So Many Things - So Little Time

We have done so many things and seen so much in the last three days that it is hard to find the time to put it all down on paper. We have camped at Medicine Lake in Northern California, a beautiful oasis of water tucked just south of Lava Bed's National Monument. We have walked on a mountain of glass obsidian shot from an eruption of Glass Mountain. We have canoed the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge in Oregon to go bird watching. We have walked among the cliffs of what was once an island in Tule Lake.

There is great significance to these cliffs and a portion of them is walled off by high barbed wire fencing. These cliffs contain over 5000 petroglyph symbols dating back 2500 to 4500 years ago. Although it is apparently difficult to interpret these markings, some researchers hold that they tell the story of Modoc Indian life here. The picture here represents an Indian woman with a basket on her head.

These petroglyph cliffs are also home to over 20 variety of raptors, including falcon, kestrel and red-tailed hawk. While we stood at the base of the cliffs looking up at the mud nests of the cliff swallows, a circle of falcons honored us and flew overhead.

Close behind them was a snowy white owl swooping down to greet us at eye level. The clumps of bone, fur and feathers scattered in droppings beneath the cliffs, suggests that owls frequent this once sacred place.

Today Petroglyph Point stands on a bed of hard rock, where once it was surrounded by water. Artists were required to approach by canoe to do their picking, drilling and abrasion work to create these images. It is unfortunate that these sacred carvings have been vandalized so that barbed wire is required to protect them, and it is even more unfortunate that the lake they once overlooked have been altered and drained. Now the constant pelting by lake bottom sediment to their faces may scour away their history forever.

Modoc Indian creation story:

"One day Kamookumpts was resting on the east shore of Tule Lake. Looking around he realized that there was nothing anywhere except the lake. He decided to make land. He dug some mud from the lake bottom and made a hill. He used the mud from this hill to create land and mountains. He also created rivers, streams, plants and animals. Creating everything was tiring work, so Kamookumpts dug a hole in which to sleep under Tule Lake. He left the hill he had made to mark the spot. As the mud dried the hill became rock and is visible today as Petroglyph Point."

"Someday Kamookumpts will surely wake up and look out over the world he made. He may be angry at how things have changed and bring the water back to cover Tule Lake again, changing the world so that it is again like the world he first created."