11832 Bewildered - 1981
As promised, starting a new series today of old photos, scans from slides. Fortunately I filled notebooks and trail journals in the days before EXIF data, so I know when and where I shot this self-portrait.
It was a cold, foggy morning in my back country camp, so naturally I thought it would be a good day to explore the surrounding mountains. This was in the Coast Mountains north of Vancouver, north of Whistler. There were no trails. I had a compass and topo maps, but of course you need to be able to sight on landmarks to use those effectively.
Anyway, I spent several hours picking my way up and over and around some very rugged, rocky mountain slopes, looking for a route to Tundra Lake. This is the point at which I realized it was futile, and turned back. One of my favourite words is "bewildered", and I was definitely that. I wasn't sure where I was, precisely, but figured I knew how to find my way "home".
Meanwhile the fog rolled in thicker and lower, and I nearly overshot my campsite - luckily I caught a flash of blue across an open, fog-drenched meadow: my tent. Boots were soaked, socks were soaked, but I had washed my other pair of hiking socks the previous morning, so had something warm to put on before crawling into my sleeping bag with a book (Doris Lessing's Shikasta). My notes for that afternoon: "Rain, rain, rain; wind, fog, low cloud, socked in. Lots of deer tracks in the lower meadows, and goat tracks higher up on the ridge... if the sun shines tomorrow I can dry out my boots..."
Which was what happened.
Photographed in what is now Stein Valley Nlaka'pamux Heritage Provincial Park, BC (Canada); scanned from the original Kodachrome 64 slide. Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©1981 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
11832 Bewildered - 1981
As promised, starting a new series today of old photos, scans from slides. Fortunately I filled notebooks and trail journals in the days before EXIF data, so I know when and where I shot this self-portrait.
It was a cold, foggy morning in my back country camp, so naturally I thought it would be a good day to explore the surrounding mountains. This was in the Coast Mountains north of Vancouver, north of Whistler. There were no trails. I had a compass and topo maps, but of course you need to be able to sight on landmarks to use those effectively.
Anyway, I spent several hours picking my way up and over and around some very rugged, rocky mountain slopes, looking for a route to Tundra Lake. This is the point at which I realized it was futile, and turned back. One of my favourite words is "bewildered", and I was definitely that. I wasn't sure where I was, precisely, but figured I knew how to find my way "home".
Meanwhile the fog rolled in thicker and lower, and I nearly overshot my campsite - luckily I caught a flash of blue across an open, fog-drenched meadow: my tent. Boots were soaked, socks were soaked, but I had washed my other pair of hiking socks the previous morning, so had something warm to put on before crawling into my sleeping bag with a book (Doris Lessing's Shikasta). My notes for that afternoon: "Rain, rain, rain; wind, fog, low cloud, socked in. Lots of deer tracks in the lower meadows, and goat tracks higher up on the ridge... if the sun shines tomorrow I can dry out my boots..."
Which was what happened.
Photographed in what is now Stein Valley Nlaka'pamux Heritage Provincial Park, BC (Canada); scanned from the original Kodachrome 64 slide. Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©1981 James R. Page - all rights reserved.