Occupation of Independence

  Some mornings I am not in the mood for the mountain bike, and am not sure why. There might be several small reasons but they don't seem to add up to a real excuse to be lazy. So I talk myself down about the difficulty of the ride -- just take it easy, find something a little interesting, and go. There was in fact a two track road at the top of the ridge that seemed worth checking out. I had no great expectations. Perhaps that is why the flowers were enjoyable up there -- and it was 10,000 feet. I guess that was going to be the big excitement of the day. There was only one set of tire tread marks on this dirt two-track. The forest map said no camping on this section -- I wondered why. The top of the ridge was coming up. I knew there was a potentially grand view, but forest fire smoke would probably ruin it. But I was here, and might as well give it a chance. What's this doing here? An old fire watch tower turned into a solar powered weather station? I was surprised it wasn'

I have been amazed at the restraint that Russia has shown towards the reckless provocation from Washington DC, in the Black Sea recently, through its flunkies in NATO. What a relief it is to think that some countries have grown-ups in charge! You could belittle Russia's restraint and say that they are just sensible enough to know that NATO is provoking them deliberately and hopes to gain something from it.  Therefore Russia shouldn't fall for the trap.  Intellectually everybody understands that. But all countries have hotheads who want to respond rather than think. Politicians in any country are going to feel pressure to 'do something' about the 'bad guys.' How far will NATO's provocations go? Can Russia resist responding forever? I hope they respond in a limited way by blocking or damaging NATO ships, rather than sending them to the bottom of the Black Sea. NATO needs Russia to be an enemy of course to justify its budget. I almost wish I didn't avoid wa

The mosquitoes are merciful at my Wyoming camp. Although there are lots of sweat-bees and giant flies in mid-day, they don't bite. So I have no real complaint against the insects, and yet, how nice it is when a breeze blows them away.   Remember that this summer's project is to learn to like summer. So I took an extra moment to appreciate the breeze we had the other day. It is a little bit warm in the afternoon, but the breeze also took care of that. It is true that breezes taper off as summer progresses, but let's hope the breezes survive. What a difference there is between a winter breeze and a summer breeze!  There is hardly anything good to say about wind in winter, but in the summer, a breeze makes it close to the top of the list.  

  It was delightful and even a bit funny that I stumbled onto one of the old wagon routes that people went west on. After all, I have my needs and they had theirs, and the overlap is only partial. And yet here I am. This experience was exciting because it had some authenticity -- it wasn't just scenery tourism. Let's back up a step. I spend my time on continental land, land that some would call "landlocked." That word isn't really accurate, but it used to be. A continent was hard to cross -- it was just a tangle of obstacles. The sea was easier to cross. Sometimes continents are easier to cross than you might first think. Look at the riverways of European Russia: you can use them to go from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea or the Caspian Sea, with only short portages. The Scandinavians did just that back in the Viking days, and founded Russia. Likewise North America was penetrated in the 1600s thanks to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system. Much of the

I love geography, especially if I can "live" it. That is why I praise camping near South Pass WY, where all the wagon trains, Pony Express, etc., went through. But it was too touristy and motorheadish there, so I left the area.  Obviously I don't use Rand McNally or AAA maps or free camping websites to find my locations. (It is probably comical to see my face when a newbie gets out his Rand McNally atlas when talking to a snob like me.) So how do I find locations? I was looking for a non-tourist-trap. Such places can and usually do have interesting scenery nearby, although it might not be quite picturesque enough to titillate the standard scenery tourist on vacation. There are other negative filters: national parks, lakes, towns that sound "cool" and are full of retirement McMansions or wealthy Lefties. The positive filters are BLM/National Forest boundaries, high altitudes, ridge-lines, and dead-end roads. Avoid any road system that would make for a popular lo