inglorious wanderer

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Today, I climbed several walls at Mesa Rim in Sorrento Valley. I arrived before 5 pm at the gym wondering what in the world was I up to this time. It was still on that meetup link. I am trying to get over that fear of falling on a cliff that came through as a dream. In my dream, I did not die because I had to fight that dream by waking up. I thought I won over that dream. The stupid dream keeps coming back while I am awake. God, I love life!

The summit is about 6 miles with an elevation gain of a thousand feet. This is the only mountain I have given up. It's like failing a big examination once again. No excuses. It's just that I underestimated the goal. I will keep trying.

It was Linda L, the lady I met up for an attempt to hike the Twin Peaks Trails in Poway who told me about the movie and the Camino de Santiago. The meet up was an attempt because the lead hiker did not make it to the hike. Linda and I went uphill briefly and followed an older gentleman with two dogs

I couldn't help thinking of Seal while at the river bed. Not his scarred face but his song. I mean the song he revived. "I was born by the river, in a little tent. Oh and just like the river I have been running eversince." The song was written by Sam Cooke. I can relate with the song. I was born by the river. Not in a little tent but in a town called Bauang in the northern part of a country in Southeast Asia by the China sea. Bauang in Ilocano refers to the opening of a river that split into two. Ilocano is my ethno-linguistic group. I grew up by the river until I plucked up myself from that little barrio by the river. "A change is gonna come!" That's the title of the song revived by Seal. As for the change, it did come to many of us who were born in that little barrio by the river. The change came by environmental modification. In a way, we ran away. We had the chance as we turned our back. We had fun. we took pictures we got stuck But we do expect the w...

After the sorrowful mysteries comes the glorious mysteries and there I was on the trails with my ejaculations. "Mother and San, mountains of Saint Michael, pray for us!" The best day to hike is on Sundays. Ejaculations add meaning to bagging peaks and holy summits. Chula Vista means beautiful view in English. Mother Miguel and San Miguel are two mountains in Chula Vista, a San Diego county city located 7 miles north of the Mexican border. Dios Mio! What a Chula Vista! Oh my gut. What does it mean? My Stendhal Syndrome is real. They are not faked ejaculations. I am referring to very short sporadic prayers of course. Jesus, Mary and Joseph! What's on your mind? Oh, Mexico! It sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low. Moon's so bright to light up the night to make everything alright.There's the communion song on my mind. El candor pasa! I have always considered Mexico as part of North America in the context of NAFTA. I have always believed that Native American...

There she is in the front row. I knew it was the San Diego by Foot meetup group. I wanted to make sure so I asked the female hiker wearing red shorts if it was the right group I was with. I wished Xing signed up for the group but I knew she would be at the Santa Ysabel Preserve hike at the very moment. I should have been with the group hiking to Lawson Peak myself. But it was a morning after and I did not want to go to a strenous hike nor drive 50 miles to Santa Ysabel. I was resigned to joining a group hiking to a location 5 miles west of my home turf. The photo was uploaded by Juicy. The photo reminded me of my attempt to find the waterfall five years ago. I was following the trail and thought I was going further and further with no waterfall signs in sight. Along the way, I made a wrong turn and I ended up making my own trail. I realized I couldn't even track my way back to where I made the wrong turn. I crawled my way out of the bushes at the first sight of a residential are...

Mrs S rocks! And so does Mr K. Were it not for their connections, I would never have gone to see the Eagle Rock. I met them both at a meetup doing easy hikes at Lake Hodges in Rancho Bernardo. I hiked alongside Mr K at Lake Hodges. He kept forgetting my name. I kept telling him my gloriously generic name adding that I would never forget his name. My husband is his namesake. It was Mr. K, a former chemistry teacher at the Scripps Ranch High School who told me about the forthcoming hike to the Eagle Rock trails. After exchanging a few personal histories like where he was born and telling him where my husband, his namesake, was born, he would still ask me what my first name was. He was obviously multitasking. He was listening to his iPhone hiking apps and carrying on a conversation while watching his steps on the trails. I told Mr K that my husband go by his middle name Gary because his mother did not want to be calling his youngest son Richard as Dick. Mr. K talked about Dick Cheney a...

It was MaLou who pointed out the correct pronunciation to me. MaLou and I were hiking the Torrey Pines Trails. "Red Butt?" "It's read as 'byoot'." MaLou, my friend in college who lives in Oregon LOL'ed! I couldn't help running my hand upon my red face on reading Red Butte for the first time. A conspicuous and isolated with steep often vertical sides but arelatively flat top, buttes are smaller mesa and plateaus. Mother Earth's great big butte! The PCT where Morena Butte is located in Campo, CA is technically in the vicinity of the starting point of the fabled trail that stretches from the Mexican border all the way to the Canadian border. God blessed America! Thirteen hikers and seven dogs. The ducks showing the way. Tamara is wearing her red lipstick and using an umbrella. Beatrice says that Caramia came with her to America from Northern part of Germany. Grace Xing is pleasant character. Who is the author? ...