Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun
Showing posts with label Excelsior Mountains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Excelsior Mountains. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

LETTERMAN AND OPRAH & THE HIGH VALLEY

LOOKING  UP

     If you are not a "cat person" you may think those of us who are kept by cats are a bit silly. I was taken by the expression of our poly dactyl, Hemingway. (Ernest Hemingway's cats at Key West had six toes.  Our little guy has six toes on each paw.) 
     A feral kitten, dropped by his mother as she ferried her litter over a fence, he was rescued by a Paso Robles woman.  He's the first of his line to be "domesticated." He is a link between wild DNA and being a pet. He seems perpetually curious and maybe a little bewildered. He's got an easy going personality with his greatest interests being eating and napping. He's learning quickly isn't he?
NOT SO STUPID HUMAN TRICKS
    Our old college friend was back at our Alma Mater and making news.  David Letterman's interview with Oprah created lots of interest.
    In so many important ways, Dave and Oprah are people
to look up to.  
GEOGRAPHY THAT BLOWS YOUR MIND
   An easy first impression of these frames is that the valley and lake are a low altitude flatness surrounded by the distant peaks which surround and frame the images.
   Partially correct. The valley and the lake are at 7,000 to 8,000 feet.  This is the northern edge of the Owen Valley and Mono Lake which nestle, if such a massive space can indeed nestle, in the Sierra Nevada high country, bounded by the Sierra and the Excelsior mountains in Nevada to the east.  
     The peaks of the Excelsior range between 7 and 13 thousand. The Sierra Nevada peaks are at 13 and 14 thousand.  
      As the settlers trekked west they climbed to reach the big valley, only to face the more rugged eastern slope of the Sierra. Beyond that lay the central valley. 
      What an extraordinary inner drive to lift and buoy the spirit to overcome the sheer struggle.  

      See you down the trail.