G.A.S.P.

(Great Adventures to Scenic Places)

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ September 1 ] [ September 2 ] [ September 3 ] [ September 4 ] [ September 5 ] [ September 6 and 7 ] [ September 8 ] [ September 9 ] [ September 10 ] [ September 11 ] [ September 12 ] [ September 13 ] [ September 14 ] [ September 15 ] [ September 16 ] [ September 17 ] [ September 18 ] [ September 19 ] [ September 20 ] [ September 21 ] [ September 22 ] [ September 23 ] [ September 24 ] [ September 25 ] [ September 26 ] [ September 27 ] [ September 28 ] [ September 29 ] [ September 30 ]

September 16, 1999

Click on Thumbnail to view full photograph.

I left Lassen the following day (9-16), but not without first having to climb the same hill as the previous day. I set B.O.B. up by the elevation sign to take his photo, but then another tourist (from England) stopped and offered to take my photo as well, so you now have B.O.B. and me by the sign.

My last thoughts of Lassen Volcanic NP come from an article in the Park Newsletter (Peak Experiences), Summer, 1999 (author unknown): About ž of Lassen Park is designated wilderness. I mean "official" wilderness. In 1964, Congress

established the National Wilderness Preservation System. The stated purpose of the "Wilderness Act" is to make sure that we "do not occupy and modify all areas within the United States leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition." The law requires Federal land management agencies (National Park Service, National Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and US Fish and Wildlife Service) to set aside unspoiled areas and manage them so they are shaped primarily by the forces of nature with the imprint of human’s work mostly unnoticeable. Wow, what a concept! Today, the Wilderness System contains over 100 million acres of Congressionally designated wilderness, including 78,982 acres at Lassen Volcanic NP. More than 150 years ago, writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau said, "…in Wildness is the preservation of the World." In Lassen, the wilderness contains all of the plant species and most of the animal species known when the first Europeans settled here. Eagles roost in trees along icy rivers, bears forage for grasses and berries, bobcat pad silently across snowfields in search of snowshoe hare, and alpine meadows blaze gloriously in spring color. I think that Thoreau would be pleased to visit here. The Wilderness Act was, in a sense, a way of recognizing that Thoreau’s "Wildness" is fundamental to the human spirit. To extinguish the last vestiges of wildness from the country would be to extinguish something vital within us. Here, here!!

Other than this really good stuff about wilderness, the only thing interesting that happened today is that I was passed by seven WalMart tractor/trailer trucks in a 15 mile stretch between Mineral and Chester, California. Three were going North and four were going South. I sense a distribution problem here, especially since there are no towns big enough for a WalMart within 50 miles of where the trucks were.