French broom, a severe invasive from the Mediterranean. I hope they eat it all. The stuff is like California's own kudzu. If you see it in a park, call it in. If you see it in your yard, pull it out.
1) With the warm dry winter, French broom is already in full bloom along Route 13 in the East Bay area - but completely absent from Redwood Preserve, as far as I can tell, due to a concerted effort by volunteers over the past few years. Good job! A few years it looked like it had completely taken over.
2) Oil platforms off Venture and Santa Barbara Coast to be re-opened, if this already-passed House bill becomes law.
3) A great resource for San Diego trail runners: Scott Capistrant's systematic trail running reviews.
From Scott's Los Penasquitos post. It looks hot. You can smell the dust and sage in this picture.
4) There are albino redwoods in several places around the state, like the one e Mark at Tales from the Trails found below. Of course it's not true albinism in the sense of vertebrates, but rather a lack of chloroplasts, which in turn means they can't photosynthesize; but since redwoods often share root systems, they can get away with it (not surprising in retrospect that redwoods do this but still cool. Clonally reproducing organisms like redwoods often share resources since it's identical genes cooperating with themselves.) I'm going to be heading down to Henry Cowell State Park tomorrow to check some out and go for a nice Santa Cruz Mountains run.
From Mark's Tales from the Trails
5) If you're in the East Bay and want a fun Wednesday night trail running group, the WEENIES is a good one. (Wednesday Evenings East Neighborhoods International Exercise Society.) Last week we were up on the deer and fire trails in Tilden and above Strawberry Canyon, and in the dark we startled a deer that almost bulldozed us as it was running.
6) For hashers: thinly concealed heresy on the San Francisco Hash House Harriers website! And needless to say, right before I moved up here I just started really enjoying the North County Hash in San Diego (they did an Elfin Forest run a while back that was fantastic) but the East Bay ruffians are a good time too.
7) Finally - I'm going to post something I'm doing on the awesome site nobodyhikesinla. Hopefully it will make it even more helpful for people who like SoCal trails!
The Bay Ridge Trail in EBMUD land south of Tilden Park, Oakland. David Sanger Photography.
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