The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council’s fifth annual Ridge Trail Cruz is planned for Saturday, September 11 in the Santa Cruz Mountains. This event is a fun opportunity for the public, families and outdoor enthusiasts to enjoy trails and stunning views while raising money and support to complete a public trail encircling the ridgetops around the San Francisco Bay. The event features hikes, horseback rides and mountain bike rides for all ages, experience and endurance levels.  NEW this year: shorter hikes and the family hike will visit the Daniels Nature Center.

Attendance is limited and advance registration is required. The registration fee allows for a fully supported day including guides, maps, light breakfast, gourmet buffet lunch, rest stops, and a shuttle bus for hikers and cyclists. By joining the optional Cruz-a-thon, participants can raise funds through pledges and win prizes including REI gear. For event and registration details visit http://www.ridgetrail.org or call (415) 561-2595.

Over 325 of the total 550 miles of the Bay Area Ridge Trail are complete, many of them traversing Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District preserves. The Ridge Trail Council has partnered with the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Santa Clara County Parks, California State Parks, Responsible Organized Mountain Pedalers and Equestrian Trail Riders Action Committee to put on this year’s event.

The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council is a nonprofit organization that plans, acquires builds, maintains, and promotes the Ridge Trail. http://www.ridgetrail.org

The semi-annual 360 Degrees of Pacifica Hike is this Saturday, September 4th.  I’m sorry for the late notice, but would  a), love to have you come, and b)appreciate it if you could post this in your newspaper/website/committee list.

Here’s the description:  Join Park Ranger George Durgerian on a grand tour of the National Parks of Pacifica.  We’ll hike a gorgeous loop of ridges, from Milagra to Sweeney to Mori Ridge, all the while uncovering the stories of bombs, butterflies and bulldozers that make these sites special. Approx 7 miles, and fairly strenuous, but with plenty of stops.  Bring lunch, water and layers.

Meet at Salada Beach Café, 220 Paloma Ave in Pacifica.

We meet at 9 (if you want coffee or breakfast) and leave at 9:30, returning around 3.

George Durgerian
Park Ranger, GGNRA: Ocean District

The Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is one of the richest, most biodiverse environments in California.

The County of San Mateo is planning to pave a 14’ foot wide asphalt road through the FMR. The plans include building a massive 12’ wide x 60’ foot long bridge over a small creek.

Help convince the County of San Mateo not to bulldoze and pave the Dardenelle Trail.

Please SIGN THE PETITION: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-the-FMR/

If approved this project would have negative impacts on wildlife, plants, trees and a Native American Archeological site near San Vicente Creek.

Thank you,
AREA29
http://www.thepelicaneye.com

Golden Gate National Recreation Area is experimenting with controlled burning at Milagra Ridge near Pacifica to restore habitat for endangered mission blue butterflies. GGNRA expects to do this one day in mid to late August.

The burning will be confined to metal boxes which are 2.5 meters by 2.5 meters in area and 1 meter in height, and rotated to treat 300 square meters total.

The burning will be conducted if weather conditions allow. Smoke from this project will be very minimal, but traces of smoke may be seen or smelled from a distance.Fire management personnel and equipment will be present during all phases of burn operations.

GGNRA managers will compare the effects of fire with vegetation removal and soil scraping to determine if either treatment is more effective at stimulating lupine germination. Lupine plants are critical to mission blue butterflies because they are the sole food source for developing larvae.

This project was originally scheduled for fall 2009, but was cancelled last year due to early heavy rainfall. Sections of the Milagra Ridge Trail may be closed while burning is in progress.

This story is based on a press release from GGNRA.

A freshly dead whale spotted near Farallon Island Sunday may have been killed by a ship, according to the Gulf of the Farallones Marine Sanctuary

The whale was about 25ft long and had several large wounds: one to two feet long slashes on its flank and the base of its tail. It could not be determined whether the whale was wounded before it died.

At the same time, sanctuary biologists in the area on a research vessel reported that They had been forced to discontinue a cruise along a predetermined route because they encountered a group of feeding humpbacks directly in their path of travel and were forced to stop the vessel to avoid a collision. The humpbacks were feeding so intently they ignored the oncoming boat.

The Sanctuary warns boaters to be careful around feeding whales.

We received this letter and photos from a reader.

A group of children and adults rode horseback for the nine miles from Moss Beach to Pacifica on Sunday May 2. The trip turned a spring day into an exiting experience that all participants will remember for a long time; if not for ever.

Beginning in Moss Beach, the party made up of adults and children from Moss Beach Ranch, rode over the ridges of Montara Mountain ending at Shamrock Ranch in Pacifica.  The riders were accompanied by Moss Beach Ranch staff.
At the trip’s end, after traveling horseback over streets, valleys, ridges and plains, looking over the ocean, some 30 people were hosted to a potluck lunch by Shamrock Ranch’s owners.  The experience was made memorable by the extraordinary profusion of wild flowers:- checker blooms, blue-eye grass, poppies, irises and views of the Pacific Ocean.

I feel that this was a unique and rare experience. If I had a child, I would like this child to have this enriching time: Riding the Bay Area backcountry in ways that are close to nature and the beauty of the Bay Area coast.  It was a special day and sadly enough, only too rare.

More pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Bertillelegrand/MossBeachToPacificaRideMay2nd2010#

Bertille Legrand

Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) is offering a free hike of Rancho Corral de Tierra in Montara on Saturday, May 15. Explore one of the most dramatic landscapes along the San Mateo CoastThe hike is open to the public and will begin promptly at 10:00am. Space is limited, and advance registration is required.

POST President Audrey Rust and Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) Acting General Superintendent Frank Dean will help lead the hike along the lower portions of this majestic 4,262-acre property, currently owned by POST and destined to become the southern gateway into the GGNRA. Learn about Rancho Corral de Tierra’s rich history and extraordinary natural features, including its rare and endangered plants and animals, vital wildlife habitat, critical watershed and valuable agricultural resources.

Protected by POST in 2001, the vast majority of Rancho Corral de Tierra is not yet open to the public and accessible only by requesting a permit from POST. The property is slated to transfer from POST to National Park Service ownership within the next year as an addition to the GGNRA. POST and GGNRA staff will be present at the hike to answer questions about the protection of this magnificent Coastside landscape located just 7 miles south of San Francisco.

Reservations required. Details after the jump.

This is a highly edited version of the county’s press release. 

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to accept a small parcel of land from Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) as the future site for restrooms and parking. The parcel is located south of Pillar Point Harbor, on Magellan Avenue at the southern end of the Mirada Surf Trail.
  
The project is expected to be complete by late summer 2010 and fulfills the San Mateo County 2007 Midcoast Action Plan’s call for restrooms.
 
POST in 2009 bought the 0.07-acre parcel for $20,000 to support recreational activities along the coast with the plan to donate it to San Mateo County.
 
“Sometimes protecting the smallest bit of land can make a big difference, and POST is pleased to assist the County in providing a place for these necessary facilities at Mirada Surf,” POST President Audrey Rust said.

Tom Stienstra at the Chron has an interesting account of the encounter between two brothers and a couple of mountain lions in Pescadero Creek County Park, “a remote, lightly visited open space with no facilities”.

Residents in the vicinity of Loma Mar and La Honda have been warned. The was also another lion sighting just north of the park, but it’s not clear if it was one of the lions sighted Sunday.

They hiked on Camp Pomponio Road, which goes through middle of park, and about 10 minutes in, wandered a few hundred yards off the trail, Foy said.

Near a creek, in a clearing at the edge of a densely vegetated area, a mountain lion emerged and walked right up to one of the hikers.

“The hiker shouted aggressively, but the lion did not go away,” Foy said. “So he picked up a big stick and swung at the lion. His brother came to his side and a second lion started closing in.”

Foy said the hiker never struck either cougar but eventually “managed to drive off the lions.”

The hikers then started to return to their car, but looked back and saw the lions were following them. “You could see them the whole time,” one told game wardens. [...]

Although mountain lion attacks are rare, they have become more numerous in the past couple of decades. According to Fish and Game records, all but three of the confirmed attacks on people in California since 1890 have happened in the past 25 years.

The increase coincided with state voters’ approval of a 1990 initiative designating mountain lions as a protected species, even though they were not threatened or endangered. The lions filled existing habitat and then expanded their range, at the same time the human population was moving farther into previously open space.