Found Art: White-washed Graffiti, Santa Rosa, January 22, 2011)

High on a wall above an abandoned building I found this patch of graffiti, white-washed, but barely covered. The sun was just about to disappear under the horizon. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Books I'm Reading: Desperate Passage

Having just returned from a few days skiing at Lake Tahoe near Donner Lake and having several times in the past seen the lake that bears the Donner name and known it was associated with the ill-fated emigrants, I decided this time to find out exactly what happened to them. At a local bookstore I picked up a copy of Ethan Rarick's Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West (Oxford University Press, 2008). Carefully researched and based mostly on the primary sources, the book is a well-written history of the 1846 tragedy. It has an extensive bibliography and an excellent index (too often missing). At the same time, Desperate Passage  has the feel of a page-turner; I read the book in two sittings. I know it's a cliché, but I couldn't put it down.

In a nutshell, the group suffered its horrible fate primarily for two reasons. First, its leaders chose to take an untried "short-cut" that turned out to be entirely unsuitable for wagon traffic over the mountains that separate California from the deserts of Nevada; it ended up costing them a month or more rather than saving time. Second, the group got a late start on what was supposed to have been a four-month journey across the continent and suffered many delays along the way (aside from the problem with the so-called shortcut). A late arrival risked snow and entrapment in the Sierras even on the established routes into California. Unsurprisingly, the Donners and the families traveling with them became snowbound before they could cross the mountain range and into California. About eighty people were trapped (many of them children). Thirty-six of them died.

Rarick follows the crossing of the continent starting at Independence, Missouri, the entrapment in snow by Donner Lake (then known as Truckee Lake) near the California-Nevada border, the ordeal of months of starvation and cannibalism, and the rescue of the survivors--which was as perilous (or more so) than most of the crossing--all in heartbreaking detail. The sections on cannibalism are gruesome, but fascinating. Rarick discusses the course it took in the case of the Donner Party but also touches on the history of cannibalism in extreme situations more generally and he even manages to get in data that give a good idea of how starvation affects the human body--and the mind--without allowing the momentum of the story to wane. Although the author maintains a somewhat detached tone that neither sensationalizes nor downplays the trials the group lived through, the portraits of the people involved--both those trapped and their rescuers--are vivid.  If I remember correctly, Thomas Hardy once said that a good story should deal with the experiences of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The tale of the Donner Party certainly fits that bill.

On a personal note, I realized as I was reading that I followed almost exactly the same route across the United States as the Donner Party (although in the opposite direction) when in the summer of 2009 I felt compelled to hop in my car and drive to Ohio. I crossed into the Lake Tahoe area from the California side; drove across Nevada (much of the way along the course of the Humboldt River); crossed the Ruby Mountains in Utah and south of the Great Salt Lake*; I followed the Platte River, by Chimney Rock and Scott's Bluff in Nebraska (prominent landmarks for wagon trains); and passed through Independence, Missouri, the jumping off point for most of the wagons that headed west. It was a very long trip even in an automobile. That I traveled old roads is not that surprising, I suppose; in France, the highways are often built on top of Roman roads; the US highway system often follows the routes of the westward-moving pioneers and the overland express services that flourished before the telegraph. Still, it all seemed a bit eerie.

In a recent post about the skiing, I uploaded a photograph of Donner Lake taken from Donner Pass, the point at which most of the survivors eventually made it out of their little hell. While writing about my trip in the summer of 2009, I posted a few comments about the Scott's Bluff area, although at that time ignorant of the connection with the Donners.

*Come to think of it, I passed north of the Salt Lake on the way east. I did the section south of the Salt Lake on my return trip, going the same direction the Donner Party headed.

Wines I'm Drinking: 2004 Newell Vineyards "For 2" San Antonio Valley Cabernets/Petite Sirah

Tonight I tasted the 2004 Newell Vineyards "For 2" San Antonio Valley Proprietary Red. The wine is from a producer and wine growing area I know little about, but I see from Internet research that the San Antonio Valley is at the southernmost end of Monterey County at a fairly high elevation in the Santa Lucia range, not far from the ocean, which provides the warm days and cool nights wine grapes respond to so well. Wine growing in the area goes back to the Spanish period and Mission San Antonio. The wine is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, and 15% Petite Syrah. Brief tasting notes follow.

Medium-deep purple-red. Oak, vanilla, tobacco, and leather predominant on the nose. Good tannin, concentrated. Still seems quite young, especially at first. Only moderately fruity and fairly soft (in the sense of not being at all sharp or acidic). Decent length. Fruit seems masked at first. Some chocolate flavors on the finish. Later, the tannins softened markedly and some nice cherry flavors developed. Not especially profound, and the wine still seems young, with veiled fruit, but a decent bottle that seems likely to continue to improve for a few years. Might be worth laying down a bottle or two if you can find it at the Grocery Outlet price (see below). If you drink this now, I recommend decanting it and allowing it some time exposed to air before pouring. Reasonably priced at $7.99 a bottle at Grocery Outlet in Santa Rosa. The wine sells for $18.50 a bottle at the winery.

I write about many subjects. Use the labels at right above to explore this blog. For more wine reviews, use the Wines I'm Drinking label. 

Found Art: Lichen in the Sierra Nevada (January 18, 2011)

While skiing at Sugar Bowl and Tahoe Donner over the long weekend, I encountered wonderful lichens on the rocks and trees at over 8,000 feet. Found art.

For more found art, see my blog Serendipitous Art.

Places I'm Visiting: Skiing at Lake Tahoe (January 18, 2011)

Got back from skiing last night at Lake Tahoe. It was unseasonably warm, the snow slushy, the sun merciless. It was fun nevertheless. I got in two good days of skiing. Went to Sugar Bowl for the first time. I rather liked it. I'd like to ski there again. There's a lot of the upper intermediate/expert terrain I like and it's less expensive than places like Squaw Valley.

The resort is a stone's throw from Donner Lake and the Donner Pass. On the way home, we stopped at the monument marking one of the Donner Party camps. Above the monument and the lake, at the summit of the pass, is an excellent view of the area that trapped the group. After rescue, the survivors climbed up the rocks that were at my feet when I took the photo below. A fabulous sunset followed this. At a local bookstore, I picked up a copy of Desperate Passage (Ethan Rarick, Oxford University Press, 2008), which looks like a good account of the tragedy. On the wall of my mother's house there hangs a small drawing of a bird in a red frame by Tamsin Donner--a direct descendant of the original Tamzene Donner, wife of George Donner, one of the leaders of the ill-fated group.

[Update: After writing this post, I read and reviewed Ethan Rarick's excellent book about the Donner Party and its ordeal, Desperate Passage.]