A Week of Work in the Mountains

I had some work to do up in the Tehachapi Mountains this past week. We stayed up high, about 5,000 to 6,000 feet, working at various locations during the day and tenting next to an old cabin at night.

We had some incredible winds during our stay, and I haven't slept in the forest in a while (too long). The wind would whoosh through the trees from the north while I huddled in my sleeping bag, listening to the gust come closer and closer. My trepidation was justified; I was sleeping in a meadow containing some old valley oaks. Evidence of past treefalls and fallen branches (widow-makers) were all around. Luckily, my nightmare of a tree branch crashing through my tent never came true.

During the time I was there, especially when I was waking up, I would occasionally hear a familiar sound such as a truck backing up, a cell phone vibrating, a truck driving very nearby, or a printer spooling. Through the filter of my subconscious, the other sounds of the forest (squirrels, birds, branches creaking in the wind, etc.) were being translated as familiar city/office sounds. I was hardly aware of this until just after, upon considering what I just heard for a moment. As I spend so much time outdoors, and consider myself pretty attuned to nature, this is a little embarrassing!

Lots of flowers were out, and they helped make this trip a fun one, despite suboptimal sleep conditions and hard work. Nice to finally sleep out at the field site, and certainly liked saving 16 hours of driving over the week.