one idea that emerged yesterday was that, since i am pressed for both time and money, sorely pressed in fact, i should not exclude the possibility of using my gracie mine timbers on this cabin, instead of saving them for years to use on an eventual larger cabin. […] i have no money: i do have some wood: i'm building a cabin: therefore use the wood i have. anyway i’ll play around with the idea of using some of those six-by-six.
[...] we went to smarts crossing and swam, to lovers leap and flew (in our minds) (saw mt. diablo), and then they went back to grass valley to eat. i told them i'd be along shortly, and loaded my truck. but the evening light was setting fire to giant gap, and i ended up sitting and watching as the sun set and the gold was muted and lost in blue.
i picked some manzanita berries yesterday afternoon at lover's leap, and have mashed them up, poured boiling water over them, and set them to steep in a pot. indian lemonade in a few hours. perhaps the berries i picked, are from bushes that stump-sprouted off earlier generations that were fire-killed, and perhaps manzanita berries were harvested and eaten by indians off these very bushes, sometime, someday long ago. my brother just brought back some wild california grapes from the spring fed creek beside the ‘broken orchard’ village site at union hill. not quite as ripe and sweet as they might be in a couple of weeks, but good. the manzanita berries are ready, right now, it would be harvest time, time for the grand manzanita dance, the big-time [...]”
[Russell Towle's journal]
“9/6/83 morning. After weeks of unsettled, yet delightfully cool weather, it is hot again.”
[Russell Towle's journal]
“September 6, 1985 [...]
At about 4:27 in the afternoon, I am back at the cabin after a trip to Colfax (nice conversation with BJ) and work at the McClungs'. Heavy clouds cover the sky and it is so dark one would think that sunset was here. [...] Batteries low from reading last night, candle nearly gone, I am very poor this year.”
[Russell Towle's journal]
“9/6/87 Morning; another smoke-shrouded sky, with cool temperatures, and the sun very dim; California's many wildfires are slowly being brought under control, after having burned hundreds of thousands of acres of brush and timber.
[...]
Received a letter from BLM-Folsom, notifying me of an excursion to Lovers Leap on the 17th. Should be interesting.”
[Russell Towle's journal]
Photos, from the Yellow-legged Frog Survey of Giant Gap
[The story about this adventure is on August 30, the 2002 segment, on this page.
These photos are by Brian Williams.]
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| Russell, center, scanning the south bank, trying to count every frog and tadpole. |
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| Russell and Lucky, swimming one of the pools of Giant Gap. |
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| Lucky and Russell Towle, boulder-hopping in Giant Gap, counting frogs. |
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