Things to do in Northern California?

[Sigarms]

Ah, for us, from La Grange to where we camp near the MWTC

Would that be La Grange road, going from Angles Camp through Cooperoppolis to Fresno? (sorry, don't remember all the roads we had to take, but I do remember La Grange road having to go through Cooperoppolis and I remember a Merced).

One of the pics I took off that road going to Fresno.

First time in Northern California and I was like a kid in a candy story, wide eyed in amazement be it mountains, grasslands or crops. This is why a 60 mile drive could take us 120 minutes because I had to stop and get a picture of something I thought amazing looking LOL

 

[ericm979]

First time in Northern California and I was like a kid in a candy story, wide eyed in amazement be it mountains, grasslands or crops. This is why a 60 mile drive could take us 120 minutes because I had to stop and get a picture of something I thought amazing looking LOL

There's a lot to see. It's great that you and your family had a good time. You didn't even get to northern CA or the desert or SoCal (there's a lot that isn't LA). All of which are scenic.

I don't subscribe to the gateway drug theory but if I did I'd say beer is the true gateway drug. Everyone I knew started with beer. Maybe more recently you could add prescription pain pills to that. Marijuana is pretty innocuous as far as drugs go. It just makes people mellow. I'd rather be around people who are stoned than drunk. I've never had a stoned person try to pick a fight with me.


I lived for quite a while on the far north coast when marijuana was illegal and the logging that had supported the economy was drying up due lack of suitable trees. Also in the '70s a lot of hippies got tired of SF and moved north where land was cheap. So there was a lot of marijuana being grown by hippies and loggers. Many people just supplemented their income with a few plants but some folks went big time with it. The feds moved in with heat detecting helicopters and SWAT tactics which just made people move their grows to the national forest or unguarded private land and hire undocumented immigrants to work them. And pollute the creeks and leave a mess.

Legalization would, in theory, make a lot of that go away. Big growers would go legit and be just another kind of farmer. In CA it's been somewhat successful. Most areas have too many regulations to entice all the growers to go legit but a good percent did. At the same time a lot of people jumped into the business. Many didn't know what they were doing and the influx of growers drove prices down so many went bust. The last couple years there's been a lot of real estate for sale in Nor Cal and southern Oregon that clearly had been used for growing. Sometimes they clean it up for the listing photos but you can see it on satellite photos. Sometimes they don't even bother to remove the grow bags for the photos.

Humboldt: Life on America's Marijuana Frontier

In the vein of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief and Debo…

www.goodreads.com

is a pretty good book about the area and the effects of marijuana growing on what's basically a poor economy, as of 10 years ago anyhow.

 

[California]

I don't subscribe to the gateway drug theory but if I did I'd say beer is the true gateway drug. Everyone I knew started with beer. Maybe more recently you could add prescription pain pills to that. Marijuana is pretty innocuous as far as drugs go. It just makes people mellow. I'd rather be around people who are stoned than drunk. I've never had a stoned person try to pick a fight with me.

I lived for quite a while on the far north coast...

Humboldt: Life on America's Marijuana Frontier

In the vein of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief and Debo…

www.goodreads.com

is a pretty good book about the area and the effects of marijuana growing on what's basically a poor economy, as of 10 years ago anyhow.

Agree, not a gateway drug. Kids today experiment with weed same as underage drinking and along with that is an attitude that the hard drugs are on the far side of a dividing line that most of them won't cross.


Drugs, related - when my kids were in high school they noted some of the boys were bulking up with steroids. At the same time I saw this at work, a couple of gym bros seemed to be the source for young skinny Asian and Mexican-American nerd accounting graduates, growing muscles.

 

[plowhog]

I lived for quite a while on the far north coast when marijuana was illegal and the logging that had supported the economy was drying up due lack of suitable trees.

I'd like to learn more about the tree shortage. That is a new perspective for me.

For decades I have read stories that the lumber industry was destroyed by the efforts to protect the spotted owl. But I wasn't there. Here is an example:

"The fight was over protecting the owl’s habitat. After lawsuits, protests and even violence, the environmentalists won. And, in the process, delivered a death blow to an entire way of life. Sawmills shut down, loggers lost their jobs, and those little backwoods lumber towns went from boom to 1930s Depression-era bust.

“It was like turning off the spigot,” said Ryan Tompkins, a Plumas County forester and natural resources consultant."

Two Words Explain California’s Wildfire Woes: Spotted Owl – California Globe

californiaglobe.com

 

[Sigarms]

I don't subscribe to the gateway drug theory but if I did I'd say beer is the true gateway drug.

I agree. People tend to forget that alcohol IS a drug because it's legal to sell pretty much everywhere.

By the same token, the deeper question is, isn't caffeine and nicotine a drug as well? Go to a BW meeting and always thought it was ironic everyone is smoking and drinking coffee.

 

[ultrarunner]

Some strung out street people get quite violent often imagining things and flailing around…

One one stripped naked in the parking lot saying bugs were crawling all over her but paramedics said it’s from drugs…

 

[Sigarms]

One one stripped naked in the parking lot saying bugs were crawling all over her but paramedics said it’s from drugs…

Yes, but one could argue that if you were born into this world naked by the clothes God gave you, exactly what is wrong with walking around naked in public or going to church that way?

 

[kenmbz]

In MA it was clear cutting Hardwoods and replacing with Pine that shut down the lumber industry.
I unfortunately got to see this affect my neighbors who thought the lumber companies would do the right thing.

 

[Hughman]

Would that be La Grange road, going from Angles Camp through Cooperoppolis to Fresno? (sorry, don't remember all the roads we had to take, but I do remember La Grange road having to go through Cooperoppolis and I remember a Merced

Close... La Grange road is part of 59 between 120 west of Jamestown and Merced.

 

[Sigarms]

Close... La Grange road is part of 59 between 120 west of Jamestown and Merced.

Hey, I only spent two weeks out there. Only so many road signs I could read while driving and remembering

I do however remember that road.

That said, still pretty country in that area as well. Not certain if it's me, but everything seemed dry and I'd be afraid of an accidentdal fire.

Did see a couple of small lakes on that road somewhere I remember, but futher south I believe.