CRYSTAL LAKE

It's been a few days since my last post, but I have been quite busy as of late. Anyway, I saw something last Saturday that was a first. My cousin and I went on a herp/exploring trip in the San Gabriel mountains northeast of Los Angeles. Of course we were looking for the usual suspects...Rosy Boas and Mountain Kingsnakes. Lucky for us we had permission from the US Forest Service to access the upper part of Highway 39...also known as the Azusa Canyon Road. Just about 14 miles of this road has been closed to the general public for the last 2 years due to landslides. This also includes the huge campgrounds at Crystal Lake.

We checked out the whole area...and no-one was there. It felt like a nuclear war had wiped everyone out...and we were the last people on earth. Silent...still...lonely. No people, no cars, no noise...nothing but pure nature for miles around. The night sky was filled with actual stars...not the usual smog filled sky of Los Angeles. All this solitude just 30+ miles from 9 million people living in the rest of Los Angeles County. What a rarity!

However...there was one more experience just as rare. Late that night we were driving slowly back to civilization down the Glendora Mountain Road. It disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. Like a ghostly flash...almost surreal. Only about 20 feet in front of our headlights ran the largest cougar I had ever seen. It was sleek, tawny brown....and fast! Judging from the size...I am guessing it was an adult male. I have never been so close to a wild cougar before...and it was a sight to behold. Too bad it was moving so fast...didn't have time to snap a pic. Oh well...there is always next time.

Of course...I had some time to reflect on a lost love as well. Far away under the same sky I was viewing...is where my mind dwelt. Silent thoughts of her permeated what had been confusion just hours earlier. I stood staring at the glistening stars...hoping for some sort of a cosmic connection to carry my thoughts and feelings across the void of night which spread to where she was. In silent repose did I find a sense of peace and contentment... as did I again relive the tragedy of 14 years ago. In the flash of an instant I saw her eyes...the mournful look upon them when last we did meet. Time was frozen...all movement stopped...my heart stopped at her piercing glance. So it was that night at Crystal Lake...a night not so long ago...in a time that lives forever.

Sigh.......................................