Re: [pct-l] Growth and Gunshots in the desert

[Bighummel@aol.com]

No, Monte the Southern California desert hasn't died, it has just changed.  
The twisted pines are still on the side of Baden Powell, the desert still 
blooms in April/March (you should have seen it in 1998 with El Nino wetness 
promoting the bloom!).  The dirt bikes are still around, the trail has now 
been finished thru the old ranch and I haven't heard of anyone having any 
problems with Indians at all.

Lone Pine has become a zoo, I will give you that.  The popularity of Mt. 
Whitney is amazing and continues to grow.  Lone Pine, as the portal to 
Whitney gets most of the tourist action, kind of like Estes Park does from 
Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

The other towns along the eastern front of the Sierras, with the exception of 
Bishop and Mammoth, haven't changed much.  I really like the small town 
atmosphere and people of Independence and Big Pine.  Bishop has grown 
significantly and Mammoth continues to mature into a high society ski resort, 
ala Aspen.

Air pollution in Southern California is the least in the past 25+ years.  I 
live in Diamond Bar, near the base of Mt. Baldy, the home of the "AQMD": Air 
Quality Management District, and near the center of what used to be the worst 
air in the LA basin.  The "Stage 1" smog alerts were many when I was growing 
up here in the sixties and seventies.  However, they have now tightened the 
definition of a Stage 1 because the air quality had improved so much that 
they weren't calling any anymore!  Last summer (traditionally the worst 
season for smog here) we didn't have one, even under the new definition.  I 
haven't felt my lungs ache and my eyes sting for years.  It used to be common.

"Things are getting better all the time . . . "

(sunny day, 75 degree reflections)

Greg "Strider" Hummel
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