Clark Lake not connected to Lake Cahuilla

Lake lore

Your article on Clark Lake was interesting (“Hilary filled Clark Dry Lake 7-10 inches in August”, Neighborhood News, Oct. 3), but the writer is misinformed regarding the connection to Ancient Lake Cahuilla.

The high-water mark of the former giant lake was at 42 feet above current sea level. At that point, water spilled over the dam created by Colorado River sediments and flowed to the Gulf of California. This “bathtub ring” can still be seen in a few places. One of them is looking west from Highway 86, about 8 miles north of the intersection of County Road S-22. There is an obvious horizontal feature at the base of the mountains that is the old beach line. Besides fish traps, mollusk shells are plentiful along the sandy portions of the ancient lake’s margin. These were freshwater species from the Colorado River, along with the fish in the lake.

Now consider that Clark Lake is over 500 feet above sea level and you can appreciate that it was not connected to Ancient Lake Cahuilla. There were several lakes in Pleistocene times around what is now Borrego Springs.

There are calcium carbonate deposits along some of their shorelines, but no mollusk shells. One interesting note about the fairy shrimp: besides living in the usually dry lakes on the desert floor, I’ve seen them in small pools in granite, in the mountains west of the desert, at 4000 feet elevation. Question is, how did they get there?

Ted Caragozian

Ranchita

Hunter’s dream M.O.

Hi, Kudos to Thomas K. Arnold for hanging with Hunter twice and writing about it (“Fear and Self-Loathing in La Jolla”, Cover Story, Oct. 12). I believe the correct quote that Hunter left about Gary Trudeau was that he wanted to “rip his lungs out with a plastic fork”.

Ken Gamadge

San Diego

Reprimanded, represent!

Hugely entertaining story by Thomas K. Arnold (“Fear and Self-Loathing in La Jolla”, Cover Story, Oct. 12)... HST and I had something in common: we were reprimanded severely for releasing and publishing unflattering, unauthorized information while writing for military publications. A true role model!

Scott Marshutz

Vista

Welcome back, Ed!

First, I’m so happy to have Ed Bedford back writing great restaurant reviews!(“New Zealand, new man?”, Tin Fork, Oct. 12) And I was also happy to read his New Zealand article, as I’ve resided in Imperial Beach since 1993, and have been visiting “Ye Olde Plank Inn” since the first day I arrived here! Odd though — the photo title says “Alejandra with Scotty and Plank regular Robert,” but Scotty’s nowhere to be seen Scotty is a tremendous chef and extremely nice guy. I hope Ed continues to write for the Reader.

Donna MacKersie

Imperial Beach