Yosemite chance meeting and the Freedom of the outdoors

Yosemite National Park



While riding through Yosemite just to get to Nevada as quick as possible after a two weeks in Carmel, California, I had to stop for a minute and think about where I was and the natural beauty I would miss if I did the quick commute across this Yosemite National Park. I was told by a knowledgable individual in Mariposa, CA that I could ride through in 3 hours. It took me 8 1/2 and I am sure there were magnificent views and hiking trails I would have to see another time.

What I did not miss was a family who was about to have lunch in a picnic area as I was about to head back out. We met. We talked. They invited me to join them for lunch and I should have accepted, but I was on a mission and allowed myself a given number of stops and miles for this day's travel.

Recently, I recieved the following email:

To:

Subject: Glad to meet you in Yosemite National park...

Dear Ken,

My family and I met you briefly at the picnic grounds in Yosemite as you were getting ready to roll on. We chatted for a bit about your freedom adventure and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. What a glorious adventure. What freedom just to be able to do that.

At one time in my semi-inglorious college life I dropped out of school and went to work on a Great Lakes freighter. After a season on that boat I realized that a good education wasn't such a bad thing to have --- but it was that "freedom" to break out of the ordinary and do something different that charged my life forever.

I have started to spend time in your blog and I am hooked. I can't wait to see it on film.

Thank you for helping me to think about our freedom, in this troubled land, where it so easy to become very pessimistic.

Shalom,

Garner


This is a prime example of how so many people I have met along the way are expressing their feelings about our troubled country and where we are headed. Freedom? What does it mean to you?

El Capitan

This picture was snapped on a walking bridge across this shallow stream. I believe this is where I met Garner and family.

Bridal Veil Falls are not spitting volumes of water as Niagara, but so spectacular due to the surounding jagged rock formations and the fatc that you are allowed to walk right up to the base. I opted out of that.

Yosemite boasts natural rocks with lines to match almost any shape, even Mozi!

Mozi on ice?

The feeling is a mixture of pleasure and moments of terror to some as you ride through a tunnel as this in a mountain side, not knowing what is waiting ahead.

To me, it is all pleasure.


Mozi on...