Author: treve

When I'm not creating architectural photos for clients (see my primary website at www.treve.com), I like to travel, hike, kayak and enjoy other artistic and cultural pursuits. I'm also concerned about environmental and social issues and issues of faith.

Emeryville to Pt Isabel

Seven of us assembled on the boat ramp at the Emeryville Marina for a 10:30 departure to paddle to Pt Isabel. This was a great turnout considering I had only announced the paddle 24 hours ahead. The plan was to paddle along the east side of the bay to avoid the current which would be flooding most of the day. Maximum flood at Emeryville was predicted to be 0.29 knots at 12:30 pm, negligible as far as our group is concerned. Weather predictions were for light winds in the morning (8 to 10 knots). I had a sense that it might be too warm for my drysuit, so I opted for my farmer john and a long sleeve rash guard. We were on the water at 10:35 and paddled out of the marina in calm water.

We paddled out past the defunct HS Lordships Restaurant, closed since June 2018, speculating on what the future holds for that facility. Then under the Berkeley Pier, past the Albany Bulb, and east towards Point Isabel, looking for the windsock that marks the landing. You can’t see the ramp from this approach since it’s hidden behind a short breakwater. Some care is required to land here when the tide is low since there are rocks that are not all that visible, and the wind tends to push boats into the rocks.

As we were eating lunch the wind started to freshen, and we were anxious to get back on the water before the wind increased. Needless to say, we had our work cut out for us powering into the wind and the chop with our boats bouncing over the waves and spray flying over our decks. I would occasionally pick up my camera to try to capture the action, and immediately lose all forward progress, having to paddle hard to get some speed back. Our group got spread out a bit, but we remained in radio contact. Again, using the radio meant I was not paddling and was pushed backward by the wind.

We gathered up once we were inside the breakwater at the Berkeley Marina. Two paddlers opted to bail out at this point. They paddled into the Berkeley Yacht Club dock. It seems their boats were not behaving well in the wind and chop. The remaining five of us paddled back to Emeryville. After passing HS Lordships, we turned eastward a bit and that eased the angle of wind. The wind also dropped, making for a leisurely paddle back to our launch side. It was 2:50 when we landed. We had a good workout and logged 9.27 miles. More photos are available in an online gallery.

Ferry Pt to Pt Isabel

Today was a glorious day for a paddle on San Francisco Bay. We have had several days of stormy wet weather, so it was nice to have some relief from the rain. A low tide meant that some of our favorite launch sites would be muddy, so we opted to launch from Ferry Point. Google Maps refers to this spot as the Point Richmond Pier, part of the Miller Knox Regional Shoreline.

Seven of us were on the water at 10:30. We had flat calm as we paddled out to the end of the jetty, with a little wave action from the wake of passing boats. This was my first day paddling with a Greenland Paddle. You can see the paddle hanging out of the cockpit of my wooden boat.

Once we were out past the jetty we headed east, rounding Brooks Island and then making our way to Point Isabel. I couldn’t resist capturing photos. The blue sky and clouds were dramatic. Every time I take a photo though, I have to stop paddling, and if I’m not paddling, I’m not going anywhere. Meantime, my paddling buddies keep their cadence, so I’m always playing catch-up.

As we passed Bird Rock, we kept our distance, so as not to disturb the harbor seals that were basking on the rocks. We landed at Point Isabel one boat at a time. The tide and rocks didn’t afford us much beach, but it didn’t take much time to get all the boats off the water.

While we were eating lunch the wind picked up, kicking up some wind waves and making work for us as we slogged into the wind and towards Brooks Island. We paddled to the north of Brooks Island, using the island and the breakwater to cut the wind.

As we paddled up the Richmond Channel, we passed the ferry, and we had a bit of rain. Over the course of the day, we logged 8.28 miles. The Greenland Paddle served me well. It felt a bit awkward for the first 20 minutes, but by the end of the day I had grown accustomed to it. I’m also finding that my iPhone 14 in a dive case seems to provide excellent quality photos. More photos are available in an online gallery.

Loch Lomond to China Camp

Another glorious day to be kayaking. Nine of us, all BASK members, assembled at the boat ramp at Loch Lomond. We were on the water at 10:00. With a morning flood, slack water at noon and afternoon ebb our plan was to take advantage of the current to paddle to China Camp for lunch.

We paddled out past the Marin Islands, where we were able to pick up the tail end of the flood current to carry us up the bay. Making good time, we headed to the Sisters where we were able to thread Grendel’s Needle. You can see in the photo two boats heading through the slot, with rippled water on approaching side where the current was pushing us and flat water on the far side. An easy ride through the slot.

From The Sisters it was an easy paddle over to China Camp where we landed and pulled our boats up the beach to make sure they didn’t drift away on the rising tide.

After lunch we were back on the water taking advantage of the ebbing current to give us a push back to Loch Lomond. More photos are available in an online gallery. We logged 8.4 miles on a perfect day to be paddling.

Adventures in Lobbying

Most of my adventures are of an outdoor nature, however I was recently invited to join a lobbying effort to promote climate legislation in Sacramento. For the most part I have been ignorant of our legislative processes and have considered lobbying to be the domain of special interest groups with deep pockets.

Can those of us with little financial clout make a difference in public policy, particularly when it comes to climate and environmental issues? After this experience I have to say YES!

This was a two day event sponsored by The Climate Center. March 19 we spent the day listening to presentations as part of the California Climate Policy Summit 2024 and the 20th was devoted to visiting legislative offices to promote several bills. I attended the conference as a representative of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. There were three of us, Cherie, Katie and me.

The morning of the 20th we gathered into teams of four or five and headed over to the legislative offices to promote three bills, AB 2256 – Value of Solar, SB 233 – Bidirectional EV Charging and SB 252 – Oil and Gas Divestment. We also talked about budget issues and the possibility of a climate bond. Our lobbying efforts took us to Assembly member Ortega’s office where we dropped off information.

We then went on to Senator Eggman’s office where we met with legislative assistant Alison Kostusak, and then on to Senator Durazo’s office and Assembly representative Lisa Calderon’s office where we met with Maryana Khames and Arnell Rusanganwa.

I was impressed by how attentive the legislative personnel were. They seemed genuinely interested in the information we were providing, took notes and asked intelligent questions. I left this experience feeling like our presence made a difference.

Remembering Danny

I met Danny Forer on June 9, 2016. That was my first venture joining Danny’s regular Thursday paddle. I wrote about that adventure in a blog Kayaking for Sanity. Danny was an inspiration to many outdoor sports enthusiasts including many members of the Bay Area Sea Kayakers club (BASK).

Here’s a photo of Danny I captured on paddle in December 2019. Danny passed away in December and fellow BASK member Susan Snow organized a gathering to remember Danny hosting a lunch at the Sailing Goat.

A dozen or so of us put our kayaks in the water at Ferry Point at 10:00 and made our way to Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor. From the beach we paddled out across the shipping channel, then past Red Rock, under the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, between The Brothers Islands around the Point San Pablo and on into the Yacht Harbor landing on the beach. We had a bit of a push from the current riding the tail end of the flood.

There we joined a fellow BASK members for lunch. There were 25 of us in all.

After sharing lunch and many stories of Danny’s legendary exploits we were back in our boats for the return trip. We had a couple of paddlers that opted for one-way paddle, so there was some jockeying of boats and cars.

For the return leg we opted to paddle closer to shore, and with the growing ebb, we had a quick trip back to our launch site, covering the six miles in an hour and 20 minutes. We had a variety of conditions from mild chop and wind, a few eddy lines with some interesting water and mild conditions for the most part. We logged 11.91 miles. It was a fun day with lots of comradery, good food and great stories. You can see the track of our paddle above. More photos are available in an online gallery.

Cactus and Red Rock

We recently returned from a 19-day road trip that took us to the heart of the Sonoran Desert near Ajo Arizona, and then north into the red rocks of the Vermillion Cliffs. We covered 1778 miles leaving on February 8 and returning on February 26. The focus of our trip was to travel a bit off the beaten track, to see some natural wonders and to visit places that were dog friendly. Dog friendly meaning, when we park the rig for the night, we can let Carson run free, off-leash. Here’s a glimpse of some of the highlights of our trip. I’ll be posting more about specific portions of the trip so stay tuned.

The Saguaro cactus is the keystone species in the Sonoran Desert, it’s just amazing to see these huge plants growing like they do, up to 50 feet tall.

One of our camping locations near Ajo was on the Barry M Goldwater Range. The range consists of 1.9 million acres of relatively undisturbed Sonoran Desert. While this is a military range, there are some areas that are open to the public. We found this site through iOverlander, one of the resources we use for locating camping.

Camping here requires a permit which is easy to obtain online. Once you have successfully obtained the permit you are given a gate code to unlock a gate. We accessed this location through Gate 15, area B. We boondocked here for two nights. A beautiful spot, although the silence was occasionally punctuated by the sound of fighter jets.

After a few days in the Ajo area we drove north to the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. There are no paved roads in the Monument, and we put our four-wheel drive to good use driving through deep sand and rough roads. We drove into the Monument to explore the White Pocket, and amazing geologic formation of twisted colorful sandstone. We also explored the Maze Rock Art Site, with several large panels of rock art.

From the Vermillion Hills we made a quick foray into the Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument to explore the old Paria Townsite.

Over the course of the trip, we managed to vary our accommodations a bit. We spent four nights with family and friends, one night in a motel, four nights in paid camp sites, although one of those was essentially dry camping on private property, with a location we found on Hipcamp and we spent 11 nights boondocking. It was refreshing to visit places of natural wonder away from the crowds of so many of the popular locations. While most of the driving was on paved roads we did put our four-wheel drive to good use in several locations. Temperatures ranged from a low of 28 degrees near Joshua Tree to 79 degrees at the visitor center in Death Valley National Park.

White Pocket

One of the destinations for our trip is the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument in Northern Arizona. The website the monument says This remote and unspoiled 280,000-acre monument is a geologic treasure with some of the most spectacular trails and views in the world. We spent several days here. The first night we found an amazing spot to boondock in Marble Canyon right on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Colorado River. This is a location we found using iOverlander.

This is one of those situations where when you think you’ve found a good spot to camp, it’s nice to see what’s further down the road. We had this place all to ourselves. In fact, we felt so isolated I fired up the water heater and hooked up the outside shower.

There are no paved roads within the monument and with deep sand, high clearance and four-wheel drive is essential. I was intrigued with the area called White Pocket so we set off the explore that area.

From US Highway 89A, which skirts the southern edge of the preserve we left the paved road and headed north on House Rock Road. Our first stop along this route was a condor viewing station. We scanned the skies. No Condors. Driving on we found the White Pocket Road. I had downloaded the maps for GaiaGPS, my favorite app for navigation, and we found this quite useful in navigating. We followed the dirt road, and it wasn’t long before we put the Tacoma in four-wheel low and dialed the Multi-Terrain control for sand. That provided a confident ride through the sand.

It was a bumpy. When we opened the back door of the camper to fix lunch, we discovered that all of our silverware had disappeared, and even the drawer which is designed to stay secure had bounced out of the cabinet.

Hiking around White Pocket is basically walking over slick rock. There are no trails, but we had no problem hiking around and exploring various features. These formations consist of twisted and convoluted layers of colorful sandstone which are simply astounding.

After exploring the White Pocket, we found an alternate route, a route that was marked one-way on some maps. I wouldn’t want to meet somebody on these narrow deep sand roads. As the sun was getting lower in the sky, we started to look for a place to boon dock and we found a suitable place to pull the rig off the road and set up camp.

More photos are available in an online gallery.

Colonel Allensworth

On trips heading south, we’ve been challenged finding places to camp in the southern San Joaquin Valley. On this trip, iOverlander, one of our favorite apps for finding camping locations, pointed us to Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park as a potential camping spot. What a lovely location.

The town was founded, financed, and governed by African Americans. Allen Allensworth was born into slavery in Louisville, Kentucky on April 7, 1842. After serving in the Union Army, he went on to gain an education. In 1909, the colony of Allensworth began to come to life. The name and reputation of Colonel Allensworth inspired African Americans who were looking for a better life. People from all over the country, including many who settled in California, came to populate the town.

We arrived on Friday evening February 9 and found we had the campground all to ourselves.

In the morning though, we woke to discover that hundreds of people were showing up for a Black History Month Celebration. In fact, we were asked to break camp so that visitors could use the campground for parking. We moved our rig and took the opportunity to tour the collection of restored and reconstructed buildings.

The buildings include a schoolhouse, a Baptist church, businesses, homes, a hotel, a library, and various other structures that symbolize the rebirth of Colonel Allen Allensworth’s dream of an independent, democratic town where African Americans could live in control of their own destiny.

We took advantage of the Cell Phone Audio Tour, a self-guided audio tour with stop at a number of locations that provide a brief history of Allensworth. It was a bit of a novel experience, being in this isolated location and being able to use such technology to gain insight into the history of Allensworth. More photos are available in an online gallery.

2023 In Print!

Here it is! All the blog entries from 2023 in a book. This marks the ninth year for my blog and the eighth book. In 2023 I posted 35 times.

Where’s Treve 2023

Travels included Baja California to Lopez Island in the Pacific Northwest. We also make a trip to England. We made good use of our Four Wheel Camper, carrying our kayaks to Baja and Lopez Island.

It’s such a great feeling to pick up the book off the coffee table and browse through last year’s adventures, remembering travels and details that have already grown faint.

The book is 85 pages long. There’s no point in showing much of the book since you can simply view all the original posts on this website. We’ve been using the service Intorealpages.com which makes turning a blog into a book a breeze.

Adventure is worthwhile – Aesop

Geezers Go Paddling

At 73 years of age, I’m the youngster on today’s paddle. The five of us range in age from 73 to 81. Never mind that Alan tapes up his hands with duct tape before climbing in his boat. Our launch point is Jean & John Starkweather Shoreline Park near the west end of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. We were on the water at 10:30 launching on calm water under blue skies, a welcome change following several days of rain.

Our course took us out past the Marin Islands, padding by several barges and some dredging equipment. We paddled on to Point San Pedro. From there The Sisters looked quite inviting. Two paddlers decided to head to our designated lunch site at Loch Lomond. Three of us paddled out and around The Sisters, stopping to play in the slot in the rock called Grendel’s Needle. We had a high tide and very little current. Sometimes there can be some dynamic water here. Today it was quiet.

Then it was time to head for Loch Lomond Yacht Harbor for lunch, landing on the boat ramp and carrying our boats up the ramp and out of the way to keep the ramp clear for other boaters.

After lunch it was back on the water. Alan had acquired a unicorn figurehead for his boat. Then it was back across San Rafael Bay to our launch site.

We were back at our launch site at 2:15 pm having logged 9 miles. More photos available in an online gallery. I had to look up the definition of “Geezer,” Vocabulary.com says “A geezer is an old person. It might hurt your grandfather’s feelings if you refer to him as a geezer, since he thinks of himself as being youthful.” So, apologies to my paddling buddies; paddling keeps us young.