(Sept. 25th & 29th, 2010 )
By: Ned Opdyke
nedopdyke@gmail.com
OTHER STORIES BY THIS AUTHOR
Please Allow Me To Introduce My Selves
From Here to There and Back Again
I Love Texas
Sometimes You Find Love in the Most Unexpected Places
California is My Home (But I Still Love Texas)
The Last Adventure… of 2009
Momma's Boy
Killeen Texas Is My New Home
A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend in Galveston
The Hill Country, Our 2nd Visit
A Very Strange Day
- and -
An Ongoing and Growing Selection of Misc. Musings and Melodies
About My Spiritual Evolution and Enfoldment
The Gospel According to Ned (Part I and II)
The Yucatan Peninsula vs. Hurricane Wilma
A Different Kind of Adventure Story
Spiritual Exercises… The First Steps
The Best Kind of Adventure Story
Morning Thoughts
The Sound Current
Learning From The Silence
As I Grow
A Better Life
Daily Interpretations of The Eck & Rumi
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I am still lucky. I'm not sure why God loves me as much as he does, but I am certainly forever in his debt. I survived my exodus in Texas (that sure sounds like a good title to a story, or perhaps a country western song, doesn't it?), and am now temporarily habitating at a family friend's home near Yosemite National Park, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in California. Yes, I am a very lucky man.
The following pictorial essay will update you on my physical surroundings and my thoughts about what's going on around me, and… you guessed it… inside me:
The town center is 5 miles from the home I'm staying at. This is my kind of town.
This is the Tindall cabin. My room is under the front deck. It's private, stays cool on hot days, and is very comfortable.
This almost-dead-and-now-coming-back-to-life oak tree reminded me of me. I pass it every day, on my daily walk to the little lake just ¼ mile or so from my front door.
This is Stout Lake. I built the raft about 15 years ago. It's holding up well and looks like it should last at least that much longer. I hope I do.
Ok, that gives you an idea of what's around me when I'm home. The rest of this 'story' is gonna be about what's around me when I'm not.
9/25/10 - GLACIER POINT
First stop, Rainbow Pool. It is located 17 miles from my front door, on the South Fork of The Tuolumne River on Highway 120, about 15 miles from Groveland. This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the first time I jumped off the rocks, and swam behind the falls. This is one of my favorite places in the world. It is my nirvana… my heaven on earth.
About another 12 miles up the road from Rainbow, is the north entrance into Yosemite National Park. I wish I'd counted all the times I've been here in my life. An honest estimate is 50. We'll say this was my 50th, and I'll keep track from here on out. It's impossible to see this place too often. I'm shooting for triple digits before I see it for the last time. I think Honey has been here about 15 times or so. So far.
Surprisingly, it took me driving by the turn-off 50 times, before I finally decided to drive the 16 miles out to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. One panoramic view and another one from the damn dam.
Honey just loves this view coming into the Valley from Crane Flat entrance. Me too.
Half Dome, and beyond, Clouds Rest, are the primary obstructions in this view, from Glacier Point. Words of description?… they just get in the way, don’t they? Spectacular, unbelievable, breathtaking, awe-inspiring. I just had to try a few of the first ones that come to my mind, when I take in the grandeur of Yosemite. It's only been a week since I was there, and I'm already looking forward to going back.
My heart soars and my pulse-rate drops, when I think about what it's like to be there.
I don't remember seeing this angle of Half Dome on a post card. I wonder why?
This guy was pretty funny. He said he wanted half of all the profits I got from this picture, but readily agreed with me, when I said, "Just being here is our profit."
On the following page is one of my favorite vistas of Yosemite Valley. It is on Highway 41 coming down the hill from Glacier Point from Wawona, the south entrance to the Park, out of Fresno. There are signs at the end of the mile-long tunnel, warning you to be prepared to stop for traffic and pedestrians. Do yourself a favor. Follow the warning… and S-T-O-P.
I did something this day that I haven't done in many years… I spent about two hours, driving through the Valley floor. Honey and I went to every (paved) nook and cranny we could get to (legally). Here is what Glacier Point looked like when we were down there and looked up to where we had just come from. I wish I had a camera, other than my cell phone.
Before heading back, I detoured about 20 miles, down to El Portal entrance to the Park. The picture didn't turn out, but the one I took on my next ride, at east entrance, and Tioga Pass did! But that's the next part of this story. This Trip… six hours and 185 miles. Turn the page for our Devils Postpile ride, somewhere neither Honey nor I had been before!
9/29/10 - DEVILS POSTPILE
This ride was on a glorious Saturday afternoon, and I chose the ride 'cuz I knew I'd be in the 'High Country,' 6~10,000 feet in elevation, for most of the day, and it would be much cooler than the 90~95 degrees that was the forecast for the Greeley area, which is at about 3,000 feet.
My first stop was at Jordon Oak, off of Smith Station Road, about 5 miles out from Greeley. Story is that this oak is as old as some of the oldest redwoods, dating back to the time of Christ. Jesus that it. I hung my size-46 leather jacket it to give you an idea of the size of this thing. Allegedly its trunk has the largest circumference of any oak tree west of the Mississippi.
I decided to take another side road I'd never been on, and Honey and I found ourselves at the Crane Flat fire lookout station. This guy was a fellow member of the biker-hood, and a helicopter pilot. What a life, huh? He gets to fly low, and high!
The elevation at Crane Flat is 6,192 feet. Porcupine Flat, about 30 miles from there is around 8,000. I sure have some good memories about this place. We used it as base camp almost every summer for about 5~6 years. Mom would guard the trailer while my Dad, and my twin brother Don and I, would take hikes all over the High Country. Hey Don… would you like to collaborate on a story about the 11-day loop hike? Yes, he and I are both very VERY lucky men.
Ten more miles brought us to Olmstead Point. Marilyn, a Road Scholar, took a picture of Honey and me, enjoying the view of Clouds Rest and Half Dome, 180 degrees from the view we had of them a few days earlier, from Glacier Point.
Here's a couple pictures from and leaving Olmstead Point. For those of you who are reading this story on your computer, you may be able to play the video! If you can, please excuse my blunder when I said it was "July 29th." I guess I was feeling tipsy from the elevation. I know it wasn't from beer. I've been sober now for 13 weeks (and tobacco free for 9)!
After getting down the east slope of the Sierra's, and running down Hwy 395 about 25 miles to Mammoth Lakes, and just before getting to my destination for the day, Honey asked if I would take her picture in front of the Minaret Mountain Range. Ain't she purdy?
Devils Postpile was actually a little disappointing. It's my parents fault. They spoiled me from before the time I was born. I was conceived while they were visiting the Grand Canyon, and I grew up with what is in my opinion, the most picturesque geography in the world as my back yard. Damn them.
This is the last picture of the four entrances to Yosemite that Honey and I had been to, in the last 5 days. Tioga Pass, elevation 9,945 feet. It is on the east side of the Park. We were still about 80 miles from Greeley, but we both felt as if we were already home.
Round trip: 10 hours and 310 miles.
Next story… the entire length of Highway 49 through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, from Coarsegold at the south end near Fresno, to Loyalton at the north end, near Reno.
See you then!
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