Today was a very rigorous day for me. It started with a two mile walk with my dad, something we’ve been doing almost every day. I hope to keep this trend running when I get back to California.
When I got back, the family wanted to go on a “gorge walk.” I have never had any interest in doing this walk, even though my family does it a couple of times every time we’re here. The gorge is maybe 300 yards from my parent’s house. I had done this walk as a teenager, and at that time, the river running through the gorge was high and the mouth to the gorge was swamp. There are no sides to this gorge, so you’re basically walking up a river (emphasis on up). As teens, we stopped once we got to a waist deep river. It was too hard to navigate after that with all the oncoming water and uneven rocky surface below. 30+ years later, the swamp has been replaced by a barn and a house on higher ground and the river now dumps into the remaining swamp across the street. Someone has made a path to the entrance of the gorge and even put a bench there. Since this has been a year of severe drought around here, the river is just a trickle – virtually non-existent. We were able to walk on dry, loose shale all the way up the gorge. The gorge was gorgeous, but the walk up was over and under large felled trees and across lose shale avalanches. The river would usually wash these things away for the most part. Halfway up the walk, my kids wanted to show us a section they could climb up such that they were overlooking the gorge. It took them a while to get up the 100 foot cliff wall, meanwhile, Barb and I stood by mosquito infested still water. The kids got to the top, we took pictures, then Jeff wanted to get a picture of Courtney from the other side of the gorge. He climbed down, then shuffled up the rock avalanche on the other side. He got down slowly (slid most of the way, creating a lot of dust), while Courtney descended down the other side. I was really impressed by their climbing abilities until the kids told me that someone had installed ropes from the mid-point on up, making the entire climb possible.
We trudged along, seemingly forever, until we came to the kid’s stopping point at “the waterfall.” This 20 foot waterfall was virtually impassable, which is why the kids stop here. Usually, it’s a waterfall. This year though, it was merely wet, drippy rock. Courtney climbed about a third of the way up.
Courtney climbs the waterfall
We walked back, which was much, much harder than going up. A fat man with bad ankles on loose shale will not do well here. I slipped five times on the way down and wound up on my butt in the water once. After what seemed like an eternity, we emerged from the gorge. We headed immediately to the lake. I wanted to wash off all the crud and get my ankles in cold water. It felt good. My banana and beer lunch was good as well. A little later, I helped mom with yard work – I mowed her one acre back yard. After that, I was pretty much spent for the evening, wanting to simply lie in bed in a semi-fetal position. Instead, I watched Tour of France, practiced guitar with Jeffrey, then went to bed.