The Sound of Wind on Rock

After my thrilling sunrise climb of a peak in Lassen Volcanic National Park last year, I had to do it again this year. And now that the trail to the top of Lassen Peak was finally open (for the first time since 2009!), I had to climb this highest point (10,457') of Shasta County and southernmost volcano of the Cascade Range.

Sunrise from Lassen Peak, with Reading Peak on the right.

I left Manzanita Lake Campground in the quiet moonlit-night at 5:00 a.m, where the temperature was 39 degrees F and the wind was calm. The previous night was rainy and gusty, and the top of Lassen Peak had been skulking through puffy clouds much of the previous blustery day.

Lassen Peak from Manzanita Lake the day before.

USDA blindERS misranks California counties on the Natural Amenities Scale

Last week the Washington Post posted an awesome article and maps entitled "Every county in America, ranked by scenery and climate." It includes a very cool graphic that shows each county rank as a mouseover. It also contains separate maps for each amenity used to create the overall index: average January temperature, average January days of sun, low winter-summer temperature gap, low average July humidity, topography scale, and water area as a proportion of the County. Click on the map below to go to the article.

Why Marin County's Reservoirs are Full This Year

Is it time to remove Nicasio Dam? I've been asking myself this question ever since I came across this great report from the 1960s on the effects of Nicasio Dam on Coho Salmon and Steelhead Trout. So I added up the unused portions of Kent, Nicasio, and Soulajule Reservoirs, since most have been kept pretty full since 1977 and all since 1992. We have a reservoir the size of Nicasio Reservoir sitting unused at the bottom of these three reservoirs. Add unused storage in Alpine Reservoir, and the numbers work out even better. If we allowed the full use of the reservoir capacities of Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD), instead of always keeping them more than half full, it effectively doubles the available water storage, and would make the presence of Nicasio Dam and Reservoir unnecessary. The following graphs from CDEC show the amount of water unused sitting on the bottom of each reservoir:

Alpine Reservoir levels since 1977, adapted from CDEC. 3,500 acre-feet unused.

Kent Reservoir levels since 1977, adapted from CDEC. 12,500 acre-feet unused.
Note that the reservoir capacity was expanded in 1983.

Nicasio Reservoir levels since 1977, adapted from CDEC. 8,000 acre-feet unused.

 

Soulajule Reservoir levels since 1979, adapted from CDEC. 4,500 acre-feet unused.
Note that the dam was built in 1979.

A Year Without Facebook

2014 was a year without Facebook. I was on it for 5 years, and in September 2013 I downloaded everything on my wall and deleted my account.

Why did I do this? It was because checking Facebook was becoming one more thing I "had" to do, like checking the mail or email. And since it sucks you in and is endless (like the rest of the Internet), it could be a colossal waste of time. And I've always found that not having something (such as a TV for most of my adult life, or a car for three years, or ice cream in the freezer) makes it a lot easier not to spend (waste) time (and money) doing it.

The final nail in the Facebook coffin was its constantly-changing privacy policies, and inflexible rules for what was public and what was private, and how much control I could have over my account. Plus the Facebook Corporation doesn't seem to be the nicest one to be supporting and giving control over my personal information.

No More Dam Sites

I had a day to myself, so I did what I do best: I chose to climb a peak. Naturally, it was a county highpoint--Snow Mountain East, the highest point in Colusa and Lake counties, at 7056 feet. This checks one more peak and two counties off the list. My lifelong goal is to reach the highest point in each of California's 58 counties, and I've got six more on the list that are higher than this one and nine more that are lower. At a rate of one per year lately, I've got about 15 years left on this project. The nice thing about doing this is you get to spend time in and learn about every county in the state.

Snow Mountain East is the southernmost subalpine peak in the Coast Ranges, and the closest one to the Bay Area. It isn't very close though--it takes about four hours of driving to get to the trailhead, and about an hour of that is on dirt or curvy roads. You can get there from the west through the watershed of the Rice Fork of the Eel River, whose waters are diverted to the Russian River below Pillsbury Reservoir. Or you can get there the way I did, from the east, via the Stony Creek drainage, and just to the east of that, the proposed Sites Reservoir.

View from Snow Mountain of the Sacramento Valley. The Sutter Buttes can
be seen at the top right. East Park Reservoir is visible in the middle, and the
much larger area proposed for Sites Reservoir is just behind the hills behind it.

A Great Great Grand Coincidence?

My last update on the mystery of my great-great-grandparents left off with a probable coincidence in similar names. The essence of the mystery is that before the 1860 census, I couldn't find much information about my Spanish ancestors. Their names in the records available on the Internet are often misspelled, or variably-spelled. Not only that, but the change in countries when the U.S. conquered California means that to take my family history back deeper into the past, and farther southeast geographically, I need to start looking at Mexican records instead of U.S. records. At least, that is what I used to think the major challenge was.

I've got some new breakthroughs to report, thanks to some new resources I've discovered, and some more-than-coincidences that my detective work has unearthed.

I Should Have Been a Schnautenhaus

I wanted to post it here, but the script wouldn't work on blogspot, so here is my family tree, color-coded with the migration status of my ancestors. This project had its roots in a California Geography class I took two decades ago at El Camino College, when the assignment was to summarize the immigration history of my ancestors. Below is an expanded (beyond what was on my former Website) Javascript version of just my mom's side, four years in the making (mostly four years of not getting around to finishing it).

This wouldn't have been possible without the work of my cousin Brian who did extensive research and put together a book on the Schwerin family history. I intend to refine, update, and fine tune the page as needed.

The surprising thing is that despite my grandfather's parents "arriving" (one was born there) in San Francisco by 1864, the proportion of my ancestors that never reached the New World (in black text) is overwhelming. Going back 350-450 years, 67 of my direct ancestors on my mom's side never reached the New World, one reached the New World but not San Francisco, four migrated to San Francisco, and only three (including my mom) were born in San Francisco. If we look back only to the last 164 years, since my first ancestor to get off the boat arrived in San Francisco in January 1850, four migrated and only three were born here.

That is fascinating because if you think about how long white people's families have been in California, it really isn't very long when measured in direct ancestors. I feel like my family has a long history in California, but only three of my direct ancestors on my mom's side were born here and only about five or six on my dad's side. On my mom's side, 8 lived in California, and probably 9 on my dad's side. So my generation is the pivot point where half of my direct ancestors that lived in California were born here.

Think about how new we all are! How quickly we have changed this state! Can we please stop messing it up and work a little harder to live here sustainably and restore the amazing and incredible natural environment that we took from the natives? Because a lot of us plan to be here a while...