Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts specifically related to the Granite Bay area of south Placer County, history, development, water, trails, Folsom Lake, mountain biking.
Under the bright glow of the Granite Bay High School LED monument sign, local residents and students gathered to rally in support of the school play The Laramie Project. The famously anti-gay, hate filled, military funeral protesting Westboro Baptist Church had hinted that they might protest the LGBT themed play’s opening.
With Gov. Brown declaring California is in an official drought, some water districts in Northern California must now get serious about making their customers conserve water. At least one water district rewards consumers for higher consumption with lower rates. With cheap water, where is the incentive to conserve?
The east side of the north fork of the American River is challenging to hike because of the lack of accessibility and rugged terrain along the Folsom Lake. After I discovered the abutment for a bridge on the west side of the river, I had to get to Anderson Island on the other side. Not only was I able to find the suspension bridge cables, I found the ruins of Zantgraf mine which is fairly well preserved.
A rally at Congressman McClintock’s (R-CA) Granite Bay office featured Michelle Langbehn, a constituent of Rep. McClintock, speaking on how the federal government has interrupted her potential life saving cancer treatment from the National Institute of Health. Representative McClintock has been an early and ardent supporter of shutting down the federal government in an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
History may be posing a greater threat to the integrity of Folsom Dam than the terrorists. Recent road widening projects and dam improvements have uncovered several gold mining tunnels and shafts precariously close to the dykes which could comprise Folsom Dam. In attempt to safely probe the depths of a mine shaft between dykes 4 and 5, the Bureau of Reclamation pumped several thousand gallons into a large pit on top of the ridge this past August, 2013.
A dedicated group of volunteers with Organizing for Action gathered outside of Rep. Tom McClintock’s (R-CA) Granite Bay District Office to present him with the Unicorn Award for denying the existence of climate change. His refusal to believe in the overwhelming science that the earth’s climate is changing from man made green house gases is synonymous with believing that unicorns exist.
The main obstacle that virtually all boat races face is the distance between the spectators and the water craft. You just can’t get up close and personable with boat racing like you can with automobile or horse racing. I tried to position myself on the northern turn of the race course only to be told the area was off limits.
Five years after our kitchen remodel with bamboo cabinets I thought it would be a good time to see if our decisions, clouded with the marketing hype of cool products and designs, withstood the test of time.
South of Horseshoe bar you will come upon what is referred to as the NFD viaduct. This is an impressive structure built to conduct the water over a small ravine. Easily 15 feet tall and 40 feet in length, large granite blocks were carefully stacked to create what looks like a dam.
It was perhaps the first publicly finance railroad in California. Unfortunately, the Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Railroad was cut short by an even larger publicly financed railroad know as the Central Pacific. (Click on the photos to enlarge, full gallery of images at end of post.) Iron horse for commerce As soon as the Sacramento Valley Railroad […]
