Lazarow World-Hike-About

Irrational exuberance from our editor We arrived in San Francisco after spending Shabbos in Merced, California. Now where is that town you might ask. It's about 90 miles west of the great Yosemite National Park. The city is quite depressed businesswise, if the number of empty buildings may be considered a good indication of activity. In the outlying areas, we have noticed over the years how things have changed. Many of the younger generation portray the same characteristics of their counterparts in the big cities. What do we mean by his? For starters, we should have invested in tattoo parlors—who needs gold? We were in the laundry on Sunday morning before heading to meet our son, Robbie. We had the distinction of being the only English speakers in a rather crowded area. We ran into technical difficulties and were touched when not one but three men rushed to help us with the problem. In a world beset with so many issues, the kindness of strangers never ceases to move us. We ...

What's in a name? A pine grows from the clouds in an area filled with Jeffrey Pines Maybe that's what the 'roadway to heaven' looks like Jenni below peak, waiting to be enveloped by beautiful clouds Even a strong editor can be overcome with colds and sore throats. We took a break on Wednesday after the tough Mount Lukens climb of the previous day. Jenni was nearly ready by Thursday but the original idea of climbing Los Angeles’ highest had to be shelved—hopefully, remaining for the way back from Seattle. Thinking of Washington, we have a plane to catch in two weeks and we are a mere two hours north of San Diego—leaving a further twenty to go plus drives to and from hikes. We hope we make the plane at this rate and see Gavin before then. The hike was quite a distance from Pasadena, our base. Each time we travel on mountain roads, we salute the designers, engineers and builders—it is truly a marvel to macadamize paths to enable vehicles to rise thousands of f...

Past the half-way mark, the sights like this one, were most impressive. A little fire damage fore For most of the ascent, 'ghost' like mountains looked down upon us until we approached the summit Overpowering, intimidating but wonderful Our editor discovered the mountain, actually that happened a long time ago; we mean to say while in San Diego she identified it from a book. The problem, she pointed out, is that to reach the summit we would have to gain 3,300 feet. In an unusual explanation for her, she said it should take 2.5 hours to reach the top—a gain of 1,320 feet per hour. We were thinking at the time: ‘What’s the rush? We’ll take another few hours, if need be’. Ha! The valley was far below, the edges exhilarating, the mountain across the way, massive Blue flower 'power' at the higher altitude, red lower down To put things in perspective, we should mention that anytime we can circumvent, avoid or ignore the Los Angeles area, we will do so....

Set out below is a slideshow of some highlights from hike-about 10: Scroll down and click on 'start' button to view:

Framed photo of San Jacinto Peak from Black Mountain summit. We stood on that peak during December (may we humbly admit) Our 'humble admission': San Jacinto last December Jenni stands straight after a mean and strenuous climb. She was so hot she cut off her sleeves. (see above) We knew it was going to be steep. Truth be told, we like it that way. Man, this was one tough climb. From the commencement or as the locals like to say: the get-go, the trail went straight up. The problem is that to get to the peak, one has to follow the path; there is no negotiation. As our editor often remarks, she can tell how steep a climb is from the return because her brakes tend to fail down these treacherous paths. We are much clearer: The perspiration on the brow and pain in the muscles on the ascent are sufficient indication. Rocking before Mount Gorgonio, monster mountain between the cracks There is a secret to Black Mountain. At the peak, a fire lookout tower stands proud...