Scary

Girl, Scary Figure (Quebec City) - Canada  2016

Scary figure, but the little girl didn't seem to be that scared . . . taken during a recent October trip.

Happy Halloween!

Mount Tamalpais

Mt. Tamalpais - Marin County  2026

Continuing the Mount Tamalpais theme. Taken last August from the Sky Oaks entrance going to Lake Lagunitas. 

Ridgecrest View (Mt Tamalpais - July 2026)

Hills, Trees, Fog - Marin County  2026

Driving home from the Mt. Tamalpais visit I took Ridgecrest Blvd to the very twisty Fairfax-Bolinas Road. 

Nice views of the marine layer blanketing the ocean.

Short Hike - 2 (Mt Tamalpais - July 2026)

Trail - Marin County  2026

Hikers - Marin County  2026

"The connecting Plank Trail is a short but very steep climb up an uneven, rocky path to the historic fire lookout. The ascent requires minor scrambling over boulders to reach the summit plaque."

(The trail description from AllTrails.) 

The trail, broad enough at the start, quickly became increasingly rocky. When I started up I hadn't known that there would be any boulder scrambling, minor or not. Plus, it was hot! So I only went part of the way before turning back.

Short Hike - 1 (Mt Tamalpais - July 2026)

Trail to Top (Start) - Marin County  2026

Parking Lot from Trail - Marin County  2026

The drive to the Mt. Tamalpais parking lot is much longer that you might think. Also, the Google/Apple maps didn't really help. I finally arrived at the parking lot and then had the thought that, as long as I was there, I should hike up to the lookout structure on top. The start of the trail didn't look too difficult! As I went up I could look back down on the parking lot.

Monday Dog Blogging

Dog Napping #1 (Fairfax) - Marin County  2026

Dog Napping #2 (Fairfax) - Marin County  2026

My old gym was the 24 Hour Fitness gym at Larkspur Landing (long since closed). Got some nice photos there!

These photos were taken just outside my current gym in Fairfax. Sometimes the dog is not napping!

Dog Not Napping (Fairfax) - Marin County  2026

Fennel, Fog (Mount Tamalpais - July 2026)

Fennel, Fog - Marin County  2026

Fennel, Eucalyptus, Fog - Marin County  2026

Although I've posted several photos of Mt. Tamalpais on the blog there are none taken from the actual summit. So to fix that deficit I drove down to the Marin City Starbucks for breakfast last July, then headed over to Highway 1 for the drive up to the top. The marine layer was particularly dense that day - I had to pull over to the side of the road for some fennel and fog photos.

Humboldt County Sightems

Hunkys (Arcata) - Humboldt County  1997

Nilsen (Ferndale) - Humboldt County  1997

Odd. Far northern California photos on the same roll of film as Nevada and Truckee photos. In the olden times you had to watch how many rolls of film you were using . . . film was expensive!

Truckee Sightems (1997)

Andy's Diner - Truckee  1997

Wood Cabins - Truckee  1997

OK, so the very bottom of the diner photo had to be added-in using the Photoshop "fill" algorithm. 

Not sure about the location of the bottom photo. Could certainly be Truckee, though . . . near the train station.

Southern Pacific - Truckee (1997)

Southern Pacific Diesels - Truckee  1997

Southern Pacific Tracks - Truckee  1997

By 1996, years of financial problems had dropped Southern Pacific's mileage to 13,715 miles (22,072 km). The financial problems caused the Southern Pacific Transportation Company to be taken over by the Union Pacific Corporation.

But as we can see, there were still Southern Pacific locomotives rolling on the tracks in 1997.

Virginia City (1997)

Fire Truck (Virginia City) - Nevada  2026

Palm Sunday (Virginia City) - Nevada  1997

Virginia City is over 6000' elevation. Palm Sunday in 1997 was March 3, so there's a definite date for the bottom photo.

Reno (1997)

Reno - Nevada  1997

Hotel (Reno) - Nevada  1997

Scenes from a mini vacation we took in 1997 . . . stayed overnight in Reno and took a day trip to Virginia City.

Monday Sheep Blogging (1997)

Sheep - Humboldt County  1997

So maybe this was taken in Nevada. Photo is on the same roll of film as scenes from Reno and Virginia City in Nevada. But also locations in Truckee in California. And a few pix taken in Humboldt County!

Going to have to go with Humboldt County, I think. Photo has a northern California look to it.

Bay / Buckeye

Bay - Marin County  2026

Buckeye Leaves - Marin County  2026

Top photo taken with an iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Bottom one with an Olympus E-M10 / Lumix 12-60mm lens combo. Pretty old, as such digital things go, but actually still quite serviceable. Light weight, too.

Claw Machines

Claw Machines (H Mart) - San Francisco  2026

Claw Machines Detail (H Mart) - San Francisco  2026

Claw machines seen during a recent quicky trip to H Mart. 

Redwoods, Clouds

Redwoods, Clouds - Marin County  2026

Redwoods, Clouds - Marin County  2026

Both photos taken from the same location (front of our house looking south). Top one taken with an iPhone 16, bottom one with a Nikon Z7II.

Trees

Eucalyptus - Marin County  2026

Oaks - Marin County  2026

Photo on top taken with a new (used) iPhone 16 Pro Max. Bottom one with a Sony RX100.

Mike's Birthday!

Godzilla, Mike (Tokyo) - Japan  2017

Wow!

Backpack Tent

Tent Drying Out (Fairfax) - Marin County  2026

I had an unfortunate tent mildew episode some years ago, so I always make sure to get the Big Agnes tent super dry before putting it away. 

I got the tent in 2018, so I've had it for a while.

Monday Heerman's Gull Blogging

Heerman's Gulls - Point Reyes  2026

Heerman's Gulls - Point Reyes 2026

Heerman's gulls were featured in an earlier 2018 post. Very picturesque.

Limantour Beach Wave

Limantour Beach Wave #1 - Point Reyes  2026

Limantour Beach Wave #2 - Point Reyes  2026

Nice. I used a Nikon Z7II with a 40mm (non-zoom) lens. 

Limantour Beach

Limantour Marsh - Point Reyes  2026

Limantour Beach - Point Reyes  2026

Photos taken just after my most recent Coast Camp backpack. During my visit there I hadn't been able to go down to the beach. Annoying! So when I returned to my car I decided to drive over to the Limantour beach area, to get some actual beach time in.

Alders

Alders, Road - Point Reyes  2026

Alders - Point Reyes  2026

Hanna and I hiked this route in 2025, so I knew that it was quite long. Still seemed to take forever.

Coast Camp - Hiking Out

Coyote Bush, Ocean - Point Reyes  2026

View South - Point Reyes  2026

I wanted to avoid the eroded trail that I had come in on, so I was taking the (much longer) alternate fire road out. The road follows the coast for a while before turning inland.

Coast Camp Morning

Morning Coffee - Point Reyes  2026

Tent - Point Reyes  2026

Very heavy drizzle. I had known that the morning was going to be a wet one, so I'd put most of my stuff into the metal bear box, with the backpack going underneath the table. 

It was apparent that the soaked and sagging tent fly hadn't really been staked out correctly. 

Grass, Hills

Grass, Hills - Point Reyes  2026

An afternoon photo . . . nice even overcast light.

Monday Sooty Shearwaters Blogging

Sooty Shearwaters - Point Reyes  2026

One of the most widespread and numerous of all pelagic seabirds, the Sooty Shearwater is an unassuming, dark brown bird with silvery flashes in the underwing. With stiff wingbeats they fly low over the ocean ("shearing" the water), using wind power to glide long distances. 

Watching the ocean from a headland or taking a pelagic birding trip are good ways to see Sooty Shearwaters. Populations are larger in the Pacific than the Atlantic, and huge flocks can sometimes be seen from shore along the California coast in fall.

Photo above (with a Nikon Z7II / 24-200mm lens) shows the flock (indeed, quite huge) as seen from a hill overlooking the ocean. Below, a crop showing individual birds.

Sooty Shearwaters - Point Reyes  2026

Drake's Bay, Headlands

Drake's Bay, Headlands - Point Reyes  2026

 Taken from high up on a bluff . . . sun trying to break through the afternoon fog. The dark specks in the bay are "sooty shearwater" birds. Dedicated post tomorrow.

Wet, Windy Hike (Mt. Tamalpais - August 2026)

Hanna, Hali - Marin County  2026

Hanna, Hali - Marin County  2026

So my first Mt. Tamalpais hike didn't work out since the trail up to the lookout structure was way rockier than I had expected. But it turns out that there's a second trail, an accessible one that loops around the mountain just below the summit.

Hanna was coming over for a visit in August . . . Hali and I decided to take her up to the top of Mt. Tamalpais so she could enjoy the view. 

 Yikes . . . not only was there no view, but the weather at the trailhead was quite intense, very wet and foggy with strong winds.