Mt. Whitney May Be a Little Too High

The photo was taken by w:user:geographer and originally uploaded to the English Wikipedia as Image:01520008.jpg on 06:28, 14 May 2005.

    For most of my life I have thought about hiking up Mt. Whitney.  I actually made a half-baked attempt with a bunch of Boy Scouts one time, but never really got close.  It's one of those dreams that kind of sits quietly in the little back room of the brain, going pretty much unnoticed except for the occasional trip to the kitchen for a snack.  A couple of years ago that dream moved into the front room of my consciousness where I had to walk past it quite often.  So, last year I made a reservation (there's a lottery system to get permission to be on the trail), but then got sick and was unable to make the trip. 
    This year I was able to get a two-day lottery pick for two people.  I made a reservation at a nearby campground for my little pop-up tent trailer, and I began getting in shape.  Coincidentally (if you believe in coincidences), I put in for retirement about the same time.  In order to maximize my health insurance that would end upon my retirement, I went to see lots of doctors about every ailment I had been living with for years.  One of those involved some pain and increasing discomfort in my knee.  After the MRI I was told that I had injury-caused arthritis, probably from a bicycle crash when I was twelve, that would necessitate some sort of knee surgery in the future.  Of course, the first question out of my mouth was, "Can I still go up Mt. Whitney?"  The silent stare warned me of upcoming information I didn't really want to hear.  I left the office with this concession from a doctor who had expressed great concern about the trip, "Promise me you'll come get a prescription for Vicodin before you go so you won't be stranded on the trail."
    What do doctors really know, anyway?
    A couple of days ago I went on a practice hike from Caples Lake to Emigrant Lake; a 4-mile hike each way with a total ascent of less than 1,000 feet.  By the time I was limping my way through the last mile to my truck I knew that Mt. Whitney, an 11-mile hike each way with an ascent of about 6,000 feet, was not going to be possible.  What really hurt was the next part of that realization: It may never be possible.
    It's a funny thing about dreams; even when the head confirms the opposite, the heart still doesn't want to believe it.  So, while the dream has been relegated to that back room again for this year, I'm still thinking about how it might be possible to bring it out to the front room again next year.
    Lesson for all you young people: Don't put off implementation of your dreams for too long.  Circumstances change, so take advantage of opportunities when they are most achievable.

Our First "Vacation" of Retirement.

    I threw my Swiss Army knife in the trash can.  It was either that or run out and mail it to myself, then beg to get back in the front of the line.  So I dropped it in the trash can.
    Thus began the last leg of our two-week vacation trip to Minnesota.  The only reason we decided to spend our time in the mosquito state was because we could drop Karen's father off at her brother's house and that's the only timeshare we could find in the region.  I wasn't looking forward to this little outing, but it turned out to be not so bad.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement, is it?  Minnesota is not a very exciting state for casual vacationers.  To truly appreciate it one must plan on doing a lot of fishing or boating.  Sightseeing is fine for awhile, but even the cutest small towns begin to look pretty much the same after a few days.  Florida has lots of fun beaches and theme parks.  New York has the big city.  Texas has...well, they have everything, don't they?  But Minnesota has about 13,000 lakes, mosquitoes and leeches.  So, if you don't plan to be on the water, you'll miss the state's main attraction.
    That said, we did see the Mississippi River at its origin and several other spots as it slowly grows in volume.  We bought a few small things from an Amish farm.  We always seemed to miss the tornado warnings, which was disappointing as I have never seen a tornado in real time.  We saw a large statue of Paul Bunyon and drove near a very large ball of yarn, choosing not to drive a quarter mile out of our way for that privilege.  We also saw several bald eagles in the wild and enjoyed looking at many loons.   But there was no Epcot Center, Empire State Building, Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon or Rogue River. 
    But, in a laid-back, hakuna matata sort of way we enjoyed just being together in a place that wasn't home.  We rented a small boat, shot a round at a 9-hole course, walked down quaint old streets with quaint old shops, hiked a few short trails and did a lot of driving on country roads.  But I don't think we'll be planning anything similar in the next 40 or 50 years.
    I have another Swiss Army knife I bought a long time ago when I thought I had lost my first one.  So dropping that one in the trash wasn't a huge disaster, just a waste of a good knife.

Snap a Photo Just for Fun

    Before anyone could point and click a digital camera that does all the focusing, light metering and shutter settings, I was playing around with film on a manual Fujica 35mm camera.  I purchased it about the same time my first child was born, so I have a great number of baby and toddler pictures of her.  My second-born has from time to time accused me of not having as many pictures of him.  That may be true, but not for the implied reason that there was some sort of Tommy and Dickie Smothers thing going on ("Mom always liked you best.").  I took pictures of bicyclists racing around Washington Park in Denver, sometimes holding the camera still and letting the cyclists blur and sometimes snapping the picture with the camera moving at the same speed as the riders and letting the background blur.  I photographed my children splashing in the sprinkler, rolling down green, grassy hills, and tearing apart Christmas presents.  I threw away many developed pictures that were too dark, too light, out of focus or just uninteresting.
    These days it seems everyone has a digital, 35mm, zoom lens, macro lens, automatic camera.  I know I do.  But I still enjoy trying to set up just the right conditions for the shot.  I've learned much about lighting from my daughter-in-law and her father, a professional photographer.  My son once described her family like this, "When everyone else is watching the sunset out over the ocean, this family is looking the other way."  That's because they understand the importance of "good light" in a great photo.  It's difficult for them to explain to me, as it seems to be more of an instinct than a learned ability.  But I've been paying attention and I think I'm beginning to pick up on a few things.
    I've discovered that some people have a natural talent for setting up portrait-like shots, while others can capture an unspoken message in a beautiful landscape photo.  I'm finding myself preferring the inanimate objects like old buildings, fences, leaves and dirt roads.  So, I'm trying to learn more about my camera.  It has 12 different settings just on one knob.  Then there's the menu button and the array of quick set buttons.  There's so much to learn about the camera that I haven't given much thought yet to learning about photography.  So, I'm just playing around with it, having fun shooting anything and everything at all kinds of different settings.  This is a luxury I didn't have when I had to pay for every roll of film and for the developing of each picture.  And it's light years away from the Brownie box camera our family owned when I was a kid (all the images in the view finder were upside down!).

    One set of objects I have found that interests me is signs; funny, strange or quirky signs.  I discovered several on the road to my son's house.  It seems the county requires every "road" (or driveway) over 500 feet long and shared by two or more property owners to have a sign.  The owners get to choose the name, and some are fairly interesting.

Who wouldn't want to take a stroll down this road from time to time?  (38° 34' 14.96" N, 120° 58' 05.71" W)

Head 'em up, move 'em out! (38° 37' 09.78" N, 120° 57' 14.31" W)

Do the people who live down here own a Burger King?  (38° 36' 19.41" N, 120° 57' 27.10" W)

DUH! (38° 25' 42.07" N, 120° 57' 27.10" W)