Wanderings of the old sloat: Bay Area Fall Ramblings

Home from Italy, but that's OK...there's no shortage of interesting spots to visit in the Bay Area. Last week I hiked up to the spot from where the Spanish explorer Portola first sighted San Francisco Bay in 1769. This is it. Imagine his shock when he topped the crest of the ridge...and saw SFO airport! Well OK, I guess the airport wasn't there yet, but the Bay Area wasn't a wilderness...50-100 thousand Indians lived there, growing crops, fishing, hunting, and generally living the good life. The Bay Area has been well populated for a long time.

In the background, San Francisco Bay. In the foreground, Crystal Springs Reservoir, which marks the San Andreas fault.

Up on Sweeney Ridge, near the bay "discovery" site, there was a Nike missile base from 1959-1974. It was designed to shoot down Soviet bombers early in the cold war, when both sides had nukes but not ICBMs. By 1974 the base had been obsolete for awhile and was closed. Taggers have decorated the ready room in recent years.

This is the road up to Sweeney Ridge and the Nike site. It's now a hiking/biking trail but 50 years ago it carried military traffic. It was a fine, warm day when I hiked up, but this area gets a lot of really dense fog, especially in the summer. So, a "fog line" was painted on the road for vehicles to follow when visibility was really bad...so folks wouldn't drive off the road and tumble down the mountainside.

Sunset at Moss Beach, about 15 miles south of San Francisco. I think this is a contrail, illuminated by the sun which is not below the horizon far to our west.

Made a wine run to Sonoma...bought some nice bottles at Sebastiani and Buena Vista. Fall colors were bright next to my motel in Sonoma, and there were some nice murals there too.