Travel - Day 4 of the Chill

When I looked over the list of topics for the 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge, I noticed that this one would be the easiest.  It probably will be the longest as well.   I love traveling and try to get at least one travel/camping trip in every year.  Most years, I'm successful.

This past summer I went on a short week (5 days) camping trip with my friend Craig to help him get to Yosemite National Park and hike the John Muir Trail.  I've already written two posts about it, Part 1 and Part 2.  This is Part 3 and a continuation of the trip to Bodie which I started in Part 2.  If you've just stumbled upon this blog because of the 20 days of Chill challenge, I suggest that you might want to go back and read the first two parts before reading this one.

As I noted last time, we got extremely lucky at Bodie as the photographic elements all came in alignment to give me some great conditions in which to take photos.  We had light sprinkles from some thunderstorms that were passing through the area, but we weren't getting wet and the puffy clouds were just excellent.

After we explored the cemetery in Bodie and found a geocache over there, we then walked over to the main part of town.  Several of the buildings are open and we could walk through parts of them to see some of the insides, but it was mostly exteriors of the buildings.  I think I posted in Part 2 that I went shutter clicking happy, and why not?

There have been so many times in the past when I've traveled when I've had totally cloudless skies.  Now, cloudless skies are nice, but from a photographer's point of view, they don't lend much interest into your shot if a third of it is one color or monotone in nature.  Clouds give your photographs some depth, and I had it that day, so I went nuts.

And it wasn't even difficult to go through the images and decide which ones weren't going to see the light of day anywhere outside of my computer screen as I just love most of the images that I had taken.  I experimented with Black and White with almost all of them, but settled on color for quite a few of the images.  But as you can see, I did process at least on in Black and White.

Historical areas like that have always intrigued me.  As we walked around the town, reading the plaques about the various buildings, we just had to marvel at the intestinal fortitude of people who lived in this area in the 1800s.  People were tough back then.  It was hard work from sunup to sundown with not much relief at all.  Creature comforts like forced air heating were non-existent.  Can you imagine living in a place, covered in snow for most of the winter months without some kind of gas heating system?  I would suspect that most of us if we were instantly transplanted back to the 1870s would be dead within a week.  

But since we were born when we were, I think we should feel very fortunate.  Because of the hard work of people before us, we have been afforded all sorts of luxuries, many of which we probably take for granted.  We have that forced air heating, almost instant access to information, a good educational system and the ability to travel and learn about places such as Bodie.

After walking around the town for several hours, taking in much of the site, but not getting to the mine area of the town, we had to leave to get to our next camping stop, which was a good hour and a half down the road.  Because we didn't see it all, I'm sure I will be back to explore more parts of Bodie, including the mine section.  I just hope it doesn't take as long to get back for a second visit than it did for me to get here in the first place.

The top photo is a photo I submitted for the Sharpshooters International Photography Club.  Each week, members of the club submit photos and the club publishes a photo stream every Wednesday.  Please stop by on Facebook (link above), like our page and view some of the fantastic photos that members have to offer each week.

Thanks for coming by for Day 4 of the Chill Challenge.  I'm actually amazed at myself that I've been able to keep this up for the entire time so far.  Of course, I still have 16 more days to go, but I'm getting into a rhythm right now.

John Muir Camping trip - Part 2

Last month, I told a little bit about our camping trip up to the eastern Sierra to help my friend get started on the John Muir Trail.  We'd spent the first day geocaching, getting his truck up to Whitney Portal and then finding a spot to camp for the night.  

The next morning, we got up, broke camp and then headed over to the general store at Reds Meadows where my friend Craig was planning on leaving a cache of food at the general store.  We decided to have breakfast there, then drove out to Mammoth to find a couple of caches, including a couple that were above 9000 feet in elevation for a challenge cache I'm trying to complete.

After that we headed north and decided to visit Bodie, CA.  Bodie is a state park that preserves the ghost town of Bodie in a state of "arrested" decay.  That is to say, they are keeping the place in the state it's in and not letting it get any worse for wear.

Bodie is in a pretty rugged, remote area where the only access is along a long dirt/gravel road that could jar the fillings right out of your teeth if you drove too fast on the road.  Scenery is awesome and we had the perfect weather for the day with a lot of rain clouds all about us.  We were getting sprinkled on from time to time, but that didn't diminish our spirits at all.  I went shutter snapping happy with the clouds that we had that day and got some tremendous shots.

One of the first places we explored when we got there was the cemetery.  Now I can just imagine the thoughts of some of my readers, "Why would you want to explore a cemetery?"  In actuality, old cemeteries are really quite interesting.  You can walk amongst the graves and see the history of the town unfolding right there.  You can speculate as to what happened to some families.  Was it a disease that killed the wife and daughter, or did it happen during childbirth?  Either way, I've always found old cemeteries fascinating and if I have the chance, will usually take some time to explore.  I think part of that is going to be lost for future generations as more and more people opt for cremation and have their ashes spread somewhere.  The gravestone at least is a marker and memory of someone once they passed into the great unknown.  Will we have that available to us in the future?

To be continued....

Photo Blogging Challenge (March 2014): One

"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. 

Photo Blogging Challenge (July 2013): Signs

And the sign said "Long-haired freaky people need not apply"
So I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why
He said "You look like a fine upstanding young man, I think you'll do"
So I took off my hat, I said "Imagine that. Huh! Me workin' for you!"
Whoa-oh-oh

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

lyrics as recorded by The Five Man Electrical Band in 1971

As you can see, this month's five photo blog theme was signs.  No standard signs to show you today, but I think you'll enjoy my signs.

1.  Summer meals

Summer meals tend to be not as heavy for some reason.  Although this summer, thus far, hasn't been a real scorcher, the normal heat that becomes quite pervasive in the summertime doesn't make anyone want to cook in the kitchen for very long.  If you do have hot meals, they tend to be barbecues.  Still, my daughter made this very tasty dinner with turkey bacon, basil, beef steak tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and Italian spices.  The meal was definitely a sign that we were in the middle of summer.

2.  4th of July

I think this is an obvious sign for most of us who live in the United States.  When we think of fireworks, we think of 4th of July celebrations and the beginning of our country as an independent sovereign nation, no longer bound to the whim of King George III.  For the most part, fireworks are a sign of some kind of celebration.  We celebrate the birth of our nation.  Disneyland shoots off fireworks nightly during the summer, celebrating the longer hours that guest can enjoy the park.  Baseball stadiums shoot off fireworks after home runs and winning games.  I can remember one game we went to where there were so many homeruns hit by the home team that we were left wondering if there would be anything left for the end of the game.

3.  Camping trip

Right after the 4th of July, my three children and I went on a camping trip.  This was the first time all three of them had gone camping with me in 12 years.  Usually, it has just been the youngest (the tall one in the middle) who has gone camping with me over the last couple of years.  When, they were younger, it was very important to keep them busy, lest they become bored.  I pretty much had every minute scripted out as to what we were going to do.  Since my wife doesn't camp, it was me with three small children, so keeping track of them and making sure they were safe was a big priority.  

I took this shot mainly because I think it represents a very relaxed attitude of all three of them and myself as they have grown into adulthood.  My daughter graduated from grad school this year with a masters in education and will be teaching 4th grade next year.  My son graduated from college with a degree in Environmental Studies and is starting to put feelers out into the job market for some kind of environmental job.  My youngest graduated from high school and will be going away to college to study physics in the fall.  This photo is definitely a sign that we will soon have an empty nest.

4.  Summer work projects

If there is one truism about owning a home, it is definitely that a homeowner's work is never done.  The green fiberglass panels of this fence in between our garage and main house had seen better days and when the one panel fell out of its tracks and several others were threatening to also fall out, we figured that it was a sign that we needed to do something about it.  

While my daughter was still here, we went to the hardware store and picked out all of the pieces of wood that we needed to change the fence.  After she left, my older son got me off of my butt and outside and we built the fence in about six hours.  I was extremely grateful for his help.  By myself, this project would have taken several days, lots of sweat and swear words.  We still need to finish up the gate, but that will come in the next couple of weeks.

5.  Back to school

When I was a kid, school ended the second week of June and didn't resume again until after Labor Day.  That was also true when I started teaching school 30 years ago.  Times have changed, but one thing still remains a constant - sometime during the summer, I receive a letter from my principal hoping that I'm having a good summer.  This letter is the sign that summer really is coming to an end and I will be back at work shortly.  In this case, tomorrow I go back to work for teacher meetings and computer training.  Monday, my students will show up, and I will start my 31st year of teaching, 30th at my current school, Cucamonga Middle School.

And on a side note, a couple of weeks after I start, my daughter will start her first year of teaching and begin the cycle anew for our family.  She will be a fifth generation teacher in our family, stretching back to the late 1890s.  She is poised to follow in the footsteps of both her mother and father, her grandfather, 2 of her great grandparents, and a great great aunt who taught in a one room school house in rural Indiana back in 1897.

So there you have it.  My signs for the month of July.  And here's the link back to P.J.'s blog so you can see the other's signs.

Camping trip

Those of you who know me fairly well, know that I enjoy camping and usually end up taking at least one camping trip every summer.  Last year, we went to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks.  This year, we plan to revisit San Simeon State Beach and Hearst Castle and then later on in the week, we'll travel up to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  We've been to both, but the kids were fairly young when they visited Hearst Castle, so it'll be neat to visit it again.  My youngest and I were at Lassen three years ago, but the older two have never been there so it's new to them.

For those of you who have never been to Hearst Castle, I have two words for you.  It's amazing.  William Randolph Hearst made his fortune in newspaper, yellow journalism and then used his fortune to amass massive amounts of statuary and pieces of art.  He then housed them all in his "La Cuesta Encantada."  Two pools, one outdoor larger than an Olympic swimming venue and the other indoors, under a tennis court and inlaid with 20 ct. gold are just part of the things that you'll see at the castle.  There are rooms at this place that are larger than your entire house.

We plan on camping just south of the castle at San Simeon State Beach, then taking the main tour the next day.  After then, we'll pull up camp the next day and head to Lassen where we'll camp for the rest of the week.  Lassen is the last volcano in the contiguous United States to have erupted before Mt. St. Helens.  Lassen was very active between 1914 and 1919.  

Our original plan was to spend one of our days hiking to the top of Lassen Peak.  There is an earthcache (geology related) located at the top of the peak.  Three years ago when we were there, we were blocked by tons and tons of snow.  I've noticed several people have logged the cache last month so the trail was open.  Yep.  The key word in that was sentence is the word was.

We'll be getting to the park on Tuesday.  The park is closing the trail down for about 6 weeks for needed trail work beginning Monday.  We missed it by a matter of days.  Fortunately, there's plenty of other things to do there, so I doubt we'll have a lot of free time on our hands, but it was a little disappointing to have worked toward getting to the top only to miss out by a matter of days.  We'll have to satisfy ourselves with other hikes in the park.  Either way, it should be a lot of fun.

We will eat s'mores, take photos of ourselves in front of the entrance signs to the park and document our campsites like we have done every year with just a couple of exceptions.  The campsite shot here is our campsite in Mill Creek Campground in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park.  It was a very secluded spot, one of the best campsites I've camped in over the course of my many years.  There was actually a small staircase leading up to the site itself.  If we get campsites as nice as this in this upcoming week, we'll be doing well.

I shall be offline for the better part of the week, but I'll be posting photos of our trip in the upcoming weeks.