County Views: Twice-Burned
The mountain ridge between Sonoma and Napa counties is part of the Mayacamas, one of the many ranges of coastal mountains that run roughly north-south around here. Santa Rosa sits mostly in a plain, with mountains on more or less three sides. Much of the mountain area is parkland – county, state and local parks where we hike, bike, camp and run. Major parts of Hood Mountain Regional Park, as well as Sugarloaf Ridge State Park with which it shares the mountains you see in all the photos above and below, have now been burned twice in three years — first in the Tubbs Fire (started October 8, 2017), and again this year in the Glass Fire (started September 27). CalFire’s website says February 9, 2018 was the final-containment date of the Tubbs, which burned 36,807 acres. For now, the same site says the Glass is 97% contained and has burned 67,484 acres. The state and county parks on the southern side of that valley (Spring Lake regional park and Annadel State Park) reopened last week, so I was able to get out and see how things look now. I’m overcoming reluctance to post these, so that folks can see the beauty and the destruction we’re living with now. Reluctance, because we don’t know when our first real rains will come and bring an end to this awful fire season. Reluctance, because even as I write this there is yet another red-flag warning from the weather service because of high winds expected in the mountain areas. But I do want to share, so here goes… We do love our parks and hope that some rain, and perhaps evidence-based acknowledgment of what we need to do to reduce the rapidly-accelerating pace of global warming, will help even our grandchildren and great-grandchildren enjoy them. The alternatives really do seem rather bleak.
County Views – Baseball’s Back :-)
When I first returned home in July, a thing that gave me great joy was the ability again to hop on my bike and ply the bike paths through mountains, alongside our local creeks, or through our local parks. A thing that saddened me was how many of the great facilities in our parks were closed due to covid — baseball fields, soccer fields, what-have-you. (I posted a sad example at the following link, and the good news is that the last time I was at that specific field, they were playing soccer there again! — https://somuchworldsolittletime.com/2020/09/30/county-views-23/ — Ok, Ok, full disclosure, I took the photo in the link some time in July or maybe August but didn’t post it until the end of September. Oh well…)
In early July when I returned, only tennis courts were open for use, and I’m told even those were closed from April for a few months. I conclude, by watching what’s happening around the world, that like many things human and organic, we’re all struggling to get the balance right. Having watched the fairly clear-eyed and transparent benchmarks established by both our governor (for California) and our county’s public-health officer, I was happy when I biked through this park on Saturday to see an actual high-school or little-league baseball game happening, with spectators spread about in what I interpreted as familial pod clusters. (Yes, this past Saturday, these photos are pretty current.)
We’ve had a fair number of total infections here in Sonoma County, but it seems as though we’ve generally managed the keep the curve reasonably flat. It strikes me that’s the most reasonable public-health goal, because it seems to carry the greatest likelihood of reducing actual deaths by allowing hospitals and clinics more time to cope, rather than becoming vastly overloaded as we’ve seen happen in many countries and cities around the world. In any case, as I eagerly long for the ability to be out and about without worries over masks and social distancing – may the science and evidence tell us it’s reasonable to do so before another year is out, at least?!? — I was just so very happy to see kids playing ball and families able to watch again.
Lake Living Memories – Big Picture
Among the things I’ve learned from this year’s more-or-less-ongoing experiment in attempting to post something every day is that, when I’m excited by what I see around me, I take far too many photos to sort and put them up each day as they’re taken. Regular readers may remember in early September, when perhaps my very-most-regular reader noticed that although I was physically in Wisconsin, I had just posted something from California…which taught me that when you post every day, folks think what you’re posting reflects where you are.
So: I’m no longer in Wisconsin. My posts reflected my date of return in September quite precisely — lesson learned! — but … I’ve got a bunch of lovely photos that never made it onto the blog. So, fear not dear reader, I’m still at home in Santa Rosa where CalFire’s website says that the Glass Fire is (still) 97% contained, which is excellent news but not quite so excellent as a good solid inch or two of steady, slow rain falling all across the state over a 36 hour period would be. One place that has plenty of rain is, you guessed it, Wisconsin! So, here late in our dry season, I’m remembering greener wetter climes, where the autumn cool has already set in. This one has longer vistas. There’ll be a second post of photos that focus closer in soon. Enjoy! 🙂
County Views – Election Special
You might have heard there’s an election this year. This being California, there are also many ballot measures as well as the bigger races that most of the world is perhaps a bit aware of. 🙂 These signs pretty accurately reflect what I see on my bike rides around the parts of the county I frequent.
(so much world, so little time....) 