Sierra

Whether by necessity or choice, a quarter of Americans take at least one vacation by themselves each year. Some solo travelers are single. Some have partners who dislike travel or have different interests or can't get away. Some just crave freedom. But all face the same question: What's the best trip for the person traveling alone? "The key is to know yourself," said Beth Whitman, author of a guide for women traveling alone and founder of Wanderlustandlipstick.com , a website devoted to advice and tours for women on the go. "There are times when you just need to get away, to recuperate.

For thousands of years, Yosemite toads thrived 10,000 feet high in the Sierra Nevada range, emerging from partially frozen lakes in spring to reproduce and eat enough insects to survive another season of hibernation under the ice. Since the 1960s, however, the once common toad with a musical mating call has been decimated by livestock grazing, fungal infections, pesticides and the appetites of non-native stocked trout. On Wednesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed federal Endangered Species Act protection for the Yosemite toad and the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog, along with 2 million acres of proposed critical habitat across the range for the cold-climate amphibians.

Expert skiers and snowboarders who'd like to take on the steeps in Huckleberry Canyon at the Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort  off Highway 50 near South Lake Tahoe now have a guided snowcat option. Instead of hiking to reach the terrain beyond the lift-served areas, the bold can ride in a heated snowcat to access untouched powder in 320 acres of open bowls and gladed tree runs, as well as descents through rock chutes and drops over cornices and (yikes!) cliffs. This terrain has long been praised by Tahoe locals as some of the best and most accessible backcountry in the region.

The newly formed group of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep barreled up rugged Olancha Peak last month, the 10 females and four males becoming the first new herd of the endangered animals reintroduced in California in 25 years. Once abundant throughout the region's alpine areas, the state's population of Sierra Nevada bighorn had dwindled to two herds by the 1970s. Their numbers have been devastated by disease spread by contact with domestic sheep and goats and unregulated commercial hunting.

This was an unlucky year to get lucky in the lottery for Yosemite High Sierra Camps reservations. The five seasonal camps , assembled each year at high elevations in the park's spectacular back country, were supposed to open as early as this month, but they have been delayed by this year's mighty Sierra snowpack . "We've pushed the dates back four times, starting about a month ago," said Lisa Cesaro, spokeswoman for DNC Parks...

As noted Thursday , U.S. 395 is full of fiery yellows and reds as the leaf-peeping season moves into lower elevations. The way to see all this is to take the 395 north toward Mammoth, then take some of the canyon roads west. Here are a couple more worth mentioning: The June Lake Loop is spectacular right now. Clear skies and daytime temps in the 60s make for great hiking and photography. Best June Lake stretch is just past the village and down past Silver Lake, where tunnels of aspen line the road and deer come out to feed just before dusk.

Jerry Brown, the once and possibly future governor of California, is the only high-profile Democrat hoping to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger -- and has long been the front-runner in voter surveys. Yet nine months before election day, Brown's bid to win his old job back remains in an "exploratory" phase. And some Democrats wish their candidate had heeded his own joking promises to declare his intentions "when the snows fall in the Sierras." Brown, 71, adapted that phrase from another former governor, his father, Pat Brown, but remained silent when white powder began piling high in the mountains late last year.

Regarding Lucretia Bingham's story on the Mono Hot Springs Resort ("Sierra Secret," Aug. 9): While the article was detailed and accurate, she failed to mention that the resort is adjacent to a well-kept forestry service campground. The resort and campground are open June through September only. The sinking feeling I experienced upon seeing the article is that she revealed this well-kept "Sierra secret" to 1.4 million Times Travel section readers. In the 18 years that I have known about Mono Hot Springs, I shared it with only six of my most appreciative friends.

Gradual widening of the main arteries linking Southern California and the eastern Sierra will result in the probable completion of a four-lane highway from the Los Angeles County line to the Nevada border by the end of the century, according to a Caltrans official here. Kit Birmingham, program manager of transportation programs for District 9, said that 60% to 62% of California 14 and U. S. 395 will be four-lane by 1992, according to the agency's current five-year plan.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony is visibly animated as he talks about cats, takeout chicken and rice pudding. The 61-year-old cardinal is up before dawn, but not before his cat, Miguel. "Either the fellow with the leaf blower wakes up Miguel or Miguel wakes him up, but the two of them start around 4:15. So, I resist till about 5," said the head of the nation's most populous Catholic archdiocese (3.6 million people).

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. - Howard Sheckter was a painfully shy 10-year-old when he found his calling in a Glendora hailstorm. As lightning and thunder crackled all around him, he looked up and felt chunks of ice bounce off his cheeks. The experience ignited an obsession. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article misspelled Sheckter's name as Schecter. "My mother's telephone bills were huge because I was calling the weather service 10 times a day," said Sheckter, now 62. "One day, my mother called the operator and asked, 'What number is this?

When snow surveyors headed into the Sierra Nevada on Thursday for the most important measurement of the season, they found only about half the snowpack that is normal for the date. It could have been a lot worse - considering that the last three months in California have been the driest of any January-through-March period on record, going back to 1895. It has been a winter of extremes in the state, beginning with an unusually wet November and December and ending with a string of parched months.

Federal experts on Tuesday gave a potentially passing grade to the inmate medical care provided at a California prison in Tuolumne County, the third state prison to get such a review, despite lapses in care and the suspected carbon monoxide poisoning death of an inmate firefighter. The latest evaluation concludes the Sierra Conservation Center will be providing adequate medical care once planned building improvements are made. The prison was inspected by experts working for the U.S. District Court, which is monitoring inmate care statewide.

A former Sierra Madre police union official whose pay raise was delayed after he led a no-confidence vote against the police chief may sue for retaliation in violation of his free speech rights, a federal appeals court decided Friday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit by Officer John Ellins, who headed the Sierra Madre Police Assn. from 2006 to 2010, against former Police Chief Marilyn Diaz. The police chief should have known that "depriving Ellins of salary in retaliation for his protected speech was unconstitutional," Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote for the court.

CIF state basketball championships Friday at Sleep Train Arena, Sacramento Girls Division V: Chatsworth Sierra Canyon (23-9) vs. Los Altos Hills Pinewood (23-7), 10 a.m. - Sierra Canyon sophomores Kennedy Burke (6 feet 1) and Cheyanne Wallace (5 feet 10) scored 28 and 20 points, respectively, in the regional final. The Trailblazers are making their first state championship appearance. Pinewood is seeking its seventh state title. The pick: Sierra Canyon. Girls Division III: Mission Hills Alemany (31-5)

DUNLAP, Calif. - A wildlife sanctuary in the Sierra foothills where an intern was killed by a lion last week reopened Sunday with her mother's blessing.  Wendy Dabbas, president of Project Survival's Cat Haven, read a grief-filled letter from Dianna Hanson's mother at a news conference before visitors entered. "I am pleased that Cat Haven is reopening today and share in their sorrow in the loss of Cous Cous," Donna Hanson wrote. "It is my desire that they continue their mission in support of saving my daughter's beloved creatures.

Fighting fires--In Friday's Times, military crews battling wildfires in the Sierra were misidentified. They were part of the Army National Guard.

High-altitude dust blown thousands of miles across the Pacific from Asian and African deserts can make it rain and snow in the Sierra Nevada, according to new research that suggests tiny particles from afar play a role in California's water supply. The study, published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science, grew out of researchers' questions about two similar Sierra storms in winter 2009. Even though the storm systems carried the same amount of water vapor, one produced 40% more precipitation than the other.