A new riverside trail has been built just outside of New York City on the Bronx River, through the Westchester County towns of White Plains and Scarsdale, the highlight of which is 'Tooley' Bridge near the Scarsdale Falls. A great trail guide, and story, has been created by the local newspaper.

From Tooley Street in London comes this curiously relevant story about a government (the burough) rejecting its own building permit for failing to complete a transportation component.

For the deeper meaning of this, see the story on Tacoma's own efforts at drafting just such regulations.

Here's a slideshow from a solo canoe trip through the Slickrock section of the Dolores River, from earlier this spring.

This is a little known classic multi-day desert trip that now only runs for a few weeks each spring, because of an irrigation project completed in 1984. If you are in the area and it is running the river is highly recommended.

By now the whole case of the arrest of Harvard African Studies Professor Henry Lois Gates should have blown over - if it even had ever risen at all to the level of national attention. But it has not, and this is telling. Most revealing was Harvard grad President Barack Obama initially calling arresting officer James Crowley "stupid".

As comedian and commentator Jon Stewart noted, perhaps it was Obama who was stupid - not to mention Prof. Gates himself.

If this were simply a matter of reverse racism without effect it would be easy to let this pass - that would be as appropriate as the dropping of charges against Mr. Gates by the Cambridge officials.

This case is not about race, but about class in America, it is about the elites of America calling anyone who dares to hold them to account "stupid" racists.

The sad fact is that the people who run this Country are smiley faced abusive alcoholics, the only difference between themselves and the stereotypical abusive trailer trash is the price of their booze, and the rest of their lifestyles - to you, me, and every honest, accountable American, born and unborn.

One thing for darn sure, the Cambridge PD understands this problem - and hopefully are setting an example for **every** officer in every department in this Country.

Mowich Lake is the secret access to Mount Rainier - it is the closet access to the Mountain, though the last 17 miles are on gravel - and only another 30 from my front door! Spray Park is the popular hiking destination via the trail for most or for the cognoscenti the 'secret' Mountaineer club route. The Tolmie Peak Trail actually takes you away from the Mountain, to a perspective that is just a bit more wide angle for this massive destination.

The lake in the foreground is Eunice, which looks to be a great place for a swim, including this spot:

It's kind of ironic, in an Alanis Morrissette kind of way, that the Puget Sound is slowly sliding into a record reaching heat wave just as I finalize my bankruptcy, the likely giving up of my home, and, most importantly, documenting the slow build up of causes that created this situation. All, tellingly, absent legal representation.

Some people say I'm a crazy liberal activist (or a right wing wacko - go figure).