Trip to LA, Fort Churchill and The Ancient Bristlecone Pines

Last weekend Duke and I drove to LA on Friday and back on Monday. We took interesting detours both coming and going to do some site seeing. On the way down we stopped at Fort Churchill State Historic Park. It is located on the Carson River about 50 miles south east of Reno. Fort Churchill was built in 1860 and abandoned in 1869. It was on the pony express route and guarded the route west against Indians. The adobe buildings of the fort are in ruins but it is still very interesting to see what is there and to visit the museum.

On the way home we detoured to The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains east of highway 395 at Bishop. The views from the road and the visitor center which is at about 10,000 feet are stupendous. The bristlecone pines are amazing and fascinating. Many of the trees are more than 4000 years old and still living. They are the oldest living things on earth. Some of the dead trees on the ground can be dated back 10,000 years.

What I found particularly fascinating is that they have been able to use the wood from bristlecone pines  which can be precisely dated using tree rings to calibrate radiocarbon dating. This all happened in the 1960’s and as a result of the recalibration many archaeological dates have been corrected. Many artifacts found in Europe were actually much older than originally thought. As a result scientists have reinterpreted their theories of cultural diffusion. This also means that the dates we learned in school in the 60’s were wrong.

From the bristlecone pine visitor center a dirt road heads north to the trailhead for climbing White Mountain. Duke and I are thinking that climbing White Mountain is something we might like to do next year. Here are my pictures of the bristlecone pines, the interpretive trail and our car on the road to White Mountain.

Bristleconepines9172007_001

Bristleconepines9172007_005

Bristleconepines9172007_003_15

Bristleconepines9172007_007Bristleconepines9172007_004_3

Bristleconepines9172007_002Bristleconepines9172007_006

Thomas Jefferson by R. B. Bernstein

I just finished reading Thomas Jefferson by R.B. Bernstein. As you may remember I also recently read His Excellency – George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis  and John Adams by David McCullough. Jefferson was American president number three, Adams was number two and of course Washington was number one. The Jefferson book was considerably shorter and also much more of an overview than the other two books. I found it engaging and interesting although I missed a lot of the in depth stories and quotations that the longer books included.

I have started a project to read at least one book about each of our presidents. When I was looking at reviews to help me decide which Jefferson book to read there were a lot of  comments about what a complex person Jefferson was. Before reading this book I really knew very little other than the basics about Jefferson. Bernstein’s book gave me a very balanced non judgmental perspective. I like it that in the epilogue Bernstein discusses the different historical stages that Jefferson’s reputation has gone through. Apparently over the years historians have had problems with how Jefferson’s actions often differed from his words and how he often said different things to different people about an issue. Examples of this include the fact that Jefferson hated slavery but owned slaves, Jefferson believed that the federal government only had the powers explicitly granted in the constitution but yet he purchased the Louisiana purchase, and he believed strongly in equality but yet was strongly against women in government. Jefferson was a consummate politician in the best sense of the word. I have always liked people who are able to see two sides of an issue and who are able to work with a diverse group of people. It seems to me that this is what makes Jefferson very likable to me.

I am finding that reading biographies is a great way to learn about history. Instead of reading about events I am reading about people’s reactions to the events and in fact am often reading more than one perspective. In essence it allows me to triangulate history.

Now I am on to President number four, Madison. If you have any suggestions for future books I should read let me know.

Hiking and exploring back roads around Reno

Last Sunday we visited the Donner Party Museum at Donner Memorial State Park right off of Interstate 80 west of Truckee.  During the winter of 1846-47 a group of emigrants (The Donner Party) was trapped by snow on Donner Pass. The museum tells the story of the group and what happened to them. We watched the film in the museum, walked the short nature walk which goes by the site of one of their cabins, and visited the memorial.

From Donner Pass we decided to take back roads home to Reno. Heading north on 89 from Interstate 80 We turned east on Hobart Mills Road and then left on Dog Valley Road which eventually comes to Stampede Reservoir. We drove over Stampede Dam and stopped to have a look. It is a earth fill dam on the Little Truckee River completed in 1970. From Stampede Dam we took Henness Pass Rd back into Nevada. Except for some of the roads around the reservoir all of the roads after we turned off 89 were fairly good dirt roads. Duke and I love to explore back roads. It was fun to add this to our list of adventures.

Last week we also did two hikes with the Sierra Canyon hiking group. Coincidentally the first hike was also to Stampede Reservoir. It was a short pleasant hike along Sage Hen Creek to the west end of the reservoir. The trail-head was on the east side of highway 89 north of where we turned off for our drive on Sunday. The walk along the creek to the lake was mainly shaded and flat. The water level in the lake seemed fairly low. We walked out to the edge of the water and then back into the trees where we had lunch before heading home. I think the whole hike was about 4 miles.

The Sierra Canyon hiking group does an easier hike on Mondays and a longer hike on Thursdays. Our hike last Thursday was probably about 8 miles long. It was the first hike that Duke and I have done on the south east side of Reno. The hike was on the east side of the Mount Rose Wilderness. We parked at the trail-head on Timberline Road off the Mount Rose Highway. Heading up we hiked along Thomas Creek over a ridge and then down Whites Creek. In addition to being a longer hike than Monday’s hike there were also a lot more ups and downs. Both Thomas and Whites Creeks had quite a bit of water in them and were very scenic.

I thoroughly enjoyed both hikes. I didn’t take any pictures on our Monday hike but here is one I took at our lunch stop on Whites Creek on Thursday.

Hiking9132007_004_3

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

I’m in the Bay Area tonight for my book club meeting. We discussed The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.

I’ve decided I need to change the way I evaluate books. Books as art is my new paradigm. I can appreciate a Jackson Pollock painting without needing to know what it is. So I should be able to appreciate a book without it telling a story or having a plot. I tried to look at The Inheritance of Loss as a work of art.

There is no doubt that Kiran Desai is an extraordinarily talented writer. Her writing is lyrical. Her vignettes are memorable, sometimes funny, sometimes terribly sad. Perhaps that is what makes this such a depressing book. Inheritance of loss is about how life is unending loss and there is no hope. Desai is so talented that her depiction of life as loss is arresting. But the total lack of hope in this book was too much for me.

Of course life is loss, that is the easy part. The important part is hope. But there is no hope in this book. I admire people who in spite of overwhelming loss still strive to look forward with hope. So, if I measure Inheritance of Loss as art I can appreciate Desai’s talent but I don’t like the book much.

During the book club discussion the review of The Inheritance of Loss in the  NY Times by Pankaj Mishra was quoted. I just read the review. It does a much better job than I have of summing up this book. To Mishra the theme of The Inheritance of Loss is the "common experience of impotence and humiliation" shared by all of the characters in the book. Mishra says:

"Desai offers her characters no possibility of growth or redemption.
Though relieved by much humor, "The Inheritance of Loss" may strike
many readers as offering an unrelentingly bitter view. But then, as
Orhan Pamuk wrote soon after 9/11, people in the West are "scarcely
aware of this overwhelming feeling of humiliation that is experienced
by most of the world’s population," which "neither magical realistic
novels that endow poverty and foolishness with charm nor the exoticism
of popular travel literature manages to fathom." This is the invisible
emotional reality Desai uncovers as she describes the lives of people
fated to experience modern life as a continuous affront to their
notions of order, dignity and justice. We do not need to agree with
this vision in order to marvel at Desai’s artistic power in expressing
it."