Hi All,

We're home. This weekends adventure started with a call we received from a seismologist we met at the AGU a couple of years ago. Fortunately, both Don and I had exactly the right set of circumstances to make it possible for us to head to Mammoth for our fireside summit. There is nothing so enjoyable than to sit around the campsite fire and talk about earthquakes and so forth until the wee hours of the morning and especially when you're keeping an eye out for bears at the same time. Though no bears appeared that night, we did enjoy watching a coyote who probably is Zima's distant cousin come through at early evening, give us the eye and found us very uninteresting and went on.

Though our visit had nothing to do with Mammoth specifically, we did make the rounds and had a look see at a few things. The Horseshoe Lake tree kill has changed a bit in color since I was there in ‘99. At that time the trees were absolutely bone white, but now only the tree trucks at 12 inches were white with the remainder of the trees being beige to brown with a yellow cast. Camping is open during the summer, but not in snow season due to extraordinarily high CO2 levels, which have not changed since 1989. A friend mentioned to me in passing, he still wouldn't take an infant out there at any time of the year.

We did find out that the fissure at the bottom of Lake Mary which is the only outlet for the water which accumulates by snow melt, has actually been traced from there to the upper end of Hot Creek. Apparently they were able to observe the water flow underground by using a specific monitoring tool which they call a snake, not to be confused with the snake one uses to unplug home plumbing. Hot Creek with its sparkling light blue acid water was beautiful, however, though people were swimming nearby in the flow of water, it still remains quite dangerous. As an example a person could be swimming in one place and move just two feet away and be seriously burned. The water has a very high concentration of arsenic, but is low in other trace elements. For those who are unfamiliar with the area, Hot Creek is a geothermal zone, not a natural geyser(s). Hot Creek is at least 9 miles from Lake Mary.

They no longer monitor the temperatures at Hot Creek because they fluctuate so dramatically from one day to the next. As an example a 1.0 earthquake can change the temperature of the water by 200+ degrees in a matter of seconds, which is another reason why swimming in Hot Creek is frowned upon, though not restricted. There are posted signs which advise the visitors that they swim at their own risk.

Mammoth has so many interesting areas to see, which includes two lava flows. They are in the Inyo Craters area and were formed 10,000 years ago and are truly amazing to view. These lava flows were emitted from separate magma chambers.

I have to laugh sometimes when you go away from your own home and find out from someone far away about what's going on in your own neck of the woods. And such was the case when I found out that the long mystery of where the ash fall came from to create the Petrified Forest, near Calistoga is now under research again. Hopefully this time they will be able to identify the source.

Of course Don and I have many other interests and when planning this trip over the Sonora Pass I told him to find a place to stay along Highway 108, east of Twain Hart, but for some reason he selected an ancient hotel at least 20 miles to the NW in a town called Mokelumne Hill. While I could have been a little irritated with him for not following my suggestion, but I actually gave him his first point for the trip. While it was hotter than the hubs of hell when we arrived at 9:30pm The Hotel Leger offered a bit more than just a place to stay. Built originally in 1851 it has wonderful appointments such as 18 inch thick walls, huge metal folding fire doors and two ghost stories which are flavorful and locals who love to talk. Of course, due to the extreme heat I was really parched and after downing a couple of bloody Mary's the offer to tour the hotel from top to bottom, including the wine cellar which is part of an old underground tunnel system was to good to pass up. Of course after that I was dry as a bone again and sat down with the locals to hear more about the ghosts who haunt with my last drink for the evening. Having a major heat-on when bedtime arrived around midnight the mile high stairs didn't seem as formidable as they did earlier, despite my broken foot. Every once in a while being four shades to the wind is really beneficial. I slept like a baby.

Waking at 6am I could have sworn it was noon as the temperature in the room was around 80 degrees, so I went next door and woke Don up and told him to get his act together A.S.A.P. and were out of there. A couple of hours later we were ascending Sonora Pass at 7,000 feet in a wilderness so beautiful there are never appropriate words to describe it. Waterfalls were abundant everywhere. The tops of the mountains were snow covered and as we got higher into the terrain we could have made snow balls. Don has a wonderful expression for places like that when he says, "Those mountains are the pillars which hold up the sky."

We stopped from time to time to take photos and enjoy the experience and at one stop at 8,000 feet while Don was captivated with the view, I was more interested in the sound I was hearing. The area sounded like an electrical field. There are no power lines of any kind in the area as no one lives there and yet this sound pervaded the air. Unfortunately, Don could not hear it as he suffers from tinnitus. I collected some nice granite samples and many of them had charcoal imbedded in the rock. And along the way I also found some good pieces of rhyolite, basalt and serpentine as well.

Our night in Mammoth at the campground was truly wonderful. I love camping, cooking in the out of doors over the campfire as the food tastes awesome. The campground was abundant in ground squirrels and one was curious enough to come up the steps of the cabin to check us out. As the Moon hung in the sky you would have never found two people who were more eager to talk science than we were. Our hosts who happened to be in the area for the weekend were supportive of the work we are trying to accomplish as well as informative in new developments which we of course cannot discuss. The relaxed atmosphere around the campfire was so much better than meeting in a stuffy office someplace, where often-times some conversations are not possible.

The trip home was equally enjoyable as we decided to drive over Carson Pass to Jackson to our next port of call. It is entirely different than Sonora Pass in rock formations, flora and fauna, but ever so beautiful. We stopped at Jackson last night and enjoyed more of the old west and headed home today. If it had not been for an early morning major car accident with fatalities that caused us a three hour delay in getting home, it would have been a 10.0 weekend, but hey, its probably as good as it gets.

For those who don't know, when we travel we collect points for good events, like finding decent places to stay, good eateries or the right place on the map and lose points for the opposite. At the end of the trip we total up our score and while Don was ahead this time, he lost .5 during the last five miles of our trip and we tied at 3.5 a piece.

Looks like we didn't miss much while we were gone in regard to earthquakes, except that second 5.0 in the Hawaiian chain. As quiet as it has been there for so long, two 5.0's in a couple of days, is interesting. I wonder what's down.

From the road less traveled....Petra & Don