Hotter!!

I went to bed before George made it in from San Jose. The traffic is so miserable that he finds it better to wait until at least 8:00 before leaving the Bay Area. Our friend Dan Story from Sacramento also joined us this morning. George and Donna cooked a lovely breakfast for all of us. By ten o’clock or so, it was already close to a hundred with a high of 106 predicted for the day. We decided that we should find the coolest place we could, but that even at that it would be too hot for dogs to accompany us.

Our first destination was Lake Alpine high up in the Ebbets Pass. This is not a natural lake – there are not many of those in the Sierras – but it sort of looks natural anyhow.

We all walked down to the Lake’s edge eager to stick a foot in the cold water.

John, ever the bravest, contemplated a swim. Dan tried to encourage him despite the frigid temperature of the water.

He finally took the plunge and announced that it was great!

Still, he was the only person to really and truly get wet.

From there we went on a little lower to one of the branches of the Stanislaus River. This is one of the environmental tragedies of California. A dam had been proposed for the river as part of the Central Valley Project, but had not been built when all the other reservoirs were constructed. By the 1970’s, environmentalists were already keenly aware of the damage that the kinds of projects were doing and fought against the construction of the New Melones dam. The Stanislaus, they pointed out, was one of the last wild rivers in the west and supported a lively white-water rafting and tourist industry. Unfortunately, the good guys lost on this one and the dam was built. Today, even the federal Bureau of Reclamation describes it as a case study in doing everything wrong. As a result, the Stanislaus is a sad little stream and not the majestic river it once was.

It’s a small house with a tiny stage, but they still did a great job. I’ve seen the movie a couple times, but I think this was the first time I’ve seen it on stage.