Saturday, November 19, 2011

2011 SMR 34

Rained over night, sloppy but pleasant this morning.

Going out Walnut Avenue this time of year, the morning sun is right in your eye.  I was watching the DishNetwork satellite image of the earth before I left and I could see the blanket of darkness being peeled away from the west coast and experience it in real life at the same time.

Met with JB at the Gate.  I don't think we saw anybody else for the first few miles and then there was one guy coming down and that was about it.

Wildlife Encounter:  big deer at the Bump, but he hid behind a tree when he saw us.

Didn't realize there was a missile launch from Danville this morning.

JB hadn't heard about the lady who drove her Landrover off South Gate Road last week; she rolled down a steep section, was thrown from her vehicle and died.  The news didn't know if it was alcohol or recklessness or a heart attack or falling asleep or whatever, but yesterday they reported it was being handled as a suicide.  Anyway, we decided to go see if we could find the place and see if there was any damage.  We found plenty of places where driving off the road could result in a fatal consequence, but didn't see any obvious tracks or damage to the landscape.







Then we saw a couple walking up the road with a big beautiful dog and I asked them if they knew where the car had driven off, and they didn't but it turns out the woman had been a friend of theirs.  They described in general terms the kind of life issues she had been dealing with for so long that ending it all would certainly have seemed like a reasonable option.  But while I completely sympathize, it angers me that she chose Diablo to do it on.  Not only does it make for a sad story, she could have caused a fire, she could have been injured but not killed and risked the lives of rescuers.  Mount Diablo is too special to be stained with this kind of stigma.  Her obituary.

OK then we went down through the Hole and around.



Wildlife Encounter:  a gaggle of turkeys down there somewhere.


Movember moustache is magnificently macho.

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