Dan's Outside

I go, I see, I do, I walk, I think, I like…

Park Access – How and for Whom?

Tom Mangan (Two-Heel Drive) raises some interesting questions:

Report: Wilderness too far from inner city. I’m hoping my colleagues in the biased news media have unfairly portrayed the contents of a recent report, which slams the East Bay Regional Parks System for the unmitigated gall of having all its parks in areas full of rich white people.

In a new application of the environmental justice theme, a San Francisco law professor says low-income minorities in the East Bay’s flatlands deserve better access to regional parks located mostly in the hills near affluent homes.

The East Bay Regional Park District should do more to improve bus service to its parks, and consider putting more emphasis on acquiring lands in flat areas like Richmond and Oakland, according to a new report released today by Paul Kibel, an adjunct professor at the Golden Gate School of Law.

“The majority of East Bay Parks acreage is located adjacent to affluent white neighborhoods,” Kibel wrote, “and the amount of agency holdings in or near low-income minority neighbors is still fairly minimal.”

You can read the rest of Tom’s post by following his title link.

I do have a concern about the ethnic, economic, and other imbalances in many of our parks. (At least in some cases, but not in others – hike Mission Peak for an wonderful and atypically integrated outdoor experience.) For the moment I’ll pass on that very important topic and just jump the transit question.

I, too, would be very pleased to see better transit opportunities for those of us who want to get “out there” without burning excess fuel. While I’m able to leave my car at home on most work days and take the bus, I can’t really do the same when I want to head out for a weekend hike in the South SF Bay Area – at least not in the vast majority of the cases, and in some of those cases where transit is available I would end up spending more time getting there and back than hiking, unless you count the long walks on city streets between the transit stops to the trailheads.

Given that buses run on greatly reduced schedules on weekends, at least where I live, I wonder if it might be possible to run something along the lines of “recreation express service” to some of the destinations where the parking lots are otherwise full of cars on weekends. I know I’d take advantage of this.

October 19, 2007 Posted by | Commentary | Comments Off on Park Access – How and for Whom?

A Two-Heel Drive to Mt. Madonna

Tom (at Two-Heel Drive) has just posted a piece on his recent hiking trip at Mt. Madonna park south of the San Jose Area.

I used to go there many years ago to use their field archery range, but I have to say I’ve never hiked in that park. From Tom’s description, it seems like it might well be worth another look.

October 16, 2007 Posted by | Places, Trails | Comments Off on A Two-Heel Drive to Mt. Madonna

Fedak: Big Basin to the Sea

Fedak posts description of his hike from Big Basin State Park HQ to Waddell Beach. I’ve wanted to do this hike, or at least a similar version, for some time. I’ve hiked a ways up the trail from Waddell Beach a couple of times, and I’ve hiked out from Big Basin HQ to a point where I could see down to the ocean – just haven’t found the time (or worked out the car shuttle) to do the whole thing.

October 15, 2007 Posted by | Commentary, Trips | Comments Off on Fedak: Big Basin to the Sea

'It is forbidden to touch the trees in any way…'

A hilarious (or pathetic, perhaps?) sign posted next to a chestnut grove warns of a different kind of “inappropriate touching.”

October 14, 2007 Posted by | Commentary | Comments Off on 'It is forbidden to touch the trees in any way…'

But Even When The Aspens Have Dropped All Their Leaves…

… there is still plenty to see.


Piute Crags and North Lake. Sierra Nevada, California. October 7, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

I spent last weekend in the eastern Sierra, photographing some of the last, best aspen color of the 2007 season. However, is some places the color had already gone by the time I arrived, including North Lake. North Lake can produce some of the most sublime aspen color displays in the Sierra – if you time your visit just right. There is an astonishing aspen “tree tunnel” along the side of the lake, and above the far shore a large grove extends from near the shore to far up the mountainside.

But I arrived too late this year. I already knew this while driving the gravel road to the lake, as I had seen past-prime aspen groves at lower elevations nearby. But all was not lost: a dusting of new autumn snow covered Piute Crags, which were reflected in the still waters of the lake.

While aspen season is astonishing, the Sierra is spectacular just about any time of the year.

October 14, 2007 Posted by | Commentary, Sierra Nevada | Comments Off on But Even When The Aspens Have Dropped All Their Leaves…

Eastern Sierra Fall Color: Going, Going…

… and soon gone, especially if you are looking for aspens.

I follow a bunch of reports on the net (including the Calphoto fall color report) and it is clear from the reports and my own visits over the past few weeks that the aspen show in the eastern Sierra is for the most part over – although there are scattered reports of a few good groves here and there, mostly at lower altitudes and some further north in the range.

What’s left? While the aspens are my primary interest in early October, there are other spectacular subjects elsewhere. I especially like some of the lowland trees and meadows/pastures in the valleys east of the Sierra, Owens Valley in particular. The area just north of Bishop (Round Valley?) nestles up against a steep portion of the eastern Sierra escarpment and features beautiful pastures and trees that were just turning last week.

The lower country in the western foothills also begins to provide some great color this time of year. Oaks and dogwoods are starting to turn. (As I drove out of Yosemite after dark last weekend I could see that there were some extensive groves of colorful dogwoods.) I love visiting Yosemite Valley around the last weekend of October or possibly the first weekend of November when the colors there are spectacular. (I have a hunch that erring on the early side will be a good idea this year.)

October 13, 2007 Posted by | Commentary, Sierra Nevada | Comments Off on Eastern Sierra Fall Color: Going, Going…

A Cancelled Trip

By tradition, I join a group of backpacking friends almost every year for an “end of season” pack trip in mid-October. The usual plan is to head to Tuolumne Meadows late on a Friday and hike, either that night or the next morning, to the Fletcher Lake – Vogelsang High Sierra Camp area. However, mid-October Sierra plans must be subject to change…

… and this time the plans changed.

It has been a bit of an unusual fall in the Sierra so far. It isn’t uncommon to get a dusting of snow or two in late September or the first half of October, but more typical weather this time of year includes lots of beautiful golden sunshine. However, this year we’ve seen a string of early Pacific storms pass over the Sierra. I’ve been up there on each of the past two weekends to photograph aspens in the eastern Sierra, and both times I had to concern myself with temporary closures of the higher trans-Sierra passes. (On the plus side, I’ve also been able to include newly fallen snow in many of the photographs.)

Yesterday, my plan was to leave the south SF Bay Area by about 2:00 and arrive at Tuolumne by 6:30 or so, at which point I would shoulder my pack and start up the Rafferty Creek trail in the fading light and complete the hike using a headlamp. (I’ve done this before – it has its pluses and minuses, but mostly pluses…)

However, this morning finds me sitting at home on a couch typing on my computer instead. Another front came though yesterday, dropping quite a bit of rain in the Bay Area. Knowing that the Park Service folks close Tioga Pass Road if there is even a slight dusting of snow this time of year, I was concerned that I wouldn’t make it to Tuolumne. I might have, but they did close the road by about 8:30. In that case, my hike would have been in snow flurries. At night. With no moon. Alone.

While that situation does have its attractions (I’m strange that way… ;-) the sensible part of me said, “no.”

Knowing that the Yosemite dogwoods are turning fall colors right now and that the road is likely to be open and clear by tomorrow and that it will close soon for the winter, I may just do a quick up-and-back trip on Sunday.

For now, I think I’ll have another espresso… :-)

October 13, 2007 Posted by | Trips | Comments Off on A Cancelled Trip

Proof of Aspens

A few photographs of the eastern Sierra Nevada fall color – shot over the past couple of weekends.


Fall Color, Aspendell. Sierra Nevada, California. October 7, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.


Cascade, Lee Vining Creek. Sierra Nevada, California. October 7, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.


Snow, Aspens, and Shadows. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

October 12, 2007 Posted by | Sierra Nevada | Comments Off on Proof of Aspens

Gore "deeply honored" by Nobel Prize win

From SFGate:

“We face a true planetary emergency,” Gore said. “The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.
– Al Gore, winner of the Nobel Prize (and the 2000 presidential election vote…)

October 12, 2007 Posted by | Environment, People | Comments Off on Gore "deeply honored" by Nobel Prize win

SFGate Report on Sierra Fall Colors (but a bit too late)

From SFGate:

NOTEBOOK / Fall colors arrive early in the Eastern Sierra. A brilliant show of fall color has started early this year across much of California. The best colors so far are at Convict Lake, set at 7,583 feet in the Eastern Sierra near Mammoth Lakes. This gorgeous lake is edged by a sloping mountain landscape carpeted…
By Tom Stienstra. [SFGate: Tom Stienstra]

The fact of the matter is that the fall aspen colors are pretty much over in the eastern Sierra. I was there during both of the previous weekends – while I could find some good colors this past Saturday and Sunday, groves that had lost their leaves and/or turned brown and black were much more common. The few groves that still showed color (such as some in Lee Vining Canyon, McGee Creek, and lower Rock Creek) are very near the end of their cycle for this year.

I’m not an expert, but it seems to me that the combination of a very dry season this past year and early storms this fall pushed up the peak of the aspen season by a week or so.

October 9, 2007 Posted by | Sierra Nevada | Comments Off on SFGate Report on Sierra Fall Colors (but a bit too late)

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