Connecting the Front Door to the Wild

Updated on February 18, 2008 by SG

Wally Skalij, LA TimesWhat began as a nasty battle between Ranch Road homeowners and backcountry skiers (as yet unresolved) has become a full-blown master planning effort for the town of Mammoth Lakes.

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The Stroll from Oakland to Yosemite, Reprise

Newman, formerly Hills Ferry, San Joaquin ValleyIn the spring of 1868, less than a month before his 30th birthday, a wild-haired itinerant college-dropout by the name of John Muir, “with incredibly little money,” and no guidebook, stepped off a Panama steamer at the Port of San Francisco. The way he tells it, the first thing he did was walk up and ask a fellow for the best way out of town.

“But where do you want to go?” the fellow asked.

“To any place that is wild,” said Muir.

The fellow pointed the way to the Oakland Ferry.

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Counting Sheep

Stuffed Sierra Nevada Bighorn, Mono Lake Visitors Center. Photo by Daniel Mayer.According to biologist John Wehausen's estimates, there were "probably at least 1,000 bighorn" ranging in the Sierra Nevada prior to 1850. By 1995 there were 100. They made the federal Endangered Species List in 2000. By 2002, with a little help from human beings, the number had climbed to 250. Today there are an estimated 400 individuals, with sub-herds fragmented into five discrete regions.

A recently proposed multi-agency recovery plan now calls for the establishment of 417,577 acres of critical habitat across five California counties, off-limits for domestic sheep and hungry mountain lions alike. The plan would cost an estimated $26.7 million over the next 20 years.

"It looks like a fair amount of money," Bob Williams, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, told the Fresno Bee, "but compared to other species, this is relatively small, and the costs are in line with what the species needs."

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Bighorn Page.

Critical Habitat Map.

Sierra Nevada Bighorn Foundation

The documentary film.

Farther

Christian Pondella for the New York TimesWhen selecting a site for your house, there is always the question of how close to the city you should be and that depends on what kind of slave you are. The best thing to do is go as far out as you can get. Avoid the suburbs—dormitory towns—by all means. Go way out into the country—what you regard as "too far"—and when others follow, as they will (if procreation keeps up), move on.

—Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House (1954)

"The idea is not only that you can’t commute," said Andy, "but that you wouldn’t even be tempted."

The story.

Wild Snow

Front Yard at Pear LakeThey were experienced, they had the right equipment, they knew how to deal with avalanche danger. — Park spokeswoman Alexandra Picavet

Avalanches do not happen by accident, and most human involvement is a matter of choice, not chance. — Avalanche forecaster Sue Barak

John Muir (1911):In all my mountaineering I have enjoyed only one avalanche ride... [It] was the most spiritual and exhilarating of all the modes of motion I have ever experienced.

Jason Gardner: It was gymnastics like I can't describe.

Early details from the Fresno Bee.

The full report.

How to get to the Pear Lake Ski Hut.

NASA Looks at Mono Lake

...along the western edge of the Great Basin—one of North America’s four largest deserts—sits Mono Lake. This salty remnant of a wetter era resides in a landscape of geologically young and potentially active volcanoes...

"This solemn, silent, sail-less sea—this lonely tenant of the loneliest spot on earth—is little graced with the picturesque," wrote Mark Twain, who spent several years in the region during the mid-1860's.

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