This evening, we had the Winter Masquerade, on the top floor of the west wing. We had a good time, and it was a nice house-warming occasion as well.
Year: 2006
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Black Canyon Upstream
The kayaking trip to the Black Canyon was spectacular. The weather was perfect, and the hot springs were very nice. We arrived Friday night, stayed at Lake Mead, and then kayaked all the way from Willow Beach to Arizona Hot Springs. After dropping off our stuff, we proceeded to go upstream to the sauna cave.
On the way back, Ryan capsized, but everything turned out fine. Overall, we enjoyed the scenery and the company.
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First Time Hiking San Gorgonio
The hike today was spectacular—above the clouds! It was harder than I thought. I’m exhausted. Even though I’ve done so much hiking in California, this was my first time up this local landmark.
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Coyote Skinning
Two days ago, I started skinning the coyote, with the help of Ryan and Jeremy. One of the secretaries picked it up near Lake Arrowhead and handed it to me in Home Depot’s parking lot. It was road kill. After skinning and scraping, I salted it. Then, I brain-tanned and smoked the hide.
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June Lake and Yosemite
This evening, I returned from a long trip away from home. It’s nice to be back.
On Tuesday, I hiked up the trail above June Lake and Gull Lake. Yost Meadow was beautiful. That afternoon, the rest of the group joined me. There was Uncle Ben, Andrew, Lynette, Wing, and Gabriel. I gave devotion on Romans 1.
The next day, we set off for Yosemite via Rafferty Creek. The hike to Emeric Lake was beautiful. We paced it well and had no problems, since the climb up to Tuolumne Pass was very gradual. Emeric Lake was very nice. We had a meaningful devotion, where Uncle Ben shared a message with us—about metaphors drawn from the trip itself.The next day took us to Florence Creek Junction. The boys caught five fish but did not end up eating them.
On Friday, we worked our way up to Vogelsang Pass. This stretch was quite strenuous, but we made good time. Our campsite was on a ledge just past Vogelsang Lake. Our amphitheater-like view of the entire canyon was spectacular, both for sunset and sunrise.
We spent the next day traversing high country to get across the Evelyn Lake basin and down into Lyell Canyon. Dew settled on everything, and I ended up packing up most things while they were still wet.The hike out was nearly six miles, but it was almost completely flat along Lyell Canyon. We saw a coyote this morning.
I’m glad to have made it home safely with only one small blister above my right heel, at the Achilles insertion.
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Lake Tahoe and Desolation Wilderness
The trip up to Tahoe was really long. Joe Bowen drove very slowly and carefully. Sometimes, it was painful. Anyhow, we got to the Resort at Squaw Creek and made it to the first dinner for the Musculoskeletal Infection Society. I served as President this year.
On Sabbath morning, we left and headed to Eagle Falls campground, where we parked. Joe had to go get an overnight parking permit while we waited. Anyhow, we made it for the 11:00 shuttle bus to Meeks Bay where our hike began. After an initial stretch of flat trail, the terrain became an incline. We soon reached Lake Genevieve, which was the first lake. Joe and Jon decided to go swimming. I went further to our campsite at Crag Lake. Dave and I found a very nice spot. Soon, Joe and Jon arrived and decided to go scale this peak that towers above the lake. They almost made it to the top. After they returned, we made dinner, which was the regular French onion soup and spinach ricotta tortellini. It was good. We then enjoyed some cider and chocolate and were soon asleep.
I got up early the next morning and took a bunch of pictures of the Crag Lake outlet. It was beautiful. We didn’t hit the trail until after 10:00 am. We took a lot of breaks on the way up to Phipps Pass. It was nice to get cell reception from near the top. Lake Tahoe also was visible from this high vantage point. We quickly made it down to Middle Velma Lake, where we found a perfect little lakefront campsite. Joe, Jon, and Dave swam to an island. I tried, but being blind without my glasses, I got in a panic attack and had to swim back to shore. We had black bean soup, corn tortillas, vegetarian chili, and Santa Fe chipotle soup. We then sat on this peninsula and talked and watched the sunset. It was awesome. After cider and chocolate, we enjoyed the meteor showers.
The downhill hike was gruelling. We finally made it to Eagle Falls campground and got to the car. Jon and Joe had to go swimming in the creek to clean up. We had a nice breakfast at IHOP. Afterwards, they dropped me off at Oh! Ridge. I spent my afternoon doing some laundry and getting situated here. I made myself some dinner from a frozen package called “stew vegetables,” which I got from the store here at Pine Glen Resort. Dinner was nasty but tolerable. I also got to take a nice shower at the resort.
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Rabbit Hunt
The rabbit pests are out, and they seem to be multiplying more and more. My fiberglass recurve bow from college days still works well.
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Mammoth to Thousand Island and Garnet Lakes
On Friday last week, we headed up to Mammoth Lakes. We stayed the first night at the Pine Glen group campsite number 7.
The next morning, we set out from Agnew Meadow. Our group consisted of me, Sean, Sean’s mom and aunt—Nancy and Deborah, Kevin, Ryan, Brad, and Armando. The hike to Thousand Island Lake was beautiful. The lake itself was mostly frozen. We camped at the same spot as we did last year.
The next morning, the lake partially froze over. The golden glow of the sun perfectly illuminated Banner Peak. It was awesome. We spent a very treacherous day hiking and route-finding our way across to Shadow Creek via Garnet Lake and the two mountain passes along the way. This was by far the most technical route-finding I’ve had to do. The ice and snow fields were overwhelming. While skirting Garnet Lake, Nancy almost fell in. Anyhow, we safely made it to the outlet of Ediza Lake. Snow banks surrounded the entire lake. Unable to camp here, we hiked down to find a small trail-side grassy flat, which made a perfect campsite, with a nearby creek and a ready fire pit.
On Monday morning, most of the group hiked out along Shadow Creek drainage. Brad, Armando, and I continued past Rosalie and Gladys Lakes and the Trinity Lakes chain. We settled at Johnson Meadow, which was a very pretty spot with a quiet stream. We made camp right at the trail junction. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes here were vicious. I took a long nap before getting up to make dinner.We got up early on Tuesday and hiked out. We ate breakfast at the Breakfast Club. My spinach feta cheese omelette was amazing. After leaving the town, we arrived in Redlands at 3:00 pm. Brad was determined to drive back to Phoenix to make it there for the Fourth of July fireworks. I think he is still quite upset about the dropped camera that he borrowed from his dad.
Anyways, it’s good to be home.
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Black Canyon Downstream
We just got back from kayaking the Black Canyon. It was with Alice, Wing, Alvina, Rosebud, and Ryan. Laisum and Jayce canceled because they were sick.
This time, we started from Hoover Dam and visited some of the points of interest further upstream. The sauna cave was nice, but I especially enjoyed the hot shower at Gold Strike Hot Springs, which was just a little downstream from the cave.
We made it to Arizona Hot Springs that evening and spent the night at White Rocks Beach. The weather was beautiful the whole time.
Today, we worked hard to do the eight miles. Although it was downstream, the wind was against us. Wing was the only one with a watch, which was set one hour later. So instead of reaching our destination at what we thought was 2:55, we got there at 3:55. The guy was expecting us at 3:30. Anyways, everything went nicely. We made it home safely after such a rewarding trip with good company.
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Tucson
The American Association for Hand Surgery took place in Tucson. Dan Kemper did a nice presentation about plating for comminuted distal radius fractures. Between and after the meetings, I spent time touring Saguaro National Park.
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