The 09ers

Serendipity

Last Thursday I called the US Forestry Service to double check on the status of the wild fires and the closure of Foresthill Divide. Thankfully, the fires have been 100% contained and everything was back open again. Since a lot of my my friends took off this weekend for Seafair (Seattle), I figured it would be a perfect excuse to go up to the claim, but what isn’t an excuse to go up there?

I was able to be on the road by 5am with my new Fastrak transceiver and my iPod with all my beloved pod-casts. I have been so sick of stopping at the Vallejo and Bay Bridge toll booths that I finally picked up one of the transceivers that allow me to breeze through the booths as it automatically deducts the toll via credit card. The drive up there went incredibly fast. Call me old fashion, but I thank Garrison Keillors “Prairie Home Companion” for the entertainment. But come on, I’m from Minnesota, what do you expect? I think the thing that hooks me is all his ranting about MN storms; I am a sucker when it comes to MN weather.  I also listened to this weeks “This American Life” about a mom who took someone else’s child, knew it, and didn’t bother to tell anyone until some 70 years had past. The mom actually knew the family and tried to drop hints like “Doesn’t my daughter look like she could be yours!?” It’s actually pretty surprising that I listen to NPR all the time, but you have to know who your enemies are, right? Public radio is probably the worst argument for the case supporting public goods,  its so called “positive externalities” do not justify theft. I mean NPR is the perfect example. I think it’s a safe t to assume that the programming now, which is all underwritten by private donations, is probably a whole heck of a lot better then it was in the 70s when it was funded with federal tax dollars.

Any-who, I was in Foresthill in no time. As I started pulling into downtown I counted probably fifty “We <3 U Firefighters!” and the like posted to every single road sign and tree along the road. When I finally got to Main Street there was some sort of ruckus going on with heard of people roaming the street. In front of this barn looking building, someone decided to put all of my grandmas furniture from the 60s out on the lawn. I kid you not, plaid sofas, wicker chairs, and the most hideous looking lamps ever constructed.  There were also fire trucks and ambulances and police cars out on display. Sure enough, it was the annual garage sale to raise money for the fire station. I am kicking myself right now for not taking pictures of this glorious site.

Foresthill, you are funny. Don’t worry I’m allowed to make fun of this small town because I from a town that has more antique stores then people. Sometimes I wonder what would happen to this town if the Tahoe National Forrest never had a wild fire again. OK, so that might be a little sadistic, but I swear… fires must make up over 50% the livelihood of that entire town. What would Symantic be without the computer virus?

Not only did I make it up to the area in record time, but I also made it through the unmaintained road to my hiking start without any hitches. The road that I have to take, a whole 1.8 miles to the beginning of my trail, is questionable at best. The fact of the matter is that Honda Accords should never attempt such feats, and I am constantly fearing situations like below. Granted, there aren’t any snow banks laying around any more, but there are ginormous holes, boulders, and obstacles to wreck my day. And let me remind you, AAA won’t come to the rescue on these roads, and ill spare you the three digit number it takes to get towed out of areas like this.

I almost forgot to mention. It may not be obvious now, but I have been spending a lot of effort in “life-streaming” these trips. Much more work is to be done, and this blog is the simple start to a much bigger effort. I currently have hundreds of thousands data points that record every single step I take. I actually have a separate post on this currently in drafts… so I’ll get into that later. But this weekend I downloaded an application called Sketches for my ipod touch. I thought it might be interesting to sketch whatever was on my mind at any point in time. I think it’s going to be really interesting when I finally stitch all of these things together. Photos, locations, sketches, and writings. One thing I have learned during the whole process is that it’s not easy to do. We all agree that writing is important (think diary), but it’s a bitch to stay on top of! I’m hoping I can get to a point where my vision becomes a reality.

I started my descent down around 9ish. Above is my rendering of the trail entrance that drops me down to the spring fed stream that is my claim. Immediately, I had spider webs all over my face. It seemed that the month vacation from any humans encouraged the spiders to span their webs across the trail, and into my face the entire way down.

get out of my face

Being that it was a few weeks since I have been to the claim, I was relieved when I heard running water after dropping about 800ft in elevation. Although, I found out after a lot of research that it was a natural spring that supplied the stream, one has got to question the supply of springs that were described in the late 1800s. Now that I go back to my pictures from early in the spring, I’m almost positive that the water levels won’t be changing on me, even in 100+ degree weather. From pictures, it almost looks like there is more water now then before. I did find however, the small stream that forked from the south east of my discovery monument is now nothing but a trickle.

After exploring a little further south and north of my claim, I came to the conclusion that it was a little too erie to continue alone. Surprisingly, it’s pretty dark traveling up and down the stream from the canopy of trees from on both sides of the ravine. There are points along the banks where you can look up and the narrow walls stretching hundreds and hundreds of feet straight up. Its incredibly suffocating. It’s one of those things where you just have to be there. It’s when you know the mountain is saying “I really wouldn’t go further if I were you.”   I’d say only 15% percent of the entire thing has truly been explored. I have yet to look at my altitude deltas traversing down and up the stream, but I have a feeling they are going pretty amazing when plotted against the z-axis.

Here is one of those moments where you really just don’t even want to know. Look closely.