October 09, 2007
Wallowa Mountain Wandering
Laura and I went out to the Wallowa Mountains over the weekend. They're some fantastic-looking peaks just a few hours south of us (sadly, down and up and down and up, through the Snake River and Grande Ronde valleys). It's a very nice little park, more like the Adirondacks in its laid-back attitude towards backpackers (just fill out a slip of paper at the trail head and take it with you), as opposed to my adventures in Southern California (which often included waiting lists, lotteries, and fees).
We hiked most of the way up to Ice Lake, which in itself was a pretty mofo hike. I was getting a fierce headache, though, and suffering from general lethargy...and we were hiking inside of an ice cloud...so we headed back down. The stove died, of course, completing the trip with us shivering to keep warm.
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| That's okay, we'll be back... |
On the way out of there, we stopped at a small town a bit north of Joseph (Joseph is an oppressive little tourist-trap town that I really do not understand) I got to talking to the man pumping my gas. His other job, he told me, was going around to water district's control centers and telling the area farmers that they had used up their water allotment/shutting off their water/etc. Often not a fun job, he said -- and made a lot less fun by the weather for the last ten years. The Wallowas of the early 90s always had snow, even in the summer he reported. Now they get snow in September, but it starts melting right away (we saw a lot of snowmelt already) as temperatures get into the 40s on some days. Frequent winter thaws prevent the snowpack from developing as it should, which means far less water come springtime. Thank goodness for small miracles.
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Further back...
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Previous Trips...
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Hiking Mount Whitney, 2007 
Spring Break in West Virginia, 2005
New Year's in Paris, 2003-2004
Coming to America, 2003
Protesting in Berlin, 2003
Prague Bier-Tour, 2002
Dresden, 2002
Recent Reading
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The Curve of Binding Energy
John McPhee follows famous physicist Ted Taylor in this piece that was -- and probably still -- ahead of its time.
Originally published in 1973, McPhee outlined the coming security and environmental issues surrounding the plutonium enrichment processes. For the most part, though, McPhee invites the reader to draw his or her own conclusions, although he does point out the ease with which any number of people could obtain the material (though not necessarily the manufacturing prowess) to make an atomic weapon.
The question still sits in my mind after reading -- are we being too paranoid, or not paranoid enough?
Rated 
by reid
on October 01, 2007
by reid
on October 01, 2007
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Zodiac
Zodiac touts itself as an 'eco-thriller,' and it is just that. Told from the first-person perspective of ST (or Sangamon Taylor), the book recounts a roughly six-month period of his life busting big corporations for violating environmental laws.
Not the tree-hugging political activist type, ST is equipped with chem labs, scuba divers, maps, and an organization (GEE International, the Group of Environmental Extremists) that masterfully brings the press into the fold to scare the public with the very real dangers posed by illegal dumping. It's sort of a Sierra Club member's wet dream -- a band of ecowarriors that actually get things done.
ST finds something odd happening in Boston Harbor during his tale: a new form of pollution that could poison everyone on the planet in a matter of weeks. His quest to uncover exactly who and what is causing the latest spike in toxins goes all the way up to the President of the United States, and could end up costing him his own life.
While a neat and fast-paced tale, the novel drags on a bit toward the end, begging disbelief from even the most forgiving sci-fi folk. While not as good as his latest offerings, it's still a great read for those that enjoy a good Stephenson novel (or even those who don't).
Rated 
by reid
on July 17, 2005
by reid
on July 17, 2005
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Cat's Cradle
A few years ago, I attempted to woo an online datee, and she immediately criticized me for my politics. I protested the war on Iraq, which was "a shame." She defended her position of complete noninvolvement by standing behind Vonnegut.
It may seem odd to open a review that way. My assumption is now not that she was an idiot, but that she had only read Cat's Cradle, and only with a rather odd viewpoint.
Cat's Cradle looks at a cold-war world where the personifications of religious, political, and scientific single-mindedness collide to destroy the world.
Vonnegut tells a masterful tale, but it makes me wonder what one person's indifference would do to prevent us from all dying? So for now I will continue to unblindly stop unjust wars, even while I'm only reading.
Rated by reid
on July 17, 2005
by reid
on July 17, 2005