, but it worked out that way, because sometimes things happen. When we go geocaching, our unwritten rule is, whoever retrieves the cache needs to replace it. We do this because that person knows where it was exactly hidden. I've been in a group where another person re-hid the cache and we accidentally lost it because he put it where he thought I'd found it and ended up dropping it down a hole where it was non-retrievable.
As our friend returned the cache, he decided to place a rock on top of the cache to keep it in place and to add an additional layer of camouflage to the hide. Had he not done that, I wouldn't be writing this story and we would have gotten a couple of more cache finds before we called it a day.
The rattlesnake, lying nearby, took exception to my friend placing that rock there, and bit my friend on the hand. The snake had been there all along, but for whatever reason, didn't make its presence known when he retrieved the cache, nor did it rattle when he replaced the cache. It just bit him when he tried to place the rock and then rattled. Biting and then rattling, I think, is fairly typical of baby rattlers, which this one was. The photo is not the rattler in question, just another rattlesnake that I've encountered while out geocaching.
Our first order of business was calming our friend down and then getting him to a local hospital. We decided to take him to Loma Linda, which was the closest and also the best equipped hospital in the area to handle snake bites. Coincidentally, my other friend with us had been bitten by a rattlesnake a couple of years ago. I mentioned it, in this post from my other blog.
Needless to say, we got him down off the mountain and at the hospital in 45 minutes without having to drive recklessly in the process. And it is amazing how many people you get to bypass at the emergency room door by say those two magical words, rattlesnake bite. We got pushed to the front of the line very quickly, they took his vitals and got us into the emergency room right away. As of this writing, he's still in the hospital, undergoing treatment but appears to be improving.
What this leads to is a public service announcement. Snakes are out there and they are common. I overheard a nurse in the ER say the hospital is getting between 1 to 2 snakebites victims per week. And I have to say we're fairly careful, yet one of us still got bit yesterday. Things happen, so be prepared, be calm should it happen and seek medical attention right away.
"One is the loneliest number number that you'll ever do. Two, can be as bad as one. It's the loneliest number since the number one." My favorite bad when I was in junior high school was Three Dog Night. I had most of their albums and knew most of the lyrics to most of their songs.
This month's photo blogging challenge by theme, P.J., is One. To be honest, I really hadn't thought much about this until a couple of days ago, but when I looked back at the shots I'd taken this month, I came up with quite a few One shots. As I write this, I'm still debating which of the seven original shots I've picked to use in challenge. Whatever I pick, I'll warn you ahead of time, the last shot might make you cringe if you haven't already seen this on Facebook or Flicker.
1. The first weekend in March, I went on a nice 3.5 mile hike in the foothills behind me. The trail too me up into the hills off to the right of this shot and then back down behind me to this level portion of the Thompson Creek Trail. The last part was a nice level walk back to the car, nothing too tough on the legs. I found 9 geocaches on the hike as well, so it was a very successful trek. Having your camera out all the time allows you to take candid shots like this.
2. Most of you know I geocache. In fact, I've started to geocache a lot recently, so almost every one of my shots seems to have a geocaching tag attached to it nowadays. It's what I love about this silly game. It gets me outdoors to all sorts of interesting spots.
Last weekend, my friend and I took a day trip down to San Diego. We were working on a challenge cache that challenges people to find 10 caches of a similar type. The catch is you have to find 7 different types, 10 times. Fortunately not all at the same time as that would be ridiculous, but this day, we were working on virtual caches.
From the geocaching website: "A Virtual Cache is about discovering a location rather than a container. The requirements for logging a Virtual Cache vary—you may be required to answer a question about the location, take a picture, complete a task, etc... In any case, you must visit the coordinates before you can post your log. Although many locations are interesting, a Virtual Cache should be out of the ordinary enough to warrant logging a visit."
We were trying to find 10 virtual caches (we found 11 that day). This virtual cache took us out along a beach south of San Diego to look at a naval communication set up. We couldn't get really close, but we got out on a rocky jetty to take a shot of the installation and on the way back I got this shot of this one Marbled Godwit looking for food along the shoreline.
3. As we worked out way around San Diego Harbor, we were very fortunate to have been there on a such a beautiful day. The temperature was in the high 70s most of the day with a slight breeze blowing. It was perfect for sailing as this one lone sailboat showed while we were looking for the answers for this virtual cache which was located on Shelter Island on the northwest side of the harbor. We were looking for a marriage proposal that someone had sent to his girlfriend by way of those engraved bricks. It was actually pretty clever and we enjoyed the time we spent there looking at the sailboat and other boats that were out on the water. This particular cache ended up being our 8th virtual find for the day.
4. Finally, in La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya), we found out 10th virtual cache of the day. We actually ended up with one more virtual just to the west of this particular shot, but we spent quite a bit of time right here, mainly because the weather was, once again, perfect for the day and there was a lot of great scenery around.
The gulls seemed to want to cooperate with me on this shot, although I would have preferred to have the waves splashing high on the rocks. I just kept my camera focused on the point and every now and then out of my peripheral vision, I could see solitary gulls float by. I caught this one gull flying over head and called it good.
To the right of this shot was as cove where there was a conglomeration of animals. There was a ledge that had nesting cormorants, and another where there were gulls and pelicans just sitting in the sun. Further down there were kayakers and snorkelers looking at the kelp growing in the cove and on several of the rocks, there were large congregations of sea lions basking in the late afternoon sun. I caught a sequence as two of them started to squabble over a particular spot and it only ended when one of them got pushed back into the water.
5. Finally, last Friday afternoon, a couple of friend and I went on a hike in Chino Hills State Park. You might not know exactly where the park is, but if I tell you it's within a couple of miles of where the 5.1 earthquake hit Friday night, you'll probably have a better idea.
We parked a car at one trailhead, then drove down to the other trailhead in Carbon Canyon and hiked up and over, finding 18 geocaches in the process. Near the end of our hike, we startled this nice sized rattlesnake from its siesta at the side of the trail. None of us got within striking distance, but it remained coiled up like this while we were in proximity to it.
I've encountered rattlesnakes while out hiking and geocaching in the past, but I've never seen one quite this color before. Most of the ones I've seen are usually a much darker color, almost blackish, with a diamond pattern on their back. Based upon what I've been able to find on-line, this one is either a Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake or a Panamint Rattlesnake.
There's my five "Ones" for this photo blogging challenge. Please stop by P.J.'s page to see how others interpreted the theme One. As always, feel free to comment. Don't worry, I won't bite.
My doctor this week asked me what I do for exercising and I told him hiking, although I don't do enough of it. I also told him I was going hiking this weekend in Chino Hills State Park.
I've been up there a couple of times in the past and I'd actually forgotten about one of my hiking trips up there. I remember the hike, just didn't remember exactly where I'd been. Now I know. But I digress.
For this of you who do any kind of hiking, you know you can encounter just about anything out there. I've seen deer, bobcats, lizards, butterflies and tarantulas while out on the trail. Most of you already know too, that when I say hiking, I also mean geocaching. They are kind of synonymous with me.
About the two scariest things that I've encountered while out geocaching are a mountain lion and rattlesnakes. Please note the "S" on the end of rattlesnakes. I've encountered more than one.
The mountain lion was seen in San Dimas canyon after a great walk back there to pick up a fantastically put together geocache called Curiouser and Curiouser. As we were standing at the trailhead after a successful completion of finding the cache, I noticed what looked like a coyote up the trail walking toward me.
As soon as I said, "Hey, look at the coyote up there," something told me there was something wrong with that coyote. I couldn't put my finger on it until it made a left hand turn into the bushes and we saw the long sleek tail. That wasn't a coyote, but a mountain lion walking toward us. Since it was near dusk, we all decided that it would be a good thing if we headed out as quickly as we could and get back to our car. Because of the light, I never did get a photo of the cat.
Yesterday, while out hiking in Chino Hills, I saw my sixth rattlesnake. My friend was leading our group by about 10 yards or so ahead of us when we heard the distinctive rattle of this snake's tail. There's always a little adrenal rush when you hear that, but my friend did a little jig and backed away quickly and the snake stopped rattling, although it never did uncoil and totally relax after that. From what I've been able to find on-line, this one was either a Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake or a Panamint Rattlesnake. I've never seen one quite this color before.
Anyway, this is more of a public service announcement, more than anything else today. With the weather getting warmer, encounters with snakes will become more common. Be careful out there. As a ranger once told me at Yellowstone National Park, "If you cause an animal to stop and alter its normal routine, you're too close to the animal." We kept a safe distance between us and the snake, snapped a couple of shots and then left it in peace. Let's hope all animal encounters by you are like this one.
