Z is for Zoo

I know. I know, What a let down. Final day of the challenge and all I can do is come up with probably the plainest and most expected of all the "Z" words. There's zabra, which actually comes close to fitting my theme. There's zaffre, which also comes close to the theme. There's even a zarf, which I could have worked in.

For "Z" though, zoo fits best. The Vilas Zoo is one of the wonders of Madison. It's in the neighborhood where one of my River and Ranch and New Grass Growing MCs grew up. It's worthy of use in fictional world building, and it's also worthy of mention in reality.

The Henry Vilas Zoo sits on 50 acres of land donated by William and Ann Vilas in 1904. They specified that the 50 acres be used "for the uses and purposes of a public park and pleasure ground". The park was named in honor of the Vilas's son, Henry, who died at a young age from complications related to diabetes. The family stipulated that the park always be admission-free. It seems to me this is a charitable and magnificent way to honor the loss of their young son. He must have liked animals and running around outside, as most little kids do.

This ends April 2015. I'm sure May will bring plenty of surprises! Maybe even a few pleasures and likely even a few necessities.

D is for Djibouti

Djibouti beat out drama and Devil's Teeth Rapid in today's fierce competition to represent the letter "D" in the A to Z Blogging Challenge. In the event that Djibouti cannot fulfill its term, the first and second runnerups, drama and Devil's Teeth Rapid, will take Djibouti's place in fulfilling any remaining obligations.

With that bit of contractual paranoia now firmly in the rear view mirror, we can plow new ground in furthering the background of River and Ranch which, as mentioned before, is at times ripped straight from the headlines and at other times merely from researching.

Cale and Lane are two of the MCs in River and Ranch. In a long running series though, there has to be room to go back in time and develop earlier episodes and pieces of storyline. Africa proves fertile ground for that. Even better, the quiet roar that is the steady growth of AFRICOM, provides abundant bits of truth, which I greatly enjoy using as the kernel of truth around which my fiction is wrapped.

Camp Lemonnier is the USA military's largest and most official entity in all of Africa. I'm tempted to ramble through the interesting history of this military post. Suffice it to say that a garbage filled swimming pool, the French Foreign Legion, and free roaming goats are all part of that history. If pool, goats, and French Foreign Legion all appearing in the same sentence have piqued your curiosity, by all means click on the link above and read up on the abundant details in the excellent Wikipedia entry on the Camp.

In today's first digression, a bit of mostly relevant history pops into my head. The USA's entry into the European theater of WWII started with an invasion force going ashore in north Africa. In relying on memory and distilling what I remember, some small part of the reasoning for this first step was that the US military was "rusty". Not much had been done since WWI and there were very few leaders or followers with live experience. So the first step was on African soil, because it was perceived as perhaps the easiest place to start and get some seasoning (for lack of a better word). The big players in WWII got up to speed fighting (and getting beat quite often) by the wily old desert fox, Erwin Rommel, as he was known. Eventually he was pounded into submission, as Americans then as now are the badasses of the planet and while we lose on occasion, we do not give up and eventually emerge standing on top (sorry my American pride and ego popped up there).

Fast forward to now and these first "official" steps on African soil may remind some of first steps taken back in the day by Eisenhower and his fighting forces. There are many many differences, but I do bring this bit of history up as it is interesting to see steps made on African soil, a couple generations apart. Afghanistan and Iraq are of course HUGE differences between then and now, but steps onto Africa are facts then and now. Then it was over on the coast of Morocco, heading towards Libya. Now, it is the Horn of Africa aimed at the Sahel and points unknown or undivulged.

The shepherd's hook is out and the music is growing louder. I must concede the floor and hope that you will return for tomorrow's monologue on the letter "E".

B is for Bitterroot

"River and Ranch background" seems to be a pretty good theme for this A-Z blogging challenge. Much of River and Ranch takes place on the other side of Lost Trail Pass, in Idaho. However, two of the main characters, Cale and Lane, are working on their PhDs in Geology at the University of Montana up in Missoula. To get to Idaho from Missoula, you go south, UP the Bitterroot Valley.

In this way do we arrive at the first cool thing about Bitterroot. In keeping with this notion of geology, the Bitterroot Valley is generally a north-south oriented feature. No big deal there. However, within that valley, the Bitterroot River flows NORTH, joining the Clark Fork river just west of Missoula. That would be the cool feature. From your childhood social studies you might remember the Nile over in Egypt, as perhaps the most prominent north flowing river on the planet. The Bitterroot joins that small club of north flowing rivers. So up the valley is down south. Downstream is up north.

Those map lovers in the crowd may have also noticed that the Middle Fork of the Salmon, another major feature in this book series, is also a north flowing river. One might wonder why two major rivers, fairly close together, both flow north. At a regional level, my first thought points at a centrally located uplift event on the North American continent that would serve to start water flowing north. The main bulk of the Rocky Mountains, mostly to the south of both rivers comes to mind. The Laramide orogeny is the geologic term for the continental plate deformation (aka upthrusting) that kicked off the ascent of the Rockies. That would be the event that gets my finger of blame for inspiring the northward flow of both the Bitterroot and the Middle Fork.

History provides another topic for Bitterroot. Lewis and Clark made their way over the southern terminus of the Bitterroot valley at Lost Trail Pass. The group made their way down the Bitterroot valley, all the way to the stream now known as Lolo. At that confluence they turned west and headed up the Lolo valley (Collins Creek), eventually topping out on Lolo Pass and descending down the Lochsa drainage and ultimately the Clearwater River, as the group made its way to the Pacific. Notes from both men reveal this segment of their journey to be among the most trying portions of their entire trip. Speaking of notes, many people have spent time retracing the path that Lewis and Clark chose as they crossed the continent. The Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation provides extensive content relating to the initial journey of discovery as well as the myriad followup expeditions that others made in an effort to retrace those famous first steps.

snowpack is holding up...

In Cale's world of rafting the Salmon River and the Middle Fork, much depends on runoff from snowmelt. So rafters spend much of their winter huddled around basin snow reports like this:

Here's the real snowpack report. High water is a spring thing, but summer water on the Idaho rivers often arrives with the July 4th launches. In my memory, the launch closest to July 4 was a big double launch and kicked off summer. You could kind of get away with not wearing a wetsuit. Finally. Prior to that though, as in all of June and May, rafting had to deal with cold high runoff. On undammed rivers like the Middle Fork and the Main, runoff can be an amazing thing. When you see how strong high water is during spring runoff, you start to understand how 20,000 foot peaks can be reduced to sand on a beach. On the map above, the Salmon Basin is looking pretty much average, which should make for a decent rafting season. What stands out for me are all the yellow triangle down in the Sierras. Poor California. It's going to be a tough season down there.