Sierra Club Yahi
STANDING ON TWO FEET
Rex Burress
The first question the doctor asked a senior who fell was, “Why did you fall?” In fact, doctors ask that question when any senior falls, checking out a cause that might indicate a physical condition. In this case, the lady was picking up litter and slipped on a slope injuring her wrist.
Standing on two feet is quite a feat of balancing weight on bone and muscle when walking or running. It would seen unlikely that a person could get it all together to walk the John Muir Trail or run a 26-mile marathon, yet mankind, of all the mammals, is the only species able to do that two-legged trick with regularity. Even an ape can only stand a few minutes before bouncing away on four limbs. The human foot with its tendons and joints is of utmost importance, and that balancing business involving the inner ear is a critical component.
We wonder how John Muir was able to saunter all over the Sierra mountains alone, and never break a bone. He did it with crude leather boots quite unlike today's marvelous foot savers. One of my nature walk group once fell and broke a leg in the Table Mountain flower fields, and even though those loose basaltic rocks are treacherous, you never see a deer or coyote make a misstep.
If having two legs was designed to elevate vision, the giraffe does it better with four. Just why we are made in the two-legged mode is not fully apparent, however, Tyrannosaurus Rex evidently moved on two legs. Other dinosaurs were so ponderous they could have used six legs, but six belongs to the insects, while spiders have eight, centipedes have 30, and none for the snakes! Whyyyy?
Birds are about the only other animal using two legs exclusively. From the speedy quail to the perching jay to the ponderous ostrich, bird legs are a help on the ground and in the trees, but are secondary to wings for locomotion, though the flightless emperor penguins wobble along on two legs for miles across the Antarctica ice to reach a nesting site!
With that all said about animals with two or more feet, consider an animal with ONE foot! Give up? Anatomists call the flat, moist, crawling appendage of Gastropods a “foot.” You know, like the snails whizzing along in your garden, riding with that one foot on a silver trail of slime. The gastropod is a mollusk of about 80,000 living species, and they all feature a foot.
Human feet are prone to being twisted when in a bind, like stepping on a sidewalk edge or tripping in a rocky hole. Such a misstep sometimes results in a sprained or broken ankle. That's serious business when you have only two legs, especially if you are a Sierra Club hiker in some distant mountain range. Cell phones don't always work far back in the wilderness and you can be in double trouble when grounded, especially if you are alone.
Even though John was able to survive solitary Sierra ventures, having hiking companions is a safer way to go. Hiker Sandy Becker of Oroville made her 33rd climb of Mt. Whitney at age 73, but she has had companions.
Admittedly, I have probed alone pretty deep into the hills, but seldom as far as a backpacking over-niter. My big venture was backpacking/camping at May Lake in Yosemite and climbing Mt. Hoffman. I wanted to climb the first mountain John Muir climbed, but I had my son as a valued hiking companion. I was awed that Muir had climbed it alone, and in 1868, he probably didn't see a single human being where there was not even a trail. It's lonely when you're alone out there.
A little 'careful' can make your Sierra Club sojourns a pleasure on two feet!