A wonderful thing happened over the holiday. A treasured creation was returned to me and now I can share with you the very second thing I ever carved from wood.

Los Angeles county, California, pre 1930. It is the middle of the Great Depression and the CCC is helping to revitalize the infrastructure of California and adds thousands of jobs. The beautiful concrete arch bridges all through the state are the most lasting legacy of their work. One of the projects they executed was the building of extensive truck roads throughout the Angeles forest mountains.

One of the trails, #4N33 was given the name, Moody Truck trail, for reasons unavailable to this author. It stood out as a dry and hot area in a place that was hot and dry to begin with. It was inspirationally hot, in fact.

Workers named a particularly hot turn in the road, "perspiration point" and proceeded to build a concrete monument to the experience. It was and probably is still there and a car trip can still bring you right up to it. It has proven to be a durable obelisk in the face of relentless vandalism.

As you can see there were originally three hand tools, a hard rock pick, a pick-axe and a spade, imbedded into the concrete, but these have been gone for many decades, and probably would have rusted and melted away by now anyway. There is a back with dedications to the planners and workers and such.

Temperatures in this area can soar to well over 100 degrees f. with humidity levels that cover the spectrum, all unpleasant and should be a challenge to all. The hike starts in Acton and climbs to Messenger Flat camp and is classified as strenuous during summer. Trust them.

I carved the facsimile of myself soon after returning from the hike and worked about two weeks on it. I used a dremel tool and sandpaper alone to execute the piece. I kept it for awhile and then passed it on to an unappreciative father, hoping for a reaction.

He eventually passed away and the carving disappeared as things often do during estate settling. I wrote it off as gone...but it was not. It was, however after 35 years, shattered into pieces. As you can see, the restoration proceeds.