It took several days beyond the Birthdays to get back up to the Steps…
as even though the weather cooperated
the legs and feet remained recalcitrant,
but finally after some Sunday Facetime with Vancouver,
I did, aided by ducks,
make it
all the way up and back, memories of doggies past
and weather still happily cooperative even
unto Tuesday when we
eventually ventured
into Gardner to meet Desireé Dallaguardia for much needed medical massages at La
Clinica during which a crazy rainstorm blew through…and was gone. In all my years in the Valley I’d never been inside the building, but it was as if the staff had just left, all clean and intact despite many years on non-use, patiently waiting for rural medical to return if only they could.
Afternoon brought treasures from rural Pennsylvannia while on the mountain
we were wet.
Wednesday one could still see the Volvo-inspired damage below Dean’s, worse, if one is to believe Dominic Tinio, than anything they’ll have to deal with in the aftermath of BM
although word from the playa, at least from Lee Saloutos who was there a week after “Ex-odus” [his photo, below], seemed to differ*. For our part we made a quick and efficient run to
Walsenburg encompassing dump, gas, Safeway
and home for lunch with time in the afternoon for a last churning of Trig’s six cylinders before
buttoning things up until next year when, with more gas [and some stabilizer] in the tank he ought to run steadily a bit more readily…sturdy postwar engineering ‘n’ all.
After yet another two days away the Steps Project was turning up some strange bedfellows
and anyway it wasn’t until Friday that the Inkies and I made it again.
Coming down I paid the sorefooted price, though after an afternoon of studio a pleasant walk
around the block was swell and in fact the weather and whatever just couldn’t be better…
so Saturday we made it again, wandering back by a slightly different route on
a last day, hey.
*from Lee; ” The second of those trips was to Black Rock playa maybe 7-8 days after BM was done. I got a lot of good photos of the remains being cleared off. It’s amazing. I think if you wanted to rent a semi tractor, a tele handler, a forklift, or many other large pieces, well, you’d have to go to South Dakota to find anything. It’s all out there for the duration. The playa itself is a wreck…the rain and a million feet and wheels did a number on it…the center of “camp” this year was very roughed up in muck that then solidified…I wonder how many shoes are in there. If BM really wants to flatten it they will have to get quite a few road graders. It’s sad”. [They usually do bring in more than a few graders every year to blade it back to “left no traceness” but given the desert’s transpiration effect we may be in for years and years of emergent footwear.]
“The Playa Said NO!”…Elder Futhark runes by Ann B. Miller. I would concur.
The Hill is the measure of the day.
What’s the lump in the fork of that sun reflecting tree?
What ducks?
Dang bust it.
😛
The hill is indeed the measure of the day, hey, and the lump in the fork is, I think, and old motorcycle fender, recycled.
As for the ducks, “ducks” were what we used to call the little rock cairns that marked the trails in the Sierra of my distant youth [example shown]. They didn’t always resemble ducks of course but sometimes three rocks stacked up did, somewhat.
Wow! Lovely Libre weather and bravo on attaining multiple trips to 8420; quite a feat with bad feet. Glad I learned what Libre ducks are (I failed to find any fowl on close inspection of fotos), but sad to see the Volvo damage below Dean’s.
Dominic Tinio could no doubt repair it in a few minutes, but he may be under-estimating total reparations of many ruts and submerged moop on the Black Rock. I’m curious if he first blades the playa with an army of big machines then de-moops or vice versa? If Lee sent you more photos plz forward.
No more from Lee but my assumption about the playa is that they comb over it first and only then blade…lotta work. “Ducks” was maybe a George Anderson thing, but widespread at the time….a way long time ago.
I wondered about “ducks”, but recognized the duck-like trail markers. I was a Girl Scout. How can the blading of the Playa not be bad for its fragile surface? The late summer photos are just lovely.