all the places we didn't go

Ahoy,

The year began so earnestly with a rat race! For the year of the rat, we finally signed up for the Firecracker race in Chinatown. I had been wanting to do it for years but we were always gone. It was a great route, that started and ended to drumbeats in Chinatown. We went through Elysian Park for some great views and coincidentally past where we went for disc golf and lost all our discs. I would absolutely do it again. We ran into friends that were trying to collect all the medallions and they were more than 8 years in! 

We went to Chicago for CNY and it was just as cold as Sneezy feared it would be. Very stark contrast from CNY in LA the weekend before. It was very comfortably settled in the 70s for our run then. 

We continued what would hopefully be an annual tradition of cross country skiing with friends in Seattle. It happened to be the first weekend of pandemic and mayhem in Seattle. We went into Canada for a day at Ski Callaghan. There was no hand sanitizer or Lysol wipes anywhere. It did not hit LA until the following weekend once we returned. That might have been the last weekend Canada was permitting entry.  

We joined some friends for a weekend of camping in Bishop. This was the first weekend of mayhem in LA. The lines at grocery stores were fine on Wednesday, and Thursday was chaos. Our friend had gotten a private campsite at a place that had their own disc golf course. We locked our keys inside the car when we went to disc golf. Sneezy called AAA and they rescued us just in time for him to not freeze his buns off. The guy said he had had to clean up somebody's guts earlier in the day for the coroner, so this was not a bad call. The campground was emptier than usual, the owner said. She had gotten a lot of cancellations. We found some hikes in the area we would not have done on our typical climbing expeditions. We got a bunch of bread from Schat's. Good thing because the shelves would be cleared out in LA. 

On this very ambitious hike, we went so high up the mountain that we found snow. It was 14 miles up to Mt. Wilson Observatory. The wildfires would get right up to the Observatory from all sides later this year. The firefighters would be the heroes and win the battle this year. My knees were so achy after this hike. I would recommend poles.  

I used my bike a lot to get out and see the neighborhood. For some time I was going out once a day for Buy Nothing, stuff for me and others. We went to the beach and saw a lot of beaches. The highlight was watching a group reel in a bat ray and eating seafood at the pier. The teamwork on that was nothing less than impressive. I especially appreciated it since binging Alaska: The Last Frontier all year. It really taught me to appreciate subsistence living and being connected to your food. 

Having gotten a trip to Santa Barbara cancelled early in quarantine, we took a day trip a few months later. We went on a hike that did not afford any views because it was so overcast and foggy that day. Apparently, the views are supposed to be killer. Our favorite taco stand cum batting cage was still open for takeout and we ate it on the beach where we watched a bunch of school kids film what appeared to be a pandemic video for school.

I got on the sourdough train. Sneezy got on the eating sourdough train. 

There was a brief window in September/October when the numbers had gotten low everywhere. Fortunately, we happened to already have flights booked for Seattle. It seemed for a moment our trips to Seattle might have bookended COVID. It was wishful thinking. It was a great camping trip to Lopez Island. If campsites were at half capacity, I did not notice because the island definitely seemed at full capacity. We left just as wildfire season was ramping up. Air quality instantly turned for the worse as soon as we got back to the city. 

The following weekend, we had plans for Chicago. Just at the tail end of summer. I was determined to finish this Little Free Library for my folks' home. 

Our costumes this year to go nowhere: from To All the Boys I Loved Before, part 2. I was Lara Jean Covey as French Toast, and Sneezy was John Ambrose McClaren as Deviled Egg. We did our typical: go to the grocery store, walk around the neighborhood to look at decorations. We saw no other trick or treaters. Spooky. 

My bff had moved to Denver-adjacent over the summer and this was our first trip to visit her. Our first taste of the region, the downtown does not seem lacking, nor does the wilderness. Lots of stuff yet to venture here. 

happy trails,

jt

racing up the trail

Ahoy,

I remember my first conscious view out the airplane window as the plane swept across the landscape of the Western States. It struck me how much it looked like crinkled tissue paper. The grand Rockies and Sierras, breathtaking in pictures from the Earth - the stuff of American folklore and legend, could be described so simply from afar. I'll guess I must have been trying to diminish the grandeur of this fabled and coveted place West of the Mississippi that I did not want to venture. That was over 10 years ago now. 

There was a period during early pandemic when we went on a hike every weekend. We saw a lot of the Angeles Crest because it was close enough and somewhat of a little known secret because there is just so much there. Many of the trails we selected were not very crowded - sometimes we would only encounter one other party. We also were trying to go early enough to beat the crowds and heat. We got to the top of some crinkles of tissue paper. The next time I flew over the landscape, I had a somewhat different perspective. 

Trekking all across the Angeles Crest had made it more familiar to me, and I found myself wanting to trace the trails across the crinkles. I tried to pick out the peaks and draw the lines across to the other peaks. I squinted to look closer for the tree that I hung my jacket on or the critters that scattered upon my step. Was it possible to get to know someone so well?

As sunrise came earlier and earlier we found ourselves less eager to race to the trail. Fires eventually swept across the Crest and we sought respite elsewhere. But early pandemic will be a period of time when we got to know the mountains in our backyard better than we would have otherwise. 

happy trails,

jt