Upper Upper Bidwell, part III

There, in the middle of nowhere, no sign of human civilization for miles around except for an overgrown dirt road and an isolated chimney, I walked through the night, nothing visible except what was illuminated by my flashlight. I expected the road to suddenly end, or see it slowly close up with bushes and trees, but suddenly the brush opened to the left, and I looked, my light falling on the most surprising thing I can imagine. I think a mountain lion, or a man, or a vehicle would have surprised me less (though frightened me more!). This is what I saw:

I want you to look carefully at this picture for a moment. Go ahead, take a minute, and imagine yourself in my shoes. Can you feel it? Until every hair on your body is standing on end, you don’t understand what was going on inside of me at this moment. Let me emphasize again that there was NOTHING around this building, nothing but barely-visible trees that my light couldn‘t penetrate. I’d been walking for 9 hours, and seen absolutely nothing to prepare me for this. In that first moment or two of shock, the brain races like a gray-hound, filled with ideas and theories and explanations and plans and reactions and feeling and maybe even a little bit of panic. A little. Oh my God, what now?

Of course I saw it only for a split second before I snapped my light off. After all, I had passed through three different layers of “no trespassing” areas, and my worry of getting “caught” was ever-present. So I got a quick flash of a three-storied, glass-fronted, balconied, ominously dark house in the middle of the forest, and then I was in the dark. Oh no, I had shined my light directly on the front windows, anyone inside probably saw me! Do I run? Do I hide? What do you hear? Do I ask casual? Who would be living here?!?

That last question, though frightening, brought a little of that logic and reason that has saved me from many potential panic attacks. Who WOULD be living in this God-forsaken place, and on a freezing night like this? I wasn’t sure if I’d seen a vehicle parked anywhere, but probably not… and then the real key: even though it was completely dark already, it was only 7:00 PM. If there was anyone inside, would they have all the lights out and be sleeping already? Not likely. The possibilities that this was an somehow an empty building increased steadily. Of course there’s always the chance that people inside heard me coming noisily up the hill and had turned off the lights. After all, hadn’t I seen something like electrical lights in the distance an hour ago? But I should have passed that a long time back. Or maybe they WERE already sleeping, because they had no electricity… but it wasn’t likely, and I knew I had to go with the odds. After all, you never get a 100% shot of anything in life, do you?

I counted off two minutes, listening intently for any sign of movement. When there was none, I switched my light back on, and examined the house better. It was definitely a house, a very impressive house, the kind you would find up in the snowy mountains where rich people have their winter ski-lodges. I couldn’t imagine what it was doing here. I mean, a little rough cabin maybe, but this was ridiculous! I couldn’t imagine any vehicle making it up the road here. Where did the material come from? Why?!

Then came the question. You know which question I mean: to explore, or not to explore, THAT is the question! And it was a tough one. But obviously there wasn’t much choice. I mean, here I went to all this trouble and stupidity with the hope and faith that I would find an adventure somewhere along the way, and here it was. Could I just turn around and run away scared and ever be able to look myself in the mirror again? I’d trapped myself in a situation where the disgrace of defeat was worse than the fear of the unknown. Okay, now I just needed to get the job done.

I needed help to take the first step, so I did what any courage-needing boy-in-the-dark would do, I pulled out my gun. FAKE gun, remember, but here I figured it might actually be useful. I figured out a way to hold it in combination with my flashlight so that anyone in front of me would see the outline of the gun behind the light, but not the fact that it was made of clear plastic. Hopefully. I figured at this point that if I did encounter anyone, they probably were not the legal residents of the establishment, and that could be any sort of person up here. Having the outline of a gun in my hand might give me just the advantage I needed to control any situation I encountered. But mostly, as is obvious to all of us, it was psychological support. Thus fully armed with a toy gun and a flashlight, I moved slowly towards the front of the house. Then came another surprise that stopped me in my tracks.

Now relax, the real heart-stopping surprise for me is still coming. No, I simply looked to my right as I was getting closer, and realized that there was something behind some trees on that end of the clearing. No, several somethings. It was more buildings. None of them were as grand as the one directly in front of me, all single-storied but of pretty good size. I planned to take a closer look as soon as I’d figured out what was going on with the main building. Not wanting to worry about being watched from the other buildings, I moved to the opposite side of the house (the left side of the picture). I tried to keep my light as veiled as possible, just in case someone was inside. I moved very very carefully along the concrete wall, holding my pistol in front of me. I had some vague notion that if I saw anyone I would yell “Federal Agent, get on the ground now!” I wondered if I’d be able to pull it off without my voice breaking. I was also aware that there’s probably some sort of repercussions to impersonating a federal agent, but I didn’t anticipate meeting the type of person who would call me up on that.

I noticed that ahead of me the wall had a shadowy indent. Probably a doorway, I thought. Okay, this is it. I turned off my light, just in case, and moved silently to the edge of the doorway, my pistol pointing at the ground (just like in the movies!), my back hugging the wall. I was worried that the door might be open, and more worried that someone would be watching for me. I planned to quickly move away from the wall, turn towards the door, raise my gun into position, and shine my light at the door, all in one quick, fluid movement. Actually, this part when very well, and I almost had 1/100 of a second to be pleased, until I followed my light to the doorway… there was no door.

This alone made my heart stop for a second, maybe two. I almost dropped everything in my hands. Then my brain registered that I was seeing the light shine through where the door should be, into the building, onto a rough, uneven dirt floor, scattered with bits of overturned furniture, garbage, tools, debris. It was so unexpected that I almost fell over.

I stood there for a long time, wavering. The impulse to just cut and run was very strong. I held my light in the same direction, hoping that anyone else who saw it from inside wouldn’t notice that it was quivering. Finally, I knew I needed to approach the door. This was why I came, right? ….. Right?!? HELLO?

I tried to not make a single sound on the dirt as I moved closer and closer. I wanted to make sure that I used the pistol to full psychological advantage against anyone inside, meaning that they see it before trying anything. But do you look into the right side of the door first, or the left? And you just know that whatever side you chose, the man is going to be on the other side waiting for you to expose yourself. The only tip is that if a person has free choice, they’ll automatically chose the side that they’re dominant in. A right-handed person will chose to stand on the right side of the doorway. Also, the rest of the house stretched back on that side of the doorway. And finally, being left-handed, I can better approach what would be the right side from inside. So, I moved in from towards the left. I got up to the door, trying to watch both sides, and at the last moment I leaned in and pointed my light and pistol around the corner.
Suddenly everything happened at once. Out the corner of my eye, I saw movement to my right. I looked, saw the outline of a person standing there. Before I had time to react he reached out and grabbed my shoulder.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, just kidding about that part. There was actually no one inside the door. Sorry, I just HAD to do it! What there WAS was more dirt floor, various objects scattered around, and two doorless doorways leading off to other rooms on the left. It was too dark to see into them.

At this point, even without a hand reaching out of the shadows, my imagination was beginning to win the internal war, and for good reason! It had more and more basis in reality. Even if I didn’t encounter anything living in here, it was just the absolute perfect example of those scenes you see in CSI or Law and Order in the beginning of the episode: some kid messing around in an out-of-the-way place, he stumbles over some boards, revealing a dead body grinning up at him. Well, I KNEW it was exactly that kind of place, and I didn‘t want to meet that dark secret hidden here and then have to run screaming 15 miles though the dark with lions hot on my tail and every deer and squirrel in the forest wondering if Armageddon had arrived. That image firmly in mind (if you‘re wondering what happened to my reason-based imagination, just put a sock in it!), I didn’t actually step into the building. I stood in the doorway for a few moments, waiting to see if the courage to step in would arrive, and then moved away.

I walked around the front of the house (giving it a wide berth and keeping two eyes on the windows) towards the other buildings. Two of them were actually more shacks, what I’d actually expect up here. One of them was filled with firewood. An interesting clue, that. But the third building was large, one-storied, with a cement floor, all one room. Actually, it was a lot like a garage except that there was no large garage door in the walls, just a large window and door in front. As I got closer to the open door I noticed that there was almost nothing on the floor. Almost.

I stopped quickly when my light fell on something laying in the middle of the floor. It was a blanket, spread out like it was waiting for a picnic. Or like a bed. It didn’t look like a blanket that had been sitting there for months, it looked dry and disheveled, maybe even slept on, recently. I decided that I was liking the place less and less, so I moved back towards the road.

The most pressing theory about the blanket in my mind was that someone was sleeping on it, maybe VERY recently, and had seen my arrival. Probably that person had no more right to be there than me, so perhaps they slipped into the woods when they saw the light. That certainly wasn’t a comfortable feeling.

Still, I knew I was in control of the area for the moment, so I quickly opened my bag and took the picture you saw of the house. I photographed the other buildings also, but I was too far away for the flash to reveal anything. I didn’t feel like getting closer.

Then I found myself back on the road, wondering. The irony is that if I was looking for a place to sleep or rest for a while, I would never find better shelter from any natural elements then this. But you know, when faced with an unknown natural element (rain, freezing wind, lions, rabid squirrels, falling giant pinecones), it’s never as frightening as an unknown human element. There was no way I was staying here. I didn’t even feel a compulsion to make myself go inside. So what now?

The logical thing was to accept this adventure/discovery as the conclusion to my trip, and start back. But here’s where things started to get internally strange, and even a little surreal. I wasn’t ready to head back. I wanted to keep going. I really couldn’t figure out why, and the strangest thing is that that side of me just stopped talking with me. I mean, usually my reasonable side and adventurous side argue and work things out, but I’d never had one side just quit talking and insist on something without giving reasons. The larger part of me wanted to go on, no explanation. I interpreted it as wanting to know where the road ended. I hadn’t reached the end of my rope yet. So, after arguing silently with myself in the shadow of a shadowy house in the middle of a shadowy forest, I turned up the road, and continued walking, checking behind my shoulder every few minutes, of course.

I really didn’t want to do this, but it‘s getting late, so:
To Be Continued….

Discover Something New #5 -- Marijuana Apartment Costs Latins $466 Billion

Sunday: So That’s Why…: Have you ever wondered why we call South America “Latin America”? There’s really nothing “Latin” about it! The story is that in the 1850s South America was seriously defaulting on massive foreign loans, and so Spain, England, and France invaded to make sure they got paid. For several decades France had been interested in increasing its power in South America, and it saw this as an excellent opportunity to take control of some territory. South Americas spoke mainly Spanish and Portuguese, which are both languages that come from Latin. French also comes from Latin, and because France wanted to make its presence in South America seem natural (hoping that someday the continent would speak Spanish, Portuguese, and French, the three most powerful Latin languages at this time), they declared that the continent would now be known as “Latin America.” The French influence didn’t last long, but somehow the name stuck, and we still use it today.

Monday: In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, is the oldest “apartment complex” in the western hemisphere. Called Pueblo Bonito (beautiful house), the building is about 1,000 years old, has more than 600 rooms and is 4 stories high in places.

Tuesday: Amazing Person Review: Homer Lea (of oriental decent, sorry, can’t figure out exactly where) was born in America in 1876. He had health problems as a child which turned him into a hunchback weighing less than 100 pounds (45 kilos). Still, he dreamed of becoming a great soldier. He attended West Point and Stanford. When he was 23 years old he traveled to China to join the forces against the Boxer Rebellion, and was made a Lieutenant General. After several serious defeats, he fled to Japan and met Sun Yat-sen (a very important figure in Chinese history), who sent Lea to America as a representative of China’s growing Republicanism. At 27 years old Lea returned to China as the head of Second Army Division, but soon had to return to America for Health reason.
After these experiences, Lea wrote several books in which he predicted Japan’s attack on US-held Philippines, Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, German’s rise of power based on ethnic purity, and Russia’s attempt to take control of Europe, all decades before it happened.
Lea died at the age of 35. His books are still relatively unknown in the western world.

Wednesday: Say What? Marijuana is America’s largest cash crop. The government hasn’t exactly confirmed this (surprise!), but numerous studies confirm it. I was a little skeptical at first, but just type in “American Cash Crop” in Google and you’ll see what I mean. The US produces around $35 billion annually, more than corn and wheat combined. California alone produces $13.8 billion annually. (Thanks Elizabeth Quivey for the info!)

Thursday: Actually…: We usually have a picture of Tibetan people as peaceful, calm, and benevolent. But it’s hard to say where this image comes from. In the beginning of the 20th century England and Russia were competing for influence in China and India (called “The Great Game“), and in the middle was Tibet. But the Tibetans were so suspicious of outsiders, that they would kill any non-Tibetan found in their boarders. Trespassers were skinned alive, or drowned, or put on a saddle filled with nails and ridden until dead of blood-loss, or some other terrible form of torture. In history Tibetans have been hostile to outsiders, which isn’t surprising considering their experience with China and other countries, but that’s another story…

Friday: Impossible? It seems like some things would be impossible for a human being, right? For example, running across the Sahara desert? No one could do that! Well, until now. Some of you probably saw this story a few weeks ago. On February 19th, three runners (from Canada, Taiwan, and USA), finished their 111 day run across the Sahara desert. Their trip covered 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers) and six different countries. To finish they ran the distance of 2 marathons every day (44-50 miles daily) across terrain that gets over 100° F (38° C) by day and under freezing at night. They ran to increase awareness of the organization H2O, an organization trying to provide clean water for Africa. Check out this great link: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/runningthesahara/

Saturday: The US spends almost as much on the military as the rest of the world combined: 466 billion in 2005. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm

Corrections: This is the first of many future corrections on my information. Last week I said that Tibetan Monks are not required to be celibate. Actually it depends on the group. Some groups of monks do require it, others not. Also, “Dali Lama” is actually spelled “Dalai Lama.” And I should have thanked Megumi Shimamoto for the information about Swaziland. Thanks Megumi!

Photographer's Favorites 2003-2006

Photography has been an on-again off-again hobby for me since my first trip to Europe in 2002. I love the way it focuses all my senses, as nothing else does, on finding the beauty around me. That's the thing about photography; everything has beauty. Maybe it's a matter of waiting for the right lighting, or finding the right angle, or catching the perfect moment, but the beauty is there, you just have to look hard enough. And once in a great while, even the beauty is penetrated to reveal something deeper, greater: a Spark, a touch of the Divine. These are pictures that have done that for me, for one reason or another. They capture a small particle of what I seek. I hope some of them will touch you in a similar way. If that's the case, then please comment below to tell me specifically which photos here touched you, and if know why. Part of my reason for posting these is to see how the hearts of others respond to them, and if it's at all similar to my reaction. And check here later for more detail about the story behind each picture. Mejte se pekne!

1. A Window to Heaven
2. Zina
3. On Wings Like Eagles

4. Under the Eiffle Tower

5. Tina

6. Sun Storm (or The Glories of Man, the Glories of God) 7. Strawberry Snow
8. Steps
9. Snow Church

10. Rising Moon

11. Strawberry Smile
12. Pavel

13. Moon Storm

14. Monika

15. Memories

16. Lucka

17. Love Takes Flight

18. Dawn of Adventure

19. Kacka

20. Frozen Dock

21. Crystal Fountain

22. Field of Dreams

23. Escape

24. Eiffle Gazer

25. Cross Bridge

26. Panda (or Wisdom)

27. Cesky Krumlov Dawn

28. Cathedral of Light

29. Love

30. Ben

31. Advent of Spring

Upper Upper Bidwell, Part II:

At this point the title of this story is quite inaccurate, because I was no longer in Upper Bidwell at all! I was outside the boundaries of the park, in an area I knew nothings about, and anything might happen! Who know what’s up there in those endless hills and forest?! There must be something, right? This brings up the unique aspect of this particular adventure, I had no goal except to find something interesting. In the past I’ve always had a goal, like surviving a freezing day outside in Stockholm, or walking from Bratislava to Vienna, or getting to the top of whatever rock I found myself climbing, there was always a goal, a clear end. But what about this time? I had no idea what was in front of me, and I was just planning to keep walking? How would I know when I was finished? And another problem was timing. If I wanted to get back home before dark the next day, then the half-way time would be about 4:00 in the morning. So was I just going to walk through the dark forest until 4, and then just decide to turn around and come back? I really had no answer to this question.
But the truth is that all these details weren’t important, that wasn’t the point of the trip. I needed to get away from what we ironically call “real life” and clear my head a little. You see, this was during my 5th week of holidays from school. I know that sounds nice, but it really does get old fast, especially when you’re completely undisciplined. I had such a nice list of things I wanted to do during the break, important things, useful things, fun things! And instead I mostly slept, watched TV, and… well, that is about it. And I couldn’t make myself do anything! I was scattered in my social, mental, and spiritual life, and didn’t feel strong enough to do anything about it. That can make a person like me go crazy….Hmmm, crazy enough to out into the mountains in freezing weather with no plan, you ask? Exactly.
There are times a person needs to step back and look at life, really get away from everything else and just think. It’s so ridiculously easy for us to get distracted from the only things that matter. It’s almost like a conspiracy! Try to list everything you’ve spent effort and time and thought on in the last month. Now, what percentage of those things will be important to you when your life is finished? There’s so much to fill our lives with, and so little that’s really valuable. The only thing to do is to get away from the distractions once in a while. And for me, “I need an adventure” is code for “I need to feel like my life is real.” You know, I want to worry about things that matter! I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes I would rather be worrying about my survival than about finishing chapter 7 in my agriculture textbook, or wondering how I’m going to get food tomorrow rather than what item in the fridge will require the least amount of effort to prepare. It just seems more real, more natural, more full. Does that make sense to anyone else?
So stop stalling and get on with the story, right? Well, the truth is that most of the trip was hours and hours of quiet walking, and most of the story was these thoughts in my head. Now wait a minute, don’t go anywhere! I didn’t say nothing exciting happened externally! In case you want to know, there IS an adventure in this story, a very unexpected and mysterious and slightly frightening adventure, but not yet…
You’ll remember that I jumped the fence onto government land, and now I was a little worried about being seen. I was pretty sure that no one else was going to be there, but who knows? There was a road going from the gate up the hill, so I tried to avoid that as much as possible. Instead I walked along the ridge of the mountain (it was more interesting there anyway, see picture #1). Here it was also a little sheltered from the wind. Wind is nice for a while, but it can easily be too much. Trust me, when you’re out in nature, nothing can exhaust you as quickly as wind. In my opinion not even rain is so dangerous, if you’re prepared for it. But you can’t really be prepared for wind. It will push you and pull you and drain your warmth no matter what you do. So it was nice to get away from it for a while. But there were still signs of the temperature around me. There was ice on the ground. But strangely, there were also signs of spring (see picture #2).
Well, after about an hour it was clear that I couldn’t continue off-trail anymore. I had been making a way through the bushes, but at one point I realized I was trapped, and I had to return about 10 minutes back (see picture #3a,3b). So, I decided that if I really wanted to get deep into the hills then I should follow the road. It’s quite a nice road, usually fit for a jeep or something like that (though later on it is too out of repair for anything with wheels). It cuts through the forest and over the hills in a pretty straight direction; away from the valley. That’s all I wanted.

My experience with the bushes off the road should have warned me about something. If this road seemed to me like an easy way to travel away from the city, then it would seem that way to other things also. I saw a lot of deer tracks, and small animals and bird tracks in the mud. These didn’t worry me at all, I really didn’t even think about it. Until I saw something completely different. I looked down and saw tracks larger and different than anything I’ve ever seen before (see picture #5). It is about the size of my hand, but much thicker. My first thought was actually that someone was wearing ski gloves and fell in the mud. But then I started seeing the same tracks along the trail, in a line. Unless someone was willing to get very muddy for a bad joke in an area with no people, this was no human track. My best guess (both then and after looking online)? Bear. I can’t be sure that it was, of course, and I never expected to find bear so close to the city (less than 10 miles), but I can’t find anything else that makes sense.
Well, I’m actually not too frightened of bear. After all, they can be cute! Okay, seriously, they’re also quite afraid of people, and will most likely run away before I even know they’re close. However, a bear wouldn’t come so far out of the mountains unless it was desperate for food, and I did have a backpack full of cheese and sausage and bread…. But I’m just trying to be dramatic, I didn’t think about this at all then. Moving on!
Shortly after these tracks, I came to the end of the government preserve. I’d walked through it in about two hours. Now there was another gate, leading to “Musty Buck Reserve: No trespassing.” I hopped over and continued on. Behind my left shoulder I was getting some excellent views of the valley far below. I also noticed that the sun was getting pretty low. It was around 3:30 by this time, and it looked like the sun would set in about an hour and a half. Then we would see how I react under pressure.

Have I mentioned that I’m really not comfortable with darkness? Especially when alone, my imagination just goes wild. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to control that. I mean, even when I go into my backyard at night, I’m not afraid anymore, but I still imagine someone hiding behind the trees or a shadowy thing standing behind the door. It’s just how my mind works, I’ve just learned to not take it seriously…in my backyard, that is. Out in the forest miles from anyone, well that’s something different. As I now thought about going through the dark forest alone, my heart started beating a little bit faster, and I really started to wonder what I was doing. But, I’d already been walking 6 hours, and even if I turned around now I would be walking a long way in the dark, so that wouldn’t help. This was the “fun” part anyway, right?
Around 4:45 I finally came to the end of Musty Buck, I think. There was another gate, but no signs on it. And it looked like no one had opened it in years. Well, I didn’t need to open it! Hop to!
I started thinking about how rough the road was here, and how no car could come up here, even if the gates would open. Just a few minutes later I came around a corner, and all the brush and trees to my right opened up suddenly into a large clearing. And there, in the middle of nowhere, was a chimney (see picture #6). It looked so strange and out-of-place, I really can’t explain it. I just stopped and stared at it for a while. Seeing nothing but trees and dirt road all day did not prepare me to see this. All around it there were piles of burnt tin cans, glass bottles, and rusted scrap metal. There was also the signs of building, but it doesn’t look like anything was ever built up more than a foot. What was it for, and why was it here? I have absolutely no idea, and I probably never will.
The clearing did give a nice view of the sunset, though, and so I watched my source of light and heat sink behind the earth’s edge (see picture #7). It’s pretty amazing how much the temperature is instantly effected when the last sliver of sun disappears. Even though I was wearing 4 layers by that time, I started to feel the cold a little. But a more pressing concern was the growing darkness. In the clearing it was still okay, but as soon as I went back into the forest, I could see that it was going to get interesting. About this time I saw a sign on the side of the road: “Property of Sierra Pacific Industries: No Trespassing.” Hmmm, better pretend I didn’t see that.
I stopped at the side of the road to prepare myself for night. I put on the rest of my cloths: five layers on the torso, three on the legs, extra socks, hat, put away camera, prepare flashlight and… ahem… pistol. Okay, now wait, it wasn’t real. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse, but it was an air-soft pistol that shoots little pellets. Shoots them quite hard, actually, enough to really hurt, but not to cause any real damage. I just thought that if I met a dangerous animal, and it wasn’t going away I could… you know… shoot it a little… or something. Okay fine, it just made me feel better to have something that could shoot something. And in the end, it’s the psychological part that really matters, right? Unless you really meet a dangerous animal… But anyway!
So, I was ready for anything! There was still enough light to see my feet for about half an hour. The last time I came out of the forest along the edge of the valley I got another surprise. I looked down on the road, and could barely see something new. Tracks (see picture #8). These were different than the tracks before. They are definitely lighter, not so thick, more pointed. As I looked at them, I tried to tell myself that they were dog tracks. And that’s possible. But really, they don’t look like dog tracks. The size of the back pad, the way the “fingers” are pointed… They look more like a cat… a big cat… a very big cat…a mountain lion, even. I knew that’s probably what they were, that it was a very real possibility. I was now at least 10 miles past the limits of Upper Bidwell, and in an area that was basically wild. I’ve looked at a track guide online, and I’m pretty sure about this guess. Now this gave me more to think about than the bear tracks. After all, I’m not afraid of bear, I am afraid of mountain lions. I’ve seen them in zoos, and even in captivity they’re just one massive, powerful muscle. And their eyes, so cold and deep and unfeeling, they can see fear like a physical thing, and they fear nothing. Meeting one on a trail in daylight might be okay, but I was going into the night, where he can see and I can’t, and my cute little toy gun would only make him mad. What was I doing here?
So I wanted to worry about something “real,” eh? This is it, and I hadn’t found a reason to turn around yet, so I kept going. You know, don’t tell anyone, but I think a small part of me wanted to see a lion. A very small part.
Well, when I looked up from the tracks, I could see something deep in the forest. It was a light, a man-made light. I thought it was deep in the forest, but it’s so hard to tell. In situations like this, it can look like a UFO is landing on the next mountaintop, until you realize there’s a glow-bug landing on your nose. But I was sure that it was electrical. People, here? I wondered what kind of people would be in such wilderness on a night like this, and if I wanted them to see me. After all, I was through three layers of private land… Anyway, you can think about the possibilities, and whoever they were I was pretty sure I didn’t want to met them, but also sure that I wanted to see them. It’s always nice to have a goal, after all.
So I started trying to walk quieter, and to use my flashlight as little as possible. It’s really cool how the fear leaves you when you feel like the hunter, and this helped me continue through the forest for 10,15, 25 minutes, but there was still no sign of life. I decided I hadn’t seen anything after all. I was back to having no goal. Also, the road had changed a little. Before it was wide, and very clear. Now it got narrow, and the bushes and trees pressed in close on both sides. I kept expecting to look up and see the road just end in a wall of bushes. There were also a lot of rocks and branches on the road, so I needed to focus on my feet. That can be difficult when you start thinking about something jumping out of the bushes onto your back. Then the road started going uphill, sharply. Nowhere else to go but up.
I continued up that hill for a long time, questioning myself more and more. Okay, we’re here in the pressure now, no escape. So what now, Caleb? What are you going to do? Do you want to lay down here and freeze to death or wake up to a lion looking down at you? Or are you going to keep walking into empty forest for another 13 hours until sunrise? What’s going to be enough for you? There’s nothing there but more forest and empty road.
No, the road must be here for a reason, and I’m not ready to give up yet. Nothing has happened, and you know, part of me is enjoying this.
So I kept walking for another half hour. It was now close to 7:00, completely dark, completely silent. I could only see where I pointed my flashlight, and whenever I tried to walk without a light (a much better way to walk if there’s a little bit of natural light), I kept hitting my toes on rocks and tripping over branches. There was no moon, and all this talk about walking by starlight is pretty useless under trees. So I kept my light on, feeling like I was calling every living thing from miles around, and not being very comfortable about it.
Still I started to feel a little better, for a moment. Just a moment. I reached the top of the hill, so the road leveled out. I was pleased by this, and stepped forward. I then realized that all the bushes on my left were gone, they had opened into a clearing. I automatically moved my light in that direction, and straight onto the last thing I expected to see, but the very thing I was looking for. I’d found an adventure.
I quickly turned off the flashlight, and felt myself breathing faster. “It’s not possible,” I whispered. What should I do now?…

To be continued…

Discover Something New #4

Sunday: In China there are 668 cities with over 1 million people, and 400 of them have water shortage problems. In 1972, the Yellow River, a great river that flows across half the length of China, failed to reach the sea for the first time. By 1997 it reached the sea only 1/3 of the time, and for the last 10 years it has stopped short of the sea every year. Imagine if the Mississippi or the Rhine River didn’t have enough water to reach its end, and you’ll begin to understand the magnitude of the problem. It is reported that water levels in the wells of this area is shrinking 3-6 feet (1-2 meters) every year.

Monday: The Global Positioning System (GPS) is powered by no less than 27 satellites (24 active and 3 spares) that circle the earth in 12-hour evenly distributed orbits. A hand-held GPS unit picks up signals from at least 4 of these satellites (but can use as many as 12). These signals are sent out in a regular pulse, and the GPS device detects the distance between it and the satellite by measuring the time between the sending and receiving of the signal. At least, that’s what I understood of the explanation! GPS is funded and controlled by the US Department of Defense.

Tuesday: The Panama Canal is quite an example of political intrigue. See, the French had the idea first and started the project in the late 1870s. They hired the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had designed and built the Suez Canal earlier. But The Suez Canal was sea-level, and the Panama Canal was not, it required much more complicated sea-locks. By 1889 Ferdinand de Lesseps had lost his money and his sanity trying to plan the canal. Then America came in. They liked the idea of a canal even more than the French. The only question was whether to dig across Panama, where the distance would only be about 30 miles but would require locks, or across Nicaragua, which would be longer but with no locks. Well, the French knew what the US should do, because they wanted the US to buy their equipment and 15 years of digging in Panama. The French went to work on the US congress, trying to convince them to use Panama and buy their investment. They even hired a Wall Street lawyer to make their case. In 1901 the House of Representatives passed a bill, which officially recommended the path across Nicaragua. But The Senate would have to agree. Then the French representative and the Wall Street lawyer put on the desk of every senator a Nicaraguan postage stamp. On this stamp was a beautiful picture of the volcano Momotombo, in full eruption, in the middle of a lake. It happened to be the lake that the Nicaraguan Canal would pass through. The Senate chose the Panama route and bough the French work for $40 million.
If you want to understand how important the canal was at this time, think about this: When Teddy Roosevelt visited the Panama Canal in 1906, it was the first time an American president had EVER traveled outside the US while in office.

Wednesday: In Swaziland, Africa, a person is expected to live 32.62 years. By 2010 it’s believed that this number will be 29 years life expectancy.

Thursday: Tibetan Monks are not required to be celibate. In fact, they can marry and have families. The Dali Lama, however, must be celibate. His position is passed on by reincarnation, so really the Dali Lama is always the same soul, just different form. The current Dali Lama is the 14th reincarnation. When a Dali Lama dies, then the chosen representatives try to find the “reborn” Dali Lama. They search for several years for a young boy, physically flawless, born around the time of the Lama’s death. Then they do tests. It is believed that the reborn Lama will remember something of his old life, so they show the possible boy several pairs of glasses, or canes, or books, etc, and the boy should remember and pick the one that belonged to the previous Lama. The boy who can pass these tests successfully is hailed as the newest reincarnation of the Dali Lama.

Friday: If you‘re telling your friend about a very cold winter that was - 40°, and your friend asks if that’s Fahrenheit for Celsius, you can say that it doesn’t matter! At -40°, Fahrenheit and Celsius are the same! (Thank you Curtis from Canada for that (personally verified?) information!).

Saturday: Juana Azurduy, a Bolivian woman during the Bolivian revolution, is remembered for wearing a man’s uniform and leading a cavalry charge in which she personally captured the enemy’s flag. Capturing the flag was often viewed as a proof of being a “superior male.” This reminds me of the Naadam festivals in Mongolia, which involve the “Three Manly Sports” of wrestling, riding and archery. The rules require the men competing to wear tight shorts, and absolutely NO SHIRT. That’s because it’s said that hundreds of years ago a man won the wrestling competition, and afterwards they discovered that “he” was a woman. They certainly don’t want that to happen again!

Upper Upper Bidwell Part 1

I was planning an adventure for a long time.
I needed to get out and challenge myself a little. For several months I’d had the idea to discover what’s on the other side of Upper Bidwell Park. For those of you not from Chico, Bidwell is a huge “park” that starts in the city, and reaches way, way outside the city into the hills. Most of it is pretty wild, and after a few miles there are many places were almost no one goes. It’s filled with (okay, I mean it’s possible to find) caves where Indians lived, old stone walls, snakes, deer, and even mountain lions (probably not in Bidwell park, but certainly up in the hills). Well, I’d been many miles into it, and explored a lot of the park over the years, but I never found any official end of it, though I knew that sooner or later there had to be a fence or end to the park. And what’s after that, I wondered? How wild does it get? This seemed like the perfect opportunity for adventure. So for months I thought about a trip into the hills, over at least one night, to see what I could see.
When school was in session I couldn’t find the time, and when winter vacation came my work schedule made it difficult to get away for a few days. There was really only one weekend when I could do it. I planned to leave Friday morning, walk on the park road to the end, and then climb up to the top of the valley and walk along the ridge for as long as possible. It seemed like a good plan. But as this weekend started getting closer, there were weather reports about record cold weather coming. On Thursday, the weather report said that Friday and Saturday night would be in the teens (-8 C) with a strong wind. So basically, it wasn’t idea weather to be miles into the hills at night. It reminded me of one of the Christmas hikes from Karlstejn, when all the news said to stay inside because of snow storms, and we were planning to walk 25K through the countryside at night for fun… turned out to be absolutely beautiful weather, though.
So I wasn’t going to let the weather stop me! That’s right, I’m that crazy (or that desperate, perhaps. I needed a little excitement that badly!)! I also had some experience walking in cold weather, and I knew that if I kept walking I wouldn’t get cold… at least, wouldn‘t freeze. So my new plan was to walk into the hills, keep walking until night, see if I could find a place to sleep, and if I couldn’t then just keep walking until sunrise. I’ve done this before, and knew it would be hard but possible.
So Saturday night I packed (as lightly as possible!!), and tried to get up early Friday morning, planning to walk to the park from my house. But my parents caught me. Needless to say, they weren’t thrilled about the idea of me wandering into Upper Bidwell on a night of record cold. This might also be the time to say that it’s illegal to camp overnight in the park, that the land after Upper Bidwell is government or private land with no trespassing allowed, and that mountain lions sometimes attack people in California. My parents and I both knew all this, so it’s a testament to how cool my parents are that they didn’t argue too much, just insisted that I take a cell phone, emergency equipment, and my mom drove me to the end of the Upper Bidwell road. Great parents, huh?
Well, I was off in nature by 9:00, and started walking along the side of the valley. I couldn’t find a good trail, so it was a little slow. And of course I had to focus on avoiding poison oak, which is harder to see in the winter. I continued on in this way for two hours, waiting for something exciting to happen… It didn’t. I saw some deer, enjoyed the scenery, climbed a rock or two, but nothing too interesting.
I finally came to the top of the valley near a very large rock formation, which had a face on the side of it (see right). I explored the “eye-caves” on the rock, and from the top saw that I’d reached the end of Bidwell park. Ahead of me on the ridge was a fence, and on the fence was a sign. When I got closer to the sign I read: “Boundary: Ecological Reserve. Entry permit required. Property of California State University, Chico.” Well, this was it, I’d found what comes after the park, and I still had a full day left. If I was serious about finding adventure, it was clear what had to be done. I quickly jumped over the fence, and started walking on. Now I was on government land, and I had no idea what I would find there. That definitely promised to make things more interesting. With the wind blowing powerfully into me, I moved forward to discover… something.
To be continued….

Discover Something New #3

Sunday: The nation of Japan consists of 4 main islands. But the nation covers over 3000 separate islands altogether.

Monday: All across the eastern US there are 1000s of earthen mounds, which were “discovered” by Europeans when they first arrived in America. They are basically big piles of dirt, but who could make them? Monk’s Mound in Illinois is 70 feet (21m) and covers as much area as the largest pyramid in Egypt. Serpent Mound in Ohio is in the shape of a snake, is 5 feet tall, 20 feet wide, and over 1330 feet long (1.5m X 6m X 405m). Another mound is in the shape of a bird that is 70 feet high and 700 feet wide (21m X 210m). The oldest are at least 2000 years old, and some believe them to be constructed as early as 3500 BC! And many of them had beautiful sculpture and ancient skeletons inside (http://www.ohioarch.org/PastArticles8.htm) So who build them? Well, Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries had dozens of theories. Maybe it was Vikings, or some other early European. People suggested that Egyptians, or Chinese, Hindus, Africans, Greeks, the people of lost Atlantis, or the Lost Tribe of Israel built them. One pastor even claimed that the Snake Mound was built by God to mark the place of the Garden of Eden. Anything was possible, except the Native American Indians. Maybe because this was during the time when whites were trying to claim Indian land as quickly as possible, and they didn’t want to think about Indians having a “civilized” history. Instead everyone like the idea that a civilized race of people had lived in America before, and the Indians had destroyed them. To make a long story short, (too late!), it wasn’t until 1894 that a Smithsonian researcher released his official opinion that the Indians had built the mounds. By then the Mound Building Civilization had indeed been destroyed.

Tuesday: For a population of 300 million in the USA, only about 1.8% of the population is engaged in farming to provide food.

Wednesday: Have you ever asked a small child “what does a doggie say?” Well, be careful, because what about animals from other languages? Think it doesn’t matter? Think again! It seems that even animals suffer from the language barrier, since they also speak different languages! (spellings are for how they sound in English, not the correct spelling in the language)
Dog Cat Pig Cow Frog Duck
English: Woof! Meow! Oink! Mooo! Ribbit! Quack!
Czech: HafHaf! Mnyaw! KroKro! Buuu! Kunyk! Kvak!
Japanese: Wan! Nya! Booo! Moe! KeroKero! Gwa!
French: Ouah! Miaou! Groin! Meuh! CoaCoa! CoinCoin!
(For many more, see: http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/animals/)

Thursday: Did you know that if you put a heavy bookcase filled with books over your internet network cable, it can dramatically slow your connection speed? I didn’t!

Friday: All you Americans probably remember “Freedom Fries,” right? For everyone else, during the beginning of the war with Iraq, France didn’t like the idea of the war at all, and tried to stop America from going to war. During this time it became so popular and patriotic to dislike France that some restaurants renamed “French Fries” and called them “Freedom Fries!” Well, apparently this isn’t such a new idea. When America entered WWI against Germany in 1917, The Committee on Public Information officially announced that sauerkraut was now to be called “Liberty Cabbage.” Fortunately, neither name stuck.

Saturday: When Lenin rose to power in during WWI, his main goal was to stop the fighting with Germany. This was very popular with the Russian people, but not so popular with France and England, who would then be left to face the full force of Germany’s armies. Lenin was so focused on an end to the conflict, in fact, that the leaders of Western countries were absolute sure that Lenin was a German spy sent to “hijack” Russia’s part in the war. The interesting thing is that this theory is not as crazy as it sounds. Lenin moved to Austria in 1913, right before the war began (Austria and Germany were fighting together), where he was arrested one year later as a revolutionary. But he was released surprisingly quickly and allowed to live in Switzerland (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSlenin.htm). When he wanted to join the revolution in Russia in 1917, specifically to call the people to stop the fighting, he made a deal with Germany to travel on a sealed German train through Germany to Russia. (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/556/redscandals.htm) When he wrote a peace treaty with Germany he gave 25% of all Russian territory to Germany, which certainly didn’t change any opinions in France or England. Today, this theory is alive and well. At the events for 80 years after Lenin’s death, a reported asked on Russian man what he thought of Lenin. “I don't even know how to put it in respectable words” the man answered “he's a German spy who took power without the slightest idea about what to do with that power.” (http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/01/7840e170-c08c-46ac-80b1-b98eaf4e792e.html) Well, who knows?

Discover Something New #2

Sunday: Usually we think of Mexico as Spanish-speaking, and it's true that out of 107.5 million people, at least 100 million speak Spanish. But Mexico has over 60 major different languages, and over 280 different languages are still spoken in the country. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=MX

Monday: For the western world, Hollywood is where entertainment begins. But Bollywood (in Mumbai, India), now creates at least twice as many films per year more than Hollywood! Known as "Hindi cinema," Bollywood is already much more popular in the world than Hollywood, even if Hollywood makes much more money. In 2002 Bollywood sold 3.6 billion conema tickets, and Hollywood 2.6. However, their overall profit for 2002 for tickets, DVDs, television, etc., was Bollywood: $1.3 billion; Hollywood: $51 billion.
http://www.businessweek.com//magazine/content/02_48/art02_48/a48tab37.gif

Tuesday: The Aztec empire in pre-European South America may have been so brutal that it caused its own destruction. They were ruthless against their neighbors, even forcing them to engage in "Flower wars." This sounds pleasant, and they were less violent than total war because the goal was not to kill anyone. The goal for the Aztecs was to capture prisoners alive. The prisoners would be fattened up and then used as living sacrifices for the Aztec gods. When the Spanish explorer Cortes arrived to conquer the Aztecs, 10,000s of native Indians joined his small army to destroy the cruel Aztecs. Without this help, it probably would have been impossible for 550 Spanish soldiers to end the Aztec empire.

Wednesday: In North-West China there is desert called Taklamakan. It is about 100,000 square miles (270,000 square kilometers). In Turkik the name means basically "if you go in, you won't come out." It's probably the most dangerous place in the world to get lost. Fast wind moves the sand so quickly that cities can be buried in a few days. It's so dry that rivers run out of the Himalayas and simply disappear into the sand. Here is a quote from a traveler in 1950: "Never once until we reached the plains were we out of sight of skeletons. The continuous line of bones and bodies acted as a gruesome guide whenever we were uncertain of the route" (Hopkirk, 1980). So why did people continue to go there? Basically, money. The famous Silk Road that connected trade routes of China to Europe ran on the north and south edges of the desert.

Thursday: Around the turn of the 19th century, the USA was urgently looking for new foreign markets, and this pushed the development of its navy at amazing speeds. In 1889, the US navy was 12th best in the world. Albania and Chile had better navies at this time! And of course England was the 1st. In 1900, US had the 6th strongest navy in the world. And by 1914, it was 3rd. In 25 years, the US went from an international weakling on the waters to being an important world power, just in time for World War I!

Friday: Most people agree that World War I was started by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (who lived in modern-day Czech Republic, in Konopiště castle). But few know how Improbable that event was. Ferdinand was in Sarajevo, Bosnia June 28, 1914, trying to diplomatically claim that country for his empire. Of course some nationalists didn't like that, so seven men planned to kill him. When Ferdinand's car went by, one man threw a grenade at the car, which missed, and Ferdinand raced to the castle. After the excitement wore off, they had to return to the other side of the river to leave the city. Unfortunately for the world, the driver made a wrong turn, and had to stop in front of a cafe to back up. Meanwhile, the leader of the plot, Gavrilo Princip, had apparently given up on the assassination and walked into a cafe to get a sandwich. When he walked out (sandwich in hand?), he amazingly saw the Archdukes car slowly backing up past him! He pulled out his pistol and fired twice into the car. It seems that his training and marksmanship was not good, because one shot when into the door of the car. But amazingly again, this bullet went through the door and hit the Archduke's pregnant wife in the stomach. The other bullet hit Ferdinand in the neck. Both were dead in minutes. Princip then swallowed a cyanide pill to kill himself, but it seems that the poison was old and just made him throw-up. Because he was under 19, the maximum penalty was 20 years in prison. The only justice is that he died in prison before the world war he caused was finished. (If you want to see the bullet that killed Ferdinand, take a trip to Konopiště castle south of Prague. The bullet is there in the castle museum).

Saturday: Ladybugs are carnivorous (they eat only meat), and they hibernate through the cold seasons like bears!

Discover Something New #1

Sunday: If you covered 100 km² (39 miles²) of the earth’s land every hour of your life, without sleeping, for 75 years, you wouldn’t even see half of the world.

Monday: It seems that many cultures have a phrase which they say before every meal. From Italian “Boun Appetito!” to Czech “Dobrou Chut’”, even the Japanese “Itadakimas!” The Japanese even add an end-of-meal phrase to the tradition; “Gochisousama!” While this custom is uncommon for English speakers, other cultures follow this tradition almost religiously and find it extremely strange that English speakers have no equivalent, besides some rarely-used phrases such as “Dig in!”

Tuesday: The Great Wall of China is 4,000 miles (6,500 km) long, often nearly 20 feet (6.5 m) high, and wide enough for 6 horses to walk on top side by side. Although it is most likely the largest man-made structure on earth, some well known “facts” about it are not true. The Great Wall is not visible from the moon. It is visible from a low-orbit satellite, but just barely. It is also is not 1000s of years old, since the wall we see today was built mainly in the 1600s or later. The first wall was built about 2200 years ago, but almost nothing of that wall survives today. The Great Wall was not always the strongest symbol of China. Until the 1950s, the wall was a symbol of tyranny and brutality to the Chinese people, and often ignored. Today it is used to display the power and determination of the Chinese people. This is ironic, because although no other nation ever created something similar, the Wall was never at all useful. Two Chinese dynasties, the Ming and Qing, were founded by people who came over the wall.

Wednesday: Two weeks ago was New York City’s annual “No Pants Subway Ride.” It is designed to make people laugh and have an interesting New York experience.

Thursday: A few weeks ago Ethiopia attacked Somolia. This brought up the fact that one of Somalia’s current warlords is a United States Marine! If you’ve seen the movie Black Hawk Down, you know that in 1992-3 the USA was in Somalia trying to kill/capture the leader/warlord Mohammed Aidid, because of his cruel and inhumane treatment of the Somali people. What you don’t know is that before the conflict, Aidid’s son, Hussein Mohamed Farrah, went to America at the age of 14, became a citizen, and eventually joined the Marines. During the fighting, Farrah was accidentally sent to Somalia, but when there was “trouble” with his father the marines moved him to a different country. When Aidid died in 1996 (killed by a competing political group), Somalia asked Farrah to become their next president. Farrah immediately resigned his job with the Marines and accepted the offer, taking the position of his father, the man he was sent to fight a few years earlier. Like his father, Farrah is not clearly accepted as leader of Somalia, and it’s uncertain whether he should be called president or warlord. He’s a strange mix of America and Africa, sometimes seen in an expensive western-style business suit while walking barefoot. He claims to want to repair Somalia and open it to western aid, but if his is really willing or able to do this remains to be seen.

Friday: The sub-continent of India was originally a part of Africa. Then it broke off, drifted through the Indian Ocean, and finally collided with the ‘coast’ of Tibet. The force of the collision pushed up the Himalayas, caused the ‘bulge’ of east China, and formed the course for the 10 major rivers of Asia. Seashells have been discovered in the Tibetan Plateau, which is now landlocked behind the Himalayas and 1000s of miles from the sea, but was once a coastal region. Even today India continues to move into Asia about 5 cm a year.

Saturday: Aleš Hrdlička (pronounced Al-esh Hrd-lich-ka) was born in Czech Republic and became the first curator of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in America in 1903. Although he was brilliant, he had a number of strange habits. He collected human brains and saved them for later study. One of these brains was Ishi’s, the last known wild American Indian, who lived near my home in Chico, California. Hrdlička also studied several Eskimos who were persuaded to come to New York City by the explorer Robert E. Peary. When all but two of the Eskimos quickly died from disease in the city, Hrdlička sent them to be boiled down into skeletons and put on display in the museum. Legend says that when the Eskimo son of one of these victims accidentally saw his father’s skeleton in a showcase, he tried to shoot both Peary and Hrdlička. On the positive side, Hrdlička was one of the first scientists to argue that Native Americans came from Asia across the Bering Strait and support the theory with field research. Today he is a well known as an early former of the field of Anthropology. In WW II A battle ship was named “SS Aleš Hrdlička” in his honor.