natural world (170)

Downhill Skateboarding Spot in Northern California

Driving north along the California coast, heading north from Mendocino, Hwy. 1 crosses the mountains  north of Ft. Bragg (a way more real town than Mendocino) to join up with Hwy. 101. After you climb to the ridge top, there’s maybe a 5-mile winding downhill until you get to the south fork of the Eel River. Looks like it would be great for experienced downhillers. Too steep for me, but for you guys who can slide and maneuver, it’s a long downhill ride. How about full moon, 3 AM when traffic is scarce? Full safety gear including bright headlight and flashing red tail lights…

   Once you hit the Eel, it’s a few miles to Smithe Redwoods State Reservation, which has:

-Big deep swimming hole

-Old growth redwoods that are truly holy

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Travel Notes From Last Week

I’m frustrated by having so much material to post, but so little time to do so. So, rather than let it all slide, here are snippets from my trip last week to Mendocino and Humboldt counties:

On the road to Petaluma, Nicasio Lake is looking dry, and it’s only June…the Russian River valley looks dry, except for the verdant vineyards, sucking all that river water up, there’s widespread overplanting of grapes in California…A hand painted sign by the river said “Salmon can’t drink wine.”…On my way back from Arcata, I came down Hwy. 101, a lot easier driving than heading back down the coast…went swimming in the Eel River again…a lot of logging trucks on the road…a spiffy little Porsche passed me, it had a GoPro camera mounted on its roof…all these people cluttering YouTube with GoPro videos of whatever…then jumped into the Russian River (above) — there are nice pools south of Hopland at Indian Rock — the water is a nice temp this time of year, no algae buildup yet…then a pint of dark Monster Ale and fish tacos at the Ruth McGowan Brewery in Cloverdale…the next day I went out to Ocean Beach in SF, it was foggy, the surfers looked like ghosts in the mist…2 lifeguards in their trucks, reminded me of my lifeguarding years at Lake Tahoe, Santa Cruz, and Stinson Beach — what a great job!…fog on the Waldo grade, and a thin finger of white fog reaching into Mill Valley…saw some young people crossing street in MV, looking smug…young, rich, entitled:

“Dinner for 2 at the French Laundry, $700 — yeah, baby!”

“Blinded by my Beemer’s high-intensity headlights — tough shit!” Sorry, they just piss me off…our local lagoon has 1000 faces, and Friday it was sparkling in the afternoon sunlight…I’m goin’ home, bome, bome, bome-bome-bome,
Home, bome, bome, bome, back home…

Music del Semana: On most of the trip I played The 2 Tone Collection, a kind of remarkable blending of ska and punk that went on in the UK in the ’80s and somehow was never picked up on in the USA.

0602. Let's Do Rock Steady by The Bodysnatchers on Grooveshark

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Mendo to Arcata

Now in the Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka, good burger, great draft ale, Ecuador playing France on TV…left Mendo around 10 AM, swam in the South Fork of the Eel River, was stunned by old growth redwoods…you just have to be there, to see them…words, photos can’t convey the beauty, the power, of these majestic beings…hugging redwoods isn’t lame at all…On my way to Arcata…

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Birds by Keith Hansen

Keith Hansen is an artist who does exquisite bird drawings. He did the illustrations in this book, recently published by the University of California Press. Although these are birds of the Sierra Nevada, this is also a very informative book on birds in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I stopped by to see Keith yesterday and we got into talking about hummingbirds we have found; they sometimes get inside (like a greenhouse) and if not discovered, can’t get out, and die. They are so small and have so little body flesh that they will usually mummify. I told Keith I had one where the head had fallen off and he reached over and picked up this one.

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Coyote Scat, Horned Grebe Diving in Lagoon

When I lived in Big Sur, I found that coyotes shat where the view was great. Check out the hair (mice, gophers, etc.) and bits of deer bones here.

I was poke poling for eel (nada) in the lagoon yesterday and this little Horned Grebe would dive down for maybe a minute, then pop back up energetically, didn’t seem concerned by my proximity.

Thanks to HighFidelityRob for identifying the bird.

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