On The Fly

“Do you think I’ll need my gloves?”  “No doubt,” I said to Lori as we prepared to make the trek up the Mountain from Bishop, CA , on route 168, to the Bishop Pass trailhead at South Lake (elevation 9,620 ft). Bishop Pass Trailhead It was cold late October weather. 36 degrees when we parked the truck and stepped into the brisk, fresh Sierra mountain air.  The golden yellow fall colors of trembling Aspens surrounded us.  We never passed a single car driving the 20 miles from downtown Bishop past Parchers Resort (closed for the season) to our roadside parking. My first thought - where is everyone? Wonder if the trailhead is closed for the season? Nah, can’t be. The parking lot was gated . . . why? “ Last time I was here we couldn't find a place to park. There were bicyclists, people trout fishing Bishop Creek, and the resort was teeming with activity - this year no one. Weird!” Undaunted, we layered our clothes, strapped on our day-packs, adjus...

“My husband . . . Some people are tree huggers, mine is a tree sniffer.” “Try it. Right here,” as I touched the smooth bare russet wood of the ancient Bristlecone Pine. “This smells like Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey Whiskey, it’s like no other tree I’ve ever smelled. It’s an aromatic blend of pine, sweet honey, and wood.” I said to Lori as we hiked the four mile Methuselah Walk of the ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest . Lori laughed, “I doubt Jack Daniel's would advertise their Whisky with the slogan,” Try our special blend, smells like a Bristlecone Pine. The Bristlecone Pine (species Pinus longaeva ) is the longest-lived life form on Earth. According to our trail brochure, in 1957 Dr. Edward Schulman, searching for climate records in tree rings, increment bored a tree from this same grove. Upon counting the rings under a microscope back at camp, he nearly shouted at his colleague, “we’ve got a 4,000-plus tree.” It was later dated to be over 4,600 years old. Schulman na...

Time - It’s all relative, or is it? In the Special Theory of Relativity Einstein determined that time is relative - in other words, the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference. This got me thinking about the Cubs, Doc Brown, and Back To The Future . How do you determine your frame of reference? Here it is almost Christmas, oops, I mean Halloween (it just looks like Christmas at Home Depot where all the decorations are already in place). Soon we lose daylight savings time (November 1st) then its back to darkness at 5:00 pm. Honestly, it seems like we were just there. Doesn’t it to you too? But on the bright side, it’s 2015 and the Cubs are in the playoffs. October baseball. That hasn’t happened since the Steve Bartman incident in game six of the NLCS 2003 - has it really been 12 years? I’m thinking he’s watching the playoffs on TV. Can you believe it was 30 years ago that Back To The Future II predicted the Cubs winning the World Series in 2015! It ...