5/5: Cinco de Rain y Nanoparticles

Hi everybody! A quick update on this gloriously rainy Cinco de Mayo!

1. Nanoparticles have become the bane of my existence and writing is like pulling teeth and fingernails at the same time. But inspiration comes in waves, and I just need to survive these doldrums until the next set comes along.

2. Yeti came down last weekend and we followed the long, grinding fire road up to McKinley Peak. 

Do you want to know what isn't really that awesome? 

MCKINLEY PEAK. 

The trail is great. There are perfect views of Hurricane Deck and the canyon far below cut by Manzana Creek. Hell's Half Acre is impressive and demands exploring. We followed bear tracks for miles and miles. There are a few perfect sections lined and shaded by big pines and the smell takes you to the Sierras. There are A MILLION HORNY TOADS all over the place...

...but still, McKinley Peak - and here, I mean just that last quarter mile to the top - is just kind of lame. We also deduced that the peak itself is the world's breeding ground for no-see-ums and biting flies. If you do this hike, just get to the saddle between the peaks, and turn back around before you get bummed out about how lame McLamer Peak is. I owed Yeti a big meal after those 20-miles, and was very happy to have her company for the day. Turns out she is also an expert Horny Toad spotter. THANKS YETI!

Pockets and caves, Hell's Half Acre.

Friends everywhere.

I KNOW.

Yeti in beast mode, about to charge up to McKinley Peak.

Yeti inspecting cool, clean water. McKinley Springs lunch break.

3. Hiking, climbing, running.

When not writing, the Fuzz and I have been doing some climbing (flailing), hiking all over (The 2013 San Rafael Wilderness Love Affair), swimming in the river, running on the warm winding road to Red Rock in the late evening sun, making friends with the usual creatures (foxes. turtles. snakes. squirrels. bobcats. turkeys.), and living peacefully and happily in our little cabin.

Essentials. MattieDog/rocks/crashpad/chalk/river/sand/sun.

Good holds and climbing buddies.

Mellow days in the Santa Ynez River Valley. 

Now, back to writing and calculating and science on paper and computers.

These days, I'm reminded of one of my all-time favorite poems:

WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.                                   "When I heard the learn'd astronomer," Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass Well. Back to it. Love, Allison and Mattie