19760701 (ll)
Journal: July 1, 1976
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Mirror Image Letter: I wrote several mirror-image letters to Susie my second field season in Grand Junction when she stayed behind to work in Lafayette in the summer of 1976. I mastered the art of writing backwards from right to left rather than the usual left to right after learning some time ago that Leonardo de Vinci, who was also left handed, wrote all his notes that can only be read in a mirror. They didn’t have pencils in his day, only ink that took a few seconds to dry. Writing on paper left-to-right by a left hander smears the ink. Writing right-to-left gives the ink time to dry. Leonardo figured it out and made all his note writing from right-to-left in a mirror image of normal words. I spent hours figuring out how to write as Leonardo wrote his notes then it was quite easy to write that way. Afterward I wrote several letters to Susie that she could only read by holding the letter up to a mirror, or taking a few minutes figuring out herself how to read mirrored handwriting. Reading is much easier than writing. She figured out the reading and said afterward that my handwriting actually improved in the mirror images and she better than anyone knew about my handwriting style, illegible at first glance. Transcription of the July 1 letter follows images of the original and mirrored copies.

Mirror Image Letter

Friday July 1, 1976
Dear Susie,
I just came back from the field last night. The trip took me to the San Juan Mountains again, it seems I have an attraction for those things I find difficult to ignore. At least this time I had an excuse related to my thesis; I wanted to climb Horsefly Peak and look at the glacial till that mantles the ridges in the immediate area. Horsefly Peak is a dull looking prominence rising above the haze shrouded flat horizon of the Uncompahgre Plateau. However, that dull looking blip on the horizon provides one of the most expansive vistas in Colorado, if not the country. The majestic San Juan rising to more than 14,000 feet at Mt. Sneffles in the SE, Handies, Red Cloud, Wetterhorn, and, the grandfather of the San Juan, Uncompahgre Peaks are to the east, fill 90° of horizon with soft, forest covered, deep green, almost black, foothills increasingly rapidly sloping upwards towards the rocky aretes, horns, and crags of the glacially sharpened peaks. Nestled in the high alpine stepped valleys above timberline but below snow speckled peaks and aretes, are the bright green meadows of the San Juans. It is these meadows that give the San Juans their own peculiar, distinguishing and incomparably pleasing aesthetic appeal. In especially favored pockets, glistening white patches of snow cling to winter and offer an extended, wet, lush spring to the flower of the alpine tundra. The mix of the greens of the forest and tundra with the white snow and ever present summer cumulus billows embellish the grey matrix of the rocks stained in many places by brilliant reds, yellows, oranges, vermilions, chartreuses, and aquamarines of oxidized streak, patches and layers.

While I was on Horsefly Peak a local thunder-shower enveloped the San Miguel of the southern horizon in a blue grey mist. Swinging SW and W the Great Sage Plain is broken the Abajo and La Sal laccolithic mountains barely visible through the bluish haze of the afternoon western sky. To the NW stretches 80 miles of the NE sloping, greenish black forest covered Uncompahgre Plateau. Barely marking the horizon behind the plateau is the line of Book Cliffs. Approaching and swinging to the north the Book Cliffs give way to your favorite mountain, Grand Mesa, which looms large and dark to fill the northern skyline. NE lie the West Elk and Elk Mountains as a backdrop to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. In the lowlands between the skyline and Horsefly Peak lay the entire Grand Valley from Ouray to beyond Grand Junction. In short my entire thesis area can be seen from the summit, so my trip was not completely without justification. I tried to take a panorama of the view like Dad has done at the farm, but my misunderstanding with my “foolproof” camera continues and I lost the entire roll of color film from my trip up Uncompahgre Peak. Oh well, maybe I’ll figure it out some day. But until then I’ll just keep trying. The pictures that did come out are very good, so I have gotten some good out of the camera.

Oh well, enough for now, I hope you can figure out this letter, it’s sort of a puzzle. I really just want to see if I could write this way because it will allow me to use a fountain pen if I ever have to. Also I wanted to see how right handed people can write by pulling and not pushing their arm across the page. Actually it feels pretty good, but I don’t know whether or not to develope the skill. So until later, I love you.
Love
Scott

(written in normal script) P.S. Dont throw this away, there is a simple way to read it.