Image courtesy Hot Creek Aviation.Horizon has officially announced new daily service from LAX to Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH) starting Dec. 18, 2008, running through April 12, 2009. The one-hour-and-five-minute flight will depart Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) daily at 2:20 p.m. and arrive at Mammoth at 3:25 p.m. The return flight leaves Mammoth at 4:05 p.m. and arrives at LAX at 5:10 p.m.

FARE RULES: Valid between Los Angeles (LAX) and Mammoth (MMH). For $79 each way fare shown, valid Sun-Wed to Mammoth and Tues-Fri from Mammoth on flights Jan. 4-30, 2009. Fares of $79 and $99 must be purchased 7 days or more before travel. Etc., Etc.

In the meantime, the Mammoth airport has been closed since the end of May (and will remain so through September) in order to undergo a $6 million "runway rehabilitation and terminal remodeling."

The press release.

Alaska/Horizon Airlines MMH page.

Spurious spruce (Business Week)"Go for Verizon Wireless and stay away from T-Mobile," writes Alena Samuels (LAT). "Although your best bet is probably to get a homing pigeon."

The LA Times compares reception in the national parks.

(David McNew / Getty Image)"We must recognize the severity of this crisis we face," said governor Schwarzenegger, proclaiming a statewide drought (and blaming court-ordered protections for San Joaquin salmon).

"The snowpack has been disappearing," said state Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow, "and it has not manifest itself as runoff."

The solution? "Upgrade California's water infrastructure," said the governor. "Let's fix all of these things that need to be fixed rather than waiting and waiting and waiting."

Evan Halper, LA Times.

Playa, lee side Red Hill cinder cone, Owens Valley

February looked good, with 98% normal snowpack and the reservoirs nearly full. Then came March and April, together the driest since 1921.

"I have not seen a more serious water situation in my career, and I've been doing this 30 years," said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies.

Uh-oh. What are we going to water our lawns with?

From the LA Times.

What’s the process for writing a guidebook? Obviously, it involves a lot of research, but how much of that is done first-hand? In other words, how many of the restaurants have you eaten in, etc? And how much is done through other avenues of research?

The full interview.

Owens Valley and Sierra Nevada Escarpment from the Inyo Range

Based on studies of volcanic glass and ancient variations of rainfall, scientists have found that portions of the Sierra Nevada may have reached their present elevation 8 or 9 million years earlier than the commonly thought 3 or 4 million years before the present.

"For the first time, we were able to document that we can track the rain shadow on both sides of the mountain range over very long time scales," said Andreas Mulch, professor of tectonics and climate at the University of Hannover in Germany.

The Stanford Report.

Line Street. Bishop, CA. BURKE GRIGGS PHOTO.

In a poll of members of the Outdoor Writers Association of California last week, Bishop was named "No. 1 place to live for outdoor recreation" in California. "The variety and quality of nearby hiking, horseback trips, fishing, wildlife watching, backpacking and natural beauty," writes Tom Stienstra of the SF Chronicle, "rivals the best anywhere."

"Mammoth," he explains, "is like gazing off into the solar system; there seems to be no end to the stars."

The Bat III--MLB's latest high-performance portable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. MLB PHOTO.

The United States Forest Service, having long ago farmed out basic facilities maintenance to private concessions, having raised campground rates for the upcoming season by as much as 70%, is now reported to have spent $100,000 each on a pair of state-of-the-art unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's).

"The more tools you have available in your toolbox," said Everett Hinkley, who heads the Forest Service's Remote Sensing Applications Center in Salt Lake City, to the AP, "the better job you can do."

The remote-controlled planes are likely to be used for mapping wildfires and for rooting out marijuana farms. According to one manufacturer, UAV's "can operate safely and unnoticed over sensitive areas," and can be used in such diverse applications as "convoy following," "agricultural mapping," "traffic monitoring," "perimeter surveillance," and "homeland security."

"We believe there are upwards of 5,000 pot growers on national forest land," said Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey to the Associated Press, "that exceeds the number of Forest Service employees in the entire state of California."

From Octatron.com: "SkySeer™ is a lightweight, portable, autonomous-flight UAV designed for single-person operation. It weighs less than five pounds, flies quietly, can be assembled in minutes, and is hand-launched... The night version SkySeer™ includes a thermal camera that allows filming in total darkness. A stealth surveillance mission at night at 250’ has been demonstrated. The two-mile range of coverage can be extended using NetWeaver™. Training is required to fly a SkySeer™."

Check out the competition at MLB Manufacturing website.

...somewhere below the knob on Horizon Ridge, midway through a long solo slog from the Ostrander Ski Hut in Yosemite, dogged by deep slush, mud, a too-heavy pack and a hopelessly broken binding...

The full essay.

"Page's guide is like a treasure map," writes seasoned roadtripper Mark Sedenquist, editor of RoadTripAmerica.com, "it's chock-full of tantalizing tidbits that inspire a traveler to go and find more stuff."

For fuel calculator, route descriptions, eclectic roadside attractions, roadtrip games, the largest gallery of funny road signs on the web, book reviews, etc., click here.