John Muir Does Palm Springs?

I am on vacation.
Sort of.
I mean I'm officially on vacation, little v's lining a week full of days across my name.
But I'm not quite free yet. Plans aren't quite in motion. I randomly grabbed this week because summer vacation time in the newsroom was disappearing fast, and I have since been piece-mealing plans for it.
Next weekend Christina is coming out from Texas and we're going kayaking at Point Reyes with a group from the yoga studio. Cathy and I are going backpacking overnite on Wednesday but we haven't decided where yet and my backpack and tent are still not in.
That leaves from now until Tuesday open. I'm Free! ( love that word, that concept, that expansive feeling.)
But here, I sit on a Saturday morning of my first day of vacation quite terribly bogged down.
My house is once again threatening anarchy. As a child my parents were amazed at how fast I could make a mess. As an adult I still carry this unrivaled talent. Just one or two days of "I don't care" and I can make my living space look like the opening scene of a movie where a home has been badly ransacked. If I'm ever kidnapped and the police say there are signs of a struggle , don't believe them. I may have just been looking for my shoes.
And I am a staunch minimalist. Not every one can even make a mess who owns nary a knickknack.
So there's that. I am craving order and fresh flowers on the table and maybe an afternoon matinee.
On the other hand, I could throw Mac in the Rav and be laying on the beach reading a novel by lunchtime if I left right now. (well, after Mac was too exhausted to chase a stick anymore and would leave me in peace to read a novel while he rolled around in the sand)
Except. I'm supposed to be hiking and reading about hiking and searching hiking websites for hiking clothes made of capilene. (Which is this soft stretchy oddly striped material they make pants and hoodies and everything else out of. I'd explain it's sweat-wicking marvels but it would take too many paragraphs. When you buy backpacking clothes they have spec boxes that look like all the gibberish on those papers you see in new car windows. They hammer you with numbers. ounces. degrees . whatnot. I think it's just to lull you into a dull state so you won't react too much when you get to the price and find long underwear will cost you $42. And so it won't hit you that you are now shopping for clothes based on the criteria of their sweat-wicking!
The list and cost of getting-ready-for John Muir Trail goes on about as long as the 219-mile trail itself for someone like me who has no equipment and hasn't done anything like this before.
There's also talk of me driving down to Palm Springs this evening and climbing to the peak of Mt. San Jacinto with Shellee and Rich tomorrow. Mt. San Jacinto is that majestic mountain that stands at the entrance of the Coachella Valley protecting it from smog, and wind, and all manner of ills. I used to see that mountain everyday from my living room window. To the Cahuilla Indians, San Jacinto is sacred. I'm right there with them . I have always loved that peak. Driving on the I-10 on a 4th of July weekend might be foolhardy. But it would be great fun and great training.(bagging the peak that is, not the interstate)
And Shellee has sent me an email saying she came across this interesting journal entry by John Muir:

"In all my travels through the California wilderness -- past the granite majesties of Yosemite, below the Giant Sequoias of the Sierras, and along the redwood slopes of Big Sur -- I have found no journey more satisfying than the trek up Mount San Jacinto above the Coachella Valley. It is nature's gift for all who have concocted a ludicrous hiking adventure as a get-famous-quick gimmick, and the completion of it will release any fool from paralyzing fright." That John! Love....


Later: Saturday night

A plan has been hatched.
A thunderstorm expected to hit San Jacinto on Monday has been pushed to Tuesday.
So I had today to recoup and do exotic things like buy a new dishpan. Will be driving tomorrow. And Shell and Rich and I will climb my favorite mountain Monday.