California Drought

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Spoils: I don't know the specifics for this but in general: in the 1800's, Hydraulic Mining was used all along the Sierras.

It's Sierra. No "s". The word is already plural.

 

[California]

It's Sierra. No "s". The word is already plural.

In proper Spanish, yes.

In California vernacular, the eastern border of the great Central Valley is the 'Sierras'. (Basis: Entire family 150+ years west of the Sierras. Among grandparents and their descendants more than half are UC Berkeley graduates. We're real Californians).

Similarly, the 'g' in Los Angeles isn't silent like it should be in Spanish. San Franceesco sounds foreign. I'll bet half the residents of Vacaville (population 100,000) don't know that it translates as 'cowtown' and fewer still know it was named for an early settler Manuel Cabeza Vaca (That translates as cow-head), not for cows. There are lots more examples here of original Spanish names appropriated with no regard for the original meaning.

On the other hand 'NorCal' is a recent invention. The first thing I think of when I hear that is gangs, but this would never occur to younger Californians.

 

[RobertN]

Yes... My Grandmother used to like telling stories of pronunciation when they moved to California from South Dakota back in the 1930's.

Like "San Joe See"...

In proper Spanish, yes.

In California vernacular, the eastern border of the great Central Valley is the 'Sierras'. (Basis: Entire family 150+ years west of the Sierras. Among grandparents and their descendants more than half are UC Berkeley graduates. We're real Californians).

Similarly, the 'g' in Los Angeles isn't silent like it should be in Spanish. San Franceesco sounds foreign. I'll bet half the residents of Vacaville (population 100,000) don't know that it translates as 'cowtown' and fewer still know it was named for an early settler Manuel Cabeza Vaca (That translates as cow-head), not for cows. There are lots more examples here of original Spanish names appropriated with no regard for the original meaning.

On the other hand 'NorCal' is a recent invention. The first thing I think of when I hear that is gangs, but this would never occur to younger Californians.

 

[EddieWalker]

Yes... My Grandmother used to like telling stories of pronunciation when they moved to California from South Dakota back in the 1930's.

Like "San Joe See"...

Worse flight of my life was from Paris to SF back in the 90's. It was full of French exchange students going to San Jose. Every single one of them kept calling it San Josey as loudly as they could in the state of teenage excitement, over and over again!!!!

 

[houstonscott]

Worse flight of my life was from Paris to SF back in the 90's. It was full of French exchange students going to San Jose. Every single one of them kept calling it San Josey as loudly as they could in the state of teenage excitement, over and over again!!!!

I can't stand when people refer to Silicon Valley. It's Santa Clara valley.

 

[dmccarty]

Yes... My Grandmother used to like telling stories of pronunciation when they moved to California from South Dakota back in the 1930's.

Like "San Joe See"...

My understanding is that Miami, FLA was not pronounced as Miamee until relatively recently. It was pronounced Miama where the last a is a short a. I have heard radio announcers mangle Kissimmee, FLA which I hope is not being taken up by the new arrivals to the area.

Later,
Dan

 

[California]

Thinking some more about 'the Sierras' vs 'Sierra Nevada Range': the Sierra Nevada Range is a large geographic region, large enough to have diversity in elevation, snowfall, difficulty of going over mountain passes, etc. There are some instances where you would consider the region as a whole single entity.

On the other hand 'in the Sierras' is a collection of specific places that are interesting to visit. This second usage is what I'm used to hearing. "There are only a couple of all-weather passes over the Sierras".

I had never thought about this distinction before. Any verbal conversation I'm likely to hear is about specific places of interest in 'the Sierras'. Sierra Nevada Range is for abstract discussions of the entire region - the distinction of climates between California and Nevada (the range blocks ocean moisture from reaching Nevada, hence desert), weather trends over time, tectonic plate uplift, etc.

I looked on Google/News for recent examples of 'Sierras'. Here's a current (3/2017) quote from a Reno newspaper columnist describing her trip to go see the record snowpack:

... we crossed into California and the Eastern Sierra region ... White Mountains rising starkly to our left, and jagged gleaming white peaks of the Sierras growing closer on our right. ...

 

[dickfoster]

Are you going to be mining culverts for nuggets?

Trouble is any gold would have settled in the Oroville resivoir so the pickings would be very slim down stream. However the rivers and streams up the river from Oroville should be prime for some new finds. I know some local folks who are ready and waiting to get started with the season.

 

[dickfoster]

In proper Spanish, yes.

In California vernacular, the eastern border of the great Central Valley is the 'Sierras'. (Basis: Entire family 150+ years west of the Sierras. Among grandparents and their descendants more than half are UC Berkeley graduates. We're real Californians).

Similarly, the 'g' in Los Angeles isn't silent like it should be in Spanish. San Franceesco sounds foreign. I'll bet half the residents of Vacaville (population 100,000) don't know that it translates as 'cowtown' and fewer still know it was named for an early settler Manuel Cabeza Vaca (That translates as cow-head), not for cows. There are lots more examples here of original Spanish names appropriated with no regard for the original meaning.

On the other hand 'NorCal' is a recent invention. The first thing I think of when I hear that is gangs, but this would never occur to younger Californians.

Sierra is correct Sierras is not. Graduating from Berkeley doesn't really mean much, not since the 60's anyway and even less today. LOL

I'm a transplant but my wife is a native Los Angeleno. She went to highschool with Mike Love and Marilyn McCoo and her mother was Fay Wray's stand in for filming the original King Kong. Now that's a native and she's also fluent in Spanish or at least the Mexican version of it.

 

[95XL883]

I looked on Google/News for recent examples of 'Sierras'. Here's a current (3/2017) quote from a Reno newspaper columnist describing her trip to go see the record snowpack:

How about a recent report on the Sierra conditions? My oldest is a bit of an extreme mountain climber/skier (He summitted Denali and ski'd down last year.) Just a few days ago, he and his gal got caught in a Sierra blizzard. (Note, they have the skills and gear to survive such encounters. The tent in the video is gosh awful expensive.) Anyway, after the blizzard ended, they encounter a snow survey crew. The survey crew's cabin was so buried that entrance was through a shaft in the snow and a ladder had to be used to go in and out. The survey crew said that in 40 years of doing the surveys, this was the first time they had ever seen anybody up there.

The snow report? The pack right now is the second deepest on record and is very close to becoming the record. Sounds like the streams will be very full shortly. Hope the video link works.

Facebook

 

[dickfoster]

I can't stand when people refer to Silicon Valley. It's Santa Clara valley.

Yes but outside of Santa Clara Valley, no one knows where Santa Clara Valley is.
BTW there is no more silicon in Silicon Valley. The last silicon fab line was shut down some years ago. Now it's overrun with mostly software pukes and dayum few round eyes. I got to feeling like a minority there and it was getting hard to find a decent steak to eat. However, there is no shortage of Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai etc. etc. but little authenticity to find in any of them.

 

[dickfoster]

How about a recent report on the Sierra conditions? My oldest is a bit of an extreme mountain climber/skier (He summitted Denali and ski'd down last year.) Just a few days ago, he and his gal got caught in a Sierra blizzard. (Note, they have the skills and gear to survive such encounters. The tent in the video is gosh awful expensive.) Anyway, after the blizzard ended, they encounter a snow survey crew. The survey crew's cabin was so buried that entrance was through a shaft in the snow and a ladder had to be used to go in and out. The survey crew said that in 40 years of doing the surveys, this was the first time they had ever seen anybody up there.

The snow report? The pack right now is the second deepest on record and is very close to becoming the record. Sounds like the streams will be very full shortly. Hope the video link works.

Facebook

They're saying the snowpack is the deepest recorded over the last century. So where's all that global warming? I'm sure some folks in the Northeast are looking for some of it about now.

BTW I hope they are equipped with a Spot GPS emergency beacon or something equivalent. At current prices, there really is no excuse for anyone being out there without one.

 

[California]

Graduating from Berkeley doesn't really mean much, not since the 60's anyway and even less today. LOL

I don't understand your need to run down California in this thread and others. FYI 7 of 8 in my parent's generation (from whom I learned my sense of local grammar) graduated UCB in the 1930's, the youngest got recruited into working in the UCB Rad Lab on the Manhattan Project (atomic bomb) so didn't graduate. Grandfather (Class of 1906, Mining) came out of retirement to work on that too. Grandmother on the other side of my family was also Class of 1906 (Pharmacy), withdrew to run her father's pharmacy when his health failed. More recently my two daughters and several others are graduates long after the events of the 60's you probably think define 'Berkeley' forever. Come out of that bubble you live in, your prejudices are a reflection of what you projected onto the inside of that bubble.

no more silicon in Silicon Valley. overrun with mostly software pukes and dayum few round eyes... no shortage of Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai

Just Wow.

 

[ultrarunner]

How about a recent report on the Sierra conditions? My oldest is a bit of an extreme mountain climber/skier (He summitted Denali and ski'd down last year.) Just a few days ago, he and his gal got caught in a Sierra blizzard. (Note, they have the skills and gear to survive such encounters. The tent in the video is gosh awful expensive.) Anyway, after the blizzard ended, they encounter a snow survey crew. The survey crew's cabin was so buried that entrance was through a shaft in the snow and a ladder had to be used to go in and out. The survey crew said that in 40 years of doing the surveys, this was the first time they had ever seen anybody up there.

The snow report? The pack right now is the second deepest on record and is very close to becoming the record. Sounds like the streams will be very full shortly. Hope the video link works.

Facebook

As a kid it was common to see the Sierra mountain cabins with ladders to a higher floor... always thought it odd and my Grandfather said it often snows so much that a ladder is needed.

I vividly remember being snowed in back in 1969... the snow just kept a coming and we would wake up in the morning a a couple of feet were added overnight... a lot of roofs couldn't take it and driving was most difficult in that there was no where to get off the road...

 

[California]

As a kid it was common to see the Sierra mountain cabins with ladders to a higher floor... always thought it odd and my Grandfather said it often snows so much that a ladder is needed.

I vividly remember being snowed in back in 1969... the snow just kept a coming

Remember the Donner Party! What got them was an unexpected early winter then continual severe snowfall - that I think still ranks among the top years since records have been available.

A few dozen miles south of that -- I've read that South Lake Tahoe has the most snowfall of any place that USPS delivers mail.

 

[ultrarunner]

Remember the Donner Party! What got them was an unexpected early winter then continual severe snowfall - that I think still ranks among the top years since records have been available.

A few dozen miles south of that -- I've read that South Lake Tahoe has the most snowfall of any place that USPS delivers mail.

Yep South Lake Tahoe... can't find the mail box when the snow is higher than the roof...

 

[California]

Yep South Lake Tahoe... can't find the mail box when the snow is higher than the roof...

The highway to South Lake Tahoe. Going down Myers Grade on US 50, one of the few 'all weather' passes over the Sierras.

 

[ultrarunner]

When you look up from the valley floor it makes you wonder just how solid parts of the road are...

Have friends that will not drive 50 because of fear of looking over the edge.

Mom would like me to take her up to the Lake one more time... but will need to check in with the neighbor when the time comes as I have no interest in making an endurance run for fun.

Remember when the road around Emerald Bay was closed in winter or when the Emerald Bay froze?

 

[California]

When you look up from the valley floor it makes you wonder just how solid parts of the road are...

Have friends that will not drive 50 because of fear of looking over the edge.

Mom would like me to take her up to the Lake one more time... but will need to check in with the neighbor when the time comes as I have no interest in making an endurance run for fun.

Remember when the road around Emerald Bay was closed in winter or when the Emerald Bay froze?

I remember the seasonal closure, not the freezing. 89 was closed at Emerald Bay a month ago, and again yesterday before Caltrans cleared a down tree and large boulder.

Meanwhile up at Serene Lakes (Donner Summit) look what the plow found under 20 [Fox News] ft of snow. (Back end of a Jeep Cherokee)

 

[95XL883]

They're saying the snowpack is the deepest recorded over the last century. So where's all that global warming? I'm sure some folks in the Northeast are looking for some of it about now.

BTW I hope they are equipped with a Spot GPS emergency beacon or something equivalent. At current prices, there really is no excuse for anyone being out there without one.

Yep, they've got that beacon. He's had it for years. Some of the pictures he sends are breathtaking but I couldn't do what he does. He once climbed a 14er in the dark so he could take pictures of the sunrise. At least there was a full moon when he did that climb.