Shasta Lake Relics Uncovered

Jamo · #1 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 02:15 PM

California's biggest reservoir is even in bigger trouble. Yes, that's right...Shasta is not the biggest and is merely a puddle compared to this one...

...the Sierra Nevada snowpack (or lack of one). Just got back from Tahoe on 88 last weekend, and I can see the the highest portion of the Sierras from my house. Nuthin...not a damn thing up there. WWII plane crashes are being discovered as glaciers melt, and the "white" we see on the highest peaks is granite, not snow. Even if we get a wet winter, if it's warm, the water will all flow to the Delta and the Bay within a couple of months...makes for great waterfalls in Yosemite during the spring, with barely a trickle the rest of the year. Mutha Nature's system...letting snow slowly melt like a big time release pill to provide water throughout the summer...is totally screwed with the weather patterns.

I'm not claiming global warming is the cause yet...El Nino or just a "few bad years" happen just like the brown stuff. What makes it worse are environmentalists fighting dam building (to help Mutha Nature out a bit), and urging more water releases to protect snail darters in the Delta instead of using the water to grow food for humans (go figure).

Getting a bit worked up...I may just go out and pull the next hippie out of the next Greenpeace bumper-stickered Volvo I see and beat the sh!t out of him.

Silverback51 · #2 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamo

Getting a bit worked up...I may just go out and pull the next hippie out of the next Greenpeace bumper-stickered Volvo I see and beat the sh!t out of him.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

wtm442 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 08:59 PM

Ron
Its all the fault of the Mt Shasta Goddess. What a hag! She's over the hill. Why don't you have Ernie ship Pele to your area.

Of course, you could always move to the scenic Death Valley for a change of pace.

Ron61 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 02:10 AM

The Mt. Shasta Goddess is importing snow from Alaska to send to you and Tru.

I have wondered if the Yosemite Falls was anything more than a trickle now. Thanks for the report Jamo. I remember working up there and it was really nice and the falls were just roaring. I also remember hiking around Truckee and driving across the pass when the snow was so high on each side of the highway that it seemed as if you were in a tunnel. I also liked hiking off down the canyons around Placerville and visiting the site of Marshall's sawmill where they discovered gold. They used to have a nice small museum there, but I don't know if it is still open. Also walking around the site of the Donner Party camping area and following what is left of the original road where they chopped the trees to get the wagons up the mountain.

No Shasta isn't the largest reservoir, but when it gets low it affects a lot of things far downstream from it including electric power. Also no amount of more inane legislation is going to put more water in any of the reservoirs. Several towns around this are have been out of water for a long time and the wells aren't furnishing much as they have pumped the ground water out.

Ron