Sunday, November 10, 2013

Mt. Tam State Park and Reservoir

Very nice run yesterday starting from the Alpine Lake Dam, heading up toward the peak and then coming back on the exposed western face of Tam (Matt Davis and Coastal). Who knows how many miles, it was a blast. That little climb up to Laurel Dell is a good bit of fun. It's still amazingly dry and you can see how low the reservoirs are. These are just from the dam where I started, except for the pic of the falls which is from jimcoda.com.







Here's the negative - of course, on the way back, I ran across some jackass who couldn't wait to get back to his car, who was smoking on the trail. I waited to make sure he'd put his cigarette out and when I couldn't find the butt, I asked him where he threw it, and he said he kept it with him. He seemed very offended that I'd been watching him. These people need to get over themselves. If you can't help your habit, then don't come into the woods in California!

Yes, it was awkward to have that conversation. But I thought of it this way: if later that day I'd heard that a fire had started in that fantastic forest, and I knew I could have prevented it, I couldn't sleep at night. And here's my challenge to everyone: this kind of situation is a test of our actual values and shows whether we care more about conserving an outstanding resource like this, or trying not to make the occasional careless jackass a little uncomfortable.

(Matt Davis Trail, image from road2trails.blogspot.com.)








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