DStilled

Surfing To Sierra Nevada

July 11, 2007 on 1:45 pm | In Blog |

Friday morning I woke up and drove to the Pacific ocean. I Went to a shop where they give surfing lessons and I totally went surfing. My first time actually touching the Pacific, I was wearing a wetsuit and holding a board. There were four of us in the group learning and our instrustor was great. After about an hour in the water, I could get up on my feet. After two hours, I could get up every time. It was SOO FUN!! And I can see why people do it. It’s also not very expensive as far as sports go so I could easily make surfing a hobby if I lived somewhere that was possible. After surfing, I drove around and decided San Diego was my favorite city with over a million people in it. I would like to live there some day maybe. So anyone out there who wants to come with me, by all means, let’s go (after I establish my carreer with seminary)! Then I went to the border. It was easy to get into Mexico. I parked in the US because I was told insurance is a nightmare if something happens in Mexico. Also, I don’t have my insurance card, so I’d really be screwed. Tijuana has over 1.5 million people and feels sad. The poverty there is mind-blowing. I was in the touristy area, but it doesn’t take long to get to the shantytowns. I ate lunch and walked back. The line to get back through customs was rediculous. Maybe I caught it at the wrong time but I was in line for an hour an a half and the line was almost a mile long. I got back in no problem and drove to a town halfway between LA and Sequoia to spend the night.

Saturday morning I woke up and headed to Sequoia. Turns out that Sequoia and King’s Canyon Nation Park are sort of connected but I went to the Sequoia side first. The guys at the gate charged me for another $80 pass because my other one was lost. I didn’t matter that I had the receipt and everything. Apparently you can get them online unsigned so people treat them like cash or something. Well, I can tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed the giant trees. Words can’t really describe how big they are. The signs said the biggest one, “General Sherman,” is the largest living thing on earth. I would say not quite, well maybe “on.” The largest living thing on this planet is a fungus that’s as big as Texas under the Rockies. The second is the Great Barrier reef. I guess these don’t count because they are collections of entities conglomerated. So Sherman may indeed be the largest single living thing on earth. Still incredibly impressive. There were a ton of these giants in the two parks and the picture of me is in front of the third largest one (I hopped the fence on this one). His name was General Grant and Coolidge named him America’s Christmas tree. Don’t really know why. Once I was done looking at freaking huge trees I went to my campsite, made dinner, and tried to sleep in a very loud campground. Oh, and it was clear right above my tent so I took some star trail pictures! It was a good 07/07/07 at 7000 ft at campsite number 7.

Sunday morning I woke up after a long and difficult night. I woke up at least 7 times. I was actually cold! I drove into the heart of King’s Canyon, saw a waterfall, and then some of the most awesome cliffs ever. There’s a hike that goes from “Road’s End” to Mt. Whitney (the highest point in the contiguous USA) that’s just under 100 miles. I want to take it some day. So William, put it on a calendar somewhere. From there I drove to Yosemite. It is another very big park with a lot to see! So much so that even on a Sunday night the park is OVERFLOWING with people! It didn’t help that I got misleading and incomplete information from people who should have know better. My first two hours in the park were horrendous with a great backdrop. Let’s just say that El Capitan made the cliffs in King’s Canyon look climbable. This is another glacier valley (I think that’s what the word yosemite means) with the granite cliffs just being phenomenal. I made spaghetti at my finally located campsite and did a bunch of this update. Can sleep be better this time? Also, I’m almost through Nehemiah (oh me oh my ah). God seems to be getting a bit more laxed with his immediate punishments and blessings. It’s like He has decided that no people group no matter how holy they may be at one time can be perfect and therefore to save His people Isreal (who are still pretty idiotic as a whole over time) He can’t be as justice oriented as He was in the beginning. Also, He hasn’t really spoken to a non-prophet in a couple of hundred years at this point. I can’t really tell how His Spirit is working nowadays. I sometimes get confused as to what His motives are and how He deals in the workings of other nations actually happen.

Monday morning I woke up a less difficult night. Still it got a tad chilly. Jeremy, I’m looking forward to sharing the tent with you. Anyway, I had to get in line to reserve my spot I had slept in. It took nearly two hours to get done with that whole ordeal. There were two large Mexican families that wanted to all be near each other and the lady ranger had some trouble making it work. But I got my spot for two nights and then hit the park. The most awesome and intense hike is up Half-Dome (that’s the hike in the picture). You go up two waterfalls and then up to the peak of the mountain. Turns out David Potter is doing that very hike in a couple of weeks. Well, I got that picture by going up to one of the most spectacular views on earth. It was called Glacier Point and from the top you can see the crazy steep cliffs, forrested valleys, half-dome, three waterfalls, a glacier, all with mountain peaks in the distance! I then went back to camp to eat lunch since I didn’t feel like hiking in the hottest part of the day. But at 4 I was on my way up the two waterfalls. Can we say STEEEEP!? I can’t imagine how good of shape you would have to be to hike the whole thing without stopping. I know altitude played a part but walking up 600 granite steps averaging a foot high each is just crazy hard! I got lots of water pictures, showered, and went to sleep.

Tuesday morning I woke up ready to drive. I packed up my stuff (it always all goes in, just a little differently every time) and headed out of the park. By the time I made it to Fresno I realized I woke up too late to drive on HWy 58 (Sam and David said this was the best drive they’ve ever had) and still be able to get HWy 1 along the coast. So I went south to go north along one of the most scenic and famous roads in the country. It was VERY cool but with too many people. I had one mustang in front of me for like 20 minutes going about 20 mph. He had a convertible and his wife was taking pictures. Due to the fact I had over 200 miles to cover I got a tad impatient. Eventually he pulled over and let me pass. I got about 5 minutes of fun driving and then hit another pack of slower people. That’s pretty much the story of Hwy 1 (except I also saw elephant seals!). If you are looking for a fast, fun, sloped, super-slaloming course: Hwy 58 or even the drive in and out of King’s canyon. If you are looking for a scenic, wind-in-your-hair, crusin’ jaunt: Hwy 1 is for you. I also listened to the Bible nearly the whole day. I just finished Psalms. I’m not sure man is meant to experience all the Psalms at once. Especially in the same sitting at all of Job. So, 3.5 weeks=half the Bible. Anyway I suppose you want my take on what I read. Ester was great. I have to keep being reminded of how rated R the Bible is and how our culture demonizes the way women and other people, or even people groups as a whole are treated in the cultures of the Bible. It takes some mental adjusting. I thought it was silly to put Job before Psalms and Proverbs. The whole point of Job is to show that God is beyond us and our logic, that He can show His glory in anyway He wants, that He doesn’t have to fit inside the good begots good/evil begots evil paradigm. So Job is awesome and really allows God theology to expand. Then you go to the Psalms and it reverts back to the old way of thinking. Not only that, but David, Asaph, and the other writers were as a whole very selfish and vendictive. No matter how many times they praised God for something, they almost always ended up asking God to bless them tremendously, and to utter destroy their enemies. It’s amazing how much the onset of Jesus changed Judaism. Job actually foreshadowed Jesus in the least subtle way so far. He pleaded with God for a mediator between God and people for the sake of justice. That’s exactly what Jesus was do to. Everyone recognizes God’s unfailing love and boundless mercy but then they always complain about not getting enough or others getting too much. Even the idea that the Exodus was supposed to affect the Jews’ faith in a consistantly moving way 500+ years after it happened if foreign to us. We are simply too indivualized. That’s enough ranting for now. I met up with David Potter in San Jose at his really cool apartment complex, we went to eat at this authentic Mexican restaurant, and then chilled in the hot tub. These entries just keep getting longer and longer.