Reading (For Dummies)

Loving the Palouse

I'm all moved in in Pullman, Washington. It's a quite pretty area. The town has a population of 27,030 people, many of whom are students at Washington State University. It is surrounded by rolling wheat fields known as the Palouse. The center of Pullman rests at 2,350 feet above sea level.

Moscow is a nearby large town. It lies directly to the East of Pullman, eight miles away. Moscow and Pullman are border towns, straddling the state line between Washington and Idaho. Moscow has a population of 22,530, or 22,350, or 21,780 people, depending upon from which direction you enter the town. Many of Moscow's residents attend or work for the University of Idaho.

To the south of Pullman is the Snake River. Once, when I was about thirteen years old, my brother Erik, mother, father, and myself went whitewater rafting on the Snake in Eastern Idaho. By the time the Snake reaches Pullman, it has run though four hydroelectric dams, generating a large portion of the electric needs for the pacific northwest. The Snake in this area is relatively calm and flat.

To the southwest of Pullman is one such dam. It is called Lower Granite. It retains water in an area known as the Upper Granite Basin. Both Upper and Lower Granite feature granite cliffs, on which local students spend lazy afternoons rock climbing and sunbathing.

Farther up the Snake River are the cities of Lewiston and Clarkston. They are twin cities much like Pullman and Moscow. Clarkston is on the Washington side.

Lewiston is home to a mill, which produces paper. The paper mill also dumps chemicals into the Snake River. Residents of towns downstream of Lewiston are leary of the water. I spoke to a fisherman named Jeff on a lazy Sunday afternoon, "I love to fish here, but I won't go in the water. It smells bad."

Interestingly, Jeff finds the fish he catches palatable. The story about the Snake River here seems to be an interesting one that I shall try to find out more about in time.

One hundred miles north of Pullman is the largest nearby city of Spokane. Spokane city limits contain approximately half a million residents. One hundred miles north of Idaho, and forty miles to the east of Spokane is the Idaho city of Coeurr D'Alene (pronounced Core-da-lane). Coeur D'Alene, Idaho has a population of about four hundred thousand residents. It was recently named one of the Ten Most Desirable Communities in better living magazine. Cor D'Alene has a booming technology sector, where Spokane is a city in some state of disrepair.

I'm finding myself entirely too interested in this area already. It is geographically diverse, has an interesting set of economic and environmental issues, and is sparsely populated enough to call home for quite a while. Here's to exploring...

Travelling...

I have moved yet again, from Southwest to Inland Northwest. I got a job that pays slightly more money than the one in San Diego to do way more interesting work in an area that costs plenty less to live, and that lets me live with the love of my life to boot. Laura came down in mid Comic-Con to help me move, a process that was much easier this time thanks to my new wage overlords paying for a moving company to move the bulk of my worldly possessions. With a somewhat lightened load, we were able to stop and have some fun on the way...

The view from Hetch Hetchy Dam

We went to Yosemite park and hiked a marathon trek around the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. We made it up to Lake ..., which made for a 30 mile loop, with about 8000 feet of up-and-down. This in a 24-hour period. Not bad...

A close encounter of the v. scary kind

When we woke up early in the morning on Saturday, we encountered a mother black bear with three first-year cubs hiking the trail the way from which we had come. It was a tense few moments, as the mother turned towards us when she got downwind. Thankfully, we were too far away to be considered a threat that that point, so she continued onward with her charges.

The Dam itself was and is the subject of some controversy. It made for an interesting discussion with my hiking partner. I've come somewhat firmly to the opinion that, if San Francisco is unable to sustain itself with the resources it has (sans the reservoir), it ought to cope by depopulating. Pushing an area past its maximal population sustainment level through technology really doesn't work long-term. Rivers flood, earthquakes strike, dams break, and then we're forced to cope with the overpopulation eventually anyway...though I suppose that lesson doesn't need speculation.