isabella lake ca
wow my doppleganger
did you notice how we just hit the message board together in perfect
synch
& like from out of nowhere too
& just a footnote here
that it is not the midwest in general but iowa in particular where
these shortest county lines will be found
i know because thats where i found them & reported them to jack from
& thats another beauty of a question you have just added now
will have to think about it too
now as for last night
or really it was this morning already
i pulled into badwater basin at about moonrise as expected
& it was as completely deserted as i had also expected
& indeed required for my stunt
but i had forgotten about the huge mountain on the east that blocked
the moon
so i had to go poking around with a dim flashlight
still i was able to find the familiar 282 feet below sea level sign
& the associated nps presentations proclaiming this the lowest point
in the western hemisphere
& was about to dig a quick 4 foot hole in the easily shovelable borax
sands beneath & behind the sign
so as to bring the lowest point in death valley down to 286 feet
& thus down to exactly 1000 feet above the 1286 foot depth of the
dead sea also reported in bus&ss
when i saw the nps display reporting the depth of the dead sea
surface at not 1286 any more but 1360 feet
yikes
a 78 foot drop since van zandt
so i stopped dead in my tracks to realize the dead sea is evidently
gaining on death valley far faster than i could possibly shovel them
back into millennial harmony
still i came to dig & to at least break the record too
& that i did before stopping at a depth of about a foot & a half
for a new lowest point in the west of 283 feet below sea level
now some will say
but you cant just do that
thats not the natural level but the manmade lowest point in the west
& besides
there you go vandalizing the national parks again
nobody will recognize that as a new record but only as a new crime
surely you jest
& i say
as i have said before in relation to all highpoints & lowpoints
since when is man outside of nature
& then off to the best & most peaceful sleep of the journey
which was interrupted at daybreak by the usual throng of humanity
who all came to stand & mug in the cool of the morning by the 282
foot sign
& it seemed
to also peer down into the peculiar hole now behind it
& they all noticed the new hole & many could be seen pointing at it &
remarking on it
so i returned to the scene also just to see what was so interesting
& lo & behold
the hole had filled halfway up with water in the 4 hours since i had
dug it
tho the night had been as dry & profoundly starry there as usual
& i realized then
it is just a matter of where the water table happens to be at any
moment that determines the official surface levels of both the
badwater basin & the dead sea
the official numbers are probably just averages or the last time
anyone noticed
but if the water table was at about average this morning
as i reckon it was
then for the few moments or hours it took for my initially dry hole
to fill halfway up with water
the depth of the the deepest point in death valley was 283 rather
than 282 feet
of course being in such conditions gets one to thinking about many
things
the nps presentations made it clear not only that the dead sea is the
lowest point in the world
but that it is only 1 of the 6 depressions that exceed death valley
in depth
all in the old world
3 in africa & 3 in asia
& that death valley is not only the worlds 7th deepest depression
& therefore the sabbatical member & grand finale of this rainbow
series
but indeed it is the lowest point in the world outside the old world
it is as if the 7 wonders of the world of depth simply couldnt be
completed until the new world was discovered
& another thing
why the full global gamut of lowpoints should have begun expressly at
the dead sea & ended just as expressly at death valley is another
question i have been pondering
since one gets a sense under such awesome conditions anyway that
there is in reality no such thing as death or dead or dying or any of
that
so why begin & end this topic with such a deliberate absurdity
but here my time is running out again
so i will have to return to this marvelous happenchance of
coincidence in a later message
after i also get to ponder it some more
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "nj55er" <spookymike@a...>
wrote:
> >>>County boundaries only, excluding Alaska, with all due apologies
> to our northern brethren. Looks like Apache/Navajo in AZ take the
> prize.
>
> Jack Parsell's midwestern counties whose common border may only be
the
> width of the road crossing the border will be hard to beat for the
> "shortest" title.
>
> On a related subject, would anyone like to name the U.S. county that
> borders on the most other U.S. counties? There is a single answer.
>
> spooky
>
>
>
> --- In BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "acroorca2002" <orc@o...>
wrote:
> > special to spooky mike
> >
> > still waiting for your decision as to whether boroughs or
judicial
> > divisions or other miscellaneous jurisdictions will answer to
your
> > question about longest county line in america
> > but if you really literally mean county line & county line only
> > & if you also rule out natural borders of presumably infinite
length
> > i would bet your winner if not several winners in a row will be
> found
> > here in arizona
> >
> > just as i would double up on iowa to win & place & show
> > in your shortest county line category
> > at several of its penequadripoints
> >
> > but i am just winging it both here & there
> >
> > the actual research remains to be done
> >
> >
> > also winging my way back toward aznvut now
> > just to see exactly how far off line the easily spotted tall
bogus
> > marker is from the short real ones that are usually overlooked
> > & to review the puzzle of how to get a clear sight line between
> these
> >
> > but this stop is just en route to a real caper i have in mind for
> > death valley
> >
> > getting ahead of myself tho
> >
> > just overexcitement as usual i guess