F - I see you made it to San Francisco?
PR - Yeah, it was pretty neat coming across the Golden Gate Bridge on a bicycle. Lots of cars whizzing by but virtually no traffic on the west side bike way. Brought back memories of other passages, with Anne my mother, when I was a small boy heading to Hawaii on a Naval transport ship, years later on the Lynn Ann, a chartered Marine Mammal Laboratory research vessel, then by car in more recent years with my wife.
F - So no problems finding your friend's place?
PR - Some but not major. I followed a two lane bike path into the Presidio, an old Army post, then couldn't find the exit without asking for help. After that following Vicky Hoover's instructions to her place was easy.
F - I meant to ask you before why we didn't hear more from you on the California coast?
PR - Well, I apologize for that. I tried. I made a blog post from the Ft. Bragg public library roughly halfway between Fortuna and Petaluma but it was lost in the electron shuffle.
To catch up a bit, if you haven't seen what remains of the old growth redwood forests in northern California you really should. Once there was 2 million acres. Sadly only 100,000 escaped the axe and saw.
Two days past Fortuna I rode through Humbolt Redwoods State Park, 30 some miles along the Avenue of the Giants. In the Bull Creek State wilderness there was a big tree area shown on the park map. It was off my direct route of travel but I wanted to camp midst these ancient sentinels. I payed for a hike/bike camp site then went and found a place off the main trails by Bull Creek. The patter of rain drops on my tent and the rush of water over shallow riffles lulled me to sleep that night. It was a rare moment of solitude, away from the madding crowd. I felt at home in this sliver of wilderness.
F - Way cool! Tell me about San Francisco?
PR - Well, I didn't have any luck with the media but not for trying. I did connect with Anna Goldstein and David Kroodsma with 350.org, the climate change group. They are working to have this become the global safe parts per million standard for CO2 emissions. I look forward to a fruitful collaboration.
I also visited Sierra Club friends from my days flying in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. Vicky Hoover my host and friend had flown with me into the Refuge as had Carol and Dexter Hake and Bill Gomez whom I visited in Palo Alto. I took the Cal Trans train there. I stayed overnight with Carol and Dexter. Oranges and lemons from their trees were ripe and plentiful, luscious treats along with a dinner of Dungeness crab. All of this a far cry and welcome change from my more mundane ramen noodle dinner combinations. It was really wonderful to catch up with old friends again.
Bill Gomez took me on a hike through Stanford's Jasper Ridge 1000 acre plus research area. He's a docent volunteer which allows him access through otherwise locked gates. He showed me one experiment to determine why the native oak trees, both deciduous (leaves fall off in winter) and non deciduous were not regrowing from their seeds. Virtually all the trees on this site and outside are old trees. He explained it was not a problem with the seeds, they would sprout but are not surviving. The deer and gophers are eating some of the sprouting seedlings but there's more going on thus the project. It could also be a problem related to seasonal changes in soil moisture, he said.
We walked across the spillway of a 100 year old concrete dam with a multi acre impoundment behind it. He said it's typical of the problems that surface when dams are proposed for removal as this one had. The water behind the dam was only 12 feet deep now due to sedimentation. There is, he explained, a segment of the public that wants to leave the dam in place for flood protection. Yet most of the excess water over tops the dam because it's too shallow giving scant protection. Others, of course, want it removed to restore the habitat and fish run in the stream.
The latter would be my preference but allaying the fears of those in opposition remain an ongoing challenge to dam removal in many places.
F - I see you're no longer in San Francisco. How did you get out of town?
PR - I took the Baylink ferry to Vallejo on Saturday. I didn't get there until just past noon. Even so I was further along by 30 some miles before camping on the outskirts of Vacaville. It was a great day to be on a bike, sunny with temperatures in high '50's maybe more I'd guess, flowers in bloom.
It was pretty interesting riding down Georgia Street heading out of town.
F - How so?
PR - Part of Georgia Street was blocked off for a farmers market. Some vendors were already beginning to close up shop and go home. I stopped at a stand selling mandarin and regular oranges.
I asked how much they were. I was told I could get one pound of mandarins for a dollar, a bargain I thought. I bought a pound. Right afterwards an older woman came up to me and said I want to give you some money for your trip. She saw my polar bear sign with Ride For the Planet draped over the side of my loaded B.O.B. trailer. She hands me one dollar. I thanked her for the donation "What's your name," I asked. "Douglas," she responds. "Your other name," "Elie Douglas, they call me the Hat Lady." She was wearing a white knitted hat, made of wool, I couldn't be sure. "Do you make them," I asked. "No I just wear them." I remembered her name as I headed up over the immediate hill out of town and others that followed.
F - You've got more to say about this I can tell.
PR - Of course. It really didn't come to me until the next morning what this was about. By this time the sun was up in a nearly cloudless sky, the birds were singing their hearts out.
F - And that is?
PR - What is the underlying theme I've spoken about before on this journey?
F - I'm not sure, we've talked about a lot of things.
PR - What happened at the fruit stand? Remember there are no coincidences and there is always more going on than meets the eye. I bought one pound of mandarin oranges, for one dollar that I received a one dollar donation for from the Hat Lady. Three elements in one here, a sacred number, reinforcing for me the central theme of this ride and our relationship to one another. One pound for one dollar with one dollar returned, we are all One, connected in ways we do not fully appreciate or understand yet. Eating mandarin oranges on a warm day is a good thing and so is repetition until we get it. When more of us "get it" and act from that understanding we will have peace and an end to war, violence and the madness. We will know that to do these things to one another we are only harming ourselves individually or collectively.
F - Whew, it's a stretch for me.
PR - Stay with me it ain't over yet.
F - So now your in Sacramento?
PR - Yeah, Holly Wenger another Sierra Club friend rode out to meet me yesterday when I was northbound on the Jedediah Smith Bikeway along the American River. It was a good thing too. Her home is in the burbs not close to the trail. We'd been in touch via cell phone so she had some idea of my whereabouts. Having her as a guide made it easy.
F - How was the trail?
PR - The Jed Smith trail is excellent, two lanes, speed limit 15mph for the "hot dogs." I crossed the Sacramento River first with a view of the State Capitol. Horse drawn carriages carrying tourists past while I waited for the light to change. Then I biked and walked through Old Sacramento over a rough board walk along the river. That turned into a worn paved path leading upstream to the beginning of the Jed Smith trail along the American River. Sunday, Valentines Day as it happened, there were lots of folks out sighseeing, enjoying the spring weather. A stern wheeler was tied up at the dock, old railroad cars were parked on a nearby siding, lots of old things to see. A couple on a tandem bike insisted on taking my photo with my camera rather than the stand alone shot I was about to take. That was special!
Later we went out to eat at a Chinese restuarant with Holly's friends. Holly asked me beforehand if I had enough energy for it. Just enough, tired but not exhausted. I was famished, my usual condition. It was good food, good company and me the last to finish. I was in hog heaven. I love Chinese food.
Crystal Olson treated me to dinner, a Valentine gift, gratefully received. We sat next to each other. She's a music arts teacher in the California State University system, been to Nicaragua and Rwanda 10 years after the killings. She wore a red Valentine day jacket that sparkled much like the conversation and company, a day to remember.
I ate two chocolate covered fortune cookies for an extra measure of good luck. Not really, I was one hungry hombre and they were sooo good. But the fortune telling wasn't bad either. That's my story.
F - Catch up with you down the trail.
Peace Rider
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