I am back from my hiking and camping trip...but "important" stuff first:

While walking on the Strand (ocean front path) this morning, I saw a woman wearing something that looked a lot like a flight attendant's uniform, walking towards me. Upon a second glance, I noticed that it was a very revealing uniform--shorter than a mini-skirt, and somewhat form-fitting on top. She was even wearing the pin-on Delta Airlines lapel wings. She had the build of an accomplished athlete. I thought it odd, but didn't say anything like, "What's the story with your uniform?" Later in the day, it hit me: It was the annual the "Six Man" volleyball tournament in Manhattan Beach today.

It's a remarkable tourney: We have talented beach volleyball players who form teams, and all dress up together as anything from Elvis to Fletch (in Lakers jerseys, with afros) to Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders to Delta Flight attendants. By the finals (which I walked down and watched this afternoon), you have some of the best volleyball players in the world, large crowds, and serious competition.

One of the teams in the men's finals was comprised of guys dressed as Tom Selleck as Magnum PI. Hawaiian shirts, Detroit Tigers caps and moustaches. Problem was, it was too hot, so the shirts came off...which none of the women in the audience minded a bit. For certain players, the crowd would spontaneously start chanting "Bei-jing! Bei-jing!" I didn't catch any names, but it's fair assumption that some of the players are about to compete for the US in the Olympics.

***

With some close friends, I went on a hiking/camping trip, leaving LA on Thursday morning. We started at Agnew Meadows, near Mammoth Lakes, and my friends are headed to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite. It's maybe 33 miles on various trails, including, I think, the Pacific Crest and the John Muir. They are planning on a six-day trip. Since the beginning, I had planned on coming with them for the first two days, camping two nights, and then coming back to LA (the reasons for my shorter trip are a long story).

The first day of hiking was Friday--we got an early start and covered almost nine miles to a place called Thousand Island Lake. It was a nice hike, maybe a couple thousand feet of net elevation gain. We had a group of 11, including four kids, ages 8-11, and they were troopers...almost no whining. The adults had fairly heavy packs, so it's no walk in the park. And the kids all had packs, which I'm sure were heavy as a percentage of body weight.

My close friend Steve was the ringleader and planner of the trip. Also along for the trip is Steve's father Pete and his son Ryan and his wife Maria... a very special event for them, to have three generations on the journey together. Steve is part pack mule, carrying his giant pack up ahead and then repeatedly coming back down to carry the packs of others. I helped a bit by doing the same thing, but I never even attempted one of Steve's more remarkable feats: Carrying three packs simultaneously. Steve is essentially unstoppable in these situations and practically by sheer force of will, propels himself and his family and their packs up the trail.

Also along for the trip was my close friend and regular running partner, who happens to be a BSD doctor at a large and well-known hospital in SoCal...he has been there 30 years, and is one of the "docs to the stars"...so during any given year, he has A-list movie stars, titans of industry, and various and sundry heads of state under his care. But on the trail, and in any social situation, he of course he goes by his first name only. (I'll call him X here).

At Thousand Island Lake, we pitched camp and had a fine culinary experience with MRE's and energy bars. Yum.

Then, I pulled out my satellite phone, which I had rented as a precaution. I had endured a lot of grief about the sat phone from my pals, but especially from X, who said before the trip that his phone works *anywhere* in the world. I pointedly said, "No, your phone works anywhere in the world *where's there's a cell tower nearby.*" And, bummer for me, his phone worked fine for most of the first half of the hike...he was answering e-mails on the way up...and since there were so many trees, my sat phone didn't get any reception.

But I had a totally unobstructed path to a full sky (and the satellites in the GlobalStar network) at Thousand Island Lake, and lo! My sat phone worked like a charm...I called Holly and had a nice conversation...the sweet vindication was that no one got any reception on their cell phones at the lake...far too remote. Sat phones have come a long way since the early days when you had to carry a briefcase and set up a mini-dish to work the phone...this one was essentially a large cell phone with a big cigar-shaped antenna. Before the trip, I had been talking with my father-in-law about all the safety measures we were taking, and he simply said, "Why don't you rent a sat phone?" (In case of catastrophic injury or bear attack, etc.) I hadn't thought of that at all...very good idea, C.

There is another point to the open-sky comment: With no human light source, and a crystal-clear night, the stars were stunning. We were at almost 10,000 feet and I don't think I have ever seen more stars...the sheer volume of stars was mind-boggling and the beauty was astonishing. Sounds romantic until you remember that my wife was in Manhattan Beach so I had to crawl back into my tent, which I was sharing with X. And, X had brought a full-size chess set (when keeping the weight in your pack to a minimum is critically important, why not pack a chess set?! ) So we played chess by flashlight in the tent. And since you asked, X won after spotting me two rooks. But he is a serious, competitive chess player and I have played probably less than 20 times in my life...so the fact that I captured most of his pieces before he finished me off was a small victory in itself.

Then, the nightmare began....X is usually not prone to snoring, but he started snoring like a banshee...it was a horrible, bone-rattling snore. I let him sleep for awhile, and then kicked him awake and told him to stop snoring. BAM, ten minutes later, the machine-gun snores were coming at me again. And so it went for the entire night. Once, I woke him up, gave him a Kleenex, and insisted that he blow his nose. It did not help. I gave up the warmth of my sleeping bag and stood outside the tent for awhile, and looked up, and thought big thoughts and dreamed big dreams. The stars shined on.

I somehow managed to doze off in a snore-free interval, only to be jolted awake a few minutes later by screams coming from another nearby campsite...a bear was poking into their tent. I think they managed to scare it off it short order. We had all of our food in bear canisters away from our tents, and we were strict about "no wrappers, no food, no nothing" (except for chess sets) in the tents.

I had purchased an air-shattering horn from a marine supply store as an anti-bear device, since I had heard that bells and whistles are so ubiquitous that bears are considering them to be dinner bells and are responding in a Pavlovian fashion...so I was ready with my air horn...except that the altitude had messed up the pressure and all it could manage was a pathetic little beep, perhaps like a baby chick...a far cry from the piercing, painful explosion of sound that the horn unleashed at lower altitudes.

Consequently, I was ready for "hand to paw" combat against any bear that nosed into our tent--with my sharp-pointed walking pole. X, inexplicably, had brought a box cutter (with blade shorter than a pocketknife blade) for bear defense. "X," I said, "you have to be awfully close to the bear for that box cutter to be useful." X pointed out that as a surgeon, he knew just where cut the bear for maximum damage. That was little comfort, but at least it makes for a good story, I think.

After one sleepless night, I decided I didn't want to camp for one more night (per the original plan) and have an encore performance of the festival of snoring...and anyway, X wanted to get back to LA to see his family, who had been overseas for seven weeks and arrived last night at just before we pulled up to his house.

I left my sat phone with Steve and the group that continued on...I hope they don't need it. May good fortune and peace be with them as they continue their journey to Tuolumne, where they expect to finish the trip on Wednesday or Thursday.