There used to be good nerds. Band camp kids? Computer geeks? Music nerds—the ones everyone loved to hate, who only liked the band before everyone else did?
They were obsessive. They were annoying. They were vital.
I’m not sure where American nerdery went wrong, but it very much has, and boy do I wish I weren’t here for it (but also, I kinda do). To put this in well-worn terms, nerds used to be so uncool, they were cool. By contrast, most of today’s nerds are guilty of appropriation. They aren’t nerds at all. The vast lot are in fact nothing more than massive dorks.
Let’s conduct a National Survey of The Nerds. Consider: There used to be MacGuyver, the guy one really wanted instead of the Marlboro Man because he’d hack together a stick of gum and a paperclip to rescue someone from the poisonous cabin sliding down the cliff, all in time to take out the casserole. Now? There’s Vin Diesel and biohackers.
Who does a gal have to Big Bang Theory to escape the bilious billionaires buying Twitter? Billionaires, mercifully, used to be invisible. Sure, everyone knew about the one in Omaha and the one making the latest version of Windows, but they seemed alright. (Donald Trump’s Ivana era doesn’t count, because everyone knew then, as now, he was no billionaire.)
I’m not saying the ’80s were the final grand decade of nerdom, because there’s Portia from The White Lotus, but what else? Even nerd moms used to be better. Nerdier. If one is somewhere north of Millennial but south of Boomer, they’ll recall how there was always that one nerdy health mom coming back from aerobics class to make her ’80s mom salad of peas, kidney beans and pasta shells mixed with some kind of sprout or seed.
Now? There are wine moms crafting butter boards. Hashtag #passtheprosecco if she’s going to make it another #blessed (pronounced “bless-ed”) year putting up with her #biglug.
Reaching back further: Hippies. Nerds! Those lovable old stoner burnouts in their striped hemp tunics? The neighbor who never shut up about the importance of recycling, maybe even going through one’s trash to recycle it along with his? This is nerding of the highest order.
Now? There’s optimizing a marriage at dinner time with Life Dinner (I wish I were kidding), the entire concept known as Active Leisure, whiskey tangos cosplaying with Harleys and beard oil, and teenagers not having sex on purpose.
When did the Great Nerd Crisis begin? Was it homeschooling and promise rings? Was it reality television, or just the Kardashians? (I shall contrarily posit in a future column that they are among today’s only good nerds, but I digress.) Was it tech bros quaffing Soylent on the way to the latest Singularity conference? What would The Breakfast Club circa 2023 even look like?
In subsequent columns, nerd culture’s rise and fall will be interrogated with equal parts fascination and exasperation. It will be inconsistent. It will be irresponsible. It will be overly caffeinated or inebriated or both. Pickle guys will probably be picked on while overnight oats will be hypocritically lauded.
The reporting will stop at nothing (because that’s what real nerds do) to make the case that what this country needs is a few good nerds. That nerds are a cultural bellwether as crucial to determining the common health of the commonwealth as the GDP and the S&P. It’s promised that acts of shameless cherry pickery will be committed to support conclusions. I have a master’s degree in American Studies, but I assure, I won’t let scholarly integrity get in the way.
Above all, homage will be paid to the true nerds—not just the good ones (cat ladies), but the ones so bad they’re good, too (vegans). Nerdus authenticus, if one will. #Fauxnerds, wannabros (formerly known as local gods), #cryptocucks, beware: Someone is coming for you.
In an era when it sometimes feels like big brands are taking over everything, custom crush and cooperative tasting room facilities that cater to small and micro producers offer consumers an opportunity to connect with small, burgeoning or start-up wineries.
Launched in 2017 by wine industry veterans Erin Brooks, Todd Gottula, and Erin and Robert Morris, Grand Cru was created with “a vision to build a shared creative space for established, independent wineries, allowing them to partner their unique winemaking talent with world-class production technology to create some of the best wines in Sonoma County.” Since then, the business has thrived, growing to take on more than 20 member wineries, as well as additional custom-crush only clientele.
With over 20 tiny producers under one roof, the business’ presence in Windsor—along with the Artisan Alley folks just down the road—makes Windsor one of the most unique urban wine tasting destinations in the North Bay.
The Space and Location
Grand Cru is both a custom crush facility and a cooperative tasting space, meaning that they have both a production and crush pad area, as well as individual tasting rooms (or tasting salons) leased by small brands. The tasting rooms are small, modern and polished with a tasting counter and just enough seating to facilitate a small group.
Their state-of-the-art 31,000 foot production space features a crushpad, destemmer and optical sorter, bladder and basket presses, temperature controlled barrel rooms and temperature controlled glycol systems.
The space is located off of American Way in Windsor, just next door to DuMOL winery.
The Brands
Member wineries at Grand Cru are primarily boutique or micro-winery brands producing between 1,500 and 5,000 cases. Some are established brands that may not have a tasting room of their own, while others are brand new start-up wineries trying to make a name for themselves. A growing number falls somewhere in between.
Tasting Wine at Grand Cru
Six private tasting salon spaces are on-site, where member wineries can host tastings and receive customers by appointment, though a few member brands have their own tasting rooms off-site.
There is also an option to book a “Vintner’s Selection” tasting experience, which allows guests to taste through a selection of wines from different Grand Cru member vintners. The tasting flight includes five wines, takes about 60 minutes and costs $35. There is also an option to do a red wine-only version of this flight.
The Vintner’s Selection tasting experience is a great way to find new producers and wines one may not have heard of. For those who really like a wine from a particular vintner, they can make an appointment to come back and taste more of that brand’s wines.
Single vintner tastings and Vintner’s Selection tastings can be booked on Grand Cru’s website, grandcrucustomcrush.com. Advance reservations are required for all tasting experiences.
What can be purer than the piercing words of a 14-year-old singer songwriter? Last month, I visited the Black Box theater at ArtQuest High in Santa Rosa to see MJ Ward play the fundraiser for his high school.
Swaying on the venue dark bench seating, teen couples and parents layed heads on shoulders while pressed right up against the stage, a dozen ebullient YAs belting out chorus after chorus along with the giggling artist.
It’s the kind of scene that reminds one why they started making art in the first place.
This weekend, Ward will be playing the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma for the second time, opening for Arizona touring artist Madilyn Mei, darling of the “bedroom pop” scene that has arisen in the wake of a YouTube and Spotify enabled re-indy-fication of music making.
I caught up with Ward recently to talk about songcraft, the show and his brand new single, “Raven.”
Giotis: How long have you been writing your own tunes?
Ward: I’ve been writing music for almost three years. I’m self-taught in like two instruments, guitar and ukulele.
Giotis: Do you play other instruments?
Ward: Yeah, I’ve played piano since I was like six, violin off and on since third grade, and cello for about a year now. I’m just constantly interested in learning new instruments. I tried drums for a little bit, but it didn’t turn out very well. (His eyes twinkle a little behind the KN95 mask.) I also tried bass and gave up on that.
Giotis: That’s so cool. We have drums and various amps in the garage at home, and the kids trade off on them. Me too when they let me play with them.
Ward: Yeah, I really just want to constantly learn how to play different instruments.
Giotis: Is there an instrument you prefer for songwriting?
Ward: I mostly write on guitar, but I used to write like every single song, just on different instruments. I would rotate between them, and sometimes I try … like if I wrote a song on guitar sometimes, I’ll try to play it on piano just to see how that sounds.
Giotis: You have said that you got your start in local open mics. What was a good experience you can share?
Ward: Over the summer, I played a song and afterwards, these two people were telling me how they really liked my lyrics. And that was just really nice to hear, yeah.
Giotis: I love that immediacy of open mics, the way you can get feedback right away. Your new single, “Raven,” just came out. What is different about this song that you haven’t done before?
Ward: Well, it’s a whole like new level of production. With harmonies and just like different background tracks, which I haven’t done before. And I feel like the lyrics are very different from, like my other releases. Just from like, getting better at writing.
Giotis: I remember some animal themes in earlier songs like “Hammerhead Sharks.” Is that a trademark thing for you?
Ward: (laughs) I think so. Yeah.
MJ Ward plays with Madilyn Mei at 7:30pm, Friday, Jan. 27 at the Phoenix Theater, 201 Washington St., Petaluma. Tickets available at thephoenixtheater.com for $12 a pop. All ages.
On Sunday, Jan. 22, a group of hikers stood on a hillside in China Camp State Park near San Rafael watching, not wildlife thriving in the park’s salt marshes, but cars and bicycles below.
It was close to 12:30pm, and a short segment of the low-lying North San Pedro Road was covered in water, forcing visitors to brave the shallow water or turn back.
“King tide” is a non-scientific name for the highest tides of the year. Caused by the increased gravitational pull when the earth, sun and moon align in a certain way, king tides offer a valuable teaching moment: a visible representation of the regenerative and destructive powers of water today and in the future.
Using photographs submitted by participants around the state, the King Tide Project helps “document current flood risk in coastal areas, visualize the impacts of future sea level rise in a community, ground-truth and validate climate change models by comparing model predictions with the high-tide reality, [and] serve as a living record of change for future generations,” according to the Coastal Commission’s website.
“King Tides themselves are not related to climate change, but they allow us to experience what higher sea level will be like,” the website states. “King Tides are the highest high tides of the year—one to two feet higher than average high tides, which is a good approximation of how high we expect everyday tides to be over the next few decades due to human-caused sea level rise.” In San Francisco, sea levels are expected to rise between 1.1 and 2.7 feet by 2050, according to a 2018 state study.
Photo by Chelsea Kurnick
Gesturing to the flooded section of North San Pedro Road below, Dr. Stuart Siegel, the director of the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, said, “With sea level rise, this will happen a bit more often. It’ll be a little deeper each time—a little more of the road will flood—and, instead of an hour or two, it will be underwater for three or four hours.”
Half an hour earlier, when the hiking group assembled in a parking lot, Dr. Mike Vasey, who led the Bay Area NERR before Siegel, dubbed the gathering a “gravitation celebration.”
Then, adopting the role of the earth, Vasey recruited participants to act as the sun and moon. He spun in place a few times, using his hands to show the bulge of water pulled outwards as he turned to face the pretend celestial bodies once again.
“When the sun gets closest to the earth and the moon is in this new moon phase right now, it exerts the largest gravitational pull on the earth, [causing higher tides]… What’s often not mentioned is the rotation of the earth, which really has a big effect on these tides,” Vasey said.
In the Bay Area, though, untouched wetlands and salt flats, like those at China Camp, are fairly rare. Before human development accelerated in the 20th century, there were 200,000 hectares, or approximately 770 square miles, of salt marshes along the edges of the bay, according to the San Francisco Bay Keeper. Today, due to “urban development, land filling, and the construction of dikes, levees, and dams,” there are only about 13,290 hectares of marshes. Rising sea levels are a threat to the remaining areas.
In addition to offering a crucial habitat for a wide range of species, salt marshes and wetlands provide an important buffer between the ocean and nearby communities, slowing or preventing flooding. They also store carbon and other climate-heating emissions, helping to mitigate global warming.
Some 20 miles north of China Camp, the Petaluma Marsh is estimated to cover roughly 5,000 acres, making it the largest remaining salt marsh in the San Pablo Bay. On Saturday, Jan. 21, Drew Dickson, owner of Napa Valley Paddle, led a small flotilla of kayaks and paddle boards up the Petaluma River, setting off from a marina off Lakeville Highway just before the height of the tide.
Partly inspired by the King Tide Project, Dickson wanted participants to experience the might of the river—and the wildlife living in the marsh. On the way into Petaluma, the level reached about five feet below the top of a bridge. On the way out, only 90 minutes later, it had receded 1.5 feet.
From a kayak on Saturday, the river appeared to be safely below any human development, even at the height of the tide. Perhaps it’s thanks to the remaining marsh that the city was not impacted.
“Wetlands detain water, which reduces flooding and erosion downstream during major storms,” states the website of the Petaluma Wetlands Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to education and preservation efforts. “Think of a wetland as a giant sponge lying between our uplands or cities and the major waterways that drain them, or as a sponge lying between our uplands and our cities.”
Still, king tides do cause damage in the North Bay and other parts of the coast on occasion.
In November 2020, a King Tide inundated a stranded construction barge on the Petaluma River, causing it to leak industrial fluids into the water. Ahead of last weekend’s tides, Marin County officials warned of increased flood risk in some low-lying areas. And, if this year’s King Tides had aligned more closely with the historic rain storms, water levels could have been several feet higher, making them more impactful.
The widespread impacts of the tides, paired with sea level rise projections, have caused a lot of organizations to compete for funding for mitigation projects large and small.
Back at China Camp State Park, Siegel made a pitch for funding improvements to North San Pedro Road, which floods regularly.
To start, the salt marshes on either side are increasingly rare, and although there aren’t any homes along this stretch of two-lane road, it offers emergency vehicles a backup option if other routes are out of service. And, in addition to providing park access for tourists, hikers and mountain bikers, Indigenous people who use China Camp for ceremonial purposes use the road.
On Jan. 5, Siegel filmed the same stretch of North San Pedro Road during a rainstorm.
Thanks to infrastructure funding set aside last year, Siegel noted that all sorts of agencies will compete for sea level rise mitigation funds during the next few years.
Unlike the highly-predictable King Tides, it’s not clear when the next infrastructure investment tide will arrive. Those are subject to political, not gravitational, forces.
King Tide photos from up and down the California coastline are available at www.coastal.ca.gov/kingtides and on various social media sites, tagged #kingtide.
My assignment this week was to write a piece about the monumental storms that packed a wallop in Marin and Sonoma counties, but I needed a break from bad news.
Fortunately, I found a heartwarming story about a fairy, a stranded motorist and a bunny on a flooded road during a downpour.
To satisfy my editor, let me get this out of the way: The first 18 days of January delivered more than 22 inches of rain to Marin, while Sonoma County made it onto President Joe Biden’s list of areas eligible for FEMA funds. It was a mess all over the Bay Area, with flooded roads, mudslides, toppled trees and power outages.
Still, none of this discouraged Marcy Berman from braving an atmospheric river last week to transport a domesticated bunny named Lady Gray to a foster home in Muir Beach.
Berman, director of the nonprofit SaveABunny, admits she saw standing water on the road, but thought her truck would plow through it. After all, Lady Gray, a rescued rabbit disabled from severe neglect, required specialized care from the couple at the other end of the flooded street.
A driving miscalculation landed Berman’s truck stuck in the mud on the side of the road, tipping precariously, with the water continuing to rise ever so slightly.
“We were really at a steep angle,” Berman said.
Standing less than five feet tall, Berman considered the depth of the water and her chance of carrying Lady Gray and the bunny’s accoutrements to safety. She decided to stay in her vehicle, where she could keep the heat on for her paralyzed passenger while she called for help. West Marin’s spotty cell service put a kink in that plan.
Two surfers came by and tried to push the truck out of the mud. No go. Then a fire truck rolled up; however, Berman, determined to get Lady Gray to the medical foster home, told the firefighters that she was fine.
Some might question Berman’s stubbornness at this juncture, yet it’s through her tenacity that SaveABunny has rescued 5,000 rabbits over the last 24 years. She wasn’t giving up on this one.
Lady Gray, a rabbit rescued from severe neglect by SaveABunny, munches on nutritious greens.
“I just let go and asked the universe for help,” Berman said. “Ten minutes later, a pretty blonde lady with a lovely accent shows up in an SUV. A fairy.”
Not only did Penny Macphail’s ethereal beauty and Irish lilt inform Berman that her rescuer was otherworldly, but a sign on the SUV confirmed it: “www.goodfairy.org.”
Indeed, Macphail is a real-life good fairy. Although she ventured from her home in Sleepy Hollow on this stormy day to swim with her dog at Muir Beach, Macphail wasn’t surprised to happen upon someone who needed to be saved.
“I run a nonprofit called Good Fairy that matches volunteers with people who need help,” Macphail said. “The funny thing is that I am constantly rescuing people, because once you start looking, you see people in need.”
Good Fairy has helped hundreds of people since its inception three years ago, but Macphail herself attracts those in need. She recently found a five-year-old boy at a gas station after his father accidentally drove away without him. It seems she’s always in the right place at the right time, which is even more remarkable considering she’s disabled with limited mobility.
“I’m seizing the day and making the best of everything I can,” Macphail said.
Together, on the flooded road in the pouring rain, the two women managed to move the bunny and her supplies into Macphail’s SUV and then to the medical foster home.
One will never know whether Macphail appeared because Berman wished for her or because Macphail keeps an eye out for anyone needing help. Either way, both say they wholeheartedly agree with the other line on the sign on Macphail’s vehicle: “I believe in fairies!”
The sign on MacPhail’s SUV explains why magical moments occur when she arrives.
When it comes to cannabis edibles, there is one category that ranks supreme: gummies. For some people, it’s the convenient discretion of taking a bite out of a piece of candy, while others simply like a smoke or vape-free way to catch a buzz. Whatever the reason, gummies have taken a huge bite out of the cannabinoid edibles market with no plans of slowing down.
Nearly half the country offers a dispensary shopping experience for medical marijuana patients or adult consumers. Still, the luxury of cannabis retail is often dampened by the hefty taxes at the register. In recent years, a monumental shift in the regulation of hemp changed the cannabis landscape dramatically. Now, consumers can shop online from companies making hemp-infused gummies and have them shipped to their door.
And the best part is—they get you high. So, what’s the deal with hemp products, and how is it legal? Let’s review that part first, then dive into the best edibles of 2023 and where to find them.
A Legal High With Hemp Edibles
Cannabis is an overarching term describing hemp and marijuana. Marijuana is a high-THC plant that is highly regulated by the state and the federal government. You can only buy legal weed in a state-licensed dispensary. Hemp, on the other hand, is having a wild, wild west moment. In 2018, the Farm Bill legalized the sale and production of industrial hemp, which opened up an entirely new market that primarily operated online.
At first, CBD was the big play for most companies as its effects were sought after for therapeutic relief without the high. However, consumers then began to wonder, what about all the other cannabinoids found in hemp? Surely some of them must have psychoactive properties similar to the Delta-9 THC we know and love from weed. Lo and behold, an opportunity!
As it turns out, there is a lot you can do in a lab with a few hemp-derived cannabinoids. Once isolated, extracted and produced in abundance, hemp manufacturers discovered more than one cannabinoid that could get you high. And so, Delta-8 THC, HHC and THC-P products began to pop up in online hemp stores, and consumers jumped at the chance to try out a legal high from hemp. One brand, in particular, is standing out from the rest with its impressive reputation and effective products.
Best Edibles & Gummies of 2023
Based in Southern California, DIMO originally launched its now extensive product line with Delta-8 THC pre-rolls. Delta-8 is one of the THC isomers found in hemp that companies like DIMO can easily extract from the plant and even synthesize from the abundant levels of CBD. Capitalizing on the market’s love of infused gummies, DIMO quickly added a wide variety of Delta-8 infused gummies to its hit list. From there, it expanded to include several other popular alternative cannabinoid infusions.
Delta-8 Gummies
Delta-8 THC is very similar to its marijuana-derived cousin, Delta-9 THC, but with one key difference—it’s simply not as potent. But don’t be mistaken: You will absolutely get high on Delta-8; it just might take a bit more than it would with regular THC.
That said, DIMO offers varying dosages. Each bag contains 10 Delta-8 gummies, and you can buy a 1000 mg package or a 250 mg package. So, that means each individual gummy will either be 100 mg or 25 mg. For newcomers to cannabis, even a 25 mg dosage might be a bit too much, but you can just cut it in half and start there.
Flavors include:
Sour Gummy Worms
Sour Peach Rings
Rainbow Sour Belts
Watermelon Sour Belts
Green Apple Sour Belts
Strawberry Sour Belts
Mango Sour Belts
Blue Raspberry Sour Belts
With pricing ranging from $14.99-$14.99, the dollar-per-milligram serving is highly competitive and definitely a solid bang for your buck.
THC-P Gummies
THC-P is relatively new in the alternative cannabinoid market, but it is naturally occurring in cannabis plants. However, because it’s only found in minimal quantities, it is often made by converting the Delta-8 THC molecule into THC-P, which means that it’s also much stronger than Delta-8. If you are looking for a heavier-hitting edible, this is it. But it’s not just for those looking to get totally stoned. THC-P gummies can offer plenty of therapeutic benefits, like reducing nausea, stimulating appetite and decreasing stress and anxiety.
Flavors include:
Neon Rings
Watermelon Rings
Pineapple Rings
Each package is $29.99 and contains 1000 mg of Delta-8 enriched with THC-P. Start small with one of these gummies by cutting one in halves or quarters to see how you feel.
Delta-9 Gummies
You might be wondering how the heck Delta-9 gummies are legal, when we just talked about this form of THC being dominant in marijuana. Well, it’s also present in hemp, though in much smaller quantities. The same rules apply in that any product may contain Delta-9 THC; it simply needs to be less than 0.3% of the total product volume.
In gummies, this is fairly easy to do. DIMO’s D9 gummies offer consumers a mild Delta-9 experience while keeping it legal.
Flavors include:
Sour Peach Rings
Rainbow Sour Belts
Blue Raspberry Sour Belts
Strawberry Sour Belts
Watermelon Sour Belts
Green Apple Sour Belts
Mango Sour Belts
Each package of DIMO’s D9 gummies contains a total of 200 mg, or 20 mg per piece. Start out with one, or even a half, if you are newer to gummies. Keep in mind that edibles can take 90 minutes or longer to kick in, so give it a full window of opportunity to kick in before you start nibbling on another piece. Plus, each package is just $24.99.
HHC Gummies
HHC hasn’t become as popular as Delta-8 yet, but it has a valuable place in the market. It gets you high, but with less psychoactive effects on the mind and more of an overall mellowing feeling. This is perfect for anyone sensitive to THC, or for those who want to dip their toes in but not take a dive.
Flavors include:
Sour Peach Rings
Strawberry Sour Belts
Blue Raspberry Sour Belts
LOOPER’s HHC gummies contain 250 mg per package, with 10 gummies total. For $24.99, that’s a killer deal.
Dive Into DIMO
Once you try DIMO’s edibles, you’ll be hooked. If you like the alternative cannabinoids in the gummies, just wait till you try the inhalable options! Check out its lineup of pre-rolls, disposables and vape cartridges for more alt noid options.
The North Bay is nearly peerless when it comes to the pursuit of personal fitness. In fact, it’s hard to think of a location better suited to encompass every individual’s preferences for physical activity. From high-up mountains to the coast and bay and from outdoor adventures to an eclectic selection of indoor activities, classes and more—there’s something for everyone in the North Bay.
And there’s no better time than the present to set out and explore all these fitness fads in and along the central California coast. With the New Year barely passed and the will to follow through on 2023 resolutions still fresh, now is the perfect time to sample the North Bay’s awesome activities, to keep moving and keep those fitness resolutions.
Bicycling
Bicycling is a fantastic way to not only work out one’s body, but also to cut one’s carbon footprint and save money on gas and car maintenance in the meantime. And, in the North Bay, there are a wide variety of options when it comes to intensity and scenery. On one hand, there are clearly marked bicycling lanes in and around Marin, Napa and Sonoma, which make sharing the street with cars that much easier and safer. These are great for short commutes, grocery runs or simply working out on a largely flat and well-paved expanse of street.
Alternatively, the North Bay is absolutely packed with well-maintained bicycling paths that wind through, up and around the wildly wondrous wilderness of the central California coastline. There are also plenty of Bay Area bicycle nonprofits, including the Marin County Bicycle Coalition and North Bay BMX, as well as specialized bicycling parks and trails and, for those interested, stationary bicycling fitness classes too.
Classes and Fitness Courses
The North Bay is wonderfully diverse and offers an eclectic selection of fitness classes so varied, there’s bound to be something for everyone. Want to learn self-defense? The hardest part is choosing between krav maga, karate, MMA or jiu jitsu (to name only a few).
Those interested in learning to dance can pick between classic classes such as ballroom, salsa, tango, ballet, pointe, tap and jazz—or, for more unconventional dance classes, the North Bay also offers studios that teach aerial dancing, pole dancing, belly dancing and more. Yoga and pilates classes are commonplace in most cities across the central California coastline as well. In short, there is no shortage of interesting fitness classes in Marin, Napa and Sonoma.
Hiking and Backpacking
The Bay Area boasts all sorts of hiking trails, and those of all ages and fitness levels can easily find a path that suits their individual needs and desires. From the Point Reyes National Seashore and up the coast to Bodega Bay, nature enthusiasts have no problem finding new and exciting trails to explore along the central California coastline. The same can be said further inland, with well-maintained nature preserves and trails winding in and around the North Bay cities.
This close integration between the Bay’s infrastructure and nature is one of its most appealing features, allowing for quick hikes during a lunch break as much as days-long backpacking trips. One must be sure to respect the effort that has been put into maintaining the natural beauty of the North Bay by not littering and by obeying fire/camping ordinances. Poison oak soap may also be a wise investment.
Horseback Riding
Part of what makes the North Bay unique is the sheer number of horseback riding trails, lessons and opportunities available across all of its counties. And, as far as fitness goes, horseback riding is not only a workout, but can be fun as well.
In Marin, Five Brooks Ranch, Point Reyes Arabian Adventures, Morning Star Farm and the Marshall Hall Riding Academy offer a wide variety of horseback experiences. In Sonoma, options include (but are not limited to) Sonoma Valley Trail Rides, The Ranch at Lake Sonoma and Horse N Around Trail Rides. And, last but not least, Napa plays host to Valley Brook Equestrian Center and Napa Valley Trail Rides.
Kayaking, Swimming and Surfing
One of the most notable geographic aspects of the North Bay is the sheer amount of access to expansive bodies of water. Whether along the rugged California coastline, from the southern tip of Sausalito overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge to Pebble Beach at the northernmost reaches of Sonoma County, or in and around the bay itself—there are endless opportunities to get in, on and under the waves.
Kayak and canoe rentals are available across Napa, Sonoma and Marin counties, and Pacific Coast Surf Lessons is a great place to get started on a lifelong physically challenging hobby. Plus the water is a good place to pursue personal fitness.
Races and Runs
Running isn’t for everyone, but that doesn’t mean it should be left out of the comprehensive list of opportunities for fitness in the North Bay. After all, training for a 5k, a 10k, a marathon or a triathlon requires an intense amount of fitness and discipline, and there are plenty of opportunities, including the Napa to Sonoma half-marathon (a popular North Bay race) and the Marin Endurance Festival.
The landscape of the central California coast makes training for and running these races more of a treat than a torment for those who enjoy attaining that lauded “runner’s high.”
Rock Climbing and Bouldering
Rock climbing and bouldering have grown in popularity in recent years and have become a not-so-uncommon hobby for those with an adventurous approach toward personal physical fitness. Scaling rock walls is a great way to work out the entire body, from gripping with fingers and toes to maintaining balance with core strength and building up muscles in the arms and legs. The mental workout of rock climbing should not be ignored either, as it can be quite the conundrum to look at a wall and figure out, one vertical step at a time, where is best to take that next step.
Luckily, the North Bay offers both indoor and outdoor climbing options for the skilled and the newcomers alike. Vent 5 in Stinson Beach is a popular outdoor location, while Gravity Vault in San Rafael, Vertex Climbing Center in Santa Rosa and Rockzilla in Napa are excellent indoor locations.
Volunteering
Fitness doesn’t always have to look like fitness, and sometimes the best way to get a workout is to forget the part where it’s a workout. Instead of spending money on fitness classes or niche hobbies, some may find the most rewarding way to get active is to become active in the community.
Conservation Corps North Bay is always looking for volunteers to help maintain trails, clear debris and service the natural landscape of the North Bay. Volunteering with community gardens, clean-up efforts and philanthropic pursuits in general is a great way to get up, out of the house and moving in a way that rewards not only the body but the community as well.
An anonymous vandal is drawing attention to the historic plight of hundreds of Tule elk trapped behind a wire and post fence at the northern tip of the Point Reyes National Seashore. During drought seasons, fenced-in elk often die by the hundreds, unable to access ponds, streams and forage set aside for 5,000 privately owned cattle on the other side of the eight-foot fence.
In mid-October, someone chain sawed down 14 fence posts, leaving 100 feet of drooping wire fence intertwined with a handwritten banner reading, “LIFE IS FREE.”
The National Park Service (NPS), which owns and manages Point Reyes, announced a criminal investigation into the act and set up a tips hotline—415-464-5177. The TreeSpirit Project, an animal rights group calling for the removal of the dairy and beef cattle operations which lease a third of the Seashore, delayed a planned protest out of concern that non-violent environmentalists would be associated with the criminal act.
However, news of the destruction didn’t spread beyond a few Marin County news outlets, and interest in “Who done it?” dwindled. Apparently, that disappointed the fence killer.
On Jan. 2, an anonymous Twitter user, @iliketuleelk, posted a two-page letter taking credit for the fence cutting. Two photos accompany the manifesto. The first shows the felled fence and banner, and the second a hand pushing a chainsaw through a fence post. The Tweet tagged the NPS and the Department of the Interior’s Twitter accounts, garnering only a few views.
A week later, iliketuleelk emailed this publication a link to the Tweet alongside a confession, “I cut down part of the fence in October and now wrote this note to NPS—might be a little direct, but trying to put pressure on officials.”
“The entire park should be full with free tule elk renewing the land as the keystone species they are, roaming as reminders of the prehistoric, that life is awesome…,” the manifesto states in part. “I acted alone and I will take no further action at this time. I did what I did as a member of the public to continue a discussion ranchers and current park approaches have tried to shut out. We need to talk about freedom, and what it means for a park to embody that word.”
In recent years, a variety of advocacy groups have called attention to the NPS policies of allowing private agricultural operations to grossly pollute the Seashore, and fenced-in Tule elk to die of thirst and starvation.
Activists have been careful not to break the law as part of demonstrations, some of which use the fence as a dramatic prop depicting elk as orange-suited prisoners.
Activists participate in a July 3, 2021 protest in Point Reyes National Seashore. Photo by Jocelyn Knight
Following the discovery of the crime scene, NPS spokesperson Melanie Gunn said that the downed fence posed a potential danger to the Tule elk and other mammals, which could become ensnared trying to cross the tangled wires. Gunn said that the fence repairs were completed on Oct. 20 and cost $3,461.
The manifesto pushes back on the safety criticism, arguing that the existence of the fences is the real injustice. “Life should not be behind a fence in a place of wildlife… [After I cut the fence, Gunn] said that, ‘This destruction of federal property […] may trap the elk.’ This does not make sense—the fences are the traps. The section of fence I cut down was small… and no life was harmed. I believe it is clear my intent was good…”
In interviews last week, a handful of environmental activists and a Point Reyes rancher also raised safety concerns. While the activists support removing ranches and dairies from the park, along with fences restricting the movement of Tule elk, they also voiced various degrees of skepticism about whether cutting a short piece of fence was an effective tactic.
Laura Cunningham, California director of the Western Watersheds Project, one of three national environmental groups waging a federal lawsuit to remove ranching from the park, said their group is working with locals to free the elk, but is committed to doing “everything above board… [and] not [to] participate in any illegal activities.”
“I was against this [fence cutting] and rather shocked, because just chain sawing down the fence there will not do anything for the elk. And, if the elk had gotten out, the Park Service would just try to round them up and put them back in… It was a stunt, and I don’t like the illegal nature of it, and I don’t think it furthers our cause of rescuing the elk from that area,” Cunningham said.
Jack Gescheidt, the founder of the TreeSpirit Project, said that he reported the felled fence to the Park Service on Friday, Oct. 14. TreeSpirit then postponed a planned protest, posting on its website that “We condemn the vandalism which creates a hazard to the elk. And doesn’t change federal policy which imprisons them.”
Now that someone with an anonymous Twitter account is taking credit for the crime, Gescheidt is more sympathetic.
“When I first learned about the fence vandalism, I wondered what good would come of it—elk wandering out onto ranch lands would likely be traumatically rounded up by the NPS. Now that the fence-cutter seeks publicity, I see it a bit differently: doing property damage (and risking arrest) to raise awareness, to save more elk from dying,” he wrote in a statement to this newspaper.
Matt Maguire is a former Petaluma City Council member long involved in calling for restoring the Seashore to its pre-agricultural ecology.
“I’m not surprised that somebody did this. The more the public finds out how the Park Service is derelict in its duties, acting as the handmaiden of the ranchers, the more people are furious,” Maguire said.
He acknowledged that the fence cutting could backfire, politically: “It hands a rhetorical club to the ranchers and the Park Service to say: ‘See, these elk activists are wild extremists who will go to no ends,’ which obviously is not true…”
For example, in an April 2021 email to executives at the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, a Marin County representative of the Western United Dairies, an industry group, wrote that “dairies in the national seashore have been dealing with rampant, often unmitigated and sometimes violent protesters for months, with yet another demonstration planned this Saturday in the park.” Western United Dairies did not respond to a request for evidence of the claim of violence when this newspaper reached out for comment last fall while reporting “Don’t Look Down!”, an article about agricultural pollution in the Seashore.
Theresa Harlan advocates for the protection of endangered Indigenous archeology and historical structures, and clean water and humane environments for the Tule elk in the park, as well as for the removal of ranches.
She said that the vandalism “feeds into a false belief that environmental activists at Point Reyes support vigilante acts to correct wrongs. I believe that the fences should be brought down, but that action needs to be deliberate and methodical and legal.”
The anonymous manifesto observed, correctly, that more than 90% of public comments solicited by the NPS for a 2020 Environmental Impact Statement called for the non-renewal of scores of expired ranching leases and the restoration of the grazed, polluted lands.
Kevin Lunny, who operates a ranch approximately three miles overland from the felled fence, supports keeping agricultural operations within the park.
“It was very dangerous-looking. We have livestock, and we know what it’s like if a fence is half down. Now, if they had cut the wires and opened it up, that would have allowed safe passage. But, to just let the fence lay down, that’s pretty dangerous,” Lunny said.
Reached by email last week, the anonymous fence killer declined to disclose their identity.
“I will withhold my identity at this time! My aim is to continue discussion, not get arrested, which it seems is the direction they are headed,” iliketuleelk wrote.
The scene in Brasilia recently was reminiscent of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by then-outgoing President Donald Trump’s supporters, who also denied the results of their candidate’s election. Will Jair Bolsonaro be moving into Mar-a-Lago anytime soon?
Gary Sciford
Santa Rosa
Bad Rep
Two years after the deadly attack on our country on Jan. 6, 2021, it’s hard to ignore that the House of Representatives is now controlled by those who embraced and fueled Trump’s Big Lie. According to The Washington Post, over 70% of all House Republicans are election deniers—135 incumbents voted against certifying the 2020 election, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and at least 27 freshman members ran on the Big Lie.
They might hold the title of “representative,” but they have no intention of legislating on behalf of their constituents. Their top priority in the House will be sham investigations into the Biden administration and those who actually defended our democracy.
We must speak truth to power in the face of all their lies. I’m pledging to do everything I can to protect our freedoms and our democracy against the House’s extremist attacks—I hope others will join me.
By Dr. Chad Johnson
I’m rejecting cynicism
Renouncing bitterness
Meditations while we sheltered
Have affirmed a yearning
Sanctioned a hunger
The gravitational tug
To mix with our own
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Like roots of coastal redwoods
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In spontaneity mode
Let’s attend a show!
Leave our couch
C’mon, we’ll dress up
Even if it’s casual
Impromptu
Flashy or demure
Velvet, silk, flannel
At a trendy bistro
Enlivening the restaurant
We toast to ourselves
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An anonymous vandal is drawing attention to the historic plight of hundreds of Tule elk trapped behind a wire and post fence at the northern tip of the Point Reyes National Seashore. During drought seasons, fenced-in elk often die by the hundreds, unable to access ponds, streams and forage set aside for 5,000 privately owned cattle on the other...
Re-enactment
The scene in Brasilia recently was reminiscent of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by then-outgoing President Donald Trump’s supporters, who also denied the results of their candidate’s election. Will Jair Bolsonaro be moving into Mar-a-Lago anytime soon?
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Santa Rosa
Bad Rep
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