Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room What In The World Happened Here?

Lots of water. Looks like canals and dams. At first I thought it was up in SierraNevada's neck of the woods, but couldn't find it there.

And it appears North is no longer up.

Sort of reminds me of this place, where I learned to swim as a kid (the green arrow, not the house).

You might enjoy this. Do look at page 572.

There is a crossing at Illabo, near Junee, NSW Australia, but I can't find a picture. But I have traveled through it.

North is where the gizmo in the upper right corner says it is...

Thanks,
there were several staged pictures (rare that three trains would be crossing simultaneously) and I did not know that actual picture was in Nat Geo

anything noteworthy of this structure?

Yes. It's what happened (and is still happening) that is noteworthy.

148: The location is the Rio de los Santos Reyes and some canal out of Converse Ferry. 36.7645,-119.4422

But I don't know what's happenin' that only a waggabrain could dream up.

Uh, the Friant-Kern Canal crosses the Kings River, is all I can see happenin there.

Yes, bigtime water diversion there. Two canals bleed water from the Kings River, while San Joaquin River water tunnels underneath on its way south. Google map

Interesting trivia: Before water from the Kings River was diverted for irrigation of the San Joaquin Valley desert, it fed Tulare Lake, which is now dry farmland. Before the diversion, Tulare Lake apparently was the largest freshwater lake on the western side of the continent.

Second interesting trivia: Looking up Rio de los Santos Reyes, I stumbled upon this incredible kayak trip report. These guys kayaked from the Kings River headwaters to Pine Flat reservoir. Take a peek at their pictures. The Next Big Idea: Rio de los Santos Reyes

Edit: More funny stuff: Years ago, I was talking with a couple who were new to the valley area. They mentioned that for fun, they were going to go check out Tulare Lake. I'd not heard of the lake then, so I asked them about it, and they showed me where it was on a road map. Apparently in very wet years, it does reappear when all the Kings River water cannot be stored behind dams. I told them I was pretty sure all they would find was swampy farm land.

...in fact, check it out: Google Map All green farmland, at least 15 miles across, and not a single building on any of it.

So what is the waggabrain thinking, here? Last white water on the Kings? Point of confluence of Kings, San Joaquin and Kern water? Jedediah Smith's swimmin' hole? (Nope, W said its still goin on). Resurgence of castor canadensis in California? Something to do with the little blue circle, top left?

146:


Talking with wagga last night, I learned that the real hint is the number 1320, not any sort of "321" countdown.

And these:

Sigh.

This is not a clue: The dirt on Mars tastes like Hawaii.

Landing the penny on Mars and using it as a gauging target was not specific enough??? Of all the events associated with that landing, how do you get just the soil sampling from the presence of the penny???

The Hawaii taste was specifically not a clue.

The Forbes article has all the numbers you need.

More clues if anybody wants them, just don't want to drag this out.

Answer: What In The World Happened Here? CLXVIII: (148)


Glad to see that you are still beavering away at the puzzle, but it's time to drop the penny, so to speak.

This is the crossing of two rivers. After several self-crossing railroads and a railroad triple stack, it seemed time to do a river crossing. The San Joaquin crosses the Kings on it's way south to Bakersfield. I know of no other river crossing another.

Uh, I don't think so. The North distributary of the Kings joins the San Joaquin about 15 miles west of Fresno, but that's way downstream from this point. What is crossing the Kings in in the pic is not the San Joaquin, but the Friant-Kern Canal, as noted above. The F-K carries water from the San Joaquin, but it's pretty much of a stretch to say that's the river itself. The SJ river flows NW to the SJ/Sac delta, not south to Bikersfield. In fact, there's a bunch of canal crossings like this in the Valley, including the one Steve linked to, but river crossing river?

WHAT Forbes article??

Sigh.

As far as we know, no nitromethane on Mars.

148:
wagga: This is the crossing of two rivers.

saltydog: Uh, I don't think so. The North distributary of the Kings joins the San Joaquin about 15 miles west of Fresno, but that's way downstream from this point. What is crossing the Kings in in the pic is not the San Joaquin, but the Friant-Kern Canal, as noted above.

Well actually, salty, up until a year ago, the F-K canal took ALL the San Joaquin water in dry years. The river only got what they couldn't hold behind all the dams upstream. The San J riverbed was dry as a bone every summer, while the canal ran deep. Just this year, the fish won a victory, and the farmers are sharing a bit. So it all depends on how you look at it. In waggaspeak, the rivers cross there.