Affirmation at 8,000 feet

The smoke was gone on Wednesday, but a whole day without electricity lay ahead. Some work was being done on our road and PG & E had to shut down the electric grid for most of the day. So we decided to drive up to Silver Lake in the Sierra's.
We took a lunch, the Corgi boys and off we drove . As we climbed in elevation it was evident that the smoke that plagued us early in the week was still there. It just hadn't come down into the valley and was sitting along the crest of the Sierras.
We finally pulled into the Kit Carson Resort to find that there were no public bathrooms open and that we would have to go back out to the highway to find one.
We parked and let the dogs out. They had a great time running around smelling the bear scents around the bear proof trash containers. We walked down to the lake. It was smoky to the west but looking toward the east we could see a mix of thunderheads and blue sky.

All I could smell was smoke. No Pine trees or clear mountain fragrances.
We continued back into the Silver Lake Campground and around the backside of the lake. We were looking for our neighbor, who was there for the day of fishing with a friend. We found our neighbor's car and walked along the beach until we found them.
Carl and Cutter were so surprised to see "D". They couldn't figure out why he was here and not at home but they were very excited to see him.
 He and his friend from the Bay Area had already caught 10 fish ,but they were releasing most of them.

 The smoke was heavy but it was still rather pretty at the water's edge. Lots of old pieces of wood and trees along the beach. The lake was quiet. There weren't many people around. Most of the cabins were closed up for the season.

We said goodbye and walked back to the car. On the walk back down the beach I took this shot looking west. The big cumulus clouds were beautiful. Some were still forming from the Rim Fire near Yosemite but there were so many more and some were filled with rain. I think they will bring rain to the mountains this week. That would be wonderful!

We drove back out to the highway. We had decided to go on up to Hope Valley and check out some campsites up there too.

As we drove past one of the big boulders that fill the Silver Lake campground... there he was.

 The official Camp Host.

A cute little chipmunk. He stood there as if he was a very important Chipmunk  and didn't seem too concerned that I was taking pictures of him. I'm pretty sure that he, or she, was an "alpha" chipmunk. There was a "don't mess with me." attitude. I felt lucky to get such a good picture of it. Usually they are running across the roads in hyper drive and you cannot shoot them clearly.
We drove by Kirkwood, where I first learned to ski, up thorough Carson Spur and over the pass. It's not as scary as it is in the Winter, when the snow is piled on the cliffs. I always hold my breath when I drive through the "spur". It's an avalanche area. This time of year there is no snow to avalanche but there are huge boulders that can tumble down... at any time.
We drove east toward beautiful Caples Lake...

 then over the pass (8,574 ft) and down past the smaller Red Lake, where I learned to ice fish and also learned that frozen lakes make sounds as you walk about on them.

 Finally, we reached Hope Valley.

Where we ate lunch and just sat looking at the blue sky and the wonderful clouds.

After lunch we drove into the Hope Valley Campground. There were actually wildflowers still blooming on the side of the road.

And birds that I haven't seen before.

And the beautiful Carson River running through it all.

And more wildflowers.

And, in the middle of all this beauty, a new season... changing color. A brilliance reflected in the river, a bright blush of orange, red and brown in the meadows, where the sky and air whisper "Winter's coming. Do you feel it?"
We filled our hearts with the beauty of the mountains and then, as all good things cannot last forever, we said goodbye to the valley called Hope.

To the rivers that run east instead of west and how they seems to meander equal to the land. No canyons, no rapids and dangerous pools, dropping into gorges... like an angry river of no return.
This river... here... is a quiet, zen like river that is at one with its surroundings.
A lesson not lost on me. A lesson I must learn.
It's good to find a place that settles you down, makes you pay attention in its own quiet way... and gives you... well...  hope.

Another Day in Paradise

The heat and smoke came back. We had a few days without both and then again they've returned... like Siamese twins.
Yesterday morning the sun struggled to find its reflection on our deck.

This orange light caught my eye, from the living room, as I sat drinking my coffee.

I took my camera outside and, breathing as little as possible, took a few photos of the hills toward the river.

This is what the news/weather people called particulates in the air. "Fine particles," such as those found in smoke and haze, are 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller. These particles can be directly emitted from sources such as forest fires,"
It's all about AQI.
The AQI is an index for reporting daily air quality. It tells you how clean or polluted your air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for you. The AQI focuses on health effects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. The index runs from 0 to 500.
 We've been at Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (101 to 150) for quite a few days this month - People with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion.
That's me. I'm the older adult with breathing problems so.... I'm spending a lot of time indoors. Agaaaa!

But the sun and the smoke makes for pretty pictures.

It's also going to be over 100 degrees today... again... for the third day in a row. I've never appreciated our air-conditioning as much before this summer.
Everything is dead leaf dry unless it's watered every morning. We have let the rest go outside the main garden. The tomatoes have stopped producing or getting red. Time for fried, green tomatoes.
We heard a scream last night... a terrifying scream, below the old goat house. Some animal lost it's life to one of our unseen predators. A baby deer, a fox... we never know. We can only listen... and check to see where Annie cat is. We called her and she didn't come... at first. Finally she came running to the garage, glad to come into her safe place for the night. She was nervous and looking behind her as she hurried toward the garage.

The Rim fire (near Yosemite) is still at 80% contained and now there is a new fire on Mt. Diablo , east of San Francisco and the Oakland hills. More smoke on the prevailing winds.
This summer the west has had 49 large fires burning in 11 western states. We don't have to worry about terrorism from outside sources... we may just crash and burn all by ourselves. A campfire here, a thrown cigarette there, a crazy person that starts fires just to watch them burn.
We are "at risk" with our own people and their carelessness.
Rant, rant, rant... mumble, mumble, mumble...
I'm so over summer.

Wordless Wednesday: You don't take a photograph, you make it. ~Ansel Adams

The Prospector gettin' gold fever and a dog named Shorty

We woke up to this.

Rain clouds and a bit of blue sky... but no smoke. I wish I could, somehow, let you breath the difference in the air.

Talk about silver linings. It was an unexpected front coming from the Pacific. Wonderful, cool and blessed moisture for the fire weary mountains to the east.
I took my coffee outside onto the deck... hot coffee with foamy milk. My favorite way to start the day.

I watched the sky and breathed in the air. It seemed like the beginning of a whole new season. A tinge of Fall was in the air.
After breakfast the Prospector left, on his ATV to help a neighbor and another friend, dig out a new spot on the creek where they suspect nuggets are hiding next to a vein of quartz. He left with some panning equipment and high hopes.
I opened up the house and let everything air out. Even our bathroom towels have a slight aroma of smoke in them. A week of smoky mornings had left a residual smoky smell inside the house.

I just couldn't sit still any longer. I had to see what the guys were doing over there, so I put the dogs in the backyard and drove over to our neighbor's place.
I was greeted by one of my favorite dogs. His name is Shorty. He's a Corgi mix.

This is one of the smartest dogs I know. He is also well trained and he loves people.
He greeted me when I got out of the car and decided that I was going to be his project while I was there. Maybe he was just ready for some female company. Every time I turned around, Shorty was there with me.
My neighbor took me over to see the glory hole and showed me how they were following a quartz vein through a crack in the bedrock. It looked like a great spot to be digging.

 Don't get too excited about this. It's a dirty business, looking for gold is. I just can't glamorize it. When I was a kid I loved to tromp through the creeks near my house. To the dismay of my mother, I was always going down to Grayson Creek with my friends, or by myself, and playing ... as if I was the only person in the whole world that lived there and I was on my own. My friends and I started a Nature Club and we would take hikes to the creek. It was part of my early prospecting training and I didn't even know it. Gold panning takes me there again. It's an old memory that still calls the little girl inside of me. Being outside, near a creek... panning... digging in a hole looking for "good dirt" makes me feel strong and young again. It's dirt, some water and a lot of hard work.
 But today I just looked and took pictures.and because I was balancing on some river rocks and trying to take some strategic photos of the "hole", I didn't get any clear pictures. Sorry.
I was having more fun taking photos of Shorty, who was just being way too cooperative and keep drawing my attention with his handsome little dog face.

 This is the area that the guys were working. There's an old cistern that always has water in it from a spring.

This area was a big mining/prospecting area in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The old rock walls,
foundations and cisterns built by prospectors that lived in the area are still evident everywhere. This was part of the great Mother Lode of California. You can feel the ghosts of its famous past.

Wild blackberries co-exist with the poison oak and there is always a feeling of history here.
I walked back to see if any of the guys were getting rich. They showed me there little vials of gold and seemed happy with the morning of work. There are three men in this photo. Shorty's owner is completely hidden behind the Prospector (with the hat on). Shorty is resting. I love the spread out style of his back legs and the smile. He's a happy, gold lovin' dog.

 This is the place where they panned the dirt and rock using a bucket of water (ONE bucket of water) to pan in. Don't let the folks that complain about recreational prospecting and mining tell you that we destroy the land. We are probably more aware of the beauty and ecology of this area than any "environmentalist".
Why would we want to destroy this beautiful area that we live in... and yet, the state had put a five year moratorium on any kind of dredging... even with small 2'' dredges. So they work the little creeks by hand with very little water, picks and shovels.
Mining is a right, protected by the General Mining Act of 1872.
OK, This is not a political blog so I will stop now before I get started.
I took a few photos of the beauty of the place.

And that's when I heard something moving around in the creek below me.
There was Shorty...

  cooling his heals (and half of his body) in the somewhat stagnant water of a creek pond, looking at me as if to say, " Well, I'm hot and this looks like a good place to be while I keep an eye on you."

He watched a leaf and stuck his tongue in the water. He was enjoying his new found swimming hole.

Then he got up, turned around and left. He went back to the guys. He was tired of being my guardian and following me all over the place.
The day was warming up. The sun was coming out and I decided to leave. The guys were being nice but a woman always requires polite behavior and cleaning up of the language. These are nice guys with respect for women. I didn't want to kill the fun of their male bonding get-together so I said "See you later." and left.
As I drove out I had to stop and take a shot of this old mining cave. I've never gone into it.

It always looks kind of scary. I expect a bear to come charging out, but so far... it has never happen. It might make a great wine cellar.
I drove up through my neighbor's gate and onto the main road.

 

Carl and Cutter would be waiting for me and not happy about the "other" dog smell. They know Shorty. He has come to visit a few times. They all get along really well. But I will get the "where have you been and what have you been doing." wet nose once over from both of them  It's routine. 

Congraulations to Diane Nyad. She's the 64 year old who finally swam the 110 miles from Cuba to Florida  today. Here's to determined older woman who never quit.

The Rim Fire is 40% contained tonight.

Gold is at $1.392.00 today and on the decline. But as the old poem by Robert Service goes... 

"There’s gold, and it’s haunting and haunting;

   It’s luring me on as of old;

Yet it isn’t the gold that I’m wanting

   So much as just finding the gold.

It’s the great, big, broad land ’way up yonder,

   It’s the forests where silence has lease;

It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,

   It’s the stillness that fills me with peace."

Sunrise over Rim Fire

Aug. 31, 6:30 p.m. — The Rim Fire has burned 222,777 acres.

Containment has been brought to 40 percent.

The fire burned mostly south and east today.

Crews made "good progress" on containing the spot fire that crossed Old Yosemite Road and forced mandatory evacuations late Friday night and were lifted Saturday afternoon (see below).

Backfire operations were completed between Big Oak Station and Hazel Green Ranch. Also, "good progress" was made in backfire operations near Crane Flat Lookout.

A backfire operation is planned at the eastern edge of the fire in Yosemite National Park between Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Harden Lake as conditions allow.
Crews will also continue reinforcing the protection along the Highway 108 corridor and on Dodge Ridge.

(credit to USA Today for the above information.)

Less smoke today. A front has come from the Pacific and is moving over Northern California and some moisture from the south. This is moving smoke to the east more. Maybe those fighting the fire will get some help from Mother Nature.

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. ~G.B. Stern

And neither is complaining about the smoke, which is awful.

And then I found this quote...
But sound aloud the praises, and give the victor-crown
To our noble-hearted Firemen, who fear not danger's frown.
~Frederic G.W. Fenn, "Ode to our Firemen," 1878

And although the smoke is awful.

And the yard art is choking...

And the Sunflowers can't find much sun...

I think back to the fire on our mountain, two years ago and how the fireman rushed into the burning area and saved our home and how I yelled "Thank you." to everyone of them as we drove back up through the burned hillside to our house... the ground still smoldering around us. 

So, to all the fireman of California (and the Western US) who are on the lines of every fire that rages,

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. 

The smoke from the Rim fire near Yosemite is annoying and my lungs are tired of breathing in smoke every day... but the folks up country nearer to the Rim fire are closer, more in danger and living (for weeks) under the constant threat of loosing their homes.  

The mass effort to fight this fire is extraordinary.

The firefighters are working long hours... “We have to work 72 or 96 hours in a row, and being away from your family with little sleep and physically demanding takes a toll,”

Some woman who lives up there opened her Tattoo business and gave firefighters free haircuts and the community brought food for them to eat . That's gratitude that makes a difference.

It’s the fifth-largest wildfire in California history. On Thursday, it was in its 12th day and it had only been contained 32%, according to Cal Fire. 

Hug a firefighter and feel warm all over.  ~Author Unknown

 

Remembering the Weekend

I'm glad that I'm home. The smoke from the Rim Fire is subsiding but the smell of it is in the air. The wind must have shifted. The smoke sits up country like a shroud of gray to the east. The fire is only 30% contained.
So here I sit with Carl and Cutter, eating my breakfast...

 and thinking about my long weekend trip, my friend and her life in a quirky, little Delta town...

Thinking... about the Crawdad Cajun Festival that brings folks to this sleepy town once a year and will be called something else from now on, because chamber members have sold the rights to the festival, along with its name.  It's quite a controversy that you can read about HERE.
Wondering... why there are a few folks who are desperately trying to save this little town even though it's an uphill battle. And how some other folks only seek to use its marginal existence to their gain.
How could anyone not want to restore the history of a place.

... to revive an old town. It's sad.

The beauty of this place is evident. The sunsets that turn everything to gold on a warm summer night along the edges of the old Sacramento River...

Battles are being fought out here. The State "powers that be" also want to build tunnels in the delta and reduce the water in this delicate area to send it down to Southern California. The compromises that destroy habitat are offered as an alternative to the farmers loss of water. This is another story.



Where is the higher ground here? Why is it always about money and power?

A cat greets you on Main St. as if it was "the mayor".

 And a miniature Chewbacca from Star Trek is the middle man for

 its owner...a young man who talks to you like you've always lived there.

The beauty of this place is in the pride of some of the residents.
There is a quiet friendliness in its restaurants and "history museum".
There are folks who care. There are people who try to do the right thing.
******************

I came home to heat and smoke... and was greeted by one of the locals on my road.

A curious little buck who will learn not to stand and stare at people who pull out big cameras.

  He will grow up and learn that a camera could be a rifle during hunting season. He will be "at risk", as an adult, but he will learn. He will become cautious and weary of humans.
I'm kind of tired of some humans myself. Not my friend "C"... who tries so hard to understand the inequities of life...  but those who insist on not doing the right thing.
I'm glad to be home. I enjoyed my visit, but it's time to be back up on my mountain where I can put things into perspective and try to find a "higher ground" that makes sense of the world around me.
I think it's here...

On my porch... a whisper of truth in a world of chaos.

the other chamber members into selling the rights to the festival along with the name. Supposedly, the sale was to pay off debts of the previous years festival that allegedly lost money. - See more at: http://www.deltanewsandreview.com/2013/02/isleton-saga-back-story-reprint.html#sthash.Rw28pH9z.dpuf

the other chamber members into selling the rights to the festival along with the name. Supposedly, the sale was to pay off debts of the previous years festival that allegedly lost money. - See more at: http://www.deltanewsandreview.com/2013/02/isleton-saga-back-story-reprint.html#sthash.EfKGU86O.dpuf

Wordless Wednesday: Long, Quiet Weekend on the Delta