As The Crow Flies

I’ve been to the backcountry of my mind—but not this year.  This year I drove to the trail head and spent 5 months doing dough-nuts in the parking lot.

The Internet is to blame.  New hermit rule—no Internet in the hermitage.

The thing with the Internet is you are never alone and without solitude you always just hang out on in the front country of your mind.

The decision to turn off the Internet has been assisted by my laptop dying—and this one is not under warranty.   Since my laptop is also my entertainment system, it means no music, no videos, no spider solitaire.

There are some logistical problems with living a life without a computer.  Like loading my GPS for hikes, getting maps, and ordering stuff.   But I’m happy and excited to be returning to a life of peace and solitude.

I’m writing this from the public library in town which gives me 2-30 minute sessions a day–no loitering on this Internet.

I’m signed up to attend a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat at the end of this month.      You sit silently  for 10 days from 4am to 9:30pm watching your breath go in and out.

Under what to bring, they list a meditation cushion or a meditation bench.    I found some cedar under my cabin and these instructions on the Internet and in about 10 minutes had built my meditation bench.   It’s  ingenious the way you cut both  legs in one cut.   I didn’t have any hinges so I screwed it together.  Then I put support pieces around the legs.

I got some meds and now I’m hiking on.   It’s hard to leave.

I finally got up at 2:30 in the afternoon and started to hike.    I still felt bad but thought it best to move out of the rain and to a place with water.

For a  while now I have bouts of stomach pain and vomiting, then it goes away, and I feel fine.

I have the trailer at Hiker Heaven all to myself.   I’ve had a hot shower, changed into cotton sweats, cooked myself some eggs, and watched a movie.   Good times.

Man, am I loving  being a southbound section hiker.   I haven’t seen another hiker in 9 days.   The water worries me some though.   Even water that is running, like the faucet at Cottonwood Creek is very bad.  

My reptilian brain gets in a snit  over the water issue. 

Happy to be here, though.

I’m at the Kennedy Meadows Internet Cafe.

It was a long and beautiful hike through the Sierras.   I got some altuitude  sickness and once got locked out of my bear can but all turned out well.

So happy to be out here now–weather is great.

Hiking out in the morning.

I’m at a new trail angel’s place called the Red Moose Inn in Sierra City—super nice people.

Barefoot and Chacos did not feel that great,  Chacos and vibrams have not been that great either… my feet really hurt some of the day.   I hope the shoes I have in Echo Lake improve things.

Yesterday, north of Sierra City,  I was charged by a bunch of mountain bicyclists but I held my ground and yelled at them.  They laughed and biked on.   There were vans with the name of YUMA on the side that brings people up….they may be responsible this plague .

Still meeting north bounders who are confident that they will make the border this year.   Their optimism is creepy.

That’s all.

I’m packed,  I have Halfmile’s maps all printed out and all his waypoints loaded onto my GPS.

I have my map drops figured out—–Carry with me maps from Ashland to Drakesbad, send box to Drakesbad Ranch with 2 days of food and maps of Drakesbad to Echo Lake.   Send to Echo Lake, box with Bear Canister, maps from Echo Lake to Kennedy Meadows, stove, vapor barrier.   Send box on at Echo Lake to Kennedy Meadows with maps from Kennedy Meadows to Campo.  Send bear canister home from Kennedy Meadows.

I found someone on Craig’s list looking to do a ride share from Portland to Ashland tomorrow so I may have a ride.   But if anyone knows anyone that is going to Southern Oregon in the next few days let me know— will pay for gas.

What footwear to bring has been a hard one for me.   I bought some hiking shoes and microspikes because I was worried about snow south of Ashland… but the hiking shoes hurt my feet and put a big bruise on the top of my foot.    So I guess what I will be wearing is, bare feet, neoprene socks or Chacos.   I bought a big pair of neoprene socks that fit over my Chacos and tried the Microspikes on while wearing  Chacos— they seem to work but I’m thinking the snow has got to be melted by August so I’m still debating whether to bring the Microspikes.

I hate logistics… can’t wait to hit the trail… I’ve been away to long.

After replacing 2 hard drives, 2 mother boards, a memory module, 2 power adapters, a fan, a heat sink, a keyboard, a case lid, 2 power button covers,  and reloading Windows 4 times,  Dell decided to send me a new computer.   They had to “build”  it though and that took 3 weeks.

I just got the new computer, it’s black, shiny, has twice the memory as my old one, a faster processor, twice the storage capacity,  a web cam, a microphone, and is running Windows 7.

I’m grateful for the upgrade but one thing is missing…..no modem.     And since I connect through a dial-up it’s sort of useless to me at this point.   I called up Dell and they said I had to buy an external modem from them.    So that’s on the way, but I’m fixing to leave.

I’m heading out to the trail soon and I can’t wait to leave this computer business  behind me.    I’ve been away much too long.

Another bear at my cabin.   This one was a black colored one.   I didn’t get a picture of this one.   This one came first thing in the morning too, like the other one.

He knocked over a box of new car parts I had out waiting for the mechanic that comes to my cabin;  it was a heavy box as there were new shocks and break pads among the car parts.

My neighbor saw a moose in the field by his cabin.    I’ve never seen a moose at my cabin but I found a moose skeleton on my property.

This morning I woke to someone walking around on my deck.   I hurried down from the loft and saw a glob of slobber running down my full view door and this bear.

I’m sprouting at my cabin.  You can sprout even if you don’t have much water–just rinse all your sprouts with the same water and then drink the rinse water.

All you need to sprout is some jars, some seeds, and some thin material to pull over the jars so you can drain them.   Nylon knee highs work great but any thin sock will work.

You don’t need special sprouting seeds.   These are the things I have been sprouting: lentils, raw shelled sunflower seeds, black sesame seeds, fenugreek, broccoli seeds, clover, alfalfa, mung, wheat berries.

• Start with clean socks and jars.  I boil the socks and then pour boiling water into the jars and let them soak for a few minutes.   I reuse the hot water for drinking.
• Put some seeds in your jar–it’s okay to mix them.
• Add water, I add a green tea bag to the water, and let soak overnight
• In the morning, take out your tea bag, put your sock over the jar lid, and drain water into container.
• Lay jar on side and prop up the end so any excess  water can drain.
• Drink the soaking liquid
• Rinse them again before you go to bed and drink rinse water.
• Keep rinsing twice a day until the sprouts are the way you like them—about 4days—takes longer if your cabin gets really cold over night.
• You don’t have to keep them in the dark.  Just keep them out of direct sunlight.

In the winter, I have an idea to put the jars in to an insulated cooler at night with a hot jar of water to keep them warm through the cold nights.

Back in ’96 when the World Wide Web was new, my son and I thought it was the funniest thing to see ordinary people have web pages about their lives.

One Sunday afternoon we joked around about setting up a web page for my brother, an alcohol swilling sea urchin diver.

We laughed as we picked out a big background image that would be slow to load and yellow print that would be hard to see, as was custom in those days.

Then we set about to write a poem for the web page. This is that web page– Itcin’ for Urchin 1996 World Wide Web gold.

All winter there has been very little snow and even less sunshine. We are setting records for high temperatures. If there was a record for days without sunshine we would be setting that record too. The gloomy weather is getting me down. The road is a solid sheet of ice that is tedious to walk on so I put chains on all four tires and drive down to the mailbox.

I have to go out and scratch up little patches of snow to make water.

I went to Portland 3 weeks ago to welcome my granddaughter into the world. I’m hoping we will be hiking a long trail together when she is 11.

I have started a Grandma’s book of the month club for her. Well, more like books of the month since she is only 3 weeks old and so far I have sent 11 books. I’ve had a great time reading book reviews on Amazon and picking out books to send her.

My computer is still messed up, but now I have adjusted to life with a screwed up computer; which is too bad because it’s still under warranty. For me, I’d rather get ripped apart by a Grizzly then have to deal with customer service.

So that’s what’s up. I’m hoping life will improve soon or at least get more interesting.