Sylvia, Joan, Patti
Mar14
Foothill Regional Park Ramble
Tag Archives: outdoors
Feb28
Olompali State Park Hike
Hip Chicks Spring Flower Hike Olompali – Miwok Village – Wooden Teepees Marked
Patti invited wildflower specialist Elizabeth Sanders to lead us on a 3.3 mile hike in Olompali State Park with a 600 foot elevation gain and loss. We hiked from 10 to 12:30 pm with lots of stops for photos and flowers. Group shot was in Miwok Village. I photobombed as Patti shot the explanatory sign. Notice the wooden tee-pees in the background.
Toward the end of the hike, as we were waiting for stragglers to catch up, Beth Power was the first around the bend. I took this wide shot and created a detail of it.
May20
Russian River May 2024
Justin led us on a paddle from Steelhead Beach to Guerneville on a beautiful spring day. CFS was close to 900 so I took my pink kiwi but the current was not strong where the river was wide so I did a lot of paddling and was very tired when we got off the river at 3 p.m. The trip started with a competition for launch space at the put-in.
Inflatable Party Boat – No Paddles
Laurie Light and Justin loading up after Lunch
Liam
Liam said, “I haven’t seen you in a while, Anet, what’s going on?”
“You saw me three weeks ago at my house, Liam. At the party.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Deb
Beauty of the Russian River Highlights Canoe
That was the entire discussion of the party. When I posted these photos on the chat thread, I got only one response, from Liam, “Fun day on the r&r.”
Why did I bother to take the photos, Photoshop them and post them? Do I matter?
Apr16
Lake Hennessey-2023
I’m on the left, our leader Joachim Vobis is center. Photo by Howard Clair.
According to our leader, we had 10 kayakers, approx 8 miles, approx 3 hrs. moving time.
Liam
Liam joined on the paddle and enjoyed the much higher water. When we paddled Lake Hennessey before the water was so low we could paddle through a tunnel that went under the encircling roadway. This time, the tunnel was not even visible!
We stopped for lunch at our regular place with the nice dirt beach and the port-a-potty, across the lake from the put-in. The weather was cool to start for this mid-April day and overcast, but the sun came out before lunch and the day was superb. I enjoyed the vigorous lunchtime discussion of electric cars with engineer Joachim.
Is is bigger than a breadbox?
Justin, Frank, Joachim, Howard
Oct11
Walker Creek 2022
Justin organized a Walker Creek paddle because the optimum tides of about 5 feet would occur at about noon. This time Wayne joined us for his first paddle of Walker Creek.
We pulled our boats to a small gravel island when we stopped for lunch, but they were nearly afloat when we returned.
We hiked up a hill to enjoy lunch, and checked out the trees on the river bank, some with sweeping arrays of Spanish moss.
Walker Creek can be truly magical with the sunlight reflecting off the water creating dancing lights on the tree trunks.
Justin brought his loppers and cut back many of the large branches to clear a way for us and for the stand-up paddle-boarders we saw. The large river otters were not pleased with our intrusion!
I brought hand clippers and enjoyed the stability of my wide kiwi as I trimmed the smaller branches in our path. The nimble kiwi was great maneuvering around the snags, but a lot of work to paddle on the open stretches near the put-in. Justin in his canoe was paddling two strokes to every one of Wayne’s in his beautiful, slim ocean boat, and I was paddling two strokes to every one of Justin’s! The sun came out and it was a beautiful day. I was surprised at how little birdsong there was.
Jul5
Spring Lake July 4th 2022
There I am — Way In The Back
Nancy took this photo from her Oru foldable kayak. Lori organized a Girls Paddle for the Fourth of July with Brigette, Greer, and Robin whom I met for the first time. She is a songwriter who uses GarageBand. I learned that Brigette is three years younger than I am and was born in Austria. She and Lori each spent about $800 on gasoline to drive their Travatos to Seattle and back. A Travato gets about 16 mpg, a little more if they travel “dry” and fill their water tanks when they arrive at a site with “hookups.”
Jun6
Milwaukee River Access
Milwaukee has a beautiful River Walk with astonishing sculpture, history, and river access for watercraft small and large. From the Acqua Grylli bronze arch depicting a mythical female figure, sculpted by American Beth Sahagian, to the multiple sculptures of Gertie the Duck. As the story goes, in 1945, war-weary Milwaukee discovered that a duck had nested on the bridge pilings and was caring for eggs. Gertie and her brood evoked a continuing community interest and even a book!
Although power boats ply the Milwaukee River, the kayak access is remarkable, with easy entry from either side of the river. I was also astonished to discover that museums and many businesses were closed on Memorial Day weekend — another glaring difference from tourist-centric Sonoma County, where concealed-carry weapons notices are never found on office doors.
Acqua Grilli
Gertie and — to the left — one of her ducklings
Another Sculpture of Gertie and Her Ducklings
Easy Kayak Access on Milwaukee River
Kayaks Along The Hank Aaron State Trail
The Hank Aaron State Trail along a railroad right-of-way reclaims the environment and offers access to a beautiful stretch of the Menomonee River for canoes and kayaks.
Leaving Milwaukee was an unexpected challenge. I planned to take the Lake Express Ferry, a 2 1/2 hour ride across Lake Michigan to Muskegon, Michigan. I hoped to rent a car in Muskegon and drive to Detroit for a few days, then on to Chicago. I was dismayed to learn that, not only were there no car rentals available in Muskegon, there were no cars available to rent in Milwaukee! So I took the train to Chicago.
Lake Express Ferry
Apr26
Speed and Scale by John Doerr
Venture capitalist John Doerr’s book with an action plan for solving our climate crisis. Opened my eyes about how hard it is going to continue to be. Mentioned Elizabeth Kolbert’s hastily-written “Under a White Sky” which described a strategy to cool the earth by dispersing tiny light-reflecting particles like diamonds.
Doerr says, “Be ruthless in identifying the key risk up front — and removing it. Consider:”
- Technology Risk – Does it actually work?
- Market Risk – Does it stand out?
- Consumer Risk – Will customers actually buy?
- Regulatory Risk – Will it get approved?
- You are always raising money. Recruit a range of investors who can write large checks including corporate partners, foundations, and governments.
- Costs are king; performance matters. Consumers won’t pay more for an inferior product no matter how “green.” It must be superior, or at least equivalent: Tesla, Beyond Meat, Nest.
- Own the relationship with your customer. Sustain direct relationships with end buyers.
- Incumbents will fight. The disrupted markets are built on the premise of free-of-charge carbon pollution.
Update May 5, 2022
John Doerr, a venture capitalist, and his wife, Ann Doerr, are making a $1.1 billion donation to Stanford for a new school focusing on sustainability and climate change.
Aug7
Ziplining In The Redwoods
A couple of weeks ago I got a frantic call from my friend Martha. She was at SFO and could not find her auto ignition key to drive home. Would I drive across town to get her spare key and drive it from Santa Rosa to SFO? I did. Because it was rush hour, it took four and a half hours to get back home. To thank me, Martha treated me to a zipline through the redwoods. Here is a video of Martha on the longest of the five runs. There were also two swinging bridges that demanded balance as well as hiking uphill, and a 60-foot rappel which was as fun as I hoped. This ziplining is not cheap because it supports the Redwood Alliance which sheltered homeless this Covid winter, and provides lodging and meals for firefighters working on summer blazes in the redwoods.
You can see how smoky it is from the Dixie Fire north of Sacramento and get a sense of how dry the trees are after two years of very little rainfall. We are all masked because, two days ago, the Covid Delta variant became dominant and fast-moving and the state mandated masks indoors. Alliance required us to be masked outdoors. There was no resistance from anyone in our group.
Aug1
My Turkey Family
In mid-June, I was using the hose to water the shade trees and suddenly a turkey hen burst out from under the spear-leafed phormium, revealing a clutch of eggs. I caught myself before I hosed down the eggs and the hovering hen. She stayed for a month, never seeming to leave her spot in my front yard. Google told me that she would lay one egg a day but that they would all hatch together and the hatchlings are called “poults.”
Then, two weeks ago, she was gone, leaving this behind. I think that half of the 10 eggs hatched. I never saw her again, or the poults. But I feel like a grandmother.