Over3

Y

Crescenta Valley View

Picnic

1

Annual

Awards

Banquet

1

Back-

packing

Trip

2

Mars

Trave-

logue

2

Events

& Out-

ings

2

Parks

Assess-

ment

2

DePinto 4

Chair Fred Dong

Vice Chair Jeffrey Wilson

Secretary Marlene Plummer

Treasurer Jerry Burnham

ExCom Representative John Lajeuness

Webmaster Chuck Gooley

Programs Wayne Fisher

Membership & Outings Silvia Darie

Conservation & Newsletter Bettie Pearson

VOLUME III, ISSUE VI Crescenta Valley Sierra Club Monthly Newsletter July 2016

Management Committee

Annual Awards Banquet Celebrates History of National Parks

Fred Dong, flanked by Carole Mintzer and George Watland, received the Donna Specht Fundraising Award.

The keynote speaker for the Sierra Club’s annual

awards banquet, David

Smith, delighted and enter-

tained as he described the

vitality of our country’s

parks.

The Crescenta Valley group of the

Los Angeles Sierra Club invites all you

folks to our annual July morning Hike

and Brunch at the Deukmejian Wilder-

ness Park, 3429 Markridge Rd., Glen-

dale, California, on Saturday, July 9,

beginning at 7:45 a.m. for the hike and

followed by the brunch afterwards.

This is a free event and everyone is

welcome.

Please contact Wayne Fisher, Pro-

gram Chair at 818 353-4181, for fur-

ther information.

Prior to the picnic, you’re invited to

join us for an easy to moderate hike of

Bettie Pearson received a Special Service Certificate.

Annual Fourth of July Hike and Picnic: Saturday, July 9th

Smith was selected superintendent for Joshua

Tree National Park, where

he said that he grew up

camping and climbing.

(See Awards Banquet, page 4)

(See Hike and Picnic, page 3)

PAGE 2 July 2016

CRESCENTA VALLEY VIEW

Events and Outings Date and Time 4th of July Hike & Picnic, Deukmejian Wilderness

Park

Saturday, July 9, 2016, 8:00 a.m.,

3429 Markridge Rd, Glendale

Easy backpacking trip to Islip Saddle via Pacific Crest

Trail Leaders: Karen Buehler

(karen.buehler2@gmail.com) 818-363-6216), Co-

leader: Cathy Kissinger

Saturday, July 23, 2016 to Sunday, July 24, 2016

Grand tour of 3 National Parks in the Canadian Rock-

ies, Banff, Jasper, and Yoho on a trip sponsored jointly

by the Loma Prieta & Angeles Chapters.

Fred Dong - 818-545-3878 madelinesdad@earthlink.net

Clifford Caplan - 310-376-9105 caplan04@yahoo.com

Stephanie Gross - 818-545-3878 madelinesmoth-

er@gmail.com

Monday, July 25, 2016 to Sunday, July 31, 2016

As a science systems engineer

at JPL, Dr. Amy Hale speaks sci-

ence to the engineers on flight pro-

jects and engineering to the scien-

tist.

“Scientists want to do every-

thing and anything and tend not to

be too concerned with the risks to

their expensive spacecraft whereas

engineers don’t want to do any-

thing with the spacecraft because

you might break,” joked Dr. Hale.

At the CV group’s June pro-

gram, Dr. Hale presented an over-

view of JPL’s Mars exploration

projects.

It began with the Mars global

surveyor which was orbiting Mars.

No longer operating. Had a soft-

ware glitch that ended its lifetime.

Works on MRO (Mars Reconnais-

sance Orbiter) which is still orbit-

ing Mars today.

She provided a “Mars trave-

logue” in exploring material data

about the planet. It has an atmos-

phere, made of mostly co2, which is one

percent the density of the earth’s air. “It

is not an atmosphere that you can breathe.

It would feel like a vacuum and would be

very bad, very quickly for you,” she said.

The temperature at the poles is a mi-

nus 225 degrees F; it co2 ice naturally

occurring. At the equator, the temperature

Dr. Hale shows prototype of the wheel from Curiosity to Silvia Darie, while Silvia’s daughter Audrey looks on.

Mars Exposed through the Travelogue of JPL’s Dr. Hale Hale

See Mars Travelogue, Page 3

Soak up some views and spend the night under the stars at Little

Jimmy Campground with The CV Group and Angeles Chapter Back-

packing Committee. In an “easy” backpacking trip from Islip Saddle

(6593’) via Pacific Crest Trail, a well-graded trail, climb through

chaparral and then pines in the An-

geles National Forest at Little Jim-

my Campground (7500'). The hike

is 2 1/4 miles one way. After lunch,

there will be a two-mile, round-trip

day hike to Mt. Islip (8214’). Sun-

day we will hike out.

Well-mannered dogs are wel-

come. Send e-mail with contact in-

fo, experience, recent conditioning

to Leader: Karen Buehler

(karen.buehler2@gmail.com 818-

363-6216). The co-leader is Cathy

Kissinger.

Little Jimmy Backpacking: Saturday, July 23 to Sunday, July 24

On May 3, 2016 the Los Angeles

County Board of Supervisors re-

ceived the Parks Needs Assessment

and unanimously passed a motion to

report back to the Board on or before

June 21, 2016 with a final draft parks

and recreation funding measure that

the Board will consider for adoption

and placement on the November 8,

2016 ballot. The structure of the bal-

lot measure will reflect many of the

findings of the Parks Needs Assess-

ment.

Parks Needs Assessment Update

July 2016

CRESCENTA VALLEY VIEW

PAGE 3

is about 80 degrees.

Mars is about one-half the diameter of

the earth, and has about one-third its gravity.

“If you weighed 150 lbs., you’d weigh 50

lbs.,” said Dr. Hale.

How do we get there? “We get there on

rockets. If you get the chance to see

a rocket launched, I highly recom-

mend it. They’re really fun,” she

said.

A space enthusiast said that go-

ing to Mars is like shooting a bullet

in LA and trying to hit a particular

window in a particular skyscraper in

New York.

“It’s a little disingenuous be-

cause we get to steer the shot,” she

said. She added that they use some-

thing dubbed Trajectory Correction

Maneuver (TCM) where the naviga-

tor gets to tweak the trajectory.

“We send orbiters. Spirit is a

rover; it is not operating. Mass is a

big issue. Usually rockets were used

to land the spacecraft but now a

type of “bubble wrap” is used. It

was used with the Pathfinder.

The rover Curiosity, which is

the size of a Volkswagen beetle,

was too heavy to land with an air-

bag. So a “sky crane,” was used.

The spacecraft would separate in

space, hit the atmosphere, deceler-

ate with heat shields, and jettison

its parachute so as not too con-

taminate the Mars surface.

Curiosity is roving Mars to-

day. Two Vikings land in the 70s;

pathfinder in the 90s.

Orbiters take picture of the

planet and relay those pictures

back to JPL, rovers can scoop up

Mars terrain, analyze its composi-

tion and relay data to the Orbiter.

Orbiters can do what the rovers

can’t and vice versa. It takes four

to 20 minutes to send and receive

information.

She brought a full-scale plas-

tic model (the real ones are alu-

minum) of Curiosity’s wheel. If it

rolls across something like a sharp

rock, with its Volkswagen size

and weight, the rock can punch a

hole in the wheel. Each wheel has

cables and is individually con-

trolled; a punctured wheel could

cut the cable. “[The rovers] have

to stay in the safe areas,” she said.

Mars Travelogue, from Page 2

On the trail again – the June 11th trail crew cleared more of the

Brand Lateral trail in Glendale. Karen Buehler led the group of

hard-working volunteers. The project is sponsored by Glendale’s

Parks Department.

Next Up: Jupiter

approximately 500’ gain, 3 miles, round-

trip. We will hike the scenic vineyard

trail to Dunsmore Canyon Trail, climb

up the Le Mesnager Trail.

We will then hike down to the Cooks

Canyon stream where we may take wa-

ter to water the recently planted pines

and oaks in the Park. Meet 7:45 a.m. at

Le Mesnager Barn.

Water will be available for water the

trees. Rain cancels. Leaders: Bob

Thompson and Bettie Pearson.

Hike and Picnic, from Page 2

Juno is Jupiter’s orbiter, which

arrive there on July 4th after a five-

year cruise. “We’re all very excited,”

she stated.

We know very little about Jupi-

ter,” she said. “We’ll do a lot of

measurements,” she said. They aim to

learn about Jupiter’s internal structure,

chemical composition of the air, con-

duct measurements to determine the

core, whether it’s solid or not, size,

measure the aurora, the magnetic field

around Jupiter.

“We’ll be there one earth year,

won’t be like the Mars missions, the

high radiation belts will essentially

cook our spacecraft to death,” ob-

served Dr. Hale.

If you’re interested, turn on NASA

TV around 10 P.M, on July Fourth,

and watch as they fire their engines

and go into orbit around Jupiter. In-

terested observers can go to: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv

PAGE 4

July 2016

CRESCENTA VALLEY VIEW

Dave DePinto, leading the SAFE Coali-

tion, which opposes the High Speed Rail (HSR)

routes through local communities and the An-

geles National Forest, made an announcement

last Tuesday, June 14th, at the conclusion of our

monthly program.

He said that they had learned that HSR

was preparing to send out letters asking for

permission from land owners to enter their

property to conduct tests for the proposed new

CAHSR alternative route. Property owners are

not required to grant permission.

Joshua Tree National Park is nearly 800,000 acres with

two deserts and distinct large

ecosystems. Smith expressed a

desire for people to come to

the nation’s parks.

. Last year, some 2,000,000

people visited the parks. He

wants persons from under-

served communities to visit

parks.

The first national parks be-

ing patrolled by Army cavalry

troops, referred to as Buffalo

Soldiers. These were the first

Black units to patrol the parks

for an entire season, and the

first time a Black officer, Cap-

tain Charles Young, served as

acting superintendent of a na-

tional park. Under Captain

Charles Young’s command,

troops extended roads into the

Great Forest to open the area

to visitors for the first time be-

fore there was a National Park

Service.

Kevin de León, Senate

California’s President pro

Tempore, was honored with

the Special Public Policy

Award. He addressed the audi-

ence on some key legislation

that he has authored, for ex-

ample, SB 535 which requires

that a percentage of cap-and-

trade proceeds by invested in

disadvantaged communities.

SB 350, which is a climate and

clean energy law.

Congressman Brad

Sherman spoke briefly to the

audience informing us of the

celebrated completion of the

67-mile backbone trail,

through the Santa Monica

Mountains.

CV Group Banquet attendees Mr. & Mrs. Chuck Gooley Chuck is the group’s webmaster.

Dave DePinto holding a SAFE lawn sign

David Smith, Joshua Tree Superintendent

Awards Banquet, cont’d from page 1