Dan's Outside

About joining this site

If you are interested, you can join this site and leave comments and discuss posts. I’m happy to hear from readers and to discuss relevant issues with readers who enjoy the blog and share my interest in the subjects covered here.

A few important “rules” for this:

• Participation in the discussions requires that you register for the site.
• Anonymous registration requests will be deleted. Please include a name (and a web address if you have one) when you register.
• If I send an email to the address you provide and it doesn’t work or you don’t respond I will delete your membership.
• Comments are encouraged.
• Using comments primarily or solely to promote your personal business, cause, etc. won’t be tolerated – I’ll cancel your membership.
• Spam posts will be deleted and the membership of the person posting them will be cancelled.
• Members are free to disagree with me but posts that I believe are disrespectful or otherwise out of line will be deleted and may result in cancellation of membership. (Start your own blog if you don’t want to worry about this.:-)

I enjoy it when people read my blog and respond, and I often enjoy the dialog – whether it takes place on these pages, in email, or between our blogs. I’ve even met and hiked with a few of you in person! :-)

Why am I posting this? Recently I’ve seen a string of “problem” membership requests, and I have to deal with them. Contact me if you think your membership request was unfairly deleted.

Thanks,

Dan

February 2, 2008 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | 1 Comment

New Almaden Quicksilver Story in the Merc

Tom Mangan (master blogger at Two-Heel Drive) has a story in the San Jose Mercury News describing a project to create a historic trail at New Almaden Quicksilver Park, one of my favorite local hiking areas.

January 31, 2008 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on New Almaden Quicksilver Story in the Merc

Hopeful Weather Signs for California

Compared to last year, this year’s storm season in California is starting to create a bit of optimism. Last year was a drought year in California – there were few spring flowers, the snow never was very deep and it melted early, and things dried out early and dangerously during the summer.

I’m hearing some hopeful news. Where I am in the SF Bay Area we are ahead of normal rainfall amounts at this point. I just heard a snow survey report that the snowpack is about 25% thicker than normal for this time of year. People visiting the southern California desert areas are reporting significant rain and the beginnings of spring plant growth.

With a few days of sun next week I think we are about to witness the yearly but still miraculous eruption of green that marks the start of the new year in California.

January 31, 2008 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on Hopeful Weather Signs for California

Dare We Hope?

Last year’s rainy season in California was a bust. Precipitation was half of normal in many areas of the state and much lower than that in many parts of southern California. Last April I returned from Death Valley and drove home up the east side of the Sierra on Highway 395 – in early April it looked like mid-summer already with almost no snow left. By late summer parts of the southern Sierra were as parched as I’ve ever seen them.

This season started out with some surprise early season rain and snow storms – I saw snow several times during October visits to the eastern Sierra. But then the tap was shut off and it looked like we were heading into a second drought year.

During the past few weeks things have really turned around. First, the early January “storm of the decade” dropped a lot of rain and snow all over California. Since that time the wet weather has continued almost unabated. It has rained much of the past week, it is raining today, and it promises to remain cold and damp for the rest of the week.

Maybe, just maybe we’ll have something like a normal season this year? Spring flowers? Desert flowers in April? Sierra wildflowers throughout July? I’m becoming more optimistic!

January 27, 2008 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | 3 Comments

Another End of Term Bush Insult?

Expect to see a string of this stuff during the remaining (mercifully short) year of the environmental disaster known as the Bush administration. A week or so ago it was the opening of sensitive arctic areas to unnecessary oil production, yesterday it was a plan to kill more wolves, and today it was a plan for more corporate welfare for logging firms in Alaska.

About the wolves:

Under pressure from another alpha predator, human hunters (along with state officials eager to keep hunters happy), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has changed a rule in a way that has wildlife campaigners howling.

The complaints are not about the section allowing someone to kill a wolf attacking, say, a dog or livestock. It’s the part about states and tribal governments having the right to allow greatly expanded killing of wolves in “non-essential” populations where local officials determine that wolf packs are taking too big a share of deer and elk herds also coveted by hunters.

What is a “non-essential” wolf. Anyone?

January 26, 2008 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | 4 Comments

Black Diamond Mines

Tom visited the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve this weekend – a place I’ve never hiked and barely heard of. Among other things, his piece includes photographs proving that spring is here – well sort of… the California lowland hills are starting to head toward that impossibly green condition we’ll experience only a few weeks from now.

January 22, 2008 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | 1 Comment