I’ve been trying with various degrees of failure to establish myself as an indie-author. Hence all the literary pointers and similar cruft. Meanwhile, as they say, I’ve had a camera in front of my face since the dark ages (when you processed your own film and made your own prints (and mixed your own chemicals, yum.)) It seems that my photographic and travel posts are the most popular. So that’s what I’m doing as part of a massive re-branding. (At least I don’t have to wait for the iron to get red hot.)
Something of a digression, but we just walked the Tomales point trail at Point Reyes National Seashore through the Tule Elk preserve. This species of elk was nearly hunted to extinction and reintroduced to park about 40 years ago.
Fine, neat, but so what.
Most of the hikers on the trail, and there were more than we’ve seen on any other trail in the park, missed the elk completely. We saw at least 21 and possibly as many as 26 (there was a large herd that was hard to count, my best estimate was 20). There’s a trick to it, well two tricks actually:
Skill and knowledge
Patience
The first step is to find the elk. Being prey animals, even though they’re the size of small cows, they tend to hide away. We saw three heads on the top of a ridge in the distance. Were they elk? Well, out with the binoculars. Yup, elk.
Further on, to get out of the wind (Tulome trail is very windy. The Park Service quietly understates ‘even experienced hikers may find it difficult’.) we took a diversion to hide behind a pile of rocks. There was a small cluster of similar little dots in the distance. Again, out with the binoculars and quelle surprise, a herd of elk, not 100 meters from the path.
Elk as little dots in the distance.
So then it was just a matter of walking to the closest point on the path and waiting. While a fair number of people walked past, chatting about this and that, we watched the elk.
Elk backs with the Pacific Ocean behind them.
At first, they were blobs in the distance.
They walked closer and soon our patience was rewarded. People kept walking past without noticing the animals. Shame.
Two elk
These pictures were made with a 200mm lens, which isn’t a particularly powerful telephoto lens.
We decided to try exploring the West coast for a number of reasons. The most pressing being to see how the trees I planted while working for the city of Salinas were doing. Well, not really, but it’s been a while and, quite frankly, we wanted to see somewhere we haven’t been recently.
We started off by flying into San Jose, which is a smaller airport than SFO, but has the advantage of being much easier to get away from. We booked a couple of nights in Antioch – near the end of the BART yellow line with plans of exploring the city. (FYI we stayed at America’s Best Value Inns there which is cheap, clean, and decent. Hazel’s drive in, just down the road, is a fantastic little restaurant if you’re in the area (bring cash – they don’t take credit cards).) If you do this, it turns out there’s no parking to speak of at the Antioch station. Drive to Pittsburg Bay Center and park there. (You also avoid a transfer).
A street in Chinatown.
We explored Chinatown and had excellent dim sum at the Imperial Inn before walking to Telegraph Hill (the Coit Tower then pier 51). The trick to finding good dim sum is to look at the clientele. If they’re mostly Chinese, you’ve found the right place. We picked up salted plums and various Chinese candies that aren’t easy to find in Atlanta. If you walk a few streets West of the tourist area, you can find the Chinese grocery shops. There English is a scarce commodity, but the vegetables and fruits are authentic. There’s also a tension between the mainland and Taiwanese Chinese. Several of the buildings pointedly had either the PRC or Taiwan flag displayed.
Unfortunately the heat followed us, it being 85-90F (30-32) instead of the more normal 60F (16). So we decided the best thing to do the next day (with inland forecasts of 35-38 (100-108) was to take the ferry. We started at the SFO ferry terminal (near the Embarcadero BART stop) and took the ferry to Sausalito.
The natives posed for a practice shot with my mirror lens. It’s OK, but the resolution isn’t up to my normal standards.
The ferry ride costs about $6.50 each way (use a clipper card, and keep track of your balance). It’s the cheapest way. There’s a bike over the bridge and return on the ferry route that looks fun, but you have to be prepared for it. (We weren’t.) Sausalito is a bit of a tourist trap, so we walked around and admired the yachts. Most of the yachts weren’t being used, and some could be had quite cheaply – if you don’t count the work you’ll need to put in to make her seaworthy.
Sailing by the Golden Gate
The yachts are entrancing, but I’d need a lot of practice to move up from a sailing canoe to one of these.
R. Harrison, Creative Enterprises 