I am not a huge traveler, but a combination of factors has made the call of a few places that I have always wanted to go too loud to ignore.  The fact that J- and I will likely be parents again sometime during the next year and will not be able to travel for while after that, cheap air prices and an accumulation of flyer miles has me doing my small-town-girl version of jetsetting for the next few months.

I also have a theory that some places are going down.  The economy, the environment…they may be irreversibly changed and I want to see them now:

Glacier National Park

Well, okay, in this case, it isn’t actually MY theory that Glacier National Park is going down, it is pretty well supported scientifically that the glaciers are melting.  And even the most conservative folks are now pretty much on board with this.

Actually, it looks like I missed the heyday of seeing the glaciers of Montana.  Even my parents did.  Still, I have had several reports from friends over the years that this is one of the best places that they have seen and it has long been on my list of places to see.

Enter my caching friend Binky del Mar, who moved to northern Idaho not too long ago.  Binky is one of my few female caching partners and I love that about her.  It takes a special kind of lady to cache. One that is comfortable on her hands and knees, looking under dumpsters. One that is more interested in 1) finding the cache and 2) the story she will be able to tell later than 1) how difficult it is or 2) how dirty and gross it is.

Visiting Binky is the perfect opportunity to head up to this great area and visit 2 states that are new for me.  Binky and I are going on a caching extravaganza between Spokane, WA, Sandpoint, ID and Glacier National Park, MT for 4 days.

Las Vegas, The Strip

It is a bit ridiculous

that I from California and have never been to Las Vegas.  I can’t even tell you how many times that I have been to Reno.  Because I don’t know, I’m not sure that I would be able to count.  Being from Sacramento, that is what we did…we went to Reno.

The draw of Las Vegas has grown in the last 10 years as it has become more upscale and I have become well, uh…more upscale.  Hearing about the art, architecture and shows, seeing Anthony Bourdain’s pleasure while eating at Buchon were all part of the draw. The lights and fireworks and the fake Venice and Paris. I know, it’s kitschy, but it’s fun!  Not to mention that they have caches, like every other place on the map. And it is yet a whole other state that I can add to my “states cached” map.

I began looking at air/hotel packages and seeing deals because I just needed a getaway and didn’t want to deal with a long flight or drive.  Then, I heard about the decline in business there and realized that I have no faith that the economy will get better any time soon, and places like swanky Vegas hotels are going to be some of the first to go down, bigtime.  After a few months of looking, I decided to take the plunge and prices had dropped. I couldn’t imagine them going lower.

Vegas is so overdeveloped, with no solid basis for the economy of decadence, other than some weekend traffic from LA.  I know that Vegas will always be there, but in what condition?  Already many of the more “family-friendly” attractions have disappeared, what will go next?  When will it sink below the level of seediness that it was when I was a child? I am imagining a ghost town of these posh hotels, turned vacant, hauntingly empty, guarded and almost post-apocalyptic.

So, this is how my few months of somewhat opulent splurging has come about. I want to get it while the getting is good.

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I met Sarah’s mom before I met Sarah.  We were at an earthquake preparedness meeting where we were discussing, as a community, how to be prepared and connected to people in our own neighborhoods and how to get in touch with people in other neighborhoods if lines of communication go down.  At that point, Sarah “Bean” (a nickname that we all use as a way to differentiate her from other Sarah’s that we know), was practically a legend in my mind.  My friends had been asking me for over a year whether I knew her.  She was roommates with a close friend, but never seemed to be around whenever I was there.

Finally, a few months later, I met Sarah at a party and I adored her immediately.  We decided to  begin trading massage.  I am a professional massage therapist and am fairly picky about who I will trade with.  Sarah’s modality is different than mine (her Tui Na to my Deep Tissue).  Although I prefer deep tissue massage, I have benefited and enjoyed all modalities when done well.

A practitioner can be good with touch intuitively or be mediocre, even with a lot of training.  Sarah is a talented bodyworker because of her ability to connect with others.  She did not have much training when I first started receiving massage from her, but she always had a wonderful touch.  Throughout the year that we traded, her work evolved as she furthered her training and offered more fully integrated sessions.

Like many young people in the Bay Area (and many bodyworkers), Sarah is a person of many hats.  She is a teacher, a thinker and a healer.  Given the opportunities, Sarah’s possibilities are boundless because she is the kind of person that turns everything that she touches into her own.  She was working hard in many apsects of her life, including preparing for her trip logistically and learning Arabic.

Sarah gave me this photo before she left for her trip

Despite her light and easy presence with others, she takes the world and her position in it quite seriously.  I’ve always been impressed by the gravity that she holds the well-being of others, which translates into her politics, her employment and her friendships.  She often spoke of her love and concern for her family and friends and was fiercely loyal and loving to both.

The Hikers

What I really appreciate about the campaign to get Sarah, Shane and Josh released is the focus on the fact that they are hikers.  Of course, this does not comprehensively define them, but is a part of a lifestyle that I share with Sarah.  I can imagine her joy in being able to explore this area. The Free the Hikers website is filled images of them in nature.

Shon Meckfessel, who was travelling with them (but did not join them on the hike) explains their discovery of the area.

Every one of them told us to visit a place called Ahmed Awa. Not one of these people mentioned that Ahmed Awa was anywhere near the Iranian border. In fact, on the wall of our hotel there were three photos of tourists standing near the Ahmed Awa waterfall.  Ahmed Awa seemed the clear choice for appreciating the stunning natural beauty around Sulaimania, far from any sort of risk. However, it may have been unclear to the people who encouraged us to visit Ahmed Awa that we intended to go hiking in the area, rather than simply visiting the waterfall.

News reports say that the hikers may have entered Iran and it is plainly obvious to anyone who learns anything about them (including the involved governments) that they would not spy and also would not have entered Iran intentionally.  Either one would be antithetical to their personalities and life choices.  This was simply an awful, tragic mistake.

I have not followed much of the media, but I was particularly struck by Sarah’s mom reading an email that Sarah had sent just before they traveled to this Kurdish region or Iraq.  She assures her mom that the area is completely safe and pro-american and there is no history of American’s being harmed there.

Helping

Unfortunately, those of us hoping for the release of the hikers are currently subject to a bit of a waiting game. My understanding is that the situation is precarious because the US does not have diplomatic relations with Iran and communication with and about the hikers has been somewhere between non-existent to scarce to not trustworthy.

It is my understanding that what they need most, other than raising awareness for the situation is money.  T-shirts can be bought here (which will do both).  The list of ways to help and ways to follow the situation is being constantly updated here.  I hope that I will be able to plan some sort of fundraiser for them and encourage others to do the same.  I also know that the families are already traveling for meetings and media opportunities and are welcoming the donation of frequent flier miles.

My take is that no one really knows at this point what will help expediate the release of the hikers and because of that, it is difficult for the families to know what to ask for.  Because of this, I am beginning to try and work with the folks involved to support them personally.

Massage is a really wonderful thing to be able to offer.  In times of stress, trauma and crisis, massage can relieve the physical and emotional holding patterns that begin to happen for people.  It also helps clear the mind; “let go” is not the right word, but maybe reorganize a little.  I have been lucky enough to be able to work on some people on their team that cannot right now afford much time or money to devote to their own self-care.

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Day 1: We left town in the late morning, stopping by Peets for some Fair Trade ground coffee. At a roadside produce stand in Manteca, we bought Doradita’s potato chips from El Monte, CA, locally grown nuts, blueberries and cherries along with some other treats.

We arrived at the house, which we expected to be a tract townhome, since we looked at a map and saw that it a huge complex. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised. Even though the place is a gated community (and huge) there were obvious differences between the places and a huge amount of space between each one. Plus, there are many vacant lots, which adds to the effect of open space. About 20 minutes after we arrived, we noticed a baby deer about 5 feet away from the garage.

We decided to go to dinner and the grocery store that night. Dinner was at the Iron Door Saloon, the oldest bar in California. I discovered before the trip that it was actually owned by the family of a friend, who happened to be working the night that we went.

But first, we arrived around 4pm and dinner wasn’t to start until 5. We had already spent a few minutes looking around the tiny town. Not being shoppers, there wasn’t much to entice us. It was time for some geocaching! I had thought that I had seen a cache in town when I was researching, but maybe it had been archived. We headed East, toward Yosemite and started grabbing one by one, as long as they were close to Hwy 120. We visited a Hanging Tree, which apparently had killed many folks back in the gold rush days. We grabbed a couple of others when I saw that we were near one called Spelunkelite, with a terrain difficulty of 4. Well, I was wearing a dress and clogs to go out to dinner and have been having back problems, so I knew it was a sketchy proposition, but still couldn’t resist a cave. There were many warnings in the cache description about having 2 flashlights and having to crouch and being very careful. It also had a nudge in the cache description to the area that the cache was. Unfortunately, it also suggested the number of steps required to get the cache. When we arrived at the described area, we hadn’t really had to crouch, didn’t really need a light and had taken less than half of the steps that the cache page recommended. So, we thought we had to keep going in order to find it. J- started to, but decided he was not up for doing it alone. This part DID involve crouching and one light per person (when we only had one). I went instead. When I got to the recommended number of steps, I started looking to no avail, so I went about 20 steps further, found nothing and looked all the way back. I was still looking when I arrived at Jeff and found it about 10 feet from where he had been sitting. I had made the mistake of carrying my purse over my shoulder and my hat in my hand. I had dropped my hat at some point and my purse (which wasn’t in great shape before) was a little wet and covered in cave dust. My hands were VERY dirty.

So, back at the restaurant at 6 we washed up and the menu looked great. We kept it simple with fish and chips, salad and water. The fish and chips were well done with a light beer-type batter. We had been disappointed recently when going to a new shi-shi southern restaurant in Oakland with the breading, so we were relieved to like this.

The next day, we invented a new term: “Bourdain-worthy”. We have read several of Anthony Bourdain books and also enjoyed several of his TV shows. His taste are not necessarily hoity-toity, although one of the things he enjoys is when a chef devotes particular attention the his dishes that makes them perfect. We were in Sonora and stopped at the Blackthorn Grill, which focuses on local and sustainably grown food. One of the dishes that we ordered was the special: Grilled Citrus and Cilantro half game hen salad. Definitely Bourdain-worthy. This piece of meat was cooked so absolutely perfectly. The skin was crispy, salty and a little sour. It was served on a bed of arugula and we couldn’t imagine that piece of meat being seasoned, cooked or serve any better.

Later in the trip, we went to Rainbow Pools. A client had told me about this place and it is such a find. It is a day use area maintained by the National Forest Service and is mostly a place for locals, there is no sign or anything. It is a wonderful spot off the Tuolumne that has a swimming hole and cliff jumping. When we were there, a summer camp was there and it was people-watching at its finest.

On our last day, we went to visit the spectacular Yosemite Valley. We ate at The Grill in Yosemite Village. The meal was not great, but it could have been worse. The did offer a veggie burger (although I can’t recommend it) and they served sweet potato fries instead of french fries, which was a nice touch.

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Our initial months as car owners were completely disasterous.  We were carjacked before we had even transferred the paperwork for our first car.  We had 10 days before we left town to buy another.  We found the perfect car at a great deal. We overpacked and overloaded the car. About 30 miles out of town, I lost control crashed and totalled it on the highway.  We just wanted to go home and never see a car again, but irreversible committments had been made, so we rented a mini-van and made our way up to Washington, where we bought our 3rd car in 3 weeks.

Although it took us a while to recover from the micro-traumas of what had happened, we loved the mountains of Washington and still think fondly of that time.  Gas prices were high, but since we were both driving for the first time of years, the prices didn’t hurt any more than the cost of having a car for the first time, in general.  Much like when I started driving in high school, our car opened up freedom to leave our regular life and explore.

When I returned home, I discovered that driving actually continued to offer me freedom. I became a regular visitor to parks that had been to far or difficult to visit regularly.  I was amazed that I could get to Fruitvale in less than 15 minutes, which I honestly thought was pretty far from my neighborhood. Friends made fun of me, saying that I was the only person that didn’t realize that public transportation took longer than driving.  Well, it wasn’t so much that, but I really didn’t realize HOW MUCH longer it took.

I went through a phase where I felt almost duped by pro-bike people. I had been convinced that I was more free on a bike, that having a car was something oppressive, that by driving, I would spend all of my time with road rage, looking for parking spaces, and sitting in traffic and inhaling exhaust.  This was not the case…I make my driving choices carefully and can get to most places that I want to go in 10-20 minutes and rarely have trouble parking.  Instead of bike touring, where I was still surrounded and threatened by cars, I was able to get into the forest.

Friends that I knew through biking had various assumptions and/or judgement around my use of a car.  One friend asked (when referring to a 3rd person) “How can someone call themselves  an environmentalist when they drive everywhere?”  Another asked if I was adding other things in my life to rationalize my use of the car, ecologically.

I realized at that point, that I no longer chose to identify as an environmentalist.  I had prioritized building my family by rescuing dogs, adopting kids and having a more balanced life.  I wondered if I was becoming a humanitarian.  As a “(many-things-can go-here)ist”, I was making esthetic choices that the world around me could never live up to. I felt that I was sacrificing, while I saw so many others still chose to “have”.  Making choices without an absolutist perspective has led to me being a much happier and healthier person without as much self-judgement, let alone judgement of others.

I still think that cars are “wrong” in a big picture. I still fantasize about being in an eco-city with fewer roads, better public transportation and, better yet, services that are in walking distance.  I also believe that I would put my money, my car, and my house where my mouth is if I saw that option.  On the other hand, I not yet missed the days of NOT having a car.  I am looking forward to the future that J- and I have planned and I see a car as realistically necessary to have that future.  

I absolutely do feel fearful, sometimes angst-ridden about what is happening to our world, socially and ecologically.  I do believe that we are headed for something catastrophic on both fronts and I think that energy consumption in all forms is integral, among other things to that crisis.  I also think that there are no easy answers and actually that the easiest is to start making individual choices to localize our lives and local efforts to de-auto our communities. 

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So, I decided to organize my own trip to burn off those Thanksgiving pounds as long as the rain was still staying away. I found out that a controlled burn was happening, which would slightly detour our route. It also cut out one of the twelve caches required for getting to a final cache 50sumtin’s Big Basin Park HQ to Sea Baker’s Dozen! . Luckily, we picked up another cache on our detour and Bud was kind enough to let us count it towards our 12…we missed a clue, but it didn’t prove to affect our deduction of the correct coordinates for the final.

I expected it to be a really long day because of the mileage and because we would be stopping frequently for geocaches along the way. So, we met at Waddell Beach at 6:30 am, just as th sun was rising. It took just under an hour to get to the trailhead. Google maps routed me on a gated, dirt road. Luckily, I checked my facts and saw that the only accessible route was way over through Bonny Doon.

We left our car just after 7:30 am. There was a controlled burn happening and soon things got pretty smokey. The rangers kept commenting on what an early start we got. I was surprised since we are getting into the shortest days of the year.

As we walked along the fire road, we were shocked at how much smoke we saw and then we started actually seeing flames. As we turned off the fire road, we were greeted by a whole group of good looking, hairy twenty-something fire crew members. We descended the very steep trail (I believe that it was Sunset trail) and were within feet of burning redwoods.

For me, there were three major highlights of the trip. First off, This may be only the second time (the first being the first time that I did this hike) that I have been in so much contiguous redwood forest, including some old growth. I would get moments that my focus on whatever I was doing would just break and I would have a perfect picture in front of me. Everything still, except for a small creek moving next to me. The goliath trees just everywhere providing shelter, warmth and a soft forest floor of their needles.

The second highlight was Berry Creek Falls. Although the water was certainly not high at this time of year after a very dry fall, it was absolutely jaw-dropping nonetheless. There is something primordially peaceful about watching a waterfall…a place where the beauty and force of nature overcomes anything manmade.

The final highlight was up to the western ridge of the park. We had to go up there for our final cache in the Baker’s Dozen. We debated for a while at a previous fork that we had seen that had confusing signs. It turns out that the trail is only used seasonally and we were off season, so we had to do an out and back from close to the end of the trail. After doing 12 miles, it is not an easy thing to be at the end of the trail and look back and up at where you need to go. We took a nice break and regained our energy. The trip up was well worth it.

It was a narrow, canyon side trail that made a slow ascent and brought us through a completely different eco-system than we had seen during the rest of that day. We took an unmarked turnoff into a memorial grove that had simply stunning views out the canyon opening to the ocean.

We arrived back to the car at Waddell Beach at about 3:45, I think. Being intrepid cachers, we decided to cache along the ocean on our way back and also check out a cache that had been recommended to us along Empire Grade Rd. our cache total was 21.

The last one was off a very rough trail with steep terrain. We had a short sweet view of the valley below (Scott’s Valley?) and scrambled back up with our headlamps blazing. I think that I was the last one over the guard-rail entrance, my leg swinging over, literally, as we lost our last bit of light. We had a challenging drive back to pick up the second vehicle and drove out into Saratoga on the super-windy and narro 236. We were happily greeted by a holiday-lit and bustling downtown Saratoga.

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