Well, I was supposed to be off to the beach for a bit of a wander and a think (it is sinful to work here at home on a gorgeous day like this!), but I still seem to be here, having a late lunch. Since everybody else is probably watching some Big Annual Football Game or Other that I've heard is on right now, I'll put something up for you to read if, like me, you are not interested in the game, and want a bit of distraction.
I decided that I really really needed to get away from it all and get some clarity, so yesterday morning, I packed the essential gear (right - including this wonderful stick made from a tree that grew in my very own garden!) and headed for the hills. Well, the mountains, in fact. The San Gabriel range.... the huge things you can sometimes see in pictures, lurking behind the towers of downtown LA. The same one that has Mount Wilson.... You'll recall a hike I did there to see the telescopes. This time I decided to go check out the upper part of the Arroyo Seco area....for the rocket scientists among you, this (well, the lower part of it) is directly behind NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Actually, I think I passed a fair amount of scientist-types while up there.... and found myself wondering if any of them read this blog.... Well, I won't bombard you with too much from the hike (I'll keep most of the 100 photos or so to myself), and show you a few shots of what it looks like up there. Perhaps if you visit Pasadena or LA (or if you live there) you might consider taking advantage....? There's a fair amount of fording of streams going on with this hike (the Arroyo Seco's arroyo is not seco during the Winter and Spring), which is why my new bit of gear -the stick- could have come in handy from time to time (it was not needed though, but was a good companion). The stream winds back and forth across the path, and is strewn wiht rocks, stones and boulders, which is rather nice.....
There are several lovely trees of various sorts along the way, giving a wonderful light and pleasant swishing sounds as you go:
... and every now and again you're treated to a lovely-shaped big one that you just want to jump up onto and climb all over:
Eventually the hike opened up a bit and I see the rest of the range in which I was hiking:
If one were to do some big jumps (Incredible Hulk-style) off (well, a touch more North) in the rough direction of that pointy crest to the East there, one would soon get to Mount Wilson, by the way, and see how the telescopes are doing. I had plans to go for a lot longer than I actually did. After two and a half hours of rather leisurely going, I happened along a lovely set of pools and a waterfall:
..and decided to have lunch, as the sun was falling so nicely on the spot, and dappling the water rather pleasantly. If you look closely, you can see me in the pool:
Somehow, lunch -and staring at great length into the water and the sunlight reflected therefrom- got me to thinking even more about the physics I was mulling over on the hike..... And then some ideas started flowing.... and flowing. And I sat there for quite a while longer, thinking. Then I was really excited and simply could not go further. I wanted to go back home and check something in a paper, and see whether my idea held water. So I set off back for the return journey at a fast pace. This was good, since it was all back uphill, and my previous pace downhill was not really giving me much in the way of exercise. Also, it was afternoon now, and this meant that there were occasional people in the distance that helped speed me along since I could challenge myself to catch and pass them, which is a fun little internal game I play sometimes when on my own on a trail. (I imagine other lone hikers do that too?)
So I got back to the car (no I don't cycle everywhere.... I drive too, but mostly on the weekends) all exhilarated in under a couple of hours, and with 95% of a short paper written in my head. I did stop to take a rather pretentious-looking (now that I see the result!) shot of me walking along (left). (Lucky for you, I'm mostly obscured by the fronds of some little bush or other that was in partially front of the camera.... no that's not a headphone cord! ...it's part of the plant..) Now I've got to find the time to (a) debug, dig deeper, and decide whether this paper is worth writing out on paper and putting out there, and (b) see if I actually have the physical time to do it soon before the week fully intervenes and I lose focus or get bored with the observation. Hence the working-on-the-beach idea: the other other office (see end of this post). -cvj
