Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Life...a beautiful choice.

I was unable to be honest and open about my thoughts and feelings through the duration my entire trip. I started Magical Wonderfulness to be able to share the scenery with everyone that was excited for my trip west. The only person I was able to be comfortable enough with to be open and honest with is the only person I am completely incapable of getting in touch with ever again. By sharing the beautiful scenery and the story that went along with the pictures I felt I could open up at least a little. The blog was a way to vent some of my feelings and share that I was alive and alright. I have lost the ability to talk to some of my closest friends, I have been discouraged, threatened, arrested, and been talked to like I am the most terrible person alive from this. I did not intend to worry, anger, sadden, manipulate, or guilt anyone, and if I did this was not my intention.


I never wanted my life to come to this. At a point when I could have changed, I chose to ignore my problems. My life was no longer just about myself, and choosing not to accept that I had a problem hurt the person that I love. I compounded the problem and have to accept responsibility for my actions. My reason for leaving was quite clear. My trip itself has opened my eyes for better and for worse and the information I have learned has made my decision much simpler. I had a moment of peace when accepting the decision of the girl I love to no longer be in contact, and that lapse has made me lose all meaning. I am relinquishing contact with everyone I have ever had known in my life. My reliance on other people has come to the point that I can no longer function and the torment I put myself through can not be dealt with as long as I have constant reminders of what I have lost. I miss Geode too much, I miss Dinosaur too much, I miss Ani too much. I decided to end my trip in Yosemite National Park, as this is the only place I had intended to head to in the first place. My motivation to keep in touch and let others experience my journey through Magical Wonderfulness kept me from my goal for a while longer but the journey is over. Magical Wonderfulness was about my trip and is no longer necessary as my trip is over. To the best of my abilities I never intend to come back, and if by chance I do, I apologize. I wish you all the best in your endeavors and hope you have the most meaningful life.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

I will no longer be trippin'.

The foothills of the Sierra Nevada have sharp spikes of rock coming out of the hills. Pretty amazing looking.

I watched the light fade over El Capitan.


The still water creates such a clear reflection of the surrounding landscapes.



The light came and went from the clouds, and the fog moved in and out.

El Capitan caught the sunsets beautiful warm tones.

The light faded over everything and let just the highest cliffs catch the light. Another day in the books.

The Mist Trail was my next adventure. Sadly I wasn't able to take the trail up to the top of Half Dome because the cables enabling hikers to ascend to the top are down in the winter.

The water everywhere is beautifully clear.

A bridge that crossed the water was a viewing point for the waterfall. It seemed a lot of hikers just got to this point and turned back after getting a few quick shots. It was funny to see people get to the bridge and take photos of themselves, then they would walk a few steps more and actually see the waterfall.

The surrounding cliffs were beautiful.

Nevada and Vernal Falls were visible from the trail. When in the higher elevations the snow hadn't melted and was packed from traffic from hikers. This created an adventure. It was like a slide on the way down. I felt like I threw out my back a few times trying to catch my balance.

Vernal Falls was beautiful from across the valley. The trail down was even more icy.

The sheer granite without any vegetation is a wonderful gray.

The rock in the streambed was completely flat. It did look inviting to explore even though it was cold, and many signs warned of how dangerous that would be.

Emerald Pool was iced over of course.

The bridge is in view from the falls. I love seeing how far I have hiked.

The thunder echoed off the walls of the valley.

Below the falls the black rocks covered in white snow.

Looking back up to the icy trail that I now had to climb up intimidated me a bit. I had to pick up a sturdy pine branch to hike with. I would have busted my ass quite a few times if I had not.

I was going to see the sequoia groves on Yosemite before I left the park again, but of course the darkness fell before I got the chance.

As soon as I left out of 120 i remembered that I promised myself that I wouldn't take this way out. This road is so damn winding. A lovely terribly thick fog was present as well, yay.

Seeing more deer just standing by the roadside woke me bit more. At this point my trip is over.

When I Tried to Give The Deer a York Peppermint Patty, She Snubbed Her Nose. I'm Just Sayin

The mild winter in the Sierra Nevada make sleeping a lot more comfortable. I have it down to a science of where to sleep in both urban and rural areas and not be bothered. Turnouts in the mountains, and near schools in the towns.


The landscape was different again in the valley.

It was early enough for the deer to be visible.

So I was told that a recent death in the park was due to a deer being fed by a child. Cars slammed on their brakes to get a glimpse of the deer, and I noticed them too, but didn't flail to look at them. I stood on a rock near a path next to where the deer were and waited and watched the mother and 2 fawn for a while. This human family went like this: Lets stand here, wait no lets get closer. That wasn't close enough and the kids were freaking out crying either because they were scared or they wanted to pet them. So the husband had the bright idea to go around them and move towards them to drive them closer to the kids...ugh. Now it would have been a delight to see the man get racked or something, but the mother might have went ape shit and whipped out her nine. I told them that it illegal to approach and harass the wildlife.

The meadows allow the cliffs all around to be enjoyed.

The sun beamed down and lit everything dramatically.



Yosemite Falls was the goal for today. I headed for the trail coming through the meadow.


Tucked away from sght but right near the shuttle stop were two more deer relaxing.

The oaks remind me of Indiana. More appropriately NW Indiana since I visited there so much for what WAS my extended family.

Working my way up a very winding path up the cliff I glanced back to see the valley get further and further away.


Looking back to where I had come up didn't look as rigorous as it actually was.


I probably notice it more because natural versus artificial has always been a fascination for me, but what looked like insulators for power lines were in the trees every so often.

Half Dome came and went my whole visit to the valley. Sometimes it was clear all day, and other days I could not see it at all.

My first view of the falls from the trail. The ice pack from the spray was really tall at the base and I would have very much liked to hike and see it, but it was passed 4 so it was getting dark. I started to head back and boy was i glad that I had turned back when I did.

The sunset shining onto Half Dome onto the clouds set them on fire.

The was able to see the fog slowly roll into the valley as it got darker and colder.


The valley before had maybe one tiny bit of fog. It was gorgeously eery.

When I started back it just getting dark but the brush below covered the rocky path and was very dark already. I could faintly see the light colored stones against the dark soil and stepped as carefully as I could, but the darkness took over and I had to trust my legs.

By the time that I got off of the trail it was pitch black. It was nice to almost alone in the valley, all but headlights shining in my face bouncing off the fog

For those of you I practiced my sugar pick up line on, I've never used it, I found this superior sugar packet.

Vegetarian lasagna was not bad at all. The closest sizable town is Mariposa over and hour away, so I checked the prices at a hotel right outside the park, $175 screw that, but I was hungry for somethin other than chips and crackers. The hotel restaurant was the kind of place that the visibly snubbed me as I entered, but it wasn't ritzy at all, just expensive. So you know about my bad water experience out of Mariposa, this place had well water and the Coke was the best freaking thing ever. I have always looked more forward to what I am drinking at a meal than what the food is, and this Coke was great. I told the waiter about my Coke orgasm and he expressed that their water came from a spring and that Mariposa treated their water with a lot of chlorine. That's why I had vomit on my lips, tasty.

I ended up at the same turnout I had slept at the night before and this time I was sharing my quarters with the locals. Next time you're zooming down a country road at night think of this: the deer are waiting for you right next to the roadside.

My beard is quite longer than I'm used to. I am almost finished with my trip, and that leads me the final posts and me riding off into the sunset.