Pictures taken by Dick Jordan during the Heart's Desire to Shell Beach hike (June 30th) are now on-line.
Remember those "Mystery Boxes" that were opened at our May 12th Rock Spring "Final Exam" luncheon and contained a "Meandering in Marin" mug and T-shirt? Christina Oldenburg has created a "Meandering in Marin" logo to apply to mugs, shirts, and other items, while Dick Jordan has been busy setting up a "non-profit" on-line store where you can buy these products at cost.
comfortable 69 degree high for our walk up the Olema Valley from Bear Valley to Five Brooks, but Mother Nature decided to heat things up by another ten degrees and we could tell when we left the Bear Valley parking lot that we were in for a warm day.
a quick peek at a male Wood duck (we spotted him again when we got back to Five Brooks in the afternoon). (Click here to read about the flora and fauna we saw when he did this hike last year on May 27th).
id this hike about a month earlier and the grasses in this area were still quite green. But this year most had turned a golden brown. When we crossed the Vedanta Society land, a small herd of Black Angus cattle lolled under a large tree. We saw them in the same place last year. Since they didn't appear to have moved in over a year, maybe they were just specimens from a long-closed bovine wax museum that had been "put out to pasture."
we started out from Bear Valley we reached a fine open meadow and plopped done in the shade of several large trees to have lunch. (Last year it was cool enough for us to sit out in the full sun in this same spot). Water drains into a nearby low spot creating a damp place where cattails can grow and provide ideal habitat for the many Red-winged Blackbirds that we saw flitting among the reeds.
A little after 1 o'clock we reluctantly gave up lounging around and chatting, threw our packs back on our backs, and headed on to Five Brooks. About 45 minutes later we reached the Stewart Horse Camp. Last year we saw several pickups and horse trailers here, but this time there was just one lone truck and a single horse.
Pictures taken by Dick Jordan during the Bear Valley to Five Brooks hike (June 23rd) are now on-line.
through the Olema Valley to Bolinas. The bad news is that the sun quit shining when we pulled into the parking lot at the trailhead. The good news is that the sun quit shining and the clouds and sea breeze kept us from getting our brains cooked as we hiked along the mostly exposed section of the trail that runs for a mile or so through a brushy area descending downslope towards the coast.
well. The bad news is that we ended up with far fewer pictures than usual. The good news is that blog readers don't have to look at so many photos!
in that area. The bad news is that it was like commute hour when we left the lake and head back to our cars, with hikers coming up on us from behind, and approaching us from the south. The good news is that there were only seven of us, so massive "head on" and "rear end" collisions with other groups of hikers didn't happen. The bad news is that there were so few of us along on the hike.
Coast Trail and Lake Ranch Trail. The good news is that the sun wasn't beating down on us so the uphill slog was pretty easy.
smattering of flowers and plants, some interesting bugs (which Wendy hasn't been able to definitively identify), and even some "late bloomer" mushrooms. The bad news is that Theresa Fisher wasn't along so we don't have as many plant photos as usual. (Click here to read Wendy's "What We Saw" list of flora and fauna seen on this hike).
Pictures taken by Bill Dreskin, Stan Walker and Dick Jordan during the Palomarin hike (June 16th) are now on-line.
outing: "We’ll start by checking out birds and dragonflies around the pond at Five Brooks, then carpool to Bear Valley. Past years we’ve seen satyr commas, Acmon blues, field crescents, California tortoiseshells, pale swallowtails, Western tiger swallowtails, and dragonflies including cardinal meadowhawks, Western pondhawks, and eight spotted skimmers." (Click here to read about the flora and fauna we saw last year).
The bad news first – the Legislature’s Budget Conference Committee voted to adopt the Governor’s proposal to eliminate core, state funding for our state parks. But the good news - and it’s good! - is that the committee also voted to enact the State Park Access Pass, CSPF’s proposal from last year to institute a surcharge on vehicle license fees of non-commercial vehicles, in order to provide Californians with free day-use access to state parks and generate much-needed revenues for the system. The version adopted by the Budget Conference Committee today differs from last year’s proposal in that today’s action adopted a $15 fee, in order to gain permanent General Fund savings of approximately $143 million annually. In exchange for paying the fee, residents driving into state parks with a California license plate would receive free day-use entrance into state parks.
This is good news, but it's only one step toward a final budget victory. Since the vote was divided, this proposal still has a high hurdle to overcome, in order to be enacted. Please TAKE ACTION and send a message to your legislator supporting the State Park Access Pass and urging the Legislature to Save Our State Parks!
Thank you for your support for CSPF and the Save Our State Parks campaign!"
Elizabeth Goldstein
President, CSPF
In June each year the Water Education Foundation of Sacramento runs a three day Bay-Delta tour and spends the morning of the final day at the Bay Model in Sausalito. Dick Jordan always works at the Bay Model that day and attends the presentation on Delta water issues that precedes the participants' tour of the Model. Once, on a very long, boring trip, my passenger and I were reduced to asking each other dumb questions. We came upon one question 
that we couldn't settle.
Imagine that I'm driving along at highway speed with the air conditioner on and the windows closed. A hummingbird that was caged in the back seat gets loose, and with nowhere really to go, it ends up just hovering there in midcar.
Our question is this: If I hit the brakes hard, does the hummingbird crash into the windshield? My friend said of course it would, that its momentum would cause it to keep moving forward as the car slowed. But I, being the more educated of us (not necessarily a good thing, as my friend claimed), said that the hummingbird's position would depend on its air speed, not its ground speed, and as the car slowed down, the air inside the car would slow down at an equal rate, as would the hummingbird, thereby avoiding becoming windshield splatter. So guys, please settle this question so I can finally get some sleep. - Ross
RAY: As your friend says, Ross, over-education might not always be a good thing. But when you work around my brother, you come to the inescapable conclusion that a little bit more education can never hurt.
TOM: The answer is that the hummingbird is toast, Ross. He crashes into the windshield. As your friend correctly says, in summarizing Newton's first law, objects in motion will stay in motion.
RAY: The cabin air is part of the car. So if the hummingbird is hovering in that air while the car is in motion, the bird has the same horizontal speed as the car.
TOM: That means he's in motion. And when the car stops, the hummingbird does not, and splat.
RAY: Now, as we were discussing your question, Ross, my brother raised an interesting issue.
TOM: That's right. I said, "What about cigar smoke?" Let's say I'm motoring along in one of the new cars that we test-drive, smoking a huge cigar.
RAY: Of course, this is a hypothetical question, because you're not allowed to smoke in the test cars.
TOM: I'm not? Oh! I'm not! Right. But let's say, just for the sake of argument, that the smoke is hovering in the air all around me, and I stop short. Does the smoke crash into the windshield? I don't think so.
RAY: It's a good question. So, we called our Car Talk physicist, Professor Wolfgang Rueckner, who also moonlights at Harvard University.
TOM: Wolfgang says that the smoke, too, is subject to Newton's first law, and should crash into the windshield. The only reason it doesn't is because it doesn't have enough mass. So while it's heading toward the windshield, it bangs into nearby air molecules, and the effect is muted.
RAY: I'm wondering if Newton ever tried this physics experiment: Take a test car that my brother has been smoking a cigar in, and have the manufacturer who owns it stick his head inside and take a sniff. Then see if that guy slams my brother's head into the windshield.
So, when you're meandering about Marin, be sure to leave your car windows closed so these little guys don't fly inside and get smushed against your windshield.
not "doing it" was a garter snake temporarily corralled by a pair of photographers intent on taking its portrait.
heralded spring-like weather for the day. Some of us woke up to find raindrops wetting the ground around our homes and, as has been the case more often than not in recent weeks, we began the hike with wool hats pulled down over our ears and fleece tops and jackets keeping our body core temperatures high enough to sustain life.
After 45 minutes we reached a shrubby area fronting the eastern part of the lagoon. This is always a good birding spot and we saw several species of songbirds. Park employees we passed told us to look for a Snowy Plover nesting in the sand about a quarter of mile south of where the remnants of the trail meet the beach.
lagoon.
t in order to keep people from wandering into the breeding area. Finally, we espied a circular enclosure and saw one adult bird inside. (Alas, the plover was too far away for Dick to get a photo with his camera).
lot.
Pictures taken by Dick Jordan during the Abbott's Lagoon hike (June 2nd) are now on-line.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Bay Model Visitor Center will host a FREE waterfront event from 12-3pm on Saturday, June 13, 2009, as part of the second annual National Get Outdoors
Earlier this week, Dick posted a plea from the California State Parks Foundation to urge the Governor and Legislature not to close state parks. Silvia Lange made her thoughts known in the following "Letter to the Editor" appearing in the Wednesday, June 3rd edition of the Marin-IJ:Just Sunday on Mount Tamalpais State Park, I saw my 23rd Mountain Play - the inspiring "Man of la Mancha."
As a 26-year volunteer for Angel Island State Park I have met thousands of local and international visitors who from the top of Mount Livermore marvel at the most beautiful view in the Bay Area. The state parks have an important educational mission. Thousands of school children came to Angel Island last year to study American history, especially immigration and the Civil War. On June 13 there is a child-oriented Civil War Day.
You can help find a better solution to our fiscal problems other than closing the state parks - sign the petition at the Mountain Play, donate to the California State Parks Foundation, contact our governor and legislators.
Silvia Lange, Nicasio
On Wednesday (June 3) afternoon, meet with Wendy to hunt for the Tiburon Mariposa Lily. She says that "this flower is one of Marin's most 'charismatic' claims to botanical fame. I'm taking a few of my kid students to see it. If you want to join us, meet me at 1 PM at the top of Westward Drive. Take Highway101, exit at Paradise Drive. Go about 1 mile. Turn right on Westward and go to the top. We'll be about 1.5 - 2 hrs. Great views and some other late bloomers as well. My treat - no fee."
This list of Summer Tuesday Hikes (through July) has been updated so Wendy's phone number and e-mail address appear next to each Shuttle Hike (notify her ahead of time if you're going). The Monday hike list has also been updated.
