Walking the Bay's Edge with Sandy Lydon and Gary Griggs

Who would have thought that it was actually possible to walk the length of Monterey Bay on the beach?

It's a novel idea and something that many adventurous walkers from this area have attempted on their own.  But it's also possible to combine a day (actually three days...) of fresh air and exercise with spectacular scenery, the camaraderie of a collegial group, and the expert knowledge of historian Sandy Lydon and coastal geologist/oceanographer Gary Griggs. It's called the "Bay Walk" and it has become an annual event that is truly an unforgettable experience.

Gary is fond of saying that he covers the first 200 million years of the region, while Sandy covers the last 200. Both Gary and Sandy are sought after for speaking engagements in their respective fields, as Gary has a gift for making science accessible (and inanimate rocks and drifting sand seem stimulating) while Sandy, well Sandy just makes history come alive. Together, they have a unique partnership, and it works really well.

Walking the Edge
Carmel Bay, California

The walk starts at New Brighton State Beach and ends at the Monterey Breakwater, just before Fisherman's Wharf. Over three days (three successive Saturdays) you walk an average of ten miles a day and and learn about tectonic plates, littoral drift, sea walls, Portola and the Missions of the the central coast, Japanese American abalone divers, and "By-the-Sea" developments of the 1920's.  You visit the World War II installations at old Camp McQuaide and discuss the significance of Mulligan's Hill at the Salinas River mouth.  Along the way you'll pass by the Dynergy Power Plant in Moss Landing that converts natural gas to electricity, the old Kaiser refractories where magnesium was extracted from seawater, and where Calera - "green cement for a blue planet" now runs a test facility that makes cement from sea water. Closer to Monterey, you pass by the Lapiz Sand plant - an operation that should have been shut down years ago, if only the public agencies that have jurisdiction over it could get through their own bureaucratic red tape. All in all, it's a three day experience that few of us could find on our own, even though it's right in our own backyard.

The photographs below were taken on Bay Walk 3 which took place in May 2011. While there are many opportunities to photograph signature views of the region - like the cement (concrete) ship and the sweeping panoramas of the Bay - I like to focus on the images most people overlook...close-ups of ordinary elements...unusual patterns...the juxtaposition of dissimilar objects and textures....the unexpected image that warms your heart and makes time stop.

Waves of Sand with Towers Looming Overhead

Give me Shelter

Follow the Leader

Boy and His Dog

Bounty of the Sea (with a light dusting of salt)

Rills

Skeletal Ice Plant

Message in the Sand

Sea on Sand

The air and exercise are what your body needs, the knowledge stimulates your brain, and sharing the rigors of the three day journey and its beautiful vistas with your fellow walkers is just great for your soul. You can find more information about the details of Bay Walk 3 on Sandy's website, along with many other walks that Sandy regularly schedules. Gary also wrote about the Bay Walk in two of his regular Sentinel columns last year: August 14, 2010 and August 28, 2010.

Other adventures that Sandy and Gary have undertaken together include: The Carmel Bay Hike, the North Coast Hike, the Hollister and San Andreas Hike, the 17-Mile-Drive Hike, and the Point Lobos Hike, just to name a few. I've been fortunate enough to be able to tag along on almost all of them and I could post a blog entry on each one, as they are all so memorable.  I always come away with a deeper understanding of the region and a renewed appreciation of the place I call home...and of course, hundreds of photographs.  You should try it sometime!

Several of these photographs are included in a desk calendar called The Bay's Edge, which you can find at my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/82127349/2012-desk-calendar-the-bays-edge. All of the images posted here are also available for purchase as 8x10 and 5x7 fine art prints and A2 size greeting cards (all printed on archival water color paper) at http://DigitalYak.etsy.com/. Be sure to send me a message if there is something you'd like that you don't see listed, or if you'd like a custom size or item, as I truly enjoy creating one of a kind items that hold special meaning. Thanks!!

Just Drifting On By...In Praise of Weathered Wood

The beauty of wood, particularly weathered wood, was something I started truly appreciating in middle age. Perhaps because wood gets better with age.  Its color begins to fade to a seductive silver; its patterns become more defined and its textures richer.  On a misty morning by the sea, sun bleached driftwood, weathered by wind and water, takes hold of your imagination and leads you to an alternate world. 

Shifting scales, out of this alternate world and back into real time, the shore, shrouded in mist is still lovely, but just a little bit...tame.

Crescent City, California - September 2011

All of the images posted here are available for purchase as 8x10 and 5x7 fine art prints and A2 size greeting cards (all printed on archival water color paper) at http://DigitalYak.etsy.com/.  Be sure to send me a message if there is something you'd like that you don't see listed, or if you'd like a custom size or item, as I truly enjoy creating one of a kind items that hold special meaning. Thanks!!

A Company Town No More...

On our recent road trip up the coast of northern California, Gary and I stopped in a small town called Scotia, just south of Eureka. Until very recently, Scotia was a "company town". Founded in 1863 as Forestville, and re-named Scotia in 1888, the town was built by the Pacific Lumber Company  (PALCO) as a complete community for its employees who numbered over 1,500 in 1920.

According to Wikipedia:

"A company town is a town or city in which much of all of the real estate, buildings (both residential and commercial), utilities, hospitals, small business such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company."

Company towns in the USA are a curious contradiction.  In a country where the concept of free will and self determination reign supreme, why were people happy to have their existence organized and subsidized by their employers? For some companies it was a an issue of practicality. Vital resources like coal and water and lumber were located in distant locales and workers needed to be housed and fed. For others, the creation of the town was a utopian vision, and many had benevolent paternalistic leaders providing workers and their families with good affordable housing, healthcare and schools.

Scotia's Cinema, beautifully rendered in first growth redwood

The town of Scotia probably fits into the benevolent utopian category. The company built and subsidized everything. Company crews came out to fix anything that broke down. They had a post office, two churches, a school, a market, a cinema, a museum and even a large country inn. And there was the ever present "company". The mill whistle called everyone to work at 7:30 am, announced lunch at noon, and the close of business at 4:30 pm. There was no poverty, no homelessness. Rents were reasonable and there were no taxes.  Life was good.

The Greek Revival Museum

Doric Columns interpreted in Redwood

Church for all on Sundays

Company housing - several different models - five color choices

The company and the town survived floods, earthquakes and the Great Depression (when many other company towns built on lumber closed down) and unlike many other lumber companies of that era who clear cut the forests, they developed a "selective cut" system of logging and a "sustainable yield" policy. Business was good and the company went public in 1975. Unfortunately it fell prey to a hostile takeover in 1988, and then filed for bankruptcy protection in 2006.

The Company, ever present, looms overhead

Bio mass power generation plant, which uses landscape clippings,

wood waste and logging slash to produce energy,

was sold to Greenleaf Power in 2010

The largest redwood mill ever constructed,

the Scotia mill gave tours of its operations to tourists. 

Today, Scotia sits on the cusp of massive change. According to Alana Semuels, reporting in the Los Angeles Times on September 2011:

"Scotia, California's last company town, has voted to become independent, according to preliminary election results released Wednesday. With 147 ballots cast — less than half of the eligible voters — 136 were to make the town an independent community services district, essentially severing the town from the New York hedge fund that owns it."

Stockpiled logs and lumber

While many changes are afoot for the residents, visitors who stop to explore still have a small window of opportunity to catch a glimpse of life as it was for resident Scotians during much of the last century. 

All of the images posted here are available for purchase as 8x10 and 5x7 fine art prints and A2 size greeting cards (all printed on archival water color paper) at http://DigitalYak.etsy.com/.  Be sure to send me a message if there is something you'd like that you don't see listed, or if you'd like a custom size or item, as I truly enjoy creating one of a kind items that hold special meaning. Thanks!!

Doorways....They All Have Something to Tell You...

Brown Door and Espaliered Tree
Obidos, Portugal
2011

If you are like me, you can never pass by a door without wondering what might lie beyond it, what sort of people have passed through it, or even what sort of greeting one may expect to find if you knocked on it.  Doors tell you a lot about the people who built them, the people who live behind them and the people who need to be kept from entering them.  And the symbolic role that doors play in our lives is clearly illustrated by the many ways in which doors, doorways, and elements of doors are used metaphorically:

"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom"

- George Washington Carver

"When one door of happiness closes another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been open for us."

- Helen Keller

"The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind"

- Kahlil Gibran

So here's a sample journey...around the world in eight doorways:

Starting with the place of my birth, Kathmandu, Nepal:

Richly Carved Door in the Newa Tradition
Home of the Living Goddess - Kathmandu, Nepal
2007

In the neighboring city kingdom of Bhaktapur, Nepal:

Gold Gate (Sundhoka) into the National Gallery
Bhaktapur, Nepal
2007

To the north of Nepal, in Tibet:

Zedang Doorway with Yak Skull
Zedang, Tibet
2009

To the south, in India

Doorway Layered with Time
Orcha, India
2007

Pointed Arch Door - Safdarjung's Tomb
New Delhi, India
2007

Then on to Portugal, the land of Vasco da Gama, who opened the sea route to India...

Opening in Moorish Castle Battlements
Sintra, Portugal
2011

Portel Castle Entrance Arch
Portel, Portugal
2011

 Finally to the New World, the USA, my adopted home: 

Violet Door in Lavender Wall - Capitola Venetian Hotel
Capitola, California
2006

Nothing welcomes you home after a journey around the world like your own front door...

All of the images posted here are available for purchase as 8x10 and 5x7 fine art prints and A2 size greeting cards (all printed on archival water color paper) at http://DigitalYak.etsy.com/.  Be sure to send me a message if there is something you'd like that you don't see listed, or if you'd like a custom size or item, as I truly enjoy creating one of a kind items that hold special meaning. Thanks!!