Enlightening Experiences

[sparky]

"A wave is the whole ocean is doing in the same way that YOU are what the whole universe is doing"
Alan Watts

That feeling of connecting, and the depth of it.....I feel LMBSGV described it quite well....of how traveling through the mountains while alone lets us experience who we really should be, in integral part of nature,as we are nature itself.

I like this video

[giantbrookie]

Reading Giantbrookie's post also reminded me (and maybe the case with him) that it was those early years rambling around in the Sierra that stoked my interest in geology, and that for sure has been a life-changing experience. That I've been able to make a living doing something that I love, and that it also (as it has with GB) involved doing field work in the Sierra has been extremely gratifying. I reagrd this as a spiritual dimension of sorts.
Specifically, I remember as a youngster, maybe 12 years old, out hiking with my Dad near our cabin in Hermit Valley (Ebbetts Pass area). As we were walking up the trail in an area of bedrock exposure, I noticed that we had crossed over into a very different looking type of 'granite.' We walked back down the trail and found the place where the two types of granite were in direct contact with each other. We both kind of marveled at that, and didn't really know what to make of it. But it sparked an interest in noticing these kinds of things and you can see where that went....

OK, of course there is a geologic connection, too, although my first memorable geologic experience was in 1967 at the age of 8 on a Sierra Club hike to Pacheco Peak in the Diablo Range, rather than the High Sierra. Somewhere on the trip, I sat down, exhausted as usual, at a rest stop. You know how these things go for the slow ones. The group is getting up and starting to hike at about the time you catch up. Anyhow something in the pile of rocks I was sitting on caught my eye. It turned out to be this beautiful surface studded with inch long, terminated quartz crystals. It was probably a vein in the Franciscan sandstone that had cracked in half. Folks on the trip were mightily impressed with my specimen. Little did I know that a young (would have been 36 then) professor at UCLA, Gary Ernst, was doing some serious research on the metamorphic minerals in those sandstones at that time. This research was part of one of the most famous geologic breakthroughs--the connection between the process of subduction and metamorphic minerals that form at high pressure but low temperature--that Ernst published in 1970. I had no idea that years down the road, I'd become a geology major, and, as I moved on to grad school, that Ernst would become one of my greatest heroes, and that the signature of my own research would be the Franciscan and subduction processes. That specimen still occupies an honored place in my rock collection. I told this story to Gary and others at his 80th birthday celebration back in December 2011. He's still busy as ever, and he's co-convening a session with me at this upcoming meeting (Geological Society of America Cordilleran Section) I'm chairing in Fresno in May. In one of the events associated with that meeting, he will also be going on a two-day Franciscan field trip that I will be lead that begins with a stop to look at rocks in the Diablo Range.

[offpump]

I'm relatively new to HST and have been shy to post, being that I'm still a greenhorn when it comes to hiking and camping experiences.
In January, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the Sierras by someone who's passion for the outdoors is unlike anyone I have ever encountered. Not only is his enthusiasm infectious, it's inspiring.
He took me to Yosemite for the day and introduced me to all of his favorite spots. Yosemite blanketed in snow is truly magical...it was like stepping into Narnia. We hiked around for the better part of the day.
Sitting in a snow covered meadow, facing Horse Tail Falls, eating hot dogs fresh from his tiny, portable Grill and drinking beer that we iced in the snow was simply, the best meal I've ever shared with someone.
I realized the sheer simplicity of that moment and the intimacy of sharing a place so beloved are luxuries that continuously escape me in my every day life. Time for some changes...

[maverick]

Hi Offpump,

Welcome to HST! Thank you for sharing you experience with us! Hope you will
share many more of them with this great Sierra loving community in the future.

[xNateX]

There's a lot of beauty in the Sierra, the kind that takes your breath away.

Perhaps the purpose of life is to be where Life is most beautiful, and to share it.