July 26 was the day of the yearly get together we waited for a whole year. Eleven hikers met at the meeting place and drove to the trail head in about an hour. A beautiful sunny mountain day was around, fresh air, smell of the pine trees, motorcycles blasting on the Angeles Crest Highway. A perfect hiking day. Frank led the group with occasional rest stops. When we reached the ridge at the wilderness boundary, the view of Twin Peaks reminded some of us of the tough hikes we did to get on the top of this worldly peak(s). At the junction David Michel met us on the way from soloing Twin Peak East. Another half hour of hiking and we were on the top of Mt. Waterman. The time was 12:30. Two hiking groups were there already, and the other groups were arriving, too. Different sorts of gourmet food was placed on the "table" rock, and Diane Dunbar's champagne cork flew high. Eating and socializing went on for a while. Tom Amneus (90), the oldest and Reina Lee Brown (3 years 2 months) the youngest, hiking on their own. Ron Jones was there after many years of HPS absence. And of course the regular yearly repeater HPS leaders, members, and organizers whose joint effort made possible this mega hike possible. Around 2 PM we started down and got back to the cars in good spirits after another memorable rendezvous. The participants were: Frank & Ruth Lee Dobos, David Eisenberg (leaders), Charlotte Feitshans, Jack Russell, Daniel Rosenthal, Louis Kalvinkas, Lucy Woodward, Elizabeth Cohen, Roy Wells, and Jo Sarachman.
Driving downhill I observed a silly rattlesnake on the highway stretched out its full length. Why did the snake cross the road? I was able to turn around, and blocked the uphill traffic and forced cars to drive around my truck until the snake was safely off the pavement. Good deed of the day.
