While traveling from Lake Isabella to Fresno on Rt 155 (?), passing
through some of the most gorgeous / desolate country came upon a sign.
The sign read something like "No burning woodstoves from January -
April". Can't remember the exact dates on the sign but it struck me
funny. This area gets loads of snow and being in the country thought
these people must have heated with wood. There must have been a riot
when they were told they could no longer burn wood. I guess smog is a
major problem way up in those mountains. I picked up some large pine
cones (they were everywhere) to bring home (being from NY never seen
them that big). My cousin in Modesto told me they would have arrested
me if I was caught picking up cones in the National Park. I was outside
the park when I picked up the cones (Thank God). I thought this is one
beautiful state (CA) but it's worse than NY when it comes to the
environment.

I came to the conclusion that most self-professed "Ecologistas" are
deliberate idiots. One large clue was when I carried a survey meter on a
backpacking trip into Sequioa National Park and waved it through the
smoke from a campfire some Ecologistas had built from fallen old-growth
wood. The meter went nuts, of course, but none of them _wanted_ to
comprehend why. Then I showed them that sitting on granite boulders
irradiated their nether regions...