John & Anne Wiley

2014/04/09

Mountain Memories

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 05:50

I’ve lived in snowy mountainous areas, and hiked into the wild areas of Yosemite. But it’s been a long time. So seeing places like this gets me wondering who’s been there lately.

5195 Glacial Ground

5195 Glacial Ground

How many people had made the arduous climb to this smooth stone between the glacier’s retreat and the time of John Muir? How many since? Any this year yet? Are there any established trails? This zoom pic from high and far away makes the haze look far worse than it did in person, but I do hope to fly there some day when the air is crystal clear.

5207 Yosemite Valley

5207 Yosemite Valley

So many of our most magnificent parks suffer from smog, yet still offer such a healing place to Be. Far outside the park are places like this frozen meadow.

5192 Frozen Meadow

5192 Frozen Meadow

When the distant musical hum of our engine had passed, what sounds wafted across this theater among the trees? Are those human footprints I see that crunched in the snow fallen only a couple of days before, so high and far from the beaten track in the healing embrace of nature?

2014/04/07

First Park

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 06:59

The idea of a nature park began here in California, when John Muir helped to protect the area now known as Yosemite. All these many years later, it’s still beautiful both from the ground and from the air. We drove in from Pine Mountain Lake today with my sweet aunt, and then flew over it on the way home. The noonish drive offered clearer air, and brighter light for these first two pix.

5101 Yosemite Intro

5101 Yosemite Intro

There are some great views on the drive in, but this first glimpse up close and personal that like a few other drivers I stopped and ran back to snap it. Then there was this other spectacle across the valley.

5165 Spectacle

5165 Spectacle

A few hours later we were there again as sunset approached, lighting the rocks around Bridal Veil Falls in a different hue.

5209 Lifted Veil

5209 Lifted Veil

Though the haze had increased and we were much further away to preserve quiet in the valley, seeing it all again from the air lifted the veil of isolation between points. We savored the day’s delights for the whole beautiful two hour flight home to SB. I wish we could share a pic of the whole breathtaking Yosemite aerial panorama with you!

2014/04/05

Fly Over

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 18:48

We learned the difference between a fly-in and a fly-out: A fly-in is where people fly their assorted collection of people and airplanes to a destination. An example of a fly-out is where several airplane loads of people flew to the Sierra foothills for much merriment at Lynne and Ken’s unusual piece of paradise. Since we had Tripp parked at Oakland for our Whimsy at Mt. Tam. & SF, we flew over to join the gang. On the way I liked this scene of an open shelter in the rolling green hills. In such an overload of green hues, my eye shelters on that rusty red roof.

4798 Shelter In Green

4798 Shelter In Green

Then on to Pine Mountain Lake (E45), where people have built their dream homes with two “garages” each: one for their car(s) and one for their plane(s). Several of the roads double as taxiways residents use for driving to town or getting their airplanes to and from the runway. These are happy aviators, and we’re very happy to join them.

4823 Pine Mountain Airpark

4823 Pine Mountain Airpark

2014/03/31

Whimsy

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — Anne @ 04:03

Sometimes in life, a whimsy invites the adventurous. Today we accepted the invitation, and a couple of hours ago we saw this.

3998 Old Gold

3998 Old Gold

With good weather today and rain hopes in the week ahead, we’re glad. Now settling for the nite and tomorrow…

 

 

2014/03/29

Temptation

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 22:36

This first pic shows a temptation pilots see often, and the last pic in this post shows something that adds to it in this particular spot just as other spots often have their own special cases.

1567 Teasing Tripp

1567 Teasing Tripp

It’s as if Tripp’s cousin here is saying, “I’m happy to be here, but you’re not invited.” But of course the plane’s not saying that. That message is spelled out in the little letter “R” at the top-left. That means despite looking so tempting this is a Restricted landing strip, only to be used by invitation or in emergencies. Flying over such spots, a few times friends have jokingly asked, “Doesn’t the engine sound a little rough to you?” But pilots respect the privacy of private airstrips, and have even dreamed of one day having one though with our meager funds that’s never going to happen. So instead I just take it all in from a respectful distance, and dream of living in a place like this just minutes by air from Santa Barbara.

1559 Airstrip Owner

1559 Airstrip Owner

The beautiful grass strip where Tripp’s cousin is parked, is just off the bottom-right end of this pic. There’s an old building that looks like a church and/or schoolhouse with a cemetery, so this was probably at one time a small town. It’s out on Santa Cruz Island, and across a ridge to the North is this smaller settlement that’s presumably related.

1561 North Shore Dock

1561 North Shore Dock

As I said, many private and Restricted airports have additional temptations nearby. In this case, not just the little communities and the many hiking trails. There are also many sea caves nearby on the South shore of the island where raging storms carve the shore and giant waves nibble at the feet of tall cliffs.

1577 South Shore Cave

1577 South Shore Cave

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