[Geysers] More About Nonsense

[Mike O'Brien]

Smokey sez:

>     Just like the hot period during the "disturbance" activity around
> Porkchop in 2003.  It has happened before!  It will most likely happen
> again.

	I still obsess over this.  I have always wondered why, if
this sort of disturbance has occurred before, it was necessary to
close the basin.  I talked to a ranger who was there and she said
it was because visitors expected trails to be safe and weren't
prepared to have their feet scorched by high ground temperatures,
which is what was happening.

	The answer I came up with sounds really dumb, but I'm
starting to believe it.  I mean, one explanation is that the Park
Service is just following the rest of U.S. society along the
"eliminating all danger eliminates all liability" path, but I
resist that.  Let's take it that the proximate reason they closed
the basin was due to visitor complaints of foot-scorching.  Anyone
who knows different, please post.

	So, why were people getting their feet burned this time,
but not the last time things got this hot?  I think it's because
footwear has changed.  I think that modern sneakers are much more
comfy than what people used to wear, but are much worse at
thermal insulation.

	Some very real foot blisters would be likely reason enough
to close the basin even if the people in charge did know these sorts
of ground temperatures had occurred before.  I don't think people
were getting burned before.  Therefore I think we can expect more
closures in the future, at least until a future generation of
footwear displays better thermal insulation.

	FWIW back in 1966 I owned one pair of shoes I found I
couldn't wear on the streets of Tucson, where I spent that summer,
because the sidewalks burned my feet right through the soles.
They were made of some sort of synthetic: quite thick but terrible
insulators.  My other pairs of shoes, no problem.

Mike O'Brien