Day 37
Sunday April 6th
The next morning I woke up a little disorientated. My sleeping bag and crash pad was completely covered in this thin crust of whiteness. Then it hit me: FROST!!! I was completely covered in frozen little frost crystals. Lets just say it was difficult to get out of my nice warm bag and stat the day. I procrastinated as much as I could, but in the end my worries of being found out by the rangers was enough to get me moving. I tried to have some breakfast but my banana & Nak'd Juice were completely frozen. I set everything out in the sun to thaw. I ended up taking a long walk around the lake to get the blood flowing.
I spent most of the day hanging out down by the river. I worked on some more writing, banged out another couple of letters and started a really cool book. As the day carried on I headed back down the mountain and out to the beach. I spent the rest of the evening reading Dave Berry. I actually read his entire book at the beach. It was a good read, hilarious as you would expect from Dave Berry. In the end though it was really just a cheap piece of fireside entertainment. It is certainly no classic, most definitely not the next great American novel but definitely a good read. I ended up crashing on the beach that night. I was pretty lazy and worn out from staying up all night taking pictures so I hit the hay pretty early in order to rest up for the week ahead.
Sunday April 6th
The next morning I woke up a little disorientated. My sleeping bag and crash pad was completely covered in this thin crust of whiteness. Then it hit me: FROST!!! I was completely covered in frozen little frost crystals. Lets just say it was difficult to get out of my nice warm bag and stat the day. I procrastinated as much as I could, but in the end my worries of being found out by the rangers was enough to get me moving. I tried to have some breakfast but my banana & Nak'd Juice were completely frozen. I set everything out in the sun to thaw. I ended up taking a long walk around the lake to get the blood flowing.
I spent most of the day hanging out down by the river. I worked on some more writing, banged out another couple of letters and started a really cool book. As the day carried on I headed back down the mountain and out to the beach. I spent the rest of the evening reading Dave Berry. I actually read his entire book at the beach. It was a good read, hilarious as you would expect from Dave Berry. In the end though it was really just a cheap piece of fireside entertainment. It is certainly no classic, most definitely not the next great American novel but definitely a good read. I ended up crashing on the beach that night. I was pretty lazy and worn out from staying up all night taking pictures so I hit the hay pretty early in order to rest up for the week ahead.
Thawing out by the lake. (The 2nd of two frames I took Sunday before my camera batteries died for good.)Day 36
Saturday April 5th
I headed up to Rose Valley for the weekend. Even though I got up there pretty early all the official camp sites were completely packed w/ RVs, frat boys, high schoolers and other assorted riff raff. It looked like I would be backcountry crashing for the next few days. Actually that is perfectly fine with me, I doubt with all the partying going on at the official sites I would get much sleep anyhow. Besides I really wanted to get in a couple long night time exposures so a packed camp ground is not the best place for that. I decided finding a site to crash wasn't the priority and headed out into the desert for a long walk. I left everything at the car-- no book, no journal, no camera, no cell phone, no iPod. It was just me, my GPS a liter of water, trail bar and my thoughts for the day. Sometimes it is good to just think without having any distractions. And think I did. It was well worth while and long over due.
Later after the walk I drove down to the other end of valley. I found a barely discernible Jeep trail up the side of a mountain and slowly forged ahead in my poor Focus. I got to the top and was greeted by an amazing view of the entire valley below me. I parked and promptly plopped down on my crash pad, opened an ice cold Sierra and decided to write a letter. When I was a kid I used to write letters to friends all over the world on a weekly basis almost. Then again that was before this new-fangled internet or IM or email or text messaging or cell phones. Crap this was even before long distance was affordable. Remember all those 1010 xxx commercials for 25 cents/minute long distance? Those were the days, a bloody for a quarter a minute! Forget about free nights and weekends, this was revolutionary! Anyhow no one bothers to take the time to actually sit down for an hour or two and write a letter long hand. That is a shame. There is something about running out to the mail box one day to find a battered envelope with a crisp stamp in the corner. The excitement of wondering what is inside is irreplaceable. I used to read letters 20 times a piece that I got from all sorts of strange and foreign places (like Ohio & at times even New York City!). I miss those days.
Saturday April 5th
I headed up to Rose Valley for the weekend. Even though I got up there pretty early all the official camp sites were completely packed w/ RVs, frat boys, high schoolers and other assorted riff raff. It looked like I would be backcountry crashing for the next few days. Actually that is perfectly fine with me, I doubt with all the partying going on at the official sites I would get much sleep anyhow. Besides I really wanted to get in a couple long night time exposures so a packed camp ground is not the best place for that. I decided finding a site to crash wasn't the priority and headed out into the desert for a long walk. I left everything at the car-- no book, no journal, no camera, no cell phone, no iPod. It was just me, my GPS a liter of water, trail bar and my thoughts for the day. Sometimes it is good to just think without having any distractions. And think I did. It was well worth while and long over due.
Later after the walk I drove down to the other end of valley. I found a barely discernible Jeep trail up the side of a mountain and slowly forged ahead in my poor Focus. I got to the top and was greeted by an amazing view of the entire valley below me. I parked and promptly plopped down on my crash pad, opened an ice cold Sierra and decided to write a letter. When I was a kid I used to write letters to friends all over the world on a weekly basis almost. Then again that was before this new-fangled internet or IM or email or text messaging or cell phones. Crap this was even before long distance was affordable. Remember all those 1010 xxx commercials for 25 cents/minute long distance? Those were the days, a bloody for a quarter a minute! Forget about free nights and weekends, this was revolutionary! Anyhow no one bothers to take the time to actually sit down for an hour or two and write a letter long hand. That is a shame. There is something about running out to the mail box one day to find a battered envelope with a crisp stamp in the corner. The excitement of wondering what is inside is irreplaceable. I used to read letters 20 times a piece that I got from all sorts of strange and foreign places (like Ohio & at times even New York City!). I miss those days.
Up on rocky top...
Writing, the old fashioned way. Remember pen & paper? Foreign right, strange!I wrote and wrote and wrote. The pages were flying around me. I wrote until I could barely see the paper any more. Then I busted out the head lamp and kept on writing. I wrote until I was shivering so badly I could barely hold the pen. Then I curled up in the car and wrote some more until the windows were all fogged up. It was quite the escape from our hurried lives. Finally though I succumb to the freezing cold night. I packed up my things and head out into the pitch black desert to find a nice secluded spot to bed down. I finally came upon a dry creek bed full of nice soft fluffy sand. Ahhh heaven really. I built a quick fire and tried to take a couple more longish exposures on both the 10D & the old behemoth 1V. After each exposure with the 10D I had to bake the batteries in the fire. It was so cold they would be good for about 20 minutes before dying. Then back in the fire to heat them p and squeeze every little last piece of juice out of them. In the end I didn't loose a single frame because of a dead battery. Unfortunately though I could only get about two frames squeezed off the next day before they died for good. Oh well there is always next time.
Piedras Blancas, Rose Valley, Calif. at 1/200th of a second.
Piedras Blancas, Rose Valley, Calif. at 30 seconds.
Piedras Blancas, Rose Valley, Calif. at 3583.0 seconds.
27.1 degrees, this is Southern California-- 50 miles from the palm trees and surf.
BLOODY freezing, time to stoke the fire.Day 35
Friday April 4th
Man what a week it has been! Seriously, I am thankful it is over! I did manage to get some writing in, but not nearly as much as I had first hoped. All told I have now about 23 more pages, tightly edited, then a did a week ago. I suppose that counts for something. Two more chapters are in the can and I am slowly moving out of the crux of the book and into the real action. I figure another ten pages or so to wrap up the first climax and then things will really start to happen. Even though I feel like I need a little time away to refocus and collect my thoughts before pushing on, I am happy with how it is progressing. Right now as I think about it, I can't wait to see what happens next!
After work the weather was really crappy. It was cold and cloudy and just miserable to start off the weekend. I decided I needed a little m time, the weather be damned. I figured a soak in the hot springs would be just the tonic I needed to quiet the voices in my head. So up to the Matilija I went. As soon as I got away from the coast the weather broke, the birds started singing and the sun popped out. It turned out to be a glorious afternoon. The hot springs were a perfect end to a cerebral week after all.
I had planned on spending the night there and then heading up to Rose Valley in the morning. As I was soaking up the last of the sunshine just floating around in the spring I got a message from DR. She was back in town a day early. Instead of hanging out in the woods, I collected my things and headed back down to the Ventuckey for the night. She along with Parsons and I hit up a quaint little Mexican bodega for late night tacos and a quick margarita. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves in to! About ten minutes after we were seated at our table, a rather intoxicated woman took a seat next to me. She would not stop smiling at me and batting her fake eyelashes at me. It was comical though slightly disturbing. She ended up being quite the character!
We were not exactly quite sure what to make of her. She made it a point to tell me quite frequently how beautiful I was, I did mention she was rather Christmasy right? Every now and again her hands would star a wandering and I would jump out of my seat each time she grabbed my leg. She was dressed really nice in the latest Paris Hilton fashion but something was a little off. Her fingernails were chipped and packed with dirt. She had huge scars on her forehead and told us stories about being raped as a kid. We were a little taken a back, this is not exactly dinner conversation right? No one really knew what to make of her. And she only got stranger still!
When she found out it was DR's birthday she immediately wanted to do shots. The resto was closing down so we tried to make and excuse that we probably shouldn't do shots because the bar was trying to close. Her face brightened up. No problem she said and picked up this satin white purse from the floor. She was like hey no worries I have vanilla vodka and raspberry chocolates in my purse, screw the bar. So we are thinking to ourselves, hmmm must be a couple tiny little bottles of vodka, like nips or shooters, the bottle you get on airplanes. She proceeded to pull out a bottle from her tiny little purse. The bottle kept coming and coming. My eyes got wider and wider. Finally she sets this HUGE bottle of Stoli on the table. She had an entire handle in her purse! By then we are laughing so hard we can barely convince her to put it back in her purse before we all got kicked out.
Throughout the course of dinner this poor lady kept trying to kiss me and I always managed to avoid it. the last time though she had me cornered. She practically had me pinned in the corner of the booth without any place to hid. There was no where left to run. She is trying to be all sly and sexy but it is just drunken goofiness. She is leaning closer and closer to me, eyes closed and lips all puckered ready to go. I can not run away. I decide to make th bes tof it so I grit my teeth and turn my cheek to her figuring that would be least amount of damage possible. The next thing I know I feel this infernal furnace of red hot love bearing down on my poor head. She licked me from my chin to my ear. She didn't stop there, despite my squirming (admittedly I was probably yelling like a thirteen year old girl watching a boy eat a worm on the playground). She started munching on my ear. So much for a peck on the check! Thank goodness I have had all my shots up to date, including tetanus!
After that it was time for the check. We boxed everything up pronto and flew out of the place. Only problem was that she followed. We were flying but she moved pretty quick for an intoxicated homeless prostitute. She followed us out to the car and was like heeeeeey, soooo where are we partying. Parson immediately was like oh um, we are going to Paddy's (the uhhh gay bar across the street). Not to be deterred she followed. We ran inside barely stopping for the bouncer to check our IDs. Thankfully the bouncer refused to let her in. She was obviously pie-eyed and didn't have an ID. The three of us ended up hiding at one end of the bar waiting for her to give up and leave us be. After about an hour we ventured outside. I was so worried she would be sitting by the car waiting. Or worst yet, I was super worried she would have slashed out tires or done something else just as nasty. Thankfully she was no where to be seen and we were able to escape into the night.
Just another Friday night in good ole Ventuckey, nothing here surprises me much anymore. Of course I left my camera at home, I thought we were just going out for tacos...
Friday April 4th
Man what a week it has been! Seriously, I am thankful it is over! I did manage to get some writing in, but not nearly as much as I had first hoped. All told I have now about 23 more pages, tightly edited, then a did a week ago. I suppose that counts for something. Two more chapters are in the can and I am slowly moving out of the crux of the book and into the real action. I figure another ten pages or so to wrap up the first climax and then things will really start to happen. Even though I feel like I need a little time away to refocus and collect my thoughts before pushing on, I am happy with how it is progressing. Right now as I think about it, I can't wait to see what happens next!
After work the weather was really crappy. It was cold and cloudy and just miserable to start off the weekend. I decided I needed a little m time, the weather be damned. I figured a soak in the hot springs would be just the tonic I needed to quiet the voices in my head. So up to the Matilija I went. As soon as I got away from the coast the weather broke, the birds started singing and the sun popped out. It turned out to be a glorious afternoon. The hot springs were a perfect end to a cerebral week after all.
I had planned on spending the night there and then heading up to Rose Valley in the morning. As I was soaking up the last of the sunshine just floating around in the spring I got a message from DR. She was back in town a day early. Instead of hanging out in the woods, I collected my things and headed back down to the Ventuckey for the night. She along with Parsons and I hit up a quaint little Mexican bodega for late night tacos and a quick margarita. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves in to! About ten minutes after we were seated at our table, a rather intoxicated woman took a seat next to me. She would not stop smiling at me and batting her fake eyelashes at me. It was comical though slightly disturbing. She ended up being quite the character!
We were not exactly quite sure what to make of her. She made it a point to tell me quite frequently how beautiful I was, I did mention she was rather Christmasy right? Every now and again her hands would star a wandering and I would jump out of my seat each time she grabbed my leg. She was dressed really nice in the latest Paris Hilton fashion but something was a little off. Her fingernails were chipped and packed with dirt. She had huge scars on her forehead and told us stories about being raped as a kid. We were a little taken a back, this is not exactly dinner conversation right? No one really knew what to make of her. And she only got stranger still!
When she found out it was DR's birthday she immediately wanted to do shots. The resto was closing down so we tried to make and excuse that we probably shouldn't do shots because the bar was trying to close. Her face brightened up. No problem she said and picked up this satin white purse from the floor. She was like hey no worries I have vanilla vodka and raspberry chocolates in my purse, screw the bar. So we are thinking to ourselves, hmmm must be a couple tiny little bottles of vodka, like nips or shooters, the bottle you get on airplanes. She proceeded to pull out a bottle from her tiny little purse. The bottle kept coming and coming. My eyes got wider and wider. Finally she sets this HUGE bottle of Stoli on the table. She had an entire handle in her purse! By then we are laughing so hard we can barely convince her to put it back in her purse before we all got kicked out.
Throughout the course of dinner this poor lady kept trying to kiss me and I always managed to avoid it. the last time though she had me cornered. She practically had me pinned in the corner of the booth without any place to hid. There was no where left to run. She is trying to be all sly and sexy but it is just drunken goofiness. She is leaning closer and closer to me, eyes closed and lips all puckered ready to go. I can not run away. I decide to make th bes tof it so I grit my teeth and turn my cheek to her figuring that would be least amount of damage possible. The next thing I know I feel this infernal furnace of red hot love bearing down on my poor head. She licked me from my chin to my ear. She didn't stop there, despite my squirming (admittedly I was probably yelling like a thirteen year old girl watching a boy eat a worm on the playground). She started munching on my ear. So much for a peck on the check! Thank goodness I have had all my shots up to date, including tetanus!
After that it was time for the check. We boxed everything up pronto and flew out of the place. Only problem was that she followed. We were flying but she moved pretty quick for an intoxicated homeless prostitute. She followed us out to the car and was like heeeeeey, soooo where are we partying. Parson immediately was like oh um, we are going to Paddy's (the uhhh gay bar across the street). Not to be deterred she followed. We ran inside barely stopping for the bouncer to check our IDs. Thankfully the bouncer refused to let her in. She was obviously pie-eyed and didn't have an ID. The three of us ended up hiding at one end of the bar waiting for her to give up and leave us be. After about an hour we ventured outside. I was so worried she would be sitting by the car waiting. Or worst yet, I was super worried she would have slashed out tires or done something else just as nasty. Thankfully she was no where to be seen and we were able to escape into the night.
Just another Friday night in good ole Ventuckey, nothing here surprises me much anymore. Of course I left my camera at home, I thought we were just going out for tacos...
Ahhhhhhh, hot springs...
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