I Like Hike

Let me repeat something from my last entry: I love beating the crap out of my body and I love the recovery process that follows. I like being worn to exhaustion, and then going a little farther. I like returning to home or to camp completely drained, with 5 or more hours of daylight still remaining. I like resting motionless, sprawled on the couch or ground for 45 minutes until I have the energy to eat. And I like eating. Eating constantly for 2 days and still being hungry, my muscles devouring all and demanding more, promising to be stronger and more endurant in the days to come. And I like sleeping, soundly and heavily, so that I can do it all over again ASAP.

As you may have guessed from the title of this entry, the very best way that I have so far discovered to beat the crap out of my body is HIKING. Preferably in some place beautiful and interesting, and with friends and/or brothers. Lately, I have had the opportunity to do just this, several times, in a span of about 2 weeks.

First: Yosemite.
I actually took this picture. Imagine that. It wasn't even hard. Previous posts have shown that I am a crappy photographer, but none of that matters to the mighty Yosemite Valley. This place has more grandeur than a sackful of Alps, and it provided the backdrop to Hike #1. Dan was there with me for the first mile of Hike #1, but his legs gave out after we reached the first scenic overlook.

Like a good brother, he gave me his water, and his blessing to continue without him. Like a bad brother, I took his water and sent him on his way down the mountain alone.

He didn't mind though, since he had already beaten the crap out of his body, and was about to get a jump on the recovery phase.

And I didn't mind because I was greedy for the top -- the top being the overlook of Upper Yosemite Falls, half a mile from the valley floor. The horizontal distance of the hike was about 3 miles. I'm about to do some math here, so bear with me. The middle third of the hike went up and down a bit, but overall was relatively easy and relatively flat. This means basically all the half mile up was contained in two miles of over. Steepness grade = up divided by over = slightly less steep than 250 flights of stairs.

The last third of the hike was almost literally stairs, constructed decades ago from thousands upon thousands of carefully placed rocks, by some insane person or persons. The view from the top, as you might expect, is a bit daunting. Nevertheless, I leapt forth into the abyss, snapping the picture on your right before floating gently to the bottom, suspended by an improvised parachute of my own design.









Second: Joshua Tree.
I struggle to find the words to convey the pure joy that can be tapped from the infinite piles of rocks and boulders at Joshua Tree. Dan and Eric were there too. Ask them, and maybe they can tell you better than I. Climbing and scrambling up and through these piles is without a shadow of a doubt my very favorite thing in the whole world.

The hike at Joshua tree was long and meandering, as we followed our monkey instincts from one tall rock pile to a taller one and a taller one and so on, zigzagging around the desert until we reached the precipice shown above, where we sung Lion King songs.

The hike began roughly here. Do not be fooled by those pretty blue "flowers." Upon closer inspection, you will find that they are not flowers, but giant thorns, and you will realize that you should have guessed as much, because every damned thing in this surprisingly lush desert has giant and painful thorns.


From there we continued through some straightforward uphills,












convenient stairways,









creative upclimbs,









and tiring downclimbs. This last downclimb, starting from the Lion King rock, consisted of a mighty crack, dark and treacherous (but not too treacherous, mom), that took nearly an hour to navigate. One of the most wonderful things about these rock piles at Joshua Tree is that often you find yourself at a seeming dead end, and just before you turn back to seek another route, you look around a corner or over a ledge, and new paths emerge. Sometimes you do have to turn back, or climb up a ways when your ultimate goal is down, but in general, if you are diligent and creative, the rocks seem to provide you with what you need.

Please, if you like climbing or exploring or deserts, visit Joshua Tree. You will not be disappointed.


Third: Palo Verde.
From the humble rooftop of Eric and Mesan's Palo Verde home, Dan points to our lofty goal: the top of blandly named Palo Verde Mountain. Knowing second-hand how easy it is to die in the desert, we went prepared, carrying with us 4 1/2 gallons of water, 1 baggy of rice, 2 pieces of bread, 1 1/2 clif bars, 4 hardboiled eggs, a big can of baked beans, and about 60 almonds and peanuts. Yea, plenty of water, but a little more food would have been nice on our 6 hour excursion into the harsh midday desert.

We began by driving to a water-carved canyon, 2.4 miles from the summit. We strapped on our collective 45 pounds of water, and began our trek into the canyon, its high walls protecting us from the morning sun. We traveled along, wary of the loose rock and fascinated by the power of water, until we came to a pool left by the recent rains.

After Eric explored its depths and found them manageable, we took off our shoes, and carried them and our packs over our heads to keep them dry. We ended up chilly and soaked, but we found that to be useful soon enough, when we emerged from the canyon into the largely shadeless hills of the desert.

We spent a lot of time with our eyes on the ground, searching for geodes and quartz and other cool rocks. The geology is so varied at Palo Verde: red rocks with blue veins, gray rocks with quartz veins, rocks literally rusted red, their high iron content exposed the the oxygen in the air. Porous green rocks and dense gray ones, smooth purple rocks and jagged orange ones. The scenery is not as nice as at Yosemite or Joshua Tree, but the rocks kept our eyes busy while we followed the flat desert washes, occasionally glancing up at our goal to keep us pointed in the right direction.

Aside from a few lightly worn game trails and the random zigzagging washes, there are no trails, so we made up our route as we went. After an hour and a half, we reached the base of the mountain, and began our climb up. These rocks are steeper and looser than the ones at Joshua Tree, and they don't provide the plethora of routes like the ones at Joshua Tree either.

Our first attempt at summiting failed miserably (my fault for insisting on it), and we ended up climbing all the way down from halfway up before starting over again. But, we did find a neat cave where we took a much needed rest, and this picture.


We finally reached the top, and I had camera trouble. Unable to figure out how to delete photos from my nearly full memory stick, I was only able to get this mediocre view from the top.


Still though, it's pretty cool.

Finally, on the hike back, I started to feel weak and stopped to drink more than a quart of water, and eat a few almonds, after which I felt great for the rest of the way. Dan though, got increasingly lethargic and unresponsive, no matter how much I dogged him and forced water on him. He says he might not have made it if not for those beans. He says that big can of desert-heated baked beans is the best meal he's ever had, and it showed. After that pit-stop, he made it back the car no problem.

I should mention that Eric crushed the return hike with no visible difficulty. Props to Eric.

Super long blog post is now finished! I hope you enjoyed! Go hiking! Take plenty of food! Goodnight!

Blog Blackout Ends!

"Huzzah," says blog supporter.



Let me start by apologizing for going so long without an entry. You readers really made blog-writing enjoyable, and I let you down in a big way. I can only imagine how it must have felt for you to wake up each morning and race to your computer with high hopes, only to have them dashed against your monitor, which you found bare of any updates. Day after day passed, and still no word from Ben. As time passed, you must have stopped checking entirely (who could blame you?) and eventually you forgot there even was a blog. But something inside you that had once been full was now empty. Your heart? No. Your soul? No. Your brain? Maybe, but probably something less well defined. Whatever it was, it was gone, and even if you didn't realize it, your life was, on some level, ruined.

For this, I sincerely apologize. I hope that I can make it up to you now and in the days to come.

Let me start (again) by saying that I have been having an excellent time here in the golden/bear state, despite seeing no gold and no bears. Yes, California, our nation's tallest state. After leaving Brock's I shot through Oregon and traversed nearly all of California's 800 mile height in 3 days. I would have taken more time, but I was hurrying toward Eric and Mesan and their tiny desert home in Palo Verde, CA, out near the Arizona border. Until recently I would never have said this, but you may have heard of Palo Verde -- a former UFC champion just died very near there, done in by the unforgiving desert heat on mile 3 of a 4 mile hike. We actually heard the search helicopters a few days before we saw the news.

If you look closely, you can actually see the unforgiving desert heat. If you find yourself here, I hope have plenty of water with you. But enough of deserts and heat and Palo Verde for now. Right now, at this moment, I am in Los Angeles, and that's what I want to talk about.

Los Angeles has proved to be a great town - a great sprawling mess of a great town, made even better no doubt by the awesome house where I'm staying:
The house, like LA, sprawls. It took me half an hour to explore it, and still I'm not totally sure I've seen all the rooms in it. The house belongs to Chris Gorman's dad, who is graciously allowing me to stay here awhile, along with his daughter-in-law's sister Rose. It took a few explanations before Rose started to remember who I am, me being her sister's husband's brother's wife's sister's son. But she's great. She's living here full-time and has been happy to share the house and the house's booze. Tomorrow we might be going on a bike ride to Venice Beach.
Oh, the house is in Old Hollywood, which will make for a decent, but not grueling, 30 mile round trip. Today is the first day I've biked in over a month and I didn't do too well, so we'll see how I fare tomorrow.

The ride today was an attempt to reach Griffith Observatory, just 2 miles from the house. The roads were extremely steep, probably 20% grades or more in places, and after 3/4 miles and half an hour, I reached an unexpected locked gate and turned back. If I hadn't been so physically devastated, I might have tried to find another way in by bike, but instead opted to shower, relax awhile, then drive up later. The observatory, named for the magnificent Welshman Griffith J. Griffith, and its sweeping views of the city, were impressive. I watched the sun set just south of the HOLLYWOOD sign, then saw the planetarium show.

This is not an amazing picture (hence its small size, but you can click it for a larger view if you want) but it's the best I got before my camera batteries died. The vistas were spectacular though, I assure you.

The Observatory exhibits and planetarium show were a nice Astronomy 101 refresher - nothing stellar (ha ha) but definitely worthwhile. I imagine I'll take another bike ride later in the week and hang out up there some more. The way I drove was longer but seemed way less intense.

There's still more I want to say about LA, but this entry is getting long so for now I'll just say Brian Bass is awesome, and so is Mr. Dan -- thanks for visiting. I'm glad you had a good time.

Next entry might be more about LA, or more probably it'll be about hiking, and how I've learned that beating the shit out of my body and then recovering is just about my favorite thing to do.