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The Retirement Gift
We call her our “adopted daughter.” We’re old enough to be her parents - if we started young - and we have so many shared interests. Amy was one of the Lady’s middle school students, graduating the eighth grade in 1987. Because we know her parents and share a community of friends, we’ve remained close.
Amy, in her early fifties and with good planning, retired this summer from her career in environmental issues. She knows the two of us do not do gatherings and would not attend a retirement party.
“What would you like from us for your retirement?” the Lady asked.
“Take me to the top of Mount Dana! That would be a wonderful gift!” was Amy’s request.
We set a date as soon as we returned from Wyoming.
Meeting in Hope Valley, we continued south down the spectacular east side of the Sierra Nevada and turned up highway 120, the eastern gateway to Yosemite National Park. The Lady’s favorite campground, in this heavily visited area, is at Saddlebag Lake. Arriving before noon on a Thursday we scored our favorite campsite.
With no reason - or inclination - to sit around or chit chat at camp, we set off into the Hoover Wilderness and the well known Twenty Lakes Basin.
Greenstone Lake was a nice spot for a break.
We returned to camp using the trail along the east side of the Southern California Edison Power Company reservoir (Saddlebag Lake).
Amy is no stranger to the high mountains of the West. An accomplished hiker, she’s hiked the majority of the Pacific Crest Trail. Last summer she hiked the Ruby Crest Trail.
What will retirement bring her? She’s completed training as a volunteer fire lookout and has already done time on a mountain top lookout. She’s also a USFS volunteer working in one of our local Wilderness areas. She’s worked at trailheads, on cleanup projects, done trail work, and just got certified using a crosscut saw. I remember when I was a little boy my Dad telling me, “Son, a woman who can use a crosscut saw is worth her weight in gold.”
We could gush on and on about Amy, but then we’d sound like real parents.
It is a use trail up Mount Dana, not a maintained NPS trail. There’s no marked or signed trailhead, but you start the hike at Tioga Pass. It heads off through the woods and past a small tarn.
There is no way to the top of a mountain without going up.
The vistas were much clearer than the smoky skies we had a year ago when we last went up Dana.
There were 5 or 6 hikers ahead of us on the trail.
It was not the Lady’s intent, but she overtook all of them.
There’s a nice bench before the final push to the summit. We took a break here and pulled on our shells due to the increasing wind.
Time for more up.
On the summit. Zoom in and see Amy waving on the trail below.
We met a woman named Cathy on the summit. This day was her 68th birthday and she was celebrating with a solo hike of Mount Dana. She kindly took summit photos for us. We sang Happy Birthday.
The winds on the west slope - our ascent - were above 40 mph. It was sheltered enough, staying low, to take time at the top. The views were outstanding, especially to the east down into the Mono Lake Basin.
The Lady was the first to start to chill being on the summit. The winds were stronger now. It was time to descend.
Back down on the bench and a look back at the summit.
And then the last push down to Amy’s vehicle at the pass.
Although we’d planned another day hiking, the winds did not stop. With a forecast of wind gusts over 50 mph at the campground, we broke camp the next morning and headed home. But not without a celebratory meal at Walker Burger!
Amy, we got you to the top. Happy retirement!
Loved the views, the sentiment and the efforts. Now I'm soooo homesick!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sagebrush for your very kind comments! The east side is a great place to call home.
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