Robert Dougherty has been publishing The La Honda Voice for a while now as a PDF newsletter.  He’s finally made the jump to publishing it as a blog with help from Tom Dodd, and I recommend it highly.

Not only are they publishing news from La Honda, but they have some nice historical features as well.

A navigation system and a camera are stolen from an unlocked car, a cell phone is stolen from another, and twenty dollars from a third car—all in Moss Beach; a man is arrested for injuring his fiance in El Granada; two drunk drivers are arrested in Princeton, one in Montara, two drunk driver are arrested in El Granada and one’s passenger kicks out a side window in the patrol car;  tools are stolen from a construction site in Miramar;  a home on Skyline is burglarized; a driver is cited for possession of marijuana in Half Moon Bay; a car is burglarized in Pescadero State Beach; mail is stolen from a home mailbox in El Granada; a wanted man is found sleeping in his car in Moss Beach;  and a Montaran is arrested in Moss Beach for punching a man in the face.

Click "read more" to see the press release.

Coastwalk is looking for experienced volunteers to lead hikes and set up stewardship trail projects on the California Coastal Trail.

We are seeking volunteers with experience in trail construction/ maintenance and volunteer supervision to work with the Coastwalk’s  Trail Steward and local agencies to set up regular trail volunteer workdays. We would like to see trail volunteer workdays take place on Earth Day, National Trails Day, and Coastal Cleanup Day for each coastal county.

We’re also seeking seasoned hikers to lead hikes on the California Coastal Trail. Day hike leaders will use the "Hiking the California Coastal Trail" guide books as a template to design and create a unique hiking experience. Our goal is to have monthly hikes on the CCT for all types of hikers. We hope to have various hikes available: including, thru-hikes with shuttles, loop hikes, beach hikes combined with beach cleanups, and full moon hikes.

Coastwalk will provide materials and training for volunteer coordinators and day hike leaders. Each leader will receive a free t-shirt, hiking guides, and outreach materials.

Our goal is also to support the local organizations who are involved with similar event by providing them with more volunteers. So if a local organization is hosting an event while Coastwalk is not, we can send our volunteers to help out.

Coastwalk believes that through stewardship of the California coast, people can find a balance between their profound need to experience the coast and the need to preserve its fragile environment. We are a grassroots, non-profit organization that inspires, educates and advocates for both coastal protection and access. We create a community of stewards through our unique coastal hiking experiences and our work to complete and sustain the California Coastal Trail

The California Coastal Trail will stretch continuously from the Oregon to the Mexican Borders, connecting cities and towns, historic sites and natural landscapes of beaches, bluffs, bays, estuaries, and mountains. It will be one of the great long-distance trails along one of the world’s most diverse coastlines. Coastwalk’s vision is a completed trail and protected coastal environment.

Rob Helms
Coastwalk/CCT Trail Steward
825 Gravenstein Hwy. North, Suite 8
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Phone: (707) 829-6689 ext. 4#
Fax:  (707) 829-0326
Email:  [email protected]
Web:  www.coastwalk.org

A house fire near the San Mateo/Santa Cruz County line at 2:15pm on Thursday brought firefighters from Pescadero, Half Moon Bay and La Honda. Smoke from the fire at the 3000 block of White House Canyon Rd. could be seen from the fire several miles away.

The first engine company to arrive found a fully involved single family home. Because there were no fire hydrants in the area, firefighters responded by pumping water from a nearby stream. The home was a total loss and the fire’s cause is currently under investigation by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

A total of 4 fire engines, 1 water tender, and 17 firefighters responded to this fire.

Several people were seriously injured when a Pillar Point Harbor search-and-rescue boat was whacked by a "rogue wave" on its way to provide coverage for Mavericks last week, reports the County Times.

Of the six passengers, harbor administrator Shari Chapin suffered the greatest injuries. The weight of the fall threw her against the side of the boat, breaking her jaw in three places and knocking out many of her teeth, according to Harbor District Commissioner Sally Campbell. She said the doctors had put two plates in Chapin’s jaw and wired it shut.

Harbor Patrolman Don Coates suffered a compressed spine. Half Moon Bay Fire Department paramedic Chuck Wise badly bruised his ribs. They were taken to Stanford Hospital and are recovering. Draper’s brother, James Draper, and another paramedic escaped without serious injuries.

"Emerging from a canyon and the mountain range overlooking Half Moon Bay, Pilarcitos Creek Watershed is a source of our water supply, essential to our local economy, and central to the health of our coastal ecosystem." That’s the headline on the flyer for the Pilarcitos Creek Water Forum on Sunday, February 26.

The creek meanders through the middle of Half Moon Bay—alongside the new park site, under the Main Street Bridge, under Highway 1 just south of Strawflower Village, and past the SAM sewer plant. This month, the creek sends a powerful stream of fresh water into the ocean at Venice Beach.  Other times, the stream bed is dry.

The Pilarcitos Creek Advisory Committee and the Committee for Green Foothills are holding the event at the Ted Adcock Community Center in Half Moon Bay, from 2pm to 5pm.  The organizers plan to highlight the watershed’s natural history, the progress of the Committee’s restoration and monitoring projects, local watershed management, and opportunities for getting involved in preserving Pilarcitos Creek Watershed.

This event will be followed two weeks later by field tours of creek restoration sites on Saturday, March 11, at 10 am & 1:30 pm. The tours will be held the next day if there is rain. Space is limited. Details and registration signups will be available at the Forum.

For more information:  Call (650) 738-5871, or email [email protected]

The National Weather Service says that it could snow on Skyline this week, or even at lower elevations on the Coastside.

Chilly weather is expected to continue into the weekend as a cold low pressure system drops southward out of the Gulf Of Alaska and into northern California. This will bring increasing chances of showers beginning thursday night and continuing through Sunday with with snow levels down to 2000 feet…Possibly lower. Accumulating snowfall could impact higher elevation roadways across the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area. Roadways such as Highway 29 in northern Napa County…The summit of Highway 17…And Skyline Boulevard in San Mateo County could be impacted...Especially Saturday and Saturday evening. With this unusually cold airmass in place…A few snowflakes will not be out of the question closer to sea level.

The elevation at Skyline is only about 700 feet.

If you’re already getting Coastsider’s news alerts, you know that it’s the only way to find out about breaking news on the Coastside.

If you’re not, please take a few seconds to subscribe. Here on the Coastside, we don’t have a local radio station or TV news, so it’s hard to know when news is breaking.  Coastsider sends out email news alerts only when we have breaking news that we think you’ll want to know:

 

• When Mavericks was scheduled, and when the winner was announced

 

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• During the Half Moon Bay City Council recount

 

• When Highways 1 or 92 have been closed

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Southcoast resident Oscar Braun is running for Jackie Speier’s California State Senate seat in District 8. Braun is the only Republican to announce his candidacy in the heavily Democratic district.  Three Democrats, Mike Nevin, Lou Papan, and Leland Yee are running in the June primary. The Daily News [no news online] reports that Braun says he was asked to run by the chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party.

Braun has been heavily involved in Coastside politics, particulary the campaign to prevent expansion of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District to the Coastside and the failed effort to incorporate the rural Coastside as the town of Los Pueblecitos. He operates numerous websites and organizations, including Oscar Knows, and California Watershed Posse (a.k.a. Save Our Bay and Half Moon Bay Coastside Foundation). 

Braun, who described himself to the Mercury News as "very litigious", has been warring with the government of the County for years, since they got into a dispute over building permits. In November, San Mateo County and Oscar Braun settled two civil rights lawsuits that Braun brought against the county.  The county agreed to process permits for a cell phone tower, horse stable and water system on his ranch, and to study a new local government for the Southcoast. Braun also attempted to use the courts to halt construction of the Devil’s Slide Tunnel.

Braun lost the domains pescaderopebble.net, pescaderopebble.org and pescaderopebble.info to the Half Moon Bay Review’s owners in binding arbitration before the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2002.  The Pescadero Pebble has been part of the Review’s full name since 1937. Braun still operates a website called "The Pebble.info", whose URL (confusingly) is thepebble.net.

CORRECTION:  An earlier version of the story said the Review sued Braun. We should have said "The Review’s owners filed a complaint before the World Intellectual Property Organization." Coastsider regrets the error.