FlowergirlinWard1
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- Joined
- Sep 8, 2021
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Hello.
My family and I actually live about 60 miles due west of this area, so we are locals paying attention to this case.
My spouse and I used to live in Yosemite Valley as we worked there, we also used to drive that highway daily to and from work after we moved out of the Valley and into Mariposa town.
We know quite a bit the terrain very very well, we had worked as part of a labor crew rebuilding campgrounds along the Merced River downstream.
We are not liking the suspicion of "Toxic Algae Bloom" very much. Having lived in and around the area for many years, and now living in area with local ponds and two lakes, Algae Bloom happens all the time. It takes really high amounts of it to kill humans, and although "Toxic Algae Bloom" can be inhaled, again, it would take incredibly high concentrations of it to kill rapidly all at once.
We camped one weekend many years ago at a campground right next to the lake at Salton Sea, spent all night breathing that air, woke up to hundreds of dead fish along the lake shore (now THAT was a terrible smell) BUT we did NOT die from those fumes, even at such high levels.
If we go back to the carbon monoxide theory from the air from the mines — there is an odd, overlooked possibility. So, where we live in the foothills, we have roads going uphill and down and around the bends. We can drive along the top ridge of the hill and fry in 110 degrees F, go down the hill and through a narrow section between hills and drive through an air pocket of cooler air - air cooled being in the shade on the north side of the hill all day. That cool air does not move very fast or at all when the winds do not blow. So an air pocket could have formed in the apex of the "V" section of the trail where the family was found. That "V" section - those parts are known to have water draining between the sections of hillside meeting together, it could have an opening to an underground spring. If the air does not move very fast from lack of winds moving air pockets around, underground gases could have collected and formed an air pocket there, which they all could have breathed. If the winds blew overnight and dispersed the gases, no trace of the gases would be found present.
There is one more thing that is often very much overlooked and that is there is a possibility of an underground volcano fissure along that area. The name "Devil's Gulch", "Devil's Peak", and further south east — "Devil's Postpile", an area of basalt columns formed by volcanic activity right next to June Mountain and Mammoth Mountain, known dormant volcanos — right on the other side of Yosemite NP.
So, following that angle from "Devil's Gulch" along to where the South Fork of the Merced River meets the main river channel — if you keep going straight NNW along hwy 49 to where Hwy 49 meets highway 108, actually where highway 108 meets highway 120 west of Jamestown, there is an area called "Red Hills Recreational Management Area" — that section is actually the visible rim of a blown volcano. And it blew fairly recently in the last 1000 years as down the road from our house there is a rock from that volcano sitting in a field and minding its own.
But South of the area of "Devil's Gulch" along the area known as "Bootjack" (Where the heck is "Bootjack"?) there is a residential area of Mariposa County formed by Midpines, Triangle Road, Tiptop Road, Darrah Road, etc. And, my spouse, while growing up, lived in many different houses and rentals as his family moved around a lot for cheaper rents. There are houses where, on one section of the mountain, the well water contains high amounts of iron in the water and there are some sections where the water contains high amounts of sulphur - and sulphur in the underground water is a high indication of a volcano fissure.
It is highly likely that after several of the fires, the earth movement of that huge rockslide at Highway 140 back in 2006, a lack of trees or shrubs to stabilize the soil on the hillside, a fissure opened up and released some toxic gases. It need be no larger than a 1-foot-wide x 1-foot-long crack to release gases from an underground fissure. It can go undetected for years as this hiking trail is not heavily traveled, or if winds are blowing and constantly dispersing gases.
But, we locals, are thinking that, with all the family and the dog dead at once - they would have had to have been exposed and died very quickly. And, just because there are few mines in the area does not mean there are no other underground fissures or channels present.
And that’s what we have so far, until further investigation is revealed.
My family and I actually live about 60 miles due west of this area, so we are locals paying attention to this case.
My spouse and I used to live in Yosemite Valley as we worked there, we also used to drive that highway daily to and from work after we moved out of the Valley and into Mariposa town.
We know quite a bit the terrain very very well, we had worked as part of a labor crew rebuilding campgrounds along the Merced River downstream.
We are not liking the suspicion of "Toxic Algae Bloom" very much. Having lived in and around the area for many years, and now living in area with local ponds and two lakes, Algae Bloom happens all the time. It takes really high amounts of it to kill humans, and although "Toxic Algae Bloom" can be inhaled, again, it would take incredibly high concentrations of it to kill rapidly all at once.
We camped one weekend many years ago at a campground right next to the lake at Salton Sea, spent all night breathing that air, woke up to hundreds of dead fish along the lake shore (now THAT was a terrible smell) BUT we did NOT die from those fumes, even at such high levels.
If we go back to the carbon monoxide theory from the air from the mines — there is an odd, overlooked possibility. So, where we live in the foothills, we have roads going uphill and down and around the bends. We can drive along the top ridge of the hill and fry in 110 degrees F, go down the hill and through a narrow section between hills and drive through an air pocket of cooler air - air cooled being in the shade on the north side of the hill all day. That cool air does not move very fast or at all when the winds do not blow. So an air pocket could have formed in the apex of the "V" section of the trail where the family was found. That "V" section - those parts are known to have water draining between the sections of hillside meeting together, it could have an opening to an underground spring. If the air does not move very fast from lack of winds moving air pockets around, underground gases could have collected and formed an air pocket there, which they all could have breathed. If the winds blew overnight and dispersed the gases, no trace of the gases would be found present.
There is one more thing that is often very much overlooked and that is there is a possibility of an underground volcano fissure along that area. The name "Devil's Gulch", "Devil's Peak", and further south east — "Devil's Postpile", an area of basalt columns formed by volcanic activity right next to June Mountain and Mammoth Mountain, known dormant volcanos — right on the other side of Yosemite NP.
So, following that angle from "Devil's Gulch" along to where the South Fork of the Merced River meets the main river channel — if you keep going straight NNW along hwy 49 to where Hwy 49 meets highway 108, actually where highway 108 meets highway 120 west of Jamestown, there is an area called "Red Hills Recreational Management Area" — that section is actually the visible rim of a blown volcano. And it blew fairly recently in the last 1000 years as down the road from our house there is a rock from that volcano sitting in a field and minding its own.
But South of the area of "Devil's Gulch" along the area known as "Bootjack" (Where the heck is "Bootjack"?) there is a residential area of Mariposa County formed by Midpines, Triangle Road, Tiptop Road, Darrah Road, etc. And, my spouse, while growing up, lived in many different houses and rentals as his family moved around a lot for cheaper rents. There are houses where, on one section of the mountain, the well water contains high amounts of iron in the water and there are some sections where the water contains high amounts of sulphur - and sulphur in the underground water is a high indication of a volcano fissure.
It is highly likely that after several of the fires, the earth movement of that huge rockslide at Highway 140 back in 2006, a lack of trees or shrubs to stabilize the soil on the hillside, a fissure opened up and released some toxic gases. It need be no larger than a 1-foot-wide x 1-foot-long crack to release gases from an underground fissure. It can go undetected for years as this hiking trail is not heavily traveled, or if winds are blowing and constantly dispersing gases.
But, we locals, are thinking that, with all the family and the dog dead at once - they would have had to have been exposed and died very quickly. And, just because there are few mines in the area does not mean there are no other underground fissures or channels present.
And that’s what we have so far, until further investigation is revealed.
