RIP Dan Gorfain, Northern California Trail Pioneer

The Bee has an article on him. I hadn't heard of him before but his foresight and persistence have been behind the Sacramento River Parkway and the Great California Delta Trail. It's easy to get lost in negativity online these days, so when I see a life that was dedicated to trails and improving others' quality of life, I like to do my small part to advance that example to others. After all, trails don't just happen on their own.


From sacramentoriverparkway.org.

"People Made It Happen"

Q: What's one thing that you wish more people know about [Mt. Tam]?

A: It just wasn't always public; people take these things for granted. In 1900, every bit of Mt. Tamalpais was private. And over the next century, that completely reversed. And it happened due to people who cared and who were passionate and who worked hard. That's the story I'd like people to know: It just didn't happen. People made it happen. And they need to cherish what they've got—and to keep battling to keep it that way.


Good to remember! That's Barry Spitz, author of Mount Tamalpais Trails, interviewed on the Parks Conservancy Web Site. As a side note, something I found oddly comforting: there are few who can claim to know and love that mountain more than him, but regarding his measuring the mileage of all the trails, he described it as "tedious". Too much of anything is boring!


View of Mt. Tam from Berkeley.
From (sorry) vortexhunter.com. Damn hippies.