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.