Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Hiking In My Neighborhood

Went out to survey a couple of the local trails in Carquinez Strait Regional Park, just to the west of my new hometown, Martinez. Here's some photos. I'm not going to label them all since there are way too many of them. I just couldn't stop clicking. . . .











Grass is turning from brown to gray. . . .  NOT a good thing.  California is a tinderbox in August!














Slow boat to China down in the Strait. . . .



It died of heat exhaustion. . . .





"LEGOS" in middle of trail???









Like some lovely ladies. . . .  Pretty, but she has her defenses. . . .




What are these? I'll have to ask Ranger James!


Just some nice flowers growing right smack-dab in the middle of the trail.








Mt. Diablo follows me everywhere.

That's Martinez's railroad station in orange brick on opposite side of tracks from the big white indoor sports building:







A bit of a roller-coaster, nearing the end. . . .

I covered a lot of territory for the survey. Took some side-trails, besides the two I was assigned to - the ones marked in dark black on this map. I figure I did about six miles, some of it on some pretty rough terrain. I started at 9:30 and didn't finish till after 3pm. 


2 comments:

  1. Wow, a good hike. What is your job as surveyor?

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    1. They take once-a-year surveys of all 65 parks in the East Bay Regional Parks to prepare for the following year's "Trail Challenge" where we encourage those who have never hiked or hiked only a little bit to get out and use the trails. Biggest part of survey is checking Trail Markers along the trails to make sure they aren't missing, damaged/weathered so severely as to mislead hikers, or vandalized. Also any perceived "dangerous conditions" that can be found on any trails that need correction are to be reported. I _did_ find a few Trail Marker problems and what I perceived to be somewhat dangerous conditions that I filed in my report. Can't post photos of those things here. It was a fun and interesting "job." I've got one more park to do yet within this next week and just may post the "extra photos" of _it_ that I take along the way here too. Thanks for asking, Jane. Now that you've gotten my long-winded answer I'm sure you're regretting it! :-)

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