From clear skies can come darkness, but, nevertheless, through the gloom comes light -- and both occur on this 10th-anniversary memorial -- pondering the passage of time through print, taking care of the day's musical business (finish daily 21st-Century Music work + reconstruction of the March 2006 back issue and emailing this latter to the printer, beginning the composition of Psalm 72 [the last of the Book II settings] and doing the pdf for Stolen Students: I, Op. 25), and
proceeding
up
the slopes of the Sierra
in
increasing
ominous
subtropical
conditions,
with downright downpours alternating in counterpoint to more mellow inclemency all the way to the Tahoe Basin... having been warned as much, but game for anything, and keen to perhaps finish today the tracery of tread from the Pacific Ocean to the Nevada border.
Accessing the route for the first time via 267, efficiently over the Truckee River and through the surreal
Martis
Valley, the clouds begin to disperse to the east; so, head for the
state
line
and
walk
westward to connect with last week's ending at the Tahoe Vista post office at National Road. The way leads from casinos and an out-of-business concern straddling the divide,
downslope
west through
Brockway,
to
soggy
Kings
Beach,
and lights mostly out at the Safeway.
Up to this point today, the collapsible bike has served in good stead for a series of returns after shuttle-hiking, but now, with construction, reach an impressive no-parking zone. There's nothing to do but return to the notion of simple strolling,
and the last stretch to
National and
the adjacent taqueria are accomplished both ways on foot,
checking in with Harriet and Bette on the return course to let them know that the task has been completed.
So there it is: across the state of California -- in day hikes, slowly-but-surely -- over the course of seemingly a decade. What next?
