– Doug McConnell

Lost Coast photo by yourmap.

The sensational coast of California is famous around the world and one of our state’s finest but most vulnerable treasures.

The coast and ocean are spectacular to look at, but the aquatic ecosystem beneath the waves is under grave assault from overfishing, pollution and global warming.  Too many of us are demanding too much of this rich but fragile environment, and we have to back off a bit right away.

We Californians have done a terrific job in many ways over the past half-century in protecting the land along the coast, especially from Santa Barbara north.  OpenRoad.TV features many stories about famous locations that have been set aside for nature’s sake and for future generations to experience, including Big Sur, the San Mateo Coast the Marin Headlands, Pt. Reyes, the Lost Coast and much, much more.

We’ve saved the land, but to a large degree we’ve allowed the ocean to fend for itself.  It’s time we save the sea as well.

The good news is that a solution is at hand.  It’s a plan created over three years by many people representing many interests working closely together in an open and transparent process.  People in fishing, science, conservation, business, recreation and tourism have joined together to recommend a plan with a boring name but an inspiring vision.

The INTEGRATED PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE PLAN (not too snappy) calls for the establishment of a network of marine parks, reserves and conservation areas off the coast from San Mateo County in the south to Mendocino County in the north.  These parks and reserves will be the Yosemities of the sea and will allow nature to care for itself and give the ocean a fighting chance to thrive in the decades ahead.

The ocean environment desperately needs the protection and so does the ocean economy which is worth $22 billion to the state every year and provides nearly 400,000 jobs.  If the ocean’s health falls apart, the ocean economy won’t be far behind.

There’s a lot more to say about this urgently needed plan.  But here’s the important point.  On August 5th, the California Fish and Game Commission will decide the fate of the plan.  So the fate of our coast hangs in the balance this week.

To find out more and how you can help, go to www.caloceans.org.  Then, get out to the coast and enjoy the view.

– Carl Bidleman

Today’s photo is from Bryce Edwards of San Jose, California. I love the framing, Bryce. Thanks.

Despite the fact that the Ahwahnee is an upscale hotel in an incomparable natural setting, I really like the place.  Doug and I have filmed there several times over the years.  Stayed there once.  As a national historic building, it’s open to the public… not just to paying guests.  My wife loves winter in Yosemite, especially when she can sit on the warm stone bench inside one of several large fireplaces.  Don’t miss the Ahwahnee.  Even if you’re camping.  We’ve got a great video story about the Ahwahnee and it’s history on OpenRoad.TV.  Check it out.

Read Doug’s story and see a full video about Yosemite National Park.

– Carl Bidleman

Nine years ago this minute I was looking at this exact view.  While my wife Karen was somewhere out there on the horizon, hiking the perimeter of Convict Lake, my dog Buddy and I were sitting comfortably lakeside, nursing our bad hips.  I was preparing to have hip replacement surgery later in the month so I used this as an excuse to sit back, enjoy the quiet solitude, pull a couple cold ones from the cooler and continue reading Into Thin Air until Karen completed the loop.  To this day, I remember the contentment I felt at that moment.

What I didn’t know is that while I was enjoying this peaceful respite in the Eastern Sierra, life changed forever.  Upon my return home 24 hours later, I learned that at the very moment I was enjoying the alpine splendor of Convict Lake, a Ford 150 pickup blew a stop sign on a northern Michigan back road and killed my mother, Florence Bidleman, younger brother, Craig Bidleman, sister-in-law Tina Bidleman, and niece Dana Bidleman.  Only my seven year-old nephew, Brandon Bidleman survived.  They were heading to the Straits of Mackinac to see the July 4th fireworks. (I include their full names here because they didn’t live for much of the online era and Google returns few results when their names are searched.  I want to make sure people know they were here.)

I’m going to watch the fireworks in Sausalito tonight with Karen and Buddy’s heir, Jack the Dog.  But the holiday has never been the same.  I find myself telling everyone I know to enjoy a SAFE holiday. I’m happy to say my 16 year-old nephew is morphing into an incredibly fine young man.  A real tribute to the influences of his mom, dad, sister and grandma.

I’ve only been back to Convict Lake once.  It is still indescribably beautiful but a far more melancholy place for me these days.  My thoughts on this holiday are with families who are about to live this same experience.  Please drive carefully.

– Carl Bidleman

Thanks to Nelson Minar for a beautiful photo of the Mendocino Headlands, one of my favorite places.

Browse all of our stries on this interactive map.

– Doug McConnell

I hope you enjoyed our journeys in Hawaii and will travel there yourself soon enough.  The human and natural histories of the islands are fascinating and the environment is, of course, extraordinarily beautiful.  Hawaii calls, that’s for sure, but it’s not a cheap getaway from the mainland…and that’s keeping many of us “stateside” now in this harsh economy.

The good news is, for those of us who live in the West, we have wonderful places to visit right in our own backyards.  We can have world-class vacations without really leaving home.

Mt. Tamalpais State Park photo by Jerry Downs

For example, I live in northern California, not far from Olompali State Park which we featured with legendary drummer, Mickey Hart, in this show.  Olompali is just one of California’s several hundred state parks, some of the Golden State’s crown jewels.  The first official state park in California was Big Basin, near Santa Cruz, which was established in 1902.  In the past 107 years, California has created the largest state park system in the nation.  These parks protect the state’s environment, interpret the complex and fascinating stories of the state, provide recreational opportunities to many millions of people every year and serve as important engines of California’s tourist economy.

When I was a kid growing up in California, people of all political stripes were proud of the fine public education and park systems that had been created here.  Now, tragically, California’s educational and state park systems have fallen into serious disrepair….and in this economic crisis word has just come down from Sacramento that 80% of our state parks will be closed and boarded up beginning early this September. Olompali, which helped shape the nurturing social and environmental values of Mickey Hart, and I’m sure many others, will be one of more than 200 parks to be shut down.  In a word, this is outrageous.

In times of great social stress, we need our parks more than ever.   They are essential investments in our health and well-being, and they are inexpensively accessible to people of all ages, all cultures and all levels of income.  They restore and renew us, they bring us together and connect us to nature and history, and they appeal to our finer selves.  To lose them now is a tragedy beyond measure.   And their closure will do little to close a yawning budget gap created in large measure by governmental dysfunction, incompetence and shortsightedness.   We need a fundamental overhaul of our political system….not the closure of our finest public treasures.

My heart is breaking for the California I know so well and love so deeply.  My family has been in California for nearly 140 years, and I can’t believe what we are allowing to happen to our most important social institutions, such as our parks…created and sustained over many decades by Republicans and Democrats alike. We have lost a sense of public service for the greater good, and have allowed the politics of bitterness, self-righteousness and self-interest, and government by recall and initiative to hold sway.  When I was young, and two of my mentors in college and graduate school were Republican, Hugh Flournoy and Democrat, Jesse Unruh, political leaders on both sides of the aisles would argue like cats and dogs, reach generally reasonable compromises, go have a drink together and get ready for combat and compromise the next day.  We now have system of term-limited legislators from safe seats who don’t have much experience, won’t be around long
and have no need to compromise, and they have to pass budgets by super-majorities. There are many good people still doing good work, but the fact is that Sacramento is in shambles.  Our state government needs fixing fast.  So here’s my simple proposal.

Assemble a Constitutional Convention. Gather delegates sworn to uphold the public interest.  Demand the best from them and scrutinize their efforts.  And have them gather on hallowed ground somewhere, a place that might inspire the greatness we so desperately need and that California so richly and at long last deserves.  Let’s see, how about a State Park somewhere?  Just a thought.

In the meantime, no matter what, we have to keep our state parks open.  To find out more and how you can help, follow this link to the California State Parks Foundation, www.calparks.org.  We need a voice for parks and they are speaking as loudly as anyone.

Thank you.

– Doug McConnell

At the very turn of the last century, in 1900, my mother’s father, then 17, found himself in the little port town of Santa Monica in southern California. It was reasonably quiet with many long and largely empty beaches.  Ray Gregory wisely decided to stick around, and so that’s where my mom grew up, where she met my dad (who had been raised on a homestead near Flathead Lake in Montana) and where my two older brothers and I were born.

Avalon Harbor photo by The Ritters

As a little kid, I loved getting down to the beach and could often see some islands floating on the waves out to the southwest.  But I never got to Catalina until I was in my early 20s. I spent a few months in late 1968 and early ‘69 visiting high schools on behalf of my alma mater, Pomona College, located east of Los Angeles about 30 miles in the village of Claremont. In those days, there was a boarding school between Avalon and Two Harbors, and I flew out there in a seaplane to meet the students.   I’ll never forget that short flight. I boarded the plane in Long Beach.  The pilot was straight from central casting.  Deep tan. Aviator shades.  A fine head of dark hair swept back by ocean breezes or some powerful jell.  He was draped in a dashing purple scarf flung recklessly over his shoulder.   As the small seaplane lifted off and banked over the Pacific, I suspect he imagined himself to be a Pan American Clipper pilot, navigating by the sun and the stars and heading west with the night towards the Orient.  Suddenly it was the 1930s, and very romantic.   A little like Avalon on quiet days.  When we touched the water and taxied to a stop (he was a good pilot it turned out in addition to being a believable actor,) I half expected to see Amelia Earhart waiting for me on the beach….rescued at last from her ditching at sea.  All these years later I have no idea where that pilot and his plane have gone, and Amelia’s fate remains a mystery, but Catalina lingers in its own time zone anchored off the busy 21st century coast of the Southland.  That’s comforting to know.

CLICK HERE to see Catalina and Forestiere Gardens in Episode 5 of OpenRoad with Doug McConnell

I lived in southern California until I was 8, and then we moved to Fresno and for a time lived about a mile from the Forestiere Underground Gardens.  Back in those days, the Forestiere family had no control of the place and it was marketed by others as a cheesy roadside attraction…come see the work of the “Human Mole.”   It was even featured on a national TV show in the 50s as a strange roadside oddity.   And so we never visited it.   It wasn’t until decades later when I learned that the  family had taken control to honor the work of their uncle that I decided to  go.  And I was just blown away by the beauty and ingenuity of the Gardens….and by the amount of work it took to carve a castle by hand from the rock hard soil near Fresno. It was an amazing achievement.  You’ll especially appreciate its value on summer days when temperatures soar well above 100 degrees fahrenheit.  Step down into the natural cool grasp of the earth….and you’ll experience air conditioning that leaves no carbon footprint.

I hope you send us some ideas about your favorite “roadside attractions” and romantic getaways.   The world…and of course the West…are full of them…and we’d love to hear your stories.

– Carl Bidleman

Episode three debuts on KQED tonight at 7:30.  Doug will take viewers up the cables to the top of Yosemite’s best known landmark, Half Dome, and down a mountain bike path to the much less visited Tuolumne River valley for a little fly fishing.  (Fish are never in danger when Doug’s around.) Then it’s on to Alaska, Hawaii and central California for three of the best places to see wildlife.  And finally, a stop in the town of Sebastopol, CA where you’ll meet an artist, and a community, with a keen sense of humor.  If you missed it on the bigger screen, you can watch it here.  Enjoy.

KQED’s broadcast schedule for OpenRoad with Doug McConnell.