sierras

He was up in the Sierras in a BSA stream 'pool' and the training was much the same.

They're called aqueducts, and California has quite a few, typically sending water from northern california/the Sierras to Los Angeles.

The Sierras are a great place to develop this confidence on technically easy but unbelievably exposed terrain.

In the back country, especially in the sierras, you can get pretty close to some microwave and other communication relay stations.

Am I the only one bothered that they mislabeled the Cascades and Sierras as the Rockies?

The California Aqueduct takes water from the Sierras and Central Valley and supplies southern cities like San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, LA and Palmdale.

Recycling waste water is another, and there's an additional 10% that can be gained through forrest management in the sierras better directing the melting snow run off (!).

Being in the eastern shadow of the Sierras and at ~4500 ft (4505 ft at the university) does lead to heavy snow which makes the roads unusable for bikes.

The forest service took a short term moratorium on biking and has basically made it permanent; yet in parts of the Sierras (especially around tahoe) mountain bike groups take it upon themselves to maintain parts of the PCT.

I don't own a plane but have in the post thought idly about commuting to the SF bay area from the Sierras.

High desert next in rain shadow of Sierras, so very dry, very little rain, sometimes snows significantly, but never that cold or hot.

I have no problem commandeering runoff from some place in the Sierras.