How to awkwardly clean a trout

I took a friend of mine fishing last weekend in the Eastern Sierra. It was her first time fishing ever. I told some coworkers about it and the V.P. of my department wanted video proof of me gutting a fish, so here it is.

Getting back on the trail: Tilden Regional Park

View of Mount Diablo from tree swing on Volmer Peak

Well, well, well. It's been a long time for this blogger! I've been discouraged by some foot issues in the last couple of years, but finally decided “To hell with it. I'm gonna start doing some real hiking again.” Also, I have one of those milestone birthdays coming up and I wanted to do a trip-to-remember sort of trip, so I'll be hiking Mount Whitney in September and need to start training and get into some assemblance of backpacking shape.

Since it was a nice day, but not too hot, and because I'm still recovering from a twisted ankle, I decided a double-track fire trail up on a ridge with views may be a good option. I pulled out my Tilden map and opted to go with a trail and trailhead I had never tried before. Plus I would get to visit Volmer Peak for the first time which I've often viewed from a distance at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.

I found the Seaview Trail to be quite pleasant for a fire trail (I generally hate fire trails due to the greater sun exposure) and there were many spots with wide views easterly and westerly including: Oakland, San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, Mount Tamalpais, the Pacific Ocean, Mount Diablo, the San Pablo and Briones Reservoirs, and beyond. Every once in a while the trail would be shaded by monterey pine and eucalyptus groves. There were spots of sticky monkey flower, lupin, sage, poppies, yerba santa, bright red berries of coast elderberry, blackberries, and of course poison oak.

The Lower and Upper Big Spring Trails were unspectacular, but it was nice to get on some single track trail for variety. They were partially shaded in spots by eucalyptus groves. I also made a side trip to the top of Volmer Peak which, like many Bay Area peaks, is covered in radio/cell towers. However, there were definitely good partial views east, west, and south, but not 360 views, and there was a homemade swing hung from a pine that has a very nice easterly view (see photo above).

Trailhead: Stream Trains area; Water, toilets, and poster trail map (sometimes there are free paper maps available).
Mileage: ~5.5
Elevation Gain/Loss: 1,300 feet
Hike Type: Lollipop loop
Trails Hiked:

1. Seaview Trail (a.k.a. Bay Area Ridge Trail/East Bay Skyline Trail);
2. Lower Big Springs Trail;
3. Upper Big Springs Trail;
4. Seaview Trail with spur up to Volmer Peak (paved).

Trail Type/Terrain: Double track/fire road, paved in beginning; single track. Lots of small cobbles in spots.
Trail Users: Hikers, mountain bikers, horses, dogs.
Official Park Website: Tilden Regional Park

USGS Video: Unraveling the Mystery of Avian Navigation

The USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) in Menlo Park holds a monthly lecture series on scientific topics for the general public. Unfortunately I often can’t make it down to Menlo Park, but the good news is that they post a video archive of all the lectures online.

(Click the video to view on USGS website.)

This past Thursday the lecture was: “Unraveling the Mystery of Avian Navigation: New research indicates that birds are listening to the landscape to find their way.” By Jon Hagstrum, Research Geophysicist. It’s basically this scientists research about “infrasound” and how pigeons may use it to navigate. There have been many theories over the years about how birds find their way “home” particularly pigeons, and none of them have really stood up to scientific testing. There is a little bit of physics involved in this lecture, but not too much, and these videos are really aimed at the general public viewing audience. I found it to be a really interesting topic, and if you are in to birds or navigation you should check it out.

Other USGS links:

USGS Home

USGS Menlo Park Campus

USGS YouTube Channel

USGS Social Media

Happy Super Moon Vernal Equinox!

(Not a perigee moon but big nonetheless. Full Moon Set over Oakland, CA, March 21, 2008. Photo by Rebecca Bond.)

Tomorrow, March 19, 2011, we will not only have a full moon, but the moon’s orbit of the earth will be at Perigee (<—click for NASA explanation webpage)—meaning the closest distance of the moon to the earth in the moon’s orbit. Full moon perigee this close to the earth only happens approximately every 18 years. If you are lucky enough to have clear skies tomorrow evening, be sure to get out your camera and be ready to shoot as the moon shows up over the horizon. It should look super huge! Well actually 14% bigger and 30% brighter according to NASA. But, once it's up in the sky it may not look that much different than a regular full moon except brighter, and unfortunately, we are predicted to have rain all weekend long in most of California, so no go for me.

But wait, there’s more! Astronomical events that is... The Vernal, or Spring, Equinox is on Sunday, March 20, 2011, meaning the sun will be directly above the equator and daylight will be about 12 hours. A better explanation can be found at timeanddate.com.

Here’s a youtube video from NASAScience explaining the “Super Full Moon”:

Unique ecology classes at the community college level are being threatened with cancelation

This fall I discovered natural history courses offered through the Biology department at Merritt College in Oakland. In my last blog post, Lassen Volcanic National Park Field Trip, I wrote about my experience. If you are into hiking, camping, fishing, adventure travel etc., these classes are great opportunities to learn about the natural world around you.

Ever wonder what kind of wildflower that is blooming along the trail? Or what kind of bird that is you always see wading on the shore? These are excellent classes to take to answer your questions, and because they are offered through the community college system, they are open to anybody and are often offered nights and weekends. Unfortunately, these classes are on the chopping block. Enrollment needs to increase or they will be eliminated.

Also at risk of landing on the chopping block, Merritt College has an Environmental Science and Technology department. It offers certificates in:

• Fundamentals of Environmental Management: Stewardship and Ranger/Naturalist
• Greening the Urban Environment
• Agroecology

I believe these programs are very unique at the community college level, and a great opportunity for students that can’t afford the exponentially exploding university fees to earn credit towards a degree in environmental studies.

This semester Merritt is offering the following courses:

• Natural History of Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland (BIOL 48OZ)
• Bird Songing: The Ecology of Bird Songs/ID By Ear (BIOL 80B)
• Introduction to Sustainable Systems (ENVMT 2)
• Introduction to Ranger/ Naturalist Outdoor Education (ENVMT 8)
• Introduction to Urban Argo Ecology (ENVMT 35)
• Special Projects in Ecological Planning, Implementation and Maintenance (ENVMT 50)
• Sustainable Projects (ENVMT 501)
• Environmental Photography & Photo Monitoring I (ENVMT 210A)
• Environmental Geology (through the geology department) (GEOL 12)

For more information visit the following links:

• District site for class schedule search, application & enrollment info: www.peralta.edu
• Merritt College homepage: www.merritt.edu
• The Environmental Management and Technology Program: www.ecomerritt.org
• The Environmental Management and Technology Program on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecomerritt
• Birding/Bird Watching course instructor site: danielsmerrittclasses.blogspot.com

Lassen Volcanic National Park Field Trip

This fall I’m taking two classes: one is an Introduction to Geographic Information Systems at Diablo Valley College, and the other is a field studies class through Merritt College: Biol62H — Natural History of Lassen Volcanic National Park. This past weekend I went on the field trip portion of the natural history class to Lassen Volcanic National Park. I camped at Manzanita Lake Campground in the northwest corner of the park on Friday and Saturday nights in the “Tents Only” loop D.

Day One:

1. We met at the Loomis Visitor’s Center/Museum at 8:30 am to check out the interpretive displays and watch a film about the park.
2. Drove to the northeast section of the park and did the hike to Cinder Cone rim near Butte Lake.
3. Later we did the Lily Pond Nature Trail with an additional walk around Reflection Lake.

Day Two:

1. We met at the Manzanita Lake boat launch to do some bird watching but there was not too many birds out. We did see a Dipper (water ouzel), American Robin, a Stellar's Jay, Belted Kingfisher, and an immature Wood Duck.
2. After, we drove to the Devastated Area to do the interpretive trail there, but it was closed for trail work.
3. Met the trailhead for Lassen Peak (trail also under construction) for a short discussion about the flora/fauna/geology of Lassen Peak area.
4. After we drove to the Bumpass Hell trailhead for a hike into Bumpass Hell, an active hydrothermal area.

A few volcanic fun facts I learned about Lassen on the trip:

• Lassen Peak is one of the largest lava plug dome volcanoes in the world.
• Currently, it is the last volcano to have erupted in California with major events happening from May 14, 1914 through May 22, 1915.
• Lassen V. N. P. has examples of all four types of volcanoes: sheild—Prospect Peak, cinder cone—Cinder Cone, lava plug dome—Lassen Peak, and composite/stratovolcano—old Brokeoff/Tehama.
• Cinder Cone National Monument and Lassen Peak National Monument were both established by Theodore Roosevelt on May 6, 1907.
• After the eruption of Lassen Peak, Congress created Lassen Volcanic National Park in 1916.

A few common species of trees in the Lassen area that we identified:

• White fir, Abies concolor
  
• Red fir, Abies magnifica
  
• Mountain Hemlock, Tsuga mertensiana
  
• Jeffrey Pine, Pinus jeffreyi
  

• For more information visit the official Lassen Volcanic National Park website: www.nps.gov/lavo
• View my photo album slideshow on flickr

~OR~

• Here is my GPS track map with photos at Everytrail:

Lassen Volcanic National Park Field Studies
EveryTrail - Find the best hikes in California and beyond

Backpacking: Point Reyes National Seashore—Sky Camp

I went on my first official backpack (not including snowcamping) of 2010 this past weekend in Point Reyes National Seashore to Sky Camp near Mt. Wittenberg. On Saturday, I hiked in by myself, but planned on meeting up later with some friends from a Yahoo! hiking group I’m a member of—Nor Cal Hikers. I really liked hiking in alone and then meeting a fun group of people in camp. I was able to have a leisurely no rush morning and peaceful hike at my own pace and then an evening of laughter and good company.

On Sunday it rained on and off in the morning, so I decided to try cooking in the partially open vestibule of my tent. Luckily the tent was a steal of a deal on clearance for a third of the original price, so I was not heartbroken when I discovered I melted a little hole in the vestibule fabric that drooped near the flame—nothing a little duct tape can’t fix!

I hiked in via Mt. Wittenberg Trail and out via Meadow Trail. Round trip mileage from Bear Valley Visitor Center to Sky Camp and back is less than eight miles (with a side trip to the disappointing summit of Mt. Wittenberg) but a good climb. An easier and shorter route is from the trailhead on Limantour Rd. via Sky Trail which is the route my friends took.

Related Link:

• Point Reyes N.S. Backcountry Campgrounds

View my pictures and GPS track & Map on EveryTrail:
Map your trip with EveryTrail

Sweeney Ridge GGNRA Night Hike

On Wednesday night I drove to San Bruno to meet my friend Marie for a night hike at Sweeney Ridge—part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). We started from the Sneath Lane trailhead and walked along the paved Sneath Lane Trail to the top at Sweeney Ridge trail. It was foggy higher up so we couldn’t see anything except mist, but lower down under the “fog line” I was able to get a shot of the city lights below us. The only wildlife we encountered was a banana slug that seemed a little out of place slithering along the pavement. We did see a dismembered fawn’s leg along the trail—probably the remnants of a coyote or mountain lion kill.

Trip Stats:

• Trailhead: Sneath Lane (end of the road).
• Mileage: ~3.75 round trip
• Elevation +/-: 760 ft.
• High Point: 1214 ft.
• Low Point: 600 ft.
• TH Facilities: None

View a few photos here on flickr.

View map with photos of my route on EveryTrail:

Sweeney Ridge GGNRA Night Hike

Map your trip with EveryTrail

First Hike of 2010

My mountaineering friend Emilie invited me to go on a day hike with two of our friends at Huddart Park, a county park in San Mateo near Woodside, California. I haven’t done much Peninsula hiking and have never been to Huddart Park, so I thought it would be nice to start the new year with a hike in a new area.

The weather was nice and foggy with a little mist—perfect for hiking in redwood trees. With the moisture came lots of fungi, moss, lichen, and banana slugs. We even saw two rough-skinned newts cruising around with each other. We did have to dodge some horse apples, but the trails were remarkably root-free and not too muddy. Some trails where even paved, which was a bit odd, but minimized my normal stumbling on every rock and bump.

Overall it was a nice park, worth the small entrance fee, and a pleasant way to start the new year!

Trip Stats:

• Location: Huddart County Park, Woodside, CA
• Trailhead: Ranger Station Parking Lot
• Mileage: 8.14 round trip, figure-8 loop
• Elevation Gain/Loss: ~1,760 ft; low point 666 ft, high point 2,010 ft
• Trails Traveled: Dean Trail, Chinquapin Trail, Archery Fire Road, Dean Trail, Crystal Springs Trail
• Terrain: Well-maintained single and double track, some trails with asphalt. Good sturdy trail signage. Only a few obstacles—a couple downed trees, a few locked horse gates.
• Flora & Fauna: Redwood forest and mixed evergreen with lots of madrone and tan oak. Lots of moisture, fungi, banana slugs, fog, spider webs, newts.
• Facilities: Bathrooms with water at various picnic areas in park. $5 entrance fee. Maps available.
• Flickr photo album

EveryTrail GPS Track with Photos: Huddart Park: First Hike of the New Year

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Christmas Day Hike in Suburbia

I'm visiting my family in Southern California and Christmas Day I decided to do a little exploring behind my dad's house in San Juan Capistrano. There is a little ridge behind his housing tract on the other side of Trabuco Creek and I wanted to know what was on the other side.

When I lived down here I didn't do much (if any) hiking so it was a real treat to get up high and get my "topographic bearings." Suburban sprawl is definitely a theme here and I could see roads, communities, and cities that didn't exist when I was a kid. The views were nearly unobstructed. I could see north through the smog to Mt. Baldy capped in snow and south through the gap in the hills to the Pacific Ocean. To the east was Saddleback Mountain in the Santa Ana Mountain Range with Santiago Peak the tallest in the range at 5,687 feet. To the west was I-5 and more rolling hills. I also saw some remnant straggly orange trees left over from the old Rosembaum Ranch property back when Orange County's name brought to mind something other than a teen TV series and tract home sprawl.

I didn't have a trail map (or any map) and was using a satellite image from the EveryTrail iPhone app. I thought I saw a loop trip that I could do but I was thwarted by private property. I ended up calling my dad to come pick me up in Ladera Ranch as I was running out of time and needed to get home in time for Christmas dinner at my uncle's house in Capistrano Beach.

Note: More pictures to come. I don't have the proper USB cable here in Orange County, so I will need to wait until I get back to Oakland to add them. In the meantime, view the EveryTrail GPS track map with my iPhone photos:

village san juan / rosenbaum ranch to ladera ranch via trabuco ridge trail

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Happy Winter Solstice 2009!

Happy Winter! The solstice officially happened this morning at 9:47 a.m. Pacific Time in the northern hemisphere. The time of the winter solstice refers to the point at which the hemisphere you live in is tilted farthest away from the sun. I posted a slightly more specific definition from Wikipedia here last year.

These pictures are from a few weeks ago when the snow level in Oakland dropped down to about 500 feet above sea level. That’s a really rare occurrence here in the San Francisco Bay Area. The picture was taken at about 1,500 feet elevation in the hills above Oakland at Sibley Volcanic Regional Park. I was able to get up to the hills after my reading tutor volunteering gig by late-morning. The snow was melting fast, but I was lucky to capture some photos of it. You can view the album on flickr. Here is the link to the the flickr map view.

No Backpacking at Big Basin

Berry Creek Falls, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, © Rebecca Bond

Bummer. I wanted to do the approximately 30 mile Skyline-to-the-Sea trail over Thanksgiving weekend. It runs from Castle Rock State Park in the hills above Los Gatos through Big Basin Redwoods State Park down to the ocean at Rancho Del Oso and Waddell Beach. But, according to the reservation office, due to budget cuts Big Basin has closed all trail camps from the beginning of November this year to the end of April. The lack of financial support for State Parks is getting ridiculous.

• Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail reservation info other trail camp information
• Article on Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail by Tom Stienstra at SFGATE
• Official Big Basin Redwoods State Park Website
• Official Castle Rock State Park Website
• Excellent FREE trail maps of Big Basin & Castle Rock from Virtual Parks

Happy Halloween!

DSC_4706, originally uploaded by bondgurl.

I went on a nice fall day hike in Sunol Regional Wilderness yesterday... trip report soon. In the meantime have a great All Hallow's Eve!!

Berkeley Fall Geocaching Bike Ride

K.G. riding “red bike of unknown label” under a golden canopy.

I went on a nice little bike ride today with a friend that lives in Berkeley to do some Geocaching. We were in the fancy part of town with lots of golden deciduous trees displaying their autumn finery. One of the highlights was discovering a park named Monkey Island Park. Who names a park in a fancy residential area Monkey Island Park?!

We found three caches: two “micro” caches (basically film canisters with a paper log inside) and one medium cache that I took a trackable “geocoin” out of with plans on relocating it in a different cache this weekend. Trackable items are things that the owner wants the finder to log the item’s journey and sometimes it has a mission of reaching a certain place or traveling a certain number of miles.

What the heck is geocaching you ask? Well it’s a coordinate based treasure hunt often employing a GPS receiver. “Geocaches” (i.e. treasure chests) are listed and logged on the internet. To find out more about what this geocaching business is about visit www.geocaching.com.

Berkeley Fall Geocache Bike Ride at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Trail Maps

GPS Arcana

Okay, so yesterday I posted about a geocaching urban walk that I did, and I realized that I don’t do much gear talk on here even though I’m kind of a gear/gadget geek. You may wonder what inspired this internet outing of my inner geek? Well last weekend I had to give a GPS Basics presentation to a bunch of leaders in the local Sierra Club snowcamping group I belong to and had to brush up on the technology and fill in the gaps of my own knowledge.

In order to enlighten myself, I did the usual web surfing, but I also bought a really good PAPER book (GPS Made Easy, Fifth Edition 2008, by Lawrence and Alex Letham). Why did I choose this particular guide you ask? Because a.) the edition was published within the last couple of years—as opposed to five years ago which in electronics' years might as well be 50 years ago, and b.) the book used screen shots from my family of GPS’s: the Garmin GPSmap 60 series. The reasons I say this is a good book are that it boils the technical stuff down nicely, you don't have to start at chapter 1 even though it's a good idea to, it gives reasons WHY I might want to do something or use a feature, and demonstrates different navigation scenarios.

Now why did I capitalize “WHY” in “reasons WHY...” of that last sentence? Because the Garmin owner’s manual SUCKS. I repeat: it SUCKS! Are you listening Garmin??? It doesn’t show all of the features or screens and it doesn’t explain WHY I would want to use any of these features, or barely HOW, or what they are for, thus leaving a beginning GPS user crying tears of frustration and pulling out her hair. I’ve had this GPS for four years now and I’m STILL figuring the thing out.

In Garmin’s defense I will say this: Garmin is today—mostly—Mac compatible. And that is why I bought a Garmin. I originally bought a Magellan but made an about face when I realized I couldn’t use it AT ALL with my Mac (even today Magellan’s & DeLorme’s Mac solution is for Intel chip Mac users to run Windoz through Bootcamp—“bite me” is what I say to that). And lucky me, the Garmin GPSmap 60CSx units are still one of their most popular handhelds, so Garmin continues to put out firmware updates and compatible accessories. (Note: my unit is the 60Cx—basically the same as the 60CSx but lacking the real compass and altimeter.)

Alright so the point of this rant is not all pointless. I’m going to share with you, dear reader, the mostly Garmin-centric GPS mysteries I have unravelled so far:

• Why would I want to “project” a waypoint?

To project a waypoint is to create a new waypoint based off of another waypoint using bearing and distance. This may be handy if you are using a paper map & compass and want to create a waypoint for a location but you don't have a map with a UTM grid or don't know how to come up with the latitude & longitude coordinates for a location (hint: it takes a special map tool you can buy).

So for example, you would like to hike over to that peak labeled Pk1195 on your paper map, but it's not showing up in your GPS receiver but another nearby point is in your GPS & on the map (this will be your reference waypoint), so using the ruler on your compass you measure the distance and then take a map bearing from your reference point to Pk1195 on the map. Let’s say you got a distance of a .5 mile and a bearing of 270 degrees from your reference waypoint. Now you select your reference waypoint via the FIND button an hit enter... now you access a sub-menu by hitting MENU and select PROJECT WAYPOINT and at that time you enter the distance and bearing of your desired destination and voilé! You have a new waypoint.

Another example (this is from the book above) is if you are Search and Rescue and somebody tells you that they saw an injured person about a mile away due East. The SAR person can then project a waypoint to the estimated location of the injured person from her current location.

• Why does my accuracy suck when yours is rockin’?

I embarrassingly just figured this one out today. I had always suspected my accuracy was not as good as it could be despite having one of the more accurate consumer receivers and secretly suspected that mine was defective. I had read that in ideal conditions I should have an accuracy of about 9 feet with WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) activated.

Well the best I ever got was about 14 to 21 feet and often 30 to 60 feet. And last week before my GPS Basics talk I had the opportunity to play with several different GPS receivers and the Garmin Vista & ETrex were kicking my 60Cx’s butt. To add insult to injury, when on my geocache yesterday even my iphone GPS was more accurate. So I did some searching and found tonight on the Garmin support forums that if the Battery Saver option is turned on, it decreases your accuracy. OH SILLY ME! I didn’t know that saving battery power was a BAD thing?! Especially since it DOESN'T SAY ANYTHING about it IN THE MANUAL. Nice. Thanks Garmin.

This is the direct quote from the Garmin support forums:

Question: I have noticed a high EPE reading on my device since changing the mode of the unit to Battery Saver, is this a normal response to such an adjustment?

Answer: The products with high sensitivity GPS receivers will show an increase in EPE (estimated position error) while in Battery Saver Mode. An adjustment of Battery Save Mode back to "Normal" or "WAAS" modes will assist in lowering the EPE.

• What is that little D in the bar graph on the Satellite page?

I also just discovered this one today because ALL ALONG I'VE HAD BATTERY SAVER TURNED ON except for tonight when I learned that it kills your WAAS accuracy and therefor I turned OFF Battery Saver Mode (EVEN THOUGH the GPS said I had WAAS turned on in the settings menu all along *ahem*). Well now I’m seeing these little D's popping up in the reception bar graph on the bottom of the Satellite Page. And pouring through the owner's manual gives absolutely no clue as to why. Well thanks to Google and gpsfaqs.org I now know. It means my WAAS is being activated to increase the accuracy. Who woulda thunk?! Not I obviously...

• What’s the difference between trip odometer vs. odometer?

Okay I admit I got this answer from the owner’s manual glossary and then fooling around with the Navigation Page settings. It’s in theory like the difference in your car’s “tripometer” and odometer, except for the GPS's default is to reset the trip odometer AND the odometer at the same time, so the difference isn't so obvious unless you UNCHECK reset odometer. This way you can keep the odometer rolling as long as you want, but keep resetting the trip odometer when you tell the GPS to Reset Trip Data which resets all of your trip statistics.

• Why aren’t my loaded topo maps showing up?

Basically there is a map displaying hierarchy and there are sub- sub-menus you need to access in order to easily switch off which maps you want to see. You can individually switch off map sections, but if you have a lot of maps loaded that option sucks.

My story is that I have Garmin’s City Navigator maps and Garmin’s Topo U.S. 2008 maps, but I can’t view my topo maps unless I switch off the City Navigator ones. I originally was doing this individually one “quad” at a time, but when you have several quads loaded this method sucks. But there is a sub- sub-menu that allows you to switch all on or off that I stumbled upon one day. Here is how to access: go to MAP PAGE, press MENU, select SETUP MAP hit ENTER, scroll right to the “i” icon, hit MENU again, scroll down and select “Hide City Navigator”, hit ENTER. Now all of your loaded topo maps will show up.

• The hidden tide graph!

Here is a little sub- sub-menu gem. Don’t bother looking for it in the owner’s manual either. It's not there. On you Maps Page scroll to a coastline, for instance the San Francisco Bay area. There are several round icons that look like sideways blue ying yang simbols. Highlight one of those and hit ENTER. Those are little Tide Prediction Stations, and a little tide table will pop up for that location and date. You can also change the date. If you hit MENU you will get more viewing options. Play with it. It’s fun! You can also access the tide stations closest to you on the Find Page and then scrolling down to Marine Points, hitting ENTER and then Tide Stations. It will list the Tide Stations closest to you!

• The hidden elevation profile!

I thought that only the 60CSx with it's altimeter showed elevation profiles but you can view them on the 60Cx too!!! And don't expect the owner's manual to tell you about this because, just like the tide graphs, it’s not there (well it is sort of mentioned in passing, but not exactly made explicit). You have to have a route created on your GPS first to view. So make a route and on the Route Page and highlight it, hit ENTER, now hit MENU, on the list scroll down and select “Profile”, hit ENTER and then select which elevation data the GPS should use, and POOF! an (estimated) elevation profile for your route appears. Hit MENU again and you can control the exaggeration and length

Okay that was a long blog posting, but hopefully somebody somewhere will find it useful. As I make new discoveries, I will post them.

Geocaching Walk to Marcom Rose Garden

I went for a walk today in the Grand Lake neighborhood of Oakland to view the Marcom Rose Garden (a.k.a. Oakland Municipal Rose Garden; a.k.a. Marcom Amphitheatre of Roses) and do some geocaching. There is a geocache located in the park and on the way home I found a second lovely little geocache on a hidden stairway “street” called Davidson Way. Along my route I picked up a nice sandwich at Jenny's Cafe and took some pictures of the local sites including my favorite local coffee shop/hot dog stand: Day of the Dead, the historic Grandlake Theatre, and The Alley—a wonderful dive piano bar.

Learn more at Friends of the Marcom Rose Garden here.

p.s. I'm also playing with posting to EveryTrail so the results are below. Click on the red bubble pins to see the associated photo:

Geocaching with Roses in Oakland at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Trail Maps

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

The fall season has officially begun here in California. The autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere will happen today at 2:18 pm (pacific). The equinox is the exact time when the sun is directly over the equator and the earth’s axis is not tilted toward or away from the sun.

It’s not quite true that the equinox is 12 hours of day/12 hours of night. For instance here in Oakland the length of day today will be 12 hours 8 minutes. Further north in Eureka, Montana (hi Aunt Kris!) the length of day will be 12 hours 10 minutes, and further south in Oceanside, California (hi Grandma!) it will be 12 hours 7 minutes.

For a more in-depth explanation check out timeanddate.com.

(Photo: Poison oak in it’s fall disguise at Mount Diablo State Park. © R. Bond 2009.)

A Letter To Our Representatives RE: State Park Closures

I just sent a letter concerning the closure of California State Parks via the California State Parks Foundation website, text follows below. If you are as disappointed as I am, feel free to write your representatives too. The link is at the bottom.:

Dear Legislators and the Governor,

I am seriously dismayed at the threat to basically shut down 80% of California's State Parks and pretty much all of the state parks in my region. I think it would be a mistake to shut down OUR parks for the following reasons:

1.) The State Parks represent a fraction of the state budget yet they attract millions of tourists and millions of tourist dollars from all over the country and the world. 

2.) Many small communities are heavily dependent on the tourist dollars that their local State Parks attract especially in places where they've transitioned from resource destruction to environmental conservation (i.e. from logging to eco-tourism). Park closures would destroy many of these communities.

3.) This one's for the governor: I hated exercise until I discovered hiking. Hiking is one of my main sources of exercise. Most of my favorite places to hike are in my State Parks. What if somebody threatened to shut down all of your gyms when you were becoming a body builder? 

4.) California State Parks are home to THE TALLEST trees in the world, hundreds of miles of protected coastline (a precious commodity considering our ever increasing development), endangered animals such as the California condor, and many also protect important watersheds that provide clean water for our communities. If there are no employees stationed to protect our parks, they will fall prey to unauthorized trespassing and potential abuse & vandalism (and what about those destructive illegal pot farms springing up on public lands guarded by outlaws with machine guns waiting to shoot a stray hiker?!?).

I voted yes on most of the latest propositions (except for 1C—we need to stop borrowing money we can't pay back). However, even though I was in the minority, I know how the majority feels, and to say that California voted down the latest propositions because "they don't want to pay for it" (it being services) is disingenuous. We are just tired of paying for waste. If we felt our money was being used as efficiently and usefully as possible we would have no problem paying more.

And because I don't want to see my parks shut down but realize the money needs to come from somewhere, this is what I propose: There were 33.2 million registered vehicles in California in 2006. So if there was a $20 state park fee added to the registration of each of those vehicles that guaranteed California state residents free entry (but not covering other fees, just entrance fees), that would mean $662,000,000 in funds to keep our parks running and maybe even allow them to catch up on some badly needed maintenance! And since registration fee payers are getting something in return (free entrance), it makes it much easier to swallow.

Like many I've been hit hard financially by the current recession, but would gladly find a way to pay that extra $20 if it went to my state parks and guaranteed me free entry into those beautiful places.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Bond

Write your own letter here.

Goslings Galor

I've witnessed lots of baby birds in the past month here at Lake
Merritt and the Oakland waterfront parks including Middle Harbor
Shoreline Park. So get out there while they are still cute and fuzzy.
(It may even be too late! Our feathered friends grow quickly.)

More Friends Doing Good Deeds on Bicycles

(Ray and Steve in the Oakland/Berkeley Hills on a training ride. Photo credit: Steve Burton.)

Last year I was a little shocked (actually more than a little) when my friend Ray told me he and his husband were going to ride bikes 545 miles in the AIDS LifeCycle from San Francisco all the way down to L.A. Not that I didn’t think Ray could do it, but I know him to be more of the lounge by the pool with a nice cocktail type rather than the endure lots of breathlessness and muscle pain on a bicycle type. But in spite of my shock I was super proud of him for “pushing his limits” and “getting out of his comfort zone” as they like to say, while raising funds for HIV and AIDS awareness and research. And this year I'm double proud because he and Steve are going to do it again.

Friday night they had a fundraiser at Buck Tavern in S.F. complete with raffle, beer bust, and drag show. I went and it was a really good time. Unfortunately my pictures from my phone are just a blurry mess so I had to steal one of Ray and Steve's photos off of Facebook. I love this photo and I love the little furry ears growing out of their helmets... (I'm so jealous. I hate my bike helmet.) Anyway, I wish the both of them the best of luck and success on their journey.

More Information:

• Ray’s fundraising page
• Steve’s fundraising page
• AIDS LifeCycle official website