Destination: Hyatt Lake
Starting Location: Ashland Today’s Miles: 23.60
Trip Miles: 1751.30
Ashland (1726.6, 4240) to Hyatt Lake (1750.2, 5070) ascent (1800) descent (600)
After 1700 miles and many attempts at polite conversations with mountain bikers Rolling Thunder took an abbreviated dialog approach.
Rolling Thunder: Do you know this is the PCT and mountain bikes are not allowed? Mountain Biker: Yes.
Rolling Thunder: Then why are you here?
Mountain Biker: I did not expect to see any hikers & if cows are allowed in this area I should be as well.
Rolling Thunder: So basically you are a selfish prick.
At that point the biker turned around and rode off. Tadpole the hippo, Sunny & I were a bit surprised by Thunder’s harsh words but he explained that it had been taking 15 minutes to come to this conclusion during previous encounters &, well, he simply did not want to waste time & thus went directly to the obvious conclusion. For additional impact and intimidation I took out my camera & snapped a photo as the biker rode off talking under his breath.
Foot is pretty sore & I am walking with my shoes completely loosened to take pressure off the instep. I am unsure if this is an injury or a new shoes pressure point issue. Walking slower does help & I will continue that tactic. Vitamin I does nothing for the pain so it is not an inflammation issue. I am going to try Aleeve tomorrow to see if that helps. These types of issues are troublesome & make me nervous as you never know how minor or serious they are & thus I worry a lot.
Today we talked about how nonprofits are governed, what is staff’s role, etc relative to the board’s roles. How do organizations like the Nature Conservancy get so far over an ethical & potentially legal line as they executed questionable conservation easements that provided huge tax advantages while providing no public benefit. Our conclusion, like nearly all subjects that are fully explored, suggested that while there may be black & there may be white most things fall along a grey gradient. We saw a for sale sign during this conversation & I asked the group if it would be appropriate for a nonprofit to help secure an easement or own the property fee title as a way to protect the trail. Everyone agreed this was appropriate & very white. Okay then, how about we buy the property, secure a great trail route through it, and then sell the remainder for a profit & use the proceeds to purchase another parcel that would benefit the trail. Now we are getting a bit grey and the process begins.
Three bee stings today. Sunny got 2 & I got one. Benadryl is my friend and as the histamines began to fire, the antihistamine drug began to buck the production. I got a bit light headed but recovered pretty quickly. Sunny’s hurt like mad, he actually cursed, but he had no reaction.
?
Robert Francisco 