Amusement, Mountain Style

One of Benjamin's favorite things to do in the woods was to play with pine cones. He was fascinated by them. And they were EVERYWHERE.

When he learned the word for them he repeated it rapidly, again and again and again...and now Mama is being redundant, but, really, you must experience just how repetitive it was. And when he repeated the word quickly it came out like...

"pankopankopankopankopankopanko pankopankopankopankopankopankopanko pankopankopankopankopankopankopankopanko."

It did, I promise.

He also had fun finding public restrooms in remote places. He had to run up to the doors and try the handles.
We found Mama's childhood Weeble set - the kind designed like Sesame Street before Elmo came along. Before it got sanitized. Poor Benjamin. In this photo he was so exhausted from the day that he couldn't break his stare, or wouldn't break it for anything.


And this, THIS is the coolest teepee for a kid that Mama has seen. A neighbor handed it down to Benjamin and Mama was waiting for the perfect time to set it up. Well, the cabin trip was the perfect time and just look at how much fun he had!


Inside, Benjamin kept a handmade stuffed goose, Mandy and Jenny dolls, his "yammy" (lamby), a few books, his new race car, a blanket for cushioning, and occasionally, the Weebles. He would go inside the tent and play for a good hour at a time.

Sublime, Divine Beauty

The John Muir Wilderness and part of the Pacific Crest trail run through the mountains surrounding the family cabin. Our day hikes took us into these areas.



For most of our hikes, Benjamin rode in the carrier, but a few times we took him out, at his request, and walked at a toddler's pace. It made both The Mama and The Papa greatly anticipate the day when we could take him on his first overnight backpacking trip.


The Mama thinks she remembers her first trip being two night long in the Cuyamacas. Ants rained down from the trees onto their tent one night, and Mama earned her Sierra cup (the aluminum cup with a hook-handle that hangs off the backpack). She carried her own backpack. She was, maybe, in second grade. (Maybe. The memory is a little unreliable these days. Does The Grandma or Grandpa remember?)




The terrain in the Sierras changes drastically from one mile to another. One might walk through a bristlecone pine forest only to have it break open into a grassy meadow filled with Indian paintbrushes, irises, lupine bells and baby evergreens. There, a tiny, meandering creek often carves out a delicate haven for native brown trout only four inches long. It's fairytale-like, really.

One might possibly encounter a grove of aspen trees - trees which do not reproduce by dropping seeds, but by sending out long roots that sprout a new tree making aspen forests incredibly dense.




One might then walk along a rocky ridge, as we did at Piute Pass, and see on one side, a steep drop off into a valley or maybe a waterfall, and on the other side, witness high orange cliffs and lonely rock faces.

In the midst of all this beauty, it seems that Benjamin caught a glimpse of the Divine. Two times, on separate hikes, we came upon a valley or a lake and as we looked down to admire the view, he shouted, "Amen...amen, amen, amen!"

Now. We are not of the Baptist or Pentecostal tradition, so exuberant affirmations of "amen" are not something he learned from us. I do not even know if he knew what he was saying - but I'm going to pretend he did.

For what is more of a prayer, more of a show of praise to the Creator than the raw and powerful beauty of wild, untamed nature? Yes, it is a prayer that speaks to our hearts and it is good and right to respond with nothing more than an "amen" from the depths of our being. Thank you, Benjamin, for saying it perfectly.

Amen.

Happy Nature Boy

If this kid were Native American, his name would be "Plays With Dirt."

Undoubtedly.

Fish Tales

The Papa did a lot of fishing on our trip to the Sierras. His Father's Day gift was a pole and some gear, so he was ready to go.

Much of the time, Little P rode on Mama's back. But on occasion, he accompanied The Papa to the edge of the stream.

At this spot, Little P was actually out running around and talking about fish and dirt and the big trucks he had seen in the parking lot earlier. Note: I am not teaching him to be a "boy". He just is.

The water was beautiful.

At this fishing hole, Little P did ride on The Papa's back for a while. Trouble is, he decided to take off his "Just Cruisin'" hat that Grandma bought him and pitch it in the river. It hung out under the roots near a bank for a bit, then before we could grab it, floated down into the rapids and became lost forever. Mama felt very badly that the nice hat Grandma got him was gone. The Papa said, "That's what kids do."

Mere moments before the hat hit the water.

WARNING: Tangent Ahead

When Mama was somewhere's around nine years old, she went fishing with her own papa. As she climbed the banks, she hit a slippery patch and went right into the fishing hole. It was deep. She did not touch bottom. But she grabbed the roots and before long, her papa fished her out.

Alas, her black corduroy cowboy hat with the wide feather in front was floating down the river. That was a special hat reserved for times with her papa in the mountains. They trudged down the river and managed to find it! To this day, the hat is at the family cabin. The feather was the only casualty of the entire event.

We are sorry to say, the "Just Cruisin'" hat met a less esteemable fate.

Here is The Papa's catch from one afternoon.

Climbing, Climbing

Another Sierra Nevada Mountains tale:
Our fearless boy is always looking for an adventure, so when he came face to face with exposed granite, he simply had to climb. Mind you, these stones do not look that large, but it all depends on how big you are to begin with, no?

This is where he doesn't really want to look at Mama or the camera. You can tell by the expression on his face.

When he is having an exciting time, Little P is wont to let out an exuberant scream or two.

Climbing requires great concentration. It does not matter that he is so low to the ground.

Benjamin in his Chariot

While in the Sierras, we took several day hikes heading into the woods a few miles, stopping for lunch or a fishing hole, and heading back.

Benjamin rode in the Kelty carrier, which I highly recommend. It costs a pretty penny, but if you're a hiker with a toddler, your life will be so much easier with it.

There's room for diapering supplies and lunch and a camera. What more could you ask for?

In the photo below, Little P had fallen asleep and just woken up from his mini nap when the picture was snapped.

The P-Pod Visits the Eastern Sierras

It's gold country, this here territory. Old mines can be found in the shadows of tall mountains, rubbing elbows with waterfalls.


It's rugged and tough. And Mama feels like home when she's there.

The week of July 4th, The P-Pod visited the family cabin in these mountains, just 25 minutes up the hill from Bishop, Ca. Mama's daddy built the cabin when she was a young'n, and the family has held many a Thanksgiving around its hearth.


The mountains are not really sepia colored. That was just an effect courtesy of The Pioneer Woman and her Photoshop actions.


This is but the first installment of several that will illuminate our little vacation in the mountains.

(BTW, have you seen the movie "Everything is Illuminated?" It has nothing to do with the Sierras, it's just really good.)