Close Fire as Summer Steams Through October

   Fire was always a part of life here since the first Americans were in Santa Barbara thousands of years ago.  The Chumash encouraged valued annuals through small fires after harvesting seeds. Recently large, wildfire has become more prevalent. Much too prevalent. This is the bigger of two fires in our mountain area in the past week. The first started with and burned up our mail carrier's truck. Some of our mail survived with a smokey essence. A mere acre burned with the vehicle.

This one started early in the morning and threatened those on the other side of San Marcos Pass at Painted Cave coming right to the edge of their properties.

The aerial precision of the air drops was stunning. The theater of this fire is a narrow wedge between two steep drainages that flow together above Highway 154. The choreography of 6 choppers and 7 planes in this reduced air space was high drama on wing and proceeded without incident. The result came early and was highly effective. Keeping this potentially huge fire storm between the ridges and below the houses was an education in concentrated air attack on fire close up. Forty-four acres burned to the rocks and all houses still stand unharmed!

 

Traffic flowed all day on 154 and power was restored to our neighborhood soon after it went out. The Sheriff patrolled neighborhoods and made reverse 911 calls to get our attention.

While this may not be global weirding at work, it's hard not to look at the total pattern of the increasing frequency of Southern Cal. big fires and not wonder about the cause. Fire suppression? Sure, it's been over zealous. Encroaching on the rural habitat with the urban interface? Of course we have and are increasing this menace. And I still suspect the climate change as well.

At the least we had a hot fall with summer  unwilling to loosen its talons. Today, a much needed respite is on hand with a cooler, on-shore flow complete with clouds and humidity. Maybe fall at last?

Mountains of Summer

Fall is rumored to be lurking on the edge of these 90+ degree days following the American tradition of laboring back to work and school in the shadow of the first Monday of September. I am still in the thrall of the Mountains of Summer and cooling my days with those memories as the hot winds blow. The other day hardly broke 70 and it rained in shear apostasy to the Santa Barbara tradition of no rain until November. But tomorrow the heat returns to our low pretender of a mountain and I, well I seek to recall the cool breezes of higher ground.
   This started when I noticed this evening my first photo of the June Lakes blog is an image of Falling Leaf Lake! You didn't notice? Well, it took me awhile, but we never saw June Lake through the trees like that. Brett Stearns and I hiked a high trail.

   Below is a photo of Jen and her cousin, Todd, down from Portland area with his family, sister Tanya and her family and their parents Bill and Carol. Somehow I missed most the most of the action with the camera, but this photo from the east end of Inspiration Point (SB) delivers the sense of fun and sharing we enjoyed for most of a week. I also missed the trip to the Mouse, when they all took in Disney Land. This opportunity for our families to be together needs to happen much more often!

  I don't know who the lady is, but she watched our every move on the street going up to the cafes and general store at June Lake. She needs a life.
   Mono lake has had a tough time over the years being guzzled by the metropolis to the south, but it's looking better than last we left it, a little bluer and a lot fuller.

All over the world Mark Twain was there before me, truly the Kilroy of an earlier era. While reporting from Virginia City, he ventured out to visit the tufa towers with the remarkable flies and shrimp of Mono Lake and for once he didn't have a better view than I. The lake was fuller and the towers were mostly still underwater and are now more exposed. They grow closer to flooding again and below another Sam expresses enthusiasm for how large the lake should grow and I agree.

  A view of the east escarpement from our stop in Lone Pine while we consider the hiking/climbing achievement of super mom (Jen) last summer.  This water valve gives tribute to water theft via the construction of water aqua ducts beginning with Rome and marching through history all the way through Owens Valley to Los Angeles. As Mark T. said, "Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting!" Some people don't realize there is a fight until the water is gone. My quote check finds that Mark Twain might not have uttered the whiskey quote, but we're pretty certain he drank a little of it in his day and we're not so sure about water.

  Just for fun, here's another view from June Lake to show how paddling always provides another perspective. Life on the water is a little bit better. Yes, there was a little thunder timpani to punctuate the night with echoes among the peaks.

June Lakes

We had a fine trip, Taylor, Sam, Carole and I had five days traveling together up 395 to the eastern Sierra’s June Lakes. It is a wonderful and most attractive area. My previous drive-throughs worked for scouting and I knew it would be stellar. We all enjoyed the spacious cabin almost on the lake. The little lakes, including Gull in our photo, at 7600' elevation sit in glacial potholes, most less than a mile in any direction. They make a delightful necklace cast about the arc of the valley on the east Sierra escarpment where Reverse Ridge provides the western hub in the glacial valley. The small ski operation shut down this year from lack of profit and looks to be devastating for winter months’ tourism. There will be people for cross country skiing, maybe skating on the lakes and possibly ice fishing. TV won't bring in many I suspect.

Stormy

Sam on June Lake

Our kayaking on the lake every day and some hiking garnered great views. We visited the ghost town, Bodie with a fascinating tour of the stamping mill. It was the best explanation of hard-rock gold mining and processing. While many buildings stand today, they are but 5% of the town before burning in 1932.

We spent a little time at Mono Lake visiting the center we missed in previous trips. The movie filled in more geology on the surrounding area so when it blows up we’ll know what we lost. After Yellowstone, this is one of the more probable volcanic action points in the west. Contemplating over a sundae in Lee Vining brought us full circuit on another day.

Bodie Ore Bus

Early Summer Santa Barbara

Summer in Santa Barbara often means fire, in fact, we have only two seasons, wet and fire. This year, not so much wet. So I entered May and June with some personal trepidation about the fire this time. Fog is boring, but every foggy day  is a day without fire! The cat paws of dampness reached up the mountain slopes to engulf us after a brief window of bright clear sky and slipped away on light breezes by afternoon. Now in August, we've had boring, but not burning! Light breezes, but no sundowners of dragon's breath.

Brown Pool

Why this is important: 1. Our swimming pool morphed into a brown pool. It's better than it sounds. Seventy-seven tons of gravel and 10 tons of decomposed granite turned our old pool into our new bocce court and a creative one at that. There's none of that straight-line thinking with an over-abundance of granite to be covered by the bouncing balls. The rules play the same and no one gets wet!

The New Pool

Red Rocks in SB

Bocce, on cool summer evenings, is a great game for gathering and sharing with friends and family. On a hot summer day, well, we might be wishing for the splashy sort of pool again. 

2. Hiking is more pleasant and longer, strenuous hikes can stretch further into the sizzling summers days. 3. There are fewer air tankers to cover the fires AND they were busy in Colorado. Ok, the priority might be debatable, but it works for me.

Where you see these rocks the wall of soaring heat usually melts my summer hiking resolve, but we had the good fortune to catch these ice-cream boulders before they melted. Only turkey vultures and a few hang gliders get these views when the heat turns on. How did red-rock material end up in SB where the sandstone came from the ocean? Hmmm.

We hosted our old friend Kaan Kocali who lived with us back in the Twentieth Century (1980s) for all too brief a time. We reminisced about times when Kaan and Jen were teens in what turned out to be the last high school year for both of them. Kaan got a degree and Jen, well, she went to college next. Here they are again at lunch comparing notes on family and careers.

Frieda is Launched

In graduate school I was on the "staff" of Zeitgeist, which we called a sporadical. I liked the connotation of a random periodical and it was also a little radical, at least it was politically painful for some folks. We lampooned the faculty, the psych department and the university from time to time. This blog is reminiscent as a sporadical without much radical, and I was feeling nostalgic.

Here's our first reader anywhere!

We had the book launch for Frieda and had a great turnout of people at the Goleta Library. We read before the launch the worst that would happen would be that only two people show up, but all they want is directions to the bathroom. Sure enough, we had one person looking for the way to the women's room. We had a lockout when the library closed and they didn't tell me they were closing the door to our area as well. Fortunately Bob Ehrmann called from behind the door and we got that remedied! It was fun way to start this book off. We raised over $650 with the launch and the first couple weeks of sales. Thanks for your help and thanks to Kaan for such a good price on the book.

Too soon after the Launch we returned Kaan to LAX and he flew home to Ankara to continue his business in entertainment law.

Here's Kaan talking up the book

NatureTrack.org is now selling The Adventures of Frieda and Her Friends on the product page and profits continue to go to support that great organization. The book is also now available at Chaucer's Bookstore in Santa Barbara and the Book Loft in Solvang as well as (this will help so many of you) the Shaw Stationery and Book Store in Klamath Falls, OR. I hope you'll refer friends who are looking for a kids book to these locations, or have them contact me (nord.nord@gmail.com).

Frieda Figurine

Here is the bonus I wasn't expecting at all. Kaan brought a terrific figurine of Frieda in the depths of despair when she first learns she is destined for... finishing school instead of fishing school. I'm glad I'm old and can gush about things like this and not worry about my manly place in life. Isn't this the cutest thing you've seen? I am more than biased. Mesut Gürkan created the illustrations for Frieda and this little figurine that he sent for me.

Thanks for all your support!

The Adventures of Frieda and Her Friends: Book Launch 6/15/2012

Come help me celebrate the launch of The Adventures of Frieda and Her Friends.

Book Launch/Fund Raiser for Nature Track: Friday, June 15, 4-7 PM at the Goleta Library Multipurpose Room at 500 N. Fairview.

I took Frieda to Turkey to give my friend’s daughter. After reading, he asked if he might publish the book as there were few new books available for children in Turkey. He wanted to put this in their hands. After our bi-cultural, bi-lingual effort across two continents, the book is complete with wonderful illustrations (not mine) that are as glowing as the digital copy I saw earlier!

Best of all, my friend Kaan will be here from Ankara! He was an exchange student in Santa Barbara in 1984 who lived with us. AND we will share refreshments together! Come on by!

All profits will go to support Nature Track www.naturetrack.org, a non-profit foundation for introducing children to nature. Carole and I volunteer for Nature track and I am on the board.  There will be information on becoming a volunteer/docent with Nature Track and backpacks to everyone who buys a book! We'll also have info for teachers and home schoolers about outings for your students with Nature Track.

An extra bonus for participants at the book launch, Jeff Jones will be showing a few of his extraordinary landscape photos! Lumnos.com 

Photo Shoot Sierra Madre, Carrizo Plain, Mt. Pinos & Reyes Peak

Looking for a clear day and a view for the camera, Jeff Jones (http://lumnos.com/) and I headed to Santa Maria where we turned right towards New Cuyama. Jeff's current project encompasses a range of landscapes from urban to wilderness with the intent of informing on the scope of what is still wild and what perhaps should be. That's my take, Jeff might describe it differently. We turned right again for the dirt road to McPhearson Peak on the Sierra Madre range. Haze prevailed, not a good omen for the professional photographer. For an example of ideal conditions, go to Jeff's site and the photos from the National Arctic National Refuge. It might hurt your eyes, if like me you've grown accustomed to that soft glow in the sky that prevails especially in the summers; haze, fog, and smog or a combination of all three. It's like the mute in a trombone creating another set of tones, but not the ones desired for every song. The bumping road yields many views as it is on the edge of the San Rafael Wilderness. Long views with close details pop into view. Desirable as they are I note the camera gear stays in the cargo bay. Chia sage is abundant here as well as Joshua Tree. I hear explanations of what might be, on a clearer day, in the early hours or maybe the late. Such is the talk of photography perfection. I click my own snaps. At Miranda Pines we survey the campsites but continue to McPhearson Peak. The solar array glistens, the com towers whistle in a breeze and on the ground we spot a fresh track of the black bear making long distance calls? The characteristic trail of bear paws settling into the same spot over and over tells us this bear has reason to return though it's hard to imagine the allure other than to look over the valleys and the long east-west ridge stretching away into the haze. Good choice that bear makes for this pilgrimage. Short sighted, that's the book on bears, but this one has specs.

~~~

Night on the ridge without too much wind and back up to the peak in the morning bags a few photos as grist for the mill. The morning was hazier and smoggier than the night before. We chose to head down the steep Bates Canyon Road and a right turn past New Cuyama put us well on the way to Carrizo Plain, a National Monument (http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/bakersfield/Programs/carrizo/goodwin.html). At the left turn by the collapsing house I once saw a flaming Bullocks Oriel. I looked for another chance sighting, but was disappointed. Later at the KCL campground I took photos of a nesting cousin . Unable to shake the haze, our trip became a scouting effort. We saw potential, but nothing to bring out the tripod and lenses for serious efforts.

The thermometer hit 118F (full sun) as we turned for the high ground at Mt. Pinos, thousands of feet higher and much cooler with shade. The two-lane blacktop twists through miles of great potential on a clearer planet. Near Mt. Pinos we found all the Forest Campgrounds closed! Not helpful when on a camping trip, but a dirt road led to a great informal site where you see my hammock hanging. After a night in the woods we made breakfast and lounged until heading down to Frazier Park and back towards Ojai by way of the Lockwood Valley. More great potential, but too much, what? Yeah, haze!

Near Reyes Peak there are more great views and I clicked off some shots of the Ponderosas, pretty sure this is my totem for life. Trimmed up to park specs, they provide a lofty backdrop to our lunch. You might note blue sky above those trees? Haze and horizon share more than the letters belie.

We covered many miles, talked about the future of wilderness and looked many directions...into the haze. Still a great outing.

For a few people who had trouble getting Santa Barbara Fire Song onto their Kindles I put it up on Amazon where for $.99 you can download it like any normal Kindle book. I received advance copies of The Adventures of Frieda and her Friends and my friend Kaan is coming mid-month with more for sale at a launch party we'll hold.