"My Trip......."

Dear Readers.....

I found the following tucked away in the blog archive file....an account of my October solo trip through parts of California....or at least the opening passages of what was meant to be an account of that "adventure". I need something to write about, so I will take up the effort anew, for there were some experiences and personal observations noted in the mentioned journal that I would like to share.
My cancer surgery occured just a little more than four months prior to that trip.
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"My Trip"

"Mentioned in the previous message was my solo trip to the Sierras....a needed respite from the
demands placed on me by others and by the many roles I fulfill in life. I thought it a good idea to visit places that are in my heart and to further explore them without the encroachment of the needs, expectations and desires of others onto my own. It was a short trip of six days, and too short, really, to see what I wanted to see . But it was a good trip. Packed into the car were the things I thought I would need to enjoy the days ahead and to take advantage of the recreational opportunities offered by the mountains. As it is, I never fished or did any serious hiking...never made a campfire...and never got back to Bodie.

I fell in love with the Eastern Sierra and Owens Valley when I first saw it at the age of seventeen and one-half, after my high school graduation. That was over forty-seven years ago. The Owens Valley hasn't changed much in that time due to the stewardship of the Los Angeles Water and Power Dept. Cursed by some and thanked by others, the DWP,  in essence, owns the watershed of the Eastern Sierras for hundreds of miles. That water is sent south to the Los Angeles basin. But that is another story.

I covered approximately 1300 miles of California geography and kept a written journal throughout the trip. That journal is the seedbed of some of the topics I will write of  in the coming days."
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July 26th

California is a big state. It is a beautiful state. It is a land that bespeaks power and greatness in its physical geography and in its resources and its human industries. Much of it has been transformed...for good or for bad... by the exploitation of its resources and by the spread of its cities. But it is still a magical place in my mind. If only the once numerous grizzly bears still roamed the plains and mountains. Those bears were the inspiration for the bear flag we fly over our institutions. It is no accident or flight of fancy that the California Grizzly adorns that flag. It was feared and respected by the early Californios . It was a reality and a presence that had to be taken into account as the human population swelled and the lands were converted to ranches and farms. They were hunted to extinction. I don't think there is a soul alive today that saw one of those animals, the last having been killed in the 1920's. Richard Henry Dana wrote in "Two Years Before the Mast" of a report he heard that a traveller had been attacked and killed by a grizzly not far from the port of San Pedro. The last Grizzly killed in Southern California was no more than twenty miles from San Juan Capistrano in Trabuco Canyon....in 1908.

So "My Trip" began with a late morning departure from Whittier, across the San Gabriel Valley and over the Angeles Crest Highway to Palmdale. I was shocked to see the extent of the fire damage in the mountains along the Crest Highway. Called the "Station Fire", the intensity of the burn has sterilized the mountain soil and wiped away untold acres of brush, trees and habitat. I don't expect to see a recovery in my lifetime.

I had resolved to stop where I wanted and when I wanted in order to see places I had always felt a need to explore. There was no hurry. Bishop was my destination and I expected no problem finding lodging with it being the off-season. I never did make lodging reservations throughout the trip...that was part of the adventure.

I stopped at Red Rock Canyon, at Fossil Falls, and at the hidden ponds and canals that carried the water of the Owens Valley into the L.A. Aquaduct at the "Alabama Gates". Olancha was beautiful with the slanting sun highlighting the golden leaves of the ancient cottonwoods that line the highway.

I reached Bishop well after nightfall and found a cozy little motel made up of  individual cabins. The proprietor and his wife were immigrants from India. We discussed his family, where in India he was raised, and how much the modernisation of India is impacting the people and the economy. He wondered if the economic advances were costing the Indians dearly in lost tradition and fractured families. He noted that now many Indians could afford a car, something unheard of when he was a boy, but the cost of gasoline and maintenance, and then the lack of infrastructure to support the glut of cars, made it a zero-gain tradeoff.

I slept well in that quaint cabin that night.

To be Continued--

SRH