Sixth Form

Eitan is 6'2"

Eitan's first day of sixth form. The boys required to wear a suit and Hampton tie.

The young man is now in his final two years of preparation for University - in the UK called sixth form - where he will study four subjects for his A-levels (history, politics, geography and Spanish).
He did fine on the GCSE exams (results back Aug 24) and we are proud of him - Eitan is probably more relieved than anything else.
Our re-entry into the UK goes without a hitch. Madeleine and I are greeted at 45 by Sonnet with open arms and Rusty who cannot contain himself. It is nice to be home.

Grandkid - Grandparents

We have dinner at Berkeley Jewish deli Saul's.
My parents have had an active year health wise; Grace is through her cancer treatments and recently underwent back surgery, now in recovery mode. Both have Parkinson's. They take care of each other in a wonderful and loving way.
Katie joins us in Berkeley - extra treat - between various deal-makings for The Op Ed project. She is fired up.
Soon it is time to fast-forward to London and leave California, and summer, behind.

Oakland Is Brooklyn

My childhood memories of Oakland: Sears, the 1970s Raiders and Billy Martin's A's in the 1980s; Oakland Airport and Lake Merit which, for a while, was completely clogged by algae leaving the Berkeley High crew team shit out of luck. There were some legit bbq shacks. The occasional movie at The Grand Lake Theatre.
But how the city has changed ! From Rockridge to Tamascal (profiled by the NYT as the home of the hipster), it is vibrant and young and multi-racial. The Fox Theatre a great venue for live music and the martini bars serve a young crowd. The buildingss are funky and disjointed. There is a Greyhound station. It is affordable, and finally the Big Tech is moving in. Uber is across the street.

Madeleine Gets A Job

Madeleine does an internship at the Op-Ed Project.
She commutes to Oakland, which has become the coolest place in the Bay Area.
It warms my heart to pick her up at the North Berkeley BART station, as I used to do for Sonnet 23 years ago.

Eriola And Michael

Union Square, San Francisco

Eriola and Michael, who I work with in London, rent a larger camper to tour the Great Western United States. He's a big German personality so their travel mode is appropriate for the circumstances.

Drakes Bay

Madeleine photographs a crab

Madeleine and I drive to Drakes Bay at Point Reyes National Seashore in Marine county. It is actually quite sunny until we reach the coast then the fog is typical for August, bringing memories of Sonnet/ my wedding in San Francisco which was the like the coldest day of the year for an outdoor ceremony.

I visited Pt Reyes when a kid; we had some favourite beaches family-named "Sea Lion Beach" for spotting a sea lion and Windy Beach and so on and so forth. Californian orange poppies.

Self Portrait XXXXXIV In White

We stay with Gracie and Moe, which is a treat and allows for real quality time with my parents. Things also move a bit more slowly than London which gives us a breather from work and school and exams and all those things that cause stress.
Adam informs that I look like a homeless person.

Attached At The Hip

So, while we are in California with an unplanned two weeks, Madeleine is attached to my hip, just the way I like it. No money, no car, the poor dear.

Madeleine in Berkeley

Madeleine re-unites with her old friend Sweetie Pie. The cat has been around for 12 years, rescued by Grace from under a refuge bin in an Oakland parking lot. Sweetie was the runt of an already stray litter and Grace grabbed the deliquent animal, stuffed it in a gunny sack, then locked her in Katie's old bedroom for about a week or so. Yes, a cat kidnapping. And we and Madeleine are grateful for it. I'm sure the cat is too.

Retrospective In Red

My review of the JMT: Spectacular. Extraordinary. An adventure of a lifetime that I will retell until I am dead. Madeleine has written a college essay, if she so chooses. Would I have liked to finish it? Hell, yes. Are there things I would have done differently ? Of course.
Firstly, and possibly my biggest mistake, was the food. Backpackers are sensory deprived. Food takes on an extra importance. I stuffed our bear canisters and resupplies with dried fruit, buffalo jerky and cranberries (blech), fig newtons (never again), honey drops with vitamin C (puke) and freeze dried mountaineering food and other such nonsense. Instead : candy. And lots of it. Snickers bars. M&Ms and Oreos. Butterfingers. Calories and more calories. I should have included more super salty snacks like salamis, cheese, smoked oysters and sardines with crackers (very Euro style). I was thinking healthy. I mean, WTF ?
Madeleine and I grew sick of our food by Day 5 or 6 and towards the end we could not stomach what we had. So our efforts required maybe 4000 or 5000 calories a day and I imagine we were consuming less than London and below 2000.

Back To Normal ?

"Ugo Rondinone: The World Just Makes Me Laugh,” at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

The post JMT re-entry is, I admit, a shock. 10 years of dreaming, one year planning, 11 days of hiking and now it is.. over ? As my wise father says, "it will always be there" and, indeed, I think of returning next summer or - at least - sometime to finish the bastard off.
We get Madeleine to the emergency of the Oakland Children's Hospital where she is ex-rayed and given the OK by the doctors. Afterwards we gorge ourselves on Chinese food and grandparents; Gracie and Moe hear the story first hand.
Madeleine and I have grand ambitions to go to Hawaii or Mexico to surf or drive along the California coastline.
But for now I must regain the 15 lbs I've lost on the trail

Helicopter Off

The ride from the trail to the landing terminus is about one hour over the most breathtaking and heartbreaking mountains in North America. It is like swimming over seabed cliffs that rise and fall thousands of feet. It is frightening at first then just a trip.

We are joyously greeted by Adam and Jasper who, on a Tuesday, make the six hour drive from Oakland to meet us and conclude the adventure. It is a remarkable way to end the JMT. Knowing your friends are there with love and support when it is needed the most.

Trail's End

Madeleine re-fractures her collar bone on Mather Pass while scrambling up a washed out switch-back - imagine climbing a ladder with a 45 lb backpack with the rungs slipping downward. It requires a supreme physical effort placing an unusual amount of weight on our arms and upper body. Madeleine's clavicle has a weak point from the last break now exploited by the effort and backpack; she hears a 'pop,' and then pain, which she hides from me for two days, no complaints. This kid is tougher than nails.

We make camp before Muir Pass, one of the challenging passes with 5 miles of dangerous snow trekking, and realise moving forward no longer an option. For my part, I am exhausted and can barely piss let alone set a camp or carry a backpack.

We are fortunate to meet Marty, a firefighter from Georgia and a certified EMT, who assesses Madeleine's break. Remarkably a ranger appears (I squint to make sure I'm not imagining it) who has a walkie-talkie for outward communication (we have emergency beacons but reluctant to use them). We put together a plan of action and a helicopter arrives the following morning, circles a granite rock several times, then lands. We are on our way out.

Palisade Creek

We descend Mather heading to the Golden Stairway, a vertical switchback next to a cascading waterfall. Fortunately we are doing it downhill.
The streams bountiful with trouts wiggling against the flowing water. So many I can reach in and pluck them from the water.

Mather Pass II

 

Mather Pass

We hike out of the South Fork basin to Mather Pass, where Madeleine re-fractures her collar bone scrambling up the mountain where the switch-back has been washed out.

Stephen Mather (1867-1930) began his working life, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, as a reporter for the New York Sun. Later, he worked for the same company in which his father held a senior position: the Pacific Coast Borax Company.

Just before the turn of the century he left the PCBC and, with a partner, began his own borax company. They did well.

By 1914, at age 47, he was a millionaire, had retired from the borax business, and was indulging his passions for the outdoors. That same year he toured Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks and came away unimpressed with the upkeep and administration of the properties. It just so happened that the current Secretary of the Interior was an old classmate, so he fired off a letter of complaint. The Interior Secretary’s response would change history.

“Dear Steve: If you don’t like the way the national parks are run, why don’t you come on down to Washington and run them yourself.”

Within two years Congress had approved the establishment of the National Park Service, and Mather was its first director.

Sunset

Another view of Painted Lady and Rae Lakes at sunset.

Fin Dome

At 11,693 feet, Fin Dome stands as a sentinel rising from the ridge separating Sixty Lakes Basin from Rae Lakes. Mountaineers, unlike us hikers, bring rope to reach the peak.

Painted Lady - Rae Lakes

We hike Glenn Pass with these three fabulous women from Flagstaff, Arizona. The snow and ice cliffs on the pass are intimidating - and physically challenging - but, together, we make it across. Women are tough. Great for Madeleine to see it.
Every turn of the trail presents something new and somehow more wondrous.

Kings Canyon South Fork

At the Kings Canyon South Fork, five or six days before we reach the river, two hikers are pulled under the water and unable to escape their backpacks which hold them under until they are drowned. A path is created parallel to the river to avoid the crossing and sends us upstream two miles until it is safe to forge our way.