Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Yosemite/Oakhurst/Stockton 2018
#1
We've left the house to go house hunting in the Western Sierras. We also are attending a memorial service for a friend of Cindi's who died tragically in Alaska.

The Queen and I have been kicking around the idea of moving for a bit. She can work anywhere and I haven't been working in the studios for the last several years. I'm hoping I can continue my independent filmmaking endeavors. So, we are here in lovely Oakhurst.

We arrived Monday. We met with our realtor and came up with a list of homes to see. Tuesday we are going to spend all day looking. At this point, it's just looking. The earliest we could make the move would be next Spring. For now, we are getting an idea of what is up here and available.

After the meeting, we checked into the lovely Best Western Oakhurst. Our room is next to the pool and the smoking area. Two deer eyeballed us as we unloaded the car.

We took a short break and then headed up to Yosemite. We walked through the Mariposa Grove which has been under repair the last two times we visited. Big trees are cool.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

Reply
#2
Mariposa is where Stacy's estranged mom built a house with her 2nd husband (Stacy's stepdad who we both loathed).  Spent time up there.  It's hicksville, bro.  Prolly Trump country.  But you can throw a rock into Yosemite from there, which is nice if it doesn't burn to the ground in a wildfire someday.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
Reply
#3
Very much Trump country... which means our voices and votes up here would be so much more important. Wink   Also, both Greg and I love the idea of being able to take regular walks somewhere other than the radio tower or Debs Park, to have a place where we could have guests, sufficient space between us and neighbors, and a view of the night sky that isn’t totally obscured by city lights.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
Reply
#4
But...who would feed the coyotes donuts and raw chicken?! WHO?!?!
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
Reply
#5
I'm sure they will be fine.

We saw eleven homes yesterday with our realtor, Leslie Bugg and her fiancee, Garrett. Their car had a malfunction on the way to us so Garrett stayed with the care while we went house hunting. Which was good, because when he joined us later for the final couple of houses later, I was ready to punch him on multiple occasions. His big thing was house flipping and kept explaining to us how much money we could make by flipping the houses we were looking at.

Of the the ten houses we saw, only came even close to being worthy of purchase. One biggest blunder was not seeing the shop/barn of one house which was the main reason we went to that house in the first place.

We find some nice areas. We found some houses that were probably being used for dubious purposes. Our favorite area up here is called Awahnee. Although Triangle was a close second.

We finished off the day with a horrible pizza. This alone might work against our final decision.

Today we head to Hetch Hetchy to see Wapama falls.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

Reply
#6
Wednesday, we drove the two and a half hours to Hetch Hetchey. I'd never been in that area before and it was pretty spectacular. We hiked to the massive waterfall known as Wapama. (Massive waterfall not included) It was a pretty easy walk on a good trail without a lot of elevation change for the huffers and puffers.

We found a nice lodge on the way back called the Evergreen Lodge where we had a much needed lunch. At the end of the meal, a ghost threw a glass off a neighboring table.

For the afternoon, we hiked to Taft point out the Glacier Point road. I usually eschewed this hike because it was short and easy and what could possibly be out there worth seeing? It was awesome. You got to stand on a 4000 foot sheer cliff and look straight down. The Queen ventured much closer to the edge than I.

We crawled back into Oakhurst after 185 miles of driving.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

Reply
#7
This morning we hiked to Dewey Point, which is also off the Glacier Point Road.

While we admired the spectacular views, there was a helicopter flying through the valley. In tragic news in a proposal gone wrong, two people fell from the place we were at yesterday, Taft Point. The helicopter was trying to find the bodies.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

Reply
#8
Harsh.

So much Death lately. Too much.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
Reply
#9
Ah, Yosemite. How I love you and how I hate you.

Actually, I don't hate Yosemite. I hate the people who visit it. On the hike to Dewey Point and Hetch Hetchey, we saw fewer than ten people total. And yet, the couple we saw at Dewey brought their dog with them, despite the clearly posted sign at the trail head that says no dogs. I'm sure the couple thought the sign couldn't possibly be applied to them because they have the best dog in the world.

My fear of moving to the area is that my contempt for people will grow and I will hate going into the park. 

In case you didn't know it, Yosemite is a big place. Every day I drove at least 120 miles to get to the areas I wanted to get to. All on twisty mountain roads behind drivers who don't know how to use the turnouts when there is a line of cars behind them.

Friday was the easy day and the most walking day. We started at the Awahnee for breakfast. The Awahnee now goes by some other stupid name because the previous concesioneers, removed to give up the Yosemite trademarks when the NPS brought in a different company to run the concessions in the park. When I was at the Awahnee dining room and brought up the subject of the new name to the Maitre' d, his face just fell and he didn't say anything. But there is hope. The government and Delaware North are currently in their third trial. The Maitre'd said they were only 47 millions dollars apart in the negotiations. For those who want to know, Wawona is now the Big Tree Lodge and Camp Curry is the Half Dome Camp.

The Queen and I strolled over to the bone dry Yosemite falls. There was one small trickle of water coming down the face. We were the only ones on the bridge looking up a the black rock face where there is usually a torrent of water. Alone, except for the Russian couple who were shouting at each other as the male climbed a rock in the center of the creek bed and wanted his mate to take his picture. I was hoping for a flash flood to take care of the problem.

We then hiked over to Swinging Bridge with a quick stop in the Yosemite Lodge to look for my new current travel obsession: Benchmarks. Benchmarks are recreations of geological markers.

The Queen turned back at the Bridge. She had hike enough and the thought of reading in the lobby of the Yosemite Lodge was very inviting. I needed more walking so continued on. My destination was Sentinel Beach after I decided I didn't feel like making the eight mile loop down to El Capitan. I got on the Valley trail and looked for the offshoot trail down to the Beach. I was only about a mile passed my destination when I realized what I had thought was a trail on the map was actually Sentinel Creek. I doubled back and walked cross country to Sentinel Beach.

I head the rumble of trucks and cars driving along the loop road on the valley floor during my entire walk. Yet another annoyance. But as I walked alone the Merced River, the sounds around me started to fade as I looked at the reflection of the trees and the rock walls in the water. I got out the cameras. I attempted to capture nature's glory. And for a sublime moment I lost myself in the joy of Yosemite. Dammit. 

I found a footpath along the river that avoided the path next to the road. I didn't come across any people until I got back to Swinging Bridge. My favorite moment came when I saw a guy trying to take a reflection picture in the water under the bridge and his buddy tossed a rock into the water right in front of him.

Later on I passed a hotel worker walking along listening to Staying Alive on his phone without the benefit of headphones. Yosemite gives and Yosemite takes away.

We ate lunch in the Yosemite Lodge cafeteria. The new owners have updated my old familiar eating establishment that I have been eating in since Junior School during a visit to the Yosemite Institute. You now have to order via computer instead of talking to the cook for what you want. The food seems the same, though.

The Queen and I took the path back to the Awahnee to grab our car. The entire week I have wanted to hike back up Sentinel Dome because the view from up there is awesome. Originally, I wanted to hike to North Dome to see what the view was like from up there of Half Dome, but the though of another five hour round trip drive to Toulumne Meadow after the five hour Hetch Hetchey drive killed that. But, I wanted to be atop at least one Dome this trip.

The Queen opted to stay in the car and rest and read. Ten minutes into my hike to Sentinel Dome, I was thinking she had made the wiser decision. I kept thinking that for pretty much the entire hike right up until I was once again atop Sentinel Dome. It was worth it. It was always worth it. We had the same feelings when we went to Dewey and Taft Points. Why the heck am I hiking all this way? And then you get there and look out across the Yosemite Valley and go "Oh, yeah. That's why"

We spent sunset at Glacier Point photographing Half Dome while the sun set. I opted to get closer to the end of Glacier Point while The Queen found a spot a little farther park. My area was much more crowded with photographers, photographers of all levels. From people using the flash on their cel phone camera to people remarking that what they really wanted to shoot was the Venus Belt after the sun had set. I had a couple of people think that I wouldn't see them if they stood in front of my camera.

Another group was also doing a model shoot with a terrified model. They kept asking her to get further and further down the slope and closer to the edge. I did hear her say at one point that she was afraid of heights. The photographer asked her to move a little further out. It was odd they would do this to the poor model considering what happened to the couple that fell not a day earlier.

For the drive back to Oakhurst, we followed a driver who refused to pull over for the faster cars. It started on the Glacier Point road and continued for the thirtty miles to the Wawona Lodge. At one point, I was in a line of twenty cars creeping down the mountain. A car ahead of us did get so frustrated, he did pass our timid driver.

We barely managed to get to Pop's Diner in Oakhurst for dinner before it closed. We got there ten minutes before it closed and they were kind enough to feed us.

Saturday, we drove up to Sonora to continue our house hunt. We didn't do a very good job of it. But it looks like pretty country up there. We stopped in Columbia State Park which was one of the gold mining cities in the Sierras. I had fond memories of visiting the place when we were in Indian Guides. Looking at it now, I can't for the life of me remember what those fond memories could possibly be. It might have been panning for gold. Now, it's just a place to buy souvenirs and watch the black smith turn horseshoes into knick knacks.

We ended up in Modara, North of Stockton, for the John Squire memorial service. It was quite lovely. I empathized with the sons as they talked about their Dad's life. The Queen got up and gave a speech, too.

Afterwards we drove to Merced for our hotel for the night. On several occasions during the drive south, I noted the Central Valley smelled like ass. There was a screw up with our reservation at the Hampton Suites. They had us down for Sunday night instead of Saturday. Fortunately, they had a room for us. When the key they gave us didn't work to open our room, they upgraded us to a big suite. It was wasted on two people who really just wanted to go to sleep.

The Queen and I are continuing to move ahead with our relocation plans. I think we have narrowed down the area we want to be in. I await a bit more information before we commit to the plan, but I will know more by the end of next week.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

Reply
#10
After reading the news reports of the Indian couple who fell from Taft Point, I'm going to opine that the Queen and I arrived to Taft Point just after the accident.

While we were there, there was a bunch of Park Rangers at Taft as well. One of the news reports talks of the Park Rangers looking down the cliff with a high powered binocular. My thought on the day was "What are those Rangers doing with that telescope looking down the cliff"? The picture I posted on FB with the Sundog is of those Rangers.

[Image: 45050231_10218057887737602_1113782738948...e=5C43154F]
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

Reply
#11
Wow. That really changes the context of that photo.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
Reply
#12
Yep.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

Reply
#13
Reminds me of what Time called The Most Beautiful Suicide (http://time.com/3456028/the-most-beautif...tal-photo/).

Not that this was a suicide, just a very tragic miscalculation.  But in looking at both photos one sees astonishing beauty, but then the reality of what you're looking at starts to creep in, and it's hauntingly disturbing.

BTW, Frita Kahlo did a painting based on the most beautiful suicide: https://theeaselweasel.wordpress.com/201...yn-mchale/
I'm nobody's pony.
Reply
#14
The photo is starting to creep me out.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

Reply
#15
(10-31-2018, 08:01 AM)Greg Wrote: The photo is starting to creep me out.

It is Halloween after all.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)