Yesterday I climbed another mountain with the same friend from church I climbed the last one. This time our goal was the 10,649 ft summit of Mt. San Bernardino. The climb was 16 miles round trip with a 4,600 ft elevation gain. Mt. San Bernardino is the most prominent peak visible from the Inland Empire where I live and go to school. I've wanted to climb it for a long time and I was not disappointed by the hike.
About halfway up, looking southeast toward the summit.
A mountain stream.
This picture was taken looking west from near the summit. Through the haze you can see the grid of streets in the cities of the Inland Empire, the street at center is Baseline. There's an interesting monument near the top dedicated to Col. Henry Washington, a surveyor who erected a marker, an "Initial Point," near the top of the mountain in 1852. This marker was used to partition all of the land in Southern California in a rectangular system. You can read the interesting story here.
Looking north to Big Bear Lake. The solar observatory on the lake is visible as a white dot on the right.
At the summit. Mt. San Gorgonio, highest point in southern California behind me. I climbed it last September.
Coming down I found this patch of interesting flowers very popular with the honey bees.
"You will find something far greater in the woods than you will find in books. Stones and trees will teach you that which you will never learn from masters."
- Bernard of Clairvaux, the mountain's namesake
7 comments:
The different tastes of men are something of a holy mystery to me.
(Please forgive me for having not commented further on your last thread, I'm unfortunately quite busy and while you did cause me to have a couple of revelations about what I believe, what some others believe, and what I'm not sure I have "all worked out" yet, I probably can't commit the time or mental energy it would take to engage further. My apologies. I hope it does not seem cowardly, I just have a limited time to work with and some of my ATS assignments and summer plans are coming smashing down on me in the next week or so.)
But anyway, back to what I was saying at the first. I find it fascinating the way you seem to be drawn to nature in the mountains. I live in a rural setting and am often overawed by the beauty I see around me, but I have no real fire to go places and "see the sights" of nature. It is something of a difference between us, and I am bound to respect it. Perhaps it is a part of your nature by which God is drawing you to your final salvation. (Please take that for the good nature in which I mean it, and not in some darker, judgmental way.)
Mankind seems to me to be able of nearly infinite variations on the same tune. One man loves the morning, another the evening. One man loves flowers, another doesn't give them a second thought. One man goes out to see the mountains, another, like me, rejoices to see them from afar when his business takes him past them, but does not go out to them for his own recreation.
But we may no doubt say in common, "How manifold are thy works O Lord, in wisdom hast thou made them all."
Amen brother! The longer I'm a Christian the more convinced I become that the "whole earth is full of his glory" (Isaiah 6:3) and "the heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalm 19:1). In nature we see the most amazing beauty but we also see extremes that would quickly destroy us (sheer cliffs, erupting volcanos, waterfalls and great rapids among many other things, not to mention the vastness of outer space). Often we find these very dangerous and deadly things to be beautiful. I think this all points to a God who is utterly beautiful and desirable and yet who is also utterly holy and a "consuming fire." Were it not for the shed blood of Christ I would have no hope of standing in His presence even though I know I was created for Him and outside Him I have no hope of lasting joy or satisfaction.
I'm glad we're not all the same Ed, but if I ever visit you I hope we can go for a cool hike.
God bless you bro.
I'll go on the hike. :-) We've got lots of neat places around here. The only likely downside for you is that I'll probably be engaging in one of my unique (or not so unique) human proclivities on such an expedition: talking. ;-)
Hi Matt,
Beautiful pictures as always! These remind me of Yosemite. I hope you are having a relaxing summer--glad you are getting an opportunity to unwind a bit.
~SP
Hey SP,
The last two weeks have been somewhat relaxing but my break ends in 2 days. At least I'll be rotating up in the NW for a month.
Thanks for the comment,
Matt
Hi Matt,
So, clinicals--or residency scouting? If you happen to have a free day near Vancouver, I'd love to meet you for coffee.
Good luck,
SP
Hey SP,
Getting coffee sounds good. I'll be up in Tacoma though until the last week of August on an internal medicine rotation at Madigan Army Medical Center. Maybe we could get coffee that last week of August though.
Matt
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