Los Padres NF, Silver Peak Wilderness, 2017

The time had finally come. My backpacking friend had come in from overseas and, this year, the weather was great, coastal redwoods were totally in order! After a night in Cambria of drinkng moonshine and exposing unwanted truths we woke up to hit the trail.

The Mud Creek slide has closd the PCH for a long time, but I did not know exactly where. Caltrans has closed the road further south of the trailhead where I wanted to go. But there's another access point, so we park and proceed to hike on in. I'm so heavy the going is slow, but what wonder: the road closure keeps all the traffic away except the trucks barreling humongous rocks to the slide. Instead of RVs and Harleys we are greeted by coastal ridges in silence with just crashing waves on the rocky points guiding us along.

The water in the swimming hole at Villa Creek is damn cold, but I get in for a bit, wishing a saun was closeby instead.

Life is changing, for better or for worse, and we accept it and move along the path living the ramifications of our actions, some choices, come not. May they always lead me here, into the mountains, where laughter, sadness and solitude blend together into an experience of transcendence upon which we can stand and reach higher and stretch to reach the divine.

The Photographs

Picutres were from the a900 system with the 24-70 lens.

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