{"id":5757,"date":"2017-01-02T02:07:03","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T02:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=5757"},"modified":"2017-01-18T03:38:38","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T03:38:38","slug":"some-highlights-from-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=5757","title":{"rendered":"Some highlights from 2016…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Seeing a\u00a0\u201cnaked lady on the Yukon<\/a>” – symbolized<\/a><\/em>\u00a0here – was one\u00a0of my<\/strong> highlights from 2016…<\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

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It’s New Year’s Day<\/a>, and so a good time to recall some highlights from 2016.<\/p>\n

\"JohnnyThere was of course the\u00a0Election From Hell<\/a>, but the less said about that the better. \u00a0I prefer to “Accentuate the Positive<\/a>.” \u00a0(Referring to the 1944 song with lyrics by Johnny Mercer<\/a>, shown at left.) \u00a0<\/em>And seeing a\u00a0\u201cnaked lady on the Yukon<\/a>” certainly qualifies as one<\/em> <\/strong>of those positive 2016 highlights…<\/p>\n

Back in August my brother, nephew and I met up in the town of\u00a0Whitehorse<\/a>, in the\u00a0Yukon\u00a0Territory<\/a>. \u00a0From there we drove to\u00a0Skagway, Alaska<\/a>. \u00a0And from there we hiked the Chilkoot Trail<\/a>\u00a0in four days.\u00a0\u00a0(The\u00a0\u201cmeanest\u00a033 miles in history<\/a>.\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n

And here’s a news flash: \u00a0There\u2019s a good reason why <\/em><\/strong>they call it the \u201cmeanest 33 miles in history.\u201d \u00a0Mostly it’s because “the Chilkoot” is not a trail at all, but just one big pile of rocks after another. \u00a0But it was a man-against-nature venture, and fortunately the “manly men” won. (Though not without some bruises and blisters that lasted for weeks…) \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

After that my nephew had the good sense to head back east to begin classes at Penn State. \u00a0However, my brother and I proceeded on to a twelve-day canoe trip “down” the Yukon River. \u00a0We ended up in\u00a0Dawson City<\/a>, also in the Yukon Territory. \u00a0But the most “poetic” part of the journey involved two days paddling on\u00a0Lake Laberge<\/a>, at right.<\/p>\n

Most people know it better as “Lake Labarge,” thanks to the famous poem,\u00a0 “The Cremation of Sam McGee<\/a>.” \u00a0But that’s only because “Laberge” doesn’t rhyme with “marge,” meaning “shore” or “edge.” \u00a0(As in “edge of a lake.” \u00a0And further as in the poem’s narrator hauling McGee’s body to the “marge\u00a0of Lake Lebarge.”)<\/em><\/p>\n

I figured there was an\u00a0object lesson<\/a>\u00a0there, somewhere…<\/p>\n

All in all my brother and I spent five weeks driving up to the Yukon – from Utah – then doing the two “man against nature<\/a>” adventures, and finally driving back home from the Yukon. \u00a0But by far the more traumatic of the two was hiking the Chilkoot Trail. \u00a0It was so traumatic that I had to do two\u00a0blogposts<\/a>\u00a0on the subject: \u00a0On the Chilkoot &^%$# Trail!<\/a>, Parts 1 and\u00a0Part 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the highlights hiking the trail came as we three were approaching the summit of the Chilkoot Pass. \u00a0(My brother and nephew were way out in front. \u00a0And at left is the good<\/strong> part.) \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And what with my lack of depth perception – from having only one good eye – going over \u201cone big pile of *&$% rocks after another\u201d was like negotiating a\u00a0minefield<\/a>. \u00a0I wore heavy hiking boots, but they felt<\/em> like ballet slippers. \u00a0Every step was sheer torture, and brought new pain to each aching foot.<\/p>\n

So anyway, I had just taken one of many missteps – causing severe pain – and thus let loose a string of pungent epithets. \u00a0Then I looked behind me and there \u2013 climbing\u00a0behind me \u2013 was a sweet young lady hiker. \u00a0Sheepishly I apologized, noting that I had \u201cno depth perception.\u201d \u00a0But she went ahead and passed me. \u00a0(And probably rolled her eyes in the process\u2026) \u00a0<\/em>A short while later I had another misstep and loosed\u00a0another<\/em> string of epithets.<\/p>\n

Again I looked behind me, and again there was a young couple, including another \u201csweet, innocent young thing.\u201d \u00a0So I said to myself, \u201cHey, I may be on to something here!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Unfortunately I tried it a few times later on the trail, but my\u00a0magic formula<\/a>\u00a0didn\u2019t work. \u00a0(On the other hand there I\u00a0did<\/strong>\u00a0see that\u00a0\u201cNaked lady on the Yukon<\/a>,\u201d 10 days later, on August 12\u2026)\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can see the full story at the “Naked lady<\/a>” post, which brings up the strong current on the Yukon River. \u00a0Generally it’s pretty fast, ranging from over four miles an hour up to seven miles an hour in some places. \u00a0(Except on<\/em>\u201cLake &^%$# Laberge,” where the paddling is very<\/strong> slow.)<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the kind of current that helps you paddle 440 miles in 12 days. \u00a0But it also means that when you see something totally unexpected, by the time you recognize<\/em> it, the current is already moving you downriver… \u00a0Which meant that by the time I recognized the naked lady as<\/em> <\/strong>a naked lady, the current was already pushing me farther down-river.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"SwampWaterPoster.jpg\"Which is enough – for now – about the naked lady on the Yukon.<\/p>\n

Which brings up one of my other 2016 adventures, a return trip to the \u00a0<\/em>Okefenokee Swamp<\/a>, as detailed in \u201cThere he goes again<\/a>.” \u00a0That post – from Monday, May 30 – looked ahead to the middle of the week. \u00a0I actually put in 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning, June 1, and counted 39 gators in the first hour of paddling. \u00a0(Then I stopped counting.) \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0I never did do a post on that little adventure, which is something I need to do in the next week or so.<\/p>\n

As for an excuse, I had “another stinkin’ funeral.” \u00a0A close friend died unexpectedly the day before, but I didn’t find out about it until I was already in Valdosta.<\/p>\n

Which makes this as good a place as any to end this particular post. \u00a0Except to note that there were way too many “stinkin’ funerals”\u00a0to go to in 2016. \u00a0(As noted also in the December 19 post,\u00a0A funeral and an NTE (Near-Ticket Experience)<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

And to note that I didn’t see any naked ladies in the Okefenokee Swamp.<\/p>\n

Just at lot of \u201calligator[s] mississippienses<\/a><\/em>…\u201d<\/h3>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

The upper image is courtesy of\u00a0Sun tanning \u2013 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0The caption:<\/em> \u00a0\u201cA woman sun tanning on a Portuguese<\/a> beach.\u201d \u00a0Further references are in the blog-posts cited in the text. \u00a0And a BTW:\u00a0Googling<\/a><\/em>\u00a0“election from hell 2016” got me some 154,000,000 results.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seeing a\u00a0\u201cnaked lady on the Yukon” – symbolized\u00a0here – was one\u00a0of my highlights from 2016… * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * It’s New Year’s Day, and so a good time to recall some highlights from 2016. There was of course the\u00a0Election From Hell, but the less said about that the better. \u00a0I prefer to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5757"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5871,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757\/revisions\/5871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}