Clear Lake, CA

The sunshine and we took the way north. The air was crisp and clear and we were right in the dynamic view of the field, trees, the lake, and the mountains far beyond. Quite a few cars were on the road but besides that everything was quiet. The roads that go through the mountains were new. The tree branches are covered with dense layer of mosses and lichens. The trees besides the old roads are not so, where the branches are bear and exposed. Lichens are fragile and are a good indicator of the air pollution. The traffic must have destroyed the lichen habitat along the road, and nobody knows exactly to what extent the lichens would be affected where the new roads were built.

Many parts of the mountain are private. The ads say these properties worth more than a million dollars. Some of the properties are fenced, and there stand gorgeous mansions beyond the long driveways. At one place, a river was owned by an individual and the whole area surround it was fenced. The new county road runs right through it. The property owner sold the land for the road which might damage the environment, and then fenced the land and prohibited the public access to the beautiful woods.

The clear cut definition of public and private is not so clear to me as the Californian air is. My notion of public property is something like free like in freedom. The air, the forest, the river, the mountain, the lake, the sea, and so on. In a word, the expressiveness, the proclamation of their ownership surprised me, especially where seemingly abundant resources are there for the people.