And then there were the still-scarred hills, mountains, and trees damaged by last year’s Rim Fire, started by a hunter’s illegal campfire. That one burned more than a quarter billion acres, and the threat of major erosion of the slopes will exist for some time still. When I drove through this area, I was struck dumb by looking across the Tuolumne River Gorge at a mountain completely devoid of vegetation. Nothing, not a shrub or tree of any kind grew. The fire had burned so hot it had sterilized the soil and destroyed any seeds that may otherwise have survived. This stretch of the river is the overflow from Hetch-Hetchy Reservoir, San Francisco’s main source of drinking water and hydroelectric power. What, I thought, would happen to that mountain’s soil if there was finally a much-needed deluge? The answer is that it would all end up in that stretch of river. And that was only one mountain out of dozens.
So, on to my hometown, the county fair, and a reunion with dozens of my former classmates from Mariposa County High School. The school itself, when I graduated in 1973, was the only high school for the county and had a little over 300 students. Spring Hill, an alternative school, would not open for another year. That meant students were bused from all points, from Yosemite, Coulterville, Greeley Hill, some rides taking an hour or more each way. The high school and junior high were stocked from multiple elementary schools from around the county. We didn’t think much of those long days back then, just accepted it as a fact of country life. But it meant some students spent more than three years riding buses just to get a high school diploma.
Which brings me to impression #4. The population of the county had altered the schools’ physical nature dramatically. I stopped by Woodland School, my elementary school from 2nd through 6th grades. Woodland had been built on a ranch, and being a rural school it only had one main building: three classrooms and the principal’s office (where my friends Jim and Kevin and I received a swat from said principal after our 6th grade teacher had had enough of us late in the year. That wooden paddle was hard!). There was also one portable classroom, and the old farmhouse had been gutted to make another classroom, although the kitchen still existed and functioned as such for PTA meetings.