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Gerry’s Top 10 Highlights of the Great Western Trek of 2008

- By Gerry Barnes

Because so much was accomplished and so much fun was compacted into our too-short idyll, it seems a bit prosaic to merely list who did what when and where. Instead, I have opted to list – in ascending order - the Top 10 Highlights of the Great Western Trek of 2008. Here are numbers five through two. In our next installment, I’ll share the best of the best.

To anyone seeking unlimited enjoyment on a limited budget, I highly recommend checking out the following.

#5 The Cal-Neva Lodge and Casino, North Lake Tahoe

Yes – this is the Cal-Neva Lodge, that epicenter of ring-a-ding-ding cool that featured early sixties hipsters Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and the rest of the Rat Pack boys getting sloshed, chasing broads and occasionally entertaining the crowds even while White House Superstar JFK entertained Nikita Khrushchev and Marilyn Monroe. In fact, Marilyn spent quite a bit of time at the Cal-Neva and loved it so much, she even tried to commit suicide here. Though she failed (only to try again), her spiritual essence has been spotted in the environs – mostly by the swimming pool - many times over the years. If ever a place was ripe for investigation by Ghost Hunters, this is it. The Cal-Neva (so named because the casino straddles the California-Nevada border) is full of ghosts. Even someone as insensitive to a paranormal presence as myself can feel the damn things breathing down his neck. Of course, it has been decades since Old Blue Eyes was booted out of his ownership of the casino by the Feds (for unwisely hosting mobster Sam Giancanna when he showed up to applaud at girlfriend Phyllis McGuire’s opening night.) But if all the long-gone, finger-snapping swingers who once populated this resort are now hanging around its rooms like those freaky ectoplasmic partygoers in The Shining, well, I guess it only adds to the retro allure of the place. So before leaving, I just had to stop by the bar and hoist a scotch-on-the-rocks to the memory of The Chairman of the Board.

Damndest thing…. I could swear I saw him toast me back.

Cal-Neva Lodge and Casino: 2 Stateline Road, Crystal Bay, NV 89402. 800-233-5551

#4 Bodie State Historic Park

The ghosts of Bodie may not be as famous as those found at the Cal-Neva, but there is a whole darn town full of them. Indeed, this is probably the most famous ghost town in the world- though only 5% of the place is still left standing from its 1880’s heyday. Ravaged by wind, sun, snows, fires and time itself, the town is officially maintained in a state of “arrested decay”. Born of an 1859 gold strike by William S. Bodey, the place actually flourished with the decline of mining along the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas. When the Comstock Lode was discovered around Virginia City, a tidal wave of prospectors flooded the surrounding high desert country. By 1879, Bodie had a population of about 10,000 people and was notorious for both its wickedness and for having “the worst climate out of doors.” Both probably contributed to the fact that Bodie hosted close to 70 saloons. Today, the town’s desperadoes all reside in Boot Hill but there is still plenty to be seen by living tourists out to catch a glimpse of life in the Wild Wild West.

Bodie State Historic Park lies off Route 395 near Bridgeport, CA. It is open year-round -from 8 AM to 7 PM in the summer months; 8 AM to 4 PM the rest of the year. Entrance fee: $3.00 for adults, $1.00 for children. 760-647-6564

#3 Angeles National Forest

Perched high on the mountaintops surrounding Los Angeles, Angeles National Forest continues to amaze me. I have been coming to this place for over 25 years, and what I find most astonishing about it is the fact that so few Angelinos ever visit here. Folks from the Big Orange would much rather fight for one square foot of space on an overcrowded, litter-strewn beach than avail themselves of a cool mountain retreat where the smell of sage and lodge pole pine perfumes the air and the sight of crystal clear mountain lakes refreshes the soul. It’s unfathomable to me how so many could so willingly forgo the adventure to be found here.

And this year, it truly was an adventure!

I now have a confession to make: I actually had to fight to include this particular entry on the list of my 10 favorite spots. Not that it wasn’t 100% deserving, but because certain others in my party did not want me to advertise the little paradise we had stumbled upon for fear it would be trampled underfoot by curious hordes. So, acceding to the strong-arm tactics of these unnamed others, I speak of this entry in only the most general terms as regards location.

#2 THERE IS A PLACE in Angeles National Forest that is not on any map. It is not a trail, although you must start out on a well-known trail in order to get there. After a mile or so of hiking, you leave this trail and you wander through thicket and scrub and assorted poison oak plants and just when you are all scratched up and utterly exhausted and convinced that you are hopelessly lost, you will come about a mountain stream that is a raging torrent in winter but completely hidden from view all year round. In summer, this stream is a dry mass of huge boulders that one must climb over/under/around – often hanging by one’s fingernails over precipices that are 40 feet from the ground – in order to traverse the trail-that-is-no-trail.

It takes not only strength but also a degree of cardio-pulmonary endurance that any marathoner would envy.

About a quarter of the way down the forty-degree incline, you will find a rocky overhang that obscures the view beneath. If you climb/shimmy/shake your way down past this overhang, you will come upon an emerald pool of water that is breathtakingly lovely and icy as hell to swim across. However, if you brave this frigid pool and swim to its far side, you will find a huge boulder obstructing the entrance to a hidden mountain chamber. If you climb over this boulder (which is incredibly slippery; I have the cuts and bruises to prove it), you will discover a mammoth vault of rock; square in shape and entirely hidden from above by broad stone ledges. And this vault is like something straight out of a fairy tale. Its waters are warm and clear and pure and full of tiny blue-and-yellow fish. A waterfall runs down one side of the chamber and lush vegetation grows along its walls – little red and purple wildflowers. Its sands are soft and inviting and when you pick your feet up, gold flecks cover your soles. It’s like nothing I have ever seen. But it’s only a prelude to what is to come.

Moving further downstream, the boulders get larger, the going gets tougher, and the breathing gets far more labored. But if you can make it to the end – past the hordes of gnats and mosquitoes and the jungles of poison oak – then you will find a flat mountain ledge that is perhaps 70 feet in length by 40 feet in width. A waterfall drops onto this sunny ledge, forming three pools, and another flows from it to a broader ledge below. There is nowhere else in Angeles Forest that offers the spectacular view that this spot offers. Contained as it is within a wide valley, it is really a slice of heaven. We swam in its pools and sunned on its rocks, and – finally – bid it farewell until our next visit.

So much of the beauty of Angeles National Forest is just indescribable – and so much of it still waits to be discovered. For all those with a true appreciation of adventure, I can think of no better place.

Stay tuned for the Absolute Best of Gerry’s Trip!