TRIBECA TO NORTHWEST CT

Tomorrow I am heading into New York City with my cycling group.  We are eating a hearty dinner at Reade Street Pub in Tribeca, turning in early and then in our saddles at 6AM Saturday morning.  The Amigos (the name of my cycling group) will then make the 135 mile journey from Tribeca to Winchester Center, CT.  Should be a good time followed by another hearty meal provided by our gracious hosts.  Where's my chamois cream at?

A BEAUTY AND A WARMTH

 

Most of the canoeist that I know don't share my love of the old wood and canvas canoes for wilderness trips. They figure you have to be a little senile to lug one of these around rather than the lighter modern canoes.  There's a beauty and a warmth in a wood canoe though that you don't get in any other canoe.  Sure I'll use a tougher lighter canoe for horsing around in rapids with my friends but not when I roaming out here painting.  I've seen bath tubs with better lines than some of those modern canoes.

-Bill Mason

MARCH 9, 1956

David Brower's proof of deception (the Bureau of Reclamation’s budget sheet was not balanced) leads Congress to drop the dam projects in Dinosaur National Monument on March 9, 1956. That same day, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay resigns.

For the first time in American history, conservationists halt a major governmental development project.

TWO YOSEMITES

Two Yosemites is an 11 minute short film by famous environmentalist David Brower for the Sierra Club in 1955.  It is a "Passionate portrayal of the beauty of Yosemite Valley contrasted with the ugliness of the low-water Hetch Hetchy Reservoir."


This film is included in the special features for the documentary called Monumental: David Brower's Fight for Wild America, which is available on Netflix.  I highly recommend it!

Hetch Hetchy Valley 1906 (pre-reservoir)

HUCKLEBERRY SEASON AT GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

In late summer wild huckleberries grow on both sides of the Continental Divide.  So, if you are in or around Glacier National Park it is legal to pick and personally consume huckleberries, as long as you pick only 1 quart per person, per day.

WILDERNESS LETTER, 1960

Wallace Stegner was a writer, historian, and most importantly (in my opinion) an environmentalist.  In 1960 he wrote the Wilderness Letter to the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission.  This essay later helped win the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964.  The full text of the letter can be found here.  An introduction to the letter, written by Stegner in 1980, can be found here.

Wallace Stegner packing his horse, Vermont 1938

Wallace Stegner with Ansel Adams

FOR SALE: 2 SQUARE MILES OF GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

If you have $125 million burning a hole in your pocket you might be in luck.  Governor Dave Freudenthal is threatening to sell two square miles of Grand Teton National Park if the federal government doesn't give Wyoming what he says is market value.  I am very doubtful this would ever happen.  The locals and conservationists worldwide would protest until their blue in the face. Read more here and here.