Mist and Clouds from Mt. Diablo
As vacations go, this has been a pretty relaxing one. You could say that the only goal of my vacation is to make use of my camera and lens. I wasn’t sure what to do— except that I would be cooking dinner for the Wong family at least once. I finally decided it would be good to check out Mount Diablo, which has a weird name and I was sad to learn the original native name is lost. The consequence, if you will, of being “discovered.”
I drove up from Danville to Diablo. It was a fun drive. Except for the people on bikes climbing the mountain. I was impressed— and thoroughly irritated. They ignored the rules of the road. While climbing they would hug the center of the road, as in the dividing line. They wouldn’t pull to one side when a car was passing your way. You’d have to swerve well into the on-coming lane to get up and the road is a twisty one.
The bikers going down are worse. Bikers have a strange mentality. I'm not saying all bikers, just a broad generalization. They “follow” the rules as appropriate. There are strict speed limits but going down that mountain, you’d be lucky to find a biker following it. The police should ticket them, because at the speeds they were going down, you HAVE to make wide turns and they were deliberately putting themselves in harms way, demanding an accident— and it would be the fault of the person driving the car and NOT the bicyclist. In short, I did not like driving up. I got more than a few glares from bicyclists. I smiled and waved at them which seemed to make them angrier.
That is another thing I don’t understand. Why be outdoors if you’re not going to be enjoying the outdoors? Why listen to your iPod while out hiking or running or whatever. You’re not appreciating it. Maybe it’s because I'm not used to sights like buzzards, red tailed hawks, tarantulas, crows and ravens, and everything else— but neither do I block myself from the enjoyment of being out. And I don’t think carrying a camera takes the experience away from me. Maybe that’s why I have the view I have, because photography is all about light and seeing things. Hell, I was even fascinated by the scat. There was a carnivore on the trail I hiked a bit around. I never got too far. I was too busy looking at things, taking pictures, watching things buzz around or fly.
It was beautiful up there. The rocks, there was one especially that I liked. I think it wanted to be appreciated. I could have spent a good long time up there. Too bad the habitat had been destroyed by ranching, just like here in Hawaiʻi. Go figure.
