With the enthusiastic response to the Splash Mob idea came requests for specifics:
1) a less-strenuous option available for kids, the elderly, and the otherwise creaky or fatugued;
2) picnic options and opportunities for relaxed naturalist-type sauntering for some, and the potential for more strenuous activities for those inclined;
3) an actual date, time, and place.
Pinole Creek would be the obvious first guess, but the leisure sitting activities are pretty much limited to near the mouth of the creek, near a sewage treatment plant. We’ll save that for the advanced course.
So here’s a proposal:
Saturday, October 20,
starting to assemble and hang out around 11:00 am and eating around 1:00 pm ;
Point Pinole Regional Park,
Picnic Area near Fishing Pier
Here’s a PDF map of the park. The fishing pier is about a one-and-a-half-mile level walk from the parking lot, and for those uninclined to walk that far there is a regular shuttle from the parking lot to the pier area, shuttle schedule listed on the map above. (One dollar round trip, 50 cents age 6-11; children under 6, seniors 62+ or disabled ride free.) During busy weekend days, there is sometimes a five dollar parking fee, but I suspect it will not be a busy day on October 20.
The site has a few varied environment types nearby: a sheltered bay shore with possibilities of shorebirding; the pier, of course; the windward bay shore with cliffs and great views of Mount Tamalpais and San Francisco, and an invasive eucalyptus forest in which some native organisms try to make a living, and if Ron and Joe can make it, we can ask them what the faint blurs up in the euc treetops are. (Here’s a PDF with some of the posssiblities.)
There’s also Freshwater Pond (see map), well known as the historic site of this event. And there are many miles of trails for hiking, mountain biking, off-leash puppydog walking (though the dogs are supposed to stay on leash in the picnic areas), and other pursuits.
How’s that sound, folks? If the distance between the parking lot and the pier is too daunting, there are picnic areas closer to the parking lot, but they’re much more developed and more likely to have been expensively reserved.
You may RSVP, or file objections/suggested amendments to the above, in comments. If you haven’t already RissVipped inthe previous thread, that is.
Note:Many old comments were lost in a database crash in 2008. Some conversations may seem to make less sense than they would have. A few will make more sense now.
21 comments on "Splash Mob Proposal"excellent! i was about to campaign for point pinole. there are bike and hiking trails. my son’s birthday party picnic and bike ride was there, some years back.
now, i have to explain to my husband why he really should go, even though i know you from the internet. [but i met ron once in person!] he is the main hiker, dog lover, tree-grower in the family. it happens that he keeps wanting me to go do something outdoors. win win win.
...if Ron and Joe can make it, we can ask them what the faint blurs up in the euc treetops are. (Here’s a PDF with some of the posssiblities.)
I didn’t ssee any ssnakes on the lisst.
What? No sewage plant?
Wulll, OK. You bring the candles.
yay, I can make it! see you all there.
i’d love to go… i’ve never been to pt. pinole and we’ve lived here 5 years already. thanks for organizing something, this sounds like a delightful collection of people!
Hmm, I don’t think I’m going to make it, unless I find someone willing to pay for my flight from Germany to SF in the next few weeks… So please take a lot of pictures and have a great time!
Since I am about 1500 miles away, I will try to concoct an excuse to require me to travel to the SF area for a meeting on the 21st. However, since such meeting is at this point thoroughly fictional, things are not looking good for my attendance. Have fun!
We’ll try very hard to make this, Chris, lots going on else.
What can we bring from the Central Valley?
I may make it. Been looking for an excuse for a weekend trip to SF, and this might be it.
‘Tis a possibility. I’ve been wanting to meet my döppelganger for a while, after all.
Dude. I’ve already got a döppelganger.
But I have an opening for a dreierganger.
no idea what you two are talking about, but we can safely call it a BYODopplesomething event, i guess.
pica, please bring anything local from the central valley! my husband grew up in fresno; fresh produce is always great. if you have access to armenian food, we will love you and ask you to bring extra [at our expense, of course]. [chris knows how to find me.]
i’ll bring a cooler with ice, just in case it isn’t cold enough on pt. pinole. and pasta salad and bubbly water. maybe chips and other munchies, even. what else is on the menu?
For sound effects along the railroad tracks there, bring the whole Dopplerganger.
Oh sorry - I didn’t know. Although, if we added one, we could be a Ganger of Four!
I got the umlaut in the wrong place - it’s actually doppelgänger. And the definition makes one’s ghostly double seem like something one should best try to avoid, anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelganger
Not sure I buy it though - I think the world could use a ghostly legion of literate, militant yet compassionate nature freaks. what say?
Kathy: you’re on. I’ll head to the Farmer’s Market in Davis that morning and get good stuff, sometimes they have a great Armenian baker!
Pica, I’m sorry I didn’t answer your question, but I see Kathy said what I would have. The CRN community covers for my ineptness once again.
And if you do bring some baked Armenian, could you get the kind with poppy seeds? Thanks.
And I figure I will bring some charcoal and some marinated bits of chicken.
And fire.
woo, fire!
ok, since i live near and am a mom of many picnics, i’ll bring some plates, cups, cutlery, and serving stuff just in case.
I don’t know if I can, but I’ll try. It would be good for me to roll some other Bay Area social tasks into the same day.
If it hasn’t rained by then, but there are rumors of coming rain in the near future, I will definitely not leave Santa Cruz. We didn’t get measurable rain in that first storm, so we’re still on call. In the last few years, we’ve gotten it later more often than earlier.