Guess the Speaker

Who do you think said these positive things about the terrorist group Hamas today?

The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah," he said.

...the Bush administration's refusal to accept the 2006 election victory of Hamas was "criminal."

...(the Palestinian election which Hamas won) was "orderly and fair" and Hamas triumphed, in part, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt Fatah ran multiple candidates for single seats.

...the United States and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer Hamas in Gaza" - but Hamas this month routed Fatah because of its "superior skills and discipline."

Jimmy Carter, the Georgian peanut farmer who was, to our everlasting shame (especially those who voted for him), a duly elected President of these United States. Out there in his dotage, speaking out publicly despite his evident brain damage, bad-mouthing his country and supporting (of all things!) Hamas -- the terrorist group whose manifesto includes the death of all infidels (non-Muslims) and specifically the destruction of Israel and the United States.

Pause to reflect for a moment.

At this point, after so much self-righteous, preachy, traitorous nonsense from this man, my only reaction is to be proud that he is not a Californian. Or that I'm not a Georgian. Or both.

Another Border Patrol Chase...

Nobody was killed, this time. The photo at right is a Google Earth view of the vicinity, with my best guess about where the crash occurred circled in orange. This Union-Tribune story is so short that any conceivable excerpt would include it all, so here it is:

Jamul pursuit ends in crash

Six people in a Honda Civic crashed on Lyons Valley Road in Jamul tonight after being pursued by the Border Patrol, the California Highway Patrol said.

Undercover Border Patrol agents tried to pull over the driver, who then led them on a five-mile pursuit. The Honda went off the road and struck a rock about 10 p.m.

The CHP said two people in the Honda suffered moderate injuries and two ran away. Eastbound lanes of Lyons Valley Road were blocked at Chaparral Heights during an investigation.

That's all I've been able to find out about it. If any local residents know any more, please let us know in the comments.

Major Combat Operations Begin in Iraq...

Michael Yon is, for my money, the most credible reporter currently working on the war in Iraq. He's a very interesting character whose life and talents have uniquely prepared him for this role. Yon is a former Special Forces warrior, so he has no problem getting the respect or attention of our soldiers or their officers -- and no problem understanding what they're doing. Where he really shines, though, is in his beautiful writing and ability to convey complex ideas eloquently and readably. As if all that wasn't enough, he's also a very talented photographer -- you've almost certainly seen some of his work.

For quite a while now, Yon has been successfully pursuing a career as a reader-supported, independent reporter. His only source of income at the moment is the "tip jar" on his web site, where appreciative readers make contributions of all sizes to help keep him going.

I've been reading Yon's work ever since he first started posting, and he's been the best single source of good information I've found about Iraq (and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan). He has consistently been a critic of the war in Iraq -- not of the fact of the war, but of the way it has been executed. In today's dispatch, I sense some real optimism on his part about the major combat operations just starting today in Iraq. Yon is deeply knowledgeable about the situation in Iraq, and has much time with boots on the ground -- and he knows our military and its leadership very well. His choice for the perfect commander in Iraq: General David Petraeus, whom he calls "the doctor" below. Yon made that choice in 2005, and has been wondering ever since why General Petraeus wasn't back there and in charge. Now he is, and Yon is obviously impressed with the results, and seems to be cautiously optimistic about the outcome. Here's an excerpt from the dispatch, but you really need to go read the whole thing:

The doctor has made a decision: Al Qaeda must be excised. That means a large scale attack, and what appears to be the most widespread combat operations since the end of the ground war are now unfolding. A small part of that larger battle will be the Battle for Baquba. For those involved, it will be a very large battle, but in context, it will be only one of numerous similar battles now unfolding. Just as this sentence was written, we began dropping bombs south of Baghdad and our troops are in contact.

Northeast of Baghdad, innocent civilians are being asked to leave Baquba. More than 1,000 AQI fighters are there, with perhaps another thousand adjuncts. Baquba alone might be as intense as Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah in late 2004. They are ready for us. Giant bombs are buried in the roads. Snipers—real snipers—have chiseled holes in walls so that they can shoot not from roofs or windows, but from deep inside buildings, where we cannot see the flash or hear the shots. They will shoot for our faces and necks. Car bombs are already assembled. Suicide vests are prepared.

The enemy will try to herd us into their traps, and likely many of us will be killed before it ends. Already, they have been blowing up bridges, apparently to restrict our movements. Entire buildings are rigged with explosives. They have rockets, mortars, and bombs hidden in places they know we are likely to cross, or places we might seek cover. They will use human shields and force people to drive bombs at us. They will use cameras and make it look like we are ravaging the city and that they are defeating us. By the time you read this, we will be inside Baquba, and we will be killing them. No secrets are spilling here.

These operations, which just began today, are the same operations that Harry Reid declared a failure a few weeks ago -- before the soldiers were even in Iraq, and before the operation had even begun. Al Jazeera and similar Arabic media outlets have been carrying stories of gloating Al Qaeda members ever since. They claimed victory based on the statements of Reid, Pelosi, and other such surrender monkeys. If Yon's reporting is even close to accurate -- and based on his past performance, I'm confident that it's spot on -- then Al Qaeda is in for a memorable comeuppance. If he's right, our troops are in for a tough slog, one that will carry substantial casualties -- but Al Qaeda is in for much worse.

I'll be thinking of our troops today, and wishing them well. I made a contribution to Michael Yon, and I hope you will as well. Yon is embedded with our troops, headed into combat today; he's planning on filing daily dispatches via satellite.

Computer Problems Doom the Space Station?

Update and Bump:

Multiple news sources are reporting that the ISS's computers are back up and have passed all their operational tests. Damned the bad luck!

Original Post:

All over the news this morning was the saga of the ongoing computer failure at the International Space Station (ISS). As best I can understand the (very) non-technical stories, the German-built (under Russian contract) computer system that controls the life support system, the environmental systems, and the spacecraft's attitude (direction) failed a few days ago. All attempts to resuscitate it have been unsuccessful, but these attempts are ongoing. Right now the only reason the astronauts can stay there is because the space shuttle is docked with the ISS and is providing attitude control.

But here's the real kicker: if the stories are correct, there's a looming deadline -- the limit of the space shuttle's stay. If the problem cannot be fixed by then, the ISS will have to be abandoned -- left drifting aimlessly in space. After some time, it will be slowed down by friction with the upper Earth's atmosphere, and will fall out of orbit in a hail of flaming wreckage.

I can hardly wait! That useless, purposeless hunk of junk called the ISS has been sucking the money from all the good programs at NASA for a long time now. I can't think of a better end than this, with no deaths or injuries to the astronauts, and a flaming decent into hell for the ISS. Hooray! Now I just hope I'm not being set up for a major disappointment, like an emergency shuttle repair mission that cancels yet another real science program...

Manned Space Flight

Over the past few months, several of my readers have emailed me about my opposition to manned space flight programs. The gist of these emails is surprise that I (a complete geek) would take this position, and accusations that I'm ignoring the long-term imperative for mankind to live in more than one place. A couple writers suggested that I lacked an appreciation of the romance and frontier adventure inherent in manned space flight.

Well.

I'm not actually opposed to manned space flight. I am opposed to the use of public funds for manned space flight in its current incarnation, and for the objectives set for so far. If a private company can raise the capital to pursue a profit-seeking venture in space (as several have done), then I'm all for it. I think the X prize notion for incremental technology advances (even for advances that support manned space flight) is a wonderful idea -- a relatively small amount of public funding that generates a large amount of competitive invention and development. But tens of billions of dollars spent for a useless space station, or a lunar station, or a visit to Mars? In my book, those are mind-boggling boondoggles run by an inefficient bureaucracy for no good purpose at all. Much better to either not spend those public dollars at all, or to invest them instead in something with an obviously useful objective -- such as, say, a replacement for storage batteries (one of the key problems facing alternative power technologies).

I'd also be supportive of publicly funded research to solve the two key problems with long-term manned space flight: propulsion systems and the energetic radiation problem.

Chemical rockets -- currently the only propulsion system available to lift payloads from the Earth's surface to near-Earth orbits -- are woefully inadequate for any serious manned exploration of space. They're outrageously expensive, dangerous, and (usually) badly polluting. It simply isn't practical to launch thousands of such rockets a year. If manned space operations are to become routine, this issue must be solved. We need a practical, safe, cheap lift system. Some alternatives to chemical rockets have been proposed, most notably "rail guns" and "space elevators". Both have lots of challenges, and it remains to be seen whether either can be successfully developed. It seems most likely to me, however, that the real answer hasn't even been thought of yet. I could support public funding in an intelligent way to get at an answer for this problem.

The energetic radiation problem has been discussed in the media, but it still isn't widely known (based on my own informal discussions with ordinary people). Simply put, everywhere in space outside of a planetary magnetosphere there is lots of very energetic radiation that is dangerous for astronauts -- dangerous enough that weeks of exposure is certain to lead to a high incidence of radiation-related illnesses and (if the exposure is long enough) death. The "energetic" part of the phrase implies something else: shielding is very difficult. Several feet of lead would be required to reduce the radiation to levels comparable to that found on the Earth's surface. Can you imagine a spaceship whose hull was lined with several feet of lead? Absurd, of course -- but nobody has yet come up with a good answer for this problem. Again, I could support a wise expenditure of public funds for the purpose of attacking this challenge.

So... Imagine a future where we've got a good lift system and where we have solved the energetic radiation problem. Would I then support public funding of manned space flight? I don't know the answer to that without knowing what he objective is. If it was a lunar station or a visit to Mars, my answer would still be "no". However, I think the question is actually moot -- because under those conditions, I think entrepreneurs would be raising capital to fund their own profit-seeking manned space flight. What would their objectives be? I have no idea, though I could imagine tourism, solar power, and some kind of natural resource exploitation being natural categories.

In the meantime, I believe NASA's role should be limited to robotic research missions (which have in the past ten years accomplished truly amazing things) and nurturing research on the tough challenges to manned space flight...

Everest Panorama

A friend sent along this spectacular 360° panorama, taken at the peak of Mt. Everest in the Himalaya mountains. You need to click on the image at right to see it at full size, and you'll probably have to scroll left and right to see the whole thing.

Thank you, Richard S.!

Solstice Approaching...

Just four days from now, on June 21, the summer solstice occurs. On that day, the sun is above the horizon longer than on any other day of the year.

The photo at right is from HPWREN's automatic camera on top of Lyon's Peak, a couple miles almost due south of my house. The camera looks at a 90° swath of the horizon, centered on due north. It was taken just a little while before sunset. You can see that the sun is on the left (which is west), and nearly in view. That means the sun's direction is just a few degrees less than 315°, well north of west and much further north than it normally sets. Each day until June 21 it will set (and rise) a little further north. Between June 21 and December 21 (the winter solstice), it will set (and rise) a little further south each day.

There's your astronomy lesson for the day...

Hummer Juice Mass Production...

Every summer as the number of flowers decrease, the hummingbirds start drinking more from our feeders. In addition, the number of hummingbirds (and in recent years, orioles) attracted to our feeders increases every year. This year we are seeing much larger numbers of orioles feeding, most especially hooded orioles, but also at least two pairs of Bullock's orioles. The rate of sugar water ("hummer juice") consumption at our feeders is now at about six quarts per day.

For years we've been mixing the hummer juice two quarts at a time, the size being set the by size of the pitcher we made it in. Typically in the summer, we'd have to make two batches a day, as the feeders ran out. That's quite a bit of repetitive work -- so a few days ago I decided to try to make the job easier.

I located the perfect hummer juice container: a five gallon container with a spigot. It's made by Coleman, and is intended to be a water jug for camping. I also located a pet food container with an airtight spin-on lid that's perfect for storing 50 pounds of sugar. Now I'm making five gallons of hummer juice in one batch, enough for several days of happy hummers. An added bonus: it's very convenient to fill the feeders from the Coleman container, using a funnel. But it sure feels like mass production when I make a batch! I start by filling the Coleman container half full of hot tap water. Then I pour five quarts (about 9.5 pounds) of sugar into the hot water, swizzling it with a section of half inch PVC pipe as my swizzle stick. Once I've got the sugar all dissolved, I fill the container the rest of the way with hot water and add about a 3:1 mixture of yellow and red food coloring. The hummers couldn't care any less about the nice orange color that results, but (very subjectively) it does seem to attract the orioles. Then a little more swizzling with my giant swizzle stick and I'm stocked up on hummer juice for days...

Monkey Flowers

A treat for me each summer is the bloom of the monkey flowers. Lawson Valley is home to several species, all blooming for several weeks starting roughly June 1 (later than most spring flowers). The species here range from deep reddish-orange to very pale oranges. On our property, including within our mostly cleared, fenced yard, we have several stands of monkey flowers -- all of them Diplacus puniceus, the Otay Monkey Flower. The photo at right shows one such stand, just uphill and east of our house, right against the fence and (as usual for monkey flowers) right next to a rock outcropping.

Help Identify This Hit-And-Run Driver!

Update and Bump:

Shona and Blaine still don't know who the hit-and-run driver was. Rack your brains, folks -- do you know anyone with a blue four-door sedan who might have been in Lawson Valley last Sunday (June 10)?

Original Post:

Driving home yesterday afternoon, just around the corner from our house I spotted this sign. One of the kids in our neighborhood was struck by a hit-and-run driver, and the parents are looking for information. The sign didn't say what kind of shape the kid was in, which worried me, so I called the number on the sign and got Shona (pronounced SHOW-nah) -- the mother of the boy who was hit by the car.

From the moment she started talking, she sounded far too cheerful to be worrying about a seriously injured son, so I worked up the courage to ask her about the situation. Her son is not seriously injured, thank goodness -- mostly he's suffering some abrasion "rashes". His younger brother witnessed it, and he's a little rattled by the whole experience. But they're ok, and that's the main thing.

A sheriff happened by shortly after the accident, and called in the CHP. Shona reports that the sheriff's deputy was very helpful, but that the CHP officer seemed more concerned about the registration for her kid's motorcycle. The officer told her that since they didn't have a license number (as mom points out, what's he supposed to do -- catch a glimpse as he's flying through the air?), the CHP couldn't do anything. One is forced to wonder if the officer has ever heard of the notion of a criminal investigation -- even I could think of a few things to do, starting with canvassing the neighborhood. Shona is quite frustrated by this lack of police enthusiasm, and understandably so. She's determined to do her best to find some information that will help identify the hit-and-run driver.

If you have any idea who this hit-and-run driver might be, please call Blaine or Shona at 619/659-8990.

All they know now is what their kids observed: that the car was a four-door sedan in a fairly light shade of blue. I'm sure you can imagine, just as I can, how badly they want to see some justice rendered. Please...help them if you can.

Mt. Lassen Vacation

My father and I four-wheeled and hiked all over the Mt. Lassen National Park area from June 3 through June 9. Each day is described in a post, and most of the posts have a number of photographs (about 500 in all). This post serves as an index to the whole vacation.

06/02: On the Road!
06/03: Mt. Lassen
06/04: Turner Mountain
06/05: Juniper Lake
06/06: Manton and Wilson Meadows
06/07: Humbug Valley
06/08: Devil's Kitchen and the Unnamed Waterfall
06/09: Rice Creek, Lost Creek, and Marion Creek
06/10: Home, Home, Home...

Quote of the Day

Today's quote is by Representative Jeff Flake (R, Arizona), who said:

I get beat like a rented mule.

This was in reference to his repeated amendments to kill earmarks. These amendments always fail, "even though he's gone after such howlers as a hydroponic tomato project in Ohio and a rain forest exhibit in Iowa" (as the WSJ's John Fund puts it).

Summer is Here!

We experienced a very abrupt transition this week, from unseasonably cool temperatures to the usual very hot days of summer. We haven't broken 100 F yet, but we're getting close...

The graph at right shows the sunlight levels here for the past seven days, as measured by my weather station. You can see by the nice smooth curve that the past five days have had totally uninterrupted sunshine -- not a cloud to be seen anywhere, and wall-to-wall blue sky. The forecast is calling for partly cloudy today through the weekend, and even a chance of drizzle on Sunday -- but that same forecast called for partly cloudy the last few days, so its credibility with me is quite low!

The graph at right shows our relative humidity (in green, using the righthand scale) and temperature (in red, using the lefthand scale). Here you can see that the past three nights have been very low humidity -- not the usual pattern, but common enough. These low humidity nights are quite reliably followed by rapidly heating air in the daylight, and high temperatures; that pattern holds here, and therefore I expect high temperatures again today. It seems that dry air heats more rapidly than humid air, which makes sense -- there's much less energy to expend. Also, the wet air at night is at least partly caused by evaporation of water from plants and the ground, and the evaporation process reduces the temperature at night, giving it further to climb the next day.

It's times like these that make me thankful for a reliable air conditioner!

Oh, Ouch, Harry...

Chris Muir skewers Harry Reid. I just cannot imagine how that man wins elections in Nevada...

Secret Service Tales

A friend recently passed this piece along, from a source he trusts (I'm not naming either one here, because I don't want to chance getting anyone in trouble). I cannot personally vouch for its authenticity or truthfulness, but unlike most such things floating around the Internet, I also cannot find anything indicating that it is false. The urban legend sites do not list it at all. Much of what I read in here is plausible based on other reports that I know to be true, and I cannot see anything myself that is obviously false. So I'm passing it along for your interest, as there are some indications of character in here for current or potential 2008 Presidential candidate

Memo from a Secret Service Agent

I flew 4 Presidential support missions in the C-141 out of Dover AFB, DE, two for President Johnson and two for President Nixon.

Johnson was a first class jerk and on the two occasions I flew for him, if the Secret Service and their Liaison in the Pentagon hadn't intervened, we would have had to stay on the airplane for hours while he (Johnson) was off somewhere. Nixon never required that, and the four (4) stops we made with him he was cordial to the Secret Service and to my crew and me.

Denny Keast: We had a neighbor when I lived in DC who was part of the secret service presidential detail for many years. His stories of Kennedy and Johnson were the same as those I heard from the guys who flew the presidents' plane.

Yes, Kennedy did have Marilyn Monroe flown in for secret "dates," and LBJ was a typical Texas "good ole boy" womanizer. Nixon, Bush 41, and Carter never cheated on their wives. Clinton cheated, but couldn't match Kennedy or LBJ in style or variety.

The information below is accurate: The elder Bush and current president Bush make it a point to thank and take care of the air crews who fly them around. When the president flies, there are several planes that also go and carry the armored limo, another the security detail, plus usually a press aircraft. Both Bush's made it a point to stay home on holidays, so the Air Force and security people could have a day with their families.

Hillary Clinton was arrogant and orally abusive to her security detail. She forbade her daughter, Chelsea , from exchanging pleasantries with them. Sometimes Chelsea , miffed at her mother's obvious conceit and mean spiritedness ignored her demands and exchanged pleasantries regardless, but never in her mother's presence.

Chelsea really was a nice, kindhearted, and lovely young lady. The consensus opinion was that Chelsea loved her Mom but did not like her. Hillary Clinton was continuously rude and abrasive to those who were charged to protect her life. Her security detail dutifully did their job, as professionals should, but they all loathed her and wanted to be on a different detail. Hillary Clinton was despised by the Secret Service as a whole.

Former President Bill Clinton was much more amiable than his wife. Often the Secret Service would cringe at the verbal attacks Hillary would use against her husband. They were embarrassed for his sake by the manner and frequency in which she verbally insulted him, sometimes in the presence of the Secret Service, and sometimes behind closed doors. Even behind closed doors Hillary Clinton would scream and holler so loudly that everyone could hear what she was saying.

Many felt sorry for President Clinton and most wondered why he tolerated it instead of just divorcing his "attack dog" wife. It was crystal clear that the Clinton 's neither liked nor respected each other and this was true long before the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Theirs was genuinely a "Marriage of convenience."

Chelsea was much closer to her father than her mother, even after the Lewinsky scandal, which hurt her gravely.

Bill Clinton did in fact have charisma, and occasionally would smile at or shake hands with his security detail. Still, he always displayed an obvious air of superiority towards them. His security detail uniformly believed him to be disingenuous, false, and that he did nothing without a motive that in some way would enhance his image and political career. He was polite, but not kind. They did not particularly like him and nobody trusted him.

Al Gore was the male version of Hillary Clinton. They were friendlier toward each other than either of them was towards former President Clinton. They were not intimate, so please don't read that in. They were very close in a political way.

Tipper Gore was generally nice and pleasant. She initially liked Hillary but soon after the election she had her "pegged" and no longer liked her or associated with her except for events that were politically obligatory.

Al Gore was far more left wing than Bill Clinton. Al Gore resented Bill Clinton and thought he was too "centrist." He despised all Republicans. His hatred was bitter and this was long before he announced for the Presidency. This hatred was something that he and Hillary had in common. They often said as much, even in the presence of their security detail. Neither of them trusted Bill Clinton and, the Secret Service opined, neither of them even liked Bill Clinton.

Bill Clinton did have some good qualities, whereas Al Gore and Hillary had none, in the view of their security details. Al Gore, like Hillary, was very rude and arrogant toward his security detail. He was extremely unappreciative and would not hesitate to scold them in the presence of their peers for minor details over which they had no control.

Al Gore also looked down on them, as they finally observed and learned with certainty on one occasion. Al got angry at his offspring and pointed at his security detail and said, "Do you want to grow up and be like them?" Word of this insult by the former Vice-President quickly spread and he became as disliked by the Secret Service as Hillary. Most of them prayed that Al Gore would not be elected President, and they really did have private celebrations in a few of their homes after President Bush won.
This was not necessarily to celebrate President Bush's election, but to celebrate Al Gore's defeat.

Everyone in the Secret Service wants to be on First Lady Laura Bush's detail. Without exception, they concede that she is perhaps the nicest and most kind person they have ever had the privilege of serving. Where Hillary patently refused to allow her picture to be taken with her security detail, Laura Bush doesn't even have to be asked, she offers. She doesn't just shake their hand and say, "Thank you." Very often, she will give members of her detail a kindhearted hug to express her appreciation. There is nothing false about her. This is her genuine nature. Her security detail considers her to be a "breath of fresh air."

They joke that comparing Laura Bush with Hillary Clinton is like comparing Mother Teresa" with the "Wicked Witch of the North." Likewise, the Secret Service considers President Bush to be a gem of a man to work for. He always treats them with genuine respect and he always trusts and listens to their expert advice. They really like the Crawford, Texas detail. Every time the president goes to Crawford he has a Bar-B-Q for his security detail and he helps serve their meals. He sits with them, eats with them, and talks with them. He knows each of them by their first name, and calls them by their first name as a show of affection. He always asks about their family, the names of which he always remembers. They believe that he is deeply and genuinely appreciative of their service. They could not like, love, or respect anyone more than President Bush. Most of them did not know they would feel this way, until they had an opportunity to work for him and learn that his manner was genuine and consistent. It has never changed since he began his presidency.

Please pass this on. It is important for Americans to have a true inside understanding of their President.

Run, Debbie, Run!

Here's a nice photo of Debbie running Salsa, a dog that belongs to Audrey Ferrel. Audrey is Debbie's agility trainer (and, I think, the photographer).

Home, Home, Home...

Sunday morning, at 4:30 am -- and it's time to head home. We had our usual light breakfast and tea, and then packed the truck for the long journey home. We were on the road by 6:00 am, and then drove nearly non-stop all the way home -- just a couple of refueling stops, some iced tea, and one short picnic as a break. We were lucky with the traffic; the only hitch in our get-along was in Los Angeles (of course!), which had a traffic jam at 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon (of course!). We pulled into the driveway just before 6 pm, still feeling alert -- but a half hour later, I could hardly keep my eyes open. Ah, sleep!

Rice Creek, Lost Creek, and Marion Creek

As usual for this trip, we were up at 5:45 am, had a light breakfast and tea, and were on the road by 7 am. All week until last night, our plan had been to spend our last day in Lassen National Park, on the theory that more wildflowers would be out since last week when we visited. But after seeing the snowstorm that hit the mountain on Tuesday, and on the evidence of the wildflowers at lower altitudes, we decided last night to skip this. Instead, we decided to explore the rivers and creeks in the vicinity of the beautiful waterfall we visited yesterday. Our drive through that area proved to us that it was wetter than any other area we'd been in. Furthermore, I wanted to visit that waterfall again -- both for the simple enjoyment of it, and to get some photos in case the ones I deleted last evening prove unrecoverable.

So I planned a complicated journey for our day, full of optional side-trips that depended on scouting streams to see if they were flowing. The majority of the streams here are intermittent, generally flowing only as the snow melts or during a rainy season -- and the majority of them were already dry this year.

We left going east on 172, then east on 36, going a little ways past St. Bernard to the point where Marian Creek crossed the road. The creek was completely dry, but we decided to drive to higher reaches of the creek anyway, on the theory that the higher sections of the creek might be flowing, but being absorbed by the ground on the way down (this is not uncommon in this sort of country). So we headed north on the unnamed logging road that intersects 36 a short way west of Marian creek, and followed it up to where it crosses the creek. There the road appeared to dead-end, with no sign of the intersection the map showed. I got out and did some reconnoitering on foot, and spotted the road we were trying to turn onto, about 100 feet away on the other side of the dry creek bed, and uphill a bit. There really was no connecting road, but a little four-wheeling got us onto the other road -- some real "off roading". The new road wound uphill, following two different tributaries of Marian Creek, both bone dry. This whole area offered little of interest to a couple of wildflower hunters -- a single Indian paintbrush plant was the only color we saw. The road eventually turned into Forest Service 28N83, which we stayed on until it hit 29N17, which we followed for quite a ways, over the saddle between Ice Cave Mountain and North Stover Mountain, until the intersection with an unnamed connector to 28N61, on the north face of Ice Cave Mountain. This road wound east to what we hoped were the rushing headwaters of a major creek -- but no, this was bone dry as well. A short way later, we turned left on G, heading west along and across another bone dry creek. This was getting monotonous! We'd driven quite a way at this point, and still were not finding any flowers at all. This continued all the way back to the intersection with 29N63 at Wilson. Despite finding no flowers, we enjoyed the views of Lassen and the beautiful forest -- but it wasn't what we were craving...

At Wilson, we stopped for a minute to photograph the odd and unexplained machine I described yesterday. Then we continued on 29N18, the road we were on yesterday. It passed through an area with numerous possibilities for side-trips to water, and we'd tried none of them yesterday. Our first attempt was on 29N23, still on the south side of the Feather River basin. Just before we turned northwest on this road, we remarked to each other that the flora was distinctly different here than it had been for the entire trip until we got to Wilson. There it made a sudden shift to denser, lusher, healthier trees and a much denser understory. We also saw that the soil had changed, which may be the entire explanation (soils are often very variable in volcanic areas). When we got to the creek on 29N23, it was flowing -- the first water we'd seen since we turned onto the gravel roads hours ago. And there were flowers, including a couple of species new to us. There were also mosquitos -- the first we'd encountered on this trip, and they were to plague us the rest of the day. Most likely there had just today been enough warm weather for the mosquito eggs to hatch and deliver the little devils up to us. But we were delighted to find water (at last!), and flowers, and we spent a happy half hour or so in this area.

Next we got back on 29N18 and kept going west. We continued on as it looped to the north, passed our waterfall from yesterday, and headed east until we got to the point where the North Arm of Rice Creek crossed the road. This stream was strongly flowing, so we took 29N18A north from its intersection with 29N18 just west of the creek. We drove the length of it that passes alongside the creek, stopping at several points where we could see a way through the willow and alder to get to the stream itself. We met a couple of fishermen on these stops, and more later in the day; they all had the same complaint we did -- the damnable mosquitos were eating us alive! Nevertheless, the stops were enjoyable on several counts. First, the stream itself was beautiful, with the rushing waters tumbling over rocks and rock shelves, or sliding down chutes carved over time in the lava. This stream, we speculate, is powerful enough to scour its banks every spring, as there was relatively little herbacious life alongside the stream. The area around the stream was wetter than elsewhere, and there were some marshy spots; these were full of plant life, some of which was in bloom. Furthermore, we found flowers even well away from the stream, including an interesting display of larkspur that was growing only through the patchy prostrate manzanita ground cover. We're guessing that it is moister under the manzanita, and that this allows the larkspur to thrive there. Whatever the cause, it was an odd sight to see -- manzanita with (apparently) brilliant blue larkspur blossoms!

After we left the North Arm, we headed west on 29N18, back toward our waterfall, with the objective of taking every side road we could find that crossed or went near that same creek (the South Arm of the Rice Creek). First we tried heading south on 29N18D, which crosses Bunchgrass Creek twice on its way to Rice Creek. Bunchgrass Creek had a small flow, about the same as a dozen or so hoses turned on full blast, and was only interesting for the bright green algae (I think) that grew in its waters, swaying in the currents and eddies. Further down 29N18D, we ran into fallen trees across the road; some of these looked like they'd been there for years. The first two were so rotten that despite being over a foot in diameter, I could easily break the trunk apart into chunks I could toss off to the side of the road. The third one was more formidable -- a fresh fall, with the trunk still strong ... and about 18 inches in diameter. I tied ropes around it and backed my truck up to try to move it to the side; it moved about a foot and stopped hard, and my rope snapped -- sounded almost like a gunshot as it came flying back to the truck. On inspection (which I coulda shoulda done before I'd started!) I could see that the trunk was wedged between two large trees in such a way that moving it toward me would be impossible. That tree would have to be cut, and I didn't even have a hand saw with me, much less a chain saw (the instrument of choice in such a situation). So we gave up, headed back to 29N18, and continued west.

Our next attempt was on 29N18C, a much shorter road, and clearly not often used as it was partly overgrown with conifer saplings. It went downhill as we went toward the creek, and was muddy in spots, which is always a bit worrisome as slippery mud on a steep uphill is a challenge even with four wheel drive. But we charged over the mud (momentum is your friend on mud) and down the hill a couple hundred yards -- only to run into a gigantic fallen tree across the road. This would take a BIG chainsaw and a winch or skidder to move; we gave up and turned tail. I charged the muddy sections at the highest speed that felt safe (about 25 mph), and we got across and back up to 29N18 without incident. We continued west, heading now for roads that went upstream.

Our next attempt was finally successful, heading north on 29N40. This got us to several points of access to the creek, all in very pretty whitewater settings with small falls. The plant life around the stream was lush and many things were in bloom; once again, even uphill away from the stream we found flowers. The only fly in the ointment was the mosquitos -- they were chewing us up. My father had a two-pronged strategy for saving himself from the mosquitos: (1) He wore his jacket, pulled his hands inside the cuffs and clenched them shut, pulled his hat down as low as it would go, and turned the jacket color up. (2) He stayed near me, as the mosquitoes liked my sleeveless arm and unprotected face and neck, and would go to me instead of him if they had a choice. My dad kept up an unending monologue about the virtues and success of his method, laughing and smiling, all the while the mosquitos were sucking my vital essence. Despite those pesky mosquitos (who were almost certainly Democrats, and probably French to boot), we clambered all over the rocks to see all the things to see.

After this, we headed back down to 29N18 and our waterfall. We saved this for as close to the end of the day as we could, as we knew it would be great. And it was great, even though this was our second visit (there's nothing that beats the first discovery of something beautiful). We re-explored the whole thing, top to bottom; I took a bazillion photos to make up for the possible loss of yesterday's. My father was fairly tired after yesterday's longish hike, but he still made it up and down and sideways all over the waterfall, with the help of a walking stick he'd discovered at one of our stops. He gets around pretty good for someone who is older than most dirt. We found the beauty of this place undiminished, and in some ways even enhanced -- I think because of the diffuse light we had today (because of a thick overcast that came in the afternoon) versus the bright sunlight of yesterday. We ended our visit by sitting for a while on rocks along the side of the pool at the bottom of the falls, letting the sights and sounds of the spot seep into us for a while. Finally we left, knowing that this was probably the last really beautiful spot we'd visit on this vacation, as tomorrow we head for home...

We then retraced our path, first west on 29N18, then looping south and finally east to Wilson. Then we headed downhill past Wilson Lake on 29N63 to the intersection with 29N19. Just east of Wilson Lake, the map shows an ice cave, and I wanted to see if we could find it, and if it had blue ice. Many years ago, my family visited Craters of the Moon National Park, and in there visited a fascinating ice cave with abundant blue ice, just like I've seen since then in the arctic. I was hoping that's what this ice cave was like, and I was encouraged by the thought that someone found this ice cave interesting enough to name the whole mountain after it. Further along that road there was a peculiarly flat valley with a creek called Lost Creek, and we were curious about that as well. First we zoomed down to the area starting near Willow Creek Campground (which is itself a very pretty spot, under the pines). Lost Creek seems to have gotten its name by its behavior when it dries in this area, which is exactly what was happening on our visit: as the flow stops in this very flat area, the creek stops and shrinks to a series of odd-shaped (and shrinking) little ponds. The creek is lost, get it? The area proved uninteresting from a wildflower perspective (though it did have a couple of species there that we didn't expect to see at such a low altitude), and it wasn't as pretty as other places we'd been today, so we turned around and searched for the little road that leads to a point near the ice cave on the map. This road is unnamed on the map, but starts from a point just west of the intersection with 29N19B. We found the road, but it had been deliberately blocked off with a large pile of dirt and boulders -- very annoying. We searched in vain for some other access, but that blocked off road was all there was, and neither of us felt like trekking a mile or more to see the cave. So we gave up, and that marked the end of our day's explorations -- from here, we hightailed it back home to our cabin, taking 29N19 to 29N63, to 36, to 172 and home.

Once home, I walked over to the office for our cabins to check out. The folks there seemed to be impressed with how busy we were -- they never saw us, as we got up and left before they opened every day were were here, and most days we didn't return until after they were closed. Then I cooked a chicken, rice, and succotash supper for us, and my father and I started preparing to depart. There was packing and organizing to do, dishes to wash, and other such chores. We finished all them and headed for an early sleep, as we planned to get up early to pack the truck and start our long drive home...