Sunday the storm of the season hit the Sierra to continue through a long rainy lunch here on

Monday with my longtime friend Janet...by Tuesday – danger on peaks for sure – it turned

deadly, an avalanche burying a group of experienced back country skiers on their way out from

Frog Lake while here the rains continued, 80 was intermittently closed, and I, inspired by those quasi-Proustain water heater burner memories, dug into the archives as far back as our initial trip to Dickshooter Ridge, which began, in September 1978, as an utterly clueless expedition with a five year old child in an unproven fourteen year old Willys up through Gerlach to

eventually Three Forks and a dry dusty day [aren’t they all?] along the north rim of the

Owyhee River, at one point having to block up the truck on a steep climb out of Red Canyon to remove and flush out the gas tank** but fortunately made it to the Boise Airport where Bryan’s mother collected him and I picked up my usual traveling companion Dave Rumsey.

We re-entered the Owyhee Country from the NE, camped on Dickshooter Ridge and the next morning made about 100 feet before the left rear wheel locked up inexplicably and inextricably***.

Various attempts proved fruitless so mid-morning we set off across the plateau, hoping to reach

Battle Creek [which on the 1:250,000 USGS topo looked a likely place to cross] but instead came upon the main canyon, eventually finding a scree slope to slide down, crossed the icy river in waist deep waters, spent the night on the other, lower, plateau and after an hour or so walking

the next morning were fortunate to intersect with the monthly Mormon maintenance crew at the gasline pumping station who took us in to Duck Valley for burgers in Owyhee the town

and then up through Riddle to Mountain Home where I busied myself finding a wheel puller and someone who would take us back to Dickshooter that night to pull the axle. Next day Dave got a bus to Boise and over to Jordan Valley, I had the frozen bearings replaced, found another ride out after dark, managed to successfully reassemble the vehicle, reconnect with Dave around dawn and catch a few hours’ sleep before driving back to SF from farthest eastern Oregon – across the Sheldon to Cedarville,

Eagleville [where D. documented real estate opportunities], and the long road home.

A week later I was in London, nursing a broken heart of my own making, and the week after

that Kathmandu.  Meanwhile here the rain had let up and I was straining already strained

octogenarian muscles with grocery shopping, 140 pounds of dogfood and a brief but welcome

ride along the Shores of Benicia…as well as investigating two subsequent visits to the site

of the Dickshooter Walkout from the slide archives, one on its 25th anniversary as well as in 2004 with Lefty, a small grey-speckled dog.

*also a book of poetry by Gary Snyder from 2004.

**Having subsequently located a diary from that trip it turns out the Red Canyon gas tank incident happened in 1979; on the BLM segment there were only minor electrical issues to sort out.

***The journal says it was closer to a mile before it locked up.

A thought for the day from James Speyer;

“It is time to acknowledge what has become tragically obvious: the Trump administration is essentially acting as a massive criminal enterprise. It lies, steals, extorts and murders—all while cloaked in the awesome authority of the state. It is on a crime spree that puts Al Capone to shame…Viewing the Trump administration as a massive crime syndicate allows us to be clear-eyed about what is coming down the road, and to plan accordingly. To take the most urgent example, there ought to be no question as to whether Trump will try to steal the midterm elections. Of course he will try to steal them. Criminals gonna crime. Trump tried to steal the 2020 elections, and the lack of any consequences for that supremely traitorous act only further emboldened him. It is every patriotic American’s duty to oppose the coming effort to nullify the will of the voters.”

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! – MSM