Shane - chasing Alkali flies...

We drove all day. We flew. Unfurled. Driving a twisting two lane ribbon of road, we crested a rise between two boulder-strewn fields that stretched away --seemingly--forever into the distance.  The horizon literally lay empty except for a few gaunt gray ridges. As we reached that crest, we saw a glassy lake spread out below us. Smooth. Mirror-like ... it shimmered like a strange dream. Mono Lake. Over 760,000 years old. Self-contained. No water flowing out. Evaporation. Minerals increasing. The minerals have formed rock-like towers called - 'Tufa' that jut out of the lakes surface. They are like some prehistoric monsters... it was oddly unsettling yet picturesque all the same.

Steven Reeves

Alkali flies cover the shoreline in nauseating moving piles. They leave humans alone. The just hum and swarm away from our intrusion into their tiny world. After a time, I noticed the wind increasing. Ripples crawled across the lakes surface and dark cloudbanks shoved their way above and beyond us. The sky moves faster at this time of day.... We took photographs and we were pretty quiet. This place struck a primitive chord in me. I felt it. The ancient land and its lake seemingly shrugged as fragile humans scurried across its face... like the uncaring flies that crowded its shoreline.  

Tioga Pass

Could that be Animal Chin?!

We left and continued our journey. Unfurled. Darkness falling in Yosemite. Tioga Pass. We paused at a lake and scampered about on rocks. Snow still held tightly to the boulders up high. It grew cold as the sun hissed into the horizon. We left for San Francisco ... the long dark night. Unfurled. Skate- Ozzie