waterfalls: Cataract Falls, Marin County Municipal Water District

date visited: January 11th, 2009

Cataract Falls is so named because it is a collection of cataracts, or individual waterfalls.





Cataract Falls can be visited from two different trailheads, one that approaches from the top, and the other from the lake below.

click here to see lower trailhead and approximate location of Cataract Falls.

I have visited the lake (reservoir) that the falls feed into several times, called Alpine Lake (no doubt a reference to the trees and hilly bits), it is one of the many water storage facilities in Marin.

here are two shots of the lake from the south, one taken on January 11th, 2009, the other sometime in May, 1995:



Alpine Lake is just a little further down the Fairfax-Bolinas Road from the trailhead for Carson Falls.

for more info on Cataract Falls, check out the entry at waterfallswest.com

Coop hits the big 55!

and also, (thanks to Garrett), I finally notice the tiny little left-facing arrow on the gas guage (a.k.a. petrol tank indicator)



(this happened on January 9th, 2009)

waterfalls: Carson Falls, Marin County Municipal Water District

date visited: December 27th, 2008 (this was our postponed Boxing Day trip)

this is a waterfall that we had previously visited for Thanksgiving, probably 10 or so years ago. It's a bit of a hike up and over some steep hills, but the view is well worth the trip.

from the top of the falls, looking down:



half way down the side, a look back at the upper-middle cascade:



a little further down (maybe 1/3 of the way down the full length of the falls)...



we continued to walk down the creek that the falls feed, encountering several more cascades, but none as grand as the upper falls.

for more info, check out the entry at waterfallswest.com

Salt Point State Park

a gorgeous little seashore, somewhere way far away from anything on the Sonoma County coast.





to get here, we took Skaggs Springs Road, which, it should be pointed out is less a "road" than a small strip of material snaking across a mountain range, through a dense forest, stopping suddenly at Highway 1.

<shiver>

(this is a bit of a delayed post, we actually visited Salt Point State Park on April 26th, 2008)

travel day

leaving for London this evening. will try to stay in touch.

LOLcharleys

my visit to Angwin, CA

so, my friend Tyler suggested I take a trip out to Angwin, California. I'm still not sure why, but I said I would, and that I'd take pictures...

this is the town's sign:


here is the town's fire department:


trees:


more trees (there are a lot of them):


the store:


a house, labelled "private residence":


a sign at the airport:


another sign at the airport:


a truck at the airport:


looking south from the main road out of town:


broken highway reflector:


the side of my car:


lake henessey through a 300mm lens (it's about six miles from where I was standing):


some trash in a field:


the sun beating down on the roadway:

coop turns 50

I'm a little late with this post, but coop turned 50 on august 7th!

amanda knitted me a dalek!

isn't he the cutest?

alarmed car

I hate car alarms.

I think everyone hates car alarms.

I don't think anyone pays any attention to a car that is being alarming.

oh, and my car? it has an alarm.

it has an alarm that is so clever and Teutonic that the moth that wandered into my vehicle on the way home last night could set it off.

over and over and over and over and over and over...

the neighbours must have hated me. I went out on a bike ride, and returned 11 miles later to the unnervingly familiar sound of my car alarming. (I've set it off a couple of times, it's LOUD)

I ran into the house, grabbed the key fob and turned off the alarm.

Then I opened the garage, jumped into the car to put it away.

And out flew the moth.

memo to self: remove moths before locking car

coop is racking up the miles...

on december 11, 2007, he turned 40,000:


then on may 16, 2008, he turned 46,460:

(I just liked the number combo, thinking about it now, I should have waited four more miles)


this morning, july 10, 2008, he turned 49,000:


... we're coming up on the big half-century!

some sites I love

apostrophe abuse

thanks, no

the blog of unnecessary quotation marks

I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?

some random pictures

this is us using miles as a pickup, back seat filled with lumber:



a picture of coop with a buddy who was quite possibly on the same boat over here:



coop sitting in the driveway, enjoying the afternoon sun:



crazy sony STR-DA4300ES DMPORT screen, when hooked up to an iPhone:

MakerFaire 2008

advice to heed if you're going to go to MakerFaire 2009;

1) take public transport, or get there very early or quite late

2) do not forget to take a real camera

ok. once we got there, it was cool. the map confounded me for some time, but eventually we were able to move around with ease.

lurking in the hidden Disney corner, we found all kinds of cool stuff:



a large, static Wall•E

and a smaller, dancing Wall•E

miniature model walkthrough of Disney•Pixar's
Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!

the prototype snake from
Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure

um. cupcakemobiles?


more


without the muffin top

we actually went to MakerFaire on 20080503

Napa Tour de Cure

should have posted last night, but, well, couldn't really walk.

I have one picture to share, but I'm not smart enough to upload it right now.

In the meantime, check out the Craigslist Rigshock Riders 100 mile ride pictures

and here's the one picture I took at the rest stop, about 15 miles into our 25 mile total...




Tour de Cure Napa 2008 was actually on 20080504

our trip to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park...

this is a view from the "hillside trail" overlook. very pretty. we figured we'd walk around the bottom of the valley and then go visit the waterfall...


one of the best signs I've ever seen in a public park


broken piece of the observatory?


at the bottom of the waterfall


a little further up


about half-way up


a pretty pool of water somewhere near the top