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 2008
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 [...]
Time for a Photograph
I just noticed that there are no photographs on this home page - that doesn’t happen very often, so here is a recent photograph.
Bird Rock and Winter Surf, Dusk. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. December 30, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.
(A reminder: Photographs are posted daily at my photography web site.)
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 [...]
Joining the Site
One can join this site and comment on posts. That said, I automatically and immediately delete any membership applications that come from generic (random letters and numbers) yahoo, etc. email addresses and which do not include a real name, etc. Been getting a few of those the past week or so…
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 [...]
Yosemite Valley Railroad - A Piece of History Lives
Almost since I’ve lived in California I remember wondering about the railroad bed that follows the Merced River along the canyon bottom approach to El Portal and Yosemite Valley.
Thanks to Andy Frazer (see here also) I came across the web site describing the restoration of the observation car from the train that travelled between [...]
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 [...]
Mt. Hamilton Land Protected
According to SFGate, a “ranch the size of San Francisco [is] to be protected from development near Mt. Hamilton.
A huge stretch of land near Mt. Hamilton that is roughly the size of San Francisco has been donated as a conservation easement by the Hewlett and Packard families to protect the property from development, the [...]
A Day for Free-Heelers
From SFGate:
SKIING / Free-heelers get their days. Skiers from around the West will head to Bear Valley Mountain Resort next week for the annual Telemark Ski Festival. The festival will run Feb. 8-10 at Bear Valley, which is just off Highway 4 in the central Sierra east of Arnold (Calaveras County)… [SFGate: Tom Stienstra]
As a [...]
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