Thanksgiving Perambulation

Hold on to your butts.  This is a long one.

I had some time off for the Thanksgiving holiday, whether I wanted it or not.  Being that the four day weekend wasn’t quite long enough to drive the 2200 miles to Ohio and back, I instead took the time for a mini road trip.  I had wanted to head back out to Joshua Tree, if nothing else to see what it looked like when it wasn’t gloomy and raining all day, had been meaning to get up to San Francisco to visit some friends for a while, and there was a green spot on the map between SanFran and LA called Pinnacles National Monument that looked interesting.

Joshua Tree, Take Two

I was still having trouble with my camera after it’s encounter with an unforgiving boulder.  To make a boring story short, by the time I was on the trail for this trip, it was working up to a point.  The shutter would only close if I kept the focal length all the way out at 18mm, so no zooming in.  Also, the aperture kept misbehaving, I think opening slightly larger than it was supposed to.  So I kept having to compensate for that.  Regardless, it was doing it’s job well enough to take with me.  I was really feeling the limitation of being stuck at 18mm, but still.

I had a late start, again.  I’ve found that unless I wake up less than 10 miles from a given trail head, it’s all but impossible for me to actually get the on trail any earlier than 11:00am, no matter how early I wake up.  This day was no different, so I once again had precious little daylight to work with.  I headed again for the Boy Scout Trail, this time starting from the northern terminus.  I found that the north and south legs of the Boy Scout Trail go through fairly different kinds of country.  While the southern section sped through wide open low lands of Joshua Trees and those freaky Globolink plants, the north section follows a wash or two and then winds between and over craggy peaks.  Switchbacks and cairns were the order of the day.

I think it was about 2 o’clock that I came to an unexpected fork in the trail.  There was a sign that said “Big Pine Trail” with an arrow on it.  ‘Seemed as good a destination as any.

Sure enough, after a few miles, there was a large, scragly, and apparently dead pine looking very out of place.

After taking the above photo, I took a look around and decided that the peak there to the left would be a good place to watch the sunset from.

With the sun below the horizon, the temperature starting falling with it, so I figured it was best to start making tracks back to the car.

Once the light was gone completely, the camera went back in the pack and the flashlight came out.  I had a nice night hike back through the peaks and hills.  The trail was all but impossible to make out at times, but there were enough cairns for the most part.  There was one section where the trail petered out and I spent a disconcerting twenty minutes walking widening circles until I finally found where it picked back up, but all in all good times.

I found the Cherokee right where I left it and headed north, getting into San Francisco the next morning.  I decided to take a spin around on my bike to loosen the joints, ending up on the Embarcadero.  Along the way, I tried to fix my camera.  I was unsuccessful.  Whereas before, the lens worked basically as it was supposed to with some limitations, there were now parts bent at noticeable angles and I could here bits and pieces rattling inside.  On the upside, the photos I was taking had a cool tilt-lens / lensbaby thing going on.

The Palace of Fine Arts

Is it bad that I recognized this not a historic landmark and center for the arts but as where they filmed a scene from The Rock?

Ah yes, topography of strife and failure. I remember this.

Joints sufficiently loosened, I met up with some friends.  We wound up wandering around Chinatown and then at a bar discussing… units of measurement.  You had to be there.

A pandaball. Because, why not?

I spent much of the next day traipsing about the 7 by 7 looking for a camera shop that could sell me a used replacement lens at a reasonable price.  Nobody had what I was looking for.  So instead, I beat the crap out of the one I had until it started working better.

Working Better

Looking West down Bush Street

Having had my fill of cityscapes, I got in the Cherokee and headed south to Pinnacles National Monument, about a 2 1/2 hour drive.  Pinnacles has some 35 miles of hiking trails, and many, many places where you can fall to your death if you’re not careful.  My kind of place.

I found a spot to bed down for the night about two miles form the park gate, so I go an early start, finding my way onto the North Wilderness Trail by about 8:30.

The North Wilderness Trail

After an elevation gain of about 1500 feet, I eventually wound up in the High Peaks area.

That tree in the upper, upper right is my hero.

Regretably, what goes up must come down, myself included.  It was Sunday and I had work in the morning, so it was time to get home and get some rest.

I took the coastal route back toward LA, and as luck would have it, I was passing by a small seaside town, the sun was setting, and I was hungry all at the same time.

It never gets old.

After having a pretty righteous California Burger at Zorro’s Cafe and Cantina, I headed off back towards the grind.