TRAVEL: Saddlebag Lake, our last Sierra day.

Fishing Saddlebag Lake- Again

Hunter-Gatherer Instincts

John caught a large fish here, so back again we go.  I went for a brief walk along the brook near the Saddlebag Lake turnoff  and found some new wildflowers - Grass of Parnassas, Swamp Onion, and Western Eupatorium, or snakeroot.  Lots of pennyroyal, too. We caught a lot of fish - about 12.

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When I went back to meet John for lunch and afternoon fishing, there he sat with a lovely 2-lb. rainbow he’d caught bank fishing.  So proud of himself!  A lovely fish, and this one we cooked and ate. I filleted it very well, and we had a late dinner after a hot bath and some white wine.

What a delight to eat the fish you catch!  The fish he caught was an Alpers, a large hatchery fish placed to keep all of us Sierra lovers fishing in hopes of catching one.  

I caught two small eastern brook trout today in the lake.  Novel, 

- they are very beautiful.

TRAVEL: Virginia Lakes and Mammoth

Monday, August 6, 2012 

Virginia Lakes Fishing

Today we checked out of the Double Eagle Lodge, and drove up 395 to another lovely lake loop.  The fishing was disappointing here, but I did take a brief hike up to Red Lake, a lovely little round-cut brown diamond.  A vertiginous oxide rubble cascaded into one side of the lake, and a small waterfall departed the other.  

Here I saw a Mountain Chickadee, a Vireo, and a Western Wood Phoebe, almost displaying themselves for me to view.

The sunset began and we left and dined again at The Mono Inn, watching the alpenglow linger on the swath of lake, mountains, sky and clouds.  Breathtaking.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 

Back in Mammoth

First day we’ve had a newspaper and internet after 4 days or so.  Another mass shooting - this time in Wisconsin.  This country is an insane reality - gun control is so imperative, and yet the individual freedoms believers, so fearful of losing access to the murderous possibilities of gun possession, defend the freedom to own these dreadful assault weapons and unlimited rounds of rapid-fire ammunition. 

They are willing to sacrifice the right to safe public, social intercourse for an open society in which must be fortified with individual searches, bodyguards, security cameras, limited access, and economic class barriers which create political and social disenfranchisement. Which only leads to more lawlessness, disintegration of family structure, an entitled faux-rebel philosophy and violent retaliatory behavior.

THE EASTERN SIERRAS: Yosemite & Saddlebag Lake

Sunday, August 5, 2012 

Yosemite and Saddlebag Lake

We drove up to Tioga Pass and had a picnic in Tuolomne Meadows, then I went on a short hike to see nanutuks - mountain pinnacles that weren’t covered with glaciers because of altitude and high winds.  They preserved alpine seeds until glacial recession and that repository of lichens, flowers, and simple plants distributed to the barren soil left after glacial scouring, breaking down and building soil for later growth of bushes, trees, and wildlife.  I learned about Clark’s Nutcrackers and whitebark pines - the birds love these seeds and disperse them widely across the mountains as they swoop and rocket through the treetops with raucous cries.

A major thunderstorm last night bequeathed us a sparkling fresh day today.  Electricity went out in the lodge, and magnificent lightning strikes illuminated the night sky as rain pelted down and thunder boomed.

Later we fished Saddlebag Lake, a rather barren brown thing, but here John caught his largest rainbow ever, a near 3-pounds that fought hard and took out line. There was a kind fellow fisherman who helped us with an I-Phone photo and a net, and to whom we bequeathed the fish which we could not cook.

Dinner at the Mono Inn, watching the long slow twilight descend upon the soft wide blue lake and in the matching sky.  Billowing cumulous clouds above turned pale violet and pink in the waning light.  Lots of nice wine and a warm breeze on the veranda, like time never ending but closing so gently and beautifully, like Faure, that one doesn’t mind, except for a mild beautiful regret.

THE EASTERN SIERRAS: Parker Lake Hike

Parker Lake Hike

A lovely morning - slept late, coffee and a long stretch and core workout in the elegant luxurious spa at the Double Eagle.  Then a 4 mile roundtrip hike up to Parker Lake - a beautiful lake with high views of strange and beautiful Mono Lake. 

Thunderstorms have been taunting us for three days now, and I could hear distant thunder, see lightning strikes and violet rain descending onto the lake as I clambered down the steep slope to the parking lot.  Then tonight, after dinner, a sudden thunderstorm and violent lightning after dinner, the wonderful smell of wet hillsides and trees, and horizontal thickened lightning streaking the dark night sky with booming thunderclaps preceding.  

POEM & ARTIST: Naoya Hatekeyama, Landscape Photography

Naoya Hatakeyama, Japanese Photographer, SFMOMA

Reminds me of Edward Burtynsky  - this photographer also records the industrial landscape, men’s encroachments upon the passive earth.  

The mountain once swelled with fullness

Its rhinegold safe in the gods' possession

But the dark we/us lusted for the holdings

And now the earth is aborted, carved and hacked

Most deliberately and cleverly.

Dante's rungs of Hell hath fury 

for this destruction has transported his kingdom 

above ground, revealed to all.

His sin, to cloak innocence and atrocity
in splendid beauty.

And no available redemption

Will save the wealth of grace

 that once belonged to all

Is lost.

TRAVEL: The Eastern Sierras, The Double Eagle Lodge

Tuesday, August 2 2012 

Double Eagle Forest Labyrinth Walk

Drove back to the resort to pick up my forgotten laptop charger and took the opportunity to walk along Reversed Creek.  Good birding - juncos, mountain chickadees, juvenile nuthatches traversing tree trunks in busy vertical directions, and best of all, a new bird, an orange-crested warbler.  He was busy working the willows along the brook, and finally came out to take a sip of water.  He was a duller yellow, with more dusky yellow-green on the back, and an eye-stripe.  Very elusive, but I did get him.  

Back to the condo for lunch and a nap, dinner at Whiskey Creek, and a brief walk on the bridge at Twin Lakes.  A windy, cloudy night, thunderstorm comings-and-goings making for dramatic skies and possibilities.

We’ve already been in the Sierras for 9 days already.  Last night the moon was full and beautiful, rising clouds chasing its ascent into the gunpowder black sky.  We stayed out on Gull Lake as the sun set, the water becoming still and darkened as indigo satin. Luminosity is the most intangible quality of color - how remote and unachievable is truly is on canvas.  Better as a cinematographer or a light and space artist, like Robert Irwin or Dan Flavin.  Why do I even try to paint?  Because the canvas is beautiful in its own way, as is the process.

TRAVEL: Eastern Sierras, Gull Lake

Wednesday, August 1, 2012  

Fishing Gull Lake

Out until 7:45pm this evening watching the dark descend into the bottle-green waters of Gull.  The fish were sporadic, but John caught the largest rainbow we’ve ever bagged in the Sierras - perhaps 2 ½ lbs.  More large fish here than anywhere else, yet, I think.  Picnic in the park on cold grilled chicken sandwiches, chatting companionably.  

The weather is so lovely-hot, then warm, breezy, with cool wafts occasionally , balmy, aligned with my skin temperature so I feel at one with the air, the breeze, the wind, the world, luxury and well-being wrapping me and opening me to mountains, sky, air, darkness, moonlight, lake wavelets and wind kisses on the glassy surface of mountain lakes green, blue, black, brown, turquoise.