The mountains call

Peak Lake Basin in the northern Winds – high and wild

The Wind River Mountains! It’s that time of year again, poring over a topographic map of the northern Winds. Seeing the trail (Elkhart-Seneca-Indian Pass) going up up up through forests and across meadows and on the second day out of the forest into mostly open sub-alpine terrain (below photo, right) with lakes, glacier-scoured granite domes, groves of pine trees and on the third day, into the alpine (like in the above photo, left) where it’s all rock and tundra, ice and snow and water. Still going up and on the fourth day, if the weather is clear and my strength is good, leaving most gear behind and climbing Freemont Peak (13,745). The next day is off-trail over Indian Pass at ~12,000 feet and down Knife Point Glacier. I’ll set up a base camp for a few days and wander in the rock, ice, snow at the terminuses of this and other glaciers.


Then back over Indian Pass, down Indian Basin, past Island Lake back into the sub-alpine, where maybe I’ll sit for a day before walking out. The photo at right (below) is where I camped my second night in 2011 – I regretted not walking at least up to that little rise in the right center of the photo, maybe back there for a place to sit. I may spend one more night at the edge of one of the huge meadows they call “parks” up here, then out and it’s time for a cheeseburger and fries at the Wind River Brewery and a hot shower, sleep, and start home. Total 10-12 days on the trail, about 50 miles.

Sub-alpine area campsite along the Seneca Lake Trail


It’s unclear exactly when this will happen as the work on the hail damage at our house continues. It isn’t all that important when, except I need to be out of the mountains by mid to late September because of the snow.

House repairs drag on. Even though we seem to have a good guy in charge of the various subcontracting crews, it’s been stressful, but we’ve hung in there, mutually supportive. All this is against a background of how lucky we are (no tornado, no fire, no flood). Anyway, it’s far more pleasant studying the map, looking at photos, planning what I’ll eat, and so on.

I had to clear out the attic (with some help from Ron the construction superintendent) so all the insulation can be removed and new insulation put it. Leslie and I went through some Christmas decos and I ended up with more lights for the welcome lights on the arbor at the front sidewalk. I put them up today and this evening walked out to look at the lights and the fragrance of the four o’clocks was intense. Nice.

Campsite in southern Titcomb Basin

It looks like I’ll celebrate my 68th birthday somewhere high in the alpine. My 65thwas deep in the northern end of the incomparable Titcomb Basin “… a sight that will haunt you forevermore” (The World’s Great Adventure Treks) ”… dark and foreboding, almost like something out of the Lord of the Rings” (Dorf’s Winds, 2006). What a birthday that was, at the end of an epic journey! 


“The mountains call and I must go” (John Muir). 

Books for David

I have a lot of books – several thousand, several walls of them. About 35 of these are in a section I told David I’d like for him to keep after I die. Here is what’s there.


The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh (Edward F. Murphy). I was in the Hill Fights (168 KIA, 1000s wounded). Hidden away in all the struggle in the book a guy described something I did, so that was nice to read.

Refugee and Immigrant Health (Charles Kemp and Lance Rasbridge). Lance and I (not to mention Leslie!) spent countless hours in the streets and apartments of Dallas’ refugee neighborhoods. We wanted to tell some of the stories of the remarkable people we worked with in the bad old days.

Dispatches(Michael Herr). This is a real book about combat in the world’s first rock & roll war. Guns up! Balls to the wall mother-fucker.

Street Without Joy (Bernard Fall). Fall was the preeminent French scholar of the Vietnam War. He also wrote Hell in a Very Small Place, about Dien Bien Phu. I spent a lot of time on and around la Rue Sans Joie, where Fall was killed in 1967.

I Remember Nothing More (Adina Blady Szwajger). A book about the Warsaw (ghetto) Children’s Hospital. “…a testament to the workings of humanity in an era of unfathomable evil.”

The Norton Book of Modern War. British ditty from WWI: “The bells of hell go ting-a-ling for thee, but not for me…” I have a lot of books on war. I didn’t set out to do that. I just pulled together the most important books to me and many of them turned out to be on war.

Barrack Room Ballads (Rudyard Kipling). This is the book where (the road to) Mandalay is found. The last time we were in Burma we went to Moulmein, in large part, for me to sit where Supi-yaw-lat (the girl in the poem) sat “…lookin’ eastward to the sea” and when I looked to the west I saw the damp dirty prison where the donkey cart driver who took us up the hill had been tortured. His wife was a doctor, so I gave him several courses of levofloxacin as a gift to her.

We Were Soldiers Once…and Young (Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway). The Battle in Ia Drang Valley (LZ X-Ray). One lesson is never let the enemy cut your column. They tried to do that to us in our first operation at the DMZ, but couldn’t.

Never So Few(Tom Chamales). This is the only book Chamales wrote. It’s about guerrilla warfare in Burma in WWII. I think I first read it in high school – I learned a lot about being the kind of man I am from this book.

Cambodge(J.P. Dannaud). The “essence du Cambodge” in photos and words, from the 1950s. I spent a lot of time looking at the photos in the early 1980s, but the words are in French, so I missed >95% of that part.

The Stones Cry Out: A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980 (Molyda Szmusiak). “That night Robana, Ton Ny’s six year old sister, had a dream in which she saw someone very like an angel who carried an armful of five lotus blossoms and spoke to her. ‘Don’t be afraid, my little girl, I’m keeping your mama with me. But you shall go on living’ … the first to die were the two five year old twins, three days apart, lying silently on a bamboo pallet; then two other brothers… then…”

In Hue, beautiful Hue


Terminal Illness: A Guide to Nursing Care (Charles Kemp). I worked in hospice 1978-1981 (Director, Clinical Specialist), then taught undergraduate and graduate courses in hospice and palliative care – and most of the time was seeing someone as a volunteer. Several publishers wanted this book; I chose Lippincott because they were Bernard Fall’s publisher.

Amazing Dope Tales (Stephen Gaskin). Stephen was my first teacher. This book isn’t aboutpsychedelics; it is psychedelic.

How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on Service (Ram Dass and Paul Gorman). The book answers the question of the title, mindfully, humbly.

Monday Night Class (Stephen Gaskin). Excerpts from Stephen’s Monday Night Classes. “It answered all my wishes and all my childhood dreams, and it gave me everything I wanted.”

Night(Elie Wiesel). Nazi concentration camps. “That night the soup tasted of corpses.”

Up Front(Bill Mauldin). Text and amazing illustrations, Willie and Joe, fighting a terrible war, in the mud and rain and drudgery. “You’ll get over it Joe. Oncet I wuz gonna write a book exposin’ the army after the war myself.”

Journal(Charles Kemp). Short, really just a few notes.

Hell in a Very Small Place (Bernard Fall). The Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Horror, gallantry, mistakes, death in 1954.

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (Jules Roy). Another account of Dien Bien Phu.

For the Sake of All Living Beings (John Del Vecchio). I vow to become enlightened for the sake of all living beings (Buddhist vow). This a novel about Cambodia, the war, the years zero.

To Bear Any Burden (Al Santoli). An oral history (Vietnamese and American) of the Vietnam War and its aftermath.

Everything We Had (Al Santoli). An oral history (American) of the Vietnam War.

Journeys Through Bookland (Charles Sylvester). I inherited several volumes of these well-illustrated old books (excerpts from classics) for boys from my father.

Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson). I read this book many, many times. A great story.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain). Another great one.

Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain). And yet another.

Tuna Fart Funnies (C Kemp). Notes from anatomy and Physiology – courses that were central to me in changing direction in my life.

Time Magazine on September 11, 2001.

Refugee and Immigrant Health (Charles Kemp & Lance Rasbridge). This was the first (shorter and limited) edition of this book.

Holy Bible, RSV. This is the Bible I used writing parts of the terminal illness books and related articles and chapters in other books.

At Khe Sanh


I Protest!(David Douglass Duncan). Dark photographs from Khe Sanh, Con Thien – all the bad places I was. Goddam, it was hard fighting in those places.

The Quiet American (Graham Greene). To me, this is a very realistic novel about Vietnam.

Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, Charles Kemp, Carrie Kovarik). Put it in your backpack and head on into the edge.

The Lover(Marguerite Duras). A short, very beautiful book about a woman and a man in Vietnam.

River of Time: A Memoir of Vietnam (Jon Swain). A book about how “whole generations of westerners who went out there as soldiers, doctors, planters, or journalists lost their hearts to these lands of the Mekong … there are places that take over a man’s soul.”


There’s a lot of darkness in that list – and some hope and light hidden away in there. And obviously I read many other things, but those are the books that I thought and still think are most important to me. To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season.

Hail storm

Goodbye

It was the worst hail I’ve seen and when it was over, water was coming through the ceilings in five rooms of our house, there was structural damage in the attic, and a couple of windows broken (including a small section of a stained glass window). Both cars were trashed, the garden destroyed (except the roses did okay), trees stripped, bird bath broken, and even the charcoal grill was bent. And I keep finding other things.


Front walk in April

Goodbye old Campry. I think you’re totaled. With the back seat out and my feet in the trunk I’ve slept in that good old car in TX, CO, WY, NM, AZ, KS, and OK. It was always a good feeling to get back to a trailhead after 5 or 10 days on the trail and know the car would start right up, and so it did, every time. I loved the anonymity of it. David used the Camry to go out – it was the car he learned to drive in. Really, that Camry/Campry was the best car I ever had.


Similar view of front walk in June

Leslie and I were supposed to go to Cali tomorrow for David’s Birthday and Father’s Day. She’s going and I’m staying here in case of rain and to interact with contractors face to face. Leslie can do her work with contractors, etc. on the phone (she’s a force to be reckoned with) in Cali as well as Dallas.


I keep thinking about seeing people on the news standing in front of their completely destroyed house saying, “We’re alive.” It’s not like that, but it’s not fun. Friday: just got word that both cars are totaled.

Thoughts on budget travel in San Francisco

“I can’t believe it’s a real place” (my friend, Jun).

Arrival: If you’re staying downtown you can take BART from the airport inbound to Powell or Montgomery Station. BART maps linked below – cheap and very easy, especially if you keep asking BART staff (whose helpfulness varies).   http://www.bart.gov/stations/index.aspxhttp://www.bart.gov/stations/index.aspx. It’s a 20 minute walk with luggage from Powell to the Grant Plaza Hotel and ~15 minutes to the Union Square area where many hotels are.
Noe at Market near David’s house


Transportation:MUNI (bus and train) is easy to use. There are free maps in hotels and stands around the city, especially Union Square – some maps have bus #s noted; some do not. SF Municipal Transportation Agency maps are linked below: http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mmaps/official.htm (maps have improved). To use MUNI buses or trains, figure out where you are and where you want to go, then find the bus #s that go to both places. There is also a map in many bus stops (but not at the vaguely marked/painted on curb stops) and people tend to be helpful. Be sure to get a transfer as these give you unlimited rides for 2-4 hours. Adult fare = $2 ($.75 for seniors – WooHoo!) – no change made, so carry some dollar bills and quarters.
F-line streetcar – restored and on the track. Note MUNI sign 


Cable Cars cost $6 one-way, no transfer, and there is often a significant wait to get on one. The F Line uses street cars from the 1930s-1950s from Castro to Fisherman’s Wharf/Pier 39 along Market Street.

There is a City Pass that gives you unlimited rides on everything but BART: http://www.citypass.com/ + admission to assorted attractions. Be sure to click “price details” to see the less expensive 7 day pass that includes cable cars and MUNI without added attractions (neither pass includes Alcatraz).

Public transportation to:
Berkeley:MUNI (train or bus to BART station): http://visitors.berkeley.edu/gethere/public_transit.shtml(very helpful web page) OR take BART outbound toward Pittsburg/Bay Point and get off at Rockridge and walk a block to catch #49 bus Counter-clockwise for a nice ride through Berkeley and get off at Telegraph at UC Berkeley Sproul Plaza (where Free Speech Movement was born). 
  
Point Reyes Natl. Seashore: Golden Gate 70 or 80 bus to San Rafael Transit Center, change to West Marin Stage 68 (runs 4xday – check for seasonal changes). Also goes to Samuel Taylor State Park (Thanks to Yaguri, FAQ #246).
In front of the Star Grocery in Berkeley – happy days sitting on this bench 


Walking:“Nobody ever got to the end of a day in San Francisco and said, ‘I wish I’d walked more’” (Leslie). Even with easy public transportation, you’ll still walk your legs off, so take some ibuprofen, and do it again tomorrow. SF is one of the great walking cities of the world, except there is a lot of up and down.

Car: Expensive to rent at airport – save 30-40% renting elsewhere, BUT, parking is a real challenge and expensive. Many hotels charge guests for parking (>$20/day). We’ve never rented one and never felt the need. Pay attention to how wheels are turned with parked cars and do the same or get a ticket.

Weather: It’s colder than you think and the weather changes from hour to hour and neighborhood to neighborhood. Take at least a fleece and long-sleeve shirt; maybe add a parka or windbreaker if you’re walking across Golden Gate Bridge. A daypack for the fleece, water, etc. is a good idea. And an umbrella. 

Things to do in SF

New Moon Cafe in Chinatown

Chinatown: The totally tourist Chinatown is all along Grant Avenue until you get to Broadway (near North Beach). The Chinatown where Chinese people shop and eat is a block away, along Stockton to Broadway. Many markets, herbalists, tea shops, cheap dim sum places, cafes, etc. – a lively street scene, many old people. New Moon restaurant at 1247 Stockton for excellent duck and pork. New Chinatown is in Inner Richmond on Clement Street from about 4th or 5th Street to short of Presidio. Get there via the 2 bus from downtown (Sutter Street) or take 38 or 38L anywhere along Geary, get off at 6th and walk a couple of blocks to your right. Not as congested as Stockton, not as many old people, several markets, many cafes (Chinese, Thai, Burmese). Look for places that are crowded. Good Luck Dim Sum is very popular (3 pieces most things for $1.60!) – at 736 Clement. One of SF’s best used bookstores is in New Chinatown: Green Apple at 506 Clement (http://www.greenapplebooks.com/). I go to bookstores pretty much everywhere I go and this is one of the best anywhere.


Japantown is a quiet area with a quiet mall between Laguna and Fillmore (via 38 or 38L bus). There are 15-20 restaurants in the mall, some little food courts, gift shops, several $1.50 stores with Japanese merchandise, and clean restrooms.  
I love San Francisco


Ocean: I like to take the 38 or 38L to the end of the line at Point Lobos. Ask the driver if she/he is going to Point Lobos as some go a different way and I have no idea why or which one. When you get to the end of the line, walk back to the big intersection, cross street and you’ll find a well-marked paved walkway (take the lower branch) that takes you along bluffs overlooking the ocean. After a mile or so, you’ll find trails going down to small beaches as well as trails going up some higher bluffs over the ocean. See SF Bay Guardian for listing of beaches http://www.sfbg.com/index.php.

Golden Gate Park: An amazing (huge) place with something for everyone. A number of buses go to or through the park (see map). Haight Street deadends into the park (at Stanyon). There is a good Whole Foods right there (salad bar, restrooms, etc.) and Amoeba Records is across the street at Stanyon and Haight. It’s a nice outing to walk along Haight and on into the park. At the entrance to the park there are street people hanging out, but once you walk past them and through the tunnel, the scene is very nice.

North Beachisn’t a beach, but there is a lot of hip history here: Washington Square, Café Trieste, City Lights Books, Vesuvio (http://www.vesuvio.com/index2.html)… also many Italian restaurants, markets, bakeries, coffee shops, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Beach,_San_Francisco
Singer in front of the Castro Theater

The Castro is a friendly, vibrant neighborhood with lots of markets, bars, clothing stores (in one of which, the owner doesn’t wear any clothes), cafes, coffee shops (Spikes on 19th Street, ¼ block off Castro is recommended). Nice little Tibetan store across the street from Spikes. The 24 bus goes along Castro Street and the F Line (restored streetcars) goes to the corner of Castro and Market. It’s interesting to sit for awhile at the blocked off area at Castro and Market. The naked guys bring a towel to sit on and if you decide to take your clothes off, be sure to sit on a shirt or something. San Francisco!

Noe Valley: is an upscale (but not hyper-rich) neighborhood over the hill from Castro. Take 24 bus to 24th Street – hanging baskets, cafes, shops (check out Qoio at 4068 24th St. – the garden is wonderful). Baby strollers and golden retrievers everywhere. Take 48 bus from stops along 24th to Mission.

The Mission is predominantly Hispanic. Center of area is the 24th Street BART Station. Go any which way. Lots to see in this sometimes gritty neighborhood – cafes, markets, people. Different Mission areas are described in SFGate.
Beach, Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. Get there on 38 bus


Pier 39 is like an upscale Galveston waterfront. Sooner or later everybody goes and if the line is short, why not take the cable car ($6 one-way). Can also get there on F Line streetcars for $2 including transfer good for several hours.

The Tenderloin (a few blocks from Union Square) remains a rough place, but it’s where Shalimar is, home of the best chicken tikka masala anywhere imo (532 Jones St. (between O’Farrell & Geary – via 38 or 38L). Some hotels supposedly in Union Square are actually in the Tenderloin. Avoid the deep Tenderloin at night, though.

Union Square: Lots of upscale shopping, Cooks will love the Williams-Sonoma flagship store (the only place I’ve been – several times – my exciting life). 38 and 38L stop here.

Farmer’s markets:  See http://togetherinfood.wordpress.com/s-f-farmers-markets-the-full-list/ for listing – soooo much nicer than what’s in Dallas, groan. Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market (Embarcadero) is big, inside and out, artisanal, and more (Tu, Th, Sat). Get there via F streetcar running along Market Street.

Food: Some of the best food in the world is in SF. We usually buy stuff in grocery stores, take out places, street vendors, and the like, so can’t recommend anywhere for a fabulous meal (it’s all fabulous to us). If you want to know what artisan baking is about, check out Tartine, Semifreddi’s, or Acme (the latter two are found in several grocery stores as well as their own shops). I always bring home a loaf of Semifreddi’s rustic sourdough. Bleeding Safeway has better bread than all but a handful of bakeries in Dallas.

Coffee shops:There are many good coffee shops in SF – many locally-owned. Blue Bottle (several locations) is reputed to be the best and it is excellent.
On Noe Street – basic San Francisco


Houses, buildings, and gardens:Unbelievable. Everywhere you look there are incredible buildings and houses. The detail! Older neighborhoods have beautiful (often small) gardens. Get off the bus, walk around. What a place. Berkeley has even more incredible gardens.

Homelessness: The Bay area has a huge homeless population, especially in the Tenderloin. Many are mentally ill and a few are intrusive. Generally speaking, interactions are polite.

Other things to do: There is so much happening in the Bay area that it’s sometimes difficult to find local events (too much information!). Add the month or even the date to Google searches and keep looking. You’ll be rewarded with things like a Himalayan festival, a pagan parade, a huge marathon where many people are in costume and some wear nothing at all, an Asian festival, leather parties, psytrance street events, great farmers markets (not like Dallas, for sure), and on and on. The below resources will help in your search.

Resources:
SF Bay Guardian http://www.sfbg.com/index.php See Guides – you’re not in Kansas anymore! Also check Best of the Bay.
SFGate http://www.sfgate.com/ See Travel section with neighborhood guides, etc. (http://www.sfgate.com/neighborhoods/) Also, there is an excellent Bay Area Best hikes, wildlife, etc. at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/08/SPG8VOH5ST1.DTL&type=travelbayarea
Fun and Cheap SF: http://sf.funcheap.com/
BART (under/above ground train from one end of SF to another): http://www.bart.gov/stations/index.aspxhttp://www.bart.gov/stations/index.aspx.
MUNI (bus and related trains): : http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mmaps/official.htm
All sorts of transpo (including ferries) to all sorts of places: http://tripplanner.transit.511.org/mtc/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en
Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Forum USA branch http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forum.jspa?forumID=26&keywordid=-1. Some of my favorites:
38 and 39 – Miss Ariel’s thoughts of travel to SF
157 – Hostels
170 – General info, comprehensive
176 – Napa and Sonoma
182 – Drive Seattle to San Diego, a tour de force by Williesnout
203 – LA to SF by public transpo
208 – SFB best outdoors
Residents would rather you say the city or San Francisco, not San Fran or Frisco.

Backpacking food

Keep it simple: freezer bag cooking, everything dehydrated, super cat stove…


Super cat stove and windscreen at left; meal at right

Freezer bag cooking means that you carry most dehydrated food in single portions, each one in a quart freezer-bag (regular baggies are too flimsy). It’s just a matter of boiling water, pouring it carefully into the bag, adding a little olive oil (from your little plastic bottle), and then putting the carefully sealed bag into a “cozy” (I use an insulated bag from a dollar store) for 5-10 minutes. It’s all pre-measured, there are no bowls or pans to clean, and it’s all very light. The freezer bag cooking site is at http://www.trailcooking.com/ and includes good info on dehydration. I use a Nesco 5-7 tray dehydrator (http://www.nesco.com/products/Dehydrators/). Dehydrating at home means overall better healthier food, and over time saves money.


The super cat stove is a cat food can with specific-size holes punched at measured intervals. Denatured alcohol from the hardware store is the fuel (I carry mine in two small Gator-Ade bottles). My windscreen is strips from a aluminum turkey pan from the dollar store. It takes about 30 ml alcohol to boil 2 cups of water. Instructions are at http://zenstoves.net/LowPressure.htm (have a look around Zen Stoves site – lots of good info). It is important to not use the super cat on top of duff or other flammable material, AND general burn bans apply to the super cat.

Breakfast staples include freeze-dried scrambled eggs (the only such pre-packaged trail food I carry) with pita bread and cheese. I put the eggs into freezer bags at home and divide 2 packages into 3 freezer bags (with some of my dehy jalapenos or salsa). I also carry oatmeal in freezer bags tarted up with milk, sugar, cinnamon, dried fruit, etc. Some days I just have an energy bar + hot chocolate. I’ve begun having some protein drink (see below) with breakfast. 

In the Wind Rivers – can you feel it. Stove with pan left front

Lunch and snacks are quick and include trail mix, energy bars, almonds, and half a Snickers candy bar. There are many excellent dried fruits and berries available in bulk at several stores, and these are good along the way, as is jerky.


Dinner includes (everything dehydrated) marinara with hamburger and angel hair pasta (all pasta is angel hair b/c easiest to dehydrate), chili with burger and pasta, mashed potatoes (Idahoan brand – so good!) with cheese, various dried sauces such as Alfredo and chipotle cream (when pre-measuring, add dry milk if milk needed) with pasta, tom kha with chicken (get soup mix + dry coconut milk and serve with instant rice or pasta) (dehy chicken [use canned to dehy] takes >10 minutes to rehy in a cozy). I bring cheese for half my dinners and have found that pepper jack lasts at least 2 weeks in the mountains. I add EV olive oil to almost everything for taste and >calories (carried in a small plastic bottle from REI). A wide variety of freeze-dried vegetables are now available in bulk from various stores – I don’t eat much of these as I like to take in lots of calories, protein, and carbs when backpacking.

Bread: I used to bring soft tortillas, but now I use bags of pita bread chips or something similar (such as flat bread) as they are lighter and more varied – I expel the air in the bag via a pin hole, bash them up some to make a smaller package, and put scotch tape over the pin hole. I also take smaller (not the smallest though) bags of Doritos, Fritos, etc. and treat them the same as the pita chips.

Pasta with onions, peppers, olives, chicken, etc. All dehydrated at home

Prepared trail meals: REI, Campmor, and retail stores sell prepared meals from brands like Backpacker’s Pantry, Mountain House, and Richmoor. Few people rave about these, though generally, they’re okay. Two-person meals are the best deal. It’s a good idea to re-package them in freezer bags to save space and decrease trash to carry out. An internet source (real people, in Austin) that gets good reviews is Packit Gourmet: http://www.packitgourmet.com/  Packit Gourmet has some good pointers on their website.


Protein drink: I use Walmart brand whey-based protein drink as part of my work-out regimen at home and have begun taking some, mixed with dry milk, when I’m backpacking. I mix up ~500ml (with cold lake/river water) every day, have a little with breakfast, and the rest mid to late morning. This seems very helpful to maintaining my strength and energy along the way.

Coffee: Starbucks instant coffee packets are the best, though there are now some pretty good packets from other makers. Hot chocolate is always good.

Other: A package of cooked bacon pieces goes well with several things. Spam comes in single-serve packs and ain’t bad (nor very good). Olives and similar foods can be well-rinsed and dehydrated, as can fresh basil, jalapenos, salsa, etc. I chew several sticks of Doublemint gum along the trail every day. Gum is essential in the desert. 

Sources of information:
Freezer Bag Cooking http://www.trailcooking.com/
And Google, of course.

Rosary, women, my generation, it’s the economy, trance…


We were moving her from the wheelchair to the table where the procedure would be done. He was doing most of the lifting and I was on the other side of the table just kind of stabilizing things. I looked down, past his ageing head bent over his wife and I saw her face, like so many other faces I’ve seen – people who are dying, gaunt, the bones in ever sharper definition, and her eyes staring as we eased her back on the table.
Rosary from Nora


She said she finds herself saying the Rosary she learned in her childhood in an orphanage. I asked her if she would like a rosary now and she said yes. I asked a friend where I could find one, and she had one made and brought it over the next day. Very beautiful. I think I’d like one too.
__________
I was thinking about an ancient gender role that I’m sure most will agree is very, very far out
“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopus, and Mary Magdalene.” (John 19:25) And it’s still true today, that women are so often there at our comings and goings – the midwife, the L&D RNs; and at the end, nurses, whether in acute care or hospice. Now, even a lot of the chaplains are women. Of course there are men there too, but have a look: women are doing most of the heavy lifting. Honor and Glory.
__________
CK and Melvin at Follow Your Bliss

In my life I’ve seen and played some small parts in the most amazing generation in the history of the world. We brought you civil rights, rock & roll (the real thing, not Frankie Avalon), the youth movement, the sexual revolution, the consciousness revolution, women’s liberation, hospice, environmental consciousness, and gay rights. We fought and died in foreign places. We saw the Kennedys and Martin Luther King gunned down. We were beat down and got the fuck back up in Mississippi, the Stonewall Riots, Chicago, Kent State, LA, and so on. We turned on and worked harder to change the world. Some died and some went to prison for their beliefs. We actually redefined sex roles frozen for millennia. And it’s still happening now, in the third generation of this generation.


Of course there’s a huge amount to be done – many, many lifetimes worth, but what a start!
__________
The Welcome Lights on the arbor at our front sidewalk

The Morning News published this letter from me: There is an endless stream of anybody-but-Obama conservatives saying the real issue (other than who marries whom) is the economy and that’s what we should be talking about. Okay. Let’s talk about the role of banks running hog-wild through this nation’s economy in how we got to this place. Let’s talk about JPMorgan Chase as the reputed best of the lot and their efforts to further deregulation. Let’s talk about the role Bush and Cheney played in getting us to this place. Let’s talk about increasing student loan rates and Congress slashing everything but loopholes for the rich. Let’s talk about the incessant truculent whining of the super-wealthy and their hunger to have more, more, more while the middle and working classes do most of the real work and pay a disproportionate share of taxes. Yes, let’s talk about the economy.

__________
An email to Jeff: M, one of the people involved in the scene in Austin put on his first psytrance park party. He asked several people, including me to help and we did. I baked some excellent cookies and brought the gazebo and a few decos. L, M’s brother drove to Dallas from Mount Pleasant and then I drove us to Austin.
It was good: good music (actually outstanding music), good vibes, nice people, good food. About 50 people came. There was a little bit of an underground vibe to the whole thing. For me it was momentary dancing and mostly hanging out, getting to know people I’d met before and meeting some new people, just a very nice time, and like I said, it was M’s first time to put a party on. It’s kind of like we were a little crew. We’re also putting on a pot-luck at Embodied Awakening.
Grosbeak in our back yard – an unusual occurance

Everyone is looking forward to Embodied Awakening in late June. Soooo many good things happening there. It’s from Atrium Obscurum, the people I’ve been working with; same-as Deep in the Heart of Trances. I hope you guys are coming. Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky…

__________

I can see it, clear as day!

In some important respects, my adult life has just been bookended with President Obama’s coming out today in support of equal rights. A happy day! In 1964, when this song came out, I was 20 years old, wandering, trying to figure it all out, learning about new things, like rock-climbing, civil rights, war, being a man. In 1966 I went to war, in 1967 I came home, in 1968, Chicago… The Whole World is Watching! What a time I’ve lived in!


When the Ship Comes In

CK at DMZ, 1967

Oh the time will come up
When the winds will stop
And the breeze will cease to be breathin’
Like the stillness in the wind
‘Fore the hurricane begins
The hours when the ship comes in.

And the seas will split
And the ship will hit
And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking
Then the tide will sound
And the wind will pound
And the morning will be breaking.

Oh the fishes will laugh
As they swim out of the path
And the seagulls they’ll be smiling
And the rocks on the sand
Will proudly stand
The hour that the ship comes in.

And the words that are used
For to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they’re spoken
For the chains of the sea
Will have busted in the night
And will be buried at the bottom of the ocean.

A song will lift
As the mainsail shifts
And the boat drifts on to the shoreline
And the sun will respect
Every face on the deck
The hour that the ship comes in.

DK and CK at the Pacific Ocean, 2011


Then the sands will roll
Out a carpet of gold
For your weary toes to be a-touchin’
And the ship’s wise men
Will remind you once again
That the whole wide world is watchin’.

Oh the foes will rise
With the sleep in their eyes
And they’ll jerk from their beds and think they’re dreamin’
But they’ll pinch themselves and squeal
And know that it’s for real
The hour that the ship comes in.


Then they’ll raise their hands
Sayin’ we’ll meet all your demands
But we’ll shout from the bow your days are numbered
And like Pharaoh’s tribe
They’ll be drownded in the tide
And like Goliath, they’ll be conquered.

We’re not done yet, but today is a great day in the march toward freedom in America.

Backpacking to take list

David at Big Bend

What I carry for ~10 days, plus food. Totals about 40 pounds. Obviously I’m thinking about the next trek.

Need?
Rope?
Crampons?
Ice axe?

Clothing (Permethrin spray every year)
1 T shirt REI
1 Long Sleeve Shirt (Synthetic)
1 Thermal long underwear top and bottom
1 Cotton underwear
1 Trousers
1 Fleece
1 Shade hat 
1 Gloves (Wool/Synthetic)
1 Watch Cap (fleece or wool)
1 pair Socks (Wool/Synthetic)
1 Boots
1 pair gaiters
1 Rain Jacket & Pants
1 Down Jacket & stuff sack

Wind River Mountains: Titcomb Basin

Extra clothes (socks, underwear, lg underwear)

Crocs for camp and crossing rivers
Shelter
Tent – stakes, poles
Tent footprint

Sleep
Sleeping Bag
Sleeping Pad
Tyvek

Kitchen
Stove (cat food can – photo below)
Fuel Canisters x2 with 250 ml alcohol each
Cozy
Heat tabs and can
Pot/Bowl/Cup
Spoon (Lexan)
Foil Windscreen
Ziplock (x1 Gallon size for trash)
Bic lighter (mini)
Cooking tarp, stakes, rope
Bear vault
Packing
Pack
Rain cover
Pack Liner (Trash Bag)
CK at bottom Twins Glacier after a long glissade

Stuff sack for clothing

Stuff sack for food
Stuff sack for essentials
ID, Cash, Visa and Permit(s) holder
Webbing/Lashing/Bungee
Ziplocks (x4 quart and x1 gallon)
Essentials
Trekking poles
Knife
Batteries
Fire – Bic & matches
Ice ax
Light (Headlamp, Photon)
Whistle
Nylon Cord (50’)
Bear Canister
Duct Tape
DEET – 100%
Sun Screen
Sun Glasses
Notebook & pens
Camera with new batteries
Navigation
Map
Compass (adjustable declination)
Watch
Grand Canyon: 3/4 way down, storm coming

Spot

Hydration
2L Reservoir (x1) – Platypus
1-2 1L Gatorade bottle (if desert)
1L Nalgene?
Water Purification (Katdyn pump, chemicals)
First Aid/meds
Rx meds
Sleep
Fiber
Cox-2s, ibu
ABX cream
Bandaids
Moleskin
TAC cream
ACE
Tweezers
Suture set
Hygiene
Hand Sanitizer – Repackaged
Chapstick
Paper towel 2/day
Toilet Paper, towelettes, Vaseline, hand sanitizer, trowel in Ziplock
Tooth Brush
Kitchen: seat, super cat stove, alcohol, cozy, etc. 

Tooth Paste

Floss
Car
Wood mini-platform
Pillows, big and small
Sleeping bag
Foam pad
Flashlight
Fan
Light screen
Map/Atlas
Books
Ice chest
Ice
Coffee
Chair
Phone charger, phone
Change of clothes x 2
Hand Sanitizer
Little notebook, pens

“Butterflies!” “Lots of butterflies!”

On a still evening the fragrance is intense in our front yard, the porch, and even into the house. The fragrance comes mostly from Confederate jasmine and the roses Buff Beauty (1939 – year of introduction) and Maggie (unknown)..

4/19. I’ve been watching for fireflies and tonight was the first night they were out around our house.

4/20. A mother and child about 3-4 years old were walking by the house. The child exclaimed “Butterflies!” His mom responded, “Lots of butterflies!”


Photo: The walk up to our house. The rose on the arbor is New Dawn (1930) and there in another rose with smaller blooms in the right of the photo – Marie Pavie (1888). Blue and white flowers are larkspur, an old-fashioned annual that reseeds every year.

4/22. I was sitting on the front porch and a blue jay landed on the edge of the porch, then quickly flew away. A few minutes later I saw the first hummingbird I’ve seen this year. Aha! I put a wide shallow container of water at the edge of the porch. That will be the 4thof the sources of water we maintain for birds.

I was watching a television program called Children’s Med. It’s about Children’s Medical Center in Dallas; it’s about life and death and things that are part of those: fear, hope, agony, joy, waiting, the most meticulous work imaginable, and so on. And the staff – some heavy-hitters, people spending years on the edge, people with vast knowledge, people who push the clinical envelope all the way past the known frontiers, people of mercy and compassion… One of the nurses said, “I can’t think of a higher purpose.” It amazes me that I’ve worked with some of those people and I’ve taught some of them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw6pJHktST8&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL4DD2FD95512F136C;

Sending time with Leslie (today we tried Colonel Kababz – chicken tika masala, an eggplant dish, naan chicken biryani, onion, potato pastry all for $8); working in the yard; baking cookies, bread, a most amazing flourless chocolate cake; looking to the mountains, to San Francisco, to dancing in the forest. 


Photo: A nice front porch to sit on, seeing (through the roses and other foliage) our quiet street. I made both the tables >40 years ago, the blue and white ceramic incense burner we bought in Saigon; the big pot once held “100 year-old” eggs; there’s a kaffir lime tree, fossils, a split rock from the incredible Wind River Mountains, a small Burmese temple gong…

In the garden; retirement

(From email to S) When you get out of your car, the plant with large leaves on your left is Swiss chard, going to seed. The tall plants with airy foliage and delicate white flowers are cilantro going to seed. Down lower, the plant with purplish flowers is sage. On your right, the plant with grayish foliage and many small flower spires is old-fashioned lavender. The tall plants with airy foliage and spires of mostly blue, and a few white or pink spires are larkspur – an old-fashioned annual that reseeds itself every year. That’s one place on the median strip. Photo: Passiflora (in back garden)

Over the past two weeks, out front, I‘ve planted tomatoes (Big Bush and Big Bush Early Girl) and peppers (serrano and jalapeno); divided and transplanted the big clump of lemon grass, some garlic, rosemary, Mexican tarragon; and planted some sweet alyssum. I’ve been working on the soil (the most important part) for years. The Texas mountain laurel is at the end of its spectacular bloom and so is the rosemary; the wood sorrel (oxalis) is an undulating carpet of little pink flowers on mounds of leaves like clover; and some of the roses are blooming (Katy Road Pink, Maggie, Archduke Charles, Marie Pavie, Cecile Brunner, and Buff Beauty), as are lavender, sage, and most of the iris. The larkspur is spectacular.
The landscaping crews call our house “la casa de las rosas.” All of the roses in the front yard are old garden roses; for example, Cecile Brunner (the sweetheart rose) was introduced in 1881, Old Blush in 1752, Archduke Charles sometime before 1837, and so on. Photo (below): Front yard, with Katy Road Pink blooming in foreground
In the back, I’ve cleared a densely overgrown area of the garden and planted pole beans, cantaloupe, basil, cilantro, tomato, pepper,

and for flowers, so far, I’ve planted stock, zinnia, and moonflower. All of this against a backdrop of a magnificent growth of passiflora in full bloom. The rest of the back garden is pretty overgrown, with several peach trees (need to thin the fruit), several roses blooming (Tiffany, Fragrant Cloud, a coral-colored rose, Lady Banks, Marie Pavie, and Zepherine Drouhin – my favorite), herbs growing very well (rosemary, oregano, savory, garlic, and several others), San Pedro growing slowly, and there is a great stand of peach-colored bearded iris.
Retirement
The main things happening are Leslie and I just hanging out and traveling together (Asia and Cali). I’m backpacking, baking, gardening, and increasingly involved in the local psytrance scene. But the main thing is being with Leslie.
A basic day
  • Coffee together in bed, talking, watching the birds and Chubby the squirrel, I get a leg rub, we plan our day.
  • To the gym – 30 minutes all-together with 20 minutes on the Stairmaster, getting ready for a trek in the Winds. 45 pushups, this and that machines.
  • Work in the garden – major projects going on. I’m clearing and digging an area that’s been overgrown for years. I’ll grow beans, cantaloupe, squash, and basil in this new area; roses, other flowers, peaches, garlic, herbs, tomatoes, and peppers are growing elsewhere.
  • Meanwhile, Leslie is working on David’s retirement plans.
  • To lunch with Leslie – Aw Shucks to split a catfish basket.
  • 15 minute nap
  • Then Leslie lies down for a back and leg rub, then a nap.
  • Garden
  • Internet
  • Working on some bread – two “no-knead” country loaves, one with pepper jack cheese and one plain. I’ll bake tomorrow.
  • Dinner with Leslie
  • Hanging out, partly with Leslie, partly alone – internet, looking at maps (plotting out routes in the Wind Rivers), reading
Other days/other things: I go to Bible study almost every week and church school some Sundays. Leslie spends a lot of time working on the business parts of our life and is still usually involved in helping someone else. She and I have found so many great places to eat, like Ban Cuon Thang Long, Pho Bang, IndoPak Café, First Chinese BBQ, and of course, Central Market, so we have lunch out together almost every day, though about once/week we each have lunch with a friend. Most weeks I have dinner with my brothers, usually at El Taquito. Photo (above): Back garden. Pink roses are Tiffany, red roses in back are Zepherine Drouhin, red roses at left front are actually coral-colored and I don’t know the name, iris to the left, and the small flowers in lower left corner are native columbine. Photo below taken from street in front of our house. Blue spires are larkspur, white flowers are iris, I don’t know the name of the yellow flowers.
Planning: travel to Cali to be with David, maybe elsewhere too, like Boston, maybe Nepal; trance events (yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky); backpacking, including a short hike in the Sangre de Cristos and a 10-11 day trek on the Glacier Trail in the Wind Rivers –

“an epic journey” according to my guidebook.