Enunciate

Okay! I'm back!

I know that I said not to expect that we'd go off on any big adventure. We sure weren't expecting to, but as it turns out, we did get away for some camping and scrambling. After talking about it for years, we finally visited Joshua Tree National Park. Since the park is easily the closest to us (2 hours), you'd think we'd have gone eons ago. The best J had been able to describe it is that there are 'piles of rocks that you can climb'. I don't know what exactly I was imagining, but by 'climbing', I was expecting, you know, technical climbing. There was this place, he says, called Jumble Rocks, and even that, in my very visual imagination, did not sound all so impressive. It might as well be MishMash Rocks, jagged rocks strewn randomly here and there. Never mind that I never did research on the internet to get a better description. Silly me.

Still, we had a few days off at the same time, so we figured, what the heck.

Hey! There are Joshua Tree forests! Hence the name of the park! (y'think?) After seeing so many scrawny joshua trees all across the U.S. Southwest, how amazing is it to see them, all so healthy; trees in fields all the way to the mountains? Joshua Tree forests! Don't they look happy?!



We got into the park and got our map and guide. I searched the map for the campground we were headed to and discovered that the name is JUMBO Rocks, not Jumble.

Oooooooh. JUMBO.



That's where we want to be, J says. Yes, I can see why. The rock formations are much more orderly than 'jumbled'. And there's lots of scrambling to be done. And look at how round they all are!

We later overheard that that weekend was the busiest for the park, but we managed to secure a campsite. We survived the crazy strong gusts that threatened to blown down our canopy and buffeted our tent all the first night, survived the hot days (90F), and cold high-desert mornings (down to about 34F). We were there for the full moon. We'd hoped to hear coyotes, but as it turned out, not even the neighbors were howling at the moon. We drove through 29 Palms, Morongo and Yucca Valleys and scrambled across lots and lots of rock formations.

Lots of fun. What an important reminder to always get an accurate understanding of a destination you've been avoiding. Or to take better care to enunciate. Or to do your own research.
Sometimes you really should just go.

 
Can't see the slide show? Click here to see it over at Flickr.

Spring Break

I think this is the first year that we've both had Spring Break at the same time. We took advantage of this and headed off to Yosemite. We usually go at least once, maybe twice, a year, but didn't go at all last year. Not at all. Can you imagine two more growl-ly, homesick bears? I think not.

We stayed in a canvas tent cabin at Curry Village. It's a big step up from pitching your own tent, which we typically do, but the end of April is a little too cool, even for J. We stayed in a cabin with a heater, which improves the experience even more. Two thumbs up from both of us.



Outside, we had a bench next to our bear box. We managed to cram three (count 'em, three: food on ice, dry food, and food-prep) of these coolers in the box. I had to disassemble the handle off of one of our coolers to make room for the box latching mechanism to get the box to close securely, but we got them all in there. It pays to be mechanically-inclined. Our food was all safe and secure, out of reach of squirrels, chipmunks and bears.



We'd intended to eat mostly only our own food through our stay, but discovered that the room rate for our tent cabin included the breakfast buffet. Scrambled eggs! Toast! Oatmeal! Muffins! Fresh fruit! Country gravy on biscuits! Bacon! Sausage! Passion fruit –  guava juice! HOT!! COFFEE!! We were good with our granola bars, oranges and PB&Js for lunch and ramen noodles for dinner, but breakfast is, after all, the most important meal of the whole day.

Nom nom nom.

We did a pair hikes. One was far and mostly flat; the other was shorter in distance, but with a 1000 foot vertical gain.

The hike to Mirror Lake was a good warm up for our legs. At one point, we discovered that the wide expanse of boulders that people normally sit on to stop and eat was transformed, filled with hundreds and hundreds of cairns –  –  is that the right term? Little piles of stacked stones –  –  everywhere. This must have happened in the past year or so; and no one seemed to have the heart to clear away any of them. It was both humorous and deeply compelling at the same time. You could sense a want to participate, the number of piles building and growing over the months, the want to leave ones mark and be a part of that community. There were elaborate piles that included branches and pine needles that protruded out. There were piles everywhere. It was quite an unexpected sight that captured the attention of almost everyone, a surprising detour stealing attention away from the huge expanse of nature around us.



 

Here's a photo with a sketch from our other hike, up to Yosemite Falls. I think it's best that that's all I say about it; I might start cussing. I'm still not a fan of the whole traversing-uphill thing. Geh. Something to work on, I guess …



On our way out, we stopped at Tunnel View and took our obligatory photos across the valley.



We drove for five hours, got home and woke up early the next morning to watch the Royal Wedding and start in on the mountain of dirty laundry … wistfully looking forward to the next trip...

Yosemite

Mirror Lake Click to see this photo's flickr page

I realize that I’m almost a year behind in posting notes about our trips. Oh well. I'll work in real-time and catch up with older posts as I go along.

With the end of the school year, we (J in particular) start to get wanderlust, our feed itching to get out and onto the trails.

J’s camera stopped working last spring during out Yosemite trip. He was very disappointed and bought another one immediately after we returned home. Our trip this month was his first back to Yosemite with the new camera. After looking over the photos from last summer, he’s taking more time in setting up shots and taking photos at even more multiple settings, to better his chances of capturing the landscapes optimally. This means he takes a little longer at each photo stop, which means I finally have enough time to settle in and do very quick sketches and take notes as well. Our overall pace is slower, but the hikes are far more enjoyable.

With our stops and the spectacle of J’s humongous tripod, we struck up more conversations with other hikers. J, he likes to enjoy people, truth be told. Me, I tend to prefer to be left alone. We chatted with a couple from Europe, on a three-week stay in the US. They were intent on settling in at each place, enough to soak in everything, rather than rushing through to see a list of highlights in a tour book. We agreed that we liked this approach and traded notes on where we’d all visited. J commented that the man’s English (he was German, she was from Italy) was quite good; the man commented that J’s English was quite good, as well! Ha! The woman and I both rolled our eyes: This off-the-wall sense of humor is universal too!

We ran into a geology buff that was quite knowledgeable about the formations of all the features of the park. Lots of history. Me, on the other hand, I’m thinking, “Oh, look at the textures in that big slab of granite!”

The best line I overheard was while we were packing up to head downhill from Vernal Falls. Several groups of hikers had converged and had stopped to checked their respective maps to plan where they were heading next. One jovial group heaved their backpacks back on and headed off. As they were trotting away, I heard, “Oh man, I can’t reach it. Shoot. Can you reach in and grab my banana?” He stopped his hungry train of thought and all we could hear was the crunching of the path as they continued walking. “Oh. Geez. That didn’t sound so good”.

Photos and sketches from Yosemite, here.

Missing my gnarly buddies

20080412_Mt Baldy Visitor Ctr
Click to see this photo's flickr page

As our school terms wind down, the weeks get more and more intense, and the focus of our weekends centers more and more around decompressing from it all.

So, up again to Mt Baldy. The winds were whipping around, and it might have been okay for J to tough out going up the trail, but knowing that I'd be sitting still, trying to draw, I opted to stick around by the Visitors Center. I'd drawn there one other time, and to be honest, I missed being up the trail, where all my gnarly buddies are. Because I had picnic tables to work on, though, I got to play with some pan paint that I carry around, along with the watercolor pencils, and that felt good.

Three hours later J returned and we had lunch at the Lodge across the street. Yum!



20080412_Mt Baldy Visitors Ctr


20080412_Mt Baldy Visitor Ctr

Icehouse? Icebox?

20080405_gnarlytree2 Click to see this photo's flickr page

Yesterday we got out and went to Mt Baldy to get above the cloud-cover. So, I had the chance to sit and draw gnarly trees at Icehouse Canyon, not too far up the trail (hello, this is Me we're talking about). I keep thinking "Icebox" because after about an hour, the fog rolled up the mountain and into where I was sitting by the stream, and it got really cold. And who wants to be sitting still in the fog and the wind, trying to draw? Not me. My fingers get all stiff from the cold and then, well, where's the fun in that? Note to self - yes, bring the mittens no matter what the weather looks like. Okay, fine, yes, it's So Cal, and you (no names) can say I'm a wimp, but at least my wimpy drawing fingers won't be cold, and they'll stay nimble (wiggling my fingers) enough so that I can keep drawing.

When the HikingBear came back down to where I was, we headed for some Chinese food - good warm hot&sour soup. Yum.


20080405_gnarlytree1


20080405_icehousecyn

Arty note: I'd gone through the assorted brands that I have managed to collect over the years ... to find additional colors to supplement the set of 12 Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils that I have. I think I've settled on at least this much - I like how the Inktense pencils feel going onto the paper while I sketch, and BOY, does that pigment just melt in such a lovely way when you add water. Woo! When I run into where I've used a different pencil with my watercolor brush, I can SO tell. I'll be trying to get the pigment to flow, unsuccessfully, going, "Eh! Eh! Eh!". I've been so good, trying to fight the lusty urge to cave in and get a new, expanded sets of 36 pencils (if 36 would be indulgent, 72 would be so unnecessarily decadent) that Derwent has now. But gee, life would just be so much more enjoyable with them. Oh wait, Blicks finally carries more of the new colors in open stock. Mmmmmm >:)

Zion National Park

20080330_zion_2 Click to see this photo's flickr page

Last weekend we went to Zion National Park in Utah. It seems like forever ago already.

Zion is a smaller park and I think this is its charm. There are lots of trails to go wander about, and when you need to get back together with the rest of your group, you don't have to worry so much about any prolonged trip to get to your meeting point, like you would for the larger parks. We got in three days' worth of long hikes. Well, yeah, I got two days in, and one more mellow day to ramble and sketch. There's plenty of that climbing uphill stuff, if you're inclined to do that, and a good deal of walking along the flat, as well. We discovered an unexpected grotto and saw mule deer and wild turkey up close and personal.


More from Zion National Park Click to see this photo's flickr page

On the way back, we swung by the Grand Canyon (now that's a detour) for sunset and the next morning's sunrise. Drove back to California and stopped for a break at a marina in Needles. And then the next day, we were back at work!

More photos and sketches of red rock, here.

More gnarly trees

20080324_EatonCyn Click to see this photo's flickr page

I'm behind posting about my adventures. If you're following my additions to Flickr, you're caught up. No one's commented about the bigness of that cookie, though, so who knows.

On Easter Sunday we went back to Eaton Canyon, and after pondering the "steep, narrow, dusty, shadeless, winding" qualities of Walnut Canyon, I decided to go with "No, you go on up. I'll sit and draw". It was about mid-day, and a lot of the photos were pretty washed out by that screaming Southern California sun. I had a tough time finding a spot that was left me both in the shade and in the quiet.

The one reason we keep making that long drive out to Pasadena (the steep, narrow hikes? I don't think so) is to get more yummy curry at Hurry Curry.

Rainbow over Palm Springs

Rainbow over Palm Springs Click to see this photo's flickr page

It's been a very long week for both me and my boo. I don't remember having much of a weekend last week, either. And there's still today left, too. I'm behind on sketching, all sorts of work, garden-tending, cooking, working out, missed yoga this week, behind on getting down thoughts for school and for fun, and behind on sending thoughts to my bloggy buddies. [sigh] I think sometimes that I should rate my posts with the number of times that I sigh.

I'm going to dash out for another appointment, but wanted to leave you with this -
We went out to the desert last Saturday and took some time to get in another long hike, to balance the sense of being there out of obligation with getting something relaxing and rewarding out of it, as well.

We got to see the beginning of what is probably a short blooming season out in Palm Springs - little wildflowers and grasses. I saw one cactus in bloom, as well, and moss. Moss. In Palm Springs. Looked like healthy moss, at that.

More clouds rolled in and it threatened to rain, but we were close enough to a peak that we figured we'd keep going. It never really let loose, and we got to see the rainbow that appeared.



Palm Springs hike Click to see this photo's flickr page

I guess there's plenty to catch up with, but all the same, I'm looking forward to a lazy couple of days (or at least slower) and hope you all have a great weekend.

Eaton Canyon Gnarly Trees

20080215_eatoncyn2 Click to see this photo's flickr page

Last week I met my art buddy Karen to trade some arty stuff and to get out, take photos and paint. We met at Eaton Canyon, lured by the thought of seeing the stream running and some new growth from the rains the week or two before. We decided, quite daringly (cough), to cross the stream and settled in after that treacherous adventure in a shady grove and painted. The trees were all so very lovely in that gnarly-tree sort of way. And, of course, you know how I love drawing gnarly trees.

I hadn't been on the trails at Eaton Canyon before, so was curious about them. And the weather was just too pleasant to pass up a return trip. So, a few days later, my guy and I went back to hike. No strolling around in the park, uh-uh! We took the trail that looked most like it would head UP and HIGHER (For the record, this would not normally be my first choice. I'd be all, "Whew! Hey, look at these gnarly trees! Why don't you go up, and I'll sit here and draw!"). I think it was the Walnut Canyon trail. The painted text on the signs have all worn off. The description on the website ("...This is the "equestrian trail" notorious for its steep, narrow, dusty, shadeless, winding path...") sounds like what we hiked. It was over an hour round-trip; we stopped at a somewhat unexpected grassy picnic area just below where the Toll Road starts and decided that was plenty ambitious for the first hike of the spring. The nice thing about steep hikes is that you gain altitude so much faster and get quicker rewards in the views, as you go higher [Right. That made sense]. And of course, now, all sorts of parts of our legs are feeling so much more toned than before.

Geh!

Along with the really great trees, there's lots of foliage and shades of green goin' on right now. When the blossoms start, it'll be worth another trip back.

Another gnarly tree:

20080215_eatoncyn1 Click to see this photo's flickr page

and more photos here.

But wait

... there's more.

Lest some of you start to think that all I really want to do is drive up and down the California coast, finding places to eat dessert [I hear Tony and MrMominFL thinkin' " ... and that would be so bad?"], ... taking pictures of my guy taking pictures ...

We also went hiking, too.
And just in case I haven't mentioned this before, you should know that one of us is a more robust hiker at higher altitudes and the other one of us really prefers walking, or maybe running, in the morning fog, at around sea level... all that nice, thick, ocean oxygen, mmmm.

You guess which one of us is which.

[cough]

So while Jan got a teeny hiking fix in, I plunked down and



did my thing.