My name is Gina Clugston, and I am the owner, publisher, editor, reporter, photographer, community liason, business manager and chief worrier at Sierra News Online (SNO). I started this little project sitting at my kitchen table in 2012, and have devoted every waking hour, and half my sleeping hours (just ask my husband) to the care and feeding of SNO. ...

EASTERN MADERA COUNTY — When I began having chest pains and shortness of breath last Monday evening, I didn’t immediately grab the phone and dial 911. I grabbed my computer and started Googling symptoms of heart attacks in females, in an effort to judge whether this really was an emergency, not knowing if my insurance would pay for the ambulance. ...

Written by Matt Powers — It’s Actually Not Hard to Garden in the Foothills I’ve heard it all, and I have a large garden in Coarsegold with no fences, poisons, or chemical fertilizers. It took years of trial and error, research, and education in permaculture to understand the complexity of our region though, on that journey, I found easy ways ...

We headed north to Hetch Hetchy to see what those waterfalls were looking like. We kept a lookout for rattlesnakes and bears along the trail and had a surprising encounter with one of these. Where: Yosemite National Park Distance: 11.25 Miles Difficulty: Moderate Elevation Range: 3,695′ to 4,459′ Date: April 5, 2016 Maps: Ackerson Mountain and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Topographic Quads We ...

Written by Virginia Eaton —  I love wet and stormy weather, however, every time a storm moves in, every old injury speaks up and reminds me of its presence. I know that I’m not alone; unsettled weather can be hard on the body once you’ve hit a “certain age.” The old wives’ tale that you can predict bad weather moving ...

COARSEGOLD — Minarets student Makayla Demeusy invites the community to a very special dinner that will benefit a church mission while giving locals a chance to dress up and dine out. “For my Senior Project I am having an Elegant Dinner and Silent Auction,” explains Makayla, 17, of the event that’s set for Friday, Apr. 15 at the Coarsegold Community ...

Written by Steven Schumaker — We are kind of thrown into adulthood. We all have different situations, obviously. We all come from different places, different backgrounds, so when somebody gets mad at you for complaining about something that happened to you that you think was rough, you won’t understand why. The answer is we are only used to what we ...

“Yosemite’s Cowboys, Indians and The Old West” book is back in print! The Mysterious Rattlesnake Tree?? How did the Yosemite Firefall begin? Were there stagecoach hold-ups on the roads to Yosemite? Who better to tell these stories than the Old Stagecoach drivers who lived through the early days of Yosemite National Park history. Who was the first to climb Half ...

I had gotten word that the San Joaquin River Trail was loaded with many different types and colors of wildflowers putting on a great show. We had to check it out. Where: Bureau of Land Management, San Joaquin River Gorge Special Management Area, Millerton Lake State Recreation Area Distance: 9.41 Miles Difficulty: Easy to Moderate Elevation Range: 564′ – 1,279′ Date: March ...

Introduction by Virginia Eaton — In last week’s blog, I talked about massage as being good for the body and mind. Many of my readers had questions about other types of bodywork, and I solicited my friend and fellow health practitioner, Ruth Smiley, to talk about Cranial Sacral Therapy (CST). I have experienced CST by itself and in conjunction with ...