2003-07-27 - 7:58 a.m.
Well Hey there world....
Yeah I know, yall are most likely wondering what has been happening out there in the land of bear...Is the bear still alive? Has CA gone and swallowed him up...never to be seen again? Is he lost...wandering the city, having forgotten who he is is or where? Has he disappeared in some sort of strange string and paper magic accident down in China Town?
Well...I am happy to report that no...none of these things have happened (yet), and that the bear is plodding along at his own bear pace, doing his bear thing (well almost).
Where to begin actually...Well the bear has learned how to free climb the hard way. The bear has learned that he is (thankfully) immune (or pretty damn close to it) to poison oak...and that REAL bears have HUGE FUCKIN feet.
So what the hell am I talking about? Well about a week ago I packed up a handful of things and headed off for a hike up country. I was off to see the fabled �Homestead�. A depression on the side of one of the VERY steep mountain slopes where one of the first homes was built. What makes it such a neat place to go these days are the enormous fruit trees that live up there now, and the spring that feed them.
Of course like most of my hikes these days, I managed to pick one of the hottest days to do it in (It was damn near 100 degrees)...and as always, the sun was pounding away. But I had my new Camel Pak and it was filled to nearly bursting...so I figured I would be fine.
And off I went...up...up...up...up. Crawling over this rock, up that little rock face, hopping from this precarious perch to that...but always up. And in a couple of hours (and much sucking wind...wow there are spots where the slopes were SO steep that I was ready to turn back...no fruit trees could be worth this...) I was standing in that depression looking at trees, splashing about in a fresh mountain spring...and grumbling about all the grass seed burrs that were now firmly lodges in my socks and leg hair...OMG I hate the grass seed out there. It is the bane of my existance...it is evil...
Well any how...after puttering about there for a bit it was time for me to head back down...and so off I went. But soon after I made my way back to the creek bed that I followed up to the homestead I realized that I was much to tired to play mountain goat...hopping from rock to rock, so it was out of the gorge for me and into one of the adjoining fields for (I foolishly thought) an easier walk down the mountain.
And that was when I found the black bear paw print in the hardened mud. And like I said...it was huge. I mean I thought I had big feet, but they could not compare with what I had found there...
Well any how, to make a long story a bit shorter...I continued my hike back down the mountian...getting more and more tired, as the sun baked my poor little head...when I suddenly realized that I was almost back to my start point. I just needed to cross the creek, climb up the rope assist gorge on the other side and I was home free...and that is when all hell broke loose.
I was so tired by this time that I made a few bad decisions that landed me on my ass sliding down a VERY steep slope that ended in...well nothing. Thats right...nothing...all I could see was air beyond the lip of the slope that I was tearing down. So in a moment of desperation I reached out and grabbed the only thing that was between me and a shear drop of 20 feet or so. Yeah...I halted my slide with a poison oak bush. I was hugging this thing like it was a dear long lost friend...not worried at the moment that it would no doubt cause my entire body to swell up like one giant pus balloon. What really mattered was that I didn�t shoot off the edge of (like I said) this 20 foot drop on to a small pile of boulders in the creek below.
As the excitement of this rapid decent began to wear off, I also realized that I was in another predicament. The slope I went down was too loose to go back up. I only had one way that I could now travel...and that was down over the drop off...
So there I was knowing full well that a fall from that rock wall would result in nothing but disaster...but also knowing that I had to get back to the house soon...I was hot, tired, out of water...and by now I began to realize the implications of getting so friendly with the poison oak...and or some strange reason, my ankle (which I have now come to realize had been sprained in the fall) was really beginning to hurt.
It was down the rock face for me...wether I liked it or not. And that is when something else sank in...This rock face was made from this jagged shale like stuff that is all over the place up there. On the good side it would provide me with plenty of hand holds and foot holds...but on the down side...it was �rotten� stone. You never knew whether the rock would support you or break loose. the 20 foot decent took me like 15 or more minutes...and if I were to go back there tomorrow I would likely find finger prints in the rock...I was so scared and holding on so tightly...but in the end I made it back home...obviously...and not too much worse for wear. I was scraped up, bruised, and my ankle hurt like a bitch...but I was in one piece still, and to make things even beter...I didn�t get even one red spot from my affair with the poison oak bush...
Well that is about all your gonna get from me this morning. I am headed up country with Brian (he came to visit). But when I get back, I promise to tell ya about our trip to Yosemite...and the falls that we climbed, as well as the giant sequoias that we romped on, and the huge thing (not sure what you would call it) that we climbed as well (all with a taped ankle I might add...the damn thing still has not stopped hurting).
I hope all is going well with everyone...
take care
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