Stairway of sorts ....to heaven

Philosophers say the journey is part of the destination and with Lake Edison, so true.  We have been coming up the road from hell, and don't mean Fresno/Clovis, but the road with single lanes, treacherous drop offs and steep turns for over twenty years.  Some years I scream a lot from acrophobia, but this year I determined to look out across the valleys and down the cliffs and to breathe.  It sort of worked.  From 10,000' at Kaiser Pass, each familiar turn in the road led to another and we began to relax and wonder at the lake level.  Last year it was in front of the bare tree shown in the middle of the photo.  This year, ominous words of "low snow pack" had us concerned.  No matter, it is always blissful when we get here - and a spur of the moment trip from the noise of Marina Del Rey had us back in a small slice of heaven.  Both for us and the dogs.

Mono Creek,  is where I caught my first trout years ago, and not knowing what to do, just got all female and kept asking what do I do.  Ian, who was along with little  Ali, dryly suggested I reel it in and not having the right equipment he wrapped it in a dry diaper.  Suggested wisdom is to allow the bait to run down the river and slowly reel it in.  This year, I fell in, trying to get to my favorite spot near a deep area where I have always found trout in the past.  That gave the six, yes, six, guys who were crowding my favorite site some good ammunition about women.  The camp ground is one of our favorites, off the main road - but horrors, the rough areas had been smoothed out and the place was crowded.  I think the six guys spent all their time untangling their lines.  The sense of freedom and remoteness has been mitigated with concrete dust to level  around the larger boulders in the road.  Anybody can go there now.  I am not good at sharing secret spots.

One of the things that is a huge challenge to a painter is to paint moving water and get it to look translucent.  This small treasure of fish hole is upstream and we saw a woman trying to fish it.  I had visions of tangled lines when trying to reel in anything.  I didn't want to fish it, and thought it would make a fine watercolor.  Besides, after falling and having a tough time getting out of the current, wet and cold meant a warm shower and wine back at camp.
Everytime we leave here, we wonder if we will ever return.  Our lifestyle is such that no matter where we go, this place calls us.  We were supposed to be in in Panama at this time, suffering in heat and bugs.  This year, we were blessed with family "stuff" and were able to make the wild trek back to this beloved place.  Thank God.