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One time I went in here with Billy and Katy and stayed too late. Darkness falls fast in the mountains. I thought the dogs would lead me back to the road, but as soon as the sun went down, they fell in behind me . "You take the lead, Dad, we trust you." I thought I'd take a shortcut. I could see the ridge where the car was parked. So I abandoned the trail and went straight cross country. Did you know there are little canyons and things in the mountains that you just never notice until it gets dark? But we managed to get to the cliff the car was parked on top of without any serious damage. Yes. Cliff. Well, almost. Only maybe 300 feet high, but rather steep, with a face of crumbling rock . Katy and Billy did all right with their four wheel drive. I had a camera bag hung over my shoulder that kept slithering around and pulling me backwards and sideways unpredictably. By this time it was pitch dark. I couldn't see to go back down and going up, everything I grabbed for support, came off in my hand. All of a sudden I got a thumping in my chest. My heart had gotten out of sync. My hands began to tingle, and I felt dizzy. It's odd what you think of when you suspect you are about to die. I was telling myself, "Doug, this is the stupidest thing you have ever did. They are going to find your skeleton at the bottom of this cliff when the snow melts next spring." Funny thing was, I wasn't afraid. What I was worried about was my dogs because I knew they wouldn't abandon me. So I tried harder and got to the top. Next day I went to the doctor. He had me wear a harness to monitor my heart for a couple of days, but it didn't happen again. The cardiologist said "You had some paplitations. No big deal." I thought that was a good way of looking at it. You found out a long time ago that you're going to kick the bucket someday. What's the use of going around all the time worrying about it? Acrylic painting on canvas, 22 x 28, $2800. Available. Back |
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his boulder strewn flat up in the Sierra near Silver Lake, is
one of the prettiest places I know. In Springtime the flowers
poke up everywhere. They grow in the grass, they grow in the scree,
they grow out of little cracks in the rock. Boulders lie all over.
I like them. You can always depend on a boulder.