The Great Expedition, Pt. 3 of 3.

(Continued From.)

Vishnu, Nathan, and Jordan decided to make the climb back up the steep, difficult trail... in the dark (for night had fallen by this time). The rest of us went up the road. (Asphalt-paved, roughly wide enough for one car; the only other traffic we saw was a lone jogger, all in black except for his white sneakers.) The last we saw of Jordan was his silhouette, reappeared at the cliff base (he had begun the climb, then apparently doubled back?), shouting something we could not hear from some distance along the road. Eventually, he went up the trail once more. Kailyn remained in custody of his pants. (Vishnu was paying him $5 to make the climb in nothing more than his boxers - except that he was wearing his sweatshirt - and it may have been $4. There was some element of uncertainty present.) We climbed.

A certain element of discussion occured on the climb up. The difference between Orion's Belt and the Big Dipper caused brief concern; Roheet expressed envy, once more, of the enormous mansion above and to our left. Schemes for entry were plotted. Rivalry between "SoCal" and "NorCal" briefly flared; the merits of deserts were discussed. (Slim.) The path curved; we were alarmed when it seemed to be curving directly up to the mansion, but it thankfully turned away; not too long after that, we arrived at a street. And had no idea where we were.

Shoes were put on; calls were placed. Eddie and Rachel, left behind at the top of the cliff (had you forgotten about them?) (with Nathan and Jordan's bikes, along with other miscellaneous posessions - Abhinay had long since vanished, for personal reasons not to be further discussed here), had seen nothing of Jordan's party. We walked in what we believed to the general direction of the Cliffs; a gate was spotted, which half our party swore up and down was certainly one they had passed before, the LDS church... only to rescind this upon drawing sufficiently near. Thankfully, not too far past this was actually the LDS compound; we elected to rest there.

The Light of Deceit; shone above the Gate of Deceit. Such a dreadful thing!

Talking. More calls placed; cars pass, including one in and one out of the LDS compound. Jordan's party, reportedly, finally arrives. We wait. Wait. They're spotted coming; an ambush is plotted. It is remarkably ineffective. (I shout "Boo", which is what they describe as 'weaksauce', in the trade. Blame it on improvisation.) iPhone jailbraking discussed, as well as the merits of VOIP. Eddie mocks us for not jaywalking across a four-lane street. (It's a very wide four-lane street, and we're unenthusiastic about the notion.) We enter campus once again; Jordan attempts to cause Vishnu to flinch, and fails. Games involving vicious attacks to the male genitals are discussed. (This comes from the girls, mind you.)


We arrive at the dining hall - never seen it from that angle before - wash our hands, look at a big map, climb up and go inside.

Ocean View Terrace, viewed from an unusual angle. Bathrooms and a large map are on the second floor, along with a skilled pianist (!); the dining hall itself is on the third floor.

I select a muffin (apple) and orange juice; Jordan, Nathan, and Roheet (?) get Gatorade. We sit down outside, lacking a table inside large enough for all of us; I eat most of the muffin; loud rap music playing is discussed. A friend is encountered; leather jacket, hair; the Fonz. (Mockery, mockery, mockery.)

They call him The Fonz. (On the right. Jordan is on the left.)

A kiwi is repeatedly mistaken for an avacado. Chinese food is poorly prepared; Gatorade improves it. The girls' pasta finally arrives. (We decide that they delayed it with black witchcraft.) Talk. At this stage, I am falling asleep.

And a note, an interjection from a future self: recall, here, that Jordan had been awake for 37+ hours, working on a Physics lab, at the start of this expedition. He had since biked to The Cliffs, climbed down, run around on the beach, climbed up again, biked back from The Cliffs... and, if anything, he was the most energetic of any of us.

Quite obviously, he is an android, cleverly disguised in a thin layer of human flesh. How foolish of me to have been fooled for so long! (Especially with the whole immunity-to-hypothermia thing.)

And now, back to the end of past-self's narration:

Then we walk back; the misfortunes of drunken friends are discussed; and I let myself back in, while the others attempt a more bizarre, obtuse means of entry. It may have been suited to the spirit of the night; but for me, the night is over.

(Did you like how all the plotlines from the dream were neatly wrapped up? So clever! Almost as though I was working... backwards in time.)

(THE END)

The Great Expedition, Pt. 2 of 3.

(Continuing from here.)

A wide, scrub-covered expanse.

The path descended...

Jordan and Nathan...

Finally...

Caught up...

And just minutes after we arrived...

The sun set.

But the story does not end there. First Vishnu, then other members of our party began to descend; "There's a path!"

Vishnu discovers a 'cave', which he terms his 'hobbit-hole'. Pipe-weed is discussed.

Five feet above us.

Another 'cave'; to which, it should be noted, I thoroughly beat Vishnu in a race to.

He enjoyed its luxuries for a time all the same, in company with Nathan.

But as we enjoyed the luxuries of 'caving', Jordan (against Kailyn's cautions) went further. Rather a bit further.




He sat there for a little while, then climbed back up. I decided that this could not stand; I would go so far as he had, and then at least one inch further. Others followed me.

Jordan was the first to follow me; Rashmi followed him. There was some concern expressed over the threat of 1) slipping and 2) falling. (This was rather a constant threat; the path was extremely steep.) Jordan offered some element of comfort: "If you fall, I'll catch you! If I don't, I guess Nick will..." In some cultures, his helpfulness is a thing of legend...

We stopped after the descent, to admire the view.

We had come some distance down the cliff face!

Rashmi met me at Jordan's stopping point (which I had, in fact, overpassed by an inch); Jordan followed shortly after. "We should climb down all the way to the beach, someday," Rashmi mused.

"Why not tonight?" Jordan asked.

It was a plan.

I was the first to descend, though after a short while, Nathan caught up and passed me. The two of us stayed close together for the rest of the descent, chatting as we half-climbed, half-skidded down the ludicrously steep trail. Time passed; the light grew dimmer; the trail grew narrower. The effects of peer pressure are discussed; I assign all blame to Nathan, perhaps somewhat unfairly. We have long since lost sight of the others; very occasionally, we hear their voices.

But, after the long, long climb - growing ever darker as the last light leaves the sky - we make it to the bottom. To my surprise, I see not just Rashmi and Jordan behind us, but Vishnu, Rohit, Kailyn, and Sindhu as well. From the paved road that the trail exits onto, we climb down to the beach - we could have taken the road, but it seemed a bit of a cop-out after that long a climb. Nathan, Jordan, and perhaps Vishnu (?) climbed down the side; the rest of us, I first and foremost, climbed down the side of the cliff, where amply-heaped boulders provided an easier path than the sixty-degree, scrub-covered slope straight down from the road. The rocks crumbled oddly underfoot; looking solid, but softer than topsoil.

The beach. I must apologize for the quality of the shot; my beloved iPhone is not much for high-quality photography at the best of times, and in low-light video... it grows rather worse.

A Sign, just below the cliffs we just descended. I suggested a group photo; sadly, no such thing occured.

The others took their shoes off; I opted not to, not relishing the thought of the climb back up with sand covering my feet. (Most of the others ended up making the climb barefoot, possibly for this reason?) Jordan offered to skinny-dip for $5; I offered $5 for him not to; Nathan offered $6 for him to do it anyway. Thankfully, he left his boxers on. There was a brief chase of Vishnu along the beach, for no particular reason that I or Roheet knew; then we discussed the climb back up.

(Again, to be continued.)

The Great Expedition, Pt. 1 of 3.

(Continuing from here.)

The call was a call to action - the time of departure was sooner than we had thought. Cookies were put away; burritoes were tossed in the compost. All three of us made haste to the dining hall, where the other participants in the trip were waiting in the hall...

Well... with the notable exception of Vishnu, who was in the shower.

A quick roll call of those present in the hall, while we wait. (For the benefit of the readers.) From the girls' suite, in no particular order: Rashmi, Rachel, Sindhu, and Kailyn. From the boys' suite: Nathan and Rohit (my dinner companions), Jordan, and myself. (Jordan, notably, had been awake for at least 37 hours straight by this time; possibly longer. Keep this in mind for later.) Also present was special guest Eddie.

Still not present, of course, was Vishnu. ("Don't forget your pants!" one of the girls helpfully reminded him. "Right, my pants!" came the reply.) I took the opportunity to inquire of Nathan as to what, exactly, we were going to do during this trip. I was informed that we were going to see the sunset, at a place enigmatically known as "The Cliffs". Few more details were forthcoming.

Vishnu at last arrived, triumphantly adorned with pants; Abhinay, our last fellow-traveller, followed shortly behind him, having concluded a game of video-game soccer. ("Why weren't we yelling at you, again?" one of the girls inquired.) Events conspired now to delay Nathan and Jordan, who promised to catch up to us; the rest of us set out, at roughly 6:55 PM. (10 minutes later than we had intended.) Sunset, Rachel told me, was at 7:21. There was an element of time pressure present.

There was some element of walking present at this stage. Down a small hill; up a larger one; then downwards again. Out of the campus and into the La Jolla suburbs, at which point I started taking pictures; I may have been slightly bored. Here is a tiny sampling.

A gated compound of some kind. I'm fond of the image.

College dorm building; this became the subject of a heated argument later on. (I remained neutral.)

"McMansion". The area through which we were walking possessed... ah... high property values. Many signs for security companies, one actual security car. (We waved as we passed.) Envy was expressed of this one, specifically.

The path by the LDS institute, bizarrely, provided an excellent shortcut.

Not too long after the shortcut, we arrived at the entrance to the Cliffs; the end of houses, and the beginning of...


(to be continued; so many photos!)

The Great Expedition

My dreams are strange tonight, vivid. I see -
A muffin - apple - I eat them regularly, nearly every morning. But it's night; and I'm gripping it tightly, almost with anger. (Why anger?) A whisper: "The tighter you hold..."
And now I'm holding rock, yellow-red-orange. My balance shifts, and I grip the rock for stability; but it crumbles in my hand, leaving nothing but a layer of thick dust on my hand.
I can see myself, now; I'm on a narrow trail along a tall cliff face, a very long way from the top and the bottom both. I inch my way downwards; accidentally, I kick a rock, sending it flying downwards in a spray of dust. It lands, so far below, before a triangular sign: "Unstable Cliffs: STAY BACK!"
I look outwards, away from the cliff face. The sun has already set; no more than a tiny part of its light remains to show me the vast expanse of water stretching outwards and away. (The ocean?) The light dims, faster and faster; everything becomes pitch black. Then a light appears. I walk towards it, knowing somehow that it is the way back from whatever strange place I have found myself in; but I arrive, and there is nothing there but further darkness. I look up, into the light; it is so bright as to blind me...

And when my eyesight returns, I am in the dining hall near my dorm, eating dinner at the end of a long and tiring day. Two friends join me at the table; we talk. They mention that they are going to "The Cliffs" after dinner; "You want to join us?" they ask. Impulsively, I agree.

Minutes later, one of my dinner-companions recieves a call...

(To be continued tomorrow morning, when I can keep my eyes open. Preview pictures:







EDIT: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.