Saturday, November 29, 2008

My Last Mirror Lake Report This Year, Really

I just can't stay away. Saturday, after Thanksgiving.

This is coming from the Kamas side down the hill from Bald Mountain to the Mirror Lake turnoff. The whumping sound is tire chains. Although there were quite a few trucks with families cutting Christmas trees, people on snowmobiles, and kids on snowboards on both the Kamas and Evanston sides of the highway, only a couple trucks had been over the top since the last snow.



Lonesome little tree in the clouds near the summit.
















With drizzling rain all day, everything was clad in about an inch of ice. It was impossible to walk quietly on the snow as every step made a loud crackling and crunching sound as the sheet ice broke through.




Somebody's Christmas tree in a couple years.













The Upper Provo River is still running, barely.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Christmas Tree Hunting

I started out this morning thinking I'd see how far I could go up the Mirror Lake Highway.

On the way, I saw the folks at Parley's Summit were making snow for the tubing run.



Although the Mirror Lake road still says "closed," and the plows haven't been up there since before the last snow, it is still somewhat passable. The road was ice and snow packed from about 9,500 feet, about a mile or two below the summit at Bald Mountain. The Mirror Lake side had snow pack for several miles.

I drove down to Mirror Lake and discovered all the tracks I'd seen that gave me confidence to take my truck down there were from snowmobiles. Mine was the only wheeled vehicle that had been into the picnic parking at the lake since the last snow. When I realized the snow was getting deep and soft going down the hill, I decided I was in too deep. I stopped and tried to back up, but that was a no go. So I went to the lake, took some pictures, and headed up the hill with as much speed as I could gather in the short flat part. It was a bit of a wild ride, and I bogged to nearly a standstill once, but I finally shot out without having to put on the chains.

The ice on the lake is thicker than my Leatherman knife is long. Solid enough to walk on, but I don't know for how far out.

Sorry about the focus, but if you listen closely you can hear the water gurgling under the ice.


Look to the left. This guy didn't do so well on the icy road. The tow driver was also having a hard time getting his truck in place due to his sliding all over the road. I stopped and shut the engine off to wait for room to go around. After sitting in place for a half minute or so, my Tahoe suddenly started to slide sideways. Luckily there was less slippery snow to the left of me.















I know you're tired of the ice and waterfall pictures, but the changing formations nature creates with cold rushing water fascinate me.



















These ice crystals are so intricate.














And two patches of crystals right next to each other have such different patterns.



















An artisan blowing glass couldn't plan anything more amazing than what is created naturally and temporarily in the middle of the Upper Provo River Falls.















Oh, what I started writing this blog about was a Christmas tree. I saw two trucks with trees in the back, so I stopped at the little store near the East Fork of the Bear turnoff and asked how to get a permit. The lady said she was selling them, and they were $12 ($10 Forest Service fee plus store service charge). So I bought one and headed up past the Boy Scout camp. This little guy is gathering his food storage a bit late in the season. Maybe one of the 5 foolish virgins?
I discovered that there are a lot of ugly trees in the forest. I hiked all over until I finally found one that suited me. I discovered the oldest, biggest trees seem to be the best (can't be over 12 feet, though). They're fuller and are nicer at the top. The younger, shorter trees still have thin baby fuzz.


I also discovered that all the work finding the right tree was the easy part. I still had to drag and carry this 10-foot behemoth through all the aspen thickets and over the patchwork of downed lodge poles back to the trail.



And then I had to drag it through the snow and carry it over mud about a mile back to the truck.






All in all, though, this is my own tree that I cut with my own hatchet. And I have to say it's not as perfectly trimmed as the store boughten (ha, ha, that was for Jared) trees we usually get, but I really like it.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Download Pictures

If you want any of the pictures in this blog, many or at least some of them are on my MobileMe Gallery in full, downloadable resolution. I can post any others you don't find there. Click here or on the "My MobileMe Gallery" link under "Pictures" to the right. Once there you'll find the folders locked. Click on a folder and enter the user name and password to access the entire gallery. Email me for the user name and password.

"Fishing" Last Weekend

Dad, Jared, Jackson, and I went fishing last Saturday at Jordanelle. We not only didn't get as much as a nibble all afternoon, the outboard motor on my canoe wouldn't putt. First, I haven't licensed the boat since 2007 and was worried I'd get arrested. (Yes, a canoe with a 2 hp motor gets taxed the same as a ski boat.) When we got the boat in the water, the motor started right up. I said something about how amazing it is that that little motor starts up every year, even though I never maintain it or even dump out the old gasoline. Just about then the motor died. So we paddled. Then the motor started. Then it died. It did that all afternoon. When I was sticking the motor back in the shed at home I realized I had forgotten to loosen the air seal on the gas cap. That's why the motor kept dying. Oh well. We had a good time in the sun on the lake on a nice warm November afternoon.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Mirror Lake: Closed for the Winter

I was thinking about going fishing in the Uintas next weekend, hoping that the big snow we had last week was local to the Salt Lake Valley. I was right about the localized snow--the Uintas didn't get nearly as much--but they got enough. Although a sign and a big barrier said the road was closed for the winter, it was plowed and mostly dry, probably all the way to Evanston. But someone forgot to plow the lakes.


Butterfly Lake. Mirror Lake looked similar, but I couldn't get close enough for a decent picture.











Upper Provo River Falls



















I always find the aspens intriguing.













This pretty much tells the story of the campgrounds.







Looking west from above Jordanelle. Timpanogos is on the left.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Too Much Too Soon


November 5? It has not stopped snowing since I got up this morning. (I should have taken this picture before I scraped the snow from the cars and driveway, but I wanted to see if my old snowblower was still blowing.)

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Can Society Dictate Morals?

I have been watching with some interest the arguments for and against California’s Proposition 8 sent to my company’s LDS email list by employees of the company who are also members of the LDS church.

Proposition 8 is a proposed amendment to the California constitution that would define marriage as being between one man and one woman. It follows Proposition 22, which was a law that passed by a vote of more than 61 percent of Californians (38 percent against) in 2000. That law also defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Last year four California Supreme Court judges voted to overturn that law, and marriage among same-sex couples has been sanctioned in that state ever since. The purpose of Proposition 8 is to make marriage a constitutional issue that judges can’t overturn. Many say the California judges were legislating from the bench, which betrays their charge of interpreting the constitution, not making law.

The LDS church is supporting the passage of Proposition 8, clearly because it believes same-sex marriages are immoral and degrade society. It has donated money to promote the proposition. It has encouraged its members to donate, and it has asked its members in California to campaign their neighbors and engage in other activities to support the proposition.

I saw an anti-Proposition 8 advertisement on TV a couple days ago with two more-or-less LDS missionary-like young men tearing up the marriage certificate of a woman. Then they left sneering and wondering what other rights they could tear up. This attack on the LDS church’s support of Proposition 8 said nothing about whether the proposition itself was good or bad for society.

I saw a group of LDS mothers of gay children in Salt Lake City protesting against the LDS church last weekend because of its support of Proposition 8. They believe their children are being singled out or excluded because the church opposes their being legally married. They said nothing about the benefits to society of their children marrying same-sex partners.

The arguments I’ve seen against the church and the proposition, and the arguments against the arguments, have been quite heated. To simplify, it seems the arguments boil down to whether the church has the right to promote or oppose secular law. Some say the church has every right to ban gay marriages in its temples but not to support banning such civil marriages. They say the church shouldn’t be pushing its morals on society.

That seems to be the big question, doesn’t it? Can a church or an individual impose its or his or her morals on society? The answer is generally, no. Morals cannot be imposed. Many say morals should be restricted to inside churches and homes. They say society should be free to do what it wants. Churches and individuals shouldn’t be telling other people what is moral. After all, society is just a collection of individuals, and each individual has the right to make his or her own moral judgments. Society should not dictate the morals of the individual until the actions of the individual interfere with the rights of another individual in that society.

In other words, if two same-sex people want to marry, how can a person who believes this arrangement is immoral, dictate that they cannot marry?

This argument works well when discussing actions between individuals. But what about actions that, over time, affect society as a whole? Clearly society has a right to pass laws that restrict people from physically assaulting other people or stealing their possessions or defrauding them out of savings. But moral issues? Immoral activities by one or two individuals don’t usually impose on any other individual’s rights or freedoms. If a person wants to view pornography on a website that features only consenting adults, how does that impose on any uninvolved individual? If two same-sex people want to engage in traditionally heterosexual activities, how does that affect other individuals? They don’t, directly or immediately.

The issue is that immoral (wrongful) acts, when they become pervasive in a society, become a part of that society. They affect the society as a whole. What happened to the Roman Empire? What happened to Easter Island? If one person in a society cuts down a tree, there is little effect on other individuals or the society as a whole. But what happens when cutting down trees becomes pervasive in the society? Soon the palm-covered Easter Island will turn into a barren island. At this point, individual moral or immoral acts affect each individual in that society. Is it bad that sitcoms on TV have become racier over the past several years? Don’t the TV producers have a right to show what they want? And don’t people have a right to watch what they want in their homes, where no one else is affected? A three-year study by the RAND research organization indicates that racy TV leads to more sexual activity among youths and higher incidences of teen pregnancies. Does this affect society?

Because arguing morals in a democratic society that values the rights of individuals is difficult, consequences of moral actions are often argued in terms of monetary costs to society. For example, it could be argued that teen pregnancies cost society in dollars needed to care for the children of young single mothers, so teen pregnancies are not acceptable to that society. And since TV shows lead to higher incidences of teen pregnancies, society may have a right to restrict racy shows. But this argument misses the point and cannot be applied to all moral issues. What about other moral issues that cannot be defined in dollar costs? Such as same-sex marriages. How can we measure the cost or benefit to society of such moral issues?

I’m sure there are arguments that could be presented to illustrate both benefits and costs. But in the end, society itself has to decide whether an action will decay the society or build it up. Because society is made up of individuals, they are the ones who have to decide. Individuals have an obligation to their society to promote what they consider morals—what is right and what is wrong for that society. Less than this would be abdicating responsibility to those who believe a moralless society, where nothing is right or wrong, is best for all.

Neighbors have to convince neighbors. Then society as a whole, through voting, legislation, or other means, has to decide which morals it will accept. In the end, every issue is a moral issue, because every issue will promote the society or degrade the society. For every issue there is a right direction and a wrong direction, depending on its effect on the society as a whole.

It is difficult to say who has the right to impose morals on another person, but it is clear that society has an obligation to impose morals on itself. And it is the individuals in that society who will decide which morals to impose.

No one should criticize another individual or organization for promoting what it believes to be societal morals. It is only through the efforts of individuals in the society that the society as a whole will adopt its own morals. And the individuals should then respect the morals the society chooses.