Bear attacks and summer travels
With many many pictures
Hello all,
I write to you from a small cabin on the shores of Mono Lake. The massive, salty, mineral-saturated lake hugs the Eastern Sierras of California, approaching the mountains from the opposite side from Yosemite National Park.
In the same way that I moved to California 14 months ago because fuck it, recently I’ve felt an insurmountable urge to fuck off for a while. Too much traveling, too many people, too many things to do and faces to make. For a few days, it’s just me, my music, my cameras, and the breathtaking beauty of California wildlife. Oh and about 5 hours a day of Zoom for work. Death, taxes, Zoom.
Last night I went for a hike. Around 4pm I closed my laptop, hopped in Speedy Gonzales (Pedro’s green Toyota Land Cruiser with 160,000 miles on it), and set off for the Yosemite park entrance, about 40 minutes from my cabin.
Car parked. Begin hike. Stunning forest, not a soul in sight. Just me and the squirrels.
After about 3 hours, I reach Lower Cathedral Lake. It is, well, a lake, with a giant granite mountain overlooking it. The sheer size of the stone was beyond anything I’ve seen before. Yosemite mountains have a unique look and feel to them, not only because of the impressive shape, but because they are literally one gigantic solid rock. Other mountains look like mounds of earth, protrusions from the crust with different textures and materials, maybe even some tress. Not Yosemite. Behold gigantic, solid chunks of a rock.
With about an hour left before sunset, I retrace my steps on the trail, and take the other route on the fork I’d passed previously, this time headed to Upper Cathedral Lake. I’ll let John Muir, one of America’s great environmentalists of the last century and patron saint of Yosemite, explain it better than I can. He wrote this the night he summited Cathedral Peak.
“This I may say is the first time I have been at church in California, led here at last, every door graciously opened for the poor lonely worshiper. In our best times everything turns into religion, all the world seems a church and the mountains altars.”
The walk down was beautiful not because of the scenery, but because of the setting. It took about an hour to get down, much of it in complete darkness (the consequence of summiting at sunset!). Thankfully there was a bright moon, which illuminated the way to the car.
There’s a lot of thinking that goes on during walking. Charles Darwin famously paced around his property for hours a day, attributing many of his great revelations to his daily practice of walking in silence.
Take a walk. Ditch your friends. Turn the music off. Surround yourself in nature and beauty (there is beauty in the common and mundane, you don’t need Yosemite). You’ll be surprised with the clarity of thinking you’ll find.
I returned home, went to bed and woke up to this sight:
If you ever needed an excuse to come to one of my dinner parties, this is proof that they are not to be missed. Leftovers so tasty and delicious smelling that a bear broke into the cabin and ate them all. Thankfully I was fast asleep in the other room (with my door left open) and didn’t wake up. The odds don’t look good for Mateo if confronted by a bear while he’s only wearing underwear and his only weapons are a stick of incense and a lighter.
Like I said, I’ve been traveling a bit recently. Here are some of my favourite photos from this summer’s travels. Only pics taken on the road.
Starting small, with a day trip to Muir moods. (Yes, the same Muir from the Cathedral Peak quote)
A late spring weekend in Tahoe. Some much needed closure, for many of us. Small dip in a lake on the way back.
Big Sur camping trip, with a stop in Santa Cruz.
Birthday trip to Vancouver. By miles the worst trip I’ve ever done in terms of photography. I took 0 nice photos in 3 days. Happens!
Vitacrew playing some crazy unts unts in LA. I spent some time with Gibs (thank you so much for having me).
Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota. A beautiful, beautiful old house.
Great food and company
And the classic summer lake life.
Check out these two next pics. Taken minutes apart, one with my phone, the other on film.
Mimi, and the rest of the family - THANK YOU. What a special week.
Bend, Oregon is a funny place. Great memes, great company. Merle, thank you.
Bolinas Bay Camping trip. We saw a sunset, the clearest night sky (you could see the milky way’s arms streaking across the darkness), a meteor shower, and a lunar eclipse, all the same night. We also started a cult!
And finally, Mono Lake and Yosemite.
Thank you all for reading! I hope you enjoy my photos.
Quick plug for my latest musical adventure: a special Burning Man edition of the Vitamin1000 Supplement series. It’s quite eclectic, and had a great time planning/recording it. It’s not common you’ll hear Acid Pauli followed by Karol G. Check it out:
