The Super Bowl Oddity Walk

I excitedly arrived at the City Hall steps five minutes before 2:00PM curious to see how many folks showed up.  Nobody!  Nobody!!  How embarrassing.  And then a car pulled up.  Then another one and the next thing I know nine people are standing with me ready for the TWO O'CLOCK KICK OFF!!

Woo Hoo!!  And away we go!!

Glass Beach area.

The Pudding Creek Trestle comes into view.

One of the participants was able to put name to this oddity.  It is a Cork Oak.

We did a quick side trip through the new swimming pool.

Three hours later we were back at City Hall.

We agreed coffee/tea and a sweet was just the ticket so we walked over to the Headlands Coffeehouse.

Thanks folks for making the First (Annual?) Fort Bragg Super Bowl Oddities Walk a success!

First Friday Art Walk

First Friday in February and the Art Walk is ready.  Stores staying open past usual closing times are identified by balloons and chalk marks along the sidewalks.    :-)

The College of the Redwood Woodworker's show is also open at Town Hall.

It is getting quite obvious that Valentine's Day is next week!

**********

My Oddities Tour has filled up quite nicely.  Woo Hoo!

Attention! Attention!

This Sunday, "light" rain or shine, let's go for a walk.

Forget the "Lite" Beer and Sofa!

Meet on the steps of City Hall at 2:00 PM this coming Sunday, February 7th, 2010.

2:00 PM  *  2:00 PM

We will walk just over six miles.  Should take about two and a half ~ three hours depending on how much gawking and talking is involved.  Bring your camera, some snackage, water if you like.

Give me a heads up if you would like to come along.  ron@walkingfortbragg.com
See you at City Hall. (One block east on Laurel Street, turn left on Franklin.  There it is!)


Horse and buggy tie-down rings * Stage Coach step * Glass Beach * Obelisks * Donner Party *
the Vortex * West street to Wall Street * Pudding Creek Trestle *  A great variety of houses, dogs and cats

Meanwhile.......

Pygmy Forest and Fern Canyon

Today's MCLandLoper's hike was the 3.5 mile upper loop at Van Damme State Park.  It was raining in the early morning so the hike was called off but I saw blue sky over the ocean and decided to go anyway.  I arrived at the trailhead and Peter, another member, had just arrived.  The rain stopped, the sun started peeking out and away we went.  Perfect!

This is the boardwalk through the Pygmy Forest.  The boardwalk solves the erosion problem this type of soil is prone too.  You can see an example of the erosion problem via the red link.

After the boardwalk the trail starts to decent into Fern Canyon and zoom!  Another MCLandLoper whizzed by but she is a young member and wanted to run.  Away she went as Peter and resumed our walking gawking and yes, talking!  Peter told me a lot about this area because he is a member of the Jackson State Forest Advisory Board and has been involved with various decisions about this park.

This was a former logging road and is maintained by the State Park for access when building/repairing bridges or clearing big trees blown down by storms.

Fern Canyon.

One of the recently improved bridges.

The remains of an Amanita Muscaria.  Peter told me deer eat them!

A tributary of Fern Creek.

This area was heavily logged of redwood and, over time, fir grew in.  Now there is a disease killing the fir and high winds knock them down.  Not a good idea to walk this trail when it is windy.

This stump gives you an idea of the original redwoods in this area!

Well worth a visit.

Something different.

Just beyond our selves

Immensity floats freely

with us or without

Based on the prompt: "Uncanny"

Thanks to

www.haikubones.com

Figuring out my Oddities Walk

I have often thought about offering a personal guided tour of my Fort Bragg Oddities Walk brochure but I had never actually walked the complete route in one "sitting".  I was curious as to how short a walk I could make it while still including all the "Oddities".  Saturday I gave it a try and used my GPS to record my route and distance.  I included all the tie-down rings, Glass Beach, out to the middle of the Pudding creek trestle, Wall Street, the Boat House, the Donnor Party folks, "Shooting" the Vortex and even tossed in a stroll through Otis Johnson park.  End results. 6.1 miles in 2 hours and 15 minutes.  Perfect!  I'm going to see if the MCLandLopers are interested in giving it a try.  That is the distance and time frame they usually do.

Near Glass Beach.

A great variety of houses along the way.  Remember this house being repainted last Fall?

They chose a dark smoky purple trim.  Great touch!

And guess what!  More evidence of Spring coming!

Along with Spring Showers!

On a nice day this could be a lot of fun.  We'll see.

Clouds this morning

Strange and unsettled weather.  50 degrees at 6:00 AM.

I am quite sure these are what are called Mammatus Clouds.

All in all, quite interesting.