davesenesac
Trail Wise!
Our precious life is short within eternity, don't waste it!
Posts: 1,708
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Post by davesenesac on Sept 8, 2020 8:14:22 GMT -8
Good luck Zeke with pleasant clear fresh weather on your GC trip.
As someone that over decades has extensively explored both the Sierra Nevada range and many other scenic parts of California, there are many locations I return to multiple times. In this last couple decades, that has been primarily to work improved images that I already know exist that I did not capture during earlier trips due to weather conditions, environment conditions, inferior camera equipment of the past, and of course my own decisions and mistakes out in the field. Most locations I visit are actually places I first worked using 35mm Kodachrome film when I was most active and at that time was also a trout fishing enthusiast. By the mid 1990s I began focusing more on photography after switching to 6x7 medium format, then a 4x5 view camera system, and since the spring of 2014 a digital camera system. Regardless of photography or fishing, the primary enjoyment has always been simply experiencing natural places, especially the High Sierra.
One basin I've been to several times is Bear Creek in the San Joaquin River drainage though it has been 13 years since my last visit. There are many streams named Bear Creek but the one I am referring to is in the John Muir Wilderness in Sierra National Forest in Fresno County on the other side of Kaiser Pass that requires miles of travel on a narrow one lane paved road then a 2.5 mile 4WD road to reach the trailhead at Bear Diversion Dam at 7.4k. A spooky road to negotiate at night with a low clearance Subaru. A reason I hold Bear Creek in special regard is not because it has the most impressive scenery but rather because of memories of several wonderful group trips with others. The trail routes beside the creek in granitoid geology for about 2 days backpacking to reach its 3 headwater's basins against the Sierra Crest with 13k+ peaks. Lower along the creek are brown trout, then a mix including brook with a few rainbows, but above 8.5k are increasingly golden trout. Little of my 35mm film work is scanned and what I do have is not in jpg format. However in 2004 I did create a CD for one trip where we all scanned our images. The below on that CD was from the trailhead as we set out with our weighty packs.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Sept 8, 2020 10:54:16 GMT -8
This will sound morbid, but isn’t really to me. ... “remember the lives lived here.” I loved your post. So much of what makes the places in our lives vivid for us is the return of past years and the contrast with what we know, and see, now. Sadly, this melts away with time: Memory fails and places change and disappear or get set in new surroundings that disorient. Attempts to find the places I remember from my childhood visits to relatives here in Austin have mostly turned up very little or nothing. I see them with my "1940/1950 eyes", but they aren't here anymore, though I vaguely remember where they were. Recently, I had a flash of memories return to me overnight from the time when I was (probably) 8 years old. * Dad had taken the family to an old restaurant in one of the south Texas towns where we once lived, and I re-experienced the wooden steps outside, the red and white checked oilcloth on the tables, and the smells of food and the single room of this place I'd forgotten since the late forties. I'm not a writer, but I spent a few days trying to put it all down while it was fresh, like documenting some dream. The descriptions I wrote pale in comparison to the sudden recall of being a small child and watching my toddler brother attempt to negotiate both the old steps outside the restaurant with one hand stretched out to Mom, as well as the welter of food - sauerkraut and sausages and homemade breads - served (in bulk - or, so it seemed to me, peering from a low bench that placed my eyes just about table height) that day. Mom held my brother, the youngest in the family, while my sister sat on an improvised "high chair". What I remember is my brother's lolling head and rapidly moving eyes, as he took in the restaurant, the noises, the people and all the food on the table. You said in another post that you "used to write", and I can believe that. If only we could have complete recall of all those things that happened to us, or our imaginations were strong enough to take the bones and fill the colors, sights and sounds via intuition, we'd all be novelists. You trigger my interest in so many interesting things about the areas where you've lived and "left your imprint". But, enough. These aren't "places I like going back to" in the sense of this thread, but I get the strongest sense of any place when I see - or sense - something that reminds me of those who've passed that way before. This is why I loved seeing the old "ghost towns" (before they're "renovated" or "rejuvenated") in central Colorado. *I'm starting to doubt this now. If my brother was a toddler who needed help getting up stairs, I was probably more like 4 or 5. Anyway, it doesn't matter to anyone except me. <-- bad, bad memory! My "critical self" keeps asking if the reference to "trap lines" was, in fact, what that entails or you meant "trotlines", which I felt made more sense after your mention of your grandfather taking you fishing. With any luck, my kids will be too old to do the job :^)
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Post by autumnmist on Sept 8, 2020 11:51:39 GMT -8
I find the stories of desert dweller , echo and gabby (sorry if I missed anyone?) to be moving, emotional, opening their poignant memories to share with others as well as providing insights into who they were, and have now become. I've already begun mentally walking down that Memory Lane path, remembering sitting on a dock at Tawas on Lake Huron, patiently waiting for bluegills to bite. Or climbing a bank of rocks after my father specifically told us not to at a place I can visualize but can't identify, somewhere on Lake Huron I think. Or the time when we awoke in a cabin somewhere in Michigan to see several deer outside. Or the times playing softball, kick the can, exploring on our bikes in undeveloped areas. They're not necessarily areas I want to return to physically, but I think returning in memory provides a link to our past, to more pleasant times, and to the time when families were still bonding as the children grew up. There is one place I've visited that I found fascinating: Friends, you've started a trip down Memory Lane for me, and I'm having a pleasant, relaxing day of times gone by. Thank you.
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desert dweller
Trail Wise!
Power to the Peaceful...Hate does not create.
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Post by desert dweller on Sept 8, 2020 13:54:52 GMT -8
but I think returning in memory provides a link to our past, I think one strong aspect about going to a place that is not our home and which creates special moments is that they anchor certain memories in our brain. It's amazing that an event which puts a little bump on a neuron 60 years ago can be triggered by an apparently unrelated thought and relived after being dormant for decades.
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Post by swimswithtrout on Sept 8, 2020 14:17:03 GMT -8
Wind River Range, Rawah Wilderness, Mt Zirkel Wilderness.
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reuben
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Gonna need more Camels at the next refugio...
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Post by reuben on Sept 8, 2020 15:03:49 GMT -8
I haven't been to nearly enough places (Scotland cancelled for the second year in a row), and far fewer than most of you, but South America always beckons.
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Post by autumnmist on Sept 8, 2020 15:27:12 GMT -8
It's amazing that an event which puts a little bump on a neuron 60 years ago can be triggered by an apparently unrelated thought and relived after being dormant for decades. And that those little bumps on neurons compose and contribute over time to who we are and what we do during our lives. reuben , stunning photos, especially the first one. It could be a mystical entry to paradise or a stunning entry to hell. The barren tree amidst the snow peaks is also striking - such a contrast.
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reuben
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Gonna need more Camels at the next refugio...
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Post by reuben on Sept 8, 2020 15:59:47 GMT -8
reuben , stunning photos, especially the first one. It could be a mystical entry to paradise or a stunning entry to hell. Los Cuernos (The Horns) from Lago Grey, on a cloudy, windy, rainy day. The barren tree amidst the snow peaks is also striking - such a contrast. On the very short trail to Perito Moreno glacier, Perito Moreno in the background, and the vegetated hills behind the glacier.
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Post by burntfoot on Sept 8, 2020 20:32:46 GMT -8
I've been to so many places, but here are a few I've repeated more than once or twice, and would do again. YELLOWSTONE Black Canyon Skyrim Heart Lake (with Mt. Sheridan) Avalanche Peak
UTAH Lower Muley Twist in Capitol Reef Tourist trails in Arches Peekaboo Gulch, Spooky Gulch in Dry Fork Coyote area near Escalante
COLORADO (local for me) Monarch Pass to Marshall Pass on the CDT South Baldy in the West Elk Wilderness Mueller State Park (did that over Labor Day) Mill Creek (XC Skiing) Lamphier Lakes in the Fossil Ridge Wilderness
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echo
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Post by echo on Sept 8, 2020 20:40:35 GMT -8
@reuben those pictures are gorgeous. I’m so glad you shared them today. I’m feeling especially deprived of color and beauty under enough smoke to be dark by 3 in the afternoon.
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Post by autumnmist on Sept 9, 2020 6:51:17 GMT -8
echo , how DO people cope with the smoke while indoors? Do you have to barricade your windows as would be done in a hurricane, although I would think that tiny smoke particles could still seep in. I wonder if window designers have considered something like a smoke window (like hurricane proof windows)?
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Westy
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Diagnosed w/Post-Trail Transition Syndrome
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Post by Westy on Sept 9, 2020 15:06:35 GMT -8
South America always beckons. Cordillera Vilcanotareuben Thanks for your post. Caused me to search old photos. Really needed some smiling faces today. Smiling Faces
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reuben
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Gonna need more Camels at the next refugio...
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Post by reuben on Sept 9, 2020 15:16:39 GMT -8
The second looks like the high desert. Bolivia? Peru?
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balzaccom
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Waiting for spring...
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Post by balzaccom on Sept 9, 2020 16:32:20 GMT -8
reuben , stunning photos, especially the first one. It could be a mystical entry to paradise or a stunning entry to hell. Los Cuernos (The Horns) from Lago Grey, on a cloudy, windy, rainy day. The barren tree amidst the snow peaks is also striking - such a contrast. On the very short trail to Perito Merino glacier, Perito Merino in the background, and the vegetated hills behind the glacier. On the very short trail to Perito Merino glacier, Perito Merino in the background, and the vegetated hills behind the glacier. I'll bet you mean Pepito Moreno Glacier...
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balzaccom
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Waiting for spring...
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Post by balzaccom on Sept 9, 2020 16:36:25 GMT -8
We also liked El Chalten, further North--this is Cerro Torre
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