Packer Lake 9 September 2020

Fire Season Vacations are Canceled

We received word late yesterday that Inyo National Forest, wherein Red's Meadow finds itself, is closed, at least until the 14th: there goes the rest of this trip, literally up in smoke. I have noted the dryness in the woods and meadows; apparently the Regional Forester noticed it too (and probably the Mammoth Pools helicopter evac of 200 campers got his attention bigtime!) and has closed several Sierra National Forests until conditions change ...meaning, I suspect, late October. 

So we will be heading home tomorrow.

We walked around the lake, a distance of maybe a mile and a quarter. On the southeastern shore there's a Forest Service campground – empty, and possibly closed – and the usual mountain lake foliage, Willow and Aspen. We sat on a bench at the foot of the tree yesterday's Osprey perched in, watched the wind riffle the lake, and listened to the high mountain whispering of the wind in the trees. All around us were the perfect little montaigne details that are so different from where we live, and so easy to miss. 

From across the lake, you can barely see (below) Packer Lake Lodge through the treescape.  Our cabin is scarcely visible at the upper right corner of the big lakeside rock.

Packer is a southern member of a group of moraine lakes in a long valley heading from Alturas to Truckee, a wrinkle on the eastern slope of the Sierras. It's just over the first crest of the range (and just below the Pacific Crest Trail - PCT) and so is spared the smoggy / smokey / smutty summer weather that plagues the Sacramento Valley to the west. That makes it a prime destination, the opposite of our Coast, for denizens of the Valley: some of us like ocean (and fog) while others like mountains and sparkly alpine air. 

This year, this little sliver of California has been spared the fires that have, as of today, burned 2.27 million acres (3,600 square miles, or a square 60 miles on a side, or of Delaware and Rhode Island together) of California so far ...and fire season has scarcely begun. That double line trail is the PCT.

That fine specimen of a Pondersoa Pine is about the same size and age as the one whose stump was pictured yesterday.

The Best Revenge (Vegans, look away)

We can't help feeling a little betrayed by our dear California, and the forces bearing down on it (and everywhere, and everyone) but we still eat extremely well – simply and well. Good Things Farm gave us two gorgeous little pork chops (one suspects they were porklets judging by their size), Bebing gave us the beautiful little potatoes and the small red onion, Peter Lit gave us the delicious garlic, and Straus gave us the elegant cream for the gravy.  Yum. 

That was lunch. Here's dinner: one of Rochelle's superb salads: