I spend most of my time sitting in front of two computers. My waking hours are consumed by the Adobe Creative Suite, and other software. My eyes track colored pixels and photons across a vast electric plain.
Saturdays and sundays, I need to focus my eyes on something softer and multi-dimensional, and I’m ready for a lot of fresh air. Hiking is the answer.
The cost of living has always been high in California, but the access to outrageous outdoor environs is good compensation. The San Francisco Bay Area has some of the most accessible outdoor getaways of any urban mega-city, and some of the most spectacular. Now, that is threatened by recent fiscal disasters and budget deals, so that some parks will be closed, perhaps as many as one hundred.
Certainly an easy target for closing is a small, historic state park such as Olompali, near Novato. I hiked at Olompali last sunday and caught a tiny blue bellied lizard in my hat. The dappled forest light soothed my eyes and the oaks shielded me from the intense sun. It was cool in the woods and ferns. I paid eight dollars to park in the parking lot for 4 hours, and I had access to a huge, uncrowded, wooded preserve just minutes away from my home. I would pay twice that. I would also pay a vehicle licensing fee of fifteen dollars, another idea that was floated to solve the crisis.
There must be a way to keep more parks open.
We need all of them.
