On Saturday, Kate and The Dog and I went out on a little exploration of the area just south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The goal was to try to see some of the pumping facilities that the state and federal water projects use to, in essence, reroute the bulk of the Sacramento River into the San Joaquin Valley and beyond. We wound up at Bethany Reservoir, which in a sense is the headwaters of the California Aqueduct, which carries water all the way to Los Angeles. While we were walking on the reservoir’s northern rim, we found a brand new cross. On the side facing away from the lake, it bore some images with the legends “U.S. Navy” and “Dennis the Menace.” On the side facing the water, it bore the name Eric C. Wright; there was a birth date from 1975 and a death date, too, from two days before last Christmas. The story is here and here.
