Time out

News blues

President Ramaphosa addresses South Africa on coronavirus and the recent violent looting.  (32:55 mins). Level 3. Alcohol available again.

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The Lincoln Project Wayne Berman  (1:18 mins).

Healthy planet, anyone?

For climate campaigners, 26 May seemed like the start of a long-awaited reckoning for oil and gas companies.
Over a single 24-hour period, a Dutch court ordered Shell to dramatically cut emissions, shareholders voted to force Chevron to reduce emissions from the products it sells, and a tiny activist investment firm secured three positions on ExxonMobil’s 12-member board for candidates committed to climate action.

Read “The truth behind corporate climate pledges” >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Day at the beach was marvelous. Kehoe beach never disappoints. Yesterday’s weather was cool, some might say cold. I wore a short-sleeved t-shirt under a long-sleeved t-shirt, a hoodie and a windbreaker… and a cap with the hoodie pulled over it. Long pants. I’ve not worn that many layers of clothing all at once in… well, years! It was a treat.
Excerpt from and information about a different visit to Kehoe beach, in 2018:

My intrepid hiking partner and I braved weekend freeway traffic and headed to Kehoe Beach at Point Reyes. The weather was perfect: not too hot, not too foggy. We exited the freeway at Lucas Valley Road, and it was clear why California is called the Golden State.

On this map, draw an imaginary line through the middle length of Tomales Bay south (to the bottom right corner). That’s the approximate location of the California’s most famous fault, the San Andreas, and the current boundary where the Pacific Plate meets the North American Plate. Tectonics explain much about California’s geology and geomorphology and it’s quite visible at Kehoe Beach. (This map of faults in northern California  show how dizzyingly rocky life can be around here.)

Rocking near Elephant Mountain Lucas Valley Road presents many views of Elephant Mountain , also known as Black Mountain (after cattle rancher James Black who bought it back in 1851 for $2000). Despite never having hiked it (it’s private property) Elephant Mountain has worked its way into my visual memory ,and I look for it each time I visit. Maybe it’s its rocking history…. If it looks familiar it may be because the rock band Youngbloods used a similar photo for an album cover whose music was played near here, in 1969. RCA Records published the album, “Elephant Mountain.”

The area is replete with rock ‘n roll history. Grateful Dead played music around here. Elephant Mountain could be seen from the spread of late music impresario Bill Graham. (Sold, razed and rebuilt after Graham’s demise, the replacement $25 million home is Marin County's most expensive...so far.)
Star Wars’ George Lucas located Skywalker Ranch here, to the dismay of locals fighting the idea of more development and more traffic. So far, of the more than 4,700 acres (1,900 ha) of the secluded ranch, only 15 acres (6.1 ha) have been developed. (Lucas Valley Road is named after an early 20th century landowner not related to George Lucas.)
Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall dropped by Marin County and Pt Reyes Station in November 2005 as newlyweds. Of that visit winemaker Sean Thackrey of nearby Bolinas said, “Prince Charles is serious about organic agriculture, and Bolinas is serious about organic agriculture....He's kind of an oddball prince, in a good way. And, this is an oddball town. It somehow fits.”
Redwoods. Marin County is home to youthful redwoods, too. There’s nothing like a grove of redwoods to induce feelings of inner contentment and awareness that life is a precious gift. (Feelings were enough on this day. We didn’t stop to photograph redwoods but many others have. )  Exquisite Kehoe Beach caption: Google Earth view. 

Kehoe - birds eye view.
The first (man-made) thing a hiker sees (after the clean, well-supplied long drop toilet) on the trail to the beach is a well-intentioned sing warning of tsunamis.
The trail beckoned us into tsunami corridor...and we followed….
We’d just commented on the joy of hearing the loud buzzing of bees among the summer blooms, interspersed with the occasional call of birds--buzzards, harriers, and seagulls--when a fawn hiding near the trail broke cover. It was more curious about than frightened of us for it stopped and took a longer. We weren’t quick enough with the camera to photograph the osprey that pulled a large fish from the surf - first time I’d ever seen that - but we saw the resident blue heron in the nearby marsh.
Besides miles of beach and water, Kehoe Beach offers intimate views of the meeting places of granite, sandstone, and thoroughly unique. Look for Doris Sloan’s book,  “Rocking Out at Kehoe Beach: A Trip Through Time on the Pacific Plate".

Other trips to Pt Reyes: Limantour Beach 

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Shocker: Nicasio reservoir, in environmentally conscious Marin County, is drying up. While I did not take photos of the drying devastation, the local newspapers reports this, as does local water board. The same thing is happening all over the west. In California: Lake Mead  … and Lake Shasta to name just two.
In Utah ….
Drought is here to stay >> 

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Today, back to the marina where temps will rise into the triple digits for the next 3 days.
OMG!