I really wish I'd climbed this. I was skilled enough, in Switzerland, could likely have afforded a guide. But I didn't. Looks way too scary now, my skills have degraded, and it's likely way more popular and crowded. Oh well!

I had no interactions with motorists. Didn't do the tidal basin, though. That's always been weird for me on a bike.

On the other hand, I may be so inured to motorists that I don't notice. Park police even said I could ride against traffic, so long as I was safe. I'm safe.

At this point, I wonder about the intellect and sensibility index of people who drive into an entirely known and predicted traffic disaster. Wouldn't be surprised if the narcissism and entitlement indices were high.

On the other hand, on Hains Point and the Mall everyone seemed to be getting along and having a great time. In some areas, contact highs might have been possible!!

I had a different experience. Rode my e bike N from Mt. Vernon area - larger than usual number of people on the Mt. Vernon Trail, but not really any unusual behavior, the usual inattention, but most people behaving as one does on a multi-use path. That was true all along the way. Memorial bridge had a few more clueless than usual, but not much more than peak tourist, and better behaved than peak tourist. Parked at the kit festival, only moderate confusion, and all were polite enough. Even law enforcement acting rational. Rode up Constitution, nobody cared that I lane split. A few more oblivious peds than usual, but I'm careful. Parked by Natural History and played with dinosaurs. Nobody screwed with my bike, security let me in without a search. Then across the mall, down L'Enfant towards the Wharf - cars parked in the bike lane. I laughed, figure they all got tickets. Crossed over to East Potomac, a few unaccustomed to bikes and walking rationally, but not many, and we worked it out. Park Police dude said the point was looking good and traffic blocked, so I rode around the loop. Took some off roading, but easy and fun. The my girl is cute and needs pictures, instagram, and gotta fish people were there. Some cool bicycles. Then across 14th st bridge - that was the most zooish, but everyone behaved, and the police had just arrived to handle the parking on the ridge. Laughed about that with some folks. Then back home. Pretty easy, over all, considering the thousands of people. Having the cars immobile actually made it easier!!

Overall, one of the more entertaining trips of late. And I have to wonder about the intelligence of anyone trying to get in using anything but a bike or feet.

I'd like to see this tied into the mitochondrial DNA story, and really fleshed out with maps. Tied to archaeological cultures in more detail. I'm sure that's being done. Very interesting.

Look more like standard .22 LR training rifles to me - I even have one upstairs from 1931. Looks identical to my ancient eyes.

Thank you for your insights. Always the what might have been!

I gradually awakened as an elementary level student to wonderment that Britain assumed an absolute right to take over the world as almost vassals, to settle foreign lands with their own people, to plunder.

It started so long ago that I can't envision a path without that British imprint. Here I am, in the United States, a country settled through the pushing aside and extermination of peoples already here. What might they have become?

I first became acquainted with the EIC through the book "Indian Ocean Rovers" [see, e.g., https://www.ebay.com/itm/265792871787], belonging first to my grandfather and then my mother. As a rather precocious and curious autistic child, I spent hours reading through the exploits of the EIC ships and the pirates who pursued, and sometimes took, the EIC merchant ships. Days of cat and mouse, the long rakish hulls with sleek lateen sails getting daily closer. Trying to dodge them at night. The fearsome battles when the combatants finally closed.

It was only later that I started to understand that the Company was evil in design, evil in ends, evil in execution. That British India was effectively a slave state. The adventures and misadventures of the merchant ships were driven by astute and cunning manipulation of the people of an entire subcontinent with the goals of power and riches.

I plunged into other books. Stories of Cawnpore Well and the Black Hole of Calcutta - always written from the British perspective. Seemed to me, even as a child, that the violence and treachery began with the invaders.

Years later, the Smithsonian had an exhibit of early photography of India, with the British figuring extensively in the images, especially those in the military. The complete, absolute, insufferable arrogance and entitlement was clear, lording over all the heathens around them.

Yet somehow people from this subcontinent still get along with the British, possibly better than the other way around.

The EIC / British story of India deeply influenced me as a child, a child of almost pure Celtic origins, Welsh, English, and Irish, but not of the landed privileged class, rather of the oppressed working class. The vision presented in books and by my experience of the primary class divide showed me inequality, exploitation, and evil very early in my life, an older version of the world gone crazy in pursuit of power, while the soft green world of my summers was punctuated by the scars of Hilter's pursuit of land, power, and domination.

So much additional context and detail in the simple article referenced. Brought back so many memories of early reading, and put them in a broader context. Enjoyed very much.