Eagle Lake

A lightning-caused fire roared through the Santa Cruz Mountains near Los Gatos today, forcing as many as 4,000 people to abandon their homes and cabins. Dubbed the Lexington fire, the 13,800-acre blaze was only one of nine major fires burning out of control in California. All totaled, an estimated 256 square miles of brush and timberland were ablaze in what U.S. Forest Service information officer Bob Swinford said was the worst fire season in California since 1980.

The "fine-tuning" of Crowley Lake will continue, but don't expect fishing to get much better than it is now. Judging from opening weekend statistics, the Eastern Sierra reservoir, perhaps the most popular trout fishery in the state, could be at or near its peak. "We're off to a boomer of a start, almost too good," said Curtis Milliron, the Bishop-based biologist with the Department of Fish and Game who initiated the current management plan at Crowley. "We'll just have to see what happens."

The prosecutor who charged Kobe Bryant with felony sexual assault and has played a prominent role during a full year of battles in the case announced Wednesday that he would not take part in the upcoming trial. Dist. Atty. Mark Hurlbert said in a statement he would leave the day-to-day prosecution of the basketball star to three underlings because he must shift his focus to other cases in his Colorado mountain district.

Curtis Milliron advises trout fishermen to give Crowley Lake another chance. "It was very slow," Milliron said of last weekend's season opening at the centerpiece of the Eastern Sierra. "But the good news is that the size of fish was considerably up." Milliron is the California Department of Fish and Game fishery biologist dedicated to restoring Crowley as a treasure trove of trout. His figures show that although anglers averaged only one catch every three hours last Saturday--down from 1.

The parade of cars and trucks stretched more than 250 miles, from Los Angeles through Bishop and up toward the peaks of the Eastern Sierra. World War II had just ended, and for thousands it was time to resume the spring pilgrimage to a region that now contained, under the biggest and bluest of skies, a body of water measuring 6 miles long and 3 miles wide -- more than twice the size of any other nearby.

Elegant epitaphs often grace tombstones in old mountain towns, but there are no tombstones here. The land is too expensive in this Rocky Mountain ski resort, and some worry headstones might spoil their view. Neighboring Minturn is the nearest resting place for the dead. Few people can afford to live here, either. That has helped make the celebrated mining town of Leadville, 45 miles away, perhaps the world's highest bedroom community, at 10,200 feet.

Prosecutors plan to retain a strangulation expert in the sexual assault case against Kobe Bryant, an indication to legal analysts that evidence against the Laker star points to the use of force. During a budget meeting in Frisco, Colo., on Thursday, Dist. Atty. Mark Hurlbert detailed the list of experts he plans to assemble, according to Lake County Commissioner Ken Olsen.

Forecast for the April 28 jamboree otherwise known as the Eastern Sierra general trout season opener: Bishop, 84 degrees and sunny; Mammoth Lakes, 62 and partly cloudy; June Lake, 47 and mostly sunny; Bridgeport, 63 and partly cloudy. Reassuring? Perhaps. But the wise angler will pack heavy clothing and carry chains, as blizzards can materialize unexpectedly in this region. However, even the wise angler can leave the auger home this time.

When the wind is calm on the high, empty desert of northwestern Nevada and the only sound is a Hereford bawling for water, a profound aloneness clamps a dry hand on most who venture very far from the normal dirt roads. But not on Denny Ellerman. Having never lived in a city, having never worked at anything but being a cowboy, he is forever a man who prefers to work alone and ride 15 miles on a day that may begin at 3 a.m.