High Up on White Mountain:

When I was about 10, my father took me on an adventure. I remember him waking me at about 4 AM - "Lloyd, we need to get up and get ready to go!" We left before dawn, and I must have slept – the next thing I remember is early morning somewhere on highway 89 and then the beautiful descent on the eastern escarpment of the Sierra down to Highway 395. There was "Deadman Pass" and then "Conway Summit" with a view of Mono Lake that still thrills me every time I see it. There might have been a brief stop at Bridgeport for an ice cream cone. Finally, we drove through Bishop and up the slope of the White Mountains to the east. The long trip was capped by turning onto the grated gravel road that climbed upwards to the White Mountain High Altitude Research Station - really 3 stations at 10,000 feet, 12,500 and the little hut at the top at 14,000 feet. I had to earn my room and board by helping my father with tasks – one I remember was helping with construction of a building at 12,500 feet for the experimental chickens to live in. The altitude made it very hard to work for very long without resting. I remember my father being especially careful about getting things right - this was his funded research project and he was determined that it would succeed. He also took time to take me around to see the "sights." The ancient Bristlecone pines are an indelible image for me from that time. He also showed me where you could look for Indian arrowheads, just laying on the ground. If that wasn't fascinating enough, we got up one morning before dawn to see the "flash" in the east from the latest nuclear bomb test hundreds of miles away. Then there was the day we got into the jeep and rumbled up the steep trail, through magnificent meadows flush with wild flowers and dotted with springs, and up the very steep and narrow trail that clung to the hillside and eventually to very top of White Mountain. Oh, the view to the west of the Sierra - another indelible image for me. I am still impressed by that trip and that my father would take along his youngest son, who undoubtedly got in the way and must have demanded constant attention. He made the effort to provide special experiences for both of his sons. This one always stayed with me.