YOSEMITE VALLEY, Calif. (CN) – This feature was supposed to be about my backpacking trip in Yosemite National Park with a federal judge who has a deep and abiding love of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Instead, a juvenile rattlesnake intervened to make this tale about something else entirely – or almost entirely.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup has handed down some of the most important decisions and still presides over some of the most pivotal cases in America. He recently garnered headlines for tossing a potentially groundbreaking climate change case from Bay Area cities not because he doesn’t believe global warming exists, but because the issue must be confronted by the nation’s legislative and executive branches.
Alsup astounded court-watchers by learning enough computer coding to understand the nuances of the landmark Oracle v. Google, a test of computer programming and copyright law.
In 2014, he found the federal government compiled its no-fly list without sufficient due process protections in one of the first rulings on the controversial practice.
And this year, Alsup presided over the now-settled spat between Google-owned Waymo and Uber about the future of self-driving vehicles. This is where my colleague and friend, Bridget Clerkin, comes in.
A freelance journalist, Clerkin focuses on the automotive industry and emerging technologies like electric vehicles, connected cars, smart streets and self-driving cars.
When it became apparent Waymo v. Uber was headed to trial, she left San Diego where she is based and headed to Alsup’s courtroom in San Francisco.
During her six days of trial coverage before the parties abruptly settled, she compiled a feature on Alsup that included an interview with him about the Sierra. Judges are typically reluctant to talk to journalists, but Alsup and Bridget found they had a connection: extended backpacking journeys.
Bridget and I summited Mt. Whitney last September, camping overnight on the mountain’s shoulder and rising predawn to tackle the last bit of trail to the top of the famed 14,505-foot mountain that is the highest point in the Sierra Nevada and the lower 48 states.
But our experience in the Sierra pales in comparison to the judge’s.
“Name a place in the Sierra and I’ll tell you what I know about,” Alsup says at one point, smiling gamely. And it’s true.
After 150 backpacking adventures throughout the range (he has a list), Alsup can tell you with alarming specificity about a secluded campsite with good access to water below The Minarets near Mammoth Lakes, or the best place to camp above Guitar Lake in the shadow of Whitney.
But his knowledge isn’t relegated to terrain; Alsup possesses a comprehensive understanding of Sierra history too – from the dispute between Josiah Whitney and John Muir over the geologic causes of the enormous domes and other wondrous granite formations of the range to a detailed rundown of the creation and management of Yosemite National Park.
Alsup knows and loves the Sierra. And when he got wind of Bridget’s Whitney ascent, they started talking more about the mountains. In the end, the judge invited Bridget on a two-night backpacking trip to begin in the famed Yosemite Valley.