"Alright now so winter is finally here. You’ve been out to your favorite bit of ice a half dozen times and maybe even gotten in a couple of road trips to places that offer more choices than top roping the piss out of some smear off the road near an overpriced gas station. Hopefully more cold weather climbing is on the books but in the meantime what to do? Oddly enough maybe this is the time to go back for some more laps on that plywood training board also known as the ply-ice board. If you don’t have one, build one or poach laps someone else’s. Some may argue why bother when one could just get the real deal in on the weekend but then again getting a few laps in during the week can’t be all that bad, can’t it? Recently I added a few extra boards on mine in between the nice big chunky ones just to break it up a bit. Now I warm up by hooking all the big wood then break it up by hooking every other narrow board all the while keep a close watch on the feet. Up and down is one lap. The ply-ice is 16’ high so starting with 5 laps is a good warm up. Give it a one minute rest then alternate the thick boards with the not so think ones. My ply-ice has a bit of an unfair advantage in that the top 8’ is slightly over hanging and even though it doesn’t look like much after about 30 minutes you begin to notice it. Does this make a difference once out on the frozen stuff? I built this in my backyard in Idaho then left for work in Europe doing what I could to keep fit for when I returned in January. While I was gone and at my insistence, my buddy Joe got full use of it and when I returned it was pretty apparent it did him no harm. Consequently I did my best to play catch up while I was back and now that I’m back in the UK it’ll hopefully pay off when I get up to Scotland next week. Lesson learned? Just because you’ll be climbing this weekend doesn’t mean you should train a bit this week"
It isn't the oldest. It isn't the widest. It isn't the tallest. But a sign proclaims that because of the overall volume of its trunk, the General Sherman Tree is the biggest tree on earth. At its base it measures 103 feet in circumference. It is 275 feet tall. It is approximately 2200 years old. That is one big, old tree! Standing beneath it, gazing up at the high branches, it is difficult to take it all in. And a tiny photograph can't convey how big it really is. It is, quite simply, huge! Almost overwhelming, actually. The people standing beneath the behemoth are dwarfed by its size.
This shows the base of The General Sherman Tree and possibly 25 feet of its height. The lady standing to the left by the fence was about 5'5” tall.
The trail to the General Sherman tree continues on as the two-mile loop Congress Trail. Sequoia trees are very shallow rooted and do occasionally topple. The amazing thing to me about this fallen giant is that a small tree has taken root and is growing on the roots of the dead tree. The little one is perhaps four feet tall. I wonder how long it will survive?
Another glorious Giant, reaching for the sun... towering over all beneath it.
On the trail to Willow Hole.
It was nice that someone showed me the way to go! One couple that I talked to on the way back thought that the trail ended here.
And that dry river bed? Well, it wasn't really dry at all. Along the edges I noticed that the sand was darker. Digging into it with my hands confirmed that it was damp and going down a little further it was really wet. Further along the trail there was standing water in some spots. It was an unusual winter throughout most of the U.S., wet and cold. And that unusual winter has given us an unusual spring as well, with water showing up in places where it hasn't been for many years.
Willow Hole. A pool of black, brackish water.
This area was about a mile from Willow Hole. On my way in I had met a couple and we had talked for a while then they started back out. As I returned they were sitting on the two large rocks in the foreground with their feet soaking in the water. They said it was refreshing and asked me to join them, which I did. When I got my shoes and socks off and stuck my feet in the water, they laughed because I immediately pulled my feet out. The water was cold. Extremely cold. I was amazed and wasn't expecting that, but they were right, it was refreshing. We sat there for half an hour or more, talking and relaxing.
At the end of the trail. Done! Is my face flushed from the heat and sun or is it a reflection from that bright red shirt?
We see gold finches here in the spring and the fall when they are migrating. I don't know where they go to the north or south of us. They are strange little birds that the house cats find easy to catch which I don't like. The first photo is of one I found on the shoe scrapper outside of our front door. It seemed very tired and I assumed hot as it was a very hot day. So I tried to set a bowl of water by it but it flew away. I do hope it servived. The other photo is one I took of a gold finch eating the seeds off of an Apache plume bush near a creek. These cute little finches do eat lots of seeds off of my zinnas, and small sunflowers.
My cousin George Alec Cokinos made a copy of this photograph for me. It was taken in 1926 on Macomb Street near the corner of Wisconsin Avenue. The man in the picture is my grandfather, Peter George Cokinos. (That guy in the chair is actually our great grandmother from Greece.) My grandfather built and lived in the building to their left which is now Cactus Cantina.
