June 10th, 2001

Woke up this morning, feeling rather well rested. Stumbled downstairs to find Ed and Sandy awake... apparently Sandy had just woken up. They had brewed some of this nutty smelling coffee again and I had a cup of it and a small bowl of cereal. I put off getting a shower in and instead hiked out to what I've christened Spectacle Rock. According to Ed, it was relatively clear today and you could see the valley floor(ie- Fresno) and the coastal mountain range in the distance.

I wasn't disapointed, the view was, of course, beautiful. And off in the distance, although hazy, you could in fact make out the valley and the mountains beyond it. I take a couple pictures and linger a little bit... enjoying what would be my last morning up here... after a time I wandered back to the cabin.

Downtown Shaver Lake

Soon after I got back we left for breakfast. They take me to this little diner in downtown Shaver Lake and I order steak and eggs. Our waitress is amusing... she forgot to bring out enough forks for everyone and so when the food is first delivered and Ed points this out, she steals my fork before I have a chance to use it and gives it to him. She runs off and gets one for me immediately afterward though. Sandy and Ed tell me that our waitress was a battered wife who fled her husband and came up here to hide with her children. She works the restaraunt when there are enough people in the area to support it. On off times she does odd jobs around town to make ends meat. She didn't have any kind of transportation and would walk to work and would walk her kids to and from school.. even in the dead of winter. Sandy and Ed tell me about how, last Christmas or the Christmas before that, them and a bunch of people in the Shaver Lake area got together and raised enough money to buy her a van, insurnace for it for a year, rent for several months, and her kids Christmas presents. The van was delivered on Christmas day and the waitress was so surprised and happy she wept. Most everyone that had contributed was at the house and she came out to them and hugged them and thanked them. Her kids kept asking her "Where are we going to drive to mommy?".
The people up here really do amaze me... over and over again...

Shaver Stables

After a nice big breakfast I have Sandy and Ed take me to a place here locally that does horseback rides around the lake. This is, by the way, the first time I've EVER been horseback riding. I go with a group of 4 other people, a family by the looks of it. The mom and the youngest daughter share a horse, the father and the other daughter each get their own, as do I. Our guide and another assistant get my stirrups adjusted and away we go.

Really, horseback riding is rather nice. I guess I didn't ride long enough to get saddlesore, I only rode for an hour or so... and I didn't end up aching or anything afterwards. Well, no more than I've already been aching from all the hiking I've been doing. I can really feel it in my thighs and calves.

So anyways, we get about 3 minutes into the ride and I notice that my camera is dangling a little too low... it keeps smacking against the saddlehorn, so I spend a few minutes tinkering with the strap so it'll sit higher up. Around this time, the little girl riding with her mom starts freaking out about being on the horse and starts crying and saying she wants to go back... it's a little late now. The girl is quiet and get started crying again, and settles back down and starts up again. The guide offers to put her in saddle with her, and when she does the girl is quiet the rest of the trip.

The scenery around the lake and the lake itself is beautiful. You can get an idea from the pictures. The terrain is fairy hilly, and the ability to be able to stand in the stirrups turns out to be a good thing, as my lower bits are spared a sound thumping from the ups and downs and the occasional trot.

I was blessed with a well behaved horse. The little girl in front of the man in front of me kept having her horse try to bend down and eat whatever vegetation happened to be handy. Mine tried it a couple times and a quick tug of the reigns set him straight.

I found out later that my horse's name is Henry. I also find out that the reason he's in the rear is because he gets cranky when other horses get too close behind him and he'll turn around and try to bite them. While being the last one in the bunch was nice because I could take my time, it sort of sucked because I got to watch the horses in front of me relieve themselves. Yick.

Further up and further in...

After my horseback riding excursion Sandy and Ed take me up to Huntington Lake, which is 2000 ft higher than Shaver Lake. This involves about an hour long drive up twisting mountain roads. Often times you're only several feet away from the cliff's edge, looking out the window gives you a very nice glimpse down the side of the mountain. Sandy and Ed used to own a cabin out about the area we traveled through. I can imagine how treacherous getting to it was in the winter time... the roads to it are practically 1 laned in some places.

The view is spectacular in places. You can see clear to the valley in some areas. Along the way we pass one of the electrical power stations that power this mountain region. The whole area is powered by hydro-eletric power from Edison Company. Water from Lake Huntington is piped down the mountain through the first power station(the one we saw) and out into a river. This river, in turn, goes through 4 other power stations along its route. Rather ingenious. Edison Power actually almost entirely owns this one town called Big Creek. I guess they house all their workers there.

Huntington Lake is huge. The air outside is cooler than it is down where the cabin is at, and there is a nice continual breeze that blows. Aparently, this lake is world renowned for sailing and every year a major regatta is held there and it draws people from across the globe.

Back at the cabin...

We stop back by a local general store to find something good for dinner. The selection of meat there is pretty poor so we decide to go back to the cabin and make something from leftovers.

After we get back we bump into another friend of theirs, Renee. She's an ex-cop from Southern California. Her and her husband are retired officers and she had done her time down there during all the Rodney King and race riot awfulness. She mentions taking me off to see a sequoia here later on in the evening. That would be cool.

After talking to her I take some shampoo, soap and a towel down to Waterfall #1(the one Ed, Kate, Brian and I played around in yesterday). I'd decided last night I was going to take a shower in the waterfall while I was up here. It was... invigorating. The water was VERY cold... but once you stepped out of the falling water you warmed up almost instantly in the hot sun. To some onlooker it probably looked like something out of a deranged Herbal Essence commercial or something. The waterfall itself is only about 15-20 feet high, but when you were under the water it hit you with such force that breathing was harder and it actually stung a little. Not too badly though.

After showering we sort of lazed around. I checked e-mail and had a message from Tara. She's living down in Tampa currently but is originally from British Columbia, Canada. She asked me if I understood now her love of the mountains... the peace and tranquility. The answer is yes... I do. I really don't want to leave. It makes the beach almost pale in comparison, and this is a lot coming from me.

We had a small late lunch and napped a while afterwards. Dinner is coming soon... will write more later...

Hunting Sequoias and other stuff...

Okay... dinner came a little later than I expected. Renee did in fact show back up with her 17 yr old son, Valentine(pronounced Val-en-teen), her 4 or 5 year old daughter Brianna and her baby son, whose name escapes me. She arrives and drives us all out to McKinley Grove, part of the Sierra National Forest. This grove isn't just one but MANY sequoia trees. Actually, that area of the mountains has sequoias just growing la dee da all over here and there, but the ones in this particular grove were just huge. In this case, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I won't even bother describing it. Just... wow... whoah... big.

Talking to Renee was interesting. Come to find out she was part of the Sherrif's Dept. in Los Angeles... and not just any part of LA... the slums. She did all sorts of undercover work with prostitution and narcotics. She's been retired from the force in her late 30s due to injuries. (she's 40 now). I found out about this because she mentions that she's just recently recovered from some back surgery for some injuries she'd gotten on the job. I asked her what happened, and holy christ, this lady is like superwoman. In 89 her back got injured when some dude hopped up on PCP that she was fighting picked her up and dropped her on a metal post. They tried to retire her then but she refused. Then, over the course of the next few years on duty she got hit by a car driven by some guy she'd arrested that she let go on his own recognizance(apparently her arresting him pissed him off), was fighting some dude on the balcony on the second floor of a building when the balcony collapsed, causing them both to fall to the street(he landed on her and ran off), and, the kicker, she was doing a highspeed chase with lights and sirens through LA and got T-boned by some drunk who ran a stop light.

Mic Foley, eat your heart out. This woman is hardcore. She was also one of the force's sharpshooters. I told her she is NOT someone I'd want to piss off. She found that funny.

After wandering around McKinley Grove, we went to a nearby stream called Dinky Creek. The name doesn't do it justice. Renee's son knows the area pretty well, so we go hiking around. I wish I had another couple days out here... he showed me some great places to go cliff diving off of and a few great places to go swimming.

Afterwards Renee took me home. I told her about picking Alie up at LAX and she said to go to the airport but stay the hell away from the rest of the city around it... apparently I'd end up as someone's target practice or something.

We had a quick dinner once I got home, packed up, headed back to Fresno and arrived about 10pm.

I already miss their cabin...

My whole lower body has a dull but pleasant ache coursing through it. I'm gonna need Advil and a morning swim to be able to move tommorrow, I think.
I really need to get out more. ;)

Let's try this again. Grrr... well, at least I'll have my memories. :P

Shaver Stables - Horseback Riding time!

Howdy pardner! (aren't I just the epitome of cowboy cool with my ripped jeans and Tommy T-shirt. ;)

Saddling up...

Rollin' rollin' rollin'... keep them doggies rollin' RAWHIDE!

Shaver Lake - by horse.

Oh give me a home... where the buffalo roam...

More of Shaver Lake.

And more of Shaver Lake, with a marina in the background.

Me and my horse, Henry.

They call me cowboy, badass in black, singin' hey! hey! hey! hey!

*cough* *cough* *sneeze*

A quiet little meadow...

A waterfall from Huntington Lake.

Over looking the town of Big Creek(to the left... you can see the edge of the town... there's a helipad right before the granite cliff starts to slop downwards) and Camp Sierra, where Ed and Sandy's old cabin used to reside(if you look REALLY carefully in the trees to the right of the cliff, you can see some structures... that's it).

Having some drinks up in Huntington Lake. Sandy, Ed and some other assorted peoples. Approximate Elevation - 7000 feet.

On the road to McKinley's Grove.

Gettin' closer...

Around about in this area you could see the occasional odd sequoia growing...

A stream on the way there...

Here we are...

For reference, the little pink spec is a little girl(Brianna) who's about 4 feet tall

Damn treehugging hippies! (this one's for you, Matt)

The pink spec in the background is Brianna again, the black one is their dog. That's Renee in the foreground in blue.

Me getting myself a piece of wood.

Hrmmm... I bet someone could carve something really cool out of this stump. ;)

Part of Dinky Creek. Not too dinky, is it?