Dan's Outside

Not My Usual Memorial Day Weekend

For a number of year my talusdancers friends and I have done a traditional Memorial Day Weekend trip to the eastern Sierra. It has almost become a ritual: camp in the desert on BLM land, ski at Mammoth, take in at least one fine dinner in a restaurant and fix another over a fire at our camp, perhaps do a short ski tour out to Minaret summit if conditions permit. This trip has been in many ways the complement to our annual October “last pack trip of the summer” – the Memorial Day weekend trip says, “Good bye winter (skiing) and hello summer (backpacking)” while the October trip says “Good bye summer (backpacking) and hello winter (skiing).”

But not this year.

My friends are out on the “East Side” as I write this, most likely skiing at Mammoth at this very moment. But I’m at home. (And, no, I’m not upset – I’ll be in the Sierra again soon enough… ;-) Little choice really. There is a lot going on here this spring. My daughter is getting married in less than a month! My oldest son is moving back to the area – with a bit of help from me. The end of the spring term is approaching – with the necessity of staying on top of grading all those papers.

May 25, 2008 - Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary