I had to do something today because of the day it was, and I did.
We are in the middle of another heatwave in southern California, and the temperature was projected to reach about 104 or 105 today. It was supposed to be infernal, in other words. I don't know how we used to manage before we had air conditioning, and it breaks my heart to think of all those years when we didn't have it and my dad just put up with the heat. But now, it isn't so bad, unless, of course, we have a power outage.
I got up and got ready and packed my cameras. My hiking backpack weighed more than a Mayan temple, so I had to leave a few things behind. I decided to ditch a few of the film holders. I was taking some for slide film and quite a few for black and white, but I decided to leave the slide film behind. I also cut it down to three holders. It helped. It was still very heavy and uncomfortable, but more manegeable.
Hitting the 15 freeway at 10 a.m. and I was surprised at how little traffic there was. The corn fields beside the freeway at the Limonite exit are beautiful. I will have to return to photograph them, preferably in color.
I found the exits I needed. First, it was the 15, then north to 138, then west to the 2. It was hot that morning, every time I stepped out of the car I could feel the hot air just waiting to smother me. But the drive was beautiful, and I felt so much regret over the fact that I had never driven along the 2 freeway in the San Gabriel mountains before. It is such a rite of passage, and I have heard the news readers talk so often about it, but why hadn't I gone?
First, you see the Mormon rocks. These are magnificent rock projections, but I feel they should have another name. Why baptize them with the name of invaders to this land? They should have an indigenous name that should be uncovered.
Then I continued driving. The road climbed up and up, and the desert trees (I could swear I had been seeing Joshua trees, but with blackened ends) gave way to more mountainous types. I don't know what they are, fir trees or something else, as a southern California we are only trained to recognized palm trees and cactus, but they were different.
The road on the 2 freeway curves here and there, but there was little traffic. I pulled out many times to photograph scenes on the edge of the roadway as we climbed. Need I add, there were clouds all day today. I half expected a sudden summer rainstorm. I was shooting quite a bit with my 4x5.
These are not novel scenes, these are the usual post card scenes that I am sure have been captured much better by others, but these are my scenes, so I feel proud of them. I can't wait to develop the 4x5 black and white negatives, so what I am sharing for now are my cellphone photos.
It felt a little like other birthdays where I tried to go and see new things. I remember my birthday in 2002, when I was in Lawrence, staying at a sordid hotel I did not want to be in, but it was a new experience. At least the drive into Lawrence was novel. I also remember 2014, when I was in Cholula, Mexico, walking up the pyramid and replaying the famous poem, "En el teocalli de Cholula". And I remember experiences during other birthdays, when I stayed close to home, wherever that was, in Los Angeles, in El Cerrito, etc., and did the best I could, trying to go out and see something.
I got to a place called "Inspiration Point", the famous "Inspiration Point" that we hear about and that I used to imagine was a metaphor, but it exists. Of course it does, and of course every other single southern Californian knows the place and has been there several times, starting with when they were teenagers with their first loves and their first cars. Of course, everyone except myself.
There was a young couple sitting there so I grabbed a photo and left, promising myself that I would return. I wanted to go to Islip Saddle, after all, but also wanted to leave them in peace. Here is the photo I took of the place on my way back down, when there was no one there.
I took several photos, not just this one. I was using my 4x5 camera, after all, but I have not developed the photos yet. This was a wonderful place, I hope to see it in better light.
So, I continued driving and pulling off the freeway at the stops to take photos. Plenty of scenes of valleys, plenty of trees, and plenty of big rocks in the highway that forced me to drive around them. I was beginning to suspect that I had driven past my destination when I saw the parking lot labeled Mt. Islip ("eye slip"). But, to my horror, saw a gigantic plume of smoke rising to the south as well. Just what I needed, a forest fire.
There went my plans. My imagination went on overload as I imagined fires closing in on me from all sides as I was roasted in the trees. Think about what that would have done to my film. (Humor). I debated making a quick, curtailed hike, not getting to Mt. Williamson but instead just hiking part of the way until I got to a clear view of valleys and beautiful vistas, but I thought, it can't be healthy to breathe the air, it is all smoke particulates which will surely damage my lungs, nature's own form of Covid, and surely the area will be evacuated soon, and I will be guilty of not using my common sense. Surely, surely, surely, everything told me to get out, to not risk it. Surely it was not meant to be today, I was prepared, but not in these conditions, so I just grabbed a few photos and got ready to leave. In the meantime a group of elderly Asian women, probably Koreans, my senses tell me, arrived in the parking lot and got out and headed up a path to commence their hike. They were hardier (or more foolish) than I was. Look at that angry plume! I shook my head and prepared to go back down.
I found out after I returned home that this fire has been going on during the past week, and is located miles away. It is partially contained, but there are no evacuation orders. Just another mountain fire, albeit one suspected to have been set by arson.
Remember, I am to the north, on the Angeles Crest highway. I think I could have made my hike, but I decided not to risk it. The Ranch2 fire ruined my plan. And to think, all along the drive, I kept thinking that we, me, most of the Mexican American community here in California (and the USA) are people of the ranchos, people whose fathers and grandfathers and ancestors came from poor rural communities where they received no education and had to flee gut-wrenching poverty in Mexico. The ranch made me, a hyper-educated Chicano, flee as well. I guess I can find humor in that.
I'll have to return soon. There are plenty of places to explore along this area, plenty of hikes, plenty of vistas. The thing is, the door is opened for me now that I have done, and I will complete that Mt. Islip hike some day soon. This year, surely. In the meantime, I headed back east along the 2 freeway, and stopped once again at Inspiration Point, but this time, took a side road that had been locked by a gate during my first pass, but was open now. It led up to a skiing resort which is waiting winter in a few months. I drove along those rocky paths and took photos with my 4x5 camera. Here are some cellphone photos.
Same scene, with and without sunlight.
And a scene when I turned around and looked in another direction. This latter photo almost suggests winter, but it was hot still, even at altitude, although much better than what the lowlanders were experiencing. It was about 84 degrees up here, at 3 p.m. Down in my city in the lowlands, it would be 20 degrees higher.
I kept busy taking photos with my 4x5 camera. I must have gone through about 15 frames all in all. I know, I know, I can shoot off 15 frames on a digital camera in 1 minute. More, even. But with a 4x5, you have to carefully load the film, then place the holder, then wait for the scene, then cock the shutter, then shoot, replace the slide, etc. Plus, composition, if you have to work so hard for each shot, you need to take a long damn time to compose each shot, not just shoot like a madman with a digital SLR.
That was it, I headed back for home at about 4 p.m. That was my "birdei" trip for this year, but I will go back soon. I want to try for Chantry Flat for my next trip. That one will involve a river crossing and a waterfall, I think.
Life is so short. We can't waste it regretting what we haven't done, or lamenting things we can't change. The sadness of my dad's passing will always be with me, but we have to continue. I can't change it, and my time will come as well. We have to do things now. That is one thing I am grateful about with photography, back in the late 80s and early 90s it got me out of the apartment to go explore Los Angeles county. Now, I need to keep exploring, and I need to do it by any means necessary, to quote a civil rights leader. I also need to write, and that is the reason why I decided to return to this blog.
We'll see how things go. In the meantime, it is 7:38 and fast darkening outside. My little niece finished her homework involved the concept of neurons. She shooed me away saying I can't help her, it is too hard for me. It makes me happy when she says things like that. I wonder what she will remember of her grandfather, her grandmother, or me.
Time to go. Hoping for more explorations tomorrow.
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