In spite of all odds, it seems that our house is still standing! Our neighborhood has been under a mandatory evacuation since Aug 21, and yesterday, a crazy fire whirl (also sometimes called a firenado) raced up Avalanche Creek temporarily pinning fire fighters in our neighborhood as it crossed Hwy 41 and headed toward the … Read more
I said there would be pictures. Shauna and I returned to Sentinel Dome on Monday night to have some dinner, check out the moon and the fires. I was running late, and Shauna packed up the most amazing dinner with pasta, wine, and CHOCOLATE CAKE! We outlasted the ranger-led moonlight hike on the top of … Read more
Quick notes today. 1. If you haven’t been there already, you should check out MapJack.com. They have a really cool street-view map of Yosemite, and I love their interface. Click on the big picture to pan left or right, and you can move Jack around in the lower map area to explore different things. Very … Read more
The Deputy Superintendent of Yosemite, Kevin Cann, came to speak at the Senior Manager’s Meeting this morning about the Telegraph Fire. I’d been following the fire pretty closely, so I didn’t learn too much about the details of the fire, but there were a couple of things that I found interesting – in no particular … Read more
Good news from this afternoon’s DNC briefing… 1. Power is on in El Portal and Yosemite West and they expect to have power in the Valley by 8pm tonight, with the possibility of permanent power (rerouting lines around the burn area). This means that it wasn’t a totally stupid thing to take things out of … Read more
On February 12, the California Native Plant Society sponsored a free wildflower walk led by Yosemite-area naturalist Michael Ross, and breaking out of our normal routines, Tom and I decided to see what it was all about. Simply amazing. It was a ‘wildflower walk’ which meant that it focused on flowers, but the thing is, … Read more