.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

"It is the journey which makes up your life."

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Mt. Baldy


Hey Kids! Despite all appearances, I haven't fallen off the planet yet. Life at school has been slightly more boring than Egypt. I did have the incredible luck to go to AMSTERDAM!! over spring break.. more on that somewhere else.. anyway, I've been at home back in Irvine these last couple weeks catching up on sleep and seeing people and preparing to drive out to Montana. I got a job through the University of Montana doing field research on river ecology this summer. I should be putzing around the backcountry of Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes (the Canadian park that connects to Glacier) all summer. On the drive up I'm stopping by Steamboat Springs again to go see Casey and some other RMYC folks, maybe Janna if she drives up. It looks like I can camp a night in Zion and a night in Yellowstone between marathon 13-hour drives. I'll try to post drool-worthy pictures.

Other awesomeness.. I climbed Mt. Baldy at sunrise with Kibler and Martin last Sunday. In true alpine fashion we woke up hella early and got to the trailhead by 4:30 am. It was beautiful, climbing in the dark high above Riverside county's spread of lights. The sunrise hit the upper atmosphere before anything else, and from up there we could see the layers of color descending slowly down to light the valley. We crested a ridge just as the sun started hitting it, then just stood staring east over the desert for the better part of an hour, shadows and colors shifting on receding lines of ridges. We followed up what turned out to be a fire break, then cut over to the actual trail, which switchbacked up and ran along a razorback ridge to the base of the summit. There were mountain goats there. A pair of slim shaggy bucks that came skittering up one side of the ridge and stood, looking picturesque, a moment before disappearing down the other side. I've never seen them wild before. The whole mountain is just absolutely beautiful.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home