For a second year we are back to work as Camp Hosts at San Elijo State Beach and tomorrow begins the big work week. Imagine if you will a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean at one of the best surfing spots on the West Coast and that is where our RV sits. With near perfect temps, pounding surf to lull you to sleep at night, and intoxicating sea air, how can this be called work? Yes, what we do classifies as work, but there is plenty of time for play and if we don’t get more than our fair share of exercise, shame on us. We literally can walk or bike most any place we need to go, unless of course we want to head a few miles south to do more San Diego exploring, and we will be doing plenty of that.
For now I will leave you with a small sampling of the sights right outside our door:
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“And now my comrades all are gone; naught remains to toast. They have left me here in my misery, like some poor wandering ghost.” ~ unknown
1927 Dodge Graham sitting next to Bodie’s gas station
Bodie, the best preserved ghost town in California, perhaps even in the country, was once a bustling gold-mining town, but soon became the town that man could neither tame nor sustain, as you will soon see.
Approximately 75 miles southeast of Bridgeport, at an elevation of roughly 8400 feet, Bodie began her existence in 1859 after prospector W. S. Bodey discovered gold near Bodie Bluff. Sadly he did not have the chance to see his namesake erected, as he lost his life in a blizzard before the town’s foundation was laid, or so the story goes. And no, I did not misspell Bodey’s last name. Credit for the town’s name being spelled differently will have to go to the painter who erected the “Bodie Stables” sign.
Long, bumpy, dusty road leading into Bodie
As we have read in the history annals, times were tough back then, and Bodie was no exception, the extreme temperatures being one of the major obstacles – blazing hot in the summer, well below zero in the winter, with strong winds whipping across the plains. If that were not enough reason to label life as challenging, just walking across Main Street could shorten your life, or at a minimum cause a debilitating injury thanks to the 65 saloons lining this mile-long street in her heyday. Yep, Bodie was about as wild and lawless as they come. Barroom brawls, shootouts, robberies and murders were commonplace and the red light district and opium dens were plentiful, debauchery enough to spread around!
Methodist churchSchoolhouseKitchen in “arrested decay”
Lest you think that this was all Bodie had going for it, not so. At its peak, with about 10,000 residents, 2000 buildings in town, and the Standard Consolidated Mine running at full tilt, Bodie was a town of many amenities – a Wells Fargo bank, four fire stations, a railroad, several newspapers, miner’s union, and one jail (probably could have used a few more of these). Telegraph lines connected Bodie with Bridgeport and Genoa, Nevada. Life looked promising or did it?
Standard Consolidated Mine
As early as 1880, when mining booms began developing in Butte, Montana, Tombstone, Arizona, and parts of Utah, the men of Bodie began to be lured away and Bodie’s reputation for being a rough-and-tumble booze-swilling town settled into that of a family community, with schools and two churches being erected. The Methodist Church still stands today and, should you have a mind to be wed in this ghost town, that can be accommodated.
Lovely cornices still remainJ. S. Cain residence
Bodie enjoyed a brief revival until ~1912, which was when the last newspaper was printed and the Standard Consolidated Mine followed the winding down of the town by closing its shafts in 1913. The hardiest of souls stayed on through most of the 20th century.
Wells Fargo bank vaultMachine shop
Enter James S. Cain, a man intent on resurrecting Bodie. He bought up much of the land around town but even this could not save her so instead he turned his attention to hiring caretakers to ensure Bodie’s buildings were not vandalized. Although only ~5% of the town’s buildings remain, his efforts may have had an impact in salvaging these. Bodie could now be classified as the “real deal” Wild West gold-rush ghost town.
Peek into my windowBodie hillside
Today Bodie is maintained by the California State Parks system. Self-guided tours allow you to peek into windows and walk through some of the buildings, which remain intact just as they were left, stocked with goods and personal family items, all in a state of “arrested decay“. Wander into the Bodie Museum/Visitor Center and you will find many interesting artifacts, as well as a t-shirt you can buy that reads “Goodbye God, I’m going to Bodie”. Legend has it that these very words were found in a young girl’s diary whose family moved her from San Francisco to Bodie.
Common homestead
I have read that there is still as much gold sitting underneath Bodie as has been removed. Perhaps time for a resurrection? Probably not as this is the town that man could neither tame nor sustain.
View of Bodie from cemetery
Although we are no longer on our road trip and will be wintering in Southern California, I will be creating some posts from our past adventures, a little blast from the past.
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As I walk along the beach in the early morning, all alone save for a few joggers, my mind goes to the issue of compassion. It seems as long as I can remember, this is a trait that I could embrace. The only piece missing for me at times was to come from a place of compassion for myself. During those times when I could not find it within myself to lovingly embrace me, it seems I expended all my energy giving it to others and ended up drained, feeling empty.
I once felt that putting me first was an act of selfishness but I have found that this could not be further from the truth. When I embrace myself, telling me I am good, kind and deserving of love, it seems my heart fills to the brim and I have so much to offer others, whether it be a merely a smile, hug, or a warm thought.
So why is it that some people we meet don’t seem to have the compassion “gene”? Our culture, experiences, traumas, our parents’ traumas, etc. all cause us to approach life differently. Is compassion lost to those who have had these different experiences? I believe compassion can be taught and we can be our own teacher.
Practicing mindfulness, I believe, is the first step to finding our compassion mojo. Breath-by-breath, in a non-judgmental way, we could begin by sending out a blessing to those we care about, then on from there to those we struggle with, and end with a blessing for ourselves. Many meditation mantras are available or you can use your own words. This is one approach and may be the easiest, as it is natural to send out positive energy to those we already care about, but not so easy to do so for more challenging folks and sometimes the most difficult to send the love back to ourselves. Starting today, how about we all give ourselves a big hug first, knowing that we are good and kind, worthy of the love we give to others, then continue on to embrace those who we may see as different. What have we got to lose? 🙂
We have bid a sad farewell to the Sierra Nevadas and moved on from the Alabama Hills due to the threat of a high-wind warning. Our original plans were to leave a few days hence anyway, so we thought erring on the side of caution was prudent for us. Our friends Nina and Paul had plans to stay another week, so hopefully the high winds bypassed the Alabamas and we will all be treated instead to some of Nina’s fabulous photography of snow-capped peaks in an upcoming post.
All four of us had planned a second hike before our departure, sadly not to be, but fortunately we did hike the Whitney Portal Trail to Lone Pine Lake, which was spectacular for viewing soaring granite walls, stunning fall colors, and a lovely lake at the end. It was rather exciting to think that we were trekking up the same trail that those summiting Mount Whitney hike, although our journey was a much abbreviated version – 2.5 miles vs. 13 miles to the summit.
The gang headin’ out!Stunning fall colors racing up the canyon
Whitney Portal is one of the busiest trailheads in the Sierra Nevadas and is most often hiked by those going the full distance. Our 5-miler round-trip began at 8365 feet with a 1500 foot elevation gain to Lone Pine Lake, a far cry from the 6100 foot gain required to summit. It is a well-maintained trail and a hike that we highly recommend if you are in the area.
Terry enjoying an amazing view to the desert floor below
Although our time here was cut short, we soaked in a lot of natural beauty and enjoyed a breathtaking hike, sharing some good times with friends along the way. It’s no wonder we are bidding a sad farewell to this magical place.
Lenticular cloud above the Alabama Hills ~ “Sierra Wave”
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We are on our first big “boondocking” adventure, thanks to RV buddies Nina and Paul. They slowly indoctrinated us at June Lake where we were dry-camping but now it is the real deal, truly goin’ naked out on BLM land. I must say it is invigorating, just like running around naked in the wilderness would feel, and now that I mention it, we could definitely traipse through the desert au natural if the mood hit as campers are few and far between here.
First happy hour
Our location, chosen by none other than the lovely RV bloggess Nina, is in the Owens Valley just west of Lone Pine, CA in the Alabama Hills. If you have never been, this place seems a bit otherworldly. Technically the Alabamas are part of the Sierra Nevada Mountains but considered more a range of hills and they look nothing like the Sierras.
Sunrise in the Alabama Hills
The Sierras stand as tall, rugged granite peaks all around us, with Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states towering above them all at 14,505 feet. The Alabamas, however, although about the same age as the Sierras, roughly 150 million years old (give or take a few million years), are a volcanic rock that has been weathered over millions of years to resemble large potato-shaped boulders that have been turned on their ends. It is believed that the same cataclysmic events shaped both the Sierras and the Alabamas. A millennia of driving winds and snow are the tools that sculpted the unusual shaped granite boulders that are now the Alabama Hills, strewn throughout this desert landscape.
Rugged Mt Whitney seen through Mobius Arch
Approximately 300 arches dot these 30,000 acres of Alabama Hills, the most famous being the Mobius Arch, which is a favorite of photographers. If you place yourself just right, you are able to capture Mt. Whitney within this lovely curved arch. The trail to the arch is a short ¼ mile hike and from there you are free to explore the many unusual boulder pilings against a backdrop of granite peaks. It is important to keep your bearings out here as the piles of boulders all begin to look alike after a time. I must admit to getting a bit turned around and coming out at a completely different location than I had entered but was still able to find my way back home.
With landscape this otherworldly, you gotta know that something special has happened here, right? Heck, the name alone had me wondering why ‘Alabama Hills’ in the middle of California? First, let’s get that answer out of the way. The Alabama Hills were named for the Civil War Confederate warship, USS Alabama. It seems there were a few wayward prospectors wandering them thar hills who were sympathizers to the Confederate cause. They named these hills and it stuck!
Alabama Hills beautyGeological changes at their finest
Probably what this area is most noted for is the 150+ movies and roughly a dozen television shows that were filmed here, most notably old Western movie productions, dating back to the early 1920’s. A few of the more notable Western films include Gunga Din, How the West Was Won, Rawhide, Bad Day at Black Rock and a few non-Westerns filmed here were Gladiator, Iron Man, and Star Trek Generations. A few of the old television productions, for those of you who can remember (I was a wee bit too young!) were Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, and The Gene Autry Show.
Lone Pine Film Museum
If you tour the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center at the south end of Lone Pine, and you should because it is very well done, you can pick up a booklet that will take you through a self-guided tour of the Alabama Hills movie filming locations. As long as you are in the area, a stop by the Beverly and Jim Rogers Museum of Lone Pine Film History is pretty fascinating as well. We discovered shortly after flipping through the Movie Road tour guide that our rigs are situated at the Rawhide movie Grave Site. Does Nina know how to pick a site, or what?!
I have lots more to share about this amazing area, along with a couple fabulous hikes, which I will do in subsequent posts, provided my Internet connectivity cooperates. We are out in the boonies, you know! Although it hasn’t stopped those techie engineers Nina and Paul from blogging away!
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Paint Your Landscape 