Nine Ramblers completed a four mile hike in Nisene Marks State Park. The very recent seasonal removal of two bridges required modification of the original hiking plan. Nonetheless, the resourceful group cobbled together a memorable hike through beautiful forest settings of lush ferns, redwoods, willows, red alders, and maples. The morning concluded with lunch at the Farm Bakery and Café in Aptos.
A group of members went on a tour of the aircraft carrier the USS Hornet on Wednesday, October 11th which holds 9 battle stars earned for her WW ll service. She supported nearly every Pacific amphibious landing after March 1944 as well as the Apollo artifacts. It is now moored at historic Alameda Point on San Francisco Bay. The three ship’s decks provided an interesting history of life on the carrier. There was a short film introduction and then a docent took the group through the ship describing details and sharing information about it.
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| Katy the riveter |
The group enjoyed a fabulous outing last week with great views and challenging trails. The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river’s main stem is about 71 miles (114 km) long. Its length to its most distant head water tributary is about 220 miles (350 km). Its drainage basin is about 6,000 square miles (16,000 km2). The main stem Feather River begins in Lake Oroville, where its four long tributary forks join together—the South Fork, Middle Fork, North Fork, and West Branch Feather Rivers. These and other tributaries drain part of the northern Sierra Nevada, and the extreme southern Cascades, as well as a small portion of the Sacramento Valley. The river’s drainage basin above Lake Oroville is 3,222 square miles (8,340 km), or about 53% of the whole.
The Feather River and its forks were a rich center of gold mining during the 19th century. Since the 1960s, the river has provided water to central and southern California, as the main source of water for the California State Water Project. Its water is also used for hydroelectricity generation.
The Feather is unique in that two of its tributaries, the North Fork and Middle Fork, originate east of the Sierra Nevada in the Diamond Mountains and breach the crest of the Sierras as they flow west.
Wate and Johanna Bakker led a hike in Fremont Peak State Park on Saturday, September 30th.
Johanna Bakker led a hike at Wilder State Park near Santa Cruz on September 27th. The group walked along the shore and enjoyed the cool breezes and enjoyed the wildlife at the shore and in the water. The hike was about a 4 mile round trip.
A group of ten long hikers and ramblers did a combined hike at Sweeney Ridge near San Bruno on Saturday September 16th. They started at the trail head on Sneath Lane and hiked up to the top of the ridge, a vertical climb of about 1000 ft, to the spot where Spanish explorer Portola first saw San Francisco Bay. After that they hiked up the Baquiano Trail to a spot where they had lunch and saw beautiful views of the town of Pacifica. They then hiked back up up the Baquiano trail to the old Nike missile site and finally back down to the trail head. Total distance was about 8 miles. After the hike all had lunch at Nick’s restaurant in Pacifica.
Susan Brown led an outing to Pao Hua Buddhist Temple on Mckee Rd where we learned a little about Chinese Buddhism. Afterwards we visited the Overfelt Garden Park nearby and saw many Chinese architectures and statues.
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| Confucious |
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| Friendship gate |
Nancy Rumple led a hike in Calero County Park that was 7-8 miles with a 1000 ft. elevation gain on the lower trails in the park and the trail consisted of hiking in and out of shade.
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| Hayfield Tarwood |
