– Carl Bidleman

I admire Shelton Johnson.  He is a gifted musician and an even more gifted storyteller.  John Muir would have loved Shelton’s stories. He has a passion for National Parks, especially Yosemite, which I have come to love. And he’s a native Detroiter.  A west sider, yes, but a Detroiter none the less.  (We can’t all be blessed to have come up on the sunrise side of Woodward.) Shelton Johnson embodies many of life’s good things.  And thanks to Ken Burns, the whole world now knows about Ranger Johnson.

I thought I’d share a couple of videos that I shot a few years ago on a beautiful November Sunday afternoon.  I never published these clips because I realized Shelton’s history walk would be better covered with two cameras instead of one.  So they languished on the shelf.  But when I took another look this weekend, I realized Shelton’s great storytelling skills trump my lack of shooting skills.  I’ll edit the rest of the 90-minute tour in the coming days but here are two of my favorite moments of Shelton’s history walk.  Enjoy.  And check out more of Shelton’s work on the 9th Cavalry here:  http://shadowsoldier.wilderness.net/

Below: Shelton Johnson (as Sgt. Bowman, Sir) tells how being called “Buffalo Soldier” was better than being called “Nigger Cavalry”.

Below: Shelton Johnson (as Sgt. Bowman, Sir) tells tales of the 9th Cavalry “Buffalo Soldiers’” duty in Yosemite and meeting Mr. John Muir.

Find OpenRoad.TV’s other Yosemite videos and stories on our 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.

SEE OUR FULL STORY AND WATCH AN EDITED VIDEO ON CALIFORNIA’S BRISTLECONE PINES.

WATCH OUR FULL VIDEO STORY EASTERN SIERRA MEMORIES

– Jim Wirth

Well, at least one of them has feathers – the owl happens to be plastic. 

Every day for the past several weeks, from just outside the door of the OpenRoad.TV world headquarters in Sausalito, California, we’ve been hearing the coo coo cooing of a friendly pigeon that has decided to set up its nest and raise its family – to the ultimate dismay of the building owner.  With dogged determination, this little gal has overcome the rolled up chicken wire, and has actually used it to her advantage as a perfect platform atop which to build her nest.  And the menacing plastic owl, strategically placed to frighten away even the most brave and daring of pigeons, has become a constant and vigilant protector of the nest while the mother is away finding food, and a worthy companion when she is back home. 

Score:  Pigeon… 1, Landlord… 0.

Photo by robh

– Doug McConnell

Here at OpenRoad.TV we focus on the big, broad and beautiful West, from Alaska to Mexico and the Rockies to Hawaii. It’s a pretty nice territory to live in and explore, and we hope you find ideas here that will help guide your travels.

But our fundamental concept is that, no matter where you travel on earth and no matter where you happen to be, if you slow down and look and listen carefully, you’ll find terrific stories, adventures, characters and experiences that will enrich your life. After wandering around all my life in search of curiousities and tales to tell, I’m convinced there are fascinating treasures to discover everywhere….and they’re usually hiding in plain sight right under our noses. I love to go to the far corners of the earth on grand journeys, but I also like to poke around my own neighborhood to be surprised and learn something new.

So it was when we shot a story recently on San Francisco’s famous Fisherman’s Wharf. The Wharf is one of the San Francisco’s most popular tourist destinations, so much so that locals tend to stay away in droves. It’s sometimes said that if you live in the Bay Area and want to have an illicit affair, just go to the Wharf and you and your partner will never run into anybody you know. Now I’m not endorsing that particularly, nor is that particularly true, but the fact is that many of us who live around here and many of you who come to visit, too, think of Fisherman’s Wharf as a to-be-avoided tourist trap. We think we know the neighborhood, but really don’t; if you watch the story, you’ll find that the historic legacy of the Wharf is being kept alive in a variety of ways by some delightful and hard-working people. You’ll discover, as I did, that if you walk a few feet off the beaten path you’ll leave the crowds behind and begin to find the heart and soul of the place. I loved my day seeing my own backyard in an unexpected and brand new way.

Take a little break and consider northern California’s Mt. Shasta.

Photo by Stacy Geiken

Click here for the 6:31 video version of this vacation.

– Doug McConnell

I grew up in California. When I was little, and we lived in Santa Monica and west Los Angeles, I knew I was very lucky. I had the beach just to the west and 10,000 foot mountains and the desert not far to the east. On Saturdays, I could go to see the latest western movie and sometimes the cowboy stars themselves would even show up to meet the kids and introduce the show. I met Hop-a-Long Cassidy, Hoot Gibson and had Jay Silverheels’ autograph. He, of course, was the Lone Ranger’s side-kick and guide. Those were the thrilling days of yesteryear.

So you can imagine my good fortune when I had the chance to spend a day following in their cinematic footsteps and horse tracks in one of California’s most dramatically scenic spots, the Alabama Hills. The Hills, really a maze of rounded rocks, are located in the shadow of Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states. I found out where the Lone Ranger got his name and Roy Rogers was first photographed with Trigger. You can, too, right here: Alabama Hills Movie Memories.

And if you don’t care about western movies, we’ve also got James Dean in Mendocino and Clint Eastwood on Alcatraz. California and the West are big and beautiful movie sets. Send us your favorite movie locations out this way. We’d like to know about them.