Russian Gulch State Park

Happy Father's Day to all the dads!   John was out of town to be with his family today and so I'm pulling one of his earlier photos out of the file for today's venue.

It was a perfect run/walk morning at Russian Gulch, 51 degrees, overcast and calm.  Ginny made it to the waterfall and back this morning while Terry and Joel completed the whole waterfall loop trail!

Thanks to Orah and Steve for bringing Hector back and also Gabe.   Others present were:  Neil, Fran, Nancy B., Rick, Sarah, Ginny, Terry, Joel, Cheryl, Rod, Kathy, Steve, Nancy T., Roger, Suzi, Nancy and Tom (21).

Next Sunday is the fourth Sunday of the month.  That means that I would normally say that we'll go to either Navarro Ridge Road or Caspar Logging Road.   There is a community breakfast at each of those venues on the fourth Sunday.  Closer for most of us and with more trail options, dog friendly and with much easier parking would be Caspar Logging Road, and so,

NEXT SUNDAY, June 23 @ 8:00 A.M.:  CASPAR LOGGING ROAD, see "Our Routes" above.

EVERY TUESDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: RUSSIAN GULCH STATE PARK, beginning on Point Cabrillo Drive, 1/10 of a mile north of its south end.

EVERY THURSDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: VAN DAMME STATE PARK, beginning at the beach.

Big River Logging Road

I don't know if anybody caught my error last week.  I thought we hadn't been to Big River for over a month and therefore chose it for this week's run/walk.   I had been having computer problems, maybe mental also?, because it had been only two weeks.   I was away in Oregon and, as I said, having a computer death.   Anyway, we had a good turnout this morning and everyone seemed happy.

 It was 51 degrees at Big River and that means mosquitoes!  They seem to come out whenever the temperature gets around or above 50.   It was an overcast and drizzly morning, good for running.

  I want to thank Tonita for bringing guests, Zonia, Shelley and Sandra.  Charlene and Ron brought Caroline and Richard for their second (at least) visit, thank you.  Also present:  Tom T., Bob J., Fran, Dorothy, Cheryl N., Neil, Orah, Steve, Joe, Bob, John, Greg, Ginny, Terry, Geri, Suzanne, Henry, Rick C., Cheryl, Rod, Nancy and Tom (30).

John went salmon fishing this week and caught a nice 21 lb. fish and the buoy picture here.  All of the pictures here are from John and taken near our run/walk today, thanks John!   I'm adding another photo here, after the blog was posted, so I hope it comes out.  A lot of you were looking at this guy in the river just before our run/walk this morning:

It has been 11 weeks since we met at Russian Gulch, so let's try it next week.   Those that want to walk their dogs can do so everywhere except in Fern Canyon.  That leaves plenty of roads and trails.

NEXT SUNDAY, June 16th,  @ 8:00 A.M.:  RUSSIAN GULCH STATE PARK,  see "Our Routes" above.

EVERY TUESDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: RUSSIAN GULCH STATE PARK, beginning on Point Cabrillo Drive, 1/10 of a mile north of its south end.

EVERY THURSDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: VAN DAMME STATE PARK, beginning at the beach.

Hare Creek, JSF Rd. 400

This morning, it was 54 degrees and with beautiful blue skies and calm winds, at least at Hare Creek.  The carnival is in town, and high winds at sea make for a quiet harbor.  Thanks, John for the photos.

My feet feel a little tender from stepping on so many rocks while wearing my new minimalist "barefoot" shoes on this very rocky road but all in all, it was a great morning run.  Lots of dogs with us today and I think we all had fun.

Present were:  (not in alphabetical or any kind of order) Randy E, Joel, Bob, Terry, Ginny, John, Ron, Henry, Geri, Chuck, Sabine and Sean (welcome back!), Nancy T., Roger, Rick B., Gay, Mark, Craig, Greg, Shari, Peter, Linda, Tom T., Nancy and Tom (25).

David's Restaurant has become a popular place for Sunday morning groups.  Kira, always with a "can do" attitude, made room for us by combining tables and chairs from all over the place, and we had a very nice post walk/run breakfast.

I returned from our short trip and found my pc dead.  It had lived a long life but I decided it best to buy a new Mac.  It has a 27 inch screen and so I now think that I either need longer arms or new glasses.  Point of this story is that, I lost my RunLog program with the old pc and without being able to scroll back thru the blogs here
while composing a new blog entry, I'm having trouble remembering
where we've met over the past few months.  I think it's been at least
a month since we met at Big River and so,

NEXT SUNDAY, June 9th @ 8:00 A.M.: BIG RIVER LOGGING ROAD, see "Our Routes" above.

EVERY TUESDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: RUSSIAN GULCH STATE PARK, beginning on Point Cabrillo Drive, 1/10 of a mile north of its south end.

EVERY THURSDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: VAN DAMME STATE PARK, beginning at the beach.

Ward Avenue

Can you believe it - another late posting!  Come back Tom, all is forgiven.  However, not a bad turnout for a holiday weekend and a new route.  There were eighteen of us, splitting into 2 groups - those with dogs going south and the rest going north.  The morning was warm (57°) but overcast.  The sun did tease us a couple of times, but after seeing all our smiling faces decided we were happy enough and went elsewhere to add some cheer.

The 18 runners/walkers were, Charlene, Fran, Gay, Geri, Greg, Ginny, Gordon, Henry, Joe, John, Mark, Nancy t, Peter, Roger, Ron, Shari, Suzanne and Terry.  Did you notice that these are in alpha order?  When I have to write the blog, I print a list of all the fogdodgers names (as an aide mémoir) checking off those that are there, and it happens to be in alpha order.

It was good to see Toni, who joined us for breakfast.  Her recovery is going slower than she was expecting - but the important thing is it's getting better.  Just keep doing those exercises and DON'T overdo it!

As always, John provided the photos, including some he took when he visited Nancy and I working on the model railroad in the barn behind the Skunk Depot.  This gives me a segway to abuse my position as blogger this week, and give a plug for our soon to open model railroad.  We are planning to open on June 15th and a flyer can be downloaded here, and the website (which has lots of info on the history of logging in Mendocino) can be found here.

Finally, if anyone has any comments about the Ward Avenue route, please make them by clicking "comments" below.

NEXT SUNDAY, DATE @ 8:00 A.M.: HARE CREEK, JACKSON STATE FOREST ROAD 400 See our routes above.  Reminder, this is the Hare Creek route off Hwy 20.
EVERY TUESDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: RUSSIAN GULCH STATE PARK, beginning on Point Cabrillo Drive, 1/10 of a mile north of its south end.
EVERY THURSDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: VAN DAMME STATE PARK, beginning at the beach.

Big River

For those keen surfers that were out looking for the blog yesterday - apologies.  Went to breakfast, got home, enjoyed the amazing weather and clean forgot!

What a glorious morning.  In fact, what a glorious stretch of weather - it's been shorts and tee shirts for a while now - yeah!!  I have no idea what the temperature was when we left, or when we returned, though looking at my weather station at home, it was probably around 59°, which also shows that earlier this month it reached 82°, the highest temperature since we moved here 3.5 years ago.

Turnout out was a little lower than we've seen lately, but there are a lot of people having fun out of town at the moment.  Still it's quality, not quantity that counts and what a quality group this morning - Bob C, Cheryl, Craig, Ginny, Gordon, Henry, Mike, Nancy T, Neil, Roger, Suzanne, Terry, Tonita, Tom T, and John kindly brought his son Nick and Heather.  Also, as always, thanks to John for sending me photos.

Next Sunday at 7am is the lowest tide of the year, -1.9ft. - it will still be nearly -1.5ft at 8am.  Not wanting to miss this once in a year opportunity, for next week we've added a new walk that will allow runners and walkers to enjoy the open beach normally covered with water.  The plan is to meet at the car park at the end of Ward Avenue, see Our Routes, where a map for this walk has been added.  Unfortunately dogs aren't allowed more than a few hundred yards north from Ward Ave., even on a leash, so those that want to take their dogs, we can go south towards Lake Cleone and Laguna Point.

Hope to see you all then.

NEXT SUNDAY, DATE @ 8:00 A.M.: WARD AVENUE - See Our Routes above
EVERY TUESDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: RUSSIAN GULCH STATE PARK, beginning on Point Cabrillo Drive, 1/10 of a mile north of its south end.
EVERY THURSDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: VAN DAMME STATE PARK, beginning at the beach.

Mother's Day 2013

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!  It was a perfect morning for us on the Caspar Logging Road, 52 degrees, overcast skies and calm.  Thank you John, for today's pictures.

 Present today:  Linda, Tom, Gordon, Mike, Rick C., Bob J., Cheryl N., Neil, Fran, Nancy B., Rick, Nancy T., Roger, Bob, Ginny, Terry, Charlene, Ron, Greg, John, Cheryl, Suzanne (?), Henry, Nancy and Tom (25).  Toni, recovering from surgery, along with Joe, were kind enough to save us a table at a very busy David's Restaurant.




From within the ranks today, there was grumbling about the Caspar Logging Road (too long uphill, too rocky, too boring, etc.) and so, in an effort to keep everyone happy, we will go back to starting from the Duck Pond, on maybe half of the occasions we use Caspar Logging Road.   So, maybe Roger can amend the "Our Routes" tab to include two starting points for Caspar or create a new route, "Duck Pond".  Roger and Bob are going to blog for the next couple of weeks, help them with taking the roll!

 

 Abby wanted something "Dog Friendly" next week, so,


NEXT SUNDAY, May 19, @ 8:00 A.M.: BIG RIVER LOGGING ROAD, see "Our Routes" above.

EVERY TUESDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: RUSSIAN GULCH STATE PARK, beginning on Point Cabrillo Drive, 1/10 of a mile north of its south end.

EVERY THURSDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: VAN DAMME STATE PARK, beginning at the beach.

Fern Canyon, Van Damme State Park

 We ran and walked at Van Damme State Park this morning.  It was 45 degrees under clear blue skies and calm air.  Several of us turned around just 10 minutes out and returned so that we could make it to Boonville for the Boontling Classic 5K Race.   Congratulations to:   Marc, 1st Place Overall Racewalk, Nancy (1st) and Sarah (2nd) Place in their respective age groups.   It was also a Personal Record (PR) for Sarah!

On Thursday, after our run at Van Damme, we were entertained by this otter, feeding and playing in the pool of water (formed by the creek and beach sand bar) in front of the parking lot. 

It played in the sand also and seemed to taking a sand bath.

 If you click on the photo and look closely, you'll see that this otter  has a wound on it's nose, probably from another otter.

 On the way home, John took this picture on the beach at Big River.  Thanks, John for the pics!

Here's another plug for the Ceramics Show/Sale, going for all of May (opening reception on May 11).  John has some beautiful clay pots to display and to sell:  http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/MyLasso/MainGallery.lasso .
If the above URL link doesn't work, just copy and paste it onto your browser.

Present today:  Fran, Orah, Steve, Gordon, Suzanne, Henry, Cheryl, Bob, John, Charlene, Ron, Nancy T., Roger, Tanya, Nancy B.,  Tonita, Mike, Nancy and Tom (19).

I chose Van Damme for today because there wasn't a minus (abalone) tide and to make it easier for some of us to get to Boonville.  On next Sunday, there is a pretty good minus tide in the morning and it is Mother's Day.  I think it would be good to go into Jackson State Forest, far away from the maddening crowds.  So,


NEXT SUNDAY, May 12 @ 8:00 A.M.: CASPAR LOGGING ROAD, see "Our Routes" above.

EVERY TUESDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: RUSSIAN GULCH STATE PARK, beginning on Point Cabrillo Drive, 1/10 of a mile north of its south end.

EVERY THURSDAY @ 7:00 A.M.: VAN DAMME STATE PARK, beginning at the beach.