For 89th Birthday, Vaughn Wants to Conquer Namesake

Norman D. Vaughn expects to celebrate his 89th birthday in grand fashion, atop a mountain he last visited in 1928--one already named after the distinguished climber from Anchorage, Alaska.

Vaughn and 13 others--including his wife--are expected to reach the summit of the 10,302-foot Mt. Vaughn in Antarctica on Monday.

It will be the first time Vaughn has seen Mt. Vaughn since Admiral Richard E. Byrd named it in honor of his contributions during a geological expedition--the first by Americans into the Antarctic interior--nearly 70 years ago.

Vaughn was the chief dog-handler during that expedition across the Ross Ice Shelf.

If successful, this will be the first ascent of the mountain.

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Irvine Lake, thanks to the regular stocking of trophy-sized rainbow trout and catfish, has long been one of the Southland’s most productive fisheries.

But that might change late next fall.

The Serrano Irrigation District, which owns the lake with the Irvine Ranch Company, next fall will begin dredging for saleable gravel and sand and to remove accumulated silt in order to regain lost storage space. The project could last 10 years, said Dave Noyes, general manager of Serrano Irrigation District.

“We will gain about 9,000 acres,” Noyes said.

The water in Irvine Lake supplies drinking water to Villa Park and is also used for agricultural purposes in the area.

But it is also home to the Southland’s largest trout and catfish. How the dredging affects fishing remains to be seen.

“It’s going to be a new experience for everybody,” said Steve Miller, general manager of Outdoor Safaris International, which operates the concession at the lake. “Our attitude is that we’re certainly going to try (to maintain a healthy and productive fishery). Our business is at stake.”

Noyes said contractors at CalMat Co., in charge of the project, told him that a silt blanket will be used to keep the lake from clouding.

“It’ll be just like there’s a pier out there, that’s all,” Noyes said.

The pier will have a conveyor-belt with huge buckets attached, which will methodically dig material from the lake bottom.

“It may just be that it will just force the trout to other areas,” Miller said, trying to remain optimistic.

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When a cougar, also known as a mountain lion, attacks and kills a human, as happened Saturday to a hiker in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park east of San Diego, experts go into action. It has happened a lot lately.

A chronology of what transpired after the attack on 56-year-old Iris Kenna, as told by Department of Fish and Game warden Bob Turner and reported by DFG information officer Pat Moore:

Kenna had parked her pickup truck at a Boy Scout camp just off a dirt road within the 26,000-acre park and set out on an early-morning hike. At 11 a.m., a backpack was found on an access road in a new area of the park by two women hikers. Thirty-five yards down the road, they discovered fresh blood, a hat and a pair of glasses.

The two women ran to a park office.

At 11:45 a.m., park rangers Earl Jones and Shane Cole discovered Kenna’s body in a lush ravine about 40 yards off the road. The body had not been covered, perhaps because the lion was scared off by the two hikers. Mountain lions usually cover their prey before leaving it.

At 1:10 p.m., Turner was contacted. He arrived 10 minutes later but was denied access by San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies, who were conducting an investigation. At 4 p.m., Turner was allowed in and confirmed what was already known--that Kenna was killed by a cougar.

Turner then located and shot a doe to use as bait for the lion. At 7 p.m., the body was removed and the doe carcass was set in place.

A radio collar was attached to the deer carcass so Turner could receive a signal if the doe moved.

At 8 p.m., the doe moved. Turner, a houndsman with six dogs and four additional DFG wardens and four federal trappers, arrived 45 minutes later. Most of the doe had been eaten.

At 9 p.m., the dogs were set free, and at 9:30 p.m. a lion was treed and shot, about a half-mile from the site of the killing.

Based on findings of not only deer meat but human hair and scalp in the lion’s stomach, it was determined Monday that the lion, a 116-pound male that showed no signs of sickness or disease, killed Kenna.

Wardens also said Kenna’s death probably could have been avoided.

“The fact that the backpack was untouched and 35 yards from the body indicates that she dropped the pack and started running for it,” Moore said.

“That only triggers the instinct in the animal to attack.”

Though human instinct might be to run from a menacing cougar, the best way to avoid an attack should an encounter occur, experts say, is to stand your ground, throw sticks or rocks at the animal and make as much noise as possible.

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With rockfish and whitefish providing most of the catch off local shores, many fishermen are venturing south of the border to get their big-fish fix.

Steve Doreck is one. And the Long Beach angler had all he could handle while fishing off Cabo San Lucas aboard the Gaviota VIII.

Using a dead dorado as bait, Doreck hooked a blue marlin that worked him over for nine hours and 20 minutes before he managed to reel in the beast.