This Summer seemed to happen to me as much as I happened to it. Now with days off I find myself tending to be "on" and working anyway. June through August was a whirlwind of Outpost weeks (Jr high rustic camp), two backpacking trips (which were challenging and inspiring with so much late season snow and water), a tree climbing camp (in which I learned and taught safe LNT tree climbing techniques) and leading mountain bike trips for high school and Jr high camps a few times per week. Now in transition I will be shifting gears, but only slightly more toward observation based science and away from high adventure activities. I look forward to this new season and start of my new Calvin Crest year.
During one of the backpacking trips along part of the John Muir Trail, floral variety pleased me greatly with a display of Ranger Buttons, Shooting Stars, Monk's Hood, Leopard Lilies, Queen Anne's Lace, Little Elephants Head, Cinque Foil, Fireweed, Crimson and Alpine Columbine, Wall Flower, Indian Paintbrush, and Owl's Clover, to name a few. Despite trekking in August when it would normally be dried out, the flowers felt their chance for bloom later because of a 190% average Sierra Nevada annual precipitation. The section of the JMT we traveled had high mountain passes over 12,000ft. which presented incredible bleak beauty that soon dropped sub-alpine. These suddenly changing elevation based eco-systems displayed friends of the Willow family, Lodgepole Pine, Jeffery Pine, White Bark Pine, Red Pine, Aspen, Western Juniper, Hemlock and plenty others overlooked.
My animal list from the trip includes a Rattlesnake (4+ feet long), Mule Deer, Chickadees, Chickarees, Chipmunks, Ground Squirrels, Yellow Bellied Marmots, Garter Snake, Junco, Rosie Finch, Yellow Legged Frogs (trying to hop around on a frozen lake), Peregrine Falcon (over Muir Pass), two Bald Eagles (from Mather Pass), Humming Birds (selfishly enjoying and guarding a glade of Monk's Hood nectar), Blue Grouse and babies, trout, Clark's Nutcracker, White-Crowned Sparrow, and Pikas.
Taboose Pass; our exit point. This trip was particularly relaxing.
Ann's mother and brother visited. Excellent fun with touring on bikes and foot, games and movies, favorite restaurants and instant oatmeal, and climbing both rock and tree. Ann, her brother Jonathan and I ascended ropes up into a Giant Sequoia, then Jonathan and I spent the night in hammocks within the canopy. Bats swooping on our ascent in the dark, and nerves buzzing with awareness and childlike anticipation. 130 ft. from the dirt holding up our tree, we slept (occasionally). The art of overnighting in a hammock is challenging, and while climbing harnesses are a necessary safety anchor, they aren't the most comfortable sleep aid. I tended to get the best sleep on my side, curled up in a ball or with my down-bag-locked feet propped up on a branch near the end of my cocoon. Extra gear swayed gently next to me in the yellow backpack. In the morning we wished we'd hauled up some milk and cereal... plenty of improvements to be made for next time.
The following day, the same tree that cradled us through the night called us back up to climbed to the top. The very top. Jonathan free climbed to the summit branches -what took professional tree climbers a full day of meticulously ascending- in around 20 minutes. *mind explosion. I followed up and we enjoyed the unique 10 minutes of life above a Giant Sequoia's canopy. Though I tend toward the solidness of rock for my vertical endeavors, there is a uniqueness to be known and explored from the top of one of the largest living things in the world. God surely reveals His power through His Creation. We watched the sun set behind the dwarfed fir and cedar covered hills, then abseiled in the dark. Time to sleep in a bed.
"What I stand for is what I stand on."
— Wendell Berry
— Wendell Berry
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