Monday, April 20, 2015

Piute Log..."That Was Weird" 1988

22 Jun (Wed)     Carried my axe up the Cascade Creek hill and cut out that snag sticking into the trail…then another one of those old, rotten logs on the trail that no one ever bothered to remove. Went and got another one on the trail to Harriet [Lake] which was actually always quite a pain for livestock (who had to step over it). ◦◦◦◦◦ Stashed the axe there and pressed on with my shovel, cleaning waterbreaks and rocking. Lunched at Dorothy Lake Pass where I had a very strange experience. ◦◦◦◦◦ Just sitting quietly when I heard a deep rumbling. Thunder? That was my first thought but…No clouds. Then as it continued and built I thought, Rockfall! but couldn’t see any dust cloud. Very odd. Like, maybe, what a jet crashing into a mountainside three miles away would sound like. Then came an indescribable, inexplicable sound—first farther away then moving closer: a bizarre, modulated “warping” sound, as of a gale blowing across a knife-edged ridge…quality like the warble-ey sound of a musical saw, but vast. It was coming toward me, seemingly through the air but maybe the earth. That…that was weird. The nearest thing I could compare it to is the sound a frozen lake expanding after sunset as it gets colder, but much different. I have no explanation whatsoever. Wow. ◦◦◦◦◦ Worked the shores of Stella and Ruth Lakes. Tore out three firepits and found old, old trash dumps. Walked above and west of Ruth to the YNP [Yosemite Nat’l Park] border and visited a small lake on our side—pristine. Followed the Yosemite border back to Stella and walked home, tired. A productive day. Doc hadn’t gotten to his camp yet.

             7 visitors             11 miles             3 pits            3 trees                
                 5 lbs. trash             8 W-Bs cleaned

  
     ©2015  Tim Forsell                                                                                                       27 Mar 2015              

                        

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