Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
[Click to View YouTube Video]
God said, one morning:
Pick your ear pods out of your big floppy ears and listen up, Mouse!
I need you to go to the Valley. Get some pics. Come back. Post 'em on the Taco. Think you can do that? I'll take care of everything.
So out the door, to the bus, and into THE FRONT SEAT!
"Yessireegod!"
This is the big deal about living this close (one block) to the YARTS bus stop on 16th at O: If I board here and not at the next stop, the Amtrack depot on 23rd and K, there is the chance--100%, so far--I will be able to claim this seat, thus ensuring the best possible view.
So with no Furthur ado
I suggest you
Accompany me
Further on down the road
Last Saturday
"It beats riding a mule, Katie."
We skip thru the flats, having gone over the ultra-new rail crossing span over the Amtrack tracks, and ascend to Mariposa and then to Midpines Summit.
Dropping down into Midpines, and for a ways beyond, the curves are mellow and no big deal if you travel the posted speed, which is 50 mph thru Midpines, otherwise it’s driver's choice.
As soon as you get to the Yosemite Bug Hostel turnoff, down and left of the main highway, into Bear Creek Cabins and another private residential area, the last exit before the grade, the road gets a mite steeper and the turns turn twistier. It’s important that travelers not use this road (except at their own risk) when the commuters are commuting from Mariposa’s various “bedroom communities” into Yosemite Valley.
Monday thru Friday, from six a.m. to eight a.m., just kiss it off and take a break at one of the countless coffee venues in Mariposa,
like the Pony Espresso--the best; so... (Hwy 140 at 49)
unless you LIKE having your tailgate tickled and you LIKE being blinded by the rear-view and you LIKE to race, showing how skilled you are and how eager you are to get to your job.
These would be drivers from, possibly, Bootjack, Mt. Bullion, Darrah, even Merced. They take no shift from poke-alongs and grampas, rubber-neckers and fire-checkers, let alone the average Touron-in-a-Bago.
What really gets them, though, is to “hang the slow cruise” while going down from the Bug to Briceburg. This is great fun, though not recommended.
Tailgating is for parking lots. But it’s the norm early in the morn, so be advised, Yosemite travelers. You may be on vacation, but they ain't, and they're tanked up on chai tea and ginseng and who-knows-what.
"Wake up, Mouse, you're in Midpines already!" "Wow! Thanks, Mr. G. I'll get my Canon out and go to work."
I hope you got your seat belt on. There's no little tag on the seat ahead of you to remind you, like this, so...And so it goes, into the smoky gasp of the arms of my lovely valley.
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
zBrown, let's face it, I blew it. I could have made that sequence into however-many posts, thus affecting my ST Ratio, first; and it would have swelled our other "numbers," in the second place.
We'll never get rich
By diggin' the Ditch
But we can itch
Like a SOB
My fingers are my best friends.
All nine.
I'll never have a diamond pinky ring nor stay in the Ahwahnee, either.
If I were at the famous hostelry, however, I might still have to lift a finger on occasion, thus.[Click to View YouTube Video]
|
|
neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
|
|
hey there say, ron... thanks for the bob seger share...
and mouse.. thanks for the newest post, here...
say, just heard from ol' feralfae, :)
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
"And so it done went."--Kurtis 'Kut' Touthechaise, Thumbies' lead drummer
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
Merry held me captive with stories this afternoon for a good hour or so. W was out on a call. I got lucky again.
Life in Venice (Young Dan's adopted town--he's from Texas, etc.), in high school, riding a bike everyplace, trips into the mountains, her mom, her brother Steve, and that darn cat, Simon. She's getting long in the tooth.
She told how Simon had a sister kitty, which the SAR cats said they'd adopt and feed along with Simon. The other kitten starved, but not Simon==she thrived. Just the way things go, though.
Simon dotes on Pounce, not that she's spoiled, nah, not when she brings in live mice and plays with 'em. She does. I think she should. W doesn't.
"Stupid mice."
|
|
zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
|
|
Uh, the times they are a changin'?
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
Deja vu.
It's Patrick STU--art thou joining us at the campfire?
You're in the hot seat, PJ.
And he reveals all here. No holds barred and a "hard bold" on the Dihedral.
PJ writes:
The fellowship of the rope is a strong bond. I kept climbing until age 55. Still doing some ski-mountaineering at 65.
I remain in touch w/ the McGregors.
Cowboy Larry pops up once per decade , lastly with a Brazilian lingerie model.
Matt Donohoe has been fishing out of Sitka for years.
I ran into Mathis at the top of Chair one at Badger something like 20 yrs ago, probably more.
I see Gypsy's posts on FB frequently. I think she is in the Carolinas.
That is Randy in the photo on one of the early pitches of the Dihedral. October '73 as I recall. It was unseasonably hot and we ran low on water and were reduced to climbing in the cool mornings and evenings. Holed up under the overhangs in the heat of the day.
We were on track for the slowest ascent ever but managed to catch up with a couple of guys from Colorado at Thanksgiving Ledge where we also found two gallons of water in old Clorox bottles. It was a romp to the top from there. I laid down the haul bag and deposited a pile the size of a cow patty.
Seeking ticks on EC.
Just ask a climber.
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
Flames who are accounted for:
"The Apathy House Three"
Mouse from Merced is from Merced still
the Rev from Greeley Hill
Larry Jones from Richmond
Throwpie from Berkeley
Matt Donohoe from Sitka AK
Millis RIP
Randy Hamm RIP
Dave Bircheff from SoCal
Phil Bircheff of the Eastside
Ron Anderson Flame by adoption from Mound House
zBrown Flame by full-race injection from Chula Vista
Dick Ellsworth, probably still from Alaska, is in his own class.
His Flames status was, in my estimation, “understood but ambiguous,” tacitly "taken for granite," in his case, one might say.
The latest to come in from the cold:
Big STU, good old PJ Stuart, “alive and not far away” and married to Matt’s sister, Mary Ellen.
PJ also wrote:
"I remember afternoons tokin and listening to tunes in your van in those far off magical days. The Sweet Bird of Youth. May I ask about Dolores? Jeff? Captain Clutch Rider?
Mary Ellen's grandfather, Doc Degnan, used to stay in the Hotel Tioga in the 40s. You are part of a long tradition."
And then there are the malingering Yeates, Bullfrog, and Cowboy Larry.
Some Flames Mamas who have shown up or can own up:
First and most4, Gypsy is living in Asheville
Dolores is long-divorced from Mouse; and Sha’ala is long-divorced from Yeates.
Sheila Slattery, Millis’ quondam GF, posted and then ghosted.
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
But the Flames are not the campfire.
No, the Flames, in a way, they are like bear boxes, where memories are locked away, but there is no lock. But that's idle talk.
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
Ari, son of La Poeta, Anastasia.
|
|
zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
|
|
Thanks for that update upstream. I almost feel like I know these folks. A fine group of individuals indeed.
|
|
mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
|
|
Yep, not an all-star cast, but a cast of couch potatoes in some cases.
[Click to View YouTube Video]For the benefit of the Latest State to come in out of the rain, Hawai'i.
What's a little 75 mph gust or two, anyway?
All the same, good luck and Aloha!
Avalanches & earthquakes, but no hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones.He only gives the appearance of a couch potato. Jeff works hard.
|
|
neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
|
|
hey there say, mouse... wow, i love the tahitain dancing...
so happy! i miss doing that... so fun!
did it for the tourist, in south texas... they loved it...
thank you for sharing...
also, just sent you an email...
prayers...
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!